RP [Strays] The Century War

[Primitive Polygon]

Dunes

The bird-like form of Yamog's Pitohui wobbled and shook in the knees until it slid the rest of the way down the glass-dune, and then juddered and vibrated on the spot for several more moments afterwards.

Piloting a mecha really wasn't like the video games at all- It didn't so much self-right, as constantly fight against face planting, especially with something as supposedly agile, and intentionally unstable, as the one-eyed goblin's 'light' unit. Yamog never imagined it would feel like a helicopter dragging an anchor, sending all of those vibrations right up their spine and throwing their brain around like a washing machine.

Perhaps she would have stated this to captain birdman, but they were far too concerned with keeping their lunch down at the moment. Even Deimos seemed to be having trouble not 'stirring the soup' and overcorrecting, long after she had taken her hands off the controls.

Was it always going to be like this? Was she not worthy? The way that their leader despatched the tank with focused fire seemed so effortless... And Huthang was apparently cleaning shop by himself, calm and collected.

Regaining some semblance of focus, she grasped the joysticks again, and simply sat the mech down for a moment. Perched like a seabird making a rocky nest.

"Sir Roger... I do believe we dun' piled in all disorganized." The creature spoke plainly, losing the strange reverence that was apparently reserved for Deimos alone. "How's about now? Are we pilin' on forward, or we done enough to get they's attenchin'?"

They still sounded sick. They were not good at hiding it.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes

"We strays aint been around long and drop off good as someone looks at us the wrong way. An we cant afford fancy mecha or nothin like that so we build what we can and even without fancy training we learn and we adapt.

Over the past few years most of the Ol' salts that live and learn new shite pass that down to the newbies all that experience earned the hard way so you can start off better than they did. It aint in no book, or that you'll find in some fancy course but we got tricks we learned that you got to too.

Rule #2 is to always use your nanites if things go south. We aint got much of em, two sometimes three canisters but if you ever find yourself in the open, against multiple or more advanced oponents, or what have ye you blow a canister and it'll turn to smoke by default. Your fairy can see through it since its the same nanites shes made of and if shes got time she might highlight through it targets for you to shoot at.

Huthang did well with them and used em right. Remember that for next time but dont blow your load every single time someone looks at you funny cause you are still creating a new obastacle in a scenario for you and the other strays.

Next is one you all just learned with Ronnie; Rule #18 is to always protect your core. We can take all kinds of punishment and even get taken down without killing the pilot. But if your energy cell matrix is ruptured it will blow with the force of a biggun. And even if you can eject or escape its unlikely you'll get far enough before it kills you.

As such the places you should look out for damage the most are:

You joints in the legs. If they are damaged or crippled you are a sitting duck.

The cockpit. It isnt hardly armored and some energy weapons can pass right through it.

Your back. Most of our armor covers our whole mech but from behind you enemies can get shots at your joints, thrusters, and your center axel.

Other than that you lot didn't do too bad. There's more that fits the situation like #17 and #19 but the skinny of it is to learn from your mistakes and experiences. And as for getting their attention you tell me!"

As chips monolouged and their Fairys ran diagnostics there was little actual damage to affect any of them. There was already wear to their machines and negligible errors like the most minor of pressure loss in a hydraulic joint, or a treadwell being off alignment by a fraction of a percent. But other than being jostled about and a chunk of ammo and energy low their machines were in good condition.
From their position in the dune, however, it was impossible to tell if they had been noticed. In all their HUDs and the GPS map on one console in each cockpit a little marker popped up on their position to mark their salvage as not needing to climb the dune back up and just go around it this time they turned about and, significantly closer, the massive pyramidal factory loomed.

There was no longer any sign of the shuttles or vehicles from before. All had made it inside the factory and even the ship on its landing pad had no crew or attendees to show as the whole installation seemed buttoned up tight.

And then, from the other side of the middle-level of the facility, there was a speck. Easy to miss at first as just more radiation artifacts until it came about in a wide arc and pulled in their general direction.

"Yeah, Looks like at least somebody saw the light show. With that storm coming I can bet davies to tomatoes whoever is in charge of Sec for that place doesnt want his boys to be caught in the storm for whatever some worker thought they saw, but is professional enough to send a quick shuttle this way to scope it out and zoom on back ahead of it when they know they wont find nothin.

And that's just what we needed~" He cooed in an added clucking tone.

"With that storm comin and the normal radiation levels plays all kinds of heck with sensors and scopes unless you make em, especially for it like ours. So their flyboy will need to come in real close and wont pick us up unless we stay in the open unconcealed. So it's time you learned a new trick, watch this."

From his position in the lance only meters from the rest of them one of the canisters on Chips Highwayman burst and within several seconds the wavy glitter of the mirage nanites appeared to solidify into a coherent shape that was thinner at the top but widened and flattened out by the bottom as his mech was replaced with more glittering glass sands that unless they were as close as the other Strays to notice it shift somewhat in the solar winds would be indistinguishable from his surroundings.

"On average your mech should have three to six canisters of mirage nanites. Likewise Mirage nanites can take any shape color or form. Fire, water, a big fuckoff tree; They can take that shape. My favorite is to turn myself into a dune like this, or a big rock and ambush using em. You lot do the same. Tell your girl what you want her to do and then dump a canister, in the future you can pre-program these on one of your terminals for quick use but for now leave it to her and then wait for my signal to light that sucker up! "

 

[Commissar Farzi]

"Come on Luk; I'll turn us into a sand dune." Luk had no idea what Chips was on about, but after Wayfinder had included a visual aid showing his big walking-thing crouching low and a lizard mutant hitting a button. He did that, and watched in amazement as the strange can let its contents flow. They now projected a dune of sand that would be none-too out of place on this world.

His stomach let out a slight, soft rumble...his tummy was starting to complain. Maybe there'd be some yummies he could eat after this.

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands
A couple of kilometres South of Fancy's Factory

The mutant felt incredibly lucky that they hadn't suffered any combat damage so far. Hearing Chips describe all the ways things could go wrong with one of their mechs, Huthang decided that he would do his best to keep both himself and Titania away from as much enemy fire as possible. In retrospect, not choosing a mainline heavy-firepower option for his combat machine looked to have been the right call after all. Really, the only immediate downside to the Avatar of Lyco was its slow speed, so maybe they would have to see about some way of supercharging the treads or otherwise enhancing its mobility.

Regardless, thoughts of potential modifications would have to wait as an enemy aircraft made itself known. He carefully listened to the advice from the avian mutant, more than happy to increase his ongoing chances of survival in any way Huthang could. This nanite system would prove invaluable, time and time again, the stray suspected as it sounded more and more like the perfect tool for a stealthy ambush predator. Which pretty much was the exact description of Huthang since the early thirties. All he really had to do was figure out how to adapt his skillset to mech operation and tactics.

But now wasn't the time for future planning, now it was time to hide and bide his time for the ambush. "Do it, Titania - hide us!" Huthang ordered his faerie AI, more than aware that she was just waiting for his command. He also chose not to specify exactly how to hide them, figuring that she was smart enough to choose something sensible.

"On it, Huthang!" the faerie replied, clearly excited. "One fairy mound and toadstool coming right up!" Before the mutant could even begin to process that statement and react to the colossally bad idea, the faerie blew a raspberry at him. "Psych!" She giggled, more than aware of just how quickly his heart had suddenly started beating. "Don't worry, silly! Just like geology, we rock!" And indeed, bad pun aside, the faerie had released the nanites which clouded around the Avatar of Lyco and turned it into what would appear, for all intents and purposes, like a craggy mass of rock emerging from under the sand.

Huthang groaned at the pun and instead chose to focus on getting his heartbeat back under control.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes

"Not bad not bad!" Chips commed in over the net. Inside their individual disguises they couldnt see out at all but in their hud and the inside of the mirage the outline of each mech was highlighted for them as was an icon for the distant shuttle with a rapidly closing distance notification that was quickly descending in calculated distance.

"With the ground radiation, the pilot won't be able to see much and will need to come low and turn about so he can see visually. If I was him, not that I can fly or nothin, I'd still pay attention to the energy signature of Ronnies mech site, and that star paint glowin and all above anything else. We aint come up against Fancy more than some skirmishin but either way soon as that pilot sees the star paint he'll know somethings awry and that we're in the area regardless so the jig's up either way.

So we might as well swat the bastard now and get a head start in without an assault shuttle nipping at our- Get ready!"

As he shouted the last part the shuttle entered within a kilomiter of them and on a direct approach. It flew low to the dunes at just fifty or so meters up and was pointing almost directly at them.

"No missiles, he might notice the lock. Guns only, the fastest shootin you got and if he aint scrap by the time he flies over us then you lock macromissiles on it and it should hit the thrusters from behind, on my mark..."

Closer, closer, and closer it got until just a couple hundred meters away Chips mech visibly moved forwards several steps out of its cover. With a low, almost too quiet tone he growled "Marcus." And the three hyper-laseres on the arm of his mech cut the sky in half with a torrent of blue as they spread and zig-zagged like a hose faucet even as others fired.

There was a muzzle flash from one flank of the shuttle and the stream of a rocket but both went wide as the pilot corrected and jerked the craft into a steep climb. It barely made it a half hundred meters before the steep angle caused a drastic decrease in the shuttles speed and for a brief moment it almost appeared to hover in place, nose up, as bolts of energy and rounds followed up its path and then into the fuselage of the shuttle which within a moment seemed to inflate and expand as it burst from within as something vital was struck and the shuttle exploded into a cloud of fire, smoke, and raining debris.

"Good kill, Who got it? Never mind it's scrap now!" Chips cawed, the excitement in his voice apparent. There was a sigh of contentment as they all stared at the still present but dissipating smoke plume as trails of fire slowly fell to the ground like lazy fireflies. With a second sigh, as if nobody had heard the first chips drew it out with finality.

"Yeah... Run." He stated matter of factly as his Highwayman pointed away from the destroyed shuttle, the deathcrawlers, and the factory and slowly at first before picking up speed began to hightail it back the way they came and towards the mile-high wall of black and lightning that was almost upon them.

The shuttle had been dead less than a minute and the last of the lightest debris was only just touching the sand when even distant as it was more than just the normal hazzard lights covering the pyramidal-shaped factory blazed on and began to wave around like spotlights. Massive bay doors at its base errupted with flashing red warning lights as garage-style doors began to open.

And to top it all off five more flying aircraft came from the other side of the factory, all five with long humanoid shapes almost as long as the shuttles themselves attached beneath them as if waiting to be dropped.

"What are you waiting for, leg it!" Chips ordered already a quarter mile ahead of them. As his mechs upper body turned around no doubt to look at them still idle he curse at having seen the new airborne threats.

"Oh. balls those are freakin mecha! And there's five of them! Go! Go! Go! Get to the storm!"

There was at the minimum three kilomiters to the storm from where they were set. The impossibly rapid deployment of the factories forces aside the previous shuttle had closed the distance to them in less than a minute and it would take them almost three to five to reach the storm...

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands
Too few kilometres South of Fancy's Factory

Perhaps it was the sheer sense of unfiltered victory that had so distracted Huthang. It had felt good when the Deathcrawler's had been taken out, but that had been tempered by the loss of Ronnie and the rather heavy come-down from the adrenaline-rush of sudden combat. This time though, the Strays had dropped the enemy from a perfect ambush. Indeed, Huthang's Avatar of Lyco had joined the outpouring of firepower with its own - with Chips having forbidden early deployment of missiles, the hyper laser was the only remaining long-range weapon at the mutant's disposal. He'd certainly poured on the rounds and done some damage, although Huthang was certain he hadn't fired the kill shot as he had been trying to breach the shuttle's cockpit at the time.

So yeah, in many ways it had felt like the Strays' first kill as a team. Considering such, it was no wonder that Huthang, like many of his compatriots, had been distracted when Chips started the tactical retreat. In fact, it was kind of embarrassing just how long it took the mutant to come back to any kind of awareness of his surroundings. Even as he threw the controls of his mech over, causing the Lyco's treads to spin into action and start propelling him southward as quickly as the machine could manage, Huthang cursed his inattention. This was exactly how he would get himself killed if he didn't curb such insane behaviour in the future.

As it was, Huthang wasn't exactly feeling that the odds of survival were currently falling in his favour. A quick munitions check confirmed what he already knew - 3 canisters of nanites, 2 shieldbreaker and 2 high explosive macromissiles, plus about enough charge for about thirty seconds of continuous firing of the hyper laser. He could always turtle up using the nanites, wait for the storm to hit, then use it as cover for his exfiltration but for all he knew, those mecha's would be able to see straight through it.

"We're not going to make it, are we?" The faerie AI seemed unusually subdued. Well, he couldn't have that and there was no way Huthang was willing to just throw in the towel. That sort of thinking would only guarantee the loss and he hadn't survived as long as he had by making things easier for his enemies. It wasn't like he had anything to lose anyway - being the slowest of the Strays' mechs, he would be the first to feel the wrath of Powers' forces. Maybe it was time to look fate in the eye and roll the dice again, see if the mutant's luck would hold out a little longer - maybe deliver him the hard six.

"Chin up, girl, I need you. Keep us moving towards that storm as fast as you can - use the jump jets to adjust our course." Huthang nudged the controls, causing the torso of his mech to spin so that he was facing towards the distant Factory and the approaching shuttles. "Now, we can't lock them with the missiles, so I want you to prep the remaining missiles to go ballistic and detonate as close to the enemy shuttles as you can manage. Launch as soon as you can. Meanwhile, I'll try to keep them blinded with the hyper laser." With one deep sigh, Huthang dropped the targeting reticule for the hyper laser over the approaching shuttles and began spraying out beams of blue energy. With any luck that would impair their vision and sensors enough that Titania's missiles would stand a chance of doing something to slow the pursuit.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands
South of Fancy's Factory

Yamog's Pitohui didn't bolt away and leave Huthang behind, even though they easily could have, due to the difference in chassis and mobility. The titanic metal chicken just trotted away about fifty feet to his left, rough terrain causing it to prance as if dancing on hot coals, at this medium speed setting.

"Do we have to wait for them?" Deimos questioned within the dim confines of the cockpit bubble. Yamog felt uniquely distant from her comrades, struggling to hear through the static clatter of wind particulates bouncing off the outer hull... All just like little sea frigates, lost in a stormy gale...

"He has bigger guns. It would make sense. He's better equipped to shoot down the shuttles." The one-eyed creature stiltingly answered the machine. She didn't want to lie to her idol. "Don't worry, my precious. I will take your AI storage out with me if we need to escape. I will protect you, too."

Deimos sulked, actively forming into a tiny humanoid on the dashboard, so it could glare at her with those deep, black, demanding eyes.

"...I'll allow it. But I'm going to decide what you owe me later."

"Of course, my- Erm, could you fold out the panels? We should blind any incoming guided missiles, like we did to that death crawler." A cherishing, befangled smile. All four of her arms were busy keeping the mech's speed perfectly constant, not slipping on random junk- Opening up their own missile ports to get locks on any shuttle that passed close enough- and thirdly, making sure the active field of their ECM unit was big enough to cover Huthang's mech as well as her own.

Would have been nice to fire first, but the mech really wasn't equipped for any artillery fire like that...

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes.

The best advantage the mechs had when moving was the 360-degree capable movement of the upper body while doing it. Locking in the forward movement was easy even if making sure you did not drift too close to a fellow mech was hard. But luckily none of them had that problem as their courses locked and most could simply turn their fuselage 180-degrees around to look behind them with most of their weapons as well.

Even with the storm so close it was too far away. And with only a couple hundred meters from where they first started running the shuttles were already close enough to make out the details on the Mecha suits each one carried underslung on their bellies.

Not as sleek or new-looking as anything Origin would make each mecha was nearly identical in a boxy Nepleslian favored aesthetic as a second-hand quality frame. Bipedal, and with arms carrying massive mecha-grade rifles unlike the strays own mounted or built-in weapons each one was painted a brown-red camouflage.

Five hundred meters out huthang and others let loose Macromissiles and weapons fire. Not as effective as the first shuttle there was enough lead time for each shuttle to pull belly-up and away as a mechanism released each mecha and they fell hundreds of feet to the sands which kicked up violently around them, obscuring them only briefly as thrusters in their feat and back slowed their landing.


While the same height as most of their mechs the similarities ended there. Out of the five each carried a massive assault rifle while a couple even carried massive Bazooka tubes or other weapons maglocked to them. As if rehearsed the five exploded into motion all at once as, unlike the strays who ran-

The newcomers glided across the sands on their thrusters.

Whats more, despite the rapidly closing distance the previous shuttles came about and from them spewed suits of powered armor.

Beyond even them dust trails kicked up as slower-to-deploy vehicles departed from the factory in their direction.

Outgunned at least ten to one the comm crackled to life with an excited chips.

"Ah shit. Mission accomplished here they come!" He laughed despite the stress as his Highwayman turned into a near disco-ball of light as he unloaded all of his weapons at the rapidly gaining mecha who effortlessly dodge to the sides on their thrusters.

"Get ready-" He started, excitement building. "Prepare for fairy-to-fairy communication!"

Closing in now channels began to intersect. Lacking any military-style encryption or specific channels it became relatively clear when the closing mechas radio chatter began to merge with their own what chips was implying when new voices cut onto their comms.

<<H-4 watch those pannels.>>

<<H-4 copies. Leave that one to me!>>

<<H-2, the tracked one is mine. I want to grapple!>>

<<Negative H-2. Kill clean and move on. I want us done before that storm->>

<<I hear em on our freq. Hey, Mutants, don't run! Come and play!>>

[[Communicate through your Fairys from here on out.]] Each of their fairys spoke up in a comical impression of Chips' voice as if each was trying to sound like him. [[We got the Fae, they don't. And they gonna wish they did real damn soon, Rhindol?]]

The last statement, confusing as it was became apparent as the five mecha, dodging fire, shooting down missiles with smaller secondaries, and tanking on energy shields everything else started to widen into a semi-circle as they closed the proverbial noose around them.

It started quiet at first. Like a weak signal getting picked up on a radio. Stopping and then restarting several times as someone restarted it over and over it faded in each time to sound at first like distorted static and then become more and more clear as music as heavy guitar riffs and 808-drums drowned out the annoyed cries of the annoyed enemy pilots.


It was loud and intense and despite how it acted to drown out any non-fairy communication it did nothing to actually stop their impending death.

At least until the intense guitar solo started to ebb into a buildup and each fairy responded with [[Wait for the drop!]]

Less than a second later like dragging a fork against an electric guitar's strings the music shifted in pitch and new icons appeared on their screens behind them.

NOW YOU'RE PLAYIN WITH POWAH, BABY!

A voice louder than the music screamed over the comms and a mile behind them and to the side an outline pulled ahead of the wall of static and darkness. Possibly forty feet tall it dwarfed even the enemy mecha it stomped out and into the dunes as the massive Avatar of Phage loomed into the battlefield.

Looking towards the mecha chasing after its comrades however it did not see the rockets fired by one of the shuttles streak right into it as explosions racked the side of the mech. More than enough to kill even a mech that size when the dust settled the Avatar of Phage continued on even as more rockets streamed towards it. It was easy to see, however, the ERA pannels covering it exploding before each impact and the few that did get through leaving just marrs on the armor of the heavy mech.

It did not pause in the slightest as it erupted in laser fire from a half dozen locations on its body and missile launchers deployed from its shoulders sending streams of Mega Macromissiles into the air.

Whats more the much larger super-mega-macromissile launcher fired one of its three massive missiles which fired straight up into the sky and towards the incoming shuttle.

Its fate was unseen as, despite the heavy mech there was an even larger shape pulling out of the storm.

One Hundred Meters above the ground, something pulled out of the storm. Flat, like a deck it was sported on the sides with two massive gattling-style weapons each as long as any of their mechs legs. As it pulled out further a neck, and then a body, and then one massive leg after the other came out arduously slow but with its size covering incredible ground.

The storm seemed almost like it was striking it with endless lightning right until the massive vents on its abdomen shut off and the trillions of mirrage nanites it was feeding in to create the illusion of the ion-storm no longer followed the massive seige mech as Big ANThony took the field from its camouflage of an entire fake ion storm




Underneath its legs and around it smaller forms rushed out as first five, and then ten, and then twenty total mechs ranging from lights to mediums to even a couple other heavy mechs entered the battle.

One of the massive weapons on ANThonys frame glowed as the laser-storm battery erupted to life and filled the gap between it and a distant target. The burst only lasted a couple of seconds but thousands of bolts covered the distance in an instant and two of the enemy mecha simply ceased to exist as a thousand laser bolts passed through them without resistance.

And then the slowly buildup of guitars and drums erupted as the beat dropped.

Their fairys laughing maniacally in Chips squawking tone, his was the first mech to turn about as the five on five turned into a five on three.

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Luk whined as Wayfinder kicked his mech into high gear, guiding him along the dunes as they weaved between them. "It's alright Luk," Wayfinder cooed, trying to soothe the big mutant, "Just hang on a little bit longer-we just gotta make it through this fight." She helped him guide his torso right, sending a smattering of hyperlaser fire at the mecha as they veered right, trying to keep up with the maniacal Chips.

The big mutant was starting to get hungry, he wanted nom-noms...his eyes began to drift over the various instruments and monitors...his mouth salivating as viscous drool dripped down his chin.

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands
A few kilometres South of Fancy's Factory

Huthang felt like swearing to himself, unable to shake his firm belief that he had been denied critical, need to know, information. There he was desperately fighting for both his and his faerie's survival in the face of insurmountable odds, certain death staring him in the face. Not to mention the intercepted comms that suggested one of the enemy had picked him out to grapple with and the mutant shuddered once more at the memory of the suggestive overtone's he had heard in that claim. That sounded like it would have made for a particularly unpleasant end and left him with the odd urge to scream 'Bad Touch!'

But no, as it turned out, reinforcements were literally right on top of them. Of course, Huthang acknowledged that Chips had promised the storm contained a surprise, but the eldritch mutant still felt hard done by and idly considered if it would be worth punching the avian in the face. Probably not, all things considered, especially as his aggression was likely being enhanced by the stress hormones flooding through his body. Huthang had to admit though, the sight of that monster emerging from the storm had been fairly epic.

"Alright, Titania, guess we can stop running now. Give me back movement control. We're pretty much down to just the hyper laser and the saw-blade. So, let's let some of the other's draw the enemy attention and see if we can't catch someone with their pants down." Huthang twisted the controls, moving the Avatar of Lyco in an arc until it faced back towards the ongoing combat, the upper body rotating back in line with the lower as it turned to bear. With a snarl, he moved back towards the action, looking for a target of opportunity.

 

[club24]

Dunes

Emma for her part was a little overwhelmed when the fighting started, she herself had been though rough situations but nothing like this especially with her somewhat limited mech experience, it was nothing like the diggers she was used to. When her fairy took over for a moment the saurian was almost grateful, switching into serious mode she used the time to reorient herself with their current team layout and the enemies. Emma may have been a bit of a boomer but she refused to be useless.

"Hey, I cant fight that well in this yet, but if you need a distraction I'm your gal!" The gravel voiced Lizard lady barked to Huthang.

Without sticking around for much discussion she took off out sideways from the others firing star paint everywhere towards the remaining unfriendly mechs.

"I wouldn't recommend this course of action, but at least when you die the team can avenge you miss Caver" Oynx spoke with a sigh while assisting to make sure at least some of the corrosive goo landed where it should.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes

Caught on the back foot the three surviving mecha did not retreat but instead exploded into action as they boosted on their thrusters directly towards the lance no doubt in an attempt to put the smaller group of mechs between them and the much larger assault; That while a few of the mechs looked their way continued on towards the factory and the tanks and vehicles that were much slower to deploy.

On the side of the factory a massive explosion went up as the corporations drone soldiers that had been slowly creeping towards the factory finally made their move as even from their distance away laser fire could be seen on the landing pad around the freighter and all over the base of the factory.

The music dulled down as the volume in each headset was tuned down there was no more eavesdropping on the three enemies as they closed from a hundred meters away to half that in a matter of seconds all the while energy shields unseen until they were hit with laser fire flashed and rippled as two managed to break off to either side as one moved towards Luk and another towards Emma.

Another kept right up the middle dirrectly towards Huthang whose lasers ripped into the mechas shield, finally breaking it as the mech turned its mass slightly to catch several shots on its shoulder pauldron and the collar-area of the mech where the armor was thickest until it managed to twist out of the arc of fire and let off an automatic volley of laser fire dirrectly at Huthangs Lyco as whipcracks of energy impacts hit and were absorbed by the energy-dampening coating with the exception of a single bolt which hit his cockpit.

The energy bolt hit near the top of the cockpit before the transparent durrandium refracted the energy into a new angle as it went from about to turn Huthang into melted sludge and instead going over his shoulder and into some of the electronics in the back of the cockpit which briefly bathed him in uncomfortable heat as the energy dissipated. A warped distortion now in his cockpit glass he came back to attention just as the mecha dropped its energy rifle and then drew a massive jagged axe that weighed as much as a car and, now mere meters from Huthan rose the axe above its head and started to swing down directly in an arc at the cockpit.

Meanwhile another of the mecha was also closing on Luk but instead of moving into melee was trying to stay ahead of the slower mech as it turned to track while unloading bolt after bolt of laser fire into his dynamiteon as each volt wore down some of its energy dampenning coating. Within moments if left unchecked the enemy mecha would be hehind Luk and have a line of sight on his exposed joints and hydraulics.

As for the mech moving for Emma it chose to overpower its boosters and take to the air as it lept twenty meters high and brought a massive bazooka to aim dirrectly at her as a massive rocket left the barrel and streaked towards her mech at considerable speed from above.

With only three mecha to the five mechs both Chips and Yamog were left alone to act as they pleased. Chips for his part was looking up and away as he kept moving tracking a distant assault shuttle likely waiting for it to possibly move into a closer range while Yamog was left to her own devices on how to proceed next...

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Wayfinder realized that moment, that there was no way that she, or Luk, given his limited intelligence, was going to be able to evade the mecha behind them. His mech was too slow...unless.

"Get ready Luk!" The mech suddenly turned on it heel-spraying out a stream of Starpaint with the intent to blind its pursuer. The real danger however came from it suddenly running full tilt, with the Fairy overriding any safety limiters on its power system; focusing it all to the jump jets. "NOW LUK-HIT THE BUTTON!" She screeched, indicating it with a chicken leg. Unfortunately, the big lizard mutant's hunger got the better of him, and with a growl he lashed out, making to bite the joystick. Predicting this, Wayfinder activated the jumpjets while simultaneously triggering the ejection system, sending the light mech careening towards the mecha with all guns set to auto-fire as the pilot cleared the cockpit-chewing a part of the console all the while.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

The mecha circling Luk attempted to recoil as first his path and then the machine itself was dazzled a glowing sickly bright green. Coincidentally blind not from any facial exposure but by the sheer bloom covering its chest and collar area the pilot continued in a circle that would have seen it behind Luk.

If Luk had still been there. Suddenly farsighted the pilot was already squinting against the glow when the entirety of his camera-view was engulfed by the smaller mech as it slammed crotch-shield first into the mechas head giving it the first recorded instance of mechanized teabagging as the mechs crotch slammed into the mecha and while it did not decapitate the machine it did rip the head up and out of its neck joint to hang off by cables and supports as the machine idled in mid-air momentarily before it continued its momentum and fell backwards to land on its back, unmoving in the sand.

The Dynamiteon, no longer connecting a fairy through the Fae lost all gyroscoptic control and cartwheeled in the air until it slammed with finality several meters away damaged especially with one of its legs at an angle the hydraulics should not have been able to support otherwise.

In the low-gravity of freehold, Luks pilot-chair soared remarkably high as the forces of gravity jerked him about until simple dirrectional thrusters and a grav-chute began alowing him to slowly drift down over a hundred meters above the battle as dazzling laser shows fired back and forth. No longer connected to the mech through the Fae, Wayfinder was regulated to his power glove but could not materialize in the solar winds without her nanites being blown away.

And with the lack of any air on freehold in its poor pressure atmosphere even if she spoke the Mutant would not hear him.

Eventually the chair landed hard and slanted in the sands some seventy meters from his and the now downed enemy mech. The rest of the lance and the counterattack had already passed him and were just distant shapes dazzling in the distance. In the dark he did not see it, and could not hear until the mutant Luk noticed casually a laserbolt striking right infront on him as he began to right himself from the infernal restraints.

In the dark sands it was hard to see, but there was a small form ontop of his prey shooting at him.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Approaching Huthang

Yamog had folded their offensive panels and missile pods back in during worst of the opening fire from the allied flying apparatus, too consumed with the minutiae of tracking incoming target vectors. Placing themselves fast and low behind various dunes, protrusions of wreckage and escarpments. Trying to use the sensor systems of the others to blind-fire missiles up and over line of sight...

"We are outmatched... Their machines, fast and fluid... Their sheilds bein' as strong as they souls..." She muttered, no doubt bleeding into the comes of both sides. A corruptive fire of doubt filled their chest, though their four arms still manipulated the controls on mental autopilot. Deimos was indignant, but said nothing, knowing that they were right.

The Pito was flawed even as a scout, because the human interface was lacking compared to power armour- And despite it's speed, it had no jump jets to negate poor terrain. Was this really just a cheap cannon fodder unit, after all?...

Grimly, they watched the speed of Huthang's Lyco diminish, the icon blinking red and orange with damage reports. Vectored lines of strikes from an enemy as yet undetected.

Moving, moving, trudging ahead, glued to the dirt of this cursed place... The blue spider split the difference and put herself somewhere behind where she guesstimated the enemy might be powersliding towards, moving in for the kill.

Panels were already opening up again. The unsettling wobble of the unlimbered chassis starting to become familiar...

The moment she got the spark of a signal that couldn't be a freindly, she'd unload everything in sequence- Constant machine gun, alternating flashes from their radiators and missile barrages, in up-> forward auto-tracking prisim spread.

Everything.

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Luk yelped as the laser glassed the sand in front of him, hunger forgotten as he scrambled to his feet and carried the ejected seat with him, the lizard mutant barely phased by the weight on his back as he legged it.

Unfortunately given his limited intelligence and his blind panic to get away he wound up running toward the thing that was shooting at him, before his forward momentum built up too much to maneuver and he wound up digging a makeshift trench in the sand-digging it close to a foot deep before coming to stop and burying his head in the process. To an onlooker it would've been hilarious as the chair stuck cleanly upwards with the chute following him-likely shielding his back and giving the impression that perhaps a shot had hit. Luk simply blinked slowly before letting a low, rumbling growl...His stomach did likewise in mutual irritation as drool began to slowly pool in his mask...

 

[club24]

Emma continued spewing the corrosive substance towards the rapidly closing in opposition before it launched into the air, the saurian paused her attack and craned her neck to try and see where it went. The fairy AI Onyx almost screamed the word EVADE as the bazooka was drawn, Emma was still in awe for a moment before her survival instincts kicked in and she gunned the mech forwards, keeping as low as possible knowing a munition that size would be causing shrapnel like no one's business. The little machine was nimble but compared with a propelled explosive assisted by gravity? It was a massive gamble as the scaly miner nearly crushed the joystick in her massive hand attempting to get far enough to avoid total destruction.

Emma internally was fighting another battle with herself, she had never been in such a tense situation that couldn't be solved with some dedication and teamwork, being a miner her whole life the saurian was used to cave-ins, tunnels collapsing on or around her and even had some close calls with explosives and the tax department, but combat like this was still new to her.

"I'm about to be in a world of trouble gang!" Was all she could think to say in the short window of time.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes

A shadow enveloped the dunes above the lance darkening an already deep shade of black into near night as ANThony strode purposefully above the mechs on its journey towards the factory.

Each leg fifty meters and more in length with several joints the massive flat spikes thumped into the sands as far apart as they were long and the massive body of the seige mecha easily thrice if not more the height of any of their mechs passing by like a low-flying starship on legs. It; For the machine was controlled by a collection of Fairys and a single operator pilot paid those bellow it no heed as it strode above them, each stride of one of its massive and long six legs taking wide swinging lunges as it moved.

It caused a distancing between the two fighting groups as the two remaining Mecha waved out of the way of legs that could crush them flat and Yamog and Emma managed to stay under the massive mecha by coincidence like protected chicks under a mother falcon. After several steps the mecha stopped and lurched forwards slightly as the momentum of its mass carried and then was pulled back again. The moment the siege platform was stationary the very world around it vibrated like tying their mechs to the side of a starships thrusters as one of the massive anti-starship weapons on the mecha fired and the world was bathed blue-purple as the collection of laser-storms passed across the sands to wash the factory in several thousand bolts of energy like a deadly spray of energy.

Seeing that the massive platform had not yet noticed them or did not care the two enemy mecha circled around it in opposite patterns. They fired weapons occasionally but the massive legs worked well enough as shields and the one with an energy bazooka clearly did not wish to provoke the wrath of the corporation's largest fielded mech.

There was one final shake as some great gout of energy left the mech in a continuous stream connecting it to the pyramidal factory as it zig-zagged a pattern up the length of the metal pyramid before that too died down and with a rumble as it leaned forwards one of the legs moved and then another. Within moments only the abdomen and massive radar disk on its back were in sight as one of the turrets on the back of the mech swiveled to look at them and then away but coincidentally not at the two remaining enemies.

Each stride taking it the length of any of their mechs the siege platform was soon striding away and, like sharks, the two mecha boosted back into the fray. They were seperately moving but one, not heeding or remembering a warning before moved well within range of the Pitohuis' macrowave pannels and glowed with orange reflective bloom as it was enveloped in a concentrated interference. Shields coalesced around the mecha as it closed a distance but broke within moments as the pito's secondaries bathed it in fire.

Exposed fully to the interference of four of the pannels at once; Sparks began to fly off the mecha and it continued to burn at Yamog with a mecha-rifle held cocked at the elbow to fire...

And then it soared past her mech and tumbled end over end like a twenty-five-foot tall cartwheel of metal arms and legs as something important locked up. It eventually came to a stop fourty or so feet away from her mech on its side with one arm in a very torn off kind of way and one of its legs currently scratching the side of its head. A hand was still flexing, however, and held on to the stockless massive rifle with the remaining hand as the head swiveled left and then right and left again as if shaking its head in a daze; The pilot was knocked about and their mecha not well withstanding such damage but it was still alive if damaged.

Butt of the rifle into the sand the mecha began to try to push itself up into a seated position...

The cockpit of Emmas fire-ant lit up from a dim glow of lights from buttons into a great corona as the energy bazooka struck somewhere bellow the cockpit and illuminated everything into bloom as the red-orange beam of energy however brief burned through the anti-energy coating on her mech in the split second it was active. Entire pannels turned red or blacked out all together and the cute little representation image of her mech turned red at the left hip all the way down to the foot where it sustained heavy damage and went yellow at the pelvis.

The shot had, in less than a second, crippled the mechs left leg which melted and locked together even as internal gyroscopes fought to keep it upright and thrusters on the mech burst to life to compensate through Onyxs' intervention all to keep her mech upright.

Eyes spotting with sunspots she could still see the mecha as it tossed its energy bazooka aside and drew a backup pistol of some kind. A secondary it might have been but the bullets that thing fired were likely as long as a Nepleslian mans forearm even as the mecha closed the distance hip-firing the automatic pistol as her mech rocked with impacts and part of her cockpit even buckled before the transparent durrandium as a round deflected off right to the side of the cockpit where she sat.

The other hand of the mecha skillfully drew a knife that must have been four or five foot long and even had a cliche serrated back to it a morbid part of her assumed was to gut mechs like her own and pull out half the internals on those teeth. Boosting straight at her the Mecha discarded the machinepistol as well and put its not free hand behind the pommel of the massive mecha-sized knife as it closed a distance of for what normal people might have been a sports field in length directly at her all the while Emmas fairy screamed at her to do something before they got turned into saurian-kebabs!.


The ejection seat indeed saved Luk as it began to heat up uncomfortably where several energy bolts had not quite burned through it but the heat still transferred through to his suit was more to save from radiation or cold than energy.

After a moment, however, it stopped. When no more shots hit him the Mutant was able to look up at the downed prey only to see nothing there any more on the top.

It wasnt hard to miss the pilot now at the bottom of the mech pulling himself up where he had either fallen off of it or jumped. The pilot had clearly lost his pistol somwhere in the fall but now wielded some kind of fat axe-knife combo that Pathfinder were she able would likely be able to tell him was shaped the way it was to cut a tangled pilot out of such an ejection seat as he was stuck in. With a rounded top it was hardly meant for stabbing or tearing like Luks teeth restrained in his mask as they were.

At a distance of perhaps fifty feet the pilot dramatically set off some kind of hand flare and held it above his helmeted head with one hand while the other held the knife at the ready, its intent clear. Lowering his body posture the pilot exploded into a dash at Luk, which, in the lower gravity of freehold was more akin to the speed of someone trying to run through waist-high water...

The prey comes to Luk.

 

[club24]

Emma cursed excessively at the display as her leg became inoperable and the shorts started hitting her straight on.

Looking up at the huge blade sailing towards her, the Saurian growled much to the surprise of her fairy and whipped around front and center, firing a concentrated torrent of star paint and blasting both her Macro Lasers in rapid fire at the attacker, lacking arms Emma eventually fired her remaining working jets to try and make a hop backwards and avoid the falling blade.

"I AIN'T DYING TODAY FUCKER, S'ANYONE GOT SUMTHIN TO HELPOUT HERE?"

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

The factory was on the last dregs of resistance when Bill Fancy finally boarded his shuttle and with a few of his key executives and share holders took off under fire from the mechs and drone invaders bellow.

The shields held, luckily, and within moments the shuttle was out of range and burning for the stars and his luxury yacht in orbit.

He would call in all the favors he could, every last debt owed to him, every mercenary company he could get his hands on; He would see the mutant tramp hanging by her tail in the solar winds six months from now.

All that work...

With a frustrated sigh William Fance started mass-sending messages to his few spacer allies assuring them that the fall of his local enterprise was just a setback. He was halfway in orbit when he finally relented to the meeting he was dreading the most when he rested his head back and sunk into his mindware.

He was back in the moot now. Mostly empty a few of his supposed allies and a few unaligned spacers were present watching as if through a massive window from one of the motherships the assault on his factory.

"And where were you?" He asked tersely to the type-two avatar of one of the larger mothership forces in orbit.

"Harlequin mothership has interceded on Shasta Archelettas behalf". The monotone spacer implied casually as Bill Fancy turned to the gaudy spacer at the other side of the moot, the silent representative of Harlequin Mothership.

"And you just let them get in your way?" He demanded.

"This is a fight between Nepleslians, William Fance. Not of the free folk." The spacer informed him and then, clearly dismissing the man went back to watching his former allies factory be invaded.

"You bit off more than ye could chew, Fancy-man." the Knight Sparke bellowed mirthfully as the massive freespacer stood alongside Keiji Archeletta and the small sprite fairy of Alpha Beta.

"You knew." Bills voice was cold as ice at the accusation of the mootmaster.

"Ah know much of what happens on the gem of freehold factory, but not this. Little Abigail outplayed ye, Fancy-man."

The fairys grin was inhumanly wide, literally ear to ear with sharpened dangerous teeth and arrow-slit eyes like a predators.

He was about to retort when a new connection pulled at his attention. Seeing the ID on it he moved to a seperate room and crossed his arms.

"Come to gloat?" He sneered as the tall, lanky mutant before him smiled a nuclear smile right at him.

"No!" Shasta smiled playfully and unconvincingly in the annoying way of an overly extroverted mutant could. "But you gotta admit; We got you real good!" She giggled like it was all just one playground game he had lost.

"Your little attack has just cost me close to a hundred million DA, Mutant."

"It's just money!" Shasta whined at him, getting uncomfortably close to his personal space. "You can always just make more! Come on, you gotta admit it was fun, that it got your heart racing, bill!"

William Fance stared the mutant down. He felt on the verge on an aneurysm with his blood pressure so high but a little part of him really did envy the mutants nuclear personality. What if he had been as beloved by millions as she was? What could he have done with the same consumer base and blind loyalty to her brand? She too had lost a significant margin of profit in the attack and he knew for a fact from his own espionage it was unlikely she could afford to run his factory let alone finish the grand project he had been uncovering.

And yet despite all his anger, all the rage boiling over that little part of him gave in and he gave a very deep, defeated sigh in contempt.

"This isnt over, Shasta." He informed her level, only getting a beaming and competitive grin back as her tail swished about excitedly.

"That's the best part!" She informed him back, throwing an arm around his shoulder to show a space-view of freehold from some vantage. "You know you'll be back, Theres so much left to do!"

And part of him knew she was right. Freehold was a hellmoon but the work he did there had been some of his most profitable and fulfilling of his career. He didnt have to worry about cutthroat politicians or corporate maneuvering from the freespacers. Just Wiley mutants and at most tech scum. A competitive part of him rose in his heart; A Like a boy again ready to challenge for primacy of the sandbox William Fance admitted he wouldnt mind competing with this half-baked imbecile. That every loss she had faced had been met with a grin, and every victory with gracious humility he knew that if only he could consolidate his power base and come back; And conquer Shasta Archeletta once and for all and force her to submit as his underling and subordinate...

"Yeah." He admitted, turning his head to look at the personification of extrovertism everywhere as the side of his mouth tugged into a smile.

"It's gonna be fun!" She urged him on.

"I suspect it will be worth it when I finally overcome you."

"I knew it! So you'll be back?" Her tail was practically beating his backside to death.

William fance opened his mouth to answer when his avatar winked our, leaving a confused Shasta alone in the moot.

Freehold, High Orbit.

Lachesis looked through her sensors at the shuttle's debris after her missile had hit it with a satisfied nod.

"Tell grandfather Keiji it's done. Fancy's shuttle had an accident in orbit. Ask if he wants us to take the yacht too; Looks expensive~"

After a moment, the response came back and the Fairy captain of the Avatar Of Clang pursed her lips.

"Shame, that. But the boss man says no evidence so..."

Another missile flew out of her bays...



Dunes - one hour later

AAP drones wheeded out the last vestiges of resistance in Bill Fancys factory as workers and laborers were moved under guard to central areas and authority figures were segregated from the staff to press-gang into temporary agreements to ride herd on their employees until transport could be arranged. Some few who wished to stay and sign new contracts with the conquerers were allowed and well incentivized to do so with Fancys contracts now falling through.

A high-ranking foreman had sucessfully talked passage for most of the staff on the still docked freighter; A vessel not of Bill Fance's ownership and not up for seizure by the corporation it had been agreed.

The freighter captain himself managed to extort enough from the fleeing, jobless factory workers for his fare and had already started idling the freighter to take off.

Some security personnel survived as well. Most bitter, but more than a handful had even accepted new contracts with the Strays as the mercenary corporation they worked fro could no longer financially support their losses of company mecha, tanks, and shuttles and signed on desperately for a year of guarenteed pay guarding the same factory on SnS' behalf.

The attackers had not gotten off scott free either. Ten destroyed mechs, three hundred drones, and significant damage had been done and the scrap alone would hardly recoup the costs.

But, As the fairy commander walked through the bowels of the massive factory and with some of her sisters looked down into the excavated pit at what the massive pyramid had been hiding...

"So, was it all worth it?" Keiji Archeletta asked over the secure communication to the surviving commander-type now in command while her sisters were still roiling in the Fae waiting for new bodies but looking excitedly through her eyes.

Clotho looked silently into the pit at the massive, three-hundred-meter-tall thing... that was buried and half-excavated.

Her six sisters looked through her eyes, various emotions playing across each of them and she wondered what grandfather keijis face looked like. Shock? awe? horror?

"Yes." The seven voices of the Pledias declared at once as a tendril of a connection was formed with the macro junker underneath the surface of freehold and the potential that it wrought. If any of the motherships in orbit found out freehold would errupt into a full scale civil war to claim the massive megastructure building junker for some of the designs and data it held let alone the ability to mass-produce motherships, warships, grand space structures and relay gates with it...

If Yamatai found out they had no doubt the best case scenario would be a SAINT team destroying the potential for a resurgent freespacer threat with so many anti-yamatai motherships still in system.

The worst case would be a second scouring of freehold.

"How many of the workers know what's down here?" Clotho asked one of her sisters on the other side of the factory as if she were right next to her.

"Just the security forces, and the head foreman." She answered, "Though the mercenaries think it's just the prow of a big ship, maybe a mothership, and the foreman is willing to sign the NDA and take a fairy to supervise him."

Clotho paused at that. "Which fairy?" She took note of the inflection.

"Me, I like his mustache; It's funny." the lesser fairy giggled and clotho did too pulling up an image of the ridiculous handlebar mustachios.

"This is just the beginning." Clotho mused, and her sisters shared the sentiment.