Strikers lead the way. Or was that the rangers? Really, it didn't matter too much. The well timed R&R had been replaced by another mission. This time, it was actually serious. Rather than the bog standard training missions, they were to sortie into a search and rescue. 12 officers and 30 technicians, meaning 42 in all. If Yui had to do the math, it would turn out to be... some number of people that every group had to rescue. After the briefing, they were to rappel downwards onto the rig in the middle of a typhoon. Tian-Gui had leapt off. Yui was not to be outdone by this man's brazen danger seeking. Well, that and Yui wanted to catch her boy's transformation.

With her sword in hand and a hop, skip, and a jump, Yui leapt off of the helicopter in similar fashion to everyone's favourite sentai. Rather than having some extremely cool glowing transformation that everyone loved, she just fell through the air. Her technique was fine, but compared to getting a super suit in mid-air, it was rather lacklustre. Thankfully, Yui wasn't hit by her boy's flashbang of friendship this time, as she managed to block it out with her hat.

Her landing was kind of depressing, compared to Tian-gui's. She just landed on bent legs and rolled forwards. It wasn't anything flashy. It certainly faster than her boy's landing, but it was considerably less cool. Which sucked. With Tian-gui surveying their landing zone, Yui followed suit. With a swing of her blade, the sheath slid off. She was combat ready. Ready to rescue some nerds who made it their job to be nerds and beat up some nerds who she just labelled as nerds (they were in fact death robots from another dimension or something like that).

She was part of the vanguard. The mission was to rescue as many people as possible, smash as many invaders up as needed, and help team senpai get whatever they were looking for. Simple enough.

Briefing has concluded, in approximately a couple of moments they would have to deploy. Final adjustments were made, Gungnir stood on standby next to him ready for launch itself. Normally he would be in command, sitting comfortably away at some desk far away from the front-lines. However this time it seemed he needed to quite literally dive into the eye of the storm. Attire consisted of a jet black rain cloak, hooded up, padded fingerless gloves, tall dark standardized military boots and finally his usual glasses replaced by goggles. They functioned similarly as the old ones, however in this type of weather it would be far more beneficial to have something with a bit more sturdiness and control. The screen appeared upon the shine of the goggle's glass with the words ALL CLEAR signifying his link to HQ and Gungnir. The helicopter's engine began to roar, it's strength was incremented to sustain the heaviness of the storm, rainfall was strong and even the lightning seemed to be thwarting to their demise. His arm pad rose to vision, pressing the necessary commands ushering Gungnir into flight mode, instead of following the other's through the fall, he leaped into the distance, extending his hand upon the free fall and grasping at a speeding object, Gungnir itself launched and held tightly to it Hiro maneuvered its movements to land him somewhere where he could support upon the distance.

Landing a couple of feet away, his hand touched a button on the side of his goggles, numbers began to surface with a latitude and longitude bar at it's edges. Clearing the image of the scenery bathed quite literally upon disaster. The flap of his cloak demonstrated the strength of the winds and the power of such a predicament. Subaru was in charge due to her obtaining clearance, to be honest he didn't understand why out of all she would be the one to have such, but in earnest in he didn't place much thought upon it. Search and rescue, such an expedition would be perfect for him considering his abilities to heal and sustain people's wounds with the quickness of a link. However, the number of personnel they needed to secure would become a leading factor as well. He needed to keep that in mind, fortunately, killing the invades it's not a priority. We needed to move and quickly.

Gungnir hovered above him, waiting for orders. He pulled the barrel of his pistol and released its safety. Gripping such with certainty. He wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible, but then again, with the strikers and gunners on board he'd really doubt he would have to lift much of a finger considering their strength.

---

"Wait? We got the extra special secret mission?" Mavis asked, surprised when Lieutenant Isoshima gave them their order. "That's so cool! I'll be leaving the directions for you then, Subs," she added, shooting a thumbs up towards Subaru just as the door was opened buffeting them with stormy winds.

Naturally, the third one to disembark was no one other than Mavis, who rushed to the edge following Tian and Yui. "See ya down there, guys!" the redhead said, giving a "salute" before kicking off the edge of the transport.

"Yeehaw!" Mavis shouted as she spun through the air, perhaps in a not as flashy way as the one who spearheaded their charge but at last the way she landed with a perfectly practiced three-point landing, using her powers to cancel the force from the impact with the ground. The ensuing repulsion blast stopped the rain momentarily, an eerie silence hung in the air just for long enough to the rain around their landing point resume right as a flash of lightning cracked in the background.


The next one to deploy would be Subaru. However, before she did so, the silver-haired Linker stood at the edge of the transport staring not downward but at the dark, stormy void that was the sky above their heads in a vacant way, completely lost in whatever thoughts pervaded her mind at this moment.

She sighed, unzipping her jacket and spreading her arms as if to invite the freezing rain to soak her even further.

"Neptune..." she called her drone in a voice almost too low to be heard over nature's rage before stepping into oblivion.

She fell with open arms, jacket billowing behind her for a little while before simply vanishing in thin air like a ghost in the stormy night. A moment later and she as well as Neptune would come out of a portal not too far behind the Striker who preceded them.

---

Mila remembered the natural feeling of excitement - and missed it. She could detect it in her fellow team members, and it was enough to simulate it in her own demeanor once the transport brought them at landing destination. When it was her turn to drop to the ground, Mila approached the exit door and...clasping her rappel hook on the rope, she rappelled down just like they had trained to do. The heavy wind and rain made it a lot harder to do, but the equipment held on. She finally landed alongside the others with a heavy thud, grabbed Iron Saga from her back and got into formation, if formation there was.

Her entrance was less flashy than others...but there was protocol to respect, which Mila followed to the letter. All the Linkers available were present, including Subaru, which meant there was little to no reason for Mila to scan anything... but probabilities dictated that even if the percentage of chances any enemies bypassed the others scanners was low, it was best to be at the ready. Thus, she scanned the landing zone for anything others might miss.

Her team was left in charge - which meant Subaru was left as the leader of this mission. Thus, the frail Linker was rendered top priority asset in Mila's programming. Closely followed by other team members, Linkers first, then the missions rescue targets as they would find them.

Lucia was still rubbing sleep from her eyes as the briefing was relayed. Emergency calls in the early morning were the sort of thing you always prepared for but hoped would never come, but here they were. In the middle of a storm no less. And, to make things even stranger, it seemed there was part of the mission that only Subaru was permitted to handle. Well, Lucia thought to herself, that was a concern that could wait; there were Invaders that needed to die, and people that needed to be saved. Anything and everything else was secondary.

The side door opened as the aircraft began to hover over the only clear landing platform. The other Strikers were already leaping down, and it wouldn't do for her to fall behind. So, as Maltet hummed to life, Lucia took the jump at a run, leaping straight into the howling wind and the chilling rain. She fanned her legs and arms out, directing her armor to emit quick bursts from her gauntlets and boots as she fell. Each burst both slowed her descent and reacted to the storm trying to push her about, keeping her steadied and on target to land properly. Her feet touched the metal of the landing pad with a thud, but thanks to her vigilance Lucia was none the worse for wear. Her sword ignited as she walked forward, both to make room for the others coming down and to secure a perimeter, and her eyes swept side to side looking for any sign of a welcoming party.

"Zut, but it's dark tonight," she said, "Stay alert! And can a Linker get a read on motion or noise from inside so we know where to go first?"

---

The raging storm over the Rig may have dismayed a weaker resolve. But not the hearts of the young Psychers, who each leapt out of their ship without fear and landed on the surface of the processing facility. Each one of them held a determination to follow the mission through, no doubt spurned on by action, the efforts to save people, or perhaps a chance to prove themselves to their superiors. Either way, the enemy would not wait for the children to recover themselves.

The smaller of the Invaders had indeed scattered thanks to Tian-Gui’s flashy entrance. As more and more students approached, the area they landed in became progressively more dead. Aside from themselves, no signs of Invader life could be picked up from any Linker such as Hiro and Subaru. Though that wouldn’t remain the case for long. No sooner had Lucia landed and given the order to scan the Rig’s internal structure would the Linkers would detect motion on their scanners.

Only, they did not come from the structure they stood upon but rather just out of their reach. From the dark depths of the oceans, large metallic Invaders broke the surface. They came in packs, already crawling along the Rig’s side and towards the hapless Psychers. The darkness of the weather would do well in concealing their hulking forms; only by the Linker’s scanners and the occasional lightning flash were their silvery bodies seen.

The nearest one to the students revealed its position with a concentrated blast of orange energy. Its sockets thrumming with building power, the first pack fired a volley of lasers right at the students still standing around the center of the Rig. All the same, the smaller Invaders that had run away chose to hide themselves in the Rig’s interior. Whether they were heading for the hostages or not was unclear, but it was probably not the best time to ponder on it too long.

---

As Invaders broke out of the waters, their weapons heating up with an incandescent glow, Tian-Gui moved immediately. A streak of white and gold through the lightning-lit night, the armored Striker immediately interposed himself between the first pack of invaders and his teammates, crossing his arms over his chest. With a searing roar, the lasers struck him full-on, driving him back a couple of steps. But Tian-Gui was indomitable, and Final Red was, by nature, designed to eat up laser beams for breakfast. Energy surged, no, flooded through his armor as golden plates glowed like the sun itself.

“Uooooooooooohhh!”

Bolts of lightning crackled around him, his heart beating like an engine, his blue eyes flashing bright even through the orange light of the energy beams.
Streaks of gold spiderwebbed through the ground, Tian-Gui at the epicenter. Stretching out all around their immediate vicinity, the web of Flamestone served to dramatically increase his ‘territory’. From there, pillars of Flamestone burst up, and Tian-Gui channeled all his gathered energy into them next, each pillar bursting into bright flames that exposed the fiendish Invaders who scuttled about in the dark storm.

Lesser fire may be quenched by the abominable night, but the flames of justice that surged within his body shall never be extinguished!

“Strikers, take em out! I alone are sufficient to protect the rest!”

“Y-yikes,” Yui sputtered as a blast of energy struck where her feet once were. As the result of an incredibly messy leap out of danger, the volley of lasers completely missed Yui. Low visibility, some invaders muckin' about (probably looking for some hostages to murderize), and one being a total wiener by blasting Yui with a bunch of junk. Really, were it not for the fact that Yui had the leg strength of a gazelle on enough steroids to kill an elephant, she could have been seriously hurt! With a barely functional roll, Yui was back up on her feet, blade resting on her shoulder and ready to be swung. And Tian-Gui did all of the initial work for them.

“Rodger dodger!” Yui exclaimed back to Tian-Gui. With the floor now illuminated by the super sentai, it was much easier to spot each and every crab-lookin' invader. With blade at the ready, Yui shot out at the invader firing at them. However, she had the brain power to not go in straight. Blasting off at 45 degree angles, she hopped in a diamond-shaped spiral around the firing invader to avoid any lasers that would have come her way. When she was close enough, she swung the blade off of her shoulder and directly onto the crab. As if a spring had been under massive amounts of stress, her blade rocketed out at immense speed directly onto the crab's shell. “We better hurry, these guys aren't really our mission!”

---

"The other invaders retreated inside the rig. They may be making their way to the victims locked up in the control room," Subaru said as the situation changed suddenly with the introduction of the new type of marine invaders.

"There's an elevator in that direction, but I'm detecting opposition in the way," she added, pointing to the western side of the platform. As she did so, a couple of bright orange orbs could illuminated the distant darkness. It confirming that their entry point into the rig was blocked by yet another enemy.


"Geez, it seems that things got crusty faster than we thought, huh?" Mavis joked as the crabs closed in on their position.

"Good thing I know the right thing to crack this problem," she said as she threw her shield at the legs of the invader that Yui attacked, taking it out of balance.

The redhead's weapon rebounded back to her hand just in time for Mavis to dash into a second crab that came from behind them. She blocked the invader's attacks as she closed in, sliding right under its legs like a baseball player diving for a base. She spun in place as she emerged on the invader's other side, smashing her shield against its leg joint to try and disable it as fast as she could.

---

In no time at all the invaders had seen fit to encroach upon their position. The flight deck was soon nearly surrounded by batches of spider-like metallic monsters with glowing orange eyes to give them away. The reason for glow was clear almost immediately, and as Tian came under fire on one side of the formation Lucia found herself staring down laser blasts on the other. She had little time to react, but it was enough to throw out her hand and call forth a glowing green half dome of energy as Maltet flared to life. The barrier pulsed as the lasers impacted it, but amid the steam that erupted from the heat and the rain her defense held. With a swipe of the same hand the shield condensed itself, forming a singular aegis on Lucia's arm as her plasma sword surged with power and she ran forward, slashing through some of the slower small invaders as Mavis and Tian engaged the larger opponents.

At that point, Subaru called out to point to the far end of the rig, where she reported a functioning elevator to go farther in- provided its gatekeeper was dealt with. Lucia turned her head to take stock of things, and her mind raced to determine a course of action. The hostages- and whatever it was that Subaru had to do- needed to be reached and rescued, that much was true, but with an enemy assault ongoing and the gunship unable to provide combat support the landing zone would need to be monitored and a perimeter established. Wide open spaces with an emphasis on entrenching on one hand, tighter corridors with a demand for haste on the other.

"D'accord!" she yelled over the storm, "Subaru and four others, on me and into the rig! Everyone else, keep the LZ secure and ready to receive hostages! Allons-y!"

The light of her armor grew brighter still, a bright green comet amid Tian's fires as she charged toward the elevator. The invader before her fired at a steady rate, but as she continued to draw closer with no sign of stopping as the laser broke harmlessly on her shield it began to fire less intense blasts faster and faster, almost as if it was panicking. When she had closed to less than 20 yards Lucia coiled her legs and jumped, high into the air, dismissing her shield and taking hold of her sword with both hands. Energy surged into the blade as it grew from a longsword to a bastard sword to a zweihander and then larger still, crackling with emerald lightning before she began her descent.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

With a great crash to rival the thunder in the skies above the blonde Striker slammed her weapon down atop the invader- or perhaps slammed it through the invader was more apt, as when the flash of the impact erupted and faded away it split cleanly in half down its middle and collapsed into a heap in front of her. Lucia rose to a standing position once again, reducing her weapon to a more managable size as she surveyed the area for any more surprises, then continued moving. The elevator was ahead...

“Strikers into the rig!” was Tian-Gui’s rallying cry as he followed after Lucia. In close quarters, melee fighters would undoubtedly have a greater advantage, while the open area topside was better for the flightier Gunners. Though a part of him was bothered with leaving them relatively defenseless, a greater part of him trusted that his classmates would be able to hold their own in such situations. The non-Psychers had to be prioritized first, and every second lost could mean someone getting hurt. Surging past the maiden knight as she cleaved an invader in two, the golden monolith slammed his gauntlets into the crease between the elevator doors and ripped them apart, leaving only the gaping darkness of the elevator shaft before him. Within, the crimson lights of the Invaders eyes were camoflagued by the emergency lighting as well, only their scuttling legs making any difference.

Turning back to the others, he nodded once, taking note of who followed and who stayed behind. Then, his blue eyes flashed and Tian-Gui leapt back, entering free fall as he dove down through the floors of the rig.

“Subaru!” the titan spoke through comms, “When do I stop?!”