RP: OIF Atuan [OIF Atuan] Episode 7: Mine

[CadetNewb]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Nothing - absolutely nothing Lucien," the Ensign replied over comms with an unseen grin. "And it's no big deal Taela, none of us got banged up too bad so don't worry about it so much." As Yoshiko had her frame pick up the ejected cockpit hatch, he shifted his attention to her copilot, Mark. "Go ahead man - crank it up past 11; we gotta bring the fight to them and keep on making noise after all." With that matter settled, there was the next thing to deal with - how they were going to fight. Right now, everyone was scattered willy-nilly throughout the clearing made by the fight. He needed some sort of gameplan.

"Ok, when we move out, I need everyone to stay in a rough formation kinda like, alright?" the cornrowed man started. "Lucien? Victoria? I'll need you two to be off to our sides - when the fight starts up again, you two need to swing out and flank those guys. Hit them from the sides, keep them off balance, you know?" Kelly explained to them. "Me, Taela, Shinji and Meena will be the front-line, going head to head with them with whatever we got, alright?"

By then, Yoshiko was trying to pop the cockpit hatch back onto her frame; the scent of artificially accelerated pine wafted into her and Mark's cockpit before it clanked into place, lights going green to indicate a seal. "Yoshi, you'll be bringing up the rear - they'll be gunning for you specifically after all since they'll guess you're the electronic warfare specialist. Which you are." He explained to the ex-Neko.

"Sweet - I'm not going to miss out on the action this time!" she exclaimed with glee. Kelly shook his head in disapproval. Apparently, Yoshiko didn't quite think of Mark as someone she had to protect. Rather, she most likely thought of him as someone who would draw in the baddies for her to fight and keep her entertained. With luck though, they'd both make it out fine, despite any preconceptions otherwise.

"Alright, everyone on me; we're going to make a messy beeline for the city." At that, they moved out.

*****

Camellia's squad had sneaked past the unidentified group - lucky for them, the HiGa Forces moved off on their own for some reason or another. It didn't matter to them. What did matter, was that they were now within visual of the city - it started off as suburbia, but quickly built up the closer to the center one got. Fortunately for the colonists involved, the HiGa facility was away from that area and to the side, an obvious partition between it and the city.

Though they started to move through the outskirts, it soon became apparent that the HiGA forces were supplanting the local law enforcement as they marched through the streets. Numerous different mechs were slowly thundering through the streets while Power Armor marched about, ordering people around. Nearby the infiltration squad, Camellia spotted a trio of Demons who were rounding up half a dozen cops and beginning to line them up against a wall.

*****

They looked like chickens.

The two groups literally marched headfirst into each other, and immediately started fighting - the three shorter ones immediately dashed forward, weaving in between the trees to close in and get a better shot. The two in the back however, immediately opened up to scythe through the tree trunks with their chin mounted guns. "You guys know what to do! Take them out!" Kelly ordered.

"Chickens!" Yoshiko squeed. It was going to be a busy day.

 

[Kai]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

It was times like this, that Shinji was glad he wasn't the pilot. almost too shortly after being given orders, they ran into enemies. Big, Giant, effing, chickens. Metal ones, covered in guns, too. "Fawk Fawk Fawk!" the Yamataian yelled, doing his best to fire most of the weapons at his disposal at the onrushing enemies- Anything with ammo he only fired a single volley, but everything else he simply set to auto-target, before taking control of the Feathers he had released earlier to rain down pain from above the HiGa mecha.

Meena silently did her job, moving to backpedal the frame, and then hopping off to one side, while firing her Plasma rifle at the nearest of the enemies in earnest, trying to scare it off. If one were to look at the petite Nepleslian girl, they would notice fierce concentration in her expression, Silent confidence as opposed to the noisy worry of her copilot. The two were like complete opposites, but the way they worked together in the frame showed that they could certainly Synch with the best of them.

 

[ShotJon]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Viktoria gave out a sigh of relief as giant finally died. She quickly reloaded her rifle and put it on her back. It was not such a good weapon for jungle mission. She instead took out both of her 50mm Gauss SMGs. Normally it is stupid to use two guns at the same time, but Asura's targeting computer will have no problem. Mind-control is beutiful thing after all.

"Yoshiko, are you all right?" She asked over comm with sound of worry in her voice. Yoshi's mecha got hit hard. She though for a second before adding few workd. "And you Mark?"

Before she got any answers, Kelly gave orders to everyone. It seemed like good formation and Viki made sure to reply: "Roger that, I will take right flank." She said.

She then moved to her position and started turning off all the unneeded processes and readied single switch to turn them on again. She kept only shields, targeting systems, comms and basic scanning to see where friendlies were. She wanted to keep low so she could be as stealthy as one in 8 meters tall mecha can be, but with passive sensors only she should at least keep all hidey.

When chicked like enemies showed up she started doing exactly what she was told. SHe kept out of fight for now, and started moving around to flank the enemies. With her missiles and both guns she should be able to hit them hard, but that will have to wait till she gets into position where she coudl surprise them. Once again she wished she had some sort of mecha-grenade to throw under their legs to just explode them away.

 

[Moogle]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Then I will take point," Taela calmly informed the others, taking a frontal position in the formation. When the "Chickens" decided to show their heads, the Neko wasted no time in filling their faces with blasts from her HPLC's and their legs with rounds from her primary arm.

 

[Lamb]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Mark was quick to search for the presence of any other enemies in the area, in the form of a broad-spectrum sweep for new frequencies. If everything worked right with the modified CECS, they'd still be virtually invisible.

"Check it out!" He exclaimed, "Here come the feathers, baby!"

With that, Mark deployed the few feathers that managed to survive and went straight for the chickens that came closest to him and Yoshiko, this time firing missiles for added deadly effect.

 

[Cora]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Camellia raises a hand to signal her squad to stop, as she takes point to scout ahead, and sees the scene through the foliage. Raising her hand again she motions for her squad to follow her. Raising her hand to signal a stop again, she waited till they saw the scene, before gaining their attention with a two finger point to the left and then another to the right.

"Double time kiddies. These civilians don't deserve this disservice. Same rules apply, the demons fall in one shot. Try and concentrate away from the civilians."

 

[Luca]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Righty, Kelly. I'll take the left flank!" Lucien responded with relative enthusiasm after seeing that he and the others were alright, albeit somewhat rattled by the previous turn of events.

His shields were still in good condition, his sword was fine in its hand, but he did have to retrieve his 75mm Gauss Cannon against the chickenlegged Frame mockeries. He stormed off to the teams left and blended in with the vegetation, moving slowly and keeping crouched.

"Y'know wot me friends did to th' chickens that belonged to an arsehole of a farmer?" Lucien inquired over the comm. lines lazily and with a hint of nostalgia in his voice, "We used to punt 'em - they'd go far! At one point we thought the farmer 'ad been feedin' them lead, 'cos they stopped sailin' o'er the horizon after a while!"

He then sighed as he finally settled into position, on the far left flank of the frame team, "Mind ye, these chooks are too big t' be punted, guess we gotta shoot 'em an' carve 'em up."

 

[CadetNewb]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Like a firing line of musketeers the three Origin frames at center opened fire at once - the forest of pine needles and leaves shook as automatic gauss cannons boomed away in rapid succession, trees bursting into splinters as the massive shells smashed their way through. Others instantly caught afire from both ultraviolet and plasma glare when the beams flickered and flashed by, vaporizing whatever was in their paths. As beer keg sized 'mini' missiles streaked past, their thrust extinguished just as many things as they set on fire.

The lead Gallina stumbled and fell as everyone did the same exact thing - instinctively aim at the closest moving object. For a brief moment, the shields of the mech flared as it fought to slow down or deflect the incoming fire. But it was too much for it to handle. Lasers from Shinji and Mark ablated through the shields to melt and bore into the hull. Massive quarter foot wide rounds from Kelly simply smashed into the shields while both Meena's and Yoshiko's plasma flickered and flashed into metal. The large rounds exploded midair just as they bounced away to buffet the giant metal chicken, but quickly penetrated the hull with showers of sparks and fire as the defensive field gave way. Hot plasma pulses sliced straight through the armor like butter, punching clean through and leaving glowing, puckering holes.

It was like the thing ran straight into a giant brick wall, coming to a stop mid stride.

By then, the flying beer keg sized missiles streaked in and pushed it over that invisible line, sending it reeling with massive fireballs that blew away every single leaf, pine-cone and needle off the nearby tree. At that very moment, Taela's heavy lasers finally pierced straight through the slagging leg armor, completely ruining them and sending it toppling down into the campgrounds below.

Though this first frame ran into a wall of overkill and got turned into a burning wreck which fell within a few heartbeats, that didn't mean it or its allies didn't get a reply. Spread out, the Origin Frames had the fire spread amongst and shared, but they were still hit hard - Taela's frame recoiled hard as the leading enemy frame fired everything it had into the softest target it could find before falling.

Single use rail bazooka rounds exploded across her shields, weakening them and scorching the hull before a massive 200mm round collided with her. A side of the heavily angled nose on her lighter frame's chest took the brunt of the blow, partly crumpling as the round deflected and left a trench in the armor while sparks illuminated the already bright forest. Massive kinetic energy from the bounce winged the dainty frame off to the right and sent it sprawling onto the ground on its side, the ground shaking with both Taela and the Gallina's falls.

Shinji and Meena were almost as unfortunate - their mech was heavier and more sturdy however, and managed to weather the flurry of blows the mech opposite of them managed to unleash without toppling over, even dodging some of the blows as their shields flared in response. However, 100mm rounds from one of the Kuritsa mechs started to smash into their nearly depleted shields. Kelly himself was in the same situation as well, kneeling down to get both a better shot and making himself a smaller target.

"Guys!" Yoshiko called out, rushing out from the back and into the forefront. "Sorry Mark, I don't want to hide like Kelly said to - we're going on the offensive now!" the young pilot called over her shoulder at the man, leaping her frame over Taela's to cover her fallen teammate. She bull rushed them. Seeing this, Kelly saw the chance.

"Lucien! Vic! Now!"

*****

The truth was, they were under equipped for the job. Yes, Origin power armor was rock solid and performed admirably, but due to being in it's youth, the Impulse didn't have any fancy tricks up its sleeves like volumetric camouflage. Yet. This meant that as the team moved into firing position at Camellia's command, one of the civilians noticed one of the green armors, eyes darting to the partly hiding form.

One of the sharper Demon pilots noticed this and turned to look at the worst possible moment as the team came up to shoot - it raised it's autocannon with a fearful shout just in time to receive a single 8mm round through the neck. Automatic fire briefly roared and stitched across a building as this one fell with the rest. The civilians, taking the cue, quickly fled without so much as a 'Thank you' to Camellia and the rest of the Origin employees.

The reason why quickly became apparent as thundering footsteps started to near.

Camellia had to run. Now.

 

[Luca]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Shields were high, plenty of ammo was left, missiles hadn't been fired yet and the sword was still sharp and hungry for metal. Lucien reloaded his weapon of choice and jumped out of the thicket of pine trees with his sword in one hand and 75mm gauss cannon in the other.

The Gallina walker was too busy focussing on the others to see him coming - he opened fire as he continued closing in on his target and finally swinging his sword in a fatal diagonal arc from the Scotsman's lower right upwards, aiming for the leg and effectively dismembering the chicken-legged Frame Mockery.

He then turned around to the Kuritsas, and looked at the one furthest to the left fired a barrage of minimissiles, high explosives - following it up with a few bursts of 75mm fire. And if the Gallina fell - he'd stomp on it to ensure that it was well and truly down.

 

[Kai]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

The reaction of the Kirin that housed Shinji and Meena was typical- Shinji started yelling, and Meena started acting.

"FAAAAAWK GETUSOUTTAHERE!" Shinji yelled, as he frantically rerouted the shields to see if he could project the bubble in front of the frame instead of around it- perhaps hitting both sides would stall the rounds better. Simultaneously, he ordered his feathers on the attack from high above, hopefully to be distracting. All the while, the copilot's other firing orders still stood, and the frame continued to look as if it were a sort of light show on crack, or something.

Meena, meanwhile, backpedaled the frame again- the movement becoming familiar, though once she had cleared behind her teammates she strafed, looking for an opening in which to fire, taking a calculated shot at the nearest Gallina the moment she had an opening.

 

[Moogle]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

I'm on the ground. When did I get there? Taela thought to herself, feeling the sudden change in gravity. Of course, about half a second later, she realized that her Garuda was hit with a shit-ton of force and now undershielded. She couldn't really operate the mecha quickly enough to get it back up properly for a second volley. So, she settled for getting reacquainted with the little thing called gravity and got up slowly.

"I-I'm all right, just a little shaken. And I have no shields." Taela called over comms, reorienting her Garuda's cannons so that getting up was easier.

 

[ShotJon]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Viki saw the situation and it did not seem that well. Those chickens seemed quite well armed, maybe the quality was not there, but they surely had simple but powerful weaponry. Viki was moving herself more backwards, to hit the bots in the back, while Lucien and group could destroy the two in the front.

When Kelly's order came, she pressed the button and her mecha fully powered up again.

"Ganz gutt, I am taking those two in the back!" Viki said, as she was putting those two mechas in her sights for the missile strike, while she started moving towards them. 20 self-guided HE missiles each seemed like good thing. She also aimed both her fifty-cals at the closer chicked, with all her secondary weaponry mounted on her suit and opened fire with all of it.

 

[Cora]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Camellia whistled across her com, a quick way to grab everyone's attention, and to signal them to fall back, her left arm also making a wide sweep, indicating a general retreat.

"Back to the woods!" She said over the comms. "We can't handle a frame, so double time!"

 

[Lamb]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Don't worry about it, baby." Mark reassured Yoshiko with his hands on the feather controls, "We're not supposed to fight, so they won't even know what hit them when we ride on through."

As if to punctuate the idea of riding through, the remaining feathers swept past them and headed right for the offending walker, missiles and lasers blazing away.

 

[CadetNewb]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Lucien's 75mm sounded with a deep, staccato booming, fanning the flames as they spread. With a bellow, the blade flashed out in a blur, catching the Gallina's right leg. A great gout of sparks shown brightly as metal hit metal, red hydraulic fluid splattering across the surface of the blade. The Origin frame swiftly turned from the foe without a second thought and let loose a deadly barrage at the Kuritsa to the left, one handing the rifle as missiles streaked out.

Though the gauss rounds hammered through the defensive fields to dent and crater the hull as they bounced off, the missiles streaked in and wiped the shields off the Kuritsa. Fire blossomed over the chicken-walker, but before the smoke settled, Lucien found himself rocked as a massive round hammered across his shields before bouncing off the shoulder, crumpling it.

The Gallina, leg spurting hydraulic fluid everywhere, was still barely standing - the sword had continued on and slid off its leg without cleaving through and through, only damaging the leg. The autoloader on the 200mm cannon loudly clanked as another round loaded into the breech; Lucien had left the job unfinished.

Meena and Shinji had managed to back off and dodge the round meant for them, only to watch as Lucien cleaved into but not through it. "Shit! Don't underestimate these things people!" Kelly yelled out over the comms. The three of them opened up on the damaged frame as it bore down on the man with it's cannon. Lasers, plasma and gauss rounds were weakened by shimmering shields previously undiminished by the sword. What's worse, Kelly could see the Kuritsa Lucien had disturbed marching out of the settling smoke. This was it - it was time to push the Yoshiko Custom to it's limits!

The dark skinned Nepleslian gunned the throttle on his pink painted frame and leaped into the air, briefly stomping on the Gallina's head to stun it on his way to the bigger threat in the back. "Finish that one off, I'll cover you!" he quickly explained. The automatic gauss cannon started to hammer away at the threat as he leaped at the threat, Zesuaium claws extending to full length.

"I like your attitude!" Yoshiko called out to Mark with cheer. Taking Kelly's example, she charged at the Gallina to the right while hosing it down with 75mm fire. Mark's own fire from the drones and missiles slashed through the air and flickered and flashed across the shieds as the missiles detonated in large fireballs. Yoshiko's rounds hammered into shields and ricocheted off armor, but a hole suddenly appeared in the fire and smoke as a massive round impacted against Yoshiko.

The round had almost missed, but hit her right in the arm, horribly damaging the plates on the bicep and knocking the rifle out of her grasp. But that didn't stop her in the slightest - the diminutive girl only let out a raw shriek of rage and bull rushed the mech as it's gun reloaded, punching it square across the 'nose'. Once. Twice. Three times. She then grappled with it and tore into the hull with her Kirin's claws in the process; sparks flew as screeching hundreds of times worse than chalkboards and fingernails shrieked across the forest. She then yanked it about despite it's kicking to present it to the Neko on the team. "Taela! Get off your fat butt and hit it now!"

The thunderous fury of Victoria's dual 50mm autocannons sprayed across the rightmost Kuritsa's shields, pinging off the hull underneath as a flurry of missiles streaked out to meet and greet it - the swarm of contrails quickly lanced out and ended at the bubble field, in a series of blossoming explosions across the shields, collapsing it and rattling the frame. The chicken-walker quickly replied in kind though, as a quartet of linear cannons smashed against her shields in unison alongside it's chin guns, nearly flat-lining her shields as the volleys of fire between the two turned into a slugfest of shells.

*****

Some of the Ori-Sec Impulses swore as they quickly followed Camellia's orders as they fled, the scout from earlier in the lead. "Knew I should have signed up for Frame testing!" she muttered under her breath. The footsteps from behind grew fainter, then louder, then fainter again as they cut through back allies in the shopping district of the city. "Damnit! We can't get back into the forest - that thing's in the way!" the woman spoke up as they stomped across broken glass and past looted out stores and supermarkets.

"Do we keep trying to run for the forest or stay low?" the scout asked as they passed nearby a mall, the city growing more and more dense as they were instead forced deeper and deeper into it's bowels by the ever relentless mystery frame.

 

[Lamb]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Whoah!" Mark said, his eye carefully watching the shields. "Time to make a sacrifice."

The sacrifice in question was one of the Feathers, which swung in front of the oncoming fire and shot towards the gallic walker with the ferocious force that only a suicide bomber could have. The others circled around for another salvo. Inside, Mark was quick on the controls to broadcast a piercing shriek directed right at the the enemy's communications array. The signal was so strong at such a close distance, even the regular noise-cancellation devices on the opponents machine would have a hard time competing with it. Mark hoped it would have the intended effect.

 

[Moogle]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Taela was up by the time Yoshiko's screech echoed across her console. Her HPLC's swiveled to meet her target upon the command, and began filling up the enemy mecha with large rounds of plasma. Her Armor Killer gun, however, was being loaded with something special. One round of the Nuclear Panzerfaust. She kept from firing it, though, as something that dangerous could not be used when a comrade was that close to an enemy.

 

[Kai]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Dammit, Getcha ass Outta theah, Loosy-en" Shinji yelled, watching as the overeager actor turned mecha pilot got himself into a sticky situation. for his part, Shinji focused on his horribly inadequate Feathers- they couldn't do too much at this point and he didn't want to sacrifice them, so instead, he started using them as a distraction, flying in low and close and doing his best to gain the Kuritsa's attention by making them an inticing target, while annoying it with the occasional shot.

To be honest, Shinji was getting tired of this- He had washed out of the Military, ran away from privateering, and got into the corporate sector because it was supposedly safe. He only signed up for field work because they told him he could blow things up, but this wasn't what he had asked for! At least, however, he wasn't alone in this all, and he was certain he would have died if given his own Mecha for very long. He looked around the console, and down at Meena's helmeted and uniformed figure, strapped into her seat, and intensely concentrated on what she was doing. She was the only reason he was alive. Her quick reflexes and sharp instincts, combined with an impeccable sense of accuracy and the patience to make smart decisions had been an asset throughout the entire 'testing program'.

Maybe he'd have to ask her out to dinner after this was all over. Right now wasn't a good time, at any rate- Meena was too focused on downing their enemies.

 

[ShotJon]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Viktorie just sped up, running right into her enemy. She did not stop shooting her guns as she got close to the enemy, jumping in the air, putting both her legs up into perfect dropkick.

"DIE!" she shouted as she tried to hit enemy mecha right where chicken would have beak, still firing her SMG and on-board weaponry.

 

[Luca]

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"ow, Ow, OW! Son of a-" Lucien yelled as he watched his hull integrity and shields take a bruising and the visualisation of such sensations appear on his HUD, "Chickens dun' suppose tae shoot back!" He pointed his gauss rifle down into the face of the Gallina he was standing over and fired into it at point blank, very definitively finishing the job.

"An' stay down ya chickenlegged abomination!" He crouched down and used the things dessicated shell of armour as cover, and fired his Gauss rifle from cover. Not the most manly thing to do, but it was the smart thing to do when you were up against something that could hand your arse to you with a few missiles. He would've moved, but the problem presented to the Scotsman of 'what other hard cover is there rather than mere concealment?'

He even embedded his sword in the ground, hilt upwards and drew his 50mm Gauss Cannon to focus on shooting, and he kept his left hand ready to drop his 50mm Gauss cannon pick up his sword in case the Kuritsa engaged in a melee. The dual wielding was a surprisingly heavy combination.