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RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Five] Antagonists

Kai

Retired Staff
After the rest period, Squad XIII found themselves back to full strength, despite having lost another soldier- instead of to the claws of the enemy, however, Simo Anzu had been lost to the ravages of Bureaucracy. either way, they once again had their own medic, and, as they bounced around in the back of Benjo Box for the third time, Chatterbox and Lou having an animated conversation in the cockpit, Kai sat at the head of the vehicle's troop bay, and readied to give the briefing.

"Today we're dropping in on one of the ruined sectors of the city" the Juni began, face unreadable behind his painted helmet. "This sector was marked as secure, and normally we would just be bypassing it, however, a squad assigned to patrol it has gone missing. IFF signals cut out one by one, and we haven't heard from them since. Our primary concern is finding the squad and relaying their location to HQ, or sending them back if they've somehow had a mass equipment failure." The M6-2A daisy scanned the others in the back of the Yusou, before continuing. "It's expected that there are hostiles lurking in the area, but we don't know their strength. We're hoping, however, that it was just an equipment failure, or perhaps a residual comm-blackout zone and the squad is safe. Regardless, I want you all to remain vigilant. Active sensors on everyone, heads on a swivel, weapons at the ready, got that? If anyone's down there, they'll know we're here, too, so I want to find them before they can hurt us."

Chatterbox's voice then interrupted from the cockpit "uhh, you guys better get ready, we got incoming!" with that, the Benjo Box suddenly began evasive maneuvers, streaking around in an attempt to avoid whatever it was that was threatening the craft. Every so often a distant boom would cause the craft to swerve harder than usual, and the drivetrain could be heard winding up and down, whining in protest as Lou did his best to keep the threats from getting them.
"Screw this!" the Nepleslian suddenly yelled "It's too hot up here- we got stuff coming from the frontlines, plus stuff from the sector below, You guys are gonna have to jump; I can't stick around!" Without warning the rear hatch of the Yusou opened up, wind coming in and buffeting the squad.

"You heard him. We're dropping now!" Kai ordered the squad over the comms. "Out out out! Get to the ground as fast as you can and find cover!" Without waiting, the Yamataian bypassed his squad and jumped out of the Benjo box, disappearing into the air- He was followed swiftly by April and by then everyone else would realize it was time to go. As they all exited the Benjo box, they noticed it get rocked by another hit, this one bypassing its shields and poking a few holes in the thankfully vacated troop compartment, causing the Yusou to list and billow smoke. It turned around, kicking in the boosters and getting the heck out of dodge as quickly as it could.

The armors' HUD's filled with information very swiftly. The Benjo Box had dropped them from roughly 200 feet of elevation. They were among several buildings of varying sizes, from above their own elevation by several hundred more feet, or down below them at only a few storeys tall. the layout was in a standard grid pattern, but everything was in some state of destruction or another. They seemed to be heading for a small square, the meeting of two major streets, which was filled with rubble. One of the corner buildings was only three storeys tall, and had a flat, open roof, which was conducive for landing, but would leave them just as exposed as the street. thankfully, however, nothing was firing upon them as of yet.

Obviously, the Juni was the first to touch down, near the low building, He found himself next to what was left of a city bus, not much more than a charred hulk, but, it obscured him from view. April touched down on the rooftop, quickly finding her way to the stairway entrance and kicking down the door so she could hide within it. "Clear!" she called, checking in, as well.
 
The red armor leaped out of the small craft and hurtled through the windows of a multi-story building, deliberately shattering furniture in her way like a wrecking ball to slow down as quickly as possible.

Despite being difficult to see, the Mini-Neko was irate that the debris underfoot crunched as she stalked through the building. Unlike April, who descended as quickly as she could, Sif's form vanished from sight. This building, she wanted to roost - from there, she could watch everything. The squad, any approaching enemies. Though some of the large pane windows were shattered by fighting that had possibly happened prior or her own landing, the view was relatively unobstructed. Leaning out, she could see a few of them gathering directly below. "Find cover, watch your corners, and regroup - we will be investigating shortly as I noted the sources of fire. There was three, maybe four," Sif spoke over the comms to them all. "As always, there is always likely more," the Mini-Neko added.

Thinking over the brief glimpses of fire she saw, there was something that didn't add up - though individually as effective as a LASR, what hit their craft was no projectile weapon. It was seemingly energy based, and fully automatic. "Nakamura-Juni, those weapons were unfamiliar to me," she noted to him.

The Mini-Neko wondered if he would have a clue.
 
Rin leapt out of the transport, using her fusion thrusters to direct and slow her descent. She landed near to the Juni and the ruined bus, quickly gathering her wits and running to take cover behind the destroyed vehicle.

She brought the GSR up to her shoulder and began to scan the surrounding area for threats. Glancing momentarily at what appeared to be a broken blue sculpture of some kind, Rin peered down the street and scanned for movement. She also occasionally glanced at the windows of the buildings above, her eyes watchful for potential snipers.
 
Jumping out the Box Freyja dived toward the building where April had landed the neko landed with a roll maintaining her momentum and sprinting toward the door joined April inside hearing her shout 'clear' signy set off a radar ping hoping too find nothing out of the ordinary.

through laser comms the neko asked "shall we search the building or jump off the roof to regroup with nakamura-juni" the text only communication system impossible to detect to any nearby threats also masked the santo-hei's anger at nearly being blown up, whoever had done that was going to have a really bad day when she got hold of them.
 
While Brandon had hoped against all reason that his first mission would be somewhat simple, the old proverb that said no plan survived contact with the enemy couldn't be any more true. When the time came to jump, he jumped without any hesitation, knowing that his inexperience would probably be a drag on the rest of his team if tried to do anything on his own. For now, blindly following any of the more experienced soldiers seemed like the best idea, so he found himself following April's trajectory down, towards the rooftop.

As he descended, he shot the buildings around him quick, worried glances - a single person with good aim in one of those could take down half the team as soon as they landed. Nobody seemed to be shooting at them when he hit the roof, though, and when he saw the door open and heard the clear call he couldn't help but sigh in relief at the idea of not being a sitting duck in the middle of nowhere anymore. Around him, thuds marked the landing of other squad-members as he headed quickly towards the descending stairs, reading his PEWs just in case it wasn't as empty as they'd hoped - and rather relieved that he wasn't the only one that had chosen to follow April as another armor went into the building before he did. The more of them around, the greater the chances that if something went wrong it wasn't his fault... or at least not entirely his fault.
 
Nakamura-Juni scanned the skies. several of the soldiers were still descending, apparently taking their time at a more controlled approach, though it made them also more vulnerable. "Everyone, please get to the ground or a convenient rooftop as soon as possible. You are targets as long as you are in the air." The Juni went on to check his weapons, finding them all in good condition, and noting where those whom had landed on the ground already were. Most were on the rooftop with Jackson-heisho, their obscured figures outlined by his HUD. Rin had landed on the street with him and taken cover nearby. He was glad to see that she was actively searching- the more eyes they had looking around the less likely they were to be taken off guard. Everyone just needed to get to the surface now so they could continue.

The Juni then got a message from Freyja, and responded to the Neko directly "Follow Jackson-Heisho, stick to cover, and regroup when ordered. as long as you are with myself or Jackson-Heisho, you should be fine."

The blonde in question, decided that the door was clear and watching the first few going down the stairwell, continued down them herself, leading the small group into the insides of the building. It turned out to be some sort of abandoned diner or other similar restaurant, and they had made their way into the kitchen. Whatever foodstuffs had been stored here had either been long pilfered or rotted away, leaving nothing but a mess of utensils, cooking implements, and dishes, as well as a few broken appliances. thankfully, nothing moving was in there except for the soldiers, and so the Heisho continued through the kitchen and into the diner's outer area, which was just a bunch of forlorn, empty booths and tables and one rather dirty bar countertop.
 
Damien was one of the last ones out of the BB. There was something about jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft that seemed unnatural to him. Still he was a Star Army trooper and if he was told to jump out of a vehicle, he would jump out of the vehicle. It was lucky for him that he listened to his commanders this time, or else he might end up riddled with holes as he watched the BB smoke as it took AA fire. Turning back to check his surroundings he noted that the squad was either landing in the street or on the rooftop.

Damien decided to follow Nakamura-Juni as he figured his weapon would be best served providing direct fire from the street. It would be useful to put some explosives inside any buildings which housed pesky snipers or other ambushers. Plus Damien wasn't too comfortable using his AGL inside buildings just yet. He didn't want to accidentally collapse a ceiling on top of them or anything. He also made sure to keep track of the rest of the squad so he didn't accidentally blast them.

Damien touched down with less grace than he would have liked. He hadn't done well on air drops in training, luckily his suit seemed to hold up well enough. His instructors had told him that if he lived long enough, he would grow his wings and be fine. They didn't seem too sure about his prospects of survival, but so far he had managed to prove them wrong... barely... One the dropshock wore off which thankfully only took a few seconds instead of the full minute it used to take him, Damien got on with his mission. He looked up and began to scan his surroundings, locating his fellow squad members and squad leaders on his HUDs. "Alright don't blast the friendlies, anyone else is fair game" Damien thought to himself. Still bothered by Anzu's taunting earlier.

"Serenity touchdown. Beginning sweep" responded Damien as he moved up next to Nakamura-Juni and found cover. Damien checked his weapon and leveled in the direction he was scanning as he began his sweep. Things were quiet so far, but Damien figured that it probably wouldn't stay that way for long.
 
Aya had been slightly more quiet after Anzu left the squad. In hindsight it was inevitable, but she still didn't relish the idea. She listened to the briefing in quiet anticipation. She just wanted to get stuck into the enemy already! After all, her new weapon (and upgrades to her suit) wouldn't test themselves. As though answering her wishes, the Benjo Box was abruptly struck by enemy fire.

The blue skinned Neko didn't need telling twice; she exited the shuttle as quickly as she could. However, she took a little more time with her descent, being unwilling to risk a clumsy (and potentially dangerous) landing. The Juni's warning was a timely reminder that their adversary wasn't going to be polite enough to wait until she had landed before opening fire, and consoling herself with the thought that any landing was better than no landing at all she touched down the roof of the corner building. It was more a snap decision than a measured analysis of the available options, and now that she had arrested her descent Aya realised that she was awfully exposed.

Looking around, Aya tried to find a way off the roof, though she was willing to simply jump or otherwise climb down the building if necessary.
 
There was no answer, and knowing the relatively stoic blonde herself, it meant one thing - he did not know.

This meant that there was something new in play, something that was potentially a new risk. Sif knew that so far, the Mishhuvurthyar's intermediate quality units - power armors that were best compared to being drastically simplified and cheap Daisies - were usually armed with something that even the basic wrist mounted energy SMG could overpower. A cheap, mass produced particle beam weapon that was an 'anti-material rifle' in the hands of unpowered, unarmored infantry. In other words, a weapon that take perhaps half a dozen batteries - maybe 120 shots - to effectively disable a proper power armor. It was only the ones that scavenged or were fortunate enough to lay hands on a LASR that was an actual risk. The rest were only dangers in numbers, and in desperate hand to hand combat.

Even then, Sif's reaction wasn't very exciting - for her, it was shrug worthy. It just meant she'd have to be a little more careful; whatever the thing was, it was too little, too late. The war was already winding down to a close. Of course, that didn't guarantee any safety to the children she was to sit.

Counting their numbers like a mother wolf metering her cubs, the 7-inch Mini-Neko kept track of her troops before doing what she could to keep them alive. While they were fleeing the drop point as fast as possible - more nosily than she would have liked - Sif carefully navigated from building to building, sometimes leaping across the street and into an adjacent structure with blown out windows. Like a Kunoichi, she was unseen thanks to her camouflage, an invisible specter which glided from shadow to shadow without so much as a single noise. Sif glanced back and several stories down on them all - if she were to keep them alive, she had to scout ahead and watch carefully for any approaching hostiles and ones that were setting up an ambush.

Especially ones that were like the above, but moved exactly like her.
 
As Kai surveyed the area, something suddenly showed up on everyone's sensors. It was a single contact, on the ground, with a signature very similar to that of a Daisy II armor. It had appeared out of simply nowhere, having been invisible before suddenly popping up on sensors. Kai pinged the contact, and the suit returned that it was in fact a Yamataian Power armor, but he still wasn't sure about it.

"Rin, Freyja, please go and investigate our contact. Be careful, it appears to have come out of a sensor deadzone, so be way of anything past that point." the Juni ordered his soldiers, before hailing the Power Armor. "Soldier! Identify yourself! this is Nakamura Juni of the Star Army Fifth Fleet. Are you friend or Foe?" Hopefully the unidentified armor would respond soon; perhaps it was part of the missing squad they had been sent to find. The earlier weapons fire and sensor deadzone, however, hinted that there was something more than expected in this area.

"Y'all get on over there right quick." April suggested to the two soldiers called by the Juni, as she took cover behind a booth near the door, opening it for the others to file out if they felt the need to.
 
"Hai," responded Rin.

She moved from her position behind the bus and warily advanced down the street toward the unknown figure. GSR raised, Rin moved close enough to at least make out the armor's silhouette, which appeared to be like a Daisy II.

"Identify yourself!" challenged Rin.
 
A lone power armor wandered through the city navigating its way through the wreckage. In its hands it held a LASR, though its magazine was empty it served as a deterrent for any unarmored foes that would try to attack. The soldier inside had given up on finding someone friendly and had decided to try to make his way back to friendly territory, but after a long period of only having the sound of battle to keep him company there was a ping on his sensors, and multiple power armor contacts in the area. The man tensed up getting ready for combat until he heard a voice over his his radio.

He would try to respond but it took some time for him to realize his mic was not working, It however took some simple tampering to fix after realizing it was a short, and once done he would put his helmet back on to hear a second voice asking for his identification so he spoke up in a somewhat gruff voice with a distinctly Nepleslian accent "Greco Dimitri, of the Fifth fleet of Star Army, Santo Hei of the fourth company first platoon squad four."

Dimitri moved his LASR to his back and then held his hands up wanting to avoid any confusion in this situation.
 
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Exiting the front of the building Freyja headed toward unknown signature having her gauss cannon and ASGR trained on the signature might be excessive but it never hurt to be prepared.

Hearing the suit identify as friendly the neko began scanning for hostiles and lowered her weapons she smiled they had already found one of the people they were looking for and no large mechs were jumping on them. Signy began walking backward slowly returning to the relative safety of cover by the bus.
 
Fieke and her Impulse powered armour hit down hard against roof of the squat, three story building close to the wrecked vehicle that the XIII's CO had chosen for his own landing. The Abwehran allowed her momentum to carry her down into a crouch as her suit's AI had a field day of its own between trying to find any sight of a threat and simultaneously ooh'ing and ahh'ing at anything else that caught its eye when it couldn't detect anything that needed to be shot.


“Coming down to street level, Sir.” The OriSec Corporal called out on the radio as she picked herself up and then slid down the side of the building. While the higher vantage point might have been useful earlier, the Nightwalker had taken far too long to land and it was looking like the Squad was going to be moving along soon.


Not wanting to cause any unnecessary power spikes despite the relative peace of the moment Fieke didn't activate her boosters as she descended to street level. The Abwehran grit her teeth inside her helmet as she meet the ground shoulder first and then rolled.


Standing up as her surprised Type-S muttered about improper gear usage the OriSec Corporal detached her ASGR from its brackets against her armour and then jogged over to Nakamura Juni's position.
 
Sif hated this kind of stealth. The kind where it was actual, full on quiet, rather than just sneaking through an absurdly loud battlefield.

It meant many things, all of which she hated. Though her Aether reactor would be down normally, here, she had to deactivate her shields too - the last thing she wanted, was for the powerful spatial distortions of her CFS to be noticed. Even her graviton based propulsion had to be used sparingly. The only bright side of it was that she could draw off of capacitor banks and keep the volumetric camouflage up. Cloaked, the short and dainty power armor peered down from on high - the fourth floor of a partially bombed out building - and watched as what looked like a survivor approached. His tags checked out, and she wasn't very happy.

"Dimitri-Hei, reboot your camouflage system immediately and take cover," the squad's Co-Officer tersely ordered him about. "Whoever's closest - spare him some ammunition. Roughly three magazines." Her eyes were already on the lookout.

The fact that this lone survivor was a Nepleslian annoyed her. What had happened to the Nekovalkyrja in his squad? Did he run and leave them? Or did the enemy target them first? Even if they were mass produced, and with training that was only standard, they were typically better than most humans. Typically. This squad didn't seem to be typical, hence her own assignment here to prevent their deaths. And he was even of the ethnicity that was similar to some of the Lorath in certain ways. All of this, combined together, made for a particularly miffed 'kitten'.

"Prepare for combat. He had to be followed - they'd be fools not to."
 
Rin lowered her GSR slowly, looking the newcomer over.

"Where is the rest of Squad Four?" she asked. Then Sif barked over the radio at them to take cover and give him some spare ammunition. Moving out of the street back towards the ruined bus, Rin responded.

"Heisho, Hei Dimitri is using a LASR. I do not have the proper ammunition type for his weapon."

She took up her position behind the bus again, scanning the rooftops as well as watching the down the street Dimitri had come from.
 
The abrupt appearance of a signature resembling a Daisy II on Aya's sensors almost made her jump. Where had that come from? She scurried to the edge of the roof closest to the contact, her ASGR trained on the contact. Unsure of what was happening, however, she kept her finger off the trigger. As it turned out, the mysterious armour was indeed a Daisy II - and a Daisy II being worn by a Nepleslian, at that. The blue skinned Nekovalkyrja let her ASGR fall from the ready position. She shared Rin's confusion - surely the rest of his squad would have been with him?

Sif's orders seized Aya's attention and made her focus. Though she was still exposed on the rooftop, Aya finally decided against making a descent. If they were about to get into a firefight, that was not the time to be looking for a new position at street level. Instead, she dropped into a prone position and shimmied backwards, trying to reduce her visibility from anyone approaching on the ground. Just to be safe, she triggered her Active Camouflage System. Ideally, if fighting did break out she would be afforded a few extra seconds of surprise. Surreptitiously looking at her surroundings, she tried to ignore the buzz of tension in her mind.
 
Dimitri might have been Nepleslian but he felt the same about getting shot as any Yamataian so he was more than happy to reboot his camouflage system which was thankfully still working properly. While the system warmed up the soldier moved quickly behind the bus, following after the feminine armor that met him.

The Nepleslian decided now was a good time to explain what had happened while he began to prime his PEWs for combat."Squad four has been scattered. Our long range communications were suddenly shut down and almost immediately afterward we were under fire. Before we could get a grasp on the situation we were already being isolated from each other. I ended up on my own however with busted thrusters and fried senors, so I can't even search for my squad. I was planning on getting out of the CZ and calling for back up if I could find a line to use."

Dimitri would sigh and then blink twice under his helmet to activate his cybernetic eyes, now that his sensors were damaged he could not expect any assisted aiming from the suit to be reliable and would have to go back to doing things the old fashioned way with his modified eyes.
 
Damien was surprised by the arrival of the newcomer, seemingly out of nowhere. Almost immediately his paranoia began to kick in. How had this guy survived on his own for so long? Where was the rest of his squad? "Scattered?" Damien thought to himself as he listened to Dimitri's story. It sounded legit but that meant that there was serious fighting ahead. If this person proved to be an ally and not more cannon fodder like Max, having an extra shooter on the squad would make sense in that situation. If they were walking into an ambush Damien figured it would be best to be invisible... as everyone else seemed to take Sif's hint, Damien activated his camo system and remained in his cover position, covering the rest of the squad with his heavy weapon. Damien had to admit he was anxious. Anxious to see if carrying around this big cannon would be worth it. He hoped he wouldn't have to find out soon, but secretly wanted to blow something up. Putting the childish thoughts of playing with his new toy away, he returned his focus to the battlefield.
 
The contact appearing out of nowhere was worrysome, and whatever the computer might say about his allegiance Brandon found it hard to trust it to be friendly. After a quick moment of indecisiveness, he ignored the tables and walked to the bar - it wouldn't provide much of a shield, but it'd make shooting at him harder if things got difficult, which he certainly hoped they didn't.

Still, he was surprised when the armor identified itself as a member of the Star Army, and even more when it turned out to be another Nepleslian. He might've even thought the Star Army dumped them into ghetto units, had it not been a random encounter... or, well, not that random considering the circumstances. As the radio conversation unfolded, he wasn't too entirely convinced that he could trust the man, but his superiors seemed to be and, to be fair, nothing bad had happened yet. He reined his thoughts in - the least he could give the man was a bit of calm and safety after watching his unit crumble. Hopefully they were still alive, or else the man could become a loose cannon.

So when, Sif ordered someone to give the man ammo, he quickly took the opportunity, stepping out of his cover. "I got LASR mags over here, mate." He said, walking towards the bus from the diner while pulling the three mags that Sif had specified from his right thigh's holder. As he moved, he noticed the cloaking systems going up around him, and not wanting to hold anyone back, quickly did the same himself.
 
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