Hunkering down behind the STV, at least behind it in relation to the sniper's last position, Helen drew in heavy breaths as she focused on the matter at hand. She had a small chance at getting things done, but there was little choice as she prepared for her plan. One stealthed tendril of hemosynth material weaseled up the side of the STV, before peering out at the mountain through it's surface. Looking out to where she knew the shots came from before, she saw nothing... she figured as much, that was what lead to her next step.

A long tentacle slipped from Helen's sleeve, and gently wrapped around the grip of the STV mounted MG... then, with an upward thrust of gravity and electromagnetic manipulation, Helen caused the rain to gain a distinctively different falling pattern, then, she moved the turret as if someone were using it, before having the tentacle pull the trigger to fire at the old hiding spot for the sniper. To anyone looking on, it could easily be assumed that a stealthed neko was using the machine gun.

With the MG rattling off above her, Helen peered through the tendril she was using as a periscope. She watched for the sniper, watched for that streak of light she was so familiar with, watched for even a glimmer of a scope or a hopeful gleam in a NMX corrupted eye. Give me some sugar, baby. She thought, thinking of a classic Nepleslian phrase, which applied to just a situation as the one she was in.

A T7 shuttle charged into the clearing, its descent slowing only when it came in to land. Yaichiro, still in his AMES, was piloting the shuttle. He landed between the estimated location of the snipers and the location of the SAoY personnel, judging from the Aerial Drone's data. The doors faced the team at a slight angle so they could have some added protection from the shuttle's length while approaching, but not have to expose themselves from behind the craft to enter it.. The shuttle was still close enough for the camouflaged Taii to reach as well.

Hopefully she'd get the hint and lay down some cover fire as the survivors boarded. Yaichiro knew that the shuttle would hold against anti-personnel weapons for a little while, but they had to hurry before any Rippers arrived.

The shuttle made a much more appetizing target. With the door facing away from the snipers it left the windshield in their sights. There was a flash of blue-white light in Yaichiro’s eyes for a moment and a sharp pain. It felt like someone slapped him in the face with a sock full of broken glass. Looking up he could see a crater in the transparent Durandium windshield in front of him. His cheek and shoulder were covered in blood and he was missing an ear. His chest was peppered with cuts and with transparent Durandium shrapnel that had spalled off the inside of the windshield. A second shot rapidly followed, bringing more pain and this time a nasty burn to his neck that made it hard to breath. The crater now had a small smoking hole in the center.

At the same time, the STV’s music stopped abruptly as it was slagged by AA guns of a Shredder gunboat that had emerged over the mountain. The Shredder aimed its main nose cannon at the shuttle and was about to fire when it was hit by a barrage of AA fire from the nearby Eucharis. Helen barely avoided being killed beneath the now-burning vehicle.

The jig was now up. NMX starships were already scrambling to respond. Rippers and more Shredders were pouring into the area. They had to get out of there immediately.

"I would say introductions can wait. We do not get on the shuttle and out of here soon, you and your team will be new residents of HX-13. And trust me you really do not want to stay here." Yaiba said, to Kumiko.

She turned to her companions. "I'm going to leave with my people. Its your call if you want to come, otherwise get as far as you can from here. There is a bunch of hurt coming this way."

Ixta looked around for a second, "You go fight with your people, we will stay here and fight for ours. Good Luck."

"Figured you would say that, here take this." she said handing him her battle rifle. "Good luck to you as well my friend."

Ixta and Dilka nodded and vanished into the brush like phantoms.

Yaiba ran in a zig zag pattern to the burning STV to see if whoever had been firing the guns survived. Although she figured there was little chance.

His voice was laced with curses, Takeyu saw the Shreader and was thankful when the Eucharis opened fire - but now he knew things were only going to get harder. "Ughs, darn it, if we only had more time...." he said and double checked his pistol and survival kit.

Takeyu then looked over at Kumiko, and noticed then that their guest was now gone. He blinked and looked around, catching sight of her near the STV.

"Kumiko, I think it best we make a run to the shuttle. It's probably only a matter of time before the NMX get more here," he said and listened to the pattering of the rain and then moved forward to a large rock that was between him and the mountain, assuming Kumiko was following.

A thought then came to him as he studied the mountain and a few icons around it. He thought hard on the next action, "Kumiko, if we can't get the sniper and if the Taii didn't kill him. What about requesting the Eucharis to lay down fire on the enemies position? It'll give us time to move to the shuttle and perhaps even, kill off that sniper," he suggested.

Another had been drawn by the sound of the drums.

Sukeharu had become acclimated to the soundscape of the jungles. He also knew the sounds of the natives, the sound of the survivors, and the sounds of the monsters who sometimes wore neko bodies. The drums were from none of them.

A year is a long time to a child. Becoming practiced at sneaking around and not being seen (including cutting his thermal signature by using a technique that he remembered from a movie he had snuck into once), Sukeharu soon arrived at the site of the drum-blasting STV a few seconds before the shuttle arrived. Even though he lacked the OS of a neko, he had still noticed the sniper shots. He couldn't target it or distinguish it by ear, but there was a color to the thunder he was hearing that wasn't normal, but familiar in a way that made him want to leave the area. While he was considering this, another rumble of thunder rolled by.

He looked up, frowning. The thunder wasn't stopping. In fact, it wasn't like normal thunder either and it was getting closer. The shuttle swung into position for the pick-up and Sukeharu sat on his tree limb blinking dumbly for a moment before processing what was going on. That wasn't an NMX ship. The design was different, the sound was different...but whose ship was it? The boy circled around more, trying to get a clearer view of who was getting inside as he heard the cargo ramp lowering.

With her camouflage flickering, Helen opened her eyes to see the murky sky, and Yaiba standing over her. She had no ability to speak as she realized her throat was scorched from the blast of heat from the shots to the STV. "I'm okay... get out of here, help everyone onto the shuttle. I'll be right there." She spoke telepathically as the flesh in her throat worked to mend itself. As she quickly sprang back onto her feet, she felt a weight at the end of her arm... the tentacle she had wrapped about the STV's MG was still anchored to it. With a hard pull, she wrenched the weapon off of the mount which would have left it to die in a fire.

Despite the flesh she wore, and the nation she served, down in the core of her being... Helen was a Nepleslian, and sometimes, she thought like one as she grit her teeth and pulled back the bolt of the weapon, cycling in a fresh round before she laid upon her back, laying the weapon out to lay upon her hip and knee, stabilizing the barrel with her foot as she aimed to the source of those annoying blue bolts. She was fed up, she was pissed off, she wanted to ruin that NMX-neko's shit.

As she watched blue bolts streak from the mountain, she made a shift of her foot, and of her hands before giving a tap to the MG's trigger. Her body heaved from the recoil, though she did not back down as her synthetic muscles bulged against the recoil. She tapped upon the trigger again and again, aiming each shot, making sure to send round after round at that source of those pesky blue streaks of energy. Though... her moment did not last long as she spent a mere ten rounds before reaching the end of the fire-damaged belt of ammunition... a curse was spat from her lips before she heaved the weapon off of her as she got to her feet, though still holding it as a shield between her head, and the sniper if for some cruel twist of fate she had missed.

As she was knelt behind the spent and useless weapon, she hoped that the others would have taken the opportunity to go for the damned shuttle... of course, that was what she was about to do as she broke into a sharp sprint, half-running, half-flying for the opened rear of the shuttle as she left the spent MG behind, and saw the Rippers closing in as she went for her escape.

While awaiting a response; Takeyu noticed in the distance, several objects moving and knew that there just wasn't time now. With this he turned toward Kumiko, "sorry Kumiko, but we gotta go, no more time!" he said and grabbed her hand and used the cover of trees, bushes and rocks as he ran toward the shuttle. All this while he had one eye on the shuttle and another on his surroundings.

As he ran; he opened up an encrypted communications to the Eucharis.



He was never very good at giving directions; so he made a real quick check of his math and sent the coordinates for the mountain. I'm certain I may get yelled at by the Taii for doing this when only an officer should be doing this, but given the situation, I'm hopeful they'll understand

Taking a bad hit to its engines, the first Ripper went into a wide spiral and rolled over, leaving a black smoke trail as it sank into the trees and hit with a loud bang. Various Ripper armors were now coming over the mountain ridge, raining down aether blasts on the shuttle, which gave off a loud metallic ping with each hit. Two more Shredder gunboats crested the hilltop now, firing their main cannons at the Eucharis. The volumetric scout ship disguise faded away and the gunship opened up on the fast moving gunships to buy time for the shuttle.

It was unclear if Helen's shot had hit the sniper, but the sniper wasn't shooting for the moment.

Yaiba nodded to the wounded Neko, though her instincts railed against leaving the woman. But seeing her get up and move on her own was enough for her. She resumed her zig zag pattern as she ran for the back end of the shuttle. "Move your asses. We have incoming." She yelled as she stepped into the rear of the shuttle.

She moved up to the front of the passenger compartment and opened the door to the cockpit. She looked at the scene, "This day just keeps getting better." she muttered as she moved closer to check the pilot. As the shuttle began to be hit by incoming fire, she hopped into the second seat and began checking the systems, tending to the pilot would have to wait.