RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 12.3] Red Snow

[Wes]

Ether

After twenty kilometers pushing against the winds and snow over jagged and rocky mountains, the Eucharis away team began to reach the outskirts of the combat zone. A frozen river lay between them and the fortified Nerimian-made bunkers and factories.

Hanako was driving the tank while Ramiro was manning the main cannon and Lime was in the commander's position in the turret, looking around with a pair of binoculars trying to see through breaks in the snow.

Mango, dressed in her Mindy, rushed up to a rock near the edge of the river canyon and took a tactical look down. "There is not exactly a ramp down but I think if you start here we can avoid a steep drop and then pass over the ice. The other side is more smooth and the TASHA can winch us up again if needed."

The Taisa decided to give it a shot, and the tank rolled and slid down the ice and pebble covered hill towards the bottom.

Suddenly, behind the group, a small four-legged tank burst out of a snow drift and opened fire on the Troll tank, hitting it in the thick rear door with a violent plasma explosion. Lime was thrown forward against the 35mm machinegun and when her head came back up it was bleeding. "Anngh!"

The TASHA wheeled about and sent a round flying at its smaller counterpart and narrowly missed only because the NMX spider tank was erratically dodging out of the way. Just then, a Shocktrooper emerged from the sky and began shooting at Takeyu and a bunch of NMX nekos took up covered positions around them to take pot shots with particle beam rifles.

Mango immediately locked on to the Shocktrooper and began firing.

"Take down the heavy ones first," Hanako ordered, while the tank sped down the riverbank toward a narrow part. "Focus fire on that tank!"

The howling air was filled with the sounds of gunfire.

 

[DocTomoe]

When the NMX forces began their assault, Helen let out a sigh of annoyance, this was exactly what she had warned the Taisa about, things were distinctively not in their favor, though she had a job to do and she was going to do it to the best of her abilities, no matter how many 'I told you so' situations were involved.

A flurry of forearm projector fire screamed from her Kylie, spraying the snow covered ground between her position on the TASHA's flank, and the attacking NMX Flayer. Vaporized water swelled into a cloud of rapidly freezing mist, as Helen used that mist as visual cover, while her mini-missile launchers released a pair of warheads which detonated between her position and the Flayer as she quickly skimmed along the frozen snow, moving behind the tank in a position which the ball-turrets of the unit could not rotate. Once in position, she targeted one of the rear leg joints with her railgun, loaded with aether-tapping slugs, and the other leg with her forearm projectors set in beam mode. With targets designated, she opened fire in hopes of taking the tank's legs out from under it.

 

[Wes]

A huge explosion flashed as the aether slug hit the Flayer tank, sending it off balance as its leg shattered and exploded. The TASHA took advantage of that, hitting the Flayer in the face with its main cannon. Helen's aether cannons finished it off, leaving it badly damaged and smoking. It collapsed into a nearby pit and burned thick black smoke.

Meanwhile, Mango was zapped by the Shocktrooper and stumbled forward with a groan of pain into the base of the cliff.

An NMX Neko sniper tried to shoot Armundo.

Another fired at Helen and hit her armor in the temple, causing her to lose her balance. Luckily, the helmet held strong.

Using the tank's anti-sniper system, Lime aimed at Helen's attacker and opened up with the 35mm gun, though it was unclear if she was able to hit the Neko from her angle.

Hanako carefully began driving across the ice.

 

[Kyle]

Takeyu crouched down, hearing the rattling of fire in the ground around him he looked up and aimed his weapon at the approaching shock-trooper, opening fire with a volley before he brought up forearm shield to protect himself from the remaining fire. He didn't let up, aiming at the shock troopers center of mass and continuing the stream of fire.

He backed off a bit to give the tank some covering fire; and kept his eye on the shocktrooper - intent on taking it out.

 

[DocTomoe]

An agitated grunt of annoyance left Helen as she felt the impact against the helmet of her armor. She was thankful for whatever engineering genius decided to add locking pins to this Kylie variant. Recovering from her stagger, Helen shifted her attention skyward as she unleashed another volley from her forearm projectors in the direction of the Shock Trooper, aiding in Takeyu's own attempt to neutralize the unit. As she fired, Helen skimmed along the snow once again, moving in the direction of the TASHA to keep their defensive line close.

 

[NeonPhoenix]

Armundo saw the flash of movement with his powerful eyes, but his brain was just not fast enough to act on what his eyes saw. The plasma explosion detonated directly behind him, sending him flying from the tank violently. He hit the snow like a sack of potatoes, tumbling head over heels. A audbile snap was drowned out by the sound of gunfire as Armundo's already injured shoulder gave way under the strain.

The sound of gunfire seemed so far away and muffled. His eyes spasmed and flickered in his head wildly, not understanding the muddled signals coming from his brain. Armundo's helmet lay several feet away, the screen cracked and charred from the plasma explosion. Though it had already saved his life once. Even so, the side of Armundo's face was raw ,red and blistered, burned from the momentary exposure to the plasma once his helmet had been ripped off. Armundo groaned as he tried to pick himself up from the snow, but his limbs didn't seem to want to work like they should. He managed to get to his feet, bullets whizzing all around him. He had to take cover somewhere before he was killed. He ran towards the opposite side of the tank, stumbling and only just catching himself. His injured arm hung limply at his side as he rounded the edge of the tank.

However, just as he was about to round the edge of the tank, a round came from nowhere, running right at him. It could've been anything, a gust of wind, a misplaced breath, a wrong pull of the trigger. The bullet slammed into Armundo's other shoulder, throwing him off this feet as a large gaping wound opened where his shoulder muscle used to be. The snow was bathed a splattered crimson red. Armundo fell into the snow which rapidly started to turn red under his body. Luckily, he fell behind the tank which would provide enough protection to keep the sniper from finishing him off.

Armundo's eyes flickered and dimmed as his conscience began to fade out, blood rapidly pouring from his body. If he was not tended to soon, he would bleed out and die in the snow.

 

[Gabriel]

With the enemy Flayer gone Ramiro turned his attention to the Shocktrooper. Taking careful aim and pausing a moment until he was sure it wasn't going to have an opportunity to dodge he fired with the main cannon, aiming for the lower torso in the hopes that if the hit didn't destroy the Shocktrooper it would at least disable the use of its legs.

"Lime, are you alright? You got a nasty gash on your head. Here are some bandages if you need them." Without looking back, Ramiro removed a roll on bandages from one of his utility belt pouches and tossed them toward Lime.

 

[Nashoba]

Sune had intentionally relegated himself to rear guard when the Away team set out. He was uncertain what a single away team from a wounded gunship would really be able to do. There were sizable forces on the surface fighting, would 10 more really make a difference, he doubted it.

When the ambush struck Sune resisted the impulse to start firing at any NMX. He recalled all to well that the last ground encounter they had with NMX was on HX-13, and that the NMX enjoyed using Snipers.

Sune took cover and started searching for any sign of a sniper. He spotted two, before he could fire at the first the tank fired on that position. He did not like having to wait for his crew mates to be fired upon, but it was the only way he could locate and neutralize any snipers.

As Armundo was struck by the second sniper Sune then fired a three round burst from his Ke-M2-W2905 at the second sniper and watched as the sniper recoiled from the shots.

He then diverted his attention back to where the first sniper had been making sure that the first sniper was not still active.

 

[Wes]

The tank just barely made it over the cracking ice and Hanako rolled turned it around halfway up the hill so the rear door would not be left facing the Neko snipers. Most of the armor team was still on the other side with the NMX nekos shooting down at them.

All of the combined fire managed to bring down the Shocktrooper's shields for a moment. Rmairo's well-placed cannon round then knocked it form the sky in an explosion of gore from its underside. When it hit the ground, Hanako yelled "finish it!" to the TASHA which fired it main cannon into mortally wounded shocktrooper, then promptly went over and stomped it to death with its legs, making sure to hit the brain.

"Armundo and Mango are hurt! MEDIC!" Lime shouted over the radio.

"I can make it okay," Mango groaned, struggling to get up. Somehow the sniper had blown a hole in her Mindy right in the middle of her lower pelvis. "Argghh!"

 

[Khasidel]

When the NMX launched their surprise attack, Reika was standing in an escort position beside the TAISHA's left flank. In those few moments that the guns started firing, the Flayer Tankette made its appearance and the Misshhuvurthyar Shocktrooper descended from the heavens with its weapon blazing, the SAINT operative activated her armors stealth system and active camouflage, significantly reducing the probability that she might be detected by enemy sight and scanners.

Reika took note of enemy positions by tracing the origin of their weapons fire. Her targets sighted, she raised up her rifle and aimed for one of the NMX infantry periodically rising up from behind cover to let loose a volley of particle beams towards the Eucharis away team. As the enemy trooper came up for another attack its armored visage fell beneath her cross-hair. Reika pulled the trigger and three armor-piercing rounds shot across the battlefield to hopefully embed themselves within the enemies skull.

The rest of the Away Team then managed to bring down the Shocktrooper, which went careening towards the ground in a bleeding heap -- its harden carapace punctured all over with energy burns. Reika continued to take aim and let loose short bursts of weapons fire in the attempt to reduce the numbers of their attackers, or at least ward them off.

 

[Nashoba]

"MEDIC" rang in Sune's helmet. I hate hearing that call. he thought, it was not that he had anything against Medic's having been one himself. Its just in the heat of combat that call meant someone was seriously injured. When dealing with Neko's that meant seriously as well built as they were.

The fact that the Eucharis had no full time medic meant that Sune had to do double duty, Sune held position for another moment to be sure that he saw no sign of the sniper, then using his active camouflage he made his way down to the wounded.

He could see the first one from a distance as Armundo's blood was staining the ground. He then saw Mango with her blood staining the ground.

No way I can treat both of them by myself. I need someone to assist. He thought as he knelt by Armundo, his Nepleslian physiology presented the greater risk.

"Ramiro, I need an assistant, and you just got appointed temporary nurse. Get over here. Mango stay still until we get your bleeding under control." He said over the comm.

He hit Armundo with the hypospray from the PMS, but he could tell that the shoulder was going to need extensive reconstructive surgery. "Save the life is priority. We will worry about restoring the arms function later." he said to himself.

He pulled the medical kit around and pulled out the Antihemorrhagic agent. He grabbed the first of the damaged blood vessels and carefully closed the injury and treated it with the agent. He then moved along the damaged vessel and repeated the process. it was a temporary fix but his first priority was to save his crewmates life.

 

[Kyle]

Takeyu rushed back, intent on dragging Armundo and Mango back but when he saw that Sune was already on it he decided instead to provide some covering fire for his commanding officer so he could concentrate on helping their two companions.

He took aim at a few NMX Neko's he saw and unleashed a volley of fire before ordering one of his drones to begin harassing the snipers that had been taking shots at them.

 

[Wes]

"Any chance we can capture at least one of those Nekovalkyrja?" Hanako asked, taking over the main gun from Ramiro using SPINE. "We will have to be fast. Reika and Helen, see if you can snatch a few."

Meanwhile more of the new Flayer tanks were starting to appear in the distance in the direction they were headed. TASHA was already sniping at them.

"Takeyu, see if you can get us some of that air support," Hanako ordered, rolling the tank a big higher on the hill to try and get a good shot.

Takeyu managed to keep most of the snipers at bay but one of the remaining snow nekos on the Eucharis side of the river managed to line up a shot on Lime and fired. A bright blue beam flickered in the air for a second and a cloud of red mist appeared around the sprite, who slipped back into the tank clutching her neck and making gurgling noises.

 

[DocTomoe]

Upon seeing the satisfying sight of the Shock Trooper's bloody defeat, Helen felt that the situation was at least manageable... well... at least until the friends of the NMX they just killed realized what was going on and came down on them like a Zesuaium brick. Consequences be damned for the moment however, as Helen monitored her AIES for incoming weapons fire, and to keep an eye on her squad-mates. Her monitoring led her to see the failing life-signs of Armundo. She hovered in the direction of the tank and saw Sune handling it.

Another AIES check from Helen, revealed to her that the others in the landing party were handling the snipers as best they could. That was fine enough for her, considering she was in the mostly intact shell of a Kylie, it gave her a margin for error as she skimmed the snow covered ground, her gaze settled upon the red mist coming from Lime as she was hit.

"Hold together," Helen said in a calm tone as she knelt down by the tank. "Snipers, they're no good sometimes, look at this sloppy work." She continued as she reached into her Armor's butt-pack, and pulled the folded uniform from it. "Remind me to inform the higher ups to make first-aid kits mandatory in these packs, alright?" She spoke as she tore parts of the uniform, and wadded others, before pressing the wads of uniform against the gaping holes which were torn through Lime's body armor, before wrapping pieces of uniform over the wads of cloth, to hold them in place and create a pressure bandage that put pressure only on the injured side of Lime's neck. "That'll have to do for now."

With bandages applied as best she could manage in a combat situation, Helen scooped Lime into her Kylie's arms, before using her own gravity manipulation to move unimpaired as she carried Lime into the rear compartment of tank and grabbed for one of the first aid kits.

 

[Kyle]

Takeyu gave a nod and knelt down behind the cover of the tank, only occasionally coming out to fire on the NMX. He then opened a frequency to the second squadron. "This is Nayacesen-Heisho of the YSS Eucharis, requesting air support at the following coordinates, got NMX Tanks that are pounding us." He sent the coordinates along with the message, as well as, utilizing two of his drones that were high up in the air to spot for the fighters. He then resent the message just in case of any plausible jamming.

 

[Gabriel]

Once the call came in for Ramiro to do medic duty, he was about to respond that he needed to operate the main cannon, but appeared to him that the Taisa had already taken care of that. He went to one of the compartments to grab a medical kit before making his way to the exit. Hopping out of the tank, he jogged past Lime and Helen, glancing over as he went. Ouch, that's a nasty hit...

He ran over near Sune and was about to help him with Armundo when he saw Mango a little further away. "Don't worry, I've got her." He sprinted to where Mango was lying on the ground. Surveying the wound, he tried to come up with a solution. "You'll be just fine Mango, I just hope you weren't planning on having babies any time soon." He grabbed the hydrospray injector and injected Mango with a pain reliever and a disinfectant. Ramiro then applied the liquid bandage onto the wound and doubled it with a regular bandage. "Most of your pelvis is gone, you're not gonna be walking for a while.

Ramiro looked around and then called over to Sune. "We're sitting ducks out here and Mango is in no position to walk. Lime is the same way, and Armundo is in no position to fight. There's no place to put the wounded to keep them safe, what the hell do we do?" He figured that in the middle of combat Mango would be safer in her power armor, even if she couldn't move.

 

[Wes]

"Nayacesen-Heisho," Takeyu's radio crackled. "This is Taii Hamada of the YSS Vesper. I am getting the fleet battle carriers to send some fighters to your position."

 

[Kyle]

Takeyu gave a small nod of his head as he fired from around the tank a few times before moving back behind cover. "Roger that Taii, any ETA on their arrival ma'am?" was all he could muster to say with everything that was going on.

"Air support on its way Taisa," Takeyu spoke and lowered his rifle and scanned the area real quick. He glanced up at the two drones in the air and sent new orders to space themselves apart, to avoid both becoming knocked out at the same time.

Let's just hope those pilots get here fast... Takeyu thought worriedly as he began suppressive fire.

 

[Nashoba]

Sune had glanced at Ramiro out of the corner of his eye, he was about to say something when his friend turned and set about to treating Mango.

He patched the last of Armundo's damaged blood vessels, then he disinfected the wound, did his best to put the flesh back into place. He then covered the injury site with liquid bandage. It was not pretty, and Armundo would probably need time in a fully stocked medical center, but he would live.

Over his Armors radio he sent, "Taisa, I have done all I can for Soichiro-Hei. His condition is stable. But we have three team members with serious injuries, we need to get them into something that offers more protection. We really do not have the opportunity to call for a Medivac."

"Okay once you have completed treating the injured, put them into the tank. It will have to serve as our ambulance for now." he said as he hefted Armundo in a traditional fireman's carry and made his way over to the tank.

 

[Wes]

"The tank is the best we have," Hanako shouted over the sound of gunfire. She was firing as fast as the tank would let her. There were plenty of targets for the Troll and TASHA. As the Flayers moved closer they too began firing their main weapons, hitting several spots around the tank with high energy plasma shots. Huge plumes of dirt and snow towered into the air from the brief fireballs the enemy shots created.

"Take me to where I can shoot," Mango demanded, trying to make the most of her situation. She was still on the Eucharis side of the river and wanted to be closer to the action.

A particle beam flash narrowly missed Sune while he was putting Armundo in the tank. A sniper had shot out one of the tank's sensor eyes.

"1 minute," Hamada replied to Takeyu. Still, a lot could happen in a minute.