RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 2

With a sudden activation of her thrusters, Masako twisted around towards Kotori's former opponent and sped towards it. But it wasn't to get close for melee, only the means to turn around quickly as the young neko shut off her thrusters and unleashed ten of her mini-missiles at once towards her new opponent before bringing her plasma rifle to bear. Just behind the missile barrage, but aimed enough not to set any of them off, a torrent of plasma began to fly its way towards the enemy.

"Wahhhhh!"

The sudden dive had been so sharp that Tom could feel his blood rushing to his head, forcing him to almost pass out.

At least the sudden stop on the ground prevented that.

"Yukari ma'am, the world's a bit spinny right now..."

His AIES warned him of the new enemy and its effort to lock on their position with missiles. Tom's groan was laced with frustration and misery.

Damn it, can we just end this thing now?

"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?"

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Well, at least we're not alone against this thing.

"Yukari ma'am, Claymere sir is requesting sniper support from us against the enemy unit. He and James are planning to circle the armor and attack it. That ok with you and stuff?"

The stars in his eyes were starting to fade.

The plasma bolt connected first, rocking the Phalanx as Kotori teleported away, making her escape (she had been recharging her teleportation module with that in mind). Reeling from the attack, its assigned target suddenly gone and devoid of tactical drones and most of this barrier's strength, it was a sitting duck to the mini-missiles Masako had tossed its way.

As the mini-missiles plowed in the Phalanx C, smashing it to smithereens, Masako's former opponent brought its carbines to bear and fired away at the Daisy whom had so suddenly ignored it to attack its squadmate. The carbines only had the time to flash once, crashing through Masako's barrier and liquifying yamataiaum over her chest and lower leg before Kotori reapperaed behind the NDI armor.

Both aether projected blades flashed in a crosscut that cleaved through the remaining Super Phalanx C. There was a small muted explosion from inside the Pheonix Arms armor before its pieces made a dead drop to the ground.

Yukari cursed. The statstics for the Firehawk II had been rolling down her helmet screen as Tom was talking about Nyton. She snorted in frustration.

"Our weapons are as ineffective against it as they were with the Ocelot," Yukari said in a gruff tone. "The Juni is simply enjoying herself now." A bomb exploded a few dozen meters away, shaking her a little bit. She'd long ago put Tom down and taken her rifle back.

"Tell Nyton we will do what we can, but we are limited in our effectiveness."

The Firehawk II shuffled a bit forward, turning its head and torso this way and that: there was no use firing missiles at targets whom were mostly under cover. The pulse cannons mounted on the head began firing at Yukari and Tom's cover as it lumbered forward, drawing its forearm vibroblades as it did so.

A volley of aether shots cut it off, the brilliant darts crackling angrily against the mobile frame's barrier shield. The mecha whiped around, its visor settling on Kotori's Mindy, which hovered over the buildings 3 kilometers away.

"I need that barrier down!" Kotori projected to the rest of the group. "I'll draw its attacks: you people pour as much firepower in it as you can: concentrate your fire on the visor on its head." When she had disabled the Ocelot's sensors, Kotori had a much easier time defeating it - she was hoping for a repeat performance.

With a firm shaking of his head, Tom acknowledged the orders."Yeah, well, at least she was nice enough to turn down the settings from extremely realistic damage to annoying numbing sensation. But still, this is a bit much, I agree."

Tom slumped against the wall. He sent a quick 'ok' signal to Nyton's armor as he watched around the corner. "Yeah, didn't I mention earlier that I hated combat?"

"She is a unkind person," Yukari said irritably, another bomb went off much closer, nearly 20 meters right in the middle of the street. Yukari and Tom kept their feet, but the idea of being "pinned down" was becoming much more real. "But you are in good company; I do not enjoy this either!"

"Mm-hm," Tom hummed in response. "Even simulated death and destruction makes me a bit too uncomfortable for my own tastes." He recalled some of the earlier moments of the simulation, how he had lost control of himself, and gritted his teeth, steaming a little under his helmet.

"Our disadvantages seem contrived," she said sourly. Another blast erupted across the street, sending a small, crumbling, vacant deli stand into flames and rubble. "And yet we are told to push on. Foolishness; we could better spend our time elsewhere."

Her stomach growled. She was really getting irritable now.

"Oh yeah? Doing what, ma'am? Our ship's not even built yet." Tom shielded his eyes from the small hail of debris that fell around them. "Not to be rude or anything, of course, but seems like we're in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation."

"Anything must be better than this!" Yukari's leg throbbed gently, reminding her she was "hit." She reached behind her head and removed the small CFWEP canister that was there. "I could be reading, studying the vessel, perhaps learning about these armors we are using now."

She undid the canister and removed the Type 28A NSP from it, setting it to heavy. She held her rifle in her right hand, the pistol in her left. She wanted the water of the package more. "I could be eating!"

"I guess now's a good time to tell you that I consider myself a pretty decent cook!" Tom smirked, trying to find a little humor in this seemingly humorless situation. "When we're done with this, I can whip you up something Raltean. Do you like meat?"

The only sound from Yukari's loudspeaker was the knashing of teeth. She sounded like a meat-eater.

The sound was quickly drowned out by blasts overhead, ripping their building to dust and bricks. "Currently, the taste of Nerimian would be delicious!"

Tom laughed at the remark, a dry, rough laughter born from an appreciation of her sarcasm. "Nerimian steaks it is then! Well-done!"

"We'll call it a dinner date then, ma'am?" Tom knew Yukari couldn't see the wink through his helmet, but whatever.

Yukari stopped dead and slowly looked at Tom. Her head cocked to the side just a little. Though Tom could not see it, her smile was wide and warm. "It would be a pleasure," she said, another blast shaking the ground. "You will forgive me for my dress?"

"Pssshhhh, we all look the same anyway, save for a multi-color assortment of panels." Tom's chuckle was audible over the speaker. "Besides, I totally dig women in uniform. Really a spicy change of pace from eskimo!"

Loud crashing and explosions sent Yukari away from the building, which was nearly destroyed. As Kotori's orders crossed over her mind, she sighed audibly. "Do not conjure any ideas," Yukari said with a resigned but positive tone. "Let us do what we can here first. I will pick you up?"

Tom, who had tripped on a patch of hollowed out concrete while retreating, fell on his face. "Why ma'am, you know I'm a graceful and well-natured gentleman."

He propped himself up to a knee with his plasma rifle. "No problem. Just come with an idea of what you'd like to eat."

He stood up, his arms extended out for Yukari to pick him up. "Ready to rock?"

Yukari giggled a little, and she picked him up in her arms. "Hai! Rouku outou, neh?"

"Rock out, ma'am. Rock out." He held his rifle up, aiming the entire time Yukari carried him to a sniping point. They flew below the roofline to a one-story building about 2.4 kilometers away from the Firehawk II. On the roof, they had a clear shot of the mechanical beast.

"AIES, don't fail me now," James muttered as he locked on to the Firehawk II, rising just above the rooftops. He hoped that their firepower would be enough to bring the shield down.

"In position and ready to fire!"

It all happen very fast for the young neko. The exultation of taking out the enemy, followed by the simulated pain of heated metal over skin. "Itai..." Masako moaned as she stabilized her suit from the initial attack just in time to witness its destruction at the hands of Kotori. "So...that's the power of the new Mindy," the warrant officer mumbled as she flew up til she was near her CO's armor.

She then followed Kotori until her CO was 3 kilometers away from the extraction point. Activating her active camouflage, the young neko floated down towards the maze of buildings as Kotori unleashed her volley of aether shots. "I'll go ahead to help them out, Ketsurui-Taii" she sent an encrypted telepathic message to Kotori before flying through the maze as fast as she could to get into an advantageous position.

I've got 10 missiles left, my LASR magazines are useless since I gave my rifle to Claymere-Juni, and my plasma rifle is currently recharging, Masako thought to herself as she sped off.

Nyton noted everyone's positions change and grit his teeth. It's all or nothing now. We kill this thing or it kills our chance of escape. he thought to himself. His face steeled tight in grim determination. "Alright, I'm moving into position now. I'll fire first to draw fire, James you unleash all your missles. If we're lucky that'll drop it's barrier. Freeman, you and Yukari find a vital point and strike it. Otherwise it's all up to our token Mindy." he radio'd to them. With that he sped around to flank the Firehawk, using the crashing debris, buildings, and noise as cover. After a few seconds he positioned himself on the right flank of the Firehawk, about a hundred meters away. He checked one last time to make sure the Firehawk wasn't pointed at him and target locked it with his eyes and AIES before he finally exposed his body and immediately fired with all three rounds from his SLAG. As soon as the last round was spent he tore off at high speed to duck behind another building away from where he had fired and opposite from James.

Seeing Nyton fire, James fired all of his eighteen missiles at the upper body of the frame, quickly dropping back down below the rooftops and speeding away. He wished his other arm was still functioning.

"I'm empty, taking evasive maneuvers."

"Looks like it's go time again!"

Tom knelt by the edge of the roof's building, took aim at the enemy mech's head and fired his plasma rifle. He made sure to follow it up with another shot about one second later, to avoid overheating the rifle's barrel.

"Oh crap! Looks like James is in trouble."

He overheard James' comment on the radio and kept firing at the enemy mech, trying to buy his ally some time.

Yukari brought the rifle down to the building, let the bipod down on its lip, then zoomed in on the target, still a couple kilometers away. The muzzle velocity was set to max already. She waited calmly.

She watched calmly as each lance of energy streaked into the Firehawk II, weakening its shields. As soon as everyone had fired enough, she took better aim at the thing's visor, especially the glowing red dot behind it.

The gun went off. Again and again and again, Yukari fired at the red dot. All she had to do was blind it with a single round, and they would be unimpeded!

Missiles and grenades percuted against the mobile frame's shields as it stomped forward to engage them. Wreathed in flames and smoke, the barrier fizzled angrily as the combined attacks wore it down, allowing even lighter attacks from the LASRs count.

However, the Firehawk II wasn't just standing there taking hits. Seeing Nyton's Daisy, so far away from the rest of his companions, as being the unit responsible for the grenades, it turned on him with murderous intent and released a volley of twelve missiles.

"Ah!" Kotori gasped. Nyton was too far away and moving between buildings: her NSBs had no line of sight to shoot down the Firehawk's volley. Even as Nyton moved to elude the homing warheads behind cover, the missiles exploded against brick and mortar, the first few blasting through. Only three missiles actually got to the Nepleslians... but they were more than enough to destroy his piteously damaged Daisy.

"Kono...!" Gritting her teeth, Kotori flew ahead in her Mindy, redoubling her efforts to cripple the Mobile Frame. The Firehawk turned to meet the Mindy's charge with its pulse cannons, but Yukari's shots cracked against its visor, making the large mecha hesitate and shy away, lifting one forearm over the faceplate.

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After a bright flash and a violent rocking from the simulation suit, everything went dark for Nyton Claymere except for the message "Armor Compromised, Pilot Dead". There was no sound other than his ragged breathing until the helmet display booted up in 'observation mode' so Nyton could be aware of how the battle was unfolding for the rest of the group.

Nyton had gasped and clenched up at the sudden darkness. The message that followed let him know that he had been removed from the battle and he relaxed the tension in his muscles. "No point in being tense when I'm dead." he sighed before he settled in to watch the rest of the action play out.

The young neko finally made it into position just to the right of the Firehawk II, still cloaked with in her active camouflage as Nyton's signal on her AIES vanished. Mentally, she knew it was a simulator, that the fellow warrant officer was still alive and probably just in his own armor sim watching them now. But emotionally, it was taking her was again back to the Mikomi. Of how she didn't try hard enough to save them...her crewmates. "Omae o korosu," she muttered towards the Firehawk II as she activated her thrusters and flew up and out of her hiding place. Deactivating her active camouflage, she unleashed all ten of her remaining missiles towards the visor of her enemy before raising her plasma rifle and firing a literal barrage of plasma at the same target.

Tom contained a shout of exclamation at the sudden obliteration of Nyton, but found himself unable to quell his blubbering disbelief.

Holy!!!!!

"D, d, did you just see that?! O, o, oh..." he said over his loudspeaker.

If he had seen a sight like this before his tribulations on the Mikomi, Tom would've been a complete wreck. Now, his hand only trembled a little as he continued firing his plasma rifle at the beast.

Luckilly, his AIES picked up on this and assisted the shaken Yamataian in his shots.

Nyton watched the Firehawk receive a barrage of fire while he stretched a bit. There was a hint of disappointment in the back of his mind at having died during a sim but he knew it was part of the risk he had gambled. If it hadn't blasted me, it would've blasted one of the others. Guess better me and not James since he was still carrying our casualty. he rationalized out. It seems like the gamble is paying out though. Now if that drop ship could just show up as soon as we secure the landing sight they should be alright.

As Nyton made himself comfortable in the sim chair he began to review events in his mind even as it was still being played out. He then remembered he did not know how things had occurred before his arrival. "Excuse me, is there any way I can review the battle events before I joined the simulation?" he called out to the sim regulating neko.

"Freeman-Hei, if you wish me to join you for dinner tonight, you must continue to focus," Yukari said calmly, but with some anger buried inside of it. She had seen the move Nyton had made, but it had taken her up to the moment of his "death" to understand the inherent purpose.

She kept her rifle on the target, but was searching for other targets -- a comm system, radar, targeting, anything that could hinder the thing's progress. Her left hand dropped from her rifle and pounded the ground; there was simply no target on the Firehawk II that seemed to stand out. She took aim at bits of its arm joint and fired at a slower pace, hoping to hit something, anything.

We are nearly out of time!

Even though the power armors were ragged and nearly depleted, the NDI mobile frame proved lacking against their furious, coordinated attacks. Kotori swooped low and made a pass under the Firehawk II's legs, slashing as she went. The damaged knee actuators forced the giant mecha to stagger forward both both arms going wide to the sides to recover its precarious balance.

That left its head bare. Yukari quickly changed her sights back to the visor as the Firehawk's pulse cannons turned on Masako and fired, cracking and shattering the protection, though the sensors and caemra were left undamaged.

Fortunately, Tom's AIES painted the target for him and the yamataian man's plasma rifle fired, his shot piecing cleanly past the broken visor - the plasma bolt crackled on impact and exploded, decapitating the mobile frame!

Masako's shot then struck in the upper torso where Kotori had softenerd it up before and, without sensors, the Firehawk II had no way to defend against the incoming mini-missiles. The small warheads pounded over the chestplate hard, breaching through and compromising one of the zero-point generators - an hideously powerful explosion ensued with the out of control aetheric reaction, leaving the Firehawk crashing to the side in a nearby building, most of its torso a wreck.

There was a secondary explosion as the remaining zero-point generator also went critical, destroying the rest of the mecha along with a good part of the buildings clustered around it being destroyed in the process.

As the area filled with dirt and smoke, Kotori spoke: "Someone see if Claymere-Juni is still alive - if so, help him. We have to move." An explosion from the diamondback hovertanks artillery fire rocked the area as if in emphasis to the Taii's words.

Fred said:

OoC: Anyone searching where Nyton has fallen will find broken pieces of a Daisy - the missiles made it explode in a hefty number of smaller pieces.

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The face of the Juni handling the scenario appeared in Nyton's helmet. "I'll give you backlog feed from James Dige's unit." She said. "He's the one whom was consistantly in the thickest of the fighting until you came by."

"Yatta!" Yukari shouted as she got up, holding her rifle. She quickly snapped it to her back again and picked up the Type 28A NSP she'd left near the edge of the building. "Freeman-Hei, quickly, we must get to the site and secure it!" Without waiting for an acknowledgment, she sweeped Tom into her arms and took off toward the rendevous point.