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RP: Kennewes Offensive [Epsilon Squad] Red in the Water

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MoonMan

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MoonMan said:
Rico Sanroma waited with surprising patience as he tapped his foot fervently just to the left of the main Armor Bay entrance. He knew the other Epsilon members had received the message...and he was growing tired of waiting for them to show up.

"Man...they better have some damn good reasons for makin' me sit here as long as I have..." the sergeant fumed silently.

JP said:
“Attention all Marines,” Ally said over the PA system. “The NSS Alliance will be entering an Interdiction Field being generated around Kennewes in 5 minutes. Estimated time to arrival in extreme low orbit is 32 minutes, 15 seconds. I will be adjusting deployment speeds so that all power armors land within their designated deployment zones. Be ready to deploy within half an hour.”

"You heard the lady! Final systems checks! Thanks to Keats here, you

now have no reason to fuck up in the water! Look over the notes that he scribbled up and try to fucking remember them!" Stromm barked over the squad's communication line. He looked around, seeing the other squads in the vicinity, the Sergeant got a thought.
"We'll be going down into one hell of a firefight, I suggest you go talk to anyone you'll miss that's in another squad." Stromm said, in a more solemn tone.

Autumn almost came to complete stop in corridor when she heard the new announcement. She frowned and then proceeded to run, double-time towards the armor bay ahead of the large ID-SOL and the floating Yamataian who were accompanying her.

Uso let out a large yawn as she continued her stretching, raising her hands high above her head to work out a few kinks before removing her uniform jacket. This left her in the uniform tan pants and a small light green shirt that clung to her upper body. Her arms then moved out in front of her so she could pop her fingers, then her shoulders, then her neck, with deliberate jerks of her arms and careful placement of her hands. With her own system checks out of the way she moved onto the NDI Quantaconstruct pad to have an M1 Super Phalanx built around her body.

"Yes sir." Gran responded, his HUD popping up dozens of simultaneous tests and configurations. He ran them all quickly and proficiently, each one ending with a green 'GO'. He thought about the few people he had talked to. Most of them would be down there with him. He wasn’t gonna let them die and he knew they were gonna do the same for him.

"Stelshen, you ever been in underwater combat before?" Stromm asked the woman, hoping her battle experience would come into play.

“Unfortunately my experience with exploding things is limited to an oxygen environment.” Uso replied, using her suit’s speaker systems. “But I assume it will be just like fighting in any other environment. Be careful with your ECM and sensor use, scout with drones, and don’t get shot.”

The Geshrin armorer finally arrived in the Power Armor bay and proceeded to look around for her squad mates. Autumn's eyes were shining brightly in excitement as she saw the bustle of activity of her fellow Marines as they prepared for the drop. She held for breath for a moment, she was excited and terrified all at once to be getting a chance to fight the Reds.

"Ow. Watch it boy." Kagura winced, her shoulder still a bit sore but not as much as before. It must've been the alcohol in her blood making her nerves sensitive for whatever reason. In a moment as she got hauled out of her medbay she balled a fist and lashed out, slugging Gyles hard in the shoulder and pulled her arm away and continued toward the armor bay, adjusting the dark blue bodysuit that was still showing. "Humph."

Gyles clenched his teeth when the marine hit him. "Jeez... I was just-" The tech sentry exclaimed as he rubbed his shoulder, trying to numb the pain a little. It wasn't couldn't be as bad as one of his migraines, but there where many other sensations he'd rather be experiencing. This woman could hit. He shot her an amused look, still wincing a little from the hit. "Hey... I need that arm for things: like fixing that arm of yours. Oh... hold on...I grabbed that sensitive shoulder, didn't I?"

Uso pointed her EM-9L at one of the nearby power armors, checking the sights and then saying, "PEW PEW!" Loudly.

Stromm raised a brow at Uso from behind his nerimium mask. "Woman, are you stable?" He asked her.

Uso turned towards Stromm, pointing the EM-9L at him instead of one of the random power armors, “I’m sorry, would you prefer I go ‘ZAP ZAP ZAP!’ instead?”

Henry was in the Power Bay, ready for when he was sent to do what he was trained to do. He was in a calm state of mind as he cradled the LBR in his hands and watched the other marines flow into the Power Armor bay. This was his first chance to get some real combat into him using his WATER2. He fondly remembered the Kestrel for a moment as he waited for everyone else to get suited up and launch.

Kokuten had finished talking with William and looked around, he had met some of the others before, but there was one that seemingly kept to himself. "Hey there!" Kokuten called over to Henry, "I don't believe we really introduced each other." He held out a hand for a shake.

Unable to spot Rico or the others, Autumn gravitated towards Kokuten when she heard him shout. She yelled with a smile and a wave as she jogged over to the medic, "Sergeant Chiaki!"

Henry looked over to his Medic, Kokuten. He seemed to have the same sort of predicament with the eyes. He extended an armored arm and received his Handshake.
He activated a speaker on his WATER2, "I am - Henry Morris." His quivery voice seemed to do the job of telling a bit about his character, "You're the - medic. Correct?"

"Yes, I'm one of the Medical Officers of the ship. Kokuten Gaiasis Chiaki the 5th, at your service." He nodded at him, but through mid-shake he heard Autumn call towards him. "Hello there, Soldier Wilde!" Kokuten answered warmly to her, trying to get his other arm to wave his SBR.

Kagura nodded to him and kept going. "By the way, just what armors do you suggest using for this?" she asked. "I heard it's a submarine mission"

Gyles smacked his forehead and gave the woman's shoulder a quick look. "Ah man... sorry about that. Well... I'd go for an AIR2 or one of the NDI armors. Or... if you're willing to play it risky, I've got this design that I'm finally getting to try out." He said, almost goading her into asking him to divulge more.

"Well I’ll bite, I always do, what's the design techman?" Kagura said

Stromm caught a bit of her humor, but it was a little stunted as he moved out of the way Uso's EM-9L. "Well, it sure as hell sounds more Nepleslian that 'pew pew'." He replied, trying to add a girlish tone to the 'pew pew', but seemingly unable to get his voice to do so.

Uso opened and closed the locks holding the drones onto the back of her power armor, and sent a small glowing ember of plasma towards each of the emitters on the suit before re-aiming the gun at Stromm, "ZAP ZAP ZAP!" She said over the suit's PA system before holstering the weapon and checking out her communications and ECM gear.

Autumn came to a stop in front of Kokuten, still smiling brightly. "Are you gonna come play in the water with us too, Sergeant? I'd hate to get wet and play with myself if I can't find the boys."

Kokuten could realize a joke when he saw one. "Well, I'll be sure to keep you company." He replied with a chuckle.

Henry looked over to Autumn and gave her a nod of acknowledgement. "I don't think - I'll be in the water." He was able to remember the mission objective for his squad, "We're launching attack - on the Water Treatment Plant."

"Oh! Perfect...a customer. I call it the AIR2 Lancer, a high maneuver assault version of the AIR2. I had a familiar asshole refine the concept for me, but it's a solid design overall. It has this nice lance, monomolecular, molecular weave, mounted with a heavy cutting tool and the PPG. And it has really big boosters mounted on the rear. Kinda like the ones on the DD." The tech sentry paused for a few seconds, with a wide grin on his face.

Kagura facepalmed a bit. "Chances are that we don't even have one of those on this ship." She pointed out. "though it does sound like a trip to use"

Gran finished his diagnostic and sat for a moment. He looked over his mission briefing one more time and opened a channel to Stromm. "Sir, are there any other squads accompanying us on our underwater mission?"

"Epsilon, apparently they're droppin' in the dip with us." Stromm replied shortly. "I have something to ask you though."

The dark haired Geshrin woman nodded at Henry with a smile. "Sounds like it should be some pretty straight forward carnage for you, Henry. I'm not sure how I feel about playing with the jellyfish, that' not really my favorite thing to do fully clothed. I'm more a skinny dipping type of gal." Autumn commented brightly.

"Damn, and here we are with all this armor in the way instead." Deon said jokingly from above Autumn and the others. The cockpit of his nearby AIR2 was still open. "Though I think it's not exactly skinny dipping weather this far down. You'll just have to use that charming personality and a good dose of heavy firepower instead Autumn. And Henry, no dying!"

"Never done a polar bear swim, Deon?" Autumn asked with a smile. "You know all the right things to get a girl all worked up! What armors work underwater? I know my WATER is out so you'll have to direct me towards a nice big one to use instead."

Henry nodded to Autumn: "I've never liked - Skinny Dipping." He told her, "I've just never - felt good about it. That's all." He had a small fear of water, unless he was drinking it. He made a quick mental note to himself: 'Try not to die. I have friends here.'

Ian hopped from the constructor platform, his shiny, newly constructed Warhawk armor and SIAR glinting in the light of the bay. He started towards the rest of the marines, already pondering just how a tactical coordinator was going to be of much use underwater. Well shit. I can't order in orbital strikes, and no one's gonna fly a ship down there. Wish whatever fuckhead thought that a submarine factory was valid threat against an airborne invasion had given me a little more to work with... The tall cadet stopped outside the group and rested his rifle on his shoulder, eying the marines and wondering which ones would die first.

"Yes sir, what is the question?" Gran gave a quick response to Stromm.

"You got any leadership skills?" Stromm answered simply, instead of quickly.

Gran thought for a second, recalling all his experience. "Some sir: I managed a small squad of men in a combat sim."

"Sorry about it, but I've only got one unit prepared. Once we have some downtime, I can hook you up though..." The tech sentry said rather uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck. "So that's two things I owe you, isn't it? We'll let's see that arm." He added quietly, as the two stepped into the Armor Bay.

Kagura just smirked a bit as they stepped into the armor bay and looked around a bit. "Let's see..." she said and just kind of ignored everyone there for a moment.

Gyles replied with his own smirk and reached for the box of tools he had set aside. "Alright, would you care to sit down Miss Balfour? It would make my job a lot easier..."

Kagura sighed and went and sat down to let him work on the arm at least. "I'm still wondering what to use."

"Could you trust somebody’s life by it?" Stromm asked him, hoping for a solid answer.

Gran thought deeply at Stromm's question, his voice sounded a little disappointed in himself. "I couldn't trust myself yet in a real life situation, sir."

Deon slipped down into the cockpit, let it close around him, and then said over the speakers. "Well from what I've picked up anything non energy is the way to go. I'm thinking a nice shiny FMD myself, loaded with as many high explosive shells as I could get packed on this baby. Water, plus boom, equals KABOOM after all. That and I wanna see just how wonky the PPG tries to act underwater too.

Autumn offered Henry a soft reassuring smile as she pondered what power armor she might be able to use instead. She didn't like the idea of using an AIR and instead, pulled out her datapad from her pocket. "Know anything about the NDI armors, guys? Like the Warhawk or the Golem?"

Gyles gently loosened and pried off several plates, revealing the electronics and servos below. "I'd stick to kinetics, since energy weapons tend to have varying levels of horrible backfire underwater. Missiles work surprisingly well too." He said, grunting a bit when a stubborn component refused to move.

Kagura winced a bit. "Watch it. that part is directly attached to....something I think." She said.

Henry shook his head in his metallic shell, "No. I have only had time - to study the ELEMENTAL series - of Powered Armor." He seemed to have a hint of shame in his voice, "Maybe afterwards - I can research them."

"Right. Just gimme a sec." Gyles replied uncomfortably, trying his best not to make things any worse. He tapped his right visor pod, cycling through the databook on cybernetic maintenance. "Now if I recall... all I have to do I replace this part, and clean out these two..."

She nodded with that. "Yeah that's about right. the reason it's aching it probably because it's dirty or something." Kagura said, playing with a bit of her hair as she waited.

"Time to learn, boy. You're my second in the squad right now. Stelshen will run battle advisory to you if you still uncomfortable." Stromm sent back. "If I go down, you're in charge of keeping the operatives from dying."

Gran took a deep breath with his microphone off. This is it... I can't let any of them die. Gran concentrated, trying to keep his voice confident as he replied to Stromm. "Yes sir, it's an honor."

"Errrr..." Deon was glad the armor hid his embarrassed look. "Not really, I only had time to read up on the DD's back on the Kestrel, and then the ELEMENTAL ones when we got here. Remind me to try and channel my obsessive manual reading that way later."

Autumn sighed and scanned over her datapad as she pulled up the information, "I'm just sad I can't use the LBR or the SBR. They were so nice and..." she lost her train of thought as she scanned over the information on her datapad about the Warhawk.

"Hey Kokuten!" Adrian pushed through a couple marines towards the other medic, smiling behind his armor. The tall marine stopped several feet away. "You joining us down in the suck, mate?"

"Adrian!" Kokuten turned to see his good buddy. "Naw, our squad is dropping on dry land, hitting a treatment plant. But! How is being in Delta treating you?"

"Eh, it's alright," Adrian looked around at the others, "We got a fuckton of those IPG guys. Apparently, we were supposed to do some big, funky spec ops thing, and then we just got plunged into the water." Adrian chuckled, "Man, I gotta say, I envy you."

"At least they can't see you in the water. We're on open, dry land, and anything could take a potshot at us." Kokuten grunted. "However, I've been wondering, Adrian. It's a question that's been on my mind for awhile."

"Shoot," Adrian encouraged his friend.

"Damn right it's an honor, you seem like the smart type, not the kind of brave dumbass that would get us all killed." Stromm replied, his replies scraping off rough.

"Thank you, sir." Gran said curtly. He took another deep breath. People weren't relying on him for points in matches now... they trusted their lives to him... even if they didn't know it. "Uh sir, would you like me to disperse my notes to Epsilon? You said they were accompanying us underwater."

"Uh... This is sorta embarassing, but..." Kokuten cut it to a private link. "What's the real stuff like? Combat I mean, I've only been through sims and I've never really seen any real action."

Adrian pondered the question for a moment. "Well... shit, I don't know how to describe it. Biggest thing to remember is that now, your job matters a lot more than in the sims. Be prepared for a lot of blood, and a lot of screaming if something bad goes down," Adrian stepped forward and patted his friend on the shoulder. "Just remember to keep your cool, mate. But you've always been good at that."

"Right, I guess I'm just being nervous for nothing." Kokuten chuckled as he opened his comm channel back up.

"Ooh. I love the specs on the Warhawk. It kinda makes me feel all warm and squishy inside," Autumn commented in a soft, near moan. She pressed her fingers to her lips as she continued reading over the specs on her data pad.

Henry was at a minor loss when he saw Autumn melt at the thought of a power armor in front of him. Sure, he did prefer to stay in armor, but this was taking things a little bit far.
He decided not to make a comment.

With a nod, Autumn tucked her data pad back into her pants' pocket again. "Definitely, once we get back- a nice stiff one, would be great. Nothing like a good drink after a mission." The armorer smiled brightly and jogged off towards the construction platform to get herself a nice shiny new Warhawk.

By now Deon was quite glad for the armor plating between his blushing and that 'interesting' reaction from Autumn. He mumbled as she walked off, "Sounds... umm... entertaining? Hope it's a good choice for underwater action too." Oh boy, did I just say that out loud to her?

"Yes, they'll be watching our asses after we knock-out the water detail." Stromm responded.

"Yes sir." Gran gave a nod/bow. He brought up his small note that he had written just earlier and sent it to all the Epsilon members. If they were in a PA, their armor would give them an alert that they had received a message, if they were still unarmed and held a datapad of some sort, it would display the alert. When they opened the message, it would read:

Underwater Combat:
1. Anything explosive (e.g. Red shells in AIR2's or grenade rounds) will cause a massive concussive blast. This can be used to easily crush enemy PA's and breach defensive walls that would be much too strong in a normal situation.

2. Close quarters combat will be nearly impossible. Even with high powered motors, movement would be much too sluggish to be effective and will leave you way open to ranged weaponry.

3. Any weapon that is energy based should be locked and not used. (E.g. plasma, laser) They will spontaneously vaporize water and cause deadly pressure like an explosive round going off right beside you.

4. AIR2's push/pull will be effective in giving good movement superiority over enemies. However care should be exercised, too much power put into it can rip your armor apart.

5. Cover may be scarce and the ocean floor will contain lots of loose and slick material.

Be careful.


Mireille sighed from behind the faceplate of her armor and opened a channel with Kokuten. "Hi there Kokuten! So... what are your preferences for drinks?" She questioned the medic cheerfully.

"Hello there, Cadet Belmonte. Drinks? I'd say... a Blue Moonie, straight to the head." Kokuten answered warmly as he heard the female's familiar voice.

"Oh? Just that? I have vintages that could be used as explosives... you should seriously consider a heavier drink." Mireille replied, in her usual mischievous tone.

"Oh? Are we looking for a challenge?" Kokuten answered in a slightly playful tone.

After a few minutes, Autumn hoped off the construction platform in her brand new Warhawk power armor with the SIAR mounted on her armor's right hip and a canister rifle mounted on her back. "Very nice," she said quietly over the armor's speaker as she walked over to where the others were prepping. She opened a private channel to Cadet McCain, "How's your head feeling, sir?"

"It's doing alright, Marine." He turned, looking for the Geshrin, and deciding that she was most likely the Warhawk just stepping off the Constructor pad. "You rolling NDI for this one?"

"Well, I have a 2 liter bottle of YE20 Vintage Deslauria's Dusk Scotch in my quarters. I doubt you could take one shot before being completely plastered." Mireille responded in an equally playful, but rather taunting tone.

"What?" Kokuten said in a surprised tone, "I'd have that entire bottle down before you could lift your glass, and how does someone on your salary have such an old vintage? Delsauria Dusk is expensive!"

"My family deals in luxuries. It was a graduation present, and I would have gladly shared with my old co-workers, only PR Offices are never too fun to drink around." Mireille sighed, remembering why she applied for field work in the first place.

"Absolutely, sir. The specs on this are outstanding. I have a question for you Ian, rather, a sort of personal request, if you wouldn't mind me being blunt, sir," Autumn asked brightly through her private comm channel with the large ID-SOL Cadet.

"Let's hear it, Autumn," Ian replied, awaiting the younger woman to speak.

Henry quickly decided to flex a little to get his blood flowing, his arms had gone numb. He put his arms over his head with the LBR in hand and put them down by his side, making sure not to scratch the LBR. He moved his shoulders around a little too and his neck side to side.

"Well, I'll help you drink it. The last time I had Delsauria Dusk was right before I left home to join the army. I had a glass of it with my father." Kokuten replied to her, wondering what she meant by dealing in luxuries.

Gyles fixed in the newer transmitter, and pulled out a bottle of pressurized carbon dioxide from his toolkit. "Alright... this might feel a bit cold, but it should flush the inside clean." The tech sentry told Kagura, as he pushed the nozzle of the bottle into the crevice he had opened in her arm, and pressed down, releasing a jet cool gas into the inside of the limb.

Kagura sighed a bit and just sat back, letting the techhead work. "It does feel a bit weird"

"Ian, after this mission," Autumn paused as she double checked to make sure that indeed she was still on a private channel with only Cadet McCain before proceeding, "I'd a chance to finish what we really didn't start the other night. I'd love for you to rip my clothes off and have your way with me." She pursed her lips together, glad for the privacy of the power armor's mask and a private channel.

Ian was slightly dumbstruck, not quite prepared for Autumn to be so... direct. However, he quickly pulled his head back together. "Alright. The minute we're back on board, provided we're both still alive, Starboard escape pods. I'll be there before you." He thought for a moment before continuing. "If we need more than that, we'll check out one of the hotels at wherever we dock."

Autumn chuckled feeling relieved, "It's a date!" Her tone was so bright, you could hear the grin on her face as she gave Ian a thumbs' up. "Extra motivation to get out of this armor as quickly as possible whenever we get back from our deep sea diving."

Ian returned the gesture, smiling underneath his armor. He watched the armored Geshrin a moment longer before turning back to the marines, a distinct feeling of happiness permeating his being.

Deon noticed the blinking mail message once the images of skinny dipping power armor were pushed off to one side. And after he read it the curious marine said to Henry. "Hey here's a thought for you. If the PPG makes a cone shape or a wave with the beam, think you could use it to push a mini wave of water at someone to knock 'em about? Or maybe just stick with the kaboom?"

Henry looked over to Deon. "The Push-Pull Guard - is like a miniature tractor beam." He voiced over his speakers, "You can anchor your armor using it. However, if you use it - as you said, it'll cause - a large pressure wave - on your side. Generally - not a good idea. Stick to the normal weapons, and stay away - from Vibro Blades underwater."

It was about this time that Autumn finally noticed that her data pad was vibrating in her pants' pocket. She had the Warhawk's AI open the message and nodded when she finally heard the contents. She sent Gran a short message over a private comm. "Hey thanks for the heads up, Gran. That's going to be a big help for the others still deciding on what to use."

Gran nodded to himself as he got her message, responding with a kind tone in his voice. "You're welcome. I hope it get you out of a hot spot sometime. Any questions I can help with?"

"Well, I actually decided on a Warhawk for this mission. If you can tell me how to maximize his thrusting capabilities, I'd love you forever," Autumn replied in a friendly, soft tone of voice that had a faint echo type of sound to it.

Gyles replaced all the parts in her arm and tightened them back into place, taking care to not cause her any pain. "Well, looks like you're all good. Overall... it might pass for a quick fix, but it's not the best thing. There is... the issue of that shoulder." He answered, fairly content that his job was done.

"Well with it all cleaned out, it doesn't hurt as much." Kagura said with a bemused grin and flexed her arm then her fingers once everything was reattached. "It feels better at least." She said.

Mireille nodded happily and gave the armored medic a quick glance. "I hope you can you can hold your liquor, and who knows, you might be lucky enough to catch me playing on my piano. So you never know, Sergeant Chiaki." She concluded, still keeping her voice in a mischievous tone.

Gran gave a small chuckle, taking her comment as a friendly joke. "Well, you should use low prolonged bursts as opposed to heavy thrusts. Strong bursts can cause a lot of drag and strain on the armor in water. Here, let me adjust your PA's system a little to accommodate for the resistance." After this he initiated a remote program editor. A blip would pop up on Autumn’s HUD asking her if she wanted to accept.

Autumn accepted the permission, "Thanks a bunch, sweetie. I feel a little out of my element as it were, in this thing rather than fighting the good fight against the evil of monotony and paperwork."

Gran smiled and worked a few angles of the thrust programming. "Well, glad to have you on the team and we'll have to watch out for each other."

"Thanks. It’ll be fun working with you," Autumn grinned in her armor and couldn't help herself, "So babe, you come here often?"

"The piano? I'm pretty skilled with the keys myself, any pieces known by heart?" Kokuten answered as the operative began to capture his interest even more.

"Good. Now do you need a quick rub on that shoulder of yours? I can imagine it's still a little sore." Gyles asked the female marine, contented that he'd done a good job again.

"Really? I had to memorize some symphonies, but I love to do improvise. I used to play jazz for the odd nightclub when I was younger." Mireille answered, her interest piqued by the medic.

Kagura sighed, the moment he touched it she'd automatically react and backhanded him in the ribs with her newly adjusted arm. This time it would probably hurt and more than likely forma bruise. "Sorry. It's a knee-jerk reflex." She said and stood up, stretching herself out. "Guess we should go get into the armors." She said and started to head for them to pick one out.

"I can't wait to see you on the field." Gran finished editing and let out a small chuckle at her question. "You talkin' about the PA Bay? I'm one of the techies. I pretty much live down here. Doesn't earn me much respect, but I'll be dammed if I let one of their armors break."

"So you'd say that you're good with your hands then. Just remember, while CLP might lubricate, Gun oil is better for that sort of work," Autumn replied brightly. "It should be an interesting experience for all parties involved. I haven’t gotten to participate in an orgy of destruction in a while."

"Wow, I wouldn't mind hearing a bit of your playing whenever we get back. I appreciate music a little more than your standard Nepleslian. I myself practiced the piano under with a rather musically talented friend. I didn't memorize much, but that's what you've got to sacrifice if you want to play several different instruments." Kokuten sent back, now having a better reason to come back with his ears attached.

"At any rate, it's a pleasure to meet you. Let's just hope we both make it back, alright Sergeant." Mireille answered Kokuten quietly, before heading over to Stromm's unit.

"Uh... B-..." Gran stammered before cutting his mic off for a second, trying to gather his thoughts and comprehend everything she said and implied. "Y-yeah.... Ummm..." He couldn't form any logical sentences, his face flushing.

"How's your modified thrust, Gran?" Autumn asked again, still speaking in a cheerful and friendly tone of voice.

"Well darn, probably not a good idea to try and get close enough for a good force slug to the face either..." Deon sounded a little disappointed, though he kept toying with other ideas while waiting for any further orders. "Probably could try to just grab someone else, give 'em a good hard push off, and see if it tears the armor up. But then again it'd probably do the same thing to me again. Maybe now isn't the best time for the more random thoughts. We’ll just stick with a good solid kaboom to the face instead."

"Right, all back in one piece." Kokuten said back as he himself turned to around to Adrian. "Say, Adrian, buddy, what do you know about her?" He asked his friend.

Gran cleared his throat. "Yeah, it's all nice and fixed up for you. Your side-to-side movement is boosted some so you can slide through the water easier without having to worry as much about damaging your armor, but you still gotta be careful."

"Thanks, babe. You got the magic touch," The Geshrin woman's voice was ever cheerful, you could almost hear the grin on her face. "I'd hate to break my new toy with thrusting too hard and all."

Adrian, who had been concentrating himself on thoughts of chaos and destruction while mindlessly humming the trumpet line to some old ska song, snapped back into reality at Kokuten's prompting. "Huh? Know about whom?"

"That Belmonte girl." Kokuten answered Adrian.

"Y-you're welcome..." He took a silent breath and put on a grin behind the faceplate and spoke confidently. "You can come straight to me if you need anything else fixed."

"You're wonderful, thank you, Gran," Autumn replied. Her Warhawk made a gesture at him that was very similar to blowing a kiss. "If you ever need a favor, let me know."

"Will do. Hope to see you again some time." Gran pretended to gently catch the kiss with his armored hand.

"If you're lucky, you'll catch me in the showers," Autumn turned back towards her squad again after giving a half salute. She grinned behind her mask and loved the notion of bonding with another crewmate.

"Oh, Mireille." Adrian shrugged. "Eh, I know she's IPG and she likes a drink called a 'Red baboon ass.'" He smirked at the shorter medic. "Does Kokuten want some sweet, sweet aristo-ass?"

Kokuten only stood there for a moment, and stared at his friend as he contemplated an argument. He didn't have one, the Medic suddenly finding himself attracted to the woman simply because of her claims of musical skill and drinking abilities. Her eyes and hands could have also been a factor into it as well. "Ye-... Er... Uh... Aristo? She from money?" Kokuten strained his reply.

Gran, stupefied by the parting response, slowly walked around, aimlessly. He then focused and strode over to Kagura and Gyles, noticing they were un-armored. "Do you need any help picking a suit?"

"No thanks. But she's all yours, mate." Gyles pointed to the purple haired marine, while clutching his side. After answering, he made his way to the Lancer unit in the back of the hangar.

Kagura sighed a bit and looked at Gran. "I do need some help. I've heard that energy weaponry isn't any good underwater and the FIRE has those venting sections that might let water in." She said and sighed looking around. "What do you suggest?"

Gran nodded to Gyles, and then turned to Kagura. "You are right; anything of that sort is too dangerous underwater. Before I suggest something, what are your combat specialties?"

Kagura brightened. "Blowing up shit." she giggled.

Gyles hopped into his heavily modified AIR2, grinning widely as it came online. "So this is it. You did alright, old man..."

Autumn walked in her Warhawk over to where she had left Deon, Henry and the medics as she flexed her armor's fingers as she waited for the drop. "I wonder where Sergeant Sanroma is hiding?" she wondered over the Warhawk's speakers.

Henry was considering the physics of water for a moment, "Explosions underwater can be quite dangerous. They create - a wave of pressure. If you're unsure - just use anything ballistic. No LBR or plasma. DARTS and ARROWS are useable."

"Well," Began Adrian, "She lives in a big fucking mansion right outside Funky City and had some damn tasty coffee. So either she broke into some random house, killed the owner, and let us chill there last night, or yes, she comes from money."

Kokuten chuckled lightly at Adrian's response, "A mansion? Well... That explains her refined musical talent... Man, she must think I'm some sorta' peasant." Kokuten said: the last part more to himself, than to Adrian.

Gran took his first good look at Kagura, finally noticing he knew her... and she seemed to have a very form fitting body suit on. He cleared his throat slightly with his mic off, and then continued. "I see, in that case I would recommend the NDI Golem MkII. Most of its munitions are ballistic and it carries multiple explosives." He pulled up a screen beside one of the quantum construction platforms, bringing up the specs of the Golem.

Adrian laughed. "Who the hell could mistake you for a peasant, Kokuten?"

"Mireille." Kokuten responded simply.

"Hehe, exactly Henry!" Deon pointed the FMD at an imagined target, and was about to give another loud KABOOM over the speakers. But he stopped right before, lowered the FMD, and then looked about the bay. "Wait... where did the sarge go? We were just discussing better living through air-bike craziness not ten minutes ago. Ah well, I'm sure he'll show up soon enough."

Autumn chuckled at Deon's explosion noises. "I was wondering that myself, Deon. I haven’t seen him. Maybe he hit the head?"

Trey wandered around the PA bay a bit, looking for an AIR2. finding one that didn't seem to be occupied, he looked inside "This should do" he muttered before asking a nearby techie: "This thing taken?" With an answer of "no" The Yamataian bodied man pumped his arm in victory before finding some spray-paint cans and 'customizing' it with a swamp camo color scheme.

Adrian shrugged. "Hey man, trust me, I don't care how rich she is, you don't come off as some poor man from the gutter."

"I don't? I don't mean any offense, but I'm just as much a standard guy as you, Adrian." Kokuten replied, arching a brow behind his nerimium mask.

Kagura sighed a bit, stretching out some and shrugged. "I've used the Golem in the past but it's got the energy weaponry I'd usually like but considering they're useless underwater, do you have any other suggestions?" She asked. "I can use whatever armor I'm stuck using, not like its permanent." the purple haired marine said. She glanced around at the others to see what they were wearing for the most part. "hmm...”

Gran nodded, trying to keep his gaze from wandering over her figure. Even though the head of the armor blocked his face, he worried she had some sort of sixth sense. "Uh... alright. The Warhawk is fast and carries a rather nice auto cannon."

"Yeah, but you're all 'Sophisticated,'" Adrian emphasized his last word by bringing up both hands, making quotation marks with his fingers.

Kokuten couldn't help but letting a good laugh break through the transmission. "I guess I do put off a sophisticated image, but it can't be all that better than the rest of the Marines. I mean, I don't want to seem like a dainty hard ass to anyone."

It was Adrian's turn to laugh. "Nice Oxymoron there, Sarge." He stopped for a moment and pointed at Kokuten. "Oh! Dude! I never congratulated you on your promotion!"

Kagura didn't have such a sense and thought for a moment. "I suppose that might be best." she chuckled slightly and looked over. "I suppose I'll go along with it, just using the platforms over there right?" She asked.

Trey climbed into his now camo colored AIR2 and started it up Been a while hasn't it? he thought, checking to see who was where in the PA bay "Oi, Autumn! how do you like my new Paintjob?" he asked her, waving at the Warhawk so she'd know which one was him.

"D'aw, there's no need; these bars are purely circumstantial, nothing you couldn't done in my stead." Kokuten said as he waved his hand back and forth.

Gran took another deep breath, closing his eyes for a bit. As he looked up, he still couldn't help but stare momentarily at her body. "Y-yeah. Uhh... Please remove any baggy clothing or items of the sort and place them in the bin beside the platform. They will be kept in storage until your return. There is a small console up there and it will walk you through the process."

Adrian shook his head. "Nein. You deserve those damn things, man." He then grinned. "But don't think I'm giving you my medbay, boy."

"Probably Autumn." Replied Deon. "Good thing to do before going underwater of all places. I figure we'll hear the boasting and flirting soon enough, I'd hate for him to miss all the fun too."

"I doubt he'll miss a chance to bump and grind with us, Deon. Dancing solo is no fun, neh?" Autumn replied brightly. The Warhawk's face mask turned towards Trey with a light laugh, "Yeah, Trey, looking good! It brings out the color of your gun!" She gave him a thumbs' up.

"Heh, no fun at all Autumn." Replied Deon, a bit of nervous excitement in his voice. "The same goes for drinking, a good game of pool, and someone who knows the best bars to hang out in. All the more reason to not get blown up today."

Kagura perked a brow at Gran, making it twitch a couple times before sighing and heading for the platform and quickly removed the uniform pants and the boots. "This bay is a bit hippy when you're standing on it wearing nothing but a freaking bodysuit." she said. The garment in question was a dark blue color and fitted rather closely around her curves. "And I just step up on the thing huh?" Kagura said and went to go step up on the platform.

Gran nodded, his face feeling a little hot as he saw her solely in her bodysuit. "Yes. Now select your armor on the pad in front of you and put your legs about shoulder width apart and hold your arms out." Gran showed her how to stand with his own armor, standing arms out like a 'T' and his feet a bit apart. "The Platform will automatically adjust to your body and build the suit around you."

"OH man... I'm glad I'm not in he squad." Uso commented over her loudspeakers as she watched one of the female marines go through a prolonged armor selection process.

"This is such a pain." Kagura grumbled and got to work by selecting the Warhawk armor and taking the stance that Gran had pointed out to use. "And stop staring at my ass Gran." She huffed a bit and waited for the cycle to start. She'd noticed how the armor's helmet had been facing for a moment. "And you." she snapped at Uso. "Sue me for not having used the NDI armors in a long time" she snipped and gave Uso the bird.

"Of course, not at all, it was yours when I got here, and it'll be yours when I leave." Kokuten replied warmly to his friend.

"Leaving?" Adrian cocked his eyebrow at Kokuten's response.

"Oh, no no no, I didn't mean that I was leaving. I just meant, if I die, or I'm transferred off like I was at Unity." Kokuten responded quickly.

"Right, right. I get you." Adrian nodded in reply.

"I'm sorry... Do we need to teach the wittle gurl how to shoot?" Uso said over her speaker in an exaggerated baby-talk voice, "or has she learned to walk yet?"

"I can shoot better than you can, whore." Kagura snarled at her and focused on the armor's formation around her.

"AWWWW She's so cute when she tries to use big-girl words." Uso replied.

Trey looked on his HUD for anyone he knew, the only one really being Ian. "Hey, Ian, how're you doing in your armor?”

"I'm doing fine, soldier," Came Ian's reply over the comm. "What are you rolling out, marine?"

Gran blushed hard as Kagura told him to stop looking at her body, which he was doing his best not to. He took a step back as the quanta construct platform sent it's glowing mass over Kagura, quickly forming into the Warhawk she had selected. He stepped back so he could get a good view of the process to make sure nothing went wrong, and to get out of the line of fire between Kagura and Uso.

Kagura twitched a bit, trying to resist the impulse to shoot Uso with the NSP in her arm. For one it wouldn't be a good idea and two it probably wouldn't affect her anyway. "Why don't you just eat shit and die." she said just as the Warhawk formed around you. "Or you're the first one I'm going to "accidentally" shoot."

Autumn heard Kagura starting a fight and her Warhawk shook its head in response to hers. "Oy, dear heart! Stop chasing skirts! We have to go find some jellyfish and shoot 'em in a bit! Save the energy for the squidy Reds!"

Kagura turned to Autumn and said over the speaker to her. "Aww you know I wouldn't cheat on you Wilde-one." She said with a chuckle, giving her a 'thumbs up'.

"Yeah, well I think being directly in front of you is probably the safest place anyone can stand." Uso replied, "If you don't even know how to mount up in your armor I don't think your guns are going to be threatening anyone anytime soon."

"Got me An AIR2" Trey said happily, waving an LBR around. "Hopefully I'll get to snipe in this thing at some point." He looked longingly at the thing, Knowing he couldn't use it underwater, but all the same, he'd bring it along, just in case he needed it.

"Oi, Trey, LBR won't do jackshit underwater. Leave it here." Ian informed the Yamataian.

Ian laughed over his comm system at Uso's goading of the other soldier. "Now now, children, try not to nuke each other in the middle of the fight."

"I hate you, IPG cocksucker." Kagura said to Uso and got off the platform once it finished and tried it out, moving around a bit to adjust. I like these armors, they compensate for my blind spot. She thought.

The Warhawk made a gesture at Kagura like it was blowing her a kiss. "Just keep your temper in check until we get into the water. Skullfuck her later." The Geshrin armorer returned her attention to Deon again, "I was gonna respond to that but I lost my train of thought."

Uso used her suit's sensors to triangulate the source of the transmission with the aid of the sensors in the drones on her backpack, allowing her to point her carbine at Ian. "Zap Zap Zap," She said with a grin hidden behind her facemask before turning her attention back to Kagura, "Remember: right foot then left foot."

Kagura grumbled a bit, "Shut up slut or I'm nuking your candied ass here and now." She said and walked off to just be on her own for a few moments to cool off.

Uso approached Kagura, standing just more than a yard away from her, "Well I might have to be scared... if you could use a gun."

Ian's attitude turned nasty. "Kagura, you're on thin ice already, Chill the fuck out, got it?" He watched the marine head off, still angry about his earlier encounter with the woman.

"Remind me never to put you on a diplomatic envoy." Stromm radioed to Uso.

"Sure thing Beefman," Uso replied to Stromm over the same communication channel.

"I hate you both, just keep that in mind." Kagura muttered to herself, having cut the speaker for a moment and looked up at Uso and continued away from her, giving her another middle finger salute and grumbled.

"I know, I'll just take it so I’m ready when we finish our first mission" Trey said, a hint of sadness in his voice. "How well does this FMD work, anyway?" he asked, waving said arm.

"That," Ian began, turning back to Trey, "Would be a better question for Soldier Keats rather than me." He glared back at Kagura as she spoke, giving the woman a similar gesture.

Autumn sighed and her Warhawk shrugged its shoulders. "Eh, only so much I can do. I could donkey-punch her or something in this baby, but hugs are a no go," she commented idly.

"Well, at least the soldier girl can follow orders," Uso said with a laugh as she pulled her suit integrated carbine up against her shoulder and turned to head back towards Stromm.

"I'm not going to follow yours whore." Kagura said to Uso over the com locking onto her with the system's fire control being a hair from shooting her right there and then. She already didn't like this mission, thinking it was suicide already and now this bitch was pushing her nerves.

"Is the rest of the squad ready?" Uso asked Stromm.

"I believe they are. All we need is clearance and we can start clear cutting this planet." Stromm grunted back at Uso.

Gran heard his name and decided it would be a good way to get some distance from the feuding women, even if they had stopped for the moment. He walked over towards Ian, glancing around. "Did someone have a question?"

Ian pointed towards Trey's Camo'd AIR2. "Yeah, he wanted to know about the FMD on his armor."

Autumn yelled over her comm at Kagura, "Kagura, come over here, NOW. God damn it."

Kagura's eye twitched inside the armor; today was just not a good day. But she walked over to Autumn a bit, staying out of arm's reach and opened a private channel to her. "I'm sorry Autumn, that woman's just grating my nerves, I'm already nervous about this mission and I do not need her jabs."

Kokuten watched on as the Marines bickered with each other; he chuckled a little bit before turning his head in Adrian's direction. "Hey man, this may seem a little out of no where, but where are you from? I've known you for quite a while, but I've never seemed to ask." Kokuten asked his friend.

"Funky City, mate." Adrian replied with a grin. "Shit, I don't think I know where you're from either."

"Central Funky City, ever heard of the Chiaki Research Compound?" Kokuten replied.

Gran turned to the camo AIR2. "The FMD? What would you like to know about it?"

"Uh yeah? you Gran Keats? I wanna know how good this FMD is compared to the LBR" Trey said, drawing attention to himself for the tech sentry to come looking "One of the few things on a PA I’m not well versed in"

Adrian shook his head. "Can't say I have. I was about on the edge of the slums and the central, so I was a little more concerned with dodging gunfire than paying attention to science."

"It was my mother's own personal playhouse until NAM hired her to do the science for them. She owned a small research business that she put into full power when she started living with my dad. I remember waking up in the middle of the night to small explosions and my mother going, 'WHOA SHIT!'" Kokuten began to put his words into movement into the last sentence, making a surprised jumping motion and then trailing off with a chuckle.

Adrian grinned. "Heh. Sounds like fun, mate."

Autumn sighed and the Warhawk folded its arms across its chest, as she responded quietly over the private comm to Kagura, "I know, dear heart, I want ya to live through the initial drop. You play up the killing superior officers game and someone's gonna shoot you before we leave."

Kagura huffed a bit pretending to check the autocannon she was holding and sighed. "I guess I do need to be careful, I never got the CC." She said. "We completely forgot it earlier while trying to get sober." Kagura admitted. "I just want that IPG bitch to leave me alone the rest of the mission."

"Just don't rise to her bait," Autumn responded with a dismissive gesture of the Warhawk's hand. "Besides, I don't think you like Cadet McCain enough to invite the assraping you'd get for playing 'who's gun fits better' with that IPG lady."
"I'll just slap her after the mission then." Kagura said. "Sound better?" she asked.

Gran nodded, looking like a tiny bow. "The FMD is personally my favorite weapon on the AIR2. It is very flexible in terms of usage as opposed to an anti-PA weapon. The FMD can be used for putting down a heavy anti-electronics field with the EMP rounds. It can fire armor piercing Zandium or Tungsten shells and the antimatter charges are just damn powerful. And the Red explosive shell will be extremely effective under water. Overall, it will be one of the fastest and most accurate underwater, just due to the sheer mass of the round."

"Hey Stromm, do you like Aethersperm?" Uso asked, activating her 'blackout' ECM suite and using it to try and jam the commlink between their two armors before he could respond.

"Well, I'm not a particular fan of 'loud shit with fluorescent colors'." Stromm replied to Uso.

"Cool. what about out of the water? Is it anywhere near as good as he LBR?" he said, patting the rifle in his hand "I got a preference for rifles, this wrist thingy just seems unnatural to me"

"Fun? Heh, you could call it that, what about you?" Kokuten asked.

"Eh. Like I said, I lived near the slums, hung out there a lot." Adrian shrugged before continuing. "Lots of shootings and shit. Wasn't a whole lot of fun. Heh, but let's avoid that type of talk before a mission, right? Gotta keep our spirits up."

Uso wasn't really listening, and nearly cut off Stromm's sentence with an elongated, "fuuuuuuuuuuuck... Hey, do those water armors have communication jamming equipment?" She asked.

"Not that I know of." Stromm replied to Uso simply.

"Well we will just have to deal with that when we get down there." Uso returned.

Gran smiled. "As an ambush/sniping weapon it's amazing. Especially when you are working in pars or trios. Each soldier can load a different type of shell and decimate whole squads faster than a Nepleslian can get drunk."

"Well, do you have anyone back home waiting for ya?" Kokuten changed the subject slightly, seemingly caught on the thought of home.

"Slightly, Kagura. Just ease up, you have enough to worry about without letting her get to ya," Autumn smiled as she switching back to her general broadcast speakers. "Cadet McCain, you've fought the Reds before- right? What should get expect besides a massive aquatic cluster fuck, sir?"

"What should we expect? About that, actually. A massive, aquatic Cluster fuck. Whoever decided this mission was a good idea should be taken out behind the chemical sheds and shot." Came Ian's reply. He was, however, smart enough to close-band it to only Autumn to avoid making a fuss among the marines.

"I'd challenge that but I think I'd be disqualified for having a Yam body" Trey said, chuckling. "There any version of this FMD that's more rifle shaped?" He asked, not really liking it where it was, and tapping it explorative.

Gran gave a laugh. "Well, the FMD model you see is what you get. It's integrated to the PA's armor and computer. That provides it with a very high degree of stability and accuracy. And it needs to be fixed to the armor to facilitate the ammo loading from the skirt armor."

Kagura just thought for a moment to herself, still seething a bit but letting it burn itself out. "Well this is still fucking suicide." Kagura said and listened to what the ship said. "Something already isn't right with this horseshit."

"ATTENTION MARINES," Ally said over the PA system. “We have entered the atmosphere of Kennewes. Please proceed to the launch system and prepare for deployment. Expect incoming weapons fire.” The ship gently rocked forward and back once. It wasn’t from the atmosphere but it didn’t seem like Ally was going to inform the marines of what was going on outside of the ship.

"No one, actually. Never really hit it off with any girls and my parents are kind-" Adrian was cut off by the AI's words. "Well shit." He grinned to Kokuten. "Let's go kick some ass, mate!"

"Shit! Delta's form up!" Stromm blared, "Proceed to launch tubes and make a last-minute systems check!"

Uso walked over to the track on the floor that fed into the launch tubes and let the mechanical locks close around her armor's feet, securing her in place as the conveyer powered up.

"Right!" Kokuten said, putting a hand forward to Adrian. "Try not to get shot; I'd hate to patch you back up."

Autumn gave her squad a thumb's up, before grinning over her comm. "Just save some of that energy for me, sir," she replied to Ian over the private band. She looked at her squad mates and nodded, "Let's kick some ass guys!"

Adrian grabbed his friend's hand and shook. "Shit man, I'll have a lot more to worry about than a little bullet hole if I get plugged down there." He laughed. "Don't you get fucked up too bad, either, Kokuten. I still got a bag of Nep's finest waiting for us under my bunk when we get back."

"Hm? What? it needs fixing? Shit. too late now" Trey said, jogging to the conveyor belt and hooking in.

”Yes sir, Stromm!” Gran almost shouted as he trotted onto the track behind his Sergeant. He made a tiny message to Trey:

I meant ‘affixed’ to the armor. It has to attached. Nothing’s broken.

Kagura crossed her arms and watched the others forming up. "We still need to wait for that loser Sanroma don't we?" she asked.

JP said:
‘That loser’, Sergeant Sanroma, had been sitting quietly near the launch tubes Epsilon squad had been assigned to. Upon reading up on his mission data, the Nepleslian realized that the AIR2 model might not have been the wisest choice…although, he was not that well versed in the more aquatic-able Golem or Warhawk NDI armor. Thus, Rico stood relatively silent near his launch bay, reading up on the functions of the Warhawk and the capabilities through his HUD as the rest of his squad readied themselves. By the time they were all done, he was all done with his little study session.

“…cripes, it took ‘em long enough,” Rico mumbled with a slight smirk as he surveyed his men before him.

Autumn smiled behind the mask of her Warhawk and waved to who she assumed was her Sergeant in the other Warhawk. "Sergeant Rico?"

“Yeah? What, need a lil’ help with the zipper or somethin’, honey?” Rico straightened up and crossed his two armored arms.

"I was just so lost and confused without you, Babe," The Geshrin armorer sniffed behind her Warhawk's mask. "I got all excited and had to relieve the tension by myself, I think I need a hug." The voice sounded like she was having a hard time suppressing what might've been either a sob or a chuckle.

“What, ya want one right now, sugar?” Rico replied in between a chuckle, indicating his armored chest with a few motions of his hands. “’cause that’s just fine by mean, just figured you’d prefer one a lil’ softer.”

"Oh, you know I want one, Babe," Autumn replied sounding cheerful again and walked over to him in her Warhawk with her arms open for a moment. "And hard is so much better than soft."

’…babe…?’ Rico thought as he watched Autumns wily movements, a defined smile spreading across his expression as the moment wore on. Autumn was quite liberal in her advances…not that he had much complaint. Rico always did try to accommodate a lady as best as he could after all; if she wanted it hard… “Awright then, if that’s how ya want it, we’ll jus’ have t’ do it…!”

“…the hard way!” Rico laughed out as he lept his armor forward, quickly closing the gap between them as he reached his armors hands outward. The two plated hands firmly grasped the Warhawk’s hips, and she quickly founded herself propelled forward.

"Oh my," Autumn laughed as she wrapped her Warhawk's arms around the armored torso of Rico's Warhawk. "I might have to cash in my raincheck for a normal one later, eh, babe? Unless you prefer Sergeant instead."

’…so it’s babe now, eh?’ Rico laughed along with her, enjoy the moment for what it was…a little playfulness between peers. “Naw, babe’s fine! I could get used to it, gorgeous…” However, as he continued to hold her there, the motions suddenly came to a rather abrupt halt as he turned his communication channel with her to a private one, and continued on in a tone a tad more serious than before.

“Awright, now, I need somethin’ from ya, toots.”

"Oh?" Autumn replied thoughtfully over the private channel. "What might that be, babe?" The Warhawk tilted its head to the side for a moment, curious as to what he was suddenly so serious about.

“Not that I’m one ta complain often, but I’m thinkin’ ya know to keep it in yer pants when we hit the dirt?” Rico said, still holding on through the quasi-hug as he spoke. “It’s all good an’ fine when we’re up here, but I need my boys focused ‘n’ shit. Not worried ‘bout getting’ buddy-buddy with Private Wilde, ya know? Think ya can handle that for me, honey?”

"Not a problem, babe. I know when to stop teasing the poor boys. I promise that I'll be good," Autumn replied brightly as ever, she didn't sound bothered by the request in the least. "I hope that they can keep their heads in the drink and not on my lovely Warhawk. But I promise that I have all my clothes on during the entire mission."

“Great! Now, get back in line…” Rico said jokingly as he set her down. As she turned, however, Rico landed a playful slap across her backside, just hard enough to get a little lift, yet not damage the systems underneath. “…so we can do this shit an’ get back to gettin’ buddy buddy!”

Autumn laughed again, turning her Warhawk's mask to the side to look at him over her shoulder with a half salute. "Aye aye, Sergeant!" She walked back to the line in front of the launch tubes and waited for the drop to start.

“AWRIGHT EPSILON!” Rico bellowed into the broad communication channel. “ENOUGH GOOFIN’ OFF, YA SHITS! I WANT A LINE, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT FUCKIN’ NOW!”

Exhack said:
Gyles checked over his systems, making sure that every part on the Lancer worked within acceptable ranges. The machine itself was just as reliable as the AIR2, the unit it was based of off, but he did have a certain unfamiliarity with the unit. He patched his visor in, and began viewing the details of the unit's OS. Well... this'll take me a sec. Let's see what you did, old man.


AIR2 Lancer said:

[!]LOGIN... G.NEWMAN... ****** [ AUTHENTICATING]

...LOGGING IN...

...NSS_ALLIANCE://ARMOR_BAY//SQUAD_EPSILON//AIR2_LANCER//NAM_COMBAT_SAVTECH_COMPUTER...

...SYSTEMS LIST... VIEW Y/N?

[Y] ...VIEWING FILES...

LOGGING OUT... DON'T GET KILLED... AND ENJOY THE RIDE



"Asshole! I knew he'd put something like that in it. Looks like a nice, solid machine. Good at what it does... jusy like I intended." Gyles muttered, before switching his comms back on. He headed over to the launch tubes reserved for the squad and gave a quick greeting to Autumn and Rico. "Alright Rico... I'm good to go. How much longer until we're in the deep?"
 
Dragonkat said:
Deon looked up from his distracted thoughts at the sound of Rico's voice. The marine then snapped a quick salute before he took his spot in line. Those playful kabooms of eariler replaced by a more serious sounding, "All ready to go sir. Time to get this race started."
Just like flying a bike Deon... Yeah a bike loaded with enough firepower to level part of a race track... Details Details...

Kim said:
The Geshrin armorer's Warhawk rocked on its heels as she stood at the front of the line, waiting for the chance to deploy. Autumn watched the position of the others in her HUD and smiled despite her own nervous excitement. She idly toyed with her canister rifle as she waited before she turned her Warhawk's head to one side to look at the other members of her squad. Her armored hand gave an enthusiastic thumbs up before she spoke over her general communications band, "No guts, no glory, boys! Now or never, like my dad used to say, 'Is est melior morior a proeliator quam ut morior ut piaculum!' "

Tyler said:
Kagura just sighed in her armor at Autumn's excitment and shifted around a bit, wondering a few things at the moment. "Hey Autumn, are you sure the canister rifle's going to be good to use underwater like that?" She asked over the comm. She wasn't too sure if that kind of weapon would be all that useful in an aquatic environment like that.

Kim said:
"It's a type of projectile armor piercing round. I believe that it will function at a reduced velocity underwater but I cannot say for certain. I have a couple of back-up weaponry just in case it doesn't because I like to be prepared for most contingencies. I'd be more concerned about the integrated explosive disc launchers in the forearms of the Warhawk being ineffective in an aquatic environment. But, who knows. I don't think they had underwater battles with squids in mind when they designed any of our power armor weaponry," Autumn replied with a shrug, in a upbeat, serious tone of voice. "All and all, I think Ill be fine. I'd be more worried with I had an energy or a plasma weapon."

Tyler said:
"Hmm but you have to think about the way the rifle operates too." Kagura said. "You don't want something to short out or something." she shrugged a bit with her warhawk. "I'd have gone with the autocannon." she giggled and hefted it a bit to call attention to her weapon before just holding it in a relaxed fashion. "i'm completely nervous about this whole thing. And the designers seem to only take space environments into consideration when they make armors."

Kim said:
"Well, if you think about it- how many times are we planet side? I can't remember the last naval battle I've ever even read about," Autumn shrugged again. "I think with how the actions are, we run the risk of none of these working, or all of our equipment rusting from exposure to seawater. But I think it'll all work out well."

Tyler said:
The purple haired woman listened to what her friend had to say and sighed a bit. "Yeah you're right. But still I can't help but get this sinking feeling about this mission." Kagura giggled a bit. "Well yeah but if not we're all dead in the water." She laughed through the comm system.

Kai said:
"Oh, so the FMD's Okay" Trey said to himself, a look of realization on his unseen face. He stretched about a bit to check the armor's flexibility. As he listened in on the two womens' conversation, the Yammie Bodied man interjected "I hope it's an underwater base that we can go into and use better weapons, like the LBR or SBR, Inside of, then we won't have to worry as much about everything working in water or not."
 
Uso said:
The PA system of the ship beeped softly as it was once again powered up by Ally. “Attention, Marine deployment is now beginning. Please exit the ship as safely as possible.” The first four marines in line for the launch tubes were loaded into the system with a deep ‘thunk’ from the conveyer machinery on the floor. In moments those marines would be fired out of the lower launch tubes of the ship as the conveyer brought more marines up to the launch system.

The somewhat calm anticipation of the launch bay would quickly be replaced with the war zone outside of the hull of the ship. The NSS Alliance was skimming close to the surface of the water so much that the wake from its passing could be seen crushing and blowing aside the plants behind it, causing water to fly up into the air and leave behind it what looked like a river cutting through the green carpet of ocean plants. Its extreme speed from entry into the atmosphere was making the forest of kelp growing on top of the ocean below them to appear to be just a green blur like so much grassland. The Sun was had just risen on the horizon and was illuminating both the NSS Alliance and another DD4 nearby that was performing the same maneuver.

This image would soon be broken up by white beams lancing out from under the surface of the ocean. The series of three beams would pierce through the NSS Alliance’s shield and rake across its front armored plate even as power armors were being dropped out. The DD4 next to them would receive a volley from another direction, tearing open the underside of the ship and causing power armors to fall out into the water in abundance. The smaller weapon turrets of the DD4s would begin to return fire even as the power armor drop continued.

As the power armors fell through the green mass of plant life on top of the ocean they would find their world instantly inverted. Instead of the light of the planet’s sun they were immediately faced with an almost pitch black darkness permeating the ocean. Plants on the surface blocked out nearly all light and created a forest of stalks anchoring the plants to the ocean floor. The ground would be uneven and gently sloping in one direction, towards the shoreline. Ally had made sure that the squad’s deployment speed had been varied in such a way that they all landed in the same area

Their objective was several miles away. The center of the interference could be easily picked up using the power armor’s sensors but not much else would be easily visible. Long range readings of topography would come out more and more muddled until the entire sensor reading began to look like someone was taking a sensor reading of the aftermath of an Aethersperm concert.

Kim said:
Autumn felt her head spin as her Warhawk fell into the ocean below the ship. It took her a few moments to collect herself and activate her armor's thrusters to prevent herself from sinking further. She scanned the area as best as she could with her sensors and her HUD for the others and any possible hostiles. She frowned at the mess that the interference from the plants had made of her readings. "Well, this is going to be interesting."

Dragonkat said:
Deon muttered to himself, "On second thought, I think I would have rather worried about polar bears..." As he slowed his own decent. The marine less concerned about the interference, and more concerned about sticking with his squad. His eyes stayed fixed on a scanner. And not another sound came from his direction either.

Kai said:
Trey fell downward at the water, utilising the PPG to stabilise himself as he fell. Hitting the water with a jolt, His armor sank down about ten feet before he oriented himself and swam to the rest of his squad "How you guys doing so far?" he asked, noting the uselessness of his scanner in the kelp beds.

Uso said:
The feet of the power armors would sink a few inches into the loose, muddy sand of the ocean floor below them. Scans from other squads would be fed into their power armors, displaying that the loose sand was only a foot thick in their area before it gave way to much more solid ground held in place by the roots of the kelp stocks trailing up from the ocean floor to the surface.

Various small creatures were around them, small silvery fish moving in and around the plants while various types of shrimps had taken residence in the sand. The majority of these creatures would swim off into the distance as a shock wave passed through the water. There was a brief glow off in the distance of the dark water and then it was gone. One of the DD4s had managed to sink a Red ship and the resulting explosion could be felt for miles around.

Tyler said:
Kagura dropped after Autumn and used the thrusters from the armor to stabilize herself when she she dropped into the water. "ugh I hate water." Kagura said and looked around through the HUD and visual display of the armor to see what was going on. When the other ship exploded, it sent out a pressure wave for miles and would push against her, causing Kagura to push back some and use her thrusters to prevent herself from being hurled too far. "That's such a great way to greet us." the purple haired marine said.

Kim said:
"Everybody, okay?" Autumn asked through the squad communication's channel. "Sergeant Rico, Cadet McCain, where are we going from here?" She was discouraged from the muddy scans she had from her sensors but relieved that the ground was fairly stable at least for the most part where they were.

Exhack said:
"Hmm... seems like something got the shit blown out of it didn't it?" Gyles responded to the rest of the squad and looked around a bit. Just like the oceanic environment simulations, only a little more alive. "Well... I'm still alive, and everything moves. How's everyone else?"

Have I forgotten something important? Shit... I could reconfigure the lance and reduce the cutter length, or just not use it. Gran warned us about plasma weapons.

MoonMan said:
"Cut the small-talk, boys. If they can jam sensors up like this, they sure as helll have a way to cut into our comm-links. Just don't give 'em a standin' frequency to sit on. Stick to directional laser," Rico ordered through his squads private communication channel. The sergeant sank into the soft marshy mud a few feet ahead of the rest of his squad, checking his systems and weapons, while at the same time taking in the data from the rest of the NSS Alliance armor teams. There were definitely Reds down here, they definitely knew they were there, and they definitely were going to do something about it.

"We're movin' forward, towards the source a' the interference. Don't shit yer pants just 'cause they got some fancy subs, 'neither...reports I'm gettin' from teams ahead a' us say they ain't that hard to sink. Heh. Junky ass Red-tech. Keep yer emissions to a minimum 'till we hit a target. Then, you got my go to engage. Stick close, shoot first, yada yada, we go home an' get fuckin' drunk. Got it boys?" Rico scoffed, throwing a 'forward' motion to his front and starting to trudge at a moderate speed through the mossy underwater growths.

Kim said:
Autumn's Warhawk gave her squadmates a thumbs up as she trudged forward along with their power armors. She kept her eyes moving over her HUD as she continued forward, trying to keep herself ready for whatever might pop up.

Sublimeinal said:
Ian could almost feel the soot build up around his armor's legs. "Nasty shit..." He muttered to himself, his comm off. He trudged forward slowly, not daring to look down. Not that the extremely limited light would allow him to see all that much.

Tyler said:
Kagura just grumbled to herself and proceeded along with the rest of the, but hung toward the back of the group. She quickly got on the comm on a private encrypted channel to Rico. "Uh sir, I have to mention...I didn't get a CC..." She said. "It slipped my mind while I was sobering up.."

Dragonkat said:
Deon sent a quick "Yes sir." To Rico before joining the others in trudging along. Though he did give the ocean floor below a slight nudge with the repulsor fields on his AIR. As he wanted to see how they would react underwater before a real fight. But also in an effort to keep himself from getting too mired in that muck.
 
Rico made a wincing expression as Kagura revealed her little tidbit of information to him over the private communication channel. Normally he would’ve berated her for the small-talk over commlink channels, but he perceived this as a valid concern. Rico had to think for a moment before delivering an answer to her…of course, by the time he was ready, he was grinning in his usual, Sanroma way. “Well…I guess we’ll just have to play it a bit safer now, eh sweet cheeks? We could-“

Suddenly, a number of blips would appear on each of their tracking displays. Information about each target was limited, with such a large amount of interference being sent out from further down their intended path…but what information they did receive was enough. The objects were a big larger than they were, and a fair distance away. Longer than Epsilon’s weapon systems could reach, anyway. The objects were making no notable motions, either, but what scanning information their suits could muster revealed many signs of armored infantry, or small mechanical…it was hard to distinguish, given the circumstances.

"Oh shit. Contact. Sergeant, you got a plan?" Ian readied his armor's weapon, pointing it towards the targets.

“Yeah, I see that baby. Just shuddap and keep still for a moment, ‘till we can figure out somethin’” Rico replied back to Ian, focusing his attention forward.

Autumn pursed her lips together as the blips appeared on her displays. She removed her SIAR from its spot on her right hip and raised it up into a ready position. She waited in silence to hear what their plan of attack was going to be.

Trey looked at the readings, wishing they were in the atmosphere and not underwater. He dearly wanted to snipe the enemies, but of course the water wasn't going to let him. "damn it, I wanna snipe!" he said to himself, before calling to Rico "We gonna sneak in real close and attack?" close combat was not something he looked forward to.

"Well hello there." Deon said to himself, before saying to Rico. "Odds are if we can see them they can see us, unless that interference is working both ways. Any chance we can take advantage of it?"

“Not ‘till I give the go, baby. Gimme a minute to get some readin’s on what we got here, then I can get somethin’ goin’. ‘till then, cut the damn chatter for a minute,” the sergeant replied to the two of them with a bit of a grin. He did have a few ideas running around his noggin, after all…although choosing which one was the bigger problem.

As if the talk between the Epsilon members had been overheard, movement stirred on each of the HUDs. The objects, originally far ahead of them, were approaching at some very surprising speeds. Within a few moments, the objects would be nearly on top of them, each diminishing kilometer of distance making their sensor information that much clearer: they were definitely powered armor, but each armor was being accompanied by something larger…more machine than the armor itself. Shapes and exact details would most likely remain fuzzy until a visual confirmation was made.

“FUCK! Alright, positions! Spread out, find cover in the brush or behind some a’ those rocks!” Rico spat quickly, still keeping his attention forward towards the direction of the readings. He turned his glance at the list of names in his squad then turned his gaze back, as if trying to quickly decide something. “Awright, Kagura, Gyles, move to the right and hold there ‘till I give the go. We’ll set up a flank before they get here. Stay low and don’t chance a communication…they apparently can hear that shit. Well? GET GOIN’!”

Kagura acked when she communications got cut off and the sensors reading out what was probably a submarine coming at them quick. "Son of a bitch, looks like they not only could hear us, they were expecting us." She said and strafed off to the side, using her thrusters to maneuver in the water and tearing through the kelp to get it out of the way. She'd follow Rico's instructions and move to the flank to be out of the direct lines of fire.

Autumn's Warhawk gave a thumbs up as it took moved behind some rocks and knelt down, with its SIAR raised and ready to fire once the targets were in range.

Ian quickly jetted off towards a large cluster of weeds, pushing his way through and setting his back against a large boulder. "Fuck. This is ridiculous." He spoke to a dead comm. He checked his sensor screen again before switching on his Blackout suite.

Deon gave his AIR a quick boost to the left, ducking behind one of the larger boulders for cover, yet at the same time trying to set up a small flanking position of his own once the shooting started.

Trey moved his ass over to the nearest rock and ducked down, raising his FMD toward the nearest blip on the screen. He was ready to fire as soon as it came within his sights, the fuzzy blip becoming a bit clearer every moment, Trey stumbled upon an ability he had forgotten about. " Oh man, We're screwed if they see us first" the telepathic message was unwillingly sent to Autumn, Ian, Rico, and everyone else nearby, louder to some, quieter to others, but definitely a surprise.

“damn it, I said cut the chatter!” Rico spoke into the communication channel as he received Trey’s telepathy. The Nepleslian fully believed that the message had come from the commlink…and replied in the commlink, not exactly thinking the straightest in his tense situation.

The objects came into view: They were indeed a mixture of powered armor and machine…but in a very different way from what the marines would’ve expected. There were roughly eleven Red armors, a few Dark Demons and a handful of regular Demons. However, each of them was mounted on, what appeared to be, a very large self-powered underwater turbine, fashioned in what could only be described as perhaps the most unique form of underwater airbike ever conceived. Apparently the most effective, too; these mounted armors were fast, and they seemed to know exactly where most of Epsilon was.

As the first mounted armor leading the rest came into viewable distance to Epsilon, he raised his right fist and unhinged his Type 2 from its connector. The Dark Demon then raised the weapon in a silent charge…a silent cry to Epsilon, perhaps, but most likely loud, boisterous and courageous battlecry to the rest of the Red’s squad. The rest of them then charged forward, guns blaring in quiet arrays of metal.

“RETURN FIRE!” Rico cried aloud, giving them the mark to engage.

---

Trey was confused by Rico's chiding, Surely, he had only thought that last bit Shit, telepathy, forgot he thought, to himself this time, before seeing the hideous contraptions the reds were riding and opening fire with his FMD at the leader, as he was closest "This thing better work" Trey said to himself.

The few charges that Trey fired were fairly on the mark. The water between the target and the round, however, significantly changed the impact of the shot, causing the first set of shells to repel harmlessly off the Dark Demons’ shields. The leader of the pack, however, seemed a bit more peeved at this than the situation merited: immediately, the mounted Dark Demon changed course and lunged directly at Trey’s armor, practically ignoring his Type 2 as he attempted to ram the Yamataians’ AIR2 in a frenzied approach.

Noticing the quickly oncoming leader, Trey reacted using the AIR's PPG to push the Red away or at least blunt the attack, while slowing the now much closer enemy, Trey fired 3 potshots at the waterbike mount, hoping to rid his enemy's main advantage.

Trey’s repulsion field did much to slow the speed for a moment, until the Dark Demon leader took notice to the change and swung his mount to the side, attempting to swerve to another direction to make another attempt at slamming his foe. The AIR2’s shots were much more accurate at the closer range as the first few shells collided with the side of the turbine-turned-airbike, making two nice-sized craters in the side before the final shot punched clean through the outer hull. Aside from a few shaky motions at the rear of the turbine, the shots had no noticeable effect on the overall speed of the rider or his mount. The Dark Demon took advantage of this by making yet another run, this time markedly increasing his speed as well as sending a barrage of shots from his Type 2 rifle forward to soften his target before landing a final crushing blow.

"CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP" trey was saying in his helmet very fast as he pushed against the rock with all his PPG's might and helped it out by boosting backwards to boot. This was not how he wanted to go, and he'd do all in his power to stay alive.

The Dark Demon leader seemed ready for a change in Trey’s position, and quickly adjusted his mounts’ trajectory. In another moment, the large turbine’s front landed squarely in the center of the AIR2’s shields. The stress from the blow was considerable enough to break through the shield, but not before giving the entire vessel a shark jerk forward as the two masses collided. As the ride-able turbine charged rather harshly into Trey’s chest, the Dark Demon was thrown forward slightly onto the head of the turbine-airbike. The two enemies would find themselves, surprisingly, a bit too close for comfort as the mount sped on without the direction of its rider.

---

Ian gritted his teeth when the Yamataian sent his telepathic message. He had always hated the feeling of someone projecting their thoughts into his head, especially since a rather nasty experience in the Military Police. And then he heard the order to fire. "Shit..." He swung to his right, leveling his rifle in the direction of the bike-mounted Armors. He drew a bead on the leader and opened up with his Canister rifle before beginning to sweep the weapon back across the formation, pumping out a massive amount of ammunition at the opposing force.

Autumn felt her SIAR jump in her hands as she fired a quick, controlled three round burst at the nearest target to her. Her pulse quickened with each quick squeeze of the trigger. She prayed that the rock would take some of the rounds coming her way.

Trey's telepathy was barely noticed by Deon. The marine more fixated on his scanner, and a small bit of admiration at the Modified Demon's once he got a visual. Not that it stopped him from peeking over his cover just enough to fire. Two red FMD rounds aimed not at the advancing armors so much as at the ground in front of the tightest clump. As he hoped the shockwave would do the rest. After which he quickly ducked back down.

Each of their shots was fairly on the mark, but the environment was taking its toll on the velocity of each round; most were harmlessly being deflected by the shields surrounding each enemy powered armor. It was the same situation for Epsilon, however. Most of the shots fired from the demon brigade were soundly repelled by the physical barriers…although, remaining under continuous fire obviously wasn’t the brightest of ideas. As the rest of the Demon brigade swerved and dove into opposite directions around the Epsilon’s entrenched area, they continued to rain down fire upon their positions.

Two of the mounted Demons swerved from the rest of the pack, corkscrewing away before getting a straight heading for Deon. His two Red shells swooped by, detonating around the two armors. The massive force caused them to smash against one another. The two bikes ground against one another for a moment before pulling apart, their flight trajectories rather shaky. Their bikes looked slightly damaged from the impact. However, this didn't stop them from blasting over Deon, raining Type 1 Chaingun fire on the marines position.

Ian watched as the Red DD leader got his bike chewed up by Trey's FMD. I wonder... The marine swiveled his body, leveling his rifle at the leader... until he saw another bike speeding towards his rear. "Shit!" Ian rolled away from the boulder, the waterbike blasting through his previous position seconds later, and scattering a few Type 2 rounds at Ian's Warhawk. Ian flipped over, leveling his Canister rifle and letting loose at the contraption.

Ian's rounds impacted the shields of the Demon with moderate effect, but the real hurt was brought on by the four rounds that punched through his bike. Though not crippling, the shots shook the bike and rider considerably. The mounted soldier flashed a one-finger salute over his shoulder at the prone Warhawk as he streaked off, deciding Autumn's entrenched position was a better target, and unleashed a heavy burst from his Type 2 at her.

Rico was thinking the same thing as he fired upon them from his own position. Something else had to happen…at this rate, all of Epsilon would eventually be whittled down and end up sharkbait. “Alright! Target the fuckin’ airbike things! Try usin’ explosives if ya got em’! They seem to slow down when they’re turnin’…take ‘em out when that happens! Common!”

Deon anchored his PPG to the rock he was using for cover. Then gave as strong a push as he dared in a 90 degree direction from those demons, back towards the rest of the squad, along with two more red shells right into their flight path. And the hope that the demons wouldn't be able to swerve back around in time to dodge, even with those high speed mods.

Deon's idea worked pretty well. One of the Reds tried to swerv up as the two shells blew toward them, but only ended up with two rounds detonating in the bike's housing. The vehicle detonated, and the rider disappeared in the flames and bubbles, although the large black mass trailing red that fell from the short-lived fireball seconds later was probably him. The other soldier was luckier, but not by much. The massive shockwave, as well as the shrapnel knocked his bike into a terrifying corkscrew, which ended with him being flung from the bike, colliding with the sea bed in a large cloud of sand as his damaged bike flew away before detonating on a rock far behind the field of engagement.

"NICE!" Rico shouted in triumph as he watched the two Red foes fall further in the distance. He quickly had to turn his attention back, however, as another pass by another pair of Red Riders showered his position with metal shards.

The Geshrin armorer saw the mounted soldier come after her and used her modified thrusters to get herself away from the incoming rounds. She took the time to switch from her SIAR to her canister rifle but lost a few precious seconds that she could've been returning fire to switching guns.

Deon didn't even hesitate as watched the damaged demon smash into the ground, and didn't plan on giving him any chance to get back into the fight. One ammo change later and the prone red was on the receiving end of a one/two punch. A blue shell streaking towards him, with a follow up white right after.

The downed Red was slow to stand, but it didn't matter much, anyway. The massive flash from the EMP obscured him from vision just long enough for the White shell to blast a hole through his shoulder. The red oozed from his armor as he was thrown back to the sand, the cloud of dust mixing with the blood.

The Demon flew past Autumn before banking hard. Or, at least, attempting to. The bike spun rather quickly, the damaged engine objecting heavily to the proposed maneuver.

After that remaining red was dealt with Deon spun about to take in the situation. And when he saw that red near Autumn go down it was a simple choice. The boosters on his AIR kicked into overdrive to close in and offer some support to Trey.

Autumn fired her now raised canister rifle at the Demon's airbike as she tried to quickly utilize her thrusters to keep herself away from the Red marine as well. A witty remark popped into her mind as her rifle jumped reassuringly against her shoulder but she decided to just keep it to herself.

A number of Autumn's rounds punched through the bottom of the bike. It stalled it's manic spin for a moment before detonating. The Red pilot smashed to the ground, his armor heavily damaged, but still alive.

Autumn brought her Warhawk to a halt and pointed her rifle at the Red pilot's chest. She felt a swell of compassion for a brief instant as her armored trigger finger squeezed the trigger twice before she thought to grant the man some sort of mercy.

The Red pilot before Autumn attempted scream into his mic as he turned away from her. It didn't help. One of the rounds connected with the side of his head, punching through the helmet and detonated. The rest ruined his body. Another cloud of red floated through the water.

Autumn watched the cloud for a moment before surveying the damage and trying to pick her next target. She smiled brightly at the carnage they had caused.

When the two turbine-bikes made another pass at Rico, he was prepared this time. Grinning with malicious intent, he positioned his back against the large slab of rock, waiting for the two rather predictable foes to pass overhead and shower him with gunfire like they had tried the last few times. As they neared overhead, however, Rico let go of his SIAR and quickly raised his Warhawk’s limbs, firing a few sets of explosive disks from their launchers in the recesses of his armor into the predicted paths of the Red riders.

The two mounted demon armors saw the explosives quite clearly, but didn’t have enough time to change their directions. Swerving left and right, respectively, both of their turbines careened soundly into the explosive disks, sending both pilots shooting forward as their rides were torn out from under him. Rico was re-armed and ready, however, as they spun forward. With a growling shout, the sergeant ran through the seafloor mud beneath them and lit the two armors up with his SIAR, filling them with a quite a few gaping holes in their armors. As the two heaps of bleeding metal floated down solemnly, Rico continued to fire his rifle at another target. Gloating would come later.

---

Seeing no other choice, Trey engaged in close combat. Utilizing the PPG to Reel in the DD closer, Trey pointed the FMD at the Red leader's head and shot, simple enough, and from this range it should actually work.

When the Dark Demon crawled closer than he would’ve preferred, he quickly started attempting to scramble his way back into the seat of his mount. Trey’s tractor field, however, made this action quite difficult. The Red Leader was not completely disoriented, however, quickly reaching forward and slapping Trey’s FMD’d hand out of the way nanoseconds before the shot fired. The shell collided with the shield, however, the combined stress of the point-blank shot shorting it in the process. The DD attempted to return the favor by pulling his own weapon forward, attempting to bring the large weapon to bare in front of Trey.

Trey was rather indignant at being slapped, and once again, utilizing the PPG (which by now he loved almost as much as his wife) He pushed his foe as far away as possible as quickly as possible, firing a few DARTs at the forcefully retreating armor.

The Dark Demon slammed a fist angrily against the side of the turbine as he felt his armor once again propel in a direction he did not wish. Trey’s DARTs were not as effective as he would’ve hoped…the two armors were still speeding out of control on the self-propelling turbine. Most of the either were left behind or exploded prematurely against the turbine, their smoke particle and chaff being left behind floating amidst the water as the turbine powered through. However, one of the darts landed in a rather unlucky place…square into the hole that Trey’s FMD had made earlier, to no noticeable effect.

There was a noticeable affect this time around. As the small DART exploded out of sight, the turbine gave a slight lurch and began to make some odd sounds. The Dark Demon suddenly seemed a bit more interested in the turbine motor directly below him rather than his foe as the mount began to rumble and shake, the sound growing louder and louder until, finally, something inside the machine gave: in a short, abrupt cloud of flashing heat and blue-white bubbles, the rear and of the turbine and the Red armor above it disappeared. The front end, still pushing Trey’s armor in front of it, continued for a distance at a markedly slower rate. The Dark Demon’s signal was still there, however, vibrant as ever in the cloud of sea foam.

Trey smashed the piece of ruined turbine off of his front end with his left arm and pointed his right at the blip on his radar, getting a monoeye lock on the bastard. He was not afraid of being sniped from this act, as all the other enemy armors were very busy at the moment. Once more lifting his right arm, The Yamataian Bodied Nepleslian shot the FMD at his foe, sending 3 black shells straight at it.

The quick reaction paid off rather well as the three shells careening into the bubbling mass. After another few seconds, the churning foam would slowly begin to turn red, and in another moment, the slowly sinking corpse of the former rider leader poked out of the quickly clearing mound of bubbling ocean.

---


With the death of their leader, the remaining turbine-riders suddenly seemed to lose a substantial amount of their bravado. The remaining Reds were quick to turn their mounts around and start their way back from whence they came, moving far too fast to follow. As they moved out of sight, Rico shouldered his SIAR and stepped out of his cover.

“Alright boys…report.”

"Aside from issues I hope to resolve when we get home, I'm peachy, Sergeant," Autumn grinned into her comm channel. Her Warhawk gave an enthusiastic thumbs up as she lowered her canister rifle and moved herself closer to her squad. "I'm pretty sure these sharks are gonna be eating canned Manwich for a while."

Trey turned towards his squad leader and boosted closer. "Status is: a little hurt, but I killed the jerk" he rubbed an armored hand over the crunched front of his armor, then continued "I think I need a new Armor, this one's trashed"

Deon just smirked as he saw the explosion in front of him, along with the follow up fire. A course change off to one side taking him from the line of fire as the leader sank. His AIR coming to a halt by Trey, who got a slap on the back as he said on a private channel. "Damn man, and here I was wanting to play PPG ping pong, nice shot though. To Rico he added. "Plenty of ammo left on this end, no damage sarge. Though someone should teach those reds a thing or two about taking a curve. It's a bitch to get a bike to make a sharp turn at those speeds above water. Much less under."

"I guess we'll just have to try an play some Ping Pong with the next batch of reds" Trey Replied, with a chuckle.

Rico nodded as he listened to their replies, although his focus was set on the distancing foes, slowly becoming obscured by the jamming signals ahead of them. The sergeant opened his team-wide communication channel, hoping that Kagura and Gyles would receive it at their distance. “Yeah yeah, nice shootin’ an’ all, but we better pack it up an’ get moving again. Chances are those scared lil’ shits are runnin’ home to momma to tell on us mean kids. Kagura, Gyles…if you two can hear this, try an’ stall ‘em. We’ll catch up in a minute.”

As Epsilon’s short conversations went on, a number of shadowed figures glided elegantly into view, slowly growing in numbers as time continued to pass. After a moment or so, a large shark lunged forward out of the dark mist at one of the floating Red corpses as it leaked blood profusely around it. Another one dived at it…and another…and other, each one attempting futility to pick at the corpse fruitlessly. As time passed, Epsilon would find many of the savage ocean beasts swarming around the area of battle, drawn in by the smell of their next meal.

Rico didn’t seem to take notice as he closed his commlink and holstered his weapon, utilizing his propulsion systems to float upward a bit and motion for the others to do that same. They had a lot of ground to cover…and a very short amount of time to do it.
 
Meanwhile, during the combat of the rest of Epsilon squad, Gyles and Kagura would find themselves trudging steadily far off to the right side of the battlefield, moving forward in an attempt to scout further and possibly flank incoming enemies. However, they would soon find that the disrupting effects of the system jamming far ahead of them would soundly cut all communication with Rico and the rest of their squad. The enemy signatures they had seen earlier were already past them and within the general vicinity of the rest of the squad…and with the two of them completely unsure of what could be happening, they would soon have to make a decision.

"Fuck... looks like we're on our own, Kagura. Must be all the bloody interference from this water, and whatever the Reds have set up, just to screw with us." Gyles lasered to his squadmate, rather iritated about their current situation. He had to keep his sensors on passive, as while they were essentailly flying blind, attempting to guage the situation that way would likely only make things worse for them. "Got any ideas?"

Kagura looked around a bit and grumbled. "I told you guys this was a suicide mission." She complained over the com to Gyles. She tried to cut through the interference to get an idea of what was ahead. "We should probably stop here and turn back..We went in a straight line from the telemetry I have so if we backtrack along that same route we should get back within comm and radar range." She said and checked the armor to see if it had a sonar system they could use.

The two lone soldiers weren’t given long to chat, as a handful of new blips appeared on their HUDS further ahead of them. They were similar to the other signatures they had seen earlier…and were moving towards them quickly. It was uncertain whether or not these new enemies were purposely heading towards Kagura or Gyles…but regardless of the reason, the two marines had only a minute or so of time to make a decision. At the speed these things were moving, it would be difficult, practically impossible to reach Epsilon before being encountered.

"I'm reading new contacts, moving in fast. I don't have the class in, just yet." Gyles told his squadmate quickly, doing his best to guage the situation. "We should try and flank them on each side. A head on attack might not work out so well."

"I don't care, split up, we'll pincer them." Kagura said and thrusted away from him to hide in the bull kelp off to her righthand side. "I bet they're on the underwater bikes, we should try to steal one each."

"Hell... you know I'm up to it." Gyles answered coyly as he mirrored her movements, gliding to the left. A quick thought sprang up in his mind. "Just remember that we can't communicate effectively beyond a few hundred feet."

Going silent, Kagura waited, but Gyles knew she'd gotten his communication, hefting her autocannon in preparation to ambush the enemy.

In a moment or so, two pairs of turbine-mounted Dark Demon armors appeared. When they reached the general area where Kagura and Gyles were, they quickly decelerated and cruised at slower speeds…it became apparent that although they seemed to know the general area of where Epsilon squad was, finding the exact position through Epsilon’s stealth systems was still a problem. One of the riders dropped the depth of his turbine-mount, his DD’s feet trailing across the tops of the kelp strands as he scanned the sea floor.

Kagura carefully aimed her weapon at the guy she could see, ducking down into the kelp to avoid being seen and just as the guy passed over her without detecting her thanks to her crouch she opened fire on his partner, aiming the autocannon at the guy's head as he turned profile to her, hoping to kill him without damaging the sub-bike. Hopefully, Gyles would cover her in a similar fashion.

Gyles pondered the variety of weapons we could use, and carefully thought out each one. FMD BLUE or RED shells, would likely carry out their intended mission, and damage the rides as well, so they were out of the question. A single BLACK shell might do the trick, but he was unsure. Of his options, he considered the Lance clutched in his right hand to be his best option, but he'd need to get into range. "Aww... screw it!" He muttered to himself, pointing the FMD mounted in his left hand and allowed his Combat Savtech to fine tune his aim. After less than a second, he opened fire, sending a BLACK shell at the untargeted Dark Demon.

The four mounted Dark Demon armors seemed to be expecting an ambush, quickly scrambling direction and revving their turbine-propelled as they darted too and fro around in intricate patterns. Kagura’s autocannon shots rattled harshly against her targets shields, causing him to jerk violently at the force of the shots before he spun his mount around and rode upwards, hoping his waterbike would block a remainder of the shots aimed at him while he waited for his shields to regenerate themselves. The black zanarium-lined FMD shell Gyles had fired landed squarely against the shield of another Dark Demon, the force of the blow against his shield spinning the rider and the bike around like a corkscrew a few times before he regained his composure.

As the two rode evasively, the other two mounted Red armors turned around speed through the center of the area. Both of them reached down into the belt area of their armors and pulled out a moderately-sized canister-looking object. After a quick twist, both of the DD’s dropped the objects and let them float slowly towards the see floor…

"Depth Charge!" Kagura shouted to Gyles and thrusted back hoping to get out of the range of them and tried to pick the canisters off just as they released them, hoping to detonate them prematurely. She'd start firing at the canister then sweep the autocannon in a slow semi circle in front of her, hoping to hit the others and a rider or two.

"Don't bother... just evade!" Gyles yelled as he switched his sensors over to active mode, having no use for stealth at the moment and boosted upwards about 100 feet. Despite the initial failure of their sneak attack, and his subsequent frustration, he didn't fail to notice the explosives being dropped and prepared himself putting his longshield forwards. He began to strafe, and attempted to form a missile lock to launch a volley of shield-fouling DARTs.

The two ‘depth charges’ were not depth charges at all, per say. Rather, when Kagura’s autocannon blazoned across them, both of the grenades exploded into a bubbling flash of light and sound. The explosion was lackluster, and not threatening in the least to anything more than 2 yards away…but the sound the two charges emitted was a loud, ringing spike of audio.

A sonar effect.

Almost instantly, with the effects of the sonar grenades as well as both of their sudden movements, each of the four mounted Dark-Demons turned and glared at Gyles in his suspended position. Three of the four riders quickly laid wave upon wave of Type-1 minigun fire upon Gyles’ position, while the final Red soldier swung his bike around and attempted to suppress Kagura in his position in the kelp foliage.

---

Kagura blinked a bit and shuddered at the sudden sonar wave and quickly shut off her audio input for a moment and went on visual only and tried to swung the autocannon itself at the red soldier on his bike in an attempt to just swat him off it like a bug.

The red marine realized his had come a bit too close as Kagura’s autocannon glanced off of his shield. The marine immediately swung his turbine around, broad-siding Kagura’s Warhawk with the heavy metal siding of his ride before jetting off again to make another pass.

Kagura gahed and got thrown a short distance, dropping her autocannon in the motion from the shock. "Oh you coward." she said and presented the guy with a middle finger before shooting at his back with her SIAR. She was focusing only on that one Red at the moment.

As the marine looked back to see if his target was still alive, he also threw her his own middle finger as he wove and dived in attempts to avoid the SIAR rounds. The mounted Red swung his waterbike around again and attempted to make another pass, his minigun blazing Kagura’s position with saturated fire.

Kagura cursed as her barrier shield protected her against most of the fire but she thrusted toward him, ducking under the fire and putting the SIAR as close as she could before firing a volley of shots at him. "Eat shit and die red."

As he neared the end of his reckless dive towards Kagura, the Red soldiers’ shield fizzled out and gave under the continued fire. The marine took a few shots to his leg as Kagura slid under him…but the Red rider was ready for such a maneuver. In an instant, the turbine-rider pulled his mount upward, the underside of his turbine smacking soundly into Kagura as he moved upwards for a moment. In another instant, the Red soldier had turned back around and was nose-diving straight towards Kagura from above, his left leg sparking and visibly damaged, but no blood present, and no obvious signs of hindrance from possible pressure release. Kagura, however, would have much bigger (and heavier) things to worry about.

Kagura would make use of her jump jets to leap as far back as she could, continuing to fire at the Red. Cyberized leg, this guys probably mostly cyber except his head... She thought and aimed her shots only for the guy's head. She was hurting from being bashed around but she wouldn't let him win against her here, and truly wanted to blow his communist head off.

Unfortunately for Kagura, the cybernetic Red and his turbine vehicle were faster than her hindered Nerimian propulsion systems. The Red marine was able to catch up fairly quickly and push the nose of his bike against her armors’ chest. Because of the close speeds, the force of the bump was minimal at best…but Kagura would soon lose sight of the mounted Red soldier as he ducked low to avoid her shots as the first few grazed his Dark Demon’s helmet. The female Epsilon member would then feel herself being pushed down, coming dangerously close to the uneven and rocky sea floor.

Kagura tried to side step the armor and was already half way there when it pushed against her. "Hey you can't get on top of me on the first date." She said and tried to stab her SIAR into his gut. She'd try to try to blast him through the midsection with her weapon.

The SIAR blast did just that, putting a nice-sized hole into the stomach of the rider. Again, no blood whatsoever…and the Red marine wasn’t too happy about losing his lunch. With a quick jerk of his turbine, the mount rolled around slightly to position Kagura below the bulk of the vehicle, and dove into the kelp, muddy undergrowth. Kagura’s Warhawk would be scrapped off violently, left literally stuck in the mud as the seemingly invincible cybernetic monstrosity sped off to position himself for another pass.

Kagura yelped and sent a desperate message to Gyles for help because it seemed like no matter what she did nothing hurt this guy. But she tried to anyway and thought, and thrusted the armor up and tried to get to her autocannon before the next pass, firing her SIAR at the turbine bike itself, hoping to hit a vulnerable spot as she did. This seemed to be too much for her to handle.

The autocannon shots mostly glanced off the thick machinery of the vehicle as the cybernetic Red dove further away. He quickly took notice of Kagura’s new target, and took measures to attempt evasion as he turned his turbine-ride for another sweeping attempt to end Kagura’s life.

---

"Bastards!" Gyles exclaimed as he held his longshield forwards, letting the anti-beam polymer coating absorb as much damage as possible. He fired 2 widespread volleys of DARTs to disrupt their sensors and shielding, and took advantage of the bit of chaos he'd sown to load a set of 4 BLUE shells in his FMD. Those shields wouldn't get in the way again.

The DARTs seemed to work well enough underwater as darted hither and fro through the water, leaving streaming bubbles behind them. The speed of each missile, however, suffered tremendously in the thick watery setting...and the Red soldiers took immediate advantage of this, popping the slow-moving minimissiles like annoying dragonflies as they circled. Apparently the missile’s rocket-based engines were not as effective underwater as they would’ve hoped. Gyles’ FMD shells proved a bit more effective, however, two of them landing squarely against their targets while the other two were skillfully dodged by the mounted Red riders.

Each blue FMD shell exploded in a flash of electrical blue light, visibly shaking the Red soldier as his shield disappeared. However, the explosion of the EMP also engulfed portions of their waterbikes as well. This became even more obvious as their mounts suddenly ceased to function, leaving them dead in the water, shieldless and their turbine-mounts fried beyond repair.

Gyles sighed, and rapidly boosted forwards, trailing one of the Dark Demons, shield at the ready. He briefly considered igniting his fusion cutter, but the mass of vaporized gas caused by the plasma flame would only slow him down, among other things. He preloaded a string of white shells and fired a volley of three before bolting to the right to flank the other rider.

As the three white solid shells sped through the murky water, the two shield-less and ride-less Dark Demons were quickly to get back their bearings, attempting to leap off of their turbine-bikes and get back into an offensive mode. The closest soldier was able to dodge the first two white FMD shells as he attempted to abandon his ruined mount, but the final on caught his weaponless left arm, throwing it back at a horrible, grotesque angle, but glancing off enough to not breach the armor itself. The red soldier immediately dropped his Type-1 and clutched at his mangled limb. The other mountless Red marine seemingly took notice to this, firing fiercely at Gyles with renewed aggression as he attempted to thrust his way towards his wounded comrade.

Gyles strafed to the left in an attempt to dodge the first volley of rounds and replied with another WHITE round. He boosted sideways to flank the shooter, sending his third volley of DARTs towards them and preparing to dash forwards for a melee attack.

The mountless Red marine quickly grasped his wounded comrades’ foot, focusing his attention to blast the DARTs as he attempted to pull his injured squadmate into the kelpy underbrush with him. The white shell was true to its mark, landing dead-center into the marine’s chest…although apparently his shield was just in the midst of complete regeneration, as the white shell’s velocity was greatly reduced before actually landing the blow. Never the less, the two Red armors were thrown back into the brush from the force of the shot. As Gyles started to make his charge, however, a series of harsh beeps would assail his HUD. The other Red rider, turbine still in fine working order, was speeding towards him in a stealthy attempt to finish him off, his Type-1 blazing out in front of him as he careened through the ocean.

Gyles boosted upwards, moving far above the rider to avoid crashing. Preparing for a killing blow, he finally ignited his fusion cutter, now decreased to a base 1 foot long plasma blade and simultaneously "Pulled" the rider upwards into his downfacing Lance. This wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

Indeed it wouldn’t…as the Dark Demon from before, broken arm still trailing behind him, quickly boosted upwards and grabbed Gyles’ AIR2 by the foot with his one functioning arm. Gyles would not have noticed this, as the Dark Demon’s stealth capability was still quite functional. Even as the injured Red marine hung there, he was practically invisible to most sensors, although the faint outlining of his figure could be seen through the shifting waters. The mounted Red rider seemed to know the change of events as well, quickly adjusting his speed and focusing on Gyles and his next move as he continued on his lethal crash-course.

Gyles viciously jabbed downwards into the head of the unit that grabbed him with the fusion cutter Lance, hoping to break free before the rider got in too close.
 
Kagura acked. "What the hell?! Is this assfuck immortal?! He's got a hole in his gut, a blown off leg and still coming. Shouldn't the pressure down here gotten him yet?" She acked and jump jetted back, switching to the canister rifle and opened fire with a heavier slug at the bike.

The heavy shots barraged one by one into the turbine, each one tearing into the center of the machine and visually damaging the inner systems…and during all this, the rider did not change his course, or move at all. Suddenly, something inside the turbine-bike must have gave way as it burst into a mass of bubbling heat and metal. The Red rider flew forward off of it, not moving an inch, his posture stuck into the riding position he had previously been in before the destruction of his ride. He didn’t move again as his armor slowly began to descend to the muddy surface. It would seem this ‘immortal’ could not live up to his name.

The female marine had to quickly strafe it to keep from being nailed head on by it and used the rifle itself to block the shockwave of the bike's destruction. When she looked over at the guy she blinked and went over and shot him in the head with the rifle for good measure before turning to help Gyles out. She spent a moment trying to get a steady bead on the other rider before firing a canister shot at him from her angle, being careful not to hit her teammate…

---

Although the Dark Demon grasping his leg was technically invisible, it wasn’t hard to place a good few stabs in the right direction. After a few short stabs, the kinetic energy of the spear’s solid point broke through the cloaked helmet of the Dark Demon with a few crackling fizzles of electricity surging through the surrounding water. However, the dead Reds’ grip on Gyles was still holding fast, the propulsion systems on the armor still functioning as it pulled him this way and that way, keeping him relatively in the same area as the turbine-rider sped closer. The mounted Red must have taken note of his allies’ death, as he had pulled his Type 1 back out and began firing at Gyles, hoping to soften the AIR2 up for the final strike.

Kargua’s incoming fire was unexpected by the final Red marine…he did not have enough time to perform an evasive maneuver, and the heavy slugs slammed violently into the side of his vehicle. The damage, however, did not seem to be enough to convince the Red to pull off from his careening dive, although the turbine he was riding was visibly becoming a bit more unstable. The rider adjusts his arc of travel a bit with the control he still had, and positioned Gyles in between Kagura and himself. The rider braced himself as he continued to lay suppressive fire onto Gyles as he dove forward.

Kagura grumbled a bit and moved via thrusters to try and get a better angle on the Red, moving in a bit closer but in an orbiting pattern of them. "Crap I can't get a clear shot." she said.

Reeling from the repeated impact, Gyles pointed his shield up to take a few shots from the rider's Type-1, trying to bide his time. It would be much good, as the heavy long shield would only take so much. But it was long enough. Now fully charged, his PPG sent a charged 'push' blast, knocking the Dark Demon still hanging off his foot towards the rider and sending himself backwards at least a solid foot.

The body flying towards him caught the Red marine by surprise, apparently, as he was hit head-on with the corpse. The force of the blow immediately threw him off his turbine, but the turbine continued to burst forwards through the bubbling ocean, just as Gyles stepped backwards. The small step would not be enough to dodge the speeding mass, and the turbine slammed soundly into Gyles’ front. The AIR2 would not sustain too much damage…but the pilot would definitely feel the kinetic force behind the hit. The blow would not break any major parts of his powered armor, but a few systems would show themselves in the yellow on Gyles’ HUD. The FMD system and the shield around it took most of the brunt, and it’s condition reflected so: still theoretically functional, but caution should be taken.

Kagura watched and fired off a shot at the marine that had just gotten corpsed, hoping to "add another skull" to her kill list on this mission. Over teh com she'd come. "Hey you ok Gyles? Use your PPG to hurl it aside." she suggested prudently. "before it shoves you too far away." She amended.

"Ugh... wasn't expecting that... " Gyles grunted as shook it off, and replied to the femal marine. "Yeah... I'll live. Not bleeding anywhere, I think." He answered, as a small trickle of warm blood seeped down from above his forehead, but he wouldn't expect it to be a problem. He might have just hit his head in a funny way. His chest and abdomen on the other hand, felt a little bruised, and his breathing was shallow, as if some of the wind was knocked out of him. He gave the bike a few gentle 'pushes' before it finally ground to a halt.

There was little movement now as the two Green marines floated amidst the aftermath of the fight. Their communication systems were still being jammed…although, they were picking up friendly marks on their HUDs farther back where the rest of Epsilon used to be. After a short moment, both of them would hear a faint, static-filled message through their communication links. It was most definitely Sergeant Rico’s voice…but the message itself was fuddled and difficult to make out.

"What the hell?" Kagura asked, and tried to filter out the static to hear the message. "Hey are you hearing this Gy?"

Yeah, I'm reading it." Gyles responded, adjusting his frequency to try and get something clearer. "They must have a jamming station a few clicks away, or it could just be all this bloody water."

"If it's a jamming station...let's go smash it." Kagura said.

Suddenly, a movement from the underbrush near the two recently EMP’d turbine bikes would alert both Kagura and Gyles. The alert was caused by a Dark Demon armor, the one that Gyles had landed a solid chest-shot with a white Tungsten shell earlier, charging straight towards Gyles, a simple vibroknife nestled in the right hand of the DD.

"You don't think-" Gyles paused and threw his Lance at the DD, attached to his forearm by a long Durandium nanotube chord. "Arg... sonnuva bitch!"

The Dark Demon skillfully dodged it with a quick sidestep…apparently, this particular Red soldier meant business. With the time bought by dodging the lance, the armor launched into a tackle, bashing into Gyles and his AIR2, and attempted to bring the vibroknife into the side of the neck of the armor with both hands.

Kagura perked a brow and quickly (within reason) jumped aside, having put the canister rifle away and pulled out the SIAR and tried to fire a couple shots at the DD, hoping to blast him off her teammate. Using the fire control to lock in on the Dark Demon and to reduce the chance of hitting Gyles.

With all the struggling happening in the entwined armors, it would be nigh-impossible to make a clear shot in the situation. Kagura’s automatic fire control system would not allow her to shoot unless Gyles was not in any immediate danger of friendly fire.

Gyles elbowed the DD in the head with his right forearm and lowered his FMD, pointing at the Power Armor's groin. Not even bothering with targeting, he simply fired a single blue round, screaming angrily. "YOU PICKED THE WRONG DAY TO MESS WITH THIS MANIAC!"

"Goddamnit." Kagura cursed and tried to maneuver to get that clear shot. But couldn't, the fire control system couldn't find a clean one among the wrestling. She'd go to help physically but the water resistance couldn't let her get there in time but would try anyway.

The Dark Demon was quick to react, the blow to its head barely phasing it as it turned back and locked back onto the AIR2. The blue shell went relatively unnoticed…and as a result, the electromagnetic explosion that pulses outwards as the shell exploded engulfed both Gyles and the Dark Demon armor. While Gyles would only experience a whole mess of HUD interference and a few weapon-system blackouts, the Dark Demon was visibly stunned by the explosion, locking up its grip on the AIR2’s outer frame. The stun was short-lived, however…the pilot once again attempted to bring his vibroknife into the head of the armor, enduring through the punishment of the pulse.

Kagura through for a moment and made use of the jumpjets' to speed over the muddy bottom and went to smack the DD in the side of the head with the butt of her SIAR. "How about you stop being gay for a moment foo." she said.

The blow did nothing to phase the Dark Demon. Not a budge or even a motion of acknowledgment. The Red pilot merely brought the knife down harshly into the Neriumium mask, the vibrating blade tip humming violently as it attempted to saw through the husk of Gyles’ AIR2.

Now desperately trying to break free from the Red Marine, Gyles raised his FMD and pointed to the DD's already damaged torso. This was it... he was running out of time. Within a few seconds, he might be dead. So with all the adrenaline in his body pumping, he fired a single WHITE shell at point blank range, hoping to kill the enemy pilot before he sawed through the AIR2's neck.

The Dark Demon had locked its legs around Gyles by then, using the leverage to put more push into the sawing motion of the vibroblade. Again, every action from Gyles went relatively unnoticed; the second white shell slammed viscously into the armors’ stomach. The force of the blow threw the Dark Demon’s upper body upwards…but the locking legs would not allow the armor to get pushed away. It took a bit longer for the Red armor to recover from this one as it threw a hand to its stomach, which was visibly breached now as it hissed small pockets of bubbles into the ocean. This apparently was not enough to constitute giving up yet, however, as the DD quickly brought the vibroknife up again, aiming it precariously for the same crevice it had been cutting…which was already hazardously deep.

Kagura decided that Gyles couldn't get him off so she turned her SIAR on the DD and checked to see if her fire control would let her put a round through the guy's head.

The struggle was still far too close for a close-quarters for Kagura to get a safe shot of…although, if she were to assume manual control of her firing measures, there would be no fire control system regulating whether or not she could fire.

Gyles reeled in his Lance, using a rough tugging motion with one of his projectors to quickly bring it to his hand. Now to treat the marine to his own medicine, he rammed the end of it into the joint between the armor's neck and torso, and pulsed his fusion cutter on a lower output for a second to weaken its plating.

The lance didn’t outright pierce the Dark Demon armor…but it did hold the Red up for a moment more, the vibroblade still in the air. Kagura would suddenly receive a confirmation of a clear shot to the chest and head area of the Dark Demon.

With the confirmation she'd pull the trigger to fire the SIAR round at the DD's head, aiming to take it off and fired again as if to make sure.

Seeing the muzzle flash nearby, Gyles dropped his lance waited for his squadmate to take out the target. He didn't have long, mind you...

The first few SIAR blasts landed squarely into the head of the Dark Demon, but the Dark Demon twisted slightly in an attempt to avoid any more blasts. The force from the shots was enough to wrench the Red off of Gyles, propelling it backwards a few yards as it landed softly into the kelpy ocean mud, near the area where the Red marine that had grabbed Gyles’ foot earlier had landed. It would lay there for a moment, trailing small streams of red from the now ruined helmet and torso.

After a moment or so, though, the DD stirred with movement once more. It looked up, twisting its head towards the direction of its comrades’ corpse a few feet away from it. The dead Red soldier, blood still trailing from the fatal wound delivered by Gyles, had settled firmly into the shifting soils, his Type 1 rifle sticking up at an angle a yard or so away. The Dark Demon then began to crawl towards the armor and the weapon, grabbing fistfuls of ocean sod as it attempted to pull itself towards the rifle.

"This just isn't your lucky day, is it?" Gyles remarked sarcastically, as he pointed his FMD again, now aiming at the damaged DD, waiting for the Combat Savtech in his AIR2 to fine tune the aim. After a moment's pause, he fired another WHITE round, still worried that a RED shell might burst inside the barrel of the gun.

Kagura stood beside Gyles and kept her SIAR trained on the Red. "What are these guys... immortal or just stupid?" She asked him and fired a couple shots aiming at the guy's shoulder and head again. She was adding in her rounds to Gyles' in an attempt to put an end to this stupidity. While she spoke, Kagura was having her radar trying to extend out to find if there was a jamming station nearby. If there was, they could try and disable it to help the others at the very least.

The white shell collided with the already-weakened hull of the Dark Demon’s back, splintering its way into the metal and embedding itself firmly. Afterwards, the series of SIAR-fire from Kagura cemented the Reds’ fate. The soldier reached forward for a moment in a final act of defiance, then fell still and silent.

Kagura’s scan would not turn up anything of that nature, however it would display a number of friendly signatures back in the area where the rest of Epsilon squad had originally been. After another moment or two, Rico Sanroma’s voice would emit from their communication systems, a bit more audible than last time, but still very blotchy and filled with static. His orders came in clear enough to distinguish, though…an order to stay put until the rest of Epsilon could reach them.

"Great... so I suppose we can sit tight and wait for the rest of the gang to take their fine time, then?" Gyles exclaimed sardonically, rubbing his armored head. A quick thought crossed his mind. "Hey... how's that arm of your's holding up?"

Kagura shrugged and looked at her and flexed her arm a bit. "Because of the way this suit works, I can't actually feel it." She said. "The neural impulses course through to the armor instead of my arm so it doesn't hurt that much." She smiled, sending it in the form of a smiley face icon on his HUD.

"It's good to hear, then." Gyles replied, with a bit of the edge from the battle starting to wear off, just a little. He looked around a bit, focusing on the large metal contraption that had so painfully crashed into him earlier. "I think that one or two of the bikes are intact. The one that rammed me is in working condition, for sure."

"Indeed, we should try to repair them and use them ourselves." the female marine said. "We did do a lot of damage to them though, I don't know if they'll still work though. Give a shot if you want, the only thing I know how to fix is my own arm."

"Anyway, we should take it easy until the rest of the squad gets back." Gyles said, checking out the bike nearest to him. "Go back to passive sensors for now. I figure we'll have the rest of the gang showing up soon enough."

"Man I could use a drink." Kagura quipped and went over and sat down on one of the now dead turbine bikes and just set her sensors to passive mode. "Too bad we can't take their weapons and use them ourselves. I think they're hardwired into their specific armors though."

"Naw... NDI and NAM weapons are much better than anything Zen ever came up with. The Type-1 they used just gave me a few dents and scratches. And remember those depth charges? They barely made a bright flash!" Gyles replied, his lips quivering as he almost broke into wild laughter. "We're kinda spoiled, overall. Getting this sort of tech..."

"You didn't notice the ear splitting sonar wave those things made?" She asked with a sigh. "I heard it so my auditory input was cut off for a few moments."

"Not really. I boosted away, remember? Hmm... didn't think of them as sonic beacons." Gyles answered, rather embarrassed. He began to rub the mark across his armor's neck, remembering how close he was to getting a tracheotomy with a vibroknife. "But if they were, they did a decent job..."

"We should try and get you back to fix that rip in your armor, anymore damage there and you'll be squished like a bug by the pressure down here." Kagura said.

"We'll have to deal with it later. But all I need a quick shot of expanding foam and a sealant patch." Gyles replied.
 
Trey floated upwards along with Rico, and noticed something on his HUD, two dots marked 'Friendly'. I bet that's Gyles and Kagura over there, The Yamataian-bodied man thought, opening up a Comm line to them "Hey, Gyles, Kagura, How you two doing over there? Find anything interesting?" he sent.
 
"Yo! How'd it go down on your end of things? We met up with some mounted scouts, and managed to take them out without too much damage." Gyles responded, fiddling with the controls on the turbine bike. "I almost got my neck slit by one of them, but Kagura was nice enough to take the attacker out. A great shot, too." He added, while praising his squadmate's markmanship.
 
Kagura just idly sat on the ruined turbine bike and looked over at Trey then to Gyles. "Nah it was a point blank shot almost." she said casually, they wouldn't know she was flushed slightly from the praise.
 
"Awright awright awright!" Rico called out as he waved to the other two. They looked a little banged up...but nothing to be overly concerned about. Rico was far more concerned with the reports he had been receiving since a few minutes ago...reports of a few other squads ahead of him confirming the location of something big further ahead of them, at the bottom of a canyon ridge. The suave Nepleslian smirked at the new information, and quickly conveyed the message to his squad.

"Okay boys, we got ourselves a visual on the target, courtesy a' some other folks further on up. Hurry up an' pack your shit...we're leavin' before more of 'em start showin' up," Rico announced with confidence, boosting up and taking the head of the team and waited patiently for the others to follow.
 
Kagura got up from where she was sitting on the busted turbine bike and checked herself for damage using the internal status in her HUD. "Well it looks like I'm all in one piece at least." She said and checked her ammo levels. Luckily she hadn't used up that much and slung the canister rifle over her back again using the reinforced strap it came with and made sure her SIAR was where it should be before hefting the autocannon. "That's the same direction these guys came from." She said, nudging one with a foot before starting off after Rico.

"Sir..." she said over the private com. "We should all stay within visual range of each other because of the jamming tha tthing's putting out." She reminded him. "Too bad we don't have anyone on the inside to sabotage it and shut off the jamming from the inside." she muttered but forgot the channels were open again
 
"aye Aye, Sergeant. Good to hear that you're still kicking." Autumn boosted along in her Warhawk after the others. She had closed her eyes for a few moments to get her barrings after killing the one Red Demon pilot. Inone instance she felt bad for having to kill the unknown pilot but in another, she didn't. He would've killed me and everyone in my squad if I had given him the chance. This is war. 'Better to die fighting than to die a victim', isn't that what dad used to say?

She opened a private laser channel with the large ID-SOL's Warhawk, "How you holding up, Ian?"
 
"I'm doing alright." Ian surveyed the carnage around him, ignoring the rather minimal damage done to his chest plate. He looked to the armorer. "You have fun with that engagement, Soldier?" He asked, a smirk on his armor-covered face.
 
Trey, Having recieved his answer, Boosted over closer to Gyles and Looked over the other marine's Lance. "Hadn't Noticed that thing before, How well does it work? You made any Red-kabobs yet?" The yammie Bodied man smirked as he said this, a humorous (to him anyway) picture in his mind.
 
"Oh, you know I did, Ian. I just lucked out with a little one on one action there," Autumn replied brightly back over the private direction laser comm channel with the large Cadet. "Just have to check on you every now and then to make sure you're in one piece. If I'm quiet for a while, it's because I promised the Sergeant there I'd be good."
 
"Well... it's monomolecular, tougher than nails and spews 6 feet of plasma death. I have to tune it down to about a foot or so since we're underwater, but the thing can slice unshielded Nerimium like it was butter." Gyles said, whirling the lance rather enthusiastically, if only to shake off the bit of nervousness from the fight. He had almost died, but he didn't. So there was no point dwelling on it now. The Tech Sentry continued with his brief explanation of the lance's capabilities. "I also mounted the PPG into it, so I can push and pull people in as needed."

I have to get a little better at this, that last armor dodged my harpoon attack. Almost killed me too.

Hey... you up there. Shut up. Didn't we get past that already?

Oh... right. Fuck. Screw this. Just finish up before we have to move out.


"It can be used to draw in targets, for quick stabbing attacks, or hit them with fully charged 'Push' blasts, which are notorious for ignoring armor and can kill most pilots through outright kinetic force." The Nepleslian continued, taking a moment's pause to think. "Oh... and if I really have to, I can always harpoon em'. I might have to figure out a better way of making that work, though."
 
After a quick reload and systems check Deon boosted after the others. Though no more idle chatter came from his direction. The marine just took up a position a few steps back and off to Rico's left. Eyes fixed on his scanner, and a tense mood reflected in his armor's movements.
 
Ally sent a transmission to Rico which displayed itself as a small 'message waiting' icon on the bottom right hand side of his vision.

Attn: Epsilon Squad

Delta Squad in route to your position while waiting on additional orders from command. Be sure to avoid friendly fire, once within sensor range they will be displayed on your HUD as good guys.

--Ally
 
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