Roleplay Area

[Ishi123]

Ren saw the first shot fire, and positioned himself to dodge it, but didn't see the second shot until after he was already moving.


"Oh, shit!" He cursed.


"Defend!" ARAI said, immediately bringing up the energy shield automatically, which took the brunt of it, but some it still punched through.


"Gah!" Ren grunted as the frame shook, a damage reading appearing.


"Armor integrity compromised." ARAI stated. "Combat systems still operational."


"Dammit..." Ren cursed, one closed as he spun around, retaliating with a full volley of homing lasers from both hands. "Performance status."


"Speed decreased by 30%." ARAI said. "Defensive armor holding at 88%."


"That's not good..." That was a pretty substantial performance dip in speed. It would be enough for Amaterasu to keep pace with Tsukuyomi. Ren would have to think of something fast.

 

[PercyJacks]

"Confirmed hit! Nice job, Rize."


"As I thought. Now, use the homing lasers, then fire Distortion Beams right when he turns around to go back to speeding after he's blocked them."


"What?"


"Fire homing lasers. He'll block them, but then fire the Rifles at the exact nanosecond he turns around and we're out of his field of vision."


"I see, I see. Firing lasers!"

 

[Ishi123]

"Another attack incoming!" ARAI said.


"Alright..."


Ren saw the homing lasers and spun around to block them, but in that instant...


"Heavy damage sustained!" ARAI said, as the entire frame shook heavily, forcing Ren's head into the side of the seat.


"Ngh!" Ren shuddered, blood trickling from the wound. Tsukuyomi spun heavily in space, the displays red and blinking, with alarms sounding all over. "Dammit... how bad were we hit?!"


"Combat performance down to 60%!" ARAI stated. "Armor deteriorating..."


"We're bleeding speed..." Ren said, the back wing thrusters sputtering a bit from the damage. "Dammit..."


"We can't take another hit like that!" ARAI warned.


"I know, I know!"

 

[PercyJacks]

"SERA, what's our fastest firing gun?" Alrize asked, satisfied with feeling as if she'd made up for the mistake of missing the first shot. 


"That'd be the plain old Shot."


"Is that so…then release the OPTIONs. Use both Shot and OPTION to fire as many rounds as you can at him. And make the speed faster, if possible."


"Understood. What are you planning?"


"To rip his wings off."


"Oho~! Very creative! Alright, OPTIONs released, aaaaand…fire!"


Amaterasu let loose a flurry of bullets from the Shot blasters and the OPTIONs simultaneously while charging forward towards the slowed Tsukuyomi.

 

[Ishi123]

"Dammit..." Ren says. "She's trying to keep us from moving... she'll go for the wings!"


"We don't have a lot of options, sir." ARAI said.


"Options..." Ren paused, formulating a plan. "ARAI, I need you to do something."


"Yes?"


...


"Can you do that?" Ren said.


"With current power, yes." ARAI said. "But... it's risky."


"It's the only chance we got."


Then, Amaterasu began firing.


"Here it comes!"


Ren put up the shields, and as the shots began rebounding and exploding on his shields, Tsukuyomi's wings gave out. The frame spun a bit and by the time the fire had ceased, Tsukuyomi was floating dead in space.

 

[PercyJacks]

"Hehe~" Alrize giggled a bit, seeing as the plan she created seemed to have worked.


"Rize, it stopped," said SERA, rather curiously.


"Of course it did, I got the wings. Somehow." Alrize looked at the Orbital Frame, seemingly dead and lifeless.


"It just…stopped moving."


"Wait, what do you mean?"


"It's not even shooting or anything," said SERA, suspicious of the situation.


"That is weird…Tsukuyomi should still be able to fight; even without its movement or shield, it can still shoot. Especially with…Phalanx."


"So, Rize, what are we doing? Shoot it again just to be sure?"


"We're supposed to avoid damaging it as much as possible, but then there's the risk of it being a trap. Maybe…go in with Mummy ready, and Claws extended. We'll rip off one wing and bring both Tsukuyomi and the broken wing back."


"As expected of Rize, thinking of the perfect plans. I was going to suggest going in with a gun ready, but we would take damage, now that I think about it."


"Yes. Now, let's get this over with."


Amaterasu moved towards the still shape of Tsukuyomi, with the Claws ready to detach the wing manually and bring Tsukuyomi back safely, and Mummy ready in case of a trap.

 

[Ishi123]

Just as Amaterasu got into range, Ren sprang his trap.


"ARAI!"


"Disengaging Vector Trap!"


Then, around Amaterasu, six OPTIONs appeared and quickly closed in, locking in on Amaterasu and holding it in place. In that moment, Tsukuyomi's wings came back to life and launched the frame forward. Ren grabbed Amaterasu by the head while its OPTIONs held it in place. Contact with Amaterasu then began to siphon energy from it, reinvigorating the Metatron engine of Tsukuyomi, bringing systems back online. One done, Ren called back the OPTIONs to their housings on the wings, and while still holding Amaterasu, the right wing flipped forward over its shoulder, pointing straight towards Amaterasu.


"Halberd!" Ren shouted, as a bright blue beam of energy shot out of the wing's tip at Amaterasu at point-blank range.

 

[PercyJacks]

"MUMMY! NOW! ACTIVATE IT!" Alrize shouted.


"IT'S ACTIVATING, IT'S ACTIVATING!" SERA shouted back.


Luckily the Mummy was put up right before the Halberd hit, and Amaterasu survived the blast. However, due to the point-blank range, the Orbital Frame was pushed back and damaged, and had to take time to recover all systems.


"So it was a trap, after all," said SERA. "Good strategy, Rize~"


Alrize grit her teeth. "…tch. Should've shot him when I had the chance."


Amaterasu was left unable to move for a short duration, leaving Alrize in a silent rage.

 

[Ishi123]

The recoil from the point-blank Halberd sent Tsukuyomi back a distance, and Ren twisted the frame around back upright.


"How are we, ARAI?" He asks.


"Self-repair complete." She responded. "Combat functionality back up to 87%. All weapon systems online."


"Alright, we can work with that." Ren smiled. "Let's not give her any room to breathe."


Next, Ren summoned a large volley of homing missiles, casting the frame's arm out and launching all of them towards Amaterasu.

 

[PercyJacks]

"Can we activate Mummy again?" asked Alrize, slightly panicked at the homing missiles.


"Hm? Oh, yeah. Totally."


"Do it before those missiles hit. And actually, keep it up until I say to lower it."


"Gotcha."


Mummy was deployed before the missiles hit, nullifying the damage.

 

[Ishi123]

"ARAI, let's go." Ren said, taking the opportunity to quickly turn tail and boost away at full speed while his opponent was distracted.


He pushed the frame as fast as it would go, now nearing the catapult.

 

[PercyJacks]

"He's getting away, Rize! Thrusters can manage 85% power!"


"Chasing after him will do no good…release the Mummy and use the hip cannons and fire at him. Make sure they hit."


"On it! Hip cannoooooons, go!"


Amaterasu repeatedly fired from its Hip Cannons into Tsukuyomi's direct path in hopes that they would collide.

 

[Ishi123]

"They fired at us!" ARAI said.


"They can't chase after us, they know that." Ren said. "Evasive!"


Ren twisted the frame out of the way of Amaterasu's fire, avoiding the cannons as it continued speeding towards the catapult.

 

[PercyJacks]

"Hey SERA."


"Yes?"


"Is the Halberd good?"


"Huh? Oh, yeah."


"Good."


Alrize fired off the Hip Cannons simultaneously, then fired one slightly off to the right, and fired the Halberd to the left right after.


Don't think I've given up even for a second, Ren Silber. I've still got more than a few tricks in store.

 

[Ishi123]

"Dammit... she just won't give up..." Ren said, continuously dodging fire.


"The catapult is just up ahead." ARAI said. "Unmanned Orbital Frames are positioned there. They were expecting us."


"It's not gonna make a difference with this frame." Ren said. "Homing missile, do it."


"Roger."


Ren again launched a volley of homing missiles at the Raptors ahead, destroying a large number of them. He used homing laser to sweep up any stragglers.


"How will we make the jump?" ARAI asked.


"This catapult is currently launching cargo shipments to a Neo BAHRAM station near Jupiter." Ren said. "If we can jump in on one of those cargo freighters, we'll be able to make that jump."


"We gotta time it right." ARA said. "Will we be able to with the resistance?"


"We don't have any other options." Ren said. "There's another freighter loaded up right now, c'mon!"

 

[PercyJacks]

"He dodged it," said SERA, rather monotonously.


Alrize growled.


"Ugh, geez! Full speed ahead! I'm taking him down, no matter what!" she shouted.


Amaterasu sped towards Tsukuyomi, firing Shot and Homing Lasers all the way.


"I won't let you get away!"

 

[Ishi123]

"Amaterasu is closing in!" ARAI said. "We're almost out of time!"


"That freighter is ready to shock out!" Ren said. "Just a few more seconds..."


Ren quickly jumped onto the freighter in the catapult, before firing shot at Amaterasu to keep it at bay as long as possible.

 

[PercyJacks]

"He's hiding in the freighter, do we shoot it?" asked SERA.


"…no. We can't shoot that. It's not part of the battle."


Alrize continued to dodge the shot being fired at them while talking.


"So are you just going to let them go?" said the A.I.


"We'll have to. There's no way we'll be able to draw him out."


Alrize wanted nothing more than to rip Ren Silber apart at that moment, but she knew she couldn't destroy an innocent freighter.

 

[Ishi123]

"Yes! Here we go!" Ren said, as the Urenbeck catapult activated. Both he and the freighter were launched into the sublight tunnel towards Jupiter. They had escaped.


"Whew..." ARAI sighed relieved.


"We did it, ARAI." Ren said.


"Yes..." ARAI said, a bit slowly. "You know all of Neo BAHRAM will be after you now, right?"


"Yeah, I know." Ren said, leaning back in the cockpit seat. "But I told you already... I can't let them go through with what they're planning."


"You know, I don't like being used like this." ARAI said.


"What, you'd be comfortable with billions of people dying?"


"It's not a part of my programming to disobey orders, or to have any opinion of them." She stated plainly. "I follow orders and that's it."


"Heh... for all your talk of being much more intelligent, you're still just an AI in the end, aren't you?" Ren sighed. "You see only logic and reason."


"It keeps me from doing something like you are." She retorted.

 

[PercyJacks]

"…ugh."


Alrize headed back to base dejectedly, with SERA doing her best to keep an agreeable atmosphere constant.


"Don't worry about it, Rize. There's nothing you could've done. You did the best you could," said the A.I.


"Forget it. I could've done much better than that."


Alrize docked the Amaterasu and beat herself up mentally on the way to see Overseer Adalia to deliver her battle report.

 

[Raptordude115]

Adalia was standing inside the control room, her fists clenched tightly as anger boiled inside her. She was still enraged over Ren's actions, enraged by how he managed to steal Tsukuyomi, enraged that he may have stolen important files before deleting the system.


Meanwhile, Zack and TESS continue to float in the middle of space inside the Eclipse, badly damaged from fighting Tsukuyomi.


"So...how long do you think it'll be before they send out someone to get us?"


"Soon, Zack. They're probably already aware of what has happened."


Zack felt a wave of worry as he thought about how Adalia would react to their failure to stop Ren and Tsukuyomi.


"Aye...Adalia is not going to be happy, that's for sure..."

 

[PercyJacks]

Alrize approached Adalia and bowed her head low.


"I'm sorry, Overseer, I wasn't able to stop him. He hid in a freighter and I couldn't bring myself to damage it."


Alrize prepared to hear her punishment for failure, and in the state she was in, she would be willing to accept anything. Letting Ren go was something she knew she was absolutely not supposed to do, and yet she couldn't do that. She desperately wanted to atone for her mistake.

 

[Raptordude115]

Adalia simply stood quietly, her back pointed at Alrize. She then slowly turns to Alrize, her eyes stern and filled with both disappointment and anger. If looks could kill, this would be that look. The guards and engineers in the room stood quietly, not making a sound. Adalia, in a fit of rage, smashes her right fist into the nearest computer monitor, breaking it with horrific ease. Her fist begins to bleed, but she could seem to care less.


"You have no idea how severe this situation has become...is there anything else that needs to be reported?"

 

[PercyJacks]

Alrize kept her head low.


"…no, Overseer. Nothing else to report, besides minor damage to both Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, heavy damage to Eclipse."

 

[Raptordude115]

Adalia sighs in frustration, trying to calm herself after demonstrating her frustration in front of both Alrize and the guards and engineers in the room. She looks around, still visibly angry.


"Get a squad of Cyclopses to go and retrieve Eclipse. As for you Alrize...simply report back to your quarters...but know that I'm extremely disappointed in your failure...now get out of my sight..."


Adalia turns around, her arms crossed together as the guards and engineers quietly resume their tasks.


Meanwhile, Zack, TESS, and the Eclipse get picked up by two Cyclops units, being hauled back to Eclipse's hanger as two other Cyclops retrieve Eclipse's severed arms. Zack sighs in relief before TESS speaks up.


"So why do you think that Ren guy didn't kill us?"


"I don't really know, TESS...maybe he'd feel bad about killing an incapacitated enemy...or maybe he thought it'd be worse to keep us alive for us to endure some mockery...or maybe even...I don't really know...do we really wanna know?"


TESS didn't say anything else, and Zack sighs as the Eclipse docks in the hanger with the help of the Cyclopses.