[@Letter Bee]

[B]ENEMY TURN[/B]

Although the base Rook model had been in service for over twenty years, it was still a common sight amongst the HFV forces of numerous organisations, particularly military allies of its original operator, the United States of America. In the period of time that it had been considered the backbone of armies, the OS Type 2 had given birth to hundreds of variants, and those still in use had been upgraded with the latest technological advancements and in order not to be rendered obsolete. While the performance of refitted units varied (ranging from the slapdash improvements to the OSDT Specification to the complete and utter overhaul underwent by the "Rook II"), there was one thing that was common to most of them: their abilities were generally capable of staying relevant against the current generation of HFVs.

In his haste to prove himself, Henry Yatogami had overestimated the performance gap between his Yukine and the customised pirate Rooks, nor had his choice of tactics been effective in dealing with the many enemies before him. His attempt to kick a Rook's rifle from its hands was the first of his mistakes, the positioning of his prototype machine's body highly inefficient in doing any harm to the pirate. Indeed, the bulky enemy mech was easily able to dodge the wild kick, and in response immediately grabbed hold of the leg with one arm, twisting it (and thus the Yukine) around roughly and opening fire with the rifle in the other arm.

The entire left leg of Henry's HFV was thus annihilated in a burst of heat and light. It appeared that the rifle of the Rook he had attempted to fight was in actuality a beam rifle rather than the weaker, projectile-based weapon that the original ground model used in its early years.

Unfortunately, the consequences to flying straight into the crowd of hostile pirates would not end there for Henry. Even as he attempted to dash away and cut at another Rook's sensor, he would be met with another blast from a beam rifle, this time the shot vaporising one of the Yukine's forearms, and its beam saber along with the rest of the hand. The other limb soon followed, cut off by a saber wielded by the blue Rook that had earlier dodged Lumen 3's cannon shot, leaving the prototype mech completely 'armless, if one were to excuse the pun.

Yatogami's machine had, within less than a minute, been utterly crippled. One leg was gone, as well as its arms, leaving it incapable of utilising any weaponry whatsoever. In fact, the Yukine was a sitting duck, especially when growing increasingly surrounded by pirates. The only reason they had yet to finish him off was likely because of its prototype status; they were unaware of whether or not it could be a valuable piece of loot.