IC: Juliana Winters (Tiger 4) - Swamp.

"Guys... Faust literally just said that they'd be about 3 klicks away," Juliana pointed out, continuing her trudging advance towards the contacts to the South-West, "Of course they're not going to be in visual range yet."

IC: Skoll [Tiger Six]

"I got what Faust said, but some of us like to see the target as opposed to wandering aimlessly, hoping that something to shoot might pop out of the woods." Bringing up the icon for Tiger Five, Skoll switches com channels. "Tiger Five, you've got a UAV right? Think you could deploy it, give us an idea of what enemy mechs are packing?"

@Ardoku

"On it." Zyreq quickly deployed his UAV drone, sending it up high and toward the approximate location the enemy might be.

UAV Drone

Video feed from the drone started staticky, but cleared up after a moment as the drone's tiny thrusters stabilized the machine.

As it flew, the feed showed precisely what the Tigers had been told to expect.

Wide footed light and medium Mechs made their way across the marsh, armed with spread shot ACs, lasers, and MGs for the most part.

What was unusual was the group of police hovercraft speeding along in front of the Mechs. Clearly the prisoners had stolen more than Mechs.

IC: Juliana Winters (Tiger 4) - Swamp.

"Looks like they brought some more toys for us to play with," Juliana chuckled, continuing her forward advance. "Prep your long-range weapons. Once they close the distance, light 'em up."

IC: Iral Vijil (Tiger 1)

The Judge's arm kept the autocannon completely still, ready for any movement from the forest. Iral grinned through sharp canines. This was the fun part.

IC: Skoll [Tiger Six]

Skoll brought up a display for Seeker's weapons systems and took a glance through them. Bringing up a different display, he looks through his heat dissipation systems, then examines them both side by side. Flicking at a few switches and toggles, the label on the weapons display that read LRM System; Online now read as LRM System; Armed. Target lock required for maximum efficiency. Please initiate Targeting Assist Laser. Scrolling through to his other weapons, the Auto Cannon display showed itself as ready to fire, while the PPC showed its current charge at zero-percent. Selecting the PPC, the N'Kul squeezed the trigger on the control stick briefly, watching the charge meter spike from zero-percent, to twenty-five-percent, to fifty-percent, before the trigger was released, and the charge meter climbed back down to zero-percent. "Long ranged weapons reporting as operational and ready to fire, on my end. These ass-hats need to hurry up and stick their heads out."

IC: Brae Tessen - Tiger Three

Brae chuckled as she watched the treeline, PPC and Autocannon at the ready. "They won't know what hit them."

Hovercraft

The hovercraft were faster over the swamp than the Mechs and broke into visual range first. There were four of the lightly armored vehicles, and they sped through the forested marshland and began opening up on the various mechs with Medium lasers, each craft had two of the multipurpose weapons. visible also were a Light SRM rack and Light Machine Guns.

The first two craft fired on Tiger 5, the Medium lasers carving trails of orange hot metal across the chest and right leg of the mech. The third fired on Tiger Two, but at the extended range, the emerald beams went wide. The fourth sprayed laser fire over the sensor canopy of Tiger One.

IC: Juliana Winters (Tiger 4) - Swamp.

"They shot first. This is just self defence, right?" Juliana powered up Banjo's targeting laser, painting the foremost of the four hovercraft, before unleashing a volley of LRMs.

IC: Skoll [Tiger Six]

"Oh, very much so. Not to mention cathartic." Seeker's torso twisted just enough to face the oncoming hovercraft, as its own targeting laser lit up and painted other emerging targets. Skoll, cycling through target locks, piggybacked off of Banjos targeting laser and shot off a small cluster of LRMs the moment solid locks were acquired. Cycling back to his own painted targets, he made sure the target locks were set before firing off two more clusters of LRMs, before switching to Seeker's AC to lay down suppressive fire, and deliberately aiming with the PPC. Taking aim at a hovercraft, Skoll trailed the targeting reticle on his Hud just enough so that it was leading the enemy hovercraft, before squeezing the trigger for the PPC, letting the shot jettison from the barrel the moment the charge meter read one-hundred-percent.

IC: Brae Tessen - Tiger Three

Brae laughed as she watched the hovercrafts' meager assault on the mechs, and readied Praetorian's PPC and Autocannon for combat, waiting for a clear shot on one of the craft. "This is just the appetizer! Wait until the main course arrives, then we can all have fun!"

IC: Iral Vijil (Tiger 1)

Hot lasers flew over the Judge's head. Iral growled, strafing to the right and firing at the hovercraft who had engaged him with his autocannon, using Four's giant laser pointer as a guide. His blue avian eyes narrowed as he made the shots.

SLAM SLAM SLAM!

Three shots thundered across the Jungle.

The craft scattered, breaking off as soon as they fired.

The LRMs tracked the craft as best they could, but the extreme angle they'd peeled away in caused the missiles to careen into the dark waters, sending mud and water exploding across the battlefield. One craft caught a few missiles in the side, blowing chunks away from the lightly armored vehicle.

Tiger Six's AC shots, as suppressive fire, did much what they were intended to: keeping the hovercraft moving for fear of being blown apart, and churned up more or the marsh, but it was his PPC that struck true, the caged lightning exploding across the battlefield and reducing the hoverskirt to a charred wreck, it crashed into the swamp, and prisoners began to scurry out, trying desperately to stay atop the slowly sinking vehicle.

Tiger One's own carefully aimed shots slammed into the front of the Hovercraft, blowing the drivers area clean off, the craft began to slow and drift off course. The SRM rack came around and unleashed six fast-moving missiles at the avian Mech.

The remaining two hovercraft veered away and fired at Tiger 4 with all weapons as they attempted to race past the Mechs.

IC: Juliana Winters (Tiger 4) - Swamp.

"I think I'm their favourite!" Raising Banjo's claw arm to shield the cockpit, she returned fire on the hovercraft with her light lasers.

IC: Skoll [Tiger Six] - engaged in swamp combat

"Try not to hog all of them." Seeker swept its AC gently back and forth, widening the arc of the suppressing fire in an attempt to cover more ground. Selecting the next hovercraft from his Hud, Skoll once more took careful aim of Seeker's PPC, and went through the motions of charging a shot. He was about to release the trigger before brief warning claxons sounded off with a shriek and his Hud turned to orange "Warning, warning, systems overheating. Noncritical systems have suffered minor damage. Recommend heat dissipation.". Internal cooling systems began running at maximum within the cockpit interior as an immediate response. Swearing in his native tongue, Skoll powered down his PPC and removed the target locks from his LRMs, shutting them down as well, but left his Targeting Assist Laser active, and continued to lay down suppressive fire. "Fucking damn it, cooked the systems! I am not looking forward to repairing slag." Cycling through the icons of his fellow Tigers, the N'Kul highlighted them all. "This is Tiger Six; Seeker's cooking itself rather hot, i'll keep up the suppressive fire but I need people to cover me while I cool off."

IC: Iral Vijil (Tiger 1)

Grunting, Iral activated his jump jets in an attempt to dodge the rockets, blasting off for a brief moment. In mid air, Iral worked faster than most would think possible, adjusting the mechs weight in preparation for a secondary jump down in an attempt to crush the hovercraft.

"Busy here, Six! This bastard needs to get it first!" He yelled, before firing the jump jets again and quite audibly yelling in his language.

IC: Brae Tessen - Tiger Three

"I have you, Tiger Six!" Brae replied, and Praetorian Ruin charged forward with slow determination. The PPC charged and fired a shot at one of the hovercraft assaulting Tiger Four as Praetorian took a defensive stance and covered Six's rear, the colossal mech casting a shadow over the smaller one.