Ysavva
Spoiler: SHOW
Rather than risk a diagnostics scan, you decide to fly out of the denser part of the field where you are, to somewhere less dense. This of course means somewhere behind Karthus.
And that, of course, means going back through the densest parts of the field.
You got through it once, right? What could going back through it possibly do to you? You'll need to do it quickly this time, though.
Turning, you start back towards the more denser areas, leaving the little gap you found where you can see Karthus behind. There's a little keyhole to the north - you haven't been through there yet, but it looks passable.
You gun your engines. Time to get moving.
Within moments, you're deep in the very thickest parts of the field, spinning, swerving, cutting sharp turns as massive boulders the size of skyscrapers threaten to crush you between them. Your thrusters are quick, your engines sturdy - you were all but built for this, you feel. Even so, you're almost in over your head: on occasion a smaller boulder clips your robotic arms, or bumps lightly across you; you feel yourself tense as you fly through a cloud of smaller pebbles, scattering them all around. "This asteroid field is unrealistic," you mutter under your breath, mentally glaring at the VR engine as you do a tight, swerving curl through a breach in the rock wall, out into open space.
And everything is quiet.
After sitting there for a moment, you start to look around. It looks like you're definitely farther north of Karthus now - a lot farther north. His ship is hardly visible at this distance. In fact, you wouldn't even know where it was, if it hadn't been for CHIARA's map - it looks like he moved.
First things first, though. You need to restart your railgun. Leaning forwards, peering at the tiny lettering in the CASKET OS command menus, you eventually find what you're looking for: "RESTART WEAPON (PRIMARY)" - and you give it a tap. It flashes black and green for a moment, and then returns the message: "OVERHEAT DETECTED: INITIALIZING COOLING SEQUENCE." It pauses for a moment, with a "..." on the screen, and then adds, "COOLING SEQUENCE COMPLETE. WEAPON (PRIMARY) RESTARTED."
Either that was really lucky, or you have a good computer. Probably the former - you can't remember asking them to put too high a quality computer into your CASKET. Heck, maybe the railgun even cooled on its own. That makes you think, though - maybe the whole reason your top engine went out was because Hema hit you with his microwave field manipulator, causing it to overheat, too. You could check it, of course - turn it on, extend radiator flaps - but you decide that can wait. Right now, you need to get back to that little safe place you found before.
You turn, your ship moving smoothly, gracefully at your command - you cut a gentle curve back towards the thicker part of the field. You'll be back before you know it.
But things don't always work out the way we expect.
The entrance is a lot tighter than you remember - the rocks are slowly moving towards each other. You try to maneuver to get inside, but your right robotic arm clips the nearest asteroid, ripping itself away from your ship with an ear-rending screech, peeling plates off the hull - cables and wiring stretch out and away in an instant and jerk you to the side, sending you in a careening spin towards the next asteroid. You throw on the thrusters, trying to halt yourself, but it's not fast enough - you're thrown about like a ragdoll as the left side, the aft, even your cockpit canopy manages to smash against that asteroid, and then the next - pieces of your ship too innumerable to count float away, glittering in the darkness under your headlights. In a panic, you throw yourself on full reverse thrusters, trying desperately to get out of the field before you're smashed into a powder by the rolling asteroids nearby - and you only barely mange to limp away, back out into the calmer, less dense portion of the field.
Maybe you only succeeded because of luck before.
You swallow, and only then realize that you're panting heavily. Your chest is sore - your arms, your shoulders - you're so tense that it's actually starting to hurt. You calm down, taking deep breaths. This is only a VR simulation after all, you remind yourself. I can't actually get hurt here... right?
You look back out towards the rest of the combat area.
Karthus is still visible in the distance, the light blue glow of his engines a faint twinkle through your scratched and battered canopy. You aim at him, utilizing the data on your screens to get a good fix with your railgun, and fire. You almost smile as you hear a satisfying crack from your railgun; you can't help but smirk as you see a bright flash of sparks from his ship. Looks like you hit. And that's when you remember...
Railguns are supposed to be silent.
Dr. Cha0zz
Spoiler: SHOW
You watch quietly for him, trying to drift away from your original position, scanning the rock for somewhere you can hide - but you don't see anything that would properly hide you from him, even from your current position. You decide to just wait. "Jimmy, alert me when Fawkes comes into visual range."
"Even if it's blatantly obvious?" your AI asks, his voice satirical. "Will do, boss."
It's some time before you see anything, but sure enough, Fawkes emerges from the thinning dust cloud a few dozen meters directly in front of you; one of his pincers holds a relatively large rock.
"Oh, boss, look," Jimmy says, as Fawkes begins to fire his particle gun at you, the little particles clicking against your hull. "It's Fawkes!"
"Shut up, idiot!" you roar back, leaping into action. With a quick thrust, you pitch your ship aside, rapidly inputting data to your controls. You're going to use your magnetic field manipulator this time, and you're going to use it right. After a few moments, "MAGNETIC FIELD manipulator: ARMED" flashes across the screen on your right - you hit the big red button.
You lean forwards, almost grinning in delight as with a sudden force like he'd been gripped by the hand of God, Fawkes' ship suddenly jerks downwards, slamming him onto a particularly rocky part of the asteroid. Particles of dust and debris float out all around him from the collision.
"He's not dead yet, Dr. Cha0zz," Jimmy informs you, zooming one of your ESCam screens on Fawkes himself, who appears to be frightened, yet determined - and is reaching back for his controls.
You reach for your own, muttering, "We'll soon fix that." Hurriedly, you input some new variables into your microwave field manipulator - you're going to fry him. Instead of the regular message you get, though, you get something that bothers you greatly: "MICROWAVE FIELD MANIPULATOR ARMING FAILED". In case it isn't obvious, it's not entirely obvious what this means.
Just then, you dodge out of the way of a boulder that comes spinning towards you - the one Fawkes had been holding in his robotic arm. It's a botched throw - far too slow. You've definitely damaged him - you're just not sure by how much.
You smile at him slyly. Oh, he's no idiot, but he's not as intelligent as you - not by a long shot.
Except... he smiles back - a little grim, determined, knowing smile. Immediately after, a railgun round carves a deep, deep gash into the very top your cockpit canopy - you hear a sharp crack behind you and the displays around you start flashing warnings about the engines.
"Hey, boss, we've lost an engine," Jimmy soon informs you.
"Well, no shit," you're tempted to say, but decide instead to focus on figuring out how you'll get out of this one.
Dinosawer
Spoiler: SHOW
A loud clanking, clattering noise right outside your cockpit soon answers your question, as Squidhead lands directly next to your cockpit canopy.
Looks like it's time to brush him off. Your chaff flies out shotgun-style, right? Should work. You aim the blunderbuss at him, quickly switch to chaff ammo, and pull the trigger. A wave of chaff blots out the stars, thinning as it begins to spread. And then, after it clears, you see Squidhead, readying his lasgun.
Not knowing what else to do, you gun the engines, jetting forwards into the chaff. Squidhead almost gets thrown clear of the vehicle just from that, but somehow manages to hold on - the stars are dark, and all you can see is Squidhead's faint shape. And he fires.
For a moment, nothing happens, but then he presses the lasgun directly against the glass of your canopy - you see a yellow glow in his direction, and you grin at him through your helmet as you realize that your energy shield is protecting you. Squidhead sees it too, and scrambles away towards the back of your ship. God damn, but that's some good tech there! Time to show Squidhead some moves of your own.
Throwing a couple levers to keep your CASKET stable, you twist the flight yoke sharply, setting your ship into a rapid yaw-wards spin. Without the feeling of motion, it seems like the field of chaff is whirling about you - you keep it up for a minute, grinning to yourself. Beautiful thing, those upgrades. They're coming in handy and the mission hasn't even started yet.
After you're done spinning yourself around, and you think you've managed to get Squidhead off, you crane your neck, looking around for any sign of the tentacled guy. He doesn't seem to be visible, actually - he's just... gone. Looks like you did your job. But... best to be sure. You turn your headlights on for a second to try to find him, and have to turn them off almost immediately, as you find yourself blinded by a bright glare - that's right. You're in the chaff field. It'll be hard for you to find him - but then again, it should be hard for him to find you, too. At least you'll be able to deal with him now, if he shows up.
Feeling somewhat safer in the darkness, you start up your computer and try to run a diagnostics scan. As you expected - this fails. "NULL OBJECT ERROR 2E 7A 34 06 D1 44 FF D4 C7 A7", the screen says. Well, that's a load of garbage. What are you supposed to do with that? You frown, and then decide to simply reroute some extra coolant to the engines to keep them cool, and extend the radiator flaps. That should help. You manage to figure out how to do all that, and some of the flashing lights quiet themselves down. You did a good thing there. You even feel a little proud of yourself.
Next, you need to blow somebody up. With Squidhead MIA, you'll need to find another target. You're thinking... Karthus sounds like a good choice. You carefully orient your CASKET in the direction you last saw him - somewhere towards the north. Should be easy to find him, right?
As you begin to near the edge of the chaff cloud, still moving along with it, you manage to see Karthus in the distance - looks like he might be firing at someone behind you. Hema, possibly? You can't see Amenra, wherever she is. Regardless, you take careful aim at Karthus, and fire - first your quantum cannon, and then with your electrolaser. Both seem to hit - a direct hit, in fact, at least for the electrolaser.
However... as you let yourself slip back into the thinning chaff cloud, you think you hear some sort of metal clacking behind your head... and it sounds just like Squid.
Hema
Spoiler: SHOW
As far as you're concerned, that means it's time to fry Taepilus. He's turning to face you even right now, so there's no time to waste. Hurriedly, you type in the variables, gauging the distance and everything else as accurately as possible. Unlike most weapons, microwave field manipulators don't have an advantage at point blank... you keep this in mind.
Just then, something kicks up a puff of dust on the asteroid behind Taepilus - it looks like someone is shooting at you - or are they shooting at Taepilus? It's rather hard to tell. That shot could've been meant for either of you.
But you're ready to fire. You slam your hand down on the trigger for your field manipulator, ready to melt Taepilus's face off - but nothing happens. At all. And it looks like Taepilus is getting ready to fire at you himself.
Wasting no time, you fly forwards, as more railgun shots hit the asteroid - and one of them hits Taepilus - and try to hit him with your right pincers. Unfortunately, these seem to be completely busted. You can't use your right robotic arm at all. It's just hanging there limply, and not responding to anything you do. It looks like Foreigner fried it. Your left robotic arm is working, though - you manage to leave a deep scratch across the top of Taepilus's cockpit, but that's it, in such a short amount of time. You'll need to come up with a different strategy.
On the plus side, Taepilus has gotten hit with another railgun round... and it looks like his microwave manipulator failed him, too.
Fawkes
Spoiler: SHOW
It's your move.
Without hesitating as Dr. Cha0zz seems to be doing, you pitch your nose down slightly, firing in a curve across the asteroid's surface in front of you to kick up a cloud of dust. Once it's in motion, you move on to the next portion of your plan: finding a rock. It'll have to be a decently-sized one, if you're going to manage anything useful with it.
After a quick search, you find the perfect rock, lying lightly on the asteroid's surface. It's everything you could've hoped for - just the right size for slipping into your pincers, and it's even lying in a position that will let you get your pincers around it easily. It's as though some supernatural force drew it out of your mind directly as you wanted it - it couldn't be more beautiful. You'll do amazing things with this rock. You just know it.
Gliding forwards, you slow to a stop in front of The Rock, carefully extending your robotic arm towards it. It fits like a glove. The rock's sublime shape even pushes it gently to the back of your pincers - and even locks it into place so it won't shift or slide as you move. Such a beautiful thing, you think, looking back at your thinning cloud of dust. You know enough to be sure that Dr. Cha0zz can't see you through your veil, even with his Enhanced Spectrum Cam, but the veil itself won't last long. It's time to go toss some boulders.
With that, you turn and start towards the veil, your rock at the ready. Your plan is simple: fire a few shots at his magnetic field manipulator, then his microwave manipulator, and then blow a hole in him with your rock, just to add injury to insult. Should be fun - and this rock is going to see you all the way through it.
You're really glad you had that tutorial.
As you break through the veil, you find Dr. Cha0zz almost exactly where you expected him to be. He's facing you, but that's no real worry. He's a stone's throw away.
As you start to fire at his magnetic field manipulator, something suddenly seems to grab your ship - the whole thing, and thrust you down towards the asteroid's surface, hard. There's a loud, menacing crash - the sound of sharp, jagged metal against stone - sparks fly in the cockpit, and your legs get forced upwards a little into a cramped space as the cockpit floor rises with a large bulge in the middle. You don't even have to wonder: It's Dr. Cha0zz's magnetic field manipulator.
As you try to recover, you suddenly realize that you're weightless in your cockpit - the collision took out the gravity control and inertial dampeners. Then alarms start sounding all through the cockpit, red lights flashing urgently. "LIFE SUPPORT LOST" your screens scream.
But the fight isn't lost yet. Narrowing your eyes and gritting your teeth, you use your top rear thrusters to push your back end farther against the asteroid, crumpling your own lower engine so you can get a strong shot off, and aiming for his microwave field manipulator.
As you pull the trigger, you see his microwave manipulator melting beneath a spray of particles, falling to pieces, bit by bit, like sand beneath a spray of water. Sparks fly, the insides burn - you've utterly destroyed it. He seems to understand what you've done - but you're not even close to being finished.
Using your left robotic arm to push you up further from the asteroid, you bring your right robotic arm back, readying it, and your Perfect Rock, for a throw. As you let fly, swinging your robotic arm forwards as fast as you dare, to keep from falling back against the asteroid, you feel a surge of excitement in your chest. The beautiful boulder tumbles gracefully, beautifully towards Dr. Cha0zz - it's exactly what you could've hoped, but for one thing: Dr. Cha0zz dodges it completely. And after all that work, too...
Dr. Cha0zz smiles slyly at you through his cockpit window, only faintly visible.
With a quick burst of your thrusters, you aim forwards, right at Dr. Cha0zz's ship, your brow furrowed in a grim determination you've never felt before. You will not die this day - and if you do, you're going to take Dr. Cha0zz with you.
Dr. Cha0zz's smile fades slightly... but you smile back as you pull the trigger of your railgun.
The shot is off-center - it grazes the top of Dr. Cha0zz's canopy, leaving a deep scar, and blows a hole straight through the top engine. Knowing he only has two, this will considerably lower his chances of survival... assuming you don't manage to nail him with your next shot. It'll be hard to miss now.
Taepilus
Spoiler: SHOW
Without further ado, you spin quickly towards Hema, readying your own microwave field manipulator as you do. It's then that you begin to feel a little warm - you realize Hema is probably trying to fry you with his microwave FM, but has failed. That's fine. You have one of your own, and it's time to use it.
Just then, something punches a hole in the front of your ship, and a jet of a whitish liquid or gas starts spraying out into space. What was that? What could it have been? That was kind of bizarre. You're sure it'll be okay though... hopefully.
"MICROWAVE FIELD MANIPULATOR: ARMED" your screens say. You hit the button as fast as you can - but nothing happens. Maybe you input the variables incorrectly - or maybe Hema's hull absorbed the extra heat. It's difficult to tell. What's not difficult to tell, though, is that Hema is diving towards you with his left pincer out, trying to rip your cockpit to bits. There's a loud crash and a scraping sound as he tries ineffectively to dig his claw through your cockpit canopy. It leaves a large scrape mark, but otherwise, you're fine.
At least, until another railgun round hits somewhere behind you - it sounds like it might've hit an engine.
Karthus
Spoiler: SHOW
Unlike before, you aren't anywhere close to where you wanted to be. Actually, you're pretty far off target, from the looks of it. Hema is still pretty far away, though you're closer to Dinosawer and Squidhead now. They seem to be fighting or something - it's kind of hard to tell. Regardless, your target right now is Hema. You line up a good shot on him and fire - but you're being a little lazy, and feeling a little rushed. All you really have to do is keep shooting 'til he's dead.
Total miss. Best two out of three, perhaps? You line up the sights again and pull the trigger a second time.
Another miss. Damn, why is it so hard to aim? You usually have lightning-quick reflexes. You jerk the controls a little to the left, trying to compensate quickly, and fire.
This one hits - but to your horror, it looks like you hit Taepilus dead on the nose. That can't be good. You let out a little thrust to change your aim, and then fire a fourth time. Hema's not dead yet, so you're not going to stop firing.
It's a miss. You make one final, rapid adjustment and pull the trigger, only thinking a little too late that you might have overshot -
- which you did. It's another round on Taepilus, on his engine. Not good at all. Even worse, there's a loud, clacking noise behind you, and your screens alert you that one of your engines is out. It's the lower one in the middle.
To make matters worse, you're so fixated on Hema that you don't see the purple fireball coming at you until it's too late. It hits you just in front of your cockpit. Even for a light graze, it deals a lot of damage - it completely rips the front of your casket open, leaving a huge, gaping hole with jagged red-hot edges. It might be merely structural, though - you might yet survive. You'd consider yourself lucky - it didn't even breach the cockpit.
Then again, it didn't need to. The only person that has a quantum cannon is Dinosawer, and he has an electrolaser too. Before you can even move, you feel a searing pain in your left arm just as the sole of your foot burns agonizingly. You look at your arm in surprise and horror and realize that Dinosawer's gotten you with his laser - and a pretty good shot. Your arm isn't severed, but it's seared halfway through - even through the suit. The pain is unbelievable, unlike anything you've experienced before in your life, and it's very, very real. You break into a lightning sweat as you try to keep from panicking, but the oxygen in your suit is leaving - and that's when you remember your cockpit is punctured. You're not going to make it out of this one.
As everything goes dark from lack of oxygen, you close your eyes and embrace death eagerly - as a means to an end of this agonizing pain Dinosawer has put you through.
"Deaths: 2," CHIARA says, and that's all you hear.
~~~
You slowly awaken in the VR chamber. After unhooking yourself from your PSI Chair, you look about the room. It's almost pitch black except for a screen at the end of the room opposite the door, and the console in the center. The screen flashes with different views of the battle going on within the minds of your platoonmates all around you, and you sit watching it for a moment.
You learned some things in there, at least.
((Tip: Never say "fire at someone until they're dead". As I'm unable to know from the start exactly how many shots it'll take to kill someone, I calculate it as five shots, which almost guarantees a miss unless you're at +4.))
Squidhead
Spoiler: SHOW
Then again, he's grinning at you. You anticipate what he's going to do (fire his blunderbuss at you from point-blank) and crouch down in its blind spot. It misses you completely, spraying a ton of clinking bits of metal out into space, clattering against his hull harmlessly. You jump back up into the slowly-spreading cloud of chaff and fire your lasgun at him - but it hits the chaff, which reflects the beam away harmlessly, as Dinosawer watches in amusement. Muttering under your breath, you press your lasgun directly against his window and fire - only to have his energy shield flicker with a golden-yellow glow.
Dinosawer's amusement deepens, just as he hits the accelerator, almost flinging you backwards off his ship as he accelerates into the cloud of chaff.
Scowling, you swing your way up to the back of his ship and get yourself in a tight spot, wedged between and around the weapons, so as to keep from coming loose. Dinosawer doesn't seem to anticipate this - his immediate tactic is to throw himself into a tight spin, around and around and around, in the chaff cloud. Meanwhile, you're quite peaceful in the relative safety of his weapon rack, snug between his quantum cannon and electrolaser.
After a little while, he seems to decide that you're gone, and sets about... doing... something. It's hard to tell, but you remain snug where you are, just in case, picking idly at his quantum cannon to see if you might get it free and shoot him in the face. It'd be really cool, right? Unfortunately... it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It's bolted down pretty securely - it might take a toolkit to get it off.
Dinosawer seems to be distracted with shooting Karthus... but... that might provide you an opportunity to go up there and shoot him in the face again.
Score:
Team 1: 2 kills
Team 2: 1 kill