Whoami

Rise of the Shield Hero - From Another World

I am currently busy with army things but I can get something out this week. ^.^

Rise of the Shield Hero - From Another World

I've been waiting on Omni >.>

Falling Skies: Reboot ver 2

Pursuit

(Mood Music)

Dearil powered the transport on and flipped through all of the switches the pre-flight called for. He fitted his helmet on and spoke over the ship's intercom, "Welcome aboard the River Styx. We'll be departing momentarily. Please ensure your helmets are on and your seals are secure as I will be depressurizing the ship prior before take-off. Wouldn't want a piece of space debris puncturing the hull and sucking you all into space now." Dearil made sure not to finish that sentence with the fact that it happens frequently... An set of inquisitive eyes would easily spot the myriad of welded breach panels all over the walls of the ship's interior. Such things were common in a battle space.

After the pre-flight was complete, Dearil confirmed with his passengers that their helmets were secured before closing the rear ramp and depressurizing the hold. There was a hiss as the air was vented from the ship. Dearil watched on a display as the ship's O2 storage tanks filled. An atmospheric readout showed that internal pressure was nil. He nodded to himself and powered up the engines, the landing gear of the ship leaving the deck of the Hammerhand. "Hammerhand Tower, this is River Styx. Pre-flight checks completed. Requesting permission to launch. Over."

"River Styx. Hammerhand Tower. You are clear to launch. Take egress lane five for five kilometers before breaking to your destination. Over."

"Roger, Hammerhand. River Styx launching now, out." With that, Dearil pushed forward on his throttle. The VTOL engines rotated to be parallel with the ship. They fired, sending loose papers and space dust flying backward in the Hammerhand's hangar. One unlucky deckhand had his bottle of hyperwater sent flying out the air shield hangar's ingress gate. Good thing Dearil already got the money for that one.

The River Styx was a cumbersome beast. As were all Carry-Alls. They weren't meant for fancy aerobatics or high speed. They were heavy lifters, and such instant acceleration would jostle the cargo or the passengers in the hold too much. The power the engines had to put out to get the ship moving at a decent speed was quite high. It also had the tack-on effect that slowing the Carry-All down was just as tough. But once it reached cruising speed, there would be little in its size range that could stop it. Dearil banked the ship right and pulled into the egress lane prescribed to him by the Hammerhand. It was a UEE standard for all ships to have multiple lanes to enter and exit the ship through for non-combative ships. In larger scales, the space between ships would often be cluttered and abuzz with activity. Such lanes prevented avoidable collisions from happening. Dearil had been reprimanded once or twice for accidentally flying into another lane. The lanes were uploaded to the ship's flight computer and projected into the pilot's visor as an AR overlay.

Dearil did his usual line of sight checks, rotating and swiveling his head on his shoulders to find out what was immediately visible to him from the cockpit. He saw the Hammerhand to his right as he flew down his lane, and the Horizon Point station more ahead of him. To his left, Dearil saw the distant destination marker on his HUD denoting the Roanoke, the ship he was posted to. As he flew down the lane and continued to slowly accelerate, Dearil noticed a brief flash of light on Horizon Point station. "What the..."

He zoomed in with the HUD on his helmet, the advanced sensors and computers superimposing a window in his immediate field of view of an enlarged picture. The computers worked to enhance the definition of the zoom in, allowing him to see Horizon Point in much greater detail than what his eyes would have allowed. He saw a black scorch mark and debris getting sucked out into space where the flash had been observed. Then he saw another flash- no... an explosion! Then another! And soon all of Horizon Point was breaking up and alight with brief fireballs. The concussive force of the blasts knocked the station off of its orbit, spinning it slightly on its axis as the centrifuge was disrupted and breaking up.

In seconds, Dearil's alarmed were blaring and his comms screen was alight with emergency signals. "Shit." he said, gritting his teeth. Not long after, Dearil was receiving orders to divert his flight path to assist in recovery operations, to which Dearil instantly denied. His flight path was going to take him right past Horizon Point, and thus its debris field. He wasn't about to risk the Princess trying to fly through that. He suddenly banked left and broke out of his egress lane to peel straight for the Roanoke. Dearil heard his radio start squawking his callsign like crazy.

"River Styx, you WILL obey this emergency directive!"

"River Styx, you will incur severe penalties if you do not carry out your orders for humanitarian aid."

"River Styx, return to your lane!"

Dearil growled and responded, "Fleet, this is River Styx! Sunray is aboard my transport. I say again! SUNRAY is aboard my transport. My mission supercedes yours. Kindly get the hell out of my ear!"

There was a long silence over the radio for a moment before one traffic controller responded, "River Styx, carry on with your assignment. Out."

Dearil let out a long sigh and slumped back in his seat. One nice thing about working with royalty, rules were tantalizingly easy to bend. Dearil lined his vector up with the Roanoke and sped toward the distant carrier. "Roanoke Tower, this is River Styx. I am on approach, ETA: twenty minutes. Be advised, Sunray is aboard my transport. Requesting landing priority."

"Roger, River Styx. Landing priority confirmed. All ingress lanes have been halted for your arrival- wait..."

Dearil blinked. He'd never been told to wait like that for landing clearance. What the hell was going on today? Was the Roanoke being assigned to help at Horizon Point too? While Dearil waited silently, he heard multiple pings on his short range scanner. He looked up and saw a number of red pips on the display. More alerts and alarmed sounded in his cockpit. The most harrowing of the alerts was a cold, emotionless "Contact. Coalition IFFs detected within Fleet security perimeter." Horizon Point was no accident.

The shockwave from Horizon Point's explosion finally reached the River Styx, causing the whole ship to shake and groan. He heard a voice chime in through the ship's intercom, "Is everything alright, Dearil?"

Dearil didn't want to tell the princess that things were most certainly not alright. But he didn't really have much of a choice. "Strap in, princess! The Coalition is here and Horizon Point is sunk! I'm burning hard for the Roanoke!"

---

<<: ... Incoming transmission ... ;
<<: ... Signal Origin: UEES Hammerhand ... ;

<<: ... "This is Hightower. Confirmed. The target is aboard a lone transport and has just departed the Hammerhand. It has no escorts. Now is the chance to secure her." ... ;

<<: ... Transmission ends ... ;

Captain Fernaldo Ghent of the Coalition Special Tasks and Intelligence Fleet sat in the captain's chair of his stealth cruiser. He listened to the transmission and smirked. It seemed that black mailing and threatening the chief petty officer's family paid off. That was precisely the information he wanted to hear. Not only that, but his double agents in the UEE orbital platform pulled off their part of the plan without a hitch. It was all too easy. The black cruiser remained just outside the detection range of the fleet's inner perimeter, the stealth materials used in the STIF ship were more than capable at remaining undetected in passive sensors.

He order his sensors operator to filter out the UEE fleet before them to find this transport that Hightower had identified. He would see a number of transports, all headed toward the wreckage of Horizon Point. But one wasn't. One was headed away from the wreckage unlike everything else. Surely enough. THAT was the one that held his target. He tapped at a comms screen built into the armrest of his chair, "Commander. Your squadron has been waiting long enough. Our quarry has been found. Capture the target, kill the rest."

In the compact hangar of the stealth cruiser, four C-MAD MAS units waiting in launch tubes began powering up. Much like the stealth cruiser that carried them, these units were all black and fitted with stealth materials as well to compliment the cruiser's capabilities. The stealth armor was lighter and offered less protection against attacks. But it allowed for greater speeds and greatly reduced the distance the distance the MAS would need to be at in order to be detected by radar. They were the perfect units for a stealthy retrieval mission such as this. Fitted to the backs of the stealth units were overboosters to quickly launch them through a defensive perimeter.

The launch tubes powered on and sent the MAS units out into the cold vacuum of space. They all reoriented toward their highlighted target and fired the overboosters. The blue ion thrusters accelerating them to unprecedented speeds remarkably quick. They would show up on the UEE's sensors only briefly before the overboosters were discarded.

---

Dearil looked ahead and saw that a battle had already broken out between the River Styx and the Roanoke. It was likely the 7th giving the Coalition hell. But it didn't bode well for him or the princess as they had to pass right through the chaos. "This is going to be a rough ride, princess! Hold on tight!"

After saying that, Dearil heard some voices over the radio. Fleet command had dispatched an ISS frigate and a squadron of ISS MAS units to link up with the River Styx and act as escorts. But they were ten minutes out, and they were requesting that the transport powered down to reduce its signature and wait for them to arrive. Dearil wasn't keen on being dead in the water while a battle was waged all around them. Plus all the extra attention from the ISS would draw all the action toward them anyways. Dearil kept powering ahead toward the Roanoke and hailed the carrier. "Roanoke, this is River Styx. I'm going to need an escort as I pass through the battle space. The ISS is too far out to provide support for Sunray. Requesting the 7th's supp-"

The Carry-All was suddenly and violently rocked by a shot from a ballistic cannon. The ship span from the impact as alarms blared. It took Dearil a moment to regain control of the ship. "What the hell was that?! he looked around from his cockpit and spotted four black MAS units firing at the River Styx. An alarm sounded, which drew his attention to the diagnostics readout. Engine two was disabled and fuel was leaking from the nacelle.

"This is River Styx! Contact! I am being engaged by four times Coalition irregulars! I've lost power to one engine. Sunray is aboard this ship! I say again! Sunray is aboard! I need immediate assistance!"

Another shot hit the River Styx, rocking it once again. Thankfully, Dearil was prepared this time and kept the ship under control. More alarms blared, and Dearil saw that life support had been disabled. Good thing they weren't using that right now. Another shot hit the engine remaining engine, but the armor held. They're trying to disable the ship! Do they know who's on board?!

Dearil looked at a screen that had a video feed of the cargo hold. He saw Aurelia sitting straight backed in her seat, her whitened knuckles clutching tightly at the seat's restraints. She had her eyes closed. One of her ISS bodyguards laid unconscious on the floor, a crack in his helmet showed that he likely was hit in the head by loose crate. The other agent was knelt over him, trying to seal the crack with a plasticene foam. This was bad... Dearil knew that at that this rate, these irregular MAS units would have the princess before help could arrive. He switched off the inertial dampeners of his ship, allowing it to drift on its vector without input from the pilot. He then rotated the ship on its axis, bringing the nose to face its pursuers. Dearil tried to acquire a lock on the MAS units, but their stealth coating was making it difficult. "Fuck... Manual it is."

A shot ripped past the ship and missed. Dearil slaved the nose turret of the River Styx to his helmet, which tracked his eye movement. It would aim wherever he looked. He looked down, seeing that the AR display of his visor linked to the sensors underneath the cockpit of the ship. He was effectively able to see through the floor of the River Styx and operate the turret outside of what he could normally see. One MAS passed in front of him, which he quickly began to track. A quick burst of the small caliber ammunition traced out and missed the MAS. Manual aiming wasn't easy... He fired another burst, closer this time but still no dice. Another cannon shot came at the River Styx and hit just to the right of the cockpit, piercing directly into one of the large retro thrusters. The shot caused a small explosion, and the reinforced glass of the cockpit shattered, exposing Dearil directly to the vacuum of space. He was once again glad that he depressurized the ship. The glass exploded in every direction through the cockpit, a larger shard embedding itself in his lower abdomen. He groaned and bit down hard on his teeth to fight back the pain. Dearil kept piloting however. His third burst tracked a different MAS ahead of him, and he managed to score a series of hits on the armor of the MAS. The shield generator on the MAS stopped a number of the rounds, but some made it through and connected with the armor. He saw sparking flying from the shoulder joint of the MAS as it began to take evasive maneuvers.

"This is River Styx! Where is that god damn support!" he yelled. Pain lanced through his body from the glass in his gut. Thankfully his flight suit had worked to seal around the shard so he wouldn't be exposed to the radiation of space.

Another accurate shot from one of the stealth MAS units went straight into the nose turret. He let go of the turret controls with a frustrated gasp. A second shot hit the last engine, and this time it had done what it needed to do. The engine exploded, and with the inertial dampeners off, the River Styx was sent into a spin. Dearil tried to rearm the inertial dampeners, but they were disabled as well. There was nothing he could do in the pilot seat anymore. Dearil removed his harness and climbed from the pilot's seat, a hand firmly placed on his gut as blood floated from the shard. He held firmly onto a hand rail and made his way down into the cargo bay, the ship rocking again. Red emergency lights flared and span in the bay and klaxons sounded, though all Dearil could hear was the klaxons being dull and muffled through the vibrations of the hull. He saw that the ISS agent with the cracked helmet was dead, and the other was standing in front of the princess to shield her from debris in the hold.

Aurelia looked up and saw the injured Ferryman stagger down from the cockpit. "Dearil!"

The ISS agent looked over to him and took Aurelia's cry as a sign to go and help him. The ship rocked again as he took a few steps toward him. Suddenly, another cannon round pierced the hull. It ripped right through the ISS agent, turning his entire upper half into red mist. Dearil's suit was smeared with the ISS agent's blood, and his visor was blinded briefly until he used his hand to wiped the blood away. Dearil heard another alert sound in ear, which made him look at his wrist computer. The River Styx was sent into a decaying orbit. It was falling toward Cerol! He knelt before Aurelia who had a very worried expression on her face, "Princess! You need to get out of your seat!"

"What's happening?!" she asked worriedly, "You're injured, Dearil! How do I help you?"

Dearil shook his head, "Don't worry about me." He pointed next to the ladder that lead to the cockpit. "There's an escape pod there! It's good for four people. We need to get into it now!"

Aurelia nodded as Dearil took her hand and pulled her from her seat. He pushed her ahead of him, "I'm right behind you, Aurelia! Go!"

The ship rocked again and Aurelia fell to her knees. Dearil picked her up and moved her along. He reached into a pouch and pulled out his good luck charm. "Come on, baby, hold together!" he said to his ship.

Another round pierced the hull and just narrowly missed the two. Then they heard the sound of something heavy making contact with the ship. A MAS had just grabbed hold of the River Styx. They were going to board! Dearil reached out and shoved Aurelia forward into the escape pod with the hand that was holding his charm. It floated into the pod with her. Before she could turn around, Dearil slammed on a button to seal the pod. Aurelia screamed and pounded against the door of the pod. "Dearil! What are you doing?!"

"This is Ferryman. Sunray is aboard a lifepod and is ejecting toward Cerol. Send a recovery team immediately."

Dearil saw a plasma cutter beginning to shear away at the cargo bay ramp. He pulled a submachine gun off of a weapons rack and stood in front of the lifepod's door.

"Dearil! Let me out! Don't do this!" she cried.

The ramp blew open and a pilot in tan and black armor surged through. Dearil opened fire on the pilot, but he was inaccurate in his wounded state. The shots missed, and Dearil was answered with three fatal shots to the chest. He gasps and slumped back against the door. He heard Aurelia scream again just as the pod launched.

---

Aurelia watched through the small window at the River Styx. The wounded beast was flaming in more than one place as it span violently. She cried out for Dearil again, ignoring the fact that he wouldn't hear her. Then the River Styx exploded, taking the MAS that was attached to it with it. Her eyes widened as the fireball illuminated the dark pod. Then she heard alarms blaring within the pod. It took her a moment to collect herself and realize her situation.

"Warning... Atmospheric reentry detected. All survivors brace for landfall. Warning... Atmospheric reentry detected. All survivors brace for landfall. Warning..."

Aurelia looked around the pod and saw a display showing the pod's speed and time until it made impact. She grabbed a hold of a handrail and clung to it for dear life. The automated system in the lifepod continued to brief her.

"Landfall imminent. Deploying chute. Firing retro thrusters. Engaging crash padding."

Multiple panels in the hull of the pod opened up. Large air bags quickly inflated and obscured the steel walls. Aurelia could feel the deceleration from the pod's automated landfall procedures. The whole pod rumbled as it breached through the atmosphere. The surface of Cerol was fast approaching.

"Landfall in ten... nine... eight... SOS beacon active... seven... six... five... Brace for impact... four... three... two... one... Impact..."

Aurelia was sent into one of the air bags, and all went dark...

Falling Skies: Reboot ver 2

Dossier, Aurelia Invicta

Casual Appearance

MAS Flight Suit

Imperial Uniform

Aurelia Invicta

The Emperor's Youngest

Age
20

Callsign/Nicknames/Monikers
Princess - For obvious reasons, it is her official title after all
Heiress - Used by her siblings to tease her that she will likely never be the Empress of the UEE
Sunray - The military codeword used in reference to Aurelia in order to mask her identity during transmissions, datalogs, and radio communications

Kills
0

Psychological Analysis
Aurelia is a very conflicted young woman. She recognizes her status as a daughter of the Emperor, and understands that there are certain responsibilities and duties that are required of the royal family. But she also doesn't like that her destiny has been set in stone merely because of the family she was born to. Not to be misunderstood, Aurelia is a proud member of the Invicta royal line. However, she has set out to accomplish her own goals and forge a reputation for herself instead of simply inheriting the respect and reputation that is afforded to her family name. To that end, Aurelia has become somewhat disconnected from her other siblings after seeing how they so quickly adopted the Invicta history of their forebears. Much to Aurelia's personal distaste, she sees her family's ideology of perpetuating the war with the Coalition as a means to justify the need for power and control over the people. Aurelia isn't fond of war, and she is especially off put by the thought that billions of people across hundreds of worlds are surviving, fighting, and dying for a dynasty of people that they will never even lay eyes on.

Aurelia performs her duty as a battlespace commander both to honor the tradition of the royal line, and to discover a means to end the bloodshed for the good of all people: UEE, Coalition, or otherwise. Aurelia is often seen as a bit fragile compared to her siblings. Where her older brothers and sisters take flight into battles and revel in battle honors at the expense of Coalition lives, Aurelia would much prefer to take a gentler approach. She has earned a reputation for being a bit too soft, and as an inexperienced commander, it has drawn out the skepticism of her newly appointed senior staff. Aurelia promises that she will command to attain victory for the UEE, but the gentler soul she has always been while growing in the Imperial Palace on Terra suggests that when push comes to shove, she wont be able to bring herself to command the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Personal Record
Born as the sixth and final child of the aging Emperor Octavius Invicta, Aurelia grew up being pampered and closely guarded. All through her young years, she showed traits that were very unlike her older siblings. Aurelia was a gentle girl who preferred not to command her servants and use her authority, but instead befriended them and learned things that no one else in her family would even be bothered to know. When her brothers and sisters were learning the family's esteemed history of war and the theory behind their strategic successes at her age, Aurelia was nose deep in books that wrote of history's greatest pacifists, humanitarians, and saints. Her interest in such things worried the Emperor since Aurelia would inevitably be sent to the Royal Academy to one day command one of the Empire's battlegroups, a tradition among the Invicta line to establish respect fit for a prince or princess, and perhaps one day a ruler.

He demanded that Aurelia's tutors forced the important teachings before her so that she would at the very least have a fundamental understanding of the position she was to step into. And thus, Aurelia began studying war in all of its facets. She didn't quite like it. While the grand stories of heroism were entertaining to Aurelia, she always seemed to show distaste for everything else. It was clear to her siblings and her father that Aurelia was going to struggle with dispensing her duty aboard a flagship. But he wasn't about to abandon the Invicta ways, and so he once again forced even more lessons and teaching onto her. Before being sent to the Academy, Aurelia was being thrust into the cockpit of a custom built MAS unit and sent into simulations both as a pilot and as a commander. Aurelia showed a great deal of disinterest in it all, she had certainly been paying attention. Even when pitted against her siblings, Aurelia proved herself to be capable at holding her own, even if she had favored more evasive and defensive tactics in contrast to usual UEE way of maximum battlespace aggression. In one instance, Aurelia had managed to outmaneuver the Crown Prince and heir to the Empire, Ardin, in a simulated battle around the infamous moon of Jehan, a battle that Ardin himself had taken part in.

While Aurelia still held her non-violent ways near and dear to her heart, she couldn't help but to feel a certain pang of pride in her victory over her older brother who was credited to be a very competent commander. That pride took her through the academy, where she continued to take the least violent and least aggressive paths to success. Her instructors and class mates grew rather tired of her ability to dance around a battle or force a surrender from the opposing team, but they couldn't help but to admit it was a thing of strategic brilliance to de-escalate a battle that had costed other candidate commander's hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. She was effective at everything her instructors were trying to groom her not to be. The royal family had bred another fine commander, but completely unlike any other officer in the upper echelon of the Empire's command structure.

Having freshly graduated from the Royal Academy, Aurelia left Terra for the first time. By her father's decree, Aurelia was given command of the 5th fleet where she would rotate out with her older brother Prince Commodus Invicta, who had earned a respected reputation in the fleet as a keen and ruthless commander that only took prisoners if they held any importance to the enemy. Aurelia knew that upon taking command of the fleet, she would have the command staff questioning her after having served with distinction under Commodus' command. Her methods would be alien and at times unwelcome to the veteran fleet, and it was something she knew she'd have to work out quickly.

Equipment
Family Signet Ring w/ Tracking Beacon
Personal sidearm
A small book with the UEE's Charter of Individual Rights and Freedoms transcribed in it
Personal shield generator effective against up to five shots of standard small arms ammunitions, the efficacy may vary depending on what ammo is used

MAS Technical Data, Ragnarok --COMMANDEERED--

Ragnarok

Role
Vanguard, Close Assault, Brawler, Short Range, Shock & Awe

Chassis
AAT-9 Helheimr

Description
An exceptionally rare reverse joint legged MAS unit used by the Coalition. It is commonly used by the most elite pilots the Coalition has at its disposal. The AAT-9's name has led to many UEE troops referring to it as the Hellhammer, which is very fitting as most AAT-9 models are designed to close in with the enemy and deliver a decisive blow against any UEE that comes into contact with it. The Helheimr features a new composite armor that manages to maintain the usual agility of the medium class, while affording higher levels of protection to withstand the focused fire that the AAT-9's presence encourages. To add onto that protection, the Helheimr is outfitted with a massive shield mounted onto the right forearm that can withstand most common weapons save for those mounted on warships. The shield is flanged and bladed at the end to allow for it to double as an effective melee weapon. Also within the shielded forearm is an additional directional shield generator to disperse energy weapons and slow ballistics. This dual layered defense in conjunction with the MAS unit's standard shields means that the Helheimr can take an absolute pounding and still be very healthy by the time it reaches close quarters. And even if its shields have been depleted and its mounted shield arm is damaged to the point of inefficacy, the ultra-dense composite armor of the unit's frame can keep it going while it brawls.

For the Ragnarok specifically, the original pilot of the MAS seems to have adorned it with the pelt of a large alien apex predator. The pelt and skull add to the already aggressive and violent stature of the feared AAT-9, and make the Ragnarok stand out as a truly brutal and intimidating war machine.

Systems
--Heavy Mount--
EPS-20 Power Pack
A heavy external power pack that is capable of both generating its own power independently from the AAT-9's internal reactor, and storing that power for long term use. The EPS-20 is meant for consistent, repetitive use of laser cannons while also supplementing its power to the energy load of the MAS unit itself. While the power pack is heavy and must be mounted on the back of the MAS, the additional power that the EPS-20 provides allows the MAS to stay active almost indefinitely. Because of this, the EPS-20 is a favorite among Coalition pilots whose common tasks involve lingering in enemy territory for long stretches of time, or who find themselves on the front line and constantly needing to be on the move. The EPS-20 is EMP shielded to prevent its power supply from being siphoned, and in a pinch, the power pack can also emit its own EMP pulse out to one hundred meters at the cost of a significant amount of charge stored in the EPS-20 and a reduced rate of energy generation. As the AAT-9's EMP shielding is rather weak, an EMP pulse from the EPS-20 can also have adverse effects on the MAS unit itself.

The EPS-20 is what allows the AAT-9 to simultaneously operate the Repulsor and Reflex shields while also firing its main laser cannon.

--Primary Mount--
VLC-5A2 Laser Battle Cannon
A MAS laser rifle that is commonly carried in both hands. The VLC-5 is often seen in the hands of Coalition MAS units, and it isn't an uncommon weapon by any stretch of the imagination. The A2 variant of the VLC-5 however, is a bit rarer. The weapon is made of a lighter weight material than its predecessor, allowing it to be carried in one hand at the cost of accuracy and stability, but it is still best used in both hands. The retaining prongs that hold the focusing crystal in place within the weapon system can be deliberately loosened to allow the laser weapon to fire its shots in a smaller cone rather than be perfectly accurate all the time, thus enabling the weapon to become a suppression device when required. The A2 features more control over the power of the laser that the rifle is emitting. When drawing power from the EPS-20, the pilot can set both the rate of fire and the amount of charge is to be used each shot. This allows the VLC-5A2 a great deal of versatility being able to be used as a high powered laser lance for armored targets, or as a rapid firing pulse laser for fast movers or soft targets, or it can be used as anything in between that range. The weapon's heat restrictions list that range of uses as being in the 'green zone' for safety limits. But if the pilot chooses, the limiter can be disabled, and both the charge level and rate of fire can be unlinked for ultimate freedom.

The risks of such things should always be considered, as a rapid fire laser lance, while incredibly powerful, will very quickly overheat not only the weapon system, but the MAS as well as the suit's heat sinks are quickly damaged beyond the repair. The power draw of such a setting would also quickly overwhelm the consistent supply of the EPS-20, and begin to draw from the AAT-9's internal supply, thus reducing the effectiveness of the rest of the AAT-9's components. Worse yet, such strains on the focusing crystal inside of the weapon system will damage it and warp the retaining prongs that are holding the focus crystal in place, thus negatively effecting the precise accuracy of the laser weapon until a weapon's technician can repair it. Finally, the immense power draw of the disabled limiters could also cause damage to the EPS-20 and permanently reduce its maximum supply if it is constantly drawn from in this state for too long. Coalition pilots who have been trained in the use of the VLC-2A5 have been instructed to disable the limiter only when they come into contact with something they are not otherwise equipped for, or if all other options have been exhausted and the pilot is forced to resort to more extreme measures.

--Primary Mount--
AMS-2 Repulsor Shield
Mounted directly onto the right forearm of the Helheimr, the repulsor is an advanced, heavily armored secondary shield generator. The armor itself can sustain a large amount of damage before becoming compromised. Within the forearm of the AAT-9, the secondary shield generator can project a durable energy shield, the trade off for this is that it cannot be projected completely around the MAS, and can only be directed in to face one direction. The repulsor allows for a very aggressive approach as it can stave off a handful of shots from even heavy weaponry. Even when the shield generator isn't active, the armor plates on the repulsor can still stop some larger munitions. When both the repulsor's shield generator and the MAS unit's primary shield generators are both active, the repulsor serves to act as a sort of shield hardener to that facing rather than as a second layer. A weakness of the shield is that since it is mounted on the right arm, it ergonomically makes it difficult to bolster the defense on the left side of the MAS. It also means that it is rather ineffective to the rear as well.

The repulsor is frequently the subject of drastic battlefield modifications. For the Ragnarok in particular, the original pilot of the MAS has added blades to the front and sides to serve as an improvised melee weapon. Since the repulsor is directly mounted to the forearm of the MAS, it leaves the hand available to wield the Multi Cannon. This also means that when the MAS is firing ahead, that the repulsor is generally also protecting the front of the MAS as well. Despite the Helheimr's original intention of being a close assault MAS, the sturdy armor and formidable defense of the repulsor while being held in the firing position allow for the Helheimr to become a very potent firebase.

--Secondary Mount--
MHG-40 AutoMag
The preferred sidearm of Coalition MAS veterans. The 40mm MAS handgun can hold eight heavy rounds, in either the high explosive or sabot varieties. The handgun is short ranged and is only really effective up to one hundred meters. The storage module for the MGH-40 also carries two reserve magazines for the weapon, allowing for a total of twenty-four shots to be carried for the weapon. Thankfully, the large 40mm rounds that this weapon fires give it plenty of stopping power so twenty-four rounds when things are desperate should be more than enough if the situation has devolved to a point where the handgun needs to be relied on.

--Secondary Mount--
MAS Hand Grenades
To capitalize on the AAT-9's deadliness in close quarters, the original pilot has outfitted the Ragnarok with a grenade mount capable of carrying four large anti-MAS hand grenades. Thrown weapons are uncommon for MAS units, but they are undoubtedly extremely vicious in urban settings where dominating corners in the name of the game. Being an upscaled grenade, the destructive force of these weapons has brought them to the forefront of many war ethics debates. The Coalition has manufactured a variety of these grenades, and their simplicity makes them easily replicated by the UEE. The most common types of MAS Hand Grenades are simple high explosive ones, but EMP grenades and flechette grenades aren't uncommon either. There are also non-lethal grenades such as sensor scrambling chaff and thermal-smoke grenades. There are even more utilitarian variants of the MAS Hand Grenade like the ping grenades which can be thrown to emit a sensor pulse and feed information of the blind corner to the pilot, or a light emitting flare to overwhelm optical sensors and blind the eyes of infantry while also providing light in otherwise dark conditions.

--Utility System--
Reflex Energy Shield
A standard Reflex Shield used by many MAS units. When used in conjunction with the Repulsor, the physical defense of the AAT-9 can become nearly unparalleled by any other MAS in human space.

--Utility System--
Solid Fuel Afterburners
Used when the Helheimr is supposed to lead an assault and breach enemy lines. While the AAT-9 can reach rush ahead quickly, it doesn't do as well while strafing, thus the Helheimr must rely on its superior protection to simply wade through enemy fire rather than evade it.

Rise of the Shield Hero - From Another World

Posted! I realized I should keep it short since it is a fight scene with more than a few moving pieces.

Rise of the Shield Hero - From Another World

Arrival

(Mood Music)

Auriel heard the sounds of steel on steel echoing ahead through the cave. The grunts and groans that came with the stresses of battle made her hurry her pace. She was close now, and from the sounds of things, the heroes would need her help. Auriel held her spear in one hand, the shaft held tight to her back so as to not catch on the jagged rock surfaces around her. She ran through a mouth in the cave wall and came out into the chamber just in time to see Fer use an unusual ability from his shield. She breathed easy, seeing that the two of them were still okay... Then she saw Rayla's sword strike at Cole's chest, tracing a red line in the arch of the swing. The sight of a blow connecting with the sword hero made Auriel burst into action. She wasn't about to stand by and let this notorious bandit queen end her heroes so soon!

Another repulse came from Fer's shield, and Auriel used the opportunity to follow up with the ability step into all three combatant's line of sight, the golden spear stabbing forward with lightning speed toward Rayla's chest. Regardless of whether or not the strike would hit, Auriel stood between Rayla and the tiring heroes, her wings spread wide as if to dominate the room and force Rayla's attention onto her instead. She pointed the tip of her spear at Rayla, her hand holding the weapon just below the long bladed edge of the spear, "Rayla Winters," she declared, "Your time has come."

Falling Skies: Reboot ver 2

A Change of Plans

(Mood Music)

Dearil looked beyond the ISS agents with a mixture of surprise and frustration. His immediate response apparently didn't please the ISS agents either as they both broadened their shoulders and prepared themselves to force Dearil to his knees. A pale hand from the shadows of the cargo bay waved them off, and the ISS agents relaxed again. Dearil looked between the two agents for a moment before turning his gaze back on the woman sitting casually atop a freshly opened crate of hyperwater. The figure was sipping from a bottle that she just so happened to help herself to, not that Dearil was about to tell her otherwise.

She lowered the bottle from her lips and looked back to Dearil, an eyebrow perking up as she does, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by your response. I would be the last thing to expect randomly aboard my ship too, if I were you."

The woman stood up from the crate, and the ISS agents tensed up again. Dearil knew why. He lowered to one knee and bowed his head to the floor of his ship. "Princess Aurelia." he said.

One of the ISS agents punted him with a fist and spoke aggressively, "You are to address her ONLY as 'your highness'! How dare you speak her name-"

Aurelia raised a hand again, "That's enough, Marius. He dares call me by my first name, and I welcome it. This man a part of my personal detail long before you ever were. You will show him the respect he deserves." Aurelia turned her emerald gaze back down onto Daeril, "Even after all these years, I still consider you to be a friend, Daeril. Rise, there isn't any need for formalities."

Daeril looked up at Aurelia and breathed easy at that. He had worried that the youngest of the royal family wouldn't have forgiven him for leaving the ISS, yet there she was as forgiving as ever. It was a trait among the royal family that was unique to her and her alone. She wore a black space suit, similar to the suits worn by the ISS. But her suit was more lightly armored, and it was decorated with gold trim and impressive accoutrements befitting for a princess. Her blonde hair was tied back into a pony tail and adorned with a silver dove hairpin to hold it in place.

Daeril stood again and shrugged off the hit from the ISS agent. He smiled, "It's good to see you again, Aurelia. But I can't help but think that our meeting here has some implications. This incognito movement for a member of the royal family is right out of the ISS handbook..." he paused, "Are you expecting something?"

Aurelia sighed. She knew that Daeril would easily catch on to why she was discreetly sitting in his ship. "More of a precaution. Intelligence has been intercepting Coalition communications and they think they're planning something soon for the fleet here at Cerol. Fleet Command deemed it best to spread some chaotic information about my whereabouts, hopefully to dampen the severity of their attack with uncertainty. I'm more valuable to the Coalition alive than dead, after all."

Dearil nodded understandingly, but his confusion was still niggling away at him. "So... Why hide in a freighter then? This thing is basically defenseless against a MAS or a warship."

Aurelia spoke up almost immediately after he finished, "Your next stop is the Roanoke, yes? It's currently carrying the 7th MAS Squadron of the 101st. I figured since I'm officially touring a battlegroup above the opposite hemisphere, that a small elite team like them would be more than adequate protection. But really, I could have picked any transport. I just so happened to be aboard the Hammerhand when I heard one 'Dearil Redmond' just so happened to arrive. Figured I'd take the opportunity to reunite with my old bodyguard and see how well he's adjusted to his new life."

That last comment made Dearil clear his throat awkwardly. The loaded state of his ship wasn't really in the most sightly condition, especially not after the Hammerhand's deck crew got their hands on it. "It's uh... Normally not this messy."

Aurelia smirked at that, "It just needs a woman's touch. Hopefully Jenna is up to the task when you finish this rotation."

Daeril thought longingly of his wife. Jenna was an imperial officer, and an instructor in the royal academy where Aurelia trained. Dearil had fawned over Jenna for quite some time as he shadowed the classroom in the corner to ensure Aurelia's safety. It was the princess herself that secretly arranged for the two to meet. Dearil couldn't have been more thankful for the princess for that. "Ahh I'm gonna need a nanny to help keep things together once I'm back. Jenna has her hands busy enough with Kade."

Aurelia blinked at that, her emerald eyes wide upon hearing his words. "Oh heavens, he's a father." she said breathlessly as if the universe was ending.

Dearil laughed at that and stepped further into the ship. He led Aurelia to the cockpit and pointed at printed picture of his Jenna and their daughter next to the flight controls of the ship. Aurelia excitedly took the photo in her hands and examined it closely, "Ah she's precious! I can't believe I never heard about this! When I'm on Terra next, I'm paying your wife a visit. Your baby girl needs some more auntie Auri in her life!"

Dearil shook his head with a big grin on his face. It was always so refreshing speaking a member of the royal family without all of the due process and formality. In truth, guarding Aurelia through her teen years really helped build up his paternal instinct. She was practically family! The unspoken, unofficial, experiment to see if Dearil had what it takes to be a guardian. He'd never say those things to anyone since... Well that'd land him locked up in the ISS stockades on Earth for the rest of his life for referring to a royal princess as an experiment. Dearil heard a voice come over the radio of his flight helmet. He recognized that voice, "Ah crap... Hold on, Aurelia. I need to get screamed at by the chief petty officer of the ship for loitering in his busy hangar. You can hold onto that for now." he pointed at the picture of his family in her hands since it looked like she wasn't about to let go of it just yet! "Actually, best get strapped in back there. Seems we've got a backup of ships waiting to use this hangar. We'll be leaving shortly. Oh, and make sure Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum back there don't touch my hyperwater. Princesses only." he winked and slipped into the pilot's seat.

Rise of the Shield Hero - From Another World

I feel like Auriel should come in when Rayla is going to deliver her death blow to the boys like a saving angel with all he righteous wrath lol

@Omni5876

Do you suggest I wait then?

Rise of the Shield Hero - From Another World

Will post this week! If not during the week days it'll definitely be the weekend at the latest ^.^

Falling Skies: Reboot ver 2

An Unexpected Guest

(Mood Music)

Dearil looked over his exhaustive manifest and checked to make sure that every item that was coming off of his ship was meant to come off. He had the deck crew of the cruiser doing all the hard work while he handled the logistics, and they were more than happy to do such if it meant getting a small discount at Dearil's canteen. His arrival aboard ships was always looked forward to as he brought with him a sizeable stock of local goods from the surface of whichever planet they were moored over. Being Cerol, Dearil made sure to bring to the planet's signature export, 'hyperwater'.

The minerals in Cerol's rivers and ocean beds had made the H2O on the planet quite rich. Not only was it safe to drink, but Hyperwater acted as a sort of energy drink to human beings, without any additives or chemicals. It was a truly healthy drink that people had come to appreciate, especially the marines of the UEE. Dearil's canteen supply was paid for out of his pocket, which was thankfully cushioned by a healthy salary afforded to him by his previous experience as an officer among the Imperial Secret Service. Anything he made from the canteen also went right back into the supplying of it. No matter where the fleet went or what planet they were over, Dearil's biggest seller was always cigarettes and energy drinks, and they were always the first things to run dry in his stock. Still, Dearil's other stocks made money, as people who had come for one or both of the hot commodities would often feel bad for arriving and wasting his valuable time, so they would buy something else instead. The men and women of the fleet appreciated Dearil and his efforts, even if he was just a lowly cargo pilot.

"Hey, Ferryman!" Dearil heard someone call out. He glanced up from his datapad and saw the ship's chief petty officer stomping toward him. Well... Almost every man and woman appreciated him.

Dearil sighed quietly and came to attention, "Haah... Sir." he acknowledged him professionally.

"How many times have you told you not to sell your goodies aboard my ship and to my crew?! It takes away from the ship's wallet for its own canteen! And none of the stuff you're selling has been properly vetted! What if you bring aboard some sort of hostile microbes from the surface?! You could get my hole ship sick!" he scolded.

Dearil remained at attention and turned his brain off as he got a strip ripped from him. Getting yelled at was part for the course in the military, and it didn't matter who you were. There was always a bigger fish. But as Dearil was getting his yelled at by the old croak of a chief, the deck crews continued to offload stuff from Dearil's ship. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two crates. One was a crate of the vaunted Hyperwater! Dearil cut the chief off and pointed accusingly at the deckhand, "Oi! I didn't say you could offload that! And didn't you hear your Chief?! My stock isn't allowed in here! Put it back in!"

The chief, who was obviously frustrated by Dearil's interruption, heard what he had to say and joined in with him to then rip a strip off of the deck hand, "What do you think you're doing?! Do you know what we do with thiefs, Grafton?! We damn near hang 'em aboard this ship!"

"And that!" he pointed at the other crate, a nondescript black box with the mark of the ISS on it, "Where the hell did that come from?! Why are you grabbing classified equipment of the Secret Service?!"

Grafton looked between Dearil and the Chief with bewilderment and record high levels of anxiety. Some sweat was even beading off of his forehead. "Y- yes, sir! Sorry, sir! I'll back it back right away, sir!"

Dearil and the Chief continued to bark at Grafton as he hurried to load the two crates back onto the Carry-All. He quickly skidded to a halt and came to attention facing the hold of Dearil's ship, all while he and the chief were continuing to simply just mess with his head at this point. A moment of entertaining, spontaneous solidarity between Dearil and the Chief of the cruiser Hammerhand. Dearil blinked and stopped yelling at Grafton, and the Chief Petty Officer followed suit not long after. "Hey, Grafton." the chief started, "I'm over here. What are you doing?"

Grafton looked over the Dearil and chief, then cautiously pointed into the ship. They both followed the notional line that was being drawn and saw two men in black armor stepping out of Dearil's Carry-All, both bearing the mark of the Imperial Secret Service. Dearil raised a brow. They weren't on his ship before... Wait... Why do they have crates on my ship?! Dearil shot a look at the chief, who patted Dearil's shoulder, "Ah yeah, that's what I was originally coming here for. You have some guests accompanying you on your next flight. Oh and I think you're next destination has been changed too."

Dearil looked down at his datapad to check his flight path, and he had indeed noticed that the order of ships he was flying to was changed. In fact... His runs were seemingly coming to an end. What was supposed to be a whole day of flying between eight different ships of the fleet became a one-way ticket to a single ship. The Roanoke. Dearil rubbed the back of his head, if the ISS was involved, there really wasn't much he could do about it. But why the secrecy? What were they even doing on the Hammerhand to begin with? Why the rush to move to the Roanoke? But he collected himself and waved off the deck crew, "Sorry, boys, canteen isn't opening this time due to... ISS." he gestured to the black armored figures waiting patiently for him on the cargo ramp.

The crew groaned and slumped when they realized their work had been for nothing. Not that Dearil could help the matter at all. "Sorry, everyone. I'll spend some extra time and have more goodies for you on my next flig-" he caught the burning gaze of the Chief with his hands at his sides, "I mean my canteen is off limits and I will most certainly not be selling un-vetted goods out of the back of my ship on my next flight in. Nope. Not at all."

Dearil heard a few deck hands struggling to contain their snickers and laughs as he paid lip service to the Chief. Everyone knew it was formality. He'd be back and selling his goods the next day, and Dearil and the Chief would once again be having their meaningless (and scheduled) back and forth. Satisfied, the Chief left the cargo hold, and the deck crew began to disperse. Dearil sighed and looked back at the ISS agents, and made his way onto the ramp. The agents wordlessly watched him until he was about to step into the ship. One of the grabbed onto his shoulder firmly to stop him. Dearil scowled, "Hey, what gives?"

"Hello, Dearil. It's been a while," a feminine voice said from further in the cargo bay.

Dearil looked past the ISS agent and spotted the source of the voice. His shoulders relaxed, and Dearil let out a very long sigh, "Ahh shit..."