Death's Angel

[Draruto]

"So Wing, there's another group of living mechs in the system?" Dreku asked his mech, as he waited for his sister. "Yeah, two groups, decking out it in a ongoing civil war." Wing replied. Pushing his sleeve up to reveal his computer gauntlet, he pulled up Wing's face on the screen. "Wanna go zoning later?" "Sure. So eight o'clock?" Before he answered Derek checked his mail and saw the usual mix of meaningless e-mails and adds, "Yeah. See you then." Shutting his computer down, he felt his sister touch his bicep, "Sorry I'm late bro, was zoning with Noila earlier and saw Blood Reygn." He heard the pleased tone in her voice and inwardly tensed. "Fine. I'm going to zone later with Wing. You can come, if you want to Dereka."

She noticed the terse tone in Derek's tone and wish she hadn't brought up Blood Reygn, but she was happy about hearing his name, even if it's only her saying it. Before she could say another word, her brother changed into his body armor and blasted off. Following him as he did the combat maneuvers that she watched him do when he was the fighting zones he entered most of the time. "Derek, talk to me, I'm sorry." she said over the com Derek had installed in their armors. But the only thing she got was static filled open air from him. 'Damn it.' she thought while looping over an Indynian cargo transport and coming to hover as she looked for Derek. "Your pursuit skills need a little work baby sister."

Dereka then saw Derek hovering at least a hundred feet above and to the left of her. "I know." She noticed that he turned his head to the side and sighed. As her brother hovered there, Dereka felt his sadness from her position and says, "Didn't mean to bring it up Der." "I know, still hurts, but I know." Coming to hover in front of Derek, she cupped his metal covered cheek. Looking into the green colored lens and rests her forehead on his. "You'll find someone one day Der, trust me." He dropped his shoulders and heaved a sad sigh. "Seriously doubt it, but who knows." he says softly. Backing away from Dereka as he felt his feelings raged, Derek turned around and zoomed off into the mass of cargo transports. Not noticing the girl watching him from afar, he stops at a zone gate and zoned to outer space.

closed

[Valentina]

Brown hues looked intently through the space helmet that she wore, focused on the screen in front of her that displayed a wealth of information. The young female was dressed casually otherwise, cargo jeans and a form-fitting tshirt adorning her toned frame. Targets darted in and out of view, her aim as centered and precise as possible. With split-second timing, she began dispatching the suits within her field of vision, abruptly swerving around in her seat to change her view. This had been routine enough practice up until now, and soon approached the time that she was dreading. She enjoyed her training sessions, and found them useful for keeping her skills sharp during the brief times of non-combat, but there was always a looming anxiety that was difficult to overcome. The challenge neared closer. Muscles tensed along her forearms, toes pressed into the floor of cockpit, she was straightening in her seat, dark eyes narrowing so she could catch the smallest changes upon the screen.

There was a flash of red which alerted her to a familiar message, one that kept sending a nervous lurch through her stomach: Overdrive System: Activated. The environment within the cockpit became intense with a heightened sort of energy. Alerts were flashing, demanding attention as the functions in the system and targets upon the screen changed. The mission itself was changing, as a daunting wave of enemies appeared. Information was feeding to the helmet, threatening, as usual, to overload her with sensory data and force her to adapt to the new situation within seconds. Struggling, she tried to take the new demands upon herself and could feel her throat tightening, her pulse quickening, her hands gripping the controls like a vice. She hated failure, yet this system seemed determined to fail even experienced pilots such as herself.

Several intense minutes passed and with a burning sense of defeat, she could hear herself weakly uttering the command, “Force shut down: V-02MD.” The computers began their routine process of booting down rather rapidly and the cockpit became dark. Body trembling slightly, she banged her fist against the armrest, mumbling, “Damn it.”

* * *

After showering, she changed into camo-patterned pants that had multiple pockets, and threw on a couple slim-fit tanktops. She exchanged a few words with the other pilots and crewmembers, avoiding the subject of her VR training as best she could, making paces from the barracks to the hangar. Soon, she was boarding the space combat suit, Taurus, and preparing for zoning clearance. The brunette took some time in quickly checking the status of her beam cannon, laser rifle and beam saber, sighing as she properly settled into the suit. A few taps on the control panel as she made minor adjustments to the cockpit to suit her liking and as the bay door opened, she prepared to disembark. The zoning gate couldn’t come close enough; she desperately needed the open expanse of space, perhaps followed with a trip to a nearby colony. Natasha Bennett took off, suit aimed towards the sun as the gate approached, granting her a temporary freedom from the confines of earthly concerns.

[Draruto]

Standing on a cargo trasnsport orbiting a colony Derek had been on the ship for hours, thinking about why he had lashed out on his sister. "Shouldn't have but I did out reflex. Damn I can such an ass." he says to himself as Wing lands behind him. "So what are going against tonight?" the mech asked. "Dolls, Virgos, and other mechs from your run." Wing chuckles at the thought, 'Been a while we've fought mechs similar to me. Aughta be fun.'

Minutes later Derek rolled his shoulder as he stood in Wing's cockpit, "Want me to send out an open challenge?" Wing's voice asked on the speakers. "Might as well." As Wing sent the challege; Derek checked his messages. 'So Reygn wants to talk, fine. He gets a challenge to.' he thought sending the challenge to Reygn.

[Valentina]

There were some live target balls from the base hovering in front of her suit, and even with their unpredictable patterns and frequencies, they were easily disposed of. She continued working on her handling of the Taurus's weapons, pinpointing areas where her skill could be improved, as the Taurus was not her usual suit. Rather, it was a stock from the base.

Natasha could see a nearby colony, one which she had been hoping to visit since it had experienced recent renovations and she held an interest in colonization improvements. Before she was halfway to her destination, she could see an open call for challenge; perhaps it was someone seeking a sparring partner? She doubted it was a hostile military unit, though they had been known to abuse this calling power and harass lowly, inexperienced pilots and the like. Shrugging, she figured she may as well give it a shot, despite the fact that her head wasn't quite yet in the right place that it should be for a scuffle like this. Responding to the call, she began to head towards the point of origin, seeing a somewhat flashy multicoloured mobile suit up ahead.

[Draruto]

Just minutes after he saw a Taurus coming, a Leo, a Strike, and Reygn's gold and blue Deathscythe; then a run down black and white Zaku appeared. "Hello Der-kun." Derek rolled his eyes, "Hi Gramps, when did you get a mech only usefully as cannon fodder?" "Should it matter?" Not replying, Derek then saw Dereka and Noila show up. 'Great.' he thought mildly, switching on Wing's retrofitted Mobile Trace system and bounced on his feet before it finished coming online. "So Der-kun, what are the rules?" "Dogfight, no weapons pass beam sabers, and intentional destroying of mechs." "Does everyone agree with these rules" Derek's grandfather asked. Then people that were there sent their acknowledgement, but Derek knew that his sister was more acustomed to fighting on the ground. 'Ok Reygn, if you care for my sister you better realized that and compsate for it.

Dereka was scared and Noila grabbed Reygn's mech's arm to comfort her. "We don't have to do this Dera." She shook her head, "No Noila, I have to. I hid the majority of the fact that I was going out with Reygn from Derek because I was scared of his reaction. But I have to face it now or won't be able to later."

[Valentina]

It looks like several other mobile suits had gathered at the planned meeting point. Natasha's eyes grazed over the monitors around her cockpit as she assessed the other suits, identifying them rather quickly even from a distance. They were familiar models she had either worked on as part of her self-initiated mobile suit technician training, or piloted herself. Not to mention the wealth of reading she had done on the subject, finding the study of suits rather interesting, especially as new technology emerged and improved with each coming year.

Yawning, her arms stretching high above her head, expanding her chest and then eventually settling back in her seat. Unfamiliar voices were speaking over the communications device as she listened in, clenching and releasing her fists and stretching her fingers experimentally before they found their usual position on the controls. The instructions were sent via radio to all the suits and she promptly shot back a confirmation message, prepared to fight with the beam saber she had equipped herself with. "This is Bennett speaking, pilot of the T-12SMS. Standing by," she voiced smoothly over the communicator. Arms crossed loosely over her chest, eyes closing for a moment as she waited for the others to ready themselves for the skirmish.

[Draruto]

A bar appeared on the others' HUDs, "When that bar reaches zero, you're out." Derek says as rolled his shoulder and drew the beam sabers out. The Leo and Strike charged him swinging their sabers. Jetting through them while slicing their armor Derek then avoided Reygn's beamscythe only to his sister's kick. "You to?" "Y....yes." "Fine." he said, launcher Dereka back with a front kick. Tilting his head to duck a saber, Derek zoomed up and kicked the Strike in the back.

Dereka flew back pass Bennett while inadvertly hitting her. Recovering from her brother's quite powerful kick, she shook her head and said, "Forgot about how strong my brother's kicks are." Watching as Reygn and her brother trade blows between each other and the other mechs. Looking towards Bennett she says, "You sound familar, would you by chance know my boyfriend's family, he told me about a girl he knew."

[Valentina]

She straightened in her seat, fingers dancing upon the controls for a moment as she prepared herself. Natasha hoped she would be in the right mindset for this fight, trying to brush away the day's earlier disappointment. It looked like the other mobile suits were headed towards Wing, so perhaps the others were all acquaintances. She had heard of a few of them taking over the com, but perhaps more of them previously knew each other than she realized. Watching a few of their blows against Wing, she worked to quickly get at least a brief understanding of their fighting style, paying attention to how far away they were from the enemy suits when they attacked, noting how long they held their position, and how they made attempts to recover.

Dereka knocked past her, seemingly by accident, so she didn't let it bother her. Like a hawk circling towards prey, she made a large arch as she flew towards the Leo, beam saber ready in her suit's right hand. Anticipating the suit to charge towards her, she swept to the side and struck towards its arm before turning towards the back of the suit to elbow it off balance and then kick it square in the back. Hearing the comment from Dereka over the communicator, she provided swiftly, "My name is Natasha, if that helps. What name does your boyfriend go by?"

[Draruto]

"David Mc'Kloud to anyone in the military and those idiotic orginizations that screw everyones life up or Blood Regyn to everyone that comes to space. My name is Dereka, the one that's in Wing is my older brother Derek." Dereka replied back before jetting back to avoid a laser blast. 'That was close.' she thought, looking towards the fight.

Derek flip flopped between deflecting blows from the Strike and having a beam saber/sycthe dance with Reygn. Part of him wondered why he was taking his anger of being alone out on Dereka's boyfriend. 'Because you are sad and you turn that to anger to not think about it.' a voice answered in Derek's mind. 'Go figure.' he added, taking the Strike out of the fight.