"Tch... No time to wait for a response." Rita muttered, running across the building's rooftop and leaping off the side. She activated her boosters and zoomed back toward the rest of her squad, arriving back at the spaceport in record time. After locating Phaedra with her HUD, she jumped down off the roof of the spaceport and headed over to her. "Reporting, ma'am. One of the Ravagers is MIA, and it looks like Matteo and Jan are taking care of the Rippers. I'm ready to receive your orders."

After scanning her monoeye between Laura and Phaedra, it suddenly occurred to Rita what they were doing. Bernhard had been smashed into a building and his PA was buried in the wreckage. Rita stepped forward and began to assist her comrades in digging him out of the rubble.

Jan calmly began to pull back in short rocket-assisted jumps. On his way back to the Destiny, he landed directly behind Phaedra(Again), and saluted.

"Ma'am. I've been ordered to fall back to the Destiny. Jan Kancre, Out." Saluting the clone, Jan jumped away, eventually getting to the NSS Destiny.

"BAMBAMBAM-BAMBAMBAM-BAMBAMBAM." Went Matteo's rifle.

Short bursts were thrown out at the Rippers as fast as the marine could manage. He had to cover the other until he was out of the killzone! "Damn it! Get the hell out of there!" he yelled, HPAR barking again and again as he tried to keep the Rippers down off Jan. They clamored after him like a relentless horde of the undead, but both Matteo and Jan were lucky; though it took more than one burst sometimes, there was few of them left and they broke cover in unorganized numbers to try and score a kill on Jan. With their attention elsewhere, he cut them down quickly enough.

When Jan was finally Scot Free, Matteo breathed a sigh of relief before leaping down onto street level. The pavement shattered under his weight, the shock running through his body, dampened by the suit. Still, he shook it off before speaking, keeping his monoeye scanning for safe's sake.

"This is Witt; hostiles appear to be neutralized. Requesting further orders Volkov."

With Rita's help, the three women cleared the rubble off the battered Hostile. It was dented, broken, warped, burned and in some places, gouged open. Thin lacerations all over the exterior indicated where shrapnel had cut through the armor.

Quickly, Laura connected the datascreen to Bernhard's Hostile. Please be alive, please be alive, she willed.

In agonizing slowness, the data came back. Faint heart beat, multiple broken bones, numerous locations of blunt trauma, internal injuries, probably concussion, deep wounds from a couple shards of NMX shrapnel. But Bernhard was barely alive and unconscious. The armor had done its job.

Laura triggered the suit's emergency medical release to get it to open up. As it did so, she retrieved the MED from her Aggressor's back and pulled out the necessary tools. The stretcher was assembled and laid nearby, the medical kit and hypolathe were ready. Now she just had to pull him out while supporting his body.

It was a delicate maneuver but a challenge worthy of the universe's self-proclaimed most brilliant medic. Somehow, Laura managed to get Bernhard's battered body onto the stretcher with a lot of help from Rita and Phaedra.

She immediately set about treating him with liberal amounts of medical nano and splinting his limbs and putting a neck brace on. "We need to get him to the ship, they have the better stuff. The suit's a wreck; best we destroy it before we leave," Laura said stonily to Phaedra and Rita.

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

"Sergeant Volkov, we have no Nekos! Any Nekos here are NMX personnel. But why are they unarmed? Suicide vests? But such a large group wouldn't make sense. Suicide vests are best used by infiltrators... We don't have anyone free to investigate. Send one of your most level-headed Marines over. Maybe we can take them prisoner," Motoyama responded, glancing at the Rippers his squad was engaging while they covered the fleeing civilians.

He fired a quick burst at it and took to the rooftops to get a better view of the NMX movements.

"Good to see the Nep air umbrella is back," he said to himself, not allowing the smile inside to come out. He'd smile only when the civilians were in space and headed away from the doomed planet.

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

At the Destiny, Jan was met by a trio of NSN sailors, including a medical officer. "Get out of the suit, Marine. These two lads will see what they do to get it in good shape. Mean time, Drei says you've got burns and lacerations all over it."

Around Jan, armed sailors were dealing with terrified UOC civilians. The sudden departure of the Subjugators had made them believe they were being left behind so the Destiny's sailors were doing their best to assure them that there was plenty of space aboard.

Some were leading uninfected civilians aboard, others were inspecting their baggage and persons for NMX devices or infection. More were further out, at the concrete wall, shooting out at the NMX besiegers.

In the corner of his eye, Jan saw an attractive female officer dressed in an immaculate Captain's uniform walking precisely towards the various medical inspection teams. She was flanked by four well armed, tough looking sailors.

"Sergeant, I volunteer to go investigate the Nekos, if necessary even with my damaged targeting systems I can put out enough firepower to wipe them off the map" Sawyer radioed over to Phaedra as he looked around to check his area.

"You could also frighten them with the large hulking Aggressor! Send Matteo in his Hostile! He's 100%. If they're thinking of attacking, he's in the best shape to take them on!" Laura snapped suddenly at Sawyer over her radio. She had carried Bernhard's stretcher to the medics outside the NSS Destiny but had been attentive enough to the radio.

Jan was two score meters from her and could see the Navy medical personnel rushing to the dying medic's side.

With her tirade done, Laura turned to the task of updating them on Bernhard's condition.

Jan pulled himself out of the damaged Lancer, wincing as he noticed that he was indeed burnt on his arms and chest. Still, that friendly squad was out there and needed help, and Jan didn't like to sit around doing nothing.

"Drei can, with my thanks and greatest apologies, sod off. I could've gotten these burns cooking for all she knows. Just get me back in the fight."

"Reporting, ma'am. One of the Ravagers is MIA, and it looks like Matteo and Jan are taking care of the Rippers. I'm ready to receive your orders," said Rita.

"Good work, Rita. Standby."

"Ma'am. I've been ordered to fall back to the Destiny. Jan Kancre, Out."

"Roger that," replied Phaedra.

"This is Witt; hostiles appear to be neutralized. Requesting further orders Volkov."

"You are to address me as Sergeant in a combat environment, Private. You may not address me as Volkov. Standby for further orders."

"We need to get him to the ship, they have the better stuff. The suit's a wreck; best we destroy it before we leave," reported Laura.

"I will take care of the Hostile. Get him to the Destiny, pronto!"

"Sergeant Volkov, we have no Nekos! Any Nekos here are NMX personnel. But why are they unarmed? Suicide vests? But such a large group wouldn't make sense. Suicide vests are best used by infiltrators... We don't have anyone free to investigate. Send one of your most level-headed Marines over. Maybe we can take them prisoner," Motoyama responded.

"Take them prisoner? Like that one time we let that NMX bitch Shion onto our ship. Not on my watch," thought Phaedra.

"Sergeant, I volunteer to go investigate the Nekos, if necessary even with my damaged targeting systems I can put out enough firepower to wipe them off the map," said Sawyer.

Phaedra switched her comm back to the squad only channel.

"Matteo, Rita; despite appearing unarmed, those Nekos are NMX weapons. You will not let a single Neko reach the terminal alive. Is that clear?"

"Sawyer, thanks for volunteering, but meet up with Laura at the landing pad and see if she or any Navy personnel require assistance."

Phaedra knelt by Bernhard's Hostile and used the emergency datascreen. She took a moment set the dual UCF-4a generators to overload and then quickly unfurled her armor's wings. With a blast of thrust she leapt into the air and boosted towards the terminal.

Rita let out a guffaw and grinned behind her helmet, then snapped to a salute. "Yes ma'am!" Rita took extreme pleasure in slaughtering those Yamataian catgirls, even the ones that the NMX fielded, not because she hated them, but because it proved just how superior she was. Besides, there was more than a little fun to be had when fighting a horde of squishy things in a suit of power armor. Rita sprinted over to the side of the terminal that the horde of nekos were approaching from and found the nearest collapsed column or hunk of concrete that she could use as cover, just in case. Then, she lifted her HPAR up onto her cover and fired in full-auto at the oncoming nekos, sweeping through their ranks with the HPAR held against the surface like a mounted machinegun.

Matteo bristled with a hint of annoyance. 'Damn, fine! I'll call you Sargent, but next time tell me afterwards!' He could imagine Phaedra similarly annoyed, but he couldn't help but feel so himself. As Matteo blasted off and flew low to the ground towards the wave of NMX Nekos, Rita's rifle fire shook him out of his train of thought. Adrenaline shot through his blood as orders conflicted with sentiment. "But Sargent, they're unarmed! Didn't someone say something about taking prisoners?" he asked, nearing the other marine.

He held a love/hate feeling towards the Nekos like most other male Nepleslians but was perfectly willing to smear them into a paste if the occasion demanded it. But this.

Was this stepping over the line?