Qualifying Match: Red Arrow vs. Darktide

[The Great MM]

Qualifying Match for Robotica Championship 4-Way Match

Red Arrow vs. Darktide

Ref: Me Again

Post Intros!

[The Merry Lambfish]

A beam of light, and the slim form of Red Arrow came crashing down into the forest. The machines optics scanned the environment around him, and Robert smiled, an act that wasn't repeated on the larger machine, given the shape of its head.

A forest. Roberts favorite hunting ground. He knew he was up against a huge, heavily armed and armoured juggernaut of a mech, but he didn't care. This fight was going to be fun...

The crystal blade on Red Arrow's head's tail-like appendage retracted downwards, and the tip opened to release four sniper bots that quickly acceded to the atmosphere. Following them came dozens of builder bots, which quickly began to navigate through the trees, preparing to set up pre-programmed traps.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(OCC: Which forest sub-type will this be?)

[The Great MM]

First.

[Omegarex24]

Ben found himself in one of Ujiak's forested regions, specifically, one that mimiced a giant rainforest. He'd seen battles take place in areas like this back home. Monsters had to wade through trees just to hit each other. But then again, he could fly. He would worry about that later. Right now, his competitor stood before him. Red Arrow was unlike many of the other machines in this fight. It was gangly in appearance and looked like it might topple over from a strong hit. But Ben wouldn't go easy on the other pilot just because his mech looked weak.

"Let's get this over with. I've got a Nazi to kill."

[The Great MM]

FIGHT!

[The Merry Lambfish]

As the UCA announced the beginning of the match, both mechs acted at the same time. Red Arrow's right hand flashed towards his bow, pulling the energized drawstring as a metallic Armor Piercing Arrow materialized in between his fingertips. As the lanky mech took aim, Darktide's open jaws began to glow as the Hyper Nova Cannon hummed to life. Both projectiles launched from their respective owner at the same time. Propelled by both the force of the drawstring and the high-speed rockets the arrow itself carried, the Armor Piercing Arrow passed under the oncoming beam. It's dense body slammed into the hull of Darktide's neck, directly underneath the left hinge point of the jaw. The weapon's sheer force warped and cracked the area around the impact, as the sharp point tore a twisted, gaping hole into the neck, a hole that took up nearly 1/3 of the neck's width, and 1/2 it's height.

At the same time, Darktide's beam exploded against Red Arrow's chest in a shower of sparks and smoke. Shrapnel rained down onto the trees. Stumbling backwards, Red Arrow caught its balance by planting its two feet wide apart. Plasmic fire erupted from its back as the jetpack roared to life, and in a flash, Red Arrow was airborne, speeding over Darktide's head before the larger mech could retaliate with its cannons. Looping about to face Darktide's back, Red Arrow's jets shut down as the smaller machine landed on its opponent's back. Pulling back his right arm, Red Arrow punched out with the heavy mace gantlet, his hydraulics of his extendable limb feature activating to gift the blow with immense force. Darktide's head jerked forward as the edge of the mace gantlet smashed into the back of its head, pulverizing the NXT sheathe around the back of the head and neck and creating a large depression in that area, sections of the impact point penetrated by the mace's spikes, showing internal mechanism's to the world.

As fast as he had preformed the attack, Red Arrow slid off, but not before his mechanical tentacle atop his head plunged its crystal blade into the base of Darktide's neck from behind. Sharper than diamond, the blade was able to penetrate the NXT armor, and with a vicious swipe of the tentacle appendage, the blade carved a deep cut down Darktide's back, where the spine of an organic creature would be located. Internal circuitry was exposed by the long and deep cut, and as Darktide wheeled about to slash at Red Arrow with the plasma cutter, the agile mech ducked low to the ground, his leg sticking out. The mech prepared to deliver a spinning kick, aiming to trip Darktide off its feet and break more of the NXT armor with the impact...

[Omegarex24]

But it was all a feint from Ben. He could already tell from the rapid assault that Red Arrow was quick. And so, as the lithe mech dropped and prepared to kick, Ben threw Darktide to the side, simultaneously avoiding the kick and bringing the Harmonics Disruptor to bear. Because, while Red Arrow was busy perforating his machine, Ben had been busy scanning it. And now, the fruits of his labor erupted in a blast of sound waves, which washed over Red Arrow. Cracks and fissures opened up along the machine's font end as its armor was torn asunder in places, literally shaking itself apart.

But Red Arrow was undeterred, as it whipped its head around, the lethal bladed tip slicing across Darktide's torso, the NXT offering zero resistance. But, Ben noticed that Red Arrow hadn't shifted its stance and took the opportunity to fire the MAC-3. The high speed shell thundered upon exiting the barrel before exploding against the lanky machine's shoulder, shredding armor and circuitry while the force of the impact threw Red Arrow back to the ground, leveling a decent chunk of forest in the process.

Ben took the opportunity to stand, firing on Red Arrow with the Hyper Nova again as he did so, the heavy particle beam leaving a trail of melted slag across Red Arrow in the process. There was no room for chivalry and honor in this fight, as Ben leveled the Ion Linear Cannon at Red Arrow, the tip glowing as streams of energized particles entered through the intake vents.

"Sayonara."

[The Merry Lambfish]

As the weapon charged, the smaller mech raised its right arm, as if in a weak attempt to block the soon-to-be-fired weapon. Yet, just as the barrel flashed as the powerful beam prepared to exit, Red Arrow's shadow mirror activated, and the mech disappeared from view. The white beam bounced right off the protective force field, shattering Darktide's chest armor upon impact. The larger mech stumbled backwards as it's scanner's searched for the invisible Red Arrow.

They found it easily enough. Even without the aid of its many sensors, Red Arrow position was given away by all the trees snapping as the mech backed away from Darktide, still hidden behind the shadow mirror. It's jetpack activating, Red Arrow suddenly lifted off the ground. The smaller mech began to charge towards Darktide, it's force field held up like a battering ram. Reaching top speed, Red Arrow slammed into Darktide's torso, pulverizing the NTX shield the force field connected with and creating a large impression into the armor underneath. As Ben's mech toppled from the blow, Red Arrow's shadow mirror disappeared, revealing the mech to the naked eye. Raising its mace gantlet back, Red Arrow struck down at the damaged chest, the extendable limb propelling the heavy mace into the weakened armor. Upon impact, the hull caved in on itself, revealing exposed circuitry. Before the machine could land a second strike, Darktide's Hyper Nova Cannon seared over its chest, prompting Red Arrow to leap off.

Spinning about, Red Arrow dropped to its knees, whipping out it's bow as it did. A powerful blast arrow materialized into the energized drawstring, and with a swift aim, the machine fired. The blast arrow rocketed towards the damaged chest area...

[Omegarex24]

The arrow flew true, as Robert knew it would. But as it flew towards its target, Ben raised one of his arms and the arrow subsequently exploded against the rippling barrier of force. Darktide rocked slightly from the explosion, but Ben quickly retaliated by firing the MAC-3 at Red Arrow's torso, the projectile traveling faster than Robert could react as the slug slammed into the lithe machine's torso, stripping armor and circuitry away, leaving the edges of the wound smoldering, while the force of the impact sent Red Arrow tumbling away, smashing through more trees in the process.

By now, several dozen meters of trees had been demolished in their short battle here. And Red Arrow was too big to hide properly out here. So, with that in mind, Ben hit the thrusters as Darktide rose into the air before promptly disappearing from view, thanks to his own cloaking systems. As Red Arrow struggled to rise, a volley of missiles slammed into the mech from behind, splintering more armor damaged by the Harmonics Disruptor. Smoke and fire erupted from the back of Red Arrow as the machine was launched forward into the dirt. However, Robert, being the sort of individual he was, turned the blow into a roll as he quickly got back up and fired off an arrow at Darktide, the tip hitting him in the side as blowing Darktide to the side. But Ben quickly recovered instead of hitting the ground and returned fire with a blast from the Hyper Nova, the crimson particle beam slicing through several trees before catching Red Arrow across the chest.

With smoke rising from the smoldering and warped sections of Red Arrow's armor, Ben returned to the skies and prepared to rain down another volley of missiles, all the while prepped to block shots with his Barrier Fields...

[The Merry Lambfish]

As the missile launched towards Red Arrow, the smaller mech was transmitting a signal. The incoming projectiles exploded against its armor, but only seconds after impact, Darktide suddenly found itself under attack as well! The sniper-bots, miles above the combatants, had rained down a volley of three kaiju-sized sniper rounds onto Darktide at its opponent's command. Each bullet tore into the right forearm, creating three twisted holes, resulting in the forearm of Darktide being reduced to something that looked like it came out of a dump. The barrier field fell for a brief moment, but that was all the time Red Arrow needed. The mechanical tentacle whipped arced over the lean mech like a scorpion's tail, and a thin blue beam erupted from the sharp crystal at its tip. The freezer weapon blurred past the defences of Ben's mech, and struck the center of the its chest, freezing the chest plating there and making the armor dangerously brittle. But to Robert's surprise, as the beam struck the core of the mech, a strange sort of power fluctuation took over his larger opponent.

Interesting.

Red Arrow leaped forward before Darktide could react, its powerful mace gauntlet smashing into the frozen chest plating with the help of the hydraulics from the extendable limb. The armor plating shattered at the heavy blow, pulverized into shards and exposing a great deal of the innards of Darktide's chest region. Red Arrow's right hand, tipped with sharp claws, dug into the large wound, seeking to tear out circuitry and mechanisms within...

[Omegarex24]

"Warning.Power fluctuation detected. Re-booting system."

"Damn it," Ben cursed under his breath as he hit a button on the control sticks. The blades that made up the focusing array for the Plasma Cutter slammed shut as Ben forced the makeshift weapon into Red Arrow's chest, the force of the blow forcing Red Arrow back as the blade perforated the machine's heavily damaged armor. Unfortunately, this didn't stop Red Arrow from mucking about in his machine's innards, as the tangles of gears and wires he was holding proved. Fortunately, Darktide had redundant systems.

"Main power restored."

"Fire the Hyper Nova. Let's fry this sucker."

At this range, Ben couldn't miss, as the the crimson particle beam struck Red Arrow dead center, reducing more armor to slag. With both mech's looking like so much swiss cheese, and the forest around them reduced to splinters and ash, it was little wonder that they could both keep going. But, the fight was still on as Ben decided to unleash a little number he'd been saving. Several hidden thruster ports opened all over his machine as Ben engaged the Overboost systems.

As Red Arrow tried to stand, Darktide rushed him, slamming the blade of the Plasma Cutter into the mech's chest before ripping it upwards, leaving a glowing hot wound in the mech's hide that barely missed the lanky machine's head. But Ben was finished, as he made use of the Overboost system's speed boost to get behind Red Arrow and repeat the perforation, leaving another smoking wound int he machine's back. Red Arrow's left side seemed powerless, for the moment as Ben rocketed up and away, hitting the DOS while he was at it. Robert and his machine wouldn't know what hit them, as he began powering up the Ion Linear Cannon again, preparing to strike from far away while cloaked...

((Note: Overboost system has one charge left. The second attack with the Plasma Cutter was the extra granted attack.))

[The Merry Lambfish]

While Robert may have not visually seen Darktide, his machine came equipped with sensors that detected movement. Before the ion linear cannon could finish charging, Red Arrow whipped around to face the invisible mech with its bow drawn. A blast arrow was fired forth by the energized drawstring, and the projectile soon found itself embedded into the lower area of the damaged chest. Red Arrow's shadow mirror was deployed to protect against retaliation, just as the arrow exploded. The partially confined interior of the damaged chest helped to focus the explosion's force into the mech, blowing open the wound even deeper while also ripping out sections of armor protecting the upper torso. The ion cannon fired moments after, but was simply deflected by the shadow mirror, causing the power projectile to explode into the forest at Red Arrow's feet.

Lowering the device, Robert seized his opportunity to attack. The speedy mech rocketed into the skies to face Darktide. A hyper nova beam slammed into Red Arrow's right shoulder, melting through its metallic hide. Before a second strike could be made, Red Arrow reached its target. The crystal blade flashed through the air, slicing into Darktide's left side as Robert passed. Spinning about, he allowed a second strike of the blade to carve into his opponent's back. A third strike sliced into Darktide's right shoulder. Two more followed, tearing an X-shaped cut into its right wing.

His combo finished, Robert wheeled around to face Darktide head-on. A razor arrow was launched into its damaged chest region, the wide head slicing through several internal wires and circuitry.

Hovering a few meters above the tree-line, Red Arrow began to transmit an attack signal to the three atmospheric sniper bots, ordering them to fire their last three shells just behind Darktide's right wing, hoping to drop the mech from the skies.

[Omegarex24]

The three sniper rounds tore through the relatively thin armor of Darktide's wings, but failed to drop the machine from the sky. What they did was alert Ben to their presence, as he hit the commands to detach the wings. He wouldn't be performing any kind of aerial battles here. As the wings slammed into the ground, Ben powered up the Ion Linear Cannon again. He had noticed that Red Arrow tended to deploy his reflective shield whenever he was using it, which, in turn, gave Ben an idea. Sure enough, Red Arrow disappeared behind the cover of his shield.

Ben then took the opportunity to circle around behind where Red Arrow was last. The trees would have given him away if he had moved, which he hadn't. And so, rather than fire the Linear Cannon, he fired the Hyper NOVA instead. As the particle beam refracted away and destroyed more trees, the shield around Red Arrow went down, which was when Ben struck. The Ion Linear Cannon erupted in a brilliant stream of light as it moved at near light speeds, too fast to counter or dodge, before striking Red Arrow full in the chest. The charged particle cannon ripped into and through armor plating, leaving Red Arrow with a smoldering wound in his chest, while the kinetic impact knocked Red Arrow over, just as another shell from the MAC-3 slammed into the wound created by the ILC, causing flames to erupt and shrapnel to go flying everywhere.

With two devastating strikes to the same spot within seconds of each other, Red Arrow seemed down for the count. But Ben wasn't about to relent. He landed a short distance away and fired a volley of missiles into the gap. More smoke, fire and debris exploded from the wound, as he powered up the Harmonics Disruptor in preparation for making more gaps....

[Omegarex24]

-crickets chirp-

[The Great MM]

Yeah... KK. Post by tomorrow night or you be DQedness.