RP: ISC Phoenix [Side Job] Beautiful Erasure

[Eistheid]

(( OOC: These events take place between the events of Already 80 Years Old and Highly Ambient Domains. Though some of the story happened much earlier. ))

Nepleslia Prime, Wilderness North of Sargasso, Early YE 38

Zuntata - OOPARTS

It had been just over a year since her mission had begun, with the arrival of a pre-recorded briefing in Itto Heisho Hirasawa Yuna's inbox. The briefing had been accompanied by a file detailing a breach of security in a PANTHEON node, in one of the bases near Kyoto something that had seemed like simply another bit of tedious, rote, investigative work, passed down through the ranks until it had landed in her lap.

Going through the motions of a glamor-less task of determining the nature and extent of the breach had turned out to be much more complex in nature than initially anticipated. Sorting through security logs had highlighted the anomaly of a young Nekovalkyrja that had gone missing in transit days before yet had intermittently managed to stay in contact with PANTHEON's network had shown up in the presence of an officer that did not exist within the Star Army at all.

More baffling than this was that, at the time, the system had responded to this Minazuki Shoi as if she had been one of their own. Their presence had only been flagged as suspicious after a routine audit discovered nearly imperceptible discrepancies in the system that had been thoroughly picked over until the event had been isolated.

With the fake Shoi being a dead end, investigation had turned toward the formerly missing Santô Hei. The Neko's file had been as odd as the scenario itself with an abnormal history, and her apparent assignment as the sole crew member of a non-existent ship that had been entered into Star Army records at the same time of the anomaly.

This had been enough to file a request for a modified Ke-E1-1b Hayai-Class gunboat, and a small team to track down and observe the presumably deserting Neko in order to discover the meaning behind her strange behaviour, and discover the purpose of the intrusion into PANTHEON's systems.

This has been what had lead to a year of covert observation in the back woods of Nepleslia Prime, and the slow expansion of their team from four to eight individuals to maintain round the clock watch, broken up by occasional forays into space as they followed their mark as she travelled. All in an effort to piece together the motives, and goals of whoever was behind this strange series of events and to discover what was planned. With the goal of determining whether a threat to the Yamatai Star Empire existed.

After a year of careful observation, and hard work they found that they had more questions than answers.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yuna faded the electric blue-hued presentation that hung in the center of the wardroom and replaced with a volumetric, full-color, three-dimensional image of their quarry. It was the most recent approximation; good visual data on Sesshoseki was hard to obtain. The two tables of the wardroom were folded into the floor, with two benches — one per long side — providing sitting space for the eight SAINTs onboard. The middle was dedicated to planning.

"That's all we have," Yuna said, white hair pulled behind her head into a small bun. She tugged at the hem of her summery blouse; she'd just come back from watch duty in town. "Thank you for the opportunity to present, Taii."

The Taii -- a serious operative if there ever was one -- nodded. "Heisho." She took center stage as Yuna sat down.

"Right now, we're looking at an unpopular conclusion -- this Sesshoseki doesn't seem to have done anything illegal besides desertion, all while getting wrapped up in some off the wall stuff. She's part of Pavone's crew, so it follows. Killing her might be OK for the bounty hunters, but we need to know what she knows. Let's assume we want her alive and unharmed. Suggestions?"

 

[CadetNewb]

Nepleslia Prime, Wilderness North of Sargasso
Early YE 38

Sakamoto both loved and hated her job.

The way that SAINT was supposed to work at war time was simple. When something small came up and needed some looking into, they'd just use soft assets like recordings from the statewide monitoring system and maybe some low end hard ones as well, such as little drones, and discreet tracking beacons. It was basically using force appropriate to the situation at hand. However, in 'peace time', as it was now, they literally had too many assets at hand, and too little to do. That meant sending far more forces than necessary at any problem or discrepancy simply to keep people occupied. Yamatai was simply that powerful both militarily and economically. However, this had its own problems as well. Especially when those starting methods didn't work - it made the situation look more grave when the default was to send so many resources at a problem off the bat.

"I simply suggest giving Mister Pavone or even his associates in question a call. Since they are in good standing, I doubt there was ever a need to actually send all of us and our stealth ship to snoop on their activities," her gentle voice explained. "Mister Pavone doesn't like us very much given our involvement in past tragedy, and is properly cautious. Though we are well able to kill him, he is simply too lucky for my taste, so it is better to take the most diplomatic route." Her serious expression cracked as she gave a playful smile however. "I also believe posting Bounties should be off the table, since we do not need to use such force yet. Public backlash aside, can you imagine how this escalation would look to another associate of ours, Sen-pai?~" The teasing aside, she continued, "One who wasn't privy to the situation? It might even look like we're trying to stop the second coming of Eve if they don't know better," The born again Neko added jokingly. "Besides. I've spent the night with Tamamo before - I believe I will be able to speak to her and get answers," her smile turned sultry. Given her time serving under Morioka and Fujiwara, it seemed that Yamatai's days of bombastic speech, over-reaction and heavy handedness were slowly coming to a close. Now, it was more fitting, with mostly just the bombastic speech left over, which was fine - everybody knew Yamatai was more bite than hiss anyways.

Taking a sip of tea and eyeing her dango, she could imagine the horrific fallout and public outcry that Yamatai would face if they did something so drastic right off the bat with heroes. Yamatai had a history of irresponsible knee-jerk reactions that would have literally doomed any lesser nation. Contrary to the viewpoints of certain high ranking Nekovalkyrja, such actions did not make Yamatai look strong. Instead, it was only because Yamatai was so powerful it could get a way with such things. Things that made a nation look stupid and weak. After all, it was most often the weak that loudly proclaimed they were strong, and acted so utterly crude. Like someone with something to prove. There was just no dignity and refinement in it. The strong had no need to flex to show it - they simply were - and admitted they were strong when asked. Meanwhile, patience and mercy were simply a luxury that the strongest could afford, after all. And they were the strongest.

If only everyone in high-command understood that.

Before anything more could be said however, a notice cropped up. A bounty was placed on their POIs. As unladylike as it was, the stick of dango was simply dropped from Sakamoto's hand as an expression of sheer, utter disbelief swept over her face.

"This is why I left Yamatai," she moaned, bringing the palms of both her hands to her head.

With all their careful planning thrown out the airlock, chaos unfolded.

 

[Doshii Jun]

The Taii looked at the notice floating in front of Sesshoseki's face — "Wanted Alive, 100,000 KS."

She sucked on her teeth, then resignedly swept the notice — and Sesshoseki — aside into the volumetric ether.

"Hirasawa, Sakamoto, get out there and get to her before she gets away or gets found." The order came with a tiredness that wrapped over the smoldering look in the Taii's eyes. "Deadly force authorized for combative subjects only."

Hirasawa already was headed out the door and tucking in her blouse into her denim shorts. There wasn't time to put on the armor of SAINT. She had her NSP in her favored crossdraw position on her chunky black pleather belt. That was going to have to be enough.

"Be swift, Sakamoto!" she shouted back at her senior partner in Yamataian. "Time is slipping!"

The Hayai-class wasn't known for a big hangar bay, and they'd turned theirs into a vehicle port anyway. She floated up at jogging speed and over the one hovercar they kept around and onto the airbike instead. Faster and smaller sounded best to her.

Sesshoseki's last known location was the Rigs, a couple dozen kilometers away. She stuffed on her lightning-pink helmet and looked behind her to see where the hell Sakamoto was. A fleeting, cross thought pinged off her forehead — I hope she doesn't start hitting on the subject ...

 

[Luca]

The Rigs, Platform Gamma, Top Deck
Luca didn't know there was a bounty on two members of his crew. He was more or less walking about and finding good spots to admire the view, spending a fairly relaxing if not boring day on his home base, The Rigs. The Phoenix Service group had just gotten comfortable in the cusp of Sargasso. The mercenary unit had been plying its service as an educational tool for Nepleslian and Yamataian offices, offering reasonable and measured combat training to businessmen and women.

They didn't quite have the tools to go out there, all guns blazing like the bigger outfits did, but Luca was assured that he'd trained them all to be able to handle such an occasion, they just needed the tools. He heard a pair of heavy footsteps behind him and he turned around. One of the Lorath Fyunnen women who'd enlisted in the service stood there in her fatigues. Short white hair, gold eyes, a strong face and an orange beret on her head. She saluted him. "Captain," she announced. Luca turned around from the ocean view and nodded at her.

"Brukan," he recognised the Fyunnen and turned around, resting his back against the railing facing the ocean to the North, "how's development going on our new equipment?"

"We've got some positive results for our personal defence weapon, the fail rate out of a thousand units is only one so far, which is promising. We're doing a run of five thousand and if we keep it below ten, we'll be fit to issue and sell to market." She said, touching the side of her head and accessing some cybernetic-stored information. Luca saw her eyes flicker.

Her expression soured. "The communications device ... we're not quite sure what your outcomes are for it. The heavy focus on external cybernetics, digital and neural processing is an odd request." Brukan folded her arms. "The electronics engineers and programmers are wondering how much processing power is needed just to accept all the inputs you've proposed, given our operating system limitations."

Luca nodded. "I'm aware of that, but I want to make a piece of equipment that all of you can use, and will save your lives in the battlefield by sharing each other's intelligence and combat data." He stood firm on his demands to the tech team. "I'm only making my requests because I want you all to perform at your best, because anyone can make a gun, but we're making information sharing that'll be power armour grade combat systems, for unarmoured personnel. Understand? I want you to have that capability."

She looked aside, he had this way with words, and the care he felt for everyone here sounded so ... genuine. "When you put it that way, I suppose you are right." She nodded, conceding and looking down at Luca's smile. "Funding is fairly generous at the mo- oh my Goddess."

"What?" Luca asked, watching Brukan's eyes and turning around towards the horizon. Seven black shapes were visible in the afternoon sun, approaching. "Hm," Luca mumbled, "had to happen eventually," he said as he raised a pair of binoculars and got a closer look at the shapes. They seemed to be shaped like gunships and troop carriers. He looked closer, eyebrow raising as he recognised the insignia.

They were a rival PMC outfit who were working in a town further up the coast of Sargasso, about a hundred kilometres away by the name of the Sunburnt Warriors - a name lent to them by their surplus and possibly illegal Sunburn gunships. "Brukan, get inside," Luca ordered as he put the binoculars down, "get the non-combat personnel safe and armed."

"Y-yes sir!"

He knew it was only a matter of time before a challenger drew near, or larger competition tried to crush him. "All fireteams and personnel, this is Captain Pavone, we're under attack from an enemy force approaching north-northwest, four gunships and three carriers spotted twelve klicks away!" There was no time to scramble air - this had to be a pure defence from the ground to air and he was going to give it to them. "Man AAA stations and prepare for possible boarding action!"

Ten seconds after Luca had given the order, he could already hear scrambling footsteps and the loud, rhythmic thud-boom of AAA cannon, sending magnetically sensitive flak into the direction of the approaching gunships, who started to diverge and change course, moving away from the carpet of white flak shells coming from the northern side of the PSG facilities. One gunship went down immediately, falling into the ocean with a crash, the other three begun peppering the facility with machine gun fire. Personnel hit the deck, looking for cover behind top-deck buildings, shipping crates, and intentional pieces of heavy, solid cover that popped up out of the deck.

"Enemy carrier unloading personnel on Platform Delta!"

"Scramble the Pointmen and Vanguards!"

"Enemy gunship going down into the ocean!"

"Sustaining heavy fire on Platform Beta!"

In the midst of it, Luca had taken the fight to one of the gunships, using his Grapple Stunner to hook into and cling to the underside of the vehicle, then crawling under the hull and punching through the glass and pulling the pilot out, then shooting the gunner sitting in the back seat at close range, then leaping off and grappling back towards the Platform, turning around once he landed and firing a 40mm grenade at the intakes of one of the Viper carriers and making it careen out of control - smashing against the lip of Beta Platform before falling into the violent ocean.

"Come on! We're going to send these arseholes and their toys home in cups!" Luca proclaimed as the fighting intensified. The battle was at tipping point despite Luca and his mercenaries fighting on, in the midst of casualties and surprise. Enemy personnel trying to set explosive charges were rooted out and intercepted violently as their bombs were thrown overboard. The numerically inferior PSG were only surviving so far because of Luca and the base's defences.

 

[Eistheid]

The Rigs, Platform Delta, Underside

The day had been rather pleasant, an idle morning under the Sargasso sun interrupted only by the humble request to do some maintenance and calibration work around the Rigs. With the continued goodwill and apparent approval that the Phoenix crew displayed toward her, Tamamo had little reason to deny the request. As such she'd spend the better part of the day attending to the communications array installed upon Platform Delta while trying to ignore the curious glances that the PSG members would chance whenever they thought she wouldn't notice. While she could understand their curiosity, given that she was rarely seen, and even more rarely present for more than a few minutes, she wasn't fond of being the centre of attention.

She had eventually slipped out of the lens of the public eye and had been seated upon one of the supporting struts beneath Delta, watching the ocean and taking a moment of peace to relax before deciding what to best apply the rest of the day toward. That peaceful moment unfortunately had lasted only six seconds, before a feeling similar to a cold finger touching the base of her spine disrupted the peace. Running a diagnostic check Tamamo felt the creeping, nauseating experience that she could only partially identify as dread, her SACN node had been manually dissolved.

Consumed by the implications of what this meant Tamamo initiated an encrypted digital handshake with the communications platform that she was sitting under and started to comb the digital domain for a clue as to what had happened. Unexpectedly she discovered herself on the public bounty listings with a 100,000 KS price tag, for the dual charges of theft of government property and desertion. Curiously she was accompanied by an "alive" marker, so they wanted her for something. Perhaps they wanted to condemn her in person?

Beyond this was the 500,000 KS bounty that had been placed on Echelon as well, signifying that they'd connected the dots between herself, Echelon, and the brief foray to Yamatai that had allowed her to operate autonomously for as long as she had. Also curious was that they were both wanted alive for the crimes, not just one or the other. Though the question remained, why go through a third party? Was it because they were outside of Yamatai's borders? Were they trying to make a public statement that they weren't worth attending to personally?

With the flurry of online speculation and the needlessly heated arguments that had sprung up in response to the new bounties, Tamamo couldn't assess any clear motive behind the posting. Only that Yamatai now knew she was not actually serving as she should be.

The sounds of Luca's voice calling alarms, anti-aircraft artillery, shouts, and gunfire invaded her awareness, encouraging Tamamo to sever her digital uplink, and return her awareness to the world around her. Apparently someone had been quick to act, and she'd been too busy trying to gather information to react appropriately. Thankfully this was easy enough to fix. As Tamamo pulled the hood of the Wind over her face, her clothing wavered, her poncho and clothes loosing their colour as the pico-jelly that made them up destabilized, shifting and returning to its base state and starting to flow across the armored body it had concealed beneath collecting inside a canister and stowing itself out of the way.

Slipping the Spotter Rifle over her shoulder, Tamamo un-clipped the strap before attaching it instead to the front of her rigging. From there her right hand found the bolt, pulling it up and then backwards exposing the battery tray. Her hand then went to one of the pouches on the breast of her Gust kit enhanced Wind, and retrieved one of the batteries, fluidly slipping it into the tray with a click. Sliding the bolt forward and locking it into place Tamamo turned her attention to discovering who had decided to pay the Phoenix a visit.

By the time she'd made her way toward the lip of platform Delta three vehicles had gone down. She didn't recognize their make, still unfamiliar with the Nepleslian catalogue. Even so she didn't need intimate knowledge to recognize vulnerabilities. Crouching upside-down near the edge of the platform, Tamamo comfortably brought up her blue Spotter Rifle and tracked the centre of the rotor assembly of one of the strafing helicopters. Thumbing the fire selector into heavy, and counting quietly to herself Tamamo exhaled before squeezing the trigger at the pause before her next breath and heart beat.

The pale purple lance burned into her vision quickly faded, only to be replaced an instant later as the durandium of the rotor assembly superheated, the metal expanding in an instant before combusting in a flash and cloud of smoke as the alloy burned off. Slower than her weapon and its deadly effect, Tamamo's right hand came up once again cycling the bolt and replacing the depleted battery with a fresh unit. As the bolt locked closed, Tamamo slipped the used battery back into its pouch as she set off around the underside of the platform looking for a new target.

Instead of finding another vehicle to disable, Tamamo's attention was drawn 'down' or upward rather to the surface of platform Delta where heavy fighting seemed to be taking place.

Making sure she was keyed into the Phoenix's usual IFF channel, Tamamo crept around the edge of the platform, scanning the enemy force's composition. After a moment she let her spotter rifle hang from her rigging as she retrieved the smAR Fatboy that had hung at her hip, as well as flicked open a couple of cases mounted on her belt line revealing rows of shiny iron spheres. A moment later Tamamo's diminutive form crept over the lip of the platform, however she wasn't alone, her Gust integrated Lorath Unified Field Manipulation Suite, reporting as it came online as it took hold of the iron spheres and lifted them into the air fanning them out into a loose cloud.

Clinically opening fire with the Fatboy on any targets that appeared unharried, managing to wound or suppress a few of the hostiles as she crept toward one of the solid barriers that had been installed in the platform's surface. Simultaneous to her motions and weapon fire, Tamamo sent the small spheres hurtling forward with lethal intent, their number embedding themselves into the soft tissue belonging a cluster of the enemy mercenaries with uncanny precision. The large bloody wounds were about to become the least of their worries, as Tamamo's right hand casually gestured palm open, initiating a second function of the Suite and bathing them in microwave radiation, a normally unpleasant experience made horrifying by the embedded iron spheres that began to rapidly heat charring flesh and boiling blood. The screams were thankfully brief.

Keeping an eye out for more traditional targets that she could pick off with laser fire, Tamamo redirected her efforts from offense to defence. Withdrawing the spheres from their temporary hosts, and reallocating them, a trio of the heated spheres flattening out into a thin, curved dome. Moving the construct she covered one of the more recently injured PSG members providing what minor concealment that she could, while a beckoning motion dragged at the wounded man's rigging, pulling him out of the direct line of fire and behind her moderately safe presently occupied barrier.

While she couldn't do too much with her present supplies, the organic pico-jelly on hand would at least keep him alive as it branched and reached out from the canister on her back toward the wounded man, sealing bullet wounds and doing what she could to stitch the damage closed. As she worked, a calm quiet out of place in the chaos Tamamo found herself wondering if she had caused enough chaos to allow friendly forces to rally. After all Luca was busy playing with the 'birds' and wouldn't be able to sweep the platforms, and with so many friendly units nearby she wouldn't be able to operate freely on the offensive.

 

[CadetNewb]

"Ara-ara, Yuna senpai isn't waiting for me!~" Sakamoto's warm voice playfully spoke in the younger Neko's ear. Despite technically being the senior, the Ex-Jiyuuian relished the fact that she was lower ranking at most and equal ranked at least in comparison to everyone else around her. Perhaps more importantly however, Hirasawa now realized that the woman was sitting right behind her, wrapped in invisibility and just almost pressing her body against her own. "So, what's the plan?" she asked. "Do we go in guns blazing? Or maybe we will arrive in the middle of the fight, and quietly work our way in instead?" Both were good options, the first simply because they were Nekovalkyrja, supersoldiers that made all others pale in comparison. The second because letting the Phoenix crew hog the attention was the most ruthless, efficient thing to do given the circumstances.

"I have a pistol with integrated silencer, sub-sonic rounds and a small vibroblade by the way," Sakamoto added, her unseen hands now gently coming to rest on the younger Neko's waist.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yuna suffered no teasing, though she wished she had more than her NSP with her. It made her the heavy to Sakamoto's silent action. Yuna could handle herself, but Sakamoto's loadout wasn't going to help in a firefight.

"We have to secure the target," Yuna sent before she gunned the airbike to life and zoomed out of the cargo bay. She hung a hard left to cross over the Trough River as the bright sun flashed across her mirrored bike visor and warmed her skin in the moist air screaming by them.

"We don't know what we're goin — " Then she did see what they were going to find, as smoke rose from the Rigs and black shapes closed on their space in the water. She twisted the throttle and tucked in, Sakamoto going with her as she cut a straight line dozens of meters above the spiny briar of the hills. It was just like the Old Maid said; things never went "right" or "wrong," but along a scale of "simple" to "highly improbable."

Nothing is impossible for SAINTs, she recalled.

"As we go over the Rigs, you drop down and find the target. I'll help from above until they catch on, then get down to the ground."

They hit 200 kph in a hurry, the Drill Plains almost below them and Sargasso Heights just beyond them. Yuna knuckled the handlebar.

"Sunburn and Viper gunships. They'll cut me down too fast. I'll go with you, give you suppressive fire to cover you breaking off and helping the natives."

Nearly over the water. Fire barely was visible. Yuna glanced from side to side and didn't see any other responding units. A quick check of local comm traffic suggested there wasn't a big concern there.

Three kilometers. She jammed the throttle up to max; the engines started to redline at 220 kph. Two kilometers. Explosions and gunfire couldn't be heard over the duo slicing through the air. One kilometer!

"GO!"

The airbike switched to autopilot while the two Neko jumped for Delta Platform.

 

[Luca]

The Rigs, Sargasso, Delta Platform
The two figures landed on the top deck. On the middle of the deck and throughout its storeys seemed to be some manner of satellite array. Immediately in front of them were a trio of PSG troopers using shipping containers as cover and about to execute a plan of counterattack. Smoky fires being put out by jetting sprinkler systems and PSG personnel scrambling to keep the interior of the satellite dome secure amidst a larger tide of enemies were off to their right. Behind them, more personnel were trying to hold the Suns off.

A Nepleslian PSG trooper with goggles and heavy Styrling Everyday Armour had smoke grenades in his hand, lobbing them around the corner, then raising their rifle and moving forward as grey smoke filled the deck's view, blinding enemy Suns troopers trying to wait for them up ahead. Hot on the man's heels and carrying a riot shield was an ID-SOL carrying a light machine gun like a submachine gun, barrel cradled in the gun notches of the shield. Meanwhile, a Yamataian woman with cat's ears and a strange rifle on her back leapt up onto the shipping container with a frag grenade in her hand.

On the other side of the smoke, the ID-SOL emerged, planting his shield down and opening fire as bullets shattered against his shield and glanced off his helmet - brass casings showering next to the Nepleslian who'd crouched down, firing at enemies off to the ID-SOL's left side. The Yamataian woman was making quick shots with her rifle from her elevated position as the Nepleslians caught their attention.

Just behind Yuna and Saka, an explosion could be heard, two PSG troopers' unconscious bodies landing near them, still trying to cling to consciousness, reaching for their pistols in a last gasp as a Suns mercenary carrying a grenade launcher, wearing a gas mask - and thinking the two SAINTs were more PSG troopers, tried to launch a grenade at them. What were two women in dresses going to do to protect the troops they had quarry with? Three other troops raised rifles and started firing at them.

To PSG troops - they could've been Phoenix personnel - the outfits, the entrance, the attitude - it was all there.

Meanwhile, Tamamo saw Luca up ahead, on the western bridge to Delta platform and sprinting beyond normal speeds towards her with rifle in hand as an enemy gunship was making a strafing run of rockets. Luca was hell-bent on drawing the helicopter into the line of fire of a minigun mounted on the corner of the platform, automated defences peppering the side of the chopper with fire and making the gunship pull back before it could go down, firing rockets at the defences and putting distance between itself and Luca - minigun exploding as Luca slid into cover. On the bridge, a squad of PSG reinforcement soldiers were hustling forward now that the path was clear, eyes open for the gunship.

Even then, a familiar sight of a Type-Five Freespacer with a rainbow scarf had their enormous railgun locked forward up above on the platform's structures, taking potshots at the gunship as it was leaving, then slinking back behind cover and reracking new cartridges into the hopper. "T4M4M0, LUC4," she radioed to the two commanders, "W3 H4V3 TW0 UN1D3NT1F3D P3RS0NN3L 0N TH3 S0UTH34ST S1D3, N0T SUNS."

"Echelon, we have thirty other uninvited guests to deal with!" Luca said as he swapped magazines behind a crate and made a brass check on his custom HHG. "Platform Alpha and Beta are secured."

"G4MM4?" Echelon queried.

"Brukan's holding them off, but the bigger force is here on Delta." Luca observed. "They're looking for you more, still can't believe you're fighting."

"1 H34RD." Echelon sighed, another cartridge loading into the railgun. "W4SN'T H4PPY. SK3W3R3D TW3LV3 0F TH3 B4ST3RDS 4T P01NT BL4NK." At that close a range, railgun rounds tended to make people invert rather than be politely skewered.

Ouch. Luca thought before moving out and making a run-and-gun with a strafe of assault rifle fire over a balcony into a hollow in the deck used for keeping cargo as he moved towards Tamamo. "I'm closer Tam, we need to kick the Suns into the ocean together, enemy count is thirty, local friendly count twelve," he listed combat data he'd been subconsciously gathering with his digital brain, "twenty one friendly casualties local, we're fifty five men down across all platforms already, and we've taken out at least ninety enemy troops already."

Fifty five out of a hundred and twenty seven soldiers, including 'noncombat' personnel who were defending the interior of their platforms with riot shields and submachine guns they were supposed to be running reliability tests on. They really couldn't fail them now.

Back to Saka and Yuna, they could see player three arriving on the bridge and reloading, and in the clearing the enemy troops had made, they could see player four tending to a wounded PSG soldier and fighting defensively.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Grenade!

Yuna drew her NSP across her body with her shooting hand as the projectile arc'd toward them. She peered against smoke and sprinkler water as she used the momentum from the draw to spin just so on one foot. The grenade was shot chest-high; she visualized her plan as inertia carried her through her spin.

Yuna shouted as her roundhouse kick met the grenade. A little gravity assist sent the explosive careening away over the edge of the platform and harmlessly into the water. While the trooper thoughtlessly stared at a booty-shorts-and-blouse-wearing Neko with a pistol, Yuna re-squared herself and shot him twice, high on the chest. Target dropped, she bent down to check on the two wounded. They were alive. Good enough for her.

Gunfire zinged and impacted the walls behind them. Yuna went down to her stomach and fired several blue-white lances of energy at their would-be assailants. She needed cover. "Get going," she sent to Sakamoto. "The Neko by the container."

Yuna transmitted the visual she'd caught of their subject with a geotag. A compromised navsat above them painted a better picture and transmitted a map of the updated map of the platforms with bogeys, emplacements and other markers. Yuna caught one of the enemy riflemen in the leg with a shot from her pistol, making the other two pull him into cover, which gave her enough time to spring from the ground and get behind a small container on the platform deck. She grasped her pistol as errant, salty sprinkler water soiled her blouse. Smoke mixed with the air in her lungs, making her cough as more gunfire crashed into the container. She ducked a little lower, then stuck out her pinky nail just beyond cover. Skin vision gave her the targeting data she needed. She clicked her pistol over to heavy and brought it around above her pinky. She didn't have to turn around -- hand steady, she pumped a heavy bolt just to the side of the enemy cover.

She heard their ammunition exploding instead of their screams. No more rifle fire. Good enough. She scanned for more targets.

 

[CadetNewb]

A giggle was heard in Yuna's ear.

"Ara~," she sighed. "One does not secure the Sesshōseki - it 'secures' you, the area, and anyone that looks at it strangely. Keeping your distance and only giving aid is best," Sakamoto referred to a most ancient legend. Warm like a smile of sunshine, the almost matronly voice echoed in another particular Neko's ears.

"Tamamo-chan."

Like a shadow in daylight, translucent and unseen, Sakamoto landed alongside Yuna, silhouetted by smoke. A mistake, but it couldn't be helped with the mess about them - as the pink haired Neko fought them head-on, the Ex-Jiyuuian slinked away with ease.

"Genki desu-ka?" she asked her friend with a feline curiosity.

Grasping, leaping and hopping her way along, the Neko moved with ease as gravity itself bent to her whims, making all the feats of agility trivial as she rapidly traversed the rig, unseen. As her tail twitched, balancing her quiet landing, she had to admit she always had a very strong suspicion with Tamamo. A Neko did not have a deficiency, especially a staggering one, and not have some sort of recompense of equal weight. Experience had proved this time and time again, and with this particular Neko, Sakamoto believed it to be the very same. Clumsy and awkward looking, but with an edge sharper than Zesuaium and handling of a Nodachi starfighter.

"Ohisashiburi desu ne?"

Moving as high as she could while keeping shelter overhead, she sought to stay hidden and flank the enemy. Even if Yuna was suppressed and forced into cover, she could still play partner. Making sure she was out of sight, her prey always in the back of a small group or out of sight, Sakamoto focused, focused, focused. Targeting, locking, firing, the pistol in her hand gently went 'clack-clack-clack' as the slide was worked, puffs of hot air gently huffing out of its barrel. Brass gently tinkled and rolled on the ground as the just barely sub-sonic pieces of metal plowed into necks and faces with dull, wet smacks - she wanted anything that would quickly, quietly kill her pickings.

"I was coming to visit, and hurried as fast as I could when I heard," she explained. "After we clean this all up, let's go shopping, yes?"

Even after taking her shots, she retreated behind hard cover and concealment, and moved with care from one position to the next, stalking them. Even with this initial upper hand, she knew that it was only a matter of time before someone caught on.

 

[Eistheid]

The Rigs, Platform Delta, Still More Fighting

Listening to the nearby sounds of gunfire, shouts, wounded personnel crying out in pain, the occasional explosion, and the intermittent sounds of boots on metal all around would have likely been an overwhelming situation. Had this event occurred a year ago Tamamo was fairly certain she would have wanted to flee the location, after all a year ago she technically hadn't owned any of her own clothes, let alone a weapon to defend herself.

Cutting through the chaos of battle a familiar voice inspired the unique urge in Tamamo to wiggle and perk up her ears. Unfortunately wearing an armored powersuit as she was, crippled the capability to move her ears beyond a slight quiver against her scalp. She did however have an answer to give Luca, and Echelon which she provided in a quiet, calm tone that hardly seemed fitting for the stress and chaos of battle, "Unidentified personnel are friendlies. One positive ID as Sakamoto Hina, a friend I met while travelling. Assuming the other arrived with her, they are allies until proven otherwise."

There was a pause while Tamamo retrieved what pico-jelly she could, all that she could afford to do to stabilize the wounded man already done, "While we're unlikely to loose this engagement, it would be in our best interest to finish it quickly. I suppose I'll go out and play."

Though she had used less than a quarter of her Fatboy's battery charge, a second battery was retrieved and she went through the motions of swapping them giving her a fresh hundred shots to work with. Better to reload when she didn't need to than find herself without a shot when she needed it. Picking up her iron spheres that she had gathered about her feet, electromagnetic manipulation raising them into the air, a loose cloud quickly forming about herself. No longer content to remain idle, Tamamo darted away from the prone form she had rescued with sudden speed as her diminutive armored form surged around the edge of the barrier she had been using for cover and out into the field of barriers, men, smoke, and gunfire.

Keeping herself low to the platform, Tamamo's comparatively extreme speed and small size made for a poor target being barely two feet tall with her present posture. However, while she was small, she was by no means quiet. The whine of her Gust's plasma jets burning at a low output sounded rapidly time and time again in quick pulses, as she used them in combination with her innate and suit provided systems to rapidly change direction allowing her to rapidly skate across the platform and around obstacles, transposing herself around friendly units and closing in on a small group of hostiles that were proving unpleasantly capable at holding their cover.

Within seconds she was upon her foes, a mental command sent her airborne iron spheres surging forward, the heavy impacts working wonderfully to knock them off balance and expose vital areas around the throat. Her left hand guided the Fatboy from body to body, a trio of quick short range bursts turned the their necks into charred ruins, adding to the three more to decorate the deck and fill the air with the uncomfortable scent of burnt bacon. Not pausing in her motion Tamamo skidded past the falling bodies, as her right hand came up and pointed downward the motion in time with visuals locking upon a new group of hostiles, her Field Manipulation Suite's electromagnetic manipulation pulling at the firearms in hostile hands and forcing them to point at their feet preventing their attempted counter attack enabling another pair of bodies to fall to the searing bursts of laser fire that the Fatboy provided.

Skidding to a halt Tamamo finally took a moment to reply to Sakamoto, the message coming across the battlefield was coloured with a lively peppiness that would have fit an idol, though it was clear it was an apology, "Ano, gomen Sakamoto-san." The sound of approaching rotor blades drew Tamamo's attention upward and away from the battle on the platform, as what was possibly the last of the helicopters rounded the structure of Delta's communications array. "You've come at a bad time... I'm a little embarrassed that you had to see this." She continued, "What are we going to go shopping for?" Sweeping the nearby platform with her suit's sensors Tamamo searched for something of use to deal with the rotor-craft before settling on the hopeful option of one of the squad automatic weapons that had been brought with the invading force.

Making a beckoning motion with her right hand, Tamamo pulled the heavier weapon toward herself, its owner no longer having much use for it. Catching the grip in the palm of her right hand, Tamamo let her Fatboy fall against her hip by its strap, while she used her left hand to replace the dislodged ammunition belt and pull back the charging handle to ready the pilfered firearm for use. Returning her full attention to the rotor craft Tamamo unloaded the SAW from her position the, the weapon's inherent scatter lending to a rain of rounds that damaged and marked but failed to penetrate the front of the gunship. As the box rapidly depleted Tamamo disposed of the weapon using a mixture of electromagnetic acceleration, her own strength, and that augmented by her powered suit hurling the depleted saw like an awkward javelin, the the hugely accelerated firearm shattering upon the canopy of the hostile craft. With the durability of Nepleslian engineering proven Tamamo found herself falling back on Luca's gift of the Spotter Rifle and more familiar tactics and the hope that the gunship's awareness had been sufficiently impeded by her makeshift assault.

Smoothly transferring the blue rifle from it's position across her chest to her left hand once more, Tamamo couched the stock against her shoulder to rapidly line up the shot with the strafing gunship. While she did this her iron spheres earned their keep in conjunction with her suit's situational awareness allowing Tamamo to make short work of a pair of enemy soldiers that tried to take advantage of her apparent distraction, the makeshift projectiles almost dismissively caving in their skulls. Even as the spheres lashed out she pivoted, her breath slowed, and her heartbeat complied, a gentle squeeze of a trigger and for the second time the centre of a rotor assembly exploded into light and heat, the minor damage she'd done earlier but an insult compared to the present fatal state of the gunship as it plummeted helplessly into the ocean trailing pale smoke.

It was at this point that Tamamo caught the first taste of enemy weapons fire, having remained still for too long in order to shoot down the gunship, the curious drumming of machine gun fire against her back proved that someone had taken an interest in her while she was distracted. Tragically her Lorath made armor was showing its worth and she failed to die. Instead she experienced little beyond being knocked forward into a stumble across the deck, her surprise and light weight proving to be her greatest foe. Anchoring herself gravimetrically against the hail of bullets and pivoting Tamamo made a dismissive waving gesture with her right hand, her Field Manipulation Suite interpreting the intent took hold of the weapon, tearing the firearm out of her assailant's grip spinning it to face its owner. An instant later a casual poking of her hand motion drove the barrel of his own weapon into his gut, the force lifting the man off of the deck briefly before leaving him to crumple like a discarded doll.

Eight hostiles had died in half as many minutes, and a gunship was likely dooming two more to a watery grave. Admittedly she had not been as efficient as she could have been. Falling into cover and out of the immediate line of sight of the remaining combatants, Tamamo noted that her position had previously been occupied by her foes. As a billow of smoke washed over her, Tamamo took a moment to wonder if it would be considered polite what she had done. Leaving enemies alive so that those among the PSG who fancied themselves heroes could have a chance at glory. That was something that Nepleslians occasionally spoke of. Wasn't it?

With no answer coming to mind Tamamo busied herself by reporting to Luca and Echelon once more, once again she spoke quietly, "Eight and a gunship down, is there anywhere in particular that needs to be addressed?"

She did not know if she would receive an answer before the fighting had ended, however she thought it prudent to ask those who might have a better situational awareness than she did.

 

[Luca]

The Rigs, Platform Delta, Clutch Play
"The more the merrier," Luca sighed over radio as he heard news of the two unknown arrivals, apparently one of them being a 'Sakamoto'. He didn't know what friends and company Tamamo kept, though he knew she went out for a week at a time sometimes - so it was only natural to bump into people in space. Either way, there were still twenty-odd people between him and victory. He looked over his shoulder and saw his reinforcements finish crossing the long bridge to Delta platform.

He emerged from cover and spearheaded the attack, this time letting the rifle sway to his hip on a strap, and smoothly drawing a large, black revolver. A gift from a friend, packing a huge punch, and looking stylish as the Hellwood in its grips. Right foot sliding across the ground, Luca's face contorted as he felt the world slip into a familiar stillness, hearing every sound, every movement clear as day, being there. Breathe in.

Target one, enemy trooper in the middle of getting up from cover and bringing a rifle up, trying to put his eye down the sights. Target two, someone emerging from around a corner of the Rigs, shotgun in hand, looking for PSG targets wildly. Target three, someone trying to leap to cover after they'd noticed the reinforcements crossing the bridge - to Luca they seemed suspended in the air like an idiot.

The world caught up and Luca uncoiled, pulling the trigger - wh-BANG! - then slamming his right palm down on the hammer, swivelling to the next target as covering fire poured in from behind him - wh-BANG! - a white flash as long as a man's forearm, specks of burning powder propelled into the air as he found his final target - wh-BANG! Breathe out.

Three shots, three connections, and under friendly covering fire, he moved in to do his work as Tamamo worked her fey magic - Luca was unsure of what'd gotten into her, some strange mood making her go from Nekovalkyrja to strange Fox being, but he was willing to roll with it right now, given there were bigger questions and problems to solve for the moment.

Three shots didn't solve the battle, holstering his revolver as he moved with his reinforcements. "Onwards! Rout them!" Luca bellowed as he ran ahead and leapt up into the first floor of the Delta platform's building structure, anti-gravity moving him where he wanted to be, when he wanted - a purple-clad blur looking at the battlefield before disappearing behind an air conditioning unit, moving to outflank the enemy hornet's nest they'd erected, using shields and taking advantage of things on the deck as cover. Their centre seemed relatively unprotected, with a black-and-yellow clad man giving directions to Sunburnt Warriors over the din.

Echelon's voice cracked over the radio. "1 S33 TW0, T4M4M0'S R1GHT." She said, having caught the glimpse of a moving shadow somewhere, and people falling over for apparently no reason. Not her doing, for certain - the railgun was much more overt. "1 TH1NK TH3Y'R3 N3K0."

Luca grabbed his HHG, pushed the cylinder open and gave the ejector rod a push, shaking the three spent cartridges free while he kept his thumb on the remainder. "Figures, I've always had cat problems," he said, slipping three fresh bullets in and holstering the weapon. He watched the battle situation below, the reinforcements still riding a combat high from driving them off of Beta platform and determined to work with Luca's rally. However, the Suns, realising that they were in the midst of a losing battle, were bunkering down, and Luca spotted one of them speaking into a radio, calling for a pickup that wasn't on the bottom of the ocean.

"Right then." Luca cracked his knuckles and leapt off the building, pouncing on top of the enemy commander and punching their head into the ground, then standing up and facing a Sun who'd initially recoiled from , but charged at Luca. The ringing of a knife leaving a leather sheath, trying to stab Luca in the chest with a thrust - but Luca appeared to be trying to catch the blade?

Nonsense, his fingers weren't that strong - his right hand slammed into the merc's wrist while his left hand slapped the back of their hand, knife flying out as Luca broke their wrist, and proceeded to open a flurry of blows before caving their helmet in with a right overhand - then moving onto the next soldier with a ferocious knee to the chest shattering their ribs - and the next soldier with an elbow strike to the neck - another soldier with a riot shield was trying to run towards him and bowl him over, unwilling to fire their SMG into such a crowded area with friendlies nearby.

An electric crackle could be heard coming from Luca's right arm, followed by a growl through clenched teeth - and a sudden extension of the body, right arm exploding with power as the Phoenix Punch and the force of Luca's smashed into the centre of the shield and sent the enemy trooper, shield and all, flying off the edge of the platform and splashing into the ocean below, shield falling short and landing with a clatter by the edge of the deck and a fist-shaped crater as the smell of electric smoke filled the air.

"Eight down, twelve left-" Luca gasped as he lunged to dodge a machete swing, then wove, blade catching against the fabric of his jacket - the size of it left him unable to disarm it like the last blade, a pop could be heard and a piton was wrapped around the blade, line extending from Luca's right wrist. A flick of the hand pulled the blade out of the soldier's hand, blade nicking him the shoulderpad as it spun through the air. Something sounded like a melon being split open behind him.

"Eleven left, actually..." He corrected himself.

 

[CadetNewb]

"Ara, ara. It's perfectly fine Tamamo-chan - every girl has a bad day after all," she replied, the woman's gently comforting voice rung in Tamamo's head.

On the heels of Sakamoto's reply, the Ex-Jiyuuian moved quickly and quietly, gleeful that she was invisible, unseen, unheard of and generally unnoticed in this chaos. Deciding to pinch her pennies and save her ammunition, the woman carefully slid closer and closer to her enemies. As the tables quickly turned on the ground, some of the bounty hunters and mercenaries realized this and were already trying to regroup. Backing off from Pavone and company, their weapons blazed with fury in an attempt to suppress. Mindful of both their gazes and the incoming fire they were taking, shrewd eyes came to rest on exactly the thing she was looking for, and took careful aim. "Get a frag out already! Pavone's tearing us to pieces here!" Sakamoto's voice shouted in clear Nepleslian. The grenadier immediately got behind cover to stop reloading and grabbed a grenade from his vest - the very moment she saw him pull the pin, the slide of her pistol worked, blood gushing from his throat before she fled.

"Something that makes us feel pretty!~~" Sakamoto explained, the unmistakable thump of a grenade pounding against their eardrums.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Two of the retreating bogeys came Yuna's way, flanking her cover on one side. They spat rifle fire at another direction away from her, but before she could bring up her pistol to down them in the back, one glanced behind himself and saw her. The shot Yuna snapped off sailed just over his shoulder, probably scoring his helmet but doing little else. His returning salvo grazed her arm before she flattened, then swung herself around cover again. She grit her teeth and shut down the epidermal nerves on that arm, bringing numbness to that area.

It didn't stop the feel of blood slowly running along her elbow and forearm.

Yuna heard their footsteps. She put her pinky back up and closed her eyes to focus on her skin vision and to listen to how the bogeys' boots clomped along the deck. She stuffed her pistol in her holster, automatically flipping it to normal as she did. Closer ... closer ... shit, they split up to cover both sides? They slowed down, creeping to time their surprise slaughter. She moved her pinky back. Body stiff, she fell back against the container just a bit taller than her. One was going just a bit faster ... just fast enough ...

Now!

Yuna reached out with her hands and grabbed the barrel of the first bogey's rifle, just behind the muzzle, as it crossed into her vision. She held it and kicked up with her airbike-booted foot, but it still stung just a bit when her left leg met the rifle just beyond the bogey's foregrip. He hadn't been ready. The rifle flew out of his grip before he could squeeze the trigger, arcing in a beautiful, wind-whistling circle through spraying water and heavy smoke. Yuna kept the rifle on that path, and the bogey was smart enough to close his legs, but not swift enough to dodge. The solid wooden butt of the stock cracked him hard in the shin, his pain a clear shout amid the noise of battle.

Yuna let the rifle clatter and drop as she open-palmed the man in the stomach while he was off balance. He stumbled back and fell on his ass, but he turned it into a roll fast enough to nearly get to his feet. Yuna stepped and kicked once at his upper arm, meeting only flesh and uniform instead of armor. Whoever outfitted the bogeys didn't spend for good protection.

The blow made him tumble again. Yuna heard the other bogey behind her and rolled along the hard metal deck just as he shot at her. She came out of it doing the splits with pistol in hand, but her first shot nailed him right in the rifle's magazine well. The round chambered inside went kaBOOM! on him, wrecking the chamber. He dropped the rifle fast.

Behind!

The first bogey tried to thrust a knife in her back. She rolled forward, legs still splayed out, then twirled upside-down on one hand and pushed herself up off the deck. Yuna was a spiralling javelin when her feet met the second bogey in the chest. His surprised grunt became a puff of air as she took him back down to the metal. He thudded hard against it, and she stood on him as if he was a pedestal.

Bogey One flipped the knife in his hand, thumb over the pommel. "Beachy biker bitch thinks she knows a little shit?"

Yuna didn't give Bogey Two the chance to grab her ankles. She stomp-jumped off him and flipped forward to face Bogey One. She put her hands up -- pistol holstered again -- and beckoned the man with her right pointer finger.

He closed, knife out. He grinned beneath that half-helmet of his, pearly teeth and a 5'o'clock shadow. He was bigger by a foot and heavier by a good 30 kilos. He acted like he could just waltz up to Yuna and jab her between the breasts with the thing.

Bogey One tried just that. She ducked her leading hand and crossed with her rear hand, smacking him and knife aside. He countered with a spinning back fist, but she blocked him there too and moved her head aside. He came back with the knife hand, going to jam it in her gut. She sidestepped just in time and wrapped her arm around his empty hand. He tried to twist it out — too late to stop her sweeping kick taking out his feet. She let go, and he caught himself on hands and feet on the ground. The perfect position for her to kick him hard in the side. He fell to his back instead to dodge a kick that didn't come, then rolled on the metal and back to his feet.

He kept the knife out and smirked.

Yuna held up, bouncing a little on her feet. She heard Bogey Two cough hard and start to come up from the deck.

Bogey One closed again. She waited for a slash that did come and executed a soft grab of the arm. She bent him over with that arm and threw him down and away from her, then flipped back once, twice, then jumped up with momentum to headstomp Bogey Two down beneath her bone-crushing boots.

His helmet saved him from a caved skull, but not his spine being compacted. Yuna landed beside him as he flopped back to the ground, unconscious if not dead.

Bogey One suddenly was before her, off to the side, swiping at her neck. She ducked back in time but couldn't grab him. She flipped back again, clipping his chin with her trailing foot. When she stood once more, she bounced on her feet once and took to offense. He tried to slash her again across the chest, but he swung too soon. In quick succession she piled on five kicks to his side, the last one giving her enough momentum — with some gravity help — to bring her standing foot back across his jaw. He bobbled back, dizzy.

Yuna got close. Close enough that he almost could make out her face behind her mirrored visor. Did she smirk at him?

She seemed to bend back away from him — and then he was lights out and flying as she backflip-kicked him off his feet. He crashed into the deck and didn't move afterward.

The Neko paused just a moment before she drew her pistol again. She'd lost track of the fight with her antics! "Sakamoto, status!" The grenade burst drew her eyes; she turned to face it, pistol up, and saw Sakamoto looking rather happy. She grimaced to herself and scanned the battlefield for their subject again.

 

[CadetNewb]

The word 'saw' of course, was merely an expression.

"Oh, me? I'm sorry, but it's nothing particularly special. Though, Tamamo and I are talking about going shopping!~" she replied as though it were tea-talk. Keeping an eye out for her next move, the cloaked Ex-Jiyuuian noticed something else, though it didn't show in her voice in the slightest. "Are you doing well? You're not looking to good there." In all honesty though, Sakamoto was very worried. Dealing with the hostile personnel on the ground was easy; whenever Nekovalkyrja dealt with normals, the word Super in super-solider stood out a lot more. Instead, the gunships had her worried - localized tactical superiority was worthless if the enemy had total tactical superiority with a vehicle.

"Tamamo, Tamamo!~ Can you swat some more of those flies up there? I don't want to get stung!"

 

[Eistheid]

"Eight down, twelve left-"
"Eleven left, actually..."

"Tamamo, Tamamo!~ Can you swat some more of those flies up there? I don't want to get stung!"

Sitting behind her bit of popped up cover Tamamo listened to the slowly declining sounds of battle, where there might have been worry in friendly forces previously, now there was a rallying cry only a few hostile entities left on the platform. With how well Luca's forces were trained soon only the PSG would mop up the remnant with minimal effort. Then the clean up on the ground would begin, or rather it would if not for the threat of the circling dropship, its companion seeming to have gone down in the chaos. As the last remnant of the enemy force, only present due to the momentary neutralization of friendly AAA emplacements in the wake of the enemy's landed units, and the present disarray in the wake of the combat on the platforms.

This was about to be a problem, as Sakamoto had alluded to the remaining air support was very likely to want to get revenge for their soon to be wiped out forces. Given that the PSG staff were little fleshy things in the face of a flying war machine that could get messy. It was at this point that Tamamo wished she had a SLAM or two, alternatively a Lorath Antimatter Munitions Launcher. Instead she had a powerful anti-materiel rifle which meant that she needed to apply precision to the enemy forces still in the air, and quickly to eliminate their capacity to continue operating and end the threat before it could be turned on their ground based forces.

Her biggest problem was the need to hit the craft from behind, the dropship sporting much better armored motive systems than the rotor craft had. With the enemy focus on Delta, her best option was to get out onto the bridge and head toward Alpha placing her most likely behind the wheeling dropship.

Replacing the battery in her Spotter Rifle one final time, Tamamo locked it into place as she rolled on to her feet, the plasma thrusters of her Gust kit coming to life and throwing her into the air, hurtling toward platform Alpha. Passing the wheeling dropship, Tamamo rotated using another burn to cancel her momentum and drop toward the deck of Alpha, a mixture of intertial manipulation, and good form negating the impact as the muscles in her legs soaked up the impact.

Bringing up her rifle as the dropship began to turn, Tamamo smoothly settled her sights over one of the exhaust ports that were rapidly rotating out of sight and fired.

The flash, and burn as the relatively delicate parts of the plasma engine heated well beyond their specified levels and were torn apart by the stream of thrust was oddly pretty. The uncontrolled spin as the pilot fought to maintain control continued to captivate her attention as the dropship fell, clipping the bridge between the platforms before tumbling into the ocean below.

Lowering her rifle after chambering a fresh battery, Tamamo looked back toward Delta and wondered if that was the last of it, and whether or not she'd find out why Sakamoto had shown up with a friend unexpectedly, and perhaps satisfy her curiosity as to what sorts of things would make her feel pretty.

 

[Luca]

The Rigs, Delta Platform
The last few Sunburns had been cornered and had guns pointed at them - and they were unable to surrender. The ones who shot back were cut down, and then there were four. They were held down and disarmed by the bloodied, and furious PSG troopers, lifting the remaining belligerents to their feet and slamming them against the back of a crate.

Luca was straightening his collar and making sure his gloves were fitting him properly after the battle. Echelon was reporting no more enemies, since all gunships were down, and the transports were shot. Cameras couldn't spot any other enemies either. Satisfied, Luca relaxed a little. "Ladies, gentlemen, keep them alive." He ordered. "We need information from them, then we can send them packing, their treat." And that usually involved putting a bag over their head, going to some part of the Nepleslia Prime wilderness in the back of a shuttle, cutting their ties and dropping them in the middle of nowhere without any equipment save for the clothes on their backs.

"Sir, we've found another bogey on platform." He heard over the radio, making Luca put his fingers to his temple. "Echelon's got an eye on them. What's your orders?"

Luca started walking towards an indicated position of interest. "They're a friendly apparently," he said, walking through the carnage on his once-beautiful platform and towards the indicated bogey. "I'm coming to meet them. How's Gamma platform?" The surviving PSG forces were isolating the target and arrayed in a circle around them, making them stand out if the pink attire didn't make them stick out amongst the sea of tan, russet, and charcoal battle dresses and personnel armour - rifles, shields, and pistols all in alert positions around her in case she did anything.

"G4MM4'S S3CUR3. 4LL 3N3M13S R0UT3D WH3N TH3Y S4W TH3 L4ST V1P3R G0 D0WN." Upon the catwalk, Echelon was watching the biker Nekovalkyrja very closely, red eye narrowing as she played out - over and over again - how this person fought. She'd seen the fighting style somewhere - but they definitely weren't human. She only knew a few other people able to pull off that sort of fighting with such grace and skill - and brutality.

Luca stepped into the ring as his troops parted around him. He looked around, gaze tracing left and right lazily, as he raised his eyebrow. Luca wasn't expecting guests, let alone Nekovalkyrja. He was expecting opportunistic mercenaries. "I was told there were two of you." He said sternly, before looking to the soldiers around him and holding his hand up ... then lowering it at them.

After a moment's thought, they lowered their weapons, still keeping an eye on the alleged Neko. Some of them exchanged glances, especially at Luca. A few of the enforcers didn't lower their shields, but let their bottom sides clunk against the deck while keeping an eye on the 'friend'.

 

[CadetNewb]

"No, I'm afraid it's just her~," Sakamoto's warm voice tickled one of Luca's ears.

"Yuna - I think Sesshoseki has matured since the last time I was with her," she thought to the other SAINT Neko. Behind Luca, the head of a Nekovalkyrja with long, black hair and a playful, smug smile peeked out from behind the door of one of the cargo containers stacked atop the rig. Thanks to the fight and explosions, they were askew, and in this instance, was the perfect height for her to be laying on her waist and still be able to talk into his ear from just a few inches above. Due to the angle however, they couldn't see the rest of her, which suited the previously cloaked woman just fine. "Last time we went out, she was socially awkward to the point of not understanding the message her clothing gave off - she liked wearing a sukumizu and poncho, and just didn't have the slightest hint of a delightful tone in her voice, always thinking about efficiency and so forth," she began to explain. "Now however, she is very responsive to my play when she was not before - Genki even. Not that I'm complaining. Do you understand?"

"That aside, I hope Tamamo-chan has been treating you well, and you her?" Sakamoto asked Luca. Revealed, they could just barely see her alluringly bare shoulders as her ears gently wagged, back and forward like a pair of legs lazily kicking to pass the time. "Assuming she is what I think she is, Nekovalkyrja like her are rare. A treasure even." Gazing down on the man, her eyes playfully looked down on him, ever so slightly. "Though, if I had to guess, you must have some questions." With a small, dulcet giggle, Sakamoto delightfully smiled at him, eyes briefly closing in the sweetest of expressions. As they opened again however, there was a hint of darkness.

"Be careful."

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yuna had put her pistol away just in time to have weapons pointed at her. She raised her hands — which didn't seem to put them at ease either. Maybe they'd seen her? It's not like she was attacking them, but she didn't belong, no question of that.

Yuna didn't want to move her hands to take off her helmet. People got shot for stuff like that. She absorbed Sakamoto's words, but how was she supposed to consider them? Sesshoseki already was special enough for SAINT to monitor for months and ponder sparing from the death penalty. Was she more special than that? Socially awkward Neko weren't new either.

Sakamoto was familiar with everyone. Yuna took that as a good sign, so she kept quiet — telepathically and otherwise — and didn't challenge Sakamoto's lead.