Iron Hearts

[Durandal]

Livonian 665th "Iron Hearts"

His heartbeat. Once. Two times. Three times. He breathed in and out, slowly for a moment, seeming to search his thoughts for a moment. "Stand by, please, if you would. Prepare yourselves for.... Well.... Something." The Kontos Lance was raised up, the lights along it glowing to show that it was more than ready to be used. Something was definitely off, and he felt it poking at his mind like a dull needle. As it turns out, his instincts weren't wrong.

Some of the "asteroids" near the freighter had begun to, well, move. Uncoiling themselves from a camouflaged position, approximately 3 Unganzes raised up, covered in rocky bits and details. The parts that weren't, however, were.... Odd. They showed no divisional markings common amongst Unaff military details, and their color scheme was white, with sky blue highlights, as opposed to the traditional coloration of khaki. No specific communications were established, as the Unganze (roughly arrayed in a formation) began moving in for a better firing position. They honestly thought they weren't spotted.

<Livoniianoi Pilots can respond to this point with a quick action, such as yelling out and/or letting off a weapon shot.>

Cato yelled out to both Hunter and Lara, "There!", in a quick, rapid voice, indicating the Unganze mecha approaching. The Hoplon Shield Drone blasted off from its position near the Kataphraktoi, and put up a position near the CANIS, its field helping to protect the (probably paper thin) armor of the wolf-like mecha.

The Unganze, as they approached, fired off a few shots, but they were not yet within range to use their Volcano cannons effectively.

BATTLE BEGIN:

Opponents:
2x Unganze, Volcano, Thunder
1x Unganze, 2x Thunder, Command Markings.

Command markings one appears to be defending the other two.

Unaff Confederacy, 2nd Wing, 13th Strike Group, Designation SF "Eisenhertze"

"I'd prefer if you would all be patient."

A strong, firm-sounding voice sounded out over the comm channels, one that spoke with an obvious amount of experience. Whether or not they had met this man in the past, they most likely at least had heard about him from numerous videos extolling his triumphs. The famed Black Knight of the Unaff, Adelhart Danzinger, was a hard man to not pick out, the Ungrande mecha even harder yet. It was a knight-shaped mecha, even more graceful in appearance than even the Tallgeese. It almost seemed otherworldly, how it looked, with faint traces, here and there, that even looked, to Genome's eyes, like they almost belonged more to Lazengann's build (The original face, mind you) than to any Unaff mecha.

But regardless, he carried on with his statements, saying, "Affirmative, Lazengann, situation normal. Although laying mines would be prudent, I would recommend against it for the sole reason that we'll be moving. Dropping mines behind us is only going to protect behind us, and unless it moves with the ship, will be a barrier to commerce in this area. Affirmative from the Untorrha, appreciate your recon position. Be careful not to go too far forwards, where you won't be able to be easily covered by both our batteries and the ship's batteries." He seemed almost bored as he rattled off his commentary and suggestions. Although tactically sound, it sounded like he despised this mission. Like it was beneath him. For those who knew who he was, it, in fact, was a major downgrade for what he usually did.

He opened up a specific channel to Genome. "Are you holding up fine? I.... Apologize for your conscription, although I had naught to do with it. Sometimes, we act as little more than pawns to forces driving us."

[THEChanger]

In truth, Henry was caught a bit off guard by the approaching Unganze, lacking the Livoniianoi precognition his two squad mates possessed. However, Henry's mind quickly began processing the information visual scanners were presenting him with. Blue and white, not typical Unaff colors. Clever camouflage, disguising themselves as asteroids, rather than merely using them as cover. However, now they were out in the open, and they had fired the first shots. Which meant they were now fair game. "Permission to engage, Your Lordship."

[Naril]

Lara had been in the middle of a yawn when alarms started buzzing on the console in front of her. By the time she'd closed her mouth, half a dozen screens had blinked into life, each one blazing with alerts and automated sensor readings. She leaned forward, her fingers flying over the glowing displays, and her heart sped up. Three of the Confederacy's heaviest mechs judging by their power output, confirmed a second later by scanner signature. The deeply-rooted cockpit left Lara without a direct visual on the new contacts, but as she brushed her hands across a couple of unusually-anachronistic toggle switches, another set of floating, semitransparent displays flickered into existence with the 'mech's external camera views.

Lara let out a string of colorful dockside curse words as Cato's voice came over the comm, an instant before a handful of vicious, red-hot streaks blurred through space around her, none of the rounds coming close even to her huge 'mech's profile. Her gloved hands wrapped around the 'mech's control sticks as she brought the machine's enormous artillery cannon to bear on the attackers. The pod moved with a deliberate grace, the cockpit rumbling as the weapon came up to its operating speed, the huge barrels lock into place inside their armored cocoon. She looked at the camera views again and nodded; a commander and two lackeys.

Well, she thought, cut off the head...

She took aim at the command-painted enemy and squeezed the trigger, a thunderous bellow echoing through the machine's superstructure that made Lara's bones rattle. She couldn't make pinpoint attacks, not in something as large as this, but a center-of-mass hit from one of the 'mech's huge artillery batteries should still leave the enemy pilot looking for his teeth. As an armor-piercing explosive shell streaked into the interstellar blackness, she clicked the mic on again, breathing more quickly. She looked around at the screens again and a thousand thoughts flooded through her head. She might not be formally in charge, but old habits died long deaths.

"Mister Hunter," Lara's raised voice cut over the roar of the artillery but remained calm, cool, and collected, "Cover the freighter and try to get them behind some kind of cover; asteroids, anything. If they start shooting at the ship, draw their fire but stay far enough away that you can evade; I don't think I need to tell you what's going to happen if they hit you. Mister Basileus, with me please, take out the unit with command markings. If you can, use your rifle to disable his sensors; these big mechs don't work so well without them and it might give us an advantage. I can take hits better than you can, so keep yourself out the line of fire for now."

The huge artillery pod outside clunked and whirred as another barrel shifted into firing position, and the complicated sounds of reloading echoed up through her feet as the empty one reloaded. She started to turn the mech's torso entirely toward the enemy and clicked another switch, the rotary gun coming up to speed. It would be quite a few precious seconds before both weapons could be trained on the attacking forces but Lara figured it would be good to at least get that process started.

[Lecos]

Unaff

---

“Wouldn’t dream of leaving your assist range, commander.” Hayden closed the comm-channel with a short double-clicking of his mic before turning his attention elsewhere. The kid seems more like cannon fodder than an actual soldier. Speaks volume regarding what the brass thinks about this outfit. Though Hayden wasn’t sure what his commander had done to deserve them. The man had a reputation and, from what he had heard, was what Hayden would consider a more than capable commander. Maybe too capable.

There was always a fair deal of power struggle going on among the upper echelon, that much was clear after years of service. Even if you tried to keep your head clear of any confrontations, commanders and officers chose favourites, and you never had much influence over that. As a favourite, you became a plaything for others to get to their actual targets. So if there was always a chance of ending up getting involved, you could just as well play from the start. Hayden had tried his hand at that philosophy exactly once. Gripping one of the control levers a bit tighter, he dismissed his thoughts.

“Kushrenada, I’d suggest you move up your Tallgeese so that we can sweep the debris field. Standard procedure, you dive in and scour the outer edges. If anything shows up, fall back and we’ll have it between the two of us. How does that sound?”

[VanceXentan]

"That's LORD Khushrenada to you peasent! How dare you disrespect-" The OZ officer in charge of the squad shouts over the com as he refuses to let someone disrespect his leader. He is stopped by George himself as he comes onto the channel to which he shuts up almost immediately. "I would ask that you show respect, both of you, I am a Colonel after all. And you corporal I would ask that you don't insult other Unaff soldiers for such minor things. However you're suggestion is noted I will clear it up but I am not going inside of it. Tallgeese can survive in there but even a single slip up could mean my life. I would like to avoid such a thing if you do not mind me saying so." George said simply before stretching his arms and moving Tallgeese forward toward the debris field careful to not get inside it but stay at a reasonable safe distance away from the outer edge. His men did not accompany him but kept watch with their weapons ready for the slightest sign of an attack. Tallgeese's vernier engines allowed it to easily cruise around in space he did so with about five G's at his back to make sure he did not waste power or overdo himself early in the game.

[LJCOMICS]

After some confirmations from their commander, Genome relaxed a little. Sometimes hearing an authoritative voice just helped with that sort of nervousness. However, said commander then opened a private channel between the two, and asked him how he was doing. There was another comment about how he wasn't responsible for Genome being out here, which Genome was already perfectly aware of (he bit back a comment about not being dumb enough to think that). In truth, Genome had thought very little of being conscripted. He had expected to enter the military at one point or another in his life, as that would be the most direct route to power, given his skillset. Though being sat on the front lines was something he did not account for, Genome trusted the Lazengann. He had no such ideas regarding the Lazengann being an "emphatic" machine, but he did admit that he felt generally more confident in its cockpit than he did elsewhere. Perhaps it was another feature of the neural link, perhaps it was just some kind of placebo effect, he really didn't know.

"I'm holding up... well enough, commander." Genome answered after a few seconds deliberating his answer. "Well, as far as pawns go, one that crosses the board may become a king, right?" He tapped on his controls a few times, and brought up the firing interface for his "drill shot", and examined the illegible alien characters that scrolled across the screen. "About those mines, sir. I might be able to get the entire field to follow us. Well, maybe. I think there's some kind of functionality for that." He sighed out of something like frustration, but he wasn't really sure what the actual emotion was. "As much as it pains me to say, I really don't have much idea how this thing works. The fact that I built most of it really makes it worse. It's like, when I started it up after finishing it, the core just modified everything to suit its own parameters, somehow, and now I'm piloting this thing without knowing what most of its functions are. I'd like to get someone to take a look at it eventually, maybe someone who knows more about this than I do, but at the the same time I really don't trust anyone to look at it. If that makes any sense." Realizing that he was babbling to the commander about his problems, probably out of nervousness, he squeaked out, "S-sorry for talking so much, commander."

[Durandal]

Livonian 665th "Iron Hearts"

"Engagement authorized. Be careful out there, and try not to outrun the Hoplon. It will keep you at least a little bit more alive if anything hits you. And I have a plan. Believe me, shooting at the command's sensors won't do more than what I'm going to do."

The Kataphraktoi wheeled around in a graceful roll, spiraling towards the Unganze in a jerking, spasmodic fashion, mostly to take advantage of the fact that the Unganze's Volcano Cannons simply didn't have the ability to turn fast enough to keep up with a foe that dodged that fast, unless the foe in question knew what he was doing. And thankfully, they didn't seem to know what they were doing. As Cato spiraled past them, the Kontos shot out numerous greenish-blue flares of energy, blasting towards the lesser subordinate mecha with a burning intensity. The Commander intercepted in time, however, as the shots impacted the shielding arms, doing little damage. However, the commander had his attention, more importantly, diverted away from the other two mecha, and in a direction other than Lara's own mecha.

The shot from the artillery cannon shook the very space around them, the movement of the shell alone rattling smaller, nearby mecha. The shell streaked across space, and impacted into the right side of one of the subordinate Unganze, due to the commander having moved to cover from Cato, the shell exploding against the armor and delivering one hell of a bitchslap to the large mecha, chunks of armor blasting off and floating in space nearby. The Volcano Cannon on its right arm seemed to have troubles moving now, sparking and shuddering when it attempted to track the Kataphraktoi.

The Volcano Cannons roared out, firing at Cato, but the Kataphraktoi was like a blinding blur against the background of space, and trying to turn and effectively engage it was just about futile. They started swinging themselves around to more adequately target the smaller mecha. After all, the other mecha were still too far away to effectively fire at. The Commander repositioned himself to cover against the artillery cannon, realizing, unfortunately too late for one mecha, that the artillery was more of a threat than anything else.



Unaff Confederacy, 2nd Wing, 13th Strike Group, Designation SF "Eisenhertze"

"An overall sound judgement, go ahead and sweep the debris. Keep care, we don't want to run into any surprises. And please, Khushrenada, if you would keep your subordinates under control? I care not about your internal ranking structure, or any faction you belong to, only about ranking within the squadron itself. We are, first and foremost, a team, and I'm here to make sure that this team doesn't eat itself, or get eaten in turn. I'm in charge of this detail. And as long as we do not have any issues with that, we can carry on smartly."

Even if there wasn't a hint of rebellion in the words that were being spoken by the other members of the squadron, it was fairly obvious that Adelhart wanted to ensure that loyalties, first and foremost, stayed firmly on the side of the squadron leader, namely, him. Considering that he was one of the most experienced members of the group, this wasn't particularly surprising. The way he spoke them was harsh, but at the same time, had quite a bit of confidence behind it. Even if Adelhart Danzinger could be considered a total dick by the people he led, at the very least, they couldn't say he ever led them wrong. Quite a few military engagements had gone by with him at the helm of them, with none of them really going south.

The private communication between him and Genome continued. "A pawn may very well become a king. I've already made my way to Knight, I suppose." A short laugh went through the channel for a brief moment, before cutting short. He listened carefully to what his subordinate said, and said, ".... Very well. You may attempt it. I understand a fair bit about the 'not sure how it works' side of things. Half of the things on the Ungrande supposedly break the laws of physics as we know them, according to the men who built it. Of course, I halfway suspected they just bolted some random alien technology onto the frame of an Unarze, and called it a day. But that's me being cynical."

The debris field was a remnant of the war 100 years ago, with numerous mecha parts and the rest of that floating in the midst of space. A veritable space graveyard, with shorn metal and the occasional empty spacesuit floating amidst the wreckage testament to a great battle in the past.

[THEChanger]

"Engagement authorized. Be-"

Scarcely were the words out of his commander's mouth than Henry pushed his thrusters to full throttle, the CANIS rocketting forward, engaging in a similar dancing pattern to Cato's own. As the commander was distracted by the Kataphraktoi's lazer blasts, allowing the artillery shell to strike one of the subordinate mecha, Henry took his chance to strike. The CANIS darting inbetween the enemy mecha, one limb lashed out, raking the back of the Commander mecha with it's Laztech claws. Not wanting to stay within melee range any longer than he had to, Henry sent the CANIS straight down, spiraling back out towards the waiting Hoplon shield. With a twist of the controls, Henry spun the CANIS about, and the right shoulder opened up, sending a single Marcus missle towards the group of Unganze. The missle was less to cause any real damage to the Unganze, but rather to keep the pilots off their game, distracted and on the defensive. Inside his cockpit, Henry grinned. "Let the record show that it has been some time since I've actually been in a combat zone, and that my heightened vital signs have absolutely nothing to do with any sort of enjoyment derived from once again being on the field of battle."

[Lecos]

Hayden didn’t like the sound of either of the two responses, but their commander cut in before he could reply in length. “Glad we got that covered,” he said drily instead. He couldn’t stand working with what he deemed to be civilian contractors and auxiliary units. From his experience, squads were usually better off without them, performance-wise.

The blip that was the Tallgeese began to move forward on his HUD, disengaging from the bigger contact that was their charge. In time, the mecha came into optical view, the white casing with a small shield on one, a long-barrelled gun on the other arm. The two engines took up position.

Another sensor sweep by the Untorrha later, Hayden was analysing his readings. The trash and debris was too dense and numerous to make out anything specific, and even with their destruction so long ago, some faint energy readings were still scattered across the area. Must have been some really heavy stuff going down here.

“All right, let’s get this done with. Beware of hostiles who have their mechas powered down to feign death and similar tricks. Our sensors probably won’t pick them out till they’re on top of you.

[Naril]

"Acknowledged," Lara said, then clicked her mic off, focusing back on the readouts around her. There may not have been very many things to keep track of, but she still almost obsessively flicked her eyes from one screen to another. The cockpit shuddered as another barrel of the huge artillery array locked down, and its firing controls blinked green. At the same time, a basso whum-whum-whum, more felt than heard, came from the opposite side as the 'mech's massive rotary gun came up to speed.

She watched as her artillery round hammered into one of the enemy mechs, and her lips pressed together in grim satisfaction as pieces of the other machine whirled away into the darkness. Her eyebrows furrowed as she noticed the damaged mech trying to track the much faster, lighter machine Cato piloted, but didn't pause to think too hard on it. With a squeeze and another jolt from the artillery system another massive round flew downrange at the damaged enemy, and as the echoes shook out of her head, she brought the rotary gun to follow. A moment later, the piston like wham of the weapon crashed through the cockpit twice a second, and the weapons' temperature gauges began to steadily rise.