7249/Operation: Crowd Control E-2: Cross Counter

Operation: Crowd Control E-2: Cross Counter
Date of Scene:	20 June 2020
Location:	The Great Ocean
Synopsis:	Shigure, Hikari Fleet and allied Elites head deeper into the Malacca Strait. They engage a large Abyssal force and come out victorious. But a small group managed to slip by them.
Cast of Characters:	Shigure, 7288, Gaonoir, Kotone Yamakawa

---

Shigure has posed:
    Four hours ago, Hikari FoB at the mouth of Malacca Strait.

    "We'll be splitting into four teams. Longbow will provide air support. Spear, Hammer and Sword will engage the three main Abyssal fleet assets and attempt to destroy them. I trust you to put your skills to the best use." Shigure points at a map. "Hammer will assault this refueling depot. It's currently host to a Ta-class Modified Flagship and her escort of a Ri-class, a Tsu-class and three Ro-class Augmented Destroyers." a fairy places markers down. "Mobile Shore Batteries have been spotted moving into position, so we have a short window to effectively assault this position."

    "Spear is pushing deeper into the strait and engaging a Heavy Fleet, headed by another Ta-class, but flanked by two Ru-class and three light cruisers a He-class and two Ho-class., escorted by a Tsu-class flanked by a Na-class and four Ni-class destroyers. This will be where the heaviest fighting is expected to take place. The Fifth Strike will be leading Spear Team."

    "Finally, Sword team is heading for a lighter fleet that seems to be trying to flank our forces and strike our supply lines. This fleet is reported to be headed by a Modified Ri-class heavy cruiser, escorted by a duo of Late Model I-class and a trio of Late Model Ro-class destroyers." Pick your teams, and move out. We deploy in 4 hours.

    Present, Malacca Strait, Engagement Zone.

    Shigure, Yamashiro, Kuma and Yuudachi sail at the head of at least two other formations of Shipgirls. All in Ocean Fitout and trailing smoke from their stacks. "Fleet Command to all team leads, sound off."

X (7288) has posed:
Blue light dips from the sky, shooting like a star into the ocean before forming into a vaguely human shape. The particles harden and materialize into rounded, dark blue armor that covers a black carbon fiber frame lined with gold trimmings on the feet and hands. Bubbles blew around him from the burst of energy created by teleportation, but X quickly re-orients himself in the water, allowing himself to sink further to something he could walk on.

Given his nature, he didn't require special equipment to operate under the sea, although it did face him with certain difficulties to overcome, this was preferable to using a sea-grasper that could easily be shot down before he could make it to the enemy fleet.

        "X, this is Hunter Command. Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," X spoke directly into the communicator's system. "Alright. We'll patch you into the local line .. be careful out there!"

Taking off to a running start, X activates his leg-jets to begin dashing along the ocean floor, tearing forward regardless of water-resistance as he confirms his prescence. "X to Spear Team. I'm advancing to the designated position."

And advance he did, the exhaust ports on his shoulder blades glowing red-hot, forming a frothy wave of bubbles as he moved forward.

Gaonoir has posed:
'Heaviest Fighting' was all Gaonoir really needed to hear. That was a lot of firepower sailing out there so it was going to take something big and able to handle the abuse to deal with it.

Big and able to take lots of punishment, he can do that. By the time the units were moving into position to strike the Digimon was already in his Ultimate form, the looming form's knight-like armor gleaming in spite of its dark midnight shades. This form was not as fast as his other, but still capable of flight so he could lurk overhead, waiting for the moment to bring force down from from the skies above. "Ready to make their seas a whole lot rougher," he replies to the comms.

Erika as usual was riding on his back, fiddling with heads-up device she had patched together, modeled after the visor of Gaonoir's other form, so she didn't have to try and gawk and multiple handheld screens at once. That was a lot in the middle of a fight, even for nerd levels of multi-tasking. "There's going to be a lot of different enemy types on the field for this." She leaned a little forward over his shoulder. "I know you like your dramatic combos, but don't repeat anything to the point they can start finding patterns."

Fists clenched around their armor binds, causing the trio of energized blades to extend from the broad vambraces shielding his forearms with a faint hissing of the air ionizing around them. "There's a thin line between reliable and repeticious. Make sure I don't stumble over it."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa hear as the team will be splitting up into four groups, she takes note of the missions. It seems that Hammer will be the best place to go after, if she can get into the depo, she can make one heck of a mess. A few grenades in some of the fuel tanks and boom. Or so Kotone ios thinking she doesn't have rigging to operate here and she takes note of just what she's got to deal with there, it is going to be a fight or so she thinks.

she'll beam down from her ship and cloaks the second she touches down fading into nothing she will make ready to start heading in.

<<Samsara in position and moving in to support Hammer keep them busy and I'll make them have a really bad day.>>

Shigure has posed:
    Spear Team starts maneuvering into a battle line, bringing their broadsides to bare on the Abyssals. The ghost women spot them, and open fire with heavy artillery and a few missiles from the Ta-class. The Abyssals adjust their formation to shift counter, and the line is drawn. Destroyers picket around the heavier ships, some noticing X's approach and dumping depth charges into the water around where his path seems to be taking him.

    Hammer Team begins firing on the fuel depot, aiming mostly at the ships so as not to set the whole place off before Kotone can do her stealthy work. Meanwhile, Sword is engaging in a running battle with the flanking fleet.

Gaonoir has posed:
The lines are drawn. Gunnfire is exchanged as expected, but things are going to escalate quickly if the Ta-Class is already lobbing missiles into the fray.

"UMBRAL CUTTER!" Until Gaonoir comes soaring from above, sweeping out his arm as he does to unleash some of the energy from his warclaws. It results in a barrage of dark energy crescents directed at intercepting as many of the missile as possible. A sweep of the other arm follows, directing the second barrage of dark crescents at the enemy fleet below. They're not as volatile as explosives, but extremely fast and sharp blade-like projectiles that can be hard to dodge if you don't see them coming soon enough.

Afterward he comes to a stop, hovering imposingly above the waters, cloak billowing out behind him. Vapors from ionizing air waff off the claws still hot from the attack. Golden eyes narrow behind the armored visor.

"Bring your worse." One big, tanky and daunting target.

X (7288) has posed:
Taking Shigure's warning into account, X pauses to look up, narrowing his eyes. From his guess, the depth charges were being aimed for the estimate of his current trajectory and escape points .. in that case, he'd simply have to break through, not an unfamiliar situation for him. Raising his right arm, X places his lefthand on the underside of the forearm as his right hand contorts, being sucked into the cuff to reveal a shining red node, blue and green lines lighting up along the edges as energy began to build up from a yellow pellet to a green missile that looses from the barrel of his X-Buster, aimed to blast through a couple of the explosives and into one of the Abyssals who'd discharged them.

The jewel on his forehead shines, taking in battle information and altering his systems accordingly. His blue armor shifts in color to a gunmetal color, while the carbon-composite limbs of his body changed into a bluish grey hue.

        SPLASH TORPEDO

Rather than bullets of energy, vaccum launched mortars are churned out quickly to break the depth charge formation and allow him to escape through the hole in the formation.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Hammer team is moving on the fuel depo, which gets Kotone the distraction she needs. Kotone now amidst the battle she's like a phantom as she's making for the fuel tanks, she knows what she has to do here, explosives need to be planted. She will try to avoid detection as she moves in making for the fuel depots once she arrives she'll start to scout them for the best places to place the grenades and other explosives that she's carrying with her.

Where are they she thinks? She needs to hit the right spot and then get enough time to get the heck out that's going to be the trick for her in the end.

Shigure has posed:
    Shells rain down on both sides, detonating just under the surface and launching plumes of water and shrapnel into the air. "Spear-2, you're out of formation, tighten up, turn to 165 and rejoin formation!" calls Yamashiro, metallic tinged voice echoing across the water, cutting through the din of battle. <Unable to comply, my rudder's jammed!>

    Gaonoir manages to cut down both missiles in the first volley. Seems Ta-class is the only one with tubes, and then, only two ready at a time. His taunt is answered with a rapid-fire barrage of flak shells, lighter ships turning to swat the airborne menace out of the air.

^tOne such destroyer detonates as X's Charged Shot rips through it's lower hull, striking the magazine and setting the entire monster ablaze with a scream that sounds something mixed a little girl with a boiler exploding. The depth charges are scatter pattern, but easily trackable and the 'net' opens as a portion are detonated prematurely.

    Hammer Team live up to their name, pummeling the Abyssals until they start moving out to meet her. This leaves a few 'sentry turrets'. These ones are more advanced than the ones at the shore battery. Any chink in Kotone's stealth gets them alert and firing rapid bursts of autocannon fire at the 'blip' of reaction, drawing more attention from dog-like patrol units, and other horrow beasiest used for shore facility defense... this is going to be a much harder proposition than the last time Kotone tried doing the Tactical Sabotage Action approach.

X (7288) has posed:
Using his dashing jets to ascend in the water through the net, X raises his buster and fires another volley of Splash Torpedo, which seeks out the nearest Abyssal for a hull to tear into. The hunter himself grasps onto her underside and halls himself up, tearing out of the surface of the water with red exhaust flaring from his back, briefly. The colors on his body shift back to their original pallet as he delivers a powered kick to the enemy in question to propel off of her and further into the air.

The tortured sound of the previous opponent's death throes weren't lost on him. It made some part of his heart that he tried to put under lock and key, begin aching. This feeling, it was the sensation of fighting that he hated most.

A handful of yellow-tinted energy bullets leave his X-Buster as he descends, intent on kick-jumping off of another one until he could locate the "head" of the fleet, so to speak.

Gaonoir has posed:
It was a strange position Gaonoir found himself in these days. The creature he had once been, a monster made for war, would of been concerned only with his own affairs.
Yet now, while still a being who's primary nature was to fight, it was for more than himself. A greater purpose, something more meaningful than the whims of megacomputer 'god' driven to paranoid extermination. Just because two people reached out to him as more as a weaponized beast.

One was riding on his back, who treated him as a friend and partner rather than a tool. The other, though retired from the battlefield, had shaped more than she would ever realize when she took him in for a purpose beyond the original parameters.

A guardian. A protector against threats not easily faced. A purpose to his life by giving his need for battle a meaning beyond the fights and squabbles.

Gaonoir holds his figurative ground on that resolution, even as the gunfire and flak rounds slam into his form. Fractures form where his armor fragments, the digimon wincing as that was technically as much of his body as it was covering. Though the Dark Digitron material composing it quickly sealed itself over the damage to halt the flak from digging in deeper. But he bears through it. A shield is useless if it doesn't get hit.

Erika keeps ducked down behind his head so she can speak without raising her voice beyond their proximity. "I think its time they learned just how overwhelming darkness can be."

"Agreed." The claws retract, as Gaonoir instead reachs back to grab an edge of his cloak. It's lifted up, and then he turns as if flinging it outward. "TENEBRAE SHROUD!"

The pitch darkness that ripples within the cloak erupts from it, tendrils of endless black that reach for the nearest Abyssals to wrap around and contract, engulfing their victims in literal crushing darkness.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Hammer team is doing a greatr job at hammering things, given how atively she's moving she does end up having a few turerrt fire at her, but she keeops moving. The tanks are well guarded with tese tureets there's also patorns and hse's pretty darn sure. That the Abyssal are not using anything she could hack or she'd wnat ot risk plugging her brain /into/, one of the turret will find a grenade as Kotone quietly launches as scout drone to try and find a route to the tanks as she press forward, she think to mix it up she'll plant greandes and set them to go off on timeers as she attempt to lure the enemy away from where she needs to go.

Shigure has posed:
    X's unusual combat style catches the Abyssals flatfooted. Armour does manage to deflect a few of the lower powered energy pellets, but the weight of fire, added to by the rain of shells that only get more accurate as the battle progresses. The Hikari units are weathering the battle well due to the Elite presence drawing fire and suppressing the enemy.

    Gaonoir's dark shroud breaks targetting locks, and causes a couple of the destroyers to 'break' and panic, diving under the water and turning to run away subsurface, while a couple other ships run into each other while unable to see, their hulls buckling under the weight of the shroud, their screams choked within the black.

    Hammer Team is taking as much of a pounding as they're giving out. <Hammer 3, I'm hit! Engine room on... fire... kyaaa!>

    <Hammer 4, I've got 3, retreating at best possible speed.>
    <Hammer Lead to Samsara... we can't keep this up for much longer!>

    The Drone is small enough that the turrets don't react to it, though the mobile 'patrol units' start following it around.. drawn off their patrol routes, leaving avenues open, but blocking off others.

X (7288) has posed:
        "There..!"

After confirming his targets on the radio, X takes back to the water, allowing himself to sink. He was able to take the smaller Abyssals by surprise, but now came the hard part ... suppressing those light cruisers with their heavy armor and firepower. If he could do that, air force could smash open their formation.

        "I'm on the approach!"

Alia's voice comes to life over the radio system, having been monitoring the situation to date, "X! Look out! Each of those cruisers appears to be equipped with advanced sensor equipment ... "

X's body changed colors again as he fires the Splash Torpedo attack, intent on attacking the Tsu-class's large 'hands' which served as massive housing mounts for the weapons platform, dashing under the water to come up from under her. As long as he stuck as close to her as he could, he figured they wouldn't be able to gang up on him without firing on their own comrade. If that were the case, he'd just need to tangle with her until he found a good opening to exploit.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is going to have to risk getting shot up at this point, the drone has open some new paths for her and she'll get moving she'll keep her cloak up but she's moving fast and could be noticed.

She's making for the tanks now and will try to get to the top of one of them fast as she can with the intent to open any sort of access point that can get to the fuel inside and lob plasma grenade set to a timer on, then she's going to run like hell.

<<FIRE IN THE HOLE>>

this is going to expose her to fire and likely getting shot up in all likelihood but these fuel tanks have to go. She's also risking getting caught in the resulting explosions as well.

Gaonoir has posed:
The other benefit of having his Tamer was she could keep track of the comm transmissions and such, allowing Gaonoir to focus more on immeadiate matters. "Sounds like Hammer is having some difficulties. They don't need anymore pressure on them."

"Got it." Fortunately the choking darkness has sowed disorganized scrambling amongst the enemy as intended. The fleers are left to do so, not being the primary target, though an eye will be kept for return sneak attacks. Others collide and are essentially disabled for now. It gives X the oppritunity he needs to get in and open fire on the Tsu-Class.

The water beneath his feet barely ripples as Gaonoir finally moves, utilizing the shadows of his previous attack to voidstep directly towards the main target. He appears almost immeadiately at her side opposite X, the sort of ambush flanking maneuver one might expect from a predator.

The energy claws re-deploy, and Gaonoir lunges in to make a downward arcing slash on the Tsu's opposite side with one set, then bring the others in a horizontal swipe right after it.

Shigure has posed:
    X's gambit works, for a time. The torpedo mortars slam into the gloves of the Abyssal and manage to mangle one set completely. Black, oily ichor gushes from the wound as the gloved arm falls off and splashes into the water. She screams, and is then engulfed in heavy fire from the other Abyssals, her 'allies' firing to try and take X out with the Tsu-class.

    Gaonoir's addedd attack finishes off the Tsu-class sending her sinking to the sea floor with a choked groan of anguish.

    "Spear Lead to Longbow. Their air defense curtain is broken. Send in the assault planes, target the Ta-class." says Shigure, lobbing more shells and aiming at the destroyers and lighter ships as their attention is pulled elsewhere.

    Kotone's gambit is met with a few turrets spraying her path with 20mm cannon shells. She makes it to the main tanks, and comes face to eye with an I-class, standing on stubby little legs. Its main cannon peeks out of the horrormaw of its mouth, yellow 'eye' locked squarely on the cyborg.

Gaonoir has posed:
For a moment Gaonoir watchs the form of the Tsu-class sink. The wolf-like helmet conceals most of his stern expression, but the golden eyes behind the visor have an almost pitying look in them.

Abyssals reminded him painfully of the kind of monster he almost became. An existance of hate and spite. As far as he was concerned, sending them back to the depths of the ocean was a mercy.

"The air strike has been cleared," Erika pipes up from her back. "... But it sounds like there's difficulty."
Gaonoir heard, but the confirmation is appreciated. Her rumbles a bit. Then looks towards X. "Sounds like this isn't quite over as hoped."

Erika manages to not be too distracted by how cool seeing another fighting robot is. She can nerd out later. "We'll just have to make up for the lack of air support."

"Copy that." Gaonoir turns and for lack of better description dashes off, heading in the Ta-class's direction.

X (7288) has posed:
X himself yells out, thrown aside by an explosion in his attempt at evasive maneuvers. He hadn't assumed they'd fire on their own ally like that and had thus been found lacking, taking a hit to the shoulder that sends him sprawling through the water.

After recovering from the attack, the seawater smothering the smoking dent on his shoulder plate, X uses his leg jets to maneuver himself upright and up closer to the surface, thanking Gaonoir for his timely intervention that allowed them to take out the Tsu-class they'd attacked and open a hole in their anti-air defenses.

The colors of his armor shifts back to the original tones of blue and black as he attempts to leap out of the water and grab onto the massive Digimon himself in the brief time they were in the same spot, light gathering within the eye of his buster barrel, rapidly boiling the water pouring down its frame into steam. "Seems so..hope you don't mind if I hitch a ride here; I need a good angle to fire from .. this should do it!"

Swinging himself forward, X steadies his buster mid-air and releases an even larger plume of energy, aiming for one of the 16-inch twinguns mounted on the Ta-class in hopes of keeping it pinned down for the air-raid.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has ended up caught by shrapnel as she blitzed the turrets. It's in deep and will require to be handled later it also hurt but given her cybernetic nature, she can keep going when she ends up staring at the I-Class she will look at it for a moment and the cloak drops.

"Hi, I got something for you."

She'll attempt to toss one plasma grenade at it then there the remainder of her payload are chucked at the tank.

With their timers ticking down one of them should make it and go off or so she hopes given how powerful those weapons are.

She'll thegn leap into the air, double jump and then hit her bounce system trying to break her fall as she tries o get the hell away from the tanks before her presents go off but this leaves her open to being shot buy Abyssal.

Shigure has posed:
    The sound of piston engines grows as the strike wing from Longbow Team crests the horizon. Single-engine variants of the Dauntless Divebomber, as well as smaller biplane's, Swoprdfish with airdropped torpedoes swing in. They set up attack runs on the Ta-class, whos defensive reaction is suppressed by X's shots to the turret tentacle. The open maw snarls, and snaps off a pair of shots at X and Gaonoir, the Ta-class herself grunting, golden eyes darting back and forth. "To be... or not, to be..." she mutters, before bombs, and torpedoes slam into her from all directions, obscuring her form in a giant plume of smoke, shrapnel and water. As it subsides, nothing can be seen but a growing black oilslick where the battleship once stood.

    "Spear team, break off, let the rest retreat, Sword team has gone dark, be ready for a counter attack."

    The I-class is waiting. As Kotone decloaks and lobs her grenades, that cannon fires. Kotone's attack goes through but she's going to be dodging shell fire all the way out until the grenades detonate.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Things could go worse they could go a lot better as Kotone does get her grenades off in time before the I-Class can fire. That's the good news the bad news is she takes a hit from the I-class and it's pretty bac she's sent sprawling form it and she has to get up, she has to start running injured as she is as shells trail after her. She runs away all the while the timers are ticking down and at some point. She moves shells at her heels as she goes, aiming to get the pick up that's coming her way as the tanks explode hopefully behind her.

X (7288) has posed:
X crosses his arms as he falls, curling up as the bullets skid off of his rounded armor plates and send him back into the water with a much bigger splash than normal. Even though it was only a glance that was deflected off, the impact still shook his whole body.

Spinning around to right himself, X grimaced as he looked up, the sounds of the Ta-class' destruction ringing like a drumbeat in the water, spreading a substance similar to tar or oil where the enemy had been. "More on the way..."

Using his dash jets, X darts back to regroup with the rest of Spear Team, radioing back to Hunter Command. "Alia, I need a ride-chaser!"

"I'll need to ask Signas ... alright, we're sending one down!"

Moments later, another streak of light trails through the sky and materializes into some kind of jet-bike over the water that X quickly hauls himself up onto.

Gaonoir has posed:
Gaonoir doesn't object to X using him as a boosting point. Especially when he nails the Ta good with his maneuver and hinders her ability to respond to the inbound strike.

When she turns to them and opens fire on them instead he stops, holding up both his arms before him. The wide vambraces make exceptional shields alone, putting them together is like a veritable wall. Ta's shot slams into them, making his hover slide backwards a bit, but ineffective at much else. By the time he lowers them the bombing run has done the job and the target is sinking away.

Erika taps her headpiece to switch the comm. "Target confirmed as hit and sunk. Good shooting, Longbow."

"Our work here is done." Gaonoir nods again to X before turning to glide away. He was about to ask if the reploid needs a lift again, but the appearance of the jetski like craft negates the need to.

Shigure has posed:
    <Spear Team, Sword Lead... we lost them. They went inland and we lost them in the forest... They were heading for the FoB.>

    The words hang as Shigure processes this information. "Spear lead to all ships. Return to base, ASAP. Repeat, RTBASAP. Central, you've got ground-pounders heading your way, initiate Aegis Protocol. WARDEN assets are top priority. Destroy if necessary, protect at all costs."

    The destroy wheels about. "Spear Team. Longbow Team, Hammer Team, RTB... we're done out here for now."

Gaonoir has posed:
"Oh, that's going to be a sticky situation to deal with," Erika murmurs at Sword's response finally getting through.

Shigure gives the command to withdraw for now. "We'll deal with it when the time comes," he replies to his human partner.

Purple and black energy briefly engulfs him, then fades away. The heavy armor is gone as Gaonoir has shifted down a stage, to something faster and more mobile for the trip back to base. He was thinking the exact same thing Shigure was. So he gives a brief salute to her with one gauntlet clad hand to confirm.

The jet nacelles extend from his back as they thrum up, and the digimon takes off into the sky again.

X (7288) has posed:
        "What?! ...Roger that, I'm heading back."

It was going to be troublesome, but he was far more capable on land than he was at sea, so at least he'd have the advantage in that regard .. but still, that kind of tactical thinking on the fly, it was almost like they had a commander directing their movements. It was worrisome.

Both X and his Ride-Chaser begin to shine before shooting off into the sky, teleporting back to Hunter Command, and from there, to the Hikari fleet's base.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets the report as she's being picked up, she's glad for the help to get out as she's pretty messed up all things considered she seems glad they have pulled most of it off. It's not over she knows that much but still, there's hope they can bring his to an end. She will end up getting back to base with some help from her allies.

Shigure has posed:
    As the fleets wheel about, some young girls leaning against railings of their comrades, outfits broken and damaged, black scorchmarks on their skin, rigging broken or missing... presence emerges from the sea further into the strait, at the edge of a large darkness that's settled over the area. A 'fog of war. The figure, a pair of young women stood atop some kind of large construct, watch the fleet leave with a passive and tumultuous expression. The one in white staring blankly as if unseeing, the one in black pacing and seething... "You had better succeed. If you fail, do not return." says the figure in black into a radio, before tossing it overboard where it's snapped up by a horror maw on the construct. "Come, sister... let us retire again for now... they will soon enough feel our wrath, oh yes."

    Shigure shudders, her entire ocean fitout quaking though she doesn't know why.... "Spear team, double time, push your engines..."