[IC] Falling Skies: 7th Mobile Armor Suit Team

[PrincessOfNothing]

In the excitement from finding her friends, Alice forgot that, at least through their perspective, she kind of abandoned them while she escaped. Trapp seemed happy enough to see her, but Maki’s bitter remarks didn’t cut through her as much as the realization that because of her programming, she had betrayed her trust. Though it’s not like she would have willingly left them behind to be captured if she had any choice in the matter! They are the priority! She couldn’t help that she was a valuable piece of ordnance to UEE higher-ups, and they wouldn’t risk her being taken by the enemy under any circumstances. Besides, she wouldn’t even be here to break them out if she had let herself be captured with them. Tactically, it made sense to let two soldiers be captured if one could escape, so the UEE could keep another piece on the board. They would understand that, right? Once they were safe and sound back on the Lincoln, she would try to explain that to them.

Or maybe they all just forgot, herself included, that she was a weapon, and not a real girl.

The announcement on the loudspeakers quickly brought her back to the moment at hand. The rescue party she requested was on the way, and just in time! They had a small window of time to work with if they were to make the most out of this rescue, so they had to act fast. Almost instantly, Trapp formulated a plan of action and began telling her and Maki, while her smile returned out of respect. Once he finished, he reminded her to finally let them out of their cells.

“Ah, right!”, she saluted and quickly turned to the console, opening the doors to their cells and setting them free. Looking back at them, she bit her lip as she awkwardly faced Maki, too ashamed to make eye contact with her. In her head, she was apologizing over and over again, but when she finally opened her mouth, she started to mumble,

“M-Miss Nishizumi, I, um…we should get going.”

She promptly turned around and proceeded to take point as Trapp said, starting to lead them out of the hold-up. There would be plenty of time for them to talk and patch things up back on the Lincoln. She could still tell where the Eagle was, so she knew where to go. Thankfully, the hallways were almost completely empty due to the Coalition soldiers leaving to fight the incoming rescue party. Even more fortunate, that meant the hangar the Eagle and Hellcat were kept in was left unguarded in all the mayhem. As the three snuck inside, Alice remembered the data center. There might not be enough time to download anything, but there must be something they could do while they escaped.

“Wait! I know this might not be the best time, but remember, Jehan is a research colony. They have to keep records of all their research and experiments somewhere: a data center, and I know where it is.”

[Reaper]

Maki kept a stiff grin as Trapp made some asinine comment about grudges and keeping things off the battlefield. Alice was obviously unaware of how to react to her anger, and it was perhaps retribution enough to let the dumb robot stew over it for a bit. "Yes, sir. No more passive aggressive behaviour towards UEE property, sir." She replied sarcastically, fixing her uniform and preparing her knife a little dramatically, to remind Trapp that he was the only one was really unarmed.

"Go ahead, Tin Girl, lead the way." Maki gestured with a bow to their left, which was the way towards the elevator. She had a rough idea of the prison's layout from when they were walking down, but since Alice actually came back to get them, there was no need for her best guess at the quickest way out.

The alarms started blaring and announcing an attacking force was on its way. It seemed like their beloved Captain missed her prized pilot too much to leave her alone on a Coalition planet after all. "Remind me to give the Captain a big fat kiss when we get back." She replied in response to Trapp's comment about the rescue.

"Secure the prisoners! The UEE is coming for their pilots!" The orders were barked down the corridor, loud enough to be discernible over the buzz of activity. Maki's carefree expression dissolved immediately to a professional, cold blank slate as she gripped the make shift shiv in her hands and charged.

The two soldiers barely had any time to respond as the rounded the corner and saw Maki come around in a blur at the same time, burying the weapon in the closest man's neck. In one fluid motion she pulled out the knife, put the dying man's body between herself and the second guard, and pushed, unsnapping the holster of her victim's sidearm and pulling the pistol out.

The poor fool barely had time to move his friend's body out of the way when she smacked him in the face with the gun, her legs sweeping his from underneath him. A swift boot to the face ensured the man stayed down for the count, as she turned around to check that Trapp and Alice were behind her. "That solves the problem of weapons." She commented nonchalantly, picking up the rifle from the dead soldier and removing his spare magazines.

"Let's get this party started, shall we? I'd hate to let our calvary have all the fun." She added, smiling manically.

[vietmyke]

Without their previous numbers, the Coalition mobile force was considerably less potent- A quartet of 101st pilots were more than a match for six Coalition units. However, unlike previous engagements, the 101st had no Capital ships to support their assault. As a result, the 101st had to contend with the full attention of three Coalition warships. As a result, McKnight found himself on more of a defensive, as he had to focus more on dodging brackets of AA fire instead of shooting down enemy suits. Luckily, with Williams locking down the Ferir III, the remaining pilots would have enough time to mop of most of the remaining II's before the III could become a real threat.

"Mind your power level, Williams. Don't waste all your energy before we hit the planet. And take care not to get hit, we'll need every bit of shield power for out entry procedure." Eric said over the comms, as he weaved through a gap in the lines of enemy AA fire, gunning down a Ferir II with a generous burst of his autocannon, marking his second kill that engagement, as one of the Ferir's had been unable to dodge his missiles. Luckily for them, Eric's opening salvo, while wasting a rather large amount of ordnance destroyed one II, and crippled another one, leaving only 2 left alongside the Ferir III for them to handle. Normally Eric would have swapped to his beam saber, which would allow him to stay mobile with sweeping strikes as he flew by instead of needing to take aim with his cannon. However, he did not have that luxury as he needed to be able to enter atmosphere at a moments notice.

Instead, he hung back, allowing Astelion and Sokolov to take the brunt of the assault, which was still difficult, as they were forced to dodge copious amounts of AA fire instead of firing back.

"Damned destroyers. Maybe this will get their attention!" Sokolov growled as he peeled off and launched a pair of heavy missiles at a destroyer, following it up with several heavy artillery rounds. This act lightened up the AA fire considerably, as the Coalition ship point defense weapons shifted from shooting down MAS's to shooting down ordnance. This opening allowed Astelion to secure a kill on another Ferir II before the AA fire opened up again.

"This is Sergeant Tawes!" called a voice over the comms, "We've started out entry procedure!"

"That's our cue Williams!" McKnight called over the squad comms as he began falling back towards the planet.

"Go! We've got the rest of this covered! Astelion barked as his Sentinel loosed a long burst of autocannon rounds to suppress the Ferir III.

As Gallant began his entry procedures, he began reducing power from his other systems- such as his tesla boosters and missile weapons to power up his energy shields- which also doubled as the MAS's heat shield. His viewscreens dyed the inside of his cockpit and all of his vision an orange-red as his MAS was pulled into the planet's gravity well and began entering the planet's atmosphere, his breaking thrusters occasionally boosting to correct his path and control his speed. While MAS were capable of entering atmosphere, they were almost certainly not designed to, at least not without specialized drop pods, and alarms blared in his cockpit as his MAS warned him about the increasing heat and the fact that he had been trapped in a gravity well. With all the alarm noise, he almost didn't notice that one of the alarms going off was a proximity alarm. Turning his camera at the last moment, McKnight saw that an enemy Ferir had broken past Astelion and Sokolov and had begun charging him.

The Ferir II that he had crippled charged recklessly at him- one arm missing and knife drawn- apparently having resigned himself to death in the skies. Hunkering behind his shield, Gallant halted the charge of the oncoming Ferir II, a flick of the Shrike's arm and a large boost from his thrusters hurling the Ferir away. He followed the toss with a pair of shots from his autocannon striking the Ferir in the back and destroying its thrusters, sending it into an uncontrolled spiral towards the planet's surface.

"The alarms are deafening but otherwise I'm good to go, how're you holding up Williams?"

[Whoami]

"The drop is going smoothly, the 7th have penetrated the atmosphere and are proceeding with the operation." one crewman said.

"Sergeant Hark reports all cannons are operational and hot, captain." said another.

"The discovered munitions from the moon have been loaded aboard, ma'am. Crews are moving the supplies to their necessary points now." Aston advised.

Admiral Ardin flanked Alexis' other side, "The men and women under your command seem quite a lot more competent now, captain."

Captain Marquis didn't take her eyes from the holopad in her hands. She was reading over every report that was verbally spoken to her to double check everything. "They were always competent, your highness. No crew could ever perform so well after being pulled from hyperspace so suddenly. When this is over, I'll be sure to congratulate them on their success. Until then, we're still in a battlespace and we need our heads on a swivel."

The bridge was filled with a cacophony of monotoned, informative voices as they relayed information across the ship and to the two teams: the marines on the moon and the elite MAS unit on Jehan. That moment on the bridge was almost peaceful, Alexis relaxed her shoulders a bit and took a breath to relax. She ran a hand through her hair and felt the dried blood from when he hit her head at the beginning of the engagement. She realized just then how much her head had hurt from that fall. With the stress of combat temporarily alleviated, Alexis became more conscious of her own body. The head wound, the purpling bruises on her forearm from when she dueled with her cousin, and the scrapes of false skin on her left knuckles when her punch grazed along the serviceman's armor.

"How did you lose it?" Ardin suddenly spoke, his voice completely lacking that rigid military overtone.

Alexis looked over to him, only to see him gesturing to the scrapes on her knuckles. Alexis looked back at her hand, "When I was the team leader for the 101st's 3rd MAS unit. We were attached to the Lincoln like the 7th is now. We had received a strange signal from a planetoid nestled deep within an asteroid belt. While we were investigating, a coalition patrol fleet entered the AO."

_________

"Fox, this is crazy."

"Oh come on. This isn't as crazy as some of the other things our last leader put us through."

"I'm going to argue that because our last leader didn't volunteer us for a suicide run on a Coalition battleship. I'm mean seriously, look at that thing."

"Well if everything goes according to plan, that battleship will have no idea we're about to make fireworks out of it."

"Cut the chatter, you two." Fox commanded quietly, "Vector, Titan, are you two in position yet?"

"We are. Not that we want to be, I was nearly clipped by a small asteroid floatin' around down here." Vector groaned.

"Deal with it and stay powered down. Once that planetoid pulses again and shuts down their fleet, we strike," replied the young team leader.

In the deep craters of a large asteroid, the 3rd team of the 101st waited. They were hidden in the shadows and given a prime view of the larger than normal Coalition patrol fleet. A battleship, three cruisers, two destroyers, and eight frigates. If they had that many ships on their side, it'd be a easy fight. But since it was just the Lincoln and her MAS compliment, the word 'easy' may as well had been a myth. It was a miracle that the patrol fleet hadn't detected the Lincoln even though the carrier was running on emergency power; perhaps the anomalous signal from the nearby planetoid overshadowed the Lincoln's own.

"3rd team, the energy from the planetoid is building, prepare to commence the attack. Once their fleet is shut down, head straight for that battleship and deliver the payload." the captain of the Lincoln advised.

"Understood, captain," Fox said, "Team, lock it up, vent your atmo."

"What?! Are you fucking kidding me?!" Titan yelled over the comm.

"I'm not, lieutenant. If that battleship detects us and opens up with point defense, I'd rather have the cabin of my MAS already depressurized in the event of a shot passing through. SF pilots always report their wingmen being sucked into vacuum through a tiny hole in their pressurized cockpits." Fox put her helmet on and took in a deep breath before she completely vented the oxygen inside her MAS. There was a distinct hiss as the O2 was sucked out into space.

It seemed her horror story of being sucked through a hole worked as she saw oxygen venting from the other MAS units. Just on time too, the planetoid in the distance began to seemingly glow. The thin atmosphere began to arc with lightning just before a large EMP blast pulsed through the asteroid belt. The entire Coalition fleet shut down, their engines failing to relight as they began to turn and drift. The Lincoln and every UEE MAS in the battlespace was already powered down, so the EMP did little to nothing to their systems. The comms traffic between the MAS team fell to static for a brief moment but quickly came back. "3rd team, deploy!" Fox commanded.

(Mood Music)

In the crater, small lights began to shine as the thrusters of multiple MAS units ignited. Shielded span up and created invisible protective domes around the MAS units as they launched from the crater at high speeds. Ten UEE Sentinels outfitted for rapid assault. The ten units were dwarfed as they passed by a crippled cruiser. They moved as quickly as they could toward the battleship at the heart of the Coalition formation. Between the 3rd and the battleship were two frigates. They were on a drifting course into one another, there's no way the crews of both frigates would be able to power up in time to stop the collision. "We've got to go around!" Prowler spoke to the rest of the team.

"Negative! We're going through it! Time is of the essence!" said the red haired fox.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Titan repeated as the two Coalition frigates collided violently into one another. There was an explosion and debris shot out in every direction.

The skilled pilots of the 101st maneuvered through the expanding field of debris and squeezed through a shrinking hole between the two frigates. "We're clear?" Fox inquired.

"Vector clear!"
"Titan clear!"
"Prowler clear!"
"Bloodhound clear!"
"Leopard clear!"
"Jovian is barely clear!"
"Pinnacle clear!"
"Apex clear!"
"Trinity clear, all units clear!"

Fox grinned, that was the first time she had gotten a perfect roll call from her new team. Her first combat operation with them was going smoother than she expected. They were given a clear view of the mammoth ship ahead, the Coalition battleship. Lights were flickering all along its hull as systems began to power back up. They didn't have long before the shield spooled up and protected it from the 3rd's deadly package. Suddenly, indicators and lights went red within Fox's MAS.

--Warning: Radar lock--
--Warning: Incoming missile--

"They're onto us! Pinnacle, Jovian, cover our backs! Apex, Trinity, charge the lances!" Fox was flipping switches within the cockpit while she gave her orders. Flares shot out in both directions from her Sentinel's legs, sending the missile along with them. She looked at the battleship and saw the shield flickered but failed to spool.

"They're trying to stop us! We're not going to make it through the shield in time!" Prowler said.

Three large explosions lit up along the prow of the battleship. Fox traced the explosions and saw that the Lincoln had fully powered up and began firing on nearly every ship in the Coalition fleet. Telltale blue streams of SF fighters came from the Lincoln's two floored hangar, they were buying the 3rd team time and withering it with fire to stop the shields from completely charging. "3rd team, you have your window! Hurry it up!" the captain said, the background was filled with the droning voices of the ship's combat operators.

"Fire the lances! Now!" Fox said. On cue, the two MAS units armed with plasma lances fired in complete synchronicity, streaming down toward the battleship and converging on the exact same point. The two beams struck an airlock and completely exposed the corridor, forming a large hole as well. Anybody who had been on the other side of that airlock were most likely vaporized by the plasma. "I'm moving in to deliver!" Fox said and hit the afterburners on her MAS.

Fox accelerated past the rest of her team and took a hold of the powerful nuclear anti-capital charge held on the MAS' back. Four point defense turrets rotated and were about to fire up at Fox, but the tight drill of the 3rd didn't allow the turrets any time to acquire their target. A rain of shells took care of them quickly. Fox burned forward and landed heavily on the hull. She quickly set the charge and threw it into the hull breach her team had created. "Charge is planted, all units get to a safe distance!" Fox took off from the hull.

"Lincoln, this is Commander Marquis. The package has been delivered and we are RTB." Fox said over the comm.

"Negative, Fox. Assume a defensive position around the Lincoln. We've detected three fast movers en route from the planetoid. It could be more Coalition moving to flank us." said one of the combat operators from the bridge.

The team maneuvered past a large detonation as a shot from the Lincoln hit a destroyer's ammo store. "Shit! That was too close!" Bloodhound exclaimed.

"Now this is what I call danger clo- wait..." Leopard paused, "Fox, one of those fast moving signatures from the planetoid just vanished. Was it kil- Fox behind you!"

The signature appeared just behind Alexis. Before she had time to react, indicators and alarms were blaring as her MAS jutted. She rotated around to see her MAS grabbed by the leg by another MAS. The unit wasn't Coalition nor UEE. It was sleek and looked as though veins of energy coursed underneath the armor plating of the stark white machine. Alexis detached the assault cannon from her MAS's leg and fired it point blank into the strange MAS. The rounds seemed to disintegrate as they passed through the shield, only particles bounced harmlessly off of the MAS. Alexis swung her MAS' free foot to try and kick at the head of her unknown enemy. The machine simply ceased to exist, reality distorted for the brief second before it vanished. Then it was behind her again. Sensors indicated a large energy spike from the sleek white MAS.

"Fox!" Trinity yelled just as the blade of plasma pierced through the back of Fox's MAS and out the chest. Trinity fired a beam from her plasma lance at the new enemy, but it blinked away before the shot could connect. It appeared in front of Trinity and literally punched Trinity's MAS away, sending it spinning out of control.

The advanced MAS appeared in front of Alexis's MAS now, plasma blade already raised above its head as it intended to finish the job. Alexis opened her eyes slightly to see the MAS, not with any camera, but with her own eyes through the cleft in the cockpit. Blood drifted about in the cockpit and spattered over the visor of her helmet. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. The battleship detonated in a brilliant flash of white, sending the superior MAS straight into Fox's. The two interlocked MAS units careened into a nearby asteroid while the Coalition fleet was peppered and bombarded with wreckage from the battleship and the firepower of the Lincoln.

Alexis' memory was a haze after that. She remembered seeing the enemy MAS climbing from their crater and blinking away. Next was a spotlight from Trinity's MAS as it closed in on her. After that, she saw that she was being towed toward the Lincoln. She remembered watching the WMG fire on the planetoid; the crust of the small world melted to the sheer power of the plasma cannon and it broke up into gigantic fragments of lava and granite. Alexis remembered a buzzing in her helmet, the captain's voice as he addressed the other pilots of the 3rd team, "This encounter is classified. You are not to talk of this operation to anybody."

When Alexis came to, she found herself laying on a bed in the Lincoln's medical bay. The soft beeping of the heart monitor roused her into consciousness. Her head rolled to the right, she saw an x-ray of herself on the monitors. The left arm was missing from the images but she could still feel her arm and something stinging into it; the image must have cut off. She lulled her head to the left to look, she didn't see her arm. Instead, she saw a cybernetic prosthesis. Multiple needles were threading in and out of the arm as they crafted synthetic skin onto the cybernetic arm.

To her right was a small table with a small stack of papers on it. She took a hold of it and lifted it to eye level. The first paper was a medical report, her prosthetic and its specifications, the amount of radiation from open exposure to space that had to be removed through blood transfusions, the surgery to stop multiple points of internal bleeding, and the burn treatments from the plasma sword that had felled her and her machine.

The second page was a document stamped with 'Classified: Level 10' and a sticky note with Alexis' name on it. She opened the folder and saw that it was a combat report. Everything except for the encounter with the advanced MAS units and the destruction of the planetoid was there. Those specifics were marked out with black ink. Alexis got the idea and set the papers back down, staring up at the roof in silence.

_________

"Well?" Ardin asked.

Alexis glanced back at the admiral, "It was a slip up in combat, it's part of the reason why I'm here and not in the cockpit of a MAS."

Ardin raised a brow, he was curious about the story that Alexis seemed to want to avoid. He glanced over toward Aston who nodded in confirmation to him. A slip up. Of course, Aston was still the executive officer during that incident. Alexis knew he was bound to the same secrecy that she was on the matter. Ardin shrugged, "Perhaps some war stories are more mundane than whats in the propaganda. It's a shame, I'd very much like to hear about your endeavors in the 101st some time, captain."

[Deadnaut]

This III was certainly not a pushover, that much was sure. It was much slower than the Astelion, so it hadn't landed a single hit, but Ari had only managed to drop its shields despite its much slower maneuvering speed. This pilot was definitely better than her, and it was showing rather uncomfortably. McKnight warned her to watch her power out-put and, with a slight sigh, said over the COM "Acknowledged Gallant. I'll keep a lid on unneeded energy consumption." Her acknowledgement rattled off, she went back to work, now focusing on less flashy dodge work to conserve her energy, exploiting inertia wherever possible.

Astelion and Sokolov were quickly picking up the pace, and with the IIs popping off they were able to take more and more of the pressure from the III off Ari. Before long, she was even forced to pick up the pace of her shooting to keep it focused more on her than on any of her comrades. Thankfully, shortly after McKnight called out that it was time to go planetside, and Ari once again acknowledged "Aye aye Gallant, Williams commencing atmospheric entry." She sent the Astelion down next to the Shrike, but on the inside Ari began to feel that same fear from her first battle bubbling up. She'd received cursory training on atmospheric entry, yes, but that was mostly in the event of an emergency, not a planned entry. She dropped the power output to everything except her shields and the X-50s, including her tesla coil and the eye mounted PD lasers. With reduced power to even her sensor systems, she was almost blind to what was happening around her. The only set of her sensors still on full power was the bank located at the bottom of the Astelion, and she watched that particular set of data nervously. The number indicating her altitude kept getting smaller and smaller, and she had to keep watch for that magic number, and try to call it right. She became distantly aware that she was beginning to hyperventilate, and specks of black were beginning to appear in her vision. Thankfully for her, her training kicked in and her breathing began to fall back under control.

She found that firing off her thrusters, and even her X-50s, to slow her descent was easier than she thought. It was nothing more than pressing a few buttons when a number came on the screen. She was thrown around, her body being protected from the worst of it by her flight suit. She was able to brace properly, her High G training coming back to her and guiding her actions. In that moment, she was glad for the seemingly superfluous training her father had pushed her to sign up for, as without it she'd probably have freaked out and blacked out. As the Astelion rapidly bled off speed, she was able to slowly start re-shifting her power where it belonged. When she'd finally reached an appropriate in-atmosphere cruising speed, she paused and asked "Gallant, I hate to be a downer, but are we sure that Echo and Guillotine will be able to tow out the Hellcat and the Eagle and still keep moving? The Marauder isn't too heavy I guess, but Sovereign is a big girl on its own, let alone with another unit in tow." With a mute shrug at that, she checked the data from her scanners and her own visual data, along with the data provided by the Lincoln, until she'd finally found the enemy base on her scopes, before saying "Well, enough of that. Williams, moving on target."

[Kimiyosis]

"Shield. Left arm."

That's the one word that slipped from Yuu's lips, as she descended the MAS, before leaving the somewhat minor repairs to the rest of the engineers towards the gathering between the rest of the 7th, only freezing in her steps for a few moments, as she beheld the sight of Gerard's Marauder. The sheer damage done to that machine was almost depressing, the lack of weaponry giving the Japanese woman a feeling of desolation. "...poor thing..." Muttering words of condolences to the machine of war, Yuuyami quickly hurried along to the gathering. While listening in to McKnight's plans, Yuu glanced towards her's and Gerard's MAS when their part of the plan was given. Their responsibility was to be the retrieval party, escorting the marines planetside to pick up their downed pilots, while the MAS themselves are going to be recovered by the two heaviest MAS of the 7th.

However, looking over at the damages both their MAS has sustained, especially the Marauder, it would be problematic to meet heavy resistance planetside. From the looks of her MAS, it seem that the left arm most would require more time to finish repairing to operate at full capacity. At least the shield was more cheaply replaced, being a slab of metal and all. "Deliberate purge, kinetic projectile..." Once again muttering, although if anyone understood what she meant, the engineers would have a fit. Luckily the rest were too busy to overhear her words, as she quickly ran towards her MAS to sortie.

The arm was only partially repaired, just a few servos changed out, and metal plating bolted over it all. Sending her thanks as a quick hug to the head engineer, Yuu scaled her MAS, before dropping down into her seat. Opening her other eye, she connected with the machine of war, before immediately scanning over the arm. As she expected, the arm wouldn't be capable of using it's full range of movement, although it was sufficient to move the shield from her side to her front, albeit somewhat delayed. "Transfer load from Servos 3 and Servo 7 to the rest." While that was only a stop gap measure, it should suffice in preventing the arm from breaking down with more wild movements.

"Soveriegn, online. Echo, standing by for clearance."

---

Blasting out of the hangar, Yuu quickly scanned the surroundings. The experimental MAS that had rendered the Marauder unarmed, and also teared through her shield, was no where in sight. Probably for the better, although she really, really wanted to take that machine apart for research. Hearing McKnight's order to drop into the atmosphere, Yuu engaged her thruster. However, she was lightly biting her lip in anxiety. Shifting her eye over to anther screen, the statistics of the thrust pack bolted onto her MAS. Unlike the rest, her MAS had the difficulty of weight. She would most likely have to purge components on the return trip. this brought a grimace onto her face, as she imagined the head engineer scolding her for such an act.

[Hexaflexagon]

I always hated ground ops Trapp thought, a little too personal for my tastes. He reached down and prayed the rifle from the hands of one of the soldiers that Maki had killed with brutal efficiency. It was a standard coalition model, select fire, 5.56 with a twenty round mag. It certainly wasn't going to blow anyone away in amazement but it got the job done. There was a time at the academy when he could of stripped one of these bare blindfolded, but that was years ago and before his hands hands started shaking.

“Normally I’m encouraged to be strongly reprehend fraternization among the ranks. But if we make it out of here alive, and you keep on doing that to any of the guards we run across you can do whatever you want with the Captain.... but please don’t tell her I give you permission to do that, I’d rather not have to peel potatoes for the next six months.” Trapp responded to Maki though as he did he took one step away from her and her psychotic grin as he continued rummaging about the guards body. As he stripped the guard for the rest of his ammo and supplies, he also took a handset which was connected to a small pack that clipped to the guard’s waist. Trapp examined it for a moment before he clipped it to his own pants and put the headset on. Reaching down with a flick of his fingers he turned the pack on and he could hear the device hum to life.

Moments later he was assaulted with sounds of activity on the other end. Voices began chiming in each and every way as squadron commanders rallied back troop locations back to Command as they secured the compound for the incoming UEE assault that was to come very shortly. His face scrunched up in an odd contortion of pain as he grinded his molars against one another as he focused on the noise acclimating to it. Rather quickly as he was accustomed to these sort of things he was able to start backing up different voices and assigning them to different units and locations given him a somewhat okay idea of at least the locations where the enemy was most heavily concentrated. Then the box beeped as a call was coming in on another line, fumbling for a moment with the buttons he found the right one and switched over.

“Two-Two-Four, repeat Two-Two-Four do you read?” Trapp recognized the voice coming over the line, it was the same voice that was on the Speaker a moment ago. He looked towards the man that Maki had killed, similar height and age to him if a bit more on the muscular side of things. Only really having their death screams to go on, Trapp took a shot in the dark and dropped his own voice a little as he spoke.

“Two-Two-Four reporting in.” Trapp spoke into the headset looking at Maki and Alice who were giving him strange looks as he pointed towards the headset.

“Oh there you are. Thought we lost you there for a second. You secure those prisoners yet?” The voice asked sounding slightly relieved probably in the chaos not reeling paying attention to the fact that the voice she knew sounded somewhat different with tones of a earthward accent.

“Roger that. Bringing them in right?” Trapp asked as he tried his best to kept his words as vague as possible to not say something that was outright wrong.

“Yeah we’ll try and get em out for transit once we finish getting the scientists secured. There being a pain in the ass worrying about the Yggdrasil more than they are worrying about themselves.” The voice responded sounded annoyed and exasperated as if she had been dealing with frantic angry scientist for far too long. Trapp almost felt sympathy for her he knew how tightly wound the UEE techies could be and he could only imagine that the Coalition ones were even worse.

“Roger that Two-Two-Four out.” Trapp responded and switched the headset back to the other channel. The Yggdrasil probably some sort of Coalition project of sorts being tested at the base. Judging from the ship that had managed to drag them out of hyperspace with a interstellar harpoon gun, Jehan most of been some sort of Coalition research planet of some sort. Maybe this Yggdrasil was worth looking into if the scientists wanted to protect it that bad. That or from his luck it was probably going to be some sort of agriculture device that raises crop productivity.

But there was one way to find out. The data center that Alice was talking about, if they could just get there well one of those computers could probably tell him what was what. And if it was on the way, well they might as well not make this whole endeavor a useless one. Coalition documents from a secure research facility could provide a valuable asset for the UEE. Maybe it would be enough to have Ardin not flay him alive as soon as he stepped back onboard the Lincoln wishful thinking really.

“Well Alice.... If you and your fancy UEE top secret technology can break into their systems in about ten minutes or so I think Maki and I can hold off any unsuspecting guards that might come our way. Isn't that right Ms. Nishizumi?” Not waiting for the sarcastic quip that was sure to follow he continued. “But before we worry about that we have to get out of the prison, and that elevators our only way through. So let's go.”

Without waiting for conformation he pushed on ahead towards the right and pressed the singular up button.There was a click and a minuet or so later a melodic ding. As the doors opened, Trapp trained the assault rifle on the door and waited. Two fresh looking grunts - one male and the other female looked at the trio in shock but before they could train their own weapons on them there was a large shock of sound followed by another as Trapp trained to shoot first and asked question later almost on instinct put a three round burst into each of them dropping them to the ground quickly.

He tried his best to not think about the mothers who would be crying later when they found out about their children or how young the two of them looked probably barely over eighteen years. It was harder not when you weren't separated by the void of space and the thick metal plating of your MAS, but Trapp was still able to do it. Stepping inside he turned back to the other two as he flipped the safety back on the rifle.

“Going up.”

[PrincessOfNothing]

Before she could raise her weapon in time, Maki was already on the move, and by the time she was finished, Alice was virtually speechless. This was actually the first time she had seen her wingman’s combat prowess on the field outside of her Hellcat. Her technique was efficient, lethal, executed without any flaw Alice could recognize, and all with an improvised weapon no less! It didn’t help that that the top half of her flight suit was tied around her waist, exposing much of her upper body. Her slacks had even been pulled down slightly, giving her some fleeting glimpses of her underwear. Alice had never seen her like this. It was…kind of attractive.

Wait, what?

She pushed more of these strange new feelings out of her head, soon realizing that her face mask was still raised. Oh god, what if Maki saw her staring at her? She probably had the most inappropriate expression on her face. Maki was already upset with her, and Alice didn’t want to do anything else to draw her ire any more than she already had. Once as Maki turned back to them with a dark smile, she quickly looked away and pulled the mask back over her face.

Alice didn’t flinch when Trapp promptly dispatched two Coalition grunts that arrived in the elevator. She even took a few moments to casually push their bodies out of the elevator to make room. The ride up out of the prison was calm enough, but all throughout it, Alice tapped her gloved fingers against her rifle. Even after Trapp had given his approval for raiding the data center, she was still nervous about it. Would she even be able to crack the Coalition operating system in ten minutes? The hacking itself shouldn’t be that hard, even with what would likely be a highly secure system; the problem was doing it on a Coalition computer: something she had never done. Before the elevator reached its stop, Alice instinctively took a human shield position in front of Trapp and Maki to protect them in case any Coalition personnel were to meet them when the doors opened. Both of them were fairly taller than her, so she gently guided them, Maki even more so, into a slight crouching stance behind her. It also helped that Alice was still disguised so she would be the first thing anyone saw, if even for a second until they noticed the obviously escaped prisoners behind her. For them, a second was that was needed.

The doors opened, revealing nobody at first. As a precaution, Alice peeked out of the elevator to confirm no one was in the vicinity, then nodded at Maki and Trapp and whispered for them to stay close. While she was guiding them towards the data center, a soldier suddenly appeared from around a corner, pushing her rifle down away from him and delivering a punch right into her face. His fist landed with a flat thud and the crunch of several comminuted fractures. Alice’s head was pushed back only slightly from the force, nothing broken except her face mask while the soldier instantly recoiled back, howling and clutching his hand.

Not long after, another soldier arrived and quickly noticed his injured comrade, as well as the escaped prisoners and Alice. Putting two and two together, he raised his rifle to them and pulled the trigger. Alice instantly stepped forward, letting herself take a few bullets into her torso before she grabbed his rifle and rammed the stock back into his gut.

Alice flinched and instantly pulled off her broken face mask, looking down at her body. Only a couple bullets had hit her; causing some slight damage to her abdomen, but nothing critical was disabled. That didn’t stop her from growling softly as she looked back at the soldier responsible for it. Roughly yanking his rifle away, she raised it above her head and swung it down hard on him like a bludgeon. She stopped for a beat, only to strike him with it a second time, and a third time. Then she was relentlessly pummeling him with the rifle-turned-club, not stopping even after it was perfectly clear the man was no longer among the living, and after her improvised cudgel had started to break into different pieces. A short while later, she stopped for good, dropping the weapon to the ground. The first soldier was still watching with horror, weakly propping himself against a wall. With a huff, she paced over to him and push kicked his chest into the wall. He went silent and fell forward onto the floor with a large dent in the wall left in his place.

“Phew…”, she exhaled. After what just happened, she felt...calm. Relaxed, even. As usual, Dr. Santoro was right. Granted, in this case, she had released a great deal of pent-up frustration all at once, but maybe she really should find a way to add sparring to her routine. That is, if she could convince her teammates to allow her to spar along with them. Speaking of her teammates, Maki and Trapp were still there, having seen the whole mess unfold. She might have a harder time convincing them to let her fight them after this ordeal. She calmly took back her gun from Trapp

“Um...I’m sorry. I kinda needed that. The data center isn’t far now, we shouldn’t waste any more time.”

When they reached the center shortly after, Alice pulled a roughly fist-sized retractable cable device from her back pocket. It was similar to the cables used on the Lincoln to connect Alice to her Eagle and other UEE technology, but this one was made for tactical use, such as infiltrating enemy systems. Thus, it was designed to interface with even Coalition technology. Usually it remained in her cockpit, but for situations where she would operate on foot, namely the activation of the Odyssey Protocol, she was required to keep it on her person at all times. Pulling out the cables, she plugged in one into her own data port, and the opposite one into the closest Coalition server. Her thumb rested on a button at the base of the device that, when pressed, would initiate the transfer from her body into the server.

“Well...here goes nothing...”

[Reaper]

Maki grinned as Trapp suggested they leave with some intel. It was a smart move, and considering they were still waiting on the rescue party to arrive and give them some support, ten minutes in their data center didn't seem to be an unreasonable detour. Though she had to admit, Alice was acting rather strangely, fidgeting and twitching as if she was... nervous. An AI? Nervous?

They entered the lift and Maki used the time while they were in transit to straighten out her uniform, covering herself up. It was getting a tad chilly now that they were stationary in an elevator. She kept her finger ready on the trigger, pointed at the door and ready to engage any threat that showed up in front of the door.

At least, that was until Alice took over the slaughter and jumped in to attack another patrol. The brutality with which the robot killed the soldiers disgusted Maki. It wasn't clean, efficient or merciful. It was just disgraceful as a soldier to think she was on the same side as that. As Alice caved in the last survivor's chest, Maki emptied a round from her pistol into the man's head to ease his passing. The glare she shot towards the android was enough to convey her feelings.

"What the sodding fuck was that?" Maki hissed at Alice, shoving the metal pilot, as futile as that was. "You 'kind of needed that'? We're soldiers, not-"

She took a deep breath and calmed herself. Sure, the Japanese pilot was no stranger to gruesome deaths on the battlefield. It came with the territory of all kinds of weapons and explosives going off. She had always believed that in spite of all that, each soldier on the field owed a clean death to the man on the other side of the battlefield. There was no dignity or necessity in what Alice just did.

And there was no point arguing. Alice was just a slave to her programming. A lecture on honor and integrity and holding herself to a higher standard as a member of the 7th would only be lost on the piece of UEE property. Maki wasn't sure if it was intentional on the part of her programmers, but Alice's bloodthirstiness was something unhealthy for a pilot, human or mechanical.

Before Trapp could chew her out for the outburst, Maki was back to being a professional soldier of the 101st again. "Data center's this way. Let's go. I'll take point." She piped up, moving off and not casting a second glance at the bucket of bolts. The next patrol that they came across, Maki took down with deadly accuracy and efficiency.

Three bodies with three rounds in the chest each. Another round in the head for the one who was still breathing, putting him out of his misery. Alice could very well watch and bloody learn how a professional soldier conducted herself in battle.

"This isn't the movies, kid. Success isn't how many bodies you drop in the field. It's how much of your soul is left when the dust settles. One day this war will be over, and we're all going to have to learn how to get by without fighting and killing. There's an edge in every soldier's mind. Once you go past it, there's no coming back. Your body can survive the war but you'll still be fighting demons till the day you die. Take it from an old war dog like me."

A mentor had said that to her once.

"You have one of the toughest jobs in the universe. You have to kill and get used to it so it doesn't make you sick and keel over each time you have to end some poor sod's life, but you're no use to anyone if you get so used to killing life is no longer sacred to you anymore. Be careful, Nishizumi. Not many people left like your old pop who build a legend without being haunted by ghosts."

They were killers, yes, but Maki had to believe they were better than just cold-blooded murderers. If Alice couldn't get that, then they were truly done as wingmen. Hell, she might be better off transferring out of the 7th if there was no other solution. Could a machine like Alice even grasp the concept of the sanctity of life, of according the enemy with some modicum of dignity and humanity?

The robot at least had the excuse of being forced to obey her protocols when she abandoned Trapp and herself to the Coalition forces. There was no excusing what Maki's wingman had done to those Coalition soldiers. It made the Japanese woman realize just how unilaterally imbalanced their relationship had been from the start.

That was going to have to change if they got out of this

[vietmyke]

McKnight's Shrike jostled him inside the cockpit as he descended towards the planet, the constant shuddering almost drowning out the blare of warning sirens, and his shield and heat gauges flared wildly- almost as if MAS weren't meant to do planetary drops without specialized equipment. MAS grade drop-pods, essentially massive coffins of heat resistant alloy the Lincoln had, but with their mission involving a short skirmish with Coalition forces in space, the 7th didn't have the ability to safely load into drop pods- a process that took roughly 10 full minutes, and hit towards the planet. Instead, they'd be relying on energy shields and a whole lot of luck and grit. As they entered the planet's atmosphere, a small display feed began to pour across McKnight's eyes, and he picked out the key portions of the data.

Gravity on the planet was for all intents and purposes the same as that of earth's; 9.5 m/s² as opposed to Earth's 9.8. The planet had less oxygen than normal, but was still livable, only making strenuous activity slightly bothersome.

"All units, switch OS to Atmospheric Combat Mode" McKnight called over the comms as the team entered the planet's stratosphere- in case anyone forgot how the procedures to a MAS-drop worked. Usually the equipment inside of the drop-pod notified the pilots and did the adjustment automatically for them, but since they had no equipment, they had to trigger it manually.

His displays went dark for a moment before the rebooted, with proper HUD displays necessary for combat within atmosphere, where there was a specific up and down. McKnight also pulled a breathing tube from under his seat and attached it to his helmet. Only he and Williams would likely need the oxygen tubes, as they were the ones where going to performing combat maneuvers while in the air- Gerard and Yuu merely had to get to the ground.

Flipping back on the rest of his systems, McKnight breathed out as the whining of sirens and alarms finally died down and his cockpit lost its red glare. The rest of his systems shone green, nothing had been damaged during the descent. There was some good news. With his systems fully initialized, McKnight triggered his tesla boosters, whizzing down past Yuu and Gerard's machines.

"I don't think they're going to be too happy to see us. C'mon Williams, we need to draw away some fire so the shuttle and the others can land safely."

The facility they were assaulting was rather small, luckily for them, and McKnight could only make out a pair of heavier flak cannons, alongside over a dozen anti-air close-in-weapon-systems. The most dangerous targets by far however were the two SAM launchers installed on the North-east and South-west corners of the base, alongside a small contingent of Ferir Mk II's. Most of the Ferir's however, were still in their hangars, only two had managed to launch to meet the 7th team.

"I'll take the SAM launchers! Go for the hangar bays!" McKnight ordered- Williams' plasma cannons would be many degrees more useful against the structures and MAS's than his autocannon would. Gerard and Yuu would be able to pick up more slack when they hit the ground, until then, it was up to McKnight and Williams to take out the most dangerous targets.

Boosting fast and hard towards the ground, McKnight waited until his vision caught tinges of red before pulling sharply up, he wanted to get as low to the ground as possible before starting his attack run. It would make him an easier target for the enemy CIWS, but he'd much prefer getting hit by the smaller weapons than potentially taking a missile or exploding flak shell to the face. Holding his unit's alloy shield to his side and couching his arm, McKnight attempted to protect as much of his unit as possible as he jet alongside the wall, beam saber carving across the top of the wall, cutting in half fortifications, weapon emplacements, and soldiers alike. Reaching the corner of the wall, McKnight boosted upwards, his blade rending through the first SAM site with a diagonal sweep. Detonating explosives washed over his energy shields as he boosted away and towards the second SAM sight, only pausing to land in front of one of the flak batteries and spray .50 caliber bullets into the battery and its occupants.

With the flak cannon properly riddled and bloody, rendering it useless, McKnight jumped up again and flew towards the second SAM site, dodging exploding flak and weaving through streams of CIWS fire.

[Kimiyosis]

Atmospheric Combat. This was something that Yuu could handle...if not for the fact that they were hurtling their MAS directly through the atmosphere, instead of the drop pods. Ignoring the warnings blaring out, cautioning her about the increasing heat levels, as well as the fast approaching ground, she quickly rebooted her systems, switching in preparation for atmospheric operations. The moment her systems finished, she surveyed the battlefield. It was on the small side, although seemingly still packing enough heat to crush the four of them, shuttle not included, if they weren't careful. Watching as the Shrike moved in to destroy the SAM sites, while taking a minor detour to silence a flak cannon, their approach was much safer now.

However, she was forced to shift her shield to block a flak round that flew straight at her, the heavy metal alloy taking the brunt of the explosion. Carefully timing the thruster pack, she ignited it at the last minute, slowing down just enough so that her MAS wouldn't become a mound of scrap. However, she had kept enough speed that when she landed on top of the other flak cannon, she all but flattened it under the weight and momentum of the Sovereign. Multiple warnings blared at her most recent action, notifying her of heavy mechanical loads on the leg joints.

Immediately, she opened fire with the Savior cannons, the general purpose rounds thrown downrange towards the rest of the CIWS, as she began to slowly move.

[Deadnaut]

A few quick console commands, and the Astelion was switching to Atmospheric combat mode. The cockpit grew dark as only the barest minimum of the MAS's systems remained online to keep it airborne. In this brief moment, all Ari could hear was the sound of the reactor humming, a rhythmic sound that reminded Ari of a song. Before she knew it, she was humming along to the rhythmic noise, even when the lights came on and the consoles flared to light. Affixing her oxygen mask to protect herself from blacking out, she keyed the COM and said "Acknowledged Gallant. Williams moving on target." The Astelion sprang to life, accelerating upwards as her sensors began to give her a clearer picture of the battlefield beneath her. The Sovereign slammed to the earth below, smashing a flak cannon as it did, while McKnight and his Shrike destroyed a SAM and a Flak cannon while moving on another. Ari's focus shifted to the pair of sortied Ferir MK.IIs, but it only took her a moment to realize they weren't the priority. They were heavy, here in the atmosphere they had even less chance of keeping the Astelion's pace than they did in space. Her priority was that hangar bay and the Ferir MAS suits that would emerge from it. Odds were that the Hellcat and Eagle wouldn't be stored there, they'd be stored somewhere else where engineers could take them apart without worrying about the chaos of a combat hangar.

Her first thought was to hit the doors, but they'd blast their way through that, though it'd be dangerous for them to do so. It was still worth a shot, but it wasn't worth taking that shot immediately. From the air above the hangar, she fired her first blast through the roof towards one of the walls. She never saw what that shot struck as she was already moving and recharging her cannons, firing again the moment her cannons were spun up. The MK.IIs began hounding her as her shot fired through to slag the doors and lock them in. Her shields held up for the moment, so she was able to fire off a final blast through it's rear, hopefully finishing it off. She now focused her attention on the two Ferir IIs that were out and engaging the 7th.

Locking on to the first one, she winced as she heard the sound of an alarm warning that her shields had gone down. She didn't have enough time to wait for her cannons to finish recharging, so she had her targeting AI get her a solution for the Autocannon and began unloading. The mech's armor quickly began denting beneath the hail of rounds, and then getting punctured. As the last round stuttered out of the magazine, she struck pay dirt, the Mk.II finally ceased moving. This gave her the free space to fire her X-50s at the other Ferir, the MAS in no way prepared for the plasma blasts reducing its chest to molten slag. She grimaced as she checked her readouts, it seemed her hull had taken some hits, and there was a sizable dent on her left arm that, while not an immediate threat, would probably threaten her functionality. "This is Williams, enemy MAS threats have been cleaned up."

[Harbringer]

As he began to enter orbit, Gerard disconnected his tether and gave the shuttle a mock salute even as his armour began to glow cherry red. With a sharp snap, the grapple slammed back into place in his fist and he turned into the atmosphere to witness the rapid approach of the ground. He squinted before the Marauder's automated systems filtered out the glare, managing to pick out the installment they were assaulting. It wasn't a particularly impressive structure, being made of the standard ferrocrete most buildings were made of these days, but it did bring some of its fangs to bear as SAM launchers and flak cannons swivelled to cover their approach. As McKnight's voice echoed over the comms, Gerard had already begun to process, though his descent was much slower. As he neared the troposphere, the OS fully kicked into gear. This. This was much more his element. Coming from an infantry background, he always much preferred it when he was fighting on solid terra firma. As soon as it kicked up though, his cockpit began to blare with alarm after alarm, as well as a rapidly rising heat meter which he quickly began to ignore. The Marauder would pull though, he didn't even have to check.

Lagging behind at the very back of the formation, Gerard had the pleasure of watching his comrades at work. McKnight destroying the AA installations, the Rookie engaging the Ferirs and...of course, Madamoiselle Yuu in her usual eccentric fashion, crushing a flak cannon under her MAS's weight. "Merde, madamoiselle, at least execute the enemy with some respect," he joked through comms as he engaged his own landing pack. With a hiss of gas and columns of flame, he landed considerably softer than hsi companion on the roof of the base before immediately discarding the still discharging jump pack. Already his senses were assaulted by the sound of Savior cannons throwing their payloads at a far target. Pulling the Ravager axe off of his back, Gerard licked his lips. He had been cooped up on the ship for too long now. He hoped that his senses had not dulled.

"C'est bien, madamoiselle," Gerard directed at Williams as he began to move towards her, "but do not celebrate yet." As he spoke, another Ferir lumbered out of the hangars, cutting through the slagged doors with its knife and climbing out like a drunken Deutschian on Oktoberyerr. With an unceremonious drop, the Marauder drove the head of his axe through its chassis, narrowly missing the cockpit before landing astride the gutted Ferir. "We have other problems to deal with." Looking down, he saw the pilot scramble out of the smashed cockpit and begin scrambling away. Every life he could save was another story. Hopefully...that man would give up on the military and go on to live a fuller life...unlike him. He knew intellectually he would probably not leave this world alive, but he could only hope

"McKnight, orders?"

[vietmyke]

Within moments, the attacking 7th had handily demolished most of the base's defenses. Now that the 7th was so close to the ground, it was little issue for McKnight to walk up towards the remaining SAM site and crush the missile launcher with a swipe from his shield. This was a testament to how Mobile Armor Suits had completely changed the face of warfare. No longer were static defenses capable of fending off mobile attackers- SAM launchers and flak cannons that would give aerospace fighters pause were little difficulty for MAS, whose neuro-linked pilots could easily outmaneuver powerful weapons, while withstand fire from faster, weaker armaments. While only a small base, the majority of its defenses had been easily handled by only a quartet of MAS pilots. Admittedly, the pilots were highly trained, the point still stood. The fact that the Coalition were so easily able to leverage so many powerful machines against the UEE was the reason why the UEE had been losing so much ground.

"Gerard, Yuu, locate Maki and Trapp's machines and exit the battleground. William's, keep circling the base and provide the assault team with support. I'll finish off these defense systems."

-Just to keep us rolling... @Hexaflexagon, art thou sure you don't wish for me to nudge your 'party'? -

[Hexaflexagon]

Death, so much death and done with such fury. Trapp didn’t looked over at Alice but upon the corpses that Maki had just put out of their misery. Bodies were twisted and shattered into alien geometries each taken apart with movements so quick that each one flew together in a blur. It was easy to sometimes forget that Alice was in reality a machine built from the ground up for a singular purpose, killing. Right now he didn't have time to worry about it, instead he chance to file the information away for later something to bring up to the Captain if he had a chance. When he had a chance.

He followed after Maki in silence occasionally casting a sideways glance back at Alice seemingly all ‘okay now’ the uniform she was wearing covered in blood and bone debris. He shook his head and followed Maki past an intersection and down a long hall where at the far end the data center was located. The room was noticeably cooler than the rest of the facility to keep the highly valuable data from overheating. As Alice began to go to work on the Mainframe Trapp gestured Maki to follow him out of earshot where he still spoke in hushed tones.

“Okay listen that was some fucked up shit, and I understand that with her being your wingman and all that it is probably worse for you. But until we get off of this goddamn rock, I need you to look after her okay? We will address this but at a later date.” He explained his voice stern but tired as he walked away from his fellow pilot to began to shore up their defense and look out for more guards before Maki could reply with some snarky comment that he was really getting tired off by this point.

---

Several Minutes later

Trapp clung to the wall fighting for breath as he found a moment of peace in the midst of the firefight. Things had gone to right shit as quickly as one could imagine. It was supposed to be easy, in and out but instead they had been ushered into a killing field. Out manned, outgunned and running out of time. They had held out reasonably well taking out solid chunks of their aggressors before they had to push back. The blood stained floor in front of them was a testament to the extended skirmishes that had commenced. A silent alarm went out as soon as Alice had accessed the mainframe of the system and as it was essentially that Coalition Military secrets didn’t fall into enemy hands especially technology being developed on a planet like Jehan had made sure that despite the attack, squads of Coalition soldiers had been rerouted to deal with the runaway prisoners.

He looked over to his right on the other side of the door where Maki was currently raining hell upon more approaching troops, they were doing okay for the moment but they were running low on ammo. Further back Alice was still pulling all the information from the database, they needed more time but they had no time left. Exhaling Trapp pulled out around the corner and trained his sights on the approaching Coalition Soldiers. He could hear Gates in his head whisky thick voice rough and rumble. Exhale..... And fire. His finger squeezed the trigger once and then twice sending two more three round burst down range one hit a approaching soldier in the chest and the next shattered his friend's faceplate. Two bodies fell but the others kept on rushing forward.

“Alice we need to go! Now!” Trapp yelled over the roar of the gunfire as the Coalition Soldiers began retaliatory fire peppering the door frame with another round of bullets. Trapp pulled back letting out a curse in his breath in German. He waited till their bolly ended before snapping back out and firing again. He and Maki were doing their best but they would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers soon enough. Suddenly there was an explosion as part of the facility was blown away by a stray shot from a MAS through the hole in the ceiling vaporizing the poor coalition soldiers assaulting Trapp could see the blazing white silhouette of a FTX-075 dance across the sky. Mcknight. It would seem their rescue team had finally arrived. He chuckled to himself before he turned to look at his two companions.

“We are only going to have once chance like this. We are going now whether we have all that data or not.” Trapp pointed to the map of the building hanging on the wall of the datacenter. “Maki, I need you to escort our little robot miss to the holding garage where the capture MAS’ are being stored and make sure she gets out of here in one piece.” Trapp explained as he traced his finger to the east of their current location. “While you two are doing that I’m going to head in the opposite direction and hopefully draw some of away from the two of you. Hopefully if all goes well I’ll be able to ‘borrow’ something from one of their hanagers at least until we can get back to the Lincoln. Now let’s move!” Trapp said with a reaffirming nod to the two of them checking his rifle one last time before moving out the door of the Datacenter.

He pulled to the right almost breaking into a sprint almost immediately as he began to fumble with the dials on the transponder he had stolen. His hands moved across the device in a frenzy following the intricate patterns as he set the device to the 7th’s communication frequency. Eventually static give way to broken and scattered voices _{d...en...e sys...ems} and soon Mcknight’s voice came loud and clear into the headset. Trapp smiled madly to himself as he rounded another corner barely avoiding another group of soldiers bullets slamming into the wall.

“Gallant this is Odin. Repeat Gallant this is Odin. Took you fuckers long enough. Listen 7th Maki and Alice are currently heading towards the west end of the facility to recover and reactivate their vehicles. I’m going to need you to clear the area around the hangar for the-.” Trapp’s voice was cut off as a bullet slammed into the transponders box causing a harsh static growl to fill his ears. The pilot cursed as he discarded the headset and quickly dispatched the man that had shot at him. He stepped over the body and turned right following the signs that pointed him toward the main hangars as well as the experimental unit.

Soldiers rounded the corner ahead of him and Trapp quickly dove into the doorway to his right as they opened fire. Frantic he pressed the barrel of his rifle against the electronic locking mechanism keeping the door locked and fired. Sparks flared up but the door opened and Trapp slipped inside. Once inside he slammed the panel on the other side making the doors slam shut once more. He leaned against the door taking in a deep breath as he felt the Coalition soldiers pound against it in frustration. A moment later he heard the sound of a cutting tool starting its slow process of sawing through the door. He didn't have much time.

He stepped outward into the room which turned out to be a large dome shaped testing area. On the wall directly across from him in large white letters it read T E S T I N G A R E A 0 1. All about the place MAS parts were scattered in heaps and piles some in middle assemble and scattered about were tables with computers and data spewed across them. Trapp approached a coffee cup on the table and touched it feeling the warmth still radiating from within. The research must have all fled when the alarm went out Trapp mused to himself. His eyes were drawn from the table to far beyond it, a large frame braced into the wall.

“Is that?” Trapp could only peer up at the thing in disbelief. It was a MAS but not any make or model that Trapp had seen anywhere. It towered high above him made of sleek white metal and straight lines. Futuristic and sleek the thing made even front line UEE models look somewhat archaic by comparison. Down the side of the arm in bright red letters spelled the word Y G G D R A S I L. Trapp was knocked out of his reverie by the sounds at the door and knew he had to move. He made his way quickly to the ladder that lead up to the MAS and climbed quickly ascending the ladder he pried open the hatch at the top and slipped into the darkness.

The cockpit of the Yggdrasil felt foreign to Trapp as where his own cockpits had always been cramped and tight sweatboxes this once was built with efficiency and comfort in mind as the pressure gel in the seat reacted to his body and adjusted accordingly to disturb the weight efficiently. He looked at the main console ahead of him. Tentatively he flipped a switch and heard a slight hum began as a reactor was turned on. As the reactor began pumping power through the system the console in front of him lit up bright blue in color. A C-MAD logo flashed across the screen and a moment later words began to appear.

/// W E L C O M E T O T H E AAT-748P Y G G D R A S I L S Y S T E M.

/// P O W E R I N G U P...... P O W E R I N G U P

//// P R E F O R M I N G S Y S T E M C Y C L I N G

/// A L L S Y S T E M S N O M I N A L

[Reaper]

"I'm not happy about it, but sure." Maki replied in a hushed whisper, only to find Trapp had gone out of earshot. "You're welcome, Maki, I know it's asking a lot after you got your own ass captured to save my ass." She added in a mock impression of the man. The sooner she got back to the Hellcat and got off this god forsaken rock, the sooner she could get some rest and work off the anger.

It didn't take them much longer to hit the data centers, but that was the only part of their plan that had gone smoothly. The moment Alice was plugged in, the hornet nest had buzzed to life. Thankfully, there was only one entrance in or out of the place, and the Coalition soldiers had all been funneling down a single hallway. If only there was a way for them to salvage more ammo off the dead soldiers without having to traverse down said hallway.

Still, it had been relatively easy, if tense. Any time someone poked their head around the corner, they ate a round. If they charged, Maki put two in their chest. She didn't like the Coalition rifles, but they had some stopping power. That, coupled with the fact that the two pilots made sure at least one of them was able to fire down the hallway at any given time, pretty much bought them the time they needed for Alice to do her thing.

Well, the three of them couldn't claim all the credit. A blast shook the building and caused all the base security forces to dive for cover as pieces of ceiling threatened to drop on them. That was the window they needed to bust out of there. With only a quick warning to Alice to stay close, Maki ran a full sprint down the hallway, keeping close to the ground and grabbing any loose magazines she found.

Her rifle was reloaded with a full mag of ammo right as she rounded the corner. A few of the soldiers were stumbling from the bombardment, just getting to their feet. She didn't have time to pick them off slowly, so she sprayed at anything that moved, ensuring no one got back up in time to resist. She barely had time to acknowledge Trapp's plan before going their separate ways and making sure Alice was close by.

The rest of the 7th raining hell outside had shifted the guards' priorities. They were scrambling to get the big guns and turrets, anything that could punch a hole through an MAS. It meant that the pair of them met token resistance or just got the jump on people running to their positions. Still, every small platoon or squad of soldiers they slowed down to dispatch gave the Coalition more time to destroy the Hellcat and Eagle before the 7th could recover their machines.

When they arrived at the hangar, however, there was hardly anyone around. With a full on assault on the base, the guards were fortifying the main entrance that led outside, not the access door from within their own base. A couple of techs seemed to be preparing charges to disable their machines, however, and Maki couldn't have that. She aimed her rifle, and fired.

She heard only the click of the firing pin hitting an empty chamber.

"Fuck." She cursed, turning to Alice. "Get to the Eagle and stick to the shadows. I'll take care of the techs."

She pulled out a combat knife and sidearm, moving from cover to cover, making sure not to be seen. A pile of ammo crates, MAS parts or just a simple pillar, she made sure to get close before jumping them. The closest one she stabbed, sliding the blade between the man's ribs. The second tech took three rounds in her chest. The remainder of the demolition team dove for cover, but Maki calmly emptied the remainder of her magazine and took out as many of them as she could, striding towards her Hellcat briskly, trying not to throw off her aim too much.

That got the attention of the guards, but Maki was already climbing up the ladder with her Hellcat covering her as she got up on the walkway and sprinted straight for the cockpit. Once the doors were sealed, the Coalition in the hangar didn't have a chance.

The cockpit lit up as Maki hit the boot up sequence and engaged the point defense systems. Once the rotary guns were confirmed to be on target and firing, she let the AI do her thing as the rest of the systems spun up, her comms coming to life as she secured her helmet. "Hunter, back online! Systems spinning up, ETA 30 seconds! Keep your fire off the western hangar! Alice, head out and join the fight once I've got the doors open, I'll take care of the small fry in here!"

The Hellcat wasn't tethered down or anything, so the first step her MAS took had the surviving defenders scrambling for cover or trying to turn their biggest guns around to engage her. They didn't stand a chance. The Hellcat simply crushed the ground based cannons underfoot as it walked up to the door and engaged its energy saber, slicing straight through the metal gates, thick as they were. She ripped them off the tracks and used one as a shield, as she moved through the hangar and towards the Coalition machines docked there for maintenance.

It took mere minutes for her to slice through the inactive machines, and turn around to see a Ferir lighting up as some pilot managed to get in his machine before she got to it. Switching off the energy saber, Maki engaged her missiles and fired. The Ferir barely had time to raise its weapon before the explosive slammed home and detonated the reactor, just as the Hellcat swung the makeshift shield between itself and the explosion, the wreckage bouncing harmlessly away.

>>Right shoulder launcher offline. Ammo rack sealed.
>>Missiles remaining: 3.
>>Ammo capacity: 60/100
>>Shields: Online.
>>All combat systems operating at 83% efficiency.
>>Switching to Atmospheric Combat settings...

She supposed it was too much to ask that the Hellcat landed in the lake without too much damage. Well, being one launcher down wasn't too bad. She could work with that. Maki scanned the hangar's structure, targeting the main supports and blasting them away with her remaining missiles. The building began to groan as its structural integrity was comprised and the ceiling began to cave. The Hellcat was out of there and back in the open as its prison crumbled behind it, surging back into the fight.

[Whoami]

"Is everything secure?"

"Yes, sergeant. We can take on three more crates of supplies before we reach out limit."

"Gotcha. Hurry it up, marines. Time isn't exactly on our side with this."

Hark looked over the windy dunes of Jehan's moon and watched as transport buggies raced back and forth between the transports and the supply warehouse buried in the sand. They had happened across it during their scouting operations. The facility was defunct and the upper echelon on Jehan deemed the recovery of the base's supplies to be too costly. As it turns out, the winds uncovered the base as much as it had covered before. The Lincoln's marine detachment on the moon saw it as a great opportunity to resupply their mothership.

The next buggy arrived with four crates maglevved behind it. Hark stepped down the ramp of the transport ship and called out to the marine, "This one can take three more. Transport two is on its way down from orbit."

The marine nodded and was joined by the transport's crew to load the supplies. Unlike the dropships that had gotten the marine detachment to the surface, the cargo transports were large and heavy enough to withstand the high winds of the moon. They flew through the gusts and landed without any issues. Hark stepped up to the transport's pilot, "Think your ship can lift that weight into orbit?"

Th pilot chuckled and nodded, "This is nothing for the ol' girl. It's built to carry wrecked MAS units and other things that are significantly heavier than cargo crates." He pulled out his holopad and looked it over, "We're capped at physical capacity but the tonnage isn't even fifty percent of what we can haul."

"Excellent." Hark said before looking up to the Lincoln. From his perspective, the Lincoln was just a large silhouette beyond clouds and gusting sand. He saw the two wounded Gemini cruisers attached to the Lincoln's hull. They appeared as engine nacelles sticking out of the sides of the battle-carrier.

Conveniently, the captain radioed in, "Sergeant. How goes the resupply op?"

"On schedule, ma'am. Transport one is about to lift off and I can see transport two breaking atmosphere now."

"Copy that. I'm diverting transport two to the firebase, get back there immediately. Long range scanners have detected large scale movement on the other side of the moon. The coalition is on its way."

Hark clenched his teeth, "Understood, captain. We'll cover you from here."

The grizzled sergeant got into the passenger seat of the three man buggy, "Charlie squad, we're headed back to base. Seems out coalition friends are making a move on the Lincoln. Let's show 'em what some basic grunts can do to their pretty ships."
__________

(Mood Music)

Alexis stood on the command platform and studied the holo-display in front of her. The moon was a prominent figure in the center with the Lincoln and the firebase highlighted as blue. A small green blip, labeled as foresight, was quickly speeding away from the Lincoln.

"Lincoln Command, Lincoln Command, this is Foresight. Sensors are picking up a large signature just beyond the horizon from my position. Transmitting visual."

Alexis had deployed a single SF to scout the incoming forces. She only downside to hiding behind the moon was that she had no idea what would come her way. Alexis looked over to one of the many operators, "Put Foresight's visual on screen."

On one of the large monitors, a camera feed from Foresight's SF appeared. The moon's horizon took up a quarter of the display. Then she saw it, a battle cruiser complete with a frigate squadron at the fore. The crew stared at the incoming threat and remained silent. Alexis was grateful that her adversary luckily wasn't a full on battleship. But she never saw a battle cruiser in Jehan's orbit when they arrived. Perhaps it was on the other side of the planet, or perhaps it was reinforcements. Nevertheless, the threat was real and if it wasn't handled well, the mission would still be over.

Ardin stepped up next to her on the platform, "What do you plan to do. captain? We aren't exactly in the best position to handle a battle cruiser and her escorts."

Alexis tapped her finger on the rail surrounding the platform. "It wont spool up its shields until it has a visual on the Lincoln. We just need to hit it before that happens."

Admiral Ardin raised an eye brow, "How exactly do you plan on doing that? The frigate escorts will shoot an armstad down before it reaches the capital ship."

The captain shook her head, "No armstads." The captain brought up her datapad and punched something in. Then she addressed the ship's AI. "How much will the moon's gravity offset the WMG's shot?"

"Calculating..." there was a pause, "The moon's gravitational pull is precisely one point two three seven times that of Earth's. A shot from the wave motion gun will see an offset of forty percent. If you are proposing that we use the moon's gravity well to over the horizon of the atmosphere, the chances to hit the target is zero percent."

"We're not firing over the atmosphere. We're firing through it."

The AI replied, "Captain, this will cause anomalous, possibly catastrophic, weather patterns on the moon. It will destabilize the atmosphere."

"It's not our moon. And the Coalition certainly aren't using it." Alexis grinned.

The ship's AI took a moment to calculate the new firing solution, "The chances to hit the target have increased to eighty-seven percent. The gravitational pull of the moon offsets the new solution by only nine percent."

Aston was chuckling to himself as Ardin had a look of complete surprise on his face. Alexis continued, "Order the marines into their hostile environment gear. They're going to need it."

The bridge was filled with a choir of orders and directions and warnings. Moments later, Hark chimed in. "Captain did I just hear the comm right? You're firing the WMG -through- the moon's atmosphere?"

"That's right, sergeant. We're engaging the enemy in five minutes."

"Jesus Christ this is insane..." Alexis heard Hark mutter before shutting off comms with the Lincoln for the time being.

Alexis smirked at the comment before looking over to Admiral Ardin, "Behold, your highness. The talent of the UEE Abraham Lincoln."

The next five minutes was a moment that Ardin would remember for the rest of his life. He witnessed the perfect example of a well drilled and coordinated crew that surpassed his expectations. Despite being caught in an ambush and taking some serious punishment, the crew of the Lincoln was operating at high morale. He knew it surely had to do with the confidence that Alexis had in her crazy and unfathomable ideas. He deduced that Captain Marquis' plans were so outlandish, that they might just work. He could feel the floor vibrating as the WMG charged up its shot. He felt an adrenaline rush like never before.

An engineer on another deck spoke through the comms, "Shields spooled to one hundred percent."

Another engineer spoke, "Reactor two is only operating at twelve percent. Gemini One and Gemini Two have supplemented."

"All ground units are ready for combat operation." Hark reported.

The gunnery chief spoke up, "Target locked, captain."

"Fire." Alexis gripped the railing tight.
__________

"Captain! Massive energy spike detected from the enemy vessel!"

"So soon? Any skilled captain wouldn't waste the power on their shields so soon. This will be an easy victory, men!" said the captain of the Coalition Battle Cruiser.

"It's not shields, sir. I'm detecting plasma, a lot of it."

"Hm... We aren't in range of any of their weapons. Begin spooling the shields, though. This is strange." he ordered calmly. The Coalition captain clearly wasn't in any hurry. He knew he had this battle under wraps already.
__________

The beam was loud in space, and even louder in atmosphere. Despite being miles away from the point where the WMG penetrated the atmosphere, Hark's ears began to ring. He looked off into the distance and saw the horizon glowing blue as the plasma ripped through the sky. The beam's proximity to the surface of the moon was close enough that the heat of the plasma created a long streak of glass out of the sand. A deafening thunderclap roared over the entire moon. The winds increased in strength as the airless void created by the WMG was filled. Lightning arced through the sky and clouds swirled into vicious hurricanes around the moon. On a planet with a stronger atmosphere, the effects would not have been so great.

The winds doubled again as the beam left the atmosphere and streaked back into space where it met its target. The WMG struck the belly of the battle cruiser. An atomic explosion lit up the sky like a bright star for Hark as one of the battle cruisers reactors detonated. Debris and shrapnel ignited, falling through the disturbed atmosphere and landing on mile high sand dunes. The marines gawked at the sight. Hark questioned if mankind had taken weaponry too far.

But the battle cruiser wasn't sunk yet. Coalition capital ships had massive amounts of armor between their decks and reactor bays. They wouldn't go down from just one reactor detonation. However, the shot would most definitely cripple the ship and give the advantage to the Lincoln.

The gunnery chief sighed out in amazement, "Holy shit!" he realized he had just said that out loud and cleared his throat, "Apologies ma'am. Direct hit on the target."

Alexis chuckled but put her war face back on in seconds. "Helmsman, all ahead full!"

The Lincoln's massive engines glowed hot as they began to push the lumbering behemoth of a ship toward it's crippled prey. Alexis addressed the entire crew and that of the two Gemini escorts, "All hands, this is Captain Marquis. We don't have any ace MAS pilots helping us with this engagement. What happens in the coming hours happens because of us and nobody else. There won't be anybody to praise higher than you for your victories. And there won't be anybody to blame for your defeats. For the Emperor! For the UEE!"

[Deadnaut]

Hearing McKnight's orders, Ari replied calmly"Understood Gallant, Williams maintaining air coverage." When she heard Trapp and later Maki come over the COM, Ari couldn't help the smile lighting her face. Her squad-mates were alive! Alice hadn't spoken, but both Maki and Trapp had mentioned her, so she must be alright. As the Astelion's PD lasers came level with a squad of Coalition infantrymen running for cover, Ari couldn't make herself activate the system. They were rank and file soldiers, no threat to the Astelion whatsoever, they didn't have to die. Turning her attention to the enemy base proper, Ari fired a blast from the X-50s into the concrete main building, the destructive balls of plasma tearing into the structure and no doubt destroying whatever lay on the other side. Ari tried not to think about the possibility that there may be personnel on the other side of that wall, but she was surprised when she found a familiar voice pushing that thought out of her mind.

"Dead men ain't nothin' special. Count the things you killed 'em for."

The words of Thomas Trent from so soon after her first sortie cleared her mind of any worry for those Coalition personnel. She killed them for Maki, for Alice, for Trapp, just like they'd all kill her for their comrades given half a chance. Her raging emotions quelled for now, she went back to the operation, a by the book raid. With the enemy's primary hangar wasted, they didn't have to worry about further MAS suits unless they'd stored any with the Hellcat and the Eagle. This meant that, for now, Ari was free to do as ordered and keep circling the base. As the Marines called in targets, usually entrenched positions or knots of enemy personnel, Ari responded with a burst of PD lasers or, in extreme cases, a blast from the 50s. One such scenario soon cropped up with the Marines facing heavy resistance within the complex proper. Their tech was able to transmit coordinates for the target, enabling a danger-close blast from the 50s."Situation is still stable, staying on watch." That said, Ari made sure to keep a careful eye on her sensors in case any more Coalition suits emerged from down below.

[Kimiyosis]

Some of these soldiers were getting really desperate.

That was the thought that courses through Yuu's mind, as she lifted one of her MAS' foot, only to slam it down with force, pistons hissing and metal groaning at the excessive force. A small explosion could be felt, as something detonated under that foot. While it may seem rather cruel to kill using such a method, it was actually down to efficiency. The machine guns were actively engaging targets at medium ranges, and at this moment behind her, and lowering the Saviors took too long. So, she opted to flatten those that got too close.

Upon hearing Maki call out, Yuu silently nodded, despite no one actually being able to see her movements. Maki's entry into the battlefield with her MAS also gave out a crucial piece of advice, which was to keep fire off the western hangar, while Trapp was calling out to clear out the surrounding soldiers around hangar. At least, that's how she inferred it, as Trapp had cut out.

Seeing soldiers still running around the area, as she lumbered her way towards the hanger, she allowed the onboard AI systems to target and turn each and every one of them into Swiss cheese. "Every soldier that survives the battle is another soldier you will have to fight again..." Muttering those words softly, she watched as a group had fled into the cover of one of the buildings.

Not even bothering to waste ammunition, Yuu pulled on the controls, with the Sovereign responding to her movements. She had pulled back her left arm, before swinging it forward, and disconnected the shield at the apex of her movement. Suddenly airborne, the thick slab of alloy metal slammed into the building, tearing through the material with its sheer weight.

With her left hand free now, she swapped the Saviors over to the left, before grabbing the Trinity of her back with her right. Cannon in one hand, laser in the other, and PDs supplementing them, she opened fire in multiple directions, the onboard AI assisting in the tracking.

[Harbringer]

"Oui, understood," Gerard said as he began to make for the hangars, only to have Maki and the Hellcat burst through moments later. "Ahh, bonjour madamoiselle, a pleasure for you to join us," he subvocalised into the comms as he stowed his ravager and racked the scattergun, "but where is Alice? And Trapp?" Without waiting for a reply, he pumped a spray through the hangar doors, leaving a gaping slag hole as the superheated iridium slugs chewed through it and a significant portion of the ground. Shoulder barging the door down, he stepped in and pumped another shot through a stunned Ferir, completely vapourising its left half and letting it stumble back before discharging another round into its cockpit. The Frenchman grimaced. That was one thing he hated about this armament. There was really very little chance of pilots surviving this gun, but he shrugged. He had to do what must be done, and he'll drink to their memory later in the dorm.

"Gallant, entering facilities to search for Odin," Gerard said into the comms as he slagged a wall with another steaming hot dump of...shot, "it sounded like he could use the help." Stepping into a corridor barely wide enough for him to fit, the Marauder was instantly assaulted with the sound of alarms blaring and panicked people. "Be advised, civilians are within the premises," he said as he watched a few white labcoats clear away from his breach. He didn't have to say more. The others knew about his views. Apart form that, he stopped for a second to wonder. How the hell was he going to find Trapp anyway. "Maki, Alice, any idea of direction?" he asked as he started towards the inner compound.