2011-03-07 - King of Disorder

Yesterday...

"You want me, with some hired guns to run down a corporation in Alabama, US?" The dirty blonde asked, spinning a pen in his hands at a table top that had shinny black surface and computer details running along it, along with a holographic like image floating slightly off the table surface of a simple may of the lay out of the Acemos Corporation.

"That is correct." The gentleman across from the table stated as he was typing some information in. "I take it you have already looked over the notes in the file?"

"I looked them over yeah, but why would Crest be interested in hassling a Orbital Frame corporation for?" The dirty blonde asked as those 'un'human aqua green eyes glanced over to the gentleman across the way. "Or is that for me to not no?"

"You are correct. That is for us to be concerned about and you just carry out the objective. See it as another ticket to your golden road to some slice of freedom."

A blonde woman who had been reading over the files, glances up with her blue eyes between the two. She doesn't say much as she flips through the files quickly with quick hand gestures over the surface of the odd table. Before she reaches over and calls up a 'keyboard' and starts to type something in. "As his operator," She at last speaks up with her calm voice, "I would suggest we find a quiet means of entry. To much attention can bring in allot of forces and its very dangerous to attack a Federation supported corporation. Crest is aware of this, are they not?"

The gentleman then smiled softly as he stood up, "Don't worry Miss Aulter. Crest doesn't have much fear or concern with the federation forces, after all." He then started to head out, "This is-- a corporate dispute, not a military one."

The dirty blonde then glanced over to Aulter, before Aulter shook her head and picked up her stuff. She then also looked over to the pilot for tomorrow's mission, "We will have our work cut out for us it seems."

"When don't we? At least they are getting some other guns in."

Earlier...

Several large ships fly over the Forest area heading to the large clearing, however they start to drop down in what looks to be good places in the forest, to stay out of radar range of the faculty. All the ships provided are that of Crests own fleet and assiting in dropping off their hired guns along with no charge.

They also have one ship alone carrying their special 'weapon' of new age. This ship alone is apparently specially made to keep whatever in, in, until given the OK.

A voice then comes over the comms for those hired for the job, "We thank you all for joining us on this attack on the Acemos corporation. We like to remind all of you that we will be paying for all damage done to your units during this combat and if any harm comes to any of you, we will also cover the medical charges." there was then a pause. "You will also find that once the mission is complete all the money we agreed upon will be wired directly to your accounts."

Then there was another long pause, "Your mission objectives are simple. Enter into the Acemos grounds and destroy the Acemos AI lab. If you so wish, you can also wreck destruction on other items with the Acemos grounds and we will pay you an extra thousand for the damage you have done to the already completed objective, but /only/ once you complete the objective will that go over onto your funds."

"We wish you all luck here at Crest, one you all launch, we will be pulling out. That is all."

Then all the pilots are sent map datas. On these maps it shows a rough layout of the grounds. It is surrounded by large walls built to keep things out, along with several watch towers at each corner and mid way on the walls. There are several hangers laid out inside of the Acemos grounds, along with a river that helps divide the area from the rest of the land; Most likely man-made.

Then there is also a noticeable entrance that has a bridge that crosses over to what looks like a massive gate, to once again, keep people out. The target however seems to be located on the north west side wedged between several hangers.

For those who know what they are doing, this should be a cake walk...

Now

Once the paid guns are let out, several of the drop ships then start to pull away and head /far/ away from the combat zone. The last drop ship, the special one, at last opens its bay doors, as a glow comes from it. Soon a white machine makes its way out. The very machine several Trailers faught, only looks like its been a bit modified and that aqua green visor stares forward, before the light beam moves over to the side to look at the other Trailers.

It then looks forward again, before it starts to walk; The sleek machine was on the move, but it wasn't moving quickly, not yet. Instead it was waiting to get outside of the forests and once it was, that is not only when the thrusters went hot and it went screaming across the open fields in a burst of speed, but a massive field suddenly generated around it with that same aqua green glow for only a split second; Then seeming to vanish for now from sight.

Aulter's voice then came over the comm to the others, "Strayed is on the move... and like Crest, i wish you all luck as well." Then the blond woman went back to her work as the NEXT's operator.

Acemos. A government private army of sorts, which has often been put in charge with keeping peace on Mars. They are funded, and have headquarters, on earth - and are likely the only coorporation to do experiments with Metatron. As of late, they have been trying to recreate the advanced A.I.s employed by BAHRAM to 'help' them in their 'peacekeeping' efforts.

This facility is the research compound under Acemos that is doing that particular research. A series of watchtowers seem to be its only defenses, along with that gigantic wall.

The somewhat north-western centered main compound is an enormous and tall building, with another watchtower on top, which provides 'radar' for this place. Security and all that. And within that particular watchtower stands a certain man. Big and old American looking, he is leaning over another man whom is pointing at the radar signal. "What is it?" The old man asks. Obviously, he is the base commander.

"Sir, we have incoming signals. Unidentified. Some high speed, some large." The young man at the radar reports. "Tssk. I don't trust it." The old man quickly grabs hold of a big microphone and begins calling out commands. And within seconds, the watchtowers aim searchlights into the directions of the incoming flightship, and the gates at the east side of the compound close off firmly. Sirens blare! Civilian base personel run towards the hangars for safety. Soldiers follow this same line of thinking... but not to get to safety.

 An Acemos military research facility in Alabama sends out an SoS!

 An Acemos military research facility in Alabama sends out an SoS!

The life of a mercenary is a funny ol' thing. Last week, Sly Heckler was breaking into Crest's main research base to steal information. This week, Sly is running missions for them. Normally Sly wouldn't have signed up for this, but it was being run by R, and Sly wants to keep an eye on that. Besides, say what you want about Crest, but they pay /really/ well for a toothpaste company.

The mission is fairly standard by Inner Sphere terms. Get into base, blow up buildings, blah blah blah stompy robot fun. Sly decides to take a direct route for this mission. He orders the Equinox to fly over the base, using it's stealth systems to keep them off enemy radar. When they're at the target Zone, the main hanger door is opened, and the giant robots that Sly's ship is carrying fall out. Instead of approaching on the ground and going though the defenses, Sly figures they'll just fly over head, drop in from the air, land in the middle of the base and start wrecking stuff before anybody knows what the hell.

Sly is starting to get used to their arial deployments, and admittedly dropping an 85 ton robot ten thousand feet before flying in on a cloud of sparkles has started to get a little fun. The Seraph steps out of the airlock first, freefalling though the clouds and sky, the big machine angling to look straight down as Sly falls. "Wooooah boy. Alright, here we go," Sly transmits as he falls. It'll be a couple minutes before he has to turn on the flight systems, so until then, Sly just freefalls.

Stinger shakes his hand, putting out the small match after he finishes lighting his cigarette. "Can you tell me why we're sucking up to Crest?" "We have our own rationale behind supporting this action, Stinger. Specifically, we wish to have feet on the ground near Crest's new operational unit." "R? Meh..." "Your objectives have been provided, you will know when to initiate them, if you are able. The destruction of the AI labs coincides with our interests here as well...but this is of course you acting as an independant operative." Stinger smirks, "Well of course..." That was a few hours ago. Now Stinger is smoking (an entirely different cigarette), as he disengages and lands heavily on the tarmac. He watches the flood of people rush past, heading for their bunkers and secure stations... The Vixen charges forward, crashing through a glut of them and sending several human forms cartwheeling through the sky. He lets out a dry chuckle, "Whee." Its then that he turns, drawing up his DRAGON and a complex map overlay... "Lets see. Forward weapon assemblies primary power feed station is...there, secondary back up should activate in about 4.9 seconds..." He grins, "Plenty of time for the old man..." The DRAGON's burst launches out as the Vixen skids abruptly to the side, and takes cover from fire that doesn't exist yet...

Ringo was here.

How far had he fallen to be here? Sure, the Kurogane and all... that was great. Sorta. But he was working with the trailers to make things work. The man sat in his Guarlion, using his optical stealth systems to keep himself hidden as he looks at the bottle in his hands. He was going to enjoy this after the battle. Instead, he had already killed half of it. Another, gulp, and he brings more to his lips. He needed this, anything to make this less painful for him. Grunting he puts the bottle down and takes the controls, and fires thrusters towards the base... low and fast, and letting the rest of the trailers come in low. He was going to only come in for connection....

There. Within range he sets down again, checking his optical stealth field again, and pushes a few buttons. With a hiccup, he sets his fingers into motion, switching the controls to a keyboard mode, and attempting to estable a remote connection to the labs computer systems... and eventually attempt to gain access to their network.

What did the Crest group want here? What were these assfucks up to? And could he pull off another moon cradel and cause lots of problems for the Asshole-laws.

 Gai Daigouji transmits, "Eh!? ESOHES?! What evil person would attack at this time of night! Their hearts must be black as pitch and twice as nasty. Not to worry though, I, GAI DAIGOUJI, will put a stop to their evil plans! Lets go! GESPENSTIGANAGER!!!"

 Ringo Mason transmits, "Or smart people."

"Man, nothing like serving on a new ship to make you miss the old one. I Just hope the Sundered Heart has the facilities to take care of Overtechnology." That's right Folks, Max jenius is no longer serving aboard the SDF-1. He was transferred out of the SDF-1 since Global is overseeing construction of another ship, and max had to remain active to keep himself sharp. Thus, he was made commander of a new Squadron, The Dancing Skulls. However, he was still in his distinctive Blue Valkyrie. He was looking it over when the alert came over the channel. He waved away the technicians there. "I've got it guys. Just stay away from the afterburners." After pulling on his helmet, Max Rocketed out of the Sundered heart's bay and flew for Alabama, and spotted the incoming force almost immediately... kinda hard to miss when you're flying NOSE level. "You're kidding right. Can't we all just get along? I was about to have crazy vanilla!"

***Yesterday *** "Corporate sabotage, eh?" Marcus comments as he looks at the contract before him. It's not entire unheard of, even in the Inner Sphere were factories are seen as prizes to be won rather than targets to be destroyed, "Guess Crest is starting to finally throw it's weight around... alright, I'm game. Never did much like the idea of a computer taking the place of a soldier anyway." *** Now *** Wind rushes past the sixty ton Grigori as it freefalls towards the earth, leaving the Equinox far behind. Only a faint trail of blue and purple GN Particles accompanies it as it hurtles towards the ground far below. Okay, GN particles and several other Celestial-class Omnimechs. Marcus grips his controls tightly as he watches the altitute meter plummet at a disquietting pace. High altitute combat drops are always the worst, since they involve a lot of tense waiting and praying that everything works. The ground does not make for a very comfortable landing pad afterall.

Magnus Antioch has returned from one of his long sabbaticals. He got a lot of nice reading and retreat in, and he is currently cleaning some minor components on his Gespent Type-Raphael, when the alarms go off. He glances up and then glances at his armor, which is in pieces. He lets out a small sigh. Magnus reaches up and pulls out his collar, and grabs a nearby heavy coat. He pulls it on and tugs a hat over his features, to obscure his facial identifications. He walks over to a door and flashes his credentials, before he steps into a secret hanger, where he closes the door behind him. One of the hanger doors slowly opens up. A thickly armored Leo colored RED, BLUE, and YELLOW begins to slowly stomp out, spinning its halberd slowly, gaining targets as it lumbers out. "** This is S-Guard 1059. Responding to threats. **" The Leo Type-George has entered the battle.

Among the mechs emerging and descending from the Equinox is a particularly angular-looking one, officially categorized by the Inner Sphere natives as a Deva. The pilot, though, is *not* from the Inner Sphere, and tends not to even think of himself primarily as a 'mercenary' ... although on a job like this, even a hereditary trailer like Kazuma has to accept the label.

But on the plus side? Reasonable job, decent pay, the client is covering damage and injury expenses - there's really no obvious negatives, and he's not using the Valhawk tonight, so.

That doesn't mean he's relaxing about it so much - he likes his Deva enough to keep it around for jobs like this, which call for heavier and more dedicated firepower than the Valhawk or his other options, so he's not about to get it blown apart - but he treats it like any routine mission. "We got any special codenames for this one?" he radios to the other Celestial pilots on their way from the Equinox's bay to the ground, running an initial targeting scan while he has the aerial vantage point to work with, and marking a few targets for later attention.

Russel Bagman has become somewhat of a very bitter man towards certain things. Namely people messing with his country, still he had a job to do but the Gespenst MKIV has deployed from the Neo Agressor's ship some time ago and his machiner is closing in on the distress call.

"Octo 2 here I am inbound to support."

Russel's machine closes in and he starts tracking the incomming attack.

"Hostile forces power down and surrender this is your only warning. Lethal force will be used."

Nergal Industries themselves would be all to happy to see Acemos suffer from this attack. They might even be happy to know that the top heads of research for the facility were wiped out in the attack. It meant only a larger chunk of budget from the EFA for them.

Gai Daigouji, however, would not. From seemingly out of the aether he arrives. A shadowy figure rockets up and over the wall opposite of the Trailer's charge. It crashes down into a open area, blue light gleaming from it's eyes.

A spot light swings around from a guard post and shines of the figure of a Gespenst Mk. II. This is not just any Gespenst however. This is the Gespenst Mk. II Custom - The Gespenstiganger III!!!

The unit seems to shine rightously in the spot light, it's form cast in reds, crimson and gold, a III symbol emblazoned on it's breast!

Finally, finally, finally he got to use it, his charished Gespenstiganger! Inside the heart of the PT unit, Gai shivered with excitement, with pure joy! He was a step closer, one step closer to realizing his dream!

"Let anyone that would challange the peace of this, my blue earth face me! GAI DAIGOUJI!!!"

Sly Heckler is not the only person falling from the sky.

Thus, he is not the only person who is /completely insane/.

The Archangel, a one hundred ton paperweight covered in guns and armor (though that means it is not a paperweight and is instead a death... machine... weight) falls from the sky with the other 'Mech. They are aiming to land on the complex instead of go up to the front door, and...

Spectre isn't sure on the last point.

"Relax," Spectre transmits. "Haven't you ever done this before?"

The reason Naoto is here is a simple one. Herman sent him to Acemos to join a tour and learn about AIs. Why he couldn't have done it himself or whether Acemos even has tours of its facilities for civilians isn't particularly clear, but whatever. There are people attacking, and Naoto hasn't punched anything in months. Instead of running to the hangars with everyone else, he heads outside the facility to a spot that doesn't look any different from the rest of the area. Until the ground splits open and a giant platform rises from an underground railway, that is. This is where all of Tsukioka Industries' money went, folks. A giant railway with conveniently placed exits all over the world. No wonder they spent the last few years nearly bankrupt. That aside, the Chairman flies up to his usual place on Vavel's shoulder with his Tsukioka brand Anti-Gravity Sneakers (tm), pulls a remote controller out of his pocket, and gets ready for battle. The Meganite steps off of the platform and brings its hands up in front of its face, like it's going to box with the incoming attackers. Of course, this being Naoto, it probably is.

The sirens continue to blare whilst the old man drags the binocular from another young soldier present... which's string was still wrapped around the back of their neck - so the poor kid gets half choked as he hangs up against the commander's chest - trying to breathe whilst the guy ignores him and looks out over the skies.

"How did they get so close without us noticing?" The radar guy asks. "Stealth." The old man grumbles, frowning, and quickly calls out through the speakers - which rings throughout the entire base.

[ansi(hr,>)] "[ansi(hw,To all base personel! We are currently under attack by unknown forces. Board the LEVs. Erect flak over the perimeter! We have been breached!)]"

Random men in yellow mook suits run into the hangars, of which the doors begin to open as they board their LEVs. A series of units quickly come out, wielding gigantic rifles, trying to find where the invaders are. Their una-eyed machines blind and are quite visible in the night. At the back of the hangars, a series of un-equiped LEVs are getting their boosters lowered onto the base units.

Then suddenly, an explosion! On the right side of the base, a small electrical explosion, that rocks the building itself. A piece of plating comes down from what looked like a tesla coil of sorts, unveiling a strange series of rocks that are stuck inside of a strange machine, feeding power into the base itself. Their electrical systems are run by Metatron!?

Explosions suddenly begin to light over the air, searchlights are everywhere, and signal flares begin to redden the tarmac of the base itself. And a few LEVs quickly come around a random nearby hangar's corner to fire at Stinger, who had opened fire on the power-plant that had reveiled to contain Metatron.

As Ringo tries to hack into the computer system of the base, he suddenly finds himself having a severely hard time breaking the security. This isn't your average computer. It's a Quantum Computer. And the encryption is rather heavy. This might take some time - especially depending on what he is looking on doing.

SOME TIME AGO

Bright Noa, Joshua Shardul, Guin Lineford, and Bruno J. Global sit in a bar on Texas Colony. Laura Rolla is also there hiding her face behind the huge glass of water she's sipping on.

Bright Noa's eye twitches. This negotiation is intense. The fate of the world is at stake. Not just in terms of the Balmarians, but in terms of what comes after for humanity in the case that they do win. He taps his fingers on the piece of paper in front of him, notes taken on their discussion.

Guin Lineford stands up and raises his glass. "Then we're in agreement. An alliance of mutual interest, balanced by the honesty of our shared respect for the decency of human civilization and society."

"To the Earth Miltia!"

LATER

Onboard the spaceship Willgame, Guin Lineford pours himself another glass of wine. "It's an interesting vintage. Different from home. Must be the soil content, don't you think, Laura?"

Loran Cehack sits in his chair hiding his face behind the huge glass of water he's sipping on.

"I suppose you didn't get a chance to appreciate Earth's wineries in service to the Heim family. It's a fascinating industry," Guin continues, sitting down and folding his hands. "Much more industrialized on this Earth, from what I've seen. It's something I hope to get a hand into, so to speak. Not wine making, I mean, but industry. Here on Earth."

Loran lowers his glass. "Sir Lineford, is that why you had the White Doll prepared for launching?"

Guin smiles brightly. "We have to repay our friends, Laura. And there's a certain amount of business I want to attend to--"

NOW

Crashing through the trees like a big clumsy industrial robot, the mustached White Doll barrels into the battle zone dragging a mace attached to a chain, colloquially known as a GUNDAM HAMMER due to Amuro Ray once beating the shit out of a bunch of people with one.

The ungainly robot continues running at what seems to be its highest speed considering it's pulling a bunch of weight and leaving a trench behind it. Nevertheless, it's transmitting an IFF that registers with local EFA suits though it does not clear it as friendly to their systems. It'd be pretty easy to put a bullet through its head regardless of its electronic :D :D :D :D signal.

The white machine moves across the field, before wth a kick of its foot its in the air and flying like a speeding jet; Almost faster. Stinger and everyone was already moving in. That was fine. The Aqua green visor glances around the field as it quickly spins 180 in the air flying backwards. It seems they are focused on the AC ignoring everyone else who just did a wake up call.

<<"Idiots.">> Is all the NEXT known as Strayed has to say before it opens fire on one of the watch towers.

Anyone with sensors on both the defenders and the attackers will notice this White machine with its sleek form has a high radioactive reading - The base itself may also pick this up as well. They had flying above them a machine weapon of mass destruction.

<<"Nell, keep them updated for me.">>

Nell Aulter was out in the distance far away from the conflict unfolding, "Understood. Just remember, you have allot of targets around you. Keep your head in the game and don't get distracted."

<<"Thanks for the concern, but I'll be fine.">>

Ringo wasn't in yet... interesting.

A Quantum computer... interesting. He thought BAHRAM was the only ones with access to these. What was BAHRAM doing working with the Feds? This was even more interesting to him. Pushing some more buttons, Ringo aimed to try and force his way through the defenses, he wasn't unfamilar with these systems, and had worked with them for years, he just needed to dedicate more processing power to trick it.

Sitting back, Ringo's mind cleared, focused on a set goal... the first thing would be to see what they were doing here... and maybe seeing how well defending their drone forces were.

This would be terrible if something were to cause them to not work.

"Rocks?" Stinger stands still for a moment, peering in perplexity, "Its electricity runs on rocks?" The moment of confusion is all it takes for the base defenders to riddle his AC with blasts... He frowns sharply, "Damn nuisance." His skidjets engage again, launching him sideways as his TAROS blades extend and he begins to rapidly dance amongst the surrounding buildings, striking out at them with the glowing edges of his weapons. "Honestly. Rocks. They're using rocks." He hot boxes his cigarette for a moment, "...must be sinister rocks. Ah, that explains why we're attacking them... Its as old as time itself. We want their rocks."

Rocks?" Stinger stands still for a moment, peering in perplexity, "Its electricity runs on rocks?" The moment of confusion is all it takes for the base defenders to riddle his AC with blasts... He frowns sharply, "Damn nuisance." His skidjets engage again, launching him sideways as his TAROS blades extend and he begins to rapidly dance amongst the surrounding buildings, striking out at them with the glowing edges of his weapons. "Honestly. Rocks. They're using rocks." He hot boxes his cigarette for a moment, "... must be sinister rocks. Ah, that explains why we're attacking them... Its as old as time itself. We want their rocks."

Max just shook his head. "Well, I guess if you're going to blow something up, you've gotta take the direct approach." He says to himself as he flips a control, and inside of a second, the Valkyrie switch to Soldier mode, and yet, it still hovers. "Well... The Brick hits back." He says as he raises his gun pod and fires on one of the base attackers...

The altitute meter continues to plummet as the ground looms large in Marcus' cockpit window, but still he holds his course and steadies his nerve. Only when his Battlemech reaches the designated altitute above the base does he finally throttle up the GN-TI drive and pull out of his dive. the Grigori responds with a blast of blue and pruple particles as it straights out and switches to horizontal flught before landing in the very midst of the base a moment later. "Right then, time to wreck some shit." The 60 ton Grigori swivels it's torso as a Leo is highlighted (by Ringo no less, that wacky sniper) as a priority 'KILL THIS ****ER NOW' target. Seven missiles streak out of the right arm launcher, soaring across the base to bombard Magnus with explosives.

The Deva starts firing its jumpjets in discreet bursts, slowing its descent by fractions, then a sustained burn to shave off more velocity before impact - enough of it to jostle Kazuma significantly in the cockpit, but not harmfully, and a quick diagnostic confirms no damage to the Deva's systems either. He double-checks the tactical map readout, setting his 'Mech into motion and turning towards the target ...

And there's a Gespenst in the way. Or something which *started* as one.

".... what .... man, I hope you didn't pay too much for that custom paint job, because it's gonna be layers of carbon when we're done here. I hate to mess up somebody's hard work, but ..."

Kazuma trails off, shaking his head as he steers his Deva into an evasive zig-zag, simultaneously picking his shot, and firing off a burst from one of the Deva's smaller laser emplacements. "No hard feelings, okay?" Kazuma adds as he fires.

Power down and surrender? If Sly Heckler powered down, he'd hit the ground like a rock, killing him and blowing up whatever he landed on. That doesn't sound like a very good option, so he decides to ignore the demands to surrender. Well, not 'ignore' exactly...More like 'respond with fire'.

Unlike the others, Sly isn't in a hurry to hit the ground, so he uses his GN-TI to keep him aloft a bit longer, slowing his decent steadily instead of falling like a rock and breaking at the last moment. This gives him a lot of time to focus on the fight below him, and pick out targets. One of those targets is a fancy new Gespenst. They mentioned it over the radio, but egh, Sly isn't impressed with it.

"How about a counter-proposal? You pop out of that mech of yours now, and I'll save you the hassle of almost blowing up once I core that junk-thing you're flying?" Sly also gives Russel some PPC fire, because you know. PPC and stones.

Magnus Antioch pulls up on the controls, looking around the area. Marcus's C-CRG-O Grigori pops up on his HUD faster than not. Magnus frowns when he finds that there is an additional IFF signal on him. The former Swiss Guard shakes his head, he is not sure why he got rid of all of his military combat powers, but he shrugs. He'll have to make do with what he has. S-Guard 1059 turns the controls of the Leo Type-George, bringing up its shield. A small beam cannon powers up on its shoulder, and discharges a solid beam of plasma at the incoming missiles. While the beam was intended to his the Grigori, it did a fine job blowing up all the missiles before they reached him. Magnus shakes his head, and pulls his hat closer. "** I've had a bad day today. Maybe you can help, **" Magnus's voice says, transmitting over the shortwaves. The Type-George launches into the air, bringing its giant halberd to bear. The giant mech tries to blitz past Marcus, with a flying halberd slice, while flying way overhead the Grigori.

Russel Bagman sees the warning isn't heeded so he moves to engage the incomming hostile units the first one he gets a lock on is the C-STP-O Seraph. Sly would find the slightly strange Gespenst comming in at him. His life hasd also got strange he always knew it was just business with trailers but what could you do about it really?

He tracks the falling machine and opens fire with the m90 rifle sending a burst of rounds, and the Personal trooper keeps closing with the onni mech.

"Octo-2 here engaging hostile contact."

Hei's hit by the ppc blast it melts a chunck of his armor.

"You took this job, you have to live with the results!"

He fires another burst from the rifle and tries to pull away from Sly, to get him to follow him.

A crooked smile cracks along Gai's features, eyes wide and wild as the laser shots streak in. The first few go wide, the Gespenst seeming to just dart of the path of the intial volley befor it's boost jets propel it forward, dirt and debris kicking up in it's wake as it weaves in with a serpentine patern "Hmph! Don't go and think you can deface my Gespenstiganger so soon!" he answers, "With the formidable spirit of the Gespenst and the power of Gekiganger combined, the Gespenst is so much more then what it once was!" he declares, the three stakes on it's arm gleaming in the night as he closed. The swing went errent, but Gai was still very, very close!

"Mm, Mm! I understand! I understand! We are friends but we must fight. Give it your all, Kazuma!" he challanged even as his unit seemed to stoop, crouching befor bounding forward, the machine's knee thrusting upwards like a battering ram!

"Gekigan Knee!"

A crooked smile cracks along Gai's features, eyes wide and wild as the laser shots streak in. The first few go wide, the Gespenst seeming to just dart of the path of the intial volley befor it's boost jets propel it forward, dirt and debris kicking up in it's wake as it weaves in with a serpentine patern "Hmph! Don't go and think you can deface my Gespenstiganger so soon!" he answers, "With the formidable spirit of the Gespenst and the power of Gekiganger combined, the Gespenst is so much more then what it once was!" he declares, the three stakes on it's arm gleaming in the night as he closed. The swing went errent, but Gai was still very, very close!

"Mm, Mm! I understand! I understand! We are friends but we must fight. Give it your all, Kazuma!" he challanged even as his unit seemed to stoop, crouching befor bounding forward, the machine's knee thrusting upwards like a battering ram!

"Gekigan Knee!"

As Magnus charges in, the Grigori unleashes a blast from it's Defiance Pulse Laser, riddling the Leo with a dozen of laser scars as the beam weapon riddles off blast after blast of concentrated energy. It's not enough to stop the charge, but at the last second, Marcis twists his torso once more and takes the blow to the shoulder instead of somewhere more vital. "Why certainly. If you wanted someone to make your day worse, all you had to do was ask!" The GN-TI drive flares brightly as particles are vented through the jumpjet ports, pushing the Grigori into a sideways skid and allowing it to turn much faster than an ordinary Battlemech would be capable of. with a quick flick of his thumb, Marcus switches his weapons over and pulls the trigger. The Ceres Arms Crusher Plasma Rifle mounted on the Grigori's right torso replies with a stream of superheated material, bathing anything it hits with armor-melting flames. Gotta love that stupidly good lava cannon.

The Archangel falls from the sky and hits the base like the fist of God.

One hundred tons falling from ten thousand feet, even with the addition of something like a drop pod and marginal slow-down, still causes immense damage to anything it hits. Flak throws it off and it doesn't quite strike down the AI lab like some sort of errant meteorite, but it /does/ do it to the outer wall. A huge chunk of the defensive perimeter just flattens, the shockwave tearing gun emplacements off the wall and the follow-up volley of missiles from the opening in the pod clearing the area around it and turning it quite effectively into scorched earth.

The Archangel slowly rises out of the remains of the thing it fell in and clambors to it's feet, the bulky BattleMech leaving cracks in the ground wherever it stomps. It turns back towards the base itself...

A 130' tall super robot is a big target, and an obvious choice for people just aiming to shoot at something. But these people have something more specific in mind, leaving Naoto to pick a target himself. It doesn't take long for him to notice the big, white, radioactive NEXT flying around the facility, and it takes even less time for him to start attacking it. "Hey! I dunno what this is all about, but shooting up a Federation-affiliated corporation isn't cool. Especially if it's mine, but that's another matter entirely. DUAL KNUCKLES!" he shouts, tapping some buttons and moving the sticks on his controller that looks suspiciously like a Dual Shock 2. Vavel aims its fists at the Strayed, and mere seconds later they both fire off at the NEXT.

As Ringo continues to hack the system, he indeed finds the Quantum computer to take some time to hack. But after a while, he is suddenly in! But not into the main systems. Not quite yet. Instead, he seems to have found his back gate into a computer named 'Velasgo-01'. An office computer sitting somewhere in that building. It's connected to the main mainframe... but the password is nowhere to be found in the system. This'll take more time.

Stinger meantime is crashing through nearby buildings and hangars. Most of them just seem to contain civilians that run for it and cower away as the blades cut through the metalic sidings of each structure. A series of watchtowers try to pin him down to stop him, firing machine guns at him. But they fail to catch him - but they continue their fire!

And then we have R, flying over the base, firing at a nearby other watchtower. He manages to rupture the searchlight it employed... but the people inside live - quickly firing with a light beam machinegun to try and tackle the quick machine.

Then suddenly, a large threesome of LEVs come out of the hangars, each holding a rifle on /both/ arms. Obviously, they must be elites. They quickly spread out across the base, and Stinger is the first to meet one of them as they use their boosters to blast over a hangar and fires a twin-blast of beams at him. He might have heard him coming though. After all... LEVs aren't especially sneaky.

"We're detecting radation sir." A woman suddenly appears next to the older man, giving him a serious look. "Sir, I think it would be wise for you to retreat from this base, and return to Mars. This is the A.I. information we have so far. Please take it with you." She hands him a suitcase on wheels. "It's heavy." She adds. The man nods and takes it from her. "I leave the base in your hands." And the old man leaves the watchtower.

The woman if left behind, and abruptly turns. "Alright. You have two missions now. Keep the base safe, and make sure mister Z. leaves unharmed." The men in the watchtower quickly call out; "RIGHT!"

The base has suddenly [ansi(hr,INCREASED THE BARRAGE!)]

Any Trailer unit inside the base suddenly finds themselves getting shot at!

Magnus Antioch swears as his systems atart to flash at him as the beams come in hard, as he did his halberd slice. The priest, pulls his mech into a defensive. The Grigori begins to power up its massive beam array from the Ceres Arms Crusher. It slams into the Type-George's shield, spilling over onto the mech's chest. Several critical systems begin to spark and fry inside of the cockpit. Magnus frowns again. "** Son. I could hear your confession some day. Do you really want to make my day worse? **" While Magnus 'speaks'he begins to relay several energy systems back to forward shield arrays, trying to strengthen his armor's integrity. Magnus sighs and then pulls the armor around, twirling the halberd. He shuts off the shortwave before the Type-George rushes at the Grigori. It swings up high first with the halberd, before the shield comes up with a brief punch. The Leo spins around and swings the halberd powerfully into the Grigori's optic sensors, before it just attempts to go to town on the other mech.

Fun... well, at least he is in to something...now to access the mainframe.

Ringo muses, and takes another drink. He does his BEST DRINKING while hacking. Wait, reverse that. Ringo, types furiously... if he could get into the mainframe, he could basicaly do whatever he wanted, starting with the control systems for the defenses, and work his way to data dumping the systems of the company.

No doubt that these would sell for a lot...

Now to get that password.

So far things were going slightly well. The white Mech started to move quickly as the hot white aqua green thrusters gleamed brightly against the night skies; Thankfully avoiding the blast return shot from the Tower itself. The machine quickly went to move to the next target, till Nell's voice rocked his com, "To your Six!"

<<"What?">> The NEXT was short on turning around even as the thrusters went to spin the machine around. The bullets came in and came in fast. They impacted alright; They impacted a field that flickered in the darkness like a light show going off in the skies as particles from the field flickered off. However the more that came in, even as the NEXT moved to strafe return fire in the air, they at last ate through the shield and bit into the machines armor.

And things kept getting worse now on top of it.

Soon comes in a massive machine that attempts to throw Knuckles in Strays direction; Thankfully the Knuckles bounce off the field and the large mecha gets return fire from the assault rifle.

Strayed then quickly moved in as the tower starts to attack, with thusters booming in the skies; The blade started to form on the device on its left arm. It gleamed brightly from the ports with a sickly aqua green color of the Kojima Particles that feed the very thing that powers it; The very radiation that was deadly to a man without proper shielding. The beam then ripped into the tower, before his attention turned back to the orginal attacker...

As the machine moved in closer it went to jab that very blade, if not out right attempt to slice out something important from the IJ Valkyrie.

"Ugh!" Laura says, seeing a plume of smoke rise up from a part of the base! "They must be attacking that location very heavily!"

The White Doll picks up its pace, showing an unusual burst of speed as it circumnavigates the wall and the battlefield proper, trying to get where she's needed the most! As the mustached mobile suit comes within view, however, its pilot gasps.

"Was that... just one machine doll landing from an orbital drop? I can't let a monster like that work its way into the civilian areas!"

Laura brings the Gundam Hammer above her mobile suit's head, whirling the weapon around one-handedly, the chain retracting to give greater control over its rotation. While the Archangel recovers from the drop and takes stock of its surrounding, the White Doll creeps up a few more striding steps and then engages its leg-mounted thrusters.

"I only have one chance to surprise it!" Laura shouts to her empty cockpit. The White Doll flexes mightily, whipping its arm around in an exaggerated motion to bring its Gundam Hammer flying downward in a vicious arc-- but the mace head itself misses the Archangel, impacting the ground beyond it, the chain wrapping over one of its shoulders!

The White Doll darts underneath the Archangel's slightly larger frame, taking the chain with it-- when it's pulled tight, the mace head prevents it from coming loose, binding the two robots together!

"I'LL STOP YOU FROM FIGHTING!" Laura shrieks, engaging her machine doll's deceptively powerful thrusters. Amazingly, it manages to lift the Archangel off of the ground and pull it away.

It only gets a few hundred yards before it becomes apparently that Spectre is a competent pilot and the White Doll is just kind of flying away and open to getting shot in the face. The two go once again plummeting to the ground, this time further off, where the ground conveniently shatters revealing a hidden cavern system.

A few explosions and thumping noises echo upward.

While the heavy Seraph class Battlemech falls though the air, clouds of sparkles push it to and fro, the heavy mech making a surprisingly hard target as it falls though the air. Bullets do strike it, but they bounce off the dense armor on the Seraph, none of them striking soundly enough to manage to pierce the bulky armor that coats the mech. Meanwhile, Sly himself rolls his eyes.

"Oh no! I'm wrecking a military war-machine factory! How ever will I sleep at night? Well, maybe the massive amount of money I'm being paid to be here will provide some /small/ comfort."

Sly is quiet for a second as he thinks, before he says, "Or maybe you meant 'live with having to kick your ass.' You know, I think I can deal with that, too." To punctuate that, Sly aims the Seraph's head at Russel, sending another blast of PPC fire down at Russel. Sly is very close to the ground now, meaning that Russel is in the optimal range for the Snub-Nose PPC. It also means that Sly has to lean more heavily on the GN-TI to keep his mech from hitting the ground, so while the Seraph is still falling, it's more being lowered by a cloud of blue and violet particles.

Great, here comes the Goon Squad. Reacting quickly, Marcus swings his Battlemech around again and unleashes a barrage form his missile tubes one more as he dodges sideways. he doesn't bother to wait and see the results of his attack though, as Magnus decides then to jump him. His reply is to unleash a blast from his rear mounted small laser as he leaps into the air and over Magnus' head. "forgive me father, but this /is/ a battlefield and if someone takes up arms, they really don't have the right to complain about someone else doing the same against them." Fresh ammunition cycles into the launcher as Marcus lands from his jump, pausing only long enough to switch over to a short range volley. with a single pull of the trigger, fourteen SRMs leap from the arms of the Grigori, streaking towards the back of the Leo.

Normally, Kazuma wouldn't mind a fight at melee range - he's a Gundam Fighter, albeit an unorthodox one, and the Valhawk has proven itself quite capable in close combat (thus the name of its humanoid configuration) as well as at range during many of his and Mihiro's outings with it.

Unfortunately, the Deva, like most BattleMechs, is *NOT* built with an eye to close-combat infighting, be it melee proper or hand-to-hand; it's much closer to a walking tank, in terms of combat paradigms.

And Gai - who's recognized Kazuma's voice for good measure; so much for keeping his identity here anything resembling a secret - has decided to go for close combat.

Kazuma deals with this by a combination of jetting the Deva to the side, raising the right arm's autocannon to knock Gai's machine out of kilter away, and punching the "Gespenstiganger" back with the Deva's left manipulator, clenched into a fist. The knee misses; the punch does not. "Glad to hear you're takin' it well, anyway," Kazuma remarks with a wry grin. "Just do me the same favor I aim on doin' for you - no cockpit shots if you can help it!"

And with that, the Deva crouches, grabbing a stray length of girder or something, and attempts to knock the custom-painted Gespenst's legs out from underneath it - like swinging a nightstick to the back of its knees.

"Damn irritating," Stinger sighs as he launches side ways. Vixen recieves raking fire that clips through its exterior systems as te base personnel again launch a massive barrage his way. He admits, he enjoys the attention...even if it is making his job more of a pain in the ass... He taps at the Vixen's controls with one hand, his cigarette, moldering as it dangles from his lips. "Hrm, pesky central command... time to say hello..."

The Vixen leaps skyward, bunny hopping from building to building, and firing off a sudden double burst from the DRAGON. "...such a pain in the ass. Magic space rocks. Trailers. Man. Shoot at someone else. I want to spend my money on booze and women, not repairs."

Taking the Grigori for a ride is harder than it sounds. It does weigh a whopping sixty tons (with the average mobile suit or personal trooper being half that on average), plus it goes power to spare... but so apparently does the Leo it seems as the hook wraps around the Grigori's arm and yanks tight. Marcus pulls back, but at best all he can manage is a stalemate as he holds his ground. "He's got chops, I'll give him that... Guess I'll try a different approach." And then the Grigor /leaps/ into the air and angles it's descent, coming down right on top of the Leo. "The good old Highlander Burial."

Seems Max has drawn the ire of one of the trailers, go fig. He can almost hear the roar of rage as the Blade cuts through the chest armor of the Valkyrie. "What did you expect, really. You're trying to kill people and trying to blow up their home, so uhm...you're going to get shot at. Sheesh." Despite the smoke coming out of the Valkyrie, Max fires another blistering volley at the Stray...

As the fists return to their proper places, Naoto curses his luck. It's always mobile suits or NEXTs, never a proper super robot enemy like dinosaurs or space monsters. Vavel's weapons were made with large, slow targets in mind, which of course puts it at a bit of a disadvantage when fighting small, not-so-slow targets. On the bright side, a few assault rifle rounds aren't going to do serious damage to the Meganite's systems, so everything's still okay. The problem, of course, is finding some way to hit the target. "Chairman, the BALL Cannon vill be zere in fifteen seconds! Be ready for it!" Herman's voice comes from a speaker in the center of the controller, and Naoto looks behind him to see that the massive cannon is indeed speeding toward Vavel, helped along by a booster of some sort. The booster detaches from the cannon, leaving it to fly at the Meganite with the power of its momentum alone, and in a remarkable display of timing and control, Naoto catches the weapon as it passes. "BALL Cannon has been received. Preparing to fire." the Chairman says, turning the cannon's enormous barrel toward the Strayed. Hopefully it'll either stay still long enough to get hit, or just fly right into the shot...which, when it's fired, turns out to literally be a RB-79 Ball with various explosives strapped to it. Right now, Herman is slapping himself in the forehead for even remembering that thing existed. But hey, it's a weapon, and it was just sitting there unused for almost a year. Might as well do something with it.

Russel Bagman brings up Magnus tatical data, and starts sending him tatical feed on Marcus and his machine. "Heads up, I think there's a pattern in his movment, make use of it!"

He focuse things bck against Sly and seems to be bantering back, is he even bothered by him? He may just be bantyering back. Another hit but the Gepsenst MkIV keeps going after sly's machine and opens up even more this time with both a burst of fire and a grenade, befpore he pulls away from the GN drive equipped battlemech.

"Gekigan Shotgun!" and as if brought into exsistance by the volume of Gai's voice, the Gespenstiganger pulls from behind it's back a massive, sawed-off shotgun. Rocking the pump, a round is chambered and thusly fired, basketball sized shots skattering out from the barrel in a hellacious rush, the blast crashing against the girder and knocking it away. Parry by shotgun. Is there nothing that hot blood cannot achieve?!

"Right! We'll simply beat each other until the either cannot continue!" bellowed Gai, rocking the pump once more, discharging the spent shell casing and chambering another round. The shotgun is of course marked with a stylized III!

"Alright, one more time, Gekigan Shotgu-!" he began, the barrel swinging around and leveling on the almost V shaped canopy... only then to lower with a idle, "Ah, Sorry, sorry." before BOOMF! the gun going of closer to the battlemech's waist.

Ringo breaks the pose order to raise an eyebrow at the Fedderation chatter. Macronized his junk? Ouch.

As R manages to destroy one watchtower, another few explode as random bullets fly around. But the main facility remains untouched so far. That is, physically. Ringo continues to dig in further into the computer systems, through this Bolozof's personally wired computer. It's strange. It doesn't look like this computer is /supposed/ to be connected to the mainframe. In fact, the more Ringo looks, the more it seems that this system has been tampered with /already/. But only something that a professional like him would notice. Someone who knows what they are looking for.

And then finally, Stinger makes his firing run for the base itself. A few LEVs quickly try to intercept, but the DRAGON unleashes its 'fire' upon the building, rupturing pieces of concrete and splitting a pillar, before his direct path gets cut off by another few LEVs. For a research facility that was trying to make Orbital Frame A.I.s... it didn't seem to have any Orbital Frames? That was odd...

When suddenly! WHOOOOOOOSH! The base suddenly lights up with the arrival of an Orbital Frame!

No... No sorry. It's not. Instead, there stands a rather large looking LEV, with blue stripes across its appearance. Mounted on each shoulder is a gigantic beam weapon. It looks incredibly similar to a unit used by B.I.S. - the Caliburnus - only without the orange. And those two beams are rushing through the midst of the battlefield, yet still manages only to be aimed at Stinger's unit! Incredible!

In the meanwhile, a hangar begins to open, and a gigantic machine begins to rise from it. It's a large freighter capable of breaking orbit. And it begins to launch. Who's in there!? Who-ever it is, they are important, as a series of LEVs suddenly lift off, using their boosters to surround the ship and protect it.

--< * OPTIONAL MASTERY CONDITION * >-- * Destroy the ship within two rounds! - Neo Starbucks Free Coffee Ticket

Interesting...

Ringo thinks he understands what might be going on here...or rather, why they were sent here to destroy this place. It was a cover operation... interesting indeed. Or there corporate spy found something. Whatever the case maybe, Ringo was going to make good with his access to the network. He starts by trying to gain access to the defenses of the base...specifically to the automated defeners and base autodefenses...

Then setting them on reverse... trying to turn them on the defenders both feddies and themselves, and give his comrads on the ground some breathing room.

On that note, he tries to access the data banks of this place once he can cause havoc in the defensive structures.

"Wha -" Kazuma nearly jumps out of the cockpit seat when he sees the muzzle of the mech-size shotgun pointing at the cockpit, and doesn't really relax from that even as Gai catches himself and lowers the shotgun to point further down.

The Deva *does* leap, jumpjets roaring as Kazuma kicks the pedals to avoid the shotgun's second blast - but at this close range, his attempt to rake the Gespenstiganger with beams from an ER medium laser doesn't do much good either. "Man, don't *do* that," he breathes, almost unable to believe that he pulled off that evasion - in the Deva of all machines.

The Deva stays airborne for a few seconds longer, advancing a bit in the air ... then the jumpjets cut out.

Right when it's over the Gespenstiganger. Gravity does its thing, although Kazuma does his best to make sure that if the Deva's weight *DOES* come down on Gai's machine, it'll be the shoulders that take the brunt of the impact.

"This is just getting stupid!" Stinger hrmphs, tossing his cigarette aside, operating his controls with his knees as he lights up another... "... and now LEVs... man. Martians all over lately..." He exhales some smoke as he prepares for another run...  STINGER. MIRAGE HAS RENEGOTIATED YOUR CONTRACT WITH THIS FACILITY. YOU HAVE BEEN REASSIGNED TO ASSIST IN THE DEFENSE. CREST'S STRAYED UNIT IS CONSIDERED A PRIMARY TARGET Stinger smirks, "Ah... now that... is more interesting!" The Vixen switches abruptly, and launches up after R... TAROS blades swinging into position, "R, don't worry. I've got your back!" He chuckles at his own little joke.

Nell is working quickly to keep up with the battle information. It was actually a bit much from the young operator, as she mostly worked with Armored Cores, not NEXTs. Not that she /couldn't/ do this. "You need to back off. You are getting strafed from two sides.. They will box you in at this rate."

The other teams here are several of Crest's techs who are watching their own datas and recording information. Most likely information coming off the NEXT.

Strayed watches as Maximillian attempts to back off and open fire with the machine guns again. The NEXT however has something to say about this as he quickly moves in once again like a blur of speed and repays the pilot again with the Kojima blade.

Then with a burst of speed, the NEXT quickly avoids as a large ball attempts to be fired at it like some kinda cannon fire. For the most part he ignores Nell's advice. Something she may be learning he has a nasty habit of doing.

Strayed quickly attempts to return fire on the larger machine with the assault rifle but seems to miss. This causes a bit of a 'tsk' in annoyance from the NEXT's pilot.

Then comes the button that pushes it all...

Stinger's voice comes over as the NEXT quickly spins around, <<"STINGER!">> the voice barks out from the NEXT as he attempts to parry the blade. The Field attempts to force away the Vixen's arm however the dual blades of the blade get through and slice deep into the armor of the NEXT ripping it apart, <<"..ghh...">> The NEXT then quickly flips back. <<"..enough..">> he says as he starts to watch the large mech leave near by with its escorts. <<"This /ENDS/ Now.">>

Back over at the area of the operator, Nell's eyes go wide, "..R.. R don't!" One of the techs blinks, "..Its powering up the assault armor! But-- why now? Its to early. Miss Aulter does he even have the energy?" Nell shakes her head, "I-- If he uses it now, not only will he be drained.. but.. the allies.. shit.."

There was a visor that shut over the aqua green visor suddenly of Strayed, before all of its vents closed up, then there was a loud humm coming from it. In the matter of nano-seconds, almost less then a blink of an eye, the field pulled in around it, before it blasted out nearly the size of the whole inside of the base with a massive explosion of bright white.

Someone.. Looked like they set off a Nuke.

The Leo Type-George's chain latches onto the giant Grigori. It's a heavy tug, but the Type-George is actually ... quite strong for its size. The giant mech pull for a good five or six seconds before the Grigori stomps itself into a heavy position. Magnus's mech jerks slightly, and then turns back towards the Grigori. The priest tilts his head at an odd radio conversation. "The Japanese ... are not like that." Magnus just says to himself. Magnus looks up as the giant mech leaps up into the air when he wasn't looking. Magnus widens his eyes and tries to pull the Type-George out of the way with some quick movements. He barely escapes with his life as the giant machine comes pile driving down, glancing off the Type-George's shield, throwing it off his arm entirely. The Type-George flies back, and Magnus widens his eyes again. "That was close." Magnus starts to look up tactical data on the Grigori, when Russel's data comes streaming into his cockpit. Magnus scowls and begins to recalibrate his targetting systems. The Type-George extends its arms and grips onto its halberd tightly. Blue energy begins to leak out from several ports on the mech's arms. The blade of the halberd pulses with this pure blue energy, as the Leo stares at the Grigori. Then, the mech tenses, before it suddenly leaps at the Grigori, releasing its chain hold on the mech. The Type-George raises its weapon in fury and comes down hard on the cockpit of the Grigori before it spins around and attempts to shove the business end of the halberd deep into the Grigori, trying to aim for its reactor. "Ita in pace," Magnus mutters under his breath.

The Ball fails to hit the Strayed, so that clearly wasn't the best option. If only that wall weren't in the way...oh snap, what the hell was that. Did someone set off a nuke? "Vavel, I think we'd be better off getting away from that base. Explosions like that usually have radiation attached to them, and I don't have my rad suit." he says to the giant metal head next to him, and starts backing away from the area the explosion occurred in. Still, they have to do something useful... "Vavel Missile!" Naoto shouts, tapping a button on the controller. Two panels on Vavel's chest open up, firing a pair of missiles at the white NEXT. If they can't get close, they can at least still use projectile weapons.

A shockwave lashes out, battering the Gespenstiganger as it attempted to outpace the blast, tossing it from it's feet. True to his boasts, the custom paint is a durable thing, possibly because he infused it with GEKIGANGER himself... or m,aybe because he found out what brand the getters and the mazingers use. Either or!

The machine hauls itself to it's feet, fractures playing across it's armor here and there, but otherwise quite whole.

"KAZUMA!" he barks, "Our fight was interupted! Do you still want to continue?"

At this range, there isn't much Sly can do about dodging incoming fire, and while his weapons are in optimal range, so are his enemies, meaning this hit takes a good chunk of the armor off his Seraph, blowing apart a good amount of the outer armor. However, that's nothing compared to the radioactive blast that R just shoots. "Oh god DAMN it!" Sly exclaims in irritation. Luckily Battlemechs have good radiation resistance...They were made around Lucifer, which puts put a lot of radiation itself. However, this is going to mean his mech needs to be scrubbed before he can bring it in now.

"R...You stupid...What are you THINKING?"Oh, and then Stinger switches sides. Fan-freaking-tastic. The Seraph lands on the ground with a thump, and Sly sighs as he opens a channel to Russel again. "Hey buddy pal...Look, nobody told me about /this/ plan, but it looks like we..won? I don't know, but anyway, there's no more reason for us to fight. Also, excuse me a sec."

Sly turns around, aims his PPC up at Stinger, and fires a PPC blast right to where he figures the power core ought to be on the machine, hopefully frying Stringer's power systems in one focused shot. "Hey Stringer! Next time, don't account you're going to betray someone before you do it, right?"

"What is going on out there?" There is suddenly a gigantic light show, and the base suddenly is lit with rattling sounds as geiger counters are going /nuts/. Metal curtains suddenly falls in front of the windows of the watchtower, whilst explosions randomly happen all over the base and people cry out in pain. A series of LEVs suddenly just... fall over. The pilots are still alive, but they are cringing in pain all of the sudden.

And then Ringo manages to hack the base's defenses! Buildings continue to explode, the central command center begins to collapse under the pressure of the gigantic explosion triggered by R, and all that remains are the automatic defense systems.

In the meanwhile, the ship that had been prepping for launch has managed to do as such - but its path into outer space is severely knocked off course. Nobody fired at it, so there were no other issues in its departure.

Ringo's wireless uplink was suddenly cut though, thanks to the radiation-fallout from the Kojima particles and the destruction of the base.

EFA-LAWS: Mission Failure

Grrr...

Ringo didn't get clearly enough!

His sniper rifle comes up. Stinger may get the warning that something else has locked on to him, but from where? The rifle trails...trying to follow him as he focuses...

"Hey asshole. EAT LEAD!" he shouts over the radio, and a sonic boom later, the shot would tear through the air at super sonic speads and attempt to tear through Stinger's mech.

Silly Paladin, Marcus Gunter is Lawful Neutral! He is also a damn good pilot at that and reacts instinctively when Magnus comes rushing in at his head. Where, ya know, his cockpit is. The Battloemech twists around and brings it's arm up, blocking the first strike with his limb. The second pierces the chest and damages the reactor. Thankfully, Inner Sphere techs build their reactors Tonka Tough, so Magnus is denied the satisfaction of the kill. Out of reflex, Marcus retaliates with his plasma rifle at point blank range. However, the actual fight is the last thing on his mind right now, as he is a little annoyed by a different problem altogether, "God damn fucking ship jumping corporate asshat! I'm half tempted to see if there are any contracts up against Mirage, just to kick them in the fucking teeth for this 're-negotiation'." Then everything around R gets bright, and Marcus groans, "Oh for fuck's s--" BOOM! The Grigori is rocked by the explosion of kojima particles, which cause Marcus' geiger counter to go wild. It's a good thing that Battlemechs are built so tough, and that someone thought ahead to put radiation shielding in this thing. Kojima particles are naaaasty. In the wake of the explosion, Marcus staggers his mech to his feet and growls out, "God damn teamkilling FUCKTARD!" What the hell! First Stinger switches sides in the middle of combat, and now one of their own is firing a NUKE inside the base while they're STANDING ON IT. Marcus is veeeeery tempted to just open fire on both fuckers for this, but they still have the Feddies to deal with who probably won't be happy that their base just got irradiated. Thankfully, he has a solution to THAT problem at least. A solution that can best be described as FIRE ALL ZE GUNS!

Radiation...this isn't something that Naoto is prepared for. His personal shield can take a hit, but he can actually see the shield getting eaten away by the Kojima particles. There's only one choice: Get the hell out of the area and get away from Vavel until it's been scrubbed clean of the radiation. After his shield goes down, it'll be up to his own bodily resistance to keep him safe. "This is the Chairman of Tsukioka Industries. I'm retreating before this stuff makes my face melt."

The Deva took something of a battering from the nuke and the shockwave, and looks significantly the worse for wear as it slides to a halt - on its feet, miraculously (or in testament to Kazuma's skills). "Ya know," the teenaged Trailer responds, "normally, I might take ya up on that, Gai. But right now ..."

The Deva turns to target Stinger's machine, at the center of what had been the explosion.

"... I'm thinkg we oughta team up on the guy who did that to us. And it looks like I wouldnt' be the only Trailer switching targets." Kazuma brings the Deva's right arm up, autocannon locking onto Stinger's AC.

"You in?" asks Kazuma - just before he opens fire. "Call it 'Gundam Fighter style therapy' if you have to," he adds in response to Gai's reaction on the radio. "Just gonna have to use bullets in lieu of fists for a bit."

Max's VF is hammered by R's mech, but the nail in the coffin is when the base finally explodes. Blasting Max's Valkyrie clear of the rest of the blasts of the base. Max just shakes his head as his Smoking Valkyrie gets back to his feet. "Well, this mission's a bust. I'm gonna have to tell Steiner about this, and how Trailers just decided to blow up a factory. I'm sure this'll make him happy." He then initiates the VF's transformation sequences and flies back to the Sundered Heart for repairs.

Russel Bagman machine ohalts where it is breaking off there's an actual angry look on his face. He can only guess how many people were flash fried alive from that thing. He actually has broken off from sly and is pulling the CP canon off the back of his machine, the Gespesnt IV locks on to R's mahcine. It's only a miracle the improved NBC protection of the upgraded design saved. He's got enough time to attack split missile pods deatdch off the the back of the machine and launch towards R's machine they then break apart into a cloud of missiles.

But that's just cover for what Russel's doing the CP canon deploys and Russel's machine grabs one of the hand hold. He now eyes the targeting computer as the large machine tracks the Next then he fires the blast is so powerful it forces the Gespesnt back several feet and it digs it's feet into the ground.

R would get a target lock warning and that's no /normal/ Gespenst that's on it. It's also flying an Neo Agressor IFF.

Ringo's hacked defenses provide an irritation, riddling the Vixen's exterior armor...and leaving glowing panes in it as it smolders. Stinger does keep a mental track on the numbers counting down to 0, denoting his armor integrity...its still a safe amount remaining... Its then that Sly gets his attention, and Stinger races down, the TAROS blades striking out, and creating an electro-magnetic disruption that causes the PPC stream to deflect away uselessly...with the added benefit as Stinger brings them down INTO Sly's machine. Stinger hrmphs, and twirls the blade in a flourish as he walks towards Heckler, "...I wonder if I get extra money for taking out a no account, c-rank mercenary like you Heckler..." He draws his weapon back, aiming for Sly's cockpit block when Ringo's blast strikes in...knocking the Vixen aside... Stinger growls, "...damned nuisance." He does look at the situation, "Seems I'm not needed here anymore..." With that, he launches away.

The Deva took something of a battering from the nuke and the shockwave, and looks significantly the worse for wear as it slides to a halt - on its feet, miraculously (or in testament to Kazuma's skills). "Ya know," the teenaged Trailer responds, "normally, I might take ya up on that, Gai. But right now ..."

The Deva turns to target R's machine, at the center of what had been the explosion.

"... I'm thinkg we oughta team up on the guy who did that to us. And it looks like I wouldn't be the only Trailer switching targets." Kazuma brings the Deva's right arm up, autocannon locking onto R's distant machine and compensating for the distance as best he can.

"You in?" asks Kazuma - just before he opens fire. "Call it 'Gundam Fighter style therapy' if you have to," he adds in response to Gai's reaction on the radio. "Just gonna have to use bullets in lieu of fists for a bit."

Magnus mutters under his breath. They've changed the specs on certain mechs, so that attack was not as effective as it used to be back ten or fifteen years ago. The Type-George attempts to back away, as the nuclear device detonates in his area. Magnus whirls his mech around behind a building, which takes the brunt of the attack, which also seems to soak up the damage from Marcus's Alpha Strike. The building is no longer left standing, but somehow, in some way, Magnus has retrieved his shield. "** What is your name, young man? **" Magnus asks over the frequency. Due to the particles in the air, Magnus is unable to get a status report from the base. Magnus whirls the halberd around before the Leo rushes across the ground straight towards the Grigori. Executing a low slash, Magnus attempts to first take out the Grigori's legs, before coming up with a light shield bash to the face, but this is only a distraction. Executing probably one of the most deadly attacks learned from the Swiss guard, Magnus, actually vaults over the back of the Grigori, using the Leo, landing firmly behind the mech while bringing down his halberd down the Grigori's back, before spinning and attempting to hack into the already open wounds on the Grigori's armor.

Magnus mutters under his breath. They've changed the specs on certain mechs, so that attack was not as effective as it used to be back ten or fifteen years ago. The Type-George attempts to back away, as the nuclear device detonates in his area. Magnus whirls his mech around behind a building, which takes the brunt of the attack, which also seems to soak up the damage from Marcus's Alpha Strike. The building is no longer left standing, but somehow, in some way, Magnus has retrieved his shield. "** What is your name, young man? **" Magnus asks over the frequency. Due to the particles in the air, Magnus is unable to get a status report from the base. Magnus whirls the halberd around before the Leo rushes across the ground straight towards the Grigori. Executing a low slash, Magnus attempts to first take out the Grigori's legs, before coming up with a light shield bash to the face, but this is only a distraction. Ringo's hack attempt into Acemos's computer systems has gone unnoticed by Magnus, because just as the base tries to fire on the Type-George, the machine is already moving. Unfortunately for Magnus, his IFF is currently going wacky due to the particals and it is not behaving. Executing probably one of the most deadly attacks learned from the Swiss guard, Magnus, actually vaults over the back of the Grigori, using the Leo, landing firmly behind the mech while bringing down his halberd down the Grigori's back, before spinning and attempting to hack into the already open wounds on the Grigori's armor.

"Eh, looks like the credits are about to roll either way." murmurs Gai as R goes down.

"Kazuma, it's dangerous here. I'm fleeing for now, we'll call this a draw!" dictates Gai before his thrusters fire, whipping him around and sending him bounding over the wall once more. There is only so much that hot blood could do against Kojima particals.

"Fair enough," Kazuma agrees. "Or just not count it." He switches over to a secure frequency. "Hey Sly, where do we go for pickup under these circumstances?"

The NEXT almost crashes onto the ground, almost but it quickly catches itself. However the Primal Armor is quick to reactive nearly in a second the field regenerates around the mech. Which was unheard of from most NEXTs out there. Crest had built the perfect weapon, expect with one flaw--

Its Pilot sometimes had other ideals.

<<"..you happy..">> He says gently, <<"..you god damn happy..">> His voice tired but he was still alive. He then slowly rose to his feet. Then here came the aftermath from the attacks.

Maximillian's bullets bounce off the Primal Armor as the NEXT quickly attempts to attack back by leaping up and swing. It was--

Not even flying right, like the thrusters were starting to lose power, or the pilot himself was losing focus.

<<"..damnit..">> He says gently. <<"..Damnit!">>

Sly's voice is heard but the NEXT is on the move, he is attempt to actually get out of the combat area on Crest's orders, completely bypassing Nell's knowledge as his operator.

One attack avoided from the massive mech, Kazuma's attack was also swiftly dodged. However the kill move came from the very thing that could bypass the Primal Armor.

<<"..I'm sorry..">> Is all the pilot has a chance to say as he quickly spins around pointing the assault rifle toward Russel's unit, and the Plasma beam slams into the armor, before shoving it back several feet, over the wall and crashing into the ground--

Smoking...

"Marcus Gunter, and I'm old enough to be your grandfather kid," replies Marcus with an irritated 'I didn't sign up for this shit' tone as the Grigori surges forward. It's arms reach out to grab Magnus to give him a right good thrashing. Then the prick has the nerve to jump over him and stab him in the back. Still no reactor explosion. When the Inner Sphere makes reactors, they make them to last. Unfortunately, he's getting called away to save the jackass that decided to make them all explode with RADIATION, so with a growl, the Grigori blasts into the air on GN particles and streaks over to where R has fallen to scoop him up and carry him off to safety. "You owe me a fucking drink."

The Guarlion comes into view at last, moving to back up Marcus as he aims to retreat.

The Stealth Guarlion visible, as he attempts to contact Russel... but eh, who knows if that will go well. He moves to better cover Marcus...

"... This seems oddly familar."

Russel Bagman actually stops lowers the CP canon slightly and if Ringo's paying attention is attempting to contact command on this issue. The Gespesnt is keeping target locks but isn't firing at least not yet.

 Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "... hey. The pilot of that new-model Gespenst ... we've crossed paths before, right? I think I remember your voice."

Meanwhile, Sly Heckler moves into a defensive position in between Marcus and the EFA. Yeah, R just irritated him, and yeah, R just nuked a base. When this was supposed to be a simple smash-and-run assault mission, R had to go and set off an illegal weapon in the middle of a populated base. Sly kind of wants to shoot him, and understands that 'justice' would be to turn him over to the EFA to save the rest of them.

But damnit, Archangel is one of theirs. And they take care of their own.

So the Seraph moves, heavy LB-X Autocannon aimed at Magnus and Heavy PPC aimed at Russel. Sly is respecting the current cease-fire as much as anyone, but if things turn ugly the assault mech is ready.

Magnus pulls back his halberd and stares up at Marcus. He slowly shakes his head in his cockpit and just stands there, vigilant.