RP: Die Screaming [ Die Screaming] Civil War.

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Lot

Quilly soared with considerable effort for the weight of her gear and the encumbrance it brought towards keeping herself righted. Elysians were light by design and ever extra pound even to glide was a strain. But while not able to get level with the wall she was able to get a brief look straight at it and the bunkers.

There was no movement inside any of the fortifications. Each window slit was dark and had lips of undisturbed snow. As gravity took back over a louder than normal crack from bellow signaled Lupins rifle and a struck a particular desolate.

But even quilly could see nothing there as she drifted back down into chaos.

Seven mercenaries lay dead around them and two of the five suits of powered armor not including Caffran or Molotra by association. The radio had only counted three, yet that too had been a deception discovered too late by the time Tsar was able to call a cease-fire after several thousand rounds of ammunition had been continuously fed at empty bunkers and now empty desolates. One mercenary had even expended his entire inventory of seven magazines.

The two shuttles had returned to Idle too. No longer on the ground they hovered a couple feet at the ready, facing in their dirrection but unable to depress up to move with a possible anti-air threat still up there.

Likewise smoke billowed and at least two of the cars were now on fire; Ranging in the wind as normal curtains of smoke were blown aside to trails just a few feet off the ground and more toward the marines and mercs than anyone else.

"Reload and form back up!" Tsar shouted, mirth in his tone against everything else before sharine a grin to Caffran nearby.

"They got us good." He admitted after the loss of 1/5th of his men to seemingly one opponent.

"It's safe to say they arent feeling very talkative, Sergeant!" He joked as a shout of "Contact!" Filled the air.

Weapons leveled back up towards the wall for a tense moment even as nothing happened.

"Who called it?" Someone shouted, as one of the Kuvexian PA suits raised a quick hand.

"Heat signatures on the wall." An accented voice spoke from the armor, a Nepleslian made COIN-fed weapon looking out of sorts in the sleek white-painted armor. Upon closer inspection a small shape popped back up, skylined and easier to see as a form leaned over the wall to look down at them a hundred meters away and above them.

The form was Big. With a few smaller individuals off to the side he was clearly twice their size and by the sharp brutal angles of the armor he was wearing in all likelihood was in powered armor as well, the long-shoulder pinions iconic to a VOID suit of armor easy to differentiate.

The voice that could be heard was over the comms from before but also through some kind of loudspeaker system. As a familiar voice sounded in their ears and from afar, more and more shapes took up positions on the wall.

"Cantur-bury," The thick, warm, and friendly accent of Bors Kuznyetski filled their comms like the sound of an idling tank.

"Marines, Friends, unwelcomed guests." His tone was cordial if brogue like an old friendly grandfather as the friendly mirth of the Kuznyetski often was.

"By the authority of deputy-governor Mikandyr Koltirsich you cease your civil unrest and lay down your arms and submit yourself to my custody under suspicion of treason," Borok half grunted a clearly rehearsed statement before following it up with "Or you will die." as if it were just a casually and almost forgotten term in a verbal contract.

"I stand corrected, That sniper of yours any good?" Tsar asked, drawing a 12mm rpb and tweaking his neck. "5 DA says the old bear has his helmet off."

Following this Tsars spoke too quietly to be heard as the three remaining suits of powered armor under his command took up ready positions. With limited smoke cover and no actual cover they were all still in the open under a clear killbox and the garage entrance was still almost a hundred meters away...

While this went on Haisley and Tobias found something she had not quite been looking for but stumbled upon all the same. Several simple node connections not under nearly the same impenetrable connections inside the facility. Their nomenclature read as five Na-j3 'courier' drones and a not insubstantial surplus of Red-manufactured
Ze-J1 'Jimmy' combat drones all powered down but still able to receive a signal. Their location was unknown but by the NPF nomenclature on them, it wasnt a hard guess that they were underground somwhere...

 

[Cowboy]

Caffran cursed as he was nocked off his feet by the sniper round brushed his side. It had snagged part of his camo-cloak and had whipped him around. Pretty damn good shooting. He took cover as best he could had retuned a few rounds of fire with his auto cannon but as he didn't have a clear target stopped and waited.

Caffran could just snort at Tzar as he made his comment. "I can't argue with that. I'm going to have to remember that little trick." Things were not off to a good start. He was disappointed that Borok hadn't responded. Caff really felt that he could have reached an agreement with the old man if only they could reach him. Maybe Borok wasn't in command of the shield array.

That was quickly disproved a moment later when Borok literally called out to them. Well, at least they knew where they stood. Caff looked back at Tzar. Despite his hate of the man, they were in this together. "Just tell him where you want to place the round and I'll lay 100DA he hits it." Caffran said simply.

Caffran engaged his suits active camo. Of course there were several kinds of sensors that would be able to pick it up, but it would at least hide him from most common ones. As he moved forward he used his own speakers to respond. "You turn that shield on and were out of here Borok. That is all I care about is getting that shield on to protect this city from what is coming, including you and your men. Those are my orders from the MSMC and no authority is above that. I'll do whatever it takes, even killing all your men to see that happen, although I'll take no pleasure in doing it."

Over his own teams comms he said, "Keep pushing forward. Time is short."

 

[club24]

The cybercat shot Tobias a weird look, despite it being unperceivable behind her helmeted face she was a little concerned and treading new waters, Haisely had never had someone watching her back in cyberspace before, at least not for a very long time or in anything this serious. Eventually the pinkhaired nepper shook herself back to more sensible thoughts and muttered a brief "Thanks... Just watch your brain in there, you're no good to me if they fry you from the inside out."

While she knew not to underestimate the ability of being able to jack into a network directly with one's own mind, she'd seen people become vegetables over far less well guarded LAN's. The cybercat deployed one of her own scripts nicknamed "Life-line" to give Tobias a quick out if he needed one, she was fairly confident he'd notice it, probably. While digging around she stumbled upon the drones, the low level of security was worrying, especially with how many drones there was down there.

"Oi, I know you're seeing this if I am. Uhh, I can probably take some offline... or just nab em, probs..."

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Molo's temper smoldered inside of their helmet, visored eyes glaring daggers back at Caffran from the gloom of their giant shield's overhang... Technically speaking she wasn't in any position to question his commands or even offer him advice, but...

<"Tobias, these two merc groups are totally playing the military command structure for their personal benefit..."> A short, terse transmission on a private encrypted frequency. She was worried about being overheard, even then. <"I didn't want to say anything, because he nearly ended up in the freezer with the rest of us, but... Do you think it's possible Sarge is in their pocket, too?... Shit, we need to find a way to take control of this situation... Or we are gonna end up taking the blame for something, even if we don't get our asses ventilated...">

When Caffran's directions to move forward again came, she obeyed, reattaching the shield and raising it properly- Gesturing for Lupin and Quilly to keep using them as cover. Sniper fire could come from anywhere, and the huge slab of metal was at least PA-combat grade.

Would the enemy immediately fire for not listening to their instructions? It was the eleventh hour in all this, but getting the hell out of the open was going to be necessary, no matter what...

<"Cat girl..."> A tense but polite tone, on a new private line, nerves on edge. <"Would you... perhaps, like a virus? Find anything good to sprinkle it on?">

 

[Alex Hart]

Parking Lot From Hell

Tobias began to work at taking control of the couriers. He knew from past experience just how useful the heavy robots could be, especially when behind enemy lines and armed with potent weaponry capable of making short work of infantry and putting the hurt on Power Armor. The Jimmies would be just the icing on the cake. Though they were easy to take down, and not too smart, waves of them would make coordinating a defense against the marines on the outside hell when the defenders were being attacked from the rear.

<<Take the J1s, I've got the J3s. See what damage you can do to keep them occupied and disoriented.>> He ordered Haisley before answering Molotra. <<The way I figure it, they're opportunists, happy enough to take opposing contracts so long as the cheques clear. No idea if they're in cahoots though. As for the situation, I think that the cat and I have a distraction coming up right quick.>>

Once the J3s were activated, Tobias took stock of what they had. Two had 12.7mm chainguns, and the rest had an ecclectic mix of weaponry, one a PMOPE, another a set of anti-personnel assault weapons, and the last some kind of grenade launcher. He could only surmise that these had been intended for use against rioters that had seized industrial equipment, but they'd be turned to another use now.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Lot

"It is not within my power to do this thing you ask." Borok answered as they moved on, the higher-elevated Kuz mercenaries waiting them through weapon sights but as of yet not firing.

"The deputy governor is aware of this ship you are afraid will destroy us by crippling the city. She knows this is not a certain thing, and knows even if it is true it may cripple Stenkagorad.

If this does come to pass our people will last the cold long enough for invaders and vultures to succumb to it. And without his army for hire the false governor will have no oppressors in the system to keep his claim and Stenkagorad will be of the Kuz as it was before."

The deputy governor in no uncertain terms Borok claimed was willing to call the bluff on the Feast of the Stars doing damage to or causing an EMP that might cripple the city if it meant Tsar and all of his men froze to death first.

They made it 2/3rds of the way to the garage when a loud rumble of engine wash could be heard over the wind and a form could be seen at the top of the hundreds of steps.

It rose at first over the lip before slamming down on both treads and biting its grip into the rockcrete steps. At roughly a hundred tons much of the sharp corners broke under its weight but did not impede the tank as the previous description of the steps leading up to the admin hall really was able to accompany a Maximus Main Battle Tank as the privately owned tank started down the steps at a steady clip.

A dozen mercenaries followed behind it, slower to traverse the broken steps as Borok in his VOID powered armor moved to the top of the stairs to look down on them once more. Even ahead of the tank and some of his men he took several casual steps and then jumped down the several hundred feet before the suits thrusters took over and broke his fall before the ground. Clearly more for intimidation than to actually engage them first he started towards them the hundred or so meters at a casual walk, sliding the VOIDs helmet onto his head as he did so.

At this the mercenaries and marines started to double-time it towards the garage. With some shouted orders half of Tsars mercenaries broke off, a handful of them unlimbering man-portable anti tank weapons while some of his infantry started firing at the exposed Kuz troops on the stairs.

his two remaining suits of powered armor moved to intercept Borok who despite still walking towards them with finality deployed several shield drones in preperation.

When they made it to the two outriders and before they were out of sight the tanks laser-AMS was already shooting down one rocket and the two suits of powered armor were dashing at opposite angles while laying into the heavier suit of powered armor with PA-scale energy rifles that were absorbed by the VOIDs energy shielding.

Stopping at the top despite the rush, two of Tsars men rushed ahead to check the outriders for booby traps. Within a moment they gave the all clear and Tsar, eight of his men, less than ten marines, and five NAM techs moved into the yellow, dull interior lighting that ran down almost fifty feet at a generous grade down into the garage.

Outside, the Maximus fired its main gun with a defiant boom and the ground shook momentarily.

"On point!" Francis called as she moved to the front of the group with her shotgun, fufilling her role as combat specialist and clearly eager to get away from a tank at their backs.

Garage

As they moved down Tobias and Haisley were able to take stock of the generous compliment of drones the in-house NPF force had at stock.

Two hundred and fifty surplus Jimmy drones from the last civil war were arrayed in a connecting storage lane and despite not any of them being armed the two and a half hundred "ONLINE" responses that flooded the radio net they connected to near simultaneously was almost deafening. Sealed behind gates and in cradles each drone began systematically shaking and breaking their way out of their storage restraints and from the distant sound of someone trying to drag a chain link fence through a wood chipper were already assaulting the secure doors with metal fists and their bodies.

They would not be out soon, but when they did, weapons or not, it would bolster their backs significantly against anyone coming from behind.

The couriers were a different story.

Lined up in little designated spots like toy soldiers the much fewer at only five drones the Couriers were already in the garage. The manifest had listed thirty of them but where the others were was a mystery with little time to sort through logs.

Tobias had been wrong, however. Each Courier had a listed weapon configuration ready but while each drone had a mounted and not easily-removed weapon; Every single Courier listed all their subsequent ammunition as depleted. A few smoke grenades at most any of them had to offer.

They could be re-armed. The DRT had a nearby armory just for that but just getting to it let alone into it would take hours they didnt have.

So they had a small drone army still separated from them, and five more readily available drones with little ready combat utility.

They saw all this as they reached the bottom of the garage ramp into a nearly-empty NPF garage.

There was at most a dozen enforcer hover patrol cars spread about, another outrider, a couple large double-length command vehicles for DRT operations, and any number of doors and elevators all secure with keypads and locks.


At the end of the garage, however; Cordoned off by barriers and warning signs was a ten foot tall, square, vault door. There were criss-crossing metal bar fences around it forcing anyone to enter through a single open rectangular security checkpoint at most one at a time but was unmanned as fifty-meters away the DRT billet was before them with no sign of anyone else in the garage though there was ample place to take cover there was lucky nowhere to hide another tank without them noticing...

 

[Alex Hart]

Cursing the lack of ammunition in the Couriers, Tobias moved moust of the couriers into place to act as yet more shield projectors for those engaging the bulk of the mercenary forces, as he ordered the final Courier to begin to use its robotic strength to attempt to tear down some of the fencing that would funnel friendly forces one-by-one towards their objective. He recalled his smaller shield projector drones, having them swap with the couriers. The larger and bulkier machines would do more good in the open, and if need be their fusion plants could be overloaded as makeshift bombs.

Making his way over towards one of the access panels, and attempted to gain access to the local security circuit in order to deactivate the locks in the area. Having scraped some credentials during his and Haisley's earlier incursions, he used those in order to help give him a shortcut to code combinations. While he worked, he gestured to the police vehicles. "Someone see if there's something useful in those, would you?"

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Garage

When the last of Tsars wounded men made it down the outramp the mercenaries began barricading. Without powered armor they couldnt move much but anything that could scrounge to add to the mass of a baracade was at the base of the ramp and several metalfoam grenades were carefully set off to create cover and a funnel.

"You two, " Tsar gestured to two of his men. "AT primed and ready. If that tank tries to come down here it will show its lower front pannel where the armor is weak before it shifts down the ramp. Hit it there if it shows and it should knock out the transmission."

Meanwhile a couple of the NAM techs moved around recovering ammo from the marines such as corporal Havoc from her PMOPE and others and going through the effort of reloading the weapons on the couriers and updating the software to allow them to fire. There were few enough grenades but with at least one SPAID armed courier and one with a PMOPE their offset firepower was considerably enhanced.

As for the Jimmys there was an issue. Slowly but catastrophically control over the drones was wrested from Tobias and Haisley as the still present precinct JANE fought them. Not the most advanced AI it was more than enough using it's ability to draw from the processing of the admins hall matrix of JANEs for security reasons it was very quickly taking control of individual drones and then using them to disable other drones.

The precinct JANE even aided them slightly coincidentally or not as the criss-cross of durandium wire gates lowered into place at the entrance to the garage and ontop of the barricade. It blocked any attempt for the mercenaries to use AT on the maximus if it chose to drive down to them but was easily large enough that not even the tank with its considerable mass and engine power could push through it without getting tangled in it like a net.

As for the police vehicles there was little in the patrol cars being all locked with little more than a visible rack in any of them with an old-model M2 or a westech shotgun.. The command vehicles, however, put several pieces of the puzzle into place.

"Catunrbury, your techs are going to want to see this!" Tsar shouted. Inside one of the command vehicles somehow Tsar and a couple of his mercs had managed to get acess to some of the terminals. There were some already accessed cameras and already the precinct JANE was monitoring what they were doing as evident as a couple cameras screens went black.

But clearly what Tsar had wanted them to see was several points of view on several monitors. Connected to the precincts net as it was the command vehicle had acess to the feed of every single suit of GOLEM armor in the area. It showed each marines point of view and their HUDs which was concerning enough that the precinct JANE was likely watching their every action from their eyes but what Tsar pointed to was a feed from armor that didnt belong to any of the marines.

The feed showed a disorienting view of someone looking at a screen much like they were but through the eyes of one of their GOLEM armors that in turn showed the screen looking through the first suits optics showing a never-ending loop of smaller and smaller screens. As they watched the view shifted as whoever it was figured out what they were looking at and swung to show some kind of command center where a couple men and women in blue-black fatigues of the NPF were at stations.

The POV continued to change as the likely officer in the Golem armor left the room and started moving through several corridors casually with unmarked rooms all of which were empty.

"I've tried several radio channels and even some of the instruments here but have no way to communicate with those officers." Tsar informed, "They clearly know we are here though."

As if on que the officers feed went from them opening a door to cutting out completely as every single other monitor except those of the marines points of view went dark.

"Not all the NPF fled, clearly. But the question is whose side are they on?" Tsar mused as someone banged on the side of the command vehicle and one of the mercs rushed in.

"They're here, boss!" He shouted.

Outside and up the gated off ramp a much smaller suit of Impulse powered armor began walking down the garage ramp, dragging the limp and half crumpled suit of kuvexian mercenary powered armor behind it like a sack as the black-white-gray camouflaged armor held a large autorifle in the other casually lowered as it moved menacingly down the ramp while foot-mobile members of the Black Snakes held position at the top.

"Kilgee, catgirl, molo!" Francis shouted with urgency as she, Havoc and a few of the mercenaries took up positions behind patrol cars all aiming at the lowered gates.

"If you're done in there could you fucking hurry already and-" Francis flinched as the impulse armor came close enough to throw the kuvexian armor down and hip fire a lazy burst through the lowered gate as sparks flew from high caliber COIN rounds passing through it and scattering a mercenary who peaked from the metalfoam.

"Fuck!" She continued, ejecting several shotgun rounds from her weapon and sliding several black-colored cartridges into the breach.

"We aint romancing our way out of this one! Either have Quills blow the door, start buttering up the JANE, use the fucking vault intercomm, make a new hole into the admin hall, or do something because-"

Francis flinched again as another burst of COIN rounds clearly as a scare tactic cut through as the feet of the impulse armor showed and then the rest of the suit as the suit of powered armor stood just high enough up the ramp that it could see over the barricade as it held its rifle by the hip and slowly scanned through the gate into the garage. Luckily the garage turned several meters after the gate and while the armor couldn't see most of them at that angle it could see enough as it casually tracked a mercenary running from cover to cover with a slow turning of its head.

Several other forms ran up them tugging some kind of cable they hooked to the gate with a large metal hook. Tsar raised one of his pistols to fire at the men but ducked as the impulse armor fired again.

With a roar of a powerful engine that could only be the maximus the gate began to deform and warp as the tank played tug of war with a security barrier...

 

[club24]

Haisely had been rummaging through several police cars as Tobias suggested since the JANE has wrestled control of the drones back and she wasn’t quite quick enough to keep up with just a laptop and her fingers. When the call to get out came through the catgirl looked up at the gates and around to their other squad members taking stock of the situation, she was definitely too close.

Haisely immediately bounced back to the rear lines and took cover watching as the tank began the process of pulling down the gate.

 

[Arbitrated]

Quilly checked her stock again, cursing her earlier foresight at attempting to keep the building intact. Now, rather than carrying enough boom booms to level the building, she had a grand total of three wallpunchers, four thermite charges, and a miniscule amount of Serious Putty. She'd have to make do...

"We don't have time to get the JANE to open up for us, we're going through the hall!" The undersized soldier shouted as she sprinted across the open pavement and ducked between two of the cruisers, unrolling the bag-like explosive and pulling off its adhesives with professional familiarity. With it attached to the wall, she took a sharp breath and ducked to the side. Rather than open up her squad to a second possible attack, though, she stayed her hand and said, "Your word to breach, Francis!"

It was clear that the wall would get remodeled the very instant Francis asked, giving the redhead the time she needed to take point and be the first one through.

 

[SirSkully]

Lupin thew himself into cover behind one of the squad cars hard enough to send web-like cracks through a side window as the vehicle absorbed his momentum, quickly scrambling into a sitting position with his back against the slightly buckled door.

"Fucking mercenaries and their shields~" the sniper cursed quietly to himself, having hesitated long enough to lose his opportunity to possibly take Borok out of the equation so early. There had been that possibility the big bastard would let them in, there had been the chance his shot failed to penetrate the shield and lit a keg that might've otherwise remained dormant, this whole situation had far too many variables at play for his liking. Yet another shitshow.

"Caff~" Lupin huffed, reaching over to pluck a magazine from the pile of gear Molotra was buried beneath, exchanging his current mag for the new one marked with a streak of yellow paint before ripping the charging handle back to chamber the newly selected HEAP rounds.

"When we go in, and the NPF start pointing muzzles at us, what's the RoE?" came a grim question from the sniper, though something in his tone told the others Lupin knew they'd likely be stacking more bodies in the hallways once Quilly popped that charge. Lupin wrapped his antimateriel rifle's sling around his wrist a few times and waited for another salvo of coins to be fired, quickly bringing the massive weapon up to rest on the trunk of that squad car, letting loose a barrage of near-perfectly paced HEAP rounds towards the approaching foe to hopefully buy just a little more time. Hands a blur as he chambered each subsequent round before the rifle could finish recoiling back into his body, no doubt sowing the seeds for some horrid bruises to crop up a few hours from now, the lad grunting as each shot jolted back with enough force to make it feel like his brainspider was working its way out of his skull.

 

[Cowboy]

A good soldier follows orders

"Do whatever it takes to get that shield online." Caffran told the team. It was a mess. It was a political shit show and a lot of good men were going to die because of it. Caffran list of people he was going to track down and kill for this mess was growing. The deputy governor and was making her way to the top of the list, although the DIoN appoint was in first. Tsar had moved a little farther down list. He was still a bastard and Caff fully intend to knife him when this was over but even Caff had to respect the man's bravery.

 

[FrostJaeger]

Svodog
Stenkogorad Starport
Rush B

I want to live I want to live I want to live I want to live I want to live I want to live I wa-

<"Masato, Avery, stay back from the cars a minute!">

-avoid car right I want to live I want t-wait that’s a wall brake brake Brake BRAKE Oh dear-

With an audible thunk, Masato - whose ears were ringing with the competing sounds of his own biosynthetic heartbeat and Molotra’s warning - plowed into the face of the building and crumpled to the ground; though his armor and his ultra-super-late braking had spared him any permanent harm, the impact still left him stunned for several precious seconds as the firefight raged around him.

Fortunately, none of the enemies presumably lurking above seemed to pay the Shoi’s prone form any attention.

Unfortunately, the Shoi was left with little to do besides awkwardly stand up as the entire thing was revealed to have been little more than a ruse. Ah… whoops…

Then the tank made its appearance.

Part of Masato’s mind was impressed that the stairs had the structural integrity to withstand the weight of a literal main battle tank without crumbling into finely-ground dust.

The other part of Masato’s mind screamed in abject terror, because he’d read up on the unclassified specifications Maximus (RUSE). He’d watched videos of it in combat on SYNC. He knew what it could do to power armor - of which the Minkan was wearing none. Empress protect me…

The engineer thus double, no, triple-timed it into the dark embrace of the garage, his breath ragged as his form streaked a few centimeters above the snow-dusted tarmac away from the aforementioned tank. Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope not dying today no thank you…

Home Sweet Garage

Once his ears had stopped ringing from the earrape of so many drones connecting - seriously, he was going to ask Haisely-san about cobbling together a sound filter once things had settled down - Masato replied with an audible “Hai!” as he went to investigate the nearest cop car; after it’d turned up empty apart from an empty box of donuts (typical) and a porno mag half covered in an unknown substance (definitely not typical), the Shoi began making his way to the vault door…

…when all hell broke lose.

Again.

Masato - while muttering a lengthly curse concerning the parentage of the idiotic bureaucrat who’d misplaced his Mindy - dived for cover behind the car he’d just finished searching as he drew his Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol and set it to Heavy Mode. What I’d give to be in frelling power armor - even the overengineered garbage that is the 4A - right about now…

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Garage

like a hook pulling a net through a pipe the durrandium gate pulled into a shuttlecock like shape as metal warped and distressed with the sound of a starship raking its armor against rock as one side of the gate tore out of the reinforced concrete and the rest hung on by figurative tendons of metal.

"Ease!" Francis shouted to quilly, the backpressure of explosives not as much a threat to those with the masks and helms of golem armor but procedure all the same as there was a spark and then a catastrophic woosh of backpressure as one of the less reinforced doors was blown inwards with such force that it folded in on itself as a passageway was made.

The explosion having knocked out most of the lights was only a temporary setback as Francis, clearing the distance in remarkable time through herself into the breach with the shotgun up and a high-powered light clicking on to illuminate a 10x15 foot room with rounding stairs leading upwards as they turned in on themselves over and over. To look up the well hole was a dim view of perhaps a three hundred feet of twisting stairs leading up and nowhere else.

"On point!" Francis shouted as she took the steps two at a time as mercenaries and the NAM techs filed into the cover of the stairwell.


it took five minutes and 15 levels to reach the top of the stair well. There were doors on each level that led to various maintenance and random functions but from what little they could manage of the fly with their known floorplan of the admin hall were each at best dead ends and at worst just a singular long hall of pipes and valves. Reaching the top was a singlewide door with the designation of 'Floor 16, Base Level' painted in yellow faded letters on it.

The flight up was not unnoticed either. Snakes prodded their backs into the stairwell only to be met with a dropped grenade from one of the surviving five mercenaries who trailed the rear trying to half-carry their injured comrade up the stairs but were not overly pursued further.

Francis did not throw open the door upon reaching it either. Audibly heaving from a combination of her recently cloned body and more recent injuries she belatedly while drawing breath traced the seam of the door with an ungloved hand and tested it with pulling it open only a few millimeters before pausing and turning back to face quilly.

"There's tension." She declared as the two of them got to work carefully pulling open the door enough for quilly to get a look at the simple snare of almost unseen durrandium wire that attached to the inside of the door and trailed up. Leading to a simple metalfoam grenade it was easily disarmed but time consuming as Francis threw the door open-

Admin Hall - Lobby

The main floor of the admin hall was over 300-yards of obstere brutalist and utilitarian open space. with several levels opened up to viewing terraces. On one end was a set of double doors that would look more appropriate deep in the bowels of an underground base to protect against starship fire as two six-foot thick nermimum with bands of durrandium and rivets the size of torpedoes studding them that could no doubt suvive the direct fire from some starship weapons.

The doors, luckily were still held closed by the pneumatic locks and even if they could get the maximus back up the stairs easily enough such doors would take prescious more minutes to even open fully.

From there the lobby opened up to a grand expanse of polished marble floots, rows of basalt pillars, and several dozen leather couches with the stuffed trophy heads of various local megafauna as was aparent by the decapitated head of a yetti and several other massive animals in curios lining walls. There was other things to draw the eyes like murals and trophy cases in Kuznyetski fashion of old but impressive looking weapons encased in four-inch thick transparent durrandium.

At the other end the lobby opened wider into a decorative landscape of granite and basalt to resemble a stoney outcrop with worn brass decorations all exagerating a docorative centerpiece of a a fifteen-foot tall piece of nermimum that clearly once armored a starship as the centerpiece of the lobby. There was a plaque at the base with some descriptor or history on it.

The lobby was so far empty. The only places to obscure or hide possible enemies being the many pillars, the various upper levels, or any of the side halls or cooridors that led no doubt to various government function bases.

"Fuck!" Francis shouted, ripping her helmet off to spike it on the floor in anger, the sweat sticking her hair to her face as she wiped blood from her lip and chin and spat more no doubt from her still present injuries as she paced and threw a fit.

"That's it!" She concluded, letting her shotgun fall to its sling as she threw her hands up. "Missions a bust. We're even farther from the objective than before and now theres a company of mercs up our craw even better positioned between us and it."

They had very much ended up going through the front door a very roundabout way.

"Fuck!" She shouted a second time, clearly just to make herself feel better from the echo in the lobby.

While Francis continually paced, Tsar moved away from checking on his wounded man to rejoin the group as his mercs held the rear watching the stairs and the NAM techs loitered about studying their dataslates and datajockeys.

The Couriers, having made it up the stairs all save for one which fell behind and had its feed cut off likely be being taken down by one of the snakes stomped about on a default patrol pattern around them.

"My chronometer reads ETA 21 minutes until we need to pull out," Tsar reminded everyone, not letting up an opportunity to flash a fancy classic starship captains watch set to the standard calendar time as set on the perfect timepiece in the imperial palace in Yamatai to which the default time and calendar in the sector were set.

"Perhaps we should come up with a new course of action-" Tsar was interupted as Francis wheeled on him, mania and frenzy in her eyes.

"No!" She shouted, half hysterical though she had enough self-control not to put a hand back on her shotgun.

"Missions scrubbed, shit's fucked. We need to evac now and get back to the starport so we can-"

"How?" Tsar interupted back, not even wavering in his tone as if talking down to a petulent child. "Our shuttles are gone or captured and my convoy is thirty minutes out an at least an hour back to our fort; Longer to the starport. If any part of that ship hits the city we won't even be half way there."

Not letting a thing like logic get in the way, Francis turned back to the rest of the marines to look for someone to back her up.

"Mercs right." Havoc allowed, herself pacing in anxiety but not loosing it completely like francis did. "We either pull up our jockstraps now and commit or find somwhere close to hunker down for the end of the world"

"And what about the rest of you?" Francis demanded,

"Wouldn't be the first crash and burn." Colonel Hargraves said from one of the couches though only Tobias could see him as the man seemed all the world to just be one more marine in Golem armor blending in being easy enough for him to miss. Despite the helmet and armor Tobias could tell it was him lounging there if not by his voice and the cigar he saluted Tobias with but also by a gut feeling.

"At least on Novus though it was the flock we killed and not our own; But you're pretty used to killing your own comrades and countrymen, arent you kid?"

 

[FrostJaeger]

Svodog
Stenkogorad Starport
Lobbying for Time

A slightly-winded Masato winced as Francis vehemently argued with the Tsar, an expression of sympathy adorning his helmet-obscured features as his mind momentarily flashed back to a hauntingly similar “discussion” he’d had with Taisa Koyama Diachi on the bridge of the YSS Requiem. Some things never change. Once again, we - to use one of Dad’s favorite expressions - are up shit creek without a paddle, and there’s nothing I can frakking do about it. At least it’s not completely my fault this time.

He sighed in frustration as he leaned against one of the titanic room’s innmuerable support columns.

We could try to ride out the impact, as the sheer mass of this building gives it a decent chance of weathering the impact, but I swore back on the Azalea II that I wouldn’t lose anyone else, and I’ll be damned if I fail at something THIS early on. Damn it, damn it, damn it, if only this was like an aether reactor breach, with memory items and a checklist to follow, and a console to enter commands into - except the only console available is buried Empress knows how many meters deep in a reinforced command center guarded by a platoon or three of soldiers and the deputy gov-wait!

A pillar-mounted lamp coincidentally flickered to life above the Minkan’s helmeted head as an idea occurred to him.

I’m a complete and utter baka, because there IS another terminal location - because what self-respecting politician would want to take a one-, two-, or three-hundred-level-long elevator ride to a command bunker in the event of an emergency? No… if the governor’s like any Yamataian CO or politician, he would’ve had a terminal installed in his private office - and that’s going to be easier to tackle than a frelling bunker!

“Haisely-san,” said the Shoi over his armor’s external speakers as he dashed over to the hacker, “do you think you can find out where the governor’s office is located in this place? I strongly suspect he has his own private terminal - complete with shield controls - and it should be a lot easier to assault than a fortified command bunker. Also, maybe try your NPF credentials? They might give you additional access, and if the NPF’s bureaucracy is anything like that of the Star Army’s, they probably haven’t gotten around to removing you from the system yet.“

 

[club24]

Haisely for the most part had been following along with the group as they dashed through the building, her heart pounding in her ears as the doom was looming. The cybercat‘s eyes darted around every corner of the large room they entered, way too open for her liking with nowhere to run or hide, and now there was talk of giving up and accepting their fate?

The punk girl blocked out the sounds of people talking after that, and sat down cross legged on the floor clutching her laptop to her chest. To say she didn’t feel like dying yet was an understatement, and with no armour her chances we’re getting slimmer by the minute.

As Masato approached she looked up at him and managed to focus her scattered thoughts on his voice long enough to hear the request. The hacker wordlessly opened her device and jumped back into the network, as well as scouring the NPF database and other government storage for floor plans of the building.

”I’ll see what I can do.”

 

[Alex Hart]

Tobias cursed to himself as he saw Hargraves. The old man was still kicking around inside his head, no doubt waiting for another chance to try and get Tobias killed and usurp his body. Listening to Francis throw in the towel, as well as Tsar and Havoc's assessment of the situation. Caffran, for his part, was remaining irritatingly silent on the matter, which meant that Tobias would have to step in.

"We've come too far to give up on this mission now, Francis." He stated, "Like the mercenary's said, we run, we just die tired. Our only chance to survive is trying to get that shield online. That's been our only chance from the start, now it's just more obvious."

He turned to where Haisley and Masato had made their epiphany about the governor's office, and nodded in their direction. "These two have the right idea. Instead of whining about how it's hopeless, they're working on the problem death's breathing down their necks."

"I thought you would have been made of sterner stuff, with how much everyone talks about the good old days, back when Nepleslians were tough and didn't take shit from anyone. But, I suppose you're free to go if you think you can't hack it with us little baby Marines." Tobias' aim was clear, to get Francis to do her job out of spite and pride, if nothing else.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Lobby

Acessing the Precinct JANE was the easiest part due to how obtrusive it was against them currently and knowing where to look having worked with the 13th Precincts JANE, Turi, for some time and having to navigate the nuance.

The local JANE did not have a name. It had a 37 digit long nomenclature at best and was intricately and quite illegally tied in with the five other JANEs tasked with operating the settlement systems making a matrix of six seperate AI cooperating towards the whole of a much greater entity. It was not something possible without the locals not knowing or not having been involved in the marriage of the six AI into a sub-macro AI, and with the Precinct JANE being involved it meant that at the very least the planetary comissioner was also somehow involved to have authorized the action let alone convince a police oriented AI to lend its processing power and duties to other AI and have them do the same for it.

She knew from experience the kinds of info a precinct JANE held were worth millions on the black market through the security codes alone. And even getting access to one was easier said than done.

But she could connect to it. Feeding it her old NPF identification got little. But little was not nothing as it at least got a foot in the door as the JANE gave her a much closer scrutinization.

It was dubious of her credentials. And would send off a query to a central office offworld and out system that at best would take days. But it more readily acknowledged her marine credentials as being valid. Her rank was too low to do anything much to it, but the door might as well have been swung wide open after the JANE acknowledged her and by comparison her comrades as NSMC Marines and some of Captain Maximus' final transmissions declaring martial law as the acting military authority before he departed.

It could not access the shields. Nor anything outside of its ability within the Precinct. But it could allow Haisley to acess the information she wanted and also stop its cyberattack against them.

The most important part was that it could not overturn the planetary commissioner's orders without a direct order from the Navy Captain but it could remove the two remaining DTR teams from the board against them now that it recognized them as agents under the authority of the acting military marshal of the planet. It could not order any of the officers to act on their behalf but it could relay the relevant information about the situation and urge them to if not side with them at least advise them to remain in their bunker.

In total the NPF presence in the precinct was virtually non existant anyway. Two DTR teams of 12 men each, and at least 30 support officers. But of a precinct that should have close to ten thousand field grade officers operating out of it the majority were reported as either deployed or absent. There was at most a thousand staff in the building and at least a quarter of that were in areas the JANE did not have access to such as said command bunker. Most others were clerical and admin staff and were hiding on various levels.

But at least Five Hundred of those were the Black Snakes, it informed them. Boroks team had only been the vanguard and had implied more were forthcomming. But of that half thousand at least half again of that were support staff and were on various levels using offices for administration, logistics, storage, and even a makeshift infirmary and barracks to house them.

Fifty were still outside the admin hall. At least that many more outside the massive doors either guarding or waiting to enter. A good number were now underground in the garage and some even took the stairs at a slow and tactical pace. Many, however, were unmarked and only on record and could be anywhere.

But not all.

At least one team was near them and moving fast along nearby corridors and would be on them in a minute, two tops.

To get to the public elevators would show their backs to the deploying enemies.

But luckily the private staff elevators were just down the other end of the lobby; Twelve of them and they led to every single level, including the governor's floor where his private office was. The admin halls JANEs would usual make the elevators skip that floor without the right authorization but now could take them right to it. With just a simple request to the JANE by Haisley the elevator was called. Being on the 37th floor would take it the better part of a minute but it would take that long at least to run the length of the lobby to get to it.

The nearby enemy team would be in the lobby at least that fast as well if they didn't move soon.

Francis shot Tobias in the back.

At least that had been how it seemed when a body not his own fell forewards and landed on the rough and muddy ground of the unfamiliar world that seemed to take shape around him. Tobias was not so much getting better at spotting the hallucinations that Hargraves put him through when it was so obvious a change but there was also a sort of uncanny feeling in the transition that made it easier.

The world around him was Starke and dim. A muddy ball of churned up fields and trench lines he could almost smell the burn of Norris tanks nearby as they smoldered as the form before him pulled her face out of the mud and with a gasp of air began to scream in absolute horror the way only a slug tearing through her flak vest and blowing out a fist-sized chunk of her midsection could.

Francis walked through Tobias like he wasnt there, pumping the old westech shotgun as she aimed it with one hand and silenced the enemy with a second shot. The ancient flak vest was one thing but the red-armband was another to identify if not a Nepleslian but a Red in some old conflict.

There were others about too. Greens in simular flak vests with their own green paint and armbands who walked the field behind her, their faces blurred and not discernable.

"Francis Euphoria. Next to Eren Zelegar she was one of my favorites'; The real Leo Hargraves that is." Hargraves began, suddenly right beside Tobias as they looked on to another scene. Francis stood, in the same fenced off courtyard he and many others had when they woke up in The Swamp as a veteran sergeant much like Eren Zelegar had as the rules and laws were laid down. She looked scared, confused, small compared to most of the rest before it fast-forwarded to a scene a few hours later in a familiar barracks where an officer of the Penitent Damned red off some of the charges.

"Euphoria, Francis. Desertion, Dereliction of duty, Seven counts of assault, One count of assault of a superior officer," The list went on naming various lesser infractions.

"She still had ten years left on her sentence, five if you count what the deployment on Ukk would have taken off her sentence." Hargraves continued. "I don't expect you should know much about the procedure of the penal unit but the last five years are special. You don't get frozen back in a pod those last five years, no, you become Cadre and we begin the process of rehabilitation.

Therapy and counceling, classes on history and everything they've missed. They are even put back on official active duty and an account opened in their name for those five years to ensure they had a financial cushion when they were discharged. Francis would have spent those final five years being molded into a productive member of society again who could function in a world she would be eased into from the one she knew.

Do you know why im telling you this, kid?" Hargraves asked as the scene changed back to the lobby. Hargraves was gone, but his voice still lingered.

"Because of you. Because of what you did and that grand admiral of yours pardoning the survivors our Franny never got any of that. They crammed her full of drugs and convinced her to re-up her enlistment of course she had no choice. But the edge we usually wear down from their time incarcerated, those five years of rehabilitation-

I would have seen she got them, of course. She could have been rehabilitated. Six deployments, at most a month each she spent unfrozen. Six months since they froze her away and a few more trying to-

Well. Let's put it this way, kid. In her mind, despite the years that passed it's been less than a year since she was locked up..."

Tobias could see Francis less than ten feet infront of him. She had stopped her pacing, stopped her rambling and ranting.

Her hand before had not been. But now it was on the grip of her shotgun and there was a look in her eyes as her face seemed to set in stone cold apathy. She was not looking at tobias directly but-

It was an odd and suddenly disorienting sensation when Tobias vision seemed to split. From one eye she looked the same stock still, just looking past them all with cold uncaring eyes.

But the other eyes disorientingly imposed a kind of afterimage as she moved slightly in his new cybernetic eyes vision ever so slightly as the primary finger on the hand holding the shotgun seemed to move at a suddenly slow and clipped framerate as if malfunctioning as her finger pressed the safety off right above the grip of the weapon and her eyes seemed to shift extremely slowly to him.

In the two seconds it had taken for that to happen his normal flesh and blood eye widened as Francis Euphoria slowly looked his way in the same manner as her finger slid up the handguard and pressed in the safety to arm her shotgun. At the distance he could not hear it so much as he felt the click of the safety being take off.

As the vision in his new cybernetic eye returned to normal and Francis turned her icey gaze to Tobias the vocie of the officer only he could hear that had been reading off her crimes suddenly continued,

"Three counts of murder." The distant officer who had been reading off her crimes before finishing as Hargraves disappeared and the voice faded. A form crossed between them then as Tsar crossed Tobias path to move towards Haisley and Masato who he clearly saw making some kind of progress.

In the moment it took to block his line of sight Francis had turned from Tobias and was slowly looking around contemplatively like many of the others as a part of his innate danger sense he had learned from working with Deuce and her team continued to flare even with her back to him. A part of his mind told him that his sudden eye malfunction was a very small issue and that ontop of the Snakes, Tsar's untrustworthyness, the bugs, and the ship likely in near orbit already he had additional things to worry about...

 

[club24]

Haisely had been expecting little to come from her second intrusion, after her first little dance with the JANE hadn’t ended so well but surprise crossed her face as the hacker’s screen lit up with a treasure trove of info. Anyone nearby would see her helmet covered head look up and glance around frenzied before locking onto the elevators.

“EVERYONE GET TO THOSE ELEVATORS NOW!” She yelled while stuffing the device under one arm and sprinting towards the end of the hall like her tail was on fire. “We’ve got a squad on us in 1 minute and I found a way to gov’s office, will explain later.”

The cybercat slid the last 10 metres on her knees while whipping open the device and firing off as many commands as possible, seal the doors to the hall, tell the NPF to stay out of their way, and even a bit of cheeky speed restriction lifting on the elevator.

 

[FrostJaeger]

Svodog
Stenkagorad Starport
Lobbying for Life

Like a certain Origin clerk, the man known as Matokai Masato was completely lost in his own world while the woman known as Haisely Goenkof did something else in the background (albeit hacking instead of shopping); unlike that certain Origin clerk, however, Masato’s source of distraction wasn’t a novel - it was his own brooding thoughts, and the mounting fear that he’d doomed them all via making one too many assumptions. What if the system rejects Haisely-san’s credentials? What if the enemy (or the JANE) has planted false blueprints into the system mainframe? What if the governor’s office doesn’t have a command console, or what if said console doesn’t happen to have a way of activating the shield? I’ll have doomed everyone because once again I and I alone fucked up royally and caused the death of tens of thousands of innocent civilians by wasting everyone’s exceedingly precious time via sending them off on a wild goose chase. Maybe I should tell Haisely-san to make sure the information’s correct, but I don’t want to interrupt an expert at work and I don’t want to waste even more time and besides there isn’t any way of verifying the data that I know of and besides, what if the connection between the terminal (if it even exists) is broken? What if it’s just an ambush tha-

“EVERYONE GET TO THOSE ELEVATORS NOW!” She yelled while stuffing the device under one arm and sprinting towards the end of the hall like her tail was on fire. “We’ve got a squad on us in 1 minute and I found a way to gov’s office, will explain later.”

The hackercat’s yelling was thankfully enough to break the engineer out of the increasingly negative feedback loop his thoughts were stuck in; though he opened his mouth to point out that maybe he was wrong and that maybe they were walking into ambush, his squadmate’s tone - plus the fact that she’d already began to sprint down the lengthly lobby - was enough to convince him that raising any objections would be rather.. futile, to put it lightly. Oh, Empress, please oh please oh please let me not have fucked up for once in the comedy of errors that is my life…

With that delightful thought occupying his mind, the Minkan began to double-time it down the lobby - only to pause as he remembered something his Nepleslian squadmate had just said.

Something important. If we’re about to have company crawling all over us, then wouldn’t it make more sense to slow them down a little?

“Quilly-san!” shouted Masato back over his shoulder in the Elysian’s general direction. “If you have any explosives with timers, now would be the time!”

Having said his piece, the Shoi resumed his dash towards the elevator doors, once again abusing his body’s abilities to float a centimeter or three above the ground in order to travel much, much faster then normally possible. Please, Empress, spirits, God, or whoever’s watching, let my fears be unfounded…