Futuristic Juggernauts: Mechs vs. Bugs

[shadowdude505]

<“Corporal Clayden, Ma’am! Nice to see you again: great job today! Some of us are planning an all-night poker party to keep us up and alert just in case, and to pass the time. Would you have any interest in joining us?”>

"Sure, sounds fun," Mikasa replied. "And Sargent, you don't have to be so formal with me. Mikasa, or Jade Dragon out in the field, will do just fine."

Being called Clayden made her think of the man that had adopted her. She learned to love him, but she wasn't as militaristic as he was. It just sounded a little stiff to be called by her rank and last name. She wasn't here out of military pride; she just wanted to kill some bugs and help people.
~~
She was quite lively during the poker game, but only went all in when she felt like she had a great hand.

Gwalihir Jackson123 Gundam Watcher 27

 

[Gwalihir]

<< "Sure, sounds fun," Mikasa replied. "And Sargent, you don't have to be so formal with me. Mikasa, or Jade Dragon out in the field, will do just fine." >>

Johnny smiled at that. “Sure, Mikasa. My pleasure. See you in a few, once we get the table set up.”

Soon the game was in progress, and it became clear that Rachel was still queen of the table. Whether by dumb luck or shrewd choices in what to hold and what to ask for, she kept raking in the chips. It wasn’t every hand, but it was enough to show her a clear leader.

Johnny proved to be an entertaining companion, throwing in an occasional humorous story to lighten the mood. He and some of the others had a couple of drinks each, but not enough to impair anyone’s judgement or reflexes.

But just when the game was getting interesting, the sirens suddenly shrieked out a red alert. Johnny, Rachel and the others jumped from the table and sped to their mechs. As they mounted up, floating drones overhead shone spotlights down on where the bugs were expected to be coming up. There was an open space in the middle of the camp which was targeted, and lights also shone on the mess hall and the barracks being used by the civilians.

Johnny was up and inside the Oblivion in a flash, Arthur his rear gunner right behind him. Captain Powell brought the Spartacus lurching to life, as other pilots scrambled to their mechs.

“Squads, split up!” announced Captain Powell: “Me and Johnny have the open field: somebody get to the civilian barracks, and someone else to the mess tent. There should be plenty of targets to go around!”

As she spoke, the field erupted with bugs and she and Johnny began pummeling them with everything they had...

shadowdude505 Jackson123 Gundam Watcher 27

 

[Jackson123]

Brunhilde was just putting her thin lips around the filter of her cigarette and draw a breath of smokes into her mouth when the siren sounded. She took the last puff of cigarettes before she put it out on the upper armour of her spider tank. She then flicks the butt out and entered the tank.

“This is broomhandle, I’ll go check out the civilian barracks.” The blonde girl said when she ran the system check for weapons, countermeasures and sensors. The massive engines roars as the rev increases and the spidery mech rolled out of the hangar.

Yet, by the time the Panzerläufer arrived it was already too late. The bugs had since overwhelmed the parameter of the guards around civilian barracks. A few plasma bugs had noticed the delayed reinforcement and took aim at the Panzerläufer with their plasma butt.

Brunhilde promptly deployed smoke grenades and made a flanking manoeuvre, shooting at the bugs with the 120mm canons and the machineguns. The bugs returned fire, a plasma bolt exploded just meters away from the Panzerläufer, debris rattling on the armour.

The encounter was swift and brutal, the bugs retreated after the exchange. Brunhilde got a better look at the shredded civilian barracks, the bugs had torn up the building a while before she even arrived on scene, the dead body of the human civilians looked as if they'd been dragged through a giant mincing machine.

They were all dead, no question, the sign of life detector also stayed silent. In the distance, an explosion lit up the sky. It also bathed the torn building with light, displaying the gory remains in sharp detail.

“This is Broomhandle, the civilian barracks had been breached, there’s no survivors.” She reported to the captain.

 

[shadowdude505]

Mikasa's jovial mood quickly changed once the siren went off. She rushed to her mech and started it up. "Jade Dragon, heading to civilian barracks." Even though Brunhilde called that she was going there first, Mikasa felt like she had to go there too. Her mind's eye briefly flashed to an image of Diana.

Inside their own base, Mikasa couldn't maneuver as fast as she wanted to. Hopefully she'd make it in time.

She fired her PPCs at the bugs, but as much as she wanted to kill them all, she knew her weapons were useless against the Plasa Bugs and kept them out of her line of fire.

She shot at the bugs as they retreated and was considering chasing after them, but then she heard Brunhilde's report.

Mikasa tightened her grip on the controls. "Damnit!" she yelled. Her body started to burn with rage. There had to be a survivor; at least one. "Please let there be at least one..." She prayed in her mind. But where else would a civilian be?

Gwalihir Jackson123 Gundam Watcher 27

 

[Gundam Watcher 27]

Shirou Akuma had a coughing fit during the game. Not once did anyone ignore him when he did that, but to be honest, he hated how everyone was asking him to stay out of the action if it happened. This was followed up with his stubborness, and responding that he can still fight. During the game, a Mechanic came to ask if anyone needed their mecha tuned up or fixed with some weapons for combat. Shirou had just the thing in mind.

"Take the left arm of my Jade Hawk and lower waist and attatch them to my Crosscut. I also need the front reinforced with armor plating, and some heat seeking missiles would be nice."

A couple hours later, the bugs struk. Shirou was ready for them... but he had help getting seated into the mech. His legs were still weak from the last fight. After getting strapped in, he told the person who helped him to go hide in the safest spot. He then took off in the Crosscut Kai.

The lower booster unit on the waist from the Jade Hawk functioned like it did in the city. The speed his Crosscut Kai had had enabled him to evade incomming attacks from the Plasma Bugs that arrived, as the Heat Seekers attatched to his Mech had locked on to them.
"Smile you sons of bitches! This is for your buddy's attack from earlier!"
The Heat seekers shot out at the plasma bugs, as Shirou contacted his allies.
"How's the evacuation coming along?!"

 

[Jackson123]

Brunhilde took the issued personal defence weapon with her before climbing down her spider panzer to go for a closer check for survivors.

The moment she moved out of the airtight compartment she could immediately notice the smell of death lay over the ruins, the smell of corpses oozed from the buildings giving her a more up close idea of the fate of those inhabitants that once occupied the barracks, on one doorstep lay a little girl stretched out in a puddle of crimson blood. She could not tell for sure if that’s the girl called Diana that the rescue team had talked of.

“Is anyone still alive down there? Can anyone hear me?” She shouted to the pile of corpses, hoping for some respond, but the air stayed dead.

 

[Gwalihir]

Shirou had his hands full as he faced off against the mass of bugs exploding out of what used to be the mess tent. Three mechs had stayed at the central field, three more had joined him at the mess tent, and Rachel the card shark was piloting her Firestorm around the vicinity of the civilian barracks, picking off individual bugs that had gotten separated from the crowd. With the exception of the civilian barracks, everything had been contained quickly and effectively. The barracks had to have been breached first for that kind of damage to have been taken there.

Broomhilde had seen these kinds of scenarios many times in Europe, sometimes even days after the attacks, but rarely this fresh and still dripping with blood. Even the air seemed heavy with the warmth released from the dismembered bodies. Her personal inspection revealed no life that had been missed by either the bugs or her sensors on board the mech.

Back at the mess tent, Shirou was finding his saw a fantastically effective weapon for slicing through bugs piling layer upon layer of their bodies upon each other as they pushed to come out of their hole. Incendiary missiles as well were really roasting the bugs as fast as they could come out. Eventually the tide was stemmed, and the bugs beaten back.

Rachel was three “blocks” away from the civilian barracks when her infrared camera picked up an abnormally warm latrine near the showers. She carefully peeled the door away, and a small figure collapsed into her mech’s hand. A moment later she sent out a broadcast:

“We have a civilian survivor. She hid in the stench of a latrine to avoid detection. And, Mikasa? She’s asking for you…”

 

[shadowdude505]

"Thank you..." She said softly to God, kami, or whoever was up there.

She fought back tears as returned her mech to its hanger. It didn't feel like a victory, but she was glad Diana was alive; otherwise, she would have felt like she failed her.

She ran to Diana's location and instantly hugged her. She couldn't keep the tears back any longer.

"You're staying with me tonight," Mikasa blurted out. She didn't have much of a plan, but she was listening to her gut. Her barrack would be a safe place, or at least, it should. The proof that the bugs could attack their base so easily didn't sit right with her.

Her gut was also telling her to call her father, or his secretary at the very least. She wasn't going to ask him to adopt Diana. (She'd mention it though; the thought of having a little sister was nice.) What she really wanted was to get Diana to a safe place.

Gwalihir

 

[Gundam Watcher 27]

The invasion repeled, and the damage done, Shirou landed his Crosscut Kai in the hangar, as it was backed up into the holding arms.
His mech's cockpit hatch opened up as he climbed out, and was greeted by some of the pilots who had joined him in holding off the invasion after he had taken down the plasma bugs. He knew he did great, and the idea of his to swap out parts of the Crosscut with that of the Jade Hawk had paid off, but the casualties were heavy. If anything, it was a hollow victory.
"We lost alot of people. I don't think the bugs are gonna ignore this."