[IC] Howling Sands

[Eklispe]

Shinon nodded in confirmation even though no one could see the movement except Eriko. A small ping came from his radar, long enough range to keep up with his sniper and two small dots appeared a ways in front of him. "Confirmed reading at least two enemy NCs, going to high ground, Edo if you engage you have cover fire." Shinon said in an experienced tone of voice and accelerated sheering off further to the right and sighting on a particularly large sand dune, by the time he arrived and locked down Edo would be about to engage at his current speed. His mouth curled into a slightly malicious grin, time to pop some more corporate dogs, "As for a plan I'll sit here taking shots and making sure none of you front-liners get killed." Shinon replied to Eriko in that same professional manner.

@Nallore@ClocktowerEchos@LHG100

[ClocktowerEchos]

Edoric drew breath, "Upon my soul, I accept this sin, to hell I go, the angel of blades."

The Phantom Zero approched the Combat Group Wesson as they did their standard Line n' Shoot method, only that it wouldn't work on Edoric. As they lined up and prepared to charge, he shot out his rocket anchors at the first one, dragging him into the ground. While it was no means a kill or even dealing any actual damage, it threw off thier timing and granted Edoric time. Sidestepping the second NCM, he flipped over the third, using the edge of his swords to cut into the NCM's arms before dragging them straight down and forcing the pilot to stick to whatever weapons were not arm mounted.

Edoric didn't break concentration for even a second as he landed and aimed himself towards the refinery, only to recive a shotgun blast to the back. Warnings went off saying that he had taken rear hull damage and that the power drive had been hit. Turning back, he was met by a tackle from the NCM he had just cut. Pinned to the ground, his sword flew out of his hand and stuck in the sand. He tried to block the failing arms of the MO37G, but his lighter NCM was meant to take the direct blows from the heavy fists of a assault mech.

"Edo-chan! Have some help! Moe, moe, kyun!~~~" Chiyome found a good position on a cliff side (finally) and beamed down hell and rainbows onto the MO37G on top of Edo. The beam must have hit something important as it suddenly went limp as Edo punched it in the face before rolling over and getting up, "I need one more person to help me get in. I'm sencing tanks and artillery emplacements and that damn SAM installation. Any volunteers?"

[LHG100]

The third pilot seemed to have opened frequencies to taunt Edoric, right before he started his attack. The message went from a thick, 'joisey', "Y'ready to die you fuckin punk- OHH GOD MY ARRRRRRMS!", as it flailed its' stumps behind Edoric in pain when he cut its' arms off, forgetting it had missile launchers. Suddenly, to his side, Edoric hears multiple KRAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAAKAK, coming from multiple sources.

Another comms message, "Hey, who the hell are you?", a smoother, calmer, yet slightly solemn tongue. It continues, "I don't think I was getting support. What's this gonna be, a 4-versus-3-versus-one?". After he says so, an explosion is heard, and a "GAAAAAAAAAAAH!" from Wesson 2 over Wesson 3's comms. The other voice from before, "Scratch that, 4vs2vs1.".

Everyone would see a fairly armored hover-leg type, with two small, automatic shotguns, with drum-magazines. As the battle raged on, the defenses of the Refinery came to their senses and begin firing wildly at anything that looked dangerous, their outdated and already damaged systems getting mildly confused. Raymond introduced himself, "Well, new ones, I'm Raymond. These guys are assholes, huh?", "Four versus one with defenses support..sounds fair, dudn't? Hahahah! Yeah, right!".

[Nallore]

Eriko looked over the group of targets, the one that seemed to be the most threat was the SAM as well as the other NCM's close by. "I got the SAM, just keep the NCM's off my back okay?" She charged forward using the speed, then she heard alarms going off just as the SAM started to target her. Eriko flew past the refinery and made a quick pass turning back into mech mode Eriko used the rocket launcher and released a volley of missiles at the emplacement. When it was down Eriko groaned loudly as she was hit in the side, and quickly turned around seeing an enemy NCM approaching her and started to return fire.

[orangebox]

As the volley of Howitzers hit the sandy plains in the general direction of Bahl and her squadmates, explosions thumped all around their proximity creating craters of varied sizes. All which were barely hitting, as the howitzers adjusted their aim with every shot more accurate than the next. She noticed Phantom Zero engaging the Wesson Squad, to which Nine assumed Edoric to be able enough to handle it by himself - not to mention that the ranged-supports in the rear would have provided him with ample support.

"Main Systems: Combat Mode Activated" Bahl's AI spoke up, as the NCM powered up its relevant systems for combat. Nine deftly veered to the left and right with her clunky and slow NCM, quick-boosting away from the approximate impacting point of the defensive howitzers - as if predicting the enemy's projectiles.

Her eyes scoured the battlefield while Bahl's sensors highlighted her targets, as she made mental notes of the distance and fire delay from the defensive platforms after every shot. With these in mind, she would also calculate the approximate speed of the projectiles via the delay between fire and impact. The data was then used to script a quick software that reads the pattern of engagement by the defensive platforms with adjustable variables - now running in real-time tracking. Essentially, it would notify her of any imminent howitzer rounds with the approximate area and time of impact highlighted over her HUD. Seemingly impossible for a mere human, but with the excessive NCM implants she has within her body, it was very much possible.

Nine pushed forward to the objectives, eyeing on the closest howitzer platform which was guarded by a few more MG emplacements. However, the appearance of a decently sized - probably a medium classed, hover-leg NCM forced Nine to reconsider her plan of action. Armed with what seems to be two automatic shotguns on each arm, it appeared to be an NCM customized for engaging in close-quarters.

"Well, new ones, I'm Raymond. These guys are assholes, huh?" the pilot of the hover NCM opened on all channels and broadcasts his introduction which seemed more like a taunt. "Four versus one with defenses support..sounds fair, dudn't? Hahahah! Yeah, right!"

Keeping a noticeable distance from the NCM Raymond was in, Nine attempted to skirt away from him in order to make use of an opening where she would sneak pass Raymond and eliminate her objectives.

[M127]

Meanwhile in SAU's research facility located in the Santa Cruz burrow confined in his quarters Jeremiah is lying on his bed. If he can't really do anything, he should use the opportunity to get some rare rest. Not being permitted to sleep more than 5 hours every 24 hours is harsh and increases the chance of errors, but also lowers the chance of a successful revolt(although the chance of a revolt occurring increases).
"I wonder when they'll notice the sabotage.", he mumbles to himself, "90% of the forces exerted by the coils is directed against the joint, putting it under high stress. Failure rate and maintenance cost will increase.
The ring itself is also incapable of putting up with the forces between 2 coils, if 2 were activated at once, causing it to rip apart and send the coils ricocheting throughout the internal systems of the arm, and maybe even punching through the armor from the inside."
Jeremiah notices he started talking to himself, and decides to finally catch some sleep.

[Eklispe]

The Dire Wolf's feet sunk into the solid ground he had managed to find firmly locking him into position. Its "spinal cord" lined up in straight across making the entire length of the NC into a massive barrel. Shinon grinned loving the feeling of power it gave him and examined the battlefield; it looked like Edo was charging in knocking one to the ground before moving onto the next.

Humph, with the Dire Wolf in position falling down was as good as death, Shinon quickly and efficiently lined up the shot and fired, a loud crack resounding across the field as the anti-NC bullet drilling through the downed NC's power core. Utterly useless and the pilot most likely dead as well, though they could still scavenge the weapons and ammo, a refund for the bullet. The Dire Wolf's head swept the battle looking for another target and found Eriko under fire. Sensing it was unlikely he could make a killing shot he switched to normal ammo and shot off another one the ground cracking beneath his feet, this spot would only be good for another two shots at best. Shinon gave a satisfied smirk as the bullet twirled thourgh the air and slammed into the arm of Eriko's attacker ruining the weapon attached and knocking it off balance. "Tell me where you need me, makes my job easier." Shinon commented through his earpiece aleady looking for a new target while his NC recovered from the recoil.

@Nallore

[LHG100]

With two of the enemy NCM's effectively dead or disabled, the third quickly began to retreat, its' broken arms flailing in pain behind it, pitifully. On all frequencies, "Th-This was never supposed to happen! Fuck you guys! FUCK YOU GUYS!", as it quickly dropped everything to get away from the combat zone as quickly as possible. A few howitzer shells blew up near it, damaging it further before it went out of range at maximum speed.

Raymond spoke, "Well.. this is still mighty unfair!", and began to maneuver towards Edoric, "But I've been through worse!", the defenses went to support Raymond, beggining to aim for Edoric and fire. At closer ranges such as this, it'd be difficult for Edoric to dodge. But not necessarily impossible..

The defenses, thankfully for everyone else, completely focused on Edoric. Making it easy for everyone else to dodge whatever did come their way, which wasn't much.

[orangebox]

As her squadmates triumphed against Wesson Squad with one on the run, they were eventually engaged by Raymond and a number of defensive platforms leaving an opening to which Nine took advantage of. Bahl engaged its boosters to their highest capacity and charged towards her initial target; one of the closer howitzer platforms. She patched herself to the comms of her squad's channel and spoke softly; "Float like a butterfly sting like a bee..." while uploading her real-time howitzer fire-tracker to her teammates, hoping that they would find it helpful.

As the MG emplacements defending the howtizer reached the very edge of her FCS' targeting range - one of four available targets were locked within 0.77 seconds to which she instantly fired two guided missiles. With the missiles launched, she deftly disengaged her target lock as the FCS scrambled to acquired the next target, followed by several shots of energy beams from her pulse rifle. Two explosions on the position where the two MG emplacements were once on caught the attention of the other defensive batteries, their aim now focused on the red NCM.

Within seconds, bursts of machine gun fire peppered to the direction of Bahl.

Instantly boosting to the right further away from Raymond, Bahl skirted around the other MG emplacements as she assumed the same pattern of taking down the last 2 MG emplacements. With the destruction of the MG emplacements secured, only the howitzer remains - to which she peppered it with more guided missiles and bursts of energy beams. An explosion of sorts signaled the destruction of the howitzer platform, as black smoke plumed into the skies. She then scans the surroundings and plots her way to the next howitzer platform.

[Nallore]

Eriko backed up the moment her attacker had been hit by Shinon, turning her head over to where Dire Wolf was and gave a slight nod. "Thanks Shinon." She said with a smile, and then watched as the NCM pilot tried to turn around and flee, drawing out her rifle Viper Tiger aimed at it firing a three round burst right into the NCM's back all three shots shooting straight through making a clean hole through it and watched it fall down to the ground.

Eriko heard Nine's voice through the comm's hearing her comment as she started to take out the MG emplacements, using the opportunity Eriko quickly activated the Tiger Viper's jamming equipment to prevent anyone else from trying to send in reinforcements. Eriko quickly flew alongside Nines to take out the next howitzer as well.

[ClocktowerEchos]

Edoric glared at Raymond through his HUD, "You'll have to wait you turn mate."

Artillery and explosives landed all around him, some getting to close for comfort, one making contact. Before anything else happened, he thruster-dashed to the retreating AAT NCM unit and grabbed it by the legs with the rocket anchors, swing him around as another wave of shells came in. After a full loop around him, he launched his second anchor, leaving the NCM hanging upside down, its legs in the air thanks to the anchors. With zero hesitation, Edoric once again drew a sword, the thin veil of high-frequency particles glimmering in the light. A single stroke, he cut the helpless NCM in half, and its pilot presumably.

Dragging the halved corpse of the machine, Edoric spun his Phantom Zero and attempted to smack Raymond with half of the NCM only for it be sent flying back with a new load of buckshot in it. "Don't even try boy." Raymond snarled through the open coms.
"I don't try." Edoric picked up his second sword from the ground, "I do and complete."

Metal shot tearing off bits of his armor, Edoric braved the automatic shotguns as he charged the mercenary, hoping that he wouldn't turn his attention to anyone else. A quick jab and the point of his blade meat Raymond's NCM's forearm, pausing the hail of lead from the shotguns for a second. Edoric then tried to out maneuver the heavier mech but Raymond recovered quicker than he had expected. One burst volley into the NCM's leg later, Edoric fell to the ground in pain as the neural link transmitted that stuff too for seom god unknown reason.

"Agh! F-Fuck!" Edoric grimaced as he cursed in pain, he could feel the hot iron in his leg, hitting his shin bone even though nothing was really there.

As Raymond advanced towards him, he was meant but a certain iconic plasma beam in the back. While it was definitely not enough to complete destroy it, Himiko succeeded in getting Raymond's attention.

"Stay the fuck off Edo-chan!" Chiyome screamed into her earpiece at Raymond, "Shinonono! Hit him!"

[Eklispe]

Shinon growled, "With pleasure." her sights aligned on Raymond, albiet with a bit of static, his jamming systems must have had some serious power to affect her systems from this range. Frustered he never the less attempted to make a shot, though at first it looked on line he jerked out of the way causing the shot to merely destroy one of his shotguns and send him reeling. Shinon cursed under his breath as the ground beneath her finally cracked. Fudge this, he was going to take care of Raymond one way or another. He leapt forward of the ruined ground quickly closing the gap between him and Raymond. Jamming wouldn't matter if Shinon got close enough to make the shot by eye, something else he had better of expierence with. "Finish off those refinires so we can get out of here!" Shinon yelled as he prepared to take another shot at Raymond.

[Nallore]

Eriko nodded as she spotted another gun emplacement and turned the Tiger Viper over to face it and fired her rifle over in the direction of it finally managing it out and the last of the guns were finally gone. She then quickly flew down to where Raymond's NCM was at holding her rifle right at the fallen NCM. "Should we take him back with us, or leave him here?" Eriko asked Tiger Viper's head turning over to look over at the others watching as Dire Wolf grabbed some of the weapons that have fallen from the other NCM's.

[LHG100]

(accidentally made a double post)

[LHG100]

Raymond's NCM looked at its' now-disabled shotgun, and he seemingly decided to bolt it and run, making sure to at least force some damage unto Edoric before retreating. KRAKAKAKA, four shells at point blank range, making Edoric flip over due to the kinetic energy, easily blinding him for a precious few moments, not to mention the 'actual' damage to the structure and armoring.

He then maneuvered his thrusters to turn as fast as possible, before activating some sort of hyper-booster on its' back and quickly retreating. "Fucking terrorists..." he mumbled before going out of range. Jeanne spoke again, "Fuck. I had no idea he had a Volkov Cruise Engine... damnit, whatever we CAN do, at least one of the corporations will just know for sure we're operating. This isn't good at all, fuck.... Everyone, plant your charges, scavenge what you can, and blow this joint, ASAP. Return to base, make sure your tracks don't make any fucking sense, you know the drill in this situation."

As Raymond retreated, he felt sad for his failure. He talked to himself, after disabling communications. "...Wait... who were those guys? I didn't recognize them at all...". No matter, he did what he could, but he still lost. "Damn... no payday this time.... Don't they know I have mouths to feed?". "I just want to do my damn job and go home, every time. God, I hate this job... 'Ohhh, you'll be so RICH!, you'll be a heerrro! Fucking right!"

[LHG100]

As the team began to finish the operation and salvage what was useful, a few mysterious people discussed about something over some sort of network, far, far away, and undetected by anything at all...

A gentleman going by the username of 'S' messaged in reply to something, "This is not an optimal way to go about our objectives, V. I believe your age is beginning to show, and you should retire soon.". 'V', mildly miffed, responded like so, "S, shut your trap, even with your 'intellect' you just can't plan this subtly, and you know it. I'm too vital for this group, don't even imply I should 'retire'...". A maneuver for control from a man called N, "Now now, we have too much to discuss this meeting to spend our precious time on arguing. Please, allow some order, and let us discuss what we came here for. 'Howling Sands', who used to be active decades ago, has just resurfaced for another surge of activity... their current roster of NCM pilots and personnel is... perfect, for our objectives and requirements for the same. I believe, we should kill two birds with one stone, and eliminate this last rebel group, and acquire the individuals, 'Chiyome', 'Edoric', 'Eriko', 'Shinon', and 'Nine'."

Images of them were sent to the network for everyone to see. "Ohohoho, I remember the last one... What a waste of my money.", V disappointedly said. S rebuked, "Simpleton, what did you expect to happen? You can't artificially replicate the trait we desire. It's simply impossible. I've tried many times before, all of my attempts were failures. Failures." Just then, N assumed control, again. "Ahem, In any case! S, please, form the group you mentioned. I believe they'll be the best solution for this 'issue'. I trust, S, you have the best roster of personnel for this group from our donations, yes?" "Yes, N, I'm sending the list right now. Three individuals, while outnumbered, I believe with the advanced technologies available to us, they'll easily be able to do what we require of them." "Wonderous, when do you believe they should be operable?" "Within two weeks, N.". V, happily, "Glorious. I must admit I'm loving the sound of this, begin at once!". "I already am."

[LHG100]

The Squad finished their objective... Edoric and Shinon planted demolition charges, Eriko, Chiyomme, and Nine secured the perimeter, (and salvaged what they could). After such, they began leaving and counting what they could get the grease-monkeys back at HS to repair:

Wesson 1's Assault Shotgun, surprisingly, survived the battle nearly unscathed. Being such a massive two-handed assault model, it'd be quite useful for Edoric or Shinon.
Wesson 2 appears to have equipped a high-output generator, and such a clean cut means plenty of the NCM's actual hull is available. The generator, sadly, was ALSO cut in half, but it could be still theoretically possible to repair. Hell, the engineers could use its' parts to upgrade everyone a little, but it'd have to actually be eligible to study first, and not cut in half.
Raymond's shotgun is wrecked, but it is barely salvageable. It'd be even more of a difficult job, but it'd be possible. It'd take up plenty of the engineers' precious time, though.
Wesson 3's back missile launchers seem to be working well enough, they seemed to have been designed specifically for anti-NCM work, which would be a very useful weapon to have. The missiles, however, will always be difficult to acquire.

In any case, they bring the most-important looking salvageables back to base, hand them over to the engineers, (Who assess their possibilities of being refubrished for HS use). Jeanne congratulates everyone for a mighty successful first mission, even with the odds stacked against the Squad at first, "However, it's still all up-hill from here. It's going to be hard, especially with Raymond tattling on the corporations on us this soon..." "If anyone is going to attack us during a mission after this, or, more unlikely, attack us directly, our sources show it's going to be Volkov or Al'Zharid."

"And... well, congratulations.", Jeanne smiles a little, "With your skills out there, no matter how hard this'll be, I think we'll be fine. Sorry to inform you all, but we'll likely be launching again very soon, something came up while you were all out there. Well, technically two, but the second thing can wait. Dismissed, and Chiyomme? Have Chef bake you some cookies. Let the others have some if they want."

[Eklispe]

Shinon looked over the engineer report on the salvaged gear, the shotgun was appealing but its size was a bit of a problem as her super-light model was already heavily loaded anything more would probably damper his mobility to much. Raymond's shotgun and the wrecked generator had the same problem, she didn't want to waste the engineer's time on something that likely wouldn't be too helpful. He decided he would leave them to work on the others NCs. It seemed things were going to get harder from here on out but he was confident they could handle it. He decided he would follow Chiyomme when she went to Chef and beg for cookies.

[orangebox]

The mission was a success with barely a scratch on Bahl. Nine hopped off the cockpit and left the task of resupplying to the servicemen before she headed to her quarters. She needed to write in a report detailing the mission, and she would've preferred to have had it completed before leaving it for later. She sat down in front of her computer in her quarters and began writing. A quick rest after is what she needed, considering that she will need to consolidate all her energy for the incoming sortie that was mentioned earlier by Jeanne.

Her actions obviously reflected the harsh and scheduled lifestyle she has had when she was in the research facility. However, this was a good change. Considering that she has autonomy as a Howling Sands personnel, perhaps too much, that she simply does not know what to do with it. Idling or catching a nap wasn't exactly the best idea, but it was the very first that came to mind. Without a second thought, she rested her head on her arms and closed her eyes as she tried to nap in front of the keyboard after she completed writing the report.

[ClocktowerEchos]

Edoric was healing nerve damage and a bleeding head which had been bandaged courtesy of the station medics. Nothing on the salvage list interested him, the shotgun would be too heavy, the missile launcher was interesting no doubt but the lack of ammunition was off putting, the engine, while destroyed, might be of use for upgrading. He'd have to remind himself to later request the engineers to use whatever bits and pieces of the high-performance generator was usable, trying to fix the whole thing when he cut it in half seemed to be a futile effort, not that he regretted doing such an act, it was for the sake of the mission after all.

He popped in his earbuds to listen to some of his playlists, seeing as that the Phantom Zero wouldn't make it in time for the next mission, at least not at the start. As the beats flowed into his ears, he heard the cheers of a certain young, peppy girl and thought, Shit.

---

Chiyome was overjoyed at the prospect of cookies, dancing around the room as Jeanie, "Thank you Jeannie!~ Chi-chan want all her cookies!"

She twirled around the room before stopping next to Edoric (who was only slightly amused at the prospect of baked goods) and tugged on his shirt, "How are you doing?"
"Fine I guess," Edoric looked up to the wild grin of Chiyome, "I'm WIA as you can see, don't expect me to do much later."
"Then you need cookies to help you heal!"
"Cookies don't help wi-"
"YOU NEED COOKIES!" Chiyome shouted as she literally dragged the boy out of the room to the mess hall, surprising everyone including Edoric (who had the most priceless "wtf" face) with her strength.