"I'm one of the Neo-Shogun soldiers. We don't really get names! You can call me 'Sideburns,' though, cause that's what the other guys do," the unknown guy responded to Vector from behind the door; there was only one conceivable reason they'd call him that, which would probably be confirmed once the door was opened so they could get a look at him. "I serve all Neo-Shogun generals, but especially the great General Yasu! She designs the uniforms. It's not common knowledge, but I know because I'm always watching her, every chance that I get! I'm always vigilant!" Having given Vector the satisfactory answer, the SP opened the door and allowed him in; there was no further reason to refuse him, as his uniform made his allegiance obvious. His thick sideburns made it pretty clear how he got his nickname, as well. "What's going on here? Are these... New recruits?! New subordinate class members? Am I the first of the soldiers to meet them!? What luck!" he roared, looking fired up, although the reason was hard to discern. "A loli subordinate! A clumsy but dependable subordinate! And... a busty, hard-ass subordinate? That's infringing upon the great General Yasu's territory, but I'll let it slide!"
"Ha! Don't compare me to that cyclops again," Roc barked in response. "Or this busty hard-ass is going to bust your ass, hard."
"H-How dare you! Making fun of Yasu's injury, I ought to...! Well... Then again, I can't say I disapprove of that tone of voice," the soldier huffed, holding one fist to his chin pensively. He didn't seem like the most mission-focused guy, considering he still hadn't gotten around to the important info yet. Finally, he remembered that he'd come to say something important. "Right, I had a report to make! There's a Terror Girl agent stalking the base. She destroyed the soldier's supply cabin already, possibly targeting the weapons inside, but she wasn't exactly selective with her fire. I barely evaded her and made my way here." He sighed, turning to Vector again. "She's a fast, quiet type, but more importantly, she flies. Footsoldiers like me will be useless against her!"
----------------------------------------
Of course, Aera was already aware of that bit of information, seeing the woman in person. Realizing that the Terror Girls agent was probably about to launch a missile in the direction of the bunker, Aera took preventative action, starting by chucking her spear-end towards the exposed missile, which was snaking up from inside the hollow neck-hole of the woman. The attack worked better than she could have expected; while ordinarily, it would be questionable as to whether such an impact would detonate a missile, this one appeared to be particularly sensitive, perhaps so that it could detonate even with limited momentum. As a result, it exploded before even leaving her body, detaching her head and sending it rolling off to the side. Her shades flew off and slid beneath the ruined supply shed, while smoke and scattered flames began to rise from the inside of her body. "Error... Launch interrupted," the head spoke from the ground, its expressionless, gray eyes staring directly into Aera's face. "Aborting launch... Cruz, returning to mother ship." Before Aera had a chance to attack further, the cyborg extended her wings out horizontally and began emitting jet-fire, then quickly took off into the sky...
What Aera was left with, however, was the head of the Terror Girls agent. She hadn't recovered it before the body had rocketed off. On the other hand , the head looked completely emotionless and more than a little upsetting, being a disembodied head. It remained silent as it stared at Aera, its eyes following her movements.
---------------------------
MachMan's message received a speedy response: "Approaching coordinates with Arch." While he was on the way down, he saw another navi fly past him, ignoring him and heading straight for the ship... The image of a headless, winged woman flying towards his enemy was probably confusing, but the situation might make more sense when he met Aera and failed to spot any enemy remaining (besides the head). It would probably take a bit longer for Yasu and Arch to reach their current location. Recent events, however, had likely shown them that they didn't have a lot of time to wait around. The enemy seemed to be aware of the location of their bunker holding recruits, and now, they were aware of MachMan and Aera as well. If Cruz' body had some way to communicate information, she'd probably be delivering an additional report to the leader of the Terror Girls soon.
Under Terror Girls' Attack
last edited by
Though Vector thought it was odd for NS soldiers to not have names, this "Sideburns" character gave him enough correct information to open the door. The plates surrounding the door handle scuttled back into his fractal body like a swarm of diamond-shaped insects, while others formed over his free hand to form a quasi blade, which he held at the ready upon opening the bunker door. From the Navi's attire and features, his alleged identity seemed to fit perfectly. Not without a bit of apprehension, he stepped aside to allow "Sideburns" into the bunker. He watched the Navi carefully with his glowing cycloptic eye, and resecured the door with a metallic *clunk*.
Vector stayed at the door, just in case this wasn't the Navi Aera identified earlier, and keenly monitored Sideburns as he immediately shifted his attention to the recruits. While he was quite boisterous and seemingly fired up about this new development, he didn't show any discernible hostility towards the group. Roc responded to the Navi with threatening confidence, no surprise there... Vector was anxious to get the information from the Navi as soon as possible, then hopefully be rid of him if possible. He was about to interject and get to the business at hand, but thankfully Sideburns then realized the purpose of his visit and spilled the beans. The Terror Girls' agent and her location were a major cause for concern, as Aera was supposed to be at that location. He didn't hear anything from her since she alerted him of an approaching male Navi, so she may not have encountered the agent at that time. Regardless, he had to relay the information to his comrades. [[b]I received new information from a NS soldier: a Terror Girls Agent attacked the storage shed, a female Navi capable of flying. Please respond.[/b]]
With the message away, he questioned the Navi, determined to get as much information as possible. "This 'Agent' you saw, what weapons did she have? How were you able to avoid detection? Any and all information about our enemy is useful at this point."
----------------------------------------
Aera's mental preparation to tackle the attacking Navi proved to be unnecessary, as her spear throw worked surprisingly well. The missile's detonation caused her to recoil back, and bring her arm up to shield her head in a defensive reflex. When she dropped her arm and the proverbial dust settled, she saw the Navi was now sans head, but a quick search revealed it was unnervingly blasted free of her body and now laid on the ground several feet away. She couldn't help but question how the Navi was still standing, considering it had a missile detonate partially inside its own body, and was now partially on fire and entirely decapitated. However, the Navi was still, maybe the rods from its wings held it upright, but it was now no longer operational? The now shades-less head debunked her theory with a failed launch announcement, which caused Aera to flinch as well as utter an unflattering high pitched squeak in surprise. The sight of a disembodied head talking while maintaining perfect eye contact with her was unsurprisingly macabre for the SP's taste. Just her luck she'd been put in yet another situation that made her skin crawl...
The program's body lifted off after its head issued a return to base alert, and accelerated quickly before it disappeared into the fog above the base. With nothing else to act as a welcome distraction, she was again left with the disembodied head. She started to step away to head back to the bunker, but a glance back at the head revealed it was following her with its eyes. "Eww..." she groaned, her face twisted in a disgusted, almost apologetic grimace. She was the one to put the Navi in its current dullahan-esque state, after all.
----------------------------------------
As Mach rushed to Aera's aid, saw a figure rapidly climbing towards him. The object, which looked like a winged, headless female Navi, passed by without so much as acknowledging Mach's presence. Thankfully it was far enough away to not require evasive maneuvers, but it was still an odd sight. Was it the enemy Aera mentioned? If so, was it retreating, or simply moving out after completing its mission? Though he could've followed, he had to confirm Aera's situation. Within seconds he pierced through the blanket of fog, and instantly felt a wave of relief at the sight of his SP standing near the ruined shed below. Aera caught Mach's appearance out of the corner of her eye, and looked up with an equal feeling of relief, smiling as Mach touched down a few feet ahead of her. "Are you alright?" he inquired as he walked up to the SP. She smiled, and felt some of the recently built up tension and anxiety melt away. "I'm okay," she responded, then glanced past Mach to the head on the ground, something she immediately regretted when she saw it was still staring directly at her. She continued with a bit of resurfaced anxiety, "Had a run in with the saboteur though..."
Mach looked back, following Aera's glance to the head on the ground. His reaction to the disembodied head wasn't as pronounced as Aera's, though an understandably unsettling sight, it helped him piece together the big picture. "Well that would explain the headless Navi I just passed..." His head canted slightly to the side in curiosity as he slowly approached. Aera reached out and put her right hand on her left shoulder, prompting him to stop and look back. She glanced at the head then back to Mach, as she whispered "It's... watching us..." Mach's eyebrows flicked upwards in an "oh" expression, then he responded with a text message. [[i]Let's head back then.[/i]] Almost as soon as he sent it, Aera responded with [[i]Let's[/i]], which hinted at her significant desire to get as far away from that ever-staring, emotionless face as possible.
They both turned back and kicked off, their respective wing-shaped propulsion systems carried them off towards the bunker. Mach shot a quick message off to Yasu, to update her on the situation. [[i]Ground hostile has retreated, but she unwillingly left her head behind. It may be capable of reporting information back, so I'd be careful to not let it see something important.[/i]] Both Mach and Aera also received a message from Vector, but Aera elected to answer this one. [[i]We encountered the agent, she mostly fled, and we're heading back to the bunker.[/i]] They continued onward to the bunker, which was only about a half-minute flight from their current location.
Vector stayed at the door, just in case this wasn't the Navi Aera identified earlier, and keenly monitored Sideburns as he immediately shifted his attention to the recruits. While he was quite boisterous and seemingly fired up about this new development, he didn't show any discernible hostility towards the group. Roc responded to the Navi with threatening confidence, no surprise there... Vector was anxious to get the information from the Navi as soon as possible, then hopefully be rid of him if possible. He was about to interject and get to the business at hand, but thankfully Sideburns then realized the purpose of his visit and spilled the beans. The Terror Girls' agent and her location were a major cause for concern, as Aera was supposed to be at that location. He didn't hear anything from her since she alerted him of an approaching male Navi, so she may not have encountered the agent at that time. Regardless, he had to relay the information to his comrades. [[b]I received new information from a NS soldier: a Terror Girls Agent attacked the storage shed, a female Navi capable of flying. Please respond.[/b]]
With the message away, he questioned the Navi, determined to get as much information as possible. "This 'Agent' you saw, what weapons did she have? How were you able to avoid detection? Any and all information about our enemy is useful at this point."
----------------------------------------
Aera's mental preparation to tackle the attacking Navi proved to be unnecessary, as her spear throw worked surprisingly well. The missile's detonation caused her to recoil back, and bring her arm up to shield her head in a defensive reflex. When she dropped her arm and the proverbial dust settled, she saw the Navi was now sans head, but a quick search revealed it was unnervingly blasted free of her body and now laid on the ground several feet away. She couldn't help but question how the Navi was still standing, considering it had a missile detonate partially inside its own body, and was now partially on fire and entirely decapitated. However, the Navi was still, maybe the rods from its wings held it upright, but it was now no longer operational? The now shades-less head debunked her theory with a failed launch announcement, which caused Aera to flinch as well as utter an unflattering high pitched squeak in surprise. The sight of a disembodied head talking while maintaining perfect eye contact with her was unsurprisingly macabre for the SP's taste. Just her luck she'd been put in yet another situation that made her skin crawl...
The program's body lifted off after its head issued a return to base alert, and accelerated quickly before it disappeared into the fog above the base. With nothing else to act as a welcome distraction, she was again left with the disembodied head. She started to step away to head back to the bunker, but a glance back at the head revealed it was following her with its eyes. "Eww..." she groaned, her face twisted in a disgusted, almost apologetic grimace. She was the one to put the Navi in its current dullahan-esque state, after all.
----------------------------------------
As Mach rushed to Aera's aid, saw a figure rapidly climbing towards him. The object, which looked like a winged, headless female Navi, passed by without so much as acknowledging Mach's presence. Thankfully it was far enough away to not require evasive maneuvers, but it was still an odd sight. Was it the enemy Aera mentioned? If so, was it retreating, or simply moving out after completing its mission? Though he could've followed, he had to confirm Aera's situation. Within seconds he pierced through the blanket of fog, and instantly felt a wave of relief at the sight of his SP standing near the ruined shed below. Aera caught Mach's appearance out of the corner of her eye, and looked up with an equal feeling of relief, smiling as Mach touched down a few feet ahead of her. "Are you alright?" he inquired as he walked up to the SP. She smiled, and felt some of the recently built up tension and anxiety melt away. "I'm okay," she responded, then glanced past Mach to the head on the ground, something she immediately regretted when she saw it was still staring directly at her. She continued with a bit of resurfaced anxiety, "Had a run in with the saboteur though..."
Mach looked back, following Aera's glance to the head on the ground. His reaction to the disembodied head wasn't as pronounced as Aera's, though an understandably unsettling sight, it helped him piece together the big picture. "Well that would explain the headless Navi I just passed..." His head canted slightly to the side in curiosity as he slowly approached. Aera reached out and put her right hand on her left shoulder, prompting him to stop and look back. She glanced at the head then back to Mach, as she whispered "It's... watching us..." Mach's eyebrows flicked upwards in an "oh" expression, then he responded with a text message. [[i]Let's head back then.[/i]] Almost as soon as he sent it, Aera responded with [[i]Let's[/i]], which hinted at her significant desire to get as far away from that ever-staring, emotionless face as possible.
They both turned back and kicked off, their respective wing-shaped propulsion systems carried them off towards the bunker. Mach shot a quick message off to Yasu, to update her on the situation. [[i]Ground hostile has retreated, but she unwillingly left her head behind. It may be capable of reporting information back, so I'd be careful to not let it see something important.[/i]] Both Mach and Aera also received a message from Vector, but Aera elected to answer this one. [[i]We encountered the agent, she mostly fled, and we're heading back to the bunker.[/i]] They continued onward to the bunker, which was only about a half-minute flight from their current location.
last edited by
The soldier watched Vector with a critical expression; something about the SP seemed to bother him, but he listened attentively regardless. "She's got machine guns that fire out of the tips of her fingers; that's all I really know, as far as her weapons go. I didn't exactly stick around to observe," he responded, shrugging his bare shoulders. "They took care of the storage shed pretty well, though; sounded like she emptied them until there was nothing left to come out. As for avoiding her, I hid in a nearby tent for a while and listened. Though, I don't actually know if I avoided detection or not... Well, she'd probably be here by now if she knew where I was," he reasoned, although it was just as likely she'd be regrouping right about now.
"Machine-gun hands... I guess our enemies aren't kind enough to toss away their own weapons when disabling ours," Skywriter murmured, possibly as a joke, but containing very real trepidation at the prospect of going up against cyborgs with machine guns built into their bodies.
"Who would be?" Roc asked, tilting her head and holding a blank expression. "But anyways, she'll find fighting me a lot different than making target practice out of a supply shed. I don't care if she fires machine guns out of her hands or missiles out of her ass," the cocky bird-woman scoffed.
----------------------------
Aera and MachMan made a rendezvous, shared a freakout over the eeriness of the disembodied head staring at them, then promptly returned the way they'd came. The head continued to watch them from the ground as they flew off.
Their report, though brief, clearly excited Yasu, possibly even over-excited her. "Excellent!" came her response. "One of the enemy's agents has been crippled, then. The best solution is to seize upon this opportunity before she has the chance to recover or repair. I'll recover the head of the Terror Girls agent... if it's still capable of seeing and talking, then I can interrogate it, possibly acquiring useful information for the upcoming battle. In the mean time, you continue as planned, meeting back up with the other soldiers at our bunker. There, I want you to rally the troops and lead an attack, immediately! We won't get a better chance than this and the enemy won't expose their weakness twice, I'd wager."
Yasu had ordered MachMan to forward march, putting their main plan into action. She was only ordering him from a remote location, though, and furthermore had no powers either, so if MachMan figured he needed more time to organize his troops, he probably had it.
----------------------------
The group finally got back together as MachMan and Aera returned to the gathering, finding things just as they'd been left, with the exception that a Neo-Shogun soldier had joined the gathering. "I don't like it!" the soldier exclaimed, before MachMan or his SP could get a word out. The gathering looked to him with surprise, while he checked to see that he had their intention. "No, I don't like it one bit! If you become armor, is it like you're feeling their breasts?!" he asked Vector, crossing his arms in a pouty gesture. "That's UNFORGIVABLE!"
"I have got zero interest in whether or not he is or isn't... or really anything that comes out of your mouth," Roc responded, glowering in a mixture of disappointment and disdain. "Those two are back. What about it, is it time for us to get started already?" she asked, eager to skip whatever report or orders they happened to be planning on delivering.
"Did you scope out the enemy ship? What'd you think?" Skywriter asked. Rather than worried, her spirits seemed uplifted now that the two had managed to safely return from spying on the enemy. "Do they have... air combat capabilities, or are they just bombers?" she asked hopefully. She cared about the issue in the same way a pilot might care about the capabilities of his enemy's planes, only that in this case, the pilot was worried about being shot directly, not having his plane hit.
"Did they try to attack you? I heard an explosion!" Pest pointed out, although she had also noted that the two of them were uninjured.
"Did they... try to attack me?!" the Neo-Shogun soldier gasped, only now realizing that he may have led the enemy right to the bunker. That was not unlikely at all, given the direction that Cruz had intended to unleash her payload earlier.
"Machine-gun hands... I guess our enemies aren't kind enough to toss away their own weapons when disabling ours," Skywriter murmured, possibly as a joke, but containing very real trepidation at the prospect of going up against cyborgs with machine guns built into their bodies.
"Who would be?" Roc asked, tilting her head and holding a blank expression. "But anyways, she'll find fighting me a lot different than making target practice out of a supply shed. I don't care if she fires machine guns out of her hands or missiles out of her ass," the cocky bird-woman scoffed.
----------------------------
Aera and MachMan made a rendezvous, shared a freakout over the eeriness of the disembodied head staring at them, then promptly returned the way they'd came. The head continued to watch them from the ground as they flew off.
Their report, though brief, clearly excited Yasu, possibly even over-excited her. "Excellent!" came her response. "One of the enemy's agents has been crippled, then. The best solution is to seize upon this opportunity before she has the chance to recover or repair. I'll recover the head of the Terror Girls agent... if it's still capable of seeing and talking, then I can interrogate it, possibly acquiring useful information for the upcoming battle. In the mean time, you continue as planned, meeting back up with the other soldiers at our bunker. There, I want you to rally the troops and lead an attack, immediately! We won't get a better chance than this and the enemy won't expose their weakness twice, I'd wager."
Yasu had ordered MachMan to forward march, putting their main plan into action. She was only ordering him from a remote location, though, and furthermore had no powers either, so if MachMan figured he needed more time to organize his troops, he probably had it.
----------------------------
The group finally got back together as MachMan and Aera returned to the gathering, finding things just as they'd been left, with the exception that a Neo-Shogun soldier had joined the gathering. "I don't like it!" the soldier exclaimed, before MachMan or his SP could get a word out. The gathering looked to him with surprise, while he checked to see that he had their intention. "No, I don't like it one bit! If you become armor, is it like you're feeling their breasts?!" he asked Vector, crossing his arms in a pouty gesture. "That's UNFORGIVABLE!"
"I have got zero interest in whether or not he is or isn't... or really anything that comes out of your mouth," Roc responded, glowering in a mixture of disappointment and disdain. "Those two are back. What about it, is it time for us to get started already?" she asked, eager to skip whatever report or orders they happened to be planning on delivering.
"Did you scope out the enemy ship? What'd you think?" Skywriter asked. Rather than worried, her spirits seemed uplifted now that the two had managed to safely return from spying on the enemy. "Do they have... air combat capabilities, or are they just bombers?" she asked hopefully. She cared about the issue in the same way a pilot might care about the capabilities of his enemy's planes, only that in this case, the pilot was worried about being shot directly, not having his plane hit.
"Did they try to attack you? I heard an explosion!" Pest pointed out, although she had also noted that the two of them were uninjured.
"Did they... try to attack me?!" the Neo-Shogun soldier gasped, only now realizing that he may have led the enemy right to the bunker. That was not unlikely at all, given the direction that Cruz had intended to unleash her payload earlier.
last edited by
Vector listened to Sideburns with an equally critical expression, it seemed they both felt similarly about eachother. That said, he was careful to take in the details of the Navi's description of the Terror Girls agent. The idea of finger-mounted machine guns was already quite odd, and even more so to the blade-inclined SP. Sideburns also apparently avoided her by simply hiding in a nearby tent, either the agent wasn't capable of seeing through concealment coding, or she simply didn't care about his presence and/or didn't perceive him as a threat. "I see," Vector responded sternly, acknowledging the Navi's report, though he hoped for more information.
As Skywriter and Roc commented on the agent's weaponry, Vector received the message from Aera. The news of their safe encounter and imminent return significantly bolstered the SP's mood, though externally he showed no change other than his eyes glowing just slightly brighter. He relayed the information, as he thought it important to keep the group in the loop, and hopefully keep the mood focused on the mission. "Sir MachMan and Lady Aera encountered this agent, and are on their way back now. I expect our attack to begin shortly," he advised and turned his focus back to the door.
----------------------------
Mach and Aera zipped just a few feet above the camp's floor as they made their way back to the bunker. Mach was taking point, with Aera just off to his right and back a foot or so. Mach received a message from Yasu, and patched Aera in to the conversation. Yasu seemed uncharacteristically cheery, and seemed to tout the encounter as a significant victory. Mach cautioned the general, even while knowing it may bring down her mood, "I wouldn't consider her 'crippled,' she seemed quite adept at flying in her... headless state. I'm not counting her out of the fight just yet, but I agree this would be a good opportunity to strike. I'll give the troops their pre-sortie briefing immediately, and will advise you just prior to mission start, if you pull any additional information."
Mach glanced back at Aera and slowed as they approached the bunker. Though he didn't say a word, Aera understood he was looking for affirmation, and if she had anything else to add. She responded with a nod as they both touched down in front of the bunker door. Mach's mind was racing as he tried to organize his thoughts and formulate a battle as he knocked calmly on the door. Aera shot a quick message to Vector, [That's us,] which prompted the SP to open the bunker and usher the pair inside. Vector nodded politely and stepped out of the way as Mach and Aera made their way inside.
The two were greeted by a new Navi, and an... interesting conversation. Aera recognized the Navi's voice as he indirectly accused Vector's armoring function as a thinly veiled opportunity to cop a feel. Both Aera and Mach smiled to some degree, amused by the Navi's wild accusations, as they couldn't be further from the truth. However, Aera did start to wonder a bit... She'd been armored up by Vector multiple times, and while she had her own cuirass underneath, it was pretty form-fitting and snug, so really there was just a thin layer of armor between Vector's plating and her chest. Though some tidbits did linger in her mind, Aera mostly shook it off, chalking up the thought of Vector feeling her up as absurd.
Maybe it was due to the extended time in the increasingly cramped bunker, or ramped up tensions, but all three flight Navis were actively interested in Mach and Aera's findings along with anticipation to mount an attack. Considering they were more than content bickering over uniform items mere minutes ago, Mach was impressed by their refocused thinking. Sideburns had a sudden spike of awareness and realized he may had drawn the enemy to the bunker, from Aera's perspective he may have been completely correct in that assumption. Mach commandeered the conversation, and likely everyone's attention, as he began his briefing and made his way to the holoboard. "Listen up, time for the pre-mission brief. The information to come should answer all of your questions," he said in a stern voice, slightly louder than your standard conversational volume. Aera and Vector both followed dutifully behind him, then moved to some of the chairs as Mach gestured to them. He touched the board, starting a datalink before he turned back to his SPs, pupils, and the single NS soldier. He placed his hands behind the small of his back and stood up straight, like a commander addressing his troops. "Seats!" he commanded, ordering them to sit. If they didn't quite get the picture, Vector and Aera took a seat nearly in unison, which would hopefully generate a "monkey see, monkey do" response.
Mach would've only waited for a moment for them to sit, as he assumed Roc would refuse... "We encountered what we believe to be 3 programs in the Terror Girls group. This brief will include details on each, followed by our mission plan. If you have any questions that can't wait until the end of the briefing, let me know. The first program is the "Terror Girls Agent" allegedly seen by mr... Sideburns. Aera, make your report." Aera wasn't expecting to address the group, but considering she dealt with Cruz personally, it only made sense for her to provide the details. She passed along visual data to Mach, which he in turn passed to the board. As she stood, a single image of Cruz appeared; she was still apparently moving, and hadn't started her attempted missile deployment. She turned back to the group as she spoke up. "This is the Agent, which is apparently named "Cruz." This Navi is capable of flight, as well as carrying internal weaponry." On cue, a second image popped up on the board, showing Cruz mid-missile launch, with her head slid back and exposing the missile that protruded from her neck. "As you can see, she is capable of carrying missiles inside her body, and was preparing to launch in the direction of the bunker. I was able to disable the launch and force a retreat, as well as um... decapitate her," she explained, the mental thought of the head staring at her caused the equivalent of a "chill crawling down her spine."
She didn't feel like spending any time on the details of her attack, and pressed on. "That said, Cruz is apparently capable of functioning even after suffering severe damage. She was last seen returning to the bomber, and we must assume she is still capable of combat. That's all I have, Mach," she concluded succinctly, and metaphorically passed the baton back to Mach. He nodded and continued his brief, the images of Cruz slid off to the far left side of the board as he opened his own images of the bomber. He stepped slightly to the side to give them a clearer view of the images, which included a long-range shot, as well as more detailed images of the bomber's wings, engines, and turrets. "This is the Terror Girls 'bomber.' From the intel provided by General Yasu, I believe this program was previously encountered by the Neo Shogunate, under the name "TerrorMan.EXE." As you can see from the significant differences in structure and material of the wings vs the fuselage, the TerrorMan tank may have been modified for aerial bombing operations. The hull of the bomber is heavily plated, and lined with small diameter cameras. It didn't react to me from a distance, but it was able to spot me as I got within close proximity. It's visual range appears to be fairly near-sighted, which we can use to our advantage."
He pulled up images of the turrets, as well as one of the skull-like face on its flexible stalk staring directly at the point of view. "The bomber has four turret emplacements, two mounted on the upper and lower surfaces of each wing. They appear to be automated, and capable of swiveling in any direction, giving the bomber fairly solid Anti-Air-Artillery coverage. That said, there may be a 'bald spot' about 45 degrees down from directly behind the bomber. The bomber didn't fire at me, so I don't know of the munitions it carries, but I would assume flak or vulcan-style projectiles. Another potential weapon is its 'face.' It is supported by a flexible neck of sorts, and it may still house the beam cannon seen in its ground-based version. Avoid direct line of fire with its face at all costs, but its neck might be a weak area to exploit." He continued his assessment, and brought up more images, including the multitude of jets coming from the bomber's aft and underbelly. "It appears to be propelled by this array of thrusters, so disabling one or two may not cause a significant degradation of its flight capabilities. However, if we can force the bomber down to lower altitudes, it could become exposed to fire from NS ground forces. It also has a main hatch on the underside of its fuselage, it's not known if it uses that hatch for bombing, but that was apparently where Cruz was headed. It is also believed the leader of the Terror Girls, an allegedly lightly armed navi known as "Prez," is inside the bomber and issuing the propaganda being projected from several unseen loudspeakers on the aircraft."
With the details divulged, Mach made a summarizing evaluation of the bomber's capabilities and possible weaknesses. "So the bottom line is the bomber is heavily armored and capable of protecting itself with turrets, a possible beam cannon, and potentially additional armaments. However, it doesn't appear to have high agility/speed nor strong long-range detection capabilities, and areas like its wing roots, extending/flexible neck, underbelly hatch, and thrusters could be weak areas to exploit and degrade its capabilities. Any questions thus far?" Mach knew he put forth a lot of information, and expected at least a few burning questions from his 'troops.' He also had some questions of his own, ones that needed answering before detailing their attack plan. "Before we continue, what are your HP values and speed upgrades? he inquired of his students before he shifted his focus to the new arrival. And Sideburns, are you fit for combat? What are your capabilities?
As Skywriter and Roc commented on the agent's weaponry, Vector received the message from Aera. The news of their safe encounter and imminent return significantly bolstered the SP's mood, though externally he showed no change other than his eyes glowing just slightly brighter. He relayed the information, as he thought it important to keep the group in the loop, and hopefully keep the mood focused on the mission. "Sir MachMan and Lady Aera encountered this agent, and are on their way back now. I expect our attack to begin shortly," he advised and turned his focus back to the door.
----------------------------
Mach and Aera zipped just a few feet above the camp's floor as they made their way back to the bunker. Mach was taking point, with Aera just off to his right and back a foot or so. Mach received a message from Yasu, and patched Aera in to the conversation. Yasu seemed uncharacteristically cheery, and seemed to tout the encounter as a significant victory. Mach cautioned the general, even while knowing it may bring down her mood, "I wouldn't consider her 'crippled,' she seemed quite adept at flying in her... headless state. I'm not counting her out of the fight just yet, but I agree this would be a good opportunity to strike. I'll give the troops their pre-sortie briefing immediately, and will advise you just prior to mission start, if you pull any additional information."
Mach glanced back at Aera and slowed as they approached the bunker. Though he didn't say a word, Aera understood he was looking for affirmation, and if she had anything else to add. She responded with a nod as they both touched down in front of the bunker door. Mach's mind was racing as he tried to organize his thoughts and formulate a battle as he knocked calmly on the door. Aera shot a quick message to Vector, [That's us,] which prompted the SP to open the bunker and usher the pair inside. Vector nodded politely and stepped out of the way as Mach and Aera made their way inside.
The two were greeted by a new Navi, and an... interesting conversation. Aera recognized the Navi's voice as he indirectly accused Vector's armoring function as a thinly veiled opportunity to cop a feel. Both Aera and Mach smiled to some degree, amused by the Navi's wild accusations, as they couldn't be further from the truth. However, Aera did start to wonder a bit... She'd been armored up by Vector multiple times, and while she had her own cuirass underneath, it was pretty form-fitting and snug, so really there was just a thin layer of armor between Vector's plating and her chest. Though some tidbits did linger in her mind, Aera mostly shook it off, chalking up the thought of Vector feeling her up as absurd.
Maybe it was due to the extended time in the increasingly cramped bunker, or ramped up tensions, but all three flight Navis were actively interested in Mach and Aera's findings along with anticipation to mount an attack. Considering they were more than content bickering over uniform items mere minutes ago, Mach was impressed by their refocused thinking. Sideburns had a sudden spike of awareness and realized he may had drawn the enemy to the bunker, from Aera's perspective he may have been completely correct in that assumption. Mach commandeered the conversation, and likely everyone's attention, as he began his briefing and made his way to the holoboard. "Listen up, time for the pre-mission brief. The information to come should answer all of your questions," he said in a stern voice, slightly louder than your standard conversational volume. Aera and Vector both followed dutifully behind him, then moved to some of the chairs as Mach gestured to them. He touched the board, starting a datalink before he turned back to his SPs, pupils, and the single NS soldier. He placed his hands behind the small of his back and stood up straight, like a commander addressing his troops. "Seats!" he commanded, ordering them to sit. If they didn't quite get the picture, Vector and Aera took a seat nearly in unison, which would hopefully generate a "monkey see, monkey do" response.
Mach would've only waited for a moment for them to sit, as he assumed Roc would refuse... "We encountered what we believe to be 3 programs in the Terror Girls group. This brief will include details on each, followed by our mission plan. If you have any questions that can't wait until the end of the briefing, let me know. The first program is the "Terror Girls Agent" allegedly seen by mr... Sideburns. Aera, make your report." Aera wasn't expecting to address the group, but considering she dealt with Cruz personally, it only made sense for her to provide the details. She passed along visual data to Mach, which he in turn passed to the board. As she stood, a single image of Cruz appeared; she was still apparently moving, and hadn't started her attempted missile deployment. She turned back to the group as she spoke up. "This is the Agent, which is apparently named "Cruz." This Navi is capable of flight, as well as carrying internal weaponry." On cue, a second image popped up on the board, showing Cruz mid-missile launch, with her head slid back and exposing the missile that protruded from her neck. "As you can see, she is capable of carrying missiles inside her body, and was preparing to launch in the direction of the bunker. I was able to disable the launch and force a retreat, as well as um... decapitate her," she explained, the mental thought of the head staring at her caused the equivalent of a "chill crawling down her spine."
She didn't feel like spending any time on the details of her attack, and pressed on. "That said, Cruz is apparently capable of functioning even after suffering severe damage. She was last seen returning to the bomber, and we must assume she is still capable of combat. That's all I have, Mach," she concluded succinctly, and metaphorically passed the baton back to Mach. He nodded and continued his brief, the images of Cruz slid off to the far left side of the board as he opened his own images of the bomber. He stepped slightly to the side to give them a clearer view of the images, which included a long-range shot, as well as more detailed images of the bomber's wings, engines, and turrets. "This is the Terror Girls 'bomber.' From the intel provided by General Yasu, I believe this program was previously encountered by the Neo Shogunate, under the name "TerrorMan.EXE." As you can see from the significant differences in structure and material of the wings vs the fuselage, the TerrorMan tank may have been modified for aerial bombing operations. The hull of the bomber is heavily plated, and lined with small diameter cameras. It didn't react to me from a distance, but it was able to spot me as I got within close proximity. It's visual range appears to be fairly near-sighted, which we can use to our advantage."
He pulled up images of the turrets, as well as one of the skull-like face on its flexible stalk staring directly at the point of view. "The bomber has four turret emplacements, two mounted on the upper and lower surfaces of each wing. They appear to be automated, and capable of swiveling in any direction, giving the bomber fairly solid Anti-Air-Artillery coverage. That said, there may be a 'bald spot' about 45 degrees down from directly behind the bomber. The bomber didn't fire at me, so I don't know of the munitions it carries, but I would assume flak or vulcan-style projectiles. Another potential weapon is its 'face.' It is supported by a flexible neck of sorts, and it may still house the beam cannon seen in its ground-based version. Avoid direct line of fire with its face at all costs, but its neck might be a weak area to exploit." He continued his assessment, and brought up more images, including the multitude of jets coming from the bomber's aft and underbelly. "It appears to be propelled by this array of thrusters, so disabling one or two may not cause a significant degradation of its flight capabilities. However, if we can force the bomber down to lower altitudes, it could become exposed to fire from NS ground forces. It also has a main hatch on the underside of its fuselage, it's not known if it uses that hatch for bombing, but that was apparently where Cruz was headed. It is also believed the leader of the Terror Girls, an allegedly lightly armed navi known as "Prez," is inside the bomber and issuing the propaganda being projected from several unseen loudspeakers on the aircraft."
With the details divulged, Mach made a summarizing evaluation of the bomber's capabilities and possible weaknesses. "So the bottom line is the bomber is heavily armored and capable of protecting itself with turrets, a possible beam cannon, and potentially additional armaments. However, it doesn't appear to have high agility/speed nor strong long-range detection capabilities, and areas like its wing roots, extending/flexible neck, underbelly hatch, and thrusters could be weak areas to exploit and degrade its capabilities. Any questions thus far?" Mach knew he put forth a lot of information, and expected at least a few burning questions from his 'troops.' He also had some questions of his own, ones that needed answering before detailing their attack plan. "Before we continue, what are your HP values and speed upgrades? he inquired of his students before he shifted his focus to the new arrival. And Sideburns, are you fit for combat? What are your capabilities?
last edited by
Yasu returned an immediate response to MachMan, sounding impatient. "Of course. Don't spend too long with the briefing, though. Strike while the iron is hot!" Yasu encouraged MachMan. "If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a man who hesitates," she added unnecessarily. If the rumors were true, she wasn't particularly keen on any type of man. All things, considered, MachMan her interactions with MachMan had been pretty tame so far, which either meant that she appreciated him or just that she didn't feel as ready to throw gender discrimination around when the security of the entire camp was at stake.
Once MachMan and Aera returned, the leader for the day was just as eager to begin briefing quickly as Yasu had hoped he would be, ordering each of his students to take a seat. They did so with great speed and synchronization, with the exception of Roc, who obviously couldn't be made to sit. Skywriter was clearly holding her hands in her lap, thinking, probably correctly, that anyone looking from a certain angle would see up her tunic. This wasn't lost on the sideburned soldier sitting next to her, who occasionally made discreet glances or craned his neck, but appeared to be unable to get a glimpse of anything special. Thankfully, regardless of those distractions, the topic of an android navi who functioned without a head and carried missiles inside of her body was enough to grab everyone's attention again. Skywriter ended up watching through her fingers, which she'd moved up to her face, as though she was watching a particularly frightening horror movie. The soldier took the opportunity to try to peek again.
The group listened on as MachMan explained all of the features of the Terror Girls' skull-headed ship in a surprising level of detail. Their reactions were a wide array of emotions: the soldier still wasn't paying much attention, so his couldn't be said, but Pest was clearly pleased about something, Skywriter was obviously terrified, and Roc had begun smirking again, her frame shaking with brief laughter. "What a joke! So you're telling me it has four, maybe five guns and can't see me at a range? This is going to be like hunting dinner!" the bird-lady chuckled.
"B-B-But that huge skull! A-And a-a-a girl's voice came out! That's super creepy," Skywriter moaned. She seemed like the type who would be fun to tease during a scary movie.
Pest, on the other hand, looked to be the happiest of all. "I was worried they'd be more heavily armed, but I think we can manage something like this easily! Speed is more important than firepower in a fight like this. It sort of looks like they just threw it together at the last minute, to be honest," she spoke up, her bug eyes looking in no direction that was possible to discern. "I think they must be angry about something, or maybe the leader's a real hot-head. But this should be pretty easy... Once they're all dead, the camp will be safe!"
"D-D-Dead?!" Skywriter asked, looking pale.
"A ghost ship!" the nearby soldier input, not helping.
"Whoops, sorry... Bad habit of mine," Pest apologized. "Won't happen again, bzzzz... But it sounds like I just need to get into the ship and drain the data out of that Prez person until she gives up. Unless she's an android too... then draining won't be much fun... Much use, I mean."
MachMan broke up the peanut gallery with a few important questions of their own. Roc, Pestilence, and Skywriter answered in turn: 500, 100, and 190, respectively. Their speed values were three upgrades, two upgrades, and one upgrade, respectively. The soldier didn't seem to realize he was supposed to answer anything until MachMan asked for him by name. "I have 100 HP and no speed upgrades, like every Neo-Shogun soldier," he responded. "But I train rigorously every day! My spear skills are top notch and I'm ripped as any soldier you'll meet!" Unfortunately, those weren't qualities that were likely to help here. Sideburns confirmed that himself a moment later: "I'm 'fit for combat' as any of us Neo-Shogun soldier ranks are. Which is to say, I can poke a spear at things. I'm probably not going to be any help against a bomber," he shrugged.
"Imagination's not your strong suit either, I take it?" Roc sighed. "You're pretty pathetic, if you can't think up any way to help against that bomber. Let's use him as a decoy! I'll throw him into the air towards the bomber to distract it before we get moving."
"I'm ready for the task!" the soldier committed, saluting Roc and showing that he was onboard with her suicidal plan.
Once MachMan and Aera returned, the leader for the day was just as eager to begin briefing quickly as Yasu had hoped he would be, ordering each of his students to take a seat. They did so with great speed and synchronization, with the exception of Roc, who obviously couldn't be made to sit. Skywriter was clearly holding her hands in her lap, thinking, probably correctly, that anyone looking from a certain angle would see up her tunic. This wasn't lost on the sideburned soldier sitting next to her, who occasionally made discreet glances or craned his neck, but appeared to be unable to get a glimpse of anything special. Thankfully, regardless of those distractions, the topic of an android navi who functioned without a head and carried missiles inside of her body was enough to grab everyone's attention again. Skywriter ended up watching through her fingers, which she'd moved up to her face, as though she was watching a particularly frightening horror movie. The soldier took the opportunity to try to peek again.
The group listened on as MachMan explained all of the features of the Terror Girls' skull-headed ship in a surprising level of detail. Their reactions were a wide array of emotions: the soldier still wasn't paying much attention, so his couldn't be said, but Pest was clearly pleased about something, Skywriter was obviously terrified, and Roc had begun smirking again, her frame shaking with brief laughter. "What a joke! So you're telling me it has four, maybe five guns and can't see me at a range? This is going to be like hunting dinner!" the bird-lady chuckled.
"B-B-But that huge skull! A-And a-a-a girl's voice came out! That's super creepy," Skywriter moaned. She seemed like the type who would be fun to tease during a scary movie.
Pest, on the other hand, looked to be the happiest of all. "I was worried they'd be more heavily armed, but I think we can manage something like this easily! Speed is more important than firepower in a fight like this. It sort of looks like they just threw it together at the last minute, to be honest," she spoke up, her bug eyes looking in no direction that was possible to discern. "I think they must be angry about something, or maybe the leader's a real hot-head. But this should be pretty easy... Once they're all dead, the camp will be safe!"
"D-D-Dead?!" Skywriter asked, looking pale.
"A ghost ship!" the nearby soldier input, not helping.
"Whoops, sorry... Bad habit of mine," Pest apologized. "Won't happen again, bzzzz... But it sounds like I just need to get into the ship and drain the data out of that Prez person until she gives up. Unless she's an android too... then draining won't be much fun... Much use, I mean."
MachMan broke up the peanut gallery with a few important questions of their own. Roc, Pestilence, and Skywriter answered in turn: 500, 100, and 190, respectively. Their speed values were three upgrades, two upgrades, and one upgrade, respectively. The soldier didn't seem to realize he was supposed to answer anything until MachMan asked for him by name. "I have 100 HP and no speed upgrades, like every Neo-Shogun soldier," he responded. "But I train rigorously every day! My spear skills are top notch and I'm ripped as any soldier you'll meet!" Unfortunately, those weren't qualities that were likely to help here. Sideburns confirmed that himself a moment later: "I'm 'fit for combat' as any of us Neo-Shogun soldier ranks are. Which is to say, I can poke a spear at things. I'm probably not going to be any help against a bomber," he shrugged.
"Imagination's not your strong suit either, I take it?" Roc sighed. "You're pretty pathetic, if you can't think up any way to help against that bomber. Let's use him as a decoy! I'll throw him into the air towards the bomber to distract it before we get moving."
"I'm ready for the task!" the soldier committed, saluting Roc and showing that he was onboard with her suicidal plan.
last edited by
The students appeared to be taking the briefing seriously, but while the information only seemed to bolster the confidence of both Roc and Pest, Skywriter looked absolutely terrified. Mach made a mental note to address both of those issues. Thankfully the group didn't protest telling him their HP and speed upgrades, which helped solidify the plan which was rapidly coming together in Mach's mind. Sideburns described his abilities as well, which... weren't at all helpful to be honest. Roc jokingly suggested using the soldier as a decoy/projectile; a good time to interject and get the group back on task. "While the idea of using Sideburns as a Navi-shaped spear is amusing, I don't think it would be particularly useful." He focused his attention on both Pest and Roc, but his stern warning was addressed to the entire group, "While it's good to have confidence, do NOT underestimate the enemy. When you do, they have a nasty tendency to surprise you in increasingly dangerous ways. The information I've provided comes only from historical data and brief visual observation. Even if I had a full technical readout on the enemy, there still could be capabilities and hazards unknown or concealed from us. Keep up the energy, but don't get cocky, ladies."
Mach turned back to the board, and started to draw a basic top-down diagram of the battlefield, with a single chevron indicating the bomber. To the right of that he drew a side profile as well, with a similar bomber chevron, as well as a shallow arc indicating the haze/fog covering the encampment. "Now listen up, this is our battle plan," he barked as he finished up his sketch. He took a step to the side to give the group a better view of the board. "The diagram to the left is a vertical view of the field, with the right being horizontal. The chevron is the bomber, and the arc in the horizontal view is the fog," he briefly explained while gesturing to each. He didn't want any of them to misinterpret the symbology, otherwise the plan could fall apart right out of the gate. If he didn't get too many blank stares from the group, he continued.
"Our attack will consist of two groups. Aera and Vector, you will be supporting the strike package, consisting of Roc and Pest. Skywriter, you're with me. His eyes moved to each program as he addressed them, with his eyes stopping on Skywriter. It was mostly to make sure she heard him, and also to see if she still had her head in the game. Vector and Aera both sat up a little straighter as they were called, Vector nodded dutifully. Mach went back to the board, and made several dots on the board, one representing each Navi and SP respectively. One nice little feature of the board allowed Mach to remotely cause the dots to light up as he referred to their respective Navi or SP. Two of the dots were ahead of the bomber, at a slightly higher altitude, while four other dots were behind, and beneath the fog arc. "Skywriter and I will be taking the role of the NS counterattack, however our goal is simply to draw the attention of the bomber. Utilizing Skywriter's smoke abilities and my decoys, we will make a sizable, more-or-less obvious attack force. Once we've positively gotten their attention, I will notify the strike package to engage. Until then, you four will remain concealed in the fog. If you expose yourselves too early, our diversion may fail, and you will take the brunt of their defensive weaponry."
As he continued, the dots began to move. The two dots representing Mach and Skywriter move diagonally towards the bomber in a wide sweeping motion. "We will cut a diagonal path in the area ahead of the bomber, giving them the highest chance of spotting us. If need be, we will engage the bomber from long range. They may realize it's a ruse, so the strike package must act quickly once give the green light. Vector will armor up Roc, and Aera will support Pest with shielding and healing programs during the strike. The target priority is as follows: Defensive turrets, skull face, wing roots, hull, propulsion systems. The faster we 'declaw' the enemy the better, then we can focus on bringing it down. That said, if a target proves too difficult to engage while others are exposed, use your best judgement when deciding to press on or change targets. When attacking the bomber's wings, focus on whichever wing is easiest to attack, and disregard the other. We have a much better chance of bringing it down if we utterly destroy a single wing as opposed to dealing serious damage to both. Roc, I'd like you to focus on the hardened targets like the wings and hull, while Pest, use your agility and Aera's backup to outmaneuver and take down the turrets. If either of you need backup, support each other as best you can."
The four dots split into two pairs as they glided up towards the rear of the bomber as Mach continued his briefing. "Try to approach the bomber straight on if it hasn't yet noticed you, it will be more difficult for them to spot you. If you notice the turrets or skull tracking towards you, continue your operations using all 3 axis while maneuvering. If those turrets don't have to move much to keep you lined up, you're a very easy target. Don't loiter in one area for too long, and don't clump together. If they somehow nullify your weaponry, focus on drawing fire away from your comrades."
He moved away from the board and widened his message to the entire group, save for Sideburns. While he hoped never to use this part of the plan, it had to be stated. "If everything goes sideways and we need to abort the mission, I will give the word to fall back. If I am unable, either of my SPs will call it out. If all three of us are shot down, it's up to any of you three to make the call. The remaining members will dive down to the relative safety of the fog below, and regroup at this bunker." Hopefully he didn't bring the mood down too much, but he planned to end his brief on a strong note. "Call out any new threats, stay flexible, communicate, and work together to complete the mission. Like I said earlier, there may be additional navis in the bomber which could sortie against us. If that happens, coordinate with your flight mates to keep your backs covered. I will do my best to lead and oversee the execution of the battle, but I will not micromanage your actions unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm confident we will come back victoriously, and I expect to see every single one of you back here once we reduce the bomber to a smoking crater, as the first round is on me. If there aren't any questions, lets get to it! Mission start in 3 minutes! Briefed!"
Vector and Aera both stood in unison at the conclusion of Mach's brief, then turned back to the students. Mach walked up to Sideburns, to speak with him one-on-one. "While I can't utilize you in the sortie directly, I can still use you for the mission. I need you to help organize the remaining troops on the ground. If we can bring the bomber in range of ground fire, I need you to relay its location to anyone who can attack. Also, if the bomber starts to fall while still in the vicinity of the camp's grounds, see to it the area gets evacuated or protected as best you can manage. In fact, the more assets we can put underground now, the better. I'm not sure how busy General Yasu will be, so you can act as my direct point of contact. Sound good?"
With his troops briefed, and hopefully their questions answered, he opened a line with General Yasu. [[i]"General, we will begin our sortie in 2 minutes. If you wish to oversee the mission directly, please meet me at the bunker."[/i]] Mach had an idea to not only keep Yasu in the loop (to hopefully prevent extensive comm traffic regarding mission updates), and possibly give the general an interesting lesson in aerial operations. He expected her to delegate the task to him while she oversaw the "interrogation" of Cruz's head, but he kept the option open.
Mach turned back to the board, and started to draw a basic top-down diagram of the battlefield, with a single chevron indicating the bomber. To the right of that he drew a side profile as well, with a similar bomber chevron, as well as a shallow arc indicating the haze/fog covering the encampment. "Now listen up, this is our battle plan," he barked as he finished up his sketch. He took a step to the side to give the group a better view of the board. "The diagram to the left is a vertical view of the field, with the right being horizontal. The chevron is the bomber, and the arc in the horizontal view is the fog," he briefly explained while gesturing to each. He didn't want any of them to misinterpret the symbology, otherwise the plan could fall apart right out of the gate. If he didn't get too many blank stares from the group, he continued.
"Our attack will consist of two groups. Aera and Vector, you will be supporting the strike package, consisting of Roc and Pest. Skywriter, you're with me. His eyes moved to each program as he addressed them, with his eyes stopping on Skywriter. It was mostly to make sure she heard him, and also to see if she still had her head in the game. Vector and Aera both sat up a little straighter as they were called, Vector nodded dutifully. Mach went back to the board, and made several dots on the board, one representing each Navi and SP respectively. One nice little feature of the board allowed Mach to remotely cause the dots to light up as he referred to their respective Navi or SP. Two of the dots were ahead of the bomber, at a slightly higher altitude, while four other dots were behind, and beneath the fog arc. "Skywriter and I will be taking the role of the NS counterattack, however our goal is simply to draw the attention of the bomber. Utilizing Skywriter's smoke abilities and my decoys, we will make a sizable, more-or-less obvious attack force. Once we've positively gotten their attention, I will notify the strike package to engage. Until then, you four will remain concealed in the fog. If you expose yourselves too early, our diversion may fail, and you will take the brunt of their defensive weaponry."
As he continued, the dots began to move. The two dots representing Mach and Skywriter move diagonally towards the bomber in a wide sweeping motion. "We will cut a diagonal path in the area ahead of the bomber, giving them the highest chance of spotting us. If need be, we will engage the bomber from long range. They may realize it's a ruse, so the strike package must act quickly once give the green light. Vector will armor up Roc, and Aera will support Pest with shielding and healing programs during the strike. The target priority is as follows: Defensive turrets, skull face, wing roots, hull, propulsion systems. The faster we 'declaw' the enemy the better, then we can focus on bringing it down. That said, if a target proves too difficult to engage while others are exposed, use your best judgement when deciding to press on or change targets. When attacking the bomber's wings, focus on whichever wing is easiest to attack, and disregard the other. We have a much better chance of bringing it down if we utterly destroy a single wing as opposed to dealing serious damage to both. Roc, I'd like you to focus on the hardened targets like the wings and hull, while Pest, use your agility and Aera's backup to outmaneuver and take down the turrets. If either of you need backup, support each other as best you can."
The four dots split into two pairs as they glided up towards the rear of the bomber as Mach continued his briefing. "Try to approach the bomber straight on if it hasn't yet noticed you, it will be more difficult for them to spot you. If you notice the turrets or skull tracking towards you, continue your operations using all 3 axis while maneuvering. If those turrets don't have to move much to keep you lined up, you're a very easy target. Don't loiter in one area for too long, and don't clump together. If they somehow nullify your weaponry, focus on drawing fire away from your comrades."
He moved away from the board and widened his message to the entire group, save for Sideburns. While he hoped never to use this part of the plan, it had to be stated. "If everything goes sideways and we need to abort the mission, I will give the word to fall back. If I am unable, either of my SPs will call it out. If all three of us are shot down, it's up to any of you three to make the call. The remaining members will dive down to the relative safety of the fog below, and regroup at this bunker." Hopefully he didn't bring the mood down too much, but he planned to end his brief on a strong note. "Call out any new threats, stay flexible, communicate, and work together to complete the mission. Like I said earlier, there may be additional navis in the bomber which could sortie against us. If that happens, coordinate with your flight mates to keep your backs covered. I will do my best to lead and oversee the execution of the battle, but I will not micromanage your actions unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm confident we will come back victoriously, and I expect to see every single one of you back here once we reduce the bomber to a smoking crater, as the first round is on me. If there aren't any questions, lets get to it! Mission start in 3 minutes! Briefed!"
Vector and Aera both stood in unison at the conclusion of Mach's brief, then turned back to the students. Mach walked up to Sideburns, to speak with him one-on-one. "While I can't utilize you in the sortie directly, I can still use you for the mission. I need you to help organize the remaining troops on the ground. If we can bring the bomber in range of ground fire, I need you to relay its location to anyone who can attack. Also, if the bomber starts to fall while still in the vicinity of the camp's grounds, see to it the area gets evacuated or protected as best you can manage. In fact, the more assets we can put underground now, the better. I'm not sure how busy General Yasu will be, so you can act as my direct point of contact. Sound good?"
With his troops briefed, and hopefully their questions answered, he opened a line with General Yasu. [[i]"General, we will begin our sortie in 2 minutes. If you wish to oversee the mission directly, please meet me at the bunker."[/i]] Mach had an idea to not only keep Yasu in the loop (to hopefully prevent extensive comm traffic regarding mission updates), and possibly give the general an interesting lesson in aerial operations. He expected her to delegate the task to him while she oversaw the "interrogation" of Cruz's head, but he kept the option open.
last edited by
Pestilence buzzed half-heartedly and Roc simply frowned and looked aside as MachMan explained to them that they ought to take their enemies more seriously. "You're right... I just thought that the way you described the ship made it sound less formidable than I was picturing," Pest replied. Roc didn't say anything, but it would be very surprising if she was taking his words to heart, considering she seemed to underestimate everyone, let alone those with converted tank-planes. "Then again, perhaps as Neo-Shogun recruits, we shouldn't be talking about other people looking silly."
"Tell me about it. With the costumes you guys wear and the useless soldiers you employ, you'd have to be pretty ballsy to complain about somebody else's stuff," Roc sighed, rolling her eyes as if she hadn't torn open a hole to expose her breasts for no reason earlier.
The girls (and Sideburns) watched and listened to MachMan's explanation of the battle plan, although one or two of them already looked lost by the time he referred to the arc and the chevron. Mostly, though, they seemed to be in agreement with the plan he outlined. Pestilence gave a salute, then turned to Aera. "I'll be counting on you to protect me, partner! Although, if you run out of shields... You can always strengthen me up if you let me drain some of your energy by sucking your data... Just keep that in mind!" she reminded Aera, pressing her hands together like a hopeful child.
"Hmph! This is a good plan, I like it. Those armored sections will be torn apart so fast you won't remember they were armored," Roc chuckled, sharpening one of her claws against the back of her left talon glove. "Lucky you, armor. You're going to play an important role in this battle."
The soldier nicknamed "Sideburns" gave his agreement as well, his eyes burning with enthusiasm. "So... I'll be filling in the role of Yasu-sama?! Such power and responsibility! I hope I can handle it!" he pumped himself up. "I'll meet up with the other girls and tell them what to do! I'll... I'LL ORDER THE GENERALS! This is the greatest day of my life!" the soldier announced, his voice raising to an excited roar. Now MachMan would just have to hope the girls would actually listen to him... He didn't seem like the type that they'd normally treat as an authority figure.
The only one who didn't sound enthusiastic about her role in the fight was Skywriter, who waited until the others were busy celebrating to pull MachMan aside and speak quietly. "I want to help, but... Well... I'm a little worried that I'll get up there and see that skull you were talking about... and then I'll freeze and won't be able to dodge," she admitted. "I'm not good with scary things like that... But, I'll give it a shot, if you think it's the place where I'll be the most help," she reassured MachMan. "I'm glad you trust me enough to take me along with you. Just... promise me you'll stay close, okay?" Another cute smile, combined with her self-consciously adjusting her tunic, made her look again like the perfect girlfriend type amidst a sea of weird personalities here in the Neo-Shogun Army. On the other hand, being cute wouldn't help her when they got into the air and faced turret and laser fire.
The only response left to receive was the one from the First General herself. She responded quickly enough. "Excellent. I had to abandon the idea of interrogating the head once I realized that I couldn't do it without standing in the open, nor could I take it back to the place where the others were located. The head of that agent is probably where you left it... Right now, trying to retrieve it is too much of a risk. I'll trust your plan as it is. Wait right there and I'll be there in one minute."
It barely seemed to take Yasu a minute to arrive; this was likely due to the fact that, as he'd seen earlier, she was capable of extremely fast movement simply by running, although unfortunately only across the land. Sideburns immediately stood ramrod straight and bowed upon her arrival, not hiding his fascination with her in the least. "Yasu-sama! MachMan has asked me to rally the rest of the troups to prepare for an attack in the case that the ship lowers altitude during our fight!" he informed her, beaming with pride.
"What? There's no need for that. I'll simply reach them myself if the occasion arises. I can do it in under a minute," she scoffed. Strangely, the soldier didn't seem to be adversely affected. It almost seemed as if just having the First General recognize him was causing his breathing to accelerate and fire to shine in his eyes. "Well, we might still have use for you. I suppose you could simply stick with me when I make those communications."
"It would be an honor!" the soldier responded, bowing deeper, which would likely be unfortunate for anyone standing behind him who didn't want a look at his (admittedly well-toned) man-ass. The tunic didn't offer a lot of allowance for such movements. With all of that out of the way, the allotted time MachMan had given was just about over. It was now time to head towards their target.
"Tell me about it. With the costumes you guys wear and the useless soldiers you employ, you'd have to be pretty ballsy to complain about somebody else's stuff," Roc sighed, rolling her eyes as if she hadn't torn open a hole to expose her breasts for no reason earlier.
The girls (and Sideburns) watched and listened to MachMan's explanation of the battle plan, although one or two of them already looked lost by the time he referred to the arc and the chevron. Mostly, though, they seemed to be in agreement with the plan he outlined. Pestilence gave a salute, then turned to Aera. "I'll be counting on you to protect me, partner! Although, if you run out of shields... You can always strengthen me up if you let me drain some of your energy by sucking your data... Just keep that in mind!" she reminded Aera, pressing her hands together like a hopeful child.
"Hmph! This is a good plan, I like it. Those armored sections will be torn apart so fast you won't remember they were armored," Roc chuckled, sharpening one of her claws against the back of her left talon glove. "Lucky you, armor. You're going to play an important role in this battle."
The soldier nicknamed "Sideburns" gave his agreement as well, his eyes burning with enthusiasm. "So... I'll be filling in the role of Yasu-sama?! Such power and responsibility! I hope I can handle it!" he pumped himself up. "I'll meet up with the other girls and tell them what to do! I'll... I'LL ORDER THE GENERALS! This is the greatest day of my life!" the soldier announced, his voice raising to an excited roar. Now MachMan would just have to hope the girls would actually listen to him... He didn't seem like the type that they'd normally treat as an authority figure.
The only one who didn't sound enthusiastic about her role in the fight was Skywriter, who waited until the others were busy celebrating to pull MachMan aside and speak quietly. "I want to help, but... Well... I'm a little worried that I'll get up there and see that skull you were talking about... and then I'll freeze and won't be able to dodge," she admitted. "I'm not good with scary things like that... But, I'll give it a shot, if you think it's the place where I'll be the most help," she reassured MachMan. "I'm glad you trust me enough to take me along with you. Just... promise me you'll stay close, okay?" Another cute smile, combined with her self-consciously adjusting her tunic, made her look again like the perfect girlfriend type amidst a sea of weird personalities here in the Neo-Shogun Army. On the other hand, being cute wouldn't help her when they got into the air and faced turret and laser fire.
The only response left to receive was the one from the First General herself. She responded quickly enough. "Excellent. I had to abandon the idea of interrogating the head once I realized that I couldn't do it without standing in the open, nor could I take it back to the place where the others were located. The head of that agent is probably where you left it... Right now, trying to retrieve it is too much of a risk. I'll trust your plan as it is. Wait right there and I'll be there in one minute."
It barely seemed to take Yasu a minute to arrive; this was likely due to the fact that, as he'd seen earlier, she was capable of extremely fast movement simply by running, although unfortunately only across the land. Sideburns immediately stood ramrod straight and bowed upon her arrival, not hiding his fascination with her in the least. "Yasu-sama! MachMan has asked me to rally the rest of the troups to prepare for an attack in the case that the ship lowers altitude during our fight!" he informed her, beaming with pride.
"What? There's no need for that. I'll simply reach them myself if the occasion arises. I can do it in under a minute," she scoffed. Strangely, the soldier didn't seem to be adversely affected. It almost seemed as if just having the First General recognize him was causing his breathing to accelerate and fire to shine in his eyes. "Well, we might still have use for you. I suppose you could simply stick with me when I make those communications."
"It would be an honor!" the soldier responded, bowing deeper, which would likely be unfortunate for anyone standing behind him who didn't want a look at his (admittedly well-toned) man-ass. The tunic didn't offer a lot of allowance for such movements. With all of that out of the way, the allotted time MachMan had given was just about over. It was now time to head towards their target.
last edited by
Pestilence verbally acknowledged Mach's warning regarding underestimating the enemy, and Roc unsurprisingly said nothing. Mach hoped his words didn't fall on deaf ears, but at least Pest was on board. The bug-themed Navi spoke to Aera, who turned back to listen to her new wingman of sorts. The Navi suggested an additional role for the electric SP, involving letting her being subject to her energy siphoning abilities. Aera raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, showing visible skepticism towards the idea. That said, it was a valid strategy if there was no other option other than retreat. "Hopefully it won't get to that point, partner..." Aera managed to say, trying to be as non-committal as possible as her eyes occasionally glanced at the Navi's needle-like point on her mask.
Roc continued to boast as she psyched herself up for battle, while Vector turned to the Navi, his armor reconfiguring slightly in his version of "loosening up." "It's Vector, Miss Roc. But yes, we're the linchpin for this mission. I will do my best to keep you adequately protected; I won't let you down." Vector responded with a polite nod. Her confidence and abilities were noteworthy, but her nearly overbearing pride didn't set well with the SP. Regardless, he would give it his all to ensure Roc completes the mission.
Sideburns was easily the most excited of the group, likely due to a bit of a misunderstanding regarding his role. Mach's intent was to have him be more of a liaison between him and the generals, but the Navi looked to have his mind set on this newfound powers, and would've likely been unable to talk down. Mach's focus was also shifted away from the jazzed up group by Skywriter, who wished to speak with him one-on-one. Her meek demeanor and the subtle wavering in her voice made it all to clear her confidence was in question, especially compared to her teammates. Thankfully she put her concerns out in the open, and admitted the sight of the bomber's skull-like face could give her pause, something that would make her a very easy target to swat out of the sky. Her fears weren't entirely unfounded, even Mach found the skull and it's possible beam weapon unnerving. However, she still expressed willingness to execute the mission, granted if Mach stayed close. She smiled and fiddled with her tunic, a scene that was almost nauseatingly cute. Mach suppressed the urge to pat her head like a child, but eased up his posture and voice. "No worries, I have an idea that should help remedy the situation. In the meantime, make whatever preparations you need, we'll be launching soon." Mach interpreted her request and reactions purely as an attempt to mitigate her lingering fears, if she was giving off any ulterior signals, they were clearly lost on him.
After seeing Skywriter off to make her final preflight preps, Mach had opened a line with Yasu, who abandoned the idea of interrogating the head and was enroute to the bunker. Mach thought it was a good call, the Navi likely wouldn't have revealed much, and instead provided data to her comrades. His plan was to take the general up with him to get a personal view of the battle, but with Skywriter's apprehensive nature it was best to have her in the seat instead. That way Mach would keep her close hold, and any fear-induced pauses would be easily mitigated. Well, maybe if he had a 2-seater version... Mach spoke up, addressing his NetOp. "Mazer, do you have any input on the plan? Also, think you could help me out with something? Mazer, who had been intently watching and listening the whole time, opened a window nearby to chat with Mach face to face. ["The plan seems solid, but I'd recommend trying to lure it away from the camp; taking it down wouldn't be much good if it crashes into something really important down there. Other than that, what do you need?"]
Mach nodded, Mazer brought up a good point. That said, with the bomber's propulsion capabilities mostly unknown, he wasn't certain the bomber would even be able to move outside of the grounds in any particular hurry. "I'll keep that in mind. I'm wondering if you could possibly add a second seat to the MachFighter, think you can manage it? You don't need to route any controls or systems to the rear seat, plus with who I plan to take that seat, it'd be a good idea to not give her much to mess with." Mazer put his left hand to his chin, considering the request and what would be needed to get it done. ["Hmm, I might be able to whip up a second seat, if you don't need any duplication of the controls or indicators. No guarantees though."] Mach gave his NetOp a thumbs up, "Thanks for the help," he responded. Mazer returned the thumbs up and closed the window, then shifted his focus to the PC in which the PET was networked. He pulled up the NS version of the MachFighter's code, and got to work extending the cockpit and canopy, as well as copying the seat and restraints. This was the 5th version of the MachFighter he's designed, so his relative experience made manipulating the code a relatively easy task.
General Yasu arrived quickly, much to Sideburns' delight. Though Yasu effectively nullified his perceived 'power,' he surprisingly took it in stride, it seemed he was just happy to have been recognized by his General. MachMan spoke up, getting the group's attention. One minute to launch, folks, form up outside." He was first to the door, and peered outside cautiously. He didn't want to lead his team outside to immediately get bombed into nullified uselessness. Only if he confirmed the obscuring layer of fog was still dense enough to fully obscure the bomber from view did he usher the rest outside. As Roc moved out the door, Vector fell in step behind her before he smoothly enveloped the majority of her body in his armored plating. Her ample, bouncing chest was finally wrangled by Vector's unyielding armor, though what was left exposed probably still had a bit of fight/jiggle left. The spire-like crest split apart into two silver, angular wings just as she left the bunker, and the slit-like crimson eyes flickered to life over her armored facemask. Mach couldn't help but gawk, the look was an interesting mix of feminine form and hostile intimidation. Mach mentally applauded Vector's work, it appeared the fractal SP was getting more and more creative in his own designs, all while not sacrificing much in the way of bodily protection.
He waited for the rest to make their way, and looked them over one last time before the start of the mission. "You know your roles, and what's at stake. Don't let me down, make the Neo Shogunate proud! Aera, your Strike Team is cleared for takeoff. Happy hunting, ladies! Aera smiled and saluted, mimicking the one Pest gave to her, before she turned back to the armored Roc and Pest. Let's get to it! Her little wings started to hum with electricity and she began to rise up into the air, hopefully prompting her comrades to do the same. Once she made sure they were on the same page, she accelerated and darted up into the fog. With his attack team hopefully up and away, Mach refocused on Skywriter and General Yasu. "Now... for my part of the plan." He said as he started to walk away towards the center of the open path ahead of the bunker, unsuccessfully suppressing the urge to wink. "Is it ready, Mazer?" he asked under his breath. ["Should be ready in a moment, go ahead,"] Mazer responded, his eyes still focused on his computer screen as he made the finishing touches on the edit.
Mach somersaulted into the air as his body was rapidly shrouded in a cyan glow. A multitude of metallic plates and surfaces protruded from his form, and rapidly slid and folded into place in a flurry of mechanical chaos. Just as his body would've fallen back to the ground, the glow subsided to reveal his new form. Supported by set of 'tricycle' landing gear, the Neo Shogun form of the MachFighter stood before them. While significantly smaller than its default form, it by no means less capable. It's bullet-like, dark blue fuselage had a large set of canards just ahead of its metal and glass cockpit, which lead back to a larger pair of swept back wings set to the rear of his fuselage, a very nontraditional design. Instead of a typical vertical stabilizer, two large stabilizers were set in the middle of each wing, each adorned with a dull silver stripe and emblazoned with the NeoShogunate emblem. While they also provided a bit of unconventional flair, the stabilizers also provided the craft impressive yaw and roll stability. Two intakes ran along the sides of the fuselage near the back of the cockpit, which fed air to a single jet engine. The fluted conical exhaust nozzle flexed in multiple directions along with the wing-mounted elevons and rudders as Mach went through a 'control check,' hinting the jet engine had omni-directional vectored thrust. The overall design was actually quite old-fashioned, but as the metal lattice canopy slid foreward, the cockpit was decked out in very modern avionics and controls. Mach's voice emerged from the craft as a quartet of machine cannons emerged from the craft's nosecone, completing the transformation. "Hop in, Skywriter! We have a bomber to kill!"
He continued on, "...and General Yasu, if you'd like to learn a thing or two about aerial combat, there's another seat open for you as well." Mazer, being directly on cue as always, enacted the quickly programed edits to the MachFighter program. The cockpit extended backwards several feet, and the fuselage forward an equal amount, and an additional padded flight seat materialized in the space created. "Allow me to show you a new style of battle. You can use Sideburns as your 'right hand man' to organize the troops, and don't worry, you'll have the best seat in the house." Mach kicked on his jet engine, it's turbine whirred to life with a high pitched whine before it filled out into an intimidating howl; the dust and debris on the path behind him were kicked up and swirled at the mercy of the thrust being produced by the MachFighter's engine. If that sight weren't enough to invoke the curiosity of the scantily-clad, scarred general, he really had little else to offer.
Roc continued to boast as she psyched herself up for battle, while Vector turned to the Navi, his armor reconfiguring slightly in his version of "loosening up." "It's Vector, Miss Roc. But yes, we're the linchpin for this mission. I will do my best to keep you adequately protected; I won't let you down." Vector responded with a polite nod. Her confidence and abilities were noteworthy, but her nearly overbearing pride didn't set well with the SP. Regardless, he would give it his all to ensure Roc completes the mission.
Sideburns was easily the most excited of the group, likely due to a bit of a misunderstanding regarding his role. Mach's intent was to have him be more of a liaison between him and the generals, but the Navi looked to have his mind set on this newfound powers, and would've likely been unable to talk down. Mach's focus was also shifted away from the jazzed up group by Skywriter, who wished to speak with him one-on-one. Her meek demeanor and the subtle wavering in her voice made it all to clear her confidence was in question, especially compared to her teammates. Thankfully she put her concerns out in the open, and admitted the sight of the bomber's skull-like face could give her pause, something that would make her a very easy target to swat out of the sky. Her fears weren't entirely unfounded, even Mach found the skull and it's possible beam weapon unnerving. However, she still expressed willingness to execute the mission, granted if Mach stayed close. She smiled and fiddled with her tunic, a scene that was almost nauseatingly cute. Mach suppressed the urge to pat her head like a child, but eased up his posture and voice. "No worries, I have an idea that should help remedy the situation. In the meantime, make whatever preparations you need, we'll be launching soon." Mach interpreted her request and reactions purely as an attempt to mitigate her lingering fears, if she was giving off any ulterior signals, they were clearly lost on him.
After seeing Skywriter off to make her final preflight preps, Mach had opened a line with Yasu, who abandoned the idea of interrogating the head and was enroute to the bunker. Mach thought it was a good call, the Navi likely wouldn't have revealed much, and instead provided data to her comrades. His plan was to take the general up with him to get a personal view of the battle, but with Skywriter's apprehensive nature it was best to have her in the seat instead. That way Mach would keep her close hold, and any fear-induced pauses would be easily mitigated. Well, maybe if he had a 2-seater version... Mach spoke up, addressing his NetOp. "Mazer, do you have any input on the plan? Also, think you could help me out with something? Mazer, who had been intently watching and listening the whole time, opened a window nearby to chat with Mach face to face. ["The plan seems solid, but I'd recommend trying to lure it away from the camp; taking it down wouldn't be much good if it crashes into something really important down there. Other than that, what do you need?"]
Mach nodded, Mazer brought up a good point. That said, with the bomber's propulsion capabilities mostly unknown, he wasn't certain the bomber would even be able to move outside of the grounds in any particular hurry. "I'll keep that in mind. I'm wondering if you could possibly add a second seat to the MachFighter, think you can manage it? You don't need to route any controls or systems to the rear seat, plus with who I plan to take that seat, it'd be a good idea to not give her much to mess with." Mazer put his left hand to his chin, considering the request and what would be needed to get it done. ["Hmm, I might be able to whip up a second seat, if you don't need any duplication of the controls or indicators. No guarantees though."] Mach gave his NetOp a thumbs up, "Thanks for the help," he responded. Mazer returned the thumbs up and closed the window, then shifted his focus to the PC in which the PET was networked. He pulled up the NS version of the MachFighter's code, and got to work extending the cockpit and canopy, as well as copying the seat and restraints. This was the 5th version of the MachFighter he's designed, so his relative experience made manipulating the code a relatively easy task.
General Yasu arrived quickly, much to Sideburns' delight. Though Yasu effectively nullified his perceived 'power,' he surprisingly took it in stride, it seemed he was just happy to have been recognized by his General. MachMan spoke up, getting the group's attention. One minute to launch, folks, form up outside." He was first to the door, and peered outside cautiously. He didn't want to lead his team outside to immediately get bombed into nullified uselessness. Only if he confirmed the obscuring layer of fog was still dense enough to fully obscure the bomber from view did he usher the rest outside. As Roc moved out the door, Vector fell in step behind her before he smoothly enveloped the majority of her body in his armored plating. Her ample, bouncing chest was finally wrangled by Vector's unyielding armor, though what was left exposed probably still had a bit of fight/jiggle left. The spire-like crest split apart into two silver, angular wings just as she left the bunker, and the slit-like crimson eyes flickered to life over her armored facemask. Mach couldn't help but gawk, the look was an interesting mix of feminine form and hostile intimidation. Mach mentally applauded Vector's work, it appeared the fractal SP was getting more and more creative in his own designs, all while not sacrificing much in the way of bodily protection.
He waited for the rest to make their way, and looked them over one last time before the start of the mission. "You know your roles, and what's at stake. Don't let me down, make the Neo Shogunate proud! Aera, your Strike Team is cleared for takeoff. Happy hunting, ladies! Aera smiled and saluted, mimicking the one Pest gave to her, before she turned back to the armored Roc and Pest. Let's get to it! Her little wings started to hum with electricity and she began to rise up into the air, hopefully prompting her comrades to do the same. Once she made sure they were on the same page, she accelerated and darted up into the fog. With his attack team hopefully up and away, Mach refocused on Skywriter and General Yasu. "Now... for my part of the plan." He said as he started to walk away towards the center of the open path ahead of the bunker, unsuccessfully suppressing the urge to wink. "Is it ready, Mazer?" he asked under his breath. ["Should be ready in a moment, go ahead,"] Mazer responded, his eyes still focused on his computer screen as he made the finishing touches on the edit.
Mach somersaulted into the air as his body was rapidly shrouded in a cyan glow. A multitude of metallic plates and surfaces protruded from his form, and rapidly slid and folded into place in a flurry of mechanical chaos. Just as his body would've fallen back to the ground, the glow subsided to reveal his new form. Supported by set of 'tricycle' landing gear, the Neo Shogun form of the MachFighter stood before them. While significantly smaller than its default form, it by no means less capable. It's bullet-like, dark blue fuselage had a large set of canards just ahead of its metal and glass cockpit, which lead back to a larger pair of swept back wings set to the rear of his fuselage, a very nontraditional design. Instead of a typical vertical stabilizer, two large stabilizers were set in the middle of each wing, each adorned with a dull silver stripe and emblazoned with the NeoShogunate emblem. While they also provided a bit of unconventional flair, the stabilizers also provided the craft impressive yaw and roll stability. Two intakes ran along the sides of the fuselage near the back of the cockpit, which fed air to a single jet engine. The fluted conical exhaust nozzle flexed in multiple directions along with the wing-mounted elevons and rudders as Mach went through a 'control check,' hinting the jet engine had omni-directional vectored thrust. The overall design was actually quite old-fashioned, but as the metal lattice canopy slid foreward, the cockpit was decked out in very modern avionics and controls. Mach's voice emerged from the craft as a quartet of machine cannons emerged from the craft's nosecone, completing the transformation. "Hop in, Skywriter! We have a bomber to kill!"
He continued on, "...and General Yasu, if you'd like to learn a thing or two about aerial combat, there's another seat open for you as well." Mazer, being directly on cue as always, enacted the quickly programed edits to the MachFighter program. The cockpit extended backwards several feet, and the fuselage forward an equal amount, and an additional padded flight seat materialized in the space created. "Allow me to show you a new style of battle. You can use Sideburns as your 'right hand man' to organize the troops, and don't worry, you'll have the best seat in the house." Mach kicked on his jet engine, it's turbine whirred to life with a high pitched whine before it filled out into an intimidating howl; the dust and debris on the path behind him were kicked up and swirled at the mercy of the thrust being produced by the MachFighter's engine. If that sight weren't enough to invoke the curiosity of the scantily-clad, scarred general, he really had little else to offer.
last edited by
MachMan, Aera, and Vector each conversed briefly with their partners for the mission before the leader went outside to check on the mission conditions again. There was no way to tell whether the cloud cover was working or not just upon stepping outside, since it appeared completely transparent from the bottom side. After hovering above a little, he would find that the layer produced by the illusion was still in tact, which ought to be making it very difficult for the bomber to pick a target. The bomber was a fair distance off, which was good... it cancelled the worry that the group would immediately shift to targeting the bunker if the agent from earlier delivered a report. Then again, maybe they just hadn't gotten to the report yet... or it was even possible that the agent was incapable of reporting anything, given that her head had been knocked off of her body earlier by the force of an explosion.
As she walked out into the sunlight, Roc momentarily looked behind herself, realizing that something was grabbing hold of her body in various places. Her curiosity faded once she realized it was just Vector; it was hard to tell whether she appreciated the aesthetics of her new armor or not, but the fact that she wasn't complaining was a triumph in and of itself. Skywriter and Pest continued to be jealous. Sideburns offered a comment: "He turned into sexy armor... You don't turn into sexy armor if you're not interested in feeling up girls..." he murmured, only to be smacked in the head by the fist of Yasu. It looked like a glancing blow, but the force was enough to send him rolling back inside, narrowly avoiding falling back down the long staircase that Escort had tripped on earlier.
Skywriter and Yasu both watched with excitement and more than a little surprise as MachMan transformed from plane-man into plane. "... I wish I'd known you could do this all along. This opens a lot of tactical options," Yasu briefly commented, seeming unable to decide if she was angry or pleased, but mostly just seeming in awe of the fact that he'd transformed into a plane. "This... is excellent! It's even branded for our army. What would it take to mass produce these? Could Dee fund it?" she murmured, pressing her fist to her mouth contemplatively as she viewed it from different angles. "With an army of planes, we could...!"
"If you wanted an army of planes, why did you instead seek out a squadron of flying navis?" Skywriter asked, keeping her voice quiet, as though she really didn't want an answer or to weather Yasu's inevitable snap in response. "A flying navi flying another flying navi is sort of silly," she admitted. "Then again... I've never flown a classic plane before! It could be a once in a lifetime experience."
"Wait, you're taking the boss?! DOES THAT MEAN YOU'RE GOING TO BE TOUCHING YASU'S THIGHS?!" the soldier bellowed from the doorway, but Yasu was too deep in thought to punish him this time.
She looked at the backseat pensively, then squinted her eyes, keeping her fist pressed over her mouth, one elbow resting on the opposite forearm. "Very well. I should experience this first-hand," she agreed. "Sideburns, go and meet the others in the general's area. Whatever you do, do not enter any of the structures except for the Neo-Shogun's visiting quarters, the cabin in the very back. Enter through the front and bow immediately; I won't have one of our soldiers disrespecting the Shogun, if he happens to be present. There, you will meet Arch and the others. Tell them to be ready," she instructed. "If the ship lowers in the sky so that it becomes vulnerable to Arch's fire, she needs to be ready to attack. I also want Dee to be one-hundred percent certain that her cloud curtain remains functional... Under no circumstances must the Shogun's quarters be hit by one of those bombs," she warned him. "Do not fail me."
The sideburned soldier saluted the stiffest, most genuine salute he could possibly make, then immediately ran off. Yasu watched him go and sighed deeply. "He's not nearly as swift as I am, but he doesn't have to be, on this occassion," she remarked, then got seated in the back area of the ship. Skywriter took the front. If MachMan did have any ability to feel as the MachFighter, as the soldier had theorized, this might be a treat for him. If he had any way to see inside himself (which would be pretty bizarre), he might also get a glimpse at Skywriter's panties, now that her legs were parted. If anyone was concerned about these things, those concerns would soon be set aside for the mission, with Skywriter and Yasu both preparing for the launch. As ready as she was to get in the air, Roc remained on the ground with Pest and Aera for now, knowing that they were to come in after TerrorMan was distracted by the MachFighter.
As she walked out into the sunlight, Roc momentarily looked behind herself, realizing that something was grabbing hold of her body in various places. Her curiosity faded once she realized it was just Vector; it was hard to tell whether she appreciated the aesthetics of her new armor or not, but the fact that she wasn't complaining was a triumph in and of itself. Skywriter and Pest continued to be jealous. Sideburns offered a comment: "He turned into sexy armor... You don't turn into sexy armor if you're not interested in feeling up girls..." he murmured, only to be smacked in the head by the fist of Yasu. It looked like a glancing blow, but the force was enough to send him rolling back inside, narrowly avoiding falling back down the long staircase that Escort had tripped on earlier.
Skywriter and Yasu both watched with excitement and more than a little surprise as MachMan transformed from plane-man into plane. "... I wish I'd known you could do this all along. This opens a lot of tactical options," Yasu briefly commented, seeming unable to decide if she was angry or pleased, but mostly just seeming in awe of the fact that he'd transformed into a plane. "This... is excellent! It's even branded for our army. What would it take to mass produce these? Could Dee fund it?" she murmured, pressing her fist to her mouth contemplatively as she viewed it from different angles. "With an army of planes, we could...!"
"If you wanted an army of planes, why did you instead seek out a squadron of flying navis?" Skywriter asked, keeping her voice quiet, as though she really didn't want an answer or to weather Yasu's inevitable snap in response. "A flying navi flying another flying navi is sort of silly," she admitted. "Then again... I've never flown a classic plane before! It could be a once in a lifetime experience."
"Wait, you're taking the boss?! DOES THAT MEAN YOU'RE GOING TO BE TOUCHING YASU'S THIGHS?!" the soldier bellowed from the doorway, but Yasu was too deep in thought to punish him this time.
She looked at the backseat pensively, then squinted her eyes, keeping her fist pressed over her mouth, one elbow resting on the opposite forearm. "Very well. I should experience this first-hand," she agreed. "Sideburns, go and meet the others in the general's area. Whatever you do, do not enter any of the structures except for the Neo-Shogun's visiting quarters, the cabin in the very back. Enter through the front and bow immediately; I won't have one of our soldiers disrespecting the Shogun, if he happens to be present. There, you will meet Arch and the others. Tell them to be ready," she instructed. "If the ship lowers in the sky so that it becomes vulnerable to Arch's fire, she needs to be ready to attack. I also want Dee to be one-hundred percent certain that her cloud curtain remains functional... Under no circumstances must the Shogun's quarters be hit by one of those bombs," she warned him. "Do not fail me."
The sideburned soldier saluted the stiffest, most genuine salute he could possibly make, then immediately ran off. Yasu watched him go and sighed deeply. "He's not nearly as swift as I am, but he doesn't have to be, on this occassion," she remarked, then got seated in the back area of the ship. Skywriter took the front. If MachMan did have any ability to feel as the MachFighter, as the soldier had theorized, this might be a treat for him. If he had any way to see inside himself (which would be pretty bizarre), he might also get a glimpse at Skywriter's panties, now that her legs were parted. If anyone was concerned about these things, those concerns would soon be set aside for the mission, with Skywriter and Yasu both preparing for the launch. As ready as she was to get in the air, Roc remained on the ground with Pest and Aera for now, knowing that they were to come in after TerrorMan was distracted by the MachFighter.
last edited by
The group dutifully made their way outside, and soon the strike group was standing at the ready, led by Aera with Pest and the Vector-armored Roc waiting for the word to go. Thanks to the one-way vis through the mist, they were able to keep an eye on the bomber, but had to be careful to stay obscured from its view.
Mach's transformation invoked a surprisingly lucid response from Yasu, who immediately seemed to appreciate the utility of aerial forms and pondered the idea of mass-production. Though an interesting idea, now wasn't the best time to debate equipment acquisition. Thankfully both Navis didn't seem adverse to the idea of boarding the MachFighter, and Sideburns' exclamation of protest was mostly ignored by all parties. The general seemed to mull over the idea, then gave her suboordinate his marching orders to organize the rest of the ground troops. With him quickly dispatched to the center of the camp, they climbed into the MachFighter's cockpit. As they settled into the seats, the metal-framed glass canopy slid back and over their heads. The frame smoothly pushed itself flush against the back wall behind Yasu, making a surprisingly soundproof seal and mostly muted the engine noise outside.
Skywriter's control console consisted of mostly analog instruments and indicators, but that was purely for aesthetic. As a state-of-the art heads-up-display materialized in the air in front of Skywriter's face, she could quickly tell the MachFighter was far from an antique. There was a single joystick positioned between her legs and a throttle lever off to her left side, both with surprisingly ergonomic hand grips; truth be told the controls were mostly to integrate the MachFighter's frame with the "pilot's" battlechip/signature attack systems, Mach would do the flying himself. Yasu's setup was significantly bear compared to the front seat, she only had a copy of the HUD and nothing other than handles near the base of her seat. Considering she'd been nullified by the inadvertent bomb detonation, she didn't have anything to integrate, so the control sticks weren't at all needed.
Mach's detached voice seemed to permeate through the cockpit, "Hold still while I strap you in; Skywriter, I'll do the flying, but you should be able to route your smoke and weapons through my frame." Four belts unfurled from each seat, two over the shoulders and the others over their waists. The belts felt they were made of a sturdy woven material, with dull gray metal tabs designed to snap together into a single circular buckle, which was strapped down the front of the seat between their legs. Like ribbon-shaped snakes, they quickly slithered over Skywriter and Yasu's shoulders, chest, and waist then quickly buckled in. On cue they simultaneously cinched down tightly, pressing both Navis into their seats before slightly relieving pressure for comfort. Even so, they were pretty snug in their seats, which would be preferable compared to bouncing around in the enclosed cockpit. The straps up and over their shoulders were retractable, so if they needed to lean forward for some reason, the straps would slowly spool out.
"Once we get airborne, kick on the smoke and we'll make our way to the bomber. General, I recommend holding on tight, and keep an eye out for additional foes. Launching now!" Mach announced, the throttle slid forward in its groove, and the entire frame started to shake from the engine throttling up. The exhaust nozzle widened as a cone of orange flame started to grow from the rear of the aircraft, and the Navi's two decoy drones materialized just past his wingtips. The MachFighter's landing gear struggled to stay locked, but he promptly released the breaks and allowed the craft to leap off the line. If Skywriter and Yasu would feel their bodies pressed into the backs of their seats from the rapid onset of acceleration, which didn't seem to wane for several seconds. As soon as Mach got enough ground effect to stay airborne, he retracted his landing gear, which only increased his acceleration thanks to the reduced drag. The tents and buildings whipped past the fighter as he tore across the encampment only a dozen or so feet off the ground, with his decoys in tow. The decoys' array of holoprojectors lit up, then quickly obscured themselves in seemingly perfect copies of the MachFighter, even so much as recreating Skywriter and Yasu clones in their respective cockpits.
Once the Navi felt he'd gained enough airspeed, he angled his elevons up sharply to catapult himself and his two passengers into the air like a freshly-fired arrow. Both Skywriter and Yasu could see the altitude numbers tick up so rapidly the last two numbers seemed to blur together, as well as see the base rapidly shrink beneath them. Out of nowhere, an indicator started to flash on the upper left portion of Skywriter's console. The indicator was shaped like a battlechip, and was slowly flashing green. After climbing for several seconds, Mach rolled the MachFighter inverted and pulled back to finish his climb without causing Skywriter and Yasu to rise up out of their seats due to the negative Gs, which could cause nausea... if Navis could get nauseous... then continued the roll to end up straight and level. "Oh, battlechip? I won't be able to do any damage, Mazer... Mach advised aloud. Mazer's face materialized in a little window projected on the inner wall on the left side of the canopy. ["Aware of that, but I think it'll still be useful, even if it's just to increase your numbers a bit."] Once Mach saw the chip's filename, he quickly agreed with his NetOp's idea and executed it. A flash of data materialized above the canopy, which quickly reconfigured into a smaller, slightly deformed version of the MachFighter; a FighterPlane program. "Should've thought of that, good catch sir!" Mach admitted before he commanded the chibi MachFighter to roll up and over as it fell in line behind the right wingtip of Mach's right decoy. Now with the additional 'wingman,' Mach's impromptu squadron looked rather convincing in its sharp "finger four" formation.
"Smoke on," Mach reminded Skywriter as he pulled around in a fairly soft banking turn towards the bomber. The quick, low-level strafe not only helped him gain airspeed quickly to allow the rapid ascent, but also to put a significant amount of distance between him and the bomber, so he could set his formation in a good position. He wanted to pass diagonally off the bomber's nose, to give them the best chance of getting spotted. The MachFighter's glass cockpit may help as well, as the light glinting off its polished surface might draw attention as well. As he did so, he kept a close eye on the enemy, especially the bomber's skull face. If they were spotted as planned, he expected the rumored laser cannon to be utilized, as it likely had significantly longer range than its relatively simple gun turrets. As soon as any incoming fire was anticipated, Mach would've split the formation like a rose shedding its petals, with each craft arcing away in separate directions. They would still be moving in the general direction towards the bomber, and would begin to move aggressively against it, as if they were setting up strafing runs or attempting to prod for gaps in its defenses.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
AirRaid2: 100HP Object, 0dmg, 3-turn duration
Mach's transformation invoked a surprisingly lucid response from Yasu, who immediately seemed to appreciate the utility of aerial forms and pondered the idea of mass-production. Though an interesting idea, now wasn't the best time to debate equipment acquisition. Thankfully both Navis didn't seem adverse to the idea of boarding the MachFighter, and Sideburns' exclamation of protest was mostly ignored by all parties. The general seemed to mull over the idea, then gave her suboordinate his marching orders to organize the rest of the ground troops. With him quickly dispatched to the center of the camp, they climbed into the MachFighter's cockpit. As they settled into the seats, the metal-framed glass canopy slid back and over their heads. The frame smoothly pushed itself flush against the back wall behind Yasu, making a surprisingly soundproof seal and mostly muted the engine noise outside.
Skywriter's control console consisted of mostly analog instruments and indicators, but that was purely for aesthetic. As a state-of-the art heads-up-display materialized in the air in front of Skywriter's face, she could quickly tell the MachFighter was far from an antique. There was a single joystick positioned between her legs and a throttle lever off to her left side, both with surprisingly ergonomic hand grips; truth be told the controls were mostly to integrate the MachFighter's frame with the "pilot's" battlechip/signature attack systems, Mach would do the flying himself. Yasu's setup was significantly bear compared to the front seat, she only had a copy of the HUD and nothing other than handles near the base of her seat. Considering she'd been nullified by the inadvertent bomb detonation, she didn't have anything to integrate, so the control sticks weren't at all needed.
Mach's detached voice seemed to permeate through the cockpit, "Hold still while I strap you in; Skywriter, I'll do the flying, but you should be able to route your smoke and weapons through my frame." Four belts unfurled from each seat, two over the shoulders and the others over their waists. The belts felt they were made of a sturdy woven material, with dull gray metal tabs designed to snap together into a single circular buckle, which was strapped down the front of the seat between their legs. Like ribbon-shaped snakes, they quickly slithered over Skywriter and Yasu's shoulders, chest, and waist then quickly buckled in. On cue they simultaneously cinched down tightly, pressing both Navis into their seats before slightly relieving pressure for comfort. Even so, they were pretty snug in their seats, which would be preferable compared to bouncing around in the enclosed cockpit. The straps up and over their shoulders were retractable, so if they needed to lean forward for some reason, the straps would slowly spool out.
"Once we get airborne, kick on the smoke and we'll make our way to the bomber. General, I recommend holding on tight, and keep an eye out for additional foes. Launching now!" Mach announced, the throttle slid forward in its groove, and the entire frame started to shake from the engine throttling up. The exhaust nozzle widened as a cone of orange flame started to grow from the rear of the aircraft, and the Navi's two decoy drones materialized just past his wingtips. The MachFighter's landing gear struggled to stay locked, but he promptly released the breaks and allowed the craft to leap off the line. If Skywriter and Yasu would feel their bodies pressed into the backs of their seats from the rapid onset of acceleration, which didn't seem to wane for several seconds. As soon as Mach got enough ground effect to stay airborne, he retracted his landing gear, which only increased his acceleration thanks to the reduced drag. The tents and buildings whipped past the fighter as he tore across the encampment only a dozen or so feet off the ground, with his decoys in tow. The decoys' array of holoprojectors lit up, then quickly obscured themselves in seemingly perfect copies of the MachFighter, even so much as recreating Skywriter and Yasu clones in their respective cockpits.
Once the Navi felt he'd gained enough airspeed, he angled his elevons up sharply to catapult himself and his two passengers into the air like a freshly-fired arrow. Both Skywriter and Yasu could see the altitude numbers tick up so rapidly the last two numbers seemed to blur together, as well as see the base rapidly shrink beneath them. Out of nowhere, an indicator started to flash on the upper left portion of Skywriter's console. The indicator was shaped like a battlechip, and was slowly flashing green. After climbing for several seconds, Mach rolled the MachFighter inverted and pulled back to finish his climb without causing Skywriter and Yasu to rise up out of their seats due to the negative Gs, which could cause nausea... if Navis could get nauseous... then continued the roll to end up straight and level. "Oh, battlechip? I won't be able to do any damage, Mazer... Mach advised aloud. Mazer's face materialized in a little window projected on the inner wall on the left side of the canopy. ["Aware of that, but I think it'll still be useful, even if it's just to increase your numbers a bit."] Once Mach saw the chip's filename, he quickly agreed with his NetOp's idea and executed it. A flash of data materialized above the canopy, which quickly reconfigured into a smaller, slightly deformed version of the MachFighter; a FighterPlane program. "Should've thought of that, good catch sir!" Mach admitted before he commanded the chibi MachFighter to roll up and over as it fell in line behind the right wingtip of Mach's right decoy. Now with the additional 'wingman,' Mach's impromptu squadron looked rather convincing in its sharp "finger four" formation.
"Smoke on," Mach reminded Skywriter as he pulled around in a fairly soft banking turn towards the bomber. The quick, low-level strafe not only helped him gain airspeed quickly to allow the rapid ascent, but also to put a significant amount of distance between him and the bomber, so he could set his formation in a good position. He wanted to pass diagonally off the bomber's nose, to give them the best chance of getting spotted. The MachFighter's glass cockpit may help as well, as the light glinting off its polished surface might draw attention as well. As he did so, he kept a close eye on the enemy, especially the bomber's skull face. If they were spotted as planned, he expected the rumored laser cannon to be utilized, as it likely had significantly longer range than its relatively simple gun turrets. As soon as any incoming fire was anticipated, Mach would've split the formation like a rose shedding its petals, with each craft arcing away in separate directions. They would still be moving in the general direction towards the bomber, and would begin to move aggressively against it, as if they were setting up strafing runs or attempting to prod for gaps in its defenses.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
AirRaid2: 100HP Object, 0dmg, 3-turn duration
last edited by
The soldier in their group probably would have a few more things to yell about regarding his earlier conspiracy theory if he saw the way the belts were wrapping around both Skywriter and Yasu, or the way controls had popped up between Skywriter's legs, but luckily, he was now focused on his exalted mission rather than the MachFighter. Yasu responded as MachMan spoke to her from the walls of the cockpit, but her voice sounded less than certain. "Yes, right. I'll keep on the alert," she assured him, but if he did indeed have a sense of feeling or visual, he'd notice she was gripping down very hard to what surfaces she could find. It might now occur to him again that he'd heard comments from the first general earlier implying that she was relatively unfamiliar with the concept of a plane in general... Now that she was in one... A sharp gasp escaped her chest as the plane launched and began rattling with turbulence. She grit her teeth to avoid any further exclamations and watched what she could out of one squinted, twitching eye. The general was quickly looking almost as green as her armor.
"A-Are you okay back there, General?" Skywriter asked from the front seat, having some idea of Yasu's current state from what little she could hear.
"I'm fine. Focus on the mission," Yasu responded through one of her gloves, the fingers of which were currently clasped over her mouth. It seemed no amount of careful piloting was going to allow MachMan to circumvent giving Yasu nausea in this scenario.
Skywriter watched the decoys spread out to either side, accompanied by an additional FighterPlane, which would make another target to draw heat off of them. "Smoke on," she acknowledged once the plane reached its optimal height, pressing in her thumb and forefinger on each hand to release a screen of thick, black smoke out in several directions around the MachFighter (excluding the front, as obscuring MachMan's visibility wouldn't benefit them any more than their opponents). Somewhere down below, the second squad was waiting for them to catch the attention of the TerrorMan bomber so that they could move in to deal damage.
The Terror Girls' ship had apparently been watching out for them, as all weapons immediately focused upon their general direction once they became evident. "You there! You must be associated with the one who dared to cross us earlier. We are on a mission of nonviolence and total net disarmament, but for the time being, that means neutralizing enemy weapons by force! Indicate your surrender immediately, or we will shoot you down!" the girl's voice threatened from over the loudspeaker, although no part of the scene reflected any intention of 'nonviolence,' not even most of her own words. The turrets slowly turned to track him as best as they could from their respective positions. With him passing by the nose of the ship, they all had a good chance to get a bead on him and begin firing. Fortunately, his current speed was well enough to dodge all four of them without much trouble. The decoys were getting peppered, however, as at least one of them at a time were left in the space just behind the MachFighter, where the guns ended up focusing most of their fire.
The eyes of the skull glowed as well, eliciting a sharp cry from Skywriter, which in turn caused Yasu to clench down harder, not knowing what the cause of alarm was. It said something about Yasu that she was apparently in terror of air travel but harbored no particular feelings towards a giant skull laser facing at her. Speaking of the aforementioned skull, it quickly charged its laser and began to open its mouth, releasing what looked like trails of steam from either side of its jaw as it did. A low-pitched, guttural laugh came from somewhere inside, then, more alarmingly, a giant laser. Thankfully, the split in MachMan's formation left him, one decoy, and his FighterPlane unharmed. The guns continued to fire with some difficulty due to the smokescreen which now hung in the air, obscuring all firing visibility of the lower ones. They continued to dispense bullets, but without much ability to aim. This might imply that each gun had a separate targeting system (or operator), but then again, it might just be a coincidence.
"Cruz! Prepare to launch and intercept the attacker. Load, how much time until Cruz is ready to deploy? ...That long? We'll manage!" the radio blared. Prez probably should have turned it off before she spoke, but as it was, a valuable piece of information was relayed to MachMan, Skywriter, and Yasu.
"We should launch the attack now, while she's still preparing!" Yasu urged MachMan, now speaking through both hands, which were firmly crossed over her mouth. It would be difficult to understand her if they weren't in such close proximity. "Quickly, so that we can finish this mission as soon as possible!"
"A-Are you okay back there, General?" Skywriter asked from the front seat, having some idea of Yasu's current state from what little she could hear.
"I'm fine. Focus on the mission," Yasu responded through one of her gloves, the fingers of which were currently clasped over her mouth. It seemed no amount of careful piloting was going to allow MachMan to circumvent giving Yasu nausea in this scenario.
Skywriter watched the decoys spread out to either side, accompanied by an additional FighterPlane, which would make another target to draw heat off of them. "Smoke on," she acknowledged once the plane reached its optimal height, pressing in her thumb and forefinger on each hand to release a screen of thick, black smoke out in several directions around the MachFighter (excluding the front, as obscuring MachMan's visibility wouldn't benefit them any more than their opponents). Somewhere down below, the second squad was waiting for them to catch the attention of the TerrorMan bomber so that they could move in to deal damage.
The Terror Girls' ship had apparently been watching out for them, as all weapons immediately focused upon their general direction once they became evident. "You there! You must be associated with the one who dared to cross us earlier. We are on a mission of nonviolence and total net disarmament, but for the time being, that means neutralizing enemy weapons by force! Indicate your surrender immediately, or we will shoot you down!" the girl's voice threatened from over the loudspeaker, although no part of the scene reflected any intention of 'nonviolence,' not even most of her own words. The turrets slowly turned to track him as best as they could from their respective positions. With him passing by the nose of the ship, they all had a good chance to get a bead on him and begin firing. Fortunately, his current speed was well enough to dodge all four of them without much trouble. The decoys were getting peppered, however, as at least one of them at a time were left in the space just behind the MachFighter, where the guns ended up focusing most of their fire.
The eyes of the skull glowed as well, eliciting a sharp cry from Skywriter, which in turn caused Yasu to clench down harder, not knowing what the cause of alarm was. It said something about Yasu that she was apparently in terror of air travel but harbored no particular feelings towards a giant skull laser facing at her. Speaking of the aforementioned skull, it quickly charged its laser and began to open its mouth, releasing what looked like trails of steam from either side of its jaw as it did. A low-pitched, guttural laugh came from somewhere inside, then, more alarmingly, a giant laser. Thankfully, the split in MachMan's formation left him, one decoy, and his FighterPlane unharmed. The guns continued to fire with some difficulty due to the smokescreen which now hung in the air, obscuring all firing visibility of the lower ones. They continued to dispense bullets, but without much ability to aim. This might imply that each gun had a separate targeting system (or operator), but then again, it might just be a coincidence.
"Cruz! Prepare to launch and intercept the attacker. Load, how much time until Cruz is ready to deploy? ...That long? We'll manage!" the radio blared. Prez probably should have turned it off before she spoke, but as it was, a valuable piece of information was relayed to MachMan, Skywriter, and Yasu.
"We should launch the attack now, while she's still preparing!" Yasu urged MachMan, now speaking through both hands, which were firmly crossed over her mouth. It would be difficult to understand her if they weren't in such close proximity. "Quickly, so that we can finish this mission as soon as possible!"
last edited by
The flight took to the air, and though Skywriter seemed to be doing alright, Yasu was starting to turn a hue similar to her armor. Mach wasn't focusing much on this occupants, but Mazer was able to take a look after hearing Skywriter voice her concern. Sure enough, Yasu was looking worse for wear, but holding on admirably. He furrowed his brow as he tried, and failed, to rationalize any reason for programming nausea in a Navi. He didn't remember seeing that option when he first set up Mach, nor during the seemingly countless upgrades and reboots. Regardless, he felt Mach should at least be aware of his passenger's condition, and opened a text message. [Yasu looks like she's gonna pop, may want to limit the crazy maneuvers to a minimum]. A second or so later, a reply popped up on his screen. [[i]... didn't realize Navis could get nauseous. Copy all.[/i]]
The bomber didn't take long to begin spewing fire from its turrets, but Mach and his decoys mostly avoided the streams of rounds; looked as if the guns had difficulty leading their shots, or gimballing to slow to keep up. Unsurprisingly the skull face showed signs of powering up, which also unsurprisingly caused Skywriter noticeable distress. The bomber's skeletal mouth heaved up a sizeable laser, but thanks to Mach and his flight's evasive maneuver, all but one of his decoys remained unscathed before the beam dissipated. He had to stop himself from yanking the MachFighter into a tight, diving roll to put himself in position to open up on the bomber with his arsenal of weaponry, as they would be less damaging than poorly-executed insults at this point. As his decoy and FighterPlane escort moved to a more aggressive posture and arced towards the bomber from two different directions, he heard "Prez" continue to speak over the loudspeakers, but from the conversation it seemed as if she didn't realize her mic was still keyed. Apparently they were attempting to prep Cruz for launch, and scrambling to do so quickly.
It seemed almost too convenient... That said, Mach hadn't yet witnessed anything else to suggest the Terror Girls were attempting to use deception and misinformation, so far they've been fairly bull-headed with their strategy of carpet bombing and a single heavily weaponized ground component. Though a part of him suspected deception, now wasn't the time to hesitate. The bomber was actively engaging him, and the smokescreen seemed to be effective in not only drawing attention, but also disrupting some of the turrets attempts to find targets. Yasu also recognized the situation as a good point to begin the attack, so he wasn't the only one who saw this window of opportunity. He continued to keep an eye on the bomber as he made wide, sweeping turns ahead of the bomber, trying to maximize his lateral movement from the bomber's point of view while he sent a message to Aera. [[i]Strike team, cleared to engage immediately. Watch for wild crossfire, lower turrets firing blindly at this time.[/i]]
With the message away, and the strike team moving in to engage, he started to angle the MachFighter towards the bomber while raising his protective energy shields just past the nose of the MachFighter. "Skywriter, if you have some weapons to use, set em up and I'll roll in to counter. The enemy has shown their hand, time to show ours." If Skywriter wasn't too rattled to respond, and began to activate whatever battlechips she had, Mach would set himself on a strafing run, which would have him dive directly overhead the bomber, with his shots directed at the skull face itself, specifically its mouth. His goal was to damage/disable its beam cannon, or at least piss it off enough to keep its focus on him, instead of his team coming in from below. He fully expected the bomber to retaliate, or even fire again to prevent his attack, so he was equally prepared to call off his engagement early, and use his built up momentum from the dive to peel away quickly to avoid the AAA/beam fire.
-------------------------
Aera paused to read the message, then turned back to her team as her wings started to buzz energetically. "Cleared to engage, let's go!" Electricity started to arc between her wings and her back, as well as snapping over her metal vambraces. Vector immediately opened several slats on the backs of the greaves covering Roc's lower legs, from which faint wisps of milky blue mist slowly spilled out, prepping to help propel the avian Navi skyward. Aera took to the sky, leading the group. She had been watching the engagement thanks to the one-way visual properties of the mist, and could see some of Skywriter's smoke wafting over the lower turrets, and seeing seemingly errant streams of tracers slicing through the air. She glanced back to make sure her team was following along, and passed along the info from Mach. "Watch for those turrets, they're firing wildly, but they might get a lucky!"
The eyes over Roc's visor started to burn brightly from Vector mentally pumping himself up for battle. To further bolster Roc's defenses, two streams of metal plates flitted out from the underside of the large slatted shoulder plates. The slivers of metal grouped up into several small groups, forming a defensive array of metal several feet in front of Roc. The metal clusters were small and spaced enough to not obscure the Navi's vision, even if she wasn't wearing the visor that rendered them transparent to her view, but they would quickly move to intercept and deflect incoming fire. Aera in turn raised a faintly orange energy shield over Pest, like a barely visible bubble. It didn't look like much, but it would provide a helpful buffer against hostile projectiles, and Aera could back up both Pest and Roc with healing programs if need be. "Go, go, go!" she ordered, to which Vector responded by increasing the output of his flight program, hopefully to increase Roc's speed and have her rocket past Aera (if she hadn't done so already). Aera began to slow down, as she became the least protected of the group, and would be most effective further back to oversee and come to the aid of anyone who needs it.
With the battlefield set, and the players fielded, it was now up to them to execute the mission. Mach, Aera, and Vector would do their best to support, but the bomber would only be felled by the collective strength, agility, and firepower of Roc, Pest, and Skywriter. The ball was in their court, let's see what they can do.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive] [one destroyed]
AirRaid2: 100HP Object, 0dmg, 3-turn duration
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD)
The bomber didn't take long to begin spewing fire from its turrets, but Mach and his decoys mostly avoided the streams of rounds; looked as if the guns had difficulty leading their shots, or gimballing to slow to keep up. Unsurprisingly the skull face showed signs of powering up, which also unsurprisingly caused Skywriter noticeable distress. The bomber's skeletal mouth heaved up a sizeable laser, but thanks to Mach and his flight's evasive maneuver, all but one of his decoys remained unscathed before the beam dissipated. He had to stop himself from yanking the MachFighter into a tight, diving roll to put himself in position to open up on the bomber with his arsenal of weaponry, as they would be less damaging than poorly-executed insults at this point. As his decoy and FighterPlane escort moved to a more aggressive posture and arced towards the bomber from two different directions, he heard "Prez" continue to speak over the loudspeakers, but from the conversation it seemed as if she didn't realize her mic was still keyed. Apparently they were attempting to prep Cruz for launch, and scrambling to do so quickly.
It seemed almost too convenient... That said, Mach hadn't yet witnessed anything else to suggest the Terror Girls were attempting to use deception and misinformation, so far they've been fairly bull-headed with their strategy of carpet bombing and a single heavily weaponized ground component. Though a part of him suspected deception, now wasn't the time to hesitate. The bomber was actively engaging him, and the smokescreen seemed to be effective in not only drawing attention, but also disrupting some of the turrets attempts to find targets. Yasu also recognized the situation as a good point to begin the attack, so he wasn't the only one who saw this window of opportunity. He continued to keep an eye on the bomber as he made wide, sweeping turns ahead of the bomber, trying to maximize his lateral movement from the bomber's point of view while he sent a message to Aera. [[i]Strike team, cleared to engage immediately. Watch for wild crossfire, lower turrets firing blindly at this time.[/i]]
With the message away, and the strike team moving in to engage, he started to angle the MachFighter towards the bomber while raising his protective energy shields just past the nose of the MachFighter. "Skywriter, if you have some weapons to use, set em up and I'll roll in to counter. The enemy has shown their hand, time to show ours." If Skywriter wasn't too rattled to respond, and began to activate whatever battlechips she had, Mach would set himself on a strafing run, which would have him dive directly overhead the bomber, with his shots directed at the skull face itself, specifically its mouth. His goal was to damage/disable its beam cannon, or at least piss it off enough to keep its focus on him, instead of his team coming in from below. He fully expected the bomber to retaliate, or even fire again to prevent his attack, so he was equally prepared to call off his engagement early, and use his built up momentum from the dive to peel away quickly to avoid the AAA/beam fire.
-------------------------
Aera paused to read the message, then turned back to her team as her wings started to buzz energetically. "Cleared to engage, let's go!" Electricity started to arc between her wings and her back, as well as snapping over her metal vambraces. Vector immediately opened several slats on the backs of the greaves covering Roc's lower legs, from which faint wisps of milky blue mist slowly spilled out, prepping to help propel the avian Navi skyward. Aera took to the sky, leading the group. She had been watching the engagement thanks to the one-way visual properties of the mist, and could see some of Skywriter's smoke wafting over the lower turrets, and seeing seemingly errant streams of tracers slicing through the air. She glanced back to make sure her team was following along, and passed along the info from Mach. "Watch for those turrets, they're firing wildly, but they might get a lucky!"
The eyes over Roc's visor started to burn brightly from Vector mentally pumping himself up for battle. To further bolster Roc's defenses, two streams of metal plates flitted out from the underside of the large slatted shoulder plates. The slivers of metal grouped up into several small groups, forming a defensive array of metal several feet in front of Roc. The metal clusters were small and spaced enough to not obscure the Navi's vision, even if she wasn't wearing the visor that rendered them transparent to her view, but they would quickly move to intercept and deflect incoming fire. Aera in turn raised a faintly orange energy shield over Pest, like a barely visible bubble. It didn't look like much, but it would provide a helpful buffer against hostile projectiles, and Aera could back up both Pest and Roc with healing programs if need be. "Go, go, go!" she ordered, to which Vector responded by increasing the output of his flight program, hopefully to increase Roc's speed and have her rocket past Aera (if she hadn't done so already). Aera began to slow down, as she became the least protected of the group, and would be most effective further back to oversee and come to the aid of anyone who needs it.
With the battlefield set, and the players fielded, it was now up to them to execute the mission. Mach, Aera, and Vector would do their best to support, but the bomber would only be felled by the collective strength, agility, and firepower of Roc, Pest, and Skywriter. The ball was in their court, let's see what they can do.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive] [one destroyed]
AirRaid2: 100HP Object, 0dmg, 3-turn duration
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD)
last edited by
Both Skywriter and Yasu refocused their eyes and caught their breath; Skywriter was vaguely aware that one of the decoys they'd put out had been fried, but wasn't terribly concerned since its being so was an inevitability of where it was flying. Hearing MachMan's orders, she replied hesitantly. "Alright... Preparing to fire!" The navi was an adept flyer, but she had almost no experience with any kind of battle beyond the most basic of virus battles. Luckily, MachMan was experienced with both and kept her in the best targeting positions while evading enemy fire. Seeing the skull up close again, Skywriter clenched her teeth and tried to avoid shrieking or sobbing, while loading up her weapons. As she let them rip, she ended up screaming anyways. "YAAAAAH! GO AWAAAAY!" she cried, causing Yasu move her hands from her mouth to her ears. Unfortunately, "them" turned out to be only a cannon, followed by an airshot. The former hit the shadow within the skull's mouth, but it was difficult to tell if it did any damage. The mouth started to charge up its beam again; at this point, the airshot hit it, causing it to recoil back on its neck a little. If that was any inconvenience for the ship's targeting, the problem was quickly rectified; it seemed less likely that someone was manually aiming the beam from inside and more that it was something either automatic or even "living," as though the plane was a living thing and adjusting its aim was as simple as moving one's own head and neck.
"Your attacks will have no effect on our TerrorMan Mark Two! Surrender now!" the voice warned them from inside the giant ship. "Or we'll blow you out of the sky!" Apparently not willing to wait for them to comply, the turrets shifted and attempted to fire either at him or as close to him as they could get, given that at some moments, he was completely hidden from the firing range of one set or the other. The only time when he could possibly be hit by all sets at once would be when he was directly somewhere in the front-middle, facing the skull. Unfortunately, the strafing pattern was going to be difficult to maintain completely. The turret fire was simple enough to dodge, but it did have a way of cutting off his movement a certain distance from each side, since the firing was continuous and created a "wall" on either side when the turret couldn't quite reach. That in itself wouldn't be a problem, but given that the skull was now tracking them again, it became dangerous; there would be no way to retreat to either side without taking turret fire. The only safe way to continue the dive would be to keep heading downward at max speed without trying to dodge horizontally. With that being the only option (and Skywriter already being out of attack chips to use), the group dove below the ship.
"Oh no!" Skywriter cried, realizing one unfortunate consequence: the attack team was currently coming up beneath the ship themselves, that being the quickest route to attack given that they wanted to target the turrets first and they were, after all, launching from beneath the ship. "Don't worry, I know what to do," she continued, releasing another smokescreen. This time shooting it out in a jet that would not actually cover their own movement from behind, but rather, leave a lingering cloud below the ship. The goal wasn't to hide themselves, rather, it was to ensure that the ship didn't see the attack team approaching until it was too late to react.
Pest, grateful to Aera for the barrier she'd been given, followed just behind Roc, who did indeed have the greater flying speed of the two of them. Roc began cackling with malice, grinning beneath her visor as they closed in. "This thing is pretty sad, up close," she remarked, although it was likely Vector would be the only one to hear her at this point and she was going against MachMan's order not to underestimate the enemy. Reaching the underside of the right wing, Roc clasped one talon onto its surface and summoned a fiery sword onto her other hand. With a sharp motion, she began to hack away at the turret, which quickly began spinning around upon her attempts to destroy it.
"Additional targets spotted! They're beneath us, right side! Load!" the voice of Prez barked again. "Targets are armed!" She sounded surprised to know there were still so many Neo-Shogun forces capable of using weapons at this point.
"Too late!" Roc guffawed, wrapping one arm around one of the turret's dual barrels to stop it from turning, crushing it between her bicep and her Vector-armored breast. She gave the turret one more good hack, then released her hold on the wing. She hooked her talons beneath the turret and attempted to uproot it from the wing; it didn't come off clean, of course, but she ripped apart the plate beneath the barrels and continued pulling, causing it to hang off of the wing like a piece of mangled metal. Sparks began to rain out of it and an unpleasant series of metallic clicks roared out as it continued to try firing, but no longer found a connection to do so. "Next!"
In the mean time, Pest flew above, focusing on the top turret. She didn't have the ability to stop the turret with her raw strength, of course, so she instead stood atop the flat head of the turret to avoid its fire and knelt down on all fours. Her wings flapped with trepidation as she pointed her face towards the ship below her, tilting her head this way and that to inspect what was beneath her, looking very much like a fly. Finally, she hovered again just above the wing, and decided that she ought to just use point blank fire until she put on enough fire to disable it. The turret held on more resiliently than Roc's had; even after two vulcan salvos, it was still operating, although smoke was drifting out of it and the sound of the gunfire was becoming more unhealthy. She released two more vulcan attacks, which finally stopped it. "Aha!" she buzzed, feeling victorious. "We can work on the wing now!"
Ostensibly, being two turrets down on the same side would majorly cripple the ship, as it would be entirely unable to attack any target on its right with any method except for one: its skull head cannon. As if on queue, the skull began turning towards its right and charge its cannon. Would it fire on its right, given that the enemies were basically on its wing? That would seem to be near-suicidal, but that appeared to be what it was going for.
There was one other new development worth considering: the lower hatch was slowly opening again. It was impossible to see what was coming out of it, given the smoke-screen enveloping the ship's underside, but one large figure was clearly standing on the platform that lowered from the hatch. They might be preparing to drop another bomb or they might be launching the aforementioned Cruz, if she'd been prepared. There could be another previously unseen weapon waiting as well.
"Your attacks will have no effect on our TerrorMan Mark Two! Surrender now!" the voice warned them from inside the giant ship. "Or we'll blow you out of the sky!" Apparently not willing to wait for them to comply, the turrets shifted and attempted to fire either at him or as close to him as they could get, given that at some moments, he was completely hidden from the firing range of one set or the other. The only time when he could possibly be hit by all sets at once would be when he was directly somewhere in the front-middle, facing the skull. Unfortunately, the strafing pattern was going to be difficult to maintain completely. The turret fire was simple enough to dodge, but it did have a way of cutting off his movement a certain distance from each side, since the firing was continuous and created a "wall" on either side when the turret couldn't quite reach. That in itself wouldn't be a problem, but given that the skull was now tracking them again, it became dangerous; there would be no way to retreat to either side without taking turret fire. The only safe way to continue the dive would be to keep heading downward at max speed without trying to dodge horizontally. With that being the only option (and Skywriter already being out of attack chips to use), the group dove below the ship.
"Oh no!" Skywriter cried, realizing one unfortunate consequence: the attack team was currently coming up beneath the ship themselves, that being the quickest route to attack given that they wanted to target the turrets first and they were, after all, launching from beneath the ship. "Don't worry, I know what to do," she continued, releasing another smokescreen. This time shooting it out in a jet that would not actually cover their own movement from behind, but rather, leave a lingering cloud below the ship. The goal wasn't to hide themselves, rather, it was to ensure that the ship didn't see the attack team approaching until it was too late to react.
Pest, grateful to Aera for the barrier she'd been given, followed just behind Roc, who did indeed have the greater flying speed of the two of them. Roc began cackling with malice, grinning beneath her visor as they closed in. "This thing is pretty sad, up close," she remarked, although it was likely Vector would be the only one to hear her at this point and she was going against MachMan's order not to underestimate the enemy. Reaching the underside of the right wing, Roc clasped one talon onto its surface and summoned a fiery sword onto her other hand. With a sharp motion, she began to hack away at the turret, which quickly began spinning around upon her attempts to destroy it.
"Additional targets spotted! They're beneath us, right side! Load!" the voice of Prez barked again. "Targets are armed!" She sounded surprised to know there were still so many Neo-Shogun forces capable of using weapons at this point.
"Too late!" Roc guffawed, wrapping one arm around one of the turret's dual barrels to stop it from turning, crushing it between her bicep and her Vector-armored breast. She gave the turret one more good hack, then released her hold on the wing. She hooked her talons beneath the turret and attempted to uproot it from the wing; it didn't come off clean, of course, but she ripped apart the plate beneath the barrels and continued pulling, causing it to hang off of the wing like a piece of mangled metal. Sparks began to rain out of it and an unpleasant series of metallic clicks roared out as it continued to try firing, but no longer found a connection to do so. "Next!"
In the mean time, Pest flew above, focusing on the top turret. She didn't have the ability to stop the turret with her raw strength, of course, so she instead stood atop the flat head of the turret to avoid its fire and knelt down on all fours. Her wings flapped with trepidation as she pointed her face towards the ship below her, tilting her head this way and that to inspect what was beneath her, looking very much like a fly. Finally, she hovered again just above the wing, and decided that she ought to just use point blank fire until she put on enough fire to disable it. The turret held on more resiliently than Roc's had; even after two vulcan salvos, it was still operating, although smoke was drifting out of it and the sound of the gunfire was becoming more unhealthy. She released two more vulcan attacks, which finally stopped it. "Aha!" she buzzed, feeling victorious. "We can work on the wing now!"
Ostensibly, being two turrets down on the same side would majorly cripple the ship, as it would be entirely unable to attack any target on its right with any method except for one: its skull head cannon. As if on queue, the skull began turning towards its right and charge its cannon. Would it fire on its right, given that the enemies were basically on its wing? That would seem to be near-suicidal, but that appeared to be what it was going for.
There was one other new development worth considering: the lower hatch was slowly opening again. It was impossible to see what was coming out of it, given the smoke-screen enveloping the ship's underside, but one large figure was clearly standing on the platform that lowered from the hatch. They might be preparing to drop another bomb or they might be launching the aforementioned Cruz, if she'd been prepared. There could be another previously unseen weapon waiting as well.
last edited by
Skywriter didn't have much to bear on the strafing run, but the slight recoil in the skull face from the airshot did reveal a possible weakness to exploit. The voice protested and boasted TerrorMan MkII's strength before commanding their immediate surrender. "Fat chance," Mach responded aloud. Out of weapons and funneled by the turret fire, they were forced to maintain their somewhat linear path and rocketed past the bomber. "Mazer, please load up an AirShot. If anything, it's concussive force could be useful," Mach requested, prompting the NetOp to raise his eyebrows in realization before he began to retrieve the chip. ["Good call, uploading now."] Within a few seconds, Mach's weapon status light began flashing green again, indicating the chip's successful upload. The remaining made a sharp left turn from its dive, and tried to make a pass just under the bomber's left wing root, nearly close enough to drag its left wing tip against the bomber's skin. The FighterPlane; however, made a slightly less risky path directly over top the bomber, then began a climbing loop as if preparing to reverse directions and pounce on the bomber's back. A replacement decoy for the one previously destroyed materialized behind the MachFighter, then peeled off to advance upon TerrorMan from below.
The strike team quickly went to work on the bomber's right wing turrets, and with surprising speed they were quickly silenced as Aera watched from about a dozen meters back, to keep a good overall view of the bomber. After she crushed one of the turret barrels between her arm and Vector's plating over her chest, Roc had ripped and torn the turret free, while Pest drilled through with vulcans to reach its vulnerable control wiring. The bomber began to retaliate against the assault, its laser-equipped skull face began to peer back towards its left wing and began to charge. Would it really fire upon itself to rid the dual attackers? Aera raised the alarm, alerting Pest, Roc, Vector, as well as Mach over the shared comm channel. "The skull is moving to attack! Evasive maneuvers!" Vector quickly shifted his focus towards the front of the bomber, searching for the skull face, and prepared to give Roc an extra boost of energy to propel her safely out of its line of fire. He'd immediately let her know if the skull was looking in her direction, in case she wasn't directly focusing on the threat. Aera continued, "If able, move up to the front and target its neck, we need to bring that laser off-line!"
Mach looked back at the bomber as he began a sharply climbing left turn, confirming Aera's report while driving his passengers straight down into their seats thanks to the mounting G forces from the turn. The joystick was down hard to the left, brushing slightly against Skywriter's inner left thigh, and moving her right arm about if she were still holding on. His engine was near idle as he started the turn, but as soon as he started to line up the bomber again off his nose, the muted roar heard in the cockpit and ramped up feeling of acceleration notified Skywriter and Yasu Mach was again bumping up the throttle.
Aera saw the MachFighter carve a sharp arc in the sky just out of the corner of her eye, but her focus was on something more concerning. She saw doors opening near the underside of the bomber. While that meant any number of things, she could safely assume the majority of them were threats to the operation. Since the MachFighter was making a return path to the bomber, Aera advised him of the new development. "Mach, the bomber's hatch is opening! Have any weapons left?" Mach heard his SP's notification, and adjusted his flight path towards the belly of the bomber, and confirmed the bay doors' opening as he responded. "Just an AirShot, I could try to scramble 'em up in there, keep clear!" Aera nodded out of reflex, though Mach was nowhere close enough to see, and advised her team. "Stay clear of the bay doors! Attack incoming!" After concluding her alert, she started to move towards the bomber as well, with a plan forming in her mind. She kept an eye out for the MachFighter, while glancing back at the bomber's skull face every second or so.
Mach began his climbing attack run, with the opening bay doors directly off his nose. He began to execute the chip program, which caused a simplistic rocket tube to materialize beneath his right wing, secured to the wing with a metal hard-point. The airshot chip, manifested as a rocket, sat nestled in the tube ready to fire. A static circular targeting "pipper" materialized in the HUD, indicating the rocket's predicted firing path. With very light, quick corrections from the MachFighter's elevons and rudders, the pipper rested squarely over the bomber's open bay, before a flame-tipped blur rocketed out from under the left wing. The rocket left a fine white line of smoke trailing behind as it made it's bee-line path towards the bomber. Knowing full well the chip wouldn't do any damage, Mach wanted to see if the chip's concussive properties were still available. Even if he didnt' hit anything in particular, a microburst in an enclosed space would likely cause significantly violent pressure waves. Upon firing, Mach banked hard right to possibly catch the attention of the skull face, and move off to a better position to reevaluate the battle.
Once the MachFighter peeled off, Aera dove down at an angle towards the lower hemisphere of the bomber's fuselage. Her body began to crackle with electricity as she rapidly charged her internal capacitors, and quickly made her way towards the bay doors. Her plan was to quickly peer into the bay, not only to see what's inside and evaluate any damage caused by Mach's attack, but also to deliver an attack of her own. Once she got a clear line of sight into the bay, her body erupted in a flash of white, and a rapidly expanding sphere of electrical discharge. While unseen, a wave of magnetic energy surged from Aera's body up towards the open bay. The pulse was powerful enough to cause significant corruption and degradation of motor and sensory subroutines, which could prove useful if the bomber was planning to launch its own fighters to intercept. Once she fired off her EM pulse, she darted back away from the bomber to a position a bit back behind its right wing.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
AirRaid2: 100HP Object, 0dmg, 3-turn duration [expires next turn]
AirShot3: TerrorMan.EXE's exposed bay (0dmg + Microburst)
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [ready next turn]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [ready next turn]
Tesla Pulse: TerrorMan.EXE's exposed bay (Confusion + 2TCD)
The strike team quickly went to work on the bomber's right wing turrets, and with surprising speed they were quickly silenced as Aera watched from about a dozen meters back, to keep a good overall view of the bomber. After she crushed one of the turret barrels between her arm and Vector's plating over her chest, Roc had ripped and torn the turret free, while Pest drilled through with vulcans to reach its vulnerable control wiring. The bomber began to retaliate against the assault, its laser-equipped skull face began to peer back towards its left wing and began to charge. Would it really fire upon itself to rid the dual attackers? Aera raised the alarm, alerting Pest, Roc, Vector, as well as Mach over the shared comm channel. "The skull is moving to attack! Evasive maneuvers!" Vector quickly shifted his focus towards the front of the bomber, searching for the skull face, and prepared to give Roc an extra boost of energy to propel her safely out of its line of fire. He'd immediately let her know if the skull was looking in her direction, in case she wasn't directly focusing on the threat. Aera continued, "If able, move up to the front and target its neck, we need to bring that laser off-line!"
Mach looked back at the bomber as he began a sharply climbing left turn, confirming Aera's report while driving his passengers straight down into their seats thanks to the mounting G forces from the turn. The joystick was down hard to the left, brushing slightly against Skywriter's inner left thigh, and moving her right arm about if she were still holding on. His engine was near idle as he started the turn, but as soon as he started to line up the bomber again off his nose, the muted roar heard in the cockpit and ramped up feeling of acceleration notified Skywriter and Yasu Mach was again bumping up the throttle.
Aera saw the MachFighter carve a sharp arc in the sky just out of the corner of her eye, but her focus was on something more concerning. She saw doors opening near the underside of the bomber. While that meant any number of things, she could safely assume the majority of them were threats to the operation. Since the MachFighter was making a return path to the bomber, Aera advised him of the new development. "Mach, the bomber's hatch is opening! Have any weapons left?" Mach heard his SP's notification, and adjusted his flight path towards the belly of the bomber, and confirmed the bay doors' opening as he responded. "Just an AirShot, I could try to scramble 'em up in there, keep clear!" Aera nodded out of reflex, though Mach was nowhere close enough to see, and advised her team. "Stay clear of the bay doors! Attack incoming!" After concluding her alert, she started to move towards the bomber as well, with a plan forming in her mind. She kept an eye out for the MachFighter, while glancing back at the bomber's skull face every second or so.
Mach began his climbing attack run, with the opening bay doors directly off his nose. He began to execute the chip program, which caused a simplistic rocket tube to materialize beneath his right wing, secured to the wing with a metal hard-point. The airshot chip, manifested as a rocket, sat nestled in the tube ready to fire. A static circular targeting "pipper" materialized in the HUD, indicating the rocket's predicted firing path. With very light, quick corrections from the MachFighter's elevons and rudders, the pipper rested squarely over the bomber's open bay, before a flame-tipped blur rocketed out from under the left wing. The rocket left a fine white line of smoke trailing behind as it made it's bee-line path towards the bomber. Knowing full well the chip wouldn't do any damage, Mach wanted to see if the chip's concussive properties were still available. Even if he didnt' hit anything in particular, a microburst in an enclosed space would likely cause significantly violent pressure waves. Upon firing, Mach banked hard right to possibly catch the attention of the skull face, and move off to a better position to reevaluate the battle.
Once the MachFighter peeled off, Aera dove down at an angle towards the lower hemisphere of the bomber's fuselage. Her body began to crackle with electricity as she rapidly charged her internal capacitors, and quickly made her way towards the bay doors. Her plan was to quickly peer into the bay, not only to see what's inside and evaluate any damage caused by Mach's attack, but also to deliver an attack of her own. Once she got a clear line of sight into the bay, her body erupted in a flash of white, and a rapidly expanding sphere of electrical discharge. While unseen, a wave of magnetic energy surged from Aera's body up towards the open bay. The pulse was powerful enough to cause significant corruption and degradation of motor and sensory subroutines, which could prove useful if the bomber was planning to launch its own fighters to intercept. Once she fired off her EM pulse, she darted back away from the bomber to a position a bit back behind its right wing.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
AirRaid2: 100HP Object, 0dmg, 3-turn duration [expires next turn]
AirShot3: TerrorMan.EXE's exposed bay (0dmg + Microburst)
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [ready next turn]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [ready next turn]
Tesla Pulse: TerrorMan.EXE's exposed bay (Confusion + 2TCD)
last edited by
"Keeping watch on the aircraft that fired on us! Load! Deal with the wing!" the Terror Girls' leader Prez's voice barked from somewhere inside TerrorMan.
Roc heard Aera's order to move up and attack the neck, then smirked. "Sure thing! I'll tear its head right off of it," she concurred, the began a path towards the neck. Her movements were so fast that she reached it before the skull actually managed to fire its beam, causing it to seemingly shift its target to Pestilence instead. "Time to rip this thing's throat out," she remarked again, then began hacking at the stem with the blade on her arm. TerrorMan seemed to abandon its plan to fire its beam and responded in a different way; rapidly retracting the neck and skull into the ship. "Oh hell," Roc cursed, reaching out both arms to grab hold of the back of the skull as it crushed back in on her, pinning her between the inner contour of the ship where the skull normally sat and itself. The metal groaned as it worked against her; ironically, this unintended method of attack appeared to be the most effective one it had found to use so far. Roc said nothing else, but it was clear she was having a difficult time holding the giant steel skull back from its resting point. On the other hand, while it was situated there, it was unable to fire its beam on anything.
Pestilence was more or less clear to do whatever was needed, seeing as no one was firing on her. Being on top of the wing, whoever was coming out of the bottom hatch probably wouldn't be able to target her either. She didn't think she'd be much help trying to get the skull off of Roc, so instead, she focused her fire on the right wing, peppering it with more shots while using the wing itself for cover from any line of fire that might originate from the lower hatch.
"Cruz, are you ready to launch? You must hurry!" Prez announced again. "Load! Do not allow yourself to be thrown from the lower platform! Prepare a defense, ignore any target that does not first attack you, and respond with lethal force!"
As the smoke cleared, a figure gradually became visible standing upon the lower platform: a muscular woman in a jungle-camo print sleeveless skinsuit with flared pants (the camo wouldn't be much use here) and, most importantly, silver, metallic arms extending from either side of the skinsuit. Each of the arms carried different high ordinance, one clearly being a missile launcher and the other appearing to be some sort of rifle. Her bust and hips were impressive, her dark skin and pouty face had something of an allure to it, and unlike Cruz, her expression seemed human, if not particularly enthusiastic. Her hair was shaggy and dark purple, matted slightly through sweat. She might be attractive if she weren't currently trying to aim a rocket launcher at MachMan and his various decoys, or perhaps if Aera hadn't seen one of the Terror Girls' disembodied heads speak to her earlier.
Unfortunately for her, she also wasn't really getting a surprise attack in; MachMan shot first, knocking the platform off balance with an air shot. Because it was attached to the sturdy frame of TerrorMan, there wasn't a lot of rumble, but it did cause her to drop whatever the rifle was temporarily. Furthermore, several green bombs became dislodged and fell down below the ship, hopefully not on a crash course with any of the remaining Neo-Shogun's combat-ready subordinates. She kept an impassive frown, not seeming worried about it, and began aiming at him with the missile launcher instead. Luckily, Aera provided support of her own, unleashing a tesla wave that would confuse the new arrival. "Prez," she muttered clutching her head with one hand while balancing the missile launcher with the other. "I'm not feeling so well..."
"Load? You're feeling sick? Are you alright?" the terrorist leader's voice inquired, sounding almost sweet.
"I think I am fine. Firing now-" Load responded, firing a guided missile after her launcher after MachMan. The projectile was keeping on his tail well and she seemed to know which target to aim for, given that she'd seen him fire earlier. "Preparing next attack... Rrrgh," she murmured, shaking her head to try to relieve the dizziness. Her metallic hands, identifiable as such by the silver fingers extending from her black knuckle gloves, were fumbling with the missile launcher like she couldn't quite remember how to use it. It seemed like the effects of the tesla wave were starting to take hold.
"MachMan, we have a missile on our tail! I don't think we can use the smoke to evade it," Skywriter warned MachMan, although he was probably well aware already. "Can we deploy a shield or anything that might help us take the blow?"
While she stumbled around, holding her missile launcher as though she was afraid to drop it in her stupor, Load had not managed to notice Aera. Looking around the lower dock, MachMan's SP saw a large supply of green, skull-faced bombs set up on racks. A few racks were empty and several of them looked to be in danger of rolling out, possibly from the turbulence of the assault so far. An extended ladder led from the ceiling down to the platform's floor. Several other mounted turrets were set up around the base of the area, although they didn't look as heavy duty as the ones on the wings. No one was manning them, though, so they couldn't fire... there were four of them, but as far as Aera knew, the Terror Girls didn't have four soldiers between them, unless one counted TerrorMan as one.
Roc heard Aera's order to move up and attack the neck, then smirked. "Sure thing! I'll tear its head right off of it," she concurred, the began a path towards the neck. Her movements were so fast that she reached it before the skull actually managed to fire its beam, causing it to seemingly shift its target to Pestilence instead. "Time to rip this thing's throat out," she remarked again, then began hacking at the stem with the blade on her arm. TerrorMan seemed to abandon its plan to fire its beam and responded in a different way; rapidly retracting the neck and skull into the ship. "Oh hell," Roc cursed, reaching out both arms to grab hold of the back of the skull as it crushed back in on her, pinning her between the inner contour of the ship where the skull normally sat and itself. The metal groaned as it worked against her; ironically, this unintended method of attack appeared to be the most effective one it had found to use so far. Roc said nothing else, but it was clear she was having a difficult time holding the giant steel skull back from its resting point. On the other hand, while it was situated there, it was unable to fire its beam on anything.
Pestilence was more or less clear to do whatever was needed, seeing as no one was firing on her. Being on top of the wing, whoever was coming out of the bottom hatch probably wouldn't be able to target her either. She didn't think she'd be much help trying to get the skull off of Roc, so instead, she focused her fire on the right wing, peppering it with more shots while using the wing itself for cover from any line of fire that might originate from the lower hatch.
"Cruz, are you ready to launch? You must hurry!" Prez announced again. "Load! Do not allow yourself to be thrown from the lower platform! Prepare a defense, ignore any target that does not first attack you, and respond with lethal force!"
As the smoke cleared, a figure gradually became visible standing upon the lower platform: a muscular woman in a jungle-camo print sleeveless skinsuit with flared pants (the camo wouldn't be much use here) and, most importantly, silver, metallic arms extending from either side of the skinsuit. Each of the arms carried different high ordinance, one clearly being a missile launcher and the other appearing to be some sort of rifle. Her bust and hips were impressive, her dark skin and pouty face had something of an allure to it, and unlike Cruz, her expression seemed human, if not particularly enthusiastic. Her hair was shaggy and dark purple, matted slightly through sweat. She might be attractive if she weren't currently trying to aim a rocket launcher at MachMan and his various decoys, or perhaps if Aera hadn't seen one of the Terror Girls' disembodied heads speak to her earlier.
Unfortunately for her, she also wasn't really getting a surprise attack in; MachMan shot first, knocking the platform off balance with an air shot. Because it was attached to the sturdy frame of TerrorMan, there wasn't a lot of rumble, but it did cause her to drop whatever the rifle was temporarily. Furthermore, several green bombs became dislodged and fell down below the ship, hopefully not on a crash course with any of the remaining Neo-Shogun's combat-ready subordinates. She kept an impassive frown, not seeming worried about it, and began aiming at him with the missile launcher instead. Luckily, Aera provided support of her own, unleashing a tesla wave that would confuse the new arrival. "Prez," she muttered clutching her head with one hand while balancing the missile launcher with the other. "I'm not feeling so well..."
"Load? You're feeling sick? Are you alright?" the terrorist leader's voice inquired, sounding almost sweet.
"I think I am fine. Firing now-" Load responded, firing a guided missile after her launcher after MachMan. The projectile was keeping on his tail well and she seemed to know which target to aim for, given that she'd seen him fire earlier. "Preparing next attack... Rrrgh," she murmured, shaking her head to try to relieve the dizziness. Her metallic hands, identifiable as such by the silver fingers extending from her black knuckle gloves, were fumbling with the missile launcher like she couldn't quite remember how to use it. It seemed like the effects of the tesla wave were starting to take hold.
"MachMan, we have a missile on our tail! I don't think we can use the smoke to evade it," Skywriter warned MachMan, although he was probably well aware already. "Can we deploy a shield or anything that might help us take the blow?"
While she stumbled around, holding her missile launcher as though she was afraid to drop it in her stupor, Load had not managed to notice Aera. Looking around the lower dock, MachMan's SP saw a large supply of green, skull-faced bombs set up on racks. A few racks were empty and several of them looked to be in danger of rolling out, possibly from the turbulence of the assault so far. An extended ladder led from the ceiling down to the platform's floor. Several other mounted turrets were set up around the base of the area, although they didn't look as heavy duty as the ones on the wings. No one was manning them, though, so they couldn't fire... there were four of them, but as far as Aera knew, the Terror Girls didn't have four soldiers between them, unless one counted TerrorMan as one.
last edited by
Roc quickly moved up and began to engage TerrorMan's neck, but as quickly as she began hacking away, TerrorMan suddenly retracted his head to ultimately pin Roc and Vector between the back of its head and fuselage. Thankfully Roc had put her arms out to brace against the impact, but she appeared to have a difficult time keeping the skull back. Vector could feel her arms twitch under the strain, and could himself feel the amount of pressure being applied. Though this prevented the craft from firing its beam anywhere other than directly ahead, it was at the cost of the NS's most potent combatant. Vector acted quickly at first to lock up the joints of the plating over her arms to help reduce strain, but then realized another option existed.
Though he may not have the strength to bear the strain alone, he could potentially free one of Roc's arms enough for her to continue attacking the neck. The armor over Roc's legs and waist started to flake away like angular leaves in the wind. The plates blew over to her side, then quickly started to form on both the backside of TerrorMan's skull, and the front of his fuselage. They grew rapidly like a dark blue stalactite/stalagmite pair before they connected in the middle. Vector hoped this impromptu brace would provide at least some relief from the crushing pressure. He called out to the Navi to make her privy to the plan. "Roc, I'll try to take the strain to leave one of your arms free, keep up your assault!" The armor over her arm closest to its neck started to open from the side, giving her the opportunity to swing her arm out freely.
If she were unable to keep up the attack, or if her attacks proved to be ineffective, Vector was prepared to detach himself from her, and use all of his body plates to form bracing spans between the back of the skull and fuselage, but arranged in a way to give Roc a clear path out and away. It would've left Roc mostly exposed, but at least she'd be able to get free and focus back to tearing the bomber apart. Vector's escape; however, would be a different story. Hopefully the situation wouldn't degrade that far.
Mach's AirShot rocket hit its target, but its effects were muted by the sturdiness of the platform that lowered from the bay. Its occupant, a camo-wearing, weapon-toting woman appeared ready to fire upon the MachFighter, but her rifle was knocked away from the jarring impact, then she took the brunt of Aera's tesla pulse. Impressively the Navi managed to keep her wits about her long enough to get a bead on the MachFighter and pop off a quick missile shot from her launcher. The missile curled around the fuselage of the bomber and kept a good lock on the MachFighter. Aera watched helplessly as both the MachFighter and the missile disappeared from view, then looked back at the Navi, apparently named "Load." She claimed to be preparing another attack, but her clumsy fumbling of her launcher hinted that Load's programming was finally becoming significantly impaired by the pulse. Aera saw this as a great opportunity to act, and she had an idea to potentially disarm or even remove the muscular female from the battle.
She knew her preloaded MagBolt chip had all but lost its bite from the bomb's effects, but its "tractor beam"-esque effect could potentially be quite effective against the stumbling Navi. She leaned forward as her wings gave off an energetic hum while propelled her closer to the bomber. Her right vambrace started to make a similar hum from the rapidly building electrical charge exhibited by the prepared chip. She kept an eye out for turret fire, but she didn't want to sacrifice evasion for speed; the effects of her tesla pulse were only temporary, and she didn't want to miss this chance. Once she got in range, she thrust her right arm forward, her open hand directed the rapidly extending, nigh invisible beam of magnetic energy towards Load. Once she established a hold on either Load or her missile launcher, Aera closed her right hand into a tight fist before she forcefully yanked her arm back. Her upper body twisted to the right, and she extended her left arm forward, with her left hand open and ready to potentially catch the launcher if it got yanked from Load's grip. Knowing she could also inadvertently grab something she really would prefer not to be near, like live ordinance, she was prepared to jet up and away in an attempt to mitigate any potential effects of the object(s) she pulled.
Mach had little to no time to react to the lock on and subsequent missile launch, and said missile was quite persistent to chase the Navi down. Skywriter called out the missile actively tracking him, to which Mach responded by banking hard to the left and pulling from his climb into a sharp left turn. As he turned, he commanded his FighterPlane to approach. Unfortunately his shield was situated forward, and it would've been quite difficult to maneuver in such a way to facilitate a head-on impact with the missile. Mach also assumed the missile was capable of defeating his shields, so he had no intention of letting it hit. His decoys also made their way towards the MachFighter, and tried to cross into their path to distract or ward off the missile, but Mach didn't expect that to be effective.
Mach poured on the speed to buy the diving FighterPlane a few more seconds to get into position, as well as get the missile trailing directly behind him. He put the FighterPlane on a collision course with himself, and angled in to face it head on. It looked as if Mach was playing "chicken" with his own subordinate aircraft, and the distance was closed very, very quickly. They were head to head, wings level until the last moment. Mach rolled to the right 90 degrees to make a knife edge pass, while the FighterPlane also rolled to the right 90 degrees. The view from the MachFighter's cockpit made the blue blur that was the FighterPlane's pass look impossibly close, the slight jolt felt through his frame from passing into the FighterPlane's wake as evidence enough. As soon as the FighterPlane passed, it pulled up just slightly to put itself directly in line with Mach's trail, and hopefully face to face with the chasing missile.
Mach quickly brought his wings back to level before he popped his nose into the air and began to rapidly gain altitude. If the FighterPlane failed to intercept the missile and timed out into a cloud of data fragments, Mach still had to outmaneuver it until it ran out of propellant, or lost lock. He wanted the missile to overshoot him from the climb and have it struggle to keep up with his thrust vectoring-augmented maneuvers while he got back into position facing the bomber.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD) [ready next turn]
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [cooled down]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [cooled down
Tesla Pulse: (Confusion + 2TCD)
Magbolt1: Load.EXE (0dmg + Stun {Pulls enemies towards user with magnetic field}) (B)
Though he may not have the strength to bear the strain alone, he could potentially free one of Roc's arms enough for her to continue attacking the neck. The armor over Roc's legs and waist started to flake away like angular leaves in the wind. The plates blew over to her side, then quickly started to form on both the backside of TerrorMan's skull, and the front of his fuselage. They grew rapidly like a dark blue stalactite/stalagmite pair before they connected in the middle. Vector hoped this impromptu brace would provide at least some relief from the crushing pressure. He called out to the Navi to make her privy to the plan. "Roc, I'll try to take the strain to leave one of your arms free, keep up your assault!" The armor over her arm closest to its neck started to open from the side, giving her the opportunity to swing her arm out freely.
If she were unable to keep up the attack, or if her attacks proved to be ineffective, Vector was prepared to detach himself from her, and use all of his body plates to form bracing spans between the back of the skull and fuselage, but arranged in a way to give Roc a clear path out and away. It would've left Roc mostly exposed, but at least she'd be able to get free and focus back to tearing the bomber apart. Vector's escape; however, would be a different story. Hopefully the situation wouldn't degrade that far.
Mach's AirShot rocket hit its target, but its effects were muted by the sturdiness of the platform that lowered from the bay. Its occupant, a camo-wearing, weapon-toting woman appeared ready to fire upon the MachFighter, but her rifle was knocked away from the jarring impact, then she took the brunt of Aera's tesla pulse. Impressively the Navi managed to keep her wits about her long enough to get a bead on the MachFighter and pop off a quick missile shot from her launcher. The missile curled around the fuselage of the bomber and kept a good lock on the MachFighter. Aera watched helplessly as both the MachFighter and the missile disappeared from view, then looked back at the Navi, apparently named "Load." She claimed to be preparing another attack, but her clumsy fumbling of her launcher hinted that Load's programming was finally becoming significantly impaired by the pulse. Aera saw this as a great opportunity to act, and she had an idea to potentially disarm or even remove the muscular female from the battle.
She knew her preloaded MagBolt chip had all but lost its bite from the bomb's effects, but its "tractor beam"-esque effect could potentially be quite effective against the stumbling Navi. She leaned forward as her wings gave off an energetic hum while propelled her closer to the bomber. Her right vambrace started to make a similar hum from the rapidly building electrical charge exhibited by the prepared chip. She kept an eye out for turret fire, but she didn't want to sacrifice evasion for speed; the effects of her tesla pulse were only temporary, and she didn't want to miss this chance. Once she got in range, she thrust her right arm forward, her open hand directed the rapidly extending, nigh invisible beam of magnetic energy towards Load. Once she established a hold on either Load or her missile launcher, Aera closed her right hand into a tight fist before she forcefully yanked her arm back. Her upper body twisted to the right, and she extended her left arm forward, with her left hand open and ready to potentially catch the launcher if it got yanked from Load's grip. Knowing she could also inadvertently grab something she really would prefer not to be near, like live ordinance, she was prepared to jet up and away in an attempt to mitigate any potential effects of the object(s) she pulled.
Mach had little to no time to react to the lock on and subsequent missile launch, and said missile was quite persistent to chase the Navi down. Skywriter called out the missile actively tracking him, to which Mach responded by banking hard to the left and pulling from his climb into a sharp left turn. As he turned, he commanded his FighterPlane to approach. Unfortunately his shield was situated forward, and it would've been quite difficult to maneuver in such a way to facilitate a head-on impact with the missile. Mach also assumed the missile was capable of defeating his shields, so he had no intention of letting it hit. His decoys also made their way towards the MachFighter, and tried to cross into their path to distract or ward off the missile, but Mach didn't expect that to be effective.
Mach poured on the speed to buy the diving FighterPlane a few more seconds to get into position, as well as get the missile trailing directly behind him. He put the FighterPlane on a collision course with himself, and angled in to face it head on. It looked as if Mach was playing "chicken" with his own subordinate aircraft, and the distance was closed very, very quickly. They were head to head, wings level until the last moment. Mach rolled to the right 90 degrees to make a knife edge pass, while the FighterPlane also rolled to the right 90 degrees. The view from the MachFighter's cockpit made the blue blur that was the FighterPlane's pass look impossibly close, the slight jolt felt through his frame from passing into the FighterPlane's wake as evidence enough. As soon as the FighterPlane passed, it pulled up just slightly to put itself directly in line with Mach's trail, and hopefully face to face with the chasing missile.
Mach quickly brought his wings back to level before he popped his nose into the air and began to rapidly gain altitude. If the FighterPlane failed to intercept the missile and timed out into a cloud of data fragments, Mach still had to outmaneuver it until it ran out of propellant, or lost lock. He wanted the missile to overshoot him from the climb and have it struggle to keep up with his thrust vectoring-augmented maneuvers while he got back into position facing the bomber.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD) [ready next turn]
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [cooled down]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [cooled down
Tesla Pulse: (Confusion + 2TCD)
Magbolt1: Load.EXE (0dmg + Stun {Pulls enemies towards user with magnetic field}) (B)
last edited by
"If you're sure you know what you're doing. Listen, it's all I can do to keep this thing back with my whole body," Roc replied Vector, informing him of what he already knew: namely, that Roc was exerting all of her strength to keep the skull from crushing the two of them. "We're going to have to hope this neck comes off fast. Then again, how strong can it be?" she asked, rhetorically (probably). "Hold 'er steady," the bird-woman encouraged her armor one more time, then used her firesword again to continue hacking away at the neck. The turret earlier had come off very clean, all things considered, but she was having a difficult time burning a groove into the armor of the spine. Even once she did, she wouldn't simply be able to uproot it to the point of taking it offline; presumably, no less than severing the whole thing would nullify the threat of the skull retracting on top of them. It was difficult to tell how much would be needed to disable the laser cannon itself, but right now, that was really a secondary matter to stopping the movement of the neck and head themselves.
"Damn, it's thick! I guess if those wings were added on fresh, the turrets probably were too. The armor here around Bonehead's boney head is a lot tougher," she informed her ally, now also using communicator to speak with MachMan as well. "Do you have any other ideas? I'm not abandoning the mission back here but it's going to take a while longer..."
"Who's there?" the voice of Prez boomed from inside the ship, threatening to deafen Vector and Roc due to their proximity and the fact that they were currently enclosed inside a cave. They heard, however, not just the megaphone, but also another voice. The megaphone voice was coming off a delay, but the other voice appeared to be relaying words in real time... it sounded like it was coming from inside the ship, perhaps on the other side of the machinery behind the two, where the skull would normally rest. "Surrender or you will be crushed!"
Aera gave herself a new task, planning to disable the metal-armed woman who was menacing MachMan using her guided projectiles. While she couldn't attack, she found another means of assault that was just as effective: utilizing a magbolt, she attempted to drag away the missile launcher from the confused Load. The woman dug her heels into the ground and held tightly onto her weapon. Eventually, not just her weapon, but her entire body began to slide towards Aera. It quickly became apparent to the SP that she was going to have to pull back her hand and fly off the platform, or otherwise, Load would crash right into her. Aera wouldn't have any real weapon to retaliate with if that happened, and, while confused, just Load's flailing wildly with her thick, metal forearms would probably deal some serious damage. Thankfully, the half-android woman dropped her remaining weapon, as was necessary to stabilize herself as she nearly slid off of the elevator platform that had extended from below the ship. Just as her body began to slide off, Load grabbed hold of it with both hands, bending the metal beneath the strength of her fingers. It looked like her grip would allow her to hang there; she began swinging her body back and forth, perhaps preparing some plan to get back on-board.
Somewhere close-by to Aera, the SP heard another set of heavy footsteps approaching... then the clank of boots over a ladder. A quick look over would confirm that the shades-wearing android from earlier was climbing back down out of the ship. Currently, rather than wings, her arms had an ordinary, humanoid look. Most importantly, it looked as though she'd been fully repaired. The only advantage Aera had was that Cruz hadn't begun flying yet, making her a slow, easy target as she descended the ladder.
Elsewhere, MachMan executed a daring maneuver to get the guided missile Load had launched off of his tail. It worked; the missile, although it angled flawlessly after the MachFighter, was all the same left in the trail of where it was, causing the FighterPlane to crash right into it. The missile made short work of the plane, scattering debris in the air behind MachMan, but it seemed the threat was averted. Skywriter had collapsed back into her chair and was watching the events unfold while clutching her hands onto various parts of the console; she'd managed to stop herself from screaming either by sheer determination or through sheer losing her voice. Yasu was clutched inward and shivering, but it was unclear why. When MachMan studied her a little closer, he'd realize she was clutching her gut with a half-dead expression, as though she'd passed out. She'd probably lost her fight around the time of that last high-speed, 90 degree roll. He probably couldn't rely on her support any longer, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about upsetting her any more. Finally, Skywriter spoke up: "That... was... crazy! Like something out of a movie," she gasped, breathing hard.
There was still one other piece in motion for the Neo-Shogun army: Pestilence, who was busily cutting through the armor of the right wing using a variety of guns at point-blank range. Finally, her efforts were rewarded, as one of the shots returned a particularly noisy kaboom, causing her to take flight warily in case the wing came off. It hadn't quite yet, but smoke had begun to rise from the section. "I've almost got it!" she cheered. "Hey, do you think I could drain some power from the Terror Girls after their ship crashes? You know, we talked about using the bombs earlier... Well, navi power is another resource that shouldn't go to waste! Bzzz..." Pest communicated over the linked channel.
"Neo-Shogun Army! Disengage, now! This is your last option before I initiate Plan B: Operation Green Earth! I repeat, if you do not surrender, I am initiating Plan B: Operation Green Earth! I cannot guarantee the safety of those below us!" Prez threatened from somewhere inside the ship.
"Somebody tell me if you find a volume button on this ship somewhere," Roc requested over the communications channel.
"Damn, it's thick! I guess if those wings were added on fresh, the turrets probably were too. The armor here around Bonehead's boney head is a lot tougher," she informed her ally, now also using communicator to speak with MachMan as well. "Do you have any other ideas? I'm not abandoning the mission back here but it's going to take a while longer..."
"Who's there?" the voice of Prez boomed from inside the ship, threatening to deafen Vector and Roc due to their proximity and the fact that they were currently enclosed inside a cave. They heard, however, not just the megaphone, but also another voice. The megaphone voice was coming off a delay, but the other voice appeared to be relaying words in real time... it sounded like it was coming from inside the ship, perhaps on the other side of the machinery behind the two, where the skull would normally rest. "Surrender or you will be crushed!"
Aera gave herself a new task, planning to disable the metal-armed woman who was menacing MachMan using her guided projectiles. While she couldn't attack, she found another means of assault that was just as effective: utilizing a magbolt, she attempted to drag away the missile launcher from the confused Load. The woman dug her heels into the ground and held tightly onto her weapon. Eventually, not just her weapon, but her entire body began to slide towards Aera. It quickly became apparent to the SP that she was going to have to pull back her hand and fly off the platform, or otherwise, Load would crash right into her. Aera wouldn't have any real weapon to retaliate with if that happened, and, while confused, just Load's flailing wildly with her thick, metal forearms would probably deal some serious damage. Thankfully, the half-android woman dropped her remaining weapon, as was necessary to stabilize herself as she nearly slid off of the elevator platform that had extended from below the ship. Just as her body began to slide off, Load grabbed hold of it with both hands, bending the metal beneath the strength of her fingers. It looked like her grip would allow her to hang there; she began swinging her body back and forth, perhaps preparing some plan to get back on-board.
Somewhere close-by to Aera, the SP heard another set of heavy footsteps approaching... then the clank of boots over a ladder. A quick look over would confirm that the shades-wearing android from earlier was climbing back down out of the ship. Currently, rather than wings, her arms had an ordinary, humanoid look. Most importantly, it looked as though she'd been fully repaired. The only advantage Aera had was that Cruz hadn't begun flying yet, making her a slow, easy target as she descended the ladder.
Elsewhere, MachMan executed a daring maneuver to get the guided missile Load had launched off of his tail. It worked; the missile, although it angled flawlessly after the MachFighter, was all the same left in the trail of where it was, causing the FighterPlane to crash right into it. The missile made short work of the plane, scattering debris in the air behind MachMan, but it seemed the threat was averted. Skywriter had collapsed back into her chair and was watching the events unfold while clutching her hands onto various parts of the console; she'd managed to stop herself from screaming either by sheer determination or through sheer losing her voice. Yasu was clutched inward and shivering, but it was unclear why. When MachMan studied her a little closer, he'd realize she was clutching her gut with a half-dead expression, as though she'd passed out. She'd probably lost her fight around the time of that last high-speed, 90 degree roll. He probably couldn't rely on her support any longer, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about upsetting her any more. Finally, Skywriter spoke up: "That... was... crazy! Like something out of a movie," she gasped, breathing hard.
There was still one other piece in motion for the Neo-Shogun army: Pestilence, who was busily cutting through the armor of the right wing using a variety of guns at point-blank range. Finally, her efforts were rewarded, as one of the shots returned a particularly noisy kaboom, causing her to take flight warily in case the wing came off. It hadn't quite yet, but smoke had begun to rise from the section. "I've almost got it!" she cheered. "Hey, do you think I could drain some power from the Terror Girls after their ship crashes? You know, we talked about using the bombs earlier... Well, navi power is another resource that shouldn't go to waste! Bzzz..." Pest communicated over the linked channel.
"Neo-Shogun Army! Disengage, now! This is your last option before I initiate Plan B: Operation Green Earth! I repeat, if you do not surrender, I am initiating Plan B: Operation Green Earth! I cannot guarantee the safety of those below us!" Prez threatened from somewhere inside the ship.
"Somebody tell me if you find a volume button on this ship somewhere," Roc requested over the communications channel.
last edited by
Vector's impromptu brace managed to bear enough weight for Roc to resume attacking the neck, but even her impressively fiery sword appeared to do struggle to deal any significant damage quickly. With each passing moment Vector and Roc remain pinned, the enemy could be moving into a better position to repel their assault. Vector was prepared to execute a strategy to free Roc, but his train of thought was nearly derailed by the deafening voice coming from the ship's speakers. However, they also heard the possible un-augmented voice of the Terror Girls leader. She could obviously hear the pair, but she also sounded close enough to be possibly vulnerable. Vector sent a text-only message to Roc, proposing a new strategy. [[b]What of the armor behind us? Their leader sounds close, we may be able to end this by silencing her. I'll try to bear more weight to give you room.[/b]]
Vector's armor continued to stream from Roc's body like a swarm of metallic insects, forming additional braces around her. He tried to form as many sturdy pillars as he could, to spread out the force distribution and reduce the individual load. This left Roc even more exposed than usual, but at least she could potentially maneuver to attack the armor opposite the back of the skull. Vector's single glowing eye appeared on one of the pillars closest to Roc, to monitor her progress. If the armor was as stalwart as the ship's neck, he'd send her another message. [[b]We can't do much else here, take this chance to escape! Focus back on the wing![/b]]
Down at the TerrorMan's bay doors, Aera managed to disarm as well as pull Load from the platform. Unfortunately the launcher she carried tumbled down and out of reach, while the Navi managed to get an iron grip on the platform, preventing herself from falling after her weapon. Aera could see the edge of the platform crumpled under Load's grip; she doubted she'd be able to lessen the Navi's grip. To make matters worse, a familiar figure started to make her way down to the platform. Aera still had the advantage of flight, but with no more chips and her capacitors still recovering, she was now outnumbered and at risk of being overwhelmed. Aera heard a slightly louder boom over the din of the battle, and Pest's jubilant message over the common channel. She also expressed interest in draining the Terror Girls' power after bringing the bomber down, Aera had a plan which would invert Pest's schedule. "You may just have your chance right now, get down to the bay doors ready for a fight! Though Pest would provide some well-needed backup, her power alone may not be enough to take on two Terror Girls at once. Aera's eyes darted between Load and Cruz as her mind raced. She could try to hinder the movement of one, either by using her flight abilities to slam Load up against the underside of the platform or dashing to Cruz and wrapping her up on the ladder while her back was turned. The question was which one to engage. Load was strong, but it appeared her primary weapons were removed, and she may still be disorientated by the Tesla Pulse. Cruz; however, likely had internal weapons like before, and was likely the biggest threat.
With her mind set, Aera dashed towards Cruz with the aid of her electrically charged wings. She barely slowed as she outstretched her arms and oriented her body mostly upright just prior to colliding with the android-esque Navi. She pressed her chest and hips against her back and butt, while she hooked her arms under Cruz's armpits before crossing them behind the ladder and tried to establish a firm grip on the ladder. She wrapped her legs around Cruz's own legs and back, and also crossed them behind the ladder. She tried to place her heels in the space between the rungs on the ladder to prevent her legs from sliding freely up or down the ladder. "Ngghh!" she groaned as she tried to cinch down on the Navi, giving her a full-body "bear hug" of sorts. Her eyes looked around as the side of her face was smooshed against Cruz's back, desperately hoping Pest arrived quickly. If Load got the chance to get back on the platform, Aera would be in a very vulnerable, and quite embarrassing, position. She tried to ease the vulnerability aspect of her position by raising her Repulsion Shield over her back, if anything it would buy Pest time to attack Load.
Mach had neutralized the threat from the missile, and now with no more munitions to employ, and the bomber's defensive weaponry mostly offline, Mach assumed a much more gentle orbiting turn around the bomber. He saw smoke billowing out of one of the wings, and its skull almost entirely retracted in its housing. He knew of Roc & Vector's and Aera's situations, but without any weaponry and two passengers, all he could really do was oversee and draw the attention of the bomber. He didn't like it at all, he wasn't at all used to sitting back and watching others do the work. "Skywriter, you sure you don't have any other attacks we can use?" he inquired, still eyeing the ship for potential targets of opportunity. Even at a relatively safe distance away, he still heard Prez's ominous threat to the group. Whatever this "Operation Green Earth" was, it didn't sound like good news for anyone in the camp below. Yasu was mostly incapacitated, so Mach opened a channel to Sideburns. "The bomber's planning something big, get as many folks underground as possible! Secure the Shogun!" As he issued an order to the newly deputized foot soldier, Mach angled himself towards the bomber, and began to pick up speed. If their planned attack involved launching ordinance from below, he wanted to at least be close enough to possibly counter, if at all possible. His engine burned brightly as his angular frame arced through the sky towards the bomber, like a divebomber beginning an attack run.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD) [cooled down]
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [cooled down]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE, Aera (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [ready after next turn]
Tesla Pulse: (Confusion + 2TCD) [ready after next turn]
Vector's armor continued to stream from Roc's body like a swarm of metallic insects, forming additional braces around her. He tried to form as many sturdy pillars as he could, to spread out the force distribution and reduce the individual load. This left Roc even more exposed than usual, but at least she could potentially maneuver to attack the armor opposite the back of the skull. Vector's single glowing eye appeared on one of the pillars closest to Roc, to monitor her progress. If the armor was as stalwart as the ship's neck, he'd send her another message. [[b]We can't do much else here, take this chance to escape! Focus back on the wing![/b]]
Down at the TerrorMan's bay doors, Aera managed to disarm as well as pull Load from the platform. Unfortunately the launcher she carried tumbled down and out of reach, while the Navi managed to get an iron grip on the platform, preventing herself from falling after her weapon. Aera could see the edge of the platform crumpled under Load's grip; she doubted she'd be able to lessen the Navi's grip. To make matters worse, a familiar figure started to make her way down to the platform. Aera still had the advantage of flight, but with no more chips and her capacitors still recovering, she was now outnumbered and at risk of being overwhelmed. Aera heard a slightly louder boom over the din of the battle, and Pest's jubilant message over the common channel. She also expressed interest in draining the Terror Girls' power after bringing the bomber down, Aera had a plan which would invert Pest's schedule. "You may just have your chance right now, get down to the bay doors ready for a fight! Though Pest would provide some well-needed backup, her power alone may not be enough to take on two Terror Girls at once. Aera's eyes darted between Load and Cruz as her mind raced. She could try to hinder the movement of one, either by using her flight abilities to slam Load up against the underside of the platform or dashing to Cruz and wrapping her up on the ladder while her back was turned. The question was which one to engage. Load was strong, but it appeared her primary weapons were removed, and she may still be disorientated by the Tesla Pulse. Cruz; however, likely had internal weapons like before, and was likely the biggest threat.
With her mind set, Aera dashed towards Cruz with the aid of her electrically charged wings. She barely slowed as she outstretched her arms and oriented her body mostly upright just prior to colliding with the android-esque Navi. She pressed her chest and hips against her back and butt, while she hooked her arms under Cruz's armpits before crossing them behind the ladder and tried to establish a firm grip on the ladder. She wrapped her legs around Cruz's own legs and back, and also crossed them behind the ladder. She tried to place her heels in the space between the rungs on the ladder to prevent her legs from sliding freely up or down the ladder. "Ngghh!" she groaned as she tried to cinch down on the Navi, giving her a full-body "bear hug" of sorts. Her eyes looked around as the side of her face was smooshed against Cruz's back, desperately hoping Pest arrived quickly. If Load got the chance to get back on the platform, Aera would be in a very vulnerable, and quite embarrassing, position. She tried to ease the vulnerability aspect of her position by raising her Repulsion Shield over her back, if anything it would buy Pest time to attack Load.
Mach had neutralized the threat from the missile, and now with no more munitions to employ, and the bomber's defensive weaponry mostly offline, Mach assumed a much more gentle orbiting turn around the bomber. He saw smoke billowing out of one of the wings, and its skull almost entirely retracted in its housing. He knew of Roc & Vector's and Aera's situations, but without any weaponry and two passengers, all he could really do was oversee and draw the attention of the bomber. He didn't like it at all, he wasn't at all used to sitting back and watching others do the work. "Skywriter, you sure you don't have any other attacks we can use?" he inquired, still eyeing the ship for potential targets of opportunity. Even at a relatively safe distance away, he still heard Prez's ominous threat to the group. Whatever this "Operation Green Earth" was, it didn't sound like good news for anyone in the camp below. Yasu was mostly incapacitated, so Mach opened a channel to Sideburns. "The bomber's planning something big, get as many folks underground as possible! Secure the Shogun!" As he issued an order to the newly deputized foot soldier, Mach angled himself towards the bomber, and began to pick up speed. If their planned attack involved launching ordinance from below, he wanted to at least be close enough to possibly counter, if at all possible. His engine burned brightly as his angular frame arced through the sky towards the bomber, like a divebomber beginning an attack run.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter (6-hit shield + 3TCD) [cooled down]
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [cooled down]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE, Aera (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [ready after next turn]
Tesla Pulse: (Confusion + 2TCD) [ready after next turn]
last edited by
"Ah ha! I'll cut the little bitch out of there and we'll see if she feels like mouthing off to us again!" Roc cackled, shifting to face the wall behind her as Vector loosened up off of her body and moved to support the weight of the incoming skull (which was beginning to get somewhat unbearable). She dug her hooked claw into the surface, then began carving a line upward through the metal with her firesword. Not having exactly the mind of an engineer, she didn't cut herself a neat doorway, but rather, pulled apart various scraps of metal with both her talons and her blade until a window was cut through, then bashed aside the scraps that remained. "Here's Johnny!" she finished, sticking her upper body recklessly through the hole.
On the other side, a dimly lit room held a wide array of monitors, which one would assume corresponded to the cameras on the outside of the ship; a few were currently displaying blackness or static, likely from the earlier gunfire. Overhead, a long, thick pipe ran from the front to the back of the roof, likely a tube that housed the "spine" of TerrorMan. Metallic grinding noises were coming from inside, perhaps from the ship trying to retract its skull back inside. Several seats were positioned around the room at various consoles. Only one of the seats was occupied, with the girl who, presumably, was the one who'd been barking out of the speakers throughout this ordeal.
The girl, looking to be possibly eighteen, if not younger, was dressed in a brown military uniform with long sleeves and wide-legged pants. A brown cap sat upon her head with a gold skull badge, clearly indicating her as part of the Terror Girls. She wore short black gloves and long, shiny boots. Long blond hair cascaded down from her cap; her eyes were green and squinted hard, perhaps for the same reason that her breath was heavy and sweat was pouring down her neck, namely that it was hot as heck inside the room. When Roc finally clawed her way in, she looked up towards the new opening, her face momentarily slack with horror. "Stay back!" she warned in a loud voice, raising one hand in a gesture indicating "stop." Roc didn't, which caused the young lady to put on a more stern expression. "I meant what I said! Operation Green Earth will drop the rest of our payload of bombs, the blanket of which will surely carpet the entirety of your camp! With so much exposure to the EMP waves, there could be lasting, irrevocable damage to the combat abilities of everyone involved, as well as other side effects!" the girl cautioned.
"What the hell do I care? You're not gonna drop that payload when I get this sword into your face in the first place, and even if you were, those guys below all got hit with that stuff already. You're bluffing! You girls have dropped so many of those things today that if they were going to do anything worse, they already would have," Roc scoffed, finishing climbing through the hole and pulling Vector in behind her (apparently just in time, as the skull smashed the gap shut almost immediately).
"You don't know how it works! Besides, we could have avoided all of this in the first place if your army would just disarm! No good can come of all of the forces you all are amassing! All of those weapons, all of the operations you're conducting... I refuse to let your army continue to grow unchecked! It's almost impossible to interrupt the war-like actions of the NP and the Mafia these days, and throwing a third party into all of that will only make the situation-!" the girl countered, but stopped as Roc reached out one claw, grabbing her up by her shoulder and forcing her to release her hand on the slim pistol that was holstered at her waist.
"I'll say it again: I don't give a damn! These goofs are my ticket to learning where my sister went. If that means I've gotta cut your head off of your shoulders, then off it goes," she finished, raising up her sword to do just that. Vector would have to decide whether he should intervene; on one hand, it was going to be a bit gruesome to watch, but on the other hand, it would effectively remove Prez from the calculations and might force the group to retreat.
-----------------------
In the mean time, Aera set into motion plans of her own, reacting quickly to the arrival of Cruz from inside the ship. She managed to get a jump on the android, going through a lot of trouble to pin Cruz to the ladder from which she was descending. Aera barely had time to notice, but despite Cruz's nature as a humanoid robot, it still felt as though there was flesh beneath her uniform. The robot responded to being subdued with a blank frown. "Threat assessment..." she murmured, but even as she did, the uniformed arms that Aera was keeping occupied exploded, revealing again the metallic wings. The android was pretty strong on her own, but she simply wouldn't be held down by ordinary means; she further engaged the boosters on her wings, pulling herself free from Aera, with significant pain to Aera's joints as they were strained between the escaping Terror Girl and the ladder itself.
Luckily, Pestilence arrived before she could get far, promptly occupying pretty much the same spot that Aera had moments earlier rather than going for Load, who was still working her way back onto the platform. Pest had the benefit of still having some weapons, though... namely, the long spike protruding out of her mask's face. She buried her masked face into Cruz's back, along with the needle; the robot's face didn't show pain, exactly, but she did crane her neck back in a way that looked like convulsing. A sickening gulping noise came from Pestilence's throat as she sucked data out from the Terror Girl, presumably powering herself up in the process.
Of course, staying back there too long would be far too dangerous; she took flight again once Cruz re-engaged her thrusters, attempting to burn Pestilence off her back. "System error... weapons and defense systems affected..." the android droned, shifting the direction of her wings so that she could leave the platform and put some distance between herself and Pestilence, likely fleeing until she determined how badly the draining had impacted her.
Pestilence's formerly red eyes were glowing red now, her wings buzzing so rapidly that they became a blur behind herself. "Bzzzzzzzz! Your body has been highly modified, hasn't it? I think I can get some really good data from you! But I'll bet hers is just as tasty," Pestilence giggled, sounding a little drunk, as her feet left the platform again and she made her way towards Load, apparently having changed her priority. The metal-armed woman had just made her way back onto the platform and stood to her feet. The good news was that Aera now had a little time to think about what their next plan of attack should be. The bad news was that she was still likely in some serious pain from the stretching she'd been subjected to earlier.
---------------------------------
A quick message came back to MachMan as he requested the ground forces evacuate battle positions and get to safety, as much as possible.
Fortunately, MachMan wasn't going to have many problems keeping Yasu safe in his present situation, as no enemies were currently capable of targeting him. On the other hand, Skywriter didn't seem to have much more to offer in terms of weapons. "I'm afraid not... I do still have my smokescreen, though! It looks like one of the air-borne Terror Girls has broken away from the plane. Maybe we can go grab her attention so that she's not attacking your SP?" the purple-haired co-pilot offered.
"They've got it under control," Yasu remarked. "In my opinion, it would be best to try to figure out what that 'Operation Green Earth' is and neutralize the weapon before they get the chance to use it. You should let me out and I will investigate inside the ship. But then, you're the commanding officer here, not me, so I'll leave the decision to you." She crossed her arms and closed her good eye, smiling confidently. "I can already feel the strength returning to my muscles. I'll be able to defend myself no matter what I encounter inside."
On the other side, a dimly lit room held a wide array of monitors, which one would assume corresponded to the cameras on the outside of the ship; a few were currently displaying blackness or static, likely from the earlier gunfire. Overhead, a long, thick pipe ran from the front to the back of the roof, likely a tube that housed the "spine" of TerrorMan. Metallic grinding noises were coming from inside, perhaps from the ship trying to retract its skull back inside. Several seats were positioned around the room at various consoles. Only one of the seats was occupied, with the girl who, presumably, was the one who'd been barking out of the speakers throughout this ordeal.
The girl, looking to be possibly eighteen, if not younger, was dressed in a brown military uniform with long sleeves and wide-legged pants. A brown cap sat upon her head with a gold skull badge, clearly indicating her as part of the Terror Girls. She wore short black gloves and long, shiny boots. Long blond hair cascaded down from her cap; her eyes were green and squinted hard, perhaps for the same reason that her breath was heavy and sweat was pouring down her neck, namely that it was hot as heck inside the room. When Roc finally clawed her way in, she looked up towards the new opening, her face momentarily slack with horror. "Stay back!" she warned in a loud voice, raising one hand in a gesture indicating "stop." Roc didn't, which caused the young lady to put on a more stern expression. "I meant what I said! Operation Green Earth will drop the rest of our payload of bombs, the blanket of which will surely carpet the entirety of your camp! With so much exposure to the EMP waves, there could be lasting, irrevocable damage to the combat abilities of everyone involved, as well as other side effects!" the girl cautioned.
"What the hell do I care? You're not gonna drop that payload when I get this sword into your face in the first place, and even if you were, those guys below all got hit with that stuff already. You're bluffing! You girls have dropped so many of those things today that if they were going to do anything worse, they already would have," Roc scoffed, finishing climbing through the hole and pulling Vector in behind her (apparently just in time, as the skull smashed the gap shut almost immediately).
"You don't know how it works! Besides, we could have avoided all of this in the first place if your army would just disarm! No good can come of all of the forces you all are amassing! All of those weapons, all of the operations you're conducting... I refuse to let your army continue to grow unchecked! It's almost impossible to interrupt the war-like actions of the NP and the Mafia these days, and throwing a third party into all of that will only make the situation-!" the girl countered, but stopped as Roc reached out one claw, grabbing her up by her shoulder and forcing her to release her hand on the slim pistol that was holstered at her waist.
"I'll say it again: I don't give a damn! These goofs are my ticket to learning where my sister went. If that means I've gotta cut your head off of your shoulders, then off it goes," she finished, raising up her sword to do just that. Vector would have to decide whether he should intervene; on one hand, it was going to be a bit gruesome to watch, but on the other hand, it would effectively remove Prez from the calculations and might force the group to retreat.
-----------------------
In the mean time, Aera set into motion plans of her own, reacting quickly to the arrival of Cruz from inside the ship. She managed to get a jump on the android, going through a lot of trouble to pin Cruz to the ladder from which she was descending. Aera barely had time to notice, but despite Cruz's nature as a humanoid robot, it still felt as though there was flesh beneath her uniform. The robot responded to being subdued with a blank frown. "Threat assessment..." she murmured, but even as she did, the uniformed arms that Aera was keeping occupied exploded, revealing again the metallic wings. The android was pretty strong on her own, but she simply wouldn't be held down by ordinary means; she further engaged the boosters on her wings, pulling herself free from Aera, with significant pain to Aera's joints as they were strained between the escaping Terror Girl and the ladder itself.
Luckily, Pestilence arrived before she could get far, promptly occupying pretty much the same spot that Aera had moments earlier rather than going for Load, who was still working her way back onto the platform. Pest had the benefit of still having some weapons, though... namely, the long spike protruding out of her mask's face. She buried her masked face into Cruz's back, along with the needle; the robot's face didn't show pain, exactly, but she did crane her neck back in a way that looked like convulsing. A sickening gulping noise came from Pestilence's throat as she sucked data out from the Terror Girl, presumably powering herself up in the process.
Of course, staying back there too long would be far too dangerous; she took flight again once Cruz re-engaged her thrusters, attempting to burn Pestilence off her back. "System error... weapons and defense systems affected..." the android droned, shifting the direction of her wings so that she could leave the platform and put some distance between herself and Pestilence, likely fleeing until she determined how badly the draining had impacted her.
Pestilence's formerly red eyes were glowing red now, her wings buzzing so rapidly that they became a blur behind herself. "Bzzzzzzzz! Your body has been highly modified, hasn't it? I think I can get some really good data from you! But I'll bet hers is just as tasty," Pestilence giggled, sounding a little drunk, as her feet left the platform again and she made her way towards Load, apparently having changed her priority. The metal-armed woman had just made her way back onto the platform and stood to her feet. The good news was that Aera now had a little time to think about what their next plan of attack should be. The bad news was that she was still likely in some serious pain from the stretching she'd been subjected to earlier.
---------------------------------
A quick message came back to MachMan as he requested the ground forces evacuate battle positions and get to safety, as much as possible.
Quote ()
"I'll get everyone under ground, assuming they'll listen to me. You just keep the First General safe, okay? For a Neo-Shogun soldier, no priority comes above the Shogun, but I place Yasu at maybe equal priority to that!"
Fortunately, MachMan wasn't going to have many problems keeping Yasu safe in his present situation, as no enemies were currently capable of targeting him. On the other hand, Skywriter didn't seem to have much more to offer in terms of weapons. "I'm afraid not... I do still have my smokescreen, though! It looks like one of the air-borne Terror Girls has broken away from the plane. Maybe we can go grab her attention so that she's not attacking your SP?" the purple-haired co-pilot offered.
"They've got it under control," Yasu remarked. "In my opinion, it would be best to try to figure out what that 'Operation Green Earth' is and neutralize the weapon before they get the chance to use it. You should let me out and I will investigate inside the ship. But then, you're the commanding officer here, not me, so I'll leave the decision to you." She crossed her arms and closed her good eye, smiling confidently. "I can already feel the strength returning to my muscles. I'll be able to defend myself no matter what I encounter inside."
last edited by
Roc accepted Vector's suggestion with little to no reservation, along with an added disturbing eagerness to inflict no small amount of pain on the bomber's occupant and presumed commander. The avian-esque Navi proceeded to use her talons as surprisingly effective can openers, then tore her way inside with little refinement but relative ease. Vector waited for Roc to make her way inside before he followed, thankfully she was quick to dive through the haggard gash in the hull, leaving Vector to bear the full pressure of the skull for a very short time. The pillars he fashioned with his own body plates started to shrink, causing slivers of his body plates to spray outwards as if the midsections of the pillars were being actively ground down to size. Said plates then streamed into the bomber after Roc, and began to pool on her back as they attempted to reform the armor that previously shrouded her body. The skull soon slammed shut in its housing and temporarily pinned a few of Vector's plates. The diamond-shaped slivers screeched, chattered, and made other metal-on-metal sounds as they jerked back and forth to wriggle free.
Roc had descended upon the young-looking girl standing alone in what appeared to be a command room or "bridge" as it were, by that time Vector fully reformed himself into the "avian samurai" like armor over Roc's body. The girl was vulnerable, and externally armed only with a single pistol strapped to her hip. She threatened the use of "Operation Green Earth," and explained the subsequent carpet-bombing of the encampment with the last of their bombs could cause effects more severe and unknown than weapon nullification. Roc was undeterred and immediately called her bluff before she roughly hoisted her up by the shoulder, disarming the significantly smaller Navi. Roc returned what she believed to be an idle threat with one of her own, and raised her weapon in preparation to carry it out. Vector had only known the Navi for a short while, but he didn't expect her to hold back; Prez was likely about to have her neck thoroughly ventilated. Vector tried to hinder or halt her swing by locking up the plates covering her shoulder and elbow joints. He feared Roc would be strong enough to overpower his attempt, but maybe the increased resistance would clue her in. Vector spoke from the armored mask covering Roc's face, and glared at her with two thin, glowing red eyes. "Have your forces stand down, IMMEDIATELY. This battle is over."
He immediately sent a text only message to Roc. [[b]Our mission was to stop the attack; the rest of the Terror Girls will likely continue to fight to deletion if their leader falls. If she orders her force's surrender, the attack ends now.[/b]] Giving Roc a chance to read and mull over his advisory, he continued to speak to Prez. "There's been enough violence today, you can end this right now, or you and your group will be cut down." Vector's warning was stern, but he hoped to appeal towards Prez's almost contradictory pacifistic rhetoric. His words hid no foul intentions nor deception, he wanted the fighting to end as much as she, and he knew the execution of her "Operation Green Earth" would result in a very violent reaction from the still functional members NeoShogunate, namely Roc... Speaking of which, he released his grip on her arm and shoulder, to allow Roc the capability to silence the girl if she refused, or worse tried to initiate the carpet bombing.
-----------------------
Aera's attempt at pinning Cruz worked only temporarily, the android's arms rapidly changed to the thruster-laden wings Aera had seen before, then went full tilt to wrench free of Aera's grip. Aera's pupils tightened and she gasped at the rapid onset of pain from her overtaxed joints as Cruz tore herself loose. She barely managed to keep herself from falling from the ladder, but the pain was intense enough to cause her to nearly double over as she clutched the ladder. A flurry of green electrical discharges skipped over her body as a result of her prompt activation of her main recovery program. The pain quickly subsided, but her joints still bore the tender soreness of injury. Thankfully her actions weren't in vain, she bought enough time for Pest to attack Cruz. The vampiric act seemed to leave Cruz damaged and partially incapacitated, while Pest appeared to experience augmenting effects.
Pest began to move on Load, and Cruz started to retreat. Aera pulled her legs free from the ladder, and pushed off after her wings came online to keep her perched in the air. Pest seemed to be handing everything well, and with Cruz falling further back the fight became 2 to 1 in NS's favor. Aera remained on the platform, and eyed some of the turret positions on each corner. Her eyes darted back to Cruz, and she began to move towards the gun emplacement with the best line of fire towards the retreating Navi. She didn't yet attempt to crew the gun emplacement, but would likely do so if Cruz started to make her way back.
-----------------------
Mach received a quick affirming response from Sideburns as he continued to circle TerrorMan. He saw the bomber's head had full shut in its housing, but also saw Vector's programming was still registering active and at nearly full power. Skywriter responded as well, though she didn't have any other offensive weaponry, she did suggest further use of her smokescreens and called out Cruz as she made her way from the bomber. Skywriter's call-out was quickly confirmed, and he started to adjust his still wide, and much less stressful, turn. Mazer's face appeared on the right panel of the HUD, and his voice came in through the various speakers throughout the cockpit. He had been watching Vector's feed, since he was concerned both the SP and his Navi charge were at risk of getting crushed mere moments ago. ["Mach, it looks like Roc and Vector have secured the Terror Girls commander. "Operation Green Earth" is apparently a full purge of their bomb load, I recommend securing the bay ASAP. Aera, report!"]
The message was sent to Aera as well, which prompted her to get a better look of the bay. The bombs were secured in rows of storage racks, but they didn't seem to have any launchers or dispensers. [[i]"Pest and I are on the bay platform engaging Load, Cruz is pulling back. I don't see any automated means of deploying the bombs though...[/i]] she responded, her voice came through the speakers as well. ["Thanks Aera. Mach, since you don't have any weapons left, I'd lend a hand. I'll keep an eye on Cruz."] "Copy, enroute now," Mach responded. He again adjusted his trajectory to put his path arcing beneath the bomber's belly. As they approached, Yasu appeared to have recovered from her previously incapacitated state, and concurred with the plan while suggesting Mach let her out to handle the situation on foot. She'd already been nullified, but she still demonstrated impressive movement capabilities. There wasn't much to lose in this situation, and if need be he could have Skywriter fly on her own so he himself could retrieve Yasu if the situation required. "Understood, General. Stand by."
He went wings level below and behind the bomber, with the platform in plain sight. He quickly closed the gap, but rolled the throttle back as he got closer. By the time he got directly beneath the platform, he appeared to be passing underneath with the pace of a slow jog. The canopy hissed and jolted forward an inch or so, then smoothly eased forward a couple feet to give Yasu a clear path up and out of the fighter. Mach was then just ahead of the platform, with the top of his canopy about a half foot beneath the platform's floor. All Yasu needed to do was climb out of her seat and either grab the lip of the platform, or jump straight upwards; the relative wind would likely push her back enough to have her land securely on the platform. Partially to give Mach some peace of mind, he activated his energy shields over Yasu as she exited, a mostly transparent blue dome of energy materialized in front of the general to give her an extra layer of protection whilst doing nothing to hinder her movements or sight. Once Mach confirmed Yasu safely egressed, Mach closed the canopy and sank away from the platform before gaining speed. Once clear, he rolled 30 degrees to the right and peeled off to get eyes on Cruz.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter, Yasu.EXE (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [cooled down]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE, Aera (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [ready next turn]
Tesla Pulse: (Confusion + 2TCD) [ready next turn]
Roc had descended upon the young-looking girl standing alone in what appeared to be a command room or "bridge" as it were, by that time Vector fully reformed himself into the "avian samurai" like armor over Roc's body. The girl was vulnerable, and externally armed only with a single pistol strapped to her hip. She threatened the use of "Operation Green Earth," and explained the subsequent carpet-bombing of the encampment with the last of their bombs could cause effects more severe and unknown than weapon nullification. Roc was undeterred and immediately called her bluff before she roughly hoisted her up by the shoulder, disarming the significantly smaller Navi. Roc returned what she believed to be an idle threat with one of her own, and raised her weapon in preparation to carry it out. Vector had only known the Navi for a short while, but he didn't expect her to hold back; Prez was likely about to have her neck thoroughly ventilated. Vector tried to hinder or halt her swing by locking up the plates covering her shoulder and elbow joints. He feared Roc would be strong enough to overpower his attempt, but maybe the increased resistance would clue her in. Vector spoke from the armored mask covering Roc's face, and glared at her with two thin, glowing red eyes. "Have your forces stand down, IMMEDIATELY. This battle is over."
He immediately sent a text only message to Roc. [[b]Our mission was to stop the attack; the rest of the Terror Girls will likely continue to fight to deletion if their leader falls. If she orders her force's surrender, the attack ends now.[/b]] Giving Roc a chance to read and mull over his advisory, he continued to speak to Prez. "There's been enough violence today, you can end this right now, or you and your group will be cut down." Vector's warning was stern, but he hoped to appeal towards Prez's almost contradictory pacifistic rhetoric. His words hid no foul intentions nor deception, he wanted the fighting to end as much as she, and he knew the execution of her "Operation Green Earth" would result in a very violent reaction from the still functional members NeoShogunate, namely Roc... Speaking of which, he released his grip on her arm and shoulder, to allow Roc the capability to silence the girl if she refused, or worse tried to initiate the carpet bombing.
-----------------------
Aera's attempt at pinning Cruz worked only temporarily, the android's arms rapidly changed to the thruster-laden wings Aera had seen before, then went full tilt to wrench free of Aera's grip. Aera's pupils tightened and she gasped at the rapid onset of pain from her overtaxed joints as Cruz tore herself loose. She barely managed to keep herself from falling from the ladder, but the pain was intense enough to cause her to nearly double over as she clutched the ladder. A flurry of green electrical discharges skipped over her body as a result of her prompt activation of her main recovery program. The pain quickly subsided, but her joints still bore the tender soreness of injury. Thankfully her actions weren't in vain, she bought enough time for Pest to attack Cruz. The vampiric act seemed to leave Cruz damaged and partially incapacitated, while Pest appeared to experience augmenting effects.
Pest began to move on Load, and Cruz started to retreat. Aera pulled her legs free from the ladder, and pushed off after her wings came online to keep her perched in the air. Pest seemed to be handing everything well, and with Cruz falling further back the fight became 2 to 1 in NS's favor. Aera remained on the platform, and eyed some of the turret positions on each corner. Her eyes darted back to Cruz, and she began to move towards the gun emplacement with the best line of fire towards the retreating Navi. She didn't yet attempt to crew the gun emplacement, but would likely do so if Cruz started to make her way back.
-----------------------
Mach received a quick affirming response from Sideburns as he continued to circle TerrorMan. He saw the bomber's head had full shut in its housing, but also saw Vector's programming was still registering active and at nearly full power. Skywriter responded as well, though she didn't have any other offensive weaponry, she did suggest further use of her smokescreens and called out Cruz as she made her way from the bomber. Skywriter's call-out was quickly confirmed, and he started to adjust his still wide, and much less stressful, turn. Mazer's face appeared on the right panel of the HUD, and his voice came in through the various speakers throughout the cockpit. He had been watching Vector's feed, since he was concerned both the SP and his Navi charge were at risk of getting crushed mere moments ago. ["Mach, it looks like Roc and Vector have secured the Terror Girls commander. "Operation Green Earth" is apparently a full purge of their bomb load, I recommend securing the bay ASAP. Aera, report!"]
The message was sent to Aera as well, which prompted her to get a better look of the bay. The bombs were secured in rows of storage racks, but they didn't seem to have any launchers or dispensers. [[i]"Pest and I are on the bay platform engaging Load, Cruz is pulling back. I don't see any automated means of deploying the bombs though...[/i]] she responded, her voice came through the speakers as well. ["Thanks Aera. Mach, since you don't have any weapons left, I'd lend a hand. I'll keep an eye on Cruz."] "Copy, enroute now," Mach responded. He again adjusted his trajectory to put his path arcing beneath the bomber's belly. As they approached, Yasu appeared to have recovered from her previously incapacitated state, and concurred with the plan while suggesting Mach let her out to handle the situation on foot. She'd already been nullified, but she still demonstrated impressive movement capabilities. There wasn't much to lose in this situation, and if need be he could have Skywriter fly on her own so he himself could retrieve Yasu if the situation required. "Understood, General. Stand by."
He went wings level below and behind the bomber, with the platform in plain sight. He quickly closed the gap, but rolled the throttle back as he got closer. By the time he got directly beneath the platform, he appeared to be passing underneath with the pace of a slow jog. The canopy hissed and jolted forward an inch or so, then smoothly eased forward a couple feet to give Yasu a clear path up and out of the fighter. Mach was then just ahead of the platform, with the top of his canopy about a half foot beneath the platform's floor. All Yasu needed to do was climb out of her seat and either grab the lip of the platform, or jump straight upwards; the relative wind would likely push her back enough to have her land securely on the platform. Partially to give Mach some peace of mind, he activated his energy shields over Yasu as she exited, a mostly transparent blue dome of energy materialized in front of the general to give her an extra layer of protection whilst doing nothing to hinder her movements or sight. Once Mach confirmed Yasu safely egressed, Mach closed the canopy and sank away from the platform before gaining speed. Once clear, he rolled 30 degrees to the right and peeled off to get eyes on Cruz.
-Active Chips/Signature Attacks-
Force Multiplier: decoy x2 [passive]
Heavy Shielding: MachFighter, Yasu.EXE (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Orbital Blade Defense System: Roc.EXE (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [Reinforced (+2hits)] [cooled down]
Repulsion Shield: Pestilence.EXE, Aera (2-hit shield + 1TCD) [ready next turn]
Tesla Pulse: (Confusion + 2TCD) [ready next turn]