Operation: Promethius

[Burdenking]

With a loud clunking noise, the door to the transport ship opened and slammed down to the sandy ground, and blasting a high speed torrent of sand that seemed to chip some paint on the Cores within. It was immediately apparent visual information would be near useless, which would mean the crew would have to rely on the various sensors for seeing anything around them, and for detecting enemies.

Spoiler

All units are affected by the sand storm as thus. Long range weapons cannot fire beyond their maximum effective range. Standard combat range is halved. To fire at the standard range, they must use their sensors to call a target, then make the shot as if making a called shot.

[close]

"Aw hell, this is gonna be a grand time. Alright everyone, let's head on out, and keep your eyes on your sensors. We're gonna need keep our eyes on our sensors." Said the lieutenant, charging on out in his Core and sweeping the area he could see with sensors and visuals.

[Erynn]

"No wonder we could land so close.", Hyacinth comments as her machine rumbles down the ramp, "In these conditions, we'll probably be able to get rather close before they spot us."

As she moves along, Hyacinth keeps the Battle Dragon as close to structures, smaller vehicles, and debris as much as possible in order to conceal the signature given off by the tank she was running. (Stealth, using mecha reflex in place of personal scale reflex

Rolled 1d10+6 : 1 + 6, total 7

)

"It'll be a miracle if we spot them before they spot us though."

Never the less, Hyacinth keeps a close watch on her sensors in the hopes that she might manage to pick one of the enemy out first.
(Awareness

Rolled 1d10+8 : 3 + 8, total 11

[kai927]

Ion walks The Pugilist out of the transport ship, letting out a low whistle at the sight of the sandstorm blowing across his view screens. "Well, this should make things interesting," he comments, while keeping an eye on his sensors.

[Throndir]

Aria Blanchette

"Bloody's not going to like all this sand." But even as her words were negative, there was a fire behind her eyes as she moved her mecha forward. Aria was eager to face with the enemies, keeping up with the group, preferring to be closer to the front than at the back. She kept her scans at their full power, as well as continually keeping alert - as much as the blasting winds of sand would allow at least.

"Other than moving north, do we have any sort of plan?" Aria asked into her comm.

[Throndir]

Spoiler

Aria will be next to whoever is the most in the lead, or right behind. She'll continue to use her scanning.

Awareness roll, no points into it, so she'll use her base intelligence modifier.

Rolled 1d10+10 : 4 + 10, total 14

[close]

[Mysticsage]

Zephyr grunted slightly at the sand whipping past through the wind. "At least the enemy is as hampered by the weather as we are. Though if we had a map of the topography at least we would have something to go off of, or better yet if we could simply look past the sand... That's it!" Quickly Zephyr opened up his internal system programming and focused in on the optical sensors. If he could just reroute the information and increase the heat and UV light readings he might just be able to make a quick program that just focused on heat and light signatures and just deleted the sand. It would not be perfect by any means and he wasn't sure how far out this program would let them to see but it would be better then anything in this situation.

make a quick program for heat vision mode on sensors

Spoiler

Rolled 1d10+15 : 2 + 15, total 17

[close]

[Meta]

Piledriver dropped down from the ship, and the slow mecha started marching alongside its fellow cores.  The machine was sturdier than it looked...it hadn't fallen apart yet...nor exploded.   It sure did creak and clang a lot as it moved, though.   

"Well...the one plan I have is simple...strike before we're struck.   Those guys settled on a place with storms...so I wouldn't count on them being as lost as us."    After saying that, Nadiya's mech raised its gun arm.   Her trigger finger was very itchy as she contemplated pressing it some more.  One shot could give them away...or hit defenses.  This was a tough choice...but...no, too much at risk here.

The ifrit pulled down a lever and pressed the trigger and the combat core began firing its incendiary cannons as well as its machine gun in hopes of hitting something.  Maybe the explosive payload would light something up...or tell them what may be ahead.

[Meta]

Rolled 1d100-40 : 88 - 40, total 48
Rolled 1d10 : 7, total 7

[Burdenking]

The battle moved forward, and received no attention it seemed from any enemies that may or may not have been within the sandy storms. With the knowledge, it was only a quick looking over to her sensors that Hyacinth needed to perform to confirm what they already knew. Near the edge of her sensor's range, was a large square icon, indicating a large, high power consuming structure. This was likely their target, was not much to cause alarm.

What was cause for alarm however was what appeared to be 25 non-ally blips on the radar. The sensor's FOF program kicked in and marked them as hostile's. They weren't group together it seemed, lucky for them, and seemed to be heading off to engage not only their squad, but the two other squads as well. The total amount of hostiles heading their way were around 8 units, with one unit it seemed staying back from the group.

Anyone else using their sensors could see the same, and the data was quickly shared by the Lieutenant to everyone, regardless of having saw it themselves. "Alright everyone, i know I've been a ass up to this point, but believe me when i say this. I'm not keen on burying another team member, so make sure you guys stay safe and don't screw up. Do that and I'll buy drinks for everyone when we get back to the Bulwark." The lieutenant said to them, sounding a lot calmer then before and less cruel in tone.

As he spoke, Zephyr's program was in the works. With an impressive show of skill, the base work of the program was laid out nearly instantly, and was already ready to begin programming the minor detail. However it was far from done, and would take heavy focus to finish in time to be useful for the fight ahead.

The enemies were roughly 5 minutes away, closing in cautiously as they seemed to take the sandstorm seriously as a hindrance. The 9th enemy unit still stayed in the back, very close to the target and remaining completely stationary. The advancing formation only changed slightly at the sound of  Piledrivers weaponry firing, the sensors confirming not a single hit being made against the advancing units. However, the enemy now seemed to have found a general direction to aim for, and are taking necessary formations to use this info.

Spoiler

[close]

[Erynn]

As the enemy approach was illuminated by her sensors, Hyacinth noticed something troubling.

"They left just a single unit guarding the objective.", she notes aloud, for the benefit of her allies, "Is it a token defense they don't expect to need, or are they really that confident in that one pilot?"

Given the sudden burst of gunfire from the Piledriver, Hyacinth quickly locates a nearby channel for storm drain runoff that sits lower than the prevailing terrain and settles her machine into it to better conceal it from view and sensors, then an alternate possibility strikes her as to the identity and purpose of the lone enemy unit.

"Lieutenant, there's a chance that could be some kind of sensors and communications vehicle.", she relays, "If I'm right, leaving it alone would be a mistake. What do you think?"

Hyacinth awaits the lieutenant's reply anxiously within the cramped cockpit of her tank, The interior had long since become cozy and was now beginning to get just a little warm. It was about to begin. Within the next few minutes, Hyacinth would be fighting for her retribution against imperial pilots, however the wait for that confrontation was beginning to feel interminable.

[Mysticsage]

Zephyr spent the time required to throw together the final details in a flash that the program needed. If they were going to survive this they would need to be able to use the storm to their advantage.

Spoiler

Finish the program

Rolled 1d20+15 : 8 + 15, total 23

[close]

Once he was finished he quickly duplicated the program sending it off to the other members of the group.

He then takes a defensive stance vigilant for any in coming enemy attacks.

[kai927]

Ion pushes the Pugilist forward, largely ignoring the sandstorm. "Drinks on the boss then. I like the sound of that," he says over the communicator as his mech falls in line, and a little ahead of Zephyr's mech.

[Throndir]

Aria Blanchette

"Come on! Get in range already!" Aria cried as she continued to point the heavy cannon attached to her core at the direction of the enemies. She was eager to unload her weapons and blast the empire away, and the more she thought about it, the more she was tempted to break out of formation and charge just to close the gap. She had spent countless hours tinkering and modifying her combat core for this very purpose. The flashing red icons marking other combat cores was almost mocking as she continued to stare at the layout in front of her. They enemies were close, and the anticipation Aria felt was enough to keep Aria firmly eyeing the scans, waiting until the first of those red dots crosses the line.

And when they did...

"Bam!" Aria said out-loud, forgetting to realize she had her comm still up.

[Burdenking]

The lieutenant briefly shook his head at Aria's out burst, then began to move forward "Well Petty officer, knowing the Imps, you're likely right. Something like that can't be left alone, however, we'll have to ether find a way to get through the Imps or have someone go around alone, and i don't like ether of those options." He said, his core stopping a little bit after he started walking. He lifted up his weapon and aimed into the smoke, his Core unmoving after that. "So, take a vote. which sounds best for you scrubs?" He asked, keeping an eye on all of his sensory systems.

The program everyone received was from Zephyr was nearly complete, only requiring a single large file to be completed and sent for it to begin taking affect in the core's systems.

Spoiler

Lost the map, so i'll be taking this opportunity to try playing without  map. if it becomes and problem the maps will return next operation.

[close]

[Erynn]

"Separating someone from the group would be the worst idea I can conceive of at the moment.", Hyacinth replied in short order, "If we give them a chance to pick us off one by one, it would be a best case scenario for the imperials. That's the sort of strategy we ought to be using against them, not walking headlong into ourselves."

Meanwhile, the new program began to install to her machine's OS, and the sensors picture began to vary in color, magnification, and contrast as settings began to change,

It was all Hyacinth could do to conceal the anxiety present in her voice, having been caused by the sudden loud BAM uttered by one of her squad mates. As much of a nice person as Aria seemed like, at just this point in time Hyacinth couldn't help but loathe the excitable personality the girl possessed. Under the circumstances, she predicted that it was going to quickly get on her nerves.