Stage 2: Ambush!

[The Big Zabowski]

C-20: Transport Bay

"Ruffians ay.. well, I'd be glad to play.."rough" with you, boy. Arooo~"

She could only follow that up with a laugh as the Pawn she addressed planted some 90mm shells right in the back of it's wingman. Even though she'd faced worse against the Pawn, it seemed that this engagement would be an easy pair..

Or should she leave at least one for Rivers..?

Nah.. heh.

The agility of the Raptor in CQ was something that Devi absolutely loved about the Raptor. It just simply, and effectively fit her needs and wants in a mobile frame. With that in mind, she used the confusion that was bound to arise among the bumbling pair to her advantage and closed quickly. A few taps of her thrusters helped her leap the gap even quicker, akin to her namesake.

The Wolf.

"Well..look at you~"

The shots slammed into the floor, ceiling, and walls as shrapnel from the asteroid what remained from the bullets themselves simply bounced off the light armor, smoke and dust filling the air and obscuring her approach. The Raptor's plasma sabre/knife appeared with a flash of light blue/purple light as she came up to the side of the Pawn.

"Arooo~"

She made an upward slash into the right armpit area of the Pawn, hoping to sever or at least immobilize the limb and prevent this one from effectively aiming his weapon.

[ScornMandark]

C-20: Transport Bay

Donovan dropped into a crouch, balancing the heavy launcher with his left hand while tracking the Pawns. Devi charged in, plasma blade hot. The muzzle of the launcher drifted slightly off to the right of the lead Pawn as Devi charged in and past. The Pawns seemed to be firing panickedly, even shooting each other. Wait for it...wait for it....The sounds of the current battle faded as he zeroed in on his target: the power relay next to the lead Pawn. As soon as Devi was clear, he let fly with a targeted rocket.

Slamming into the relay station, the lead (Cecil's) Pawn was washed with fire and sparks, hopefully distracting him enough that the follow-up shot aimed at his waist servos would do their job and immobilize him. He loosed again, the rocket shot creating a tunnel in the smoke. When Rivers followed in, she'd have an easier time nailing him if he couldn't move. If Rivers didn't follow in a moment, Donovan would let fly again to keep them from teaming up on Devi. The sounds of his leader's crazed wolf howls filled his cockpit as he grimly smiled and lined up his next shot.

[blind_dead_mcjones]

--Cluster 20, Corridor 4C--

despite the severity of the situation, Jane couldn't help but laugh at the two pawns that were stumbling about, wasting their ammo by firing blindly, god, who on earth would send a pair of wet behind the ears greenhorns into a satellite during a crisis? an indignant scream shireked over the open channel, after wincing slightly, jane smirked when she heard the 'ruffians' comment.

thats percy's voice, then the other one must be cecil, only those two would be so incompetent at piloting a Pawn, or switch their radio to an open channel, its a small world after all a thud informed her that Donovan had fired his bazooka at the stricken lead pawn, and she noticed that Devi was charging towards what she assumed was Percival's unit.
oh dear, looks like they're royally screwed now, oh well it was nice knowing you two. she thought, smiling cruelly before moving to support donovan, "Donovan, i'm lending supporting fire" she informed him as she leveled her bazooka at Cecil's unit, the crosshairs centering over its cockpit.
"nighty night" she said before gently pulling the trigger, sending three rockets hurtling towards the Pawn.


---------


---Cluster 20, Main Port---

Bohemund sighed when he was greeted with silence as the answer to his command, I s'pose was asking for much from those two. he thought cynically before opening a channel to another officer.

"what is the status of Ens. Cecil and Percival Callow?" he asked
"Your subordinates are in corridor 4C and are refusing to obey orders to return!" the man o nthe other end yelled, bohemund sighed again before considering his reply.
"leave them" he said coldly "they'll just get in the way, no attempts to support or recover them are to be made no matter what, even if the satelite is destroyed." It's probably for the best. he thought as he issued the order.
"thats quite..heavyhanded, sir" the officer replied slowly.
"Have I not made myself understood?" Bohemund asked sternly, the officer was silent before giving his answer.
"No sir, your orders are perfectly clear."
"good." bohemund said. noticing a pair of raptors cause havoc on the far side of the port whilst slowly advancing towards the ediths hangar ramp "additional orders, contact CIC and have turrets A through D fire for effect at coordinates ti37"

[Attomoku]

C-20, Corridor 4C - 2A Intersect

Lady Dodgeson

Thanks to the frantic outbursts by the Callow's, Cat had zeroed in where the enemy was and reasoning that the best defense is a good offense decided to nail them before they got to the control floor and raced to the location, so intent that she hadn't not checked but sure that Bonito had followed. Turning into the corridor awash with smoke and confusion a few hundred meters behind the Callow's what stood out most was Devi's livid plasma saber (the fact she was the closest helped). With a feline hiss she sent 2 high explosive 280mm projectiles screaming at the glowing energy blade and the frame that owned it.

[EZero8]

--Main Port--

The fight in the main port was really going nowhere. Alexander's team were safely protected from most of the Raptor's weapons in their heavily armored Pawns. But each time they attempted to push forward, they were met with rockets that rattled their AMD's just enough to leave them prone to attack.

Alexander snarled as he fired his machine gun at the six Raptors that held fort in front of the gaping hole where the Tulsa hovered. It was going to be tough, especially when two of the Edith's Pawns were nowhere to be found. Bohemund's men were probably screwing off somewhere on their own again.

--Transport Bay--

"Contact!"

Eric moved behind a corner as an enemy Pawn showered the area with 120mm rounds. The others proceeded to fire off their bazookas at the lumbering unit, managing to disarm it.

"Well chief, the calvary is on its way. Should we split and take them out one by one? Or should we just charge to the objective like madmen?" Max asked. Before Eric could reply, Devi had already charged in at break-neck speed to attack what has now grown into a trio of Pawns. Though... two of them appeared to be rather incompetant pilots.

"Well... there's your answer, Max," Eric replied. "Alright guys, cover me!"

Spinning out from where he was hiding, Eric charged in to attack the lead Pawn. Pulling out his plasma saber, he made two quick slashes to its remaining arm and right leg before darting away. As the first Pawn toppled over, a pair of stray rockets from Jane and Donovan struck the machine with a massive explosion...

--Count Remus--

The Count had actually went ahead in a scouting attempt, leaving his team behind at the Shireen. He hadn't banked on seeing combat this quickly, but it was just bad luck for him. A bazooka round had managed to take out one of his Pawn's arms as he tried to counterattack and move backwards towards the elevator. Unfortunately for him, the two blundering Callows from the Edith blocked his escape path.

"Those damned fools..." he angrily yelled out. Smashing at his controls, he realized his fate once the rockets began to fly in. The Pawn was well-protected, but even the best armor has its breaking point against explosive rounds. Being ahead of the rest of the others, his machine took the brunt of the incoming attacks.

When smoke and sparks began to kick up, a pair of Raptors rushed in to attack in close quarters. One blew past him to attack the Callows. The other came right at his damaged machine and slashed with its plasma cutter weapon. Count Remus didn't even have time to lament his bad luck as a pair of rockets slammed into his Pawn and he erupted into flames...

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Cluster-20 Transport Bay -

All of Devi's quite skillful and impressive acrobatic evasive maneuvers amounted to a waste of time, as Cecil wasn't even looking in her direction or paying attention to his Pawn's insistent warnings. "You 'eard what I said, ensign. I had you pegged when I saw you mince onto the asteroid, you bleeding Welsh nancy!" the officer rather unprofessionally responded to Cecil's poorly timed anger. "Ooh!" Cecil indignantly humphed, practically shaking with rage (but mostly embarrassment). He felt a bit foolish after realizing he couldn't slap the man through the radio, but he decided to skip that bit. "Sir, I demand satisfaction!" Cecil growled, "Pistols at your earliest convenience!". As his challenge was being issued, Percival's machinegun rounds splashed across the back of his Pawn, confusing him badly and inciting panic. "They're behind us, brother!" Cecil gasped, wheeling his Pawn around in a dangerously fast 180 turn as Devi landed next to him.

Because of Cecil's precarious turn, the slash from Devi's plasma weapon instead took off a goodly chunk of his Pawn's left arm, causing him to eep in surprise at the loud and tinny alarms going off in his cockpit. "I accept, ensign! A duel to first blood at our earliest possible meeting!" the control officer was saying, the radio now a squawking distraction on top of everything else. "Dear me!" Cecil yelped, "The enemy is trying to draw me into a mêlée!". He tried to turn in Devi's direction to level his gun at her Raptor, but as he began to move Donovan's first rocket blew up the power relay behind him showering his suit with sparks and debris and sending him into a stumble. "Have at you!" Cecil obliviously yelled, firing his gun into the floor as his Pawn tried to stay on two feet. The Pawn staggered face first into the wall, sparing him as Donovan's second rocket hit the heavy mecha's skirt armor at an oblique angle. It went off, causing the giant robot to ram into the wall harder, still firing off 90mm ammunition.

"Aim where I want you to!" Cecil protested, wrestling with the controls in an effort to push away from the wall with one good arm to find Devi. "Stop moving and fight like a man!" he whined, training his machine gun in a vain effort to find someone to shoot. The Pawn took a step and it's knee buckled, causing it to drop to all-fours. Jane's rockets streamed overhead and impacted the wall behind him, showering him with more fire and debris. Struggling to make the Pawn stand, Cecil laughed haughtily, "Ha HA! I have you!". He opened fire into the billowing smoke in Donovan and Jane's general direction, but no more than 10 rounds left the weapon before its magazine ran empty. "H-hold on now!" Cecil said, trying to remember how to make the robot reload its gun, "I was damaged first, therefore I am the victor!".

[The Big Zabowski]

C-20: Corridor 4G/2A intersect

"...ok?"

Devi watched dumbfounded as the flurry of rocket fire and debris had rendered the Pawn she was standing tens of meters from into a barely functioning pile of slag. Her Raptor was marred with dings and dents from the various chunks of shrapnel and rock that had fallen around the pair. To top it off a pair of rockets sailed into where she had been standing moments before moving away from the hellfire and in turn made Cecil's world much more.. fiery.

"..Not ours.. you've gotta be kidding me."

She turned to the source of the blast. Standing down another halls aways, was a new Pawn, loaded out with one of the rocket launchers.

"Donovan! Cover Rivers! We've got more incoming!"

Having given her orders, she wheeled her Raptor to intercept, The Callow pair obviously overwhelmed by 3 Raptor units. Somehow, she had a feeling that this one would be different. The Callow brother's suit still sported the basic olive drab scheme of a grunt Pawn. But this one..

"Pink..?"

She whipped out her 90mm one handed, the plasma blade whisping away to conserve power. While side stepping toward a corner on Cat's left, she tapped off a string of 90 mm fire at the launcher to slow the Pawn's response.

[wonton bob]

---Cluster 20, Main Port---

Once all three of the Baron's Pawns had reached the main port he could see the fighting pick up on the far side. The Shireen's smaller guns had come to life and lobbed a few shots in that direction followed by the call by some officer on the bridge. "Pawns in the main port. Assist defending units and push back their attack."

The Baron gave a vexatious look at his comm and communicated with his own men. "Pity. It's too bad I don't follow orders."
Meier clenched his teeth in frustration, it killed him not being able to aid fellow troops but orders from the Baron took top priority. "No. We're out of range anyway. By the time we get there things could be worse and it'll be a long retreat back. Yes, we shall stay and protect the ships. Turn over those cargo pods and use them for cover. Fire on my word." the Baron commanded.

[ScornMandark]

C-20 Transport Bay

Donovan grunted as one of the Pawns went up like a cheap firecracker. A grim satisfaction took hold, but he didn't have long to mull it over. Another Pawn around the corner engaged Devi while Eric went in. "Damn it...Rivers, let's see if we can take one of these dumkopfs alive. If not...ah well."

He fired off several more rockets at Cecil's Pawn. He didn't particularly aim for vital spots on the Pawn, but definitely for the lower half of the mecha. Almost before the third rocket left the launcher, Donovan flipped the launcher in front of him, ejected the empty magazine and slammed home the spare. As he reloaded, he quickly dashed to the side, diving behind another cargo crate for cover.

[Attomoku]

C-20, Corridor 4C-2A Intersect

Lady Dodgeson

Cat registered the loss of the Count's Pawn impassively, she was too engrossed with Devi to even notice it was his. She registered the incoming fire was directed at her launcher readily enough. As the rounds stitched across the armor of her striped pawn towards the launcher she intentionally dropped it to one knee getting a round off as it went down. "Clever Mouse" she thought aloud as the rounds now passed 'harmlessly' overhead. Cat tracked her and fired again at Devi the moment the knee made contact with the floor and firing more stable.

[The Big Zabowski]

C-20: 4C-2A Intersect

Devi slipped a feral grin as she licked her teeth. The Rockets sailed to the opposing side of the hall, creating even more dust and debris. This, in turn gave her some more cover..

"I love it when these fairys keep doing my job for me.."

She checked her batteries as the dust continued to envelop her suit in an impromptu smoke screen. They were all green, which meant that it was time to try something.

Inching her suit toward the intersection's threshold, she momentarily poked her head around the side of the corner, sizing up her prey. Ducking back she quickly formulated a plan that would allow her to close the gap on this one as she did the other. But that paint job could only mean that this was also a gambit that she had to take great care in.

Obviously some higher ranking or skilled noble. One who's head would look good mounted from one of my antenna.

After a final check of her ammo, she huffed a breath and wheeled around the corner, lunging at Cat's stripped down Pawn. Her right arm was already tucked away to bring out and engage the plasma sabre at close range once she closed with the bulkier suit.

[Attomoku]

C-20, Corridor 4C-2A Intersect

Lady Dodgeson

Cat was ready for her. She held steady in the knelling position waiting for her exit. When Devi lunged she fired a round and near simultaneously mashed the pedals causing her pawn to leap forward with a rocket assisted boost and a loud open-channel snarl. She intended to use her suit's greater mass to bodycheck the lighter frame and daze the pilot incase the shot missed or failed to critically damage the LMF. This of course was to be followed up inside Devi's guard with a blow from the shorter heat axe, now at the ready in her left.

[The Big Zabowski]

C-20 4C-2A Intersect

Devi responded with her own howl of acknowledged. It was on. The Rocket sailed toward her, Devi sidestepped to her right. The Pawn charged toward her using a similar tactic, to which Devi again licked her lips in enjoyment of this one..

To add the fact that the voice that bellowed the feral roar was female, she felt that she could relish this one even more. No more weak pompous womanizers who thought that they could competently pilot their pawn..

The Raptor was already moving on a tangential path to the approach of Cat's Pawn. The bulky suit's charge would carry it past the Frame as Devi brought her plasma sabre from it's sheath wheeled into a lunge from Cat's rear left.

Over an open channel she bellowed out another war cry..

"HAROOOO!~"

[Attomoku]

(OOC: That's a great song)

C-20, Corridor 4C-2A Intersect

Lady Dodgeson

Her grin in this fight against another woman as skilled as her made her look like her namesame and gave an appreciative yowl back to Devi. The Cheshire Cat knew what the score was.
She had to turn around with her momentum still forward and so landed with one foot, and swung the heavy bazooka across her pawns chest she turned left while sliding backward on one foot, sparks flying and metal groaning from under it. Cat herself was actually impressed that she could manage such a feat with a Pawn. She got around in time to deflect the brunt of the swing with the axe but Devi manged to scar up the skirt armor pretty good and in retaliation followed up with a quick hi-explosive shot between them in their close proximity, directed towards the Frame's knees or at least the floor under it.
Girls night out was just starting it seemed.

[Xvlai]

- C20, 4C-2A Intersection -

Leikar had remained in the hallway behind the fighting covering the rear of the teams advance. Once or twice he had heard himself ordered forward to assist in the fighting. Instead of rushing forward he had remained to gaurd the rear. The operation had called for his unit to do just that and so here he remained given the fighting. Given the schematics and his knowledge of facilities such as this he knew there were other ways into the transport bay, and those ways could bring Pawns to attack the rear.

There was an ulterior motive for him staying back as well, given the tight corridor his Raptor would have just gotten in the way of the heavier fighting as his 90mm would be all but worthless except at the closest of ranges. And Leikar had no interest in getting that close to a Pawn.

He inwardly tsked as the roar of more explosions hit his Raptor, Such a waste of this facilities resource processing capacity. It didn't help that his radio kept picking up the battle crys of his team leader, the women was a dam good pilot there was no arguing with that, but she was certainly missing some inhibitors upstairs. AS more explosions and some smoke drifted up the corridor, Leikar rolled his eyes, tucked his 90mm into his chest and sped off down the corridor. Slowly coming around the bend he leveled his 90mm down the corridor. It did little good the corridor was awash in smoke and the farther down it got the more obscured it was, his Raptors cameras picke dup another Raptor though and registered it as the German Donovans.

FLipping on his radio, but keeping his eyes looking for Pawns in the smoke Leikar spoke up in a quiet voice, "Donovan, what's going on down here. We've had no contacts from the rear so far."

[blind_dead_mcjones]

--C20, Corridor 4C/2A Intersect--

jane smirked when the pawn went up in dramatic explosion, however any satisfaction she felt was quickly dashed when 2 rockets fired from dodgesons pawn sailed past her, crap, reinforcements. she cursed mentally before opening a channel to Eric.

"Sir this is starting to get rediculous! at this rate we're going to be boxed in, request permission to continue to the objective with st-" she was interrupted when a few of the remaining bullets from cecils gun pelted her raptor, though they failed to penetrate the prospect of getting shot at was still unnerving,taking cover she did a quick check of her inventory. two rounds left in this magazine, and one spare, more than enough. after taking a deep breath and waiting for donovan to reload she ran around the corner and charged forward, convincing herself that this was to guard Eric's rear.

[The Big Zabowski]

C-20 4C/2A Intersect

Devi's Raptor was jostled hard by the close proximity of the shot, having practically moved to clamor onto the Pawn and gain stability as the floor became uneven under her frame. With a growl she used the grasping free hand that she was using to latch herself onto Cat's module. Clenching onto the faceplate of the Pawn, she used a burst of thrust to force herself and the Pawn onto the floor.

With the pair falling toward the floor, Devi used her vulcans in an attempt to cook off the magazine of rocket rounds in the enemy launcher.

"Ah-ah.. it's not very lady like now to use a big gun. Must leave that to the strapping lads..no?"

[ScornMandark]

C-20

Donovan registered the incoming call as Rivers charged past him. He flipped the comm to single contact mode and replied. "Getting eh little messy, Leikar. Von bogey down, two ehktive, von reinforcement engaging za Lieutenant." His voice was a close approximation of the pilot drawl, slow and unhurried sounding even through his accent. "Eff you're not too busy, ve could alvays use some more supporting fire. Dese Pawns have thick skulls."

[The Loser Villain]

C-20

Bonito

In all the confusion, Bonito, had somehow lost sight of Lady Catherine. A fact he felt quite embarrassed by due to the rather bright color of her pawn.

He soon began to pick up on some radio chatter and headed in the general direction that seemed to indicate that friend and foe alike would be there. Perhaps the explosions helped with that as well.

Getting closer, smoke began to obscure the area in front of him, "Mierda, with all this smoke I'm libel to walk right into the enemy!"

And he almost did just that as Leikar's Raptor sped right past him. Not wanting to abandon Lady Catherine he considered letting the enemy continue by, but in a split second decided that if he didn't try and take down this guy now he could cause some serious damage later.

The Pawn leaped out of the smoke concealing it and aimed at the Raptor. It wasn't easy, as the target still had a good deal of smoke conciliating it as well, but Bonito had lined it up good enough that he could hope to cause damaged. The 120mm came to life with a three round burst aimed at the back of Leikar's Raptor.

"This will probably draw some attention my way," he mused, "Hopefully not too much."

[King Monkey]

- Cluster-20 Transport Bay -

All the noises and flashes of light completely disoriented Percival. He wasn't sure what was going on after the first Raptor charged into his brother and all the bazooka rounds went off around him. For a moment, he thought that Cecil's Pawn might have been destroyed and his brother killed in all the chaos. Briefly, he mourned, then was comforted by the fact that he would get Cecil's share of Aunt Camille's inheritance.

All along, he was firing his machine gun, tracking Devi's Raptor first then turning back as another Raptor charged the two of them. The firing was far from accurate and could be referred to as "pray and spray" if he prayed. But to pray, he would have to believe in something greater than himself in the Universe.

His machine gun finally ran out of shells about the time that Jane came charging around the corner. He had just enough time to drop it and draw his sword by the time she got close.

"Ha! Have at thee, varlet!" he shouted as he made a fencing style thrust that was wholly unsuited to the rather ungraceful build of the Pawn. Not to mention the fact that Percival had paid about as much attention to his fencing lessons as he did anything else: not much.