The Minotaurs Brigade: Mercenary Teseum Wardens. . .

Having confirmed Drea has the work on the engines covered, Tony takes a breath.

@Betty: What the actual fuck is this thing?

Betty takes that as a cue to pull up the last few of sensor data and displays it for Tony. It's a well practiced routine between the two of them. Unfortunately they're left guessing.

[OOC: Tony and Betty will conduct a Teamwork observation test. I'm going to burn a point of Momentum for the roll. Tony TN13, FOC1: 19, 2, 16 https://orokos.com/roll/629462 and Betty TN10, FOC0: 15 https://orokos.com/roll/629466. Welp, only 1 Success my dice appear to be broken :(]

Drea completes her work and let's the team know she's ready. She had the slowest job.

@Tacnet: GTG? [Tony pauses for 2 beats] 3, 2, 1, Mark!

He feels the Gs come on almost immediately. His suit reacts as designed, increasing the pressure at his extremeties and enriching the 02 mix just a little.

[OOC: rolling Extraplanetary TN16, FOC2: 9, 2 https://orokos.com/roll/629466. So 3 successes. I return the excess momentum to the pool, leaving it on 8.]

 

Artair: "They seem keen on you joining them."
Uja'rak: "Too keen."
Artair: "My thoughts exactly. They like a bunch of willow-snappers aiming to geet a piece of ye. I'm content with watching this "merry" lot back her'e but shouldn't you rub dem elbows abit?"
Uja'rak: "I'd be more of a guinea pig in that situation. I don't know how I would contribute or what advice I could pass on. The best bet for me is to join you and watch but be ready to jump in at the right moment." With that the Morat sat down and began to meditate while reading the Bible he had carried with him. Opened next to it was a Tipitaka as Uja cross referenced the two though he frequently checked his surroundings for the eventually landing. Feeling bored Artair sat next to him letting out a sigh. The scene before him looked to be a form of barely controlled chaos despite what the rushers & by-passers would tell him. In the midst of this confusion a 112's fireman's hat fell near Artair. The Scott picked it up and after looking at it placed the hat on Uja's head.
Artair: "Too small," he pointed out. "But you look rather mighty spiffy in that." Uja reached up and removed the hat placing it behind him.
Uja'rak: "Regardless, what use would I have for this small hat?"
Artair: "It could get ya to the landing without problems especially if something bad did happen. Look around, you could slip through this crowd with all the hubbub that is taking place."
Uja'rak: "I'll keep that in mind..."
Artair: "And I'll be right behind ya barking like a mad terrier." This reminded Uja of Knucker and turned his head to find the dragon laying on his right side. The beast shared in Artair's feelings of the scene before him being a ruckus if anything else. Humans sure were a strange species. Realizing that his pet was alright Uja began to pray.
Uja'rak: "God be with those people and help them land safely." And as he went back to reading the Morat readied himself to strike like a snake. Even though to the normal eye he was just casually reading in the midst of a storm of commotion.

 

Alistair was happy with progress for now. people were in cover, Anti Air was ready to intercept and not left in random, exposed spots. Now what Caledoian though was very much needed was perimeter sweep.... and then wardriver spoke up. Long range scans were rarely good news, especially if combined with orbital intruder.
@Poor Wadriver"What do you mean SHOULD be able? Lad, you SHOULD be scrambling it right now!" While mechanic with thick accent seemed friendly, Dog Warrior sadly was trying to handle a lot at once, especially when his clearance was raised to operation commander. So he nodded at the mechanic and answered quickly as he looked around one more time.
"Appreciated Lad, once all pilots on the ground are in the saddle, can you run threat sensors on unoccupied tags? Any ACM system will be good." Another one of the checklist, more protection against debris and potential long range missiles. With that out of his mind, Wolfman turned his head to apparently meditating Krakot.
"Uja, do you remember the people that drove us here? Get two of SBS and sweep the perimeter from the sea side. I want to be sure we do not have any more problems approaching." Then he turned to both Ariadna originating Tag Pilots. "Cowboy, Kazak, follow Krakot and set yourself up in good tactical position at edge of Airfield. When called upon, support patrol. Stay sharp." Enemy chances for follow up should be limited by now so, Caledonian gave the final orders.
"Once enemy target is in range open fire. Do not risk hitting friendlies. I want crossfire behind tail of our shuttle."



[Command Roll: http://orokos.com/roll/629536 Dices said 8, 20 so I will spend momentum for one more dice: http://orokos.com/roll/629539]

 

With her tongue in her cheek, Dreanna used the Rem's little claws to bypass the safeties and temporarily increase the engines' energy output.

@Tacnet: "All right, I'm gonna give you a boost. Don't push it though, you'll be burning fuel at a higher rate."

She then activated the Rem's Mag-Locks, to avoid having a projectile with flamethrower fuel pinballing all over the ship.

As the ship began its evasive maneuver, Dreanna reflexively tensed her leg an thigh muscles while controlling her breathing to ensure a better blood flow to her brain and avoid G-LOC.

OOC: Extraplanetary TN:14 G-Force Resistance: 2d20 9, 5

 

Joakim hurries up to jump onto the opened up truck that houses his armored suits. The big man grins as he kicks his boots off, stepping onto the metal plates of the superheavy armor. All around him the team of mechanics works to bolt off the current armor and then bring in the new one, swapping armor plates and servomotors like one swaps a car tire.

He leans back onto the armature, and a hydraulic arm pulls down the heavy chest piece of the 'Sasha' armature, cinching it around his chest before bolting the suit on, screwing at the sides of his ribs. High powered actuators are attached to his leg and arm bracing, the overpowered machines hissing as their internal pressure equalizes before they too are covered in heavy teseum alloy plating.

There's no subtelty or elegance about the armor, it looks and feels like a moving block of dark grey metal, its ponderous movements masking the sheer power of the suit. After it's properly assembled, the weapons are brought in: first the heavy machinegun that's bolted on a shoulder mount, allowing it to swivel on its axis and follow the gaze of the Kazak cyborg. As a proof of his enhanced dexterity, he raises a metal hand the size of a basketball to his face, using his huge thumb and index to remove his sunglasses without crushing them despite the clunky look of his armor.

The older pit boss then hands him a new pair of glasses, this one connected to the suit to allow him to aim the heavy gun merely by moving his head, and he puts it on before testing it. There's a satisfying whirr as the heavy gun moves this way and that, following the man's head. Before he is finished, a pair of boxy weapons are attached to the underside of his armored arms: a submachinegun on the right and a revolver grenade launcher on the left. To finish the monstrous design, an antipersonnel claymore is bolted onto the front of the suit, the usual 'front towards enemy' changed to 'come suck my metal machine' on it.

Anderson: "How does it feel?" Asks the american engineer as he finishes booting up the systems for the oversized weapons platform. As he speaks, the servo-powered elevator on the truck begins to lower down, its loud engines roaring as they struggle under the weight of the 'Sasha' armature.

Joakim: "Like I'm metal machine" He grins. "How is ammo?"

Anderson: "You have four thousand rounds on the ammo pack for the main gun, five hundred on the PDW and about a hundred anti-armor rounds for the revolver. Roomclearer has five charges."

Joakim nods, unable to caress his beard, he settles for tapping the metal chestplate of his suit with his metal fingers. His head, unarmored and wearing only the glasses, looks comically small atop the boxy suit he is wearing, or perhaps more acurately he has become. It's hard to tell where man stops and machine begins as he starts to trundle forward, heavy steps causing small tremors on the tarmac.

Joakim: "have Layka carry reloads, yes? Might need them." He says to his pit crew as he turns on his heels, surprisingly agile for something so stupidly blocky. Then he turns around, breaking into a stride that looks more like the rolling of an ancient war machine than a military jog.

Joakim@Alistair: "Commander, I am going to take position at backline. If enemy lands I will provide covering fire. This suit is built for strength, not maneuverability."

The kazak man grins as he joins the group, waiting for the incoming storm now.

 

Uja didn't look up but still let out a sigh. So much for reading before things escalated. The Morat got up and walked backed towards to vehicle that carried them. Barking out at two people standing near it...
Uja'rak: "You two!! The commander wants the sea side perimeter combed throughly. We can't have any surprises interrupt this delicate operation that is about to get under way." Wether it was the tone of his voice or the fact that it was the Dogface's orders, the two SBS members took heed of the Morat's words. Making their way to the sea coast as fast as they could.

With that out of the way Uja took up his books and resettled nearby where the Kazak and his crew set up shop. Artair sitting next to the Morat with Knucker planting him/her rear in front of Uja.
Uja'rak: "Hopefully this time I can read without being interrupted. The last thing I want is to be a wrench in this multi-cogged machine unfolding before me." He finished conversing with himself inwardly. And with that he resumed his previous actions before he was called on.

 

Simply nodded at Joakim.
"Good, just have an angle on scouting team." Caledonian confirmed, glad that more technologically aware members of his team were willing to share info on their custom build tags. But for now, he hoped crossfire would take intruder down or force him away, while defenses remained prepared for potential wave two attack.

[Final quick post to clarify I am very much on board with TAG in overwatch position.]

 

Puta! That was unexpected.

Tony realised that he'd slipped into the Lieutenant role for the drop ship, since the pilots were obviously overwhelmed. He was not particularly happy about this: he'd much prefer to be being told what do to do and focussing on shooting the target in front of him, but ultimately nobody else seemed to be co-ordinating things and someone had to do it.

@Betty: I need to know what's going on here. Who's co-ordinating those REMs?
Betty@Tony: Already doing it. Hold your horses.

Betty starts running an analysis of quantronic traffic and known tactical schema to see if she can determine where the control for those REMs is coming from.

[OOC: we still haven't spoken to the ground, so Tony has no idea precisely how fucked they could be.

Anyway, Betty makes a Talk free action and an Analysis to understand the situation Analysis vs the REMs: TN12, FOC1: 2#1d20 15 10 and reroll due Pattern Recognition for the 15: Analysis vs the REMs Re-roll: 1d20 2. So 2 Successes. She doesn't use her remaining Minor Action.

Note to self, I need to build/acquire/purchase a 'processor upgrade' for Betty. She's doing good work.]

Tony takes a second to assess the situation before issuing guidance.

@Hackers: slow those REMs down. We've got support, so we just need to keep air between us and them. Concentrate on the lead. @Pilots: can you co-ord with the escort fighters?

[OOC: so two Talk Actions and an Exploit (assessing the situation). Rolling the Exploit (Observation TN13 FOC1): 2#1d20 12 20. 1 Success, 1 Complication. I'm assuming a D1 test, so generates no Momentum: well, you win some you lose some.]

 

While all this was starting Miyu was sitting in her chair still strapped in fighting with herself while Kasa tried to protect her and the ship. She could barely resist the urge to hug her own legs tight to her chest in a fetal position to feel “safer”, though she did resist it mainly because she knew that’d be shown on Maya quicker than her regret could kick in, and it would have ended any hope of her becoming a respectable mercenary right then and there.

So instead she held an inner monologue with herself, telling herself that everything would be alright, nobody was going to blow her out of thin atmosphere and into her death, everybody around her were competent experts in space travel, and that if everything else failed, Kasa would still be there for her to protect her or at least she wouldn’t die alone alongside her.

For a moment there Miyu had actually managed to convince herself of this, and most likely would have spent the rest of their descend in silent meditation waiting for them to hopefully survive and eventually land, but just as she was about to do just that, the tiny voice in her head which she had ignored up until now became louder, and suddenly blared right into her ear, if only inside her mind.

Commander Koi: “Get up you goddamn Nezumi! What do you think you are doing here? We are under attack and everyone is doing their best to keep us alive, and what are you doing? Sitting here hoping for the best?”

Miyu: “But I’m…”

Commander Koi: “I won’t accept any “buts” from you in this situation, you are a Mercenary now, and your life and that of your comrades depends on what you are doing next!”

Miyu: “But I…”

Commander Koi: “What did I just say?” Commander Koi suddenly appeared right before Miyu’s minds eyes, his pipe almost touching her cheek as he did. “Now get out of your goddamn seat, and DO SOMETHING!”

Miyu: “This ship doesn’t have any kind of weapons though, what am I supposed to do? Insult the enemy over the Comlog?”

Commander Koi: “That’d still be better than what you are doing right now, and no, this ship might not have any weapons, but you know fully well what DOES have weapons right?”

Shock spread all throughout Miyu’s body as realization dawned on her “No…you don’t expect me to…”

Commander Koi: “Obviously I do, and you’re capable to doing it as well! Just remember the “In Tunguska we trust” benefit TAG tournament from back then..”

Miyu: “You mean the one where I wouldn’t get back into my TAG for almost 2 weeks afterwards because I was so traumatized?” Even the thought of it made Miyu almost shiver.

Commander Koi: “Just the one Miyu, but this time you might not be alive 2 weeks later if you’re not doing it right now!”

Swallowing her doubts as she realized that she indeed had basically no other choice, Miyu opened her eyes and sighed in frustration, speaking out loud. “Fine fine, you won!”

Unbuckling herself with a quick smash on the release mechanism Miyu held on tight to the support struts and quickly made her way towards the Cargo Bay. As she did so she sent a quick Com-message to everyone on board “You might want to hold on tight there…things might get a little bumpy in here…” and before she vanished into the Cargo Bay she quickly turned towards the two Warcors “And you two better get your goddamn recorders ready, this is going to get flashy…”

With that Miyu dashed into the Cargo Bay as quickly as she could, grabbing some heavy duty Cargo Cables she found ankered to a heavy duty hauling mechanism on the wall, and connected them to her TAG as bloody tightly as she could (Tech throw to ensure everything is connected properly and as tight as possible, using 2 momentum to ensure extra success: Dice Rolls: 9, 14, 3, 15, all of which should be successes (can't check 100% exactly cause I'm at work) ). This wouldn’t end like last time she swore herself, no more drifting in space on a collision course towards a Meteorite for her!

As the husk of their would be follower ship finally revealed the 6 drones which now once again aimed for their shuttle, Miyu was just about ready, sitting in her cockpit, activating her TAG’s starting sequence. Luckily she had decided to stow her TAG “combat ready”, as she had expected some action later, and she was glad she had decided to go for her Pilot Suite instead of her Armour as well.

She wasn’t too sure how much her limited long range weaponry would be able to do in this situation, but it was still better than sitting inside the shuttle hoping for the best…or so she at least told herself, ignoring the doubt slowly creeping in on Commander Koi’s motivational speech in her mind.

As the TAG booted up Miyu sent another com message to the pilots “Pilots prepare for Limited Cargo Extration…I’m going out there in a few seconds!”…

Meanwhile Commander Koi connected to the ships outer sensors, tracking the enemies movement, preparing potential attack vectors for Miyu (Dice result for an attempt to do so by Commander Koi: 2 & 17) , and Kasa, smirking like a maniac at Miyu’s idea, did her best to protect the ship from harm with her defensive programs, and prepared to intervene any hacking attempts on Miyu’s TAG if needed. (Dice result for Kasa’s hacking defense: 2 & 5)

 

Alistair looked at the shuttle being taken down and exploding shuttle, before squinting at shuttle and fiery trails immediately jettisoned from the broken wreck. It didn't wolfman long to move towards his weapon and, almost literally, bark another command into communicator.
"Anti Air units, I want you all ready to lay some covering fire behind tail of our shuttle. I want a wall of bullets for those things to cross if they want to get to our team would any bogey or missile follow."
With that said and done Alistair grabbed his modified rifle and leaned in to aim at one of the objects.
"Make sure threat is eleminated, anyone with good optics, I need a confirmation." Alistair knew that fully automatic weapons would not be most helpful against distant high velocity targets, and made a note to next time, take tracer rounds with himself would need for further shooting arise.

Then he continued to organize defenses:
"Engineering teams, get ready for crash landing if shuttle was damage. Perimeter teams, stay frosty, especially near remotes."

[Rolls:
Roll for coordinating fire upon the remotes: http://orokos.com/roll/631329 2,3 makes for two sucesses.
Roll for Alistair Shot, with galahads assist. Alistair roll http://orokos.com/roll/631330 5,5 Glahad assist: http://orokos.com/roll/631331 7. That makes three sucesses.]

 

[My bad, I misjudged the distance since we were able to fire at shuttle. Now post should be done properly!]

 

The distant rumbling and shooting of the air battle makes the large Kazak man feel very uneasy about it all. He doesn't like the idea of standing still and waiting, and even inside his oversized suit he fidgets and keeps opening and closing his fist in a bid to pass the time, or maybe just to vent some of the building frustration at the whole situation.

He braces himself and keeps his gun at the ready, waiting and trying to not let the tension get the best of him as the enemy approaches.

(OOC: I really have no idea what to do. I'm posting so the story is not stalled by waiting for me. I do want to keep a shooting action 'on reserve' so if that thing gets anywhere near enough I want to slag it hard.)

 

Uja'rak: "What am I doing?"
Artair: "29 minutes & 32 seconds. Dat daer is a long time to be conflicted while trying to find ya inner peace."
Uja'rak: "I need to confess something Artair..."
Artair: "You were a coward that ran away from the battlefield." The Morat didn't look to pleased at the notion of him fleeing from a battle. But would he do that now? Had his concern of "leaving" his new family driven him to consider options that he never had before?
Uja'rak: "I'm afraid of leaving my loved ones behind through death. And because of that I've been content & happy that I didn't have to participate in this endeavor. That I could make a reasonable excuse and not look like a coward."
Artair: "But now?"
Uja'rak: "The more I read the less satisfied and at peace I feel. People's lives are most likely at risk. If not then good for them but the fact that I'm willingly sitting on the sidelines doing nothing...is disgraceful."
Artair: "The chaos in this area is so palpable that you can pick up any of these unused weapons lying about. I mean choosing something like that HMG over there or that Spitter..."
Uja'rak: "Spitfire."
Artair: "Yep that's the one. They could help give you range to at least be ready for anything that could go wrong."
Uja'rak: "A sniper rifle would be useful. I think I see one right there?"
Artair: "Ay, good scopes you got there. So which one are you going to pick up?" The Morat thought intently for a few seconds before rising form his sitting position.
Uja'rak: "Watch my books Artair. I'd really appreciate it."
Artair: "Nothing to fret over, just head on yore merry way." He watch Uja take a few steps before answering again. "You're gonna take all of them arn't ya?"
Uja'rak: "Best to try them all out if possible," he shouted back. "I may find one of them to my liking." The Scott shook his head while reaching behind him.
Artair: "Don't forget this!" Throwing the fireman's hat from before. Uja caught the headgear and looked at Artair. "Best to be prepared as you say," the Scott laughed. Uja wasted no time in heading over to where the weapons were strung about. After loading them up and grabbing some extra ammo of each he reached a place where he could aim the sniper rifle without anyone getting in the way. For the first time in his life Uja stared down a scope praying that nothing would transpire to make him have to wield a weapon he had no experience with.

 

Dreanna's cat ears picked up the sound of someone's crash webbing being released. She immediately readjusted her goggles to have a vew of what was happening in front of her, as well as to maintain contact with her Zondcat. As soon as she saw Miyu scramble towards the Cargo Bay, she guessed what the Oniko was going to attempt.

"She's crazy!" said Echo reaching the same conclusion.

"Yeah," replied Dreanna with a shark-like smile. "But she's MY kind of crazy!" she said hitting her own crash webbing's release mechanism.

"Wait, you're not thinking..."

Dreanna sprinted towards the Cargo Bay herself, while making sure her zondcat did the same.

"Dreanna Marquela Farabella, stop this insanity right now!"

Purposefully ignoring Echo, Dreanna reaches the Cargo Bay and search for the Ammo crate carrying grenade belts.

(I'm gonna roll for observation to locate the Ammo Crate: TN 12 Looking for Grenades: 2d20 10,7)

Dreanna then opens the crate and straps a pair of grenade belts on her Zondcat, giving it the appearance of a Mexican Bandito. She then moves the Zondcat forward and in sync activates both her boots' and Zondcats Mag-Locks.

 

It had felt like days, no, months had past before Uja'rak saw any sign of the enemy's possible attempt to beachhead on the island. During this long lull in the action of being invaded, the Morat was able to think back to his childhood being part of a Working Guild family. They were the true backbone of the Supremacy forces due to providing the troops with their ammo and weapons. However, despite their important role in the grand scheme of things, the many Working Guilds lacked certain rights & privileges that the Military Morats or known as Gesurats had. Many of the Guilds had come to believe that their sluggish rise to equal social standing with the Military was due to the unseen machinations of the E.I. Due to the A.I. valuing the Morat's martial powers above all else and sought to keep the species society stagnate so that nothing would change. Plus it had the added effect of preventing the warrior species from throwing off the shackles of servitude that the E.I. placed on them.

Even though the members of the Working Guilds where given the opportunity of joining the military the vast majority of the Guild members never did. They, like Uja's parents, found the life of craftsmanship to be fulfilling & rewarding. Never wondering about what life could have been on the other side. Uja did once fantasize about joining the military & being a Yaogat. The idea of playing the protector of his fellow soldiers by killing the enemy before they could reach the main force appealed to him on many levels. However, when he was 12 the young Uja saw a group of Daturazi practicing through techniques. Meditating felt alien to the Morat race but the results these "Witches" produced convinced the teenager to study about them with what little he could find. It was during this search that Uja'rak felt that he was being called to abandon his original military aspirations and devote his life to religion. His parents thought the reason for their son to become a Daturazi was weird as the species itself didn't care about the subject in any which way.

Back in the present Uja began to realize how boring being a sniper felt. Perhaps it was his Daturazi training in being taught to run towards the enemy, engage and kill them in a violent fashion, then move on to the next one still standing. Never stopping until nothing else moved or breathed that was not a Morat. It made sense. A warrior who spent his entire life fighting like a beserker was now trying to do the opposite. Slow down his pluse, steady his aim, remain still and wait. It felt like torture to the Daturazi.

Uja'rak: "How does Bella manage to do this?" He thought out loud to himself being tired of staying frozen and unmoving. "Come on, what are you waiting for?" He spoke out loud again in a soft low tone. "Attack! And lets get this over already!" It seemed that God heard his silent prayer as the ocean parted and three crab-like drones made their appearance known.

Uja took aim at one of the machines eyes and fired the shot. The ammo hit it's target head on taking out the eye in the process. The Morat blinked in surprise at what just happened. Maybe he would have been a good sniper for a Yaogat fireteam if he went with his original plans. Feeling a sudden surge of adrenaline, Uja took aim at the drone's other eye. This time the shot missed it's mark pinging off of the armor plating the mechanical beast. Though it did leave a small dent where the bullet connected. It was then Uja noticed the two-man patrol coming into view firing at the crabs and distracting them in the process. Uja took time to scan the ammo that he hurriedly grabbed when he picked up the Sniper Rifle. He couldn't make heads nor tails of which ammo types he had brought with him.

Uja'rak: "I'll just pick one and see what happens." It isn't long before the gun is reloaded and Uja stares out though the scope once again. The two-man patrol managed to take down one of the crabs and were now in cover as the two remaining drones fired upon them. Being unable to aim for the eye sockets the Morat found the drone with the dent in it's armor and pulled the trigger. It missed completely...but burrowed itself into the armored shell of the machine. The drone was visible starting to show signs that it was having trouble keeping itself together. Uja looked down at the ammo he had just used, memorizing it. Whatever this type bullet was made of it had armor penetration properties which could be useful to remember in the future.

Turning back to the scene of battle Uja quickly dropped the damaged crab putting it out of commission. Emboldened by the downing of an enemy combatant, the two men began to open fire from their current position. The final drone didn't last long from the combined bombardment of two Rifles and an AP round punching though it's shell. With the sea and one avenue of possible attack secured, Uja turned towards the skies where the shuttle should be coming in for landing. Hopefully whoever was onboard managed to survive their encounter with this strange menace.

 

Before reason could catch up to her plan the Cargo Extraction Hatch already opened up, triggered by the pilot in accordance to Miyu’s request, and Miyu steered her TAG out of the Hatch and onto the surface of the dashing down Shuttle.

“Onto the surface” was a bit of an overstatement however as Miyu’s TAG “Raijin” really had no way of holding onto the outer surface of the shuttle as it smashed through the atmosphere. Thus Raijin was instead instantly swooped off his feet and swung around on the cable bound to it instead. Due to Miyu’s preparations however the Cable wasn’t too long, and after a few swings around, Raijin hit the surface of the shuttle again, a bit higher up than before just at maximum cable length, and after a few moments of swinging side to side, she managed to hold onto some protruding part of the ship and pulled Raijin upwards on it.

With both feet back on the side of the ship she then held onto the cable with both hands and steadied her legs against the massive wind currents, just like someone would when hanging in the ropes on a stone wall, and scanned the area around her for the Drones.

Just as she had found one of them and started the lock on procedure for her shoulder mounted rocket pods, several alarm sounds started beeping in her cockpit, and the voice of Kasa chimed in “Hey Miyu! Better hold on tight, we’re about to land!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!!” came Miyu’s surprised response as she quickly turned Raijin’s head around to look towards the planet, the outlines of the island turning into clearer visible bunkers and other structures at an alarming pace, and the realization that she had wasted too much time dawned on her.

The beeping sound that indicated a successful target lock on one of the Drones sounded off, but before Miyu could send the mental command to fire the Missiles, the whole Tag was suddenly lurched from its feet again, this time in the opposite direction as the landing thrusters of the ship increased their output to fight the planets gravitational pull, and suddenly Raijin ended up hanging on the rope in the other direction, facing skywards this time.

Before another shuttle movement could once again dislocate her Miyu quickly activated the Missiles which quickly dashed out of her launcher, spreading out and then dashing for the Drone as it whizzed past the shuttle.

However Miyu didn’t have the time to check whether the missiles managed to catch up to the drone as the ground was coming closer at an alarming speed, and another message sounded through her cockpits intercom from Kasa “Beware, landing zone is hot! I repeat, enemies are attacking the landing zone!”

With no time even for a witty answer left Miyu quickly pulled Raijin’s Naginata from its shoulder and as the weapon unfolded, cut straight through the cable. In an attempt to transfer the momentum, she then jumped off the side of the Shuttle with a backflip, hoping against hope that her years of experience and stupid luck would allow her to land without breaking apart in a burst of flames.

As the shuttle landed and the missiles finally hit the Drone up in the sky, blowing it apart in a small fireball, Raijin with Miyu inside made a classic knee + fist on the ground landing, ripe for any prime time evening Mayacast show entrance, and more out of trained habit than actual intent, she then instantly stood up, readying her Naginata and checking out her surroundings, as parts of the Drone came crashing down on the Beach around her.

The moment she took a hold of her surroundings, an impact on Raijin’s shoulder shook her around in her Cockpit. Quickly turning towards the attacks direction Miyu found a Crab like Robot of sorts stomping towards her, firing at her as he did.

“Seriously, give me a break will you? I didn’t even reporter for duty yet, if I don’t get paid for this I’m going to be so pissed….”

“Enough Yammering, get to work will you?” Came Commander Koi’s harsh mental response, and with a resigning sigh, Miyu activated her TAG’s close quarter Battle Modules.

Instantly her surroundings were filled with a thick digital smokescreen, boiling over the sand like some sort of traditional Japanese ink painting, and within the smoke Raijin first moved a few steps to the side as to obscure his current position, and then bent slightly forward, Naginata held ready behind it. The distance between the Crab Tank and Raijin wasn’t that far and quickly getting closer as the Tank advanced towards the TAG and the Airfield behind it, and thus the optimal charge distance was quickly reached as impacts traced the sand around Raijin due to the Crab Tank firing blindly into the Smokescreen.

With Adrenalin bursting all throughout her body, Miyu waited for the right moment, and then activated Raijin’s specialty, the “Onigokko”, resulting in a sudden brutal burst of speed as the TAG dashed forward, supported by repulsor engines in its legs and back, and as the Crab Tank still struggled to get a target lock on the TAG, it already crashed right into the Crab Tank, a quick Naginata strike driven by the force of the Charge, cutting off two of the Crab’s legs as well as one of its Claws.

The other Claw tried to grab the TAG as its other weapons turned to open fire as well, but Miyu wasn’t about to let this happen, and she quickly moved her TAG under the Crab Tank’s now severed Legs, and started pushing.

With the support of Raijin’s repulsor engines and her TAG’s already immense power, she managed to flip the Crab Tank on its back in a cacophony of screeching metal and distress Alarms from the thing, and as it’s robotic legs flailed about in an attempt to turn around again, Raijin stomped on its belly to fixate it, and thrust its Naginata in it, twisting the weapon around in a burst of sparks which resulted in a screeching quickly fading sound which indicated the Crab Tank powering down as its main engine was damaged beyond operation by the TAG’s Naginata.

“That ought to have done it….now where was the Airfield again?”

 

As the shuttle gets into direct comms range of the airfield, Betty and Tony get the first feeds from the ground.

"Dios mio"

Betty@Tony: You can say that again. Got multiple heavy units moving up from the beach. It's going to be a proper firefight down there. And some idiot is going on about 'Svengal' attacking, which makes basically no sense... I'm looking into it some more.

Unstrapping, from his crash couch Tony follows the crazy people into the cargo hold.

@Betty: So on a scale of 1 to completely fucked up, we're pushing an 11?

Tony, heads straight to his ride, hops in and starts the boot up sequence. He squirts a brief sequence of instructions to his Tinbot 'lil buddy to pop the cargo straps as soon as the shuttle touches down.

Betty@Tony: Ah.... I'm putting it a little higher than 11... that idiot wasn't actually wrong about Svengali...

"What!"

Betty@Tony: Yeah... about that boot up sequence. I'd suggest running some scripts to harden our quantronic defences.She sounds actually a touch nervous.

Tony, shakes his head at the whole situation. There's literally some fool swinging from a cable with a TAG while the pilots struggle to land this thing. If they don't all die in a fireball, he'll be amazed.

As the shuttle makes the final approach, Tony spends his time bolstering the security of this TAG's quantronic zone, he then routes all his commlogs connections through his TAGs comms systems before shutting down all the external connections: effectively turning his TAG into a secure zone and the only way to access his data, or Betty. Betty meanwhile spends her time analysising the feeds from the firefight, trying to work out what the hell is actually going on.

Somehow the pilots get the shuttle onto the ground. Whether they'll be able to get it off again is a different question.

Tony's tinbot hurriedly unclips the restraints and leaves the shuttle; entering a firefight. Betty's pushed a tactical overlay to him, suggesting Tony back up the foot patrol and Miyo who where engaging the some large industrial REMs who'd been repurposed to spearhead a robotic armour assault.

By the time Tony exited the shuttle, the number of airborne drones had reduced. But there were still some circling. As he runs across the tarmac, he fires a burst of AP rounds from his Combi at a drone that was closing in for an attack run. The drone darts away, but it's attack run is spoiled.

Taking cover beside some airfield buildings, he sees the heavily modified Guija tear into one of the crablike robots with her naginata. Seeing an opportunity Tony spins his Gecko out of cover, draws a bead on a second Robot and fires an EM grenade at hit. The genade 'explodes' damaging the REM's unshielded electronics; it's movements becoming jerky and uncoordinated.

@Miyu: Next target. It's damaged. I'll cover your flank. Tony tags the other REM on the tactical overlay, and pushes it through to Miyu.

Tony takes position to cover Miyu's flank if she follows his direction and engages the damaged bot. It feels odd having someone else up front and drawing fire, but given the way this day was turning out Tony didn't really trust anyone enough yet to watch his back. That, and he was still expecting another shoe to drop...

 

A few minutes earlier...

Dreanna made her Zondcat lob a grenade at the incoming Drones, missing all of them magnanimously.

"Well, that was anticlimactic..." she said out loud commanding the Zondcant to return to her and bracing herself for landing.

As the ship made its final apporach, Dreanna noticed Tony getting into his TAG.

"Great, it's a Formal Party and I'm the only one underdressed."

As soon as the ship landed, she roamed the weapons crate looking for sonething with a punch.

Now...

Coming out to the ship's bay door, Dreanna sent a pair of Heavy Rockets into the Drone that Tony had just scattered. As the thing blew up in flames, Dreanna's cheeks turned pink.

She then scanned the area for the next airborne target.

"That equipment is not yours." admonsihed Echo disapprovingly.

"Shut up and find me targets!"

Echo linked to Dreanna's AR-Enhanced eyes and fed her AR target squares on the flying drones. Dreanna wasted no time shooting another one into a great ball of fire, and thinking that she had found her dream job