ArmorPlated

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

A full month without any activity. Might as well call it.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

I don't honestly know, but didn't the Aurora have guns?

Alternatively: smashing an antique.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Good to see some activity here. Posted, though it's pretty basic. Need to get back into the swing of things.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Adam Gilford

WARNING: Signal bypass detected in Comm array.
Combat Network Module Insecure: Comm Array Functions Terminated.
Internal Runtime Security: cleared.
Switching to Semi-Autonomous Mode.
Verifying Communications Integrity...

The alien machines had woke up in a hurry, going from dormant to active aggression in a few minutes. Adam's mind was catching up with his body and the Starstrike. The pair of unknown machines had turned their eyes skyward and his Orbital had reported some kind of ECM attack, blocking out the entire comms suite. Even with his radio dead, he and his Orbital recognized beam weapons well enough to drop countermeasures and evade. Rocketing sideways, the Starstrike spun to minimize it's profile while dispersing nano-chaff in an attempt to disrupt or weaken the intensity of the beams. Thoughts continued catching up, and even without network access, his HUD had the Explorer One marked as a defensive objective. Descending, Adam barked orders to the pilot-assist system and aimed for a trajectory perpendicular to the hostile's advance.

"Designate unknowns as hostile. Mark physical abnormalities on hostiles as Object." Text scrolled across every sub-screen as Adam locked his target and loosed a missile, guidance designating the intersection of alien armor and the crystal structure "Object" as it's target. The radio buzzed with life again as systems slowly cleared a security check. Slightly later than would have been appropriate, Adam calls over the radio. <<Starstrike, missile away!>> before banking to race towards the Shuttle.

<<This is Castle Two-One to Explorer One. I'll cover your retreat as you go-- don't stay too long.>>

<<I'll take Escort position if you can provide cover-fire, Castle. If even half of the spots is a hostile crawling out of the dirt, we're in hot water.>>

The Starstrike rapidly gained on the Ajax, thruster-wash kicking up a trail of dust. with a chime, it's Comm array came back online, reconnecting to the network once again. A stray thought formed at the back of Adam's mind, gone as quickly as it had arrived.

I dropped off the network pretty suddenly right before an attack... Here's hoping it didn't look like I died, or I'm going to have to apologize to Communications for the scare.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Adam Gilford

<<We've gotta work on your sense of humor AGL one.>>

Adam rolled the Starstrike, dropping altitude in a wide banking turn. As the disturbance came into optical range he ended the turn and keyed his sensors to ready for a high-intensity scan. "Return thrusters to ready status and prepare for emergency burn. Designate activity in scan region as unknown contacts." Adam felt his Orbital shift into a more ready flight-stance as it finished dissipating heat. Hefting it's weapon into ready position, the Starstrike began it's approach, transmitting visuals of a cloud of disturbed sand rising from the ground north east of the LZ, opposite his own position.

<<Large dust plume North East of LZ, negative visual on anything else. Too far for penetrative scan or thermal yet. sixty seconds ETA to sensor ranges, Starstrike's got nothing on the Bedwyr's eyes, but I'll transmit when able. It's a shot in the dark, but my money's on alien jellyfish.>>

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Wait, did the Science team's shuttle land directly over the anomaly or just next to it?

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Well, Adam is supposed to be in the air for the time being so unless orders have changed, he's not really going to be playing in the sandbox.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Just took a peek at that CS, and holy shit. BTF "euthanizing" people sounds unethical as fuck. Here's hoping their leadership ended up dumped on a Pluto prison-camp or something.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Adam Gilford

Adam's heart was hammering in his chest as he was struck by an unpleasant familiarity. His cockpit was lit orange by the fiery glow of the atmosphere as his Orbital dropped into Kitezh's atmosphere. He was having trouble telling if the shaking was him or if the Starstrike was getting some rough vibration from turbulence. The rhythmic tapping of a loose panel suggested it wasn't him, but he couldn't be sure. "Can't believe I'm going to let one bad drop spook me like this." He dialed up his cockpit's sound-dampening as the shaking increased. He checked his status display and cursed to himself.
WARNING: FOMAR-221 At Thermal Capacity. Weapon Disabled For Cooling Cycle.
He adjusted the positioning of the rifle to sit better within the shadow of the Starstrike's entry and increased retrograde thrust to reduce the heat trying to melt the barrels of his only real weapon.

the Starstrike maneuvered itself little by little into a more shallow drop, the trajectory gradually angling away from the ground. In no time the Orbital met it's target altitude and aligned itself with the planet below, it's thrusters flaring and accelerating against the planet's gravity. The projected arc climbed higher and higher as the burn continued, The cockpit rotating internally so that the force would press Adam into the back of his seat instead of crushing his spine. As the G-forces grew, Adam fell back on his training to keep him awake, a hard-won gasp every few seconds keeping him from blacking out. As the Orbital's torso pitched forwards, it straightened it's legs, no longer needing to use it's shin plating as thermal shielding. New thrusters took over as they came into alignment, and it's altitude levels out. As the end of the deceleration came, Adam angled back towards the designated LZ in a long banking turn.

Adam glanced down at his post-reentry readouts.
Status: Thrust heat maximum exceeding 60%.
Thrust maximum output temporarily reduced.
Thrust output efficiency temporarily reduced.
Thrust maximum runtime temporarily reduced.
...
"I know, I know it's hot. Not much we can do now but wait for the heat to dissipate."
Adam dialed back his throttle and began coasting, putting out just enough power to maintain altitude. It would take a while to slow with how fast he was still moving, so he had some time to let his Orbital cool down without losing too much speed. He 'passed' the Bedwyr close enough to spot it's red arm.

<<Coming in overhead. Well boys and girls, anyone seen Adam and Eve?>>
<< I could probably recite the entirety of Genesis if asked. I'd rather not receive infractions for proselytizing during a mission, though.>>
<<No offense Castle, but I feel like praying ten minutes into a mission would be a bad sign on it's own.>>
Adam didn't bother keeping the jovial tone out of his voice. A bit of banter to ease the tension. Lord knows I need it.

He set the Starstrike to maintain it's flightpath and started sweeping for activity. His own Orbital didn't have anything too fancy in the way of sensors, but eyes were eyes, and the bird's eye view he was transmitting back to the Bedwyr might still come in handy to someone.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

That's a fun discovery.
Color code 8F8F8F plus bold makes text look fuzzy. at least to me, anyway.