Come Back With Your Shield, Or On It

[wrnpcs]

[The call to attack doesn't come from an intercom chime or an alert siren. It can't, when the four assault platforms are spaced out miles and miles apart around the perimeter of Esthar. In fact, Laguna has ordered complete radio silence for the duration of the mission. Unpleasant as it might be, each team will be working independently, the better to keep each other from cluing the enemy in to each other's position...]

[...and a grim acknowledgment that some of them may not make it.]

[At 0847 hours exactly (because Laguna had picked an odd time on the premise that Esthar would be less likely to expect an attack at what sounds like a random number), each pilot is to engage the engines at advance at top speed towards Esthar City. The ultimate goal: Reach Odine Labs, and find any way possible to disable Esthar's control over Time Compression.]

[If there are any goodbyes to be said, now is too late. It's go time.]

Comments

THE CHAOTIX

[wrnpcs]

[No sooner does the Chaotix breach the OCS and enter Esthar airspace that it comes under punishing flak fire. Antiaircraft guns pour streams of bullets and shrapnel into the air, relying on volume to shred anything in the sky to shrapnel. The airship takes two hits almost immediately, and thought it isn't crippled, first blood has gone to their opponents.]

Re: THE CHAOTIX

[espio]

[Well, shit.

That was the downside of not knowing exactly what was on the other side of that barrier, Espio supposed, but this ship wasn't really designed to take heavy fire, and not at all designed to return it. It was more durable than it could have been - it needed to handle the Special Zone's crazier locales, which tended to have all kinds of debris and even explosives floating around for no apparent reason - but that didn't really do much to reduce Espio's concern.

Fortunately, although the Chaotix was probably the most vulnerable vehicle in the Garden's arsenal, they did have a couple of the more powerful off-worlders on their team. Espio just wasn't one of them.]

Ugh....

Hey, if you don't want to find out what a crash feels like before we even do anything, I suggest someone get out there and deal with the weaponry! The Chaotix isn't designed to take this much fire!

[om_nom_namur]

[Namur is absolutely no help in this particular situation. Has he mentioned he hates flying?

As Chaotix jerks around all he manages to do is curse a lot and lose his footing.]

Hey Feathershit they're singin' yer song! Go dance 'fore we get sunk!

[wrnpcs]

[Better find that footing quick. From below, another burst of gunfire tears through one of the windows of the bridge, shrapnel embedding itself in the floor and walls.]

[espio]

[WHOAshit that came too close. Bad Esthar, no attempting to shoot the pilot in the head.]

Marco!

Move your feathery ass! Not all of us are immortal, genius!

THE RAGNAROK

[wrnpcs]

[A distant gleam, like sun on water in a dozen spots, seems placid and peaceful as the airship swoops over the OCS -- but a moment later, those gleams double in size, and then double again, resolving into enemy aircraft on an intercept course, their engines howling. They're too far away to engage as of yet, but if nothing is done, their weapons will be pounding into the Ragnarok in about a minute.]

[elementofloyalty]

Oh THAT's not good!

[Rainbow looks over her shoulder for just a moment, bellowing back to the others.] TAKING IDEAS HERE! Anyone got anything to stop some enemy guys?!

[werepanther]

From this distance? Nothing beyond a couple of Meteor spells. [Which Tom conveniently doesn't stock with him, because hey, that would actually be a smart idea. For once, he's actually shifted into werepanther form for battle. He winces, partially because that engine howl hurts like a bitch.] When they get closer, you can hurl me at 'em.

[elementofloyalty]

Uh. Hurl?

[wrnpcs]

[They might have to soon, with those aircraft looming ever closer in tight formation - ploughing through them probably won't be a good idea, and if evasive manoeuvres are to be the order of the day, they'll have to be pretty dramatic. Someone better move fast.

Weirdly enough, there might be a few more gleams of bright sunlight out there in the open sky than there are visible planes...]

BALAMB GARDEN

[wrnpcs]

[Balamb Garden has perhaps a minute of un-harassed flight before the building rumbles and shudders, leaving the engines to whine. Though the weapons are hard to spot, the keen-eyed who are looking out might notice large trucks with cannons mounted on their rear trailers rolling out of concealed bunkers in the ravaged plains below. Another blast lances up from the foremost one, a line of blue-white energy that carves a long line through the Garden's belly.]

[If those blasts hit the flight rings, Balamb is going down.]

[gunbladegrrl]

Why are you training with a rifle, Maria?

[She slaps a new clip into the gun, lifts it to take careful aim through its sight, then squeezes the trigger. A three-round burst blazes out of the barrel.]

A pistol is just as good and quicker!

[She fires another burst, then another, doing her damndest to take out the trucks below. Damage the cannons, pop the wheels, harm the gunners, anything.]

I love being right...

[para_ball]

Is - is it still a bad thing to use off-world powers?

I'm sorry...

[It had to be better to use them than to lose here, right? Especially with so much at stake...

Colette steps back, losing touch with the ground as her wings unfurl, and she begins her incantation - her prayer - for Judgement.]

[wrnpcs]

[Maria's rifle fire hits the jackpot, pretty much, in the form of the front wheels belonging to one of the leading trucks. It swerves violently; several of the ones behind it are forced to follow suit to avoid a pile-up, and the next charge of that crackling energy beam arcs almost harmlessly past Garden, skimming the railing on the roof on its way into the sky.

More trucks are emerging from the same bunkers below, though - and all of them are levelling their cannons upward, hoping to exact some payback.]

[fionna_time]

[Fionna might not have been able to use a GF at the moment, but it didn't mean she was going to let anything happen to Balamb. Her aim was going for the bunkers now, hoping to get them to scatter. She was also making sure to aim at the wheels, hoping it would ricochet enough to damage some of its own trucks].

GALBADIA GARDEN

[wrnpcs]

[The foreign cockpit of Galbadia is built more like an airship helm than Balamb Garden's, to accommodate the building's greater speed. The windows, therefore, don't extend quite all the way around -- but they don't need to. In the distance, several thick contrails of smoke flash up from the ground, clear signs of a missile launch. At the apex of their flight, the missiles will swerve to intercept Galbadia, doubtlessly crippling the building and sending it groundwards.]

[ascendit]

Shit, shit, shit!

[Half-hanging out of an open window on a lower level, Nate ducks hurriedly back inside. While he'd like to believe in their probably NPC pilot, he's not optimistic.

[He flicks through his spell stock, brain racing.] D'you think we could - [There! Rather than finish that thought, Nate leans out the window again and casts Stop in the missiles' general direction.]

[scatterflower]

[ Chika was about the ask the guy that she barely recognized what was wrong, until Piyomon let out a shocked noise at what was going on outside of the windows. She looked over at it and froze when she saw the incoming missiles.

This was really bad. Though the stop spell was working for now, she knew it wasn't going to last long. ]

How many of those Stop spells do you have on you?

[ She's going to be taking a look at her stocked spells too, frantically looking to see if she had any Auras. She didn't know if Garudamon would be able to last long enough to keep the missiles from hitting them, though she didn't really want to waste one of the few chances she had for using Crossmon. ]

[ascendit]

Twenty? [Beat. Oh, duh, he just used one:] Nineteen. [The main thing is not enough to hold them off if the Garden doesn't make any -

[Whoop, there it goes. Nate grabs onto a bolted down desk rather than get thrown out the window as G-Garden changes course to evade. He's not great at spell casting so he doesn't expect his Stop spell to last long, and he wouldn't at all be surprised if the missiles can change course midflight too.]

[scatterflower]

[ Chika's less frantic in the way that she grabs onto something, because she can't afford to be frantic and panic right now. ]

You know, I was hoping for a lot more than that!

[ Okay, yeah, she can feel the Aura spell. But god her stock was, well, low. Like, super low. Piyomon glares at the ]

You're going to need to evolve me now if we want to handle those missiles Chika! We can't just leave them around!

I know that! [ Of course, she has the little problem of, you know, trying to stay standing right now. It'll have to wait until the garden steadies itself before she can go ahead and get started on that. Or casting the Aura spell if they needed it. ]

GALBADIA GARDEN - BREAKING IN

[wrnpcs]

[Some time after dealing with the missiles, Galbadia Garden lands on Odine's research facility, whether by design or accident. Probably closer to the latter, considering the landing is more of a crash through the roof and into the building. When those onboard Garden emerge, they'll find alarms droning on and on and red lights flashing - apparently someone is not happy about their arrival. The tables, chairs, and kitchenette seem to indicate that the off-worlders, split off from the native cadets and SeeDs in the chaos of that landing, have landed in a staff room. While most of the scientists who had been enjoying a meal either put their hands up in surrender or run out of the room, a few stand up and take out guns with shaky hands.

[Laguna had issued everyone with photocopied maps of the complex, poorly hastily drawn from memory of some visits there. It's incomplete and makes it appear that Laguna doesn't believe in straight lines, but if the accidental team manages to orient themselves on it, they'll find they're not far from a lab.]

[windbreak]

[Maps aren't the first thing on Yosuke's mind, although given his success at pulling himself up out of the crumpled heap he lands in, he might not be a believer in straight lines either. What just happened? He'd been up top, some instructor had gone rushing around saying they were about to disembark, and then...]

Urgh, this is... [When he spots figures nearby, his instinct is to try and collar somebody a bit better at getting their bearings, so he raises his voice.] Hey, is everyone okay? Where's -

[But as thick as it is, the dust soon clears, and with it goes all the colour in Yosuke's face.]

Oh shit - w-wait! Wait! [Too bad it isn't possible to fall up into this particular air fortress in the same way you fell out of it, short of flying; all he accomplishes by backing off is knocking his head against a step, and possibly putting himself in the way of the next person to drop down.] Don't shoot! There's a good explanation...!

[Clearly this negotiation is off to an excellent start.]

[ascendit]

[Luck is all that saves Nate from crashing into Yosuke, but Yosuke's reaction makes him shove past for his own look around anyway.

[The thing is, Nate has been the kid with adults aiming guns at him before. And it's more understandable this time - he's gone from street kid to basically a soldier - and this time he's armed and probably better with his weapon than the shooters are, and he's not alone this time and there are fewer would-be shooters too.

[And this time he has shit to do.]

Oh, screw it -

[Nate casts Protect on himself and runs for the door.]

[scatterflower]

[ Chika's not far behind, both her and Piyomon dropping down right next to Yosuke as they look over at the guards. With the guns.

Piyomon doesn't even wait for orders, charging forward and sending a green, spiraling vortex of fire towards the closes one. Chika turns her head to Yosuke instead as she follows Nate's lead and cast protect on both of them. ]

Hanamura-san. Stop backing up like that. We need to take care of what we came here to do.

[wrnpcs]

[The remaining scientists, surprisingly unwilling to deal with a fire-spewing monster, mostly flee without even daring to fire off a shot. One collapses, his lab coat on fire as he whimpers and thrashes on the ground, trying to extinguish himself.]

[For now, fortune is with them as they burst through the door; the guards are deployed around perimeter or in sensitive areas, not here in the middle of the compound. They might have a clear shot to the lab.]