Welcome to Gaia! ::

(OOC: Black Knights, battle positions! Britannians charge!!! 3rd parties, do what's on your agenda!)

Area 11(Japan)
Lake Kawaguchi

A formation of six Vincents lead by a single, unusual knightmare headed for the mountains behind the Lake Kawaguchi Hotel. Eternal stretched out in his seat, and sighed. He really wasn't the one piloting the Arkice to the destination, he let Latune do it for him.

Shishuku sighed as the Arch Zephyr flew past the tourist spot. Too bad we can't go sight seeing this time. She shook her head. And enlisting the regular military for this operation, what can't go wrong? She caught up to the formation led by Eternal, bring her formation of six Vincents up alongside them.

Eternal straightened up as he noticed the VAS-VA02C Arch Zephyr off to the right of the formation. Well looks like the vanguard's all here. He grasped the control yokes and cleared his throat as Latune opened up the comm. to the two formations, and switched controls over to Eternal. "All units prepare to attack. The objective is to drive out the Black Knights from their hiding place. Phase two is to assist the main assault force. In the case any interlopers are present, destroy them if hostile."

---

Esther stood off to the side near a monitor, sighing as she viewed the fourteen Britannian Knightmares close in on the mountains. She turned and walked off to her knightmare, got in, and closed the cockpit. She waited in the confines of her knightmare, safely hidden away off the coast near the mountains. The submarine maintained its position, raising a little, but staying low enough to avoid visual detection, as it would render the whole point of having radar disruption equipment.

Latune operated the secondary controls on the Arkice, working the knightmare's keyboard interface and scanning the monitors. "The main force has been deployed and will hold position 30 seconds away from the destination. No sign of hostiles, everything stable," reported Latune. She paused for a moment and brought up several windows, each providing different details. So it's around there? "Faint, abnormal heat signatures detected, possibly hostiles."

"All Vincents," said Eternal over the group's comm., "spread out and search the mountains. Confirm the heat signatures." He closed the comm. and switched over to the line the main force used, as the 12 Vincents of the vanguard dispersed into the mountains. "All Units, form up and close in. We'll proceed with the mission once they report back in." He closed the comm. and sighed. He blinked and raised a eyebrow as a comm. came through, complete with visual.

"Let's just hope nothing goes wrong, after all, the regular military has been known to fail miserably," said Shishuku. "It's a shame our main force is still enroute to Area 11. I mean, couldn't this operation have waited a bit until they arrived?"

"Well I was hoping to use the time afterwards to take Latune sight seeing. And besides, if they were present, then it wouldn't exactly be fair to them would it?" replied Eternal. "And the regular military isn't that bad, just rather useless if they're left to their own devices. Besides, we're here for insurance."

"I guess so, but this time I'm picking where we go," said Shishuku. She cut the comm. and sighed. Well then again that is if there's time afterwards.

---

Esther checked her knightmare's status and the knightmare hanger's condition. She nodded to the image on her monitor and cut the comm. The submarine turned 180 degrees and backed towards the coast. Esther's knightmare was moved over to the rear deployment section.

Latune shook her head at the lack of results. "Nothing yet....Eh? Several of the heat signatures just got stronger... More of them! Commander! All twelve units lost! Three ejections confirmed."

"All units, Attack! Crush the Black Knights!" Eternal cut the comm. after giving the order. He opened a line to Shishuku while waiting for the forces to enter range. "Ready?"

"At your service," replied Shishuku. After all, What else would I be doing?" She drew both her Arch Zephyr's VARIS HTs and cleared her head of unimportant and irrelevant thoughts. "Latune, Status?"

"Twelve Vincents and Four Lancelot Frontiers have descended onto the mountains and are engaging the Black Knights. Model type seems to be similar to the Akatsuki.... Our remaining forces are being deployed," informed Latune. She turned and looked up at Eternal. "I'll be fine," reassured Latune. She turned back to face the control console and resume her monitoring.

"Shishuku, we'll enter the mountains from above, descend and take the fight to the ground," said Eternal. He drew the Arkice's VARIS HT and accelerated towards the mountain area where the Vincents and Lancelot Frontiers were engaged in battle, with Shishuku following after him.

---

Esther began the activation sequence, the cockpit lighting up around her. The submarine commenced and emergency surfacing and deployed the rear ramp simultaneously. "Raven 00, Launching!" The black knightmare sped out of the hanger and in the direction of the deeper part of the mountains where the fighting was. It was faster than the seventh generation knightmares, which easily made up for it's late launch. Esther glanced over at the monitors to make sure she was heading in the right direction. The Gefjin Disturber is in effect already, so their radar isn't an issue, and both sides are either in the same location or heading there. The unit's working up to specs and the mission status so far is going according to master's information. She sighed. And the next part of master's instructions is up to me to decide how it turns out. I won't dissapoint.

The Vincents drew their MVS lances and engaged the Akatsuki's in close range combat, only to lose two of their number to them to the Akatsuki units. The Vincents regrouped with the Lancelot Frontiers leading their assault, thoroughly aware now that they weren't dealing with outdated models but rather effectively upgraded models.

---

"Commander, one of the squad leaders reports seeing two unusual Knightmares appearing. One red one blue," reported Latune. She worked the keyboard rapidly, bringing up what she could match on her monitor. They resemble that knightmare? Then that means they might be? "From matching the data with past knightmares, they appear to be piloted by skilled or important personnel. Armaments unconfirmed."

"I see. Shishuku, take the red one, I'll take the blue one," said Eternal. At least this game of hide and seek's over. "Be careful, we don't know what they're armed with." He took aim at the blue knightmare and fired a trio of shots at it. He stored the VARIS HT as soon as the last shot cleared the barrel, and drew the Arkice's pair of VES and desended, but kept his float unit active as a boost to his speed. "Latune, monitor both knightmares, I want as much data as you can collect on them." He similed for a moment as he noted Latune's smooth registering of his order.

Of course I'm careful, you don't have to tell me that. Well usually anyways. Shishuku opened fire with a missile barrage while firing half a dozen shots total from the VARIS HTs. She descended as well and continued on with another half a dozen shots. "Let's see if you're as good as you look!"

---

Esther spotted a pair of Akatsuki on her radar and quickly struck both of them with her arm mounted slash harkens, and hurried on towards the main battlefield. The element of surprise works surprisingly well with this knightmare. Let's see how well they react to it. She spotted a pair of Vincents and dashed straight at them, extending the arm claws, and slashing them both, destroying the cockpit of both units. She blinked for a split second before moving on. That was a bit too close. The arm claws aren't as effective for intercepting ranged opponents at this speed and efficiency.

Esther swerved into view of the main battle just in time to see Raven's radiation wave surger go off. I see, so they're still using those equipment. She quickly struck an Akasuki with the left claw arm and sped over and struck a Vincent from behind with the other. That should get both side's attention. After all they should be about evenly matched if master's intel is correct.

---

Latune paused for a moment upon seeing the radiation wave surger go off. She brought up a cross comparison between two different variations of it on record left it on the monitor. She quickly took note of the MVS lance, and it failed to register as anything too unsual. She spoke over the comm., which was still linked to Shishuku's knightmare. "The red one has a type of radiation wave surger. Expect anything."

"Understood." What a pain. She fired off another missile barrage while stashing the VARIS HTs. She quickly drew the VES in the follow up action. Let's see what it does now.

"Reinforcements should be arriving about... now," timed Eternal. He didn't move from his position, rather letting the a dozen Vincents and two Lancelot Frontiers from the main force do the work for him. The Vincents broke off to assist the others while the two Lancelot Frontiers moved to engage the blue knightmare. "Now then, show me what you're made of."

Latune perked up at the use of the Absolute Defense Territory. She went to bring up the information on it but paused in the middle of doing so. She blinked at what see saw: Two Vincents and a Akatsuki being taken out by a black knightmare with wings. "Unidentified Knightmare to the south. It's attacking both sides."

So it's here too huh. But which one is it? He noticed the blue knightmare's reaction delayed. The commander? He glanced over at Shishuku's opponent. Is that it? "Shishuku, go check out the situtation down there." He opened a comm. line to the two Lancelot Frontiers. "Engage that red one instead." He closed the line without waiting for a response and dashed towards the bottom of the mountain, slashing one Akatsuki in his path. I'll let that unit handle him then...

As she sped towards the south, she fired off another missile barrage at the red knightmare, but this time with a delay between them, creating three sets of hits instead of one, but it wouldn't do much good against that defense. Damn that pilot. What cowardice! Shishuku was relieved at having a daring target to fight now instead, after all how many people made two warring factions their enemy?

---

Esther slashed across another Akatsuki's torso as she evaded one of it's fellows attack. The surviving Akatsuki drew it's sword and charged at her, slashing downwards. Esther charged in turn, covering her front with both wings, and rammed into the Akatsuki, sending crashing into the mountainside. She unraveled her wings and struck it through the cockpit with her arm claw, taking it's sword with her knightmare's free hand. Now then, the big fry should have noticed this already. Unless...they're too busy with something? She continued on her way northwards as to press the chances of her engaging somebody who wasn't a grunt. She discarded the weapon she picked up a short while later as it wasn't worth holding on to, as data comparision proved.

The dull colored Lancelot Frontiers fired a volly with their VARIS before switching to their MVS and charging at Raven. They would attempt to slash at her once they got in range, regardless if the Absolute Defense Territory was up still or not.

---

"Let's make there's no nasty surprises. Latune!" Eternal dodged to the right, evading a Akatsuki's Katen Yaibatou and delivered his own strike with his VES, cleaving it in through the middle. The military seems to be holding up, for now. He slammed hard to the left, activating his Blaze Luminous simultaneously as a trio of Akatsuki poured down fire at his position. This unit seriously needs a spare ranged weapon. He drew his VARIS HT, took aim and fired.

"Unless that weapon is reinforced, it won't do much good," informed Latune. "It seems their defenses are improved against physical damage."

"Great, just great," muttered Eternal. Two of the three Akatsuki were hit. One went down but ejected. The other almost evaded in time and only lost an arm. The two surviving ones withdrew for safety. That was more luck than skill. He headed towards a more secure, in terms of allied, area.

---

Shishuku took aim as she saw the black knightmare appear. She fired her VARIS HT, both of them, at it. From her position, the shots were aimed at a angle upwards, and would notify others of their location if it missed. She blinked in surprise as the knightmare evaded both hits. It's not as slow as it looks eh?. She stored the VARIS HTs and drew her VES.

Esther shook her head in annoyance as she evaded the two shots. This isn't the right one...What a pain. She waited for her opponent's next move and for her target, if it would appear that is.