Mutants & Masterminds: Mecha Mayhem - Chapter 3: Fateful Visits

[Justin OOC]

The end of the week came soon enough, and the Caballeros reveled in their freedom to fly again. a third of the squadron was in the air when A comm was recieved demanding that Pantheon prepare for guests. Almost immediately four signatures showed up on the Ark's sensors, lanuching from Pearl Harbor. One was a Troop Transport plane, the other three were unbelievable. They were mobile suits, each showing an active Fusion reactor at its core.

Almost Immediately Half of Skull and Raptor Squadrons joined The Caballerros in the air. A full battallion of ATAC's were present for the landing.

The order was given for Juliana to launch the Grungust.

All this, and Captain Ramius, and Ozma and the General all remained on the ground, ready to meet the President and his Escorts.

The First of the two preceding Gundams, which the Battle Computers logged as HeavyArms, was dark blue with teal and white accents. It bore huge seven barreled gatling cannons on it's back, and there were many missiles concealed in pods on it's legs and shoulders. It was a brutal opponent able to put out the samve volume of fire as an entire team of Valkyries.

The Second Gundam that touched down before the transport plane was the Aegis, a rare multi-form gundam. It was brilliant red with white highlights, and carried a large beam rifle at it's hip.

The pane landed Next, Followed by one of the more massive Gundams ever built. It was the GN-002 Virtue. Massive twinbarreld cannons framed it's shoulders, and the GN-Buster cannon it carried in its right hand was among the largest cannons not mounted in a Super robot.

The Pantheon mecha tensed, but then came to attention as Cthe Delegation watched President Roosevelt disembark the plane. With him was an middle-aged bearded man Identified as Admiral Sean Winters, Former Commander of the American Alliance's Fifth Fleet.

In a rare breach of Decorum, Captain Ramius did not salute. "President Roosevelt, Welcome to Pantheon City."

"Captain, I'm amazed by what you've done in so short a time."

The Admiral snorts. "Pantheon has nothing but the best Mr. President, they can do anything given the resources."

Ozma looked ready to splatter the Admiral Gundams be damned.

"To what do we owe this vist?"

"Well I did say when I agreed to this arrangement that I would come to visit my new Fighting Force. The Alliance forces have proved more than cabable in our battle against the Axis, despite them having the same access to technology."

He looks around. "Is there a place where we can discuss this privately? This is a matter of national security, and my allies tell me no cloak is impenetrable."

Captain Ramius nodded. "The Gundams will remain here. Their pilots may come with us, but The machines remain here. And Tieria Erde is not allowed within my ship. His abilities are well known to my people."

"That's not particularly trusting, Captain."

"I know these people far better than you could Mr. President."

He sighed and nodded, and the Aegis powered down as Athrun Zala, the raven haired pilot joined them. "Hello Murrue. It's been awhile."

(OOC those of you who are pilots can decide whether or not you're in the air, or still in the ship. Those in their mecha can hear the converstation with their sensors. The two remaining Gundams are brutally efficient fighters, easily capable of fighting Valkyires handily. They are Intimidating, especially the Virtue, its cannon one of the few weapons that's able to down a capital ship with a shot.))

[Jaime Lowery]

Conrad had felt the joy of flying freely, but when the visit took place, his duty took over. Noting the Gundams were exceptional nerve wracking. They were probably capable of wiping out the squadron should they suddenly attack, so he and the other Callaberos stayed wary.

He wasn't that focused on the conversation between the Americans and the officers of Pantheon, but he could note the tension in the air between those conversing. It heightened his worries.

[Rorx]

Gordon watched the Gundams landing and part of him wished they'd let the japanese continue their attack. If they'd known that the US were involved with the Alliance he felt the senior Officers would have been a lot more reluctant to aid the US fleet.

As it was all he could do was be vigilant in watching the Gundams, alert to any other vehicles approach and use the sensors to record the conversations for future listening when he wasn't so occupied.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Seraphine was in the bowels of the ARK, manning engineering, watching the unfolding events above on a multitude of monitors. There was a grimace on her pretty face as the sight of the Gundams, seeing them infuriated her. The American Alliance had been one of the two forces attacking the ARK during it's inaugural flight and it seemed profoundly unfair that they had arrived first in this primitive time, giving them a substantial headstart in establishing themselves.

"Omoi, keep a sharp eye on those Gundams."

She glared at the Virtue - given enough undisturbed time and free reign with material precurement, she could built something that would rip it to pieces. She was sure she could, and right now, she wanted to do nothing more.

A holographic window popped open on her MRH, visual measurements obtained from the Gundams appearing. Idly, with a small corner of her attention, Sera began adding notations for a new mecha.

[Juliana Daylena]

It was another day, and while she wasn't overjoyed with the situation at hand, she also wasn't too unhappy with it. So things had gotten a bit crazy, they'd been transported back in time, and been grounded for a while after having a bit of fun. It was time to get back into the grind, and when she launched the Grungust, it was with a certain measure of happiness to be back in action.

Of course, she wasn't sure she was going to be in action, it appeared to be that the goal here was going to be to avoid action. When the Gundam's appeared, she locked her targeting systems on the Virtue, they had better be polite, or she was going to be destructive. At the very least, she'd take out it's cannon if she could, but only if it attacked first.

Of course, it all depended on the Captain now, so she waited.

[Justin OOC]

Within the ship The captain lead the President to one of the secure briefing rooms.

They were in there for over four hours before Athrun and the President emerged, looking triumphant and then making for the plane and the Aegis.

Captain Ramius' voice came over the con. "All Pantheon units, return to the ship. Prepare for immediate redeployment."

The plane taxied to the runway then took off, and the three Gundams left in succession. The Aegis piloted by Athrun offered a mock salute before flying off to Oahu.

Over Fleet com The Captain addressed the Pantheon armed forces.

"Our Benefactor has ordered us to launch an attack on The Empire of Japan. We will be traveling alone, our tenders remaining here. To that end I'm leaving Commander OZma, and Archer here with the General. I'm leaving a third of our Valkyries and a Regiment of ATAC's to act as our Reserve along with out Tender ships. Your commanders will let you know who's coming."

"I don't like this mission as it will result in massive loss of modern life, but it's part of our contract."

The comm ended, and Ozma quickly found Roxanne. "You're going with the Captain, I figure someone needs to watch over her and your sister."

Commander Archer signaled Gordan over a private com. "You'll be in command of the three teams of Raptor going over. Bring our boys back safely Gordan."

The Caballero's were oddly quiet, they in general loved a good fight, but to pull off what they were being asked would mean super packs all around, which meant massive collateral damage, something they generally wanted to avoid.

Juliana was contacted by Murrue herself. "You will be coming with us, You and the Grungust are essential, They have the Blade Gainer."

[Jaime Lowery]

Conrad quickly searched for Cowboy. He didn't want to leave out the fight when his comrades would be doing so, but he despised having to hit civilians. Such was the price of war.

Once he found his squadron commander, he saluted. "Cowboy, who's coming from our squadron?"

[Justin OOC]

Cowboy nodded, though no one could see it. "We're all going, ALong with Half of Skull and Raptor Squadrons. I've been given command of the fighter wing."

[Jaime Lowery]

Conrad quickly counted and then swore in a low hissing voice. "That's nine teams of Valks. Either the Japanese have got their hands on their own advanced tech, or we've been effectively told to blast out the island, or most likely both. In any case, that's bad shit."

[Justin OOC]

"Super packs with Reflex warheads, two regiments of ATAC's and The Grungust, Conrad. This is shaping up to be an eco-friendly version of the nukes."

Cowboy was quite unhappy, and his voice showed it. "You and Buck Round up the Squadron. The Captain wants to speak to everyone privately." The private link winked out indicating he'd cut the connection.

[Rorx]

"Roger Commander, I'll do what I can."

Gordan immediately started checking on the pilots who would be going with them and the status of their mecha and their assigned armaments.

[Jaime Lowery]

Conrad nodded bitterly, then cut the com. He opened a general link to the Callabero squadron. "This is Whiskey One, boys. Cowboy wants us in the briefing room on the double. And heads up, all of us are going in on this mission."

After doing so, he set the mech back into the ship, landing it with finesse. Swearing again as he got out, Conrad waited for the group to collect and brush off before he led the Callabero squadron to the briefing room.

[Justin OOC]

Risky Savage was the first to get out of her plane and join him, soon followed by the rest. They all made it to the briefing room, which was almost full to capacity with all the pilots there. The Captain stood alone at the Podium infront of the big screen, waiting for everyone to arrive.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Seraphine was distressing sober when she heard the orders coming in, and had she the time, she would have been busy trying to remedy that fact. Pfft! The American Alliance is here already, yet we're the ones going in to annihilate their predecessors' enemies. They're planning something, something tricky. And now it'll more destruction by our - my - hand.

Sera strutted into the briefing, shoulders square and gait stiff, lips twisted into a scowl. Word had been getting around about how many casualties had been inflicted in the encounter with the Japanese and many of the pilots thought it was only natural for voluptuously gorgeous engineer to be there. The ones who knew her better saw the pain she was striving to hide.

She gave Cowboy a quick, discreet nod in passing, then sat down, legs crossed, expression cold, staring at a point on the wall just over the Captain's right shoulder.

[Roxanne]

Roxanne went straight to the briefing without delay or taking any excuses. She had some bumpy days with god knows how many physicals and the results were just the same - nothing. It must've been psychological but she refused to accept that.

She took her seat saluting to the Captain and tried to get her head into the game. There wasn't time for her personal problems - this was war. When she saw her sister and the 'mask' she was wearing she knew that things wouldn't get any easier - ever. The twins would always be in trouble in some way or another.

Need to talk to her after all this shit. I don't like where this is going and..., she hesitated to finish that thought as her eyes briefly wandered to her sister. Now is not the time or place.

Taking a deep breath Roxanne prepared herself for the briefing putting on a similar expression as her sister did - subconsciously.

[Juliana Daylena]

So, they had the BladeGainer, that would mean this could become rather interesting. Juliana wasn't entirely sure about this situation, it seemed likely that too many variables were involved.. but world war II fought with mechs, would be an entirely different war, in her view.

Still, she had her duty, to the crew and the captain, and they were the only one's left now, they were her brothers and sisters, her family. She nodded to the twins, as she mentally prepared herself for this comming battle.

[Justin OOC]

Everyone had gathered, and Captain Ramius stood before them all.

"We have been ordered to Destroy Japan, to literally burn it to the ground."

"As it stands, We have been provided hard intelligence that the Imperial Navy has at least a dozen more battleships with Future tech weapons, including the Yamato. The hulls of ten American Alliance ships are located throughout Japan, it seems they arrived eight months ago, with only fifty or so survivors between them. They were offline and easy pickings."

"In the European theater, Russia has six ships, Brittain has one, and Nazi Germany has nine. Currently all the ships don't function in the sky, and are hardly crewed, but have all other capabilities."

"Our American allies have two functional ships, The Khandahar, and the Trident. The Khandahar guards the West Coast, and currently the Trident is defending Great Britain. each has about 50% of their crews."

"It would seem that we're the last to arrive, as all other units in play have been here at least six months."

"We're to assault Japan, we know they haven't gotten the smaller mechs online, but somehow, One of our Wayward Super Robot series ended up in Tokyo."

"We were given this footage fromt he Phillipines." The vidscreen shows the black and grey Blade Gainer annihilating the American and Phillipine forces using Blasts generated by it's Plasma drive, and slicing throught tanks like butter, often four at a time."

"I have my own plan, but right now I want to hear your thoughts. I'm not happy about what I'm ordered to do here. Anyone who wishes to speak, do so now."

[Rorx]

Gordan looked around, but seeing no-one else eager to ask a question reluctantly continued, "Sir, is that the total of both Alliance and Dominion ships that came through, or just the Alliance ones?"

If there were an unknown number of Dominon ships as well then the Ark and it's few damaged Tenders were going to be in trouble here without a doubt.

[Justin OOC]

"Those are confirmed Alliance ships. We know there are at least 4 Dominion ships in Russia, because about forty Bartolls have showed up between the Eastern and Western fronts of Russia. I have no other data on them."

[Roxanne]

"Sir? Did you say destroy Japan? Do we have any viable data on how this will affect the course of time? Aren't we taking too much risk? I know we are at war but...", Roxanne was struggling for words. She would have to follow her orders but... but this felt wrong.

Can't you shut your mouth?, Roxanne cursed at herself.

[Justin OOC]

"Our Orders are to destroy Japan." Ozma spoke for the Captain. "not their warmaking capability, but Japan itself. That will drastically alter the flow of events for this reality, but it's pretty much accepted that we will not adversely affect ourselves. If We were going to cause a paradox, it would have already happened, we Killed some important people at Midway. People that weren't supposed to die."

[Rorx]

Gordan shakes his head slowly before speaking, "Does our agreement with the US here really mean they can tell us to commit genocide?"

[Justin OOC]

"They Can tell us, but it's our discretion to follow it. Though disbeying would constitute forefeiture of out base here."

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

"You realize, Captain, considering the Future-tech armaments on several of those primitive vessels, either some of the American Alliance crewmen are being pressed into service... Or they have defected, making allies of their own." Seraphine's gaze shifted slightly so she was staring Captain Ramius straight in the eyes. "This seems like an overwhelming response for some mutineers."

Seraphine stood up and began pacing, breasts bouncing heavily with her brisk movements. "I will tell you this Captain, I will not be a party to genocide. I have been reading the history logs, and found out that the Japanese Empire was ended as a threat after the American Empire annihilated two of their cities. Wouldn't this be a more measured response?"

Her tight lips said quite clearly, that she thought this was still too extreme, but she was willing to compromise that far, despite what it would do to her self-worth. "Failing that, we could just... leave. We destroyed an enemy fleet and spared theirs. We can scavenge Pan City for what materials we can and see if there is another country willing to hire us for pure defense in return for some land and space, giving us time to recuperate. The Americans are already on a multi-front war, attacking would be far to risky and cost inefficient."

[Jaime Lowery]

Conrad shook his head in frustration. This he did not want to do but... "Chief Engineer," he interjected, "we don't have a fucking choice. I'm with you, but we don't have a choice. One, the US expects the whole way through, or nothing. Second, where do we head for? It's called World War Two for a reason."

His lips tightened too as he laid out unpalatable facts. "Britain? Too closely with the US to let us in if we scoot off. Soviet Russia? I'm sure you'd love them." he added sarcastically.

"For the same reason, and the fact that we attacked their member, the Axis is no go. Unless the US realizes at the last hour that such a move they want us to make invites similar reprisals, we may just have to go through with it."

[Justin OOC]

"Can't we just nuke two cities and see where that leads? Hell that might make them surrender and we'd likely just need two of reflex armed Decamissiles." Risky saved piped up. "I don't think anyone here wants to destroy an entire nation of civilians, but those cities were doomed anyway, maybe that will be enough again."

The Captain said nothing as the others spoke allowing ideas to be bandied about.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Seraphine gave Risky a reticent nod, then focused her attention back on the Captain. "As much as it pains me, I agree with Risky. Two cities is better than an entire." The admission came hard, but firmly.

[Roxanne]

Roxanne sighed nervously and nodded. "I'm sure they'll surrender as soon as they realize what we are capable of. Can't we at least give them a chance to? Every other option is morally very questionable, Sir"

[Jaime Lowery]

Conrad sighed as well, but for different reasons. "There's such a thing as the law of retaliation in war. If we nuke them in any way, the Axis will have the go-ahead to strike back. And the reason that the US did bomb by surprise in the first place, is because the risk that Japan might not be cowed by a demonstration was suspected."

A pause.

"Fuck it, two cities, I guess."

[Justin OOC]

"I think the most pertinent thing is this. "Do we ask them to surrender or else we do this.?"

Buck looked over the rest. "We can irradiate the hole Island, if we really wanted and the ship can manage it, we get into space and then use the Gottfreids, Valiants, and the MAC's. We wouldn't even need the Lohenghrin."

When put like that, it was unassailable. Attacking from Space was the safest, if the ship could manage it.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

The gorgeous engineer, with a figure that was almost impossible without extensive genetic manipulation, gave Buck a sharp smile that should have had him bleeding from his pores. "Bombing from space. What an excellent idea! Why didn't I think of that? Silly me! Omoikane, would you be a dear, and place the ARK in a geosynchronous orbit over Japan?"

Seraphine threw back her shoulders, making more than one man shift despite the severity of what was being discussed, and looked up at the ceiling expectantly. Omoikane's carefully modulated feminine tones broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, Chief Engineer Devereaux, but my systems have be compromised too extensively to fulfill your request. If-"

"Thanks, Omoi, that's all I need." Sera flashed her devastating, annoyed smile at Buck again. "With a week and the appropriate resources, I could have the ARK space-worthy again. With what we're actually getting, it'll be over a decade before I get the ARK out among the stars."

Seraphine cast her glimmering blue eyed stare scathing aroung the room. "Do you think our illustrious employers want to wait that long, or give us what we actually need?"

[Justin OOC]

"No they won't." Captain Ramius looks around the room. "we're in the same scenario we were before we left our time."

She looks at the gathered personnel. "Our first and foremost mission at this point is a simple one. "Find the enemy ships that came through with us and erradicate all of our futuretech, or capture it for our own usage."

My plan flyies in direct violation of our orders. We will go to Japan, to capture or destroy any and all ships and mecha of our time, but we will largely leave the civilian poulations untouched. We will do this in Russia and Europe as well. In the Mean time, OZma and his team will strike out from here and take on the future forces in America. Our tender ships and their drones, combined with the ATAC's and Valkyries should be enough t handle up to ten gundams, considering we have a fairly accurate list of what to expect. We will use Nemesis arrays to Keep Japan silent while we move on."

She looks at the others. "We will take the resources we need when avalable and it is my goal that we continue on with our original mission."

[Rorx]

Gordan breathed a sigh of relief, he'd rather take on all the future forces left on the planet than to deliberately commit genocide.

"Presumably Captain that includes jumping out to another system? In which case what are the chance of being able to fix the new drive?" He needs up looking towards the Chief.

[Juliana Daylena]

She would have argued against genocide herself, but when the others made their points, she stayed silent, waiting to hear what the captain had to say. "Captain, it occurs to me, I can't believe the American's actually believe we'd commit an act of genocide. Might they anticipate us doing something contrary to their orders?"

[Justin OOC]

Cowboy smiled. "IF they have any braincells yeah. Point is unless they commit Futuretech against us,We can handle anything they throw our way. Our Tenders are are three Nemesis Cruisers with bull battle arrays and loadouts. Add the Mecha remaining and they should be fine."

"We'll be salvaging as much futuretech as possible along the way, we can canabalize and feed the ships we find to the fabricators to make what we need."

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Seraphine flashed Captain Ramius a wide, grateful smile, and had the Captain been inclined that way, would have made her melt through the floor. With the weight of genocide or annihilated cities off her slender shoulders, Sera was almost giddy, and the others were suddenly reminded that despite earning her position as Chief Engineer, she was only just over twenty years old.

"That's a plan I can agree with in good conscience, Captain. Thank-you. As for the Warp Drive," Seraphine said, aiming her dramatic profile Gordan's way, "With what we have now, I got, maybe, a two percent chance of getting it working and the bitch wouldn't be pretty. Salvage me enough of the right FutureTech parts and material, and we'll sailing among the stars, I promise you."

[Roxanne]

Roxanne relaxed visibly, "That's the first thing making sense I've heard today. So how are we going to set this up? We should consider a counter-attack and keep some forces for an emergency in reserve. Who knows what other resources they've obtained by now. Even with our superior technology we shouldn't underestimate our enemy."

[Justin OOC]

"We won't be underestimating them, it's going to take alot to pull this off, and look like we're doing what we're supposed to do. We're going to attack the primary anchorage at Harashijishima. We're gonna let fly with everything save the MAC's hopefully sinking what's left of their fleet. Then we move in with Mecha to fight whatever they have left. "Juliana, you're primary concern is the Blade Gainer. If it shows up, bring it down. Everyone else destroy their warmaking capability."

[Roxanne]

"In that case I suggest doing some reconaissance the old fashioned way. If futuretech is involved they may have some means to block our radar and scanners and I wouldn't want to step into a trap. Better safe than sorry, Sir."

[Rorx]

"Hmm, a visual recon flight? Not done one of those in a while." Gordon looks around at the other pilots in the room, "We going to draw straws to see who gets to go?"