Let The Battle Begin
Lilac saw that the canopy of trees broke the fall of the larger one, though from the looks of it, it wasn't going to hold up much longer. Quickly moving away from that area and running towards the waterfall, she saw one of the Grimm from the briefing, The Ophiocus, waiting at the top of the waterfall. Lilac then pulled out her radio and contacted Lupa.
"Lupa, I have visual on one of the targets. Permission to engage?", she said, readying her weapons to fire once Lupa gave the word.
"Never let anyone tell you that something is impossible." - Monty Oum, 1981-2015Weapons Lab
"Good. This is good. The less you can feel the dust the better. That means its working." Kayin replied, swiping the resin ball off the table before it could roll off. "I won't bother with the other one. I feel like it would go off like a grenade.. then again.. maybe we could make cheap grenades out of them.."
He commanded his robot to skitter over to a nearby drawer, where he fished inside and pulled out a little plastic bag (presumably used for holding screws). He dropped the metal ball inside, attached a string to the bag, then moved back over to Araja. "Take this and don't touch it until you need it. I feel like this would cause an earthquake or a shockwave or something when you activate it."
"Whatever happens, it's not my fault anymore."
Gamma
Kayin's robot spun and wobbled around, trying to remove Araja from on top of it. " This isn't built for riding you know! Get off!" he yelled out over the speakers. After a few more moments of struggling, he simply gave up and allowed her to remain seated atop his creation.
Then the Kurira made itself known.
" We have contact!" Kayin yelled out, locking his machine in place. The rotating gun canisters at the side popped out violently, though thankfully Araja was not standing near where they came out. "Awaiting permission to begin assault."
G was here - 2/9/24Weapons Lab
"Uh, okay," Araja said.
She started twirling the plastic bag around in her hand like she had no concern for her safety or for anyone else's.
"Anything else you need me to do, or—?"
Gamma
"You're the boss, boss!" Araja said.
Araja heard a roar and a loud crash, and spotted birds flocking away from the landing site upsetting trees as they did. She hopped off of Kayin's robot—narrowly missing brushing herself up against one of the guns—and stumbled on the ground, slipping onto her butt. She stood and dusted herself off.
"Commander Prospa, you heard that roar?" she said. "It came from that direction—the others might be there. We can find Kurira and maybe group up with the others. It's using one stone to hit two birds at the same time, yes?"
Alpha Squad
Francesca's eyes narrowed as she took stock of the situation. "Aurum, Bowker, don't go off on your own." She ordered, although she herself found it hard not to just head straight for Kurira. "Vickers keep talking to them, get those coordinates and we'll move out immediately." She took a moment to grab her own comms and radio in. "Zil, get your ass back here right now and keep an open eye out for anything bigger than a house." She barked at the sniper, her tone deathly serious.
"I am nature's weapon. You are unfit to carry on your species, and I shall ensure that you do not do so!" - Charles Darwin, XCOM SniperTeam Beta
Lupa calmly examined the situation around them, she swiftly kicked off the ground and then kicked off several more times, each time her dust infused greaves touched the trees, freezing in large amounts to hold the large tree in place. Finally she landed back on the ground and drew Wax and Wane.
"This is Lupa, Beta Squad you have permission to engage the hostile. Repeat, you have permission to engage the Ophiocus."
Alpha
Not bothering to stop his ascent, Henry shouted back down "I do as I choose, an' I'm choosin' ta take a look about before I go runnin' off into somethin' that's goin' ta leave me kids fatherless you daft strumpet."
Upon reaching the top of the tree, Henry pulled a small map of the jungle out of his vest and began marking down various landmarks as well as getting his bearings as he did so.
Alpha
Mila hefted her weapon, keen eyes searching for a threat.
"You heard the Captain, Alpha. We need to stay calm here. Vickers, where are those coordinates?"
The faunus was mentally cursing the entire damn team. This was a clusterfuck! What an appalling lack of coordination! It was like they wanted to die.
Ugh.
"Vickers, contact Gamma as well. We need to know where everyone is."
Alpha
"But...why can't we just rendezvous at their current position? The Grimm won't see us coming, and they can't take us on from all sides! If we rendezvous later, they'll be wary and we lose the element of surprise!"
Clinton slowly made his way back to his squad, staring over his shoulder to watch the battle.
Oh, c'mon! Why do they get to prove themselves right off the bat? I can handle a few Grimm, and I could probably do it by myself! Orders are orders, but this is an opportunity!
Beta vs. Ophiocus
"Finally!" Maria leaped up and activated her Semblance, running up the rock wall to meet the large Grimm with a spinning attack boosted by her incredible speed. Her swift eyes watched for any movements signaling an attack, preparing to dodge if her attack failed to do much damage.
Allurand and surrounding world loading, 28%...“On it, Lupa!” Feros yelled, having been busy slaying the Beowulves near the ground. Moving away, he held up the hilt of Godbreaker so that it faced the target… and fired at it with flaming mortar rounds.
This is probably a shitpost, but I don’t care. I need to not be behind.
Dahlia's landing. Gamma
No one answered her question so she decided she'd figure it out for herself. Dahlia waited till she was at a large enough deposit of lodestone. She luckily was able to spot some relatively quickly. The stone extended to the ground. "Here goes nothing!" she shouted with glee, leaping at the lodestone. She leaped into the air, tightly gripping her Thunderclap rings. She was dragged down for a few seconds by gravity, before the magnets attached her to the cliffs. Dahlia from there slowly worked her way down from the cliffs. It took her a while, but she reached the earth.
She looked to her teammates. "Miss anything so far?"
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing."We made contact. Good to see you made it down safe... Dahlia, right?" Freddie replied, looking over his shoulder at Dahlia. "The current game-plan is to meet up with Alpha before Ms.—before Mrs. Jade gets to Kurira. We're trying to get our bearings currently." He frowned in confusion and worry. He swung his head around to Prospa. "Um. I think that covers it. Ms. Azulong, did I remember everything? If we need to move forward from there, maybe we can use mine or Ms.—or Gwynneth's weapon to fire some Dust in the air as an improvised flare. Ms. Vickers has a tactical loadout that probably includes similar gear, maybe we can meet up with them that way."
Alpha
There were several more dull thumps coming from the forest, gradually getting louder and louder, a chorus of cracking wood accompanying them. Several trees nearby fell over as the creature reared up, revealing itself. The eight heads of the Omega Hydrein swiveled towards the group and let out a powerful wave of flame that annihilated the foliage between the enemies and kept on heading straight for Alpha.
Beta
The Ophiocus flicked its tongue out, a glob of poisoned spit flying towards Maria. The winged serpent also noted the incoming projectiles and quickly turned, heading back into the forest, making sure to also lash out with it's tail in Maria's direction. It had fought humans before, it knew that they couldn't resist a chase.
Gamma
Prospa took a breath and organized her thoughts. "Mr. Angels, there will be no need for that now that we're connected. They can follow us off our comm system now. Mr. Bankole, you have permission to engage but not from this location. Get your robots drawing Kurira away from Beta, I don't want that monster charging in on them when help is still minutes away."
The witch keyed her comm device for a general broadcast. "Gamma are going to hit Kurira first and keep him off Beta. Fran, link up with us as soon as you can, my squad can defeat that thing alone but I'd rather we not have to if at all possible. Lupa, you deal with your current situation and join up with us when you can. With any luck Kurira will be down by then and we can heal up before going after the next one."
She turned back to her team. "Let's move people. Angels, front of the group, I want you on point. Araja and I will cover the skies. Ms. Birch, rear guard. Mrs. Kasumi and Ms. Gwynneth you're in the middle seeing as you're the least armed and our field medic respectively." She ascended on her miniature whirlwind. "Gamma, move out."
edited 8th Dec '15 7:10:48 PM by guyshane
-dramatic music ensues-Alpha Group
"Yeah. I'll uh, get back to you on that." Francesca commented dryly as she switched off communications and turned to the wall of flame heading their way. "MOVE NOW!" She barked at her unit, grabbing the two nearest her and leaping out of the way of the wall of flame. "Alpha, Focus Fire!" She called out as she set the two down before moving up to confront the beast. "I'll draw its attention!"
"I am nature's weapon. You are unfit to carry on your species, and I shall ensure that you do not do so!" - Charles Darwin, XCOM Sniper"Understood, ma'am!" Freddie broke down NATION into Farmer and Soldier, and his Aura broke off just a little ways from his arm to hold Soldier at the ready. As they descended into the jungle, Farmer fulfilled its intended use as an agricultural tool. With clean, deft swipes, Freddie blazed them a clean and quick trail through the undergrowth. "Um, just—just follow close, okay? I can cut a quick trail, but, um, sorry, just not a wide one."
Freddie burst out of the foliage, arms already in another complicated motion. His right hand slung around and out of its flashing foliage fricassee, and swung back down into his hammer. He saw the Kurira thing, a creature bigger than almost everything he'd fought up till now, and knew he couldn't stop to think. Soldier dropped onto the pick and formed into NATION once again, the grip flipping up into a stock and the barrel broadening and lengthening.
"Behind!" He declared, and hip-fired a weapon that had a pick to brace itself for a reason. NATION discharged the ten-shot clip of pistol ammo in a single compressed bundle, leaving a trail and a massive CRACK in its wake. The recoil rammed into Freddie's gut and flared his Aura up in response. The force dispersed around the defensive field and he grit his teeth, skidding several inches straight backwards. He left small ditches in the dirt, and the clip ejected itself at a stunned Freddie's feet. "How'd I do?"
"Maria! 12 o'clock!", Lilac shouted to warn her teammate of the poison spit headed right for her. As the steel wore off, Lilac quickly pulled out a piece of iron and crushed it in her palm, changing her skin to be just like it. She began to scale the rock wall using Wild Fang, trying to reach her comrade and provide backup.
"Never let anyone tell you that something is impossible." - Monty Oum, 1981-2015Max's eyes caught the Ophiocus' actions. It had spat an attack at Maria and then tried to lash out with its tail at her. Then it fled. And Max was too far away to do anything to help, but he could fly over and track it.
"Hmm. Looks like it's running away right after attacking. Seems like it's trying to goad us by doing that... Do we follow?" As a long range sniper, Max had used similar hit-and-run baiting tactics against Grimm before at his time in Beacon, and he knew that something was amiss.
Max calmly observed as he continued to charge his shot in case they encountered the Grimm again. He took of to the air slightly above the canopy to get a better look.
edited 9th Dec '15 8:38:19 AM by ironcommando
...ehehAlpha
"You heard the commander, Alpha! The ones with big guns, support fire! Melee fighters, with me!" Mila snapped, hefting her sword up. She wouldn't be able to to use her rifle in armor like this, so she'd have to use her sword and armor.
Her boosters burned and Mila moved forward towards the monster, slashing down at one of the thing's head with the giant blade.
Gamma
Araja looked slightly crestfallen that her words had been largely ignored.
"Alright, I'm coming," she said. "Catch you up—" She looked up as Prospa ascended into the air. "Up there. Yeah."
Araja pointed her staff straight down into the dirt. Looking down at her feet nervously, she mounted the staff with one foot and a hand hanging on.
"Going up!" she said.
Araja rocketed straight up into the sky on a column of wind. At the peak of her jump, she sat on her staff and buffered her descent with a pocket of air. She pushed herself along with a personal whirlwind, occasionally losing balance and righting herself with an extra gust of wind.
"Is that Kurira?" Araja said. "What should we do?"
Beta vs. Ophiocus
Maria spun through the glob of venom, briefly activating the Fire Dust she'd stored in her blades to vaporize what she passed through, preventing any of the poison from touching her. As she left that attack behind, she grunted and yelled as she caught the tail flick of the serpentine Grimm, her Aura flashing with the impact of the blow as she was knocked into open air. But as their quarry fled, Maria refused to fall back down the waterfall, sending out one of her blades to anchor to the ground and pull herself to it. Rolling after her landing, the Ashen warrior didn't skip a beat as she ran after the serpent, jumping into the trees.
"Do we have any choice but to follow it?" She replied to the general question tossed around in the comms. "Just watch my back and keep after it!"
Allurand and surrounding world loading, 28%...Alpha
"Finally!"
Clinton dashed towards the wall of flame, firing a blast of Force Dust from his feet as he jumped to send him over the wall, though with a few singes. With a rough landing, the private kept running.
"Hope you're in the mood for roulette."
With a click, two blades of Fire Dust slid out of Lucky, beginning to spin around to create a saw. He charged, changing direction to then leap towards a tree on the side of the Grimm. He kicked off of the trunk, soaring towards one of the Hydrein's heads, trying to chop the head off with the fiery saw.
edited 9th Dec '15 9:26:11 PM by UndyingPhoenix
"Alright, will do. We should follow cautiously, but quickly." Max calmly replied.
Max jetted about from tree to tree, conserving the dust in his Jet Pack while keeping both Maria and the Ophiocus' tracks in sight. He would be there to provide backup fire and distraction if needed.
At the same time his gun was fully charged and at the ready to deliver a powerful shot.
(Oh boy. Poison spit? Looks like it's time for my flying skills.)
...ehehBeta
"Watch yourself Maria." Lupa called into the comm. "This Grimm is a smart one. Follow but keep your distance. The rest of Beta squadron, I order the same. We need to figure out where this bastard is going." With that, Lupa herself started to follow, keeping a steady distance that could keep her within range of activating her semblance for the others if need be.

Max saw that the tree somehow stopped flying towards them. "Well, that's one less problem."
And of course, he saw a greater threat in the huge, serpentine Grimm. Out of the three, it was the only one that could fly. (Well, I'm not going to be safe in the air.)
Still calm in the face of danger, he voiced over the comm "Captain, what are your orders?"
Max continued to charge Eagle Strike's shot.
...eheh