NMX-held Territory
Somewhere on Ether

As Michael Papadopoulos, armored in an advance suit of battle armor, trudged through the snowy wastes of Ether, he cursed himself for his stupidity. Sensing an opportunity to strike a blow to the NMX on this planet and earn the respect of his shipmates, he had broken away from the Eucharis' away team, and was now making his way along a rock formation. With his armor's internal systems, including weapons and propulsion and non-essential life support, shut off to reduce his signature, the Elysian already knew what frozen meat felt like.

Except for the dead and butchered part. Michael very much hoped to avoid that. Though given that he was moving along the rock formation so that he could get to a good position to find an NMX target of value do that he could launch a hit-and-fade attack on it, his chances of avoiding becoming dinner for some squiddie seemed to be somewhat lower than normal.

Shivering from the cold, Michael grinned at the danger of his situation. "Not much different from being back home."

The sun was beginning to set and the winds were increasing in speed and force, carrying blankets of powdery snow. In the distance, Michael could hear the occasional thump of explosions or sonic booms from aerospace craft. The sharp, ice-covered rocks were terrible handholds and footholds, and many times Michael slipped or came close to slipping down a mountain.

During once such fall, he fell into a pool of light snow and found the frozen body of a beautiful NMX Nekovalkyrja that had been shot in the chest several times by what was probably a Gartagen laser. When Michael looked more closely, he could make out the snow-covered shapes of dozens of other bodies under the snow blanket. He knew he was getting closer to the battle area and the NMX bases.

So far, this area looked pretty quiet still.

Michael nonchalantly covered the bodies back up, and returned to focusing on the mission. Seeing the bodies of the dead, or seeing someone die in war, it didn't bother him anymore. He'd seen too many people die, killed too many people, to spend time worrying about whether or not what he was doing was right, if taking another life was justified. Perversely, Michael actually felt a sense of joy at knowing lots of NMX were dying on this frozen hell of a world. These bastards, he thought, deserved it. Not a single last one of them warranted any ounce of pity. They were murderers, killers, rapists, slavers, cannibals who would kill and rape and eat everything that Michael held dear if they weren't killed down to the very last atom.

Shaking away the anger so that focus could be obtained, he continued to move up the rocks, now using his elbow and knee blades to help keep from falling. As his armor's optic-camo changed to match the weather and terrain, Michael finally got to a good vantage point, and activated his enhanced optics to visually survey the area.

Visibility was awful in this weather and his camouflage wasn't working very well either, with his armor's shape outlined in the flying snow. Somehow in the distance, as it got darker, he managed to see a speck of light down in a nearby valley. The IFF was not picking up anything friendly down there, so it was probably something on the Gartagen or NMX side. It was not possible to identify it at this range, but it did not seem to be moving.

Michael's stomach growled. He had been working up an appetite.

Michael gave another utterance of annoyance as he hunkered down, kneeling to the ground and raising his wings up to shield his face from the wind. Pulling his survival kit from the armor's butt pack, he rummaged around in it for two Emergency Ration Pills. Placing the kit back in its place, he slid back his armor's face-plate and popped both pills into his mouth quickly, closing the face-plate fast to keep out the cold. Swallowing them with a gulp, Michael stood back up, trying to judge what that object in the distance was.

"God Damn this weather. I'll have to get closer." With a curse and a sigh he began making his way down towards and into the valley, moving with slow, measured steps.

As Michael made his way through the darkness and snow he was able to make the enemy forces out more clearly. There seemed to be two NMX Battle Buggies and six NMX Nekovalkyrja. The soldiers appeared to be eating some sausage rations.

This would have to do, Michael thought as he glared down at the NMX patrol. With six neko in sight and two buggies, he'd have to assume that each buggy had two neko inside as well. Taking full advantage of his element of surprise, Michael switched his rifle with one of his two bazookas, loading up a magazine filled with armor-piercing rounds. Laying down prone, he set his other Bazooka, this one loaded with a mix of sabot rounds(First 3) and frangible rounds (last 3), down next to him within easy reach while he set his optical camouflage to try to blend in with the rocks and ground. Keeping most of his armor's systems deactivated, he manually aimed at the first buggy.

Even though he'd much rather ambush this patrol with a much larger force, it didn't seem to really be an option right now. Holding his breath to steady his aim, Michael activated his armor's shields as he squeezed the trigger, let the bazooka's internal mechanism cycle in the next sabot round, and fired again within a second. Keeping up the barrage for three more rounds, he switched targets and opened up on the second buggy with the bazooka's last two rounds. When it clicked empty Michael threw it aside, picking up the second bazooka and firing three more sabots at the buggy.

Using the element of surprise, Michael had successfully destroyed both vehicles, which now were burning in the wind, letting out both light and dark gray smoke into the snowstorm. One of them had got a shot off, though, leaving his shields knocked off for a moment.

The NMX Nekos scrambled to cover firing at his position. One of them took aim and managed to hit Michael directly in the face with her particle beam rifle. It felt like he'd been hit in the nose with a pickaxe. His armor said its overall state was knocked down to 83% but the head was pretty mauled. Luckily, he could still see and the shields came up again just in time to block several more shots at his head.

A grenade landed in the snow near him.

"Fuck Fuck Fuck FUCK!" Michael yelled out as he scrambled up to his feet, moving his wings so that they'd hopefully deflect most of the explosion. Running to his left so that he could dive behind another rock for cover, he fired off a frangible 50mm round at the grouping of neko just before coming to a crouch behind his choice of cover.

Continuing his stream of curses, the elysian switched his bazooka out for the transphasic rifle. Hopefully it'd be better suited for picking off unpowered infantry than what was essentially an artillery cannon.

There was a brief yelp of pain as the 50mm round hit one of the NMX soldiers in the left shoulder, spinning her around at least three times in a bloody collapse that left her lying in the snow and her arm about 3 meters away. Then the grenade exploded behind Michael, pushing him forward a bit but mostly absorbed by the shields.

The remaining five NMX nekos continued to pepper him with shots while he was up and exposed, knocking his shields down to 40%.