Nightengale
The Commander stared at the screen with a scowl painted on his face. The com link had been cut five minutes ago and he still hadn't moved. The bridge of his vessel was quiet as everyone waited for orders. Anger was present on his face as he glared. To the rest of the Drastonian army, Cecil Jiovia was just another soldier. Expendable. But to him, she was an asset. Just as everyone else aboard his ship was. He prized every single soldier like they should be. With the possiblity of losing her after having her so close.... It had him shaking. Not to mention that if he had to break something like that to her brother. The man was a seasoned veteran. Well into his years and service. But he knew family was important, and losing something important like that.... The Commander hated to think what Sebastian might do. Even if he was stoic and had the calmest attitude among the ranks. Everyone had something that could break them down. Everyone.
Leaning over the young soldier's shoulder who had first hailed ensign Cecil Jiovia, the Commander punched a few keys and connected to the hanger bay. "All teams to deploy immediately," he ordered, then let go of the button. It wasn't usual for the Commander himself to issue orders over the coms. He had a chain of command and he used it, normally. "Give me the pilots cockpits. Ensign Sebastian Jiovia and Captain Ebenezer Rastin." The young man nodded and set to work on doing what he was told. It only took him a few moments, then he was looking up at the intimidating man who commanded the Nightengale and nodded. Handing him a headset, the Commander took it and put it on. "Ensign Jiovia, Captain Rastin. Your team has special orders."
Ebenezer was currently going through some of the dioagnostics of his mech, which currently was out floating in the cold depths of space, just outside of the Nightengale. It was small things, mostly to make sure that the radar and other sensors were working. His helmet's display had linked up with that of the mech, so he had the information presented to him via the HUD. It wasn't needed, but he generally preferred it if he could make use of it. It was simply nice to have the information right there for easy and quick reading. Currently his helmet was displaying Sebastian's mech and its condition, which showed everything as positive. Finishing up with the last of the tests, he then situated himself more comfortably in pseudo-chair that was for his mech. He reached down to the sides, slipping his fingers into the metallic like glove that functioned as the controls for his mech. Each of the metallic gloves had three slots, one for the thumb and the other two for two of his fingers to fit in to mimic the claws of his mech. Along his arm, he could feel various metal peices attach themselves to the outside of his suit's arms, so that as he moved his arm the many jointed metal peices could move along with him with no restrictions. As he finished, looking to make sure his hands were secured nicely, and so where the metal sensors that attached to his arms, he then absent mindly reached up to scratch at his chin. To those outside, they could see his mech's arms mimc the action, reaching up to scratch at it's own chin.
It'd been a bit of a pain for the enginners to produce, but Ebenezer had done a lot of begging to have his mech rigged so that he could directly control it simply through the motions of his own body, or atleast as much as he could. Things such as the thrusters and the weapons had to still be rigged to triggers for the obvious reason of him having no other way to activate them. The legs were somewhat attuned to his own leg movements, though it was still a bit of an auto-mated process by the onboard operating system, given that his mech's legs were not exactly a match for a human. Ebenezer was glad they had given in to his request, though he was certain that had he shown any less promise as a pilot, they would have flat out told him to shut his mouth.
A voice in his ear had him tilting his head, a reflexive movement to try and better hear the noise despite it being projected straight into his ear from his helmet's earpiece. It was the commander of the Nightengale. Ebenezer frowning slightly as to what it was the man needed to say. "Scrouge here, reading you commander."
Sebastian, who was sitting in the much more simplistic seat of his mech's cockpit, was watching out the front viewscreen of his mech as he listened as well. His mech's interior was simply a chair for him to sit comfortably in, with straps to help hold him in place and two joysticks on both arms to control the weapons of his mech. A couple of pedals near his feet served as the controls for his mech's movement. They hardly made it easy to rapidly control his mech's movement, but that's why it was desgined to absorb blows rather than simply avoid them, though granted he did still prefer to not take a shot if he didn't need to. When the captain called in, Sebastian quickly followed. "Archer hearing you. Go ahead sir." he said in return, eyes still watching out front as he remained relaxed in his seat.
"This information isn't common knowledge. The mecha you're about to retrieve is high valued. At least, to the higher ups. My concern rests with who's piloting it. I know the rumors that have spread. Those rumors are true. Your orders are to retrieve that mecha at all costs. More importantly, the pilot. Do not let her fall in their hands. the Commander's voice was silent for a while. It was quiet for so long that it might have been the end of his orders, until he spoke again and the tone was different. "And Sebastian. She's not in good shape."
The short addition was quickly clipped, as if to cover the strain of worry in his tone. "Her injuries will keep her from fighting at her best. She's being tailed by the Kiritine army. No doubt we'll see the Vigilanti soon. Captain Rastin, you and your team are to go ahead first. Get her to the safety net as quickly as possible. She is your priority and nothing else. Understood?"
Sebastian let out a quiet sigh, his only sign of any anxiety or nerves about what was said to him regarding the pilot they were to rescue. So that's where Cecil had ended up afterall. In a way, his brotherly instincts were crying out about how irritating and aggravating it was to have heard that his sister would be thrown into the lion's den like that. Such a task of infiltrating the Kiritine military was extremly dangerous, and now to hear that she was in bad shape only made him more angry. However, that same brotherly feeling was also congradulating his little sister for the work she had managed to carry out, and that she was even going to possibly make it back in the first place. He wanted to brag about the little brat he'd put up with so much had done something so awesome. Hell, he even wanted to joke that it was totally himself that taught her how to do everything. None of these emotions showed though, as he simply sat up in his seat and gripped the controls of his mech. Right now it was time to be serious, and if they were going to go straight into an angered nest of hornets, then he needed to be one-hundred percent focused for the fight.
Ebenezer was a bit more confused, as honestly he wasn't sure what rumors the commander was referring too. Also, why the commander had directly referred to Sebastian about the condition of the pilot. Clearly he was missing something, but it wasn't mission important, so he simply shrugged it off. "Understood sir. We'll get her back home." he said with a calm voice. Of course it also betrayed the slight edge he was feeling. He and his two team members were expected to escort a wounded pilot away from a bunch of Kiritine troops, and not to mention possibly the Vigilant itself. If that ship also showed up, that also meant they'd possibly find themselves coming face to face with the Kiritine Aces. That was not a fight he wanted while being so close to both their flagship and reinforcements. Orders were orders though, and if his team was quick, Ebenezer was certain they could get her out of there before things got to lively. "We'll have to make this quick team, we do not want to be out there if and when the Vigilant shows itself." With that, he pressed down on one of the buttons located within the "glove" of his controls, activating the travel thrusters to send his mech forwards. He kept things low so as not to outpace Sebastian, but also to not drain his mech of too much energy on their way there. He could only hope that "Spectre" had picked up on the message and would show up as well.
Dizzy, headache, hot, Cecil was pushing hard to keep from falling asleep. The mecha's A.I was hovering around her, humming in what sounded like concern. Cecil was pretty sure the A.I could talk, but she wasn't sure how to fix the controls to have her do so. After all, the mecha wasn't fully completed, at least with the technical stuff. And for Cecil to have disengaged it on short notice, she was sure she'd done a few things to screw it up. Hell, she was lucky it flew at all. Or deployed weapons. Which she was desperately trying to get to engage. Dodging out of the way of several beam rifles and bullets, it was all Cecil could do to keep the mecha going. If she fought, she'd waste energy. Dodging was a pain in the ass, but it was better than falling behind.
Come on, Cecil thought as she pushed the engines to their max. The humming was loud in the cockpit, but not enough to drown out the blaring warnings that flashed all across her screen. Her trembling hands worked to keep out of the weapons that fired at her. She'd taken a few hits, but thanks to the Inukaitu metal helping to reduce the damage, nothing was too severe. Although, Cecil was pretty sure they weren't trying to shoot her down just yet. Kiritine prized their newest creation too much to destroy it right off the bat. They would try to capture her first, take the machine back. When that failed, though, they would most definitely destroy her. Cecil wasn't about to let that happen, but the situation wasn't looking any better.
Another hit to the mecha jostled it to the right. Cecil straightened the machine, but the way it was tossed aggrivated the wounds. For a moment, the acceleration decreased as she lost hold of the touch pad that controlled the thrusters. She couldn't count how many times that had happened and each time had them getting closer to her. Cecil ground her teeth and powered it up again, a soft groan leaving her lips at the force of the engines. Being tossed around was not her idea of a great get away plan, nor ideal for a wounded soldier. A loud warning filled the cockpit and Cecil attempted to dodge whatever it was. The mecha was yanked back and Cecil flew forward from the machine being stopped so suddenly. Cursing herself for not thinking to buckle into the seat, she caught herself against the screen of the pilot box. Shoving off, she went back to the seat and tried everything she could to get free. Everything just short of changing the mecha back into the humaniod shape. She was pressing buttons, tapping all sorts of keys to try to do something. She heard a few things go off, and she was pretty sure she'd just fired some missiles, but couldn't confirm it in her slight panic.
"Shit!" she said under her breath as she tried frantically to free herself.
Ebenezer had increased the power of his mech's thrusters, just to try and close the distance they needed to soon. Sebastian was not far behind him, though he was forced to push his mech a bit more given it's weaker thrusters. Regardless, he defintely felt that they were making good time, and it was his radar suddenly coming to life with several blips. Watching it from the corner of his eye, he then watched as his HUD also began to rapidly highlight the various mechs not far from them. The only thing that had him frowning was that he didn't know as of yet which one he was aiming to not kill. He wanted to immediately engage, but until he culd exactly figure out which was which, he had to withhold the missles of his mech. He quickly zoomed in on the main cluster, eyes darting over each and everyone one of them to see which he was looking for. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he observed, finally seeing amongst the mess one machine in particular that seemed to be the main cause of the fuss. He cocked his head to the side slightly, noting that the stilled machine did not appear to be a mech at all, but rather a jet. Regardless though, considering that most of the other mechs, clearly marked to be the Kiritines, were moving towards it, he had to take a guess.
"Weapons Free." he said, pressing the main thrusters of his mech and launtching it full speed towards the nearest mech to the jet. Rotating himself into a spin, he allowed himself to barely skim over top of the jet, using the rotation to bring a claw around to slash at the hook that held onto the jet while still moving forwards. The enemy had quickly begun to fire at him, having very quickly figured out he wasn't one of them, but he kept his mech leveled in a way so that it's head pointed towards them to lower his profile. As the distance quickly came to a close, he ceased the spin of his mech, reaching out towards the Kiritine as he slammed straight into the target. The hit had his claws sinking deep into the shoulders of the other mech, and the momentum carried the both of them into several other mechs, slamming into one as they went. Quickly, Ebenezer tore the claws free and slammed it right where the cockpit sohulder be, driving the claws deep to get to the pilot within.
As the captain slammed his way straight into the enemy, those that turned to try and shoot the captain paid dearly when a powerful slug of dense metal tore straight through one mech and tore through the arm of another. They had made the mistake of turning their attention away from Sebastian, who had slowed his mech down to line up a shot with one of the railguns. He did not fire the other, in case he'd need the other slug before the first gun was recharged, so instead he switched to high-power on his main guns. With the enemy currently caught off guard, he didn't need volume of fire to catch them. Instead he could slam them with concentrated blasts of energy, which he quickly. All the while, his mech continued to drift towards the jet, Sebastian casting a very quick glance to it before going back to focus on keeping the enemy his Captain wasn't engaged with off of his CO.
Cecil was shocked at the sudden intervention. She hadn't expected anyone to be in range for quite a while longer. She couldn't get a good look at the one that had streaked by and freed the mech from whatever had it trapped, the other she could probably see if she could figure out how to catch a closer look at it with the systems. But instead of wasting time with that, she'd rather use what they'd given her and power forward. It would be a waste if they had to fight even more just for her sake. Cecil powered the engines again and the machine lurched forward to get out of the thickest part of the Kiritine army. She shot forward and then sucked in a sharp breath as a mecha got in her path. She directed the machine up and over that one only to slam into another. Explosions were going off all around and the chaos of the fighting was making it harder to concentrate. Grinding her teeth, Cecil was slamming buttons again. Somehow, she got the machine to change from the jet style, to humaniod.
Blades rang free along the arms and in two twists, she had torn apart the Kiritine pilot who had tried to grapple her into submission. Leaning forward, doubled over slightly in the seat, Cecil panted and tried to keep herself from dropping into sleep. Shaking fingers tapped a button on the arm of the chair. She hoped she'd open a link to the pilots who were assisting her, but it might have gone to Kiritine too. Not that she really cared all too much anymore. [color=#80480]"Thanks for the assistance,"[/color] she started, forcing the words out on short bursts of air. "I will attempt to change back again to go faster. But piloting this is.... Difficult, at best." she wasn't sure what she was trying to inform them, but it would have to do. She was too scrambled to think straight. The best she could do was keep going forward and return to the Nightengale. That was her mission. The only part of it that was coherent anyway.
"Thank us when you make it home. Until then, try not to get wrecked you nut." Sebastian responded when he heard Cecil's voice over the radio. He was glad he was sitting alone in his mech, because it meant nobody would catch his normally stoic apperance breaking into a smile at hearing his sister's voice. It'd been quite a long time since he'd heard her or even spoken to her, and just hearing her voice was enjoyable.
Amongst the Kiritine mechs, Ebenezer had dislodged his mech's claws form another dead enemy, quickly hitting the thrusters to pull himself out from amongst them before he was surrounded. He sneered when he felt a shot hit his mech, shaking it. fortunately, the armor held together, but quickly he released a flurry of missles towards the mechs to try and give himself a quick breather. He also returned fire with the machine guns on his arms, having raised up both and firirng at the nearest mechs to him. They wer enough to dissuade any mechs from trying to take a still shot at him, but what hitsl anded only served to annoy the other mechs. He was quick to thrust to the side to avoid another beam shot, though two mechs closing in towards him with their own blades ready had him immediately changing direction. The amount of G's he was feeling was fairly intense, as he went from moving to the side to immediately charging head long towards both. Clearly both had been planning to try and catch him while he was back peddling, so they failed to land hits on him as the claws of his mech, slashed across the two of them as he dashed between them.
When he had heard the woman's voice, noting the strain from the injuries she must have suffered, Ebenezer smiled a little himself. His smile turned to a look of surprise when he heard Sebastian return remark. "Sister?! Really?!"[color] he exclaimed, dashing to the side of one of the two mechs that tried to slash at him, he quickly maneuvered himself so as to keep one mech between him and the other opponent at all times to limit the amount of attacks coming his way. This allowed ihm to better handle the fight, and a quick dodge of a sword swipe followed by a quick thrust forward had the claw of his mech sticking itself into the torso of the enemy. Quickly hee used his thrusters to turn the two of them around, bringing the mech implaed on his arm around to take the hit from it's ally. When the blade stuck into its ally's mech, Ebenezer then reached up with his free claw to grab the back of the blade. Once he had a firm grip, he then riped his other claw free and thrusted up over the enemy mech he had been holding onto. This ripped the blade free as it came with him, and once he had cleared over the dead mech, he then shot forwards to slam his claw through the other mech, all while keeping hold of the blade to keep it out of the way of his attack. Once cleared of them, he quickly backed away once more, firing his machine guns at other enemies to try and keep them from getting easy shots back on him.
[color=#e02828] "So, is every member of your family in the military?!" again he moved to the side, as well as moved backwards to create more distance for now. "I hope she isn't as deadpan as you are, crabby."
Cecil was shocked to hear her brother's voice over the transmission. Of all people, he was the last one she'd expected to hear. It made her heart jump to her throat. Desires flooded her, she wanted to see her brother, not just hear his voice. She hadn't seen him in so long, it was nearly torture to just hear his deep rumble but not see him. Almost as if she were hallucinating it. For a moment, she believed she was. Until a second voice joined in, asking about a sister and then talking about the family and hoping that she wasn't a deadpan like Sebastian. It made her laugh, though the sound was choked with tears. "Ainiki," she called with a bit of a hitch to her voice. It was her 'nickname' for him, using the old term for brother in a different language. She'd always found that language beautiful to begin with, and had incorporated it into how she spoke to her brother.
She whimpered softly as she leaned back in the seat and pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried hard not to cry even more. The tears didn't really stream, but floated around her face in little droplets that mixed with the blood. Her heart pounded hard and she might have lost her composure entirely, until a familiar voice filled the cockpit and she gasped in shock. Nee's voice filled the small box, a haunting kind of ring to her words as she announced her preparations for battle with Cecil. Cecil's chest tightened and she spoke to both men who had joined the fight to help her. "Ainiki! We have to retreat! They're sending their Ace's! If they--" Cecil was cut off as warnings blasted through and in the next instant, something slammed into the mecha. Cecil barely caught herself, but slammed into the side of the cockpit with the injured shoulder. The cry of pain was quickly supressed, but perhaps not quick enough. Dizzy yet again, it was harder than ever to try to drag herself to the seat and fight back with the mecha that had slammed into her and blocked out everything on the screen except for it's ridiculously large size. Only a small fry of a pilot, but Cecil knew she wasn't in any shape to fight, let alone take on the Kiritine's ace's.
Sebastian rolled his eyes when he heard her nickname for him. He wasn't sure why she had decided on it, but then again they were a strange family. Only made sense for them to throw around odd nicknames. He did catch the lump in her throat when she spoke to him, and though he'd like to return the love, he quickly shifted himself back to fighting mode. "Get teary and sentimental when we make it back to the Nightengale. The enemy is not going to go easy just because we haven't seen one another in a while." it sounded a little harsh and callous, but they needed to remain focused. This many mechs was a problem, and they could only fend them off for so long.
" I second that Idea!." Ebenezer called out, grunting when his mech shook as it took a solid hit to the side. Gritting his teeth, Cecil's calling out about the arrival of the aces soon was old news. "Yes, very aware of the encroaching enemy, miss! We need to get out of here regardless of whether or not they show up before we get swamped." he fired another flurry of missles before quickly dashing out of the way of another beam shot. "Miss, need you to update you IFF codes before we reach the saftey net. As our other compatriot put it, don't want to have you turn to multch after all of this." As he said it, he quickly took the chance to relay said codes towards Cecil's mech, hoping that she could retrieve them without having to send them openly over the radio.
Their attention was drawn to the sound of Cecil's quick cry of pain, Sebastian turning his head to see another mech had gotten into the face of her once more. Sebastian was quickly maneuvering his mech to line up a shot with the second railgun. Ebenezer on the other hand, was already moving his mech to try and intercept any others that were trying to attack her. He had slammed into another mech that made an attempt to reach Cecil, but he could only do so much while trying to protect a weak pilot. Sebastian though was ready to help, and he hovered his finger over the trigger as his mech slowly drifted into the correct position. As his crosshair slowly moved, he immediately pressed the trigger as it drifted over the mech that was harrassing his sister. The slug went sailing through the vacumm, slamming into one shoulder of the Kiritine mech, tearing it's way all the way through to the other side before continuing onwards into the void of space. He was then shifting to fire on the mechs his captain was not attacking, having switched his arms to rapid fire mode to lay down a heavy volume of fire. "Cecil, you need to move it. Or do you really want to be the reason our reuinion is cut so short?" he said over the radio.
"Ainiki...." what might have once sounded petulant and childish when dealing with her brother, came out strained and shortened of breath. Cecil ground her teeth as she hauled herself back in the seat and forced her body to cooperate. The A.I materialized again and hovered next to her, looking worried and fearful. Cecil forced a smile. She punched in the coordinates for the Nightengale and then tried to figure out how to change the IFF codes that the second pilot had ordered her to do. Her fingers felt stiff and every inch of her body was like lead. Frowning, Cecil narrowed her eyes as she tried to concentrate on what she'd been told to do. "I have the coordinates for the Nightengale, I'll go ahead," she announced, trying to sound stronger than she felt, and probably trying to impress her brother. It was usually like that, at least that much hadn't changed even in the seven years they'd been apart.
"I'll try to change the codes, it will take a while though. And.... Ainiki, you better be right behind me, or I'll have to kick your ass," she threatened though threats from her to a sibling didn't sound all too frightening. Mother had once described it as a kitten pawing at a dog and nothing more. Cecil listened to the hum of the engines as she powered the mecha and felt it shifting into the jet form again. As it shot off toward the Nightengale she could only hope that she'd make it out of the reach of the Ace's. Most especially from Nee. The last thing she wanted was a fight with that woman.