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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Jan 13, 2012 1:21:07 GMT -5
Amidst a fantastic display of ten swirling metal orbs sat a lone Fanton mobile suit within the arena floor. Joshua was testing his bits ahead of the battle - trying to get familiar with the maneuvering characteristics of his new weapons so as to learn as much as possible ahead of the battle to come. In the center of the writhing mass of simple metal balls his Fanton stood at a ready position - spear in hand and planted into the hard-packed dirt at his feet awaiting the arrival of his opponent.
Once, finally, his sensors registered the approach of his enemy, Joshua promptly recalled his bits. Then, he just waited for the other guy to make his opening move.
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Post by Droid on Jan 13, 2012 1:32:45 GMT -5
The large gates leading from his mobile suit ready room to the arena opened and Cypher's Genoace boosted out onto the sandy grounds in time to see the last of his opponent's solid bits recalled. "Another bit user it seems..." The droid observed as he walked his unit out to the middle of the arena field while giving his opponent a respectful nod. A memory from some time ago was recalled to his central CPU of a time when he piloted a similarly modded unit.
Placing his hands onto the handles of the beam pistols docked on his rear skirt armor, Cypher looked sharply up at the opponent's Fanton, giving him a confirming nod that he was ready to begin.
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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Jan 13, 2012 1:38:08 GMT -5
Sadly, the Fanton lacked the capacity to return the respectful nod lest it dig its chin into the ground. Nonetheless, Joshua wished his opponent well before taking a moment to sigh and focus his breathing. Two bits then were released - going straight up and having no intentions of coming down from the ceiling anytime soon due to lack of orders to do so. The rest of the Fanton adopted a defensive posture before it brought the smooth bore cannon around to bear on the target.
Cross-hairs spat lazily over the enemy's right arm - Joshua fired and awaited the reaction.
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Post by Droid on Jan 13, 2012 1:47:02 GMT -5
Cypher had fought Fantons before and the moment he heard the all too familiar 'kachunk' of a round clicking into place in the barrel of the enemy's smooth bore cannon. The moment he saw the flash of the cannon barrel, Cypher pushed his mobile suit into a leftward boost dodge and continued to use his momentum to begin a clockwise orbit around his opponent, quickly scanning for any exposed areas or weak points he could exploit.
Quickly finding one near the base of the Fanton's booster pack, Cypher pulled both his beam pistols out and around, pointing them both at the small exposed area before pulling the triggers and sending twin bolts of green energy at his desired mark.
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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Jan 13, 2012 2:08:13 GMT -5
Joshua probably should have been, well, shocked or something as the Genoace made its way around for an attempt to strike at his back. But - really now. He was controlling a walking tank with a main cannon nearly as long as it was tall and boasting more armor than a skyscraper had mass. It would take some serious fortitude for a pilot to rush in close with the Fanton while it brandished that nice, fancy spear.
And so, from the beginning, Joshua had expected the faster enemy to use his speed to his advantage. But Joshua had an advantage unique to the Fanton among its Tier 1 peers - the upper torso was capable of independent rotation. Meaning, once the enemy Genoace had stopped moving Joshua was already initiating his counter-strategy: whipping the upper torso in a 180-degree turn so it could come about and face the enemy while bringing its smooth bore cannon back into firing position.
The pistols hammered deep gouges into the flank armor plates of the upper torso - but failed to damage their intended target. Joshua's response came in two stages. The first was the predictable ka-chunk of a new round being loaded into the smooth bore before it fired dead-center on the Genoace's torso. Joshua had low expectations of this hitting however - which brought up the subject of the second stage of the attack.
The two solid bits launched earlier? They now received descent orders -after- the firing of the Fanton's second shell. The objective was predictably simple since it was obvious that in the time it would take the Fanton's torso to swing the Genoace would likely be moving already. The objective was to swing down on its shoulders like the Fist of God (**trademark pending**) while Cypher's attention was on his cannon and not on his bits. They would not do much in the way of damage - but if the Genoace ducked the shell at any speed greater than a tip-toe the sudden force of impact would knock it face-first into the dirt - thrusters or no.
And if that happened, the next ka-chunk of Joshua's cannon would have lethal implications for Cypher. But that was on the assumption things worked out as planned. This was a test of the enemy's reflexes rather than an intended check-mate. Now Joshua just sat back and waited for the outcome while reloading his cannon.
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Post by Droid on Jan 13, 2012 2:31:21 GMT -5
Cypher was slightly surprised when the opponent's Fanton swiveled at the waist to face him before being brought back to his senses by the sound of another round being loaded into the barrel of the enemy's cannon.
Boosting toward the round, Cypher waited till the last possible second to spin-juke to the side and continue forward towards the enemy mobile suit while docking his left hand beam pistol and drawing one of his beamsabers to slash at the Fanton's cannon in an attempt to sever it in half.
However, a round object impacted with the ground hard behind Cypher's Genoace while the other managed to impact with his left shield, causing a major dent to deface his solid plate shield. This threw his spin off a bit which caused his saber slash to be redirected towards the enemy's left arm instead.
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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Jan 13, 2012 2:46:16 GMT -5
"Acceptable reflexes, for a Human." Joshua quipped as he saw the Genoace leap at him. But Joshua was prepared for such an eventuality - it was a classic response to the no-win scenario. When asking for help developing this Mobile Suit Joshua had accepted that his slow speed was a decisive weakness that, at some point or another, his enemies would play against him. Granted he had not thought it a card to be played so soon but the reality was there was indeed a Genoace doing the bulltrue thing right in front of him.
"Altering response to Tactical Plan Charlie-111." The young pilot prattled on as he shifted gears in response - taking his Fanton spear out of its defensive position and quickly stabbing it into the ground in front of the Genoace's feet while dropping the Fanton onto its right knee. This caused the entire Mobile Suit to shift its mass to the right, out of line with the saber slice from the Genoace. Doubling-down on the insurance policy against getting cut, Joshua pushed up with his lance from underneath the extended arm of the enemy, sweeping upwards so as to deflect the saber slice even further into empty air to the left of the Fanton's arm.
Ka-chunk was the response as the Fanton's smooth bore cannon squealed with delight as it acquired a firing solution on the right foot of the Genoace (which was practically touching it at this range) - and fired. At this range, even if it missed, shrapnel damage would likely deliver heavy damage to limb and cannon alike.
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Post by Droid on Jan 13, 2012 3:23:41 GMT -5
Seeing the opponent's Fanton duck low, Cypher quickly docked his beamsaber and made a quick grab for his enemy's top mounted exhaust pipe before doing what he has done to so many Fantons before this one. He swung his right leg over and straddled his enemy's flat top and backside.
Unfortunately this came at a small price. The enemy mobile suit managed to get another round fired from his bore cannon causing a sizable explosion to erupt. The shrapnel and debris tore into the enemy's head as well as into Cypher's left leg and foot, putting it's damage readout into orange status.
Cursing to himself a bit, Cypher produced one of his throwing knives from its holder and with a swift motion, plunged the blade into the open port of the exhaust pipe he used to aid in his riding the enemy like a rodeo pony.
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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Jan 13, 2012 3:55:29 GMT -5
Joshua just gaped at the audacity of his opponent trying to ride his Fanton like it was a horse. Sure, he'd laugh about it later - but for now Joshua was irate at the thought of being ridden like a rodeo pony. Given he had no way to stop a fall as a result of the enemy's weight on his shoulders while his legs were inverted - Joshua had plenty of time to ponder the bad situation he was in. A smoke cloud kicked up by his own cannon had blinded him - which allowed his enemy to perform said mounting.
Then, to add insult to injury the enemy had plunged a knife into his exhaust pipe on top of the mobile suit. The cannon barrel was also heavily damaged and useless to him now. But as bad as all this was Joshua realized one simple, overriding truth - if he wanted to turn this around he had about five seconds to get the enemy Genoace to lay flat on its face. Reacting mostly out of instinct - Joshua stabbed his spear into the ground as they fell while ejecting the cannon - this allowing the Fanton to fall flat on its face thanks to pivoting from the spear.
This way, once both suits hit the ground the Genoace riding his back would have no choice but to either hit the ground face-first too or just lean forward on his arms. Either way Joshua let the spear go as he stabbed both arms forwards towards the Genoace's back after pushing up off the ground. Shortly thereafter - he hit his thrusters at full burn. Slowly the Fanton came up to speed above and behind the Genoace's back as Joshua tried an instinctive gambit:
If this worked as he intended - what Joshua aimed to do was to move forward with his thrusters while shoving the Genoace's face and torso straight into the ground from behind. Then, he'd just let his thrusters burn while the arena floor ground away the delicate cannon and joint connections of his enemy's suit. If he was lucky - he'd take out the cannon and deal some armor damage. If not, he'd at least buy some time to get to his feet. Either way - he just knew he had to try and keep the Genoace from turning around on him again.
Without his cannon he was at a big disadvantage in a gun battle. He had to keep this battle up close and maintain his better positioning.
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Post by Droid on Jan 13, 2012 5:19:06 GMT -5
Cypher's Genoace lurched forward a bit when the enemy mobile suit beneath him buckled and collapsed under the sudden addition of his mobile suit's weight.
Catching himself to prevent his unit from toppling off the front of his enemy, Cypher noticed that he began to slide forward when the Fanton began efforts to get itself up. Deciding to go along with it, Cypher swiveled his legs in front of him so that when the incline was steep enough, Cypher's feet would hit the ground and he could then start to run away while the enemy Fanton pulled its face out of the ground.
However, the enemy began to thrust forward, grinding it's own face along the ground while attempting to keep Cypher on his backside.
Since the pipe Cypher used to get up on the Fanton snapped off the moment Cypher lurched forward, there was a slightly larger hole in its place. Grabbing one of his grenades from the hip mounted container, Cypher primed it before reaching up and placing it over the exhaust hole. But there was a problem, the grenade was still a bit to big to just fit in and fall down into the opponent's mobile suit. That and his shoulder mounted beam cannon was alerting him to a potential critical overload.
Rerouting all the stored power from his cannon to his thrusters, Cypher managed to vertically launch himself off the backside of his reckless opponent and into the air for a moment before his over charged thrusters depleted the additional energy, causing him to slowly 'hover' down to the ground.
Realizing he still had the grenade, Cypher threw the hand held explosive slightly ahead of the Fanton speeding away from him, right in the path Cypher would assume it would continue traveling in.
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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Jan 13, 2012 5:43:32 GMT -5
The moment he felt the huge thruster burn from his opponent clear him from on top of his Fanton Joshua realized that his plan had failed. But, it was enough to get him back on his feet so he killed his thrusters and began as tight a turn as he could manage. This, however, had the side effect of turning him into the path of the grenade thrown ahead of him. Luckily, his arm armor absorbed the impact - and since he dropped his spear already he didn't get it damaged either.
The Fanton glided to a rest near its spear, bending down to pick it up as the Genoace was making its landing as well. As the Genoace touched ground, Joshua recovered his two fallen bits launched earlier while sending out the remaining eight. They began spreading out in order to cover the width of the arena while Joshua began recalculating the situation. It was true that the Genoace was much better armed - but that damage to its leg meant that it was not going to out run him any more.
It was still lighter, still more mobile - but if it wanted to run it was going to do it with its thrusters. And that it could only do for so long before the stress on the damaged leg caused it to malfunction. So for Joshua - the question was how to best marshall his resources in order to put too much stress on that right leg. He took up a defensive posture again, this time letting Cypher take the initiative back. No point trying another reckless charge if he didn't have to.
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Post by Droid on Jan 28, 2012 17:51:13 GMT -5
Beginning to charge his beam cannon again, Cypher deployed all twenty of his machine gun bits to form up in groups of 5 and each group to do its own orbit around him before drawing his twin beam pistols. This fight was gonna be a challenge and he knew it. The enemy was well armored and dangerous up close. He was going to have to do his best to keep his distance wile trying to punch a hole in the enemy's armor with which he could bypass his defenses.
Holding his ground, Cypher began to fire his beam pistols and his shoulder mounted Vulcan cannons at the opposing Fanton in an attempt to bait it into action. He also commanded one of his groupings of bits to rush the enemy and to begin a loose, evasive orbit around him while laying heavy fire to various points on the slightly damaged opponent.
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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Jan 29, 2012 4:14:19 GMT -5
Before Cypher launched his assault, Joshua looked at the bits that were released with a mixture of surprise and... glee. That's right - he was glad to see his enemy had bits. All that running, gunning, and stabbing crap earlier? Not Joshua's strong suit, forgiving the pun. But using bits was a mental endeavor - reflexes didn't matter nearly as much as concentration. It was a style of warfare much more suited to Joshua's strengths.
But all that being said - enemy bit-users were the worst possible opponent to face with a Fanton. It wasn't built for that kind of maneuvering. So from the get-go Joshua knew this fight had just switched from a duel to something more akin to a boxing match. He would have to place his faith in his Fanton's armor whilst he did exactly what he was best at: utilizing remote weaponry. He sighed, moving his spear into a defensive stance as the Genoace brought its beam pistol's up.
"Pattern Alpha acknowledged, switching to Plan Delta 3." He rattled off as Joshua quickly utilized the Fanton's thrusters to sidestep out of the path of the beams whilst paying only token attention to the bits and vulcans heading his way. He was otherwise preoccupied programming commands - and moments later his own bits changed course and split into three groups heading in different directions on their approach towards Cypher. The counter-attack was fairly predictable but nonetheless potent.
Pretty much assuming the defensive ring of machinegun bits orbiting the Genoace was intended to use them as an omni-directional gun battery to punish any attempt to approach the Genoace with a shitstorm of bullets Joshua employed the classic counter-strategy. He was going to overwhelm Cypher's ability to multi-task by giving him multiple issues to deal with in a very short span of time. He was going to offer not only himself as bait - but he'd throw up two additional ruses to disguise the real attack; which itself was going to come in triplicate. Sure, he'd lose some bits probably - but Joshua was throwing the full weight of his tactical ability behind this effort.
Kind of had to - he didn't have any other cards to play.
He began by splitting his eight deployed bits into two groups of three and one of two. The groups of three flew low to the ground - and the group of two? Went high. The two groups going low spread out, sweeping around for an obvious flanking maneuver. In so doing two took the lead while the third trailed behind - intentionally obscuring itself in the dust trail kicked up by the first two. The two going up high were hopefully unnoticed, as they were supposed to fly behind the Genoace before dropping down.
Now if the plan worked as intended Cypher would be unaware of the two bits approaching from behind - being busy shooting at the six flanking bits as well as pouring ammo into Joshua's Fanton. For that was the entire point - commit to the flanking attacks and force a response from three directions first - blinding him to the forth threat from behind. But even if Cypher didn't buy the ruse the end was still the same. From each flanking group the third bit would attempt to line itself up with the Genoace's damaged left leg before bolting out of its dusty cover. The two approaching from behind aimed at the left knee just like they were missiles.
These were not feints - all eight bits were intended to try and crush some part of the Genoace's left leg. The point was to try and get Cypher's attention focused only on the four flanking bits so he'd try and destroy them versus engage all eight straight away. However, even if Cypher saw through the dust, tracked the airborne bits, and managed to keep track of his bits he had to have a limit to his multi-tasking. Seeing through the entire ruse would be impressive enough - stopping his attack on the Fanton, redirecting his bits, and calculating each of his bits eight vectors of approach in time to destroy them all with his own bits would be a Herculean feat even Joshua couldn't attempt in his wildest dreams. And mind you - he was pretty damn good with the things.
Still, in the end Joshua could only watch and pray while bullets ripped into the armor of the Fanton. His HUD lit up with warnings of armor damage escalating - if this didn't work Joshua was going to be in for a serious problem soon.
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Post by Droid on Feb 2, 2012 18:35:48 GMT -5
It was hard to miss the large dust clouds being kicked up on either side of his Genoace. "Bits..." Cypher observed as he dispatched two of the three remaining clusters of bits orbiting him. Five machine gun bits flew to his left while another five darted off to his right. Both groups sent to intercept and destroy the clusters sent at him.
Choosing not to stick around in that area, Cypher began to hop-step his way around the Fanton, using his boosters to make sure he didn't put too much stress on his left leg. Recalling the first group of bits he sent to attack the Fanton earlier, Cypher now had two squads of five bits orbiting him while he continued to open fire with his beam pistols and Vulcans. Cypher knew that all the enemy had left was its bits and spear. As long as he stayed moving and didn't get too close to the enemy, he might possibly win this.
Looking at his various read-outs, he found that his beam cannon was almost charged and ready to fire.
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Post by dudewheresmygundam on Feb 16, 2012 0:00:44 GMT -5
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