1456/Automated Assassin III

Automated Assassin III
Date of Scene:	31 January 2015
Location:	Great Ocean - Eastern Loop
Synopsis:	Kuma is targeted by the third of the Collective's mysterious assassins.
Cast of Characters:	596, Shigure

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Shigure has posed:
    Kuma has deployed solo on patrol. The Abyssal Fleet hasn't been seen lately, and after that large ship assault, well, it's better safe than sorry. She gave her route to Atago before departing, and is now skating away about 50 nautical miles north by north east of Hikari, searching amongst a small archapeligo for signs of base building or other activity. "Kuma reporting, nothing so far~ I'll keep looking, kuma." she reports in, holding a hand over her left ear as if speaking into a phone or large radioset.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Though as far as Kuma can see, everything is in order, she has been 'accompanied' by a certain something for over an hour of her patrol. At some point after gaining a sufficient amount of distance from her home base, a second seaworthy 'vessel' of sorts has slipped into her wake, gliding just over the water's surface like the shadow of an ocean predator projected from underneath. The afternoon sun filters through it completely; or rather, around it; bent via a carefully maintained negative refractive index until the roughly dinner table sized machine is little more than an apparition.

    Perhaps running on some kind of mission clock, perhaps waiting for some unknowable, esoteric circumstances, or perhaps having simply received an all-clear command from somewhere else, it is only shortly after Kuma's first report that the Type-3 anti-daughter Arma makes its move. Slipping from position a few hundred meters behind Kuma, it disengages its active camo, revealing a sleek black shape held over the water like a pond skater on four, maneuverable, turret mounted thruster pods, projecting some manner of flotation that doesn't do so much as ripple the water's surface. It looks vaguely like some kind of military drone; one that would belong equally as well high in the air by simple appearance. Strangely, it gives her a handful of seconds to notice its presence as it accelerates towards her, if only by the faint but steadily rising whine of its near-silent afterburners engaging. Whether or not she turns around however, once it breaches the two hundred meter line, it immediately opens fire, raking the wate with a trail of blazing gunfire that cuts across the space behind her and straight towards her turned back. Despite the level of technology already involved in tailing her, the weapon fire is using conventional rail accelerated ballistics, loaded up with the somewhat esoteric 'substance N'; an incendiary compound that burns at 2400C.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma jolts as her surface radar suddenly spikes. "Enemy 400 yards astern! Closing fast!" she 180's while keeping her momentum, skating backwards to get a sight on the incoming hostile. She blinks at it, slightly confused for a moment before it opens fire. "SHIT! Mayday, mayday! I'm under attack 50 miles north north east of Hikari!" she radios in, juking and dodging around the hail of incoming bullets, some grazing her outfit and setting it alight, which makes the girl /SCREAM!/ and return fire in a blind panic, raining rapid fire 14cm shells on the drone. She even drops a pair of torpedoes... but the hovering nature of the drone would likely negate her one advantage against other surface craft.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    It seems the Type-3 has caught Kuma exactly where it wants her. From the instant she begins screaming, it trains her fire on her with utmost precision, using slight changes in pitch and roll to closely follow her movements with the steady stream of glowing tracers. Though it's sticking to ballistic weapons, things such as overheating and reloading don't seem to be concerns to it, despite many rounds are sent flying downrange and how hot their charges are. So focused is it on drowning her until a constant downpour of fire, that it only makes the barest efforts to dodge her counterattack, swaying side to side across the water so that the shells merely explode beside it rather than directly on top of it. The air ripples with the same faint distortion as with the corvette as the blast wave hits a similar kind of shield, making the attack craft's origin unmistakable. As the torpedoes approach however, it does make one dramatic alteration. The water beneath it craters with a dull thump, and the entire machine launches itself twenty meters skyward, drifting like a hang glider as the guided munitions are sent sailing under it. It already knows her strength is in her torpedo armament, and seems to have come preprared.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma keeps dodging, gritting her teeth as she rips the enflamed arm from her tshirt, tossing it into the water. More rounds score into the smoke stacks, punching holes directly through them and setting blaze to one, though it gos out fairly quickly as a pack of Fairies beat it into submission. She keeps returning fire with her 14cm turret, but looks woeful as it entirely avoids her torpedoes... looks like she's gonna have to get creative, since her broadside isn't going to break that shield in time.

    "You're like that big ship from the other day, kuma." she says to herself, before turning her back to the drone again and pouring on speed, pushing her engine as hard as it'll go. She seems to be aiming for one of the nearest islands, full of palm trees and large rocks.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Just like the ship Kuma refers to, there doesn't seem to be any kind of human, or human-equivalent presence, involved in this attack. There aren't any outgoing communications on any channel she can pick up, there clearly isn't any space for a pilot in a craft of that shape and size, and it pursues her with the kind of unnervingly single minded, utterly fearless perserverance only something completely bereft of a true self-preservation instinct can muster. The only sound it makes, a strange, electronic warble, is more likely coincidence rather than brought on by her addressing it directly.

    The Type-3 remains in the air for a significant length of time; long enough to wait out the torpedoes should they be made to turn course, with a very large and carefully designed margin of error. Without the need to power any kind of flotation system, the craft angles its nose down and diverts energy to its thrusters, angling the rear set backwards to accelerate it forwards like a hybrid aircraft. Kuma is given a short window in which no slugs are sent towards her before the Arma gradually overtakes her, abruptly banking to cut infront of her and strafe the water at her feet to try and turn her away from her intended destination.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma hears the engines overtaking her. She's not Shimakaze, not even close, but the Drone makes one error in it's judgement. It doesn't take into account the fact the girl doesn't lose coherance under pressure, it galvanizes her resolve. As those bullets strafe the water ahead, and bursts of flame gush out as the chemical in the warheads ignites, Kuma gathers herself up, and LEAPS at the Drone as it passes, looking to latch onto it, or at least slam head enough into it that she does /something/, knock something inside loose, or just make it reconsider getting that close again.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    The Type-3 is familiar with Kuma's usual tactics under the kind of pressure one would reasonably expect to encounter in combat, but it /isn't/ familiar with her psychological profile in relation to a crisis scenario. Perhaps it simply hadn't factored in the additional mental stress that using incendiary weapons would place on her, perhaps it had simply calculated a greater likelihood that she'd buckle rather than berserk, or perhaps it had even acted in the sole purpose of finding out one way or the other, but the inescapable conclusion is that it simply isn't prepared for her to attempt a wild, last second body blow.

    In order to coast on the air and float above the waves like that, the Arma needs to be light. Extremely so. Unlike the corvette, its personal shields are anchored in space around it as a center, and so when the fleet daughter makes high speed contact with it, the resulting kinetic force sends it careening off course. It feels like hitting a volleyball rather than something large enough to dominate a dining room. The assault craft is quick to correct its headlong spiral, fighting wind currents and its own momentum with swift pulses of its rotating ball thrusters until it settles back into an even glide with alarming ease. Having lost all of its airspeed however, it has to accelerate over the water again, firing short bursts of three to five rounds ahead of Kuma just to make her maneuvering more difficult as it closes the distance again.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma pants a bit from the exertion this is putting her under. She'll be in the baths for HOURS later after all this. As she skates away after her bodyslam, her turret rotates around to return fire, hoping the slower initial speed will give her more luck in scoring that shield and hopefully breaking it down a bit. The incoming bursts of cannon fire make her juke and dodge, as expected, but her headlong rush towards the relative safety of that island is only minorly slowed down.

    Once she's close enough, she mounts the shore, and runs inland, into the rock and trees. Incendiary rounds will likely have the entire place ablaze in seconds, but Kuma had a reason to come here... or maybe it was just blind panic.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    In the few moments it takes the Arma to get back up to speed, Kuma scores several direct hits with her cannon, causing the ocean surface to repeatedly blossom into plumes of fire and smoke as the shells detonate on the surface of her pursuer's energy shielding. As with her previous opponent, it's extremely difficult to tell how far from collapsing said shield is, with almost nothing in the form of visual cues to judge by, but considering how small, light and fast the thing is, it must not have an especially deep reserve of power in its shield bank. The idea is reinforced further by the way it returns to skating and weaving between blasts as soon as it has the speed to, accepting a sacrifice in pursuit velocity in order to not take direct hits.

    Just light the Fleet Daughter, the Arma has no trouble making the transition from water to land, simply slipping off the waves and up the length of the beach with a trail of airborne sand blown up by its rear jets. Rather than weaving between the heavy cover Kuma finds however, it continues straight ahead. Droplets of golden light race along formerly invisible etches in its chassis, coalescing to a single point on its dorsal ridge, and then firing a bolt of pure white light that smashes through a lengthy succession of trees and boulders in a straight, ineffable line. Like an unstoppable force, the kinetic raiser round shatters and topples everything into a relatively clear lane, allowing the Arma to simply elevate itself over the debris with slight bursts of vertical thrust. It follows Kuma along this parallel trail, routinely blasting ahead of itself to clear more space while its autoguns turn on her and rake throught the brush with rapid fire, setting the greenery ablaze.

Shigure has posed:
    "That's right, just a little closer, kuma..." she muses to herself, as she weaves around trees and vaults over rocks, grunting as she takes another burst of hits to her backpack. The fairies once again bash the flames into submission, while carrying ammunition from her magazine into her turret. "Not much ammunition left, kuma... gotta make these shots count." she continues musing, before taking a very sudden and rather drastic action. She 180s, and charges right at the drone again, firing her turret until it runs dry.

    She then leaps, and in one hand materializes one of her Long Lance torpedoes. "DON'T YOU DARE UNDERESTIMATE ME, KUMA!" she roars, as she attempts to just RAM that explosive warhead right into the Drone from point blank.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    It's anyone's guess as to whether the Arma can hear Kuma talking to herself, or if it's even taking it as tactical advice. It's entirely possible that it may be counting her shots simply by sight, and thus any information about her ammunition supply is extraneous. It's also possible that it simply isn't programmed to care. Either way, it still seems intent on avoiding a direct hit from any of her few remaining cannon shots, though the narrow lane it has to work with restricts its ability to dodge considerably. It just barely escapes being put at ground zero of each of her shell blasts, its shield shuddering in time with the earth for every close call, peppered by shrapnel on top of blast waves.

    Either it has run dry on ammo, or decided the incendiaries are less effective than the alternative, because as Kuma pulls her hairpin, the weapon pods rotate back to present an alternate set of much lighter, open barrels. Simultaneous with her gutsy lunge, the Type-3 ignites both of its armaments at once, unleashing twin torrents of blue-white flame burning over fifteen thousand degrees. Strangely, the torpedo in Kuma's hands actually shields her from the worst of it, causing the flames to part around it like a pebble in a stream, turning a hundred square meters of island forest to ash instead. At the same time however, it's also enough to instantly detonate the explosive, at point blank range to the both of them.

    The Arma's remaining shield strength isn't enough to totally soak the blast. The near direct hit sends it rocketing through the air like a bullet fired out of a gun, smashing through the burning wrecks of the trees it had left behind, and straight into an intact boulder, which it impacts with a jarring crunch. The rock actually fractures to pieces just as badly as the machine, despite how light it is, but the resulting shock almost instantly sets off its incendiary fuel, and abruptly turns it into a towering fireball; one that will be visible for miles. As the wreck steadily burns however, it begins to disintegrate in a way far different from simply turning to ash, and far faster than mere fire should be able to accomplish.

Shigure has posed:
    A gutsy move, and one she's paying for. As the torpedo detonates, Kuma is sent flying back much like the Drone, slamming hard into a boulder and crumbling it under the force. She lets out a cry of pain as her backpack crumples, though thankfully being spared the searing flames, her magazine doesn't detonate... whatever left inside it at least.

    The little Cruiser is a mess, uniform tattered and Outfit shattered, but on her face as she watches the drone burn and vaporize, is a look of defiance. "It's often said that Kuma-chan is unexpectedly excellent, kuma." she states to the drone as it's destroyed. She closes her eyes, and calls in the scout plane she'd launched before this whole thing began, it was watching from a distance, and is now being retasked to guide Agato to her location.