1511/Automated Assassin IX

Automated Assassin IX
Date of Scene:	06 February 2015
Location:	Great Ocean - Southern Loop
Synopsis:	Nagato is targeted by the ninth of the Collective's mysterious assassins.
Cast of Characters:	596, Nagato, Shigure

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Nagato has posed:
    Nagato slowly skates along the water, hours away from Hikari Seaport. "Sortie start, seventeen thirty." she comes to a stop in the middle of the ocean, just water around her for miles. "Kongou was ambushed... Kuma was ambushed..." Nagato's face turns slowly into a look of determination, her four turret mounts swivel slowly, one facing each cardnial direction. "I'm not going to be taken by surprise. Let them come, I'll make them regret taking Kongou away from us."

    Nagato closes her eyes, a Type 0 Observation Seaplane gets racked up in the launch rail and with a *kthunk*, it launches up into the air and encircles the Admiralship. "This is Nagato, on sortie. Estimated time out, five hours. Mission detail: scouting, observation and anti-ambush." and here, she waits. Eyes closed, focusing on radar pings from her seaplane, feeling the water splash up against her, the gentle roil of the waves rocking her back and forth... she waits.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Nagato so far is, surprisingly enough, the first one to prepare for her ambush. Though troublingly enough, every assassin so far has revealed themselves shortly before striking, giving the Elite that is their target a chance to fight back, it may as well have to with the wary Fleet Daughter, as there's no real way to approach her without noticing. Her seaplane coasts for roughly half an hour as something waits to assess the situation, carefully biding its time as it circles the area until it can be certain that there are no additional forces lying in wait. Once it disengages its electromagnetic bending cloak, revealing it to the naked eye as well as radar, it has chosen a place directly in front of Nagato.

    Rather than the submersible that Kongou had fought, the hovercraft that Kuma had fought, or the deep diver that the abyssal Darwin had fought, hers appears to be some manner of aircraft. Sleek and compact, it forms a sloped arrowhead shape, slightly curved on its Y axis, and with several empty gaps in its design, like a piece of modern art. It appears to be coasting on top of the water using a trio of small, extremely quiet jets studded into its underside, which appear as though they may be in swivel sockets judging by the indents the blue-white flames emit from. It remains hovering a few hundred meters from her position, seemingly content to wait there for up to a full minute, or until Nagato attacks first. The moment it activates, razor fine streams of golden light pulse along the invisible circuit board etching in its hull, congealing at hardpoints set into the gaps on the inside of its wings, and along their outer edges.

Nagato has posed:
    Nagato is prepared for what lies ahead of her, at least, she believes she is. All manners of the ones reported were sea based monstrosities that Kuma and Kongou dealt with, this one... that shows itself in front of the Admiral: a flyer. "So you show yourself in front of me, I will commend your bravery. You face the Admiralship of the Daughters, your kind took Kongou away from me and seriously damaged Kuma. Do not think you can show yourself in front of me and leave me a wreck."

    The four turrets spin into position, all aiming at the arrowhead-ship "Fire!" and with eight turrets pointed directly at the thing in front of her, the explosion of gunfire sends eight shells, 41 centimeter shells, straight towards the craft and then, the hunt is on. She starts skating across the water, keeping her guns trained on the craft before her, occasionally letting another shelling loose towards the craft. "I will not let you claim me as a prize, being."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Unfortunately, words are wasted on this machine. The Type-9 Anti-Daughter Arma, like the eight that came before it, isn't equipped for speech, nor is it programmed for communication. Whoever designed it didn't intend on speaking to any of the Elites it's targeting, and it's doubtful that they're even controlling their weapons directly. The machine simply remains fixed on Nagato with the faint impression of a stare, despite its complete lack of anything that could resemble cameras or a cockpit, hovering at a precise altitude of three meters above the water until she opens fire.

    The Arma then blurrs into motion with absolutely frightening speed. Over such a distance, it is well out of the way before the shells are even halfway to it, screaming across the water at such a velocity that a vortex of ocean spray kicks up behind it in the wake of its main back mounted thrusters. It angles ever so slightly, which turns it in a racing arc around Nagato's side, forcing her turrets to traverse if she wants them to face it, before it drifts the turn like a car around a track, orienting itself to face its target. In the back surface of the holes in its wings, slightly elevated over the front due to their curvature, light colesces into a quadruple row of blazing points, and then releases as a rapid stream of high velocity raiser bolts, casting glaring reflections on the ocean surface as they rip through the air towards Nagato. Where they hit the water, they explode into towering columns of vapour and burning hydrogen plasma, letting off eye-searing flashes with every impact. It's like having a small squad of artillery pieces firing on her from close range.

Nagato has posed:
    Without the initial explosion of shells to comfort Nagato, and the second set of shells missing its mark, the Admiralship is already outmatched. Strength begets speed, in this case, as she continues her skating along the water, skidding and sending up a wave of water as the turrets try to turn and face the target. "Think Nagato... you don't have anti aircraft turrets. Shimakaze and Amatsukaze can't make it here on time either..." something this light and fast should be as fragile too, though her thinking is interrupted with the bolts crashing into the water in front of her, with one bolt glancing off the armor of her superstructure, the Admiralship groaning from the heat from the strike.

    The turrets turn once more, "Wide angle ..." fanning out with eight turrets going different directionns in front of her on the x-axis, she goes back to skating in the water again, trying to keep her broadside towards the fast 'thing' in an engagement with her. "FIRE!" and another blast of eight shells come from the turrets, fanning out in a wide 'cone' area, hoping to strike a hit as she goes to weaving in the water, or at least trying to avoid the shots in turn.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    As the spray of shells approaches the Type-9 it banks sharply, tilting 180 degrees to the side so that the point of its right wing is nearly skidding across the water, mere centimeters from dipping in. With increased maneuverability from the air drag on either side, it weaves back and forth between the spread of shells, dodging the first, the second, the third, and all the way up until the eight, which explodes in the water right next to it, catching it in the fireball. The smoke cloud is shredded by the forward burst of momentum that carries the Arma through the other side, the air shimmering ever so faintly around it as the blast trips its energy shield. Nagato is actually right in that this particular design is all engine and weapons with barely anything dedicated to its defense, but there's no real way of knowing how much punishment it can take just by watching.

    The Arma skids around for another pass, firing a second salvo of raiser shots, but then ceasing abruptly as it closes within 100 meters of Nagato, where its hull pulses with light one more time, drawing power away from the guns and into the lines edging its outer wings. Those edges suddenly flare to life with a brilliant blaze of gold, solidifying into paper thin projections roughly a meter across from each wing, flickering ever so slightly as if flame pressed into a blade; and just like blades, the machine dives towards the fleet daughter in such a way as to catch her with the left one. If she were to stay put, it'd probably slice her clean in two.

Nagato has posed:
    Not resting on the laurels of a partialy successful shelling, the Admiralship continues to skate around and rotates her turrets to reaim. Eyes squinting, "A barrier? If I can get a direct hit..." she takes a deep breath and nods, watching the thing closely, studying its patterns and with that second set of raiser shots landing home on a set of turrets, the smoke blasts up from the wreck and she's soon 'face to face' with the Type-9. "What in..." she fires up the engines to skate out of the way, leading to the flame-like blades to catch the turrets and shear them off the superstructure. "Damn..."

    Nagato turns one of the turrets facing the slicing motion and with a quick unaimed bang, she launches another pair of shells from turrets three and four, hoping the close range would score a direct hit but with how fast that thing was, she didn't have that much hope. She skates off, trying to put a bit more distance between the two, if ther'es one thing she has, its reach and with a quick one eighty degree turn, she turns the rest of the turrets towards the Arma and lets another shelling go, four shells streaking across the sky towards it.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Whoever designed this thing knew what they were doing. The predictive patterns and evasive maneuvering programming are top notch, and seemingly specifically keyed to avoid shell fire. Nagato's armour and firepower would render a standoff firefight a losing proposition even with an extremely heavy unit, and so someone has elected for speed, aerial movement, and close combat ability, where a battleship is at its weakest. The short ranged shots have significantly more luck in actually reaching the enemy craft due to the massive reduction in travel time, though neither of them scores a direct hit, blasting the energy shield more with the peripheral of their explosive radius than catching it at ground zero. It tucks into a narrow roll and pulls a split S to gain some altitude, outpacing the shells that chase on its tail, before angling back down into a steep dive.

    This time as it approaches the fleet daughter, it fires its dorsal and ventral thrusters in opposite arrangements, throwing it into a dizzying corkscrew that makes its wing blades impossible to duck under, and likely to shear through more than just a couple of barrels should she be caught in the way. It's upon her so fast that trying to shell it during its straightforward approach would be supremely difficult without Nagato catching herself in her own blast range. Likely a deliberate tactic, based on the assumption that she wouldn't dare try.

Nagato has posed:
    Nagato tchs softly, the shells showing off more of that shield, watching the movements of the Arma with careful calculations. She nods and plants herself where she is, leaning back. She points her six remaining turrets towards the Arma, "I'm sorry, Kuma." she says softly. Three hundred away. Two hundred away. One hundred away. She leans further back and with a nervous sounding word... "Fire!" she lets all six shells blast forward at her incoming target, using the recoil for it to try and blast her under the water, to 'sink'. The Blades do manage to catch her seventh and eighth turret, shearing those off the hard points as she goes down with a splash and Nagato just holds still.

    Thoughts go through the Admiralship's head, if it thinks she's sunk, it may try to come over. The blasts didn't seem to peirce the water deeply from early engagement. She holds herself under the surface, the tips of her barrels barely above the water. The ambusher will, if Nagato's tactics are sound... will be the ambushee...

Zwei (596) has posed:
    For yet another time, as what appears to be a running trend, the design flaw exposed in the new Arma is that it doesn't anticipate for the desperate tactics Elites will use with their backs to the wall. The stunt it pulls at the point blank shelling is purely machine reflexes rather than a predictive pattern, rapidly angling itself from side to side so that its slim, bladelike profile allows the shells to scrape over. The very last one, by sheer nature of there being not enough space to twist between projectiles, strikes dead on, detonating against the shield with a thundering roar. The smoke bursts with the electromagnetic backwash of the shield popping, clearing the air around the Arma as it breaks off.

    Unfortunately, Nagato has made a slight miscalculation of her own. These machines are programmed to be extremely thorough, to the point where they will destroy bodies to prevent recovery. Whether or not it thinks the fleet daughter has been taken out is anyone's guess, but regardless, it arcs high into the air, and then plunges back down like an arrow, hurtling towards the ocean's surface at meteoric speeds. It presents so little frontal surface that the water is barely an impediment to it, slipping under the waves with a noteable reduction in velocity, plunging just under the sound barrier. Rather than trying to catch nagato with the edge of its energy blades however, it barrels straight towards her at dead center, content with smashing her body to pieces on the nose of the craft, but more importantly, presenting her the absolute maximum distance to both sides if she wants to try and dodge. The water sizzles as the blades cut through it, leaving behind streamers of golden plasma that spiral with the Type-9's movements.

Nagato has posed:
    Nagato opens her eyes, the rush of seawater over her head not seeming to bother the admiralship. The shield seems to have went but its not dead yet. Down to four turrets, mostly under water and out of options, she watches the the Arma dive into the water, cutting it like a hot knife through butter. Think Nagato, think. How to use its speed against it... How would Shimakaze go at this. She turns to face down, watching the golen streamers shoot up towards her, a light smile upon her face.

    She doesn't have depth charges, she doesn't have any anti-submarine weapons. She just has her turrets. With a start, she kicks off and gets herself above water once more, slow as it may be, the distance should be enough to only get clipped on the superstructure that's missing and in which, Nagato turns around, and lets fire one more shelling as it comes up, firing just before it breaks water. "Never be with us. Never pollute our water again!"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Underwater, the Type-9's mobility is significantly decreased, and with so much momentum from its skyward plunge, missing Nagato by a hairsbreadth means it overpenetrates the surface by a few hundred feet. She can see the twin lights in the steadily darkening distance, swiftly flipping into a pirouette turn that places it back on course with her, accelerating steadily until the water cavitates from the return to mach 1. It bursts out of the surface with a small explosion of white mist, burning up in the wake of its thrusters, closing within milliseconds of Nagato, before the shells meet it halfway down, where it promptly explodes.

    The blast is unfortunately almost point blank for Nagato, but at the very least, her opponent appears to have been completely destroyed. Razor sharp shrapnel sprays into her face, but thankfully no secondary detonation occurs due to the lack of ammunition carried by the enemy craft. After a few moments, the pieces start raining down back to earth, where they splish into the water and then begin to float. Strangely however, before all of them have even landed, they swiftly begin to disintegrate, turning to a kind of black ash so fine it looks more like fog than anything. The water's surface darkens with inky pools of atomically stripped carbon and trace metals, leaving an ugly looking stain on the ocean.

Nagato has posed:
    Nagato is thinking like a light cruiser this time. Predict where your enemy will be and fire at that mark. If it's one thing to be the Battleship of the feet, it's another to be the Admiral. To know your ships and your fleet is a mark of someone deserving of that title. The case in point is now, she barely has the time to escape the collision course of the Type-9 and with the explosion becoming point blank, the shrapnel stains the water red with shredded cloth, sliced flesh and dripping blood. The battered battleship, on the verge of actually sinking, falls into the water once more on her back, floating there. The black ash of the Arma floating down and staining the ocean black with its destruction. "Mission... Complete."

    Nagato rests, the scout plane still encircling the area around the Daughter and sending out distress signals in the form of morse code on any band it can reach. Slow breathing coming from Nagato as the water washes over her, wincing at the stinging feeling of salt water on open wounds. She reaches over, plucking some embedded shrapnel on top of her chest close to her collar.. "Nagato... you said you'd come back to Hikari." she coughs, "I will not sink here. This will not be my time..."

Shigure has posed:
    It isn't the Admiral's time. The high pitched whine of an airplane engine zooms overhead... a Type-0 Recon plane! It banks hard left, coming around for a second pass before transmitting a signal and beginning to circle over the stricken Battleship.

    "ADMIRAL! I've found you, kuma!" comes the distant cry of a certain Light Cruiser. Her smoke stacks are huffing thick black smoke as she pushes her Boilers to their breaking point, skating with a reckless abandon to reach her Admiral. She skids to a stop, and kneels down, trying to haul the larger shipgirl back upright. "Atago! Get the baths ready. I'm bringing Admiral home under tow, kuma!"

Nagato has posed:
    That inscessant aircraft whine, this one sounds a bit familiar but not her own. The faint sound of a certain light cruiser causes the Admiral to close her eyes and rest, "Kuma..." she mutters under her breath, bringing her head around to look at the oncoming girl. "Kuma... you're reckless." coming from the Admiral who took two point blank shots from her own weapons.

    She's lifted up with difficulty, draping herself over Kuma's back, a light smile still gracing her face, "Thank you, Kuma... I have... a long report to write. Are the baths drawn?" she questions, "I'm afraid... I'll need a few days soak."

Shigure has posed:
    "Baths drawn, Amatsukaze and Shimakaze are sortieing to escort... just rest, Admiral." replies the smaller ship, sinking a bit under the weight of the larger battleship girl. She guns her boilers, pouring out thick black smoke from her stacks as she strains to get up to speed again. Towing a battleship is hard work, after all. "You did good, kuma... now it's our turn to look after Admiral, kuma~."