[♦] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.
Do as I say, not as I do.

I hope we can get a pilebunker. Do they have those in SRW? My knowledge is pretty limited.

>>33051
Not a common weapon, though a revolver-rounded one is among the Alt Eisen's main weapons.

[x] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.
Got to save Mary from getting her head fried (It must be her higher Psy level that made her so sensitive).

[x] Play it safe and stay back.

I wouldn't mourn her death.

[x] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

Plot calls

[x] Play it safe and stay back.

She might not come off this battle completely unscathed, but as cold as it sounds, I'm counting on that. Though her act has gotten a little better lately, there is still room for improvement. A serious injury on her first sortie will do her attitude and disposition good.

[X] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

Kyosuke's always willing to bet on the long odds, are you?

>>33055
I doubt being a vegetable would be an improvement.

>>33057
I'm sure the SR-0 will run out of energy before seriously impairing her. It's a calculated risk to be sure, but she needs something stronger than a slight reprimand to light some fire under her ass.

[x] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

I don't mind betting on the long shot!

[X] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

Gambling motifs, now we're on track. Let's go bail Mary out of this one, I think she had had enough 'experience' now, and losing such a powerful psychodriver (in the sense of sensitivity, here) so early would surely be a bad omen for both our commanding post and relationship with other pilots.

[X] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

Can't let that shit continue, cap'n.

>>33058

You want to gamble with the mind - and essentially the life - of a comrade in battle, in the middle of live combat, by letting the enemy brutally assault and torture her. For the sake of reprimanding her for slacking off. Even though this could result in her becoming a vegetable.

What the fuck is wrong with you?

[x] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

>>33051

They're uncommon, but they do exist.

Alt Eisen's second strongest built-in weapon is the Revolving Stake, which is the weapon you see Reimu wielding in the OP picture.

Alt Eisen Riese, Alt's upgrade, is equipped with the much larger Revolving Bunker.

There's also the equippable weapon G-Impact Stake, which any real can wield.

[X] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

I am all for playing Kyousuke here, especially if it means not making a second Camille out of Mary.

[X] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.

[x] Take a gamble and attempt to engage the SR-0.
------

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLCiI9XOOg0

Damn.

I don’t really like having nothing to rely on but this vaguely defined power of mine, but I don’t have the luxury of knowing whether I can trust in it or not at the moment. The longer I hesitate, the longer Private Hearn will be under that psychic torture, and I have no way of knowing if she’ll be able to last through those thirty seconds. I don’t have even a moment to lose, if there’s a chance that I can cut it short, by even just a second, it’ll be enough.

“Major, we have to do something!” Private Usami’s voice rings out with a kind of distress I’ve never heard from her before.

“I know, but right now, our options are limited, and--”

Without any more lingering, I thrust the booster control forward at max, my body jerked back against my seat as the Kreuzritter steps forward, beginning to charge toward the SR-0, the thrusters on its back flaring and growing in size as they propel the black machine toward its destination.

“Ensign Steyr...!?”

I neglect to reply, my eyes narrowed on the screen in front of me. Moving my hands quickly as the distance between the target and my machine rapidly decreases I bring up the targeting computer again, keeping the reticle locked on the stationary SR-0. The Kreuzritter raises its rifle as it races along the ground, pointing the barrel at the giant CF and firing off a standard three-burst shot. The blasts strike against the green aura surrounding it to no effect.

But it wasn’t a useless effort. I definitely felt a change in the “pressure” ahead of me then, when the shots struck its barrier. I could vaguely feel the shots hitting against that overwhelming pressure, like a thrown stone causing ripples in water. Gritting my teeth, I furrow my brows as I try to zero in on that “pressure.”

Tell me where I can strike it.

Tell me where the pressure is at its weakest.

“There!” I shout out suddenly, my eyes fixated on the center of its waist, just above the Frame’s abdomen.

A small pod is located there, protected by a layer of the steel armor covering the machine’s body. That’s where the shielding is at its weakness. I shift the reticle toward it, firing at it without hesitation. The rifle lets out shrill cries as it throws beam after beam at the behemoth of a machine, the hastily aimed shots striking the barrier around that pod. I can feel the pressure weakening around that area, but it the rifle’s power isn’t enough to break through, in that case...!

The Kreuzritter lifts its right arm, drawing it back as though to throw a punch as the energy begins streaming out from its wrist guard. The glowing beam particles, flowing in form like water, solidify into a long, radiant blade extending from the Crusader’s wrist as it charges forward. It tosses aside its rifle, which is out of energy by now anyway, and punches its bladed arm forward, the thrusters at their limits as the Kreuzritter rips through the barrier with the tip of its blade!

“No, don’t hit that!” Major Udongein’s voice comes out in a panic.

With a crunch, the plasma blade pierces through the pod, burning through the metal and circuits and making it all the way through to the back of the SR-0. Having spent up much of the energy just getting through the barrier, the particles in the blade dissipate and fizzle out. Reversing its thrusters, the Kreuzritter backs up slightly, and looks up at the hulking beast still standing.

Did... that do it? Did that finally stop it?

The green glow around the machine appears to die down, the swirling green field around it gradually disappearing. Its limbs go limp, and sparks are flying around the newly created hole in its abdomen. That definitely wasn’t the cockpit, but the accumulated “psychoenergy” that it’s gathered... I can feel it slowly eroding away, so whatever I destroyed just now had to be linked with the T-Link System.

“Mary! Mary, are you alright!?”

There’s no response, but there’s no screaming either. Has she lost consciousness?

“Steyr!” Major Udongein shouts. “Ensign Steyr, get out of there immediately! NOW!”

What...

I turn my attention back to the now unmoving SR-0. It hasn’t begun moving again, but I can feel a sudden increase in the activity of its gathered psychoenergy. The sparks flying around the destroyed pod in its abdomen run wilder and wilder with each passing second, and the psychoenergy gathered around the machine is growing at such a fast rate that I feel like my head is going to be crushed against its sheer size...!

“Kuh!” I grunt as I push the reverse thrusters to full.

It’s... I think it’s going to blow!

The Kreuzritter hauls its ass as fast as it can, the boosters in the frontal portion of its Frame flaring at maximum output as the electrical discharges around the SR-0’s wound spreads to the rest of its body, gaining a green-tone to its color. Small explosions begin rocking the thing’s body, as it’s jerked back and forth by bursts of green light, until finally blinding light engulfs its entire body, expanding outward in an impossibly bright dome!

“Oh, shit...!” I mutter with grit teeth.

Unable to escape it, the Kreuzritter is enveloped by that blinding light. I throw up my arms, shielding my eyes, and feel something strike my machine with great Force, rocking me back in my seat and--

----

Clinic, Far East Base, Japan
May 5, 118 F.E.
5:30 PM

BGM: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxeF3AmspDg

I put down the book I’m reading as a visitor approaches, placing it on a table next to my bed where I’d found it. It’s Private Usami, and she looks absolutely exhausted, though she tries her best to put on a smile as she walks over to the side of my bed, sitting down on a chair next to it.

“Hey, you sure you should be up?” she asks.

“It’s only a mild concussion,” I reply, snorting and tugging at the many layers of bandaging wrapped around my head. Honestly, I don’t even need these. “I’m more worried about the state of my Kreuzritter. Is it salvageable?”

“It blew up pretty good,” she says, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t think they’ll be able to fix it. I guess they’ll just assign you a new one.”

I snort again. Getting one of their machines blown up on my first time in one can’t look too good on my record. “Anyway, more importantly, have they finished examining Private Hearn yet?”

“Oh, well, almost. They’ve assessed her mental functions and concluded that her basic motor and cognitive functions are undamaged and yadda yadda yadda, so it seems like she hasn’t gotten any permanent damage, but they want to keep her here for the night, at least.”

“And... they still haven’t found the SR-0?”

“Nope,” she shakes her head. “They had me and a few others look around everywhere for it up until now, but we couldn’t even find a blown off limb or any trace of it at all. Major Udongein thinks that that last explosion of psychic energy displaced it to some faraway corner of the world, though, so if that’s true, then it’s no wonder we can’t find it here.”

“What a problematic machine,” I grumble, shaking my head. “Even after it’s been fended off it’s still causing trouble for us.”

“No kidding,” she says, sighing. “...This might end up putting a wrench in the whole psychodriver project, too, right?”

“That’s a possibility,” I turn the thought over, beginning to get up from my bed. “The first psychodriver-tailored machine to be tested, and its test pilot steals the machine and goes on a rampage. That certainly doesn’t bode well for the future of the other psychodriver Frames.”

“H-hey, wait,” she says, getting up and trying to stop me from leaving. “Where are you going? Shouldn’t you rest more?”

“I’m fine.”

As for where I’m heading, I’m going...

[ ] Anywhere but this drab clinic.
[ ] To see how your other teammate is doing for yourself.

[X] To see how your other teammate is doing for yourself.

>Major Udongein thinks that that last explosion of psychic energy displaced it to some faraway corner of the world
Or underground, perhaps?

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

I'd much rather have a random encounter than visit Hearn.

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

[X] To see how your other teammate is doing for yourself.

random encounters are overrated compared to seeing the safety of a team mate first hand.

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

Random good.

[X] To see how your other teammate is doing for yourself.

[+] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.

Damn it. Who would have thought helping Merry would cause the SR-0 to teleport away. By helping her, we have missed some valuable interrogation. We should have just waited it out.

>>33167
and risk her becoming a vegetable? It's this kind of attitude that makes me ashamed of being a SRW fan. Precisely the whole "She's not a gamebreaker so she can go die in a fire, especially it gets us something better" attitude.

>>33168
Has nothing to do with SWR, considering I have never played a single one of those games. Though, having played games similar, I can understand the sentiment but that's neither here nor there.

I'm just saying, we should have waited it out. It was a relatively safe option, and would have netted us tons of valuable information. Such as why the pilot went rogue, what effects the system had on him, and the mech itself. All in all, it would have been the better choice, especially if Merry turned out mostly fine.

>especially if Merry turned out mostly fine.
>if

That's a pretty big if there.

>>33167
>>33169
You're assuming the pilot wouldn't have teleported away or escaped some other way anyway. The only way we'll know what would have happened if we had waited would be if Gespenst tells us.

This is about as productive as guessing what would have happened if different characters had won that first vote.

>>33169
I was also addressing the general sentiment towards Mary after the ill-fated training test, which was rather venomous to the point of where they considered her a throw away. I know fellow SRW players that had similar attitudes towards those they consider lacking. Also rather hypocritical as a fan favorite, Ibis is infamously lacking for the most part in her appearances.

[X] To see how your other teammate is doing for yourself.

Valid concern is valid. Girl got mindfucked.

I'd like to add to my vote.
--[x]Start writing that letter of apology.

Major's gonna be fuming, might as well get a head start.

>>33173
Useless units and pilots stay in the hangar where they belong.

>>33175
That's all fine and dandy until you end up with a scenario where they're the only units you have. Then you only have yourself to blame for them sucking, since you didn't give them the chance to keep up with everyone else.

Keep in mind: Mary's part of the starting three of this team. That means she's plot relevant.

>>33177
Indeed, that's a infamous loop in SRW.

Don't like a character/unit, don't level/upgrade them, they lag behind, they suck, repeat from step two.

Also certain characters don't do too hot early on, you know like Ryusei or Arado. Arado was mentioned various times to be fundamentally lacking for the most part, only hitting his best stride later on.

Mary's general sense of things is very much like Ryusei's very early on in OG1, where he was the weak link of the group (with Rai and maybe Aya babysitting), but by the end of OG1 Rai can count on Ryusei to back him up.

[x] Anywhere but this drab clinic.
----

“Anywhere but here,” I say, looking around at the white walls of the clinic, drinking in the sterile air. I’ve never been fond of the atmosphere of infirmaries and hospitals, and this clinic is no exception to that. I’ve just never been comfortable inside places like this; it feels suffocating and confining. “The Major hasn’t said anything, has she?”

“Oh, I asked her about that,” Private Usami says, quickening her pace just a tad to keep up with my longer strides as I walk across the clinic to the door leading outside. “She said she wouldn’t hold any of us responsible, since she never gave the order to stay put in the first place.”

I nod. “That’s about what I expected.”

I walk through the open doorway, out into the hallways. Private Usami hurries to keep walking alongside me, with a face that tells me she wants to say something but can’t quite figure out how. Not paying too much mind to that. I’m not in the habit of prodding people into doing something they aren’t ready to do by themselves.

“Hey, uh...” she begins, hesitantly.

I stop, turning to give her my attention.

“Thanks,” she finally says, after a small pause. “Mary might have been... much worse off if you hadn’t gone in to stop that thing. I, er, I told her about that too, so I’m sure she’s just as grateful. You’re not such a bad guy after all.”

I turn away again, beginning to walk away once again. “...It’s nothing to think highly of me for. Teammates have to cover each other, like it or not, and I was just testing out a personal theory of mine anyway. Tell her she doesn’t have to thank me for it.”

“Alright,” she says from behind me. “See ya.”

I raise a hand and give a small parting wave as I continue to walk down the hallway.

----

9:00 PM

“Yo, Lieutenant.”

I look up from my book, glancing over to the doorway of my room. Jimenez walks in, rubbing his shoulder with one hand, while the door behind him slides shut. For a moment, I consider just returning my gaze to the book and ignoring his presence, but I know by experience that he’ll never leave me alone if I do that, so I don’t have a choice but to humor him.

“Evening, Jimenez,” I say, cordially enough. “And I told you already, I’m not a Flight Lieutenant anymore.”

“Ah, sorry, force of habit,” he says with a wide grin. What a transparent lie. “I heard about what happened this morning. Must have been rough, huh. You sure you should be out of the infirmary? I mean, I heard you took a pretty nasty bang to the head when that explosion totaled your Kreuzritter.”

“I’m fine,” I say, my gaze lowering back to the pages of the book held in my hand. “It’s not as though I’m straining myself. I’m getting enough rest already, just sitting around.”

“Speaking of which,” he says, grimacing in slight pain. “Oh man, I think I pulled a muscle or something. I’ve been sore since this morning.”

“That’s entirely your fault,” I say unsympathetically, turning the pages with a flick of the wrist, “I told you to go easy. Only an idiot would try to bench twice their own weight within the first week.”

“What a pain,” he says, wincing again. “I didn’t think they’d make us start working out.”

“Piloting CFs is a physically demanding activity. If you can’t handle the stress of piloting your machine, you have no business being in there in the first place. It’s only going to get worse from here on when they make faster, more powerful Frames, so keep up with your exercise.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” he says, sighing. “...I hope what happened today isn’t going to end up halting the entire project.”

“Mmm,” I reply half-heartedly.

“Anyway, I’m gonna crash early,” Jimenez says, walking over to the bed on the opposite side of mine and leaping into it, like a kid. “G’night, and don’t let the bed bugs bite, Lieutenant.”

“I’ll punch you.”

----

?????"
May 5, 118 F.E.
??:?" PM

“Freaking hell.”

A disgruntled looking woman takes a long drag on her cigarette, flicking off the ashes in the tray nailed down at her cockpit panel. Slowly exhaling the smoke, she looks up at the screen with an annoyed and disinterested expression, mumbling to herself as her Industrial Frame Arbeiter marches at a slow and steady pace, walking through the barren dirt.

“How’d I let her talk me into this job?” she grumbles to herself, her cigarette stick still held in between her lips, quivering with each word, “I shouldn’t have taken it. What the hell was that, ‘Oh, you’ll know it when you see it’? Load of bull, there’s nothing here.”

The heavy, clunky Frame comes to a stop, standing in the middle of nowhere, the harsh wasteland breeze blowing dust onto its surfaces. Its elongated, thick arms, designed for heavy-duty lifting, rest at its sides as the Frame’s mono-eye scans the area, its torso turning in place to scope out everything up ahead, although there’s nothing of note to be seen anywhere.

“This is stupid,” the woman inside the IF mutters, removing the cigarette from her mouth and grinding it against the ashtray to put it out. She shifts her hands to the controls, jerking on one of them to turn her Frame around, when a glint of light from up ahead catchers her attention. “...Hm?”

A small, glowing beacon of light has appeared in the air, suspended over the dry earth. Slowly, it begins to grow in size, while its light begins to shine brighter and brighter. Reaching the size of a basketball, the glowing orb suddenly shrinks back into a dot before expanding out in an instantaneous explosion, expanding out in a blinding flash. The woman in the Arbeiter covers her eyes with her arms, shielding herself from it, until the light gradually dies down. Slowly moving away her arm, her eyes still narrowed, her mouth nearly drops open.

Where the light was, there now stands a massive Frame. Its pure white surface is marked with numerous black scorches, and electrical currents run over the gaping wounds in its torso, spreading to its entire body. Unable to sustain its own weight, it leans forward, crashing down to the earth with a tremendous noise. The Arbeiter remains still, cautiously observing over the fallen Frame.

“Holy crap,” the pilot of the Arbeiter mutters, the screen in front of her giving her a good view of the collapsed CF. “...I guess this is what that woman wanted me to bring back, huh? Well, I guess I should get to work, then.”

A panel at her cockpit begins to beep incessantly, catching the woman’s attention. Four heat signatures, coming in from around 1200 meters away. Turning her Arbeiter in their direction, she activates the zoom on her main camera. Four Wanze units, all bearing the Global Defense Alliance emblem, march at full speed toward the area, likely attracted by the energy reaction from earlier.

“Pilot of the IF-01,” a transmission comes in from one of the Wanze pilots. “Identify yourself. If you do not comply, we will assume that you are a hostile, and you will be dealt with accordingly.”

“Tch,” the woman utters to herself, irritated. “The army dogs have already come sniffing this out, huh. She did say they might end up being a problem. Guess there’s no choice but to fight ‘em off at this point.”

The Arbeiter reaches back, grabbing hold of the large-scale automatic rifle secured to its back. Although the model was originally designed for mostly construction work, this one has been modified to be able to use CF-sized weaponry. Reaching for the rack attached to the Frame’s thigh, the Arbeiter fits a grenade launcher to its assault rifle, loading it with a single-shot round.

Inside it, the woman reaches into her lapel for another cig, igniting the end of it with the flick of a silver lighter, keeping it in her mouth as she pockets her lighter and grabs hold of the controls again. Coolly, she flicks on her comm. and adjusts it to the open channel.

“This is the pilot of the Arbeiter. If you don’t want to die, then piss off while you can,” she says, her words muffled slightly by the presence of the cigarette in her mouth.

The Wanze pilots give no reply on the comm., but their Frames begin readying their weapons, folding cannons swinging forward and their missile pods preparing to deploy their rockets. Watching calmly, the woman flicks ash off her cigarette before placing it back in her mouth, gripping the controls tightly as the Arbeiter begins to run forward, both hands clenching its assault rifle.

“...I warned them,” she mumbles to herself, chewing on the butt of her cigarette. “I’d better get paid extra for having to put up with this.”

Keeping her eyes on the screen, the pilot of the Arbeiter runs through the options she has, currently. Although her machine has been modified to be able to fight, it’s still just an IF at its core, so in terms of combat specs, the Wanze beats it out. Furthermore, she’s outnumbered four-to-one, and in this wasteland there’s no cover whatsoever to make use of. No matter how you look at it, she’s in an obviously bad situation, and yet she’s still feeling confident.

There are two ways that she can think of, right now. One is by staying at long-range and picking off each Wanze one-by-one. This is the safe, defensive way. The other would be to blitz in and use the advantage of initiative to take them all out one after another in a single swoop, taking advantage of their confusion to destroy them before they can react, but that’s much more risky.

The smoke from her cigarette filling her eyes, she makes a split-second decision...

[ ] Rush ‘em.
[ ] Take it easy.

----

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

Winning conditions:

1. All enemies destroyed.

Losing conditions:

1. Arbeiter Custom (??????) is destroyed.
2. Any enemies reach SR-0 (Subject #1)

Battle mastery requirement:

1. Winning condition achieved before turn 3.

[x] Take it easy.

Slow and steady wins the race.

[x] Rush ‘em.
Vote to lose.

[x] Take it easy.

I don't think losing is an option, and so much for that random encounter. The vote would have been much better off checking on Mary.

[X] Take it easy.

The ideal method would be to keep the Wanzes moving so they can't set up their cannons, but it's a little late for that. Charging in is a good way of getting surrounded and pounded.

>A disgruntled looking woman takes a long drag on her cigarette,
Mokou?

[X] Take it easy.

>>33244
indeed, when in such a case it's better to make them come towards you some before making an aggressive move.

[x] Rush ‘em.

That single grenade isn't going to do any good when they split apart. As has been said, they'll never suspect our technologically inferior machine to immediately bum rush them. That moment of surprise should be all it'll take to wipe the majority of them out with it.

[x] Rush ‘em.

>>33248
you're thinking just of the grenade as opposed to the whole weapon, rushing in only opens you up to a crossfire.

>>33250
Depends on the skill level of the opponents. A moving target is much harder to hit then a stationary one, after all. Moving into close quarters would also prevent them from using their guns, as they would naturally fear friendly fire. We have no such stipulations.

Either option works, but I just want that battle mastery and this seems faster.

>>33251
>Moving into close quarters would also prevent them from using their guns, as they would naturally fear friendly fire.
Except the Wanze can be equipped with melee weapons on its arms, and if they box in the Arbeiter, one assault rifle isn't going to do very much.

>>33253
Are you joking? Staying just close enough to where they can't use their ranged weapons, while we can, is ideal. They would be sitting ducks in that case. I mean, this isn't like some game, where we sit in one tile for our turn while they circle-rape us.

This is all to say nothing of our own melee weaponry. Granted, I can find no evidence of this and am only assuming we have some.

>>33254
Why are you assuming her gun outranges theirs? I don't want to read descriptions of fucking kiting.

>>33255
Hilarious, but not what I was trying to convey. I mean we should use their numbers against them. Constantly on the move, confusing and disorienting, while being in such proximity to prohibit their gun usage for fear of friendly fire...

On second thought, that really does sound like kiting them. Damnit.

>>33254
but this is based off of a game, two of them, and SRW logic should hold true. Staying passive would only have one unit firing at us at first while the other two have to get into position while if we charge them, we'll be in all three's firing ranges.

>>33256
Ah, blocking their line of fire with their own units isn't kiting. Kiting is staying just out of range, attacking, and running away when they get close.

It's a moot point though, if their specs are better she probably won't be able to outmaneuver them enough to pull off your plan.

>>33258
She doesn't need to run circles around them to make them fear friendly fire. They're in a close-knit unit at this moment. Provided she can get there before they break apart, they shouldn't fire at us, as they would fear hitting each other. Easy pickings at that point.

I really don't mind any outcome as long as we get the mastery, though. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

>>33259
You're overlooking melee weapons. It's a lot harder to cause friendly fire with a melee weapon unless you're swinging wildly or trying to hit someone who's grappling with your buddy, and I don't see either of those happening. Or do you really think a squad of soldiers will be paralyzed by fear the moment you get in their faces?

>>33260
It really depends on the training of the soldier, but for these guys I don't. I believe they will die when switching weapons and trying, ineffectually, to close into range though. Or do you believe we will simply hop in and trade blows back and forth?

[X] Take it easy.

Let's shave off two at least before we bumrush them to clean up.

[x] Take it easy.
------

“I’m ready whenever you chumps are,” the woman speaks into her radio, confidently, without any hint of fear or nervousness to her voice at all. Whatever she may be feeling on the inside, she’s not allowing it to manifest in her speech, chewing on the butt of her cigarette as the smoke fills the inside of her cockpit. “C’mon, it’s 4-on-1. What are you so afraid of? Go on, c’mon and give me a warm greeting, why don’t you.”

Of course, she’s doing this in hope that one of the pilots is dumb enough to fall for her taunt, not that she’s really expecting anything in particular. Still, if she can shave off even one of them because they fell for a stupid trick like that, that would make this a lot easier, she thinks.

“You bitch...” one impulsive pilot begins to reply into the open channel, although judging by the way he quickly shuts off transmission, he must have been reprimanded by his squadron’s leader.

The woman lets out a tsk, though she’s not too disappointed. Seems they’re not stupid, at the least, which is going to make this a bit harder for her. Still, there’s no shaking that look of calm relaxation from her face, as she briefly takes her cigarette out of her mouth to drop some ash in the tray. Biting the end of it again, she grips her controls, her Arbeiter responding to her touch by taking a single, cautious step forward.

“If you’re not gonna come over here, I guess I just gotta go over there, huh!?”

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1CCzrzhAZ0

The Arbeiter springs into action and begins running toward the platoon of Wanze, the gears in its legs turning and clunking as its heavy feet hit the unpaved ground beneath them, leaving shallow imprints behind in the dirt. The Wanze all prepare their weapons, aiming their arm-mounted auto-cannon at the customized Arbeiter.

Running in a slight slant, the bullets follow the Arbeiter as it attempts to circle around the squad, hitting the ground. The Wanze in the back position of the platoon braces itself with its clawed feet, its missile pod raised and pointed in the direction of the Arbeiter as it fires a volley of rockets. The Arbeiter quickly raises its rifle as the missiles home in on its direction, firing a wide salvo, shooting them down before they can hit their mark.

That one’s definitely the most problematic, she thinks. The other Wanze are equipped with those shoulder mounted folding cannons, which are slow and cumbersome to aim. As long as you’re constantly on the move, those cannon rounds shouldn’t be able to hit you. The missiles, on the other hand... they can definitely be a pain. With that in mind, the woman chooses her first target, and propelling the controls forward, she skillfully maneuvers her IF.

“Take this!”

The Arbeiter stands its ground, pointing its rifle in the direction of the Wanze squadron. Moving the barrel in a wide arc, she lets out an automatic burst, the bullets following that arc to sweep across the air. Surprised by the sudden return fire, the platoon splits apart from its tight formation, activating their boosters to quickly spread out to avoid the barrage. But before one of them can plant both their feet back on the ground, the Arbeiter shifts its aim to one of the Wanze in particular.

“Sorry, but I’ve got you!”

The grenade launcher below the barrel of the rifle fires its round with a sharp whistle, the grenade leaving a thin trail of smoke behind it as it sings across the air. Unable to change direction so quickly in response, the missile-equipped Wanze attempts futilely to move out of the way, but the grenade slams straight into the surface of its armor, exploding against it. Immediately, the Wanze falls to the ground, one arm blown apart from its body and the leg on the same side badly damaged, effectively disabling the Frame.

“This is Bug 3, I’m getting out!”

“Heh,” the woman smirks, sitting back in her seat. “That’s one down.”

[ ] Alright, let’s keep at this pace!
[ ] Time to charge in.

----

BATTLE LOG:

Wanze (GDA Pilot) was shot down by Arbeiter Custom (??????)

----

2 turns remain.

[x] Alright, let’s keep at this pace!

We took out the missiles to improve our current strategy. Switching now wouldn't make sense.

[x] Time to charge in.

She's already demonstrated a remarkable ability to dodge enemy fire. Unless these guys can whip out something new, we got this in the bag.

[X] Time to charge in.

[x] Time to charge in.

[x] Time to charge in.

[x] Time to charge in!
----

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1CCzrzhAZ0

“Alright, that’s about enough pussyfooting for now,” the woman mutters to herself with a grin that seems half-crazed, the burnt up ash at the end of her cigarette dropping down onto the cockpit floor from the movement without catching her notice. She clenches her fingers tightly around the controls, her already pale knuckles turning even whiter with tension. “Ready or not, here I come, you unlucky bastards!”

The Arbeiter charges forward, its heavy footsteps raising dust into the air as it sprints at full speed toward the three, separated Wanze. To keep them from firing at her, the woman aims the Arbeiter’s assault rifle at them, letting out a waist level spray. The Wanze disperse again, evading the burst of bullets and unable to get a lock on the Arbeiter as a result of their own movements.

The woman’s maniacal grin growing even wider, she practically stomps on a foot pedal in the cockpit. At the rear of the Arbeiter, a large booster drive opens up, exhaling fierce hot wind as its main thruster activates, carrying the Frame up into the air. The Arbeiter flies up into the air, jumping in a long arc toward one of the Wanze, the booster at its back shutting off as the Frame falls back to the ground. Aiming the barrel of the rifle down at the Wanze, the Arbeiter lets loose a spray as it falls, punching several holes into the CF’s external armor and sending it stumbling back a step. Landing right in front of it, the Arbeiter viciously lashes out with the stock of its gun, bashing the CF right in the face and knocking it onto its back. Pointing the rifle at the fallen Wanze’s legs, it puts a few well-aimed rounds into the knee-joints and in its head, destroying its ability to stand along with its camera units.

“This is Bug 4. Sorry, I’ve been disabled!”

“That’s two~” the woman says to herself.

“I’ll get you!”

The impulsive pilot who had responded to her taunting earlier charges forward, the heavy clawed feet of the Wanze rhythmically moving up and down as it runs toward the Arbeiter. Foregoing the gatling gun and the shoulder cannons altogether, the serrated knife in its left arm glows hot, the metal edge taking on a color of the sun, heated enough to cut through metal like butter.

Seeing this, the pilot of the Arbeiter smirks, calmly detaches the magazine of its rifle and reaches for another one, located in the same thigh rack where it got its grenade. Magazine in hand, the Arbeiter quickly hops to the side as the Wanze swings down its bladed-arm, loads the magazine into the gun, and points the gun at the Wanze, just as it turns to swing again. It releases a barrage from the gun, and the Wanze falls back, punched full of holes and critically damaged beyond function.

The woman glances to the side, however, when she hears a small siren going off inside her cockpit.

“Ah crap!” she curses, tugging hard on the controls.

The Arbeiter turns in the direction of the fourth and sole-remaining Wanze. A single round is fired from its cannon, too fast for the IF to move out of the way. The round hits the Arbeiter in the right shoulder, blowing off that arm entirely with a deafening, crunching sound of metal striking metal. Electrical currents run over the damaged shoulder of the Arbeiter, and inside the cockpit, the woman curses in a much stronger language, the cigarette having been knocked out of her mouth from the impact.

“You little bastard...” she mutters.

The Wanze fires its cannon again, but this time, the Arbeiter manages to sidle out of the way, running to the side. Unable to turn fast enough to keep a lock on the IF, the cannon of the Wanze folds back, and its clawed feet dig out of the ground, and the Wanze begins to chase after the Arbeiter, its gatling arm raised and firing in its direction. The Arbeiter stops, stands its ground, and takes a potshot burst at the Wanze as it moves, aiming slightly to the side to adjust for the Wanze’s movement. The bullets hit the gatling gun, piercing through it and igniting the ammo inside, causing an explosion which blows off that arm.

Left with no other weapons, the Wanze charges forward with its knife-arm pointed toward the Arbeiter, the edge glowing as it heats up. Not willing to take chances with a damaged IF, the woman grits her teeth, aims the rifle as the Wanze charges, and sprays with her rifle. The Wanze attempts to boost out of the way, but it reacts too late, and the bullets dent and impact its armor, knocking it back and immobilizing it as the damaged Arbeiter walks forward, still firing, until the bullets punch through the armor and through the vulnerable circuits, and the Wanze bends its knees, falling onto its front.

(Battle mastery earned.)

“Tsk,” the woman clicks her tongue, dissatisfied as she looks at the smoking Frame. “Dammit, now they’re gonna take out a repair fee on the payment.”

She turns her damaged Frame in the direction of the still-crippled mammoth of a machine, looking over it again.

“Why would Murasaki Industries want that thing, anyway?”

----

BATTLE LOG:

Wanze (GDA Pilot) x 3 shot down by Arbeiter Custom (??????)

----

Fajra’s Side

Far East Base, Japan
May 5, 118 F.E.
1:30 PM

“Whaaaat?” I say, my mouth agape with shock, hoping against hope that I didn’t just hear what I think I just heard. “They’re putting that project on indefinite hiatus? Why!?”

“Didn’t you hear about what happened yesterday?” Nitori says, wiping the grime off her face with her sleeve, a spanner held in her hand. “A psychodriver test pilot made off with one of the SR-series prototypes during testing. Killed two pilots and wounded two others. Terrible, isn’t it?”

“B-but,” I stammer, frowning. “Why are they putting the project on hiatus? They don’t need to do that!”

“It’s not a big surprise,” she replies, gripping the brim of her hat and adjusting it on her head with a sigh. “I mean, after a prototype gets stolen, just like that, they’re not going to be handing any others out like they’re toys. Anyway, why’re you getting all fired up over this? You’re not even a pilot.”

“Well,” I say, feeling a bit downtrodden now. “...I was just really looking forward to seeing those new CFs.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” she says, nodding with a look of dispiritedness similar to my own. “When I heard about it, I thought I was gonna cry. But y’know, it’s not the end of hope. They only halted the developmental side of the project. The pilots are still undergoing training, so maybe we’ll be able to see the project continue sometime soo--”

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjqm_WdJwA

The dim, cool lighting of the hangar area suddenly turns to red, and the horrible, loud buzzing of multiple klaxons fill my ears almost painfully. Eyes wide, I look around in a panic, seeing only red as the alarms continue blaring. I look back at Nitori, who’s looking around everywhere, just as confused as I am. What’s going on? Is something happening outside?

“H-hey,” Nitori begins nervously. “I think we’re under attack or something.”

“Under attack?” I repeat incredulously. “Under attack from who? The GDA’s not at war with any--”

I turn around as I hear a rapid set of footsteps approaching from behind, my heart nearly flying out of my chest when I realize that a woman is running toward me. Dressed in a high-ranking officer’s uniform, I recognize her as the officer who’s always carrying her sword around everywhere, and she’d seem almost glad to see me, if it wasn’t for the completely stiff and grave expression she’s wearing right now.

“Major Konpaku!” Nitori calls her name out aloud.

“Fajra Sierra,” she says with a tone of urgency, her short silver hair reflecting red light. “We need you to pilot.”

“Huh? What?” I mutter out dumbly, my eyes probably bugging out at this point. “Why!?”

“We’ve picked up unidentified signatures approaching the base, and we have reasons to believe them to be hostile,” she says, prompt with her answer. “By our calculations, it’ll be a little under ten minutes before they reach our base. The other test pilots are all out field training, and even if they hurry back, it would take them forty minutes at the least to return to base, and we could well be wiped out by then.”

“W-w-wait,” I stammer. “But aren’t you a pilot? Why don’t you go out and beat them?”

“We need fifteen minutes to prepare my Type-S for sortie,” she says, again, very prompt with her words. “But the Type-TT can be made combat-ready in just five, and you can use that to buy us some time until I can scramble. Our regular pilots were killed in yesterday’s... incident, and you're the only other person in this installation with experience in CF piloting at the moment. Do you think you’re up for it?”

[ ] “Of course I am!”
[ ] “I--I don’t know...”

[x] “Of course I am!”
Let's show the enemy who the hell we are!

[X] “I--I don’t know...”

Let's see what this reaction does. And reluctance would make sense: there's a difference between the simulator and actual combat.

[X] “Of course I am!”

We're supposed to be hot-blooded, so show it.

[x] “Of course I am!”

[x] “Of course I am!”

If there was a blunt refusal option, I'd pick that.

[x] “Of course I am!”

[x] “Of course I am!”

[x] “I--I don’t know...”

It takes a special sort of crazy to hop straight into a live fire situation with extremely little preparation. I don't think she has it. Though it's obvious she'll be hopping in that CF no matter what she says.

[+] “I--I don’t know...”
The tide, piss, etc.

[x] “Of course I am!”
----

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjqm_WdJwA

“O-of course I am!” I finally manage to say after a moment of thought, boldly stepping forward with a hand on my chest, in spite of my voice coming out strained and in a bit of a stammer. “If I don’t pilot, we -- no, this whole base -- might not make it, right? Then I’ll do it, no question! I’ve been waiting for a chance like this anyway!”

“Good,” the sword-carrying woman replies simply, although she doesn’t really seem to put much thought into my response, turning around swiftly, and ready to march off somewhere else. “Follow me. We’ll change you into your piloting suit while they’re fitting the Type TT unit for battle.”

“Um, okay,” I mutter, moving to follow her.

“Hey, Fajra...” Nitori’s voice of concern comes from behind, prompting me to turn to her briefly, “...Good luck out there.”

“Yeah, thanks,” I nod.

----

“All ready?”

I look down at my skintight dark-colored piloting suit, feeling somewhat out of my element. I never realized these suits stuck to your skin like this. Even though it’s exactly for my size, somehow it still feels really uncomfortable and restricting. Wait, isn’t that kind of strange? If every piloting suit is customized to a pilot’s known measurements, why in the world is there one that fits me so perfectly..."

“Y-yeah, I’m ready,” I say, dispelling those thoughts from my mind while picking up a helmet to carry under my arm.

“Then let’s go. We have no time to spare.”

Looking at her, I realize that she’s changed into a piloting suit as well, although hers looks a little different from what I’m wearing. She has these weird gold caps on her shoulders and knees and on the back of her hands as well. Realizing that this probably isn’t the best time to be asking about them, I decide to keep quiet and follow without a word as she begins power-walking back to the hangar, still carrying around that sword for some reason.

Before I know it, we’ve arrived back inside the hangar, and the gray-painted Kreuzritter MK II Type TT, which had been sitting around in the hangar ever since the testing of the T-Link System was completed, has been brought to the center of the area, a beam rifle mounted onto its back, with the machines used for loading its vulcans moving away from the standing Frame. Major... Konpaku, was it, leads me to the front of the frame, where a lifter has been placed for getting into the cockpit.

“Once you’re outside,” she speaks to me as I step on top of the platform, grabbing onto the railing on the side, “I’ll support you from here until my unit is ready for sortie. Do your best until then. We’re counting on you.”

Uwah, now I’m feeling so much pressure...

The lifter begins to raise the platform up, bringing me closer to the Kreuzritter’s open cockpit hatch. I can feel my heart rate quickening as I draw nearer to it, my legs feeling a bit weak and my stomach churning around. Geez, even though I tried to talk so big earlier, I can’t seem to hide how scared I am from myself. I-I mean, a real battle is completely different from just simulation! I feel so nervous that it’s hard to keep my mind from just blanking out...

Feeling the platform stop, I take a deep breath and let go of the railing, taking my first step toward the open cockpit. My leg nearly gives out on me when I plant it on the ground again, but I manage to stop myself from crumpling onto the floor and take a second step forward, exhaling to calm myself.

Raising a foot, I climb into the open hatch, turning around and shoving myself back into the seat. Feeling the weird “backpack” thing on the back of my piloting suit attaching itself to the seat, I reach back and fasten the seat belts. Moving around in my seat a little, as if to make sure I’m safely secured to it, I then reach up to the panel on the top of the cockpit, pressing the button to close the cockpit hatch. Darkness fills my eyes as the light from the hangar is shut out, but the inside of the cockpit soon fills itself with light as the screens come to life. Basic movement and attack patterns have already been stored within the OS, so there’s no need to input them, so all that remains is a system check.

“Fajra Sierra, can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” I reply, hoping my voice isn’t shaking noticeably while I press the button combinations ingrained into my fingers. The sight of the hangar interior flickers onto the screen in front of me, the giant gate allowing for Frames to move in and out of the hangar still remaining shut, “All systems are nominal... I think.”

“Engage the unknowns, and don’t let them reach the base. You’re authorized to destroy them if possible. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“Then we’re opening the hangar gate.”

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpm4AxnFLbA

The gate slowly parts, sliding open and letting bright daylight into the dimly lit hangar. My heart feeling like it’s about to burst with my palms already sweating like crazy, I wipe them on my knees before gripping the controls tightly, like my life depends on it. Slowly, very slowly, the Kreuzritter Frame takes its first step, and from the shaking of the cockpit from that action, I surmise that this is neither a dream nor a simulation. This... this is real! Feeling like I’ve only just had that realization, my breath becomes restless and heavy.

“Don’t lose your nerve before it’s even begun,” Major Konpaku admonishes, though not with a heavily harsh voice. “Try to keep your head on straight.”

Shaking my head and slowing down my breathing, I push forward on the boost, and the thrusters at the Kreuzritter’s back flare up, launching it forward. The resulting G-force pushes me hard against my seat, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Keeping my chin up, I keep my eyes on the screen as the Kreuzritter boosts past the doors and out into the world, the blue sky no longer obscured by a ceiling.

“The unknowns are about 2000 meters away, to the north. Do you see them on your radar?”

Glancing down at my radar, I see several heat signatures in the direction the Major’s given me. “Yeah, I do.”

“We’ll send you a visual of the unidentified enemy units now.”

A rectangular portion of the screen to the side cuts away from the camera, replaced by the image of a photograph sent from the base. Depicted in it, I see some kind of a brown, multi-legged machine. It has a cylindrical, drum-like body suspended by six, spindly legs that grow thicker at the bottom. In the middle of it, there’s a glowing red orb, which I’m thinking might be the camera unit. There are gatling guns integrated into the drum-like body, while two menacing cannons rest on top of it...

“Is that... a spider?” I say out aloud.

“These arachnid tanks are your enemies. Shoot them before they shoot you, and you won’t have a problem.”

“...What if there’s a person inside?” I ask quietly, voicing what’s probably my biggest fear.

“Don’t worry, these units are unmanned.”

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t. But it might be easier for you to think of it that way.”

Well, that doesn’t help me at all...

Gulping hard, I look back at the radar. The Kreuzritter is currently speeding north, and the unidentified spider-tanks should be in visual range soon. Lifting my chin back up to the screen, I spot a whole group of them lined up in the distance, charging with their multiple legs moving up and down as they scramble across the earth, moving much faster than a Wanze running at fast speed could hope to match.

I... I definitely won’t let them reach the base!

[ ] Take them head on in close combat!
[ ] Try to lure them away from the base.

----

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

Winning condition(s):

1. Survive for 5 turns
OR
2. Destroy all enemies.

Losing condition(s):

1. Kreuzritter MK II TT (Fajra) is destroyed.
2. Any enemies reach the Far East Base.

Battle mastery requirement(s):

1. ?????? (Not yet available.)

----

[x] Take them head on in close combat!

These things are on a mission, and they are moving way too quickly to be comfortable. Unless we can somehow deal a tremendous amount of damage on them, they'll probably just run right by and fuck up the base, ignoring us entirely.

[x] Take them head on in close combat!

Spiderbots, fuck yeah. I'd rather root for the enemy.

[x] Take them head on in close combat!

[X] Take them head on in close combat!

[x] Take them head on in close combat!
------

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVksPCHVqes

For now, the least I can do to start off is to halt their advance, and the best way I can think of doing that is to charge at them and disrupt their formation. Quashing my fear away to the furthest corner of my mind, or at least, trying to do so to the best that I can, I continue to press the Kreuzritter on, the boosters roaring as loud as they can as the mech shoots forward at maximum speed. I’m not too confident about my shooting, so I’ll try to finish this quickly with just the saber!

Hovering along the ground, the Crusader extends its arm forward, its metallic fingers clenching into a fist. It swings that arm out to the side, keeping it fully extended as shining particles begin showering out from the opening at its forearm. Moving across the air, following the movement of the arm, the particles gush out from the opening, forming into a thick, flowing blade of light.

“Four of them...” I mutter to myself, counting the number of the mechanical spiders I see, and taking a quick glance at the radar below to make sure there aren’t any more. “I’d better not screw this up...!”

Approaching the spider at the edge of the formation, its body turns in the direction of my Kreuzritter even as its legs continue to carry it across the ground. It stops in placing, sinking its foremost legs into the ground to brace itself. The twin cannons on the top of its body align themselves, pointing the end of their barrels at me. A split-second before they fire, I maneuver to the left, pulling hard at the controls. Explosive shells fire from the cannons, and the Kreuzritter manages to dodge them just in the nick of time, and I try not to let the sounds of the explosions from behind me get to me as I push forward.

“There!”

The Kreuzritter swings its arm outwards in a horizontal slice, the saber at its forearm slashing away at the front of the arachnid mech. It attempts to double back, trying to dodge the swing, but the saber manages to catch its frontal legs as it raises them to scurry back, slicing them off clean, and it loses its balance, falling onto its back. It doesn’t stay down for very long, though, and it soon raises itself back up on its four remaining legs, although I don’t intend to let it shoot at me again!

“Oh no you don’t!”

The Kreuzritter reaches out with its right arm, grabbing it by the head. Quickly, I switch the boost into reverse, and the frontal thrusters fire with the Frame still grabbing onto the body of the spider. Maneuvering into the air so that it’s situated above the spider-like mech, the Kreuzritter shuts off its frontal thrusters and immediately switches the power to the back thrusters, smashing the spider into the ground.

“They’re not people, they’re not people, they’re not people...!” I mutter furiously to myself.

Still on top of it, the CF winds back with its saber arm, and stabs it through right into the center of the body. Quickly, before its reactor can go critical and explode, the Kreuzritter withdraws its arm, the particles gushing out of the forearm fizzling as it turns the saber off, and activates its frontal boosters again, dashing back just as sparks begin running wild around the spider-like machine, culminating in a grand explosion that sends its flaming parts flying everywhere.

Turning the mech to the side as it lands on the ground, I frantically look around for the remaining three enemy units before thinking to glance at the radar again. Finding them, still advancing toward the base even with the destruction of one of their own, I turn my Frame in their direction and charge at them again, from behind this time!

“Wha-!?”

I receive a nasty shock as a pair of shells whiz by my Frame, having managed to get out of the way just in time. While chasing after the spiders, one of them turned their torso a complete 180 degrees to fire their cannons at me! I--I wasn’t expecting that, and I’m not sure how I managed to dodge it, either. I think it was on impulse, or something, or maybe sheer dumb luck. Either way, using a dirty trick like that... I’m not going to forgive that one.

“Eat lead!”

As the Kreuzritter flies toward the second spider, the two compartments in its chest opens up to reveal the hidden vulcans. Pressing on the secondary fire triggers, I grit my teeth as the cockpit of the Frame shakes slightly from the recoil of firing the guns. The fired rounds hit the main body of the spider directly, tossing it left and right as it’s battered by a storm of gigantic bullets, wearing away at the armor until it punctures through. The Kreuzritter swoops in, its beam saber flaring out of its arm once again, and as the battered spider attempts to regain its bearing, the Crusader slices into its body, cutting it apart diagonally, speeding away as the bisected machine detonates spectacularly.

“Whew...” I breathe a small sigh of relief. That’s half of them...

“Woooow, you ain’t half-bad, Miss! Taking out two of our Tsuchigumos without even getting a dent in your armor! You really rock!”

Huh?

Who was that? That wasn’t Major Konpaku, or anyone else that I’d recognize... does that mean, it was the ene--

Beep beep!

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqqPEcQd9j0

“What the?!”

I glance at the radar, which is now showing at least five new heat signatures at its edge! Turning in that direction, I put the zoom on the screen at maximum, and see four of the same spider-like units approaching us from there, surrounding one in particular that seems to have a different paintjob. While the others are a dark, industrial gray, that one in particular appears to be painted in a light brown color, with golden trims. Is that... the enemy commander?

“A little word of advice, though. If you’re going to yell inside your Frame like that, at least remember to disconnect your communicator from the open channel first, please. It’s rude to the other people who use it.”

“Wha?”

I feel blood rushing to my face.

“Oh, and do watch your back.”

Without delay, I turn my mech around. Right before my eyes, I see the two remaining spiders from earlier behind me not too far from where I am, both of them just having finished aligning their cannons in my direction. No, no good, I’m not going to be able to dodge in time! Oh, darn it, I went and let myself get distracted over something stupid like that!" I don’t want to die because of that!

“Ah!”

A glint of sunlight shines into the main camera unit of the Kreuzritter, blinding the screen with light for just an instant. When it clears up again, I see the two spiders again, standing, at least until they seem to just fall apart all of a sudden, the top halves of their bodies sliding apart from the bottom before lighting up in explosions timed exactly together!

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VSA7CvnBAU

Beep beep!

The radar’s heat sensor detects something, apart from the two spiders that detonated just now. Turning in that something’s direction, I see a lone green Kreuzritter standing there, holding an oversized katana blade in one hand. T-the sensor’s going off just now!" That means it must have been moving faster than the sensors could detect, but...

“I’ve kept you waiting,” a voice comes from the radio. A familiar one, this time. “Youmu Konpaku, the sword that cuts to the truth, has arrived.”

T-the sword that cuts to the truth..."

The green Kreuzritter gives its katana a hard flick to the side, as though flinging blood from it, before turning and pointing the tip of it in the direction of the new enemy arrivals. “Those who would attack this base: I don’t know your intentions, but if you wish to test yourselves against my blade, then come as you dare.”

...She’s like a completely different person from before.

“Ahaha, the sword that cuts to the truth, huh?” the enemy commander says in a cheerful tone of voice. “Well, since you gave me your name, I guess it’s only polite to give you mine! I’m Yamame Kurodani, an ally of justice!”

“An... ally of justice?” I mutter out loud in disbelief.

“Yup yup,” she replies back happily. “And you guys are the enemies of it.”

...Huh?

“Don’t try to understand her reasoning,” Major Konpaku says over a private channel. “We can do that after we’ve captured and interrogated her.”

“Uh... right,” I say, nodding, remembering to turn the frequency to hers.

“More importantly, do you think you can handle to small-fries by yourself?”

“Huh? By myself?”

“Yes. If possible, I’d like to engage the enemy commander alone before she has the chance to retreat. But if you don’t think you can do it, then I understand, and I’ll support you as you attack.”

“Oh, well, um...”

...There are four of them, excluding the commander’s unit. That’s the same number as the initial wave of enemies, but just now I had to be bailed out of trouble by the Major... but that was because I was distracted, and I was doing well until then. But, that may have just been beginner’s luck. What should I do..."

[ ] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.
[ ] You’ll handle the grunts yourself! The Major should fight the enemy commander.
[ ] No, wait, you’ll fight the enemy commander! The Major should be the one to clean up!

----

BATTLE LOG:

Tsuchigumo x 2 was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II TT (Fajra)
Enemy reinforcements arrived: Tsuchigumo x 4, Tsuchigumo Custom
Allied reinforcements arrived: Hakurouken (Youmu)
Tsuchigumo x 2 was shot down by Hakurouken (Youmu)
Mission objectives changed.

----

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

Winning condition(s):

1. Destroy all enemies.

Losing condition(s):

1. Any ally is destroyed.
2. Any enemies reach the Far East Base.

Battle mastery condition(s):

1. Tsuchigumo Custom (Yamame) is destroyed. (Retreats at 40% HP)


----

[x] No, wait, you’ll fight the enemy commander! The Major should be the one to clean up!

Efficient.

[X] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.

Oh great, destroy a unit that retreats. I hate this kind of BM. Gotta whittle them down close to their retreat point, then hit them with a powerful attack and support attack, hoping it will be enough. Also, I don't think the Major will appreciate an attempt at hogging the glory.

[X] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.

I doubt a single unit could finish the fight without Yamame retreating. Time for support attacks.

[X] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.

[X] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.

This is my favorite BM 'cuz you can take your time killing off the other units.

>>33509
Forgot your pic.

[X] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.
Sounds best for the Skill Point here. Take care of the small fry, build Ki and perhaps gain a level, then unleash all you have on the cowardly boss who wants to retreat and not give you the exp and money.

[X] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.

[x] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.

[x] Attack the enemy units alongside the Major.
----

“...I’m sorry, but I think I’m going to need your support, Major,” I say, my voice not exactly brimming with confidence, to say the least. After being jumped at all of a sudden like that by those other two spiders, I’m still a little shaken up at what I was sure was going to be my untimely death. I can’t be taking a risk when I’m like this, or I’m just going to make some stupid blunder again, and that’ll be the end of that...

“Alright, I understand,” Major Konpaku’s voice comes in through the radio. “Don’t worry. There’s no shame in feeling hesitation in a situation like this, given your inexperience at the moment. I’ll cover you as best as I can.”

“Are you two done going over your plan? Because pretty soon I’m going to have to order the drones to attack, or else it’s gonna look like I’m taking it easy on you two, and that would be pretty bad for me.”

The Major’s scoff can be heard on the radio, having switched the frequency back to the open channel and speaking into it. “Excuse us for keeping you waiting, then. Order them to attack as you will, but be warned: we’re going to strike back in full force.”

“Hahaha!” the woman calling herself Yamame laughs, sounding genuinely amused rather than as a mocking gesture. “No crying on either side, no matter who wins, then! Right, right, let’s go on ahead and start this up again!”

My grip on the controls tightening, I grit my teeth, hissing through them as I remember the anger and embarrassment I felt before, “I’m going to get you back for that stunt you pulled earlier. I’ll scrap those spider drones of yours!”

The gray spiders surrounding the brown ones begin to scurry on ahead, advancing toward the two of us. The gatling barrels at the front of their bodies extend out, spitting out bullets in our direction. In nigh-synchronized movement, the Major and I give a quick dash in opposite ways, evading the storm of bullets.

My Kreuzritter reaches back, grabbing its rifle, and points it forward. I’m not too good at shooting, but at this distance, it’s the only thing I can rely on! Raising my hand and placing the gun camera at my eye, I push the Kreuzritter forward as the targeting system searches for a lock on one of the heat signatures belonging to the spider robots up ahead. Acquiring a lock on the edge-most and the closest of the machines, I eagerly pull back on the fire trigger.

The beam rifle lets out a sharp howl, firing off two precise shots at the spider’s main body as the Kreuzritter races along the ground. The beams pierce through the thick armor of the mechanical spiders, burning it and emerging from the other side. The damaged spider rears back, its legs giving out under the weight of its body and falling to the ground, rocked by small explosions in its wounds until it light up in a much bigger one, blowing up into pieces.

“I got one!” I say, ecstatic.

“Good job, but don’t let your guard down!”

Looking to the side, I see the Major’s green Kreuzritter race on ahead of mine, her machine moving at a much faster acceleration. As a commander-type, it’s only to be expected that her personal unit would have much higher specs than this one, which, aside from the T-Link System, has the same basic performance rate as the regular MP model, but even so, it startles me how fast that thing can charge forward!

The green Kreuzritter rushes one of the spiders before it has the chance to lock-on with its cannons, and gives a quick, one-handed stroke with its blade, sparks flying into the air as the metal edge scrapes against the steel armor of the spider. Leaving a nasty gash in its armor, the Major’s Kreuzritter doubles back, the frontal thrusters flaring, gripping the sword with two hands as the spider stumbles back from the force of the first blow. Lifting the katana overhead, with boosters engaged on full, the Major’s Kreuzritter rushes forward and delivers a heavy downward stroke, cutting through the machine cleanly in half!

“Woah...” I find myself gasping in amazement.

The separated halves of the machine split apart, beginning to fall to the ground before an explosion engulfs them both, the Major’s Kreuzritter illuminated in the light of the inferno, flicking its blade through the air like before. Looking at the edge of the blade, I can’t find even a single chip or a sign of any damage to it at all. That’s amazing, even though metal isn’t meant to cut through metal like that, she chopped that thing up like... um, something really easy to cut through!

Not to be distracted for long, however, I quickly turn my attention to the other two spiders. They’ve planted their feet into the ground, bracing themselves for their cannons. One of them’s facing me, and it’s obvious that I’m the one it’s aiming for! Hearing the roar of its cannons, I swerve the mech hard to the left! The cannon rounds hit the ground behind me, exploding into shrapnel, but I’ve easily cleared its blast range!

But in the time I dodged, the spider’s merely turned its torso, realigning its cannons and firing at me again! Darn it, did it anticipate where I was going to dodge? That’s not fair! I tug the controls to the right, trying to pull the Kreuzritter in that direction as fast as I can manage, but the thrusters are still recovering from that last boost! I’m not going to make it...!"

“Hyah!”

The green Kreuzritter moves into the trajectory of the cannon, right in front of me! As the cannon rounds soar through the air, the Kreuzritter swings its blade in a horizontal arc before itself. Small explosions appear in the air in front of it, spreading deadly metal shrapnel, but the Kreuzritter remains unmoved, the bits of steel practically bouncing off the mech and doing nothing but scratching the paint.

“Now to return what I owe...!”

The green Kreuzritter slashes the air, the blade of its katana glowing green. I feel a small pressure against my head, and an instant after that, an arc of green energy shoots out from the katana, a crescent shaped blast soaring out toward the spider that attacked me. The spider stumbles back as the crescent blast hits it head-on, knocking it back and gashing through the front of it. The spider’s legs go limp, and the machine falls down, going silent.

I can’t forget my part, either!

Searching for the last remaining spider, I find it where it was standing before. Acquiring a target lock on it, I keep the Kreuzritter stationary as it aims its beam rifle toward it, firing off three shots. The spider quickly scurries to the side to dodge the first shot, but the second shot nails it in one of its legs, sending it crumpling to the ground and leaving it vulnerable to the third and final shot, which hits the middle of its body, sending it up in flames.

“Hoo, boy,” the enemy commander’s voice comes in through the radio again, “You two are really something else. I guess I’ll have to step up to the plate, too.”

The brown spider... the one that’s being piloted by... Yamame. Can I do it?

“Don’t kill her,” Major Youmu warns. “We’re trying to take her alive.”

“I know that,” I reply.

She’s got to be better than those drone-piloted spiders. How should I face her..."

[ ] Go for a direct attack on the body!
[ ] Try to take out its legs. It can’t dodge if it can’t move.

----

BATTLE LOG:
Tsuchigumo (AI) was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II TT (Fajra)
Tsuchigumo (AI) x 2 was shot down by Hakurouken (Youmu)
Tsuchigumo (AI) was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II TT (Fajra)
Tsuchigumo Custom (Yamame) began moving.

----

[x] Try to take out its legs. It can’t dodge if it can’t move.

[x] Go for a direct attack on the body!

Fajra is too green to have any success at hitting the smaller targets. We'll have to let Youmu handle the more challenging aspects, while providing suppressing fire.

[x] Try to take out its legs. It can’t dodge if it can’t move.

[+] Try to take out its legs. It can’t dodge if it can’t move.

[x] Go for a direct attack on the body!

[x] Try to take out its legs. It can’t dodge if it can’t move.

[x] Try to take out its legs. It can’t dodge if it can’t move.
----

I know! That thing’s dependent on its multiple legs for mobility, so just taking out a few of them will hinder its movements. It’s fast, though, and the targets are so small that I probably wouldn’t be able to shoot them out with the rifle. No choice then. I’ll have to charge in with the saber instead. But can I do it? Scurrying about on those six legs, that thing’s mobility is definitely much higher than any Wanze I’ve ever seen. No, I can’t second guess myself now. I can’t afford that. I’ll charge in, and... well, I’ll just hope I can manage things somehow!

I pull on the controls, and the Kreuzritter flicks its arm out to the side, the left arm giving off a bright pink glow as the beam particle blade extends out from the forearm, giving of a light whir and hum as the shining particles pour out of the blade hatch. My brows knit together in concentration, I keep a close watch over the screen, my eyes locked onto the mecha spider. It’s large body is swaying about on those legs, leaning back and forth, almost like it’s daring me to come closer. I take a sideway glance at the green Kreuzritter belonging to Major Youmu; her mech is holding its sword with both hands, unmoving.

“Don’t either of you have any guts? C’mon, what are you so afraid of?” the enemy commander yaps into the radio, playfully taunting in tone. “Ah, whatever. If you’re not coming, then I guess I’ll be the one to kick off the ball.”

My body tenses up, watching the mecha spider’s body lean over forward, ready to move. The gatling cannons at the underside of its “belly” aims at the ground, and it sweeps along the ground about while firing, the bullets hitting it with enough force to kick up a whole lot of dust, obscuring her mech from view. Turning from the view screen, I glance over to the radar. Even if I can’t see it, the sensors should still be able to pick up where it’s moving and--

“Gah!?”

The inside of the cockpit rattles about, knocking me around in my seat. Turning to the screen again, I see the spider-tank, surrounded by the smoke it created, pressed up against my machine, having crashed one of its legs into my Frame. The Kreuzritter stumbles back a step, the auto-balancer struggling to get the unit to stand straight again. Damn it, that thing is fast! I took my eyes off it for just a few seconds, and it’s already closed the gap between us. Oh well, I was planning to go into close combat with it anyway. It’s just saved me the trouble of approaching it.

With weak arms, I tighten my grip on the controls, and begin to maneuver the mech into range for its saber. The spider-tank moves in, its body held low to the ground while advancing with its frontal legs poised for a strike. The Kreuzritter lifts up its left arm, the saber extended out from the end of it still gleaming in the air, the shining particles still flowing forth from it as the power output rises.

“I’ll take your legs!” I yell out, pushing forward.

The Kreuzritter swings its arm down, at the joints connecting the legs to one side of the body, aiming to cut them all off at once.

“Ugh!?”

The spider-tank quickly reacts, and swings its leg outward in a swift strike. It strikes the saber-arm, knocking it away mid-swing and sending the entire Frame on a wide jerk to the side. Before I can react, it thrusts its other raised leg toward me, and I see now that it ends in a sharp, blade-like shape. I tug at the controls, trying to get the machine to move, but it’s no good, it’s not responding as fast as it can! I’m thrown back in my seat, a shock jolting through the inside of the cockpit as the bladed leg sinks into the armor covering the joint in the arm and shoulder of the Kreuzritter’s right arm. With a heavy thunk it sinks in all the way through to the other side, and almost sadistically, the embedded leg slashes upward, ripping through the joint and cutting off the entire right arm from the shoulder.

“Damn it!” I curse, looking down as the severed arm falls to the ground along with the rifle it’s holding.

“Come on, come on, at this rate you’ll be done for!” the enemy commander says with an annoyingly good natured laugh.

Behind the spider, amidst the smoke from earlier, I see a glint of green, and a fierce gust blows away the remaining dust. Major Youmu’s machine is dashing from the back, its sword raised high above its head. The spider turns about, and raises its legs to strike, but the Major’s mech reacts faster, and swings its sword straight down, slicing through two of its right legs in a single swipe. The spider quickly regains its balance, scurrying away on its remaining four legs, though at a much slower rate than was possible before.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” I say, breathing a small sigh of relief.

“It seems like this opponent’s too much for you,” the Major continues, her mech turning to face the spider-machine. “...Maybe you’d better fall back after all. You’ve done your part well enough, and it’d be pointless if you ended up getting killed here.”

[ ] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”
[ ] “Y-you’re right, Major...”

[X] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”

Well, it had gone more or less as expected, what with Fajra not seeming to have the Focus spirit (yet?), and going up against a fast foe with an attack without accuracy bonuses.

Ah well, this can probably still be salvaged, if we're lucky. I'm not going to give up on that Battle Mastery just yet.

[x] “Y-you’re right, Major...”

What's with the lack of votes during fight scenes?

[x] “Y-you’re right, Major...”

[X] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”

>>33687
Worried about screwing up. Not as if we have savestates to take advantage of here.

[x] “Y-you’re right, Major...”

At this point she's a supporting character in a gespenst (figuratively speaking), and it's time to let the ace pilot in the custom mech take over.

[x] “Y-you’re right, Major...”

[X] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”

Battle Mastery must be obtained. Where's your hotblood, people? As long as we have even one weapon, we can fight.

Let's do this thing.

[X] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”

We can still fight, we've got a sabre and vulcans. And the T-Link System.

[X] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”

>Losing Condition
>Any ally is defeated
It's like those missions in which you force deploy someone lame.

[x] “Y-you’re right, Major...”

Early missions that demand shootdowns are pretty much "let sanger have a go at it." It'll be enough.

>>33701
We didn't cut down Yamame's health at all. Youmu by herself isn't going to be able to deal a definite finishing blow.

>>33704
I think the legs counted slightly for damage, and I doubt an one armed mech would help much at this point. There'll be a time where Fajara will shine... it just isn't now.

>>33704
We're a liability right now, not an asset. Youmu certainly won't be able to deal a finishing blow if she's forced to protect Fajra.

Then again, she is in a mech powered by pure bullshit.

[X] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”

[x] “No! I’ll be fine, I want to help!”
----

“No, I’ll... I’ll be okay,” I protest, though my voice isn’t coming out as strong as I want it to.

Swallowing hard, I reaffirm my grip on the controls, taking a quick glance at the status panel of the Kreuzritter. The right arm on the display is no longer lit in green. But, I still have the left arm, and the chest-mounted gatling guns. I’m not out of the fight yet. Not just yet, when I’ve still got a debt to repay against that spider.

“Please, you don’t have to worry about me, Major. I want to help!”

“Understood,” Major Konpaku’s voice replies, slightly crackling, "But don’t let your guard down for even a second. Now, let’s go!”

The enemy takes a few scuttling steps back from the two of us, its movement hindered quite a bit by the loss of two of its right legs, though its mobility still can’t be underestimated. It rears back on two legs, and the gatling guns below its body realign toward us, and the single camera unit at the fore glows with red light, like a large ruby. The air fills with the sound of gunshots as the spider opens fire and sweeps its body across the ground in a wide arc, moving as it shoots. Immediately reacting, I pull the mech to the left, taking evasive action.

I wince as the cockpit of the Kreuzritter rattles a bit. Looking up at the status screen, the Frame’s taken some hits to the torso. Only about 10% damage to the outer armor. It’s mostly superficial damage, and it’s not detrimental to the machine’s performance... I think. Meanwhile, Major Konpaku’s machine has advanced on in spite of the gunfire, the bullets mostly bouncing off the thicker armor of her customized Kreuzritter. It raises its sword, and strikes down with an overhead slash, which the spider quickly darts out of the way of, the heavy metal blade crashing down on the earth.

“Hoo, that’s some impressive armor,” the enemy commander exclaims, laughing, still not sounding like she’s serious about this at all, “Then, how ‘bout this!”

The cannons at the top of her machine’s drum-like body align themselves, aiming at the green Kreuzritter, and in response, the Major raises her machines blade, ready to cut through the cannon rounds in a single stroke like before. The cannons fire their shells, but--

“What--?!”

The shells explode -- but it doesn’t explode to send shrapnel anywhere, but instead what looks like a giant net expands out from them, flying toward the Major’s Kreuzritter. She tries to maneuver her machine out of the way, but she’s too slow, and the nets quickly cover her machine, the ends of it latching onto the bare ground with spikes. The machine struggles, trapped by the nets, unable to move from standing position.

“Damn it, this won’t slow me down,” the Major’s voice comes through the open channel frequency, low and irritated, “I need only to cut through!”

“Good luck with that. In the meantime, I think I’ll help myself to the rookie!” the enemy joyfully replies.

Uh oh, here she comes! If that’s how it’s going to be, then I’ll just charge her before she can get on the offensive. If I can just keep up the pressure until the Major can free herself, then that’ll do just well! Taking a deep breath, I push the controls forward, warming up the thrusters as the boosters at the back of the machine flare out, hurtling the mech forward. The beam particles are still flowing out of the left forearm, trailing along the air as the Frame flies forth toward the spider.

“Haaaaaaaah!”

The Kreuzritter swings its arm horizontally, aiming to cut straight across the enemy unit. The spider-tank responds almost instantly, scurrying back just shy of the blade’s range. Not wanting to let up on the pressure, I keep on the attack, throwing the Kreuzritter’s entire body at the thing. The two bodies of metal collide, and the spider-tank is pushed back, its legs dragging across the ground as the Kreuzritter struggles to push forward, raising its arm for a slice down.

“Guh!” I grunt as I feel an impact against my Frame, thrown back.

The enemy unit digs its legs in further into the ground, rooting itself in place, the Kreuzritter still pushed up against it, the thrusters failing to move the machine any further. The enemy spider lifts one leg and swings it outward, knocking back my machine and sending it hurtling back, skidding against the dirt.

All the shaking nearly upsets my stomach, and I can almost taste bile at the back of my throat. Still, trying not to lose myself in the middle of a battle, I hold it in, and try to get the Kreuzritter back up as quickly as I can. It lifts up its torso, struggling, sparks flying out of its dismembered shoulder joint. The spider is quick to move up to it, looming overhead.

“Damn yooouu!” I curse, pulling at the secondary fire triggers.

The hidden compartments in the Kreuzritter’s torso open up, revealing the vulcans. They fire up at the spider looming over the machine, the high caliber rounds battering themselves against the spider’s outer frame, but before they can do more than just dent the armor, the spider quickly pulls itself back out of firing range. The sound of gunshots are soon replaced by empty clicking.

“I’m out of ammo? Oh geez...”

The Kreuzritter lifts itself back up fully. I’ve dropped the rifle, and the vulcans are out of bullets, and looking up at the status screen, it won’t be long before the saber’s out of juice, too. If I’m going to do something, then I’d better get it done quickly, or I’m going to be reduced to just punching and kicking, if I’m not dead before then!

[ ] Go grab your fallen rifle. Even with the left arm, it should be able to operate it.
[ ] Keep at it with the saber.
[ ] Fall back and keep on the defensive. You just need to buy some more time until the Major can free herself.
[ ] Doesn’t this thing have any other weapons!"

----

BATTLE LOG:

Hakurouken (Youmu) was hit with a status effect (webbed, 0 movement.)

----

[x] Doesn’t this thing have any other weapons!"

Well???

{x] Doesn’t this thing have any other weapons!."

Is it outrageous that I'm hoping for some burning finger reject that still feels awesome?

[x] Doesn’t this thing have any other weapons!."

Stake Set!

[X] Doesn’t this thing have any other weapons!"

This is suppose to be a T-Link System installed machine, right?

[x] Doesn’t this thing have any other weapons!?

[x] Doesn’t this thing have any other weapons!"
----

“Damn it...” I mutter to myself. The inside of my helmet feels stuffy, and I can feel sweat rolling down my face. It bugs me a little, and I want to take the helmet off and give it a little wipe, but I know I don’t have the luxury to be doing that right now.

Still, I feel really irritated right now, not just from that, but from how limited my options are right now. The vulcans are out of ammo, the rifle is gone, and the saber’s nearly out of energy. The opponent is much faster than me in close quarters, and with all of those legs moving so quick its movement is so weird and unpredictable that I know I won’t be able to outmaneuver it at all, so even close quarters isn’t favorable!

Is this it? Am I really out of options? Come on, you’ve gotta be kidding! This thing is supposed to be the Alliance’s latest general purpose Combat Frame, and it can’t even take on an oversized spider? No, more than that, this is supposed to be equipped with a T-Link System, right? It’s got some ridiculous prototype system that’s supposed to work magic and let me teleport or something, so what’s the problem? How do I use it? Can I even use it?

“Dammit dammit dammit...” I mutter to myself as one of my hands drifts over to the configuration board, gliding over the panels. “T-Link System... T-Link System... which button is it, which button is it? How do I activate it!?”

“It’s not something that can be activated by key inputs,” the Major’s voice buzzes out of the radio. “You need to focus, and visualize.”

Focus? Visualizing? Is that really going to work, especially in the middle of a battle like this? I take a sharp gasp of breath as the spider approaches me, its crushing metal legs carrying it toward me at a still incredible speed, despite its lost legs. It lifts its remaining frontal leg, driving it toward me, and I quickly react, activating the reverse thrusters as quickly as I can manage, my body tugged against my seat restraints as the mech flies back.

“Major, what exactly do I need to do!?” I say aloud, urgently.

“Reach inside to find the power you need. You only need to grasp it!”

That is amazingly unhelpful.

Ahh, whatever! If all I have to do is just focus and visualize something, then I’ll just give it a shot. Leaning forward in the seat of the cockpit, my hands grip the controls tighter as I bring them forward, my brows knit together in concentration. Focus, focus, focus... but what do I focus on? What do I visualize? I still have no idea what I’m supposed to do at all!

“Come on... come on...”

The spider turns its face toward my machine, and the gatling guns open fire. Dropping all of the focus I’ve mustered, I quickly take evasive action. The Kreuzritter jets to the side, the bullets fired at it flying past it, but at the same time, the spider rushes forward at the Kreuzritter. Clenching my teeth, I try to boost in the other direction, but it can’t change directions fast enough! She already knows the limitations of the machine and is using them against me? It lifts its leg, and sends the blade at the tip toward me, aiming straight for the cockpit!

“Sorry, but you’re through!”

“Oh damn it! Come on, you crappy piece of junk!” I scream, tugging at the controls. “Do something! Do something, do something, do something, do anything at all!”

The screen in front of me suddenly lights up in green.

My eyes widen in amazement as the green light envelops the entire cockpit block, bathing everything in that green glow. I feel a strong nudge against my forehead, like there’s something softy and cushy but also heavy being pushed against my face. Amidst the green light, I can see the spider’s leg approaching, but it strikes against something solid in front of the Kreuzritter, bouncing off it without reaching the machine.

“A barrier...?”

Looking up at the status panel of the Kreuzritter, I see glowing words emblazoned on top of the machine’s figure. ‘Detecting brain waves,’ ‘Psychodriver Link Established,’ and at the very bottom, ‘Activating T-Link System.’ This green light, and this heavy pressure I feel in front of me, is this... me? Am I producing this weird green light..."

“Good! You did well!” Major Youmu’s voice blares out of the radio, “What you just used to shield yourself is pure psychoenergy, which has an unlimited potential in how you use it! Now, manipulate that energy of yours and shape it into a weapon!”

I--I still don’t actually know how I did what I did just now, so I think ‘turning it into a weapon’ is just a little bit beyond me. But, ahhhh, geez, whatever, I got this far just winging it, I might as well try to go all the way. Focusing on the pressure I feel in front of me, I try to move it around, trying to shift it about. Shape it into a weapon, shape it into a weapon, shape it into a weapon...but um, what kind of weapon? What am I supposed to do?!

[ ] Just slash it apart with a single stroke of a blade!
[ ] Unleash it all in a devastating blast!
[ ] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!

----

BATTLE LOG:

Kreuzritter MK II Type TT (Fajra) gained an ability (TK Barrier.)
Fajra gained a pilot skill (TK Level 2.)

----

[x] Unleash it all in a devastating blast!

Make it a psychic boomerang! They'll never see it coming.

[x] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!

I believe in hands that glow with an awesome power.

[x] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!

T-LINK KNUCKLE!!!

[x] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!
T-LINK
KNUUUUCKKLLEEE!!!

[X] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!

[X] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!

[x] Just slash it apart with a single stroke of a blade!

While a shining finger is undoubtedly cooler, this option will allow us to harness our power with more range, and without mech limitations.

>>33860
Look at this man, he doesn't know how to ryusei

>>33862
Look at this man, he makes stupid references to games I have never played, and which have little bearing on the story.

>>33863
You know... it is called "Robot Wars".

[X] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!

First thing I've thought was Mugen Punch instead of T-Link Knuckle.

[x] To hell with shaping it into a weapon, focus it all on a single fist!
----

“Just telling me to do it is easy enough, but...” I grumble to myself, easing my hands slightly as I watch the mecha spider in front of me rebalance itself after its strike.

But the ‘psychoenergy’ she was talking about is definitely there, and it’s what shielded me from that thing’s last attack. When the leg struck against it, I felt like there was something scratching against me, or rather, it was scratching something that was like a part of me without actually being connected to my body, like... like some kind of external extension. If I can somehow focus my thoughts on that ‘extension’ of me, I might be able to do something with it.

I furrow my brows together, trying to force myself to think really hard. Concentrating on that point in front of me, where I can feel the external pressure against my head, I try to reach out with my mind, trying my best to shape it. It feels like - like a plastic bag full of water, sloshing around at the slightest of touches, not really letting me grab hold of it at all, constantly and always slipping and moving out of my grasp.

“Look out!”

My attention snaps back to my surroundings, and my eyes widen as I see the enemy unit approaching me again, stabbing forward with its leg again. Gritting my teeth, I give up on trying to shape the formless ‘mass’ and extend it out in front of me, the way it was before. Green light covers the view on my screen, and I feel a strong jab against my head as the leg collides with the field of green projected in front of my machine.

“Khh...” I groan, one eye closed in a wince. “I can’t control it at all.”

I take a sharp breath as the leg rears back for another strike, unwilling to let down the barrier for an attack. The leg stabs forward, and I prepare myself for another impact, but before it hits, a green blur beyond the neon field in front of me moves in front of my machine, a glint from sunlight reflecting off something blinding my monitor. Outside, I hear metal clashing against metal, and a crash, and when the light dies down, I see the Major’s Kreuzritter standing before mine, sword held low to the ground. The enemy spider is retreating away, the blade portion of its frontal leg sliced off.

Her green Kreuzritter’s head turns toward mine, the red visor glinting, “Now, deliver the final blow!”

R, right!

If it’s too difficult to shape it into a weapon, then I’ll go with something much simpler. I’ll just focus all of that energy into a single fist, and then pound the crap out of that stupid spider!

Focusing on the feeling in my head, knitting my brows together again, I try to push that mass onto the remaining hand of the Kreuzritter, the saber retreating back into the arm as the beam particle emitters cease their flow. The Kreuzritter lifts up that arm, its hand stretched out with the palm facing me, so that I can have an easier time visualizing. I can see it! The metallic hand in front of me begins to give off a green glow, the same as the barrier, coated with that shining neon energy!

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny24zPeQLks

The hand slowly grips into a fist, and I maintain my focus on it with every fiber of my willpower as it continues to give off that radiant green light. The spider limps back slowly on its remaining four legs, and I’d swear that it almost seems afraid of me. I feel my lips curling into a confident smirk, even as beads of sweat continue to run down my face in my too-stuffy helmet, as I push the thrusters at full blast.

“Here I go!”

The Kreuzritter hurtles forward at a near-breakneck speed, pressing me against my seat as it accelerates! The boosters on its backpack modules and at the back of its knees flare up to their highest output as they push the machine as it thrusts toward the mecha spider with its arm pulled back, the green energy held in its fist leaving a glowing trail in the air. The spider attempts to scurry out of my path, but with its legs damaged like that, it’s no match for the top acceleration of this Kreuzritter MK II!

“Eat it!”

The Kreuzritter swings its fist toward the spider, and catches it with a terrible blow to the side of its main body. The fist digs against the thick outer layer of steel, causing a massive dent in the frame and lifting the entire thing up by a few feet. There’s a moment of silence, with the spider hanging in the air, suspended up by the Kreuzritter’s glowing fist, and then --

Fwoosh!

A crashing, turbulent sound fills my ears, and a blinding light fills my eyes. An immense amount of light erupts forth from the fist embedded against the spider-like mech, engulfing the opposing unit entirely and blowing it away into the air. Within the almost unbearably bright blast, squinting my eyes even through the colored tint of my helmet visor, I can see the silhouette of the spider mech breaking apart within it.

(Battle mastery earned.)

The light dies down, and I can see clearly in front of me again. The main body of the spider mech lies off about a hundred meters away, all of its remaining limbs blown off and lying about on the barren earth here and there. The cylindrical body itself looks battered and beaten, and there’s black smoke rising up from several breaches in the armor. Feeling drained, and breathing like I’d just run a marathon, I lean back in my seat, uncomfortably sweaty. Vaguely, with what little flexing of my mind I can do at the moment, I wonder if I didn’t overdo it just now. I hope I didn’t kill the pilot...

“Ugh...” the radio crackles with the voice of... what was it, Yamame? I feel a small relief, knowing that she’s alive. “That was a hell of a punch, Miss. So that’s the power of a psychodriver machine. I’m pretty happy to have gotten to see it, so I guess a ‘thanks’ is in order.”

“You...” Major Konpaku’s voice replies, “How did you know that was... That’s supposed to be classified information! Who are you?”

“I told you, I’m an ally of justice,” the enemy pilot responds playfully, though her tone soon becomes drastically more serious, “You’ll see what I mean if you tune in to the broadcast an hour from now. We won’t let the GDA do whatever it likes anymore, and you shouldn’t either, Miss Test Pilot. They’re just going to treat you like monsters, you know, you and all the other psychodrivers. That’s the kind of people the GDA top brass are.”

“You’re not qualified to be so self-righteous,” the Major responds, a hint of irritation to her voice, “You can’t get away now. Not with your machine in that state.”

“I wonder about that...”

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjqm_WdJwA

The ground suddenly shakes, rocking the cockpit of my machine. Between my Kreuzritter and the battered main body of the spider, the ground starts to break up, cracks appearing on its dry surface. The earth splits apart, displacing dirt to the surface as something large tunnels its way up out from the ground.

Easily as large as a CF, the... thing that came out from under the ground looks like... like a bucket of some kind, as a cylinder with a wider top than a bottom. One arm ends in a drill, while the other appears to be the barrel of a gun, but it doesn’t seem to actually have any legs at all. Just like the spider, there’s a single red orb in the center of its body which is probably the main camera unit.

“Another enemy?” I breathe out weakly.

“She’s trying to escape!”

Redirecting my attention to the pilot of that mecha-spider, I zoom in the view on it. A hatch just below the red orb on the body opens up, revealing a set of steel doors that also slide open as a blonde woman steps out of it. I zoom in closer. She isn’t wearing a piloting suit or a helmet. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail, and she’s wearing a dull gray jumpsuit caked hard with dirt and grime.

I nearly flinch when I see her turn her face in my direction, and as though she knows I’m looking at her, she winks and salutes me before leaping out of the hatch, onto the ground 30 something feet below! Completely unfazed by the landing, she runs along the ground toward the new arrival, and as it opens up the hatch to its cockpit, she leaps -- and covers at least ten meters with that jump -- and safely heads inside the hatch as it closes up again.

“W-wha...” I mumble, awestruck.

“I won’t let you escape!”

The Major’s Kreuzritter rushes past my own, running full pelt toward the bucket-like mecha with its sword held to the side, but the bucket turns around (by means which I can’t comprehend) and lifts up its gun arm. A jet of flame shoots out from the barrel, and the Kreuzritter is forced into a sudden stop, kept at bay by the flamethrower. Still spewing fire, the bucket-like mecha slides backward (again, by means which I can’t comprehend) and propels itself up (and I’ve given up trying to by this point) and, shutting off the flamethrower, it dives into the ground with its drill, tunneling underground.

“Tsk, how shameful,” the Major grumbles to herself. “Operator, come in. This is Major Konpaku. All hostiles have been neutralized, but the enemy commander has escaped. Prepare to accept us, and get on the recovery of the shot down enemy machines.”

Finally able to relax, I take my helmet off. My hair feels sopping wet. It’s pretty gross now that I think about it. Can’t wait to take a shower.

“...Hey, Major,” I mutter, feeling grateful for the touch of cold air against my skin. “What was she talking about? I mean, about ‘tune into the broadcast’ thing.”

“We’re probably going to find out soon. Let’s return to base,” she replies, and then adds, almost as an afterthought, “You did well, Fajra Sierra.”

----

BATTLE LOG:

Kreuzritter MK II Type TT (Fajra) gained a new weapon (T-Link Cross Punch.)
Tsuchigumo Custom (Yamame) was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II TT (Fajra).
Battle mastery earned.

----

??????
May 5, 118 F.E.
3:00 PM

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqjbQKeg4yM

The screen fills with static, amidst it an image of a half open eye. It fills the entire screen, though it appears to be unstable, the picture twisting and distorting itself at irregular intervals. The eye never appears to blink at all, remaining still at all times. The image becomes clearer, the static less prominent, and although the image still has a few hiccups at times, it seems to stabilize itself, as a loud buzzing sounds itself out. The loud, buzzing noise gradually lowers in volume. A voice, so badly distorted that it’s impossible to determine whether it’s a male or a female speaker, comes out through the buzzing in the background.

“This is a message from the Underground Resistance. We have hijacked the waves, and we are broadcasting this message all over the world,” the distorted voice says, “Today, several of the Global Defense Alliance’s military installations came under fire by unknown enemies. Matute Base in North America, the Far East Base in Japan, and the Badeni Base of Austria were among several of the bases that were targeted for attacks.”

“We, the Underground Resistance, claim responsibility for these attacks. However, these were not acts of mere terrorism. Over a century ago, we were greatly wronged by the GDA. Oppressed by an intolerant and bigoted government, we youkai were forced to take up arms against it, to fight for our right to freedom. However, outnumbered and with less than even a hundredth of the resources of the GDA, we were defeated, our numbers slaughtered like common cattle, and banished beneath the earth. The tyranny of the GDA continues to this day.”

“But we have not lost our will to fight. On this day, we have returned to the surface, and we have resolved to continue our battle for freedom from the corrupt rule of the GDA. Though we still lack the resources that the GDA has, we have right on our side. Matute, Badeni, and twelve other military installations of the Alliance have already fallen into our hands today, and more will soon follow.”

“To the youkai still remaining on the surface since that fateful day, we implore you to stand up, and to devote yourselves to our cause. There is no need to fear the events of the past, or the GDA’s new ‘Combat Frames.’”

The screen switches to an image of a Tsuchigumo unit, one leg driven through the torso of a defeated Wanze lying on the ground.

“Our ‘Multipurpose Frames’ are more than a match for them.”

The screen switches back to the image of the eye, unchanged from its earlier appearance.

“And to the misguided ‘psychodivers’ within the GDA military, we warn you: you are being used. The Alliance sees you as nothing more than weapons with which to threaten us. You have already seen the dangerous extent as to what your powers can do. Leave the project now, or you will all become worse tragedies than the atomic bomb.”

“Lastly, to the GDA, you may treat this message as an informal declaration of war. The Underground Resistance will continue to carry out attacks on your military installations until we have secured all of our demands, which will be made known at a later time. We will not tolerate any further abuse of our kind. We will take back the surface.”

The screen remains still for a moment after the voice goes silent. The buzzing stops, and static fills the screen again, blocking out the image of the eye.

----

[ ] Switch to Steyr’s side.
[ ] Switch to Fajra’s side.

[X] Switch to Steyr’s side.

Well, that ended better than I had hoped! So, it's settled that Steyr's the Real Robot route and Fajra's the Super? Or was it still too early to tell?

[x] Switch to Steyr’s side.

>G Gundam- Shining Gundam/Finger Theme
I usually don't listen to the links provided, but I suspected that this specific theme would be making it's appearance. I am incredibly glad to say I wasn't let down. Fuck yeah.

[x] Switch to Fajra’s side.

[X] Switch to Steyr’s side.

Hmm... I wonder how many people (in story) watching that that would notice that while the Far East base was mentioned as one of the installations that were attacked, it wasn't specifically mentioned as captured. Ah, propaganda.

[X] Switch to Steyr’s side.

[x] Switch to Steyr’s side.

[X] Switch to Steyr’s side.

[+] Switch to Steyr’s side.

[x] Switch to Steyr’s side.
----

Chairman's Office, Kakutasu Energy
3:00 PM

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTUCWhmptZE

“So it’s finally begun.”

A woman, dressed sharply in a purple suit, takes a sip from an ornately decorated teacup, one leg crossed over the other in a laid back way. She leans back in the lounging couch she’s sitting in, holding matching plate to her teacup in her other hand. Her gaze is directed up, to the side, where a wide screen hangs from the wall. Moving her eyes away from the screen as the image of the eye is replaced by static she turns her head forward, a smirk on her face.

“It seems we’ll be quite busy from now on, Mr. Erich,” she says, setting her teacup down in her plate.

“Yes, that’s right,” a cybernetic voice replies, coming from the man sitting on the couch opposite of the woman. He’s sitting in a much less leisurely manner, his back upright with his hands folded together between his knees, a grave expression on what remains of his face. “...The GDA will now know true war, for the first time in over a hundred years.”

“Yes,” the woman says with a small, almost malicious giggle, “Have they already contacted you?”

“As soon as the attacks began,” the man answers, wringing his white gloved hands together. “The Alliance has been anticipating this for a very long time as well. They’ve requested that we speed up the production of the CF-10 models, although, at the rate the manufacturing is going, it will still be some time before we can issue them out.”

“And that’s where I come in, of course,” the woman replies, a sly grin on her face as she touches one of her lips with an index finger, “You already know my rate, don’t you?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t dare forget,” Mr. Erich answers, his shoulders jerking slightly as though he’s scoffing at the question, “You are a very important business partner, after all.”

The woman laughs, pausing briefly to sip from her cup again. “Of course, of course. Then we’ll take some of that production off your hands.”

“I am quite grateful.”

The woman lowers her cup, though she keeps it in her grip. She looks up at the screen again, though now it displays nothing more than silent static. For a moment, her smirk fades from her face, turning into a hard, cold expression. It only lasts for a moment, however, before an arrogant smirk returns to her face again.

“I’ve been waiting for so long,” she says, almost to herself.

“Pardon?”

“After all,” she turns back to her host, her smirk turning into a full, almost maniacal grin, “There’s really nothing more profitable than war, is there?”

Mr. Erich stares at her with his remaining eye, before letting out a sigh, and reaching forward to take his teacup from the desk in front of it. He takes a drink from it, and then parts his lips to speak, “Yes, you are quite right.”

“A toast,” the woman raises her cup, “to our bright prospects.”

The man raises his cup, leaning forward to clink it against hers.

----

Steyr’s Side

Cafeteria, Far East Base
3:05 PM

“Steyr!”

I turn around in my seat, seeing Usami and Hearn hurriedly walking toward me. The former is clearly unnerved, while the latter seems more confused and puzzled than anything. Of course, I don’t have to guess at all what this is about. Usami, her arms shaking a bit, pulls up a seat at my table and sits down, while the other girl nervously follows her lead, sitting down next to her. Usami leans forward in her seat, her gaze intense.

“Are they for real?” she asks.

“I would assume so,” I reply dryly. “You heard about the attack on this base, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but... but are they seriously declaring a war on us?” she says, seemingly unable to comprehend the idea. “This is crazy. This has got to be some... some kind of a bad joke!”

“If it’s a joke, it’s an elaborate one,” I say, swirling my spoon around in the soup in front of me with disinterest. “...If they really did capture those other military bases all over the globe, then they’re too well-organized and too well-armed to be just a simple terrorist organization. They’re challenging the GDA, so they must have a military force capable of standing against it.”

Usami bites her lip, before finally saying the thing that’s weighing on her mind, “...They’re not going to make us fight in the war, are they?”

“Who knows,” I reply, shrugging my shoulders. “It’s too soon to say.”

“They can’t,” she says, as if saying so will make it true, “They can’t make us do that. They don’t have any right to make us do that.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” I say coldly. “You may have joined the military as just a test pilot, but you’re still military. And when you’re military, you don’t call the shots, the higher ups do, and if they say you’re to fight in the war, there’s nothing you’ll be able to do about it.”

“Then we’re quitting, right now,” Usami immediately replies, standing up from the table.

“Eh?” Hearn mumbles in surprise, looking up at her friend.

“We’re leaving, Mary,” Usami says, turning to her. “We’re leaving the military before they can make us fight.”

“But...”

“Do you want to fight in a war, Mary?” Usami asks forcefully, “And put your life on the line in every battle, and kill other people?”

“N-no, of course not! But Renko, just yesterday we--”

“We had a choice yesterday. We chose to fight,” she says impatiently. “We won’t have a choice if we stay here! We’ve got to leave, or we’re going to--”

“If you leave, you’ll be marked for desertion and tried as a traitor,” Major Udongein’s voice comes from behind Usami as she approaches the three of us with her arms folded behind her back. “As of now, the GDA is officially at war. Desertion during wartime is equal to treason, and subject to capital punishment.”

“No way...!” Usami turns around hastily, her eyes widened in shock, “You’re lying!”

The Major’s expression doesn’t change, remaining completely calm as she speaks, “It is definitely not a lie. If you think I’m lying, then feel free to go ahead with your plans to leave. You’ll know I was telling the truth when you’re standing in front of a firing squad.”

Usami looks blankly at her, her face frozen in that look of shock. She stumbles back weakly, grabbing onto the table beside her for support after nearly missing a step. Her expression of shock quickly turns venomous, and her face flushes with anger as she steps forward again.

“You trapped us! You trapped us here because we were psychodrivers!” she yells, outraged. “You knew this would happen, so you all tricked us into joining the military! They’re right, aren’t they!" The GDA just wants to use us as weapons in war! I knew this whole project was fishy from the beginning!”

“R-Renko...” Hearn timidly speaks out to her. Usami gives no response, completely incensed. Hearn then looks over to me, her eye pleading for help.

[ ] Agree with Usami.
[ ] Talk Usami down.
[ ] Let the Major handle this.

[x] Agree with Usami.

Every choice looks good~

[x] Let the Major handle this.

Letting Udongein handle this situation will allow us to disseminate her words and actions, allowing us greater insight into the situation at hand. Maybe Usami does have something here, but we'll never know if we shoot our mouth off and pick a side, or stop the addressing prematurely.

[x] Talk Usami down.

I don't think she'd be inclined to listen to Reisen until she's calmed down. I doubt Reisen would explain herself much, being a seemingly "Do your orders, no questions" type of commander.

>>34144
>disseminate


[x] Talk Usami down.
Well of COURSE they're weapons. What did she think they'd become, high ranking generals? Does she think the military cares about individual soldiers' lives?

>>34149
In an effort to make myself look better, we'll just pretend I actually said dissect, which is what I meant. Oh god, so embarrassing. I wish we had an edit button.

[x] Talk Usami down.

[x] Agree with Usami.
Well, she's right.

[X] Talk Usami down.

Whatever the case may be, they're in the military now, and were just fine with it until an actual war was declared. You get recruited into the military, you don't get to stick around just until a war crops up, then go gallivanting off. This isn't the time for her to be panicking, either; in her situation, the only way to live is going to be to do her best in battle. It's the only option that she has left.

It's interesting to see that it's Renko who's taking this badly, and Mary is relatively collected despite the situation.

>>34165

I could be wrong about this but I see it more as Mary having a passive personality and probably would worry and panic by herself rather than vocalize it like Renko is right now. That and the fact that everything may not have completely sunken in yet and her reaction is still just delayed.

[x] Talk Usami down.

[+] Talk Usami down.

She needs to chill before she gets herself, and possibly her friend, in shit too deep for her to handle.

[x] Talk Usami down.

[x] Talk Usami down.
----

Feeling Hearn’s gaze burning into me, I sigh and let go of my spoon, leaning back in my chair and looking up at the girl, whose face has become beet red in her outburst. The clattering of my spoon against the plate draws her attention, and as she turns her head in my direction, I take the opportunity to speak up, “...That’s enough, isn’t it? Usami.”

“What...?” she mutters, her tense shoulders relaxing slightly.

“I’m saying that you’ve said enough,” I say, raising my voice just a notch higher. Folding my arms together, I close one eye as I speak, “We don’t know if what you’re saying is true or not, but, let’s suppose for a moment that it is true: What are you going to do about it?”

“Well I--”

“Are you going to quit the army?” I continue in a harsh tone, cutting her off. “You already know that’s impossible now. Once a war’s started, you can’t ask to be discharged. Or were you planning to desert, and to live a life on the run as a fugitive in the middle of a war? You know that’s not a life you could live.”

“But -- but it’s not fair!” she practically shrieks, her body stiffening up again. Her hands clench into tight balls, so tight her knuckles are white as sheen. “We didn’t even enlist like regular soldiers, why should we have to fight in a war against our will!?”

“Think it unfair, if that’s how you feel. But that won’t change the fact that, like it or not, you’re part of the army now,” I continue, softening my tone slightly. “It’s true that your enlistment was a special case, but only that. Now that you are part of the army, you’re no different from any other soldier who enlisted through a regular process. You should be able to understand that, right?”

Listening to my talk, she edges closer to the table, gripping the end of it with one hand. Weakly, she sits back down in the seat she had taken before, pulling herself closer. With a look of despondency, she looks down at the surface of the table before her, her hands folded together nervously in her lap.

“...I don’t like it,” she says in a quiet, subdued voice. “This isn’t what I signed on for.”

“You don’t have to like it,” I say, frowning. Of course, I don’t particularly like the situation, either, but there’s nothing to be done here. “I’m just asking you to calm down and see the options you have -- or rather, the fact that you don’t have an option here at all. Can you do that?”

Usami doesn’t give an answer, turning her face away and wordlessly staring down at the floor. Incredibly tense, Hearn looks between the both of us, sheepishly turning her head back and forth as a brief, uncomfortable silence settles in. Major Udongein, who hasn’t said a word, or even budged from where she was standing at all, announces her presence once again by taking a step toward us, everyone’s heads turning to give her full attention once more.

“The GDA Army wants us to launch an immediate counterattack against the forces that attacked us today,” she says in a strictly professional tone of voice, “On May 6th, at 1200 hours, we are to board the Destroyer-class Samidare as part of its mobile battalion force.”

“Orders came down pretty quick,” Usami says, her voice obviously tinged with bitterness. “It’s a bit strange how quick, isn’t it, Major?”

“Not your concern,” Major Udongein replies, turning her head giving Usami a hard look before resuming her previous stance and continuing. “Once on the Samidare, we will be placed under the command of its captain, Brigadier General Kirisame.”

...What’s a brigadier general doing away from the desk?

“The Samidare and its crew will then cooperate with the Noah-class Kourindou and its own mobile forces to retake the bases from the enemy,” she concludes, looking at each of us in the eyes now. “No questions, I presume.”

Usami looks away resentfully, while Hearn fidgets about in her seat, which gives me the impression that while she does have a question, she’s not bold enough to ask it. Folding my arms together once again, I give no answer either. Taking our collective silence as a ‘no,’ the Major nods her head, looking satisfied enough.

“...If there are friends, or family you wish to speak to,” she starts again, with a more casual tone of speech now, “today might be your last chance, for a long time.”

She turns around, leaving the table, leaving us. The somber mood around us persists, Usami looking downcast, staring at nothing in particular as she presses a palm to her forehead, leaning on the table. Hearn keeps trying to work up the courage to say something, maybe to cheer her up, but she herself seems a bit troubled. As for me, well, I’ve never been the best person to deal with situations like this, so I keep myself quiet, the meal in front of me long forgotten.

The sound of a chair dragging against the floor calls our attention, and we both turn to look at Usami, who stands up weakly from her seat. She makes to leave the table, using the backrest of her chair as support, getting one step away before Hearn finally musters herself up to call after her.

“H-hey, Renko!” she barely manages to mumbles out, somewhere halfway in-between a proper explication and an unintelligible squeal.

“I’m going to go call my parents,” she replies without much gusto.

“Ah, I’ll come with you.”

Hearn rises from her seat, following after her friend as she begins to leave. She suddenly stops, however, and turns around on her heels to look back at me, noticing that I haven’t budged from my chair at all. Usami also turns around, briefly looking at me before turning away, looking to the side. Timidly, Hearn steps forward toward me.

“Um, aren’t you coming too, Steyr...?”

...I wasn’t actually planning on it, no. If there was anything I wanted to say to my family before a war broke out, then I’d already said it all before I joined the air force. After all, I’m different from these two. I enlisted in the military knowing that if any wars or conflict broke out, that I could expect to placed into a life-or-death battle, and I made sure my father and brothers knew that before I left. There’s really nothing I have left to say to them. But maybe I should go along with them, if only to humor them.

[ ] Accompany them.
[ ] No thanks.
-> [ ] Wander around.
-> [ ] Head back to your quarters. Tomorrow’s a big day.

[x] No thanks.
-> [x] Wander around.

What the hell is Merry thinking? Renko obviously wants to be alone right now, spending her last few carefree hours with loved ones. Our presence would only irritate her.

[X] Accompany them.
The faster they get over this the faster they can get to improving and if this helps it can be tolerated.

[x] No thanks.
-> [x] Wander around.

As cold as it seems for us to do this, I'm thinking maybe Renko does want to be left alone.

Also:
>>34291
>>34292
>Saging your votes when you two are the first two voters, thus keeping this story from being bumped (whether or not it was already at the top)
Dicks, the both of you.

[x] No thanks.
-> [x] Wander around.

Random encounter.

[x] Accompany them.

[X] Accompany them.

>I enlisted in the military knowing that if any wars or conflict broke out, that I could expect to placed into a life-or-death battle, and I made sure my father and brothers knew that before I left.
Yes, but when's the last time you actually talked with your family? I think Steyr will find he has something to hear from them.

[X] Accompany them.

True, we may have settled our personal business long ago, but it would be good to show solidarity in this situation. The girls really need the support, and as the most experienced member of the squad, we should do our best to keep it strong. It might help keep their families from panicking if they know that a professional soldier is in the same squad as their daughters, too.

It's a pretty crummy situation, but we should do our best to keep it under control.

>>34299
>greentext
I couldn't care less about the opinion of piece of trash.

[x] Accompany them.

Couldn't hurt.

[x] Accompany them.

[X] Accompany them.

This is more or less a teamwork building exercise.

[x] Accompany them.

Even if she'd like to be alone right now I doubt that's such a good idea, she may possibly start brooding and by chance unload it all on her family.

[x] Accompany them.
----

Sighing to myself, I get up from the table, leaving the food tray where it is as I push in my seat and begin walking after the girls. Upon seeing me stand, Hearn turns with a look of satisfaction and hurries to catch up to Usami. In no hurry, I follow after them as they exit the cafeteria, out into one of the many hallways of the base, staying just a few paces behind. I’m not planning to talk to my old man, but I figure it might be good to at least accompany the two for a while, if only to ease their minds a little.

“Steyr,” Usami suddenly says out loud, not pausing or turning, continuing to walk past the gray walls of the complex as she talks, “aren’t you scared at all? Even though there’s going to be a war, even though you’re going to be forced to fight.”

“I am,” I reply after a moment of thought, “but it’s also something that I’ve been prepared for ever since I enlisted. The army isn’t just for show. If there’s fighting that needs to be done, then we’re just going to have to be the ones that will have to do it, like it or not. That’s how the military works.”

“Oh, that’s right, you were already a soldier,” she replies in a deadpan voice, falling into a stiff silence. After a few uncomfortable seconds, during which Hearn throws an uneasy glance between the two of us, Usami speaks up again, “Steyr, have you... ever killed anyone?”

“...No,” I admit.

“And... does it bother you that you might need to kill someone?”

“I won’t say that it doesn’t bother me.”

“I see,” she says, finally turning her head, her previous tension almost all but drained from her face as she puts on a small smile. “I’m a little relieved.”

“Well of course!” Hearn chirps in, slapping her hands together, and laughing, although it’s obvious that her enthusiasm is forced, “He’s not a machine, Renko!”

“No, but I bet the military wishes we were,” she replies darkly, scowling.

“Renko...” Hearn says, nervous again, her brows furrowed together in concern.

Sensing her worry, Renko relaxes her expression again. “Oh, I’m not going to desert or anything, Mary. I just don’t like the way they’re doing things, that’s all. But if they’re going to force us to fight to survive, then I’ll just have to grit my teeth and fight, that’s all.”

Not quite the most optimistic way of thinking, but it’s good enough.

----

3:15 PM

“Yo, Lieutenant.”

Standing with my arms folded just outside the room where Usami and Hearn are talking to their respective families beside its door, I give a reply in an irritated tone of voice, “It’s Ensign now. How many times do you have to be told that before it gets through to your head?”

“Ain’t it fine?” Jimenez says, laughing in a carefree manner while reaching up and readjusting the red cloth wrapped around his head, “Lieutenant sounds better than Ensign, doesn’t it Lieutenant Steyr? It makes you sound like you have a higher rank.”

Even a declaration of war can’t cure a fool of his idiocy, apparently. Or maybe this is his way of dealing with things.

“By the way,” I say, craning my head to try to look over his shoulder, “Who’s hiding behind you?”

“Eh?” he turns his head, taking a look back. “Oh, her.”

He takes a step to the side, gently nudging the person standing behind him forward. It’s a young girl wearing a uniform about a size too big for her, with a short stature and fiery red hair that seems to stick out in every direction. She reacts strongly at Jimenez’s touch, nearly jumping forward from shock. For whatever reason, she seems especially tense, staring at me with narrowed eyes while keeping mum. I get a vague feeling that I’ve seen her somewhere before.

“This is Fajra,” Jimenez introduces her, “She’s the one who fought off the invaders today.”

“This kid did?” I say, looking skeptically at her. She can’t be much older than Hearn or Usami.

“I’m not a kid,” she suddenly speaks up, her hair bristling on their ends like a threatened animal.

“Is that so,” I say, unfolding my arms. “Are you one of the regular pilots stationed here, then?”

She mums up again, and Jimenez answers for her, “Nah, she was a mechanic.”

“They made a mechanic pilot?” I say, surprised.

“The situation was complicated, I hear,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “But anyway, it seems like she was a psychodriver, so she’s been conscripted and assigned to Major Hakurei’s squad, along with me and that Russian chick. We’re boarding the Kourindou tomorrow.”

I see. So it seems this girl is just about in the same boat as those other two.

“...Well, good job on what you did today,” I say to her, “If it weren’t for you, this base might have been taken over before it had a chance to fight back.”

She says nothing, biting her lower lip. She still seems a bit angry about what I called her earlier, though my praise seems to have stymied her a little.

“In any case, welcome aboard,” I say, reaching out with a hand and...

[ ] ...shaking her hand.
[ ] ...ruffling her hair.

[x] ...shaking her hand.

>[x]...ruffling her hair

We aren't some lame NEET. We can't just do that; it would be creepy.

As an aside, this has been bothering me for a while. Just why didn't our squad get forced into that encounter? I can't remember if there was ever an explanation, or if Gespenst just sorta blew over it. I seem to recall something about there not being enough pilots left in base to defend properly, but if I'm remembering this correctly, our unit was just chilling and doing nothing. Surely they could have had us assist Major Konpaku.

>We aren't some lame NEET.
The fuck does that have to do with anything?

[+] ...shaking her hand.
Hair ruffling isn't professional.

[x] ...shaking her hand.

I don't think she's appreciate the hair ruffling at this point. Maybe later on, but not now. It's obvious that she doesn't want to be treated like a kid. Mary might not mind a hair ruffling down the line.

[X] ...shaking her hand.

[x] ...ruffling her hair.

I can't not vote for hair ruffling.

>“I’m not a kid,” she suddenly speaks up, her hair bristling on their ends like a threatened animal.
Oh, come on. That's just asking to be teased.

[x] ...ruffling her hair.

>>34468
>"The other test pilots are all out field training, and even if they hurry back, it would take them forty minutes at the least to return to base, and we could well be wiped out by then.”

>>34493
Apparently my memory is just terrible. At least I was on the right mark. Thanks for answering that.

[X] ...shaking her hand.

Ensign Steyr is immune to cute.

[X] ...shaking her hand.

Remain professional.

[X] ...shaking her hand.
She wants to play though? So be it.

Also, where's the 'join the resistance' option?

>>34513
In SRWs the lead never changes sides unless s/he ends up finding out the side s/he's on is rotten.

>>34529
Alternatively the lead's unit becomes the resistance and smashes all other sides for being warmongers (4 and J had something like that).

>>34540
smashes all other sides for being warmongers
Am I the only one seeing the irony here?

>>34542
Warmongers, he said. The resistance gives their war free of charge. That's what makes them the good guys.

>>34469
I believe that they are referencing the various "You wake up in Gensokyo" stories.

[X] ...shaking her hand.

[X] ...ruffling her hair.

It may not be professional, but she is just asking for it. Also, she is cute.

Also, this is THP, and there is always reason to ruffle on THP.

[x] ...shaking her hand.
----

...I extend it out for a handshake. The young girl looks up at me with caution still hanging in her eyes, uneasily extending her hand and giving mine a few shake. She quickly lets go as though she’s had to touch something unpleasant, taking a step back while keeping her eyes trained on me. I get the feeling that I’m not very well liked here, not by her. I look to Jimenez, who’s been standing off to the side, adjusting his headband while staring at his own reflection in the polished wall.

“Are you here to contact your family?” I decide to ask.

“Hm? Oh, nah,” he says, not turning away from his own visage, pulling down his headband a little, fidgeting with it. “My old man wouldn’t give a damn if I died in some war or not, and he’s the only family I’ve got that’s still kicking around. I don’t got anything to say to him.”

“That’s unfortunate,” I reply drily, folding my arms together.

A mechanical sliding sound issues out from beside me, and I turn my head to look as Hearn and Usami emerge from the door, the latter rubbing at her eyes with her sleeve as she steps out. They stop when they see the pair standing across me, Usami quickly bringing her hand away from her face embarrassedly. Her look of shame is quickly replaced with one of curiosity, matching her friend’s expression as they look to the other pair.

“Um...” Hearn looks to me for an explanation.

“They’re test pilots, just like you two.”

“Yo, hey there,” Jimenez greets them cheerfully, moving forward to introduce himself. “Kahr Jimenez, Private, same rank as you two, even. Me and the Lieutenant--”

“Ensign.”

“-- Right, the Ensign -- anyway, we go way back.”

“Well, um,” Hearn says, slightly overwhelmed by Jimenez’s overly familiar attitude toward her, though she quickly recovers from it and replies in kind, “It’s very nice to meet you, Jimenez. My name’s Maeriberry Hearn -- but most people just call me Mary -- and over here is Renko.”

“Hey,” Usami briefly raises a hand in greeting.

“And this here is the hero of the day,” Jimenez says with a grin, jerking a thumb beside him to the girl who looks tiny standing beside him. “She’s the test pilot who drove back those invaders today. Without her, we might all be in chains. Give her some praise, yeah?”

“Oh, be quiet about that already,” Sierra replies, her ears glowing red. “It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

He laughs loudly, almost barking, and she turns her head to the side, drawing circles on the floor with the tip of her shoe while folding her hands together behind her back and scowling.

“Really?” Hearn asks, her eyes wide with surprise. “That’s amazing! But weren’t you scared?”

“Y-yeah,” Sierra replies, nodding, “But I didn’t have much of a choice. That’s why I’m saying it wasn’t really a big deal. Any of you would have done the same thing.”

“It’s good that you have some experience, though,” Usami says.

Unfolding my arms, I start away from the group, figuring that they can go ahead and socialize with one another without me, since I’m not very involved in their conversation anyway. When she notices me leaving, Hearn tries to say something to me, but I just hold up a hand in acknowledgement of her as I continue to walk away, and she relents. I move away until I can no longer hear their voices echoing throughout the hallway, my mind focused only on the upcoming war...

----

Far East Base, Japan
May 6, 118 F.E.
10:30 AM

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfWPoFb0_aI

Outside of the main installation, on one of the wide runways present at the base, there rests an enormous ship, the Samidare. It’s about 150 meters wide and 200 meters long, standing at 70 meters tall. The front of the ship is divided into two narrow points, almost appearing to be the legs of the battleship when viewed from above. The ship’s main cannons, two enormous cylinders, are placed under its two wide wings, outstretched from the main body of the ship and swept back. The metal surface of the ship is slick, painted mostly in grayish white, with red trims along the “legs” and the wings.

On another runway, another ship has docked. 250 meters long and 75 meters wide, it is shaped more like a naval ship when compared to the Samidare, albeit one that is able to take flight, thanks to the huge thrusters mounted at its back. Colored a dull red (which does little in the way of making the ship appear less aged), “香霖堂” is painted in black along the side of the ship, the foreign characters standing out distinctly on an otherwise mostly featureless surface. Two rows of guns are mounted of top of the ship’s front, while the curved-inward bow of the ship hides the incredibly potent Kusanagi-class beam particle cannon.

Both ships are currently surrounded by dozens of workers, hurrying to load CFs into each ship. While they scurry about, the captains of the ships walk across the runways to meet one another. The captain of the Samidare is a man of average build, with graying hair and beard and many wrinkles on his face, having aged before his time. The captain of the Kourindou, on the other hand, is a tall and lanky man, with smooth, youthful skin. A pair of spectacles rest over his golden eyes.

“It’s been a while, Morichika,” the captain of the Samidare greets him warmly, reaching his hand out.

“Sir,” the other man says, saluting him before taking the man’s hand, shaking it. His stiff expression relaxes somewhat, although his shoulders still remain tensed up, and an air of seriousness still hangs about him, “Brigadier General, sir, about Lieutenant Kirisame--”

“You don’t have to defend her,” the old man sighs, massaging the bridge of his nose. “When will that problem child grow up? Shirking responsibilities like that... If it was possible, I’d like for her to stay out of this war, but...”

“I don’t think that would be possible,” Captain Morichika says, breaking his stoic face to put on a knowing, wry grin.

“Yes, well, you and I know that best, don’t we,” he replies grimly. “It’s only a matter of time before news reaches her ears, and then we wouldn’t be able to keep her away from the frontlines even if we ordered her to.”

“She wants to impress you.”

The Brigadier General makes an uncomfortable face, turning away to look at the base crew continuing their busy work, loading Kreuzritter and Wanze units into the ships’ hangars, preparing for the battles to come.

----

11:20 AM

“...although they’ve spread their forces out across the globe to attack installations all around the world, they have concentrated most of their efforts into taking the South African continent from us, succeeding in capturing almost 75% of all the GDA military bases located there...”

Taking my eyes off Major Udongein for a moment as she walks around the holographic projector displaying a world globe set in the middle of the darkened room, I take a quick aside glance at the other people sitting around me. Sitting around in folding chairs, most of them are new faces to me, having arrived on the ships that docked at this base today.

Although most of them seem to be focused on the Major, there appear to be some exceptions. A woman with twintails sitting at the backmost row seems more concerned with applying makeup on her face, staring into a handheld mirror. The woman sitting directly in front of her is jotting notes down, although from the pace of her writing I can’t imagine that the contents are at all related to the briefing here.

“...they most likely wanted to send the GDA a message by taking these non-strategically advantageous installations in the Pacific, but nevertheless, we must take them back, and it will be up to the Samidare and its mobile battalion to reclaim the Victoria Base at Jeju Island, while the Kourindou will move independently of us and...”

----

Fajra’s Side

“We’re going to North America to take back Matute,” Major Reimu drawls out in a long, bored tone of voice, hardly making any use of the floating globe hologram beside her. “While we do that, the regular GDA forces will reinforce the remaining bases in South Africa and keep the Resistance forces from spreading their territory any further out, with any luck. Any questions?”

“Yeah, I have a question,” a girl speaks up, who I recognize as Cirno, the girl who always forgets her ID. Too impatient to even wait for the Major to acknowledge her, she fires off her question in a loud, impulsive tone of voice, “Why don’t we just go to South Africa and smash ‘em all up? Why do we gotta waste our time recapturing some stupid bases?”

“Well,” the Major replies, looking slightly irritated but carrying on with the answer anyway, “It’s because the GDA’s ground forces are currently ill-equipped. The Kreuzritters only got out of testing phase a few months ago, and the enemy units outstrip the Wanze in terms of performance. In the initial engagements, I hear we ended up getting clobbered seven shades of black.”

“I don’t see what’s so wrong with the Wanze...” I hear a girl sitting beside Cirno mutter to herself.

“So, stalling tactics, then,” Irina speaks up from beside me, her arms folded together, wearing her shades even though the room is dimmed, “They want us to act as highly visible decoys until they can produce enough Crusaders to launch a full scale assault.”

“Something like that, I guess,” the Major shrugs her shoulders. She walks by the holographic projector, switching it off with a flick of a button, turning on the room’s lights at the same time. “...Now then, briefing’s over. Let’s get ready to board the Kourindou.”

----

Steyr’s Side

“That is all. All pilots, prepare to board the Samidare.”

----

CHOOSE YOUR ROUTE:

[ ] Head to Victoria Base.
[ ] Head to Matute Base.

----

Victoria Base Unit List:

Kreuzritter MK II (Steyr)
Kreuzritter Type-R (Renko)
Kreuzritter Type-S (Mary)
Commander Kreuzritter Type-R (Udongein)
Wildkrahe A (Aya)
Wildkrahe H (Hatate)
Wildhund (Momiji)
Battleship Samidare (Kirisame & SMD-00x)

Matute Base Unit List:

Kreuzritter MK II Type-TT (Fajra)
Kreuzritter Type-S (Kahr)
Kreuzritter Type-R (Irina)
Commander Kreuzritter MK II (Reimu)
Hakurouken (Youmu)
Commander Kreuzritter Type-S (Letty)
Kreuzritter MK II (Cirno)
Neumond (Rumia)
Wanze (Wriggle)
Battleship Kourindou (Rinnosuke & Tokiko)

----

[x] Head to Matute Base.

There is no lengthy explanation as to why we should pick the Matute base. I simply saw Tokiko and all other impulses were overridden. Sorry.

[x] Head to Matute Base.

Same, but for Team 9. and I like fajra. a little.

[+] Head to Victoria Base.

[x] Head to Victoria Base.

[x] Head to Victoria Base.

[x] Head to Victoria Base.

[x] Head to Victoria Base.

Wild series units tend to be solid

[x] Head to Victoria Base.

I see mechs with the wild designation, that's all I need to know.

[X] Head to Victoria Base.

[X] Head to Victoria Base.

[x] Head to Victoria Base.

I wonder if we get to do the other route afterwards or not... being a CYOA has more allowances.

[x] Head to Matute Base.

[x] Head to Victoria Base.

[x] Head to Victoria Base.
----

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oYCCpDNCs4

“It’s huuuge!” Private Hearn says excitedly, clapping her hands together like an overenthusiastic child. Her eyes are wide in amazement, contributing to her energetic and childish appearance as she marvels over the white ark that’s arrived at this base. “Wow, I’ve never seen a ship shaped like that before. Is it new?”

“It’s the first Destroyer class ship that’s been assigned to duty,” Major Udongein informs her, never losing her sense of authority as she speaks, standing beside the girl. “Its primary purpose was outer space exploration, but for now, it will serve as an armored carrier for the Alliance’s Combat Frames.”

“This thing doesn’t look like it’ll fly at all,” Private Usami says with a dry tone of voice, looking doubtfully at the ship.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” the Major replies with a faint smirk. “The anti-gravity devices in the ship will allow it to maintain atmospheric flight.”

“I remember hearing about this,” I decide to chip in. “This thing’s co-piloted by an A.I., isn’t it?”

“That’s correct,” the Major answers, “An advanced A.I. handles the alignments of the ship and its weapons, and also controls the calculations for the output of the Absolute Defense System. This ship is currently the Earth’s most advanced battleship.”

“The pride and joy of the GDA, huh,” Usami muses, before turning her head to the other ship docked within the base. “Well, at least we’re not going on that one. That thing looks like it’s going to break apart from rust the moment it tries to launch.”

Hearn takes a close look at the Kourindou, frowning. “It does look kind of filthy, doesn’t it?”

“It’s fine,” I say, folding my arms together. “Ships are created with the purpose of lasting for 30 years or so... although, that one could use a repaint.”

“We’re boarding now,” Major Udongein says, moving to the fore.

Hearn, Usami, and I, along with about twenty other various members of the Far East Base and other nearby installations, begin to march after Major Usami as we approach the boarding ramp of the Samidare. As we move forward, the captain of the ship, Brigadier General Kirisame, steps forth to greet the Major, meeting her halfway to the boarding ramp.

“Sir,” the Major addresses him respectfully, saluting him.

“At ease, Major.”

The Major lowers her hand, her arms snapping to her sides while she stands stiffly upright. It seems she even takes orders to relax very diligently. The Brigadier General nods, and then casts his gaze over the gathering of people behind the Major, a dark expression looming on his face as he lays his eyes on Hearn and Usami, standing beside me. No doubt, he must be unhappy about having to lead kids like them into a war.

Overcoming these personal emotions, the captain of the Samidare clears his throat into a clenched hand before speaking in a loud voice, “I am Brigadier General Kirisame. Beginning today, I will act as the captain of the Samidare, and you all will have your own roles and duties aboard this ship. It’s never easy to be part of a war, but you must persevere, and endure.”

He takes a step back, catching himself from letting out a sigh, unwilling to show any signs of weakness in front of his subordinates. The Major steps forward again to offer another respectful salute before turning around to the rest of us, addressing us with a strict and authoritative tone of voice, leading us up the ramp and into the belly of the ship.

----

11:30 PM

“Everything looks so... clean, in here,” Hearn mutters to herself as we walk along the interior of the ship.

Usami appears to be impressed. “Yeah, it definitely does look like a brand new ship.”

I have to agree with her, staring at the sterile white walls of the ship. The interior walls are sleek and polished, as are the floors and the ceiling, giving the interior of the ship a very streamlined appearance that seems very close to what people in the Middle Ages imagined the future to resemble. Given that this vessel was originally to serve for space exploration, it’s probably likely that one of the designers had a fondness for old science fiction movies in the Cinema Archive...

“Here’s ours,” Usami says, stopping at one of the doors in the hallway.

She presses a button next to the door, and it slides open. We step inside, taking a look around the room that’s to serve as our quarters. It’s very basic, with minimal comforts. There’s a pair of tripled-layered bunk beds, erected opposite one another on the ends of the room. Between the bunk beds, directly across from the entrance to the room, there appears to be a computer terminal with just a single screen on the wall.

“Not very homey, is it,” Usami says with a frown. “Our quarters in the base had its own shower.”

“Oh, it just needs a bit of sprucing up,” Hearn jokes with a small smile.

“It’s odd that they would assign us to the same quarters, though,” I voice a concern. “That’s against usual regulations.”

It’s almost as if they wanted to... separate me from the regular pilots.

“We don’t really mind, though,” Hearn quickly says, as if she believes that I might be feeling unwelcome.

“Even though I’m a man?”

“You seem pretty professional,” Usami answers.

I snort. Walking across the room, I approach the terminal, and as I do, the screen comes to life, flashing with light before showing a blue screen with only the words “SMD” displayed. From a speaker underneath the screen, I hear slight buzzing and static before an androgynous, robotic voice issues out from it.

“Greetings, pilots. I am SMD-00x, the Artificial Intelligence system aboard the Destroyer-class ship production model unit 01, also known as the ‘Samidare.’ Aside from assisting its captain in utilizing the Samidare’s defensive systems and weapons, I am charged with answering any questions you may have regarding this ship.”

...So this is the advanced A.I. I’ve heard about. I wonder if they gave this thing a personality to go with its speech capabilities.

[ ] Ask about the Samidare’s weapons.
[ ] Ask about the Absolute Defense System.
[ ] Can you get a map of the ship’s layout?
[ ] You've never particularly liked A.I.s. Let the girls talk to it for a bit.

[x] Can you get a map of the ship’s layout?

First things first, the shielding and weapons are option in comparison to the layout of the ship.

[x] You've never particularly liked A.I.s. Let the girls talk to it for a bit.

Fuck AIs.

[X] Can you get a map of the ship’s layout?

[X] Can you get a map of the ship’s layout?

[X] Can you get a map of the ship’s layout?

You know, with all the jokes about the Kourindou being a rustbucket, I'm wondering if someone in the GDA decided to go the Space Battleship Yamato route.

>>34831
It may look like a rustbucket, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was better than it looks.

[x] You've never particularly liked A.I.s. Let the girls talk to it for a bit.

Unless this thing has a personification of a cute little girl, I want nothing to do with it!

[x] Ask about the Absolute Defense System.

Before learning about where everything on this ship is I'd like to hear about what's going to be keeping it from going down.

>>34834
That sounds more the worry of whoever captains the ship, not the soldiers, the layout would be more important as it'd allow for faster deploys in an emergency.

>>34837

Point. I'll point out first hand that I have no real idea how military protocol works so this is all my own assumptions.

I'd assume that they would already be briefed beforehand about the important aspects of the ship such as cafeteria, possible training rooms, the fastest way to their required stations in the event of an emergency, etc.

However during combat it would be nice to know exactly how able this ship can ward off attacks in that the pilots know how to best split their attention between destroying enemy units and keeping an eye/ear on their "base" should they need/be called to provide support.

>>34855
I'm pretty sure it's the standard SRW battleship: loads of HP and armor with an energy shield (AB System, in this case). That means it can shrug off normal grunt unit attacks. The only thing it needs to worry about are attacks that hit really hard, especially ones that do more damage to larger units (Y halo thar Black Hole Cluster). Granted, you're going to be worried about those attacks hitting any unit, but the battleship can't dodge them at all.

>>34857

Yeah okay I've got nothing left to support myself with here, I'll concede to the discussion.

Changing my vote to:
[X] Can you get a map of the ship’s layout?

Someone hop on IRC and pester the writefag to update.

[x] Can you get a map of the ship’s layout?
----

“First things first, I’d appreciate it if you could give us an idea of this ship’s layout.”

“Biorhythms detected, searching database to find match,” the computerized voice of the terminal replies, falling into an unnatural, abrupt pause before continuing to issue out its synthesized speech in a robotically monotone voice, “Match found. Ensign Steyr Stoeger, your command has been acknowledged. That will be no problem at all.”

The screen displaying “SMD” wipes away, turning to pitch black. Not long after, a 3D model of the ship swings into view of the screen, spinning around in place as the screen zooms in closer. The model of the ship continues to swing around until the screen is centered in on a specific part of the lower deck, a green rectangular cursor drawn around it.

“This is the pilots’ quarters. It is where you are currently located.”

The screen zooms out, the 3D model swinging around again until the screen has a direct top-down view of it. The outer layer of the model peels away, showing a print layout of the bottom deck of the ship. The part of the ship that the cursor had locked on earlier is highlighted in bright green, while the other sections of the ship are lit up in blue. The screen continues on to highlight the various sections of the ship, while the A.I. explains what each section is used for, its artificial voice never once deviating from its monotonous, painfully polite way of speech.

“Was that to your satisfaction?” it asks at the end of its virtual toy, the screen fading to black and displaying the blue screen with the letters “SMD” on it again.

“Well, I’ve got the general idea, thanks,” I say, nodding.

“Please hold,” the A.I. suddenly says, speaking just as I open my mouth to ask it another question. “The Captain wishes to broadcast a message.”

The A.I. goes silent, and the voice of the Captain, Brigadier General Kirisame, fills the room, issuing out from the speakers set in place high in the walls.

“The Samidare will be taking off momentarily. All hands are advised to find a seat, or to hold onto a railing.”

“Oh, we’re finally taking off,” Hearn says excitedly, “This is the first time I’ve been in a ship like this.”

“I’d be worried if it wasn’t the first time,” Usami says, snorting.

----

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHh2A8JKF3E

The bridge of the Samidare is wide, and aesthetically, just as advanced as the rest of the ship. Besides the captain of the ship, there is only a skeletal crew aboard the bridge, as the A.I. handles nearly all aspects of the ship’s functions, what little crew that’s there really only being there as backup in the case of a serious malfunction with SMD-00x.

“Navigational system: online. Anti-gravity propulsion system: online. Output detected to be stable,” a robotic voice issues out from the circular panel before the Captain’s seat, displaying the current status of the ship, various lights flicking on and off. “We are ready to launch at any time, Brigadier General.”

“Very well,” the captain responds from his seat. He shifts a little in his seat, turning his body to the left, toward the communications panel. “SMD-00x, connect me to the bridge of the Kourindou.”

“Acknowledged.”

The blank screen of the comm. panel lights up, and shows the face of the Kourindou’s captain, Lieutenant Colonel Rinnosuke Morichika.

“Well then,” the Brigadier General speaks into the panel, “we’ll be going on ahead first. I wish you luck in your operation.”

“Godspeed, sir,” the Lieutenant Colonel replies with a rigid face.

“Oh, and if that daughter of mine happens to...”

“Yes, of course, sir. I’ll watch out for her.”

“We haven’t drunk together in a while,” the old man says, smiling faintly through his beard. “Perhaps we should make the next occasion in celebration of the GDA’s victory?”

“I can only hope so,” the man replies, returning the same, weary smile.

Nodding, the captain of the Samidare presses a button at the comm. panel, ending the conversation, the screen flickering into a blank once again. Sitting back in his seat, he turns toward SMD-00x’s terminal to issue out his command.

“Samidare, take off!”

The white ship begins to lift off the ground, propelled by devices within it that resists the pull of the Earth, breaking free from its gravity and rising up into the air despite its own tremendous weight. As the ship continues to rise, the thrusters at its back begin to flare, warming up as it generates the force needed to propel the behemoth forward. The A.I. aboard the ship continues to regulate the power outputs of the thrusters, having carefully calculated and coordinated a path for the ship to follow, according to its on-board navigational system.

The Samidare takes to the skies, leaving behind it the rusted old battleship and the Far East Base, now nothing but backdrops for the white ship as it soars up toward the clouds. The flare of the engines glow a light shade of orange, simmering down into a stable flame, leaving behind yellow streaks in the sky as the ship’s voyage begins.

----

“Pardon me.”

I look to the terminal on the wall while keeping a firm grip on one of the railings present in the room. The girls are present as well, standing next to one another and holding on to the railing on the other side of the room. Feeling steady enough to walk again, I let go and walk toward the terminal, looking into the screen.

“What is it?”

“Major Udongein has asked me to deliver a message to you all,” SMD-00x explains. [i]“She wishes for the three of you to come to the simulation room.” As if to make sure I haven’t forgotten where that is, it switches to the map it showed us earlier, marking a path from our room to the simulation room. “Here it is.”

“I see. Thanks.”

“She wants us to train even on here?” Usami says, frowning.

...

“You’re here,” the Major greets us as we enter the simulation room.

It’s not as big as the one we used back at the base, but that obviously goes without saying. At the center of the room, there are four egg-like pods, each facing a cylindrical column in the center of the formation that reaches from the floor to the ceiling. Major Udongein stands next to one of the pods, her arms folded behind her back as usual.

I step into the room, and my squad mates follow after me, although from a glance I notice that Usami looks a bit reluctant to look directly at the Major. Probably, she’s still struggling with her own resentment of the Major. She understands that the decision wasn’t the Major’s and then the fault doesn’t lie with her, but that just frustrates her more.

“Cactus has been kind enough to use the data we gathered from the destroyed enemy units we recovered to create simulation data for those machines,” the Major explains, holding up a miniature diskette in her hand, which she slips into her pocket before folding her arms together again, “Based on reports, these arachnid CFs make up 80% of their invasion forces, so we can expect to see plenty of these in the battles to come ahead. It’ll be good for you three to know what they’re capable of.”

“That’s fast,” I say, slightly suspicious. “Is the simulation data reliable?”

“It’s as reliable as it could be in this situation,” the Major replies with a sharp, cutting tone of voice. “Furthermore, this simulation exercise will also serve to allow you to familiarize yourself with your new units.”

Hearn will receive a Type-S, and Usami will receive a Type-R, while I will continue to pilot the basic MK II model. This decision was made after an evaluation of our simulation training as well as our field exercises.

“Now, step inside the simulation pods.”

----

I sit back in the cockpit seat, in the darkness of the pod. Looking up, I flick on the light switch, illuminating the inside of the pod. This simulator appears to be a new model as well; the cockpit interface looks updated, resembling more the cockpit of a real Kreuzritter. Cracking my fingers, I set about on starting the machine up. The screen lights up, showing the logo of the OS for the simulation program. The display shows the specifications of the Kreuzritter MK II, before switching to another interface, displaying the various weapons compatible with the CF. It’s giving me an option to choose two to sortie with...

(Pick a combination of any two)

[ ] 120mm Machinegun (Power: 2300, Range: 1-4, 16 ammo)
[ ] M13 Shotgun (Power: 3000, Range: 1-3, 9 ammo)
[ ] Beam Rifle (Power: 2700, Range: 1-4, 10 ammo)
[ ] 2x Hyper Bazooka (Power: 3600, Range: 3-7, 6 ammo)
[ ] Sniper Rifle (Power: 3300, Range: 3-9, 8 ammo)

[x] M13 Shotgun (Power: 3000, Range: 1-3, 9 ammo)
[x] 2x Hyper Bazooka (Power: 3600, Range: 3-7, 6 ammo)

[x] M13 Shotgun (Power: 3000, Range: 1-3, 9 ammo)
[x] 2x Hyper Bazooka (Power: 3600, Range: 3-7, 6 ammo)

High power, mid range, sounds good.

[x] Beam Rifle (Power: 2700, Range: 1-4, 10 ammo)
[x] Sniper Rifle (Power: 3300, Range: 3-9, 8 ammo)

High-powered, with all manner of range utilized in almost all conceivable situations. In other words, versatility, as befitting our generic MKII. The only problem stems from our rather small ammo capacity, but it's an acceptable trade-off.

Beam rifle is just preference on my part. It could easily be swapped for the Machinegun, providing that much more ammo while still retaining full capability in all situations.

[X] Beam Rifle (Power: 2700, Range: 1-4, 10 ammo)
[X] Sniper Rifle (Power: 3300, Range: 3-9, 8 ammo)

Steyr seems more of the designated marksman type to me for some reason. This should do.

>>34974
Pray that there's water then as Water massively nerfs beam damage and you can't really fire beam weapons in the water.

[x]M13 Shotgun
[x]Sniper Rifle

Beam weapons are ineffective in water and are dampened if not outright nullified by certain barriers.

[X] 120mm Machinegun (Power: 2300, Range: 1-4, 16 ammo)
[X] Sniper Rifle (Power: 3300, Range: 3-9, 8 ammo)

The machine gun may be the weakest of the bunch but I think the high ammo count makes up for it.

[X] Beam Rifle (Power: 2700, Range: 1-4, 10 ammo)
[X] Sniper Rifle (Power: 3300, Range: 3-9, 8 ammo)

[x] M13 Shotgun
[x] Sniper Rifle

[x] M13 Shotgun (Power: 3000, Range: 1-3, 9 ammo)
[x] 2x Hyper Bazooka (Power: 3600, Range: 3-7, 6 ammo)

[x] M13 Shotgun
[x] Sniper Rifle
----

After a moment of careful deliberation, I make my choices and confirm my selection when the screen prompts me to do so. I used to pilot a fighter, so I’m most comfortable when fighting at a distance, and the boosted sniper rifle will serve that purpose well, I’m sure. As for the shotgun, well, that’s just a matter of preference. The new portable beam weaponry is impressive to be sure, to be able to take out a Wanze in just a few direct hits, but there’s something about it that just puts me off.

Leaning back against the headrest of my seat, I grip the controls, my thumbs hovering above the secondary fire and my pointers coiled over the primary fire triggers. Watching the loading bar on the screen, I narrow my eyes as the machine begins generate a virtual world. When it all finishes loading, I find myself in a barren wasteland, with harsh wind blowing dirt and sand all over the place. Although visibility is poor like this, in the distance, I can see hills and mountains, all in a similar state to the environment I’m in now.

“What a desolate place...” Usami’s voice comes from the speakers.

“Yeah...”

“This is what Jeju Island looks like today,” the Major’s voice issues out from the transceiver. “It used to be a lush and green island, but when the whole world erupted into a war a century ago, its environment was destroyed, and most of its civilian population were killed in the crossfire.”

“That’s horrible,” Hearn says sadly.

“That’s war,” I say, flicking on the comm. “But what’s past is past. Don’t dwell on it too much. Just concentrate on doing your best to prevent something like that happening in this war.”

I tug on the controls, kicking my CF into movement. The virtual machine shakes and jerks as the Kreuzritter takes its first step forward, sending up a large cloud of dust with the crashing of its foot. A rifle is attached to the backpack module behind it, the barrel folded inward to make the weapon more portable. A large, pump action shotgun hangs from the waist armor of the Kreuzritter, and as I manipulate its arms, the CF takes hold of its grip, unlatching it from itself and taking it into both hands.

“Alpha 2, Alpha 3, are you two ready to begin the simulation exercise?” I ask.

“Just about,” Usami, Alpha 3, answers.

Hearn, Alpha 2, does as well. “Same here.”

The Kreuzritter turns its head to its wing mates, now standing at either sides of it. Hearn’s unit appears slightly bulkier, with thicker armor, and has a different head design from the general mass production MK II, the top of its helmet-like head being shaped like a V instead of ending in a single antenna-like horn. The Type-R piloted by Usami resembles the MK II a bit closer, being almost identical, although it posses longer shoulder armors that almost resemble wings of a sort.

“We’re starting,” the Major’s voice is next heard from the comm. “Get ready.”

The Type-R raises its rifle, the same model as the one the Major was using in her skirmish against the SR-0, a beam rifle with a barrel extension that raises the weapon’s power output and maximum range. Hearn’s Type-S on the other hand appears to be wielding the standard issue beam rifle in its hand. With a look of calm, I pull on the controls, and the MK II raises the shotgun in its hand, aligning the barrel with its hip.

Beep, beep, beep! the radar blares, detecting heat signatures directly north from our current position. Taking my eyes off it, I look back to the viewscreen, the Kreuzritter turning its head toward the approaching enemies, the camera units behind its visor focusing far out into the distance. A section of the viewscreen cuts out, zooming in as far as it can. In the zoom box, I can see several enemy units closing in toward us by land; ugly, arachnid industrial gray machines armed with built-in machineguns and cannons.

“Tsuchigumo units,” I mutter to myself, “the main enemies we’ll be fighting against, huh...”

“They look kind of cute,” Hearn says.

Usami seems rightly perplexed. “Just what part of them looks cute to you?”

“Here they come,” I say to cut off the chatter. “Alpha 2, Alpha 3, don’t get distracted.

There are about six of them approaching from the north in a wide and loose formation, moving at an extremely fast speed thanks to their numerous legs. With little time to spare before they’re within firing range of their cannons, I consider my options. Hearn’s Type-S is specialized for close combat, with thicker armor and greater acceleration to close the distance between it and its target, but precisely because of those advantages it lacks the grace and maneuverability of the Type-R or even the MK II. The Type-R is fast and maneuverable, while my MK II is in the middle ground between the two specialized units, with the ability to perform both roles well...

[ ] Order Alpha 2 to hang back and snipe out as many of the enemy before they can close in together with Alpha 3.
[ ] Charge them together with Alpha 2 while Alpha 3 provides support fire from afar.
[ ] Write-in.

----

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

Winning condition(s):

1. All enemies destroyed.

Losing condition(s):

1. Any allied unit is destroyed.

Battle mastery condition(s)

1. ????????

----

[x] Order Alpha 2 to hang back and snipe out as many of the enemy before they can close in together with Alpha 3.

We best be putting them rifles to good use. We should be able to take out 2-3 of the fuckers before they even close into range.

[x] Order Alpha 2 to hang back and snipe out as many of the enemy before they can close in together with Alpha 3.

[x] Order Alpha 2 to hang back and snipe out as many of the enemy before they can close in together with Alpha 3.

[x] Order Alpha 2 to hang back and snipe out as many of the enemy before they can close in together with Alpha 3.

[x] Order Alpha 2 to hang back and snipe out as many of the enemy before they can close in together with Alpha 3.
----

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GsQSJzmd1A

“Alpha 2,” I call out on the comm., while my hands work at manipulating the arms of the Kreuzritter, “Stay back and don’t charge ahead on your own. Alpha 3, we’re going to hold this position and use our long range weapons to take out as many of them as we can before they can close the distance. You got that?”

“Roger that, Alpha 1,” Usami responds.

“Okay, Steyr!”

The MK II raises its shotgun by the butt, forcefully planting it barrel-first into the dirt below. With the shotgun secured in the ground, the Kreuzritter reaches back, grabbing its sniper rifle and disengaging it from the magnetic lock on the backpack of the machine and as it brings about the rifle from around its back to the fore, the folded length of the rifle swings down and locks into place with a loud click. The MK II raises the rifle, pointing it in the direction of the incoming Tsuchigumos. Carefully, it aligns the scope of the rifle with its visor.

Inside the cockpit, I reach out and grab the targeting computer, swinging it into place at my eye. The view of the targeting screen switches over to the camera unit on the gun, showing me a zoomed image of the spider-like mechs approaching, scurrying along the ground. I point the gun toward one of the Tsuchigumos, and a targeting reticle appears over it, highlighted in red. Allowing time for the targeting system to make its calculations and adjustments, I take a deep breath, finger ready on the trigger.

“Locked on…!” I mutter to myself when the reticle glows blue, “I’ll shoot you down!”

The rifle fires a single solid round, the heavy recoil from the gun jerking back the CF, dragging it back just a pace. The round swiftly cuts through the air, and glances off the side of the Tsuchigumo, splintering off a part of its external armor. Immediately, I fire again, adjusting the aim slightly. This time the round strikes true, piercing through the center of the spider’s torso, ripping through steel and circuits with its immense destructive force. Thrown back by the impact, the damaged Tsuchigumo collapses onto its back before exploding into a shower of shrapnel.

Without pause, the Kreuzritter turns its rifle toward another of the enemy units. As it does, a white-pink beam flares through the air beside it, striking one of the other Tsuchigumos. The beam pushes forward against the Tsuchigumo’s outer armor, burning its way through the layer of metal and out the other side of the machine, blowing it to pieces. Silently, I note that for all her worries about being made to fight in a war, Usami’s still progressed remarkably in her piloting abilities.

“Go down,” I mutter as I place a third Tsuchigumo in my sights.

The rifle fires once. The round rips through one of the spider’s legs, sending it crashing to the ground, temporarily stunned. The rifle fires again, and the next round pierces through the main body, causing its reactor to go critical and detonate. Usami’s Type-R takes to the air, and aiming down with its VLBR, it fires a massive beam at a fourth Tsuchigumo. It grazes the side of the top portion of the machine, leaving scorch marks but not much else. The Type-R fires a second beam, and this time it connects fully, instantly demolishing the machine outright.

“Got another one,” she says, “I’m already only at 60% energy after just four shots though. I don’t think this thing was designed with long-term engagement with mind.”

“Never mind that,” I say, glancing to the side. “The two remaining are starting to close in!”

Gritting my teeth as I see one scurrying up toward me, I tug on the controls to turn the machine around. At this distance, firing the rifle is too cumbersome and slow, so I’ll have to rely on my other weapons. In that case…

The Tsuchigumo aiming for me starts firing its machinegun. The MK II quickly responds, boosting to the side to avoid the gunfire, the rifle held at its hip. It swiftly lashes out with its arm, throwing the rifle at the spider like Frame. The rifle hits the machine, knocking it back. While its movement has been disrupted, the MK II rushes for the shotgun planted in the ground, thrusters flaring. It spins in the air, pulling the shotgun from the ground and pointing it toward the dazed Tsuchigumo in a single, smooth movement.

Boom!

The shotgun lets out a deafening roar as it fires several humongous pellets at the Tsuchigumo, tearing several holes into it. Landing on the ground, the MK II points the barrel of the shotgun to the side and pumps it with its free hand, pointing it again at the Tsuchigumo and letting it let out another roar. The impact pushes it back, several new holes appearing in its body, the body swinging wildly on its weak and shaking legs. Casually walking toward it now, the MK II pumps its shotgun one more time, then thrusts the gun into the Tsuchigumo before firing it one last time, directly into the Frame’s torso. It’s sent flying back, and finally collapses, silent.

“One left,” I say.

“I’ll get it!”

The Type-S faces off against the lone remaining Tsuchigumo. The spider raises its forelegs, striking out with the pair of blade-like limbs like a pincer. The Type-S raises its thick, bulky forearms, rebuffing the attack as the blades simply bounce off the armor. Drawing back a fist, the Type-S guns forward with an uppercut, knocking the machine off its feet and into the air. Raising its other arm, the Kreuzritter slams the airborne Tsuchigumo back into the ground, forcing it down. Then, powering its saber, the Type-S stabs at the prone Frame, slicing into the core and destroying it.

“Nice!” Usami praises her friend.

“Major. All targets have been destroyed.”

“I see that,” she replies, “but the exercise isn’t over yet. You have a new objective.”

The moment she says that, I hear an alert coming from the radar, detecting a new source of heat. Following it, I turn my Kreuzritter around, zooming in with my camera toward the heat signature. There, I see the Major’s dark-colored Kreuzritter Type-R from before, although this time it seems to have a customized head, the shape of the helmet changed from a horned one to one with two “ears,” and the visor removed to reveal the single mono-eyed red camera unit.

“Shoot me down, if you can,” the Major continues, her Kreuzritter raising its VLBR toward us, “Think of it as a graduation exam. Don’t hold back, and show me what you’ve learned over these past few weeks.”

(Mission objectives changed)

[ ] Full charge ahead, engage with all units at close range.
[ ] Tri-formation. The Type-S engages with melee while the MK II and the Type-R provide support fire.
[ ] Battle of attrition. Keep away from her, using the uneven terrain as cover.

----
BATTLE LOG:

Tsuchigumo (A.I.) was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II (Steyr)
Tsuchigumo (A.I.) was shot down by Kreuzritter Type-R (Renko)
Tsuchigumo (A.I.) was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II (Steyr)
Tsuchigumo (A.I.) was shot down by Kreuzritter Type-R (Renko)
Tsuchigumo (A.I.) was shot down by Kreuzritter MK II (Steyr)
Tsuchigumo (A.I.) was shot down by Kreuzritter Type-S (Mary)
Enemy reinforcements arrived: Commander Kreuzritter Type-R (Udongein)

----

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

Winning condition(s):

1. Commander Kreuzritter Type-R is reduced below 50% HP.

Losing condition(s):

1. All allies destroyed.

Battle mastery requirement(s):

1. Commander Kreuzritter Type-R is destroyed.
2. All allies survive.


----

>Winning condition(s): 1.Commander Kreuzritter Type-R is reduced below 50% HP.
>Battle mastery requirement(s): 1.Commander Kreuzritter Type-R is destroyed.
Well, that's option three out of the question.
>2.All allies survive.
And option one, probably. Counters hurt.

[x] Tri-formation. The Type-S engages with melee while the MK II and the Type-R provide support fire.

[x] Full charge ahead, engage with all units at close range.

Sounds stupid, I know, but Reisen's CF is specced for long range combat. By playing to our strengths, we would only be playing right into her hands. Merry is not nearly good enough to go toe to toe, and attempting to play cat and mouse would only end with Alpha team being slowly picked off. As she is just one unit, we need to bumrush her in an attempt to overwhelm.

[x] Tri-formation. The Type-S engages with melee while the MK II and the Type-R provide support fire.

She'd expect an all out attack.

[X] Tri-formation. The Type-S engages with melee while the MK II and the Type-R provide support fire.

I can't agree with the charge, there's too big a chance that since she's a more experienced pilot the major could maneuver herself so that there's always an allied unit covering her slightly.

[x] Tri-formation. The Type-S engages with melee while the MK II and the Type-R provide support fire.

Admittedly it can still happen with this choice of action but I see it as having a lower chance on succeeding compared to three units charging for a face-to-face where they also have to be mindful not to hit each other by accident.

Tri-formation is used for squad attacks, the major's rolling alone.

Center Formation with squad leader's best attack is the best choice. doubly so if Mary's unit is equipped with a barrier (full unit gets the benefit). Alternatively, Wide Formation lets the squad leader have greater power, and allows better defense in the case of an ALL counter.

[x]Full Charge

>>35243
I don't think it was referencing SRW Z formations, but rather general tactics.

[x] Full Charge

Hoping this isn't a dumb idea.

[x] Tri-formation.
----

“Is she serious…” I mutter to myself, shaking my head. In spite of my complaining, I reach over to fiddle with the dial on the comm., setting it to a private frequency. Turning it on, I speak into it with a clear and composed but forceful tone of voice, “Alpha 2, Alpha 3, we’re going with the tri-formation. Alpha 2 will lead the formation and attempt to engage the target at melee ranger while Alpha 3 and I provide support. Is that clear?”

“Can we really win against the Major?” Usami asks, sounding doubtful.

“Can’t say until we’ve given it a shot.”

“I’ll do my best, Steyr!”

“Prep time is over,” the Major transmits, remaining on the open channel, “Get ready.”

BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl9FQIT-6iY

The target points its gun forward, raising it up. The boosters at its back and on the bottom of its feet flaring, it soars up into the air. The barrel extension on its VLBR swings forward and clicks into place, and it points the gun down toward us, the tip of it beginning to emit a high-pitched noise as it gathers beam particles to fire at us. Its charge completed, the VLBR lets loose the stored beam particles, spraying a destructive beam toward our machines.

“Evasive action!”

Pulling hard to the side, my machine veers to the left, thrusters pushing as hard as they can, away from the searing hot beam energy dispersing through the air. Matching my movement, Usami follows close behind, evading the shot. Hearn’s machine reacts slightly too late, the very outer edges of the beam grazing the frontal torso armor of the Kreuzritter. That’s all it did, though, graze; the armor only shows superficial burns, with no breach of any sort. Its armor is even tougher than I thought, unless it also has some kind of beam particle neutralizing defenses…

“Alpha 3,” I begin to direct on the comm. Again, “Suppressive fire, now! It doesn’t matter where you shoot, so long as you can keep her from shooting at us!”

“Roger!”

Usami’s Type-R boosts forward, raising its VLBR in short-barrel mode. Pointing it in the direction of the airborne target, it lets out a burst of three shots. The Major’s machine swiftly navigates through the gaps in between each shot, easily dodging them. Usami pulls a hard left, letting out another three-shot burst as she moves. The Major evades these shots just as easily as she did the last one.

Pushing forward on the controls, I move in. My machine raises the pump shotgun in its hands and points it toward the Commander unit. Turning on the thrusters, the machine jumps into the air, shooting up toward the level of the target. Aiming the shotgun, it lets off a shell, and the Major’s machine scrambles to avoid the pellets launched toward it. With dull, metallic clinks, some of the fired shots manage to embed into one its arms, though not quite strong enough to disable it. Not letting up, the MK II quickly gives its shotgun a pump before firing it again.

The Major’s Type-R gives a burst of speed, zipping out of the way. The barrel of its gun swings back down, folding into itself as it switches back to short-barrel mode. Aiming even as the VLBR is in the middle of changing modes, the Major lets out a single shot at me. Seeing the white-hot bolt of beam particles flying toward me on my monitor, I pull back. The Kreuzritter leans back its head just in time for the bolt to fly by its face, leaving a fresh burn mark on its helmet.

“That was too close,” I mumble to myself, inwardly wiping cold sweat from my brow, “could have lost my main camera unit there.”

“Eyaaaah!”

The Type-S still on the ground lifts itself off the ground, using its legs to gain height from the earth before activating its thrusters at full output. The Major turns and notices this, and points down her machine’s VLBR down at her, firing two precise stats. The bolts strike the Type-S, but each shot only manages to slow it does, leaving only scorch marks on its thick armor, breaches being only minor if there are any at all.

“Beam saber, go!”

The Type-S extends its saber-arm, the beam emitters warming up to produce a brilliant blade of light, a much stronger color than the MK II’s, as a result of the increased density and power of the beam particles. Raising the saber over its head, the Type-S swings it down when it finally reaches the Major, and in response the Major’s unit draws its own beam saber – a hand carried one, stored at its waist – parrying the slash. Hearn pushes forward, using its superior acceleration and thruster output to push back the Major’s Type-R. In blade-lock, the Major’s unit raises its rifle in its offhand and fires at the Type-S at point-blank range, and although they do more than just burn the paint, the Type-S continues to push forward, never relenting.

Hearn’s voice comes in, “Now, Steyr, Renko! Shoot her!”

“Don’t be stupid!” Usami protests. “We might hit you by accident!”

“It’s fine!” Hearn responds, “We can win like this, right!?”

The Major’s Kreuzritter pulls back its gun, and the barrel extension swings into place. Even while still engaged in a lock with its saber, almost casually it pushes the point of the gun against the piloting block of the Type-S. I hear Hearn let out a gasp of panic, and for good reason; no amount of armor is going to protect her against firepower of that magnitude up close like that. But there’s a warming period before the weapon can fire; if we can critical damage the Major’s machine in the instant between the charge and the discharge, we might be guaranteed a win. But if we miss, or we don’t make it soon enough…

[ ] Shoot her!
[ ] It’s too risky. Command Hearn to get out of there!

>>35307
[x] Focus
[x] Shoot her!

[X] Shoot her!

Even if Mary moves away, the Major will still be able to fire on her and knock out her machine. She's giving us an opening, so take it.

[x] Shoot her!

[x] Shoot her!

[x] It’s too risky. Command Hearn to get out of there!

Being willing to do anything for the mission is a commendable quality, but never this. Even if it means failure, you do not endanger your teammates.

>>35329

[x] It’s too risky. Command Hearn to get out of there!

I'm in total agreement even if she's still in danger of getting attack as she retreats I can only see a serious dressing down for willingly firing in this situation.

>>35329
Even if Maribel is TELLING us to do it? Honestly, she has less to worry from us compared to Reisen's firepower.

>>35336
Knowing this Reisen, she's applaud such an approach and look down upon anything over idealistic.

[X] Activate Strike
[X] Shoot her!

Yes, we risk hitting Maribel, but we really don't have a choice. In this situation she's simply dead if we don't take the Major down. Reisen has entirely too much skill to miss when she has this much time to lock on, and is at this range. She'll blow Mary's cockpit out if we don't act now.

We best get the confidence and skill to react to emergency situations like this now, before we enter live combat.

[x] Shoot her!
----

“Alpha 3, open fire!”

“But Steyr--!”

Knowing that she would hesitate to fire, I preemptively start toward the pair in blade-lock. The MK II boosts forward, one hand working the pump of the shotgun in in its arms. Swerving up, I bring the Kreuzritter to level with the Major’s unit, racing against time as the Commander Kreuzritter’s rifle continues to build its charge. Swiftly swinging the barrel of its shotgun forward, the Kreuzritter takes aim at its target, and my finger tightens around the primary fire trigger, ready to shoot. From this distance, in this position, there’s no way she can avoid a direct hit!

“Kyah!?”

Without stopping the charging of her rifle, the Major’s Kreuzritter suddenly pushes forward, the flames shooting out from the thrusters intensifying immensely for just a single moment. Overwhelmed and taken by surprise, the Type-S is pushed back in the air while the Major presses her sudden advantage, lashing out with a kick directly to the torso of the Type-S and knocking it away while simultaneously opening fire with its vulcans. Spinning around in midair immediately after executing the kick, the Major’s Kreuzritter points its fully charged beam rifle at me.

“What the--!?” I cry out, stunned. Was this a feint!" No… no, damn it, I let down my guard! “Oh shi…

I barely even have time to even pull on the controls before the glowing point of the VLBR shoots out an immense beam of light at me, engulfing almost the entirety of my monitor in the bright light. The Kreuzritter attempts to react to my controls as fast as it can, desperately trying to pull away to the side the avoid the beam, but shortly after the beam fires my seat is rocked by immense shocks and the sounds of explosions, the shock packs within the simulator registering a hit to my Frame. Gritting my teeth even through the uncontrollably shaking, I continue to pull away.

Finally breaking away from the deadly beam, I glance up at the status panel of the Kreuzritter, scowling at the figure of the CF displayed there. The arm is shown in black, indicating a loss of response from it, which means it’s been disabled or destroyed in that last blast. Looking back to the monitor, sure enough, the right arm of the Kreuzritter is a mangled mess of metal; the shotgun was hit in that last beam, and the shells still inside it must have exploded, causing the destruction of both the weapon and the arm.

“Ugh…”

“Thinking one step ahead isn’t good enough,” the Major communicates over the open line, “always think two or even three steps ahead!”

The Commander Type-R realigns its rifle, pointing it once again in my direction. I attempt to move out of the way, but even as I tug on the controls, the Kreuzritter isn’t responding. Damn it, did that explosion get the right side maneuvering thrusters, too? Keeping my cool, despite my brow running with cold sweat, I begin rerouting the power from the generator to the emergency boosters, which will at least allow me to move and maneuver in close combat, although acceleration will take a drastic hit… but it’s no good, I won’t make it in time…

A thin, bright beam pierces through the air beside me, headed straight for the Major’s Kreuzritter. It strikes a glancing blow on its beam rifle, just barely touching it -- but that’s enough to critically damage it. Caught in the middle of a charge, the rifle runs with sparks, overheating and overloading. Quickly, the Major discards it, tossing it aside moments before it explodes, raising her machine’s arm to shield its body from the blast.

“Damn, I missed!” Usami mutters, clicking her tongue.

“You still disarmed her. Nice shooting,” I say, allowing myself to smirk a little.

The damaged MK II raises its remaining good arm, the beam emitters flaring into action and producing its flowing beam saber. At a rapid -- albeit diminished -- speed, it charges toward the Major’s CF, as I attempt to take her by surprise while she’s still recovering. She reacts quickly, however, and as I slash across her torso she draws her own beam saber and parries the strike.

Her forward thrusters flare, backing away with her saber still out, and I pursue after her. She suddenly lashes out with a slice, still retreating, but I manage to pull the machine up just in time to avoid being cut in half, swooping down. She meets my advance with her own, slashing up with her saber just as I strike down with mine. The MK II’s saber sinks in through the Type-R’s outer frame, while the Type-R’s saber cuts through the joints connecting its right arm to its shoulder, lopping it off clean. Flaring up the forward boosters again, she manages to break away from close quarters.

I tut in dissatisfaction, scowling. The damage done to me is negligible; that arm was already useless at this point. But I wasn’t able to do any significant damage to her machine, either. The wound I gave it was too shallow, just superficial damage.

“Alpha 2, Alpha 3,” I call on the comm. “Status?”

“Alpha 2,” Hearn responds, and I look to her in the monitor, hovering in the air not too far from my location. That last volley of vulcan rounds it took have done a number on the outer frame, filling it with dents and holes, “Um, armor’s at around 60% to critical. It won’t hold out for much longer.”

“This is Alpha 3,” Usami responds next, “Sorry, Steyr, my rifle’s nearly out of energy already. It’s only got enough for one more shot in LR configuration and a burst in SR.”

And I’m only left with the vulcans and the saber as well. We’ve just about hit our limit… but that applies to the Major, as well. We’ve managed to destroy her primary weapon, and she’s got to have wasted about half the clips for those vulcans on the Type-S. Her machine’s armor may still be in good condition, but that might change once we’re able to press her into a close range combat… on the other hand, if all three of us attack at once, the margin for error becomes that much greater. If I attack alone I won’t have to worry about hitting or being hit by a friendly.

[ ] All-out assault.
[ ] Take her one-on-one!
[ ] Request for Hearn’s beam rifle.

[x] All-out assault.

Though the margin for error might be higher, or whatever the fuck, Reisen's CF appears to be running dangerously low of high damage-output weapons. Even if we all rush in only to blunder about like retards, she shouldn't be able to incapacitate any of our team. Now's the time for that bumrush.

[X] All-out assault.

If Steyr thinks he can take the Major one-on-one, he's overestimating his abilities and underrating hers. She has a commander-type, which means upgraded weapons and armor, so it's going to take all three of them to bring her down. Also, I'd be a little embarrassed about asking Mary for her rifle after having the brilliant idea of throwing a half-loaded sniper rifle at an enemy.

>“always think two or even three steps ahead!”
Hey Reisen, Char called. He wants his line back.

[x] All-out assault.

Surround her for that stat penalty

[x] Request for Hearn’s beam rifle.

Somehow this is calling me, maybe he has a good plan.