Krayzikk

Σωτήρ: the Solar Age (Mecha) - Still Accepting

Was Getting Caught Part of Your Plan?

They had taken the bait, but Rising Star knew instantly that they’d taken it a little too well. The warning bells, the flashing alerts, told her that much. She hadn’t had as much time to pull away as she would have liked. Her adrenaline spiked, every instant feeling like an hour, but she did not worry. For all of the unknowns in this fight, for all of the ways it had already gone wrong, she knew one thing for certain.

She was inside the fastest damn machine on the battlefield. That they thought they could corner her so easily was an insult.

Evasive maneuvers had already begun when she heard the alert, so she fired her thrusters a little harder than planned and sent the Valk rocketing forward and aside. In atmosphere, the anchor would have rushed past her left with a quiet whiff. That was one problem down, but she still needed to work out how to deal with the five units following her. The azure one was special. Rising Star knew, in her heart of hearts, that it was. It was the same unit that had evaded Lumen-3’s initial attack. It had evaded her own. And now it was closing it.

She had found their ace.

"Affirmative, Rising Star. Sword Shroud, please move to intercept and extract Yukine. Providing railgun cover to get these primordial...brigands, away from G-Valkyrie. G-Valk, I am leaving the Bradley in your hands. Return it safely. The spoils of Jerusalem should never be tarnished when presented to a queen."

Spoils? Queen? She wanted to claim the Bradleys! A little voice in the back of Rising Star’s head voiced its enthusiastic agreement at the opportunity to examine one, and resolved to thank the Father for the chance later. But now she needed to focus on how to-

"But when you had had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me. So now I will attack you like a lion, like a leopard that lurks along the road. Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away. I will tear out your heart. I will devour you like a wild lioness..."

…

Oh.

Oh Jesus.

The primary guns of the historic American Iowa-class battleship was the sixteen inch Mark 7 chemically propelled turret. The battleship possessed nine of them. These guns could fire two rounds a minute at a range of up to thirty eight kilometers with a muzzle velocity of 2,500 to 2,690 feet per second depending on the shell. These sixteen inch shells were, in metric terms, of a 406mm caliber. The XC|PT-003 Judah was armed with two high velocity 460mm caliber railguns and they could fire a lot more than two rounds a minute. And as the Father was indicating, in no clearer terms possible, they were aimed in her general direction to engage the enemy at her discretion.

Though she was reasonably certain that she was out of harm’s way, Rising Star elected not to take the chance. The G-Valkyrie’s thrusters fired on command, sending her banking ‘up’ and around mere instants before the Judah opened fire. In atmosphere, she had little doubt the barrage would have been deafening; in space, the sight alone had to suffice.

"...and mangle you like a wild animal."

Jesus Christ, Joan.

Still, the Father had given her an excellent opportunity. The fire from the rear would draw their attention, and draw it away from her. The Valk’s bank was sharp, changing her orientation to face the enemy units from an angle on roughly the same plane. The Judah’s fire came from the ‘south’, while the Valk faced them from the ‘northeast’. The mech was on its back, at least from the perspective of the pirates, presenting them a top-down view of the machine. In the process, Rising Star was presenting them with the smallest target area possible.

The remainder of the Valk’s missiles rocketed towards the group from the opposite direction of the Judah’s fire, catching the Rooks and Bradley between the railguns’ munitions and the twenty four submissiles of the G-Valkyrie. She ignored the azure Rook, for now, and instead directed a shot from her Launcher towards the Rook she had previously knocked away with the scrum from one of her missiles and fired the thrusters on the back of of the Valk, sending her shooting ‘up’ from the perspective of the enemy pirates. She engaged the Cross Change mechanism again, returning the G-Valk to its Waverider form, since she had no need of its humanoid configuration and every need for the Waverider’s reduced target silhouette and increased maneuverability.

Tag, you’re it.

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

subbing

@Plank Sinatra

this guy dragged me here

Σωτήρ: the Solar Age (Mecha) - Still Accepting

Engaging the Enemy

So they'd been upgraded. She could tell even before Lumen-1 even delivered his warning, and for the same reason as Lumen-3; her shot had missed as well. A Rook should not have had the capacity to dodge such a shot in space, not without forewarning. It was a notoriously slow unit, and one that lacked in mobility within zero-g environments. Such a weakness was not in evidence, to her mild irritation, but refits could only do so much. The units were still fundamentally Rooks. Refits could mitigate the issues caused by their weight and age, but they were still old HFVs. And they were still outmatched. No upgrades would ever make them as fast the G-Valkyrie, and that would be their downfall.

Project Paper Tiger was not just for show, after all.

That’s not to say that things were going smoothly, not at all. The Type-X had charged ahead into the fray and before Rising Star’s very eyes it was punished for its recklessness. It was crippled too quickly for her to take action, but her flanking maneuver had brought her into a prime location; the Rooks were gathered to her right, moving to envelop the downed Yukine, and had taken no action against here. They were too fixated on their prize. Yatogami would not survive without aid; he could not defend himself, and the pirates weren’t likely to take prisoners. Not even if they took the Yukine for salvage. The G-Valkyrie was fast enough to close in, maybe even carry the downed HFV out of harm’s way, but it had no arms… It wouldn’t be able to cling to the Waverider. She’d have to carry him with the G-Valkyrie’s arms.

It’d almost double the G-Valk’s mass, and its humanoid configuration already had only half the thrust of its Waverider form. With this many enemies, it would make her far too slow. It’d get them both killed.

But she couldn’t leave him, it wasn’t her way. She needed to break up the Rooks, get them off of the Yukine so he could be rescued… Which meant she needed to give them a new target. A more imminent threat.

She could do that.

Her thumbs flipped the covers off two buttons near the tops of her joysticks, depressed both buttons and slammed the controls forward. She felt the increased resistance and the satisfying clunk of the mechanism engaging, her console confirming Cross Change in its bright red lettering. She felt rather than heard the motions of locks disengaging, parts rearranging and locking into new formations, but the process lasted only half a second. Even that brief span was not without action; in order for her maneuver to work, she needed to slow down and alter her orientation relative to the targets.

So even while the G-Valk transformed she was firing the appropriate thrusters, decelerating the mech rapidly and twisting it sharply to the right. The feedback was immediate. The forces Rising Star experienced spiked instantly, the conflict between her inertia and her intended alteration. Another pilot might have been taken off guard, found it harder to breathe or concentrate, but she expected it. She had trained for it. Whatever G-Valk dished out, she could take. She would take. Her HFV was facing east by the time it finished transforming, the cluster of her enemies filling her viewscreen. Fifteen opponents, fourteen modified Rooks, one Bradley. She needed as much attention as possible.

Her Beam Shot Launcher came up, aimed at the center mass of a Rook with its back to her. A second shot followed less than a second later, aimed at an ally to its right. The G-Valk’s momentum was minimal, she was not concerned about its drift impacting her aim. These were mere strikes of opportunity, however, not the primary focus of her assault. The container on the G-Valk’s left shoulder sprang open, firing its full complement of eight missiles in between her shots. They didn’t have a specific target, in fact they weren’t intended to; the eight followed a broad spread, splitting midflight to become a cloud of twenty four incoming submunitions intended to blanket the cluster of her enemies. Only the handful of Rooks closest to her were in any real danger, any that passed them were too spread out to be much of a threat unless she was very lucky, but it wouldn’t be wise for the pirates to just ignore them.

Standard Rooks did not possess vulcans, and she was wagering that these ones didn’t either. They’d be forced to evade or move to interpose their shields between them and the assault. Perfect for scattering their formation and for getting their attention.

The flash of the G-Valkyrie’s visor, suspended motionless for the briefest of instants in plain view, seemed designed just to taunt them.

Then her thrusters flared, sending her rocketing ‘below’ their cameras, before she reoriented to fly north and continue her clockwise flanking maneuver. She moved quickly, keeping her evasive maneuvers erratic, but she didn’t use the XC|PT-01’s full speed; she didn’t want to leave them in the dust. She wanted them to go after her. A next gen prototype was a valuable prize indeed, and she was willing to bet they’d take the bait.

She could deal with a few pursuers, and Paper Tiger could deal with the rest while they rescued the Yukine.

“Engaging the enemy. Drawing them away from Yukine.” Rising Star said into her comm, keeping her eyes on the sensors. Watching for pursuers. “Father, engage with railguns at your discretion. Yukine requires immediate extraction. We should capture the Bradleys if we can, the techs would love to get a look at them.”

@Plank Sinatra @Onarax @Silvan Haven @Letter Bee @Crimmy

Persona - Academic Akrasia (Being rebooted, see new int check)

yo

Σωτήρ: the Solar Age (Mecha) - Still Accepting

OSDT Jannah

Klaxons, sharp and screeching, crashed through Sasha’s thoughts. There was no doubt as to what they meant, and even if there was the order from the Captain carrying over the loudspeakers dispelled it immediately. It was time to sorty. Yatogami left immediately, without a word, but Sasha wasn’t paying him any mind; she was gulping down the last few swallows of her latte, tossing aside the cup, and looking about the hangar. She had an extra step that the others didn’t need to worry about. She needed to find a corner, some kind of obstruction, somewhere they weren’t looking-

“Technician Mackenzie! Why isn’t PT-04 ready for launch?” The harsh tone broke the state of indecision, especially when her chief tech put his hand on his shoulder and gave her a slight push towards the back of the Waverider. When he mouthed ‘go’, out of view of the rest, she got the hint and headed around behind the G-Valkyrie while her tech turned to Joan and gestured to the Judah. “Morning, Father. You should get to your HFV.”

Whatever the chaplain said in response, Sasha didn’t catch. Distance (and HFV armor) muffled it, and the rest was drowned out by the buzz of activity in the hangar. A quick glance confirmed that no one could see her, and then she went into action. Her jacket was unzipped and practically flung aside, followed by her boots and then work pants she wore over her pilot suit. She was thankful, for a brief second, for the relief ditching the outer layers provided; keeping them on over her normal suit had been unbelievably hot. Not that she had the time to think about it. The clothes were bunched up into a ball and tossed aside, somewhere Sasha could retrieve them when she was done, and then she had to contend with one more problem.

How was she going to hide her face? It was a couple of meters to the G-Valk’s cockpit, time during which she would be out in the open. Her mask was in the cockpit already. She didn’t have time to sneak through or get her tech to cover her. She needed to go now. So what could she use… After a few seconds of desperate searching, she grabbed the first thing that she saw. A hard hat wasn’t perfect, but she was extremely thankful someone had forgotten to put it away. It was good enough to cover her hair and pull down low over her face. Temporary disguise accomplished, the pilot rushed out from behind the Waverider, all but vaulted up the ladder, and threw the hard hat back out of the HFV before closing the hatch.

Now everything was as it should be. She could feel it. Just settling into her chair made all the uncertainties fade away, like slipping into a comfortable set of old clothes. Familiar and right in a way that can’t quite be described. Her mask went on, the material cool on her face, and a brief clearing of her throat confirmed that the modulator was working. Her helmet twisted on with a soft click, finalizing her preparations. Without the flurry of background thoughts, the dozens of miscellania that so often cluttered up her mind, Sasha could feel her growing enthusiasm. The stakes were high, the odds stacked against them, and she was excited. Her heart pounded, her blood pumped, adrenaline rushed, and it all came together to heighten every sensation to a profound, razor sharp focus. Every molecule of her being hummed in synch with the machine around her, her energy swelling in unison with her reactor’s growing output, feeling the feedback from every shifting fin, every swiveling vernier, perceiving the feedback as though the senses were her own. Thew XC|PT-01, no the G-Valkyrie, spoke. It sang.

And Rising Star could understand every word.

Systems came online with the flip of a switch, all functions responding appropriately to her light, testing touch. The hangar personnel waved her on, and she taxied towards the launch deck. The G-Valk moved smoothly, the lightest application of its thrusters rolling it into place on the catapult’s tracks. She felt the launcher brace against the Waverider’s rear, the soft thunk of it coming to rest behind her, and saw the status lights appear on her monitor. All red, for now, but that would change in a few charged, anticipatory moments.

“Transferring timing controls to G-Valkyrie.” She recited, protocol coming out in a lower, more commanding voice than Sasha’s own. “All systems green.”

The air was electric, sending tingles running up her spine. Every iota of her will was focused on this one instant, her last moment of contemplation before joining the fray. She barely heard the acknowledgement from the bridge, the confirmation of control transfer, while she closed her eyes and took a single deep breath. She was fraught with tension, a tension both immeasurably excited and unbearably fearful. It was time to fight for real. It was time to prove her reputation. It was time to shine.

It had been the merest fraction of a second, but an eager smile graced her obscured features.

“Rising Star,” The words escaped with unbelievable intensity, matched instantly by the release of the catapult sending the G-Valkyrie rocketing out of the Jannah at incredible speed. She felt the pushback, the force of the acceleration, and her grin only widened. “Launching!”

Gunmetal gray gave way to starry black, and most importantly, to the foes arrayed against her. Thirty units. Twenty eight OS Type 2s, Rooks, and two Mm C44 Bradleys. Those were a rare sight. The vast majority of them had been destroyed eight years ago, only one hundred and twenty one were estimated to exist by 106 SA. Taking into account how many had been destroyed without the UN’s knowledge… Rare indeed. The Bradley was a close-combat-use HFV, with command variants often equipped with remotely controlled drones. Limited long range capability. High performance unit. With a skilled pilot, those two would be the real problems in terms of one-on-one capability.

The Rooks were armored ranged units. Tough, but relatively old. They would be lacking for speed in zero-g. Reliant on armor and heavy firepower which, admittedly, was potent enough to knock her own HFV out of the sky. Buuuut… They shouldn’t shoot her down if they couldn’t hit her, now could they?

She made her assessment right out of the gate, and decided that based on how quickly the enemy was closing in, there was no time to lose. The G-Valk fired off a shot from its Beam Shot Launcher, intent on nailing one of the closing Rooks in its torso. Sasha banked left immediately afterwards to clear the airspace for whoever was launching after her, beginning to curve out and around the attacking force with the intent to flank.

“Watch out for the Bradleys.” She said into the comms, making sure they were keyed to the Jannah team’s frequency. “The Rooks will be slow in space, but they’ll punch a hole right through you if they get the chance.”

“Paper Tiger, ETA?”

@Letter Bee @Plank Sinatra @Silvan Haven @Onarax @Crimmy

Persona - Academic Akrasia (Being rebooted, see new int check)

Daisuke, truth be told, only understood about every third word of what was being said. By either party. Kimiko's translation of the unknown man's first comments had been quite helpful, but then she started doing it too. Her parents were both detectives, so he wasn't really surprised she'd picked up the lingo at some point, but his weren't. Did Personas come with translation features? Probably not, Benkei was silent. And Daisuke already spoke Japanese. So the languages the warrior monk might know were pretty useless. So he'd have to do this the old fashioned way.

The delinquent listened close, focusing less on individual words and more on sentences. The gestures she was making. The words he did know. Every other noun was useless, but he could tell subjects from where she gestured; pronouns too. He didn't know what 'nance' meant, and he certainly wasn't spending the time to ponder what 'screwing' meant here, but 'nance' was him. Apparently. 'Kiki with the guuitar case' was guitar girl. Who hadn't said much, he wondered where she was... Not the point.

Seems like she was saying they should get food, then talk.

"McDonalds have drive-thrus." Daisuke added helpfully. "We could pile in the car, get Kimiko her fries, and then go somewhere to talk."

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

Cyare Staunton

@Plank Sinatra @Caasicam @Onarax

"Trail mix is healthy and good. There are bits of chocolate in it."

The swordswoman's eyes narrowed at the confirmation of the speedster's abhorrent taste, serving only to heighten the irritation in her expression. Almost as though proving a point, she ate a large handful of trail mix. Nuts, cereal, dried fruit, chocolate. Perfectly healthy, high in protein, and good for complex carbohydrates to keep one energized for longer spans of time without getting hungry. Not that the fickle aggravation that was currently the subject of her ire would know, given his penchant for the unhealthy form of food known as barbecue. Among other such dietary indiscretions. It would come back to haunt him when he grew old, and in that she found some small balm for her irritation. Such musings, however, were not relevant to their present task; nor would she permit herself to rise to any other barb. Such responses were counterproductive, and indeed only served to enhance his amusement at the situation.

Schooling her features back into a stoic expression, as per her usual modus operandi, and ate a little more trail mix followed by a long sip from her canteen. Stowing the canteen at her waist again and doing the same with her trail mix, she retrieved a piece of jerky and consumed that instead. She would return to her snack later, once she grew hungry again. Perhaps once she no longer had to deal with the speedster.

"Why do you not run ahead again? Perform reconnaissance."

Σωτήρ: the Solar Age (Mecha) - Still Accepting

OSDT Jannah: HFV Hangar

@Plank Sinatra@Silvan Haven@Letter Bee

"Morning old man." Sasha said cheerfully, waving at the much, much larger man with her unfortunately dwindling latte. It was fortunate he had to look down to see anyone, if he didn't then Sasha would've been invisible. She was barely chest high. If she was being really, really generous with herself. At least Joan and Husam could see her if they were looking straight ahead. Still, the big man was one of her favorite people. Biggest ham ever, though. Disrespectful as it sounded, 'old man' was her favorite term of endearment. He hated when she called him 'Mr. Thor', made him feel even older, and 'Jack' was too generic. So 'old man' it was. The technician beamed and jerked a thumb at the Ball. "Hope you slept well, you might be headed out. Hate to have to explain how #1 Dad got shot down. Take the thirty seconds to do pre-flight on that thing, will you?"

She was midway through turning to Joan when she heard Yatogami's remarks and stopped still. First she looked at Joan, with eyes that expressed nothing but pure confusion and indecision before pivoting slightly to the younger pilot. "I uh, yeah. Unorthodox. Don't think I'd praise it so much, though. It's... It's a support craft. A spherical coffin with a laser cutter and an ejection seat."

A pause.

"Joan doesn't like it when I call it that. But she also says I shouldn't lie. So it's a struggle." Another, slightly longer pause. "The old man's good at using it, though. Once won a sim tournament I watched with a twenty year old grunt mech, and he's done great with the thing's sims. Just... I hesitate to call it a 'mech'."

"A n y w a y, Joan, I need you to take a look at the Judah's diagnostics." Sasha took a long sip of her latte, disappointment increasing as it dwindled. "Anything look wrong to you? Looks fine to me."

Σωτήρ: the Solar Age (Mecha) - Still Accepting

OSDT Jannah: HFV Hangar

@Plank Sinatra @Letter Bee

"Don't think I'd call the Ozzies powerful, not anymore, but I guess they're strong enough to do their job. So 'powerful enough', I guess. You're... Yamcha? Yatchagama? Yatigamo? Yatogami! That's it." The technician nodded, satisfied with herself for having remembered the pilot's name, and gave a brief wave with her latte-hand. Sasha didn't much mind the intrusion into the conversation, it was a free Mars Sphere after all, but she wasn't paying too much attention during most of his commentary. The Judah's diagnostics had just come back, and she wanted to make sure the Father's HFV was in just as good a shape as the G-Valkyrie. If not better, given its disadvantage in space. It wasn't until he commented on the G-Valk, and her pilot, that her ears perked up a little.

"Can't comment on the testing process, I like having a job." Sasha commented cheerily, patting the blue machine's armor affectionately. "But she's done great so far. She's only out here so we can grab a little more data. She's a good girl. Not too hard to maintain, great specs, and a sweeeeet color scheme. Absolute dream to work on. Only Judah comes close. And that's because Judah's a robot lion. Took X Corp long enough to make dreams come true, but boy did they deliver."

"Rising Star, though, she seems pretty good. Don't see much of her. I do my job, she does hers. Can't really comment on how she looks, hard to tell past the mask. Lucky girl to pilot the G-Valk."

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Prince's math checks out.