The ground passed quickly under the shuttle's open ramp as the strike team prepared for the assault. Thorn kept Shoebox at a comfortable and clean air conditioner setting somewhere in the neighborhood of five thousand feet. "Kay, so Barone got himself mugged and they took a Star Army communicator. Two, actually. Point is that gave us tracking data. My Eyes have confirmed the communicator's signal and location, tracking it to a location you will find on your maps. We don't have visual, so they have some kind of cloak but it's there. And for a third point of reference, went and pinged the tracker in the grip of Barone's NSP. Not sure what they're doing stealing tech like that, but I want that intel when you folks kick his ass. And if you can recover that staff Barone reported, I'd like to take it apart and study it. I'll be your air support, and pulling double duty as your mission operator. mostly by plugging myself into the ship and leaving my body for a bit. Anybody else got something to add?"
"Yeah, I do," Barone radioed as he stood by the edge of the ramp, "This ship doesn't have a xiu coating yet. I know we're invisible but.. let's make our finally approach as low as possible. Stike team, we'll jump out at full stealth and let them wonder what passed overhead, then hit them in the back."
"In that case, I'll come in low and fast, .9 mach, 200 feet off the deck with a 7 G vertical above the target. Immelman turn and burn hard for altitude 11K. You'll have about three quarters of a second to let yourself fall out the back. And they 'll be too busy scrambling anti air to notice some stealthed out Mindies." Thorn gave a shrug, her slight size barely reaching Barone's hip. But none would mistake that weariness and stiffness of her movements or the scars on her face for anything but age. Some form of dwarfism in the Nepleslian, perhaps? Or something darker that cursed her with a body that would age, but never grow up. Fitting, for the mercenary scientist wanted on so many worlds. Though it had been years since anyone had seen hide or hair of her. Many had assumed she finally got in too deep, died, or been stranded somewhere. It seemed she had simply retired. And SAINT had dragged her back for this. "Don't worry, never been shot down before."
"That means no time for conversation this go around, ladies!" Oodori spoke up after their latest pilot laid out their approach. Two drops within an hour. At least this assignment wasn't boring.
"Ori, you're on overwatch. Pick your favorite high ground and give us a play by play. Direct traffic, but be prepared to reposition after firing." Not only would the type of fire she preferred absolutely give away her position, it'd probably be destroyed in the process.
"Ryuko-Hei, you're in the dirt with me." Hopefully she could handle it. If the other Neko was going to lose control as soon as her Mindy got scuffed, better to learn that sooner than later. "Maintain stealth, no aether unless absolutely necessary." There'd already been issues with that after all, which was half the reason the three of them were here right now.
"First priority is recovering Viktor Brandt alive. No disintegrations. Do what you gotta do otherwise. It's amazing what you can live through nowadays." Oodori managed to not broadcast her chuckle at her own joke to the rest of the squad. "No need to use the kid gloves with any of the other hostiles. Let's try to be careful about potential hostages, though? The name of the game is intel, after all. Who knows what they've seen here?"
Ryuko gasped audibly as she was told that she was in the dirt with Oodori. "better not for long" she muttered in disgust quietly to herself as she prepared to move out, but making no comment.
"Got it, High tower overlook, don't fire unless needed since well,,. can't really keep stealth with this loadout gonna give myself away the moment I so much as single shot something she chuckled a bit at that as that was quite the understatement considering the weapons she carred for long range.
"If you need an specific area supressed let me know, I got the guns to force some heads down if needed, other wise I will be looking for heavier issues that might be coming up and keeping you apprised of any flank, you know the usual" she gave a thumbs up as she made sure to prep herself.
If she was going to be on overwatch she was going to make sure it was a good spot, and the drop window this time was even smaller than before, but overall they should be fine, the systems on the Mindy could make a short window like this more then enough, and their training easily covered hot drops and short windows.
"Oodori, I thought I was the commander," Barone teased on a private channel as he spun a pair of W-4100 aether sidearms into their waist mounted holsters, "keep the kids safe out there. I don't want to think about how bad I'll be chewed out if we lose someone to a gang of petty criminals. You got this, right?"
Oodori's head turned towards Barone, as she received that private communication. "Sorry, Barone-Heisho. I thought you called us in to handle this." She responded privately, as well. Helmet dipping for a moment as she spotted him readying his own weapons. "Didn't realize you'd be joining us." Requesting a shuttle full of strangers to throw into the meat grinder while the commander and his actual squad stayed behind had seemed more likely to her than them really needing a half dozen or more Mindy to take on what appeared to be desert bandits.
Barone shook his head. "Oodori.. don't take me too seriously. You'll find yourself in charge of the team more than myself," he said in the most nonchalant way possible as he took an AHAMR out of the weapons locker along with a satchel, "I'm going to hang back for a bit. I'm still curious how this is going to play out. I'm going to trust your instincts heisho. Good hunting." His armor disappeared before Oodori's eyes in a haze as he wished her well, vanishing without a trace.
"Three seconds to drop!" Came over the PA system as the shuttle began its final turns.
"Fireteam, GREEN LIGHT!" A gut dropping dive into the canyon as the rear shield shut down to unleash the brutal winds of Yiqubi's atmosphere so close to the speed of sound, followed by the ground seeming to invert, the roar of thrusters becoming audible as forward speed closed to almost zero and vertical speed increased in that gut wrenching acceleration.
"Ryokai." After that response, Oodori simply nodded, turning towards the rear of the shuttle as the three second warning was announced. "Move!" She shouted to the other two, ensuring they were properly motivated this time.
One mind, 81 Sedoka. Closing her eyes, gathering her concentration, the volumetrics on her Mindy suddenly began projecting hundreds, if not thousands of thick, black Yamataigo characters above her arms and shoulders, rising above her head, hovering around her weapons. It looked as if there were solid blocks of dark, glossy plastic swirling around her for a moment, before they disappeared just as swiftly. Followed a moment later by the rest of her Mindy.
With only a split second to orient herself after letting gravity rip her free from the shuttle, Oodori angled her descent towards what appeared to be a large landing pad or staging area of some sort, near instantly canceling her momentum to stop on a dime, hovering above the metallic surface.
Ryuko began moving out, all the while grumbling about dirt, and messes though admittedly she was pleased she was in armor at least.
Orianna nodded at the order to move and move she did, her systems were already primed and ready and she new her target, what she wasn't expecting was the rather radical departure from normal operational procedure and such a stray from what she thought the deployment plan was going to be.
Luckily she was able to keep up with the changes and she rushed out her suit disappearing as she activated her cloak as ordered for their insertion, she had a much much smaller window then Ryuko and Oodori did with her landing, made even shorter by the way they were being dropped in, but she would manage, thankfully seeing a good high spot was rather easy and she manuvered herself to land without a disturbance of the area on a good overlook of the base as she took up her overwatch position.
Thorn had pulled over vertical and sharply banked over, aiming to put the canyon wall between herself and incoming fire before initiating her climb to 11000 feet, where she could use her guns and the squad's directions to drop supporting fire. If this worked, she should be safe, but she didn't know how many fighters would come after her. None, she hoped. But the Universe has a sick sense of humor, so she watched the sensor feeds as she began the process of plugging her Geist into the main computer.
As she watched for fighters to launch she hear a sharp crunch across the nose of the shuttle, alarms blaring in the cockpit as various warnings illuminated the dashboard.Her immediate response was to launch into a string of decidedly not childlike curses over the open comm.
The shields were the first to collapse as the collision occured followed by the engines reporting debris blocking the turbines. The viewscreen remained clear at first before a second decidedly harsh pull sent the shuttle careening into a spin, the viewscreen now blocked by a metallic silver fabric, its surface lined with tiny hexagonal stitches.
"Weird," came Barone's voice from the copilot seat beside her, decloaking he took up the shuttle's SLAM and wrapped his left arm around Thorn's waist as he teleported, the two reappearing at the ledge of the canyon overlooking the team below. In the air they could see the scene visible to all, the shuttle had been fully enveloped by a massive 'sheet' of some fabric that had previously not been there, smoke billowing out as the squidded parachute of a collision plummeted from the sky to the ground, exploding as it crashed.
Initzio stood stoicly as the scene had unfolded with Thorn still firmly in his grip, "well... Now we know why we couldn't see them from orbit."
"Yup.... As comfortable as it is tucked under your arm like a sack of flour... Thanks for the rescue. That knocks one off our debt... Damn it, I liked that ship.". Thorn squirmed momentarily before settling down and beginning to tap away at the data pad inside her wrist. "Sending you the access codes for Auger and Seer, sir. Guest codes. Still. You should have user access to my sensors, and I want a sample of that sheet."
"All business now?" he bantered as he let her go, "I'd rather let you handle the nerdy satellite stuff. Wanna have some fun?"
"Last time I was a combatant, I got blown up by an insurgent, so I'd like to not die again. Besides, I'd need heavier commo gear like what's between your ears to dip out of this body if I get shot. And the Eyes have the computers to hold my mind till we get home. So if it's all the same to you, boss, you're my escape route." He handed the SLAM to Thorn with a subtle waggle. Dusting herself off, Thorn looked quizically at the SLAM. "Though those fuckers put up something that crashed me. You know how I am about payback."
In the bottom of the canyon it was nothing short of panic. Shouts from the people living there echod off of the sheer walls. Shouts including, "we can be seen" and "scramble the Cobras" matched a similar scramble of pilots to a trio of cobra gunships in various states of disrepair, yet all three clearly armed to the teeth. In the garages built into the canyon wall a pair of Type 31 Troll tanks started their engines as their crews sprinted for their rides.
As the clamor unfolded a third door opened, a spider-like tank inside lying dormant.
Hefting the rocket launcher, she settled onto her knees, letting her satellite feeds link to her neural implants, checking targeting vectors. "Buy me some time and I'll take out their air support as it gets airborne."
At least until she saw Oodori's communication go up through the net. "Or not. Retargeting..."
"Ryuko, take the far right. Get the pilot. I've got the other two." The message was encrypted, sent while Oodori was already flinging herself across the landing area, accelerating instantly to a speed that could cover hundreds of feet in a few seconds. She'd be upon the pilots before they'd run more than a few steps. "Ori, disrupt the tanks." She didn't have time to be more specific.
Oodori's monomolecular edged nodachi was drawn silently, as she aimed to cut down one pilot, then the other, ignoring any of the other crew members for the moment. She could always mop the rest up after the most pressing issue was handled. Sword and armor still cloaked, it was as if an invisible mass had simply appeared within the ranks of the enemy combatants, stopping as instantly and effortlessly as she'd accelerated with the bisected men falling to the great shock of the surrounding gangsters.
"Ok, Ryuko gets the pilot on the far right" Ryuko said as she too used her Mindy's speed to bring herself to the designated pilot to get him as she was ordered too.
Looking on at the situation... then the sound of a crash above them Orianna took a quick moment to look up and send a encrypted message using her laser to keep her stealthed position "Bird is down.. crashed into something on exit..no air support now" she informed Oodori before she looked back at what was available down below.
"Three corona class gunships, old looking but if they were kept in good order the Armor on them should be Rated as Teir 8 if I remember correctly on the Armorers tiering system, so usually used on medium mecha and fighting vehicles fairly resiliant but we got the hardware to deal with it will take some time though, it's Durandium Alloy armor unless they up armored it with something stronger, Aim for the underside if it gets in the air as it uses relativly softer Durandium Alloy down there to help cusion a crash. Armerment, if they kept the main loadout, two Pulse laser arrays for point defense, four NAM extended Rack missle systems, one NAM Medium 30 Milimeter Chaingun, and two kegbuster rocket lauchers."
She continued to look at the other available equipment that was being rolled out "Identified two type 31 "Toll" Tanks same Armor classification, as the Corona gunships, standard load out it looks like, Armament 105mm Gauss Cannon, 35mm Machine Gun, and two twelve rack missile launchers" she continued looking on at the other things there as her heisho went to work.
"Wait.... Careful they have a Mech with them Moon Spider..." she contiued to focus on the Mecha till she could get a better view "Correction.. no Mech... it's a Tasha Autonomous Support Heavy Armor. it's a floating tank basically, armament is one oh five Milimeter Plasma Cannon, fifty Milimeter Grenade Launchers unless they changed the ammo it will likely have white phosphorus grenades, two Thirtyfive Milimeter Machine Gun, one Aether Gatling turret, four Point Defense Turrets basically they are equivalent to NSP's, and two leg-mounted micro-missile pods, that Tasha is going to be the hardest target if they kept it in good repair, it will have both Yamataium with thick Zesuaium panels and reactive armor coating, Scalar will have no effect, the Conformal EM sheilding and stealth system will make it that much harder to deal with"
"Thorn, here. Barone and I survived the crash, we're still gonna give what support we can. I'm patching the fireteam to my satellite network, that crash gave us coverage. You tell me what to spank, yeh?". Her mind's eye processed the information, listening to Orianna's report and scanning for those targets as she responded using what sattalite communication she could. "Looks like your battle's denying their air support. I have a loaded SLAM with plasma"
Ryuko blinks her eyes as she looks up and she saw the shuttle crash. The poor Neko shook in disgust, fear and something else. She was stuck on his dirty world and to say she was displeased was an understatement. Ryuko blushed when she heard Thorn spoke. "Spanking is hard and possibly dirty" she said in comment, before she tried to force herself to focus on the mission.
"Thorn take out the Tasha, you got the heaviest hitting gear here and most of our weapons will mostly ping off it or be asporbed by the shield and if that thing gets moving it's going to be hell for all of us, I'll target the tanks and the crews I got a clear shot from here" she sent the secured communication to Thorn before her 8ga cannon flipped up to her shoulder and she took aim at the two tanks with their crews trying to get to them, "Should supress them too..." she thought to herself as her Scalar machinegun also flipped up, and she opened fire, killing the tanker who'd failed to keep his head down after taking cover behind a junk rover.
"Target spotted. I can drop three missiles on it and use the last to drop the roof on it." Thorn looked up. "Shot's your call, sir. Targets locked, ready to fire on your mark."
"Hold up a moment, I've worked with these before," Barone responded to Thorn as he gazed through the scope of the massive sniper rifle, "not even the SLAM will work, and then we won't have it anymore. These things usually had a handler. He'd be the one to start it up. We need to keep him from getting there. "
"Easy. Drop the roof on it so they can't get to it."
Barone stared downrange, eventually pointing to a boulder jutting out of the canyon wall. "That, above the door 6 meters above the door. If we can dislodge that boulder we can at least obstruct access to it, and maybe even cause a landslide to block it off," he replied, "drop that rock, Thorn. I'll snipe anyone who tries to make it in."
"Roger. Target locked. Missile one away. Next target."
Barone continued sighting in targets, "marking now, three PA's, take 'em". Thorn pulled the trigger, letting her first missile fly before locking on to those targets Barone had marked.
"Missile away." The second missile lanced from the launcher, aimed for the three power armor units furthest from the main cluster of the fight, the missile landing between the three to splash two of them with plasma as the third leapt to safety. Two, at least, we're burning. "Splash two and three. Next target."
Dokusei dropped into the fray, thankful that her little side mission had wrapped up somewhat successfully. Though the results could not truly be known as of yet. She thought if this particular scientific mischief warranted further discussion, she would get an ear full from Barone about it at a later date. After situating herself near Barone and Thorn she sent a sweetly succinct message to the former, "Easy job, I am back." With an essence of all the rage bottled up from earlier instances she lit off a shot from her Ke-M2-W2901 Aether Beam Saber-Rifle directly towards their closest enemies. The rage she felt towards them was endless, they had brought shame upon her for what had happened. That had induced a blood rage within her that simply could not go unsated.
"Hey Doku," Barone said, still sighting targets, "I figured you'd want a slice. Do you see those guys with no power armor? One of those forty-something guys robbed us. Go kill them for me, the others are doing similar."
A switch flipped in Dokusei's mind when Barone dropped some knowledge about the guys with no power armor. Those were the goons that accosted them earlier? It made her absolutely fume as her focus narrowed in on them. Their suffering would bring her great satisfaction. "With pleasure," she responded in a devilish tone. Without hesitation Dokusei piloted her Mindy towards enemy forces. She felt like an angel of death as she hovered above them with their end in mind. In rapid pulse mode her sable-rifle began raining suffering down upon enemy forces. They would pay for what they had done.
Aether bolts rained down on the heads of the motley assembly of thugs still trying to figure out the gravity of their situation. The bolts of pink-hot aether burst upon the men and the ground, pulverized the barely armored men and bursting the sand into plumes of molten sand. The men fired blindly at anything they hoped was their attacker while diving for cover. In the chaos that ensued 8 men took shots from their ally's frantic bursts of fire.
With her targets picked and decided on Orianna lined up her weapons and started to fire her Machine gun at the crews whole her 8 guage cannon rattled off, first an armor shot aimed at the Tank crews, followed by Kinetic slug aimed at the first tank, she moved the cannon again to launch an air burst near the crews once more and the final plasma round was aimed at the second tank, all while she raked the area the crews were running through with her Scalar Machinegun, putting down the heads of the 2 crewmen who hadn't been exploded by the 8 gauge airburst round.
She made sure to aim her Slugs at the tank's Missile launchers as they would likely pop the tanks since the they had some tough armor. The Kinetic slug aimed at the first Troll would hit squarly in the middle of the left rack of missles, while the Plasma Slug would impact a little lower on the Right rack of the second tank.
All the sudden weapons fire from her location would of course give her away especially with he muzzle flashes and report of the guns, but she had a job to do to take out the armor and the drivers.
A smokey hissing came from the first tank's missile rack while the other instanly ignited a payload not commonly used in the SAoY, a sugary-oxide based fuel propelling the 11 missiles from their home in their tubes as the first burst into intense flames chaining the existing magazine which launched in random directions like a psychotic fireworks display, collapsing the ceiling over it.
Not stopping the 11 other rockets that had fried in random directions, Orianna's HUD illuminated with alerts of an imminent impact by her feet, dropping her barrier and exploding a pair of gangers into the air. All the while Thorn's SLAM rocket rocked the canyon wall, freeing the bolder to fall heavily over the entry to the Tasha, hundreds of kilograms of smaller rocks
Orianna watched as the three men dropped, two from the 8 gauge cannon air burst round, and 1 from the sweep of her machinegun, leaving the tanks with only a singer operator, and the handy work of her rounds got a very good result on the Trolls, well one of them anyway as the second one instead cooked the missiles and caused them to fire off rather then explode.
As one of the random firing missiles flew at her Orianna jumpped back her barrier thankfully taking the damage of the explosion and while it recharged she had the good fortune of having a large dust cloud be knocked up between her and her targets. so she returned to stealth and used the cover to reposition, being careful to not leave a dust trail behind so she could remain undetected for another strike later.
Mikodimus knew his team would be bold, perhaps even a tad reckless. While this might be alarming to some, for Miko, it simply meant that dull moments would be scarce. The mission was straightforward, though initiating action was somewhat impromptu. Miko couldn't help but grin, recalling his brother's favorite saying for such situations: "Apart from everything going completely wrong, it's all going according to plan."
He was in awe of the overwhelming firepower that Spark and Orianna demonstrated. He had just deployed his drones according to the action plan he devised, and they were already testing the limits of their ammunition reserves. There's nothing quite like formidable firepower to make a statement. In his mind, the bass music began to thump, setting the rhythm for the chaos.
The drones diverged in three separate directions. His crew was decimating anything that moved. Miko planned a more tactical approach to eliminate any adversaries that managed to endure the initial onslaught. To ensure Miko asserted his domination, he first put his focus on the Corona Gunships which were still in action. With only three drones he figured a few rounds from each would be enough to blow through the major parts of the gunships. Other than the AA, his drones would now rule the sky and rule they did as they savaged the engines from the Coronas, rendering them flightless.
As the drones swiftly dealt with the gunships, Miko targeted the power armor units. Individually, they weren't too powerful, but collectively, they posed a significant threat. He was confident that his weapon's beam mode could easily dispatch at least two of the light power armors. His initial two shots either missed or merely chipped away at the armor's defenses. Refocusing, he exerted maximum effort on his subsequent shots. This time, his precision paid off, resulting in two headshots in a single burst. He surmised that the operators were either incapacitated or deceased, but at least they were temporarily out of the fight.
A single power armored trooper dove out of the way as Thorn's rocket landed, blasting away the shields of the other two and setting them ablaze in plasmic flames. The survivor tried frantically away from the scene only to receive a hyper-velocity 12.7 zesu slug to the head, exploding into a murder scene of its own. Barone opened his left eye to see a pair of men pulling the tarp off of a handmade AA gun built with 4 large auto cannons. "Oh boy, we can't have that now," sighting in the gunner as he claimed into the seat, he fired a shot into the gunner's ches and instantly followed up with a second shot into the spotter. With the gore of the AA crew covering their machine he nodded with satisfaction.
"Aahaow!" Thorn cried, almost dropping the missile launcher to cover her ear and wipe away the blood leaking from her ear. "If you're gonna blow out my eardrums, at least blow out my back, first! You haven't even bought me dinner!" Thorn shook off the injury long enough to re aim the missile launcher. I got two shots, smiting that Troll.
With a squeeze of her hand, she let the last two missiles fly. "Goddamnit, I can't hear outta that side! You fucking popped my eardrum, you dick!"
Junk Flats, 20km from the Canyon Hideout
("Anyone got eyes on those gangers yet, over?") Yeoman Sergant Lucas called to the spotters, watching the nearby surroundings as the gunners loaded the massive 205mm Cannons they'd brought with them. A few halftracks with anti-air rolled up-the quad 4cm autocannons scanning the sky as four additional squads of infantry dismounted from others, and a single Myrmidon had gone hull down up to counter any armor that might show up. The scavers had gotten it into their heads to steal from one of the company ships when they'd arrived to do some salvage work; they'd struck hard and fast; leaving them with precious little time to react-no fatalites, but it'd been close; and had made off with some gear-details were sketchy, but they'd had to answer regardless; retrieving the gear was priority-but the gangers were a problem. So they'd decided that it was time for a little...payback.
And a reminder of the consequences for stealing from them.
("Negative; can hear some gunfire nearby-some of it sounds pretty heavy, but don't have eyes yet, over.") The man sighed, prepping his Juggernaut's weapons; a fullisade of chaingun, missiles, bar mace and heavy laser, were ready. The fact that he'd been deployed with a Guardian was indicative of just how seriously they were taking this. ("Copy that; let me know you have eyes, over.") A follow-up of "Acknowledged, over and out." Ammo count was solid, and they had everything from HE to a couple of Nukes; just to get the point across. ("We got sensor coverage yet, over?") A pause, followed by a ("Negative, eta 2 minutes.")
("Oi-Yeoman Sergant, come in-over!") Lucas looked up with a start, charging his changun on instinct. ("Lucas here, status-over!") A pause followed by ("We've got comms chatter all over the place; indie, yammie; and we've got eyes on the Myrmidon-south by south east running full tilt-looks like their burning hard, over!") What the hell were the cats doing here?
("Roger that; keep an eye and give us direction while we move to intercept, over and out!") He turned to the squad; ("Alright, we've got eyes on the Myrimidon-Sapphires 3 and 4 mount up and one AA battery with us-1 and 2 remain behind with the other tank and guard the artillery-we've got Yammies in the area so we need to get the tank and get out-Let's Move!") The yeomen mounted up in rapid succession, clambering into the halftracks as they set off-Lucas running beside them as they surged forward.
Canyon Hideout
As the chaos ensued the 4 standing PA gangsters began shouting orders to the others began equipping goggles. The faces of the criminals became covered by the trademark holographic projection of Viktor's face, though with glowing blue eyes. They separated themselves into 3 groups of 5 while one of them ran to the surviving Troll while another who'd always had his mask on was distinctly on his own. The 3 teams began scanning about for the menace who'd savaged their men. The solo scanned similarly for where Dokusei had been, searching quickly. "There it is!" called a team leader, "take aim and wait for my call!"
The solo took aim with a black NSP and fired a shot perfectly at her head, sparks crackling off her helmet. As Dokusei's attention was caught firmly by the deadly marksmanship of the 'masked' man, she noticed a subtle nod of his head towards the leader who was shouting "I said wait to fire!" The others began echoing "fire?" and "fire!" beginning a confused, staggered firing from the group as they experienced varying degrees of hesitation in their attack. This gave Dokusei more than enough time to dodge the ineffective hail of rifle caliber bullets, with two zapping off her shields reducing her barrier to 75%. She retaliated at the commanding figure with another spray of aether bolts, saturating the men in pink-hot death.
The power armored man nearest to the group fired his machine gun, striking Dokusei with impressive marksmanship, dropping her barrier as lead connected with her Mindy, but it couldn't save him as her ASBR fired a beam through his chestplate into his heart. His chest burst as the energy escaped in the only direction feasible, dispensing his crispy organs across the sand as his body collapsed onto it's back.
In that moment, there was a wicked smile that spread across Dokusei's face underneath the cover of her armor. "Shame their suffering ended so quickly." she thought before ripping her attentions elsewhere.
From the garage the Troll battle tank pulled out clumsily, the inexperience of the untrained driver on full display, Oodori diving out of the way as it rolled past her. The turret rotated in Orianna's direction, seeming to know her presence. The machine stared angrily as a glow formed within its barrel now pointed towards the armorer.
"Shit," Dokusei whispered to herself as she watched the horrifying situation unfold. She positioned herself to be ready for attempting to zoom in and support Oodori if the need arose.
The first of Thorn's shots went wide, her distraction from her injury forcing the missile off course. The second, however, splashed against the shield with a thunderous boom as Thorn cursed. "Shot one miss, shot two, solid hit, target's still shielded!"
"Damn, Thorn, you suck with that thing," Barone commented.
"Fuck me about it, shitbag!" Such rage and anger exploded from her tiny, childlike body that she wasn't sure if her voice had carried to her sattelites and rebroadcasted across the planet on open comms.
Watching the tank roll out Orianna realized it likely could detect her, especially when it turned the main fun towards her "Okay well figured that considering..." she thought to herself as the tank was taking aim, "the barrier on that things to tough for most of my gear other then the Missiles I have.. but that cannon is going to be an issue.. the shield should open up a moment when it fires.. if I fire a missile down the barrel it should cause an issue with the firing mechanisim, the missile rack is also smoking a missile there should set them off rather then launch them... might be able to take them out if I do that...
As the tank got ready to fire, Taking a moment she readied herself, before her launch pods on her legs opened, as she stared down the tank She thought about it, and closed the other bays "Should only need one actually... just have to time this right.." she thought to herself as she took a deep breath and waited she thought of the weapon and the vehicle, weapon and computer timing. Going over mentally all the calculations, the timing it needs to send the commands to the different parts needed to fire the cannon and open the window in the Barrier. And how long the Tank would need to get a proper firing solution, it wouldn't be able to pinpoint her exact location but even with ten year old tech it could get close enough for that Cannon to do work.
Things seems to slow down for her as she focused, on that tank, focusing on the timing in her mind as she continued to think of the process that needed to happen for the entire attack, and just as she got to the point that the window would open in the barrier she fired off the missile. Aimed down the barrel of the machine in front of her, taking aim at her.
Just as the cannon fired the missile flew down the barrel reaching the main chamber and detonating both itself and the main gauss capacitor, causing a chain reaction in the turret of the Troll. The capacitors overloaded and the turret exploded off the tank, being sent into the roof of the garage it was in, taking the machine gun with it leaving the tank out of weapons it could use, but also sending a massive energy surge through the system from the built up energy in the capacitors of the gauss cannon.
The barrel popped like a ballon of shredded steel, a moment later a bright flash blinded those around as the turret burst from the hull propelled by the force of an exploding electrical capacitance system. The turret reached Barone and Thorn's height before falling back to the canyon ground below. As the domed scrap metal looked them in the faces Barone made the comment, "huh, I gotta pop off like that too before I die."
"To be honest, the best response to me would have been 'when tank turrets fly.' The irony would have been delicious." Thorn gave a shrug before a shuddering cough, one that nearly pushed the rebreather filters out of her back to leave red stains on the back of her once white tee shirt. "Ghads, this air's nasty. Filters are clogged, I'll need to get them cleaned again."
"Oh damn, Thorn, don't die on me here. We're just getting started," Barone exclaimed then commented, "oh, and I didn't say I was creative. I just have a REALLY good team, apparently," he commented then radioed to Orianna, "fan-frinkin'tastic Orianna!"
"You are far less creative than your brain-daddy. But I can get jiggy with it. You want me to nudge a piece of debris out of orbit and smite these heretics? Cause I'm fine, happens all the time."
"Noooo no, we don't need anything that'll cause an artillery effect."
"Roger that, taking up spotter. And don't blow out any more of my eardrums. Not like I carry spares or can heal like you. In fact... Am I getting old?"
Barone shrugged and rested his cannon-like weapon on his shoulder, "maybe a little, but at least you're not alone in it."
"Maybe. Thirty fve years, by the way. I'm thirty five. Not sure how long this body was supposed to last. Who's that Mindy pilot down there shredding the Infantry? She reminds me of an old friend of mine."
Barone shrugged and recalled the soldier's dossier. "Orianna Paddenmour, she's human too," he paraphrased, "graduated Zenjinkaze, served as an armorer for a while. Super high marks in direct action missions. She hasn't even served that long and she's racked up an impressive body count.. the makings of a combat hero."
"May have to throw her at Sergeant Pine if we go after Taii Koun. I read her file and the ship's manifest... We may need a diversion or three if she doesn't want to cooperate. Go ahead and put two in that guy. Shot pocket between the neck and shoulder." Thorn painted a target on one of the power armor troopers still standing, specifically the one she noted the shields seemed down on.
"Ooh, he is open," he confirmed taking both a knee and careful aim, switching the gun to Hard Target mode, "watch me do it in one." After a moments pause the shot rang out, catching the heavily armored man perfectly at the base of the neck, his helmet flying airborne as a shower of red sprayed the area. The PA troops to his left and right jumped in surprise and looked directly to where the shot had come from. Ever so slowly Barone backed away from the edge of the canyon to avoid any retaliatory exchange.
"Clean hit! Beautiful-- Oshit!" Thorn ducked behind the rock face to avoid being seen as she pulled a gem adorned ring from one of her pockets to toss at Barone "Nice shot, looks like I owe you five Bells. I can pay in Water Credits right now. Get that back later."
Barone smiled in his helmet. "I'm not doing this for the money, buddy," he stated creeping forward to sight in another target, "I do it for the love of the game." The gun fired and scored another decapitation on the armored man who'd begun searching for the sniper. reaching into his buttpack he fished out another magazine and perfomed a common speed reload in a slow, methodical motion to minimize any disruption to his camoflage before racking the bolt and chambering yet another round.
Turning after she took out the tank and she got her 8 guage cannon up into a firing position and opened fire on the infantry and some of the power armorer units dumping ammo on them as she let rip with the cannon, working to thin the numbers even further as she moved to break line of sight once more to try to keep moving and let her barrier recover.
The kinetic slug tore into the armored arm, blood and hydraulic fluid bursting from the shoulder as the left arm was torn from the human within. Dropping to his knees the man screamed in pain as he bled profusely. Though not dead, the man was far from being in fighting shape.
Firing an airburst round, the shrapenel hadn't the chance to take a life as the sheer percussion instantly burst the 5 metal clad foot troops blood vessels, the metal fragments shedding their carcasses in a storm of metal.
The other power armored ganger fired a stream of high-caliber bullets from a home-made rifle built from an old mounted machinegun. Orianna stepped back letting the big projectiles pass on harmlessly as her 8ga cannon took aim and fired a plasma shell, the superheated shot bursting and enveloping the man in it's intensly hot flames. His barrier deflected the heat though imperfectly so as the metal of his suit glowed read at the point of impact, paint burned away.
The last surviving man in power armor ran for the blocked TASHA keying on his wrist computer pad only to stop hard in his tracks, impaled on Oodori's freshly energized aether blade nodachi. He went instanly limp as the blade melted through his chest, metal quickly beginning to glow. Oodori swiftly withdrew the aether blade from his chest and with a flick of her wrist docked it back onto it's shoulder hanger. "Area secured."
A pounding came from the boulders blocking off the TASHA's hanger followed by a blast that launched Oodori back, doing a handspring to recover with her ASBR draw in the process. The TASHA crawled out, squeezing through the hole it'd made with it's guass plasma cannon. The spray painted desert camoflage and supplemental plate armor welded across its hull suspiciously covering many of the sensors scattered across its hull.
The armless PA troop scambled helplessly as the spider tank leapt onto him, crushing him underfoot. "Where is my century?" it's motherly voice demanded of the crushed man with a reproachful tone. His deceased state proved to be an issue. With unexpected coordination it manipulated the corpse in such a way to kick it aside while its various weapon systems scanned about, the obscured visibility of the crude supplement armor plating making it difficult to track the Mindy's in full stealth, "I know you're there. Where is Fifth Fleet, Fourth Battalion?"
"Oh boy. That's not good," Barone commented, mentally putting in a request for data on Fifth Fleet, Fourth Battalion but only being reminded that the shuttle had crashed. In the distance he could see a tank-like vehicle with a plow quickly approaching and he made a quick call, "guys, back off of that tank. It's can't track us apparently and we have company. Repeat, fall back. We have have a tank incoming."
"Shit" Dokusei cursed to herself as the behemoths began to converge. "Say less, falling back now." she responded as she relocated amongst her teammates.
Ryuko tried to remain calm, but her paranoia, and her OCD was causing her to be distracted somewhat. She attempted to recenter herself as she moved to fall back with Dokusei.
