"Son of a - " Stan sucked air hard through his teeth as he tried to handle the pain caused by the weapon now stuck in his arm. He could feel the warm wetness of blood begin to trickle down his injured limb. The damage probably wasn't anything to sniff at, but similarly it wouldn't incapacitate him on its' own (or at least he hoped not - he hadn't had the opportunity to check the seriousness of the wound yet, and probably would not for a while).

Any such concerns were rather suddenly forgotten, however, as he noticed the Navy sailor. He felt his heart sink like a leaden weight as it clicked what had happened. Damn, those Nekos were fast. For a brief moment it felt like his brain was going to burst as new fears, hopes and questions flooded in. He could only think of one thing to say, and despite its' crudeness it summed up his thoughts about the situation perfectly: "Oh shit."

The shock seemed to galvanise Stan as his military training quietly reminded him that he was still in the middle of combat; aiding the sailor (or at the very least finding out her status) could wait. Wheeling around, he saw his opponent attempting to help her comrade fight against Aleksei. The shock had began to twist into anger, though the Marine made a masterful attempt at concealing it. Anger at the Neko's attempt to kill him, anger at the fact that he had accidentally hit a friendly, anger that the freaking cat didn't even have the decency to deal with him first before moving on to a new target.

Shooting at her was just begging for a repeat incident of friendly fire, so Stan settled for trying to rush her. If the attack was successful, Stan then tried to club the Neko on the head (or any other convenient vulnerable point, as few and far between as they were) with his weapon, trying to ignore the protestations of his injury and keeping a firm grip on the gun. If he could use the Showstopper again afterwards, that would simply be a bonus (and a cause for minor celebration).

The Neko danced around Aleksei as if he were a lumbering beast. In comparison to her, he probably was, considering all of the other features an NH-29 Nekovalkyrja came with. But even a match-up between an NMX cat and an ID-SOL had to be even, in terms of physical ability.

How the warriors themselves reacted was the key determinant in this contest. The mad bullrush by Aleksei only left multiple openings for the Neko to exploit. As he swung downwards with the axe in his right hand, his opponent slid out from under him, using her short height against him. As she did that, the Neko sliced deeply into Alexei's left leg.

The Marine turned to face her again.

Behind him, the Neko that had just injured Stan was about leap onto Aleksei when Stan came charging in. She only noticed the oncoming ID-SOL with a couple moments to roll out of his way. Stan slowed down to prevent himself from crashing into Aleksei. Back to back, the two Marines faced off the NMX opponents, wounded and without having done a thing to distress the Nekos.

Feeling the other ID-SOL marine against his back, he noticed the sudden pain in his leg. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me?" he said angrily as his cybernetic eye gave him a quick run down of his vitals.

"Am I the only one finding a problem with this?" he asked the ID-SOL behind him as he watched the Neko in front of him. He could feel the warm trickle of blood from the wound while his leg protested the weight he was putting on it. "I've got an idea, mate." he said to the ID-SOL behind him as he quickly put his axe away and drew up his Showstopper, slapping a magazine of HESH rounds into the receiver.

'Here goes nothin'.' he thought to himself as he sighted down the rifle and began firing at the Neko's feet hoping the concussive force from the rounds would work against the Neko.

Stan slowed and allowed himself to press against the other Marine's back, thankful that his admittedly rather careless actions hadn't begotten a painful retribution. Two pairs of eyes were always better than one, and hopefully that would prevent the Nekos from hitting him where he couldn't respond effectively.



"You're sure as hell not the only one," muttered Stan, using the all too brief exchange of words as an opportunity to help blow off some of his tension.

His comrade's actions took the ID-SOL by surprise, and he almost lost his concentration as a result. Still feeling reluctant to shoot even at his own opponent's feet due to his previous error, Stan waited patiently for his enemy to come to him, or at least (fingers crossed) be distracted by what was happening, at which point he'd try to strike at her. It was almost certainly a dangerous game to play, but being proactive had only earned him a knife in the arm so far, which even now was causing the limb to throb occasionally with pain.

The moment Alexei took his eyes off the Neko, she threw her combat knife at him. The blade buried itself in the man's chest. Most of it embedded itself in his body armor but an inch of the sharp blade had sunk into his flesh. And the sheer force behind the throw had been like being hit by a small train at high speed. Alexei staggered backwards, almost losing his balance from the kinetic impact.

His aim was off. HESH rounds flew all over the combat. A Neko's arm was torn off by a stray round. One of the Navy ID-SOLs took a couple to his chest and fell down without a word. His two compatriots roared their outrage at his death, bludgeoning a Neko between them mercilessly before barreling through the combat and smashing the Nekos in their path.

They fought with ease, as if this was just another day at work. A Neko leaped at the Petty Officer, trying to stab him with an officer's sword. The man simply grabbed at the sword, threw it to the ground and stomped on the Neko's neck before she could scramble out from under him. And he seemed unfazed by the fact that the sword had gashed his hand. The ID-SOL just wiped it on his pants and used his left hand to hack at another Neko. In his bloodied right hand, the Petty Officer used his standard issue combat axe in tandem with the captured sword.

The other Navy ID-SOL was even less sophisticated. He just used his fists and legs to hit and kick his opponents like a brawler. The sheer aggression he exuded caused the trio of Nekos planning to take him on to back off, allowing other sailors to ambush them in the melee.

Alexei saw none of this though. While he tried to regain his balance, the Neko who had thrown the knife pounced on him, knocking him backwards onto the deck. She immediately tried pounding on his face, though he managed to block them with his thick arms. Each hit hurt like he was being battered like punching bag, taking the force a punch that would normally kill a person in a single hit. It didn't change the fact, however, that she was on top and would eventually break his arms with her powerful punches.

The Neko facing Stan lunged at him with a combat knife she scooped up off the ground. Because he had been on the defensive, anticipating her assaults, the Marine ID-SOL easily sidestepped her assault. He managed to connect the butt of his rifle with the Neko's head, drawing a loud crunch from the impact. The Neko spun down and rolled along the floor before getting back on her feet, visibly dazed from the hit and not happy about it.

As much as he would have denied it had anyone asked, Stan felt a little bit of a thrill when he felt - and heard - his weapon connect with his enemy. Serves you right, he thought sourly. In any case, an opportunity had revealed itself, and the ID-SOL certainly wasn't going to let the Neko recover from the blow. As he had reminded himself earlier, he could check his gun's condition later. Winning this fight was paramount.

Moving in a quick but measured fashion in case things didn't go as well as planned, Stan tried to deliver another blow, fast and strong.

Suddenly, the Nekos' ears perked up. They had obviously heard something and almost as one, they began scurrying away in whichever direction seemed best for their escape. A few sailors took pot shots at them but most of the survivors just sat down as the adrenaline drained from their bodies.

As the Petty Officer ID-SOL roamed the dead and wounded, he put bullets into Neko heads and field dressings onto wounded sailors. He stopped, however, when he saw that one of the ID-SOLs who had stood by him had gone down from kinetic rounds. Blood pooled around him. NMX particle beams burned and cauterized the flesh Blood couldn't leak from a wound from an NMX energy beam. As he turned the dead sailor over, he saw that the bullet wounds were far too large for a pistol round and far too large for a shotgun shell. Which meant rifle. He looked around. None of his sailors had rifles, sailors never used rifles in ship combat. But the green clad morons did.

"P.O., I found Miyake over there with gunshot wounds," the last Navy ID-SOL whispered. "Caliber?"

"Rifle, sir." The Petty Officer pulled out his HHG and checked how many rounds were left. Three. Enough for the two morons. He advanced towards the two Marine ID-SOLs, his head brushing the ceiling.

"What do they teach you at Basic Training? What do they teach you goddamn greenies? Shoot your own side? Shoot randomly in a melee and hope it hits? I have two good men dead because of you. I should put bullets through your hearts right now so that you can wake up beside them when they bring you back!"

From their rear, footsteps both booted and mechanical reverberated. More Naval sailors rushed up to the barricade and halted, taking in the scene. Behind them, a trio of J2C combat drones followed, chain guns swiveling freely from side to side.

"What happened here?" a Nepleslian JG asked, Styrling 45 in hand.

"These two murderers shot two of my sailors dead!" the ID-SOL roared furiously.

The officer looked at the accused to hear what they had to say.

Once he realised that further fighting was no longer needed, Stan made sure his weapon was safe and took a quick look around the room. As he spotted the senior sailor checking over the bodies, he felt the lead weight replace itself in his stomach. He knew he would be in for one hell of a dressing down, to put it lightly. First combat mission and he'd already made a horrific mess of things. What would his father think? Hell, what would his colleagues and the people he had trained under think? Nothing nice, to be sure. He had a terrible feeling - exaggerated by his emotional state or not - that his career had come to an abrupt end.

As the Petty Officer gave him and Aleksei a (in his opinion) well deserved chewing out, Stan did his best to keep calm, to show that even after such an oafish mistake he could still remain professional. Once the other Nepleslian - backed up by a pair of Bobs - asked for an explanation, Stan cleared his throat and thought for a minute or two how he would respond. "Sir, I was fighting in close quarters with a Cat. I didn't change my weapon because I thought that would create an opening they could exploit. I suffered a lapse of judgement and tried to shoot her, as I thought that due to our proximity it would be unlikely to miss. I did miss and a sailor got killed because of it. I screwed up, sir, and I accept full responsibility for my actions."

Stan paused for a moment, searching desperately for something to convey his regret. It wouldn't do anything to bring the man back, but at least he could show that he wasn't exactly over the moon about it. "I'm sorry." The ID-SOL struggled to keep his tone under control, but he wasn't going to let himself seem any more of an incompetent than he already was, even if the point was likely going to be moot in a few minutes time.

Aleksei listened to his comrade's explanation before clicking the safety of his rifle. He could feel every hit from the Neko, even through his armor. Finally his time came to offer his point of view to the superior officers while he removed his helmet to rub the sweat from his face and scratch his head. Attempting as best he could to stand at his full height despite the protest from his injured leg, he looked the other ID-SOL in the eyes. "Sirs, I'm prepared to give my full report of my actions." he said to them before patting the Marine's shoulder and stepping forward standing at attention.

"While engaged with one of the cats, I attempted to use my HESH rounds to knock it off balance. She got the jump on me in the moment and some of my rounds went stray into the melee. My actions were irresponsible and stupid." he said to the sailors as his eyes wandered the carnage. "I mourn the men we lost, both to the NMX forces and my own actions. I am fully prepared to accept the consequences for them. Whatever they may be." he finished as he maintained his stance of attention.

The JG looked from Stan to Alexei, judging them to see their sincerity. One was regretful. The other simply accepted the responsibility. Good enough. He pulled out his datajockey and took the sailors' and Marines names' down as well as the details of the incident. "Right, Petty Officer Vesner, more reinforcements from the second wave will be coming to follow my group up and reinforce you as well as to take away the dead and wounded. Hold this position."

He looked to the two Marines. "We've got more important things to do. You two are coming with me. We can follow this up with your commanding officer later."

The JG led the pair of Marines, the forty or so armed sailors and J2C robots farther down the hallway. They were stopped by NMX Nekos sniping at them from the open doorways. With a tap on his datajockey, the two heavy robots took to the front and began advancing. Their miniguns rattled occasionally and the odd scream signaled the death of a Neko. Behind the two robots, the sailors and Marines followed. "I'm Lieutenant Meyer. Do what I say and you get to live. Kill any of my men and I will shoot you on the spot. Once is an accident and you learn from it. Twice and you're gonna pay for repeating that accident," he introduced himself sternly to Stan and Alexei.