RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 2

"And I said, 'It's not illegal if you aren't caught!'" Leutre slapped the desk and laughed at his poor attempt at a joke. Pausing a moment to catch his breath, he smiled "Ah, yes... Those were the days."

Suddenly standing up, he let out a large yawn and stretched. He turned towards the Juni and scratched the back of his head. "Mmm. Do excuse my boorishness, but I'm afraid spending the better part of a day in a cramped shuttle doesn't do well for one's state of mind. Lucky for both of us I brought a book along, neh?" He gave hey a wink and smiled. Sitting himself back down on the edge of the desk, he took a tattered black book out of his back pocket and began thumbing through the pages.

((OOC: I'll put Leutre on hiatus in the simulator reception room until the battle is over))

"Then can I grab your plasma rifle since you're carrying him? All my weapons were destroyed." Nyton asked as he dodged some more incoming debris.

Warheads kept detonating regularly around the group, one exploding so close to Masako that she was buffeted forward. thankfully, her Daisy's shield handled the impact well enough to save her from harm and the suit's inertial control system helped her carry on her path soon afterwards.

Up in their skies, Kotori was still fighting the two Super Phalanx. She had expended most of her counter-measure mini-missiles to avoid being hit and allow her to use her active stealth to periodically go on the offensive with one or the other of the two NDI power armors, using her subspace-detonating mini-missiles to crack their shield open before attacking.

She was out of mini-missiles, out of railgun ammunition, but she had destroyed the tactical drones and handheld Longinus rifles of both Phalanx Cs - she had no way of quickly killing those two opponents without having the luxury of recharging her teleportation module to perform a sneak melee attack like she did for the first one, so, she went for decreasing their capacity of dealing her harm.

That still left them with projected plasma and their carbines, but she had riden out the few hits she had sustained fairly well: the forearm shields and her Mindy's zesuaium skin were holding out for now.

Tom and Yukari were about 2/3 of the way toward the Hoshi. The bombs were starting to die down some ... but Yukari could see the flashes behind them, especially those in mid-air. I hope Kotori is well ... she might be moody later if she loses.

Masako yelped in surprise as she seemed to rocket forward by an explosion from behind. Though her shields absorbed quite a bit, the young neko's senses took a second to regain themselves before she could continue on at full speed. Her suit's tactical drones went into overdrive as they tried to shoot down as many missiles as they could before they could get closer to her comrades and herself...but two drones weren't that effective. It really made her pine for a Mindy to pilot instead of a Daisy.

Checking her sensors, she noticed Kotori's Mindy fairing well against the two Phalanx C's. The problem was that time was running out for them all. Gritting her teeth, the young neko seemed torn for a moment. She wanted to go help her CO fight, but she also had to protect the two Hei.

Finally, she decided...she wasn't going to be useless. Flying behind Nyton, she attached her LASR to the backpack slot of his armor. "Claymere-Juni...it may not be much, but take my rifle." she said as she pulled out her plasma rifle. "Please take care of Kamiyama-Hei and Dige-Hei," she said as she activated her thrusters and took off into the sky.

It was quite possible she could get in trouble for this, but she was the only armor so far that had yet to take any damage. She was the most combat capable of them as well with a full arsenal still at her disposal, sans LASR of course.

Closing the distance until she was just outside range, she cut her thrusters and took aim at the nearest Phalanx. Licking her lips, she waited until she had a clear shot at its head before firing a three-shot burst.

Three brilliant bolts leapt from Masako's plasma fire to streak toward one of the Phalanx Cs. The first hit her target's protective barrier. From there, the NDI armor tucked its limbs and went into a spiralling dive to avoid the two other shots before flying toward Masako, both carbines firing rapidly at her.

Kotori was very tempted to go after the Phalanx attacking Masako... but refrained to. Both Phalanxes needed to be kept occupied and Masako, even though she was somewhat undergunned, did give her CO the advantage of better one versus one odds.

Her Mindy quickly changed the angle of its flight as she no longer aimed to hold the two armor off and turned aggresively on her opponent, soaring high above to skylight herself against the sun before she dived down like a bird of prey.

Activating her thrusters again, the young neko threw her armor in a strafing motion to avoid the fire coming at her as she let loose a torrent of plasma upon her attacking foe. She couldn't help at that moment to wish for an Aether Rifle in her quest to take down the Phalanx C, but wishing for things she couldn't have wasn't going to keep her flying.

With a gut-wrenching maneuver, Masako went from a strafing motion to flying straight up as she angled her body so that her back was to the sun before barreling in with her shield up in front of her. Her plan was to try and physically knock the Phalanx C towards the ground in an effort to stun its simulated pilot enough for an attack.

Nyton grabbed the LASR from his back with his one arm and flanked James. "Thanks Kurohoshi. Be careful, Phalanx Armors are heavy on the defense. Don't go lightly on them or spare the ammunition. If you get an opening unload everything you can on it. And watch those plasma projectors, they're dangerous if this guy knows how to get you into the kill zone. There should be at least four, one on each hand and foot." he said. Hopefully the information would be give her enough edge to survive this encounter. Now if we can just reach the extraction point intact. Nyton thought to himself as he watched Yukari and Freeman's roller coaster escapade.

Gonna reach our destinyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! BWEEEEE!

The song ended and Tom was back in the unfriendly, spinning VR world. The buildings, blasts and missiles flew by him, but the extraction point also was getting pretty darn close.

Good thing one of them had flight capabilities.

Stupid broken anti-grav. Psssh. You take one crushing hit in the back and you don't work anymore? Gimme a break!

He gently moved the rifle around in his lap to get a feel for it.

The Phalanx Masako was fighting took more hits over its shield barrier and a few even tore through to touch its tough armor, leaving ugly black welt on the armored skin, but it humored the young nekos attempt to take the battle to close quarters, forcefully pushing out with two powerful torrent of plasma energy at the Daisy as it closed in. The zesuaium shield quickly liquified under the assault and Masako disengaged from her charge just before her own shielding was overwhelmed and that she'd have begun sustaining serious damage.

The zesuaium shield was mostly a smelted, shapeless lump now though. It wasn't good for much else than some museum abstract sculpture showcase.

Nyton caught the battle via AIES between Masako and the Phalanx with a grim frown. "Watch out for the kill zone! Those plasma jets will tear you up if you try to melee it." he radio'd to her. I'm definately going to want to write up an after action report on this simulation run.

James rocketed forward, tailing Yukari and Tom as they neared the extraction point. He was glad that missiles weren't actively seeking their demise anymore.

"Let's hope we don't have any suprises waiting for us at the extraction point," he mused to Nyton.

Using her gravimetric engines, Masako strafed to the side of the Phalanx C and began to retreat a distance, juking and jiving as she fired burst upon burst of her plasma rifle. "Gah...stupid," she muttered to herself. "This isn't a Mindy where I have close range as a option against a Phalanx," she berated herself as she stopped about ten meters from the enemy armor and began to orbit it.

Flying in the most erratic way she could, the young neko continued to orbit the Phalanx as fast as she could move. Firing triple bursts at the Phalanx C's torso as she moved her orbit up and down, made it larger and shorter, and even changed directions of her orbit suddenly to keep the enemy guessing.

Plasma bolts crisscrossed against each other in the street, savaging the nearby buildings as the Pheonix Arms-built Super Phalanx C and the Ketsurui Fleet Yard-built Daisy maneuvered against each other. The circle of death maneuver Masako was trying to make was mimicked by her opponent whom was more than able to keep up with her. Barriers fizzled to one side and another as both took hits, weakening their ephemereal protective shells.

Masako's plasma rifle was growing dangerously hot from the rapid rate of fire she was demanding of it, but even though the Phalanx was superior, she began to gain at slight edge on it, no small thanks to her tactical drones whom were able to maneuver and flank it while each power armor was forced to concentrate on each other. The way Masako's mind was new organised made it easy to interact with her AIES and efficiently multitask, even though the actual firing and dodging should have taken her full attention.

Disadvantaged, the Phalanx suddenly tore out from the point-blank duel, swiftly flying up and away to allow its barrier to recover while it escaped the reach of Masako's tactical drones while it would rely on its twin carbines.

"On my signal, I want you to turn your weapons on the Phalanx I'm fighting. Be ready!" Kotori sent to Masako. Above, the Mindy didn't look like it was dominating the fight. Kotori wasn't firing her projectors after her first deadly dive, only relying on the nodal bits to chew at her NDI opponent's barrier. The Mindy had its share of gouges and rents now, along with bleeding coming from the inner left thigh and down from just under the right armpit.

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"Enemy unit detected!" The Harpy's AIES warned, painting on Yukari's radar display a red dot that was rapidly racing to were their rendez-vous point was.

Ahead, the newly arrived Firehawk II mobile frame landed its nearly forty-ton mass in the parking lot which served as their extraction point. The mecha twisted around to face the fleeing yamataians and an alarm suddenly blared within the helmets of Yukari, Nyton, Tom and James: the Mobile Frame was trying to get aspect missile locks on them.

"Shimatta!" Yukari shouted as the alarm rang in her helmet. She took a nose dive down to the ground and behind a building, clutching Tom tightly. The pair skimmed the ground beside the two-story apartment building before resting at its corner. The mecha could not be seen. They were still a few kilometers away, but they didn't have much time to spare on taking out a mecha several times taller and more powerful than they were.

The ear on her helmet perked some; she was glad at least one of her communication systems still worked. "Hoshi, Suzuka-Chui. A Firehawk II-class mecha is waiting at the extraction point; can you remove it?"

Yukari didn't get any reply. Either it was her comm system not being up to the task after all, or enemy jamming. The later seemed more than likely.

The Firehawk's function in the NDI platoon was probably for more than just stopping their flight. It was very likely that it would also act as a spotter for the Diamondback hovertanks if the Hoshi did make its appearance, thus exposing the dropship to extensive artilery bombardment. If the Hoshi's protections were compromised by the artillery fire, the two other mobile frames in the squads that hadn't caught up with them yet (probably Ocelots) would probably be able to finish off their ride 'home'.

James grunted and dropped down, now floating inches off the ground.

"Great, I shouldn't have opened my mouth. Claymere-Juni, I have eighteen missiles left. That's the extent of what I can do with my hands full."

The Geshrin pondered his options. He could try and circle around the frame and suprise it with a barrage from behind. As long as the others could keep the pilot's attention focused on the front, he could launch his attack with relatively little danger to his battered armor.

"Perhaps we should circle around, Claymere-Juni. Striking from two points would be preferable to rushing it head on."

The AIES alarm blared and Nyton forced James behind a building since he had just stopped in mid low hover without any cover. "Damn, they must've figured out our objective." Nyton cursed. "James, you're still carrying our casualty so I'll hit it first, try and get its attention with some SLAG rounds, then you follow up with a full volley of missles. Do not let up. Maybe we can destroy the pavement around and make it fall into the underground, make it harder for it to avoid us. Let me coordinate a bit of backup from Yukari and Freeman before we try anything."

Nyton scanned his AIES to locate Tom and Yukari's position. "Freeman, this is Claymere. James and I are approximately three hundred meters south of you. We're going to try and circle around this thing to hit it from two angles but we're going to need support. Can you two find a good vantage point and support us with some sniper fire?"

Masako gritted her teeth as both enemy and her seemed to create a dance of death in the sky, orbiting one another and weakening their protection. Her armor began to form blackened bruises of carbon on her arms and legs, but so far she had been lucky enough not to be hit seriously. But she soon found herself dancing alone as the Phalanx moved out of range of her tactical drones. Finally noticing that her plasma rifle seemed to be really hot, the young neko aimed it away from the enemy and ceased firing to allow it to cool down. Instead, she began to fire her forearm pulse energy weapon on her left arm, harassing the NDI armor as she continued to juke and jive.

"On my signal, I want you to turn your weapons on the Phalanx I'm fighting. Be ready!"

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Blinking in surprise, the young neko checked her AIES to confirm her CO's position before sending a brief, "Yokai" to Kotori. She continued her harassment of the Phalanx C trying to recharge its defenses, waiting for the signal to switch targets.

An eyeblink after Masako's confirmation, Kotori's Mindy activated one of its aether blades and rushed the Super Phalanx she was fighting. The NDI armor rose in the air to dodge the attack and turned its carbines to fire in Kotori's back.

"Now!" Kotori's signaled. To Masako, Kotori's opponent was almost a stationary target as it tried to get in a good shot on the vulnerable Mindy.