War of the Magical Girls

"What?" Hannah said. "Giz, you know that Chinese Crow wants us dead. Even if you go through with this plan and get approached by someone, it's going to be a trap."

Having gotten her lunch in a timely manner, Ashley returned and sat down near the other magical girls, quietly humming to herself. She pulled a pen out of her hat, and started to scribble a rudimentary map onto a napkin while she ate a cod sandwich of questionable quality with her right hand.

"Hey, what do ye take me for? I know it's dangerous but I can fight just as well as the rest of you, if not better. Just watch." Winter jogged in place which Winter thought would demonstrate some sort of seriousness but unfortunately did nothing of the sort.

"Anyway, I am totally up for this plan, if you want me to do it. It's up to ye lassies to decide. I'm not good at thinking too hard. "

"Hey, yeah," Hannah said. "She's got a point. Winter wasn't at any of the big fights, so none of the dark magical girls would have a vendetta against her. Can anyone else say the same?"

"Plus she has the biggest sword."

A thought occurred to Prita. "You all probably don't want to hear anything more from me, but if we are going to go through with this, maybe both Giz and Winter should go? That way, there'll be someone to watch out for the other one if something bad happens."

"Since I am still nominally in charge, I can act unpleasantly enough to make it seem like both of you would want to get away from me — which probably isn't too far from the truth. Or, for that matter, we could set some battle plans so that one of you gets taken captive, and then the other one defects in disgust once I 'decide' to leave her behind."

Magda pursed her lips. "I'm... Leery of having more fake traitors than necessary, but making sure that they're not totally alone is probably a good idea. But I don't know how well Giz and Winter would do together. Not to be rude to either of you, but it seems likely that you two wouldn't keep the other from doing risky, cover-breaking things." She sighed. "And none of that is meant to be an insult to either of you."

"If it became necessary, I could probably pretend a malfunction of my wings over the battlefield. It might look more believable that way - easier to fake from that distance than at close range. And I haven't had any run-ins with those people."

edited 27th May '14 9:54:10 AM by KarrinBlue

"Ahn XI doesn't concern me," Giz said, crossing her arms. "And I don't need the newbie tagging along. Baldy's right about one thing; after that college fiasco, if they're gonna buy anyone changing sides, it's gonna be me." Once again, her glare had not left Prita the entire time she had been speaking.

Meanwhile, Tammy sat down next to Ashley with a slice of pepperoni and olive pizza.

"Can you believe they ran out of burgers? How the heck does that even happen? What, were they expecting half the school to be on diets, or something?"

Maya sighed, rolled her eyes and threw her arms up — well, down, she was hanging upside-down — in the air.
“Wake me up when you're discussing tactics, will you? You're about as productive as the average bureaucrat,” she said and crossed her arms.

"But Giz," Hannah pleaded. "It's not saaaaafe. I mean, it's not safe compared to all the stuff we normally do. So really not safe."

Ashley swallowed her mouthful of her sandwich, still drawing on the napkin as she thought about Tammy's words. "International student body, all-girl's school... sounds about right," she said.

She pointed at her napkin, where she had drawn a crude map of the island and opposite beach that they were going to head to later, and looked at Tammy as she indicated a few things on the paper. "I was doing some thinking, about how pretty much no one can swim. Me, Erica, and the Englishwoman are the only ones who can go off of the beach and through the water. Everyone else will be forced to take these routes if they want to head over there." She indicated the two thin sandbars between the island and the beach.

"Each of these narrow and widen with the tide. I don't know if they're going to be underwater when the tide comes in, so I wouldn't count on them drowning anyone we trick into standing there, but it would be a nice bonus. They will be narrow enough at points, though, that a single person standing on the beach of this right one, and another person halfway into the left one, can hold off their entire land force. They might try sending more units in those directions to try and overpower whoever's there, but when they do that, you can pretend to retreat, and regroup with each other back on the beach, luring them to follow you. When that's happening with all the land fighters, the three of us can sneak around up here and and attack the portal. If we can destroy it, then we can mop up whoever's left by attacking them from both ends. And if we don't destroy the portal... well I hope they can't swim."

edited 27th May '14 1:21:11 PM by nman

Prita replied, "You're right, Hannah. It's not safe. But neither is war. We're here to be soldiers first and foremost — and if that means taking risks in order to succeed, that's what it takes."

She continued, "Magda, unfortunately, you're in the same boat that I am. You've been around for a while, so if there are any spies on campus the dark magical girls will know you're competent and won't expect you to just fail — and there's no real reason for you to turn traitor. In other words, you going over would just look too suspicious. As for Winter, I don't really know you, and I don't think they do either. Having two moles does increase the risk, but it might also help to have someone watching the other's back. Since you're an unknown quantity, we could have you act recklessly and get captured if you want — but there's no shame if you're not up for it. I'm open to other perspectives here — I could go either way."

"Finally, Giz, you're going. We need someone to be an active traitor, and let's face it, with me in charge, you have the best reason of anyone. I suspect that you won't have to feign any hatred of me or Atlantis High if you're interrogated. And what's more, while you may be overly impulsive and lacking in common sense, you've survived so far, which shows you know how to take care of yourself if necessary."

"I would suggest that you talk with General Johnson before you leave, so that you can get fitted up with the bugs — he might also put a wire on you. Also, even if you can't trust me, at least you will know that he has your back and will rescue you as soon as possible."

Overhearing the end of what Ashley said, she concluded, "You do know that the portals originate from a machine in their secret underground lair, don't you? You can't just throw a weapon at them and hope they disappear — I know, I tried. Unless you feel like taking on a horde of dark magical girls and golems by yourself, we need a more subtle plan."

edited 28th May '14 2:02:51 PM by BokhuraBurnes

"Well why don't you tell me how you guys shut off the portals then?" Ashley asked Prita. "Every plan has a risk, but if all you're going to do is point things out without actually suggesting a better course of action, we don't get anything done." She grabbed her pen and looked at the napkin again. "Okay, well do you just have to destroy this machine to stop the portal?"

She traced the back of her pen along the sand bars. "If it's something simple, then three of us sneaking in from the water have a better chance of finding this machine instead of having all ten of us charge headfirst and get cut off. If it's something that requires more time than just shooting it once or twice, then if you lure out most of their forces, we can erect barriers here and here," she pointed at the sides of each sandbar closest to the island. "That will trap them off the island and buy us more time to shut down the portal, or at the very least we could kill anyone who's trying to call for reinforcements.

"My suspicion is that you would need to go inside the dark girls' secret lair, and then either turn it off or smash it. How, I don't know. It's also guarded by a small golem army, hundreds of them, who aren't all likely to leave. Good luck."

edited 28th May '14 12:57:24 PM by BokhuraBurnes

Ashley set down her sandwich and pen, and massaged her temples. "Okay," she said. "You keep on saying things, but you're not saying them for a reason. You sound more like a know-it-all than a leader right now." She pulled a flask out of her shirt and took a sip.

"If we can't shut off the portal ourselves, we have to reevaluate the situation and our priorities, then." She sighed and put her flask away. "I don't know why they keep the hundreds of golems on the other side, and don't put a few more on our side to guard the place, but that works to our advantage, at least. Since we can't shut it off using what we have, we run the risk of reinforcements coming out as soon as they realize we've found them. We have to take their magical girl out, and use whatever she has that controls the portal to shut if off. We have to capture her anyways, and she's likely the most powerful unit they have. If we can ambush her before anyone realizes what's going on, that should make the operation simpler."

Finally sitting up from the spot beside the Floridian where she'd been resting with her face buried in her arms, Alice Bellamy covered her mouth with a hand and yawned widely. Ahhhh, new sodding timezones are awful! I just wanna go back to my room and have a kip ...but I can't! I bloody can't! Why is life so unfair?!

The new blonde Brit hadn't bothered to introduce herself to the other girls at the briefing, which was fine as far as she was concerned, considering that it seemed most of them were off their damn trolleys. Still, it wouldn't do to have them dying like savage beasts due to a half thought-out plan, no matter how loony they were. "Look here, Missus Pirate Queen," she articulated drowsily, jabbing her finger down at the center of the would-be portal location, "Yer never gonna get a ham- ahmb- surprish attack in a place like thish. Ish imposhible. The beash and shea 're sodding flat."

She prepared to yawn again, then slapped herself harshly and shook her head. "It's an okay plan for something you knocked up since the meeting, but you're not really considering the behavior of the enemy leader here. Our goal is to defeat her, but her goal isn't to defeat us, it's just to hold us off until the portal finishes charging or whatever, at which point she should be able to bring in unlimited reinforcements. The sandbars are a choke point for them and us, and I heard their units are mostly long-range, so she's just going to turtle until the portal's finished if she has even half a brain."

"Now, we have eleven Megucas. Let's suppose we divide into two teams, Alpha and Beta. Alpha has seven or eight members and all our Air and Water power. Beta has four or three members, all Earth. We send Alpha up one sandbar and Beta up the other to flank, in rough formation according to how far away we can attack from. Everyone in Alpha moves in such a way that they could be an Earthie. The enemy might not have enough aggro to chase us, but they do have to block Beta, so we should be able to thin them slightly. If Alpha or Beta breaks the enemy's line, great. If not, when Alpha's front line becomes too damaged, or the tide starts to come in, or if Beta falters badly, our most-injured Earthies make a defensive feint back toward the beach, where the enemy may or may not follow. Waters move to bolster Beta and break the thinner part of the enemy line along with Baron von Hawkwoman here, who carries the least-injured Alpha Earthie with her. This makes Beta the new main attack force, with eight or nine of us. The remainder of Alpha recuperates on the beach and makes their way to the edge of what was Beta's sandbar for possible airlift."

"If the enemy's got water units..." she paused, chewing her tongue, "Well, in that case, we might get our arses handed to us. We'd have to let the Waters and Air handle the demon fish or whatever the hell they are, but we should still go for a flanking maneuver whenever we start to move, since we can't overcome the bottlenecks otherwise. 'Course, if the enemy starts coming down the sandbars in a single-file train, things get a whole lot easier for us."

edited 28th May '14 8:16:04 PM by darksidevoid

Ashley blinked and looked at Alice. Then she hugged her fiercely. "FINALLY!" she said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, finally someone who wants to talk about something other than that other stuff! And you even have ideas!" She sat back and adjusted her hat, and cleared her throat.

"Well I thought the attack would be at night, since it's at least five hours from now, plus however long we're in transit, so they'll have trouble seeing us on the water. And that's why I pointed out the sandbars. If they think we're attacking from the land, and then retreat, they might try to follow us out into the sandbar, while we can swim and fly around to take out the... meguca... as you put it. And if they don't follow you out, then we can pretty much use your own as a backup. You're right, her goal is to hold that point and to get in reinforcements. If we do a frontal assault like that, it buys her too much time. That's why we have to see if we can take her out first."

"And besides," she added. "I don't know how old these images are. They might have turrets, sentries, or fortifications on the sandbars by the time we get there, so any plan we make will have to be re-evaluated once we land."

edited 28th May '14 8:23:30 PM by nman

"Night? It's gonna be at night?!" Alice stared at the Magical Pirate Girl for a few seconds, dumbfounded, then groaned and nestled her head in her arms again. "You people live on the wrong side of the bleeding world."

edited 28th May '14 8:41:32 PM by darksidevoid

"Okay," Prita replied, "May I point out that the dark magical girls have showed no signs so far of launching an invasion force? Instead, they seem to appear, scout out the area, find some new magical girls, or do whatever else dark magical girls do, and then disappear. Obviously, if we could capture one, that would be the ideal outcome, but there's no reason that, if our opponent faces a bit of trouble, she wouldn't just teleport back to wherever the hell she comes from. Hence the need for strategy, not just tactics. Hence the need to insert a mole. Because I'm tired of 'winning' inconclusive battles."

"Oh my God," Ashley groaned. She put her palm on her forehead. Then she put her other palm on her forehead, and took in a deep breath. After exhaling, she reached back into her shirt, took out her flask, and had another quick toss from it.

She turned around in her seat until she was looking Prita dead in the eyes. And then she said... nothing.

She turned back around, and looked at Alice. "That's okay, you'll get used to it after a while," she told Alice in a very upbeat tone, giving the other magical girl a warm, friendly smile, almost as if it were just the two of them in the world right now. "Just have some coffee if you're tired, we better get back to our plan to capture a dark magical girl. It's really important that we focus on this, because as far as I know, we've never managed to capture one of them before. You know, some people might even say that this mission we're about to go on is the single-most important mission in this entire war, and if we're successful, we'll can accomplish something no one else has ever done. In fact, depending on what we manage to find out, we might even be able to learn all about their secret plans, their bases, and infrastructure from a dark magical girl who was so high up in the command structure she had control of her own portal. Then we could just root them out and end this war. There'd be no need for some of the things other people are planning, like trying to insert a spy in a bottom-level position for months. Boy, I bet they'd sure feel silly that they spent all their time focusing on strategy and not realizing that the right tactic was right in front of them the whole time. So like I said, we need to focus. I'd sure hate to screw this one up because I didn't spend enough time discussing the situation at hand by offering creative, constructive, criticism."

"Ashley, for God's sake, we don't have time for passive aggression. And planning isn't a zero sum game." Magda turned to the new Brit. "I have some tea from home that helps with time zone issues. I'm from the Home Counties, in case you were wondering."

"Look, we're running out of time," Prita said. She was getting a splitting headache. "How about we do this: those who want to try to capture the magical girl come up with their own plan for doing so. Giz, talk with General Johnson about getting the proper bugging equipment as a mole. Winter, let me know what you want to do. Bottom line — if we have a number of plans, then we have a better chance that at least one will work out. If we capture the magical girl successfully, we can all come home and celebrate. If not, we're at least doing something more than treading water."

"Since most ye guys seem to want both of us to go, I'll grab the stuff from the general too. Good to be working with you Gizzy." Winter gave a wink to her now partner before rolling off to the general's office for her stuff.

The next several hours were a blur. Before the girls knew it they were on board a pair of helicopters and flying north up the California coastline. As the choppers neared their destination, they sunk lower to the earth, before landing in a clearing well outside the actual destined area. The helicopters, they were told, might attract the attention of airborne enemies. Thus, the girls were driven the rest of the way, going down an old road that was parallel to the rocky beach.

The trucks carrying them stopped within twenty minutes walking distance from the beach. Again, trying to keep a low profile meant another change in transportation. This mode of travel was called shoes and they were propelled by legs. Trekking through the untouched woods and shrubbery, the girls felt the slight tingle across their skin that indicated they had crossed the barrier. Radios went silent, just like last time.

Within a few minutes that had a clear view of the area. The beach was rocky and overgrown with tangling vegetation. The water crashed into narrow strips of land that connected a small rocky island to the mainland. That was where their portal was supposed to be, but from their vantage point in was hidden among the leafy trees. What was not hidden by the trees however, was the girl walking back and forward on the island. She looked bored, eyes staring at the ground and arms swinging carelessly at her side. The was no weapon on her, but the red arrowhead shaped Whisp floating near her was pretty good evidence that this was one of the magical girls they were looking for.

Also because this was not the first time some of them had met this girl. She looked different than before. Gone was the terrified look and civilian clothes, she now wore a red and bronze colored breastplate that revealed her midriff, a red skirt and an expression of restlessness. It was Rachel Santiago, the girl who had been kidnapped at the pizzeria.

"This is totally unfair! Why am I the one who has to watch this stupid place?" They could hear her talking to herself. "Evy and Eva are the ones who think this place is so important, they should be the ones stuck here! I could be out conquering the world but nooooooooo, babysit the one place we aren't even interested in. What for, dammit!?"

A GDB flew down near the girl's ear. If it was saying something, then the Atlantis team could not hear it, but whatever it was just seemed to make Rachel more irritable. "Hikers again? Yeah, whatever. Send the local yuppies screaming, just stick inside the barrier." she said before waving it away and turning towards the ocean.

The GDB flew back to its companions. The whole flight of them abruptly flew towards the Atlantis team, the "local yuppies" Rachel had not even spared a glance at.

Combat

Into the Balance

Objective: Defeat Enemy Magical Girl.

Bonus: Defeat 12 Enemies.

Map◊

Magical Girls

Alice Bellamy

• Level: 4
• HP: 8
• Mov: 5

Ashley Morgan

• Level: 3
• HP: 6
• Mov: 5

Erica Farragut

• Level: 3
• HP: 6
• Mov: 5

Giz Furst

• Level: 4
• HP: 8
• Mov: 6

Hannah Barca

• Level: 4
• HP: 8
• Mov: 6

Magda von Richthofen

• Level: 4
• HP: 6
• Mov: 7

Maya Hattori

• Level 5
• HP: 10
• Mov: 6

Prita Maurya

• Level: 4
• HP: 8
• Mov: 6

Tammy Conner

• Level: 3
• HP: 6
• Mov: 6

Victoria Iceni

• Level: 4
• HP: 8
• Mov: 6

Winter Wallace

• Level: 4
• HP: 8
• Mov: 6

Enemies

GDB x8

• Air
• Melee
• HP: 3
• Mov: 7

Golems x9

• Earth
• Small Arms
• HP: 6
• Mov: 6

Hell Hounds x4

• Earth
• Melee
• HP: 5
• Mov: 6

Golem Mark II

• Earth
• Long Range
• HP: 8
• Mov: 6

Rachel Santiago

• Earth
• Melee
• Lv: 4
• HP: 8
• Mov: 6

Abilities

• Minor Uprising: +1 Attack when adjacent to 2 or more allies.
• Vesuvian Vines: +1 Attack on Hill or Forested Hill Tiles
• Thracian Gladiator: +1 Defense against Melee enemies.
• Never Found The Body: Once per battle, Rachel may turn invisible at the beginning of her turn and become visible again at the end of her next turn.

edited 1st Jun '14 3:07:12 PM by Parable

"I'll take North!"

Seeing as their original plan was obviously out the window, Alice decided to take the initiative and go to intercept the enemy's scouts. Brushing past their robed, would-be leader, she stepped onto the water and sped down the shoreline with the aid of her powers, drifting into a hard left turn out to sea at the nearby rocks. To be perfectly honest, it had been a long while since she'd been able to go all-out running like this and really make use of her powers, between her former school and what had come after, and so Alice relished the feeling of the ocean air whipping through her hair. It felt incredibly nice, but as her approach brought her in closer to the GDBs, she saw something that made her halt in her tracks.

"Oh no..." she whispered, eyes transfixed in horror as her arms fell helplessly to her sides, "they're so cute!"

Monumentally torn, the blonde clutched her head as she warred with her conflicting instincts. Why didn't they tell me about this?! I can't attack something like that! -But I'm supposed to! -But It's so fluffy-looking! Something that fluffy can't possibly be evil! -But what'll happen to me if I don't?! With great reluctance, Alice weakly raised her spear and prepared to hurl it at the nearest of the four bat-things...

"Oooooh! I can't do it!" she cried at last, gripping her weapon with both hands in a defensive stance, "It's too bloody fluffy!"

Alice to 7.06, Defends.

"Guess the stealth approach is no good, we better transform before those things get close!" Ashley said. She began to spin around, becoming enveloped in magically obscuring light as she transformed into magical girl form... and looked the exact same, considering she always went around in that getup. She now hefted a humongous cannon as if it were nothing, and gave the other Magical Girls a thumbs up - before then using her spare hand to pull a bottle of rum out from her shirt and take a swig. "Argh, escort them t' Davy Jones' locker, Alice! I'll be lootin' th' scenic route 'n meetin' up wit' ye later!" She called out, waving Alice off as the other girl swam away.

She dived right into the water, taking to it like she were an otter, and rose up far away from the group. She was north of the golems, and gave a brief salute with the hand holding the bottle. "Dead men tell be tellin' no tales, I'll dance th' hornpipe o'er yer grave, ye mangy, scabrous, scurvy-ridden, slimy bilge rats! Yarr!" she shouted at the golems, before tapping her bottle against the back of the cannon and shooting a veritable wrecking ball at one of the creatures.

"Giz, look out!" Hannah yelped at Giz, before pushing past the other Magical Girl and racing right up into the middle of a group of golems. "I'll handle them!" she shouted, swinging her sling around and rocketing a rock towards one of the golems.

Hannah to 9.13 and attack golem at 11.13.

Ashley to 11.10 and attack golem at 11.13. Reroute attack to 9.12 if he's already dead.

Maya could hear Hanzō complaining in her head as the group was discovered. She made a rude gesture and transformed, losing her schoolgirl attire for a pink ninja gi. She twirled her Kusarigama's scythe end around experimentally and looked a way to even the odds with the golems a bit — preferably involving stabbing their backs. She pointed to herself, then to the forest, and vanished.
Maya to 05.15 and defends.

"Haha, at last, a chance for action." Winter swung her sword around her head a couple of times. Just a moderate warmup before getting started.

"Ye better not get cocky lass. Ye ain't familiar with these girls yet, ye will have to work on cooperating."

"Ha, like I need that. Magical Girl extraordinaire, moving out!"

Winter to 8-14, attack Golem at 9-14

edited 2nd Jun '14 7:05:26 PM by neobowman