RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 2

Nyton glared at Freeman's actions but the incoming mortar rounds took precedence. He increased his speed and continued his evasion, taking note of the chink in the Ocelot's armor that Freeman had just created. He followed this by performing a flying leap while the explosions burst behind him. Nyton changed out weapons in midair and grabbed his LASR. When he landed he tucked into a roll and reloaded his SLAG with a new magazine. After a few rolls he snapped up, aimed the freshly loaded SLAG at the exposed armor of the Ocelot, and fired three rounds.

The Ocelot was not about to let itself be gunned down by Nyton. The mobile frame saw the Nepleslian's Daisy coming from a long way off and quickly turned to present a hale part of its barrier shield to meet up with the former's attack.

The SLAG grenades were no laughing matter though. Even as they impacted against the Ocelot's protection and failed to breach it, they did bring down the mecha's forcefield by more than a half of its potential protection, weakening it overall.

Not to be undone, the Ocelot made another prodigous leap, twsiting in midair with the help of its remaining matching reactors before turning its plasma cannon rifle Nyton's way. The jagged lance of white erupted from the muzzle, propelling a killing disc on Claymere's armor.

Not quite fast enough this time around, Nyton's Daisy didn't clear the blast area in time. Its cloak shield fizzled and died before the front of his armor took the attack. Even with the zesuaium shield mitigating the attack, most of his armor diagram quickly turned to orange and reds, along with his whole left arm turning black - the sharp, biting numbness indicated the simulator considered he had lost the limb. There was probably nothing left of his LASR, his remaining tac drone and the plasma rifle too.

His HUD and external sensors died and he was left in darkness with a 'pilot wounded: 32 seconds to recovery.' in the upper right corner. As the numbers ticked down, his AIES reported: "Class-A damage: Psionic Signal Control device, Active Camouflage, Cloak Shield Projector; Class-B damage: Inertia Redirection System; Class-C Damage: Armor Integrated Electronic System, Capacitor System."

The scuffle with Nyton had worked much better than Yukari had considered, as she hadn't really counted on it at all. As the overall timer continued to count down, she finished her slow climb, about 100 meters up. She then dove, hard, toward her ultimate target.

She prayed the Ocelot was still going to be busy as her hands clasped around the torso. She heaved it up in her hands, clutched it against her battered chest armor, then flew back past Tom and toward the building she'd talked to him about the plan first.

"AIES, tell me what I need to do to make a bomb of this, quickly!"

"Hey! Nice shot AIES!"

Tom thanked the computer for a shot he definately couldn't pull off himself.

"So, ok, if I can hit it in the back again, which means its shields aren't particularly strong there, does that mean I can hit it again?"

The Yamataian was talking to his armor as he continued running forward to get a better position on the Ocelot. He was about to round a corner when the it jumped up in the air, firing a stream of danger at what he assumed was Nyton. He quickly kneeled and took aim at the armor's rear.

"So, AIES, if it's rear is all exposed, let's hit it somewhere that'll HURT. You and me buddy! Let's ROCK!"

He shot again.

"The endoskeleton and depleted armor cover is in the way. Extract the power supply." The Harpy told Yukari, opening up a small window outlining the extraction procedure: She needed to dig her hand in a rent and disconnect three cables before wrenching a squarish-roundish thing around the size of a dictionary out of the Phalanx's back.

"Power must then be fed to the hardware surrounding the power cell." Yukari's AIES told her. "This unit is incapable of doing this. The M6 Daisy can in the same way it maintains the charge on its plasma rifle."

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PLUNK!

The railgun-shot dart smashed against the Ocelot neutronium armor alloy, digging a dent but missing by a finger the second reactor exhaust.

"The effect of the subspace-detonating mini-missile on the Ocelot is waning." Tom's AIES warned. "Target's barrier shield is regenerating."

The Ocelot whirled around and turned its head to face Tom. Its twin pulse cannons lined him up and opened fire.

The simulated pain seared at Nyton's left arm. Looks like I blew that one... he thought to himself as he fought to restrain himself. Its just pain. Nothing more. he told himself. The words that rang through his head were the same that he'd heard before. Just like when I originally got my arm really blown off. The disheartening image of his Armor's status stole his attention. Not much left to work with here. I can still move once I'm up again. No weapons left except the one in my right hand. No missles left either. Now I'm more of a liability to the others. He then shook his head. The timer was counting down but this was no time for defeatism.

"AHH!"

Tom ran around the corner of the building he had just knelt at. He had a moment before to see Nyton's suit laying in a crumpled heap. He opened communications with Yukari.

"Yukari, ma'am. I hope we've given you enough time. I'm undergunned and under attack from the Ocelot. Its shields are regenerating."

The Yamataian held Yukari's rifle up as he turned, half expecting the Ocelot to show up right in front of him.

"To make matters worse, Claymere was hit pretty hard by the Ocelot's attacks," Tom said between pants. "According to what I saw, he's defenseless."

The Raltean sighed.

"With your permission, I recommend that you get Nyton and get the hell out of Dodge while this thing wants to blastificate me. Hopefully, you all can get to the away point, because, well, we don't seem to have much time."

Tom knew that the Ocelot was both faster and stronger than he was.

Stupid nobility. Kills way too many people. He thought, referring to what Nyton was planning to do.

"I'll try to run like the wind here, but this thing outclasses me in all regards. Cat and mouse analogy here. By the way, don't think I'm doing this whole dying for the team crap. I'm going to be RUNNING my ASS off. Freeman out."

He spoke once more to his AIES.

"Hey, AIES, let's turn this thing's velocity to the MAX and do some damage here."

Yukari followed her AIES' instructions. She found a small gash in the back armor of the Super Phalanx, which she carefully pulled back just enough to squeeze two fingers in and yank the small device out. She was under cover from an entire building, but she was not sure how long it would last.

"Freeman-Hei ... " she said as she listened to what he said.

"BAKA!" was her response at the end. "I have no time for your honor! Get over to me quickly; I need your help!"

"WHO SAID THERE WAS ANY HONOR IN THIS, YUKARI-MA'AM!" He yelled uncharacteristically at her.

He continued his withdrawal, trying to follow her orders regardless.

"It's not like I want to be vaporized here. I'd rather save the samurai stuff for the movies!"

He growled.

"The fact of the matter is that I probably can't get to you before this thing nails me. The only thing you can do is jet over to here to me, which then puts BOTH our superior officers in extreme danger. What about the others?"

He grinned.

"I must say, though, I'm flattered by this thing. It must dig my sexiness!"

Yukari tried to force herself not to blush. "You are a fool, Freeman-Hei! That is not how you speak to a superior officer! When we are through with this, I will punish you!"

The words that had splurted from her mouth as if it were a fusion engine made her blush even more. "AIES, do my thrusters work?"

"Yes, but not very well. Your top speed is approximately 300 km/h."

"Thank you." Yukari turned around the corner and saw Tom standing behind another corner of a building a few blocks down. She gulped, then leaned forward some. The first engine start failed, coughing up bits of concrete dust. But the second worked perfectly.

"Freeman-Hei, be readyyyyy!" Yukari yelled, as her armor flung itself forward at about 260 km/h, clutching the small box.

Hurling itself over the buildings providing them cover, the Ocelot leaped over the blocks providing cover for them, abandonning the incapacitated Nyton in favor of downing still moving opponents. The NDI mecha landed hard, its knees bending, and its hand shot out to catch the speeding Yukari by the waist with the ease of a softball player.

The manipulator thightened around its catch, crushing her jetpack before squeezing even further, making the plates of her armor dig uncomfortably into her body. The Mobile Frame's armored head was looking at her, its visored front showing a cyclopean sensor glinting evilly inside. The twin pulse cannons lined up on her - it seemed like it was going for a head shot to avoid damaging its hand. The Phalanx's power supply hung uselessly in her hand: there was no way to use it now.

The Ocelot's head then turned sharply away from her as a duo of subspace detonating mini-missiles hit its barrier shield and forcefully collapsed it. The Ocelot raised its plasma cannon to fire at the newly arrived Mindy, but the nekovalkyrja power armor - some sort of custom model that used the Kylie's forearm aether projectors and shoulder-mounted railgun - pressed on her attack and managed to slice the mecha's main weapon in half before springing away to avoid the mobile frame counter - a vicious vibroblade slash with the arm still holding Yukari.

As the poor yamataian woman inside the Harpy was jostled around, the Mindy twirled away from the NDI mecha and deployed its twelve nodal support bits.

Masako's face couldn't help but contort in a facial expression that seemed to be a mix of disbelief and confusion as she heard the conversation between Yukari and Tom. Shaking her head, she tapped James' shoulder enough to get his attention. "Ok, Dige-Hei, head to the waypoint with Kamiyama-Hei. I'll cover you as well as I'm able," she said as she burst through the back way, pulling her rifle out and leveling it foward.

She swept the area to see if the Ocelot or any other mech was about, ready to rush forward to distract it from her two charges.

Yukari saw her target in sight. She was rushing toward it at such a high speed she wasn't really able to control herself --

But as she suddenly stopped, body hurling head first toward her helmet screen, she knew it was over. She hadn't realized she had flown so high, but it didn't matter. She was caught, like a fish in a bear's paw. Her organs nearly left her through her throat to make a collage in front of her.

She could feel her armor tighten around her. She wouldn't let go of the power supply, she couldn't, no matter what happened, she had to keep that. Her radio fizzled out when her pack was crushed. "Run Freeman-Hei! Run! Do not stay!"

Struggling is a waste of energy was the first thought that brought her back to reality. Yukari forced herself to look forward. The sick feeling in her stomach wouldn't go away, but that didn't matter because the air was being squeezed out of her lungs. She was brought face to face with the Ocelot's head.

The glowing eye was almost leering at her, she could feel it. It knew the pilot inside was weak, maybe an officer. The two cannon on its head angled toward her slowly, teasing her with mere injury instead of death. But when they rested level with her head, Yukari knew this would not last. It was not going to savor its pleasure -- there would be time for that later, she assumed.

" ... " She wasn't going to add to it by saying something.

Two missiles suddenly flashed and blinded her momentarily. She couldn't see what had just shot them, but the angle suggested it wasn't one of her friends. So what --

" ! " The armor her 360-degree vision showed her was certainly a KFY armor. A Mindy? A Kylie? What did it matter; it was something in perfect condition and could possibly save them!

She saw the giant plasma rifle be cleaved in two, then the shaking started -- her head went to and fro as the Ocelot tried to hurt the armor. Despite feeling a bit more sick, she was happy the Ocelot at least might get what it deserved.

The Mindy was a blurr as it weaved and dodged away from the pulse cannon shots while it fired streams of aether bolts in concert with its support bits, raining attacks over the upper torso of the machine.

The bolts took minute bits out of the neutronium armor, but there were so many that even the tough chest armor started to look worn and chewed on, steam rising from the super-heated material. Cracks began lining around the visored sensor in the head before there was a sudden explosion causing a pulse cannon to be torn off.

The mortars fired again toward the Mindy, but the KFY armor was too agile to be caught by the indirect trajectory weapons. It dashed in close, the boom in the air and the spreading ondulation indicative that it had broken the sound barrier before it stopped right by the Ocelot's forearm, defying momentum and inertia, to flip around and drive twin energy blades deeply into the wrist-equivalent of the arm holding Yukari.

The attack dealt grievious damage, but failed to free the Harpy, so the Mindy quickly followed up with the triple barking of its shoulder railgun, the three projectiles striking with exacting precision into the already damaged hand of the Ocelot, finally blowing Yukari free.

As Yukari (and the loosening giant metal fist) fell to the ground, the ocelot lunged forward and used its sparking stump as a club to smash the mindy to the ground. The Mindy was strong, but it was still a feather weight compared to the 35-ton Ocelot. The nekovalkyrja armor's back cracked against the road, creating a depression with spider-webbing cracks extending around for a few meters. Even as the Mindy's nodal bits still attacked the mecha's head in an effort to destroy its main sensor array, the Ocelot lunged down, ruthlessly slashing with its two vibroblades at the Mindy as the neko pilot struggled to break free and fly.

For a moment, it looked like the KFY armor would manage to slip out like a soap bubble would slip away from a child's fingers, but the Ocelot broke the tie by moving forward and decisively stomping its massive foot on the Mindy to squash it like a bug.

There was a momentary flash, a massive crack and then the fissures already in the road worsened, even with dislodged bits of the pavement flying up under the mobile frame physical might!

Then there was only the sounds of the debris falling back down, the crackle of the Ocelot's damaged wrist and the continued fire of the nodal support bits, whom were still hanging over the large mecha like a swarm of wasps.

"Armor reactivated. Nominal functions restored." said the AIES as the downtime countdown finished. Systems sprang back to life and Nyton tried to take immediate stock of his surroundings. The 'missing' arm continued to pain him even as the 'stump' was being treated by the life support systems. He realized he wasn't 'dead' so that meant the Ocelot was not trying to finish him off so he made no immediate moves just yet as he studied the situation. The AIES was damaged but not inop so Nyton was still receiving battlefield data, albeit a little garbled. He took notice of three blips that were moving away from the battle and towards the rendezvous point. Kurohoshi got them out. Good. He then noted that Freeman was still nearby as well as Yukari. Despite his disobedience, his actions had caused some damage to the Ocelot. Whether or not they could take advantage of this was another matter. Apparently the opening was not enough. Yukari is damaged. Freeman is still active and there's a new Armor fighting on our side. Mindy class. Alright, this opening is all we got. Nyton thought before he finally raised himself up to a crouching position. As he watched the fight swing towards the Ocelot's favor he noted the brilliant flash where the giant Armor brought its foot down. "AIES, I'm going to need a lot of speed so let's try and focus on fixing the jets."

He judged the distances between buildings and began to run from one position to the other as he attempted to near Yukari's downed Armor. "Freeman, this is Claymere. I'm going to try and pull Yukari out of there while the Mindy has it distracted. After I grab her we'll get out of here and catch up to the others." After he ducked behind another building that was as close as he could approach before the field of battle opened up he waited for the Ocelot to swat at the next nodal bit attack before he opened up into an accelerated dash and reached out with his remaining arm to grab Yukari's Armor by her right arm. He would attempt to steer them to a building just around a corner that had access to the underground tunnels where they would slip away towards the rendezvous point and away from the battle.

James moved as fast as he was able towards the waypoint, Morita's armor jostling uncomfortably against his shoulder. He forced himself to ignore the chatter over the radio, the earth-shaking stomps, and the sound of combat.

With any luck, it won't attack the extraction point too.

The events unfolded for Tom as if in slow motion. He had seen the Ocelot whip out from the building to catch Yukari's armor in a move so fast that the Yamataian had hardly opened his mouth to scream at his superior to get away.

The sickening crunching of Yukari's trapped armor snapped him out of his stupor only to fill him with an utterly crushing feeling of helplessness and failure.

The point was clear:

Yukari, his superior, but more importantly his friend, was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Run Freeman-Hei! Run! Do not stay!"

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Tom trembled at the words...

Why, dammit!? Why is everyone acting so crazy!? There's no failure in running away from a fight you can't win! WHY don't they realize this? Why doesn't Yukari realize this?!

Now she was going to die and--

BOOM!

The missiles smashed into the Ocelot, and then the world returned to normal.

An allied Mindy, out of nowhere, had saved them. She wove and struck mercilessly at the enemy, flittering with the grace of a dragonfly. The Ocelot dropped Yukari.

Then, in a horrible instant, the dragonfly that had saved their lives was squashed.

Tom quelled tears at the sight, at the loss of someone he would never meet, the one who had saved their lives.

It seemed that the VR simulation had once again become a little too real for the Yamataian to handle.

Is this honor? To die on a battlefield? To get a cute little metal and a ribbon that says your sacrifice will never be forgotten?

His mind wandered to thoughts of the Mikomi, of all his friends who had died fighting mindless drones...

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be part of that... they can take those ribbons and shove them up their ASSES!

"Freeman, this is Claymere. I'm going to try and pull Yukari out of there while the Mindy has it distracted. After I grab her we'll get out of here and catch up to the others."

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Claymere's words were like a douse of cold water on Tom's face. They still had a chance to get out of this in one piece.

"Right-O sir! I'll be on your tail in a jiffy!"

His AIES long ago reported that the Ocelot's shields had dropped from the Mindy's assault.

And Tom had drawn his plasma rifle and took aim at the Ocelot's head, the debris of the recent explosion coming down like a hail of rain.

Time to repay you for what you've done, bitch.

He fired.

It was no ordinary Mindy. Yukari had a brief flash of recognition on that point. But the rest of it was a blur as she was swung around again.

Uwahhh! The Ocelot seemed to not be doing well; Yukari caught glimpses of its damaged armor, blasted head and ineffective shots. The KFY armor, whatever it was, was winning!

A huge wave of sound crashed into her, disorienting her further. It was really hard to tell where she was or what was going on, 360-degree imaging or not. She heard something very close -- cutting something? -- that was like a welder repairing metal.

The grip loosened. Yukari felt like she could breathe a little easier now. She heard three shots being fired and felt each one rattle her and her damaged armor.

Then falling. The sky seemed to get a little farther away, the Ocelot's predicament coming into full view as she left its grasp. She struggled to kick the pinky finger of the mechanical monster off of her, vision swirling behind her.

Oh dea -- BOOOOUUNNN.

Yukari had fallen a few stories while still clasped in the dead hand, but after the initial shock of the drop had faded, she pushed open the pinky and ring fingers without much trouble. Every part of her body seemed to feel sore, but she was alive, which she was certain she should not have been. The timer was almost up -- there was still a chance to escape.

The ground shook again, mightily. Yukari turned just in time to see the Mindy seemingly crushed into the ground.

"MINDY-SAN!" Yukari shouted, not caring if anyone could hear her or not. "Shimatta!" Maybe the crewmember's fancy armor had protected it.

A crystal clear thought silenced Yukari's brief flash of anguish. If the Mindy pilot was dead, it was her job to ensure the sacrifice was not in vain. She shoved the other two fingers up and managed to stand up, just in time to be grabbed again, this time by a friendly.

"Yahh -- Claymere-Juni, your arm! -- uwahh!" Yukari was hefted about like a board of wood and unceremoniously whisked away from the battle.

Then she saw Tom raise his plasma rifle. "Wait, Claymere-Ju -- "

She watched in shock as a shot leapt from Tom's rifle.

The plasma discharge hit the mecha on the armored collar behind its head. It was a solid hit that had the Ocelot lurch slightly forward. The Mobile Frame shifted its feet, turning around to face Tom made to fire with its remaining pulse cannon, oblivious to the attacks of the Mindy's support bits. That was a mistake.

As the mecha repositioned itself to face the Daisy, its foot left the depression it had dug in the pavement: there was a large indentation and cracks... but there was a distinct lack of a power armor's crushed carcass. Aether flechettes darted from behind and above the Ocelot as the Mindy released its optical camouflage and crashed in the mobile frame's upper back, adjusting gravity so she could crouch against its back like a burr.

Firmly attached, the Mindy started savagely flailing her twin forearm energy swords into the enemy's back with - considering the Mindy had been mistaken for dead a moment ago - surprising fervor.

Yukari could only vaguely catch the Mindy seemingly coming back to life, as she was taken away by Nyton. Her radio damaged, she called out with her telepathy, hoping it would work --

"Freeman-Hei, track my position and follow us, quickly! There is not much time!"