"Hello, EINHERJAR pilots! It's everyone's favorite girl, VALKYRIE!"

The cheery young voice that played over her communications system wasn't an unfamiliar one in the least. Given this job was still within range of planetary systems, it was no surprise that the AI designed to assist EINHERJAR's mercenaries could still reach them.

"It looks like everything's been handled already, so all that's left for me to do before you deploy is to wish you good luck and happy hunting~!"

Hearing those words from a cheery young girl was surreal. Sometimes, she wondered just who was behind VALKYRIE's design and personality, and why the hell they chose it in the first place.

Not that she minded, though.

The mission briefing had been simple, really.

A large corporate mercenary force sent by Ultima Universal had set up shop on Bifrost's moon, Himinbjorg. This wasn't the best news, not just for their client(she was pretty sure they were corpo themselves. Probably Hasegawa-Erichtson) but also for Bifrost itself. Sure, it wasn't like the average corp was dumb enough to tangle with EINHERJAR head-on, but there was plenty they could do to try to exploit the planet and its people without doing so.

Not like any corp was totally clean, but Ultima Universal was definitely one of the nastier ones.

They were apparently doing some kind of mining operation, but on top of that they were also receiving a high-value package. If she had to guess, it was probably some dark tech from the war or stuff that either the UEC or the LTS didn't want being found.

The point was, it was their job to take Ultima Universal's operation down. The mission was to split into two squads and land on the moon, with one squad wiping out their defenses so they couldn't fight back and the other taking out their communications so they couldn't call for help. After that, inflicting as much financial damage as possible by destroying as much of their operation as possible. Making it seem like an unappealing investment, basically.

There was a bonus for taking out any of their higher-spec hardware, and finally they had to secure the package. Whatever dark tech or government secret was waiting for them.

Valika grinned to herself, leaning forward on her AUG's dashboard.

Even if the client was a corp too, she was fine with it. It didn't sound like they were interested in the facility, given how they wanted it pretty much wiped out. Just the package.

As long as Momo and her got to annihilate the main threat and get paid, it all worked out.

And she was nothing but confident in her machine.

She opened her comms.

"Alrighty, we've got VALKYRIE's blessing, who's ready to go?!"

Currently, the EINHERJAR mercenaries were riding in two separate ships. Given their close proximity to Himinbjorg, they were already onboard their AUGs.

They'd be dropped off some distance away from the target, but once there they'd been in the thick of things pretty quickly.

"I sure am," she continued, "Momo's gonna tear right through those Ultima MAs."

@Psyker Landshark@OwO@Silverwind Blade@Eisenhorn@The World@vietmyke

Even after all these years, freedom still tasted like smoke and ash. Tar in her mouth. In other words, absolute garbage.

Ariela sighed, exhaling a cloud of vapor within LINEBREAKER's cockpit as she took her e-cig out of her mouth. Fuck, but she really needed to get her hands on a flavor of vape juice that wasn't tobacco. Supply lines on Bifrost were such shit. Problems for later. For now, they were about to combat drop.

She quickly went over the briefing in her head again. Corp on corp violence, with the only specific caveat outside of wanton destruction being retrieving whatever they were working on here. Suited her just fine. Of course, it'd be nice if they had anything besides a goddamn AI as mission control, but considering EINHERJAR was just sticking a bunch of mercs that had never spoken to each other before together, it was the safe option. Ariela still would've liked to be able to mute that fucking AI, though.

Some other excitable young girl that wasn't the robot brain seemed just as exuberant, and Ariela resisted the urge to mute incoming comms once again. Merc life was such a pain in the ass, sometimes. Meet random pilots who you might never speak to again, instead of forming actual units that knew how to work together? God, she missed the old days. Fucking chickenshit politicians and bureaucrats just had to ruin a good thing, didn't they?

<<"This is Banshee, reading you five by five. LINEBREAKER's prepped and ready to launch.">> Ariela flicked her comms on while going over preflight checks one last time. Everything across the board was still green. Ready to go.

<<"Squad, query: we figure out who's going on what team yet, or is the AI handling that one? Much as I'd like to bust some heads, my AUG's better suited for a fast hit and run on their comms.">> She tucked her e-cig into her flight suit's pocket, awaiting an answer. At the very least, she'd be able to feel out the rest of the squad as best she could before shit hit the fan.

@VitaVitaAR

Watcher

Henry's leg bounced steadily in the cockpit of his Aug, eyes half closed as the shuttle continued along towards the drop point. Outgoing comms were disabled for now, listening just in case new orders or briefs came down. He had a lit cigarette in hand, taking the odd drag on it. They were cheap, barely qualified as a smoke, and were generally ass. But it beat having no smokes, and it sure as hell beat whatever crap those electronic vapes had compressed into them. It was a habit he had picked up when he was younger, one that he never could be bothered to kick the habit of, it kept his hands busy when waiting. Still, the confined space of his AUG's cockpit was calming in and of itself, which let him then focus on reviewing the brief.

Fairly standard smash and grab type job, two teams would split up, one to strike comms and strangle any attempts at calling for help, the other doing the lion's share of the smashing. His train of thought was interrupted by Valkyrie, the AI in charge of the teams of mercenaries. Odd? Absolutely, but there was more life in that voice than most of his former commanding officers, so that was a change of pace. Whether it was good or not, well, that was another matter completely. Nothing new was shared over comms, so Henry saw no reason to break comm silence yet, instead putting out his smoke so he could focus on the review of Platzragen's systems and ordinance load. Expecting mostly MA's meant a fairly standard load, a few CMST and WPCF missiles, but most of the onboard munitions for PAMS were HMAA missiles. A few well placed missiles could take out key points in defenses or comms arrays, and he was confident that he had chosen well for the mission at hand.

As Henry, once again, checked his FCS to ensure the most up to date IFF data was loaded and ready to go, a rather energetic woman chimed, dueling the AI for cheeriness and gung ho attitude. Suppose that was the mixed bag of freelance mercenaries was you got all sorts. Professionals, firebrands, dullards and idealists even, there were a lot of sorts who sold their skills in violence in exchange for pay, for various reasons. The first person to chime in was a professional response, Banshee and LINEBREAKER, who also questioned the organization of the impending mission. It was a good question, and it felt like it was finally time to break his silence and actually say something. Opening comms, he kept an even tone as he spoke, keeping it professional for now, focused all on the job at hand.

"Watcher here, good comms, Platzragen is ready to deploy. Assuming no prior VALKYRIE plans, I recommend that I be seconded to the comm silencing task. My FCS can rapidly pick out the key points in the comm relays to maximize initial impact from long range." Henry shut off his outgoing comms for the moment, listening as his leg started bouncing again. Just sitting in the cockpit only did so much, he only felt completely at peace when actually piloting and engaging in combat. It let him focus on a single task, one that required all his focus at least. Sooner they got moving the better, he could only sit for so long before he started feeling the nerves really start coming back, but fortunately focusing on discussion would help, hopefully. At least one professional was here so far, that was a good sign.

---

"Well, Stel, welcome to the jungle. They say it gets worse here every day." the teenager said to herself as she did her final check over her controls. Pretty simple to her, but somewhat alien at the same time, her lack of experience with her AUG would probably show itself rather quickly, she imagined.

"It looks like everything's been handled already, so all that's left for me to do before you deploy is to wish you good luck and happy hunting~!"

A few seconds after that final comment the Red Power's comms shut off that particular channel automatically. A feminine voice rang out in Stel's earpiece, "She should really change her voice synthesizer to something less grating." Adam. The AI that ran on the Red Power seemed somehow annoyed at the other of its kind.

"How can you think it's grating? You don't have ears. Is it, like, a bad waveform or something?"

She was met with silence and the light for incoming comms being turned back on in full, just before another too hyper voice came on. But something didn't seem right to Stel about what she said. Ultima MAs...? She didn't get to continue the thought before another voice chimed in, "Banshee" apparently, and the only information gained was that there was another fast AUG onboard. One that was choosing to attack the communication capability of their target. Another voice, this time identifying as "Watcher," expressed similar intentions.

"Probably for the best that we go with them." Stel said under her breath. This was all for the purpose of testing her AUG, and she had a hunch that-

"We are absolutely not playing cleanup here." Of course Adam had a problem with that, why wouldn't the AI have a problem with its pilot's desires?

"Look, I'm not saying we're here to clean up, it's just that I reeeaaalllyyy doubt that there's nothing there but regular Mobile Armors. If the choice is between destroying their stuff and destroying their talky stuff, I think the smart play is to do the talky stuff. If they have an Augment, it'll be guarding their important stuff, right?"

"You think that an Augmented Armor is going to be guarding their communication network and not their mystery package?"

"More that I think they're going to have their network near the most defensible place, which is probably where they'll put the package."

"... That's not a terrible thought, but I can tell you're trying to play to my sensibilities, so I'll respond in kind. It would give us more battle data to target their units than their installations."

Shit. "But we might not get a chance to target a stationary setup again for a while, and we'll probably be fighting a bunch of Armors more often, so the data collection side points to my idea too!"

"Fine, but we're destroying any Armors we come across, even if they're out of the way. I'm not built for slow or quiet, I'm built for quick and loud. Got it?"

Stell sighed. "Alright, deal. You target, I'll pilot. But that does mean we're not going with the arrowhead, right?"

"Correct, we'll launch with the anti-comms. Opening outgoing links, let them know."

Oh, good, she had to do the talking. Stel spoke into her mic, "Uh... heya. 'Fallen Angel' here, we'll be going with the... Banshee? Her and... the guy going with her. Oh, and anyone else with them. Sorry." A few seconds of dead air passed as she had a minor panic. "Hey, cut the comms alrea-" Maybe it would be a good idea to become more familiar with her communication controls...

Nothing like taking missions while hungover. There really wasn't anything more sobering that a hot landing, gunfire, and explosions. Well, she also had a little more to drink before the mission. That also helped clear the hangover.

It was quite obvious what Tallow would be doing. If a mission needed someone to do a little smashing, she'd be there. If a mission required someone to do a lot of smashing? There was almost no doubt she would be double fisting Thunderhammers with enough explosives to make a new landmark.

There were some familiar voices on comms for sure. If you lived long enough to take a few jobs, you could usually hear the same voices every so often. It was a world smaller than it was large. One was loud and shrill. Two were the military type. The burnouts and venerable who couldn't find peace after the war. The last was dead new, a fact easy to detect by her stutter and her mastery over her dashboard.

When she heard that the newbie would ride-along to break comms, Tallow let out a sigh of relief. People listening intently to the broadcast could hear a little murmur of someone saying that's lucky when the newbie said she'd follow Banshee.

Though it was a little saddening that so few people wanted to be on team hammer. Everyone wanted to be team spear, so it would seem.

"What, are the lot of you afraid of doing some real property damage?" Tallow's response might have been sultry and teasing if she weren't so brusque. "I'm with the loud one to work their defences."

She didn't really announce herself or her AUG. Unless your comms system was from the stone-age, one's callsign was already attached to one's speech.

---

"That AI voice is eerie as hell." Sara grumbled idly over the open comm as they were briefed on their respective tasks. It was a bit jarring to have such a upbeat voice deliver information they needed to deal death, but Sara just chocked it up to the designers having particular tastes. It was Bifrost after all, everything on the planet revolved around fighting these days. Training to fight, scrapping old war machines to prepare slightly less older ones to fight, talking about fighting, encouraging people to fight. Of course there was the actual fighting as well, what with pirates, overly aggressive scrappers, corporations and the occasional advance team of UEC or LTS forces, it was a rare day not to fire a weapon at least once.

Sara herself found herself fighting more and more as well, especially as her work with EINHERJAR expanded. Fighting alongside her fellows became more and more rare as she found herself working with more and more mercs. Some she'd recognize, most she'd never see again. The 'regulars' as Sara had dubbed them she knew more by voice than face. Her father would be rolling in his grave if he could see her now, but mercenary work was the only way for Sara to really take the fight to the enemies of Bifrost, rather than playing firefighter, so at least for the time being, a merc she'd be.

She listened idly to the chatter as the assorted team of AUG pilots sorted themselves into ad hoc teams- fairly normal these days. Most of the voices speaking up expressed their intention to take out Ultima Universal's communication systems. With only a few so far chiming in to actually take the fight to the Corp.

"We're supposed to fuck up their comms, not our own." Sara teased the apparent rookie, as they seemingly fumbled around with their comms.

"Property damage sounds right up my alley." Sara giggled, her voice light and soft despite it's supposed sentiment. "I'll provide close air support for our little bunker busters."

Within the cockpit of her AUG, Sara quickly flicked a few switches, designating herself R-18 and Redknight- and whoever else wanted to smash some steel into one squad.

"All green, all green," Sara called, noting her AUG's readiness. Her voice still light, but clear and crisp, without having to strain an ear to hear her. Chevalier is good to go, Rabbit standing by."

Garrett drummed his fingers on the arm on his pilots' seat rhythmically as he listened to the disgustingly, adorably, perk AI relay their instructions, and the conversation that boiled up in reply. He followed the back and forth of his fellow pilots as they discussed the upcoming sortie and what their roles and objectives would be. The mix of personalities was interesting. So far, no-one seemed to clash, which was a relief, and nobody was aggressively obnoxious or arrogant.
Well, so far.
He chuckled as he heard -Tallow, wasn't it? The girl with the nice ink? - boisterously encourage the attack on the defensive positions, and Rabbit, yet another of the wonderfully beautiful women he'd lucked on finding himself working alongside chime in to join the attack. Toggling his own comms, he spoke up as well.
"Well, ladies. I hope you don't mind me joining your party; it seems like the attack on the comms is in hand, so I'll be glad to add my firepower to yours in taking on the defences. Snow and Sentinel are ready to go, over"
He leant back in the command chair, hanging comfortably in the straps as Sentinel's monitors remained in standby mode, the full-surround screens dim for the moment and casting a only the barest of glow over his features as she sat with his helmet on, but visor open, waiting for the ships' bays to open and release them.

Cocking her head to one side as she listened to the responses, Valika took stock of her fellow mercs as they spoke. A couple seemed pretty new, some seemed pretty professional, but all of them at least seemed like they had some idea what they were doing.

And as far as she was concerned, that's all they needed. If they did their job, it was easier for her to do her job!

And today, that job was kicking some Ultima MA ass.

"Momo and I are best suited for dismantling their defenses. That is, tearing apart their MA squads," she began, "So that's where we're gonna be. Don't worry, I'll rip 'em apart nice and quick without so much as a scratch on Momo's paintjob!"

Maybe she was boasting a little too much.

But on the other hand, she was nothing if not confident.

"I'm sending along my recommendations for squad composition," chirped VALKYRIE's voice over communications, "But it looks like you have things all figured out!"

A blip on MORDRED's console indicated that Valika had received the recommendation list, and she took a quick look at it.

Indeed, VALKYRIE's squad recommendations were more or less along the lines of what they'd already figured out. Banshee, Watcher, and Fallen Angel on the anti-communications team, and Rabbit, Snow, R-18, and herself on demolition duty. It suited her perfectly, after all.

"Drop zone in range. Prepare for launch."

The voice that came over communications was that of the pilot's, rather than VALKYRIE.

"Alright, Redknight is all green and good to go!" declared Valika, grinning as she sat back in her seat, hands at her controls. She was all prepped for release.

Like many of the moons surrounding inhabited planets, Himinbjorg had been terraformed just like a colony would have been. There'd been a variety of different facilities on it prior to the war, but most of them had been destroyed long ago.

Now, they were skeletal remains, overgrown by the foliage that had long ago been introduced to the planet.

Such was the case of the landing zone, forests and grassland encroaching on a wrecked installation of some description. Valika hadn't the faintest idea what it was originally for, but it was so demolished it was unlikely that Ultima Universal had been using it for anything. From what she understood about the situation, their arrival time combined with the cover afforded by the damaged old ruins and the forest would help them get a bit of a jump on their targets.

"Launch!"

"Redknight, launching!"

The moment that she heard the voice over the intercom, she was off. The sky whipped past her as MORDRED's internal systems hummed around her, and the moon steadily rushed closer and closer. There was no need to activate her AUG's thrusters, not when her shock absorbers would take care of most of the impact. She wanted to save the noise for their targets, after all.

Still, the rock of impact when she slammed into Himinbjorg's surface was a lot to take in, for the moment.

It was a clearing surrounded by tall evergreen trees, near an old access road that was a little more open. She could definitely make out some ruins, as she scanned her environment with her machine's visual receptors.

They'd have a few moments to get their bearings and split up, but the faster they reached the facility, the better.

@Psyker Landshark@OwO@Silverwind Blade@Eisenhorn@The World@vietmyke

The rest of the squad were...a mixed bag, at best. Only one other pilot that bothered with any sort of comms etiquette. Probably former military, like her. The rest obviously weren't. At least everyone managed to neatly fit themselves into team compositions, though the one piece of obvious new meat had Ariela rolling her eyes. Fucking figures they'd get saddled with some wet-behind-the-ears greenhorn that couldn't even work the comlink correctly. To say nothing of her callsign. God damned mercs.

VALKYRIE proved herself as indispensible as ever in providing information that everyone already knew, only just now forwarding a squad setup that mirrored exactly what they had chosen already. Great. Real cutting-edge piece of tech. Still, one thing crossed her mind in which the fucking AI could actually contribute for once.

<<"VALKYRIE, request. Make yourself useful and set up two sub-channels in the comm-net and place our squads one in each. Less hassle if we can keep channels clearer during combat.">> With that said, she didn't bother waiting for an affirmative, instead finishing final preparations to deploy.

Main system online.
All systems nominal.
Activating combat mode.

The order to launch came.

<<"Pilot Banshee, AUG LINEBREAKER. Deploying.">> A slight grin crossed Ariela's face as the catapult rocketed her off, following after Redknight's MORDRED. Her armor crashed into their landing zone, and it rose, rifles already primed and raised as Banshee checked their surroundings. No immediate contacts yet. Good.

<<"Landing zone clear!">> She cried over the full team's comms, already checking the current topographical data and communications sensors. <<"Everyone ready to die? If the opfor's not sleeping on the job, they'll notice us soon enough. Let's form up and move, no slacking!">>

Watcher

"Confirmed receipt of squad composition, sending FCS sync request to Comms team, to enable additional fire support options."

The FCS module on Platzragen was the single most modern, even advanced if one was feeling generous, component. For someone who focused so heavily on target tracking and smart munitions, it only made sense that the pilot invest so heavily in the ability to track and lock targets. One perk of that was, once synced, he could use the processing power of his FCS to process allied combat data in addition to his Aug's own. Unlike other pilots who had additional support on board, although he didn't know of this of course, he processed and tracked all the information on his HUD personally. Sync too many allies, and not only would processing power suffer, but the information overload would render target tracking difficult. But only two allies, that was simple enough to keep track of. Most enemies were not equipped to handle the shock of smart munitions being launched from targets not engaged directly with them. Still, getting the fire control sync up was muscle memory, giving him a chance to consider each individual on the mission.

Banshee was a vet, no doubt in his mind there, professional comms and mission focused. He would defer Comm team leadership to her, she seemed to naturally fall into that role to begin with and it let him focus on fire support. At the other end of the spectrum, Fallen Angel sure fell flat in her introduction. Her AUG stood out, and it was likely that he would be the slowest link in the team if his assessment was to be believed. More importantly this should be a good training excursion, MAs were, despite their capabilities, fragments of even a basic AUG's potential. The assault team certainly had some characters, R-18, as the comms indicated, was first to volunteer and seemed relieved to not be on a perceived baby sitting duty. All the better, last thing a rookie needs is that mentality. Rabbit chimed in next, attempting humor to alleviate the situation, not a bad sign of itself, and also volunteered for assault duty with CAS, interesting choice for specialization but who was he to judge. Snow was last to chime in, also siding with the assault team and pointing out, indirectly, the composition of the pilots could make someone jealous out there. Not that it mattered, as Redknight confirmed her role with 'Momo' in the assault team. All pilots named their Augs, but having shortened nicknames beyond that was an indication of deep attachment, though once again, considering he was piloting a War era AUG still, well, that said it all really.

VALKYRIE broke Watcher's train of thought, the recommendations matching the pilot decisions perfectly. Was it already in place, or did VALKYRIE merely eavesdrop in and let the pilots organize themselves, only to step in if things were too lopsided one way or another. Hard to say, he didn't deal much with AI if he could help it. He preferred his machines the strong, silent types, to make a mild joke of the situation. Still, the pilot chiming in was a relief, and as he brought Platzragen online proper, any biomonitoring would see that, as the Aug fully came online instead of merely being in transport mode, Watcher's vitals settled to what one might consider a resting state back at base. He was finally at ease, the hum of Platzragen powering up, the HUD fully coming online instead of being merely on standby, the hatch opening and the first two AUGs launching, hurtling down towards the moon. Finally, he could know some peace and quiet as he, almost serenely, reported in right before he was launched into the air.

"Watcher, Platzragen, deploying."

The shock of being launched into the sky did nothing to unsettle him, and at a glance, Watcher picked an ideal landing point to aim for, trusting fully in the reliable, rugged shocks. Coming in hard, Platzragen seemed to squat from the impact, before rising to its full height again, stepping out of the small crater the heavier AUG had created on impact, moving into cohesion with Banshee and Fallen Angel as the far more gung ho attitude from the former came over comms. She was one of those types then, not to disparage, but his decision to defer leadership was even wiser with hindsight. He fell in a short distance behind Banshee, all weapon systems checking green and he began scanning for targets, stationary or moving. The sooner he spotted them, the sooner he could alert his team. The sooner the alert was given, the sooner they could act, ideally with the advantage of surprise.

"Watcher in formation, scanning for patrols or other targets."

Tallow made some notes of who she was with.

She couldn't really prescribe any random personality traits to Redknights. She didn't recognize the accent. Even though they all spoke the same tongue, generations spent on a planet or ship made small changes to how people spoke. Kind of like how people from Bifrost said tomato while everyone else said tomato. That meant she was probably from off world. From where? Who knew. She was just loud and excitable, so it would seem.

Rabbit was the sort that she knew. Tallow could tell she was native Bifrost by the accent. Probably ex-militia given that she didn't have the all business attitude that the military types had. Definitely wasn't a criminal type either; most of them would have said something less... supportive and giggly. Not the ex-corp type either. They were like the military type except slimy.

Tallow had their fourth member pegged the second he opened his mouth. Well, she made up her mind about the type of person Snow was immediately. Anyone who introduced themselves saying "well ladies, if you'll have me" was the same type of person who tried to get into pants at a bar. In fact, she probably saw him at a bar before. Depending how he looked, Tallow might have been the one trying to get into his pants. She was too shit-faced at the time to remember if they met before, though.

Loud, Giggles, and Man o' Whore. That's what she called them in her head.

Then came the signal.

Tallow gave one last word of encouragement to the newbie.

"Hey frosh, don't piss yourself on the way down."

As always, her short-range comms were open for everyone to hear. Tallow only restricted her listeners if she had to say something confidential.

"R-18 launching."

The catapult launched HIGH IMPACT towards the surface. Unlike her compatriots, her AUG's landing wasn't exactly stealthy. She had the shock absorbers to land, but that didn't mean she'd land softly.

HIGH IMPACT's touched down. The dirt erupted in plumes of brown. Rocks flew and tapped against her armour. The ground cratered. It was a miracle what those little legs could take.

She landed as the vanguard. Not much to say about where she landed. Trees, dirt, roads, and the like. She was far enough away to initially register on sensors as noise, thankfully.

"Let's see how much they paid to protect this shithole."

---

Sara laughed softly as another offered to join them: one Mr. Snow. She was somewhat familiar with the man, they'd run a few missions together before, and he probably frequented one of the many bars in the area- not much else to do on Bifrost after all. She didn't know him very well, but first impressions had marked him as a bit of the sleazy type: not necessarily a womanizer, but not not a womanizer. Sara made it a point never to involve herself with the merc type to much anyway, they were quick to disappear. Fleeting and fickle were the mercenary type, either following the money to greener pastures, or meeting an untimely grave- though here she was, now a merc herself, so what did that say about her?

"Only if you promise to keep those SAM sites from taking a shot at lil' ole me." Sara replied to the man with a wink over the comms.

The rest of the team, Sara didn't know much about. Redknight reminded her a bit of a younger sister- if said younger sister was extremely violent, and perhaps a bit unstable. All in all, better to have the her on their side rather than the other. Of course, there was always more than met the eye, so maybe Sara would be surprised. R-18 sounded like one of her folk- if at least by birth. The Bifrost accent was distinct and hard not to notice. It wasn't difficult to tell that R-18 was the type to say exactly what she thought, and didn't much give a fuck if you had a problem with that- which suited Sara just fine. Bifrostian bluntness was a signature trait of theirs after all.

"Thanks Valk, suuuper helpful!" Sara called out to their resident AI, her eye roll practically as audible as her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Banter said and done, it was only a few moments later that they reached the drop zone, the Chevalier's engines spooling up as Sara watched the others launch. Sara settled into her seat as the catapult launched the Chevalier towards the surface, though rather than impacting the ground like the rest of her compatriots, her AUG's powerful engines burst to life well over the ground, touching down with a soft thud instead, or as soft as one could expect a massive war machine to land. Though, with how the aptly named 'HIGH IMPACT' landed, it didn't seem stealth was something they planned on maintaining. Hard to be stealthy with a near dozen AUGs anyhow.

"Rabbit, on station. Lead the way." Sara called out in her best radio voice before addressing the other team, "Crashing a party is only fun if they can't call for help. Happy hunting."

Garrett took hold of Sentinel's controls as the order to launch came through. The AUG's systems powering up to full combat status. The full-surround cockpit screen came to life, and the holographic readouts and instruments shimmered into life. The AUG's eyes lit up, and its' running lights followed shortly thereafter in sequence.
He laughed at Rabbits' reply to his playful humour and replied with the same light tone.

"It's a deal, Rabbit. I'll keep them off your back!"

Bay doors opened and Himinbjorg's skies filled the view. Grapples released, and the AUG fell away from the ship. Control surfaces and vanes extended, angling and shifting. With a jolt, the Sentinel as free of the launch bay, and free-falling through the skies. The slightest flare of thrusters was enough to give some positive control in the glide, while keeping output low enough that it shouldn't register too abnormally on any watching sensors. A twitch and shift of those wing-like controls, and the Aug's controlled fall was a graceful glide.
The rest of the assault team fell or flew around him, the others having peeled away to make their approaches to the communications gear.
Blue tags highlighted the location of the others assigned to his team, and their position in his field of view. Tallow had hit the ground first, so he aimed for her landing spot, shifting the Aug's posture in mid-air, and coming in for an efficient, businesslike, if not graceful landing. The AUG's feet took the brunt of the landing without complaint, skidding a few feet as it landed, before resuming a standing posture; not much different from Tallow's landing in terms of ground-shaking impact and the strewn debris and dirt. He grinned at her remark and nodded the AUG's head in her direction.

"Can't have put much money into it - they didn't hire us, after all. Think that means we ought to show them what they missed out on..."

---

Stel only had a few precious moments to catch her breath after that misstep before she started hearing everyone launch around her.

"Landing zone clear!" she heard. Already!? It hadn't even been five minutes since they got their team confirmations!

With panic clear on her face, she reached for the switches that would start up a standard Angel, but her hands only brushed against air. Most of her AUG's controls were redundant backups anyway, Adam controlled the vast majority on its own. In fact, the only thing she really needed to know were what was right in front of her... the controls for direct piloting. She reached shaky hands forward to wrap around them, and naturally her body shifted weight to fit the odd manner of sitting that the AUG required.

"Looks like you're ready. Finally."

Stel was not ready, by any means. But she heard the next messages come through. "Watcher in formation, scanning for patrols or other targets." She was slowing everyone down. Maybe that was for the best? Her AUG was flashy, if she launched too soon she'd give them all away in an instant, but if she took too long...

"L-l-laun-" she managed to stammer out before being interrupted.

"Launching." came Adam's voice to nobody but its pilot.

Luckily, nobody else would hear Stel's indecision, though those watching the hangar would probably figure it out anyway. Just after Adam made its proclamation to its pilot, the AUG stood completely from its one-kneed stance and began careening forwards from its regular thrusters firing behind it. Stel didn't feel so much as a lurch in her cockpit, but she felt one in her stomach nonetheless as the sight of the heights she was falling from filled her vision. Maybe this was a bad idea.

She was about to voice a complaint when Adam plagiarized her voice and spoke on the comms for her. "FA, launch complete. Will stay up here to draw fire until we have some targets." And true to its word, the Red Power would stay floating a few dozen kilometers away from it's designated landing zone and just high enough to draw the attention of anyone or anything protecting the comms systems of their target, hopefully giving Watcher enough data to target from.

That was not okay. The instant the comms shut back down she spoke up."Adam, what the hell!? Don't go talking as or for me, I'll tear you a-" she managed before Red Power did a spin that, while not physically affecting her body's equilibrium, did cause her screens to barrel roll and make her nearly puke.

"Then learn to talk for yourself."

-oops

With the EINHERJAR pilots deployed in the clearing, all that was left was to split up and head to their targets. For Valika and the rest of the demolitions team, this meant the main base of operations.

For the team targeting the communications array, this meant a trip a bit further north.

---

It was common for most quickly-established corporate bases to be assembled largely from prefabricated building materials. In this case, there was no exception. While it was built partially on top of some practically-leveled war-era ruins, there was nothing worth attempting to salvage from them. As a result, all that could be seen was a clustered of sterile, white buildings made of equally sterile materials. Towards the center was a larger, domed building, likely their main destination where the package they were seeking lay.

But first, it was demolitions time.

The mass-produced MAs being used by Ultima Universal were squat, typically armed with a single main weapon and a single shoulder-mounted armament. They were comparatively cheap and it was easy to make a lot of them, but the tradeoff was that they weren't as sturdy as their chunky appearance would imply.

A pair were currently just beyond the treeline.

Valika smirked.

They hadn't picked up on them yet.

MORDRED's sensors highlighted both targets, but she wouldn't need any kind of lock for these guys.

What was more important was the more distant targets her readout was picking up. At least six heavy kinetic projectile cannons and one light rail cannon. From their placement, she could at least be certain they were capable of targeting her all at once, but you'd have to be an idiot not to be aware of them in the first place.

But first.

"Time to take out the trash~"

The LA5678 in MORDRED's hands was leveled, aiming directly for the nearest MA's center mass. Right for its drive core.

"Aaaand... boom!"

She felt the air warming around her, the hiss and snap of the beam rifle's fire as a purple-pink burst of light suddenly rent its way through the air.

The unfortunate pilot didn't have a moment to respond, likely only realizing something was occurring when the beam was suddenly searing through their machine's armor, a ring of white-hot steel forming around the growing hole as it pierced right to critical systems.

Fire erupted from the burning wound, then tore its way through the MA's chest, before a larger explosion rocked the machine and left it toppling to the ground.

"What the-shit!"

She picked up the other corpo pilot's response to the sudden attack as MORDRED went rolling down the hill, boosters roaring to life as she jerked her control stick, her LUNALIGHT saber humming to life with a blue-white glow.

The second pilot took aim, but he was far too slow.

Her Beam Saber punched right through the MA's frontal armor, directly through its systems. She could practically feel the drive breaking down, and she pulled back quickly as flames erupted from the machine.

"That's... All Ultima Universal forces, we are under attack! I repeat, we are under attack!"

She picked up their communications again, and it was pretty much what she'd expected.

It's not like there was any point in trying to be subtle when they were here for a smash and grab, right? Already, her readout was picking up more MAs rolling into view.

No problem.

---

The communications array was dominated by a large parabolic antenna, standing over an assortment of smaller prefab structures and other systems relating to long-range communication.

Its detectable defenses were pair of MA squads, composed of a about ten of the mass-produced machines each, as well as at least three heavy kinetic projectile cannons. There was an assortment of smaller vehicles and light cannons as well, but those were far less threatening to a well-equipped AUG.

It was a little surprising it was so lightly-defended, but perhaps they weren't expecting it to be attacked?

Or maybe further defenses weren't so readily detectable.

@Psyker Landshark@OwO@Silverwind Blade@Eisenhorn@The World@vietmyke

<<"Decided to take in the scenery, new meat? Get your ass in gear, double time.">> Ariela replied conversationally as they set out, raising an eyebrow within her cockpit at the aforementioned pilot's sudden change in demeanor now that they were in the field. Who knew, maybe she was just the type to get her shit together on duty and nowhere else. If that was true, it was good enough for her.

On the approach to the comm site, Ariela mentally reviewed the basic readouts of her squadmates that VALKYIRE had so generously provided.

Platzragen: missile boat with a highly advanced FCS. Reminded her of some of the AUGs she'd seen on her side in the war, really. Probably a leftover like LINEBREAKER, then.

Red Power: some godforsaken supermech with way too many proprietary designs. Too fancy not to be a corporate model, military wouldn't have stuck in this much complex gear instead of just strapping more guns to it. Kid inside had to be some kind of corpo-plant sent out to use the Neutral Zone as a live-fire testing ground. Hopefully, the machine's specs would make up for her inexperience.

Two fast units and a siege specialist. She could work with this. Watcher wasn't objecting to her taking the lead so far, so she may as well keep at it. Wasn't like Ariela didn't have enough experience, anyway.

As they finally reached their target area, a quick scan revealed the current force composition lined up against them.

<<"Comms squad, listen close. Here's how we'll do the attack run. Heavy kinetic cannons're our biggest problem, so knock them out first. Following that, pick targets of opportunity, but try to focus on the MAs if you can. I'll take the lead and draw their fire. FA, you'll follow after and clean up while they're distracted. Watcher, you've got free reign to go wild. Everything clear? Good. Break!">>

___

Jimmy yawned as he barely kept an eye on the sensor readings from his MA's cockpit. God, who did he piss off to get sent out into the middle of this shithole? He idly tore open a MRE packet, only to grimace as he realized what he'd gotten. Pork patty. Fuck's sake, he could've sworn he'd taken the one marked kung pao chicken from the garrison's communal box. Worse, there was no candy bar. He was gonna find that ratfucker if it was the last thing he did. With a disgusted sigh, he prepared to take an early, mediocre lunch on duty, before alarms began to blare in his cockpit.

"Holy shi-" He swore, looking at the sensor readings before queueing up his comms.

<<"Command, we have incoming! Three Matsuzawa Drive readings, closing in fast! We have AUGs on site, I repeat, we have AUGs on site! The lead's coming in at three times the speed of the others!">>

LINEBREAKER tore through the sky in its overboost, the laser cannon mounted on its shoulder charging. Ariela grinned to herself as her FCS got a good lock onto the first of the kinetic cannons, and she opened fire. As the laser blast ripped through the heavy cannon, Ariela ended LINEBREAKER's overboost, touching down on the ground and starting to slide along with the regular boosters, opening up full auto with both of her carbines as she maneuvered towards cover behind a building.

Jimmy never stood a chance, and he screamed in panic as his MA took a dozen rounds and went critical.

@Eisenhorn @The World

Watcher

Watcher noted that Fallen Angel was lagging behind, at least initially, as they deployed and split up into two teams. Banshee continued settling into the leadership role, giving the rookie a mild hard time as they began moving towards their target. While the others went through whatever thoughts they would entertain, Watcher considered their target. Comms array would have redundancies, a smart one would at any rate, but the primary method of communication would likely be some sort of antenna array, again an extensive layout would have several arrays but a smaller one might only have one. The quickest way to shut down immediate communication would be targeting the main array, which was likely doable with several HMAA missiles directly to the base of the array. Banshee's plan cut his train of thought off, and he considered his position in the raid.

'Go Wild' suited him fine, though as far as wild was concerned, he was still incredibly precise with that. Fallen Angel was keeping up much better now, perhaps she found much more peace on the field like he did? Regardless, he replied, loading up his munitions as they approached the point they would be getting detected, LINEBREAKER picking up speed.

"Watcher copies. Will deploy cluster munitions against secondary line targets, prevent attempts at forming a cohesive defense while engaging first line targets."

---

LINEBREAKER's engagement created a gap in the line of the Communication Array, Platzragen coming out into view shortly afterwords. Unlike the leader of the trio, the missile boat AUG came to a halt, aiming both of its Thermal Accelerator's at one of the unharmed heavy kinetic cannons before sending the non tracking rounds hurtling straight for the stationary target. The explosive impacts would cripple the cannon, the continually burning wreck causing structural failures that sent the platform collapsing in on itself. While reloading the spent weapons, Walker was manually targeting several missiles at the same time. Two HMAA were being targeted at the base of the Antenna, which would come in at a pincer, near horizontal strike to mitigate the chances of unseen anti missile defenses kicking in. Another HMAA targeted a member of the first MA team that LINEBREAKER had engaged, and the last sequenced missile was a CMST, targeting the second unengaged squad of MA in a right to left sweeping pattern. With a HUD of blaring target locks, Walker smiled to himself and launched the sequence.

All four missiles shot out of PAMS, the first two HMAA being launched near horizontal with the base of the antenna, before second stage thrusters kicked in and sent the missiles hurtling towards the base of the antenna, aiming to cripple the array before a proper SOS could be organized. The third HMAA would more directly launch for one of the first squad's MA, constantly course correcting to ideally account for any attempted evasive maneuvers, looking to land a killing blow before a response could be readied. The star of the first volley, however, would be the CMST missile seemingly hurtling wildly off target off to the right. After a predetermined distance, the smart munition would bank, engaging secondary boosters that began corkscrewing the missile and, as it began passing over the second squad, began hurling highly explosive sub munitions in a cloud as it passed over the heads of the second MA squad. Each sub munition would proceed to lock onto the nearest target not already flagged friendly, assuming any allies got close enough to the sub munition cloud, and began launching towards targets of the second MA squad, as well as other lighter targets that happened to get picked up by the smart sub munitions.

Walker kept tracking targets as they appeared, issuing load commands to PAMS, making ready to engage targets that were left and adapt to any unforeseen defenses. The blaring target locks, shouting and shock of assault from enemy comms, the shudder of missiles being launched and the trails betraying their course, it was all a long overdue balm to his mind. It made tracking the enemies, and his allies, that much more second nature, keeping an eye out for new defenses that appeared before they proved to be a danger to his current allies. He kept an eye out for Fallen Angel to engage, especially given the likely top down nature of first engagement as he didn't want missiles getting unfortunately intercepted by an ally's path of attack crossing over unintentionally.

"You lot can just grab my coattails if you feel like you need a warm-up."

The boosters on HIGH IMPACT ignited. Pale green spilled from the back of the AUG as Tallow's behemoth began to move. It crept forward as momentum began to gather and Tallow charted a course on the primary roadway. If she was going to go around knocking, she might as well knock on the front door.

A pillar of the pale green plasma erupted from the primary thruster. The heavy AUG blasted forwards. Being heavy didn't mean that something had to be painfully slow. With enough thrust, even the heaviest AUG could move at an adequate speed. Of course, there were some complications with moving heavy mechs. Building up speed, turning, and stopping were all difficult.

If a nimble aerial armour could be called LINEBREAKER, then Tallow's behemoth could be nicknamed Linebacker.

Of course, that meant that stealth was completely out of the picture. Short range comms would probably drag every scouting unit towards her, but hell, she was already talking.

Then came that glimmer. Those three little bead of light on the short radar. Targets ahead. Tallow aimed her Thunderhammers forwards and grinned.

"Huh? That wasn't noise! Something is on approach!"

"That's... All Ultima Universal forces, we are under attack! I repeat, we are under attack!" Their comms rang out as MORDRED's attack began.

Then the scouts came into range and Tallow pulled the triggers.

"Here's a sight for our lovely scouts."

"Shit! Get read-"

The first grenade burst as it collided with the MA's armour. With a thunderous crack, slag and sparks flew in all directions. The scout that had unfortunately taken up point had been turned to an open husk. The cockpit hadn't just been torn open by an explosive; it had been erased from the MA's frame. It was certainly a firework, though the brutality of it distracted from its beauty.

The second grenade struck the ground by the two remaining MAs. Dirt rose to form a cloud. The shockwave burst joints and overwhelmed systems. The scouts were left off-balance and blind.

HIGH IMPACT didn't show signs of stopping.

Its torso twisted as it passed the remaining scouts.

"Consider this on-the-job training."

Tallow fired a second volley.

More fountains of light rained as metal was torn, shredded, and ignited. Really, these MA were nice. Whatever metal they used, they sure did look pretty when they were turned into a light show.

No point in her slowing down now. She'd just move forward towards the base. If something planned to intercept? She had about twenty more solutions before she had to reload.

---

Sara contented herself with a merry little hum as the group approached the target base on foot. She much preferred traveling by air, but she'd be an easy target- and would give away their position as well. Not that one could consider their little assault team "stealthy", given their assembled AUGs. The scouts must've been lax about security however, as the team was able to get the jump on the enemy MA's with little difficulty. Redknight and R-18 handled the MA's at the front handily, and as HIGH IMPACT began to rush towards the base, Sara was quick to follow, kicking the Chevalier off the ground with blue-white blasts of thrust.

"This is where the fun begins." Sara chuckled as the Chevalier screamed into the air. Whizzing past their lead elements, Sara settled into her seat as her AUG began to line up targets for her. She sighted in on the nearest gun emplacement, a heavy cannon battery, likely meant to defend against the type of attack they were performing. A hit from one of those guns would put a real damper on their assault, and while Sara doubted their tracking capabilities, all it took was one lucky shot. A red diamond appeared onto the battery, indicating that she had target lock, and Sara thumbed her missiles and a pair of heavy Halberd missiles streaked from her wing racks and into the target. For good measure, Sara followed it up with a short burst from her autocannon, the thundering 'BRRRT' crackling through the sky before impacting their target.

"Good effect on the first gun. Redknight, R-18, following you in. Coming around for another pass." Sara called over the comms. Pulling back on her controls, the Chevalier flew up and away from the target base, reestablishing itself as Sara took her AUG into a lazy orbit around the team's AUGs.