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

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"As long as we keep pressing, they shouldn't have enough time to regroup!" Taela barked, nimbly diving between wreckages with the Garuda. Her twin cannons reaved anything smaller than a Gallina easily, so she used those and saved the remaining ammunition for her Armor Killer for the heavier units. She allowed Viktoria to retake point, however, and continued to use her as a shield like before.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Viktoria simply looked at the Galina on the ground in front of her. The smaller bipedal chicken mecha had much worse time getting up. Viki's large railgun slid into her hands and she pumped the rest of the magazine into the Galina to finish it off while it lay there. She then started moving forward again.

"Let's move volk!" Viktoria said, reloading her weapon. She then put it back into its resting place on mecha's back and took out smaller 50mm railgun into her right and chain-straight into her left hand. "I'll take care of the gate. You follow me tight." Viki said other and sped up.

Smashing the gates would be tricky, it was a big and heavy. Viki had better and more spectacular idea. She activated her missiles and locked on the gate. About fifty should do the trick, she thought and fired.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Ae les' move it!" Lucien agreed with the others as he put his frame-sized longsword back on his shoulder and double checked his 50mm Gauss cannon, to see if it was fully loaded. The ammo count was reading full, so that was a helpful thing to know before going into combat.

He was picking up the pace, he watched Viki's missiles fly at the gate, "Ae Vicky wotch dem missiles 'cos I'll smash dat gate open if yer missiles don't." His grip tightened on his Longsword, and he hoped that there was something beyond the gate waiting for a face full of frame-sized longsword.

And the gate was big enough to accommodate two large frames walking in side by side, so Lucien's pace eventually equalled out alongside Viktoria. The team that fought together might as well walk together to fight together. Or something like that.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

After a few less than graceful drunken ballerina twirls, Mark somehow managed to grasp the walking controls.

"So that's what I was doing to move it..." He muttered in amazement, "Hot damn."

It was with a few presses and clicks of various things that Mark started to lose hope again, with the Kirin swaying behind Lucien and Viki and its arms dangling uselessly at its sides.

"So, uh..." He managed between fiddling, "How about weapons? How do I blow shit up, man?"

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Cannons fired as the chicken walker flailed about on the floor uselessly.

The massive pump action on the 300mm racked with a noise that was simply unholy in its scale before booming as Victoria fired. A massive cannon shell punched through the thin underside between leg joint and hull, exploding as its fuse activated, instantly gutting the miserable thing from the inside. Despite the black smoke and fire however, the Abwehran woman's frame gun boomed a second and third time, sparks and fire flying as the shells smashed through armor plating before chunks flew away, both from the shells exploding and the ammunition inside cooking off.

A grunt came from Kelly as he spoke up, "I don't like the sound of whatever's coming at us either," the Nepleslian commented, soon eyeballing another frame's sword. "And don't pull a Leeroy Lucien, since I'll be the one filling out the paperwork." As soon as the words left the dark skinned man's lips, his blood loss fuzzed mind wondered where such an unusual turn of phrase came from. Who was this person? And what did he do to have his name etched into history like this? Charge right into a giant monster lair first or something?

Oh, right. Mark needs a tutorial or something.

"The bigger circle with the chevron in it is for guns in your hands. The one that's just four tickmarks around a dot is the head and hull guns - they follow each other but are separate since they can't turn as much," he explained to the Co-Pilot turned Pilot. "You can still move them separately though. And just, uh, put the things in the middle of either of those things over something and pull the triggers." He coughed once.

"Taela's right, hurry up guys! I think those big ones are coming closer!" Yoshiko worried over the comms. As though on cue, the gates were consumed in a massive fireball - as the dust settled, six silver metal forms could be seen within. Lined up side by side, they guarded what looked to be a massive elevator for frames further back.

They fired.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

As if by reflex alone, Taela reacted first. Every last missile from her mini-missile pods darted around Viktoria and at the figures as her triad of heavy guns levelled themselves with the enemy and fired, propelling plasma and metal in equal measure. As if that weren't enough, her Gamma Ray Vulcans went off as well, just barely missing her teammate.

"No chances!" Taela hissed.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Right!" Mark said. The Kirin raised the weapons it had in each hand and leveled them at the new opponents.

"Let's vaporize these sucka's."

Although he had no recollection of what kind of loadout Yoshiko had requested, nor any idea of how to use the weapons in any case; Mark squeezed the triggers the same way he'd done on the streets of Funky City. Whether his foe was chasing him because he'd been caught spying, or because he'd said something nasty about them on the air-- they always succumbed to a pair of gold-plated Zen Arms .45's.

Mark just hoped that business with mecha had a similar way of going down.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Viktoria just eyes her HUD, watching the enemy signals showing up as the smoke was starting to clear. Viki smirked. Six enemies, silvery and tall. Probably the Ashigaru knock-offs. "Ja, ja," she said, arming her weaponry. "This should be fun!" She added.

She locker her targeting systems on teh three mecha on the right, locking the missiles and grabbing back her 300mm GC. She aimed it on the center one of her three stooges and pressed all the triggers at the same time. She fired all her left over missiles on those three mecha's. That meant about 140 HE missiles and 1 emp cloud missiles. She also fired her gauss cannon on the center one and also all her on-board weaponry.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Ae nae worries Kelly, I'll - AE WAIT FER ME!" Lucien yelled as he tried to keep pace with the charging Viktoria. His targeting systems were networking with hers and giving him her targets too, highlighting that she was dealing with them and identifying ones that were not presently being dealt with.

The violent reception from the defenders gave Lucien a moment's pause, and he played things cautiously, using the walls close to the gates as cover. He still had his sword out to one side, but he was mostly making small change and firing his 50mm Gauss Cannon. The scotsman swore that the weapon was getting a serious pelting and wondered if he should've bought a bigger gun.

He did fire a couple of streams of missiles in controlled bursts - and he had another combunction: If they got close, they were going to get sliced up - he didn't want to risk having to deal with all three in a melee or missile barrage on their terms.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Still reeling from the explosive entry, the Origin Team tore into them!

Standing two by two, the incoming fire easily tore into the first stunned duo - the enemy frames simply crumpled and withered under the barrage as energy weapons boiled off plate, and massive cannons boomed. Taela got to watch as the first mech she plastered with laser fire quickly became riddled with molten holes as the hull quickly heated a dull red, boiling at the impacts, allowing Lucien's 50mm soft and easy pickings to simply punch into like a hot fork savagely stabbing into butter, again and again.

Mark quickly found the heavy autocannon bucking in the Kirin's hands as large craters quickly sparked and smashed into the opposing Ashigaru's Durandium hide. In an instant, a large hole simply appeared before a chunk was blasted away in an eyeblink - Victoria pumped that slide hard! Another round was quickly racked, and in a massive boom, the right arm was smashed off the enemy frame before it was shattered by numerous brilliantly bright explosions which enveloped the whole scene.

"No shields, this'll be easy!" Yoshiko cheered.

But this wasn't the end of it; out of the smoke came new forms. The ones behind simply shoved the first wilting pair before them aside with their free hands, and though damaged by the large barrage, they marched mindlessly forward. Wrist mounted autocannons fired away, sparking across the frame team's shields. As they continued forward, two more in the back could be seen marching forward with the rest - they were eight in total to begin with, not six!

Just as the second pair made their way forward to fire, knocking aside the dead corpses of the first duo, the great rumbling behind the Origin Team reached a crecendo! A single Zilant rounded the base of a skyscraper several hundred meters back. And then another one came into sight. Then another one. "Geeze! Close ranks quick! They won't risk friendly fire!" the Ex-Neko quickly thought aloud.

HiGA was slow to rouse, but it was awake, and closing in.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"One, two, three, four, foive, another..." Lucien counted the enemies as they came up, "Regroup guys!" He yelled, holstering his 50mm Gauss Cannon and knowing that he wouldn't be able to damage any of the Zilants from a distance. Instead, he took up his longsword with both hands - anticipating that they'd charge with ranged weapons.

He'd been practising this sword for the years since he'd joined the Frame Team, and he entered a practical balanced fighting stance, blade pointing towards the Zilant. He looked over to Viki and asked, "Guys - idea. Mark, Yoshi, Shinji, Meena; force 'em into cover w' lotsa coverin' fire - Taela, Viki - you lot 'n I will flank 'n charge 'em while they're hiding. Gud?"

He waited for a response as he kept his blade point up in readiness while moving backwards towards the Frame Team in defence. He waited for a response before moving forward with this plan.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Lucien you imbecile! You forgot about the Ashigaru knockoffs in your little plan!" a very pissed off cat hissed in her cockpit, continuing her efforts to bulldoze the Ashigaru. Rounds from her AKTG impaled themselves upon the ripoff models, but soon the gun's final clip ran out. Taela lobbed the heavy weapon like a javelin as she activated the missile pods on the nimble mech. Rockets streaked and emptied the pods, speeding towards those plain mecha. Her mecha's free hands gripped her chainsword, readying for a charge.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Nein!" Viki said. "Wir leave Zilants be and press one! We need to get into that base! We must figth the Ashigaru's while they are still outnumbered. They can only have two at the time facing us. We have numbers so let's press on!" Viki shouted in the communicator.

She still turned around first. "Atuan! If you can here me!" Viki tried to communicate with their home ship. "If you could I could use some heavy fire-support on the coordinates I am sending up. We have two Zilants several hundred meters in out back!" She send and lazed the coordinates to Atuan. She then fired the rest of her EMP cloud missiles at the Zilants to mess up their targeting.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Fuck you!" Squeeze trigger, aim at next enemy, repeat.

"Fuck you!" Squeeze trigger, back up, nearly bump into team-mate, rinse.

"I have no idea what I'm doing, so stay out of my way, assholes!" Mark shouted to no one in particular and squeezed the trigger again, the Kirin laying down a deadly storm of oppressive fire with no regard for whether the strikes landed or not. Mark chose a new target after every shot and whirled the gun around quickly to lay down another.

"Fuck you!" He said to yet another enemy, "I ain't no lumberjack, but I'm-a chop yo ass down if you fuck with me!"

He seemed to be getting the hang of it, or at least looking like he had some clue as to what the controls were.

"Yo, Farms, press some buttons, turn some knobs or somethin', man. I should have some presets for radio-trolling back there somewhere!"

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Elsewhere:

Arah seemed to listen, considering the request for support fire.

After a brief moment of thought however, she uncaringly prodded the volumetric "Denied" button that sat beside the "Approve" one - they were both something that Ged had so graciously provided in his humor. "It's great to see that they're doing better than we are," the AI's voice dryly remarked over the comms. The ship shook as a torpedo came far too close, pummeling the shields down even further as the motley collection of small ships pursued them doggedly.

The Captain simply reached over to disconnect a heavily insulated hose from a massive shell. Again, the ship briefly shook as a massive slug bounced off the wavering shield and hull, but she didn't give a care before floating over to the next, doing the same and ceasing the flow of positrons. It was one thing to be understaffed, but, entirely another to find that the inventory of ammunition didn't even have the customary small amount of 'ready ammo' available.

For the Frame Team, it was excusable, but the ship? Hardly. There was no support coming - the Atuan didn't even have enough filled shells for itself, and empty ones, while perfect for bombarding a planet...Both Arah and Ged agreed it was better they spent what womanpower they had to fill shells for anti-ship work, rather than waste time loading empties into the breech.

Plus, there was the consideration that the Atuan II was now weaving and dodging through one of Nassau's asteroid fields.

It was called being "Out of Range" perhaps.

*****

There-where:

Like troops storming a beach in some ancient movie, the Origin Frames were harassed by the massive shells which landed about them. Craters were blasted into the ground as the rounds bored into the cement before detonating, throwing obscuring dirt and hard debris up into the air. At the same time, deadly sharp fragments from the Zilants' shells peppered their shields.

"We're getting torn up out here!" one of the escorting Impulses yelled, "Hurry up and @#$% those knockoffs!" he yelled, diving into the sides of the street and what little cover he could find in the stores before another series of explosions cut him off. Taela's missiles were more effective than the thrown rifle - they had streaked in to the second pair of enemy frames, enveloping them with almost a hundred fiery blossoms.

But by now, momentum was carrying the HiGA Ashigar's forward!

They sprinted as fast as they could over the broken remains of their allies, weapons firing at the Frame team - their shields were being quickly worn down as the Ashigaru made advantage of the minor disarray amongst their enemy. Marching out, they brought their fire to bear and mindlessly closed in for hand to hand with the crew.

Their fire became more inaccurate as they charged in, wristblades extending from the free arm thanks to Victoria's efforts, but they rapidly closed in to fight - two of them aggressively slashed out at Taela from either side, which she barely managed to parry. One with the sword, the other with the barrel of one of her heavy guns, the weapon neatly bisected and ruined!

A pink blur came in and snapped out at the one to Taela's left - a six meter pair of claws slashed in, cleaving into the offending Ashigaru before the other pair savagely punched and tore away its bladed arm with the second set of her own zesuaium wristblades. "Don't stand there! Saw it up!" the Ex-Neko yelled at the Neko.

Another duo went for Mark's unit, his incessant "F* You!" remarks seemingly slowing them down, but not stopping their advance. Metal screeched as they got in close, the tip of the first just marring the chestplate as the DJ backed up firing, completley mauling the offender as the second tried to come in - *click-click*

Mark Ran Dry.

Silver flashed by as a five meter long wristblades slashed by - the Ashigaru came in close, but he managed to dodge! But as Mark yelled at Kelly, he was met only with silence. Complete, utter silence from the cockpit seat behind him. Kelly wasn't saying anything.

Something was wrong.

"Mark! Finish that one and give him Niskord! The medkit's in there somewhere!" the Pink frame ordered, Zesuaium claws pulling out of the ruined Ashigaru. Though she had quickly dispatched one, the fight just kept on going!

The remaining pair had come right in on both Victoria and Lucien - the Abwehran found herself facing both as Lucien was slightly off focus. In the brief exchange before the man came to her aid, a blade's tip plunged into the head of her frame, destroying one of her eyes while a pair of fingers on the right hand fell to the ground!

And all at once, they were still being shelled.

"I'm buying you all time! Hurry up and go in there!" Yoshiko yelled, her frame dashing away at the three distant giants.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Sirens blared as one of the cannons was destroyed on the Garuda. Taela could care less.

"Deactivate that cannon, reroute all that power to everything else. . ." She told herself, sending more into her shields and remaining arsenal. All that was left was one HPLC, a Chain Straight, and the built in Ionic Pulse Weapon and Gamma Ray Vulcans. Yoshiko's rescue snapped Taela out of her retally of the ship's active systems and nodded, though she knew her friend couldn't see the nod. But things got worse by the second. Kelly's blackout, Yoshiko's gambit to stall, the lack of support from the Atuan. All of it contributed to what followed.

Mood music

"Goddamnit, I hate EVERYTHING!" she shrieked, thankfully turning off her comms just in time. The enemy was close, but she would manuver faster than they and close the distance with a burst of speed from her jets. Her Frame stood face to face with the faux foe before it could reacted, her remaining HPLC hanging over the shoulder. The chain straight? Driven into the stomach of the Ashigaru while the free arm pushed the enemy's weapon aside. Her onboard weapons unleashed a torrent of blasts into the armor opposing armor just as the much larger cannon above lobbed volleys of energy at the enemy behind.

Another burst of energy from her thrusters, though this time continuous and powerful, would serve as her attempt to charge one Ashigaru into another, hopefully getting a two-for-one deal with her Chain Straight.

The neko was furious once more, and it would take a lot more than just one enemy to sate her rage.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Viktoria was getting into mood. The mood FOR SLAUGHTER. She made a step back to get out of the clone-garu's distance and drew her chain-straight. So he wanted to play swordsman, Viki could do that. She played with sword since she was kid, but using one in battle is always best. Part of her vision was blurred, but she still saw enough.

Holding the chainstraight as a saber she attacked, slashing in round movement around, trying to cut off enemy wrist, following with attack on his inner knee as blade went down. All the time ready to step back, should any other enemy attack.

She could also very well hear the comm chatter. "MARK!" She shouted into the radio. "If you let Kelly die Ich will murder you! And it will hurt!" THen she hit her computer and started playing her own Mood Music to properly enjoy the fighting.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Don't be so pushy, baby, let a man do his work!" Mark protested. He tried to sound as competent as possible, but in reality he was lucky there were no cameras inside the cockpit to transmit the image of him struggling through the medkit and tossing out every other thing. Each item that wasn't Niskord was quickly discarded, with no regard for whether it landed on the floor or back in the box; a pile of pharmaceutical miscellanea growing and growing until--

"I found it! Sweet shit!"

Mark was quick to tilt back Kelly's head and plop a few of the gel caplets in before rubbing at his 'co-pilot's' throat to force the pills down.

"Okay, Farms, suck it up, brother, you got this." Mark encouraged Kelly, with his head on the man's chest, begging for a pulse, "You got this, and you don't want Smoke to squish Markus like a bug, do ya, man?"

Re: Episode 7: Mine

The other frame jockey's logic was better than Lucien's original train of thought. Getting it done quickly with what you had was better than getting it done later with a plan that might've been superfluous.

"Viki I dun' think we're gettin' heavy fire support - we ARE th' fire support!" He gave his sword a twirl before heading into the breech with Viktoria with his sword in both hands. He understood that he had to clear-cut a path for the others to get further in. She was right - the bigger things could wait and there were more immediate things to cut through.

Moving quickly and brutally, the Scotsman tried to carve a bloody swathe with his frame-sized longsword through the Ashigaru-impersonators.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Sparks flew as Taela's chain straight was driven into the charging Ashigaru, but it wasn't like in the movies. The machine continued to slash and flail at her own mech while it's autocannon and lasers fired - armor ablated and chipped away as the powered blade finally run it through. But it didn't stop! Like an unyielding zombie, it continued to thrash and grope for Taela, its short wristblade slashing and punching holes in the chest and arms of her frame.

The chainstraight kept on going up and up, carving into its hull as it struggled more and more frantically before finally flailing as though it had a seizure - as though the insanity gave her a breather, it went limp.

At the same time, as Mark fumbled for supplies, the second enemy frame he was fighting got back up, only stunned by the short burst to its unshielded chest. The stitchwork of deep holes in its chest or not, th thing went right back to charging as he rummaged. Yet, lances of fire strafed its back as Taela's cannon fired on whatever it could to her rear - Kelly suddenly coughed and hacked spittle into Mark's face as he tried shoving pills down his mouth and clamping it closed!

Feathers ejected from the frame and rained fire down on the charging, then limping Ashigaru before it plummeted right into the Asura the two were both inside, the frames falling to the ground with a resounding crack, as cement shattered below. "Hurgflagrlahg!" Kelly gagged, desperately pointing at the screen full of angry enemy Ashigaru and Mark's empty pilot seat.

Not too far off, an arm, its autocannon still sputtering away, spun end over end as it flew into the air. Victoria's first slash was a relative success, severing the arm and even damaging the knee, but its thrusters were faster than her backpedaling! Elegant fighting became pointless as she was forced to leaped out of the way, but the enemy punched out - its forearm blade stabbed into the left waist of her frame before being wrenched out of its mount as its mass continued on, left embedded in her hull. The knockoff Ashigaru turned on its axis and opened fire, crudely circling to close in on her again.

Despite this chaos, there was something to be gained; out of them all, Lucien seemed to be fairing the best. Large, massive swings literally pummeled the approaching Ashigaru into submission, the edge of the blade not cutting, but literally smashing its way into armor and hull. The knockoff was knocked off balance by the simple assault, soon loosing an arm, then its head before finally having the blade cleave down right into the cockpit block. As the blade was lifted, the control center of the enemy was revealed - empty. The frames were empty, yet the fight wasn't finished yet!

Off in the distance, only brief stutters of fire and muffled explosions showed Yoshiko was still alive and kicking.