[IC] Ace Academy - Ready!? Set!? Rumble! - High Casual

[Peaceless]

Kiril's eyebrows furrowed by themselves when he observed Atlas's Gear and the circuis that surrounded it. He didn't like it. It probably cost over fifty times the price of Ogre, and going into combat with such equipmקnt only meant one thing - every battle, whether they win or lose, is going to affect their reputation negatively.

His gaze floated towards the slot where Ogre was stored. It wasn't getting as much attention, as it was an obscure repurposed construction model, although it did gain some laughs from the passerbys, pointing at its epaulettes.

Fools. They will soon realize that a toy barbarian looking Gear is sort of funny in the hangar, but once it starts wiping the floor with them the funny will become frightening very fast. This was its main advantage - nobody knew what it can do, and by the time they get it it's already too late.

Speaking of which -

"So what does it do?" He made a wide gesture at the shining gear, the disdain in his voice clearly audible.

[vancexentan]

@Peaceless

Bill took a quick look at Kiril's facial expression and knew he wasn't exactly too impressed, nor did he like the fact that his own machine was so advanced. He couldn't really do anything about it, nor did he have the luxury to reprimand the man on his tone at the moment. "Exalted is a close combat machine. Optimized for melee combat, and speed. it is capable of generating a shield barrier even when in quick movement. It's joints allow it for maximum reach, and movement compared to some other gears like the American, and Chinese made gears and can keep up with top made japanese ones as well. Exalted can take out most enemies with ease in a one on one scenario." commented Bill as went over to his control panel and swiped his pass to allow him to access his machine. He looked over it's data before determining that it was indeed fine. "Lay man's terms: It's got two big sticks, and it uses them really well. A gear is only as good as it's pilot though..." Bill admitted as he tried not to leak out his own inner feelings of ineptitude when compared to Jaden Atlas.

[Ammokkx]

Rio stuck around the back of the group, keeping everyone an arm's length away from herself. She wanted to get everything over with quickly. Even though Bill didn't show any interest in checking out the others' GEARs, he still wanted his teammates to look at his. Figures, men did like to boast and grandstand. Rio wondered why, though. From what she remembered, his GEAR was nothing special. Just a standard melee skirmisher with average performances.

Then the first red flag happened: The crowd of people. At first it looked innocent enough, but when her new team leader got into the mix she felt things weren't quite what she remembered. The GEAR was out of Rio's sight, but even though the woman couldn't see it, she still figured it couldn't have been the same one she fought last year. That one was too middle-of-the-road. The crowd started to disperse, but she hadn't paid attention as to why. It gave Rio the opportunity to get a little closer, getting her a good look at the GEAR.

Well, no wonder people flocked to it like mad. Rio's eyes narrowed as she intensely stared at the red-and-black machine. Even without knowing the first thing about it, the GEAR looked like an impressive piece of work. It didn't sit well with the woman, however. Her eyes darted over to Gurevich, who had just asked a question about the GEAR's functionality. Bill responded to the best of his abilities and planted a seed of doubt in Rio's mind.

" 'A GEAR is only as good as its pilot'? Atlas, I sincerely hope you're joking. If the team leader doesn't have any faith in their skill, then how are we supposed to have faith in them? For someone who doesn't want to waste time getting familiar with each other's machines, you sure seem to be wasting ours." Rio sneered back. She leaned against a nearby wall, looking severely unimpressed.

[vancexentan]

"If you don't want to be on our team for real then leave. If you do it would be nice for you to at least talk nice to us. I'm not trying to bury myself I'm just being honest, and repeating what I've been told by my family. I'm not a bad pilot but Exalted is a machine built by a company with a high reputation for quality gears, and made for a pilot in a whole different level. I wasn't even sure why he gave it to me he just did. Hyperion even asked me before and I couldn't give them a good answer. Still Exalted is a machine that can make me a much better pilot than what I was last year. If what you're telling me is true than you should already know I was a solid pilot." glowered Bill as he clenched his fist for a moment before taking a deep breath and calming himself. He was a team captain he needed to be in control. "Look just get into your gears and I'll send you a request to train alright? If you want me to prove to you what this machine is capable of I'll show you why I'm called White Lightning in my family." Bill said as he opened up Masurao's chest cavity and made his way towards the lift. He hoped that the machine wouldn't put too much expectation on him...but it kind of already was Bill has big shoes to fill and Masurao was the biggest set he'd ever gotten. He'd feel better once he showed them that he was indeed not some third rate back up pilot. He knew his skill was something worth noting otherwise Hyperion wouldn't-gah it was pointless to think on that he had to get ready to fight the AI's. Level 40 AI's where a level that only competent pilots could challenge if he didn't focus he'd get squashed.

[Peaceless]

Kiril slid over to Rio while Bill was busy with his Gear, watching the various mobile armor plates slide into place at the team leader disappeared within the red monstrosity's chest. "Well done" He smirked. "You took him off balance. This is an important moment to remember, as this is an Achiles heel we will need to cover."

He turned to look at her, his face now dead serious as usual. "Which also means you should not step on his foot too much. We are in this together, after all."

[vietmyke]

Sara's face fell a bit when Atlas mentioned her working with him in what were likely the frontlines. She felt much more comfortable in a flanking role, taking attacks of opportunity when they arose rather than scrapping it out in the front lines with the others. She resolved to mention this to Bill at a later time though, as he seemed intent on showing the rest of the team his machine. He seemed proud of it.

As they entered a hangar, Sara was quick to notice a crowd building up in front of one of the GEARs. She remembered that one- getting people out of the way so she could park hers was a small pain. It was black and shiny and almost looked more ornamental than functional, and it definitely had the vibe of 'cool' to it. Sara remembered her brother expressing the desire to take it apart and see what kind of gear it was functioning with 'under the hood' and asking Sara to find out who the pilot was. Sara was quite surprised to find that this machine was in fact Bill's machine.

The team already begun squabbling. Kiril in particular didn't seem particularly impressed with it, and asked about its capabilities. Hamasaki didn't seem satisfied by Bill's response and promptly chewed into him- with Atlas as expected, getting defensive and going off on the girl. Sara glanced over at Ian Laudat, the only other one not involved in the current argument.

"If they pilot anything like they talk, I get the feeling everyone's going to be getting in each other's way a lot today." She said with a sigh- not really expecting a response as she made her way over to her own machine in a slot just across from Bill's Exalted. Her brother had probably purposely parked as close to the exotic machine as he could so he could get a better look at it- and was likely in the currently dispersing crowd.

Her own machine, lovingly referred to as "White Hare", looked almost as pristine as they day it left the factory. It was a military-grade model- one of a test-batch of 12 machines built just a few months ago. Units 1-7 were currently in the field in some far off battlefield, while 9-12 were currently undergoing tests, hers- unit 8 was at Ace Academy for branding purposes. The machine quickly powered on as Sara slid into the cockpit. She opened up a private communication line with Bill.

"Ignore them Atlas. Actions speak louder than words. Respect is best won on the battlefield."

[Heckno12]

"Alright." Ian said as he entered his GEAR and waited for the invite.

Downloading his weapon's specs was a challenge, experimental weapons didn't have precedents in the network so they were often viewed as illegal material. Thankfully all of that had been handled the year before. This was actually going to be rather familiar then, but with the computers only being on the other side.

Hopefully the rest of the team would be able to work effectively together. While his GEAR could probably reach top speeds higher than any of the others', it was only in short bursts. Unfortunately, that meant that without cover all he could do was stall opponents. His position was mainly for supporting fire and absolutely depended on the others occupying the opposition. That being said, if he was given just a few moments he could depower one of the GEARs the others had engaged.

"Ready whenever you are, boss." Ian shouted towards the Masurao.

[vancexentan]

Atlas saw that none of his new teammates had decided that they needed to ask him any further questions. As he entered Exalted the machine powered up quickly, and began diagnostics on it's systems. It asked him if the user would like to set this new area it found itself in as a home and Bill acknowledged that he did indeed want to set the area as a home. After all Masurao, or rather Exalted, was now going to spend it's time sitting in this hanger until the actual fights began. He set up his systems and breathed in deeply as he set Exalted into it's programmed training mode. The machine wouldn't be moving but it would simulate a real battle which was both a hindrance, and helpful. He could practice without moving Masurao, and at the same time he could formulate new strategies with it but at the same time it wasn't like actually piloting the thing. It didn't move and thus it didn't shake. As Bill quickly sent out an invite to all players he got a private message from Sarah. He opened the link and heard her speak to him telling him that the respect of the battlefield was earned, not given. "The glory of the battlefield is won by the TENACIOUS hand of the absolute victor! Cherish the fight, and not the aftermath! I will show them the power of the Atlas Family Tree! For only Lighting can follow Thunder! Follow me into victory against the foul heathen AI and let them know that they shall crumble before the ingenuity of the human soul! Let those who doubt us know their own folly and repent!" Atlas said with a bombastic, and heavily exaggerated hot blooded voice a he smiled to himself. He himself set up the AI match and entered the virtual arena as his screen showed them in an empty white arena with no spectators. On the opposite side of the field sat five white, and black nondescript Gears who awaited the signal to start the battle. He checked his systems and made sure they properly loaded in Masurao's weapons. Everything seemed to be alright as he pulled out his twin black sabers and waited for his team to get into the match. "HEAR ME FOUL MECHANIZED INFANTRY OF THE COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMMING! I AM BILL ATLAS TEAM CAPTAIN OF CELESTIAL STAR! BOW BEFORE ME AND PREPARE TO BE SLAIN BY THE POWER OF THE HUMAN SOUL! FOR ONLY THEN CAN YOU TRULY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A WARRIOR. I WILL DEFEAT YOU IN HONORABLE COMBAT AND PUSH YOUR SMASHED CARCASS TO THE WAYSIDE!" Bill roared at the computer as he psyched himself up for combat. "AI Program routines initiated....command invalid...please repeat command." came the response from the ai program not clear on Atlas's threat.

[Ammokkx]

Rio only gave a cursory glance at Gurevich, still unwilling to recognize him as worth her time. She'd see what he's made of on the field of battle. If he's so keen on giving unwanted advice, he'd better earn it. The woman walked off in the direction of her own GEAR as it was located a little bit further into the hangar. She didn't have time to deal with the expected reactions to her comment if she wanted to get into combat in a timely fashion.

Once Rio was inside of Union the entire process of loading into the simulator went by extremely quickly. Bill had already sent out the invites by the time she'd arrived. Rio did a quick double check of Union and waited for the arena to visualize around her. She seemed to be the fourth one getting in, strangely enough. Gurevich must have been held up. Once Gurevich had loaded in, the glorious team leader managed to get on Rio's nerves even further with just some simple banter.

"Great. NEET and no self-confidence. Just what I needed." Rio groaned to herself, muting the communications for just a second so her team wouldn't hear it. She braced the rifle of Union and kept a close eye on the boosters.

"Ready."

[vietmyke]

Sara blinked in her cockpit, Bill's bombastic response taking her a bit off guard. He sounded like an overenthusiastic video game character. She giggled lightly to herself as she joined Bill's training session, and was joined by Ian and Hamasaki shortly afterwards. Sara took a moment to look over her Valkyrie II, the white machine's weapons loaded in fairly easily- most of her blueprints had already been uploaded to the database by the manufacturer.

Sara listened as Bill addressed them again, her machine firing the various boosters around its bodies- testing her mobility in the sim. Sure enough, it was working fine. Her Valkyrie was fast- perhaps not the fastest in a straight on sprint- Ian's GEAR looked light on its feet and speedy, but her machine was built for rapid lateral movement, if done right she could string together half a dozen lateral dashes in different directions in moments, enabling her to juke past just about anything- one of the main reasons why she desired a role based on flanking instead of straight on combat.

Sara let out a small cough as Bill gave a speech that would've fit in a medieval fantasy RPG, sidling her machine up next to his, boosters allowing her to hover just above the ground. "I don't think computer programs understand the concept of fear or honor." she murmured to herself as she guided her machine into position.

She let the Valkyrie settle on the ground and readied her lance and claws. "Hayakawa, ready."

[Peaceless]

Kiril followed the remainder of the team with his eyes as they withdrew to their own Gears. He made a mental note of their selected space, and the speed with which they climbed into their respective cockpits. There was a lot to learn about a person from the way they handle mundane tasks as well as personal space, which is why this exercise was so important. Still, not counting the tall girl's efforts to disband the team, the beginning of this journey and this year had great potential.

He crossed the distance to Ogre's corner with long steps, maneuvering through the crowd like a leaf in the wind. The mounting system of his Gear was simpler than that of others, focused much more on safety than speed. This was true for the software as well, in addition of it apparently being highly incompatible with the automated processes of the simulation, requiring some manual involvement. By the time he was done, he'd missed everything but Sara's response.

"An opponent without fear, or any other psychological processes, is a lesson in itself." He stated while his systems were finishing the synchronization process. "It allows us to focus on the technical part of this battle, as well as test the limit of our ruthlessness. These are just AI, right? How easy it is to imagine any opponent as 'Just AI', hah."

After a moment of silence, he piped up again. "Oh, yes, Ogre ready."

[vancexentan]

"Detecting all opponents. Engaging battle systems! Prepare for combat!" the robot called as the group of two snipers, two brawlers, and one skirmisher all attacked at once. In great sync they shot at the pilots with dexterous skill, and ability much like any top tier pilot would at the academy. The group rushed forward to meet the front line fights while the snipers hung back and shot at Ian, and Kiril in order to keep them off balance. Bill on the other hand flashed forward Exalted's speed was breath taking, and without the g forces to hold him back he was more than capable of handling Masurao. He rushed up to the enemy skirmisher and let lose with a kinetic flurry of slashes towards the enemy machine overwhelming it in a blur of motion, and slashes but he didn't manage to get any hits just yet just simply keep it on it's toes. "I'll be the one to crush you!" growled Bill as he pressured the enemy AI. Meanwhile the brawlers went up close in an attempt to destroy Sarah, and Rio while hiding behind their massive shields. Both of them were wielding heavier melee weapons.

[Heckno12]

"Had my damn volume all the way up." Ian mumbled as he recovered from the shouting. To call Bill enthusiastic would be underkill of the highest order. He had seen teams get excited like that, some even striking poses beforehand. At least he wasn't doing that...Then again they were only fighting computers, so it could still happen.

The moment the gunfire started, Ian was immediately pressured by the two enemy snipers. Firing up the jump jets, he quickly jumped backwards to a range that would be out of the effective range of all but the longer range units. Unfortunately, those were the ones targeting him at the moment. He managed to keep himself mostly unscathed by continuously moving, but it wasn't exactly easy to get a shot while dodging. He had managed a few pot-shots in the meantime, but he couldn't keep this up forever.

"Someone get one of these snipers off of me, it's a bit difficult to dodge them both!" He said over the teamchat.

[Ammokkx]

Well, the enemy had come in hot and fast. It was to be expected, considering they were AI opponents and could react faster than any human. Rio thought back on the plan in a flash, needing to cover for both Bill and Sara. Bill was out of the question for now, he'd positioned himself straight in front of the enemy. So that only left Sara, which was currently being targeted by two brawlers coming at the two ladies of the group. So the appropriate reaction here was...

"Grenade!" Rio shouted over the communications as she had Union toss one into the area between the skirmishers and the two girls, giving them both a small window of time to retreat and fire from a distance. Unfortunately, Rio had forgotten Sara was a skirmisher as well, so this left her dead in the water until after the small bomb exploded. Union boosted backwards and raised up it's rifle, taking aim at one of the two brawlers and sent a small volley of bullets in burst fire towards it.

"Someone get one of these snipers off of me, it's a bit difficult to dodge them both!"

A sudden message over the communications reached Rio's ears as she fired away. Protecting Laudat was Gurevich's job, but from the sounds of it, he had trouble as well. Atlas was doing just fine against the skirmisher, but the same couldn't be said for the rest. Sucks to be them, though. Rio wasn't going to compromise her position for them. As fate would have it, though, it didn't seem like she was going to need to. Sara's voice suddenly sprang up in the team chat.

"Hamasaki! Hold them off for a bit longer!"

Rio growled as she heard this command, being directly told what to do by someone who wasn't even the team leader. Still, she had to agree that this might have been for the best. All Sara got for a reply was a short "Got it," from the tall woman. She moved Union in a bit closer to create a barrier between her and Sara's GEAR. Pointing up Union's rifle, Rio began to launch more aggressive attacks. She wasn't good at running and gunning, but by firing enough bullets it should at least slow their advance. When the brawlers closed in on her again, she threw another grenade in between them both to zone them out.

[vietmyke]

There was something unnerving about the computer AIs simultaneously firing at the Celestial Star team members. Sara had never been in a regulated team fight before- most of the GEAR testing she had done had been in laboratory settings, with one on one combat, or in the field with asymmetrical combat operations. As a result, she had never been in a situation where they competed five on five. At this distance, the enemy fire was easy enough to dodge, but still unnerving. The front line AI began charging them after the first volley.

"So what's the-" Sara began to say as Bill rushed forward ahead of them and began clashing with the Computer Skirmisher, the two brawlers arcing around the skirmishers to close in on Sara and Hamasaki.

"-Plan..." she finished with a small sigh. She started up her boosters and began moving forward, juking past the Brawlers' slower melee weapons.

"So much for working together." Sara said with a frustrated sigh as she leveled her Lance at the nearest Brawler and began firing her lasergun. The Brawler turtled behind its shield, shrugging off the weapons fire as it and the other continued to charge towards Sara- only pausing as a bomb landed in their midst of their fight. Sara boosted backwards- as did they two Brawlers- her shields flaring as energy from the explosives washed over her shields. Luckily, her GEAR was fast enough to get her to the edge of the explosive radius before the bomb went off.

"Good save Hamasaki!" Sara called over the teamchat. Despite nominal damage to her shields, the grenade had given Sara enough breathing room to keep the brawlers at bay.

"Someone get one of these snipers off of me, it's a bit difficult to dodge them both!" Ian called over the teamchat.

Sara quickly shot a glance at the enemy snipers- they were far off. Supposedly it was Kiril's task to look after their sniper, but there was little the slower, close range focused Kuzov model could do against enemy counter-snipers. Meanwhile, Bill was too focused on his duel to be able to break off at get at the snipers. Not to mention, throughout the match thus far Bill seemed to be more focused on harrowing the non-responsive AI with intimidating speeches rather than coordinating his team- perhaps this was a test of their own initiative?

"I can get them!" Sara replied. "Hamasaki! Hold them off for a bit longer!" Hamasaki appeared to be a capable pilot, and her GEAR was sturdy enough to last the fight until she returned. With her rifle and energy grenades Hamasaki should be able to keep the Brawlers at a distance, perhaps even taking them down. Hopefully Kiril would notice Sara changing positions and either aid her to quickly wrap up the snipers, or aid Hamasaki on the frontlines while the Brawlers were focused on her.

With her enhanced lateral thrusters, Sara arched around the brawlers, randomly boosting to the left or right to keep them or the snipers from getting a bead on her as she lifted her lance, preparing to strike at the nearest one.

[Peaceless]

Kiril was dumbfounded. His reflexes were there, of course, but there wasn't any other time where he felt more out of shape.

"Pizdyetz..." He hissed through his teeth, looking wide-eyed at his shield. Digital smoke rose from a scratch left by a long-range bullet, that hit it from all the way across the map. He had raised his shield reflexively as part of his movement in front of the team's sniper, and that alone is what probably left Ogre in the game. His eyes narrowed at the two AI snipers, the brawlers charging at the team going out of focus. He could of course try to predict their trajectory, but having two shielded opponents and two long range fighters against one of each was unfair enough to require a change of strategy.

He looked over his shoulder at the navy-blue Gear. "Dodge for a while longer, I will remove the shields." He said quietly, before charging forward. His Gear not being overly agile just meant every change of direction was carefully measured, which is why he zigzagged his way forward, trying to prevent Ian from being in a direct firing line from the snipers, but also making himself a slightly harder target to hit. As he drew closer to Rio Ogre's feet dug into the virtual ground, its boosters going into a surprisingly loud overdrive. He charged towards the one Brawler closer to the line between the team's snipers in what appeared to be a strange suicide attack - but seconds before colliding into it a thick whip darted towards its shield in an attempt to bypass its defenses.

It was time the enemy realized Ogre's spikes were not just for show.

[vancexentan]

"I'm BUSY! Someone rescue him!" Bill said as he parried, and dodged around the machine it didn't even come near scratching Exalted as he hurriedly moved around enemy skirmisher the AI kept up with him but Masurao's specs horribly outclasses it, and Bill wasn't going to be defeated by some robot. He was White Lightning that which came after thunder! Strike down the enemy with force, and divine wrath! Bill calmly thought of all the ideas he could to destroy the thing but he wanted to consider the idea of striking the thing more for more points that would be needed in the exam that would occur in a few days. However he was aware of his team he knew they at least were holding their own. If they couldn't...well Celestial Star would finally drop it's name after he was done with it.

The larger bulkier brawlers kept their shields up, and absorbed the blow from the concussive blast that followed however due to the nature of the grenade it took them a moment to reorganize themselves. This time they moved forward out in a fan formation to minimize group damage. They had taken very little armor damage from the shot due to their shields. One broke off to fight Sara keeping it's shield up and swinging it's large weapon at her. The other charged directly at Rio this one using a sub machine gun loaded with kinetic rounds to try and gun her down as quick as possible. However it was quickly cut off by Ogre which slammed into it's shield and made it useless. In retaliation the machine used pushed forward against Ogre pushing it back despite the fact that it's shield was now rendered essentially useless the virtual machine still could use it for leverage to keep Ogre from destroying it. In doing so it prevented itself from being tripped, and swung at Ogre's side with a power blow committing itself to crushing Ogre as it was now stuck in it's shield.

The snipers carefully aimed, and shot at Rio keeping her from actually providing proficient cover fire they spread out to cover more angles, and any grenades thrown were quickly shot out of the sky by the ai with superb accuracy. "Fine I have no choice then!" Bill grumbled as he feinted with his right blade to the machine which took the bait he then quickly activated Masurao's energy mode and used his left sword slammed the blades into the machine and saw it fall down once he had proficiently beat it into a pulp as it couldn't react as fast as Masurao could move. "Exalted...you won me that fight that easily? Normally AI on this level should be able to react to that..." Bill thought to himself as he quickly charged towards the enemy sniper not intending to let them focus on Rio. One of them broke off and started to snipe at him which quickly put Bill on his back foot he couldn't get anywhere close.

[vietmyke]

Sara shot a look at the brawler that had peeled off to chase her and cursed. Luckily for her, that brawler was fighting a losing battle- she was too fast for it. It would have to face her on her terms- or at least partially anyway. At least it would take some heat off Hamasaki as Sara went after the snipers. Bill had also dispatched his foe and had decided to help them with the snipers. Again, he failed to vocalize anything, but Sara could tell from his vector that he too was going after the snipers. She continued making her way towards the snipers, her vector straightening out slightly in order to keep ahead of the Brawler- Occasionally she would flip backwards keeping her forward momentum while she shot at it- forcing it to slow down and turtle behind its shield.

The snipers had also shifted target from Ian to Rio and Bill- that meant Ian was now in a position to provide the others with support, from countersniping to covering fire. The team already had an advantage- they were 5 to 4, this extra breathing room gave them the flexibility they needed to gain a more marked advantage and begin decisively beating their opponents.

Sara was now upon one of the snipers. The sniper noticed Sara and attempted to fire at her, but she was too close, and moving too fast for the unwieldy weapon to track her at close range. The large sniper rifle cracked, its shot grazing Sara's shield as she strafed around the sniper, peppering its shields with her energy submachinegun. The sniper began fleeing, seeking to reposition and give its allies a chance to harry Sara, but she pursued the AI GEAR, launching her EMP Claw at it.

The EMP Claw caught the sniper's leg as it turned, causing it to tumble to the ground- its leg momentarily shut down. The sniper GEAR turned onto its back, rifle leveled and ready to shoot the white GEAR, but Sara was already upon it. A sniper shot flew past her head as she stabbed the lance into her foe's chest. The lance head, like its real life counterpart merely crumpled in on itself as it stabbed into the AI, but the powerful electrical discharged disabled the machine, giving Sara the K.O.

Without missing a stride, Sara leaped over the defeated GEAR almost as quickly as she had stabbed it, not desiring to stay in one position long enough for the brawler to catch up with her if it was still following her. Sara sighed out and smiled to herself- this is what she was good at- striking at the softer interior of the enemy formation while her allies wore them down. A smaller scale hammer and anvil tactic- tried and true.

"Sorry for the wait Hamasaki, I'm on my way back now." Sara called over the teamchat as she rushed back to their 'frontline', fixing her second lance head to the front of her gauntlet as she moved. The brawler was currently wrestling on the ground with the Ogre, and now had to contend with Hamasaki, who was no longer being fired upon. Sara reversed herself, dashing backwards as she fired at the brawler chasing after her. She didn't really imagine the possibility of her penetrating the big brawler's shield, but she'd be able to keep it at a distance long enough for the others to begin helping her.

[Heckno12]

Ian sighed in relief as he recharged and reloaded his rifle. Without the two enemies firing on him, he could breathe for a moment. It looked like the team was already creating a decent advantage after taking a few of their opponents out. It seemed like the team was working together pretty well already.

"Thanks for the backup guys!" Ian said over the comms now that he was free from the two enemy snipers. He quickly settled into a better position and took aim at the remaining sniper. Firing two shots in quick succession, the third shot still waiting in case it became necessary.

Now that he was at optimal range and clear of all fire, it would be easy to take pressure off of the others. Even a high level computer would struggle to evade two shots from a target it wasn't prioritizing. "I've got your back, Hayakawa."

This here, the heat of battle, this was enough to keep him awake. If it was any easier he'd have probably dozed, but between the constant gunfire and clashing of weapons he was having no trouble staying conscious.

[Ammokkx]

Rio kept her head cool as she tried to zone out the brawlers, but it became apparent soon enough that her bullets weren't very effective. Despite being under constant fire, they brushed them off like it was nothing. Union was a bit too slow to effectively run and gun, so when the brawler started charging at her she couldn't run. Luckily for her, Gurevich had made it so she didn't have to by slamming straight into the hulking machine.

She hates to admit it, but the foreigner saved her skin back there. Rio lowered her rifle to finish off the GEAR on the floor, but was interrupted by a shot hitting her shields. She quickly shifted focus from the brawler to the snipers, who were pressuring her now.

"Shoot," she muttered. Rio activated her boosters to narrowly dodge a second shot, then ran around on the field to try and avoid more enemy fire. She saw Bill finish off the skirmisher, taking some heat off of Rio's back as one of the snipers took aim at Bill. Soon after, Hayakawa went for the other sniper as Laudat took aim from the back. Good, now that the team sniper was free, some of the heat should be off of the rest of them.

But there was another issue now. As the three others focused their attention on the two snipers, Gurevich and Rio were left with the two brawlers. Rio couldn't afford to waste any more time running, she needed to back up Gurevich before he was disabled and left her in a two versus one. Not only that, but if she didn't start pressuring the brawlers again, one of them might have gone for the unprotected Ian.

"Keep him occupied, Gurevich!" Rio barked over the communications as she took aim with Union's rifle. Her target wasn't the brawler on the floor, but rather the other one that roamed around. If she could hold him off, then he wouldn't pose a threat to her team. Following that line of logic, she unleashed a storm of bullets upon the enemy GEAR.