[hr][hr][center][color=0076a3][h2]STEIN KALFOX[/h2][/color]
[sub][i][b]“Greed is so destructive. It destroys everything.”[/b][/i]
E A R T H A  K I T T[/sub][/center]
[hr][hr]
[center][b]EXTERIOR APPROACH  -  ENEMY BASE[/b][/center]

As the Little Dragon approached Goldenspur’s location things seemed to begin to get complicated as the pilot of Red Oni wrestled with the Goldenspur as he barked out nonsensical chatter over communication lines— ranting and raving about the death of his comrade and the punishment Goldenspur was soon to receive. Though if anything, the death of his comrade had forced him to break character and show his true viciousness underneath the cartoonish valor that he had shown previously. 

{“Despicable! Useless!”}

Red Oni lowered its blade to prepare for a proper strike at Goldenspur, the plasma energy flickering as it began to make its move.

Stein’s brows narrowed as she took a quiet breath as she began to think of the best option to proceed given that the Red Oni had not noticed her on his radar. Using her thrusters to breach Red Oni’s guard with her lightshield activated wouldn’t work since Red Oni was wrestling with Goldenspur and using her loadout from distance could put Red Oni out of the game but the explosion would do critical damage against her ally as well. The only option would be to separate them by raw force. Stein flicked the switch to her right as she rerouted all of her power to the Little Dragon’s mobility— aiming to supercharge the NC’s speed. As she did so she kicked up the thrusters and like a battering ram of ages past attempted to slam directly into the side of Red Oni to break his attention of Goldenspur and to give Goldenspur distance once again.

Of course, this would damage Little Dragon’s hull and the shock would jolt Stein’s own nervous system, but she had endured worse before and so had the Little Dragon. As she made impact, Stein winced at the slight pain.
[indent][h3]THNK![/h3][/indent]
Jan had been concentrating the whole while, preparing the thrusters to go full blast, hovering his fingers over the trigger for the smoke grenades… And then, the chance he had been waiting for presented itself. Little Dragon, unceremoniously bashing his assailant off of him. He could almost feel the pressure on his NC’s back being alleviated. Without a moment of doubt, he fired his thrusters and his smokescreen. As the force of his sudden momentum pressed him into his seat, he awaited the response of Oni… Hoping for dear life he wouldn’t be familiarized with the feeling of a plasma weapon penetrating his cockpit… Ironically the same fate that he had inflicted on so many others.

The Oni held on to the last moment, as the sudden collision ripped off one of its’ legs. 

{“F-fucking… [b]ARRRARGHGH![/b] If I didn’t know any better I’d sacrifice myself just to kill you two, but forget it! I’m out of here, you dishonourable heathens can suck it!”} 

The Red Oni’s pilot disengaged from the fight, using the power that would be given to the now-detached front left leg to further power the units’ boosters. Without a word, the Red Oni’s grenade cannon, forgotten until now, unfolded. For some reason though, the NC didn’t even stop to aim or reduce recoil or anything of the sort. Instead, it ripped the large gun right off of the mount, then took a minute to access something that looked non-standard on the gun. 

{“Here, catch this!”}

—and just like that, the gun was thrown with great force at the Goldenspur.

Once Jan had recovered from his rather close call, he was already attempting to coördinate a counteroffensive with Little Dragon. 

{“Alright, let’s move to finish this gu— the hell is he doing?”} 

Jan saw Red Oni’s grenade launcher, forcibly ripped off and launched out of the smoke cloud he had created to cover his own escape; this seemed like a ridiculous strategy even for an apparent madman… unless there was more to it than just throwing a blunt object at him. Goldenspur boosted forward and leaned slightly to the side, it was Jan’s intention to pass by the discarded weapon as narrowly as possible. He didn’t intend on Red Oni escaping, not out of ruthlessness, but out of a simple pragmatic desire not to have too many rivals and enemies running around freely.

The Goldenspur dodged the weapon just enough at its apex, and it flew past behind him. It soon impacted however, exploding on impact with ridiculous force and creating a grand fireball. A few pieces of shrapnel pierced the Goldenspur, one managing to make a hole in a fuel tank in the leg, although, it wasn’t a large injury.

Seeing that its previous attack didn’t result favorably, the Red Oni then started covering itself with its sole remaining weapon, the Napalm Gun. Arcs of red-hot liquid ‘fuck you’ began pouring out, ‘gently’ sprayed around, but focused on the Goldenspur. Before long, the Red Oni detached its’ entire lower body starting at the hips while flying. The three legs attached to the central, squarish base quickly began losing altitude, before planting into the sand. 

{“You’ve disgraced me enough! What else do you want?!”}. 

What, was he trading salvage for his survival? Seemed like it, at least. 

{“Sorry man, but you’re not getting away… I’d rather not have psychos like you running free and plotting against me!”} Goldenspur simply retorted.

The chase continued for a few more minutes, before the leak forced the Goldenspur to reduce its’ speed, giving Red Oni the edge it needed to finally get out of the area once and for all. The reduced weight of the Red Oni due to his missing legs meant that the Goldenspur simply couldn’t keep up anymore.

{[color=8882be]“That’s certainly shit, but we’ll just have to deal with him later. A more pressing matter is that the giant fucking gun is about ready to fire, or blow! Handle it!”[/color]}

Back at Headquarters, Sophia shaked her head, [color=8882be]”Did they just forget about the massive gun, the main goal?”[/color], complaining to Joe and the other people in the room, her earpiece off.

As soon as Red Oni had been handled the Little Dragon had made back for her objective, seeing that Goldenspur did not need its support any longer. Stein didn’t bother to make a comment about the superfluous short-sighted decision that he had decided in engaging.

{[color=0076a3]“Permission to use overwhelming force.”[/color]} 

{[color=8882be]“Huh? Yeah, whatever, do it and do it quickly!”[/color]}

Stein nodded within the cockpit of the Little Dragon as she responded with a resounding {[color=0076a3]“Affirmative. Goldenspur, I hope you’re done fooling around playing with your food.”[/color]}

{“Huh… Oh yeah, The railgun!”} Jan realized he had lost sight of the main objective in all the commotion, {“Weren’t you supposed to be taking care of that, Little Dragon…? No, I’m not complaining about the save.”}

{[color=0076a3]“Your laziness to comply is noted.”[/color]} Stein retorted as a long sigh left her mouth, although it was unheard over the communication line. As she looked at the weapon she looked to analyze it before making an action; any crucial detail could help her disable or destroy the weapon. As far as she could tell, the over-constructed gun had begun charging in full some time ago and arcs of electricity started shooting out from the exterior capacitors lining the base of the barrel and the two massive rails following right alongside. The weapons’ base began rotating, slowly, then stopped as it locked onto a target presumably very, very far to the north-west.

Jan was briefly stunned by the amazing scale of the railgun, but then he came upon more practical considerations. {“I… really doubt we want that thing firing, moving up at full throttle.”} Goldenspur charged directly at the massive barrel of the railgun, all he needed to do was make just the tiniest bend in the barrel and the rest would resolve itself. He leveled the plasma lance and began firing a stream on the middle of the barrel, close to where it was thinnest. {“Little Dragon, I need some blunt force on the far end of the barrel… Like that face-kick you gave to Red-Oni earlier.”}

{[color=0076a3]“Affirmative.”[/color]} 

The Little Dragon would co-opt the attack on Jan’s suggestions. The NC would activate thrusters at the apex of a short jump, heading straight above where the Goldenspur was doing some ‘improvised field welding’. With the searing heat of plasma being dumped on it, and soon afterwards a multi-ton object kicking it as fast as possible, the barrel easily snapped in two.
[indent][h1]CRNK![/h1][/indent]
The top-half of the barrel fell over, making one hell of a splash when it impacted the sands below, crushing jury-rigged wirings and small structural supports. The railgun couldn’t stop charging, and the few people inside were trying to cancel the firing order in the pre-war computer systems to no avail. The forces on the barrel made it wiggle somewhat in position, and the shoddy reconstruction efforts let the inert kinetic shell drop back into the internal magazine, impacting an explosive one on a timer.

The one poor soul overseeing the autoloading systems cursed the improvised refurnishings before impact, and the entire base of the gun went up in flames, bursting the few windows on the static foundation of the cannon and making all the vents and openings in the structure spew out fire, before the entire thing fell apart piece by piece. The absurd cheapness of the structure was oddly hilarious.

Stein pulled back the Little Dragon after the destructive display that they had initiated. {[color=0076a3]“Target destroyed. Unfortunately we were unable to secure it before a critical point. Recording additional footage for study upon return.”[/color]}

{“Eh, the suits will be happy enough that Red Star doesn’t have it anymore if you ask me.”} Jan retorted as he too retreated from the site. {“Now if you would please get us back to base, I’m starting to get hungry again.... And I’m pretty sure the Goldenspur could use some repairs.”}

{[color=00aeef]”Good show. Coming in to pick you up, hooks deployed.”[/color]}, Alex notified over the radio. 

{[color=00aeef]”We’ll get that… uhh… ‘Fred Ronni’’ guy later I’m sure. Shit, what was his name..?[/color]}

{[color=00a651]”Red-Oni? Are you serious, A?”[/color]}

{[color=00aeef]”Yes.”[/color]}