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[Banzai!!] Historical Records: 3rd Battle of Nataria Aftermath

demibear

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RP Date
4月 YE 42
RP Location
Nataria
Ruins of the G/75 Combat Outpost

The battle that would become the Third Battle of Nataria was truly a historic event. Not in that Nataria was once again the site of a massive battle. No it is historic in the permanent losses of life that resulted from the successful tampering of the Kuvexians. For once again the cat girls of Yamatai would have to fear death that was not natural. A reality a certain Nepleslian Minkan centurion long learned to deal with in his past.

He looked at the mixed formation of Mindy 2s and 4s standing in front of the ruined outer walls of the combat outpost that helped stall a portion of the Kuvexian assault on Fort Ready. Those in Mindy 4s were properly trained Giretsu, bolstered with recent graduates to form a new Bravo Platoon. The remaining in Mindy 2s were the best Shosho Shimura Grace assigned to get the unit at full strength, clearly not happy with the pacing of SAIC. It would be a mess the Centurion would have to sort out later.

"I will be blunt with you all. This is the ugliest mass of fighting men and women I have ever seen this Empire pull together. But even if you don't have a Sakura cluster on your shoulder, I fully expect you to keep up with our standards and I expect those that do to train them as fellow comrades in training." The man said, donned in a similar Mindy 2 as his Keiko was out of commission after his last stunt. "Besides, the Shosho tells me you are too stubborn to die!"

"Now I am Shoi Mikael Harris, your new centurion. The death Yamanami-Taii, Smith-hei, Suzuki-hei, and the rest of your comrades is a blight on our honor we will make the Kuvexians pay ten-fold. We will have a formal ceremony later, but there are still pockets of stubborn Kevexians that did not get the message. We have the locations of a number of units the Rikugun requires our expertise with. Prepare for deployment in 20 minutes. Platoon leaders, they are yours now." Mikael said before nodding his head.

"Alpha platoon, form up on me!" A shrill Neko voice came over the comm channel for Alpha platoon.

Hiroki Shibuya was among those in Mindy 4 armor. The destruction from the violent conflict on Nataria told him all he needed to know how far the Kuvexians were willing to go to achieve their goals. He was eager to destroy these invaders, and the Type 35 Automatic Grenade Launcher that lies in his hands would see to that.

Being referred to as an ugly group did little to deter Hiroki, though he felt that Shoi could have worded his speech to be less mean-spirited. Then again, considering their current situation he supposed that there was not any room for pleasantries. First, he needed to make sure that the Kuvexians would be nothing more than a distant memory.

His hands clasped around his weapon, his finger on the trigger guard rather than the trigger itself as a form of highly trained weapon discipline before he followed the platoon after their Neko leader. Hiroki was quite hyped up for the combat that he would hopefully soon get into. He had been needing to feel that rush of adrenaline for a while now.

The diminutive woman walked between the loosely assembled members of her platoon. She linked her suit's AIES with the AIES of each soldier to assess their loadouts. Occasionally she would touch the suits to make sure everything was properly connected. As she walked up to Hiroki Shibuya, she looked up at him. "I have not seen a Type 35 AGL in awhile now, excellent choice in dealing with the Rixxikor." she said approvingly. "Though I do not recognize your serial number, new arrival?"

Hiroki stood still as his platoon leader inspected each soldier and their loadout. Apart from the AGL he also had his forearm pulse cannons that were standard with every Mindy unit and a Type 29 Armor Service Pistol as his sidearm. He looked down at his primary weapon and held back a smile as the leader gave her approval.

"Yes Platoon Leader, Santo Hei Hiroki Shibuya of the Giretsu ready to serve the Yamatai Empire," he stated with clear military professionalism, doing his best not to show how much he was anticipating getting into a fight. He could already see the vile Rixxikor being blown out of cover and buildings.

She nods silently as shuttles start to land before them. In all of their excitement to purge the Kuvexians from their soil, a number of them were not paying attention to their surroundings. "Alright, load them up!" Shoi-Harris said over the Century's comm channel. "Briefing starts now."

Hiroki followed his platoon onto one of the shuttles. He waited for everyone else to get seated before he took the final open spot at the back of the vehicle. The other members of the platoon were no doubt eager to clean this planet of the Kuvexians. Hiroki could feel his trigger finger itching against his weapon's trigger guard.

As he waited for the shuttle to take flight, he took a moment to remember the times when he helped set up explosive devices for special effects in movies. From Hiroki's point of view, the Third Battle for Nataria had been one giant action movie with fiery explosions on both sides. The Yamataian Empire just needed to be the ones to deliver more of the explosions out of the two opposing sides. Hiroki would definitely make sure that he contributed.

"Centurion Harris entered the shuttle with Hiroki and closed the hatch behind him. Intent on being the first person to touch the ground before everyone else, he stood next to it and held onto an overhead grip.

"As of 1400 hours local time, 3rd Century of the 107th stumbled upon a large element of Kuvexians holed up in the Sakura Mountain Range. I guess the Kuvexians thought to strike back when we were not looking after their defeat.

From reports, they are a mixed heavy infantry unit with some armor support. Command doesn't want to just bomb them out of existence due to the area being a nature reserve. Thus keep this in mind as you engage them.

The mission is simple, relieve 3/107 so that they can regroup, push them out of their defensible position and neutralize them. Platoon leaders, you will have more detailed instructions as the recon platoon gets into position. Any questions?" Harris spoke for all within the century to hear. Even the logistics specialists currently engaged in salvaging their outpost and preparing for shipping to another location.

Hiroki listened to Centurion Harris's briefing. Enemy infantry and armor support as standard, but what interested him was what the armored support entailed. Tanks could be a major threat for the Giretsu, but if they lack infantry support then they are nothing more than metal boxes to be opened like a tin can by anti-tank soldiers.

Anti-aircraft vehicles are a different story. They possess the ability to shoot down aircraft like the shuttle that he and his team were currently in. A Kuvexian scouting party may already be tracking their approach to the designated mountain range and communicating with their anti-air units. As much as Hiroki hated to admit it a small part of him hoped that they would be fired upon from the ground. It would make things far more exciting and give him that adrenaline rush that he was seeking.

Just the thought of descending to the ground while dodging lethal AA fire was making his heart race with anticipation.

"Any details on what kind of armor support we'll be up against like tanks and anti-air vehicles?" Hiroki asked the Centurion.

"Reporting was vague, but based on how they eluded detection up to this point, I believe their armor is light tanks. Anything larger would have required larger transports and would be easier to see movements." Harris continued with the answer.

Vagueness is never good in a situation like this. More details on enemy assets could potentially save more lives. Hiroki gave a mental sigh, knowing he would have to go off of what the report said. If all the Kuvexians had for armor support was the aforementioned light tanks, then great. If they weren't guarded by infantry then they would hopefully be easy pickings for his AGL. Then again, reports were not always a hundred percent accurate.

Hiroki's gaze shifted to the floor of the transport, half-expecting his team to be shot at by enemy AA guns as he waited for the dropship to arrive at their destination.

The briefing continued with the Centurion going over plans of attack. It sounded like a standard bounding overwatch with the three platoons moving from their staging points and converging at a single point which represented the Kuvexian's likely command and control.

"If there are no more questions, drop in 30 minutes." Harris said, ending the briefing.

For the next 30 minutes of flight, the soldiers within the shuttle doing a number of things as they wait for the action. Most of them just sat quietly and perfectly still as they looked through the person sitting in front of them. A few others could be seen checking their weapons over and over to the point Harris would take off his helmet and look directly at them until they stopped.

But one of them looked over towards Hiroki 15 minutes into the silence. "First time?" the woman asked him.

Hiroki listened to the briefing without saying a word, pondering how the mission would go. Would they be shot at immediately upon landing? Would they come upon heavily fortified enemy positions that would need to be ripped to pieces? Whatever was going to happen next, Hiroki could not wait for the action to start.

He was so enamored with the future that he almost missed the question asked by one of his squadmates if it was his first time.

"Y-Yes," Hiroki muttered as he glanced down at his AGL.

He lifted his eyes up back at the woman and asked her, "You a regular?"

"I suppose after that battle from before and the new arrivals, yes... yes I am." She said, largely to herself. "The name is Zhang Caiwei, Alpha's medic."

"Santo Hei Hiroki Shibuya," Hiroki replied.

He glanced toward Harris and muttered low enough for only Zhang to hear, "I think we're about to reach our destination soon. Better ready up."

Hiroki gave his primary weapon one last look over before staring straight ahead still as a statue. He waited for the thump of the shuttle to touch down or a klaxon to blare to warn them of incoming enemy fire.

The young medic, noting the stiffness of the Centurion's body. Considering this was the first time any of them had met the man, he could just be suffering from chronic constipation. But such a thing would be unheard of with their bio-engineered bodies. The same bodies they spent painstaking months to perfect and sync with their skills.

"Drop in 10 minutes." The voice of the logistics pilot came over the comms.

"Drop in 5 minutes." Soldiers began standing up and lining up to exit the rear of the shuttle.

"Drop in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Drop, Drop, Drop." The Centurion did not hesitate to be the first person out of the using the Mindy's propulsion systems to glide to their assigned waypoint showing up on everyone's HUD. "Time to expel our unwelcomed guests!"

Hiroki nodded at the announcement over the comms. The show was about to begin and he was definitely going to bring the fireworks. He stood up and lined up at the rear of his team as they all waited for that jump. His blood was rushing with excitement as the countdown began.

Five, four, three, two, one and jump.

The Minkan was the last out, but he did not care. He was already enjoying the adrenaline rush from the fall, using his thrusters to stay on course with his unit. There were no woops of enjoyment from his mouth. That was only in his mind and to do so aloud would surely get him scolded by the Centurion.

No rockets or bullets from the ground so far which was a slight disappointment for Hiroki, but nevertheless he stayed on track toward the waypoint with his team.

Kuvexian Forward Operating Base Voorm-Voorm

The last engagement with Yamataian forces gave a certain merc squad leader more reason that this invasion of this mudball was a terrible idea. But then again the other Kuvexians expected such thoughts from him. She still sort of believed in a higher power. But they also knew she and her cohort had been paid for services that would be honored. The High leader of her group would have her head otherwise.

"It seems the Stabaron's plan did not work as he intended. I doubt they are going to give up despite their retreat." she said in her native tongue to a group of largely Elefirn. Moments later as if that higher power had voiced its displeasure, the left side of the small base was rocked with explosions.

"Infiltration complete, go tactical boys and girls." Mikael's voice rang out over the centuries' shared channel. "Recon, continue overwatch. Bravo and Charlie continue with your objectives." he then switched to Alpha platoon's channel as he fired his 8ga Cannon in a group of rixxikor .

The objective, explained during their ground hugging flight and infiltration to get within their artillery, was to destroy their depot of ammunition and power source. Bravo and Charlie were tasked more to split the attention of the Kuvexians and destroy their means of transportation if needed.

But it would not be easy with the swarm of foul-mouth rixxikor seemingly coming out of nowhere and those not complete cannon fodder loading up in their combat vehicles/power armor.

Fear did not claim Hiroki's heart upon seeing that horde of Rixxikor that dared to challenge Yamatai's mightiest warriors. Rather, it was a thrilling feeling that made his already pumping blood work even harder.

"Contacts!" he shouted as he thrusted behind a large boulder for cover from the incoming fire of the enemy's weapons. He was careful not to stray too far from his platoon. Sure the Mindy 4 was a powerful armor, but it could only take so much damage before the operator was at risk. Hiroki peeked around the cover and fired an explosive round at a small group of approaching Rixxikor. Two of them were able to jump away from the explosion, but the unfortunate third soul became a paste.

It seemed that one of the two Rixxikor did not escape the explosion as its right foot had a multitude of cuts and bruises from the fragmentation. A second round made short work of the survivors. Hiroki spotted a fourth bolting toward him with its knife out. Rather than expend another round Hiroki raised his forearm pulse cannon and fired, the projectile scoring a direct hit on the insect's head and sending its corpse spiraling several feet sway.

The squads of Alpha platoon covered each other as they moved, making those with the infamous sticky grenades a top priority to kill. They didn't have the time to properly heat up and dissolve the glue if it hits them. Thus as the Rixxikor tried to throw a grenade in an uncoordinated effort, several of their chests were cored with coherent aether fire. The lack of Kuvexian leaders was worrying the Centurion, this couldn't be all that there was for infantry.

Meanwhile, Hiroki skill certainly attracted the attention of a number of Rixxikor. "That one is on a killing spree, killing him will mean mega points for the leaderboard on 18Ten!!" one of them screamed out as it smartly took cover. The smarter of the horde followed suit biding their time.

The Rixxikor's challenge reached Hiroki's ears and he intended to disappoint them. He detected a sticky grenade coming his way and he thrust backward to elude the blast radius. It landed inches in front of the boulder and the gooey explosion that followed covered half of the piece of Natarian earth in ooze. Hiroki launched a few rounds from his pulse cannons and one of them struck an unlucky Rixxikor that was peeking its head out from behind a barricade.

Hiroki spotted another immobilization grenade arcing toward him and in a split-second decision thrust in reverse once again dodging an entrapment.

He used his thrusters to propel himself into an outcropping as another piece of cover and fired one round from his AGL to try to get the Rixxikor who were hiding from enemy fire behind a metal barricade. Thanks to the grenade's airburst ability, the projectile detonated just above the three targets and they were showered with deadly shrapnel. One was killed, one was knocked unconscious but gravely wounded, and the third was severely injured and trying to crawl away in desperation whilst cursing the attacking platoon.

Itto-Hei Homma finishes off the retreating rikkikor with his scalar submachine gun. "Looks like I'm your partner for today." he cooly remarks as he launches a pair of his offensive mini-missiles at a light hover tank attempting to maneuver into a firing position. One smacks into the turret of the vehicle, while the other hits square at its true target: the engine of the vehicle. The hover tank crashes into to the ground, with its surviving crew scrambling to get away from the fire.

"Shibuya-hei! Suppressing fire to your bearing 107. A large group of rixxikor trying to flank us." the voice of Homma-shoi came over the platoon channel.

"Copy!" Hiroki responded as he swung his AGL to the horde of flanking Rixxikor. A few grenade rounds were fired and while several of them managed to jump away, many more were caught in the explosions and were sent flailing away, some of whom with lost limbs. The surviving insectoids found cover and began to return fire on Hiroki. Several rounds grazed his armor, but they were not enough to deter him as he trained his weapon on four Rixxikor that were taking cover behind a rock and pulled the trigger.

The round sailed above their heads and the airburst that followed only managed to kill two of them. The other two were incapacitated and their injuries were too great to allow them to move, however. A smaller swarm of Rixxikor moved on the flank, but they were much more reactive, ducking for cover and avoiding the explosive power of Hiroki's AGL.

Hiroki aimed his weapon more carefully as the enemies fired upon both him and the platoon. He fired off four rounds and about five Rixxikor were unlucky enough to lose their lives. Many other Rixxikor slipped back into cover and up ahead of Alpha Platoon's path Hiroki could see a team of three Rixxikor attempting to set up a machinegun emplacement.

"Heads up Alpha! Enemy's setting up an MG just ahead of you!" Hiroki warned as he shot off several rounds from his pulse cannons that kept the surviving Rixxikor on the flank pinned. Another round was fired from his AGL and this one caused a Rixxikor that was hiding in a ditch to scream in pain as its legs were crippled from the fragmentation.

For now, most of the heat from the flanking enemies were kept off of the platoon. Which was exactly what Stabaron Bhorkor Xon Soom was not needing right now. From his command vehicle, he watched his cannon fodder get mowed down by three small groups of powered armored. His helmet hid away the sweat on his face as the standard Kuvexian tactics were seemingly not working.

Though despite getting the position through the connections of his well-connected mother, he was intelligent enough to have learned from the tacticians he commanded. "Route those mercs to deal with these pests in the middle, as far as they are aware of they are still getting paid. As for the other two, have the 5th and 2nd armored units stall them." he said to his underling manning an intelligence console.

"Order confirmed... idiot." the female leader acknowledged, adding the insult once the comm line was terminated. Without saying a word, she motioned with her golden arm in the direction of Alpha platoon, watching them slaughter the rixxikor. "If we win, they will make excellent recruits once we convert them..."

The pacing of Alpha platoon began to quicken a bit, maneuvering for cover amongst the equipment of the Kuxvexians. The back of Mikael's head was starting to annoy him as he and the rest of them were watching their surroundings for trouble. "Keep your heads on a swivel. Something doesn't feel right." he cooly stated, his SAINT training taking over.

Hiroki advanced with the platoon as they quickened their pace. So far the tide was on their side. His AGL made short work of any Rixxikor who were hiding in ditches or behind cover. He maneuvered behind the still burning wreckage of the hover tank just as Mikael gave his next order. Hiroki's Mindy gave a slight nod as acknowledgment.

His eyes scanned the environment for anything that seemed off. He began to feel that the ship was sailing too smoothly for Alpha and that the Kuvexians probably had a major surprise cooked up for them. Hiroki was anticipating this moment to the fullest. A blast from his pulse cannon bore a hole through a Rixxikor that was trying to flank them and the grenade that it was about to throw exploded in its hand, covering its entire fresh corpse in goo.

Resistance continued to be lighter after the mass wave of rixxikor failed. Hover tanks made their presence known with hit and run attacks as Stabaron Xom Soom desired to soften Alpha platoon as his mercenaries got into position. Homma-hei looked back at Hiroki "Are you telling me that Rikugun Century couldn't handle this push overs!?"

"Let's not judge too quickly sir!" Hiroki responded to Homma as he thrusted away to avoid the burning wrecking that was struck by one of the hover tanks that appeared. He switched to concussion rounds for his AGL and fired at one of the hover tanks. One grenade struck its engine compartment and the damage resulted in the vehicle's anti-gravity technology failing and it dropped to the earth with a thud. A column of black smoke billowed from the disabled engine for a moment before the hull was destroyed by a second concussion grenade courtesy of Hiroki's firearm.

Another hover tank attempted to race past the platoon with its main gun aimed at them. Both the tank and Hiroki fired at the same time. Hiroki could not spare a glance to see if any of his comrades had been hit, but the explosive managed to knock the gun loose from the turret and it thumped onto the frontal armor of the vehicle.

A cloaked elefirn scout, motionless as she watches the platoon maneuver. "Unable to determine where their leader is currently. But they are nearing waypoint 3." she reports, watching for any signs of detection of her presence.

"Very well, get ready to relay fire data." her leader said. She looked over at the mortar emplacements her unarmored soldiers of various species had set up.

"Teams 1 and 5, attack!" In mere moments, golden QM-305 Power Armor with a red horizontal strip on their helmets popped from their cover and fired on Alpha platoon. Aether fire narrowly missed a number of Giretsu as they dived for their own cover and exchanged fire.

"QM-305s!!" a soldier screamed out as she fired several missiles, each slamming either into a Kuvexian or very near their cover. Mikael looked around at the terrain as he thought about ways to counter the ambush. At least this model didn't have the anti-stealth capabilities other Kuvexian models had, which must mean one thing.

"Mercenaries, the battle is over. Your paymasters have abandoned now. Surrender now and you can enjoy the comforts of a PoW camp." he said in a diplomatic voice. While doing so, members of Hiroki's fire team received a chibi version of Mikael on their HUDs with a text bubble.

"Use your photonic arrays and maneuver to this position." the text bubble reads, a waypoint appears shortly after, indicating flanking.

The ambush made Hiroki snap to attention with a small grin obscured by his helmet. These QM-305s would likely provide a challenge. Mikael's order to his team got Hiroki to mutter to his squadmates, "You heard the Centurion! Let's move!"

Hiroki and his team used their thrusters to advance to the flanking position, however, a hover tank spotted them and fired its main gun in their direction. "Incoming!" one of the Mindy pilots shouted and the team barely had time to scatter before the projectile struck the ground. A shockwave from the resulting explosion sent two of the Mindies flailing to the ground, their armor protecting their pilots from any significant injuries.

Two grenades from the AGL neutralized the armored threat, but a pair of QM-305s were now upon them. One of them targeted Hiroki and used the flat end of its flipblade to bat the grenade launcher away from his hands. Hiroki fired his pulse cannons at the hostile, but it managed to evade to the left and released three missiles from its launchers. The Giretsu succeeded in boosting over the explosive trio in the nick of time, but one of them collided with another Mindy 4 and knocked it back against a set of rocks

Hiroki jumped forward and the QM-305 raised its shield in response, but it was too slow as it was knocked over and the thrill-seeking Minkan proceeded to use the spikes on his armor's elbows to batter the head of the enemy, causing an increasing amount of damage until it was completely caved in and blood was leaking out. Hiroki glanced behind him and saw that his team had taken care of the other QM-305 as it had multiple scorch marks where it was shot by pulse cannons.

One of the Mindys tossed Hiroki his AGL and they maneuvered to the coordinates where they would unleash fire on the other QM-305s that were engaged with Alpha platoon.

Homma rushed along with his partner, wise enough to realize the error of his statement. "*Censored, Censored, Censored for family entertainment*!!" were the words coming out of his mouth until Mikael muted his comms until the young Minkan calmed down once again.

Mikael fired off his weapon at an Elefirn attempted to dart to another position. His and the sensors of the rest of the platoon soon after picked up fast-moving objects on a ballistic trajectory coming in.

"Incoming!!!" was heard from nearly everyone
Instinctively, Mikael let loose his nodal drones and use them as a point defense shield for himself and those around him.

The stealthed Elefirn made a note of the tactic, intrigued. "Update, adjust fire 3 to the left. Also I don't think this going to work very well."

"I am well aware, but I am not just going to surrender just because they asked." her leader responded as the mortars continued firing. "But be prepared to withdraw, better to live and fight again once this war is over."

Stabaron Xom Soom's command vehicle can be seen by Hiroki, having become overconfident in his victory.

Hiroki could not tell what had Homma upset, but he had little time to worry about it and hoped that the moment of frustration was not directed at him. That now had him feeling that he may have gone overboard on the QM-305 earlier, but after what the Kuvexians had done to the Natarians was there really such a thing as overdoing it? The enemy command vehicle was in sight and Hiroki felt like he had his eye on the prize.

Alpha platoon was getting hammered by mortar fire and Hiroki knew that his team needed to end this. With the skilled accuracy of a Giretsu, a round from his AGL sailed through the air and struck the command vehicle in its engine block. Smoke began to rise from the point of impact, but while the vehicle was not outright destroyed, its mobility was severely hampered thanks to its damaged engine.

He was close to launching another round when a trio of QM-305s followed by a squad of surviving Rixxikor who had regrouped after their numbers were severely depleted came upon them. One of the QM-305s delivered a dropkick to Hiroki's torso, knocking him off of his feet. Hiroki scurried away from the barrage of fire launched by his opponent's coil gun and returned fire with his pulse cannon.

The QM-305 jumped to the left to dodge the projectile and thrusted itself forward with its flipblade out. Hiroki tried to get away, but he was too slow and the blade cut across the bottom of his armor's right foot, but thankfully not penetrating. With a grunt of excitement Hiroki stood up and lunged forward, but the QM-305 deflected him with its shield. This maneuver however made Hiroki spot a small opening that he took advantage of, using his AGL to deliver a deadly anti-armor round into the enemy power armor's exposed side that blew away large chunks of armor and viscera.

With that particular QM-305 eliminated, Hiroki punched a nearby Rixxikor in the throat, killing instantly. Superior Giretsu tactics and training managed to take down the rest of the enemies that were trying to stop the flankers.

"What the!? Vaxom! Why were you not keeping watch of the battlefield!? Get us out of here!"
Stabaron Xom Soom furiously screamed at their driver. "That shot took out the engine magnificent one!" the driver responded over the radio.

The Stabaron slammed his trident on the floor of the vehicle in anger. Then he got very quiet as he leaned forward. Vaxom and the intelligence officer just look at each other nervously as they are not accustomed to him not ranting or arrogantly talking about himself.

"Surviving Rixikor, scatter and hide." he said over their secured radio. "Be sure to add up those points or whatever nonsense you are into." he then swallowed very audibly and switched to unencrypted radio.

"To the commander of the attacking force, this is Stabaron Xom Soom of the Kuvexian Imperium I offer cease-fire and a demand of parlay to negotiate terms of my surrender!" he spoke in very accented trade.

The surviving QM-305s about to kamikaze bull rush into Hiroki for revenge, bang their shields with their rifles in frustration and jump back quickly to cover. The rest of Alpha platoon also got a break as well once the mortars already in the air had landed and sensors were not tracking anymore. The tension was thick as the Kuvexian's waited for Mikael's response.

Hiroki braced himself for the charge that never came once the Stabaron surrendered. He grinned underneath his helmet at the QM-305s who were denied their chance for payback. Although Xom Soon had provided a cease-fire, it did not always mean that other enemy units would be willing to follow suit. Hiroki glared daggers at the QM-305s as if he was daring them to do something. He still had plenty of fight left in him, but until the Kuvexians attempted to retaliate he would watch them and wait to see what Mikael would do.

"Demand? Disarm your forces and I will accept your demand for parlay." Mikael responded with a slightly distorted voice over the radio.

The Stabaron sweated in his seat and looked at a case to the side of his seat. He weighed his options before he answered the obvious demand. He could eat the products of the case and be reborn in the "next life". But that would mean he would forget all that he has learned the past few months. "No, no... That won't do." He thought to himself.

Which only left actually surrendering as the option. "Yes, YES, I'll convince them to ransom me back. That will secure me some honor." He again thought to himself. The silence once again making the rest of the command team nervous.

"Stabaron, the Rixxikor are scattering as ordered."

"Your answer Stabaron!?" Mikael demanded, this time in acceptable but accented Kuvexian.

"Very well, all units stand down. Disarm and disembark your suits. You also have permission to seek the next life. May profit always fill your pockets!" An initially shocked Xom Soom responded in his native tongue.

"Everyone, CFS to max!" Mikael ordered as he knew what was going to happen next. While some of the power-armored
Kuvexians did indeed drop their rifle, distanced themselves assumed from others and assumed a protective stance, others started to chant in their native tongues.

"Good entries, good exits. Always profit to gain the next life!" the chants went. Sensors would detect their capacitors were being overloaded, especially the pair of QM-305s 5 meters from Hiroki's squad.

The overloading capacitors made Hiroki realize what the QM-305s were about to do. A trip to the afterlife or the next clone body would have to wait.

"Get clear!" he shouted to his teammates before thrusting away from the potential blast zone as the capacitors reached critical. Hiroki cared little for how the Kuvexians decided to go out via either suicide bombing or Star Army weaponry, but every dead enemy meant less troops for the Kuvexian military to utilize.

Alpha Platoon moved and gunned down any QM-305 that attempted to be a suicide bomb. Out of the 50 surviving QM-305s and Elefirn power armor, 20 of them went out in a blaze of glory to their "next lives." Of those remaining, the Kuvexians began crawling out of their Power Armored and threw incendiary grenades into them. SAINT was not going to get a clean catch of technology after all today.

Mikael watched the surviving Rixxikor flee into the surrounding terrain. As much as he would love to end them all, he had a parlay to go to and Kuvexians to capture. For the empire!!

Meanwhile...

Ruins of the G/75 Combat Outpost

A neko dressed in a black paneled Type 35 uniform just shook her head as she surveyed the damage to the POM modules that made up their outpost. The plasma artillery show the Kuvexians did really did a number on the interior modules. The control center was utterly destroyed, the barracks were only standing due to what could only be a miracle of debris from the neighboring infirmary propping up aside. The miracle from the Kami seems to also extend to the officer's sleeper unit as it looked mostly untouched.

"Welcome to what was Combat Outpost G/75 or the cave as we named it." the neko said after spinning around to face a number of soldiers gathered around. "I am Shoi Takamura Yuki, intel officer and your XO. Though unlike our new centurion, I have no operative experience. So you will have to ask him how SAINT life is." Yuki rambled on. "While the infantry goes ventilate the Kuvexians for their transgressions, I have an assignment for all of you. I need you to assess the relevant modules to your profession to determine if they are repairable or a loss. I just got orders that we are shipping off-world."

Looking around seeing the debris or the mess that the Kuvexians left behind she narrowed her eyes and looked back at the woman that was talking. Hearing that they are going to be shipped off planet she blinked and Yoko looked first at her fellow soldiers then back at the woman named Yuki. "Any end destination as to where we are going?"

Hijiki's thoughts stumbled on the phrase 'ventilate the Kuvexians'. He imagined inviting them over to his house on a hot summer day, sharing a fan and some cool iced tea with them. It took him a moment to realize they meant to shoot them. He made sure not to say any of that out loud.

"So, if we're about to be shipped off, are we looking to salvage stuff from our areas here and bring it with us, or get it up and running for later?” the blond chef asked, a little confused.

"I cannot give details as to where but we are finally taking the fight to the Kuvexians." she said before looking at Hijiki. "You are correct that we are salvaging what we can to minimize the cost of replacement. Nishizaki-hei and Okayo-hei, you two will be working together." Yuki continued before pointing at the pair. "If you need me, I will be over here collecting what I can from our records." With that, Yuki made her way to what was left of the control center.

Looking at her side to the new person " So what is your story? I mean I have been with this team since..." Toko taps her chin and thinks for a second "Since the beginning of the Kuvexians raid on our world. I had some good piew piew in that time". She nods to herself and looked at the person "Yoko is the name, welcome to the 75th"

"Ah thanks, I'm Okayo Hijiki, Ittô Hei," the chef replied with a simple nod. He was a bit nervous having just joined his first team after training. How casually do I talk to teammates when I don't know their rank... "Since the Kuvexians appeared, huh... You've been here quite some time then. Personally, I haven't seen any action up close; I've mainly been learning how to keep everyone healthy and relaxed through good food. Hopefully, I can make food one less worry for all of you!"

Hijiki looked around at all the debris and frowned. He'd have a map to reference, but they'd probably run into a few dead ends on their way. "This might take a while. Shall we get started?"

Looking at Hijiki and then around "What...are we suppose to do again" She scratch the back of her head and then slams her hands together "Right modules checking...boring that's why I forgot" She shuffles forward to the debris and start looking around "Broken, useless, useless..maybe ....no" She was pointing her finger to random stuff that were on the ground "Mmm this stuff looks recyclable but at the same time...I think it is used for food storage" Looking at the man "I am a technician, I can see the difference in stuff....plus food smug is hanging out fo it"

The modules the neko was pointing to were indeed blown to pieces. So much of it was so it was like the XO was just giving them busy work. In the corner near one of the watchtowers, the unit's supply clerk looked to be scheming about something. Near the pair, Mizumitsu-heisho could be heard complaining about something as she walks around with a datapad.

"Yeah, we're not getting much out of this, are we?" Hijiki muttered, picking up a frying pan that was missing its better half. "Probably the only things worth saving are non-perishable foods in good condition and cast-iron pans. Those could double as a weapon if you're confident enough, though I wouldn't recommend it."

Hijiki turned at the sound of Mizumitsu muttering while reading a datapad. "Anything we can help with, ma'am? Can't say we've found much salvageable ourselves here."

Throwing another piece of metal aside as Yoko sights "Trash...since when did I trained myself to be a garbage seeker" She mutters and looked over her shoulder towards Hijiki "Tell me about it..." Looking in the direction of the supply clerk and narrowing her eyes.

Taking a deep breath hearing Hijiki to intervene "Its a trap" She mutters once again and looking back in the trash. Clerks were in her opinion always looking for trouble, to be fair they needed people to do their dirty work.

Mizumitsu's steel blue eyes looked over and locked on to Hijiki. Her face narrowed for a moment when she was called ma'am. "It's Heisho, I am not a commissioned officer..." she said, cutting herself off before she said something mean. She just looking at him for a moment and softened up once she believed the point had been made. She flashed a "I'm watching you." look at Yoko before continuing with Hijiki.

"A great many problems, but I do not think could help beyond telling that schemer over there what you find useful. Unless you are secretly an IT specialist. Those Kuvexians did a real number on our records."

"M-my bad, it's good to be careful when you don't know," Hijiki replied. He was a little surprised by the woman's glare, but quickly smiled again. "Sadly I'm not great with computers, so I can't help you there."

Hijiki filled a nice saucepot with the few plates he could find still in good condition then carefully balanced it on top of a couple of pans. He slowly walked over towards the supply clerk to report his treasure haul. "This is about all I could find that wouldn't just fall apart in a week."

With two fingers to her eyes and back with one finger to Mizumitsu she winked with a statement "Watching you two..." before continuing her work on the salvage which was a complete waste of time as nothing useful was in it. Hearing the magical words but not reacting to it facially "What kind of IT specialist does a supply clerk need these days..."

They must be close, Hijiki thought with a smile after seeing Yoko's carefree response. He glanced back at the pile of rubble, but didn't find much to add to his collection apart from some spoons that had seen better days. Seeing a broken bowl about ten feet away, he decided to throw the spoons like darts and try and land them inside. Sadly his aim wasn't very great.

"That is some great finds there man, spoons you never know when to use them...for pudding or spooning someone...." Yoko thought about that for a second and blinks getting her own reference being a bit funny "Well it's better than finding junk that is....80% useless. I did manage to get some chips that could use some work"

"I"ll have to whip up some pudding when we get back then," Hijiki replied as he tossed another spoon. This one hit the bowl's rim and loudly echoed in the room. He immediately put his hands down and feigned innocence. "What're the chips you found like?"

"Some standard chips, could be used for transiting information or commands from one point to another. Its a rather common product, but seeing that this is a Kuvexian product of design, might have some commands in it that might help us learn more about them" Yoko pointed out and looks at him "I would clean those spoons"

"I won't make you guys eat with dirty spoons," Hijiki laughed as he gathered up the spoons off the ground and none of them from the bowl he threw at. He wasn't really sure he understood the chip explanation, but it sounded like they got something nice and that was good.

"Kuvexian computer chips are indeed quite useful. Where did you find them?" Takamura's voice ranged out behind the pair. For being just a SAINT officer, she seems surprisingly adept at sneaking like an operative.

Hijiki jumped a bit at the sudden voice behind him but played it off with a quick laugh. "Seems like the chips were right here in the kitchen, someone must have been hungry and mixed them up with the potato kind."

After a bit of examination, Takamura-Shoi seemed content with the find and left it to Yoko to work on. Bits of other useful Kuvexian intelligence such as unfamiliar weapon designs were discovered amongst the Kuvexian corpses before the ruins. But those would be left to the SAINT analysts starting to land at the ruins for their own forensic analysis.

With nothing more to salvage from the ruins, the soldiers of G/75 packed up what they could and made their way to the awaiting YSS Yukikaze in orbit. Their next assignment was already waiting for them.
 
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