Sawyer replied "Roger that Sarn't" and opened fire with his AMP sending a stream of hypervelocity rounds at one ravager and also concentrated the fire of both his plasma chainguns and a portion of his stockpile of DARTs went flying out to impact on the ravager as well.

"Just get the hell out of there Rita! You're next to no good if you can't aim your rifle right! I'll draw their attention!"

The Hostile leaped up with brute strength and thruster wash several stories off the streets, two tons worth of armor and ballsy soldier smashing right through the side of a building. As soon as he landed on an office floor, Matteo immediately broke off into a sprint, floor crumbling underfoot as he dashed through cubicles, office desks and soda machines. Bright beams of Aether lanced through the building as the Rippers attempted to get a bead on him, their only guess of his location the rancorous noise of destruction he made as the suit plowed through everything in it's way.

But he had a plan. The course he had taken caused the Ravager tracking him to turn it's back on his allies. "About time you let us use miss - WHAT?! We're loaded out with F*cking DARTS against these things? Who's the idiot that gimped us?!" he hollered in anger, blasting out the side of one building and into the side of another, clearing the streets below and tumbling before running again. "Fine! I hope you got a bead on the Ravager that's after me Phaedra, I'm going to hit it with EMP missiles!" The PP Plate pulsed once as he ran, the graviton pulse smashing into the elevator door before he shouldered his way into the shaft.

Thrusters flared as he ascended up and through the heart of the building before kicking through the top floor elevator doors and landing. He listened for the Ravager. Matteo only had one shot at this; if he pulled it off right, the only thing he'd loose was his shields. The marine leaned forward and bolted forward as his sensors triangulated the Ravager's location. The suit's thrusters came to life as he burst out of the top floor of the building to give him more speed, a mere story higher than the damn monstrosity.

Streams of white came from both his calves and straight down onto the top of the Ravager that had been trying to track his erratic movements as he attempted to boost from one building to another, HPAR blazing. As Matteo heroically assaulted the Ravager from on high in an attempt to both save Rita and give Phaedra an opportunity to strike, there was but one thing in his mind right now.

'Please don't swat me out of the air like a fly!'

Laura fired a volley 30 minimissiles at each Ravager. The swarms of minimissiles impacted against the shields, causing faint blue ripples in the air as they damaged the shields.

She kept up her plasma turrets and AMP fire on the Rippers who were trying to get a shot at Matteo.

-----------

All of Phaedra's shots impacted against the shields of the lead Ravager. More sparkles and ripples as the multiphase rounds tore away at the shields.

------------

The four Ichabods received and obeyed the command from Jan. As one, they launched 32 anti-armor missiles at the two Ravagers.

Thanks to Phaedra's and Laura's efforts, the lead Ravager's shields had been overloaded. This allowed the 16 missiles aimed at it to streak in for the kill. 8 of these were shot down by the Ravager's gatlings. The warheads struck all over the towering mecha, ripping great holes in its structure. It was obvious that the burning hulk was dead.

The other half of the Ichabod missiles streaked towards the second, undamaged Ravager. Most of the missiles were shot out of the sky or jammed by the Ravager's powerful electronic countermeasures whilst the surviving four impacted on the shields, severely reducing them.

-------------------

Jan's attack was just a fraction off from target, impaling the Ripper's neck and severing the head from the main body. The flailing Ripper was put down by one of its own team mates, bringing the number of Rippers to four.

--------------------

Sawyer's DARTs further reduced the remaining Ravager's shielding. Seeing its companion die, the Ravager targeted Sawyer's location and fired its plasma throwers at him. A couple superheated rounds impacted against Sawyer's shields but besides being slightly singed, he was alright.

Realizing that staying in its current position was dangerous, the Ravager activated its thrusters and blew off down the street, landing right in front of the spaceport, where Bernhard Greer had just exited from.

--------------------

"Oh. Shit." Bernhard ducked as the Ravager attempted to crush him underfoot. He activated his thrusters and started boosting away, spiraling upwards and crashing into the third storey of an apartment complex.

He was dazed and barely conscious when the Ravager released its entire payload of minimissiles into the apartment.

--------------------

Laura watched Bernhard's escape and crash. She saw the hailstorm of minimissiles streak and explode, engulfing Bernhard in fire. For once, she had nothing to say. Laura knew, on an academic level, she was going into shock. She could ignore Bernhard's apparent demise but on an emotional level, Laura felt her world had been turned upside down.

She'd killed many times today but as far as she knew, this was the first time someone she had known had died. Laura's underdeveloped emotional mindframe simply could not accept what her brain was repeating. Bernhard was dead.

---------------------

Matteo needn't have worried. His desperate moves, coupled with the pounding the NMX had suddenly taken, had forced the Ravager to make its advance. It had shot forwards just as he was about to strike.

Quickly catching himself, Matteo used his thrusters to get to the nearest roof from where he was able to fire down into Rippers which were attempting to retreat. A well aimed burst destroyed the leg of one Ripper and a second burst knocked out the shoulder mounted cannon of another.

----------------------

At the UOC civilian shelters, the last of the civilians had been convinced to leave under escort. The UOC soldiers fought desperately with little regard for their lives to ensure the safety of their families, friends and loved ones.

PO Motoyama radioed Phaedra, "All the civilians are heading your way, first groups ETA 10 minutes! Make sure its clear!"

Sawyer took off at a dead sprint to where the ravager was, boosting into the air and unleashing a furious volley of fire from every weapon system he had at hand. He didn't want any of his comrades to die and wanted to save the civilians. If he was hit he'd take it and go until he was cut down before he'd allow one of his comrades to take the fire for him.

"My aim is perfectly fine, thank you!" Rita said obstinately as she leaped into the air, her thrusters kicking in while she soared upwards. She smashed through multiple layers of the building she was in until she reached the air above it, falling down to the roof of the next structure and landing on her knees. She kept running back towards her comrades, but now that she could see, she decided to draw the Ravager's fire for Matteo, like he'd done for her earlier with the Crab. She began blasting away at it with the HPAR, not trying to hit any particular part of it, just trying to blow away its shields, while zig-zagging, jumping, ducking and sliding to avoid its fire.

She was moving much faster than the Ravager was, and was getting quite far away from it now, over halfway back to the starport. She turned around and fired a pair of DARTs at the Rippers down below, then kicked off her heels activated her thrusters to jump across the street to the buildings on the opposite side of the block. If she was successful in drawing their ire, she'd focus completely on avoiding getting shot again, using whatever means necessary.

Jan Kancre was in a bit of a sticky situation now, given how he was slowed down enough that escape from the four nearby Rippers, who's friend he had just decapitated, was near impossible, and that they were surely going to injure him if he didn't act quickly.

So he acted first. With a yell, Jan detached and threw his Lancer's lance at the third closest Ripper, the heavy fusion cutter tipped polearm propelled at high speeds through the air. Jan followed this up by bull-rushing the nearest Ripper, stabbing out with the Condensed Fusion Cutter on his right arm at the armor's gut, his armored left hand unstrapping the vibrosaw knife for close-quarters combat.

"Oh. Shit," said Bernhard.

Phaedra saw him boost suddenly into the building nearby, and then the Ravager fired a salvo of missiles into the building, engulfing him in an explosion. She glanced at his status icon on her HUD: while it still showed his armor had power, that meant little in determining his physical health. For all Phaedra knew, he could be dead from the concussion of the blast alone.

"damn it!" she thought. She trained her target reticle on the same location as she did the previous Ravager and fired a round from her MPR.

"All the civilians are heading your way, first groups ETA 10 minutes! Make sure its clear!" said Motoyama.

"Roger that, Petty Officer," a small bit of emotional waiver evident in her voice.

"Listen up Marines. I need you to focus!" she said, her voice returning to normal. She paused to line up another shot at the Ravager's "face" and fired.

"Ravager Number Two is still active and we have the rest of the civilians incoming; ETA 10 mikes. Take that Ravager down now! Laura, as our active medical officer, as soon as that Ravager is down I want you confirm Bernhard's...status. The rest of you, return to maintaining the perimeter around the terminal; we need to get those civilians away safely."

"Let's do this Marines! We are almost out of this."

Phaedra displaced to another location and fired another round at the Ravager.

The Ravager moved away at the last moment, preventing Matteo from hitting it point blank, but he still made up for it by cutting down a few Rippers from his vantage point before relocating. He was lucky, for now, that the Rippers hadn't used their own propulsion to close the distance; if they did, he'd still have the Push-Pull Plate to keep them at bay. If they managed to use those zesuaium blades...they'd go right through armor plate as though it wasn't there! And that wasn't even mentioning their Aether based firepower either...

Keeping wary of where the Rippers were located at, the marine backed off and away from them for the time being and targeted the Ravager from earlier. From behind the cover of a rooftop's stairwell shack, Matteo let fly a burst of missiles set for top down attack, and hammered it with full auto fire of his HPAR.

"Keep moving Rita! Don't you dare let it hit you!"

Sawyer's barrage ate away at the Ravager's shields, firstly straining then finally overwhelming them. However, even with its shields down, the Ravager was still untouched and its thick armor shrugged off Sawyer's attacks with ease.

Being open and in the air, the Ravager wasted no time in targeting Sawyer with its entire arsenal. Its trio of gatlings and the plasma throwers opened fire on the exposed Aggressor and quickly overwhelmed its shields through sheer volume. The impact of so many hits so quickly knocked Sawyer's balance and sent him careening into the space port's third floor.

As the Marine recovered, his suit's diagnostics read out that he'd somehow escaped with minor damage to the suit and total loss of shields. Targeting systems were no longer functioning properly and the diagnostic did not know how badly off-target his aim would be if he relied on it. Worst of all, the suit was detecting active radar searching it. The Ravager was still looking for its next victim.

----------

Rita experienced similar results as the Ravager ignored the hits it was taking and continued its hunt for Sawyer's crashed suit.

----------

Jan's throw was accurate, the lance impaled one of the intact Rippers and pinned it to a brick wall. The immobile Ripper tried frantically to free itself but, when it realized that it was not the target of a follow-up attack, began to fire at Jan's AIR2.

A 50mm gauss round smashed into the sidewalk where Jan had just been as he charged a second Ripper. His suit registered aether streams being absorbed by the shields and increasing the external temperature of the suit.

The Ripper deflected the hit from the Condensed Fusion Cutter with its left arm's armored buckler and as Jan made to swing with the vibrosaw, the Ripper counter-attacked. The Ripper punched him to the ground and pump aether fire into him at point blank, straining his shields. It then grabbed both of Jan's hands and tossed him against the concrete exterior of an apartment, causing a large dent.

Swiftly, it followed him and swung its zesuaium blade at Jan. The Marine barely managed to dodge the attack by taking to the air when he got light up by aether fire and 50mm gauss rounds, reducing his shields to 8%.

---------------

With its shields down, the Ravager suffered its first significant damage as Phaedra's first shot tore apart its optical and targeting systems, leaving the NMX blind, save for its sensors. Her second shot was off target and impacted into the road.

----------------

Laura Romero remained silent. She wanted to go now but at the same time, she was too terrified to see Bernhard's mangled corpse.

"Private Romero, it is quite possible that Private Greer is in need of immediate medical attention. His suit is still functioning, indicating that the part of it that deals with uplinks is still powered. Though any information from the suit is gibberish, likely due to physical damage," Drei said over the radio to Phaedra and Laura.

Laura hesitated, unsure if she ought to cling to this new hope. "...Sergeant, I need... I need someone to watch my back while I treat him," she said shakily to Phaedra. In truth, she didn't need anyone but she was just too scared to face the prospect of Bernhard's death alone.

Unsteadily, Laura aimed her AMP and plasma turrets at the Ravager and fired. Her shots ripped apart more armor plating, exposing an unarmored section in its side.

-----------------

The DARTs from Matteo's Hostile impacted near the unshielded, unarmored hole. For a moment, the Ravager paused in its movement. Then just as quickly, began twitching like an athlete with awful cramps.

His HPAR rounds were less well concentrated, chipping away at the Ravager's formidable armor. However, it was no longer firing back and appeared at its most vulnerable thus far.

Sawyer looked at his diagnostics and muttered "well hayl I din't 'spect that to even turn out as well as it did. May as well test how screwed my targeting systems are." With that he started trying to reboot his armor's shielding and running his own self contained targeting program to try to at least have some accuracy as he moved to a window facing the ravager and opened fire with all weapons he had before shifting to a new position hopefully before the mech could return fire.