After several minutes of awkward navigation through the cramped space of the shuttle that held Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanical Retinue's sole, sad Barely-Rivalled, and after around an hour of getting the thing prepared for entry and deployment, Corporal Mihail Andonov finally found himself inside of a Titan. It was true that the exacts of this would feel unfamiliar to most pilots from the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist - he was in a physical cockpit, something that was only ever found in titans that were very old, very cheap, or designed not to rely on advanced maintenance. But Mihail had spent some time going through several Titans in the Retinue, most of which fit one or more of those categories, so sitting down in the crinkly seat of the Barely-Rivalled Ripoff Raptor, getting his hands on the controls... Mihail took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. It had been quite a long time since he'd gone multiple weeks without a combat mission, let alone months, so this was... nice. Reassuring, even. Sure, Mihail was about to go fight in life-or-death combat that was going to be desperate for at least one of the parties involved, but it was hard to feel too shaken up about it. This was much closer to how things were the way he was used to it.
Later, traversing the terrain on the way to his target, Mihail couldn't help but be impressed by the scenery. Seeing the planet from all the way up above, Mihail had suspected that all of the missions here on Chopta, at least in this central part of it, would be taking place on the same expanses of brown, beige, and greenish. That wasn't to say that Mihail would have complained about scenery that was a little boring, given that it was his policy not to complain about anything if it could be helped, but to simply stay quiet and take satisfaction in doing what people needed him to do. But the terrain he was going to be having this fight in was nothing short of beautiful - a mountain rising tall in the distance with more verdant greenery surrounding it than could be found for miles and miles, deep and irregular canyons and rock formations that jutted up and down from the ground, and boulders ranging from small to far larger than all but the most mythical of Titans. It was a scablands, created likely by a catastrophic flooding event millenia ago, something Mihail remembered from his education in geography years ago - and he couldn't help but be pleased, just a little, with the experience of seeing one.
Of course, he wasn't here to gawk at the view. After a while longer, Mihail entered a particularly wide and flat area of land that he had been told to look out for - albeit a wide and flat area absolutely littered with the boulders that dotted the Scablands. Eventually, he saw his likely target on top of a boulder, about the time said target likely saw him - an organic Titan that those not used to organic titans might find both disturbing and beautiful. The Titan looked something like the child of a human skeleton and an emaciated hare, but it was impressively-well put together - muscle and flesh twined around skeleton to form powerful haunches and solid arms, but in other areas such as the lower legs, the muscle faded into bone barely covered by skin and fur. Up top, a cockpit took only the place of the eyes on a similar creature, avoiding the intrusive scariness of the Barely-Rivalled's, and red fleshy tubes stretched from the shoulders to the elbow on the Titan. ...of course, with Mihail able to make out these details, the enemy pilot could make out his Titan just as well, and it wasn't long before the enemy Titan turned around and ran. Getting his Titan moving more and more, Mihail flicked a button to speak back to the command staff: "I have spotted the objective - I am initiating pursuit."
For those who are not involved in the creation and maintenance of Titans, it is often easy to overlook how much of a marvel of engineering Titan legs are in their own right. Creating a set of legs that can steadily convey a twenty-five foot combat vehicle that weighs multiple dozens of tons isn't easy whether by engineering, biogineering, or magic - and creating a set of legs that is capable of a full-out run is
hard. Yet, it was a feat managed by the designers of both sets of legs on the battlefield. Although the enemy Titan's legs looked fragile, given that the lower legs didn't consist of more than bone and skin, they were both light and strong, allowing the enemy Titan to jump off of the boulder it had been perched upon and begin moving away at a fast clip.
Mihail, however, immediately got to receive the benefits of the Megaraptor Legs. The multijointed, agile nature of the legs as well as the ability to use the talons on the feet for traction allowed the
Ripoff Raptor to make a running start, moving at a fair clip towards the enemy Titan after a few steps - in fact, as time went on, it became clear that the
Ripoff Raptor was faster than its quarry, albeit barely. Mihail pursed his lips as the several seconds of pursuit that followed gave him some time to think - the tactics he had been given had advised usage of his long-range weaponry if his quarry was
faster than him, but this was close enough. "Captain, I'm beginning to enter firing range. I will be taking the liberty of firing." The railgun at the center of the
Ripoff Raptor began to charge - and as it did, an eddy in the terrain caused the enemy mech to enter the range of the Laserizer as well. A beam of light struck out from the right arm of the
Ripoff Raptor towards its target, and burned a black line across the back of the enemy mech - but a closer look revealed that it hadn't breached the hide. It had
damaged it somewhat, but a single strike from a small weapon was never going to be quite enough to breach a Titan-grade hide.
The railgun strike that followed was more convincing. While the occasionally back-and-forth nature of the chase caused the Laserizer issues with dispersion beyond its maximum range, often leaving only faint shadows of burns, the railgun was a long-range weapon that had no such issue, staying comfortably on-target. When it finished charging and the shell ripped out, the whole dynamic of the situation changed in an instant - suddenly, the other Titan staggered, its hide penetrated. There was some damage to the structure underneath, muscle torn and bone bruised - but that was far from enough to cause a military-grade Titan serious functionality issues. It was, however, enough to make the Titan's pilot suddenly reconsider his plan of action, as the Titan turned over the course of a few rapid steps to grab a boulder and
wing it at Mihail, causing him to duck his Titan out of the way with a quick lateral jump. Immediately following that, the eney Titan whipped behind a boulder, where it seemed to be hiding, waiting likely for a chance to strike back instead of run.
Mihail smiled, just a little, took in a breath, and then reached the arms of his Titan to its back, pulling out the shield the
Ripoff Raptor was wielding. Although it looked unimpressive, being a thin disk of dark metal with a smattering beige-pink fleshy substance and a sheen of mucus, Mihail remained confident. "Captain, I have confirmed existence of what appears to be a built-in system for operating a carryable, but no associated weapon. I believe our intelligence is correct - I am closing." And he redirected towards the boulder the other Titan was hiding behind, the
Ripoff Raptor holding its shield aloft, moving at speed. He was greeted in turn by the other pilot making their move - the harelike Titan
leapt up onto the boulder, smaller tubes jutting out near the wrists disgorging a vaguely orange-tinted transparent acid in two jets towards the
Ripoff Raptor. Biomechanical arms raised the shield, and...
There's an inherent problem with designing a shield to protect against a spray of acid - sprays of liquid, by their definition, are rather messy affairs and the weapons that create them aren't exactly designed for minimal coverage. These acid weapons weren't large ones, and they didn't coalesce into streams that could
splash, meaning that what droplets of acid did hit the shield were easily nullified, but not all did, and a light dusting of acid did make its way onto the arms, back and head of the
Ripoff Raptor. Thankfully for Mihail, however, with the size of the weapons involved, he managed to catch most of it, and this wasn't enough to do more than minor damage to the hardened outer muscles of the Titan, which Batari could likely fix through standard measures at the
Unceasing Progress.
Now, however, Mihail was faced with another problem - the enemy pilot had evidently decided that their best chance was to take advantage of their Titan's ability to jump and to take the high ground, probably wagering that they could avoid those nasty-looking talons from the rock. The
Ripoff Raptor could barely reach up to that point on the boulder, and close combat would then normally be an impossibility - except that Mihail raised the
Ripoff Raptor's right arm and proceeded to blast the enemy with a cone of rapidly-changing colors. With the enemy pilot dazed and unable to react in time, Mihail elected simply to plow directly into the boulder, shield raised high with flat end forward. There was a ringing impact as the bottom of the shield slammed into the boulder, but held, helping to stop the
Ripoff Raptor in time to avoid a very stupid impact along with the taloned legs of the Megaraptor Legs digging furrows through the dirt. The top of the shield, on the other hand, managed to slam into the lower left leg of the enemy mech, the lighter section made of just bone - and the enemy Titan lost its footing. With the pilot only beginning to recover from the Laserizer's lightshow, he was unable to react in time... and the enemy mech toppled over, nearly becoming a messy collision of two Titans before Mihail just managed to dart away, leaving the enemy to crash down onto the ground front-first.
Mihail could not help but feel a reflexive urge to apologize at the probably-unnecessary near-miss, but he couldn't stop to talk, not when an opportunity to savage the enemy Titan came up immediately. One multijointed leg slammed down onto its left arm, talons beginning to puncture lines in the purely organic Titan's hide - and while it struggled to get up, forcing the
Ripoff Raptor to carefully adjust to keep its balance, the two lasers of the Barely-Rivalled swept across a line across the other Titan's back again and again near its injured previous shoulder, creating a blackened line that cut through the hide and exposed the damaged muscular structure. This was followed by sickeningly wet
chop as the sharp edge of the Anti-Acid Shield came down and cut deeply into it, even more blood welling outwards as the bone was sliced into - and again - and again - and again - until the target Titan's arm was eventually severed completely, leaving its only remaining armament pinned under the
Ripoff Raptor's leg.
There was an uncertain moment where it seemed like the enemy Titan might manage to throw Mihail off - but once that ended up failing as the damaged Titan found itself unable to gain enough traction on the side where its arm was missing, Mihail had enough time to line up his coup de grace. The
Ripoff Raptor held its shield in both hands - and, taking a moment to make sure to line it up perfectly, he slammed it as hard as the Barely-Rivalled could into the other Titan's head. ...this wasn't actually enough, with the Barely-Rivalled's arms not strong enough to make that decisive blow. But this was no matter to Mihail - he had the situation well in hand, now, and he had time. Once, twice, three times, the sharp edge of the Anti-Acid Shield sliced through hide, through flesh, through bone, adding to the growing pool of Titan ichor - and then, finally, mixing in a dash of human blood.
Mihail let out a long breath of relief, and then had the
Ripoff Raptor back away. Mihail observed the carnage he'd left behind mostly impassive but for a soft satisfied smile, and then he opened up his comms to the mothership once more. "Captain, I am reporting a kill. Footage should confirm, so I do believe we are done here. In terms of easily salvageable battlefield scrap, I can easily take the severed arm, which is mostly intact and contains a support system for what must have been the Titan's carryable, although the attached weapon seems to have been made unsalvageable by the impact. If you do not mind a personal note from me, Captain... I will admit that it is satisfying to be able to do this again. I hope I can in this way contribute to our future prosperity."
Mission Success!Damage Incurred: Negligible
Battlefield Scrap: Organic Right Arm Scrap, 1 Organic Scrap with Carryable Weapon Support Tube
Mihail Andonov has gained a Trait: Snap Reflexes (You don't really survive as long as Mihail has without having developed the ability not to get yourself blown to hell. Mihail better avoids threats that strongly register even on the scale of a Titan, such as Large or Carryable weapons, or close combat attacks, but he doesn't really tend to bother with smaller threats, lest he end up having to pull back constantly.)
The communication that came later from McNabb showed the ex-Fifhurst captain more than a little impressed - in fact, his eyebrows had practically climbed into his (red) hairline. "Well, I will admit that I had my initial doubts about your company, but they clearly must have been unjustified on my part, so I apologize for the lack of confidence. That mission was executed
well above my expectations, and you've well earned your reward. I'm afraid that I'm not offering greater rewards since I provided no secondary objective and nobody left on this blasted planet will typically be able to afford extra rewards without concrete reason, but I do hope that this proves of use nonetheless. If you are willing to take on further contracts, we are willing to hire you."
Mission Rewards: Organic Torso Scrap, Organic Left Leg Scrap, Destroyed Spine Launcher
Author
Topic: Ramshackle Titans - Rivalla's Retinue Thread - M2 Deployment (Read 9491 times)