RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter One] Reinforcements

Catching a glimpse of the two openings Anzu's antics left behind, the Elysian focused his fire over one of the holes briefly before realizing the danger that blast put two of their squad in. It was already bad enough they were fighting an opposing force without having friendly fire thrown into the mix.

"Fieke! Damien! Are you alright?!" Zozo nearly shouted into his comm after witnessing what Sif would call a rescue. Quickly he dug into his cover checking his medical equipment and mentally preparing for the worst. So soon into battle and already there may be need of his skill.

"Sir," Zozo called out to Kai as he returned his weapon's attention back towards one of the holes, hoping to pull some heat off of the group ahead of him, "Permission to go down and check on their status."

A screen appeared in Zozo's HUD, sent from Kai's armor. It showed status readouts from Damien and Fieke's armors.
"No need, they're both uncompromised" the Juni explained, and the readouts agreed with what he said- armor status showed all green, though their shield statuses weren't quite 100% at the moment. "You do however, have permission to head down there. April and I will follow after you, the other squad is going to cover us. Be prepared to move, because we will charge at once." If Zozo looked over, he would see the grin-clad Daisy of his CO gesturing toward the ravine with his rifle from behind a bit of cover, and April's own Daisy reloading as she prepared for the advance.

Then Kai spoke over the squad comm channel "Everyone, prepare for a push. We will advance into the enemy trench in thirty seconds. Damien and Aya will go first, followed by Fieke and Sif. Zozo, you will go with April, and Anzu and I will take up the rear." The comms clicked off, and Kai waited for Zozo to move so he could follow, but it didn't look like he was going to wait for long.

Despite her adorable appearance, Sif was, of course, a salty, hardened soldier.

The older Nekovalkyrja well knew that there were several options available to anyone who was storming the trenches by now. The most obvious way to do this was to all rush through the newly opened gaps in the berm caused by the powerful high explosives, but this had it's problem despite the expediency. It'd mean they'd be working from the center out, and would even have enemies to both sides as they came in. She also knew that the traditional method of storming a trench, basically hopping over the lip at any point, had the same disadvantage of being possibly surrounded, but this time, had a new advantage.

Anyone inside would likely be expecting something coming through those breaches.

To her though, the answer was obvious - jump over the edge of the trench at one of the far ends and work her way inwards. Flanking, essentially. All enemies would be not only located in just one direction, but they'd also get in each others way. But Sif kept this to herself, for whatever reason she had. Waving a hand dismissively, the Mini-Neko spoke dismissively,

"Charge."

After the excitement of the outcropping's destruction and what had felt like the brief burst of chaos had subsided, Aya took a moment to catch her breath, her concentration split between the instructions coming over the squad comms and maintaining situational awareness.

The promise of yet more action made her heart pump again, and she filled with energy like a coiled spring (which also accurately summed up the posture she was in, tucked low to the ground in a crouch). Even though she technically didn't need to reload yet, she did so anyway, unwilling to run dry in the middle of a firefight.

Sif's words were all the encouragement that Aya needed, though the Nekovalkryja made sure that Damien was in a position to follow her. Once that was confirmed, Aya launched forward, running as fast as she could to build up her momentum and cover the gap between herself and the enemy trenches. Springing over the rise, she opened fire with her LASR. If everything went well, then she might have caught the Thralls off-guard with the aggressiveness of her attack. On the flipside, Damien had to have kept up with her if things were to go well.

Damien sighed as he listened to the orders come over the comm. He was up first again, hopefully this time he wouldn't cock it up too bad. He checked his shields and saw that they were still not recharged fully. This left him little room for error like before. Without fresh shields one misstep could find him atomized. He certainly wasn't going to let that happen.

As Damien mentally prepared himself, Aya was already ahead of him. He watched as her marker disappeared over the ridge into the trench. Damien knew that he had to support her or it would simply be her versus all those bad guys. He could live with letting himself get hurt, but not his teammate. "Alright Damien, time to do this" he thought to himself as he got up and followed Aya over the side.

Damien did a quick sweep behind Aya to make sure that no enemies were there, and opened fired on the nearest NMX trooper he saw. He was careful not to hit him comrade as he fired his weapon in support. Now he would see if all his close quarters training had paid off.

"Aya, right behind you! LET'S DO THIS!!" He shouted as he pressed forward behind his comrade.

Anzu held off on firing, scanning for targets as orders came through. She nodded, helmet bobbing. "You got it, boss." The Neko wasn't exactly loaded out for trench warfare, but she'd make do. Simo stayed put while the others headed for the trench, finally ducking fully into cover as the last pair closed on their mark. The bazooka wasn't going to do her any good where she was heading.

She only needed a moment to collapse and stow the lengthy weapon on her back, reattaching the Zesuaium shield to her left forearm. Once the shield was in place, she dispatched one of the drones stored inside. It would be helpful to watch her back, since she was the last one moving in. Anzu grabbed her LASR in her left hand as well, since she wasn't actually expecting to fire it in this situation. Switching her active camo on once again, she swiftly broke from cover. She only took a few steps before her feet left the ground, floating inches off the surface as she zipped forward to join the others.

Hopefully everything went smoothly, and she could go vertical again once she'd rejoined the squad. The drone, which had been set to stay near the wreckage she'd been using as cover, would begin to move closer to her new location while continuing to act as an extra eye. Grinning inside of her helmet, she dropped out of camo and opened her right hand to catch the Impactor as it ejected at her command. It snapped out to full size with a flick of her wrist, as she prepared to advance into the trench along with the others. The pulse weapon on her right forearm was perfect for this situation, although Simo did hope she'd have an excuse to use the wicked baton a few times. It was times like these when she fondly wished the Daisy's forearm weapons had the Mindy's aether blade setting.

"Understood, sir." Zozo responded, still worried about Fieke and Damien. As reassuring a couple of flashing lights on his HUD were, it couldn't compare to him seeing the two standing before him with smiles on their faces.

Before moving out, Zozo searched for the half spent mag he so hastily tossed aside for a full load when he provided covering fire for Aya. It only took him a few seconds to find it half buried in bits of rubble. As he tucked it in with the rest of his spare ammo, he had a feeling he would be using all of it well before the day was over.

When half a minute passed by and Sif made her less then inspirational command, the Elysian took a quick scan over the terrain before readying his weapon and pushing forward, making a brief boosted dash towards the next piece of cover he could fine and then another before firing briefly at a few soldiers that has sent a few rounds his way. He could see some of his squad mates ahead oh him, pushing closer and closer to the trenches. Feeling a need to catch up, he pressed on.

As the squad pushed forward, soldiers linked up. Anzu found herself next to the CO, whom like her seemed to be forgoing the use of his rifle for now; it was stowed on his back while the two forearm weapons had been deployed. He didn't, however, use his Impactor- If Anzu looked she would notice the latch on the sheath of his sword had been undone instead. He said nothing, simply moving forward as the first two soldiers went over the top.

******
Inside the Trench, there was at first a bit of confusion. The thralls seemed to momentarily wonder where the two armors had come from, but that didn't last long as they were mowed down by Damien and Aya's fire. To their left, the trench stretched upward along the ridge quite a ways, but to their right it covered a much shorter distance before ending near a steeper drop. Both sides, however, seemed full of enemies, and both sides had recessed doors which led down into bunkers, where more thralls could be seen streaming out to meet them, firing wildly with whatever they had- Impalers, autocannons, and grenade launchers.

Both Aya and Damien's energy barriers began to steadily decrease as they were fired upon, but both still had time to act before their barriers drained completely.

******

As Zosimos advanced, he noticed an armor had formed up beside him- April. "Stow yer rifle, we shouldn't need it close up. Use yer forearm guns instead, got it?" she offered, storing her own ASGR on the Daisy's rack and deploying the two articulating Pulse Energy Weapons buried in her armor's forearms, motioning for the Elysian to do the same. The pair rapidly approached the trench, waiting only for Sif and Fieke before they got their turn to hop into the fray.

The dainty red power armor turned its faceless helm at Fieke.

"As Nakamura said, you're with me," the Mini-Neko inside the Sylph blandly pointed out. As she rapidly sprinted to the far left end of the enemy trench, feet blurring as the armor bounded away, the others were already pushing head first into combat! Just as they entered, Aya and Damien found themselves pincered right in between the enemy on either side. Thralls quickly turned their particle rifles while others scrambled to bring their heavy, 100 pound autocannons to bear on the intruding frames - but they were in luck!

The trench's narrow confines quickly cut down on just how many enemies could fire on them at once as the first lances of energy began to impact against their energy barrier. At the same time, the autocannon crews were rapidly setting up - four crews, two partially obscured by the crowd were to the left of their dynamic entry, with another two to the right, with both being nearly hidden by the thick jungle of bodies.

Just as a pair of gunner assistants leaped onto the tripod legs hold down and fully bring an autocannon to bear on Aya from the left end of the trench, a headless body suddenly rained down from the sky and crushed the gunner. "Remember - beat them to death with your shields if you must!" Sif raised her voice over the sound of sickening crunches.

At her end, she simply beat them to death.

Fieke resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at Sif as she only got a moment to look behind her - trying figure out if the squad's second would actually be assisting anyone in any sort of tactically timely fashion this time around - when the neko-in-question's armour blurred off at a speed the OriSec employee was not sure her own could match. Deciding it would be better not to test if the data Kai had to access her armour's status over the HUD included an internal view of the wearer Fieke kept her mouth shut and left all her grumbling up tight in her noggin.

Though, if that was the case, it wasn't like Sif didn't deserve a bit of fun-making in her direction. The little Neko had helped out earlier when things had gone off kilter, but there was no reason for her to be such a big jerk about it.

It didn't help that the current orders she had to stick with the second seemed to be counteracted quite physically by Sif's impressive and hard to match charge straight into a melee.

Sour, little, perpetually angry, flaming, giant, haughter-than-thou Neko. The Abwehran's mind absently mumbled to itself about her continuing trend of dissatisfaction with Sif as Fieke checked her rifle – and found it still ready to roll – before giving up on following the mini-neko and her berserking suit of rage and splitting off for a more realistic approach.

“Gonna give you guys a spot of confusion to help out. Nothing like hostile fire coming in from two different directions to splat the nerves, richtig?” Switching her coms off Fieke sprinted up a still intact portion of the trench between Sif's entry into combat and the breach stormed by Damien and Aya. Coming to the edge the Abwehran dropped to one knee and let loose a series of bursts from her ASGR at the group of thrall besieging the two Star Army troopers.

Aznu seemed rather impatient, as she waited in line to enter the trench. Things were slowing down as the others piled in, leaving her just shy of the action. She grumbled to herself, using her drone to peek into the trench. The target rich environment presented made her smile quickly return. Simo noticed the two suits leading the charge were losing power to their shields rapidly, as she had a moment to actually look at the data streaming back and forth within the squad. As the drone spotted heavier weapons being readied further down the trench on Damien's side, she decided to cut in line.

The Neko zipped to the side, then over the side, inertial abilities flinging her shield-first into the gunners. Anzu was agile enough to recover quickly, even with the baggage she was carrying, the bazooka jutting a few feet over her shoulder making her easy for Damien to spot. She immediately began swinging that baton at anything within reach, shield swinging wide the other direction. Simo was more interested in shocking and disorienting the enemy for the moment, slowing down their response. Taking out individual threats would come next.

"Watch it!" Damien would hear Anzu warning him through a personal communication. "Don't worry about these jokers. Screwing up and hitting me, that's what you should worry about. Trust me, I'm way scarier!" He could hear her giggling as she opened fire, right forearm weapon blasting toward the far end of the trench, her shield kept up between him and her.

It felt as though the enemy were everywhere as Aya and Damien entered the trench. The Thralls in front of the pair were quickly rendered a non-issue, but that still left the veritable horde of other Thralls to contend with. The draining of their barriers added an extra element of urgency to proceedings; caught between the enemy forces, they couldn't afford to dally even with the limited number of enemies that could fire upon them at once.

Even worse, Aya could see an autocannon was about to fire upon her. She braced for the hits... which never came, as Sif took out the gunner. Feeling relieved, she replied, "Of course."

Now that they were in close quarters, Aya knew that her LASR's SLAG would be of little use - the risk of friendly fire was just too great. Similarly, the LASR would be rather unwieldy to use in the cramped confines of the trench, especially with the crush of bodies. That left the PEWs.

Activating the weapons, Aya began shooting, occasionally sending a few bursts toward those autocannon crews she could see in an attempt to either slow them down long enough for her allies to put them out of commission or stop them herself. When the opportunity was available, Aya kept moving forward - staying in one place for too long was just begging to make her a target. With some skill and a little pinch of luck, she might be able to link up with Sif for extra protection. Hopefully her barrier would also hold out long enough for that to happen - with this many Thralls, there was a real danger she could be left without her barrier. That wouldn't end well at all.

The Nekovalkyrja barely had time to address what might be happening on the other side of the trench, as she was so focused on what was in front of her. Contacting Damien, she said, "How are things going on your end?"

She wanted to remain as aware of the situation as she could, even if there might be little she could do about it.

Damien fired away with his LASR, fighting a few meters from Aya. She had led them straight into the middle of the enemy line. It was not the place he wanted to be, but he had to back up his teammate. As the thralls surged forth, he hoped the rest of his team would show up to support him. His requests were answered as both Sif and Fieke attacked the trench from various directions, with Sif causing the greatest commotion as she leap into the back of the trench.

Damien could see the blue markers scattered across his HUD. Pound for pound he knew that Star Army Troopers were better than Thralls, but there was so many of them, the task was daunting. It was something Damien was astutely aware of as he watched his barrier power dropping. Still be fought on despite the increasing danger to him as he watched the Thralls setup an auto cannon up to the trench. Damien still hadn't recovered from his last run in with one and now this seemed rather ominous indeed.

"How are things going on your end?" came a voice from behind. It was Aya asking for a status report.

"AUTOCANNON AND THERE ARE A WHOLE LOT OF THRALLS..." shouted Damien over the sound of his rifle before he stopped in stunned amazement at Anzu leaping into the trench like a mad woman. Swinging her baton and shield, bashing anyone close to her.

He then heard Anzu's warning about not hitting her with his rifle fire. Damien rolled his eyes as Anzu had very clearly jumped into his line of fire. But whatever. "Anzu get back here, you're gonna get swarmed!" he shouted. Damien knew that Anzu would likely get swarmed without help so he decided to do what he did best, be reckless.

Remember what Kai and Sif had just said, he decided to get in close with the enemy. Hoping that his close proximity would make them weary of firing heavy weapons at him. So he stowed his rifle and switched to his PEW. Using his shield and as battering ram and a short burst from thrusters to help his acceleration, he lowered his shield and charged into the enemy, spraying pulse energy as he went. He hoped that he could charge up to Anzu and help him clear the autocannon crew out of the way before they cut them to pieces.

"Aya, Kai, Zozo, I'm moving up to help Anzu!" he stated over the comms as he charged forth to assist his comrade. Hopefully the rest of his team would be right behind him. Damien hoped that he and Anzu could hold this side of the trench until reinforced, but with the sheer number of thralls coming at them, that would be doubtful at best.

It went quickly, now that they were all there. Lacking shields, or heavy armor, the thralls wend down quite easily, their numbers being decimated despite more pouring from the underground bunkers by the second. More than once, the Autocannon crews were decimated only to have the weapons picked up by others, and begin firing again. Anzu and Sif felt the full brunt of the bursts of autocannon fire, and Fieke, perched in plain view at the edge of the trench found herself under a heavy barrage as well, which luckily gave Damien and Aya a bit of a reprieve after the hits they had taken when they breached the trench.

That wasn't to stay they weren't still getting hit, but the volume of fire was now spread among more than just those first two intruders. Rather, everyone was seeing their barriers deplete as they absorbed the sheer number of plasma bolts coming their way. Even despite the fact that the fire was more widespread, Damien would note his barrier did finally fizzle out, although his shield was already raised, preventing him from major damage. The dazing charge hadn't hurt either, with a pile of unconscious enemies smashed to the ground beneath and behind his armor as he closed in on Anzu and the literal bloodbath she had caused by smashing helmets, skulls, bones, and anything else which came into contact with the heavy Nerimium club she was flailing about.

Upon the right side of the two holes, Kai perched himself in a crouch with his shield placed in front of him, firing his PEW with his free hand down into the mass of thralls around Damien and Anzu, while another figure in a Daisy- This time April- dropped into the throng firing with both of her PEW's as she headed toward the bunker door, trying to cut off the enemy reinforcements.

"Well, we sure got them up in a tizzy!" the blonde girl commented as the thralls continued to attempt to defend their rapidly crumbling position.

Thralls - men and women irreparably brainwashed by the NMX - fell like dominoes as Squad 13 pushed hard.

Even as Aya breathed a hint of relief, the thralls never stopped fighting - the dead gunner was kicked aside as yet another manned the weapon and brought it onto her. Quick reflexes on her part put burning holes through the man, but several rifles rapidly drained her barriers instead. Just as she shifted to hosing them, hard, heavy hail began pounding away at her barriers. Thralls and shells against barriers alike exploded as the gun hit her just as often as her enemies, but they were clearing fast!

Fieke, despite being up higher and out of cannon fire, was only marginally better off - the Impulse's energy barriers fared better only because their aim wasn't on her, but in turn, several more rifles bore down on the Abwehran woman as she tried hosing down the ranks from above. They fell and toppled like dominoes, but just as many were taking cover amongst the dead bodies they all waded through. Just as she fired off another long burst, another autocannon boomed to life against her barriers as the Thralls ferociously fought back!

Flickers of white light could be seen nearing them as the occasional limb and rare body flew - "Destroy the guns as well as crew," an irritated voice sourly remarked in their ears!

Anzu was having a ball.

Nobody ever wanted her in close quarters combat like this, which she never understood. It was so nice and loud and personal. Very hands-on. The Neko fought like a soldier twice her size in this melee...which was likely the problem. Even in her Daisy, she wasn't exactly an imposing hulk. Simo would have used the same tactics in a barroom brawl, against the same odds, if someone didn't stop her.

Eventually she'd cleared most of the targets within swinging range. Noticing this, and how fast power was draining from her deflecting barrier, Anzu finally began using a bit of strategy. And common sense. As Damien approached, she felt confident enough to solidly move her shield in front of her. The Neko again curled inward as much as possible, both PEWs spinning and twisting to peek out from behind cover.

She attempted to solve the problem of the autocannons by pushing herself directly into them once she'd blown away the latest Thrall attempting to use one. Anzu would simply plow into it and smash it into the ground under her, stopping long enough to solidly trample it under her armored feet. If this wasn't quite enough, she'd even use her own abilities, along with the suit's, to increase her weight and density enough to really pound the weapon into the mud.

"That's enough of a breather. Your turn! Leapfrog on up to the next one and say hello, don't be shy!" She held her ground as Damien caught up, blasting a continuous stream of fire forward as she kept her shield up, covering his advance towards Kai and April. Simo couldn't help but giggle at her comment.

"Yeah, they don't seem happy to see us. At this rate, they probably won't invite us back over for their next shindig! I was gonna bring some fancy wine, maybe one of those trays with all the little pieces of cheese." There was a short pause, though she continued to fire. "...great, now I made myself hungry. Let's try to wrap things up in time for lunch, we don't wanna overstay our welcome! The squids have been such good hosts, after all."

It seemed like the tide of Thralls would never end. In fact, in the back of her mind Aya started to wonder if she had perhaps bitten off more than she could chew in this encounter. Her barriers were getting ever lower, and it probably wouldn't be long until they failed under the flood of projectiles coming her way. Aya nodded at Sif's advice - she was proving a valuable resource in terms of information for the hapless young Nekovalkyrja.

Rather than focusing on the crews, Aya attempted to put the autocannons out of commission, as difficult as that might be for her PEWs - she still dared not risk anything more potent. As before, she tried to keep up a relentless pace toward Sif's position, attempting to batter aside any Thralls that came too close with her shield. Barely finding the time to respond to what Damien said, she replied, "It's the same story over here!"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Aya grinned when she heard Anzu's comments. She wondered to herself how the older Neko had the time to say all of that in the chaos of the trench, much less say it so calmly. Then again, maybe that was the advantage of experience.

“A fine link of spiced wurst.” Fieke added to Anzu's commentary. Scheißdreck it was silly, but the topic was a nice distraction from many of the problems currently at hand. As the Abwehran Corporal slumped down out of fire to let her shields rest she grimaced about one of the biggest ones – by all that was geweiht she needed to get a sabre for use with her PA, the thralls down there were just asking to be cut through!

Having spent more than enough time twiddling her thumbs Fieke sighed and placed herself firmly back into the line of fire, her armoured knee settling back into the impression it had left earlier. “Hot bread with a slathering of horseradish sounds großartig too.” Bringing her rifle up the OriSec employee focused on the thralls around the autocannon booming her way. The ASGR fired out its heavy darts as fast as they could be chambered this time in an attempt to cut down both all of the gathering throng of enemies and the weapon itself.

Damien plowed through the NMX troopers like a maglev train. He left a path of carnage in his wake and his thruster enhanced charged through the thralls around like ragdolls. While his barriers had failed, he had successfully anticipated this and raised his shields. As luck would have it, the impaled rounds mostly impacted that, with a few skirting around and singeing his armors edges.

It was days like today he loved being in the powered infantry. A regular trooper would have been cut down, but his power armor kept him nice and safe and he steamrolled those unlucky enough to get in his path. Despite his joy of crushing the competition, he wasn't having nearly as much fun an Anzu was as she gleefully smashed thralls with his impactor and made jokes while doing it.

Damien was impressed by her skills. She certainly had earned her rank and Damien figured he might learn a thing or two from her. But Damien knew that the lessons would have to wait, as there were enemies to kill.

Damien heard Anzu's advice and ducked under one of her swings and started to press forward towards the second auto cannon. Damien could also see April coming in to the trench, spraying fire in the direction of the door. Damien took a quick glance and bashed more thralls around him with his shield as he and Anzu began to secure this side.

Damien knew that he needed to get to the second autocannon or they would be cut to pieces. April seemed focused on the door, so it feel to him to take out the gun. Damien did a running charge, shield first towards the gun. He covered himself with PEW fire and he kept an eye on April's position in his hud. He would hate to accidentally smash her in his path as he pressed forward.

He figured he could get to the gun and kill the few thralls there with his PEW, and probably smash a good portion of the gun with his impactor rendering it inoperable. Or so he hoped to anyway.

It was the final straw. The camel's back broke. So on, so forth - the end.

Energy barriers were completely, utterly depleted as the members of Squad 13 fought against the sheer numbers of thralls, lances of energy finally splashing against the ellipsoid shields mounted upon their forearms as they instinctively raised them against the scorching beams. Even still, armor plate was heated, boiled and vaporized as the occasional shot made it through.

But even then, they all kept on fighting.

Seven millimeter gauss rounds punched clean holes through bodies, smashing through ceramic plate and bodies of several, while rapid fire pulses of energy blasted away chunks of flesh and sinew. Their combined fire finally cut through the ranks and mowed them down like nine pins before smashing the large 35mm autocannons. When the last thrall finally fell, there was complete, utter silence in the trench as the floor became wet and muddy with blood.

"Crunch, plop, crunch," went someone's footsteps.

"Minor, superficial damage to your suits and equipment. It's acceptable enough," the smallest of their group remarked. The ever aloof Sif stepped in between, across, over, on top of bodies as she made her way to the center of the group. Bending low, she reached into one of the side passages of the trench and pulled out a plastic drum - popping off the lid and turning it upside down, the drinking water inside cascaded down the lithe power armor and washed it white again.

Her suit started out pigmented red, but ended up painted crimson.

"Check the bodies, make sure they're all dead. And then sitrep - I want everyone's condition. No exceptions to the thralls," the Mini-Neko sternly ordered, tossing aside the canister without a care. "Nekovalkyrja - notify Nakamura, Jackson or myself immediately while keeping a gun well aimed." She then reached down, prying one of the particle rifles out of a still-warm but dead hand, briefly examining it. "Afterwards, you may take a rifle if you so wish considering the quality control of this batch appears to be acceptable - they are good weapons so long as that is the case," she remarked, casting the oft overlooked NMX equipment over her shoulder without a care with nothing more than a flick of the wrist. Needless to say, it incidentally smacked an unawares Zozo.

"These are your basic orders from me - Nakamura will give you more detailed instructions in regards to our movements," Sif spoke flatly. Leaping out of the trench with a graceful bound, her suit vanished mid-air like a spirit.

The non-stop meatgrinder of a trench had finally stopped grinding.