[center][h2]Elise Kim[/h2][h3][i]The Horizon[/i] — Engineering Bay[/h3][/center]
Following the conclusion of the briefing session and an apparent lack of any pressing issues, Elise returned the commander's dismissal with a brief salute before following the others out of the command room. Choosing to take a detour to change into something more suited for aerial combat, though, the young woman swapped her current outfit out for her usual garments for combat—a military-style dress with proper insulation—before heading off to pick up her Chi-Mechframe from maintenance.

Giving a smile and a wave towards the staff on hand, the white-haired girl promptly retrieved the object in question—a single glove into which was embedded the mechanisms for Selene—and gave her thanks to the team before moving towards the hangar. Compared to the rest of the Pilots she worked with, her Chi-Mechframe was not something to be equipped on a whim—not when it had the risk of accidentally hitting something or someone in the process, at least.

With enough spare cleared out for herself, Elise calmly slipped the glove onto her right hand and pulled it tightly into place to make sure that everything felt right before nodding and clenching her hand into a fist in front of her chest. Departure was soon to come for those without flight, but the ones who could were always made to do so before the others.

"Shine, Selene!"

The back of the glove soon began to glow as a glowing halo of light seemed to grow above the young woman's head and spin around. Though slow at first, the halo quickly ramped up in speed, and before long a faint whirring noise would be audible to the Frame Pilot. From here, the light that had made up the halo seemed to be forming on other parts of her body; the faint traces of wings at her back soon cascaded out and flashed, turning into an all-too-familiar mechanical form. Following that, the rest of her equipment—a set of mechanical shoes equipped with stabilizers, auxiliary tools to feed her information around the halo, and the rifle she had come to know inside and out—formed, piece by mechanical piece.

"All clear. No abnormalities detected," Elise said, watching as a set of messages appeared out of the corner of her eye as the hangar opened in front of her. Glancing off to the side towards her partner for the upcoming operation, the young woman gave Norika a nod before walking out the open hanger into the open skies over Japan.

"Selene, launching."

Folding the mechanical wings upon her person back, Elise began to dive towards the round, a holographic visual on her screen showing her their intended destination a few dozen kilometers northwest west of Tokyo's northern border. Japan had already begun operations earlier that day in securing the area immediately outside the city, of course, but this was where their jobs would begin.

[hr][center][h3]Saitama Prefecture[/h3][/center]
Filled with residental suburbs as southern Saitama had been, the presence of Warped in the area was but a given. The sounds of gunfire closer to the south from where the Pilots would first touch down showed that the JSDF had already begun to move their offensive line out in the hours before their arrival, but an operation like this could still fall through depending on outlying circumstances.

But that was why they were here, after all.

As far as the Warped went, those closer to the city seemed to be less overtly dangerous in terms of combat capabilities. Likening them to goblins or similarly-built oni would not be far from the truth, and their appearance—grotesque and somewhat beastlike, with large fangs, claws, and horns—marked the norm for the region. Among their number, though, stood no few number of bulkier oni-esque Warped, each wielding massive makeshift weapons borne from the ruins around them.

Though initially the entire horde seemed to be moving towards the defensive line, the arrival of new enemies meant reason to shift their focus towards them instead. The lack of presence of the more threatening varieties of Warped frequent in the region was a boon in and of itself, where they were instead remained to be seen...

[@VitaVitaAR][@Izurich][@JDubs]