RP: United Outer Colonies The Crucible: First test of an ideal

“And it would be said that this was the first true test of the Peacekeepers…”

Kenoki looked down at the landscape spread before her. A reined city of broken concrete stained a ruddy orange by the light of a setting sun. The refugee “Camp” was a complex of heavy walled buildings, sports arenas or some such. The camp wasn’t hard to pick out since most of the buildings in the complex were whole. Rubble choked the streets surrounding the camp and with the aid of her Tenshi, Kenoki could pick out a handful of gun emplacements around the complex.

The order to jump came. Kenoki stepped off the edge of the ship into the sky, falling for a few seconds before bringing up her Tenshi’s flight systems. The others would be right behind her doing the same.

A small flash of light amidst devastated city caught her eye, but it was gone before she could turn her head in that direction. A light blossomed from behind her followed split seconds later by the concussion of an explosion. Kenoki was spun around in the air, to see the Kibou belching fire and falling fast. Still out of control, Kenoki had little time to ascertain the disposition of the relief ships or her fellow Peacekeepers.

Franticly she gained control of her armor and spun back around so she could face the ground that was rapidly approaching. She managed to slow her fall slightly before impact, but she still hit hard. She rolled with the impact, loosing her Tenshi’s rifle as she spun across the ground and finally skid to a halt several meters later. The Tenshi took the brunt of the hit, but having all the liquids in her body violently thrashed back and forth hadn’t done Kenoki any favors. A dull throbbing started in the back of her head as she levered herself up to a sitting position. The armor chimed in her head, <Warning, pilot has sustained mild concussion, seek medical aid.>

“No shit…” She looked up as the shadow of the burning Kibou passed over her. It fell past Kenoki’s view, moments later the ground shook at the ship hit. Seconds after that a low rumbling filled the air and a blast wave ripped through the air around her as a secondary explosion clamed what was left of the ship.

Then it was quiet for what seemed like an eternity before the sound automatic weapons fire filled the air.

The first few shots went wide, striking a wall to Kenoki’s left. <Warning, Possible hostiles.>

Kenoki rolled to her right in time to dodge the next volley of fire, “Whatever gave you that idea?” She rolled onto her feet and broke into a sprint, “At least give me a map or something useful!” A small map popped up in the right corner of her vision. It had a blue dot that clearly stood for “you are here” and a yellow dot in the approximate location of the refuge camp that clearly said “you want to be here.”

Shots followed Kenoki, she took any turn as an opportunity to return fire with her wrist mounted pulse cannons, since the rules of engagement had become a moot point. This pattern of running, dodging and strafing continued into the fading light of dusk. The last light from the sun was fading as she turned one last corner. She was just twenty meters away from what looked at a glance to be a heavy loading dock built into the side of one of the complex’s walls. The span in-between was guarded by a pair of gun emplacements with some cover provided by a pair of burnt out ground cars.

Kenoki made it half of this distance when her pursuers turned the last corner. Their arrival announced by more weapons fire struck the ground and debris around her. She turned and fired her pulse cannons again. The gun emplacements roared to life behind her. Within seconds any pursuer who hadn’t fled the instant the guns started, had been shredded.

The guns went quiet but the sounds of gunfire, both energy and ballistic, could be herd echoing through the night air. Kenoki walked the last stretch towards the heavy door of the complex. It ground open noisily to admit her inside, then ground shut much the same.

Adrenalin rush fading, Kenoki slumped against the closest wall then slid down. The Dull pain in her skull had blossomed to a near building pulse. She tried her Comm, “This is Cadet Hirahara, anybody else out there?”

Natsuko jumped out right behind Kenoki and fell toward the ground. Natsuko however recognized incoming fire for what it was and didn't bother turning to see what would happen to the Kibou. Whatever it was, it was going to either hurt, or be useless. The explosion heard moments later would confirm it, it hurt. a lot. As the explosion rocked her suit, Natsuko only accelerated.

Shit. the neko thought as she screamed toward the ground in an attempt to not be exposed in the air for too long. "Get out of here." Natsuko sent pathetically to the convoy that they were supposed to be protecting. The ground was rapidly approaching and Natsuko was preparing to switch to gravimetric drives for a simple and soft landing. That was before a piece of anti-air flack smacked face first into the Cadet. Suddenly her armor was sent spiraling out of control as the explosion not only knocked her off of her planned flight path, but suddenly dropped her velocity as well.

Natsuko was knocked unconscious from the blast and subsequent landing. Minutes later, she came to discover herself on the ground, and every muscle in her body hurt like hell. Natsuko tried to move her leg only to be greeted with a shooting pain. This was confirmed by the armor listing her various bumps, bruises, and her broken leg.

Kenoki said:

“This is Cadet Hirahara, anybody else out there?”

Click to expand...

"This is Cadet Hiragi, I'm here somewhere." Natsuko responded as she painfully sat herself up and started to learn how exactly to operate the systems in the power armor. Hopefully she'd figure it out quickly before anyone decided to come investigate her crash landing.

"Copy. Bonheur here..I made myself scarce." Could anyone expect more of the former stealth expert? She didn't get inside, but had concealed herself as best she could in the (she felt) lacking armour. "At least all my stuff wasn't on the ship yet." Her voice piped in neutrally.

"Is that place even safe? I can skitter over there." She sighed, wondering how they'd get off without aide from the local government, who had their own obvious troubles. There was blood in her armour, but not wanting to alert anyone she didn't say a word, taking it to be minor damage from the little reception fete that was thrown in the sky for them. They had no support, no leader, and their ship had just blazed through the night sky. Immediately, she clicked her sensors over to pick up emergency signals from anyone who might have managed to get out in time from the small crew.

Ai stood by in the ship, watching Kenoki and Natsuko jump out. She surveying the battlefield to find some suitable targets. But, only a few moments later, the ship rocked as it was struck by fire. Taking that as her cue, the cadet launched herself from the ship, propelling herself from the ship.

Off the ship, she sped away on a slight decline, taking a few moments to launch a couple small barrages of mini-missiles towards larger areas of enemy fire. She turned around, feeling something was wrong, just in time to see the ship go down. Ai was awestruck. That's not supposed to happen....

She was stunned by the sight, a bit too long. A quick barrage of various weaponry from some enemy somewhere. The cadet's shields took the brunt of it, but she still felt a huge pain in her arm. Her vision blurred from it. Without thinking, she quickly took cover by getting to the ground, rather than being a target in the air.

As she touched down, she took a moment to check the damage. Breathing ragged, adrenaline raging, all signs of combat. But that pain wasn't helping, in fact, it was rather distracting. It was then that she realized that they'd taken off her left arm. Ai was barely able to suppress a scream. Through the shock and pain, she heard something from the intercom, she couldn't make out what at the moment. It was just some sound in her ears.

She tried to refocus and replied to her teammates a few moments later. "Cadet... Kitano here," was all she managed though. It would be quite evident to anyone else listening that something was up from the tone of her voice and her breathing.

Kenoki listened as people reported in, waiting for more, but no more voices came. “The Camp is Secure for now.” The map provided by her Tenshi showed their locations, they had all came down relatively close together, spread over five city blocks not far from the camp complex. “Bring up your maps, its not too far. I’ll lead you in as soon as I get the full situation here.”

A pair of medics approached her nervously, Kenoki popped the seals on her helmet ant took it off, they must have seen the expression in their eyes because they seemed more afraid to approach her now. “Who’s in-charge here?”

One of the medics, a middle aged hard eyed woman spoke up, “So far as civilians go, that’d be me, Rissa. As for military, as of now, that’d be you.”

Kenoki bit back a curse, no word from the LT or any Peacekeeper ships that stayed in orbit. This was bad. “Get somebody on a radio, try to get the OUC ships in orbit, failing that, anybody who isn’t trying to kill us.” The other Medic turned away and pulled a radio out of his large bag. “I’m going back out to get my people, some of them might be injured.”

“What about you?” The head medic said stepping closer.

Kenoki turned away, “Just a headache.”

The Medic with the radio tuned back to Kenoki and Rissa, “I’ve got someone, Kennewes Irregulars.”

Kenoki gestured for the medic to hand the radio over, she took it and said, “I’m the ranking peacekeeper here,” Technically true, “Tell me you have good news.”

The voice that responded was male, and apologetic, “Corporal Faraday, Kennewes Irregulars. Good and bad really, that area’s hot with anti air, can’t get a damn thing close enough to pick your people up or drop more in, can’t hit them from space because of some international policy thing. A bunch of high officials are arguing about what to do, not likely to get any help on that end. Good news is you’ve got us! We’re heading in on the ground, our plan is to hit the AAs then call in for air support and Evac. We can be there in about… Two days.”

Two days. “Copy, we’ll hold this location, if we can, we’ll run some interference and try to pinpoint the AA emplacements, keep in touch.” Kenoki tossed the radio back to the medic and put her helmet back on. As she turned back to the door she had came in, Rissa stepped up beside her, “You said your people might be wounded, I’m coming with you.”

Kenoki found the door controls and started it grinding open. “Fine,” Was all she said.

Ai sounded the worst off, she was also the furthest out, on her map display, Kenoki started looking for the shortest route. Hopefully Natsuko and Ashlyn would be okay for a little while.

[Time until support arrives, 48 hours...]

So, to the camp. Ai held the stub of what was remaining of her arm, as she called up the map. It'sssss... that way! The cadet took a step towards her destination, but quickly she wobbled, nearly falling over. It was too hard to focus, too hard to walk, with her huge distraction. A second to try to get herself steady, before her armor lifted off the ground just a couple feet, as she started to head to the camp.

The cadet was awfully glad for endorphins and adrenaline, for, were it not for them, she'd probably be crippled by pain more than she already was.

David was watched as the heavy round bored into the Ship. He waited for Ai to jump before he made his move but he was a little to late as he was hit by a fire ball and was thrown from the ship. David's vission went dark for a second and came right back a few moments before he would hit the ground. He quickly pushed away from the ground with his suits flight systems. He still hit the ground at 35 kph and ended up tumbling for 10 meters and only ended when he hit a wall.

David was dizzy and couldn't see. "Why can't I see suit?" he hoped that it was only his suit but he could feel warmth flowing down his face. The suit responded in a cracked and distant voice. "There is... damage... your... and... tems..." David opened the seals to his helmet and started to pull it off his head. As he started to remove it light poured into his helmet. He tossed his helmet to the ground next to him as he got up onto his knee. he took a look around and noticed that he had lost his depth perception, and his left eye. He looked down at his helmet and saw the left side of it was burnt and smashed and his armour was scrached and burnt badly. He moveed over to where he had droped his gun and picked it up. Thankfully it was still functional for the moment. he primed it and peered around a wall towards where he belived that the ship had gone down. He couldn't see the ship but he could hear gun shots and he saw one of his squad mates on the ground unable to move.

To the best of his ability he hid among the ruins and made his way to natsuko. He had a hard time telling distances which resulted in him stumbleing over a few rocks and some debri but he easily reached the pilot who turned out to be Natsuko. "Are you ok? can you move?" David looked around and readied his gun. "I lost my com-link in the crash what is the situation?" Just as he finish small arms fire expolded around around them. David went to ground as a round slamed into his arm and tore into the plateing but stoped before entering his skin.

Natsuko felt pain shoot through her leg when she tried to move, carefully the neko changed positions and decided to sit tight for a little bit, if only to give her hemosynth a little bit of time to work unhindered. Natsuko suddenly heard noise coming toward her, the neko raised her sidearm toward the target, unaware that the weapon itself would prove to be particularly weak. That was when she saw David, "Stryker-Juni." Natsuko said looking at the Jiyuuian's face. Luckily she had her helmet on, and the Yamataian wouldn't be able to see her look of shock.

"I'm fine, I broke my leg I think but I'll be alr-" Suddenly the small arms fire erupted. "We've been shot down, I guess we need to hold out. Sounds like everyone's doing as well as can be expected though." Natsuko didn't want to talk about Ai who sounded pretty bad, right now she had to survive this. Natsuko lifted the peacekeeper weapon and fired it at the enemy.

David took cover behind the same wall as natsuko and tried to return fire using his forearm mounted weapons. His armour was badly damaged and on his way to help Natsuko it had been giving him some trouble so it came as no suprise that the pulse cannons only gave out a faint wine instead of discharging. David ducked behind the wall as he picked back up his Pacifier Rifle and turned it to leathal. He looked over at The wounded neko with his one good eye. "I need you to find out who is left alive and tell anyone that is close enough and able bodied enough to come to our aid so we can get you out of here and to somewhere safe." He then ducked around the edge of the wall and fired back at the enemies he could see.

A small transport vessel came whining out of FTL, cruising into orbit over Kennewes. It joined the cluster of vessels hovering over the area of conflict. Moments after arriving, a communication was sent to the forces planetside.

UOCPF Lieutenant Shuto said:

to Sub Lieutenant Stryker or current commander of Chouteisha Squadron,

my transport vessel has just entered orbit. We are aware of your situation, and I have conferred with command.

I will be deploying Recruit Camhi to your position, equipped with a Tenshi unit and emergency supplies for your crew.

Hang tight.

Click to expand...

Verna Camhi walked into the small bridge of the vessel, waiting to be addressed. The commanding officer, Lieutenant Shuto, looked up from a recently sent communique, turning to her. "Recruit Camhi, we've reached your destination. But before we send you down, there's some information that's come to our attention. Apparently, the resistance on the planet is a lot tougher than we thought. The vessel in the Chouteisha Squadron we were supposed to put you down on has just been shot down in the atmosphere.
The crew seems to have made it off, but we're getting reports that they are badly injured and outnumbered. Now, I have an obligation to help, but this ship has an important time table to get our other passengers to equally important conflict zones. With that in mind, I've decided to loan your squadron some ordinance. I'm giving you a Tenshi to drop in with combat and medical supplies. You'll rendezvous with Chouteisha and join up with them from there. Understood?"

The recruit listened with an uncomfortable flutter in her chest. She was excited and terrified. "Uh... aye, sir." was all she was able to stammer.

"Good," he replied, "hurry over to the armory, I'll have someone suit you up. I'll send your gear over to one of the other vessels in orbit." She nodded obediently and left the bridge the way she had come.

It was a short jog to the armory, where Verna was quickly crammed into a Yamataian-shaped Tenshi. Granted it was a close fit, but Verna had curvy Nepleslian thighs that just didn't want to fit. "Are you sure this will work right for me?" she asked the peacekeeper who was fitting her into it. The other woman looked up at her, sighing. "Comfort isn't much of a concern. The only problem you should get from it is inaccurate medical readings, since your physiology is a little different."

Verna gave an uncertain look as the armor was finally suited on. The peacekeeper handed her the helmet. "The supply crate is waiting for you in the airlock. Lieutenant Shuto wants you to leave right away...... you know how to use one of these, right?" The peacekeeper gave Verna an uncertain look as she powered the armor on. She nodded uncomfortably. Technically she knew how to use one of them. She hadn't done more than a basic tutorial with one during her training. She picked up her rifle, and headed for the airlock.

Kenoki and the medic Rissa walked, the pain in her head was infuriating, but Ai’s location was getting steadily closer. It took a moment for Kenoki to realise that Ai was moving closer on her own, Good, she’s moving on her own.

The figure of a Tenshi came into view in the distance, “Ai, I’m here and I’ve got help--” Kenoki’s breath caught when she saw that Ai’s armour was missing its left arm, as was the neko inside. Rissa must have noted this as well because both her and Kenoki broke into a run. The sudden movement sent pain thudding into Kenoki’s head and her vision swam. She staggered back into a walk. The medic reached Ai first.

Kenoki blinked trying to get her eyes back into focus, they caught something, the glint of metal reflecting some distant light, a weapon being raised and aimed at Ai and the Medic…

Kenoki didn’t think, there was no time. She simply reacted. Thrusters fired and Kenoki closed the distance between herself and Ai in split seconds, placing herself between the injured Neko and the medic. Before reaching a full stop Kenoki activated the Graviton Strips on her Tenshi’s left arm and brought it up like a shield as shots rang out. Bullets struck the ground around the trio. Kenoki’s shoulder missiles locked onto the target and fired. The rooftop exploded in plasma fire.

The night was once again silent for a moment. Kenoki turned to the medic, “We need to get her inside, fast.” The serge of adrenalin had dulled the pain in her skull for now, but it wouldn’t last.

It was all a blur. What just happened? They looked friendly....

Ai just floated there, blinking at the other two there. She had no idea what just happened. She could barely keep focused at this point, the agony of having an arm shot off was filling her mind. It was that feeling of just keep going, a loss of sense of what was happening in the world. That feeling where it was 'just keep moving,' except with the added distraction of pain. At least she was semi-lucky in that at least what was left was burned mostly shut, minimizing the blood loss. Minimized, not stopping.

The cadet just wanted to sleep. It'd offer sanctuary from the horrors of what was happening. But, something in Ai's mind just kept her waiting there, the medic and... Hey! That's Kenoki!

"Kenoki... -san...?"

Verna stepped into the small airlock of her ship, taking her place next to the supply crate. Captain Shuto's voice buzzed in on the com. "Recruit Verna, I'm not getting any response from our ground forces. I'm sending you down near their coordinates, hopefully they're alright."

Verna nodded in confirmation, not really considering the fact that the captain couldn't hear a nod over the com. "Listen," he added, "when you're out the airlock, activate flight maneuver hachi. That should handle most of the flight for you. The rest you're going to have to figure out on your own." Verna cringed a bit at those words.

With that, the airlock opened, and the contents of the airlock were quickly sucked into space. Floundering in zero gravity, Verna managed to grab one of the handles of the supply crate before it managed to fly past her. Looking down, she saw the massive pan of the planet. A knot in her stomach, she muttered, "Activate flight maneuver hachi."

Immediately, the Tenshi eased forward, sending her on a descent course into the atmosphere. She quickly gained speed, plummeting downward towards the planet. Soon she'd broken the upper atmosphere, and the air around her began to combust from the friction. By the time she saw clouds, she was rushing through them. She felt like she was going to vomit from all the G forces slamming against her.

After a tense, but very brief, moment, she broke through the clouds and was shooting towards a city. Immediately, the suit uttered a warning. "Danger: lethal impact imminent." Well @#$&. Verna spun herself around so that she was plummeting feet first, and engaged her thrusters at max. Moments before crashing into the urban landscape below, she slowed to a halt in mid-air.

Unfortunately, an object at rest was a lot easier to spot and hit than an object at terminal velocity, and before Verna knew it, a hailstorm of AA fire was flying up at her. Losing her concentration, the Tenshi's thrusters powered down, and she began to fall once again. It unwittingly saved her from being vaporized by the AA, but she was thrown into a panic.

Falling face first now, Verna sped towards the ground once again. Frantically, she reengaged her thrusters, and began to shoot of on a horizontal descent. Trying to stabilize herself in the awkward contraption, she couldn't control it any longer. She flew into the side of a building, crashing through the anterior wall. The impact itself was thankfully soft enough to avoid harm, however, the heavy crate she held came slamming forward. It smashed into her upper arm and shoulder, sending a spasm of pain down it. She skidded to a halt on her belly, lying on the floor in pain.

She remained there for several moments, paralyzed in pain. She'd never really received any major injury before, and the no-doubt shattered shoulder was a shock to her system. Tears of pain welled up in her eyes, and her head whirled with whiplash. Finally, she rolled over onto her back and sat up. Her left arm didn't respond, hanging limply at her side.

She looked around for a moment, dazed, before getting her bearings. She was in an upper floor of some forsaken building. Reasoning returning to her, she thought of what to do next. She opened up a com on an open channel.

UOCPF Recruit Camhi said:

Ahh.... Chouteisha Squadron, this is Recruit Camhi, does anyone read me?

Click to expand...

Natsuko nodded in affirmation to David's order. "This is Cadet Hiragi, we're pinned down by enemy fire, requesting assistance." Natsuko sent out through the communications line to anyone around. The neko used her inertia control to manuever herself to face the enemy before loosing a small volley of the plasma missiles from her Tenshi. Explosions rocked the area where enemy fire was coming from, and resulted in a quiet lul in the fight as the enemy reevaluated their target's capabilities. "Go now sir." Natsuko sent to David, "I'll hold them down." Honestly Natsuko wasn't really sure of her ability to do what she said she would, but they needed to get out.

David moved over to Natsuko and hefted her up the best he could. "I'm insulted that you would think that I would leave you here to just die." David half carried Natsuko into a close-by building while the hostiles were still confused. Before they got into the building a few of the enemies started firing again at their old position. David didn't stop when he entered the building but continued to move further away from the combat and to find a safe spot to regroup. He rushed across a small alley way behind the building into an ajacent structure that looked to be an appartment building at some point before the conflict. He ducked into one of the appartments and closed the door behind him.

The room was still structurally intact but everything in it was in chaos and thrown about. Clearly someone had looted this place in search of food or for material goods. David moved Natsuko into the bedroom and rested her down on the bed the best he could without causeing her more pain. "We should be safe here for a short time. In that time we need to figure out where we are and were we need to go." David walked over to the bath room and ripped open the medicine cabinet. He looked into the mirror shortly and saw how badly his face was scared and damaged. Luckly the looters were not to concerned with medical supplies because the contents of the cabinet were untouched. He pulled out two rolls of gause bandaging and what looked like pain relivers and walked back over to Natsuko and sat in the chair next to the bed and tossed her the pill bottle.

Copy. In your area..please standby. Ascertaining threat. Ashlyn replied. What her Tenshi had picked up on the wonderful trip down was the site of the fire they had taken. She had slipped from the trees and into the urban area, and was on the way to take out the site. It so happened most of the resistance her compatriots came across probably had something to do with the proximity to what was keeping them on the ground.

The stealth specialist flanked the closest cluster of enemies moving towards the apartment she had a signal from Natsuko and David in, and let fire everything she had, counting on surprise and precisely aimed shots. She went to hide fast, moving into the apartment with the others. "I think I got the nearest group, the AA site is near here. Are either of you good to come with me? The sooner it is in flames the sooner we can get out of here. The longer we stay the less chance we have of getting out." She quickly recalibrated her targeting to help in the next round, and at range which she preferred. If they didn't know what was about to happen to them, the combat was somehow better.

"They sent us some fresh recruit...? Please tell me there's someone else." Her confidence was even lower than when she observed the Tenshi, something that felt like a safety brigade's armour to her. After all, she relied on the stealth systems of the MINDY heavily, and was missing them by that point a great deal. "You're both injured...mine is a concussion I think, I can't say what the blood is but I can fight right now, so I want to do it fast."

Verna pushed herself to her feet, standing in a daze beside the crate. She retrieved her rifle, holding it a bit uncertainly now that it had to be used with only one arm.

As she stood there, an urgent-sounding communication came buzzing to her ears. As Cadet Haragi spoke, Verna's suit pulled up a map of her area and showed her location relative to the other peacekeepers. She was several blocks off to the side of where they were.

She looked out the hole in the side of the building that she had punched, listening for gunfire. Fortunately for her, at least, most of the enemy forces seemed to have moved away from her current position towards Chouteisha Squadron. She replied over the com, "Cadet Haragi, this is Recruit Camhi. I have some emergency supplies for Chouteisha Squadron, where should I rendezvous with you guys?"

She looked down at the crate and back to her rifle. She couldn't exactly carry both with one arm... She tucked the rifle under her arm and grabbed the handle of the crate, dragging it over to the hole in the wall. She crouched cautiously near the edge, waiting to receive some kind of orders from somebody.

Natsuko caught the bottle of pills just as Verna's response came in. According to the bottle they helped with headaches, relieve cold symptoms, and general pain of the body. It'll have to do. Natsuko thought as she screwed off the top of the bottle and chugged 3 or 4 pills before tossing the bottle back on the ground. "Are you going to be okay, sir?" Natsuko asked David.

"Cadet Camhi," Natsuko said as she pulled up a map of the area with the cadet's position, "Rendezvous with us in this location, be wary though enemy presence in the location is high." Natsuko sent. "I think we're both good to go, Cadet Camhi has some supplies for us though. She's out there exposed, I told her to rendezvous with us here. If we wait for her then we'll have another person to help." Natsuko suggested.

David started to wrap his face with the bandages that he had found. His flesh stung as the gause touched it. "I should be fine for the momment." david finished wraping his face as the comunication from the cadet came in. As Natsuko talked to the would-be relief force he started coughing. he covered his mouth out of politeness. After he finish he looked down at his armoured hand and saw it covered with a splatering of blood. "We need to move out now and get to the camp." David stood up and looked over to Ashlyn. "Ashlyn I need you to take out those AA sites so our ships can land reinforcements to protect the camp and allow us to get out of here."
David looked back to Natsuko. "Me and you will rendezvous with Camhi and with her we will make our way back to the camp where we will all get the hell out of this place." David walked over to natsuko and gently helped her off of the bed.

"Uhh..." Verna mumbled, "Right. I'll try... I have a busted arm." As she replied to Natsuko, she continued to look uncertainly from the gun and back to the crate. Screw it... She slung the weapon over her shoulder and grabbed the crate with her good arm. If she was going to encounter enemies on the way there, well... she hoped the armor was good at blocking weapons fire.

As she stood trundling at the edge of the hole, she realized she'd failed to mention that she was horrifyingly bad at piloting a Tenshi, as simple as it was supposed to be. It probably didn't make much of a difference, anyways... they still needed her help. She bit her lip and eased out the side of the building, balancing precariously in the air. She slowly glided over the abandoned street, legs wiggling unsteadily as she flew. In a manner of moments, she was flying towards the rest of the squad at a better clip, if not any more gracefully.

A spray of fire from below announced her arrival to the general area the rest of the group was trapped in. Cussing, she landed roughly through the window of a building, escaping the fire for the time being. According to her map, she was on the same street as the others. She wired Natsuko again. "Camhi here, again... I'm down the street. I could use a hand."

It wasn't that she didn't want to fight... it was just that she was completely terrified of her ability to perform in actual combat right this minute. The pangs of battle were proving her to be quite gun shy, and she had little hope of accomplishing anything without somebody who knew what they were doing.