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That was the most nerve-racking part, the waiting. Sitting there in the dark listening to the crackle of comms, safe for the moment but keenly aware that you were balancing on the edge of disaster. One accidental sound, an unfortunate gust of wind to blow away the fog, the merest hint of paranoia in the enemy, any number of minor mishaps could flip the ambush on the poor idiots setting it. And as one of those poor idiots, Rimau was understandably concerned.

She drummed her fingers against the rickety armrest of her frame, beating out a silent rhythm as her team chimed in one by one. The golden child's AI friend tagged all known hostiles and Rimau whistled in approval, the markers a welcome addition to the signatures her own systems had picked up.

There was a dull thud of metal feet against sand, the sound of surf being displaced by some monstrous charging figure as the Ogre moved forward. The twins shifted into action against the bunker, and the telltale thump of a missile tube gave way to the horrendous sound of impact.

Rimau had no time to stare at the twin's handiwork, fingers already blurring across her jury-rigged setup. The hiss of smoke canisters comforted her as she surrounded herself with chaff, the Dustcloud suite activating in time with the shoulder of her weapon. At this distance she could stick with the HBR, sighting it on a Widowmaker attempting to acquire a target.

Two slugs punched straight through the tank's hull, a gout of flame spurting from the jagged gash as ammo and fuel cooked off. Rimau switched targets immediately, dropping her Frame to a kneel as she eyed a Lancer attempting to close the gap between it and Cardinal One. Another burst slammed forth, the shell blasting the chassis open before the pilot even knew it had been seen.

Anyone who happened to turn their attention towards the Chop Shop would see nothing except an inky fog rolling across the waves, a walking cloud moving at a steady pace towards the Ruzi defenses. The Dustcloud's constant activity ensure that Rimau was forever concealed, her Frame hidden from all. There was simply no way the enemy could get a lock on her, forcing the enemy to fire blindly at the roiling mass.

Another Widowmaker fired and hit nothing, a snapshot in return its legs out from under it as Rimau switched on her comms.

"Cardinals I'm moving up on you,I'll take the Widows if you can snag the Lancers."
putting this here not to lose it



It was never her preference to go in from the front. The Chop Shop was, by its nature, unsuited to leading glorious charges or anything of that nature but part of being a soldier was sucking it up and accepting the fact that things just weren't going to go your way. With the combination of her smoke and the howling storm, Rimau felt moderately confident the Ruzis wouldn't be able to lock onto her.

Or at least not before they got sidetracked by juicier targets.

"Hello Cardinal, no apologies necessary. I'm going to be flitting around, if you see anything particularly angry at you just shout it out."

She knew nothing about how they fought, only that it was now her job to provide cover. If only they had a week to run some drills, or even a weekend to discuss basic tactics! Frames were an inherently individualistic weapon, pilots finding their own particular way of doing things. In a well-ordered strike team this was an advantage, the various pieces of the whole were aware of each other's strengths and moved to cover their weaknesses. In this cobbled-together kill team it was a liability. Rimau just had to hope that the Cardinals weren't too unorthodox for her to keep up.

The AI was noticed but not remarked upon. There was nothing to say about it until it revealed its utility or became a problem, until then Rimau would trust Vinland's prized pooch to manage it. She would focus on piloting, the roar of the monsoon echoing in her ugly little cockpit as she followed her dance partners out into the surf.

It was never her first choice to fight blind, but she was far better equipped for it than the enemy. The Chop Shop existed to hit hard, finding targets regardless of conditions before reducing them to scrap. A few punched commands and her sensors were up and running, sonar pinging off the twins so that she didn't accidentally ram into them.

"I see them."

For a given value of sight anyway. The Chop Shop's thermal cams rendered the enemy as orange blobs amid the swirling blues and purples, Rimau shouldering her main gun in a ready stance.

"Hold for now, I'll check with the others. If they take notice light 'em up."

Switching frequencies was done with a dial of all things, not fancy touchscreen or simple buttons. Rimau slid back to the crawler's general comms so that the whole team could hear her.

"Ramshackle here, the Cardinals and I have infantry and Frames to the Southwest, five hundred meters. We've yet to be spotted but the clock's ticking. What's everyone's status?"
Figured I should say it here because I expressed interest, I'll have to sit out sadly. I hope you guys enjoy!


She was second-guessing herself again. Rimau, the social media darling who had been graced with the highest honor Gyrland, could not help but wonder if she was finally going to be revealed as the fraud she felt she was. Ten years doing hit-and-runs, building a reputation for bravery under fire and a willingness to put herself in harm's way for her comrades, couldn't shake the feeling that she shouldn't have been assigned to this ultimate drive for victory.

It was a war between the intellectual and the emotional, the clinical soldier in her pushing against the nervous kid who had just wanted to find a fight with meaning. She was one of the most veteran Framers the Homeguard could dig up, her hours in the cockpit outnumbering nearly all of her peers. She was fast, she was smart, she knew the Chop Shop in and out and was prepared for an arduous offensive.

But what if she wasn't? The medal that said she was worth pinning the people's hopes and dreams on had been at least partially manufactured. You didn't give your propaganda producer a medal without expecting them to use it as propaganda, so how could she know that it hadn't been the only reason?

Well, at least she wouldn't be the only unqualified person on the team. The legendary Phantom Brigade now recruited untested greenhorns it seemed. Klara had been an officer allegedly, but not one valuable enough to try and get back. Ingram was a vet but an infantry one, and the twins Rimau had no real sense of. Royce was supposed to be well-trained, but apparently, he hadn't mastered the art of knowing when not to fall asleep.

That left Ramshackle as the resident old woman of the team, a position she didn't much care for.

The din of the monsoon wasn't particularly disconcerting, the thrashing of rain against the crawler's decks almost reminding her of home. Temasek was a wet country, with rain a constant companion to daily life. As such its troops practiced in mud more often than not, giving her an advantage over those poor Ruzi bastards and their love of solid ground.

"Ramshackle here, all green my end. Chop Shop's good to go."

The cockpit was cramped and barren, crammed with panels and instruments torn out of at least five different frames from across two different decades. 'Green' was not an adjective people often applied to machines in that condition, but Rimau had worked hard to figure it all out. She couldn't sabotage the pride she felt in her ride, as much as she might have tried.

"Chop Shop's not going to do great in the water but once we get to land I'll be taking off soon enough. Shikari, I'm going to stick with you until I get out of the waves."





I could be interested! Depends on how my schedule shakes out but this seems pretty cool











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