[x] Have the Assault Scout team take out the Stork while the Alpha team cleans up the fighters.
- [x]Switch out the M13 Shotgun for the Beam Rifle.
----
“Roger,” I say, gripping the controls.
The MK II slowly comes to life, the light in its visor flashing a bright green color. It moves on top of the catapults as the launch bay door slides open, its feet tightly locked in as the blast deflectors rise up behind its feet. The thrusters begin warming up, preparing for launch. The Type-S and the Type-R align themselves at the catapults next to the MK II, as does the Major’s Commander unit. I breathe in carefully, bracing myself for the acceleration coming up. It’s a good thing that I didn’t eat too much of that processed gunk from earlier.
“It’s our first time using the catapults!”Hearn chimes in excitedly, although she quickly seems to lose enthusiasm as she continues speaking,
”I hope it won’t be as bad as it was in the simulations.” “Oh no, it’ll be worse
,” Usami says with a distinct tone of dread.
“Quiet,” the Major warns sternly,
“Alpha team, launching!” I hold my breath in anticipation of the Gs. The catapults launch, carrying the Kreuzritters forward, building momentum as they hurtle toward the open door. The thrusters behind the MK II’s feet flare at its strongest, and I feel myself tightly pressed against my seat as the machine flies forward. Finally, at the edge of the catapult, the locks disengage, throwing the Kreuzritter at an incredible speed out of the battleship.
My eyes are filled with the sight of the sky as I’m hurled out into it. Engaged in flight, the MK II soars into the open air, proudly showing its black frame in the sunlight. I let out my held breath, feeling almost relieved, before immediately looking around the monitors, to check on my squadmates. I take in a small gasp of air when I see Usami’s Type-R begin careening over, losing height and falling toward the ocean. Damn it, did she pass out? Hearn’s Type-S is still fine, and the Major’s is as well, of course, but it looks like they’ve noticed what I’ve seen as well.
“Renko!”
“What’s wrong, Alpha 3? Come in!” I spit into the radio.
There’s no reply, but the Type-R swoops out of its descent, soaring back up into the air. Usami’s reply comes not too long after, her voice slightly out of it. [i]“Ergh… sorry about that. I—I just lost it for a moment there… made a mess in the helmet.” “Don’t scare me like that!” Hearn says, relieved.
The Major’s response is a lot less warm.
“This won’t be a recurring problem, will it, Alpha 3?” “No ma’am,” Usami replies quickly.
“I’ll power through it.” I glance once at the radar. A dozen and a half bogeys. F-32 fighters, just like the ones I used to pilot and dogfight. But I won’t be in another plane this time. This will be my first time fighting planes while piloting a Combat Frame, and I can’t say the prospect makes me very excited. Although, this might be a good chance to see whether these ‘robots’ really
are worthy of taking the skies from jet fighters. Smirking despite myself, I aim my rifle toward the fighters approaching from the north.
----
“Well, there they go,” Scout 1, Aya Shameimaru, says as she watches the Alpha team taking off. Her face is lit with an eager smile. “Psychodrivers, huh? You don’t really get to see too many of those. I think they’re going to make some pretty interesting coworkers.”
Scout 2, Hatate Himekaidou, replies with a disaffected, unconcerned voice, her helmet lying on the cockpit floor while she checks on her makeup even as she’s in the seat of her Combat Frame. “The GDA is just like, using them as weapons though, aren’t they? That’s so boring. They’re just like us.”
“Assault Scout team, you’re cleared for launch,” SMD-00x’s digital voice rings throughout the launching bay.
“And there’s our orders,” Scout Leader, Momiji Inubashiri, mutters to herself, looking away from a holographic shogi table setup next to her seat, reaching out and gripping the controls at her sides. Tugging on them, she maneuvers her Combat Frame toward the catapults. “Shameimaru, Himekaidou, let’s get this over with.”
“Not gonna tell us to cut the chatter this time?” Scout 1 pokes at her playfully.
“Just don’t blabber into the open channel,” Scout Leader pokes back, annoyed. “I have doubts that Major Udongein would tolerate your usual oral incontinence. That goes for you too, Himekaidou.”
“Like, that’s so rude,” Scout 2 says in a mockingly sour voice, finally putting away her hand mirror.
“Just get on the catapults.”
The Wildkrahes move forward to secure themselves to the catapult launchers. Their frames are sleek and small, with slender, angular limbs. The sunlight glints off their jet-black surface, and as they crouch down in preparation for their flight, their wing fins are raised and spread, like the wings of a majestic soaring bird. Their head is small and pointed, with no neck, shining red eyes serving as the unit’s main cameras. The only difference between the two units, at least outwardly, is the color schemes; Scout 1’s unit, Wildkrahe A, is painted black with red trims, while Scout 2’s, the Wildkrahe H, is black with purple trims.
The sleek grey-silver Wildhund moves in, securing itself to the catapult between the two Wildkrahe units. In contrast to its sister machines, the hound is bulky, and heavily armored, with a massive hand-carried metal chainsword adorning its back. In its arms, it carries a rifle with a unique appearance; along the barrel of the gun, there’s a thick, round sheet of metal folded around the gun. Dual antennae point up from the top of the machine’s head, red lights gleaming from its eyes. On its forehead, there’s a single-lens camera unit meant to slide down over the eyes to provide extra zoom for sniping and reconnaissance.
“Assault Scout team,” Scout Leader begins to announce, “launching!”
BGM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy98VzJ-Hc4 The catapults rocket the three machines toward the open bay door, hurtling them out into the open air. The Wildkrahe A immediately flies about in several quick air loops as soon as it’s in the sky, its movements almost blindingly flitting and fast. The Wildkrahe H drifts along the air lazily, in comparison. The Wildhund immediately drops out of the air, descending toward the water below, too heavy to have as much airtime as its sister units. It gently ‘lands’ on the water’s surface, maintaining a hover just above the sea.
----
The Samidare closes its bay door, all of its units deployed. Brigadier General Kirisame remains seated in the captain’s chair, calmly watching over the battle on the display. He puts his hand on his chin, speaking to the A.I. “SMD, raise the Absolute Defense System and move the Samidare forward at battle speed. I don’t want anything delaying our attack on Victoria Base.”
“Moving forward now may put us in range of the Stork’s cannons,” the A.I. warns.
“It’s fine. I’m quite sure they’ll be able to handle it,” the captain says dismissively. Leaning forward, he brings up the communications screen, displaying a video feed of Scout Leader and Alpha Leader’s cockpits, before speaking into it, “Alpha team, take down the fighters. Assault Scout team, harry the enemy Stork, prevent it from firing on the Samidare.”
“Yes sir.”
“Understood.”
----
An F-32 whizzes by my mech, and I quickly react, turning the machine around to fire a shot at it. The beam rifle lets out a low howl, the particles fired from its barrel hitting its target dead-on, ripping it apart in half before it explodes into a cloud of smoke and hot shrapnel. A lucky shot, wasn’t expecting it to hit. But just as I expected, it’s tough fighting opponents like these in combat frames. They’re so swift and small in comparison to our own machines that it’s proving to be difficult to accurately shoot them down.
“Ahh, geez!” Usami shouts, frustrated.
“Just go down already!” Her Type-R fires short bursts from its VLBR in rapid succession, firing at a fighter circling around her, the shots trailing behind the plane’s path, always just short of hitting it. The F-32 swerves about, nose pointed toward the Type-R, its missiles seeking locks – until it’s blown up by a single shot from the side. The Major’s Commander Kreuzritter swoops by, fresh smoke issuing out from the tip of its own rifle.
“Against mobile enemies like this, your targeting computer is useless,” she says, turning her machine around and shooting down another F-32 effortlessly,
“These enemies have predictable flight patterns. Track their movements and lead your shots. That’s all there is to it.” “R-right,” Usami says, fairly impressed.
…The Major’s right. These F-32s move without formation or any coordination. Their attacks are too simplistic, too formulaic, just like the drones I used to fight during test flights. These must be piloted by A.I. as well, like the enemies that attacked the Far East Base. If the Underground Resistance can convert our military equipment into combat drones of their own, then winning this war is going to be a lot more complicated that any of us thought.
“Hm?”
I make to turn my mech around, when I see Hearn’s Type-S, hovering around without participating in the battle.
“Alpha 2,” I contact her, “What’s wrong?”
“…huh?” comes her confused reply, her machine making such a severe jerk that it nearly falls out of the air.
“Oh, um, no, it’s nothing. It’s just… well, I have this really bad feeling. Like something’s about to happen, or…” “Bad feeling?” I say, about to brush it aside before remembering the reason why we’re here in the first place, “…Precognition?”
“I don’t know…” she says hesitantly,
“but I can definitely feel it. Something’s… off.” I bite my lip. How seriously should I take this? Normally, it would be something that I wouldn’t give even the slightest amount of thought to, but I’ve experienced the sort of thing she’s describing before. An inexplicable feeling that there’s something wrong, that something bad will happen… I felt it myself as well, so I know there’s credibility to it, but part of me just refuses to believe that things like psychic powers could exist.
“Well we’ll deal with it if it comes up,” I say, finally, “Until then, let’s focus on defending the Samidare.”
“Yeah, you’re right, Steyr.” ----
“Ooh, got one on my tail,” Scout 1 says without a concern.
An F-32 trails behind her Wildkrahe A, following its attempts to shake it off. Locked on, the fighter fires off a volley of homing missiles, but even as the missile lock warning sounds ring in her cockpit, Scout 1 displays not even the slightest of fear or worry. The homing missiles draw near – and inexplicably go off trail at close proximity, completely missing the CF.
“Jamming~!” Scout 1 laughs, “Now then, it’s time for payback!”
The Wildkrahe makes a sudden turn, the F-32 swerving drastically to avoid ramming into it, but the former rushes forward. Claws fold over the Frame’s hands from its wrists, fitting over them and glowing orange with heat. It slashes with its heat claw, crushing the plane’s form with a single swipe and sending it spiraling down into the sea. Putting away its claws, the Wildkrahe A swerves around in a fancy display of aerial maneuvers before resuming its flight toward the Stork.
“You are
such a showoff, Aya,” Scout 2 mutters to herself, rolling her eyes. Noticing two F-32s coming her way, she sighs before shouting a command, “Go, Crow Familiars!”
From a hole in the Wildkrahe’s shoulders, two small winged machines deploy. Essentially a flying gun turret, the Crow Familiars dart about the sky, guided by their built-in Combat A.I. and locked onto the incoming F-32s. The Crow Familiars quickly pursue them, each firing a high-impact round and shooting down the two fighters before returning to their master unit, fitting inside its shoulders once again. The Wildkrahe H then lazily drifts after its partner unit.
The Wildhund skims above the water, its rifle held in front. The scoped visor drops down on top of its eyes, and it raises the barrel of the rifle toward the Stork. As it does, the metal sheet folded around the barrel of the gun deploys forward, folding outward into a round shield, protecting her front. Scout Leader narrows her sharp eyes, aiming carefully. No one has a sharper vision than she does, even amongst the youkai, and that goes double for her Combat Frame; that’s what makes her unit a perfect scout… as well as a perfect sniper. Braced for the recoil, the Wildhund lets a single shot fly.
Suddenly, nearby, a blinding flash of green light fills the world.
----
“What the--!?” I cry, shielding my eyes with my arm.
“Oh no…” Hearn says fearfully,
“I feel… a really strong pressure against my head…!” This time, I can feel it as well. And I recognize it, it’s…
“The SR-0…!” the Major says.
BGM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRBFTWSguY The SR-0 has appeared from that brilliant green light. It hovers in the air, the sunlight shining off its pure white body. Not a single scorch mark or wound mars its surface, completely repaired from its last bout with us… but by whom, by what means? Its proportions are as uneven as ever, primal and beast-like, with its gorilla-like arms. But its torso design looks a little different. It’s wider, thicker, more prominent than before.
“Why did it come here!?” Usami says, panicked.
“…the design of the torso seems a bit different from the original,” Major Udongein says,
“And it’s sending out a different ID code from the one it was issued.” “It was modified?”
Did the Underground get their hands on it? Was Subject #1 a sleeper agent of theirs? But, strange, it doesn’t appear to be doing anything other than just standing there. If it meant to be our enemy, it definitely would have attacked us without mercy, just as it did last time, but it hasn’t. Just what is it up to?
[ ] Forget the fighters. This is more important. Attack the SR-0 and attempt to capture it.
[ ] Ignore it for now.
----
BATTLE LOG:
F-32 (A.I.) was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II (Steyr)
F-32 (A.I.) x 2 was shot down by Commander Kreuzritter Type-R (Udongein)
F-32 (A.I.) was shot down by Wildkrahe A (Aya)
F-32 (A.I.) x 2 was shot down by Wildkrahe H (Hatate)
Neutral reinforcement appeared: SR-0 (Subject #1)
----
