forum Daemon X Machina (CLOSED 5/5, feel free to watch shit go down)

Started November 09, 2019 by @Yamatsu

tune

Ash wrote his name and stepped back, The team he was working with was looking fairly solid. Two nimble fighters and three heavier mechs, A good balance in his opinion.

Shadow bounced down from Sentry, almost giddy. He entered his information, then glanced back to his mech. He’d finished all repairs and upgrades, with an acception for his whole “I want a milkshake machine in my mech.” That was a project for another day. Or.. never.
He smiled, turning back around and giving Copperhead his full attention. He rested an arm of one of Sentry’s panels, the black and green matching his own plugsuit.

"That seems… very messy," Copperhead, scratching his chin. That did sound pretty cool to him, though.

"Alright, it seems y'all are logged in. Four! Bring up the current mission catalog!" The screens on the terminal flashed to a list of missions. Many of them were from different each of the different Consortiums, but a lot of them were in various places throughout the Oval Link.

"Currently, the Iron Dragons are capable of completing E-Rank missions. While none of you are brand new recruits, it is recommended that you take on easier missions so that you may become acclimated to your new teammates," Four said. The mission list was then parsed down to a few highlighted missions at the bottom. Not including the Outer Aptitude Test, there was only one mission available:

1: Sweep the City (Sky Union) – Immortals have invaded Grace City within Sky Union's territory. Team up with other Reclaimers to eliminate them.

"Well, it seems like we don't have much else at this point," Copperhead grumbled. "Four, what can you tell us about this one?"

"This is an all-hands-on-deck mission that was posted a few minutes ago. The Brigadier General himself has ordered most of Bullet Works to go in and fight, and has called for aid from other Reclaimer Groups."

The screen went through a slideshow of pictures taken automatically from the ocular units of various Arsenals. The city was besieged by Immortals, with a fleet of ground and air units raining hell on the city. There were even a few lightly-armored Immortal Arsenal units, called Strai, harassing members of Bullet Works.

"Well, I guess this is our cue. Suit up, everyone!"

"Alright!" Opal beamed, running up to her arsenal, which opened automatically. Once she was in, she smirked. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Alaria pressed a pad on Butterfly's leg, bringing down a rope with a clip. She held the clip, gave it a tug, and zipped up to her arsenal's cockpit. "This play is for keeps," she whispered as she began activating Butterfly, "It is not my first, it may be my last. If I lose, I'm not coming home," the words slipped from her tongue slower, and subconsciously she scored another mark on the rifle stowed in the cockpit, "But that won't happen while I've got you at my back."

It wasn't the typical ending, but this wasn't her thieves' guild. It might be a family, or maybe just a new start. But it warranted a new ending to her small town 'forgive-me' prayer.

"Butterfly's purring," she said over comms, "I'm all green here. Give the go-ahead."

Ash climbed the small ladder he had installed on the side of Linemans leg into the cockpit. He leaned out, manually pulled the hatch down and locked himself inside, "Lets try and do this better eh?" He said to himself before relaying into his com "Ready when you are, let's kick some ass".

Shadow hoisted himself back up into the dark mech suit, closing the small compartment he had climbed through embedded in the back. He flipped multiple switches, locking himself in and flipping open other compartments. He checked the vitals on various screens, putting on his headset. From the side, a small appendage covered his right eye, folding from the headset like a monocle. He gave a smile, giving Copperhead a thumbs up and affirmation over the coms.
“Rodger that, sir,” he barked into the mic. “All ready on my part.”

"Let's rock and roll!"

Copperhead lept into Queenie's cockpit and pulled down the chest hatch. Her engines roared to life as he turned the key, and one of the mechanics on the ground manned a control terminal to turn the platforms towards the opening hangar doors. He saluted to the Reclaimers, and Copperhead returned the favor.

(Imma godmod for a sec so that the group can get to the city. This'll be a common occurrence for situations like this, but if you guys wanna do that with each other, make sure to agree beforehand.)

The Iron Dragons soared out of Hangar 18 and into the sky to the east where Grace City was under attack. They flew in standard V formation with Copperhead at the head.

"Establishing full party communication," Four said. The comms were open to the entire group and would continue to be for the rest of the mission. "It will take about fifteen minutes to reach Grace City. I have marked the point on your map and suggest turning on autopilot."

Everyone did so, and Copperhead's shoulders finally managed to relax a bit. He began to pour over the pictures from the mission description, taking special note of the Strai units. There were at least five, but those could be destroyed by the time they got there. Whoever those Arsenals originally belonged to, they certainly weren't experts. Low-level assault rifles, box-standard armor and missile launchers, there really wasn't much of note. However, AIs are much better pilots than Outers are, so despite their technological disadvantage, they certainly had enough of a tactical edge to cause some serious trouble.

"In my experience, Strais are fast little buggers," Copperhead said to the group. "I recommend either ganging up on them or using your Mirage ability to fool them and bring in some extra firepower."

(Mirage is the ability to create a copy of yourself. It eats through Femto, so if you have any laser weapons, you'll be eating through the same ammo pool.)

I feel as though I should also mention the other mechanics that are sort of tied in with Mirage. There's Assault Shift, Wing Shift, Shield Shift, and Mirage. They all are tied to Femto, but the first three don't actually use Femto while they're activated. They simply require that you have a certain amount in your gauge, but I'm not gonna make you guys play to the rules when we don't have a very good way of translating the game mechanics to an RP.

All you need to know is that Assault Shift increases attack for a certain number of shots based on your weapon (somewhere between 10-20 for assault rifles, 40-50 for submachine guns, and 2-5 for sniper rifles and bazookas. Don't worry about shot limits for shoulder or auxiliary weapons, I don't really care) at the cost of speed and defense. Wing Shift increases speed and prevents you from losing stamina (we'll just increase the speed for a few seconds instead) at the cost of attack and defense, and Shield Shift gives you a big ol' shield around you. No downsides save for the fact that it draws attention to you because it's big and kinda colorful.

Suddenly, a warning siren went off and signaled to Coperhead's 10 o'clock position.

"Warning. I'm picking up a massive Femto response coming from the north-north-east. Scans show a possibly large group of AIs or a Colossal Immortal," Four said. "Dropping Arsenals into Wing Shift now."

Copperhead lurched backward as Queenie began to rocket forward, but he didn't break formation. "Shit!" he said, pulling up a schematic of the weapons he had. He could take on a large group of AIs, but a Colossal Immortal was an entirely different situation. He had heard stories about Immortals taking over entire factories or merging themselves to build massive battleships or other structures, and it took the entirety of Bullet Works to take down one Colossal Immortal by itself. They were going to need help ASAP.

"A colossal?" Thought Ash, "Well that's a first eh line?" he said half to himself before responding to copperhead "Sir you've pulled ahead a bit, would you like us to speed up to create a tighter formation?"

(Everyone's in Wing Shift and maintaining formation)

"Keep up, everyone!" Copperhead said over the mic. "I have no idea what we're about to face, but you guys have armor-piercing stuff, right?" The laser cannon on Queenie's back would be good for an extended blast, but it would take a full minute to recharge once it was out of Femto. "If push comes to shove, you guys will need to distract it while I line up a shot with my cannon."

“Rodger,” Shadow replied, however he stuttered for a moment before continuing. “Will you allow permission to break away beforehand? I need a high point, and Sentry can’t tank for a beat. I’d be a terrible distraction.”
He stopped for a moment, turning on his headset so the eyepiece glowed a stark green.
“But armor-piercing is my specialty. ‘S long as I get a good shot lined up from afar.”

"Permission granted," Copperhead said as the city grew ever closer. He could see the flashes of tracer rounds and lasers from this distance, but there didn't seem to be any Colossal Immortals anywhere. Suddenly, Four beeped out another warning.

"Warning. I'm picking up a massive Femto response coming from the south-south-east. It's another Colossal Immortal. It seems that they are trying to pincer Grace City and Bullet Works."

"Has anybody else shown up yet?!" Copperhead grumbled. "What happened to all hands on deck?"

"Currently, Bullet Works is missing two of its members, but ID tags from the south indicate that some members of the Western VII are approaching," Four said.

"Can you patch me in to BG?"

"Affirmative. Please wait…"

The comms scratched as the Brigadier General's face appeared on Queenie's monitor. His old, scarred face softened when he realized that help was on the way.

"Hey ho, BG!" Copperhead greeted. "The Iron Dragons are almost there. Do you guys have the fodder handled? We can help take care of the colossals headed your way."

"That would be helpful, yes," BG said as his cockpit was rocked by a burst of heavy machinegun fire. "Crimson Lord and Diablo should be here soon. If we can hold out until then, we should be in the clear!"

Another colossal? Arlo thought to himself, inwardly cursing. He’d only ever dealt with one in a team of ten.
Shadow switched Sentry from autopilot, the mech breaking formation as Arlo had to manually hold the reigns. He flipped a few switches, not taking Sentry from his place but readying his weapons and ammunition.
“Thank you, sir,” Shadow said. “Ready to brake when you give the go-ahead.”

(It took me far too long to finally make this, but I unlocked the bronze color for this! Woot!)

"Alright, break off to that hill over there!" Copperhead pointed to a ridge a few miles away from the city. "Everyone else, on my lead! Let's kick some ass!"

(you making me wish I owned this game)

"Roger that sir" yelled Ash into his mike, he shut it off temporarily and muttered to himself as he activated several different things "Laser guidance systems check, chain cannon rotary engine check, Obliterator cannon is green light and loaded with AP ammo, and I just got my shield reinforced so it should hold up".

(I’m thinking Sentry kinda looks like a mix between Storm and Colossus from Anthem. And yo, Queenie looks rad)

“Rodger,” Shadow repeated. He veered Sentry off, soundlessly taking up his spot on the ridge. He flipped on the cloaking mechanism, Sentry disappearing from the outside. Shadow adjusted the headset, lying low with Sentry’s arm turned to what looked like a divvied up M40A5 sniper. From the headset he could see through the scope, not having to manually peer through the lenses.
“In position,” he reported back to Copperhead.

"Alright, Shadow. Lay down suppressing fire while the rest of us advance," Copperhead said. He pulled out his assault rifles and broke upwards over the approaching skyline. "Everybody engage!"

As Queenie soared over a skyscraper, he began shooting mounted turrets and drones left and right, the heavy-caliber rounds shredding through steel and rupturing Femto cells.

"Alright, BG! We're here!" Copperhead called over the comms.

"And not a moment too soon!" came a gruff voice than what Copperhead was expecting. Bone Box, one of Bullet Works' corporals, was close by with a shotgun in hand. "Duck!" Queenie bent down as Bone Box obliterated an armored Guard Scale drone.

"Good to see you still kicking, Corporal!" Copperhead said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Uh, guys?" came a smaller voice, belonging to Bullet Works' rookie. "A little help on the ground here?" The rookie, Johnny G –new enough to not have a callsign other than his name– was pinned down at a street corner with AI-controlled tanks trying to flank him.
(Support opportunity!)