Sigma
Inactive Member
NSS Dauntless, en route to Artume
It was extremely boring jumping between systems. The likelihood of attack was about the same as a Neko being adopted by the Sky Marshall as his long lost niece. So, Dominic Valken decided to tour the new warship that he had made his flagship.
The Dauntless, like all the other Blackjack cruisers, was a new design and Fourth Fleet had been the first to receive the new warships before even the mighty First. That had puffed Valken's chest, to know that his command had received priority over Vanderhuge's.
"Admiral, what are you doing here?" Valken turned to see the ship's Captain behind him. "Just touring the ship, Captain. You?" he replied. Valencia Ironside had been captain of the old NSS Destiny on the last mission to Tange. She had displayed the exact qualities of a warship captain that Valken wanted for his flagship so with some string pulled, she ended up under his command.
In addition to her command qualities, she was certainly very attractive for a woman in her mid-thirties. She had never married or had a child, "married to the service" as one of Valken's First Fleet friends put it.
"I was about to make a surprise inspection of the Marines, sir. Would you care to accompany me?" she asked politely. "Gladly, Captain. Time to see what Homo sapiens marinero looks like in its natural habitat," Valken said, imagining the confusion Captain Ironside's inspection would do to the Marines, who obviously had been too informal with Admiral Wazu. "Interested in some role switching?"
NSS Dauntless, Hangar, 8 AM ship's time
"Alright Marines, listen up! Get into your PAs; we will be running a training simulation!" said Phaedra, pacing in front of the Marines assembled in the hangar.
"This is one step away from the real thing. I expect this training to be taken seriously; it is no laughing matter if you wind up dead on our next mission because you were not paying attention. Now get to it!"
With that, Phaedra headed over to her NIGHT and opened up its access panels. She took a moment to set down her beret on the shelf nearby before slipping into the armor. As the armor panels slid shut, Phaedra activated the armor's startup sequence. She grabbed her helmet and placed it over her head, ensuring that the neck ring was sealed. She closed her eyes for the second of blackness before the HUD winked on.
Alrik was already at his Hostile, checking over the various attachments to the Power Armor. His hostile was equipped with the Plasma Autocannon and the HPAR with close quarter combat attachments; including the shorten barrel, taser and a barrel grip. He also attached a virtual trigger, linked to the computer interface inside the Hostile. Quickly, he responded as Phaedra finished her words, " Yes, sergeant!" After checking everything, he would step inside the Hostile and start on the internal equipment check.
Samuel's Hostile was fresh off the line, not a single scratch on it. Strapped to its weapons attachments were an AS4GS and an LPA-01, his favorites from training. He popped open the hatch and slipped inside, flipping the switches to start the machine up for simulations. "Ready for the mission, sergeant!" he said, watching the systems check run on his monitor. The simulation files were loading up, but said nothing about what the operation would entail. Still, he was eager to get this started; it had been a couple weeks since he got out of training, and he was ready to take a refresher before he got chucked into the meat grinder.
Victor simply grunted as he began arming his hostile. He didn't particularly want to go too expensive and kept to the basic armaments with the exception of changing out the loads of the missiles to ARROWS. Other than that he entered the power armor and began flipping switches in the armor while staring at the HUD. In truth he wasn't all that excited at the prospect of a simulation mission. It wasn't as if simulations could feel pain, where would the fun be. "Private Balthior, ready and waiting." Still the overly aggressive marine figured it'd at least be an interesting waste of time before the real shooting started.
Lisa was waiting in the hangar and when Phaedra finally gave the orders she started walking towards her Void. "Aye, Aye ma'am!" She said and took a deathstick from behind her ear. She wanted to have one last smoke before strapping inside. Lighting it with lighter with Aethersperm picture on it. She puffed and exhaled a smoke. She walked to her PA and activated it. She did 'pre-flight' check for her Void before climbing in. She finished her cigarette and threw it on the ground, before closing the armor. Her armor was armed with standard LPA rifle, AS4G with both barrels full of tungsten rounds. As minimissiles she had Arrows in one launcher and Darts in another. And finally her mortars were loaded with HE shells. She was ready. "Ready to rock'n'roll!" She said.
Bernhard sat beside his kneeling Hostile. For this exercise, he'd chosen to go with the HPAR and the new LPA. Seeing everyone else get to their feet, he rose and got into the armor. Swiftly, he began the power up and pre-mission checklist. It always amazed him how technologically advanced their "standard" issue was when so much of civilian Nepleslian tech was so poor.
He envied Laura and her innate ability to work with technology. A lot of what he used as a medic still confused him, despite her assurances about their simplicity.
"Sergeant, why us? Why do the others get time off?" he asked.
"Firstly, because most of the Marines here have not had any combat experience. And secondly, Private Greer, because you got the short straw." She paused for a moment and then continued.
"Or you could have listened to Laura gripe about why she had to come and why you didn't."
Phaedra did some last minute checks on her armor's systems, and then began to start the training exercise. She thought for a moment and then selected the mission parameters.
"Oh come on Bernie it sounds like fun. Plus who needs sleep anyway?" Said Lisa while she was activating their training mode on her armor and made sure that none of her gun will go off by accident. Especially not the mortars.
"That's a low blow, Sergeant but put that way, yes, this does seem a better idea. But it's not because I was hit and she wasn't in the last mission?" he replied. "And my name's Bernhard, Simmons. Not Bernie," Bernhard added snappily to Lisa. "Sleep deprivation is one of the most effective means of torture. And least gruesome."
Alrik finished checking over the software on the Hostile and scanned over his vital signs on the HUD, watching his breathing closely and checking the visual data from his eyes into the machinery of the Hostile. " Private Wolf, ready sergeant." He stated over the comms, checking that as well.
"Aw, shut up, you guys. I'd rather be fighting squids than my own medic, y'know?" Samuel squirmed in his armor, doing some last-minute checks before the mission fired up. Everything looked perfect for the mission, as would be expected, and he turned off the safeties on the virtual triggers in preparation for the battle.
While Victor did like the LPA, it already seemed everyone and their grandmother had picked one up and honestly there was no real reason to change from the HPAR. As he finished up the last bit of diagnostics waiting for the simulation to start he sighed to himself. It was hard to get excited over it while hearing the sounds of small squabbling in the background. Still it wasn't any of his concern at the moment and he had already made a bad impression last he checked.
"OFFICER ON DECK!" someone yelled loudly across the hangar.
"Ten Hut!" said Phaedra, snapping to attention and saluting. Standing at attention and saluting while in ones PA tended to look rather ridiculous.
Captain Valencia Ironside walked into the hangar, her face stony set. Her pace was precise and her gaze sought for the slightest flaw. As if in contrast, behind her, Rear Admiral Dominic Valken was strolling leisurely as if taking in the sights.
Alrik would immediately snap to attention and give a salute to the officer entering the hangar.
Clumsily, Samuel brought himself to attention. He stood as straight as he could - not a problem in his armor - and popped his hand to his forehead - that was a little harder to do, and he nearly knocked out his mooneye on the first attempt. He wished the AI would help him do something as official and common as that on command, but it couldn't be helped.
Victor snapped at attention immediately upon the command being called. Saluting was a bit more delayed, but he wasn't exactly that confident in operating the power armor.
Lisa looked used one of her mono-eyes to look at the newcomers. She snapped at attention, but did not salute since she held long LPA in both hands. Hmm Captain Bombshell and Admiral Hardass. She thought when she saw two officers. Inspection maybe? Or were they just checking the hangar? Not like it really mattered to Lisa.
Bernhard jumped to his feet, stood at attention and threw a salute. It was a little awkward since his right hand was still holding a HPAR magazine.
"Sergeant Volkov," Captain Ironside said, stopping in front of Phaedra, "Are your Marines normally this ... informal? The Admiral is here on inspection and one Marine has failed to salute. Can you explain this to me so that neither of us looks like fools in front of the Admiral?"
Phaedra glanced at her HUD inside her helmet, noticing that Lisa was not saluting and had her LPA in both hands. Phaedra was glad her scowl was hidden behind the wolf skull painted on her helmet.
"No Ma'am. We were just about to begin a training simulation, ma'am."
Alrik stood there inside his Hostile, neither moving his eyes nor his hand away from the saluting position, until told to do so.
Valken walked up beside Ironside, noticed Lisa not saluting and frowned. "A training scenario? For the upcoming mission, Sergeant?" he asked.
"Yes sir, Admiral."
Samuel just watched the storm unfold, silently, glad his PA's faceplate hid his smile. He knew this was going to be good, and just decided to enjoy the show, glad it wasn't him that was being chewed out.
"I noticed you and some of your other squad members have added some... personal touches to the armors? Did Admiral Wazu forbid this in the past?" Valken asked Phaedra, looking at her wolf skull art.
"No sir. Nor did he encourage it either. He allowed us to make minor personal modifications in order to boost morale, sir. As long as they did not interfere with function, sir."
"Far be it from me to spoil artistic creativity, I do approve. Though I do not wish to see anything... derogatory. Carry on then. I'll be moving along, inspecting other parts of the ship. I expect positive results, Marines. Otherwise, you might find the restocking of the ship's alcohol to be slower than usual." Valken saluted Phaedra and walked past Ironside and out the hangar.
"Yes sir, Admiral!" replied Phaedra.
"I expect the same professionalism from all of your Marines like what I saw on Tange. Never again," Captain Ironside said to Phaedra, hinting at Lisa's lack of salute. Ironside saluted Phaedra and walked out the hangar after Valken.
"Yes Ma'am," said Phaedra.
Lisa rolled her eyes under her helmet. So Captain Bombshell was also stuck-up bitch. Like Lisa cared. She finally understood why some marines hated her when she was in flight school back when she was still navy. Like Admiral cared about her salute anyway. "Sorry boss," She said to Phaedra. Lisa might not care much about higher ranks but she was still polite and Sarge took all the shit and not Lisa. She could say the LPA is long gun and it is uncomfortable to hold it in one hand but that would be just excuse.
Phaedra released her NIGHT from its place and purposefully walked over to where Lisa stood in her PA.
"Thank you for the apology, but get it right next time, Private. It really is not that hard," said Phaedra with her hands on her hips.
"Laura said she saw the Captain outside the Destiny when we were on Tange, when Rippers and zombies were charging us like no tomorrow. If that's true, that woman's got balls. Heard that the Admiral head-hunted her from Second Fleet after the mission. Think it’s true?" Bernhard added, mostly for the new guys' and girl's benefit.
Alrik released his salute and returned to an ordinary stance as he listened to the others talk about the Captain. He was interested, but didn't show any movement from his armor. Let alone any speech to compliment it. It was interesting to hear about officer's exploits, but it wouldn't serve any good to himself.
Phaedra strode back to her NIGHT's position and clamped it back into place.
"Enough chatter; we have a mission to run," said Phaedra, modifying the mission parameters and raising the difficulty another level. She then hit the button to begin the simulation.
Samuel settled down a bit as the officers left the deck. As great as it was to watch them lay into someone else, he was more eager to get on with this thing. Some extra sim files went onto the system - the Sarge was messing with the mission - and the sim engine started up. That was probably not a good sign; Sarge was ticked.
On all the Marines' screens, the scene changed from the Dauntless' hangar to a building corridor lined with steel. There were lights overhead and a door every ten meters down. The Marines' mobility was hampered by the walls and they were only able to advance two abreast.
"Schway... like a horror movie. Who's got point?" Bernhard whistled softly.
"Wolf, Balthior, you've got point. Bernhard, Tybalt, you two are next. Simmons and I will bring up the rear," said Phaedra, drawing her VCBS and SSP-01.
"Remember your training; do not just walk past corners or barge into rooms. Think and use the environment to your advantage."
Alrik responded, " Yes, sergeant." Moving to the front of the group with his HPAR designed for close quarter’s engagement. He knelt down slightly as he moved to take the front, giving room for the others to fire above him if at all possible. He waited for the rest of the group to be in position.
"Aye aye," Samuel quipped, loading up his LPA for combat and scanning the area for anything that might bust through the doors. Like Greer said, they were in some horror movie scene. He'd seen too many of those things to know how this would end. At some point, they'd split up, and then some mutant Neko or something would tear them to pieces one by one. Still, nobody in those movies had military ordnance or high-tech robot suits...
"Got it sarge," Victor calmly responded as he began moving into position. Which probably wasn't the most comfortable situation in the corridor. Upon arriving in the front he pulled out the LSP pistol figuring it would be a bit more reliable than the Money Shot up close. Which was fine with him. Victor would move on to ready his VCBS as it was certainly the weapon he felt most comfortable with, but it would also be the least useful in actual combat.
First thing Lisa did was turning on her heels. She wanted to check their backs. Her LPA was shouldered and ready to fire. "Great! I love horrors!" Lisa said as reaction to Bernard. She listened Sarge's orders. "Roger, I am covering out backsides. Also just a word and I can whip up a shield." She responded to Phaedra and switched to her AS4GS which was better suited for the interiors..
"We need to locate and extract a data module (Petty Officer Suku's porn stash) from the command center of this facility. I'm marking the objective now."
On the Marines' HUDs, an objective marker appeared 300m down.
Bernhard kicked Alrik forwards to get the mission started.
Victor began steadily moving forward with the pistol aimed on the obvious chance that they ran into trouble. At the very least they were moving down instead of up. Keeping a firm grip on his sidearm he almost lost his bearings seeing Alrik...motivated to get moving. With each step he kept his eyes on the doors in the corridor. They were far from a comforting sight. Oh well, not giving it too much of an afterthought the private was primed to get this all over with.
Alrik was suddenly pushed a bit forward by a boot, he grunted as he pushed forward attempting to give a small kick backwards at Bernhard, before falling over slightly. He managed to save himself with a free hand. Moving himself back into the proper stance, he started to move forward with Victor, keeping an eye on the doors and any corridors that started to appear on his side. His pace was faster than a normal march, but slow enough to keep eyes on any details that might appear. He patted Victor on the arm, each time they passed a door. Giving notice to a safe side.
Samuel had the right side of the hall; as he passed each door, he aimed his gun at them. Just in case. Their target, for some reason, was a bunch of porn. Somehow, they were risking their lives for a bunch of files the guy could've just got from the 'nets for free after he lost them. It's just a training mission, he reminded himself. Where we're going, we don't need logic.
One of the lamps overhead flickered; he jumped in his suit and stared at it for a couple seconds, weapons at the ready. He took a deep breath and got back in formation. Nothing to worry about. Yet.
As the Marines inched forwards, all the lights went out and gunfire started erupting in front of them. Impaler particle beams exploded against Victor and Alrik's shields. Victor also felt something heavy land on his foot.
"Return fire! Simmons! Shield up front now! Pick up the pace, we cannot get caught in the open like this!" barked Phaedra.
"Roger! Shield coming up right now!" Lisa said and mentally ordered four bots to fly up. Two flew near ground and two near the ceiling to avoid fire. They were ordered to fly in front of the spearhead and block whole hallway. "Don't shoot the drones guys!" Lisa added.
Alrik was pushed by the impact of the shells, trying to get himself up as fast as he could before switching on his Monoeye Suite to attempt and find where the shots were coming from. He returned with covering fire, as he moved forward to find one of the doors on the side. " Private Balthior, let's see if we can clear the doors up ahead." As he moved, he hoped whoever was behind him, would act as his breach partner on the door.
Samuel followed Alrik's motion, taking a position on the other side of the door. Standard entry/room clearing procedure and all that. He aimed his autocannon, then gave a hand signal. "Do it." He wasn't really sure what they were doing, but it made a little more sense than being shot up in the hall.
The initial impact of the particle beams made it easy to forget they were in a simulation if only for a moment. A slight growl erupted from Victor's lips as he looked forward into his HUD returning fire despite not hearing Phaedra's orders to do so in the same moment. As Victor fired he kicked forward with his right leg curious as to what the hell just landed in front of him. Sure there was no chance that it was anything useful, but if it was sturdy enough it could be cover at the very least. Since chances were in this tiny hallway even with Lisa's request the drones weren't going to fare too well. He wasn't sure exactly what Alrik was expecting with trying to breach before the opposition was cleared, but he went along with it.
Samuel and Alrik shot ahead before Lisa's drones were up and running. The shield wall gave some light to the Marines behind the wall but not enough to see their enemy ahead. And then the Marines behind the wall were blinded and thrown backwards as the demolition charge that Victor had kicked exploded. Victor and Bernhard were hardest hit, their shields lowered some, whilst everyone behind them just staggered from the blast.
Bernhard cursed and switched his HUD to night vision. "Guess it’s up to them to draw the fire now."
The two Marines in front of the shield were still being hit by Impaler beams. Their shots into the dark resulted in a couple high pitched screams but not visible letting up of enemy fire.
Alrik's mono-eye revealed nothing. No power armors, no mecha just lots of incoming particle beams. Both of their shields hovered around 75%.
Alrik moved to a door in front of him, attempting to initiate a quick breach and clear maneuver to free them from the firing coming from the hallway. He waited for Samuel to be in position behind him, hoping he was ready to cover the other side of the room while he hit the other.
They made it through the demolition explosives relatively unscathed, but Samuel still had all kinds of guns aimed at him and Alrik. Following right behind Alrik, he bathed one side of the room with plasma, activating his monoeye to see if anything had changed. Not really, by his scan; they still had tons of fire going off their shields, but somehow, he believed they'd make it through all right. That is, if his partner held up his part of the maneuver.
"Not gonna lie. That sucked." Victor muttered with a slight groan. And by slight, I mean quite audible. He slowly steadied himself upright having been blown back more than he would have liked. "Well no need to let a couple little setbacks like feeling like my leg was blown clean off slow us down." Once again he had his sidearm readied although this time he figured he'd take a more tactful less blowy uppy approach. Okay...maybe not so much tactful as much as he'd just write off what just happened.
"Idiots!" Lisa grunted and sent another order to the drones. "Opening pathway through shield on the left side!" She said and did. Two drones moved to the right and made the shield smaller while stilly covering much of the hall, leaving enough space for PA to get through.
Phaedra activated her monoeye, noticing how it strangely revealed...nothing. No Powered Armors for that matter.
"A demolition charge? That doesn't even sound like Squids." She activated her night vision and saw numerous Neko shapes moving about. She glanced at the status of the shields on her two point men.
"Wolf, Balthior, all of you. Charge straight down that hallway; we aren't even facing PAs. Give those bastards something to fear! Charge in and take them out!"
Bernhard held his HPAR in his right, his submachine pistol in the left and charged past the shield wall, using his thrusters to accelerate past Alrik and Samuel. With the night vision activated, he could see nothing but a lot of Nekos. His HPAR, LSP and pulse laser blasted away as he charged into the Nekos. In power armor, he could take them all on. Rita would be proud of his reckless charge, Bernhard thought, as he shot another one dead.
Victor unslung his HPAR considering for a moment that firing would probably end poorly for Alrik and Samuel. The Money Shot would be gripped firmly in his left hand as the pistol continued stay in his dominant arm. He flipped on his night vision considering that fumbling around in the dark hadn't ended too well for him just moments ago. Seeing as orders were order and he certainly liked the last orders given, as soon as Victor was in front of Alrik and Samuel he began cackling like a madman firing away with each weapon with little regard for personal safety towards the Nekos that soon became visible. Which was decidedly a step up from kicking demolition charges on the ground. Not that that was a very high standard.
" Yes, Sergeant." Alrik responded after clearing the room successfully, moving quickly out of the room he moved with a quick pace and a crouched walk. Letting off bursts of fire at the end of the hallway. Charging blindly wouldn't do well, but that didn't mean he couldn't charge with tact. He switched on his night vision as he funneled out of the door.
Samuel popped out of the room, following Alrik, slamming the door behind him just in case. The lights weren't coming back on, apparently, and besides the spray of plasma bolts, they had nothing to go on. He flipped on night vision, only to see a mob of unarmored NMX Nekos blasting at them, but nothing they couldn't take. Or at least, that's what he hoped as he backed up Victor's charge out of the shield with some covering fire.
Bernhard's LSP ran out of ammunition quickly and there were still Nekos around him. He holstered both weapons and pulled out his VBCS. He thrust the wicked blade into the first Neko he saw, the chainsaw teeth chewing through the flesh and spraying his armor with crimson blood. He noticed that he gone straight for the jugular. It felt odd, even if this was a simulation, that he was using his medical skills to kill people.
A Neko charged towards Alrik and threw herself at him. A moment later, she detonated the demolition charge, damaging Alrik's shields and spraying blood and gore on his armor.
Alrik was thrown back by the demolition charge against his shield. " Fucking Nekos." He mumbled to himself as he picked himself up, continuing to shoot down the hallway towards the enemies and keeping his same pace up with them. " Sergeant, this isn't going to end well if we keep charging them. They have suicide bombers." He retorted through the comms.
Alrik's shots resulted in another trio falling dead with smoking holes in their chests.
Phaedra had stepped up with the rest of the squad, shooting what Nekos she could see without endangering her comrades.
"Kill them before they have a chance to detonate. Drop them now!"
The all too familiar feeling of his ammunition running out came quickly as Victor's mad sprint continued. He slung the HPAR on his back and tossed the sidearm aside. Reaching for the VBCS he would lung towards the neck of the nearest Neko screaming in enjoyment, "Looks like its date night and I gots me quite a pick of the litter. I hope simulations can scream!" He had forgotten his initial reservations against the simulation it wasn't as good as the real thing. But it still sated his taste.
Lisa followed behind, deactivating the shield drones and gunning down a couple Nekos with her Gatling lasers.
Bernhard kicked a Neko away, shoved another into the wall and for fun, slapped a third across the cheek, knocking her out. "Sergeant, got an unconscious one. Need her as a "present" for the Admiral?" The simulated Neko was certainly attractive, despite the oil and sweat across her face.
"Indeed, Bernhard. Leave that one alive, but make sure its vest is disarmed before we extract the prisoner."
Alrik continued down the hallway at the same pace and with the same burst shot maneuver’s that he had before. Taking a moment to stop and reload his HPAR, "Reloading." He mentions before he stops, giving Samuel notice to cover him. After reloading his HPAR, he would say into the comms, " Sergeant, shall we pursue?"
"Roger that," Samuel confirmed, firing madly at the wave of Nekos still coming at them, exploding in front of them and scattering bits of Neko and ball bearings across their shields, trying to remain calm even as they swarmed forward. "So, uh, when're we gonna make a move on these things? They aren't gonna stop 'till we do, ya know, and these shields aren't going to hold up forever..." He knocked a couple backwards with his push/pull device in the meantime.
"No vest on this one, Sergeant," Bernhard reported as he pulled out his HPAR and started blasting another couple Nekos. The twenty or so Nekos left started running away, down the hallway. Bernhard lowered his HPAR and picked up the Neko.
He checked his HUD, the objective was just 10 meters ahead and to the left. How had they gotten so far? "Sergeant, target is 10 meters ahead. Door on the left. Can't tell what's behind it though, mono-eye is being jammed. Possibly NMX power armor."
Phaedra strode up to Bernhard and offered to take the Neko prisoner from him. He handed the unconscious Neko off to Phaedra.
"Alright, Wolf, Balthior, breach that door. Be careful, we do not know what is on the other side."
Alrik nodded inside of his PA to Phaedra's commands, " Yes, sergeant." He said in the same monotone voice. With that, he would move to the right side of the door, waiting for Balthior to get to the other side of the door. " Samuel, behind me." He said over the comms.
"Maybe we should use one the charges that didn't go off. I mean they went to all the trouble of dressing up all nicely for us." Victor quipped as he took the opposite side of the door. Victor made a quick visual sweep on the off chance there was something else waiting to blow up by his leg again. Pulling out the HPAR he aimed the weapon towards the sides of the door preparing to shoot once everyone was clear and ready to move.
"Fine," Samuel sighed, getting in position. The mission just felt like it was dragging on, with no real point. He stared up the hallway, and something caught his attention. Something big was coming closer, and he didn't think it would be very fun to meet. Wonderful, he thought as he kept blasting at the Neko waves, switching over to his shotgun to add a bit more variety.
Alrik starts to count down with his fingers to the breaching maneuver. 3, 2, 1 and with that he would start the breach, opening the door and moving off to his side. His eyes would try to spot out anything inside the room, if there were hostiles inside the room he would open fire.
The door blew open and a myriad of NMX weaponry blasted past. White aether beams, blue Impaler beams, tracers and mini-missiles. Lisa sent in a large shield wall to cover the Marines' entrance. "Who's going first?" she asked, readying her LPA. The shield wall in was holding though it wouldn't be long before the NMX remembered to shoot the drones instead.
Alrik already moved into the door when it opened, covering his side.
Victor charged in gripping the Money Shot in his left hand and the VCBS in his right. He didn't give much of a care about the NMX in the room outnumbering them and without a moment's hesitation he fired towards the nearest one he could see. He would then kick forward to try and stab it in the center of what could almost amount to a head.
"Clear out that room! Use explosives if you've got them."
Samuel did his best to keep up with Victor, trying to clear spaces along his flanks with a shotgun as they charged forward. It was crazy, but if it worked... The slugs scattered against the walls, spraying plasma and tungsten in all directions, wreaking even more havoc. He grit his teeth and jammed the butt of his shotgun into the nearest Neko's face, kicking it away before the vest on it exploded. "Got your back," he called out, "just keep moving forward, all right?"
What every single Marine seemed to have failed to notice were the two Render mecha in the middle of the room. The two large NMX mecha opened fire everything they had at Samuel, destroying his shields and ripping through his armor. Samuel's screen went black and skull and crossbones flashed indicating his death. The NMX had avenged the neko he had so unceremoniously killed.
"Fuckity fuck!" Lisa shouted as Samuel got vaporized. "Sarge I got an idea!" She said, put her LPA on the ground and lowered her mortars. "Though I am going to need some covering fire! We need to take their shields down!" She added.
"Covering fire!" shouted Phaedra, putting away her weapons and drawing her MPR. She fired an EMP round at the Render on the right, quickly ejected the spent round and then fired again.
The two EMP rounds took down the Render's shields but did not do much damage.
Alrik placed his HPAR back in its slot and drew his LPA, he started to move around the Render shot at by Phaedra, concentrating his fire on the shoulder mounted shield generator.
Seeing as Alrik and he were the first to charge into the room, Victor didn't figure they were in the most enviable of positions. Regretting not bring an LPA he simply began to unload with his HPAR into the center of the Render that Phaedra had hit with her EMPs. Making note that its friend would soon be feeling lonely and ornery if they didn't act quick enough.
The sim's alarms sounded, and then everything suddenly went dark - darker than before, at least. A message popped up on his screen, noting his death by Render. "Screw it," he said, switching over to a different camera angle to watch the aftermath of the battle.
Bernhard pulled out his LPA and switched it to beam mode. He aimed it at the shield-less Render and watched as the plasma began chewing through the armor.
Lisa gave other few seconds to weaken the enemy before stepping out of the cover so she could shoot. She also hoped Render's attention will at others. Her Sav'tech went full power as is started targeting both Renders. She wanted to start with full volley of the Darts, followed by Gatling lasers and arrows, finally ending with firing mortars. Each mortar aimed right at the base of the render. She aimed to take its minigun or its legs out. "YIPPY KA-YAY MOTHERFUCKERS!" She shouted and fired her volley.
The concentrated firepower from the Marines took down the first Render. Its hull was pitted and twisted from all the hits taken and the Render collapsed forwards. Its partner, however, was not silent. A volley of missiles slammed into Bernhard, knocking him back, aether beams tore off both of Phaedra's legs and its Gatling gun seemed to enjoy shooting at Victor.
"Just like the last one! Simmons, how long till you're ready? Get some shields to cover the Sergeant!" Bernhard said, scrambling to his feet only to realize that his LPA was destroyed and his right arm "missing". The simulators thankfully did not simulate pain.
"Way ahead of you!" Lisa said as she was ordering four three drones to do triangular shield in front of the sergeant. She also took her AS4GS into hand and boosted to nearest cover. "15 second to next mortars!" She said and started firing from her Gatling’s and shotgun as she moved to cover.
Once the first Render was down, Alrik would continue his strafing around the room and keep his target on the second Render's shield generator.
"Okay let's see how many fucks I still give," Victor growled as he made no effort to avoid the minigun fire and held his ground firing back. He probably wouldn't last all that much longer at that rate. But, trying to take down the Render before it took him down was at least an entertaining thought. Plus he didn't appreciate being sprayed, for lack of a better term, by the crotch guns. "I think I prefer the Nekos," Victor added as he dropped to a knee to unload the ARROWS he had slowly but surely.
Bernhard lifted his HPAR with his left hand and fired all of his ARROWS at the Render, impacting against the shield and then against armor. "Shields are down, hit it and stop whining!"
The Render buckled as Alrik and Victor's shot hit it but still the Render stayed upright. It extended one of its claws and swatted Alrik down.
"7 seconds!" Lisa said and continued firing sending in a full volley of Arrows and Darts too! "Just die already!" She said pumping her shotgun and firing it again.
Victor aimed his Money Shot towards the center of the render still kneeling as he finished unloading his ARROWS. Not waiting for an invitation he continued to fire surprised that the darn thing hadn't gone down yet. With little regard for the fact that mortars would be raining down soon, Victor quickly stood up and used the Push/Pull system to help close the distance quickly as he began to fire once more towards the center of the Render.
Bernhard's screen went black, flashing skull and crossbones. He had not even seen the aether beams which "killed" him. "Damn, killed again by a mecha!" he cursed before letting out the breath he didn't realize he was holding in.
Smacked down by the claws of the Render, his blood started to pump as he attempted to pick himself up and quickly move away from the smacking range of the Render if at all possible. He would attempt to find cover and give a few pop shots as he did so.
Lisa grinned like devil when reload countdown of the mortars went to zero. She quickly lowered both and aimed them at the render. This time she did not even shouted any battle cries and fired them both. While still emptying Gatling lasers and arrow rack into the render.
Seeing as Victor had already decided to get up close and personal with the mecha it wasn't as if he could flat out avoid the mortars. As such he tried to use the push/pull plate to the best of his ability to get as close as possible possibly even circling around though that was unlikely. If he was going to go down now, he'd at least go down firing. It also gave him time to think of what he could order at the bar tonight.
Both Victor and the Render exploded brilliantly, showering Phaedra's NIGHT, Lisa and Alrik with shrapnel. And behind it was a suitcase containing, presumably, the data module.
Lisa was last fully operable marine. She slowly walked forward checking her surrounding and aiming her shotgun and GLs. She walked toward Alrik to get him from under the parts of destroyed mecha.
Alrik moved some of the debris off him, along with the help of Lisa. " Thank you." He mumbled into the comms. Moving to his feet and taking the LPA back into his hands, he looked at the suitcase. He took a piece of the debris and chucked it at the suitcase.
"Well that's one way to kill some time." Victor noted as the simulation ended and the crossbones appeared. Exiting the Power Armor, he figured he'd get himself something to drink. Or at the very least someone to drink off of.
The suitcase fell over and thumped softly on the metal floor.
"I will get Sarge and Bernard's brain spider. You get the suitcase and let's get the hell out of here. Don’t forget to scan it first." Lisa said and put two triangle shields to Alrik's sides to cover his flank and did the same with her back. She then moved to Bernie to get the spider.
Alrik would nod at Lisa and proceed to scan the briefcase with his Monoeye. Then moving towards it to grab the briefcase, if nothing odd came up.
Nothing odd appeared and the mono-eye did reveal there was a data module inside. The moment he grabbed the suitcase, the simulation ended with their screens going black and suits opening to let fresh air in.
Alrik would step out from the Hostile and straighten up his uniform. " Mission complete then." He would state.
"If you ask me that was some serious fuck-up." Lisa said as she opened her Void and climber out. She took out a cigarette and lighted it.
Phaedra sighed to herself as she removed her helmet.
"Well that could have gone better..." she thought.
"Despite the mission succeeding, we acquired too many casualties, and I was mainly at fault for that. I should have had them retreat when those Renders showed up. Simply unacceptable."
"Hey, the Sergeant set the difficulty to ridiculous! So of course the computer would start throwing nonsense at us. But you know, sometimes, I swear the sims are actually run by a person who's looking for a bunch of laughs."
Alrik would nod to those who were left, " A drink then to finish the night?" He would offer.
"Thanks," Lisa said and offering open cigarette box to others. "Anyone want a ***? Also don’t we have mission soon. I think we should have drink after that."
"You just want to get her into your bed, don't you, Wolf?" Bernhard asked slyly after politely refusing a smoke.
Alrik would take a cigarette and light it casually, lighting it with his own lighter. " Can't deny that. I am a man." He shrugs, trying his best to act cool.
"Sorry Wolfie I have different hopes." Lisa said and walked to Bernhard. "So what'cha doing after mission. Bernhard." She asked with sexy smile on her face.
Alrik chuckled softly as he took the first drag of the cigarette, " Hah, hopes and dreams." He would give a wave to the two as he walked away from them and to his quarters.
Bernhard took a deep breath and smiled. "You know, I think I'm free for the rest of today. Drinks first?"
"Shower first. Mess hall in half an hour. It's a date!" She said and smiled some more.
"If it was Laura, she'd be dragging me off to shower with her!" Bernhard laughed, walking with Lisa towards the crew quarters.
"I am not some teenage horny girl handsome." Lisa replied taking a puff from her cigarette and exhaling it towards the ceiling. She knew some people disliked smoke.
It was extremely boring jumping between systems. The likelihood of attack was about the same as a Neko being adopted by the Sky Marshall as his long lost niece. So, Dominic Valken decided to tour the new warship that he had made his flagship.
The Dauntless, like all the other Blackjack cruisers, was a new design and Fourth Fleet had been the first to receive the new warships before even the mighty First. That had puffed Valken's chest, to know that his command had received priority over Vanderhuge's.
"Admiral, what are you doing here?" Valken turned to see the ship's Captain behind him. "Just touring the ship, Captain. You?" he replied. Valencia Ironside had been captain of the old NSS Destiny on the last mission to Tange. She had displayed the exact qualities of a warship captain that Valken wanted for his flagship so with some string pulled, she ended up under his command.
In addition to her command qualities, she was certainly very attractive for a woman in her mid-thirties. She had never married or had a child, "married to the service" as one of Valken's First Fleet friends put it.
"I was about to make a surprise inspection of the Marines, sir. Would you care to accompany me?" she asked politely. "Gladly, Captain. Time to see what Homo sapiens marinero looks like in its natural habitat," Valken said, imagining the confusion Captain Ironside's inspection would do to the Marines, who obviously had been too informal with Admiral Wazu. "Interested in some role switching?"
NSS Dauntless, Hangar, 8 AM ship's time
"Alright Marines, listen up! Get into your PAs; we will be running a training simulation!" said Phaedra, pacing in front of the Marines assembled in the hangar.
"This is one step away from the real thing. I expect this training to be taken seriously; it is no laughing matter if you wind up dead on our next mission because you were not paying attention. Now get to it!"
With that, Phaedra headed over to her NIGHT and opened up its access panels. She took a moment to set down her beret on the shelf nearby before slipping into the armor. As the armor panels slid shut, Phaedra activated the armor's startup sequence. She grabbed her helmet and placed it over her head, ensuring that the neck ring was sealed. She closed her eyes for the second of blackness before the HUD winked on.
Alrik was already at his Hostile, checking over the various attachments to the Power Armor. His hostile was equipped with the Plasma Autocannon and the HPAR with close quarter combat attachments; including the shorten barrel, taser and a barrel grip. He also attached a virtual trigger, linked to the computer interface inside the Hostile. Quickly, he responded as Phaedra finished her words, " Yes, sergeant!" After checking everything, he would step inside the Hostile and start on the internal equipment check.
Samuel's Hostile was fresh off the line, not a single scratch on it. Strapped to its weapons attachments were an AS4GS and an LPA-01, his favorites from training. He popped open the hatch and slipped inside, flipping the switches to start the machine up for simulations. "Ready for the mission, sergeant!" he said, watching the systems check run on his monitor. The simulation files were loading up, but said nothing about what the operation would entail. Still, he was eager to get this started; it had been a couple weeks since he got out of training, and he was ready to take a refresher before he got chucked into the meat grinder.
Victor simply grunted as he began arming his hostile. He didn't particularly want to go too expensive and kept to the basic armaments with the exception of changing out the loads of the missiles to ARROWS. Other than that he entered the power armor and began flipping switches in the armor while staring at the HUD. In truth he wasn't all that excited at the prospect of a simulation mission. It wasn't as if simulations could feel pain, where would the fun be. "Private Balthior, ready and waiting." Still the overly aggressive marine figured it'd at least be an interesting waste of time before the real shooting started.
Lisa was waiting in the hangar and when Phaedra finally gave the orders she started walking towards her Void. "Aye, Aye ma'am!" She said and took a deathstick from behind her ear. She wanted to have one last smoke before strapping inside. Lighting it with lighter with Aethersperm picture on it. She puffed and exhaled a smoke. She walked to her PA and activated it. She did 'pre-flight' check for her Void before climbing in. She finished her cigarette and threw it on the ground, before closing the armor. Her armor was armed with standard LPA rifle, AS4G with both barrels full of tungsten rounds. As minimissiles she had Arrows in one launcher and Darts in another. And finally her mortars were loaded with HE shells. She was ready. "Ready to rock'n'roll!" She said.
Bernhard sat beside his kneeling Hostile. For this exercise, he'd chosen to go with the HPAR and the new LPA. Seeing everyone else get to their feet, he rose and got into the armor. Swiftly, he began the power up and pre-mission checklist. It always amazed him how technologically advanced their "standard" issue was when so much of civilian Nepleslian tech was so poor.
He envied Laura and her innate ability to work with technology. A lot of what he used as a medic still confused him, despite her assurances about their simplicity.
"Sergeant, why us? Why do the others get time off?" he asked.
"Firstly, because most of the Marines here have not had any combat experience. And secondly, Private Greer, because you got the short straw." She paused for a moment and then continued.
"Or you could have listened to Laura gripe about why she had to come and why you didn't."
Phaedra did some last minute checks on her armor's systems, and then began to start the training exercise. She thought for a moment and then selected the mission parameters.
"Oh come on Bernie it sounds like fun. Plus who needs sleep anyway?" Said Lisa while she was activating their training mode on her armor and made sure that none of her gun will go off by accident. Especially not the mortars.
"That's a low blow, Sergeant but put that way, yes, this does seem a better idea. But it's not because I was hit and she wasn't in the last mission?" he replied. "And my name's Bernhard, Simmons. Not Bernie," Bernhard added snappily to Lisa. "Sleep deprivation is one of the most effective means of torture. And least gruesome."
Alrik finished checking over the software on the Hostile and scanned over his vital signs on the HUD, watching his breathing closely and checking the visual data from his eyes into the machinery of the Hostile. " Private Wolf, ready sergeant." He stated over the comms, checking that as well.
"Aw, shut up, you guys. I'd rather be fighting squids than my own medic, y'know?" Samuel squirmed in his armor, doing some last-minute checks before the mission fired up. Everything looked perfect for the mission, as would be expected, and he turned off the safeties on the virtual triggers in preparation for the battle.
While Victor did like the LPA, it already seemed everyone and their grandmother had picked one up and honestly there was no real reason to change from the HPAR. As he finished up the last bit of diagnostics waiting for the simulation to start he sighed to himself. It was hard to get excited over it while hearing the sounds of small squabbling in the background. Still it wasn't any of his concern at the moment and he had already made a bad impression last he checked.
"OFFICER ON DECK!" someone yelled loudly across the hangar.
"Ten Hut!" said Phaedra, snapping to attention and saluting. Standing at attention and saluting while in ones PA tended to look rather ridiculous.
Captain Valencia Ironside walked into the hangar, her face stony set. Her pace was precise and her gaze sought for the slightest flaw. As if in contrast, behind her, Rear Admiral Dominic Valken was strolling leisurely as if taking in the sights.
Alrik would immediately snap to attention and give a salute to the officer entering the hangar.
Clumsily, Samuel brought himself to attention. He stood as straight as he could - not a problem in his armor - and popped his hand to his forehead - that was a little harder to do, and he nearly knocked out his mooneye on the first attempt. He wished the AI would help him do something as official and common as that on command, but it couldn't be helped.
Victor snapped at attention immediately upon the command being called. Saluting was a bit more delayed, but he wasn't exactly that confident in operating the power armor.
Lisa looked used one of her mono-eyes to look at the newcomers. She snapped at attention, but did not salute since she held long LPA in both hands. Hmm Captain Bombshell and Admiral Hardass. She thought when she saw two officers. Inspection maybe? Or were they just checking the hangar? Not like it really mattered to Lisa.
Bernhard jumped to his feet, stood at attention and threw a salute. It was a little awkward since his right hand was still holding a HPAR magazine.
"Sergeant Volkov," Captain Ironside said, stopping in front of Phaedra, "Are your Marines normally this ... informal? The Admiral is here on inspection and one Marine has failed to salute. Can you explain this to me so that neither of us looks like fools in front of the Admiral?"
Phaedra glanced at her HUD inside her helmet, noticing that Lisa was not saluting and had her LPA in both hands. Phaedra was glad her scowl was hidden behind the wolf skull painted on her helmet.
"No Ma'am. We were just about to begin a training simulation, ma'am."
Alrik stood there inside his Hostile, neither moving his eyes nor his hand away from the saluting position, until told to do so.
Valken walked up beside Ironside, noticed Lisa not saluting and frowned. "A training scenario? For the upcoming mission, Sergeant?" he asked.
"Yes sir, Admiral."
Samuel just watched the storm unfold, silently, glad his PA's faceplate hid his smile. He knew this was going to be good, and just decided to enjoy the show, glad it wasn't him that was being chewed out.
"I noticed you and some of your other squad members have added some... personal touches to the armors? Did Admiral Wazu forbid this in the past?" Valken asked Phaedra, looking at her wolf skull art.
"No sir. Nor did he encourage it either. He allowed us to make minor personal modifications in order to boost morale, sir. As long as they did not interfere with function, sir."
"Far be it from me to spoil artistic creativity, I do approve. Though I do not wish to see anything... derogatory. Carry on then. I'll be moving along, inspecting other parts of the ship. I expect positive results, Marines. Otherwise, you might find the restocking of the ship's alcohol to be slower than usual." Valken saluted Phaedra and walked past Ironside and out the hangar.
"Yes sir, Admiral!" replied Phaedra.
"I expect the same professionalism from all of your Marines like what I saw on Tange. Never again," Captain Ironside said to Phaedra, hinting at Lisa's lack of salute. Ironside saluted Phaedra and walked out the hangar after Valken.
"Yes Ma'am," said Phaedra.
Lisa rolled her eyes under her helmet. So Captain Bombshell was also stuck-up bitch. Like Lisa cared. She finally understood why some marines hated her when she was in flight school back when she was still navy. Like Admiral cared about her salute anyway. "Sorry boss," She said to Phaedra. Lisa might not care much about higher ranks but she was still polite and Sarge took all the shit and not Lisa. She could say the LPA is long gun and it is uncomfortable to hold it in one hand but that would be just excuse.
Phaedra released her NIGHT from its place and purposefully walked over to where Lisa stood in her PA.
"Thank you for the apology, but get it right next time, Private. It really is not that hard," said Phaedra with her hands on her hips.
"Laura said she saw the Captain outside the Destiny when we were on Tange, when Rippers and zombies were charging us like no tomorrow. If that's true, that woman's got balls. Heard that the Admiral head-hunted her from Second Fleet after the mission. Think it’s true?" Bernhard added, mostly for the new guys' and girl's benefit.
Alrik released his salute and returned to an ordinary stance as he listened to the others talk about the Captain. He was interested, but didn't show any movement from his armor. Let alone any speech to compliment it. It was interesting to hear about officer's exploits, but it wouldn't serve any good to himself.
Phaedra strode back to her NIGHT's position and clamped it back into place.
"Enough chatter; we have a mission to run," said Phaedra, modifying the mission parameters and raising the difficulty another level. She then hit the button to begin the simulation.
Samuel settled down a bit as the officers left the deck. As great as it was to watch them lay into someone else, he was more eager to get on with this thing. Some extra sim files went onto the system - the Sarge was messing with the mission - and the sim engine started up. That was probably not a good sign; Sarge was ticked.
On all the Marines' screens, the scene changed from the Dauntless' hangar to a building corridor lined with steel. There were lights overhead and a door every ten meters down. The Marines' mobility was hampered by the walls and they were only able to advance two abreast.
"Schway... like a horror movie. Who's got point?" Bernhard whistled softly.
"Wolf, Balthior, you've got point. Bernhard, Tybalt, you two are next. Simmons and I will bring up the rear," said Phaedra, drawing her VCBS and SSP-01.
"Remember your training; do not just walk past corners or barge into rooms. Think and use the environment to your advantage."
Alrik responded, " Yes, sergeant." Moving to the front of the group with his HPAR designed for close quarter’s engagement. He knelt down slightly as he moved to take the front, giving room for the others to fire above him if at all possible. He waited for the rest of the group to be in position.
"Aye aye," Samuel quipped, loading up his LPA for combat and scanning the area for anything that might bust through the doors. Like Greer said, they were in some horror movie scene. He'd seen too many of those things to know how this would end. At some point, they'd split up, and then some mutant Neko or something would tear them to pieces one by one. Still, nobody in those movies had military ordnance or high-tech robot suits...
"Got it sarge," Victor calmly responded as he began moving into position. Which probably wasn't the most comfortable situation in the corridor. Upon arriving in the front he pulled out the LSP pistol figuring it would be a bit more reliable than the Money Shot up close. Which was fine with him. Victor would move on to ready his VCBS as it was certainly the weapon he felt most comfortable with, but it would also be the least useful in actual combat.
First thing Lisa did was turning on her heels. She wanted to check their backs. Her LPA was shouldered and ready to fire. "Great! I love horrors!" Lisa said as reaction to Bernard. She listened Sarge's orders. "Roger, I am covering out backsides. Also just a word and I can whip up a shield." She responded to Phaedra and switched to her AS4GS which was better suited for the interiors..
"We need to locate and extract a data module (Petty Officer Suku's porn stash) from the command center of this facility. I'm marking the objective now."
On the Marines' HUDs, an objective marker appeared 300m down.
Bernhard kicked Alrik forwards to get the mission started.
Victor began steadily moving forward with the pistol aimed on the obvious chance that they ran into trouble. At the very least they were moving down instead of up. Keeping a firm grip on his sidearm he almost lost his bearings seeing Alrik...motivated to get moving. With each step he kept his eyes on the doors in the corridor. They were far from a comforting sight. Oh well, not giving it too much of an afterthought the private was primed to get this all over with.
Alrik was suddenly pushed a bit forward by a boot, he grunted as he pushed forward attempting to give a small kick backwards at Bernhard, before falling over slightly. He managed to save himself with a free hand. Moving himself back into the proper stance, he started to move forward with Victor, keeping an eye on the doors and any corridors that started to appear on his side. His pace was faster than a normal march, but slow enough to keep eyes on any details that might appear. He patted Victor on the arm, each time they passed a door. Giving notice to a safe side.
Samuel had the right side of the hall; as he passed each door, he aimed his gun at them. Just in case. Their target, for some reason, was a bunch of porn. Somehow, they were risking their lives for a bunch of files the guy could've just got from the 'nets for free after he lost them. It's just a training mission, he reminded himself. Where we're going, we don't need logic.
One of the lamps overhead flickered; he jumped in his suit and stared at it for a couple seconds, weapons at the ready. He took a deep breath and got back in formation. Nothing to worry about. Yet.
As the Marines inched forwards, all the lights went out and gunfire started erupting in front of them. Impaler particle beams exploded against Victor and Alrik's shields. Victor also felt something heavy land on his foot.
"Return fire! Simmons! Shield up front now! Pick up the pace, we cannot get caught in the open like this!" barked Phaedra.
"Roger! Shield coming up right now!" Lisa said and mentally ordered four bots to fly up. Two flew near ground and two near the ceiling to avoid fire. They were ordered to fly in front of the spearhead and block whole hallway. "Don't shoot the drones guys!" Lisa added.
Alrik was pushed by the impact of the shells, trying to get himself up as fast as he could before switching on his Monoeye Suite to attempt and find where the shots were coming from. He returned with covering fire, as he moved forward to find one of the doors on the side. " Private Balthior, let's see if we can clear the doors up ahead." As he moved, he hoped whoever was behind him, would act as his breach partner on the door.
Samuel followed Alrik's motion, taking a position on the other side of the door. Standard entry/room clearing procedure and all that. He aimed his autocannon, then gave a hand signal. "Do it." He wasn't really sure what they were doing, but it made a little more sense than being shot up in the hall.
The initial impact of the particle beams made it easy to forget they were in a simulation if only for a moment. A slight growl erupted from Victor's lips as he looked forward into his HUD returning fire despite not hearing Phaedra's orders to do so in the same moment. As Victor fired he kicked forward with his right leg curious as to what the hell just landed in front of him. Sure there was no chance that it was anything useful, but if it was sturdy enough it could be cover at the very least. Since chances were in this tiny hallway even with Lisa's request the drones weren't going to fare too well. He wasn't sure exactly what Alrik was expecting with trying to breach before the opposition was cleared, but he went along with it.
Samuel and Alrik shot ahead before Lisa's drones were up and running. The shield wall gave some light to the Marines behind the wall but not enough to see their enemy ahead. And then the Marines behind the wall were blinded and thrown backwards as the demolition charge that Victor had kicked exploded. Victor and Bernhard were hardest hit, their shields lowered some, whilst everyone behind them just staggered from the blast.
Bernhard cursed and switched his HUD to night vision. "Guess it’s up to them to draw the fire now."
The two Marines in front of the shield were still being hit by Impaler beams. Their shots into the dark resulted in a couple high pitched screams but not visible letting up of enemy fire.
Alrik's mono-eye revealed nothing. No power armors, no mecha just lots of incoming particle beams. Both of their shields hovered around 75%.
Alrik moved to a door in front of him, attempting to initiate a quick breach and clear maneuver to free them from the firing coming from the hallway. He waited for Samuel to be in position behind him, hoping he was ready to cover the other side of the room while he hit the other.
They made it through the demolition explosives relatively unscathed, but Samuel still had all kinds of guns aimed at him and Alrik. Following right behind Alrik, he bathed one side of the room with plasma, activating his monoeye to see if anything had changed. Not really, by his scan; they still had tons of fire going off their shields, but somehow, he believed they'd make it through all right. That is, if his partner held up his part of the maneuver.
"Not gonna lie. That sucked." Victor muttered with a slight groan. And by slight, I mean quite audible. He slowly steadied himself upright having been blown back more than he would have liked. "Well no need to let a couple little setbacks like feeling like my leg was blown clean off slow us down." Once again he had his sidearm readied although this time he figured he'd take a more tactful less blowy uppy approach. Okay...maybe not so much tactful as much as he'd just write off what just happened.
"Idiots!" Lisa grunted and sent another order to the drones. "Opening pathway through shield on the left side!" She said and did. Two drones moved to the right and made the shield smaller while stilly covering much of the hall, leaving enough space for PA to get through.
Phaedra activated her monoeye, noticing how it strangely revealed...nothing. No Powered Armors for that matter.
"A demolition charge? That doesn't even sound like Squids." She activated her night vision and saw numerous Neko shapes moving about. She glanced at the status of the shields on her two point men.
"Wolf, Balthior, all of you. Charge straight down that hallway; we aren't even facing PAs. Give those bastards something to fear! Charge in and take them out!"
Bernhard held his HPAR in his right, his submachine pistol in the left and charged past the shield wall, using his thrusters to accelerate past Alrik and Samuel. With the night vision activated, he could see nothing but a lot of Nekos. His HPAR, LSP and pulse laser blasted away as he charged into the Nekos. In power armor, he could take them all on. Rita would be proud of his reckless charge, Bernhard thought, as he shot another one dead.
Victor unslung his HPAR considering for a moment that firing would probably end poorly for Alrik and Samuel. The Money Shot would be gripped firmly in his left hand as the pistol continued stay in his dominant arm. He flipped on his night vision considering that fumbling around in the dark hadn't ended too well for him just moments ago. Seeing as orders were order and he certainly liked the last orders given, as soon as Victor was in front of Alrik and Samuel he began cackling like a madman firing away with each weapon with little regard for personal safety towards the Nekos that soon became visible. Which was decidedly a step up from kicking demolition charges on the ground. Not that that was a very high standard.
" Yes, Sergeant." Alrik responded after clearing the room successfully, moving quickly out of the room he moved with a quick pace and a crouched walk. Letting off bursts of fire at the end of the hallway. Charging blindly wouldn't do well, but that didn't mean he couldn't charge with tact. He switched on his night vision as he funneled out of the door.
Samuel popped out of the room, following Alrik, slamming the door behind him just in case. The lights weren't coming back on, apparently, and besides the spray of plasma bolts, they had nothing to go on. He flipped on night vision, only to see a mob of unarmored NMX Nekos blasting at them, but nothing they couldn't take. Or at least, that's what he hoped as he backed up Victor's charge out of the shield with some covering fire.
Bernhard's LSP ran out of ammunition quickly and there were still Nekos around him. He holstered both weapons and pulled out his VBCS. He thrust the wicked blade into the first Neko he saw, the chainsaw teeth chewing through the flesh and spraying his armor with crimson blood. He noticed that he gone straight for the jugular. It felt odd, even if this was a simulation, that he was using his medical skills to kill people.
A Neko charged towards Alrik and threw herself at him. A moment later, she detonated the demolition charge, damaging Alrik's shields and spraying blood and gore on his armor.
Alrik was thrown back by the demolition charge against his shield. " Fucking Nekos." He mumbled to himself as he picked himself up, continuing to shoot down the hallway towards the enemies and keeping his same pace up with them. " Sergeant, this isn't going to end well if we keep charging them. They have suicide bombers." He retorted through the comms.
Alrik's shots resulted in another trio falling dead with smoking holes in their chests.
Phaedra had stepped up with the rest of the squad, shooting what Nekos she could see without endangering her comrades.
"Kill them before they have a chance to detonate. Drop them now!"
The all too familiar feeling of his ammunition running out came quickly as Victor's mad sprint continued. He slung the HPAR on his back and tossed the sidearm aside. Reaching for the VBCS he would lung towards the neck of the nearest Neko screaming in enjoyment, "Looks like its date night and I gots me quite a pick of the litter. I hope simulations can scream!" He had forgotten his initial reservations against the simulation it wasn't as good as the real thing. But it still sated his taste.
Lisa followed behind, deactivating the shield drones and gunning down a couple Nekos with her Gatling lasers.
Bernhard kicked a Neko away, shoved another into the wall and for fun, slapped a third across the cheek, knocking her out. "Sergeant, got an unconscious one. Need her as a "present" for the Admiral?" The simulated Neko was certainly attractive, despite the oil and sweat across her face.
"Indeed, Bernhard. Leave that one alive, but make sure its vest is disarmed before we extract the prisoner."
Alrik continued down the hallway at the same pace and with the same burst shot maneuver’s that he had before. Taking a moment to stop and reload his HPAR, "Reloading." He mentions before he stops, giving Samuel notice to cover him. After reloading his HPAR, he would say into the comms, " Sergeant, shall we pursue?"
"Roger that," Samuel confirmed, firing madly at the wave of Nekos still coming at them, exploding in front of them and scattering bits of Neko and ball bearings across their shields, trying to remain calm even as they swarmed forward. "So, uh, when're we gonna make a move on these things? They aren't gonna stop 'till we do, ya know, and these shields aren't going to hold up forever..." He knocked a couple backwards with his push/pull device in the meantime.
"No vest on this one, Sergeant," Bernhard reported as he pulled out his HPAR and started blasting another couple Nekos. The twenty or so Nekos left started running away, down the hallway. Bernhard lowered his HPAR and picked up the Neko.
He checked his HUD, the objective was just 10 meters ahead and to the left. How had they gotten so far? "Sergeant, target is 10 meters ahead. Door on the left. Can't tell what's behind it though, mono-eye is being jammed. Possibly NMX power armor."
Phaedra strode up to Bernhard and offered to take the Neko prisoner from him. He handed the unconscious Neko off to Phaedra.
"Alright, Wolf, Balthior, breach that door. Be careful, we do not know what is on the other side."
Alrik nodded inside of his PA to Phaedra's commands, " Yes, sergeant." He said in the same monotone voice. With that, he would move to the right side of the door, waiting for Balthior to get to the other side of the door. " Samuel, behind me." He said over the comms.
"Maybe we should use one the charges that didn't go off. I mean they went to all the trouble of dressing up all nicely for us." Victor quipped as he took the opposite side of the door. Victor made a quick visual sweep on the off chance there was something else waiting to blow up by his leg again. Pulling out the HPAR he aimed the weapon towards the sides of the door preparing to shoot once everyone was clear and ready to move.
"Fine," Samuel sighed, getting in position. The mission just felt like it was dragging on, with no real point. He stared up the hallway, and something caught his attention. Something big was coming closer, and he didn't think it would be very fun to meet. Wonderful, he thought as he kept blasting at the Neko waves, switching over to his shotgun to add a bit more variety.
Alrik starts to count down with his fingers to the breaching maneuver. 3, 2, 1 and with that he would start the breach, opening the door and moving off to his side. His eyes would try to spot out anything inside the room, if there were hostiles inside the room he would open fire.
The door blew open and a myriad of NMX weaponry blasted past. White aether beams, blue Impaler beams, tracers and mini-missiles. Lisa sent in a large shield wall to cover the Marines' entrance. "Who's going first?" she asked, readying her LPA. The shield wall in was holding though it wouldn't be long before the NMX remembered to shoot the drones instead.
Alrik already moved into the door when it opened, covering his side.
Victor charged in gripping the Money Shot in his left hand and the VCBS in his right. He didn't give much of a care about the NMX in the room outnumbering them and without a moment's hesitation he fired towards the nearest one he could see. He would then kick forward to try and stab it in the center of what could almost amount to a head.
"Clear out that room! Use explosives if you've got them."
Samuel did his best to keep up with Victor, trying to clear spaces along his flanks with a shotgun as they charged forward. It was crazy, but if it worked... The slugs scattered against the walls, spraying plasma and tungsten in all directions, wreaking even more havoc. He grit his teeth and jammed the butt of his shotgun into the nearest Neko's face, kicking it away before the vest on it exploded. "Got your back," he called out, "just keep moving forward, all right?"
What every single Marine seemed to have failed to notice were the two Render mecha in the middle of the room. The two large NMX mecha opened fire everything they had at Samuel, destroying his shields and ripping through his armor. Samuel's screen went black and skull and crossbones flashed indicating his death. The NMX had avenged the neko he had so unceremoniously killed.
"Fuckity fuck!" Lisa shouted as Samuel got vaporized. "Sarge I got an idea!" She said, put her LPA on the ground and lowered her mortars. "Though I am going to need some covering fire! We need to take their shields down!" She added.
"Covering fire!" shouted Phaedra, putting away her weapons and drawing her MPR. She fired an EMP round at the Render on the right, quickly ejected the spent round and then fired again.
The two EMP rounds took down the Render's shields but did not do much damage.
Alrik placed his HPAR back in its slot and drew his LPA, he started to move around the Render shot at by Phaedra, concentrating his fire on the shoulder mounted shield generator.
Seeing as Alrik and he were the first to charge into the room, Victor didn't figure they were in the most enviable of positions. Regretting not bring an LPA he simply began to unload with his HPAR into the center of the Render that Phaedra had hit with her EMPs. Making note that its friend would soon be feeling lonely and ornery if they didn't act quick enough.
The sim's alarms sounded, and then everything suddenly went dark - darker than before, at least. A message popped up on his screen, noting his death by Render. "Screw it," he said, switching over to a different camera angle to watch the aftermath of the battle.
Bernhard pulled out his LPA and switched it to beam mode. He aimed it at the shield-less Render and watched as the plasma began chewing through the armor.
Lisa gave other few seconds to weaken the enemy before stepping out of the cover so she could shoot. She also hoped Render's attention will at others. Her Sav'tech went full power as is started targeting both Renders. She wanted to start with full volley of the Darts, followed by Gatling lasers and arrows, finally ending with firing mortars. Each mortar aimed right at the base of the render. She aimed to take its minigun or its legs out. "YIPPY KA-YAY MOTHERFUCKERS!" She shouted and fired her volley.
The concentrated firepower from the Marines took down the first Render. Its hull was pitted and twisted from all the hits taken and the Render collapsed forwards. Its partner, however, was not silent. A volley of missiles slammed into Bernhard, knocking him back, aether beams tore off both of Phaedra's legs and its Gatling gun seemed to enjoy shooting at Victor.
"Just like the last one! Simmons, how long till you're ready? Get some shields to cover the Sergeant!" Bernhard said, scrambling to his feet only to realize that his LPA was destroyed and his right arm "missing". The simulators thankfully did not simulate pain.
"Way ahead of you!" Lisa said as she was ordering four three drones to do triangular shield in front of the sergeant. She also took her AS4GS into hand and boosted to nearest cover. "15 second to next mortars!" She said and started firing from her Gatling’s and shotgun as she moved to cover.
Once the first Render was down, Alrik would continue his strafing around the room and keep his target on the second Render's shield generator.
"Okay let's see how many fucks I still give," Victor growled as he made no effort to avoid the minigun fire and held his ground firing back. He probably wouldn't last all that much longer at that rate. But, trying to take down the Render before it took him down was at least an entertaining thought. Plus he didn't appreciate being sprayed, for lack of a better term, by the crotch guns. "I think I prefer the Nekos," Victor added as he dropped to a knee to unload the ARROWS he had slowly but surely.
Bernhard lifted his HPAR with his left hand and fired all of his ARROWS at the Render, impacting against the shield and then against armor. "Shields are down, hit it and stop whining!"
The Render buckled as Alrik and Victor's shot hit it but still the Render stayed upright. It extended one of its claws and swatted Alrik down.
"7 seconds!" Lisa said and continued firing sending in a full volley of Arrows and Darts too! "Just die already!" She said pumping her shotgun and firing it again.
Victor aimed his Money Shot towards the center of the render still kneeling as he finished unloading his ARROWS. Not waiting for an invitation he continued to fire surprised that the darn thing hadn't gone down yet. With little regard for the fact that mortars would be raining down soon, Victor quickly stood up and used the Push/Pull system to help close the distance quickly as he began to fire once more towards the center of the Render.
Bernhard's screen went black, flashing skull and crossbones. He had not even seen the aether beams which "killed" him. "Damn, killed again by a mecha!" he cursed before letting out the breath he didn't realize he was holding in.
Smacked down by the claws of the Render, his blood started to pump as he attempted to pick himself up and quickly move away from the smacking range of the Render if at all possible. He would attempt to find cover and give a few pop shots as he did so.
Lisa grinned like devil when reload countdown of the mortars went to zero. She quickly lowered both and aimed them at the render. This time she did not even shouted any battle cries and fired them both. While still emptying Gatling lasers and arrow rack into the render.
Seeing as Victor had already decided to get up close and personal with the mecha it wasn't as if he could flat out avoid the mortars. As such he tried to use the push/pull plate to the best of his ability to get as close as possible possibly even circling around though that was unlikely. If he was going to go down now, he'd at least go down firing. It also gave him time to think of what he could order at the bar tonight.
Both Victor and the Render exploded brilliantly, showering Phaedra's NIGHT, Lisa and Alrik with shrapnel. And behind it was a suitcase containing, presumably, the data module.
Lisa was last fully operable marine. She slowly walked forward checking her surrounding and aiming her shotgun and GLs. She walked toward Alrik to get him from under the parts of destroyed mecha.
Alrik moved some of the debris off him, along with the help of Lisa. " Thank you." He mumbled into the comms. Moving to his feet and taking the LPA back into his hands, he looked at the suitcase. He took a piece of the debris and chucked it at the suitcase.
"Well that's one way to kill some time." Victor noted as the simulation ended and the crossbones appeared. Exiting the Power Armor, he figured he'd get himself something to drink. Or at the very least someone to drink off of.
The suitcase fell over and thumped softly on the metal floor.
"I will get Sarge and Bernard's brain spider. You get the suitcase and let's get the hell out of here. Don’t forget to scan it first." Lisa said and put two triangle shields to Alrik's sides to cover his flank and did the same with her back. She then moved to Bernie to get the spider.
Alrik would nod at Lisa and proceed to scan the briefcase with his Monoeye. Then moving towards it to grab the briefcase, if nothing odd came up.
Nothing odd appeared and the mono-eye did reveal there was a data module inside. The moment he grabbed the suitcase, the simulation ended with their screens going black and suits opening to let fresh air in.
Alrik would step out from the Hostile and straighten up his uniform. " Mission complete then." He would state.
"If you ask me that was some serious fuck-up." Lisa said as she opened her Void and climber out. She took out a cigarette and lighted it.
Phaedra sighed to herself as she removed her helmet.
"Well that could have gone better..." she thought.
"Despite the mission succeeding, we acquired too many casualties, and I was mainly at fault for that. I should have had them retreat when those Renders showed up. Simply unacceptable."
"Hey, the Sergeant set the difficulty to ridiculous! So of course the computer would start throwing nonsense at us. But you know, sometimes, I swear the sims are actually run by a person who's looking for a bunch of laughs."
Alrik would nod to those who were left, " A drink then to finish the night?" He would offer.
"Thanks," Lisa said and offering open cigarette box to others. "Anyone want a ***? Also don’t we have mission soon. I think we should have drink after that."
"You just want to get her into your bed, don't you, Wolf?" Bernhard asked slyly after politely refusing a smoke.
Alrik would take a cigarette and light it casually, lighting it with his own lighter. " Can't deny that. I am a man." He shrugs, trying his best to act cool.
"Sorry Wolfie I have different hopes." Lisa said and walked to Bernhard. "So what'cha doing after mission. Bernhard." She asked with sexy smile on her face.
Alrik chuckled softly as he took the first drag of the cigarette, " Hah, hopes and dreams." He would give a wave to the two as he walked away from them and to his quarters.
Bernhard took a deep breath and smiled. "You know, I think I'm free for the rest of today. Drinks first?"
"Shower first. Mess hall in half an hour. It's a date!" She said and smiled some more.
"If it was Laura, she'd be dragging me off to shower with her!" Bernhard laughed, walking with Lisa towards the crew quarters.
"I am not some teenage horny girl handsome." Lisa replied taking a puff from her cigarette and exhaling it towards the ceiling. She knew some people disliked smoke.