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RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Three] Attackers

Damien's shooting was rewarded with a large explosion from the Render as it's thruster exploded. His joy was short lived as he watched the Render ripped out large chunks of the ceiling came falling down. "OH SHIT!" he thought as he dodged more chunks of debrief as the ceiling gave way. The Render was becoming more and more erratic as the damage piled on. Damien figured if they didn't kill this thing soon, it would collapse the whole tunnel on them. Unless they took out it's arms... maybe if they did that, they could fly out of the tunnel without being swatted like flies. Damien dropped his now empty mag and loaded in a fresh one. He targeted the right arm joints on the Render and feed the data to his fireteam. Hopefully this would work and reduce the overall threat level of the beast. It would certainly piss it off...
 
Rin jumped out of the way to dodge more falling rubble; they had to end the Render before it brought the whole tunnel down on top of them. Hoping that its armor had been weakened, Rin targeted one of the destroyed thruster assemblies. She aimed at a large black spot that was still smoldering from their previous attack and fired yet another sabot round from her gauss bazooka.
 
Aya let some of the tension in her body release itself in a big gasp. She hadn't been hit by the missile. That was the good news. The bad news was that the Render was still alive and kicking, and what's more it was definitely displeased with the squad's stubborn unwillingness to die. The Juni's order spurred Aya into action, and she began to raise her LASR -

A maelstrom of enemy fire pounded against her Daisy's back armour, punching through her already weakened barrier to begin clawing at the metal that lay underneath it. Staggering under the weight of fire, the Neko barely had enough time to process the new battery of warnings coming from her PA before the state of the armour made itself known in a far more visceral fashion. Searing pain blossomed in her torso, and Aya cried out in agony as she tried to react to the danger. As she twisted around and tried to put cover between herself and both the Render and Reapers, Aya caught sight of Sif putting a violent end to her would-be executioner. "Heisho, you saved me!" said Aya dumbly, her mind still trying to catch up to the pace of events. The fiery star of pain radiating from her left side did wonders for bringing her to her senses, even if it hurt badly.

"I've got no intention of - " Aya's retort to Anzu was cut off mid-sentence as she doubled over in a bout of coughing and hacking, warm fluid entering her mouth and making her aware of the coppery taste of blood. Each cough made the pain spike for a second or two. She wasn't in dire straits, but she wasn't in tip-top condition either. "I've got no intention of dying here." Poking out of cover, she sent a burst of fire at the Reapers before taking another look at the Render. They had done a number on it, at least. Making sure that her LASR-SLAG was reloaded, Aya tried to follow up on Anzu's attack with a volley of grenades. Hopefully she had made the right choice and the Juni didn't want her to help with the Reapers instead. It would only take a moment to switch targets, but as she had just found out a moment could make a big difference.
 
As shots came out from behind them Fieke abandoned her efforts against the Render and instead bent low and dashed it as fast as she could towards Aya's position while Sif kept the two Reapers occupied. Coming in behind the young Neko's Daisy just as she began to fire again the Abwehran placed herself so that she shielded Aya from the remaining flanker with her own armour.


As Sif's red streaked and stained suit disappeared again Fieke raised her rifle to her shoulder and fired at the now unoccupied of the two remaining Reapers.


“Pipe it my way if you need any help maneuvering – or if some missiles that look like they actually know what they want to hit are coming this way alright?” The OriSec Corporal chirped to the wounded SAoY Trooper over comms.
 
Noting the new arrivals from his prone position Niel rolled back onto his feet. Unlike with armour Niel had plenty of ways he could kill them. However most of them were unfortunately non viable. Slipping back into stealth he blurred past the reapers back along the tunnel before quickly changing tack and darting back towards the reapers backs.

Drawing his blades Niel darted back towards the reapers unprotected backs. It was with a grimace that he saw his squadmate get hit. They had lost at least one other member already and it was disheartening to see the potentially fatal wound.

It was with a somewhat clinical detachment that he rammed the daggers into the back of the outermost enemy, aiming one for the neck joint and another to the lower back.
 
With the sudden reversal in the battle caused by the three Reapers, the Render suddenly seemed to have time to worry about the soldiers behind it. Now that only one of the armors in front of it seemed to notice it, and that with a less than effective LASR bouncing lower-mass rounds off the thick hide of the beast, it slowly turned around, shaking under repeated blasts. Anzu, Damien and Rin's combined fire finally did a number on it, and the Frame's right arm suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree, catching fire and beginning to explode, but the Render quickly ejected the useless limb, it falling toward a wall before exploding, sending shock waves reverberating through the tunnel, and causing some smaller bits of ceiling to come falling down again.

However, it seemed to still be up to fighting, now sweeping the trio with the unfortunately mounted Gatling cannon, then swiping at Damien with its remaining claw. Just out of reach of grabbing, Damien was instead merely smacked by the claws, which ripped and tore at the front of his armor, reducing his rifle to pieces and causing more warning lights than Damien ever wanted to see to flare up on his HUD. Pain split through his entire body, as he noted that his right arm was basically being held together by part of the armor's, and his abdomen had been compromised, as well as his right leg. It would have been much worse, but a last-seconnd effort to raise his shield had spared the Yamataian from following Max to the grave. Blood poured from his Daisy II, both his and the armor's, as his suit's Hemosynth went into overdrive to try and patch up the wounds. Miraculously, however, Damien would find that his armor was still functional, and he could somehow move, if very painfully.

The Juni was, however, distracted, and could do nothing about it. "Someone help Damien fall back!" he ordered, focused on the enemy Reaper that had somehow managed to flank him and the rest of his squad. He shouldered his rifle and concentrated on aiming, the enemy armor clean in his sights Kai pulled the trigger on his ASGR, running what was left of his magazine out until the rifle clicked, and his target dropped lifelessly to the floor of the subway. Magazine empty, Kai triggered the release lever, letting the magazine fall free, and swapping in a new one before he turned his attention back to the Render.

And then, a flash of thrusters. April's armor took to the air as the Render turned around and expended its rage upon Damien, and while the enemy frame was distracted, the blonde Heisho made her way up to its unprotected right flank, having seen an opening. "Get 'im outta there an' gimme some cover!" she called to Rin and Anzu, not caring who did which, as she landed on the frame's own leg, and began blasting into the empty arm socket with her ASGR, removing accuracy and range from the equation while taking advantage of the obvious weak point. "Ah think it's time we took this here fight back inta our hands!" The Render's intercom system let out a mighty roar of anger and defiance as the smaller Daisy dealt such pain to it from up close, but her position was risky, and she had to jump back away as the enemy frame retracted its arm, getting ready to try and swat April like it had Sif, earlier. In response, April loosed a volley of countermeasure minimissiles and disappeared through the gap in the ceiling.
 
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Sif again leaned against a column, this time saddled somewhere between the Render and Nakamura as she still clutched her severed arm. Normally, with her red paint scheme, the blood splattered across her armor was difficult to pick up, but the dust clinging onto it gave the fresh coat away.

And the dust thrown up by the angry Render gave Niel away - as the young man sprang forth, his thermoptic camouflage flickered and faltered! The Reaper, suppressed into cover by Fieke and still weary of Sif, saw him flying out from the darkness and counter-attacked! Its LASR wheeled around and gave off a quick burst, the rounds bouncing off of his barrier, but he was close; shoulder first, the enemy power armor thrust-dashed, spiked shoulder first. Spectacular sparks flew into the air, the monomolecular vibroblades screeching as they hit the Reaper! But missed their mark - they gouged into armor and bounced off, the blows imprecise and indecisive as hot cuts were left on its breastplate and helmet. The shoulder spike rammed into Niel's armored chest winding the young man as it brought him down to the ground, superficially penetrating his chest-plate while one of his blades got stuck on its oversized pauldron in the chaos. As it fought to pin him down, a large gash in the side of it's helmet from the blade revealed a shining blue eye as blood seeped from its brow, wide and feral with desperation!

"Save you?" Sif questioned Aya over the comms as Niel struggled - several lances of light shot down from straight above as her drones deployed in the chaos, all pinpointing into a single spot on the Reaper that was now straddling the blade wielding young man. "Save Niel-Hei or Damien-Hei." she grunted, its shields collapsing as molten holes were punched into its back, the single eye on Niel rolling up under the assault. The heavy body collapsed on him fully, its complete weight going limp. "Mostly Damien Hei," the Neko added, pausing for a moment and monitoring her datafeed. "No, nevermind. Jackson-Heisho has him...I think." She continued to muse the situation as the fight raged on, coming near its end as her drones linked back up to her back.

"No, she doesn't. He's still bleeding there - go help him."
 
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“Die verrückten katzen.” Fieke bit out bitterly over comms as Sif – and seemingly the entire rest of the squad – decided it wouldn't be sporting for them to win something without throwing a few of their own down the drain while they were at it.


It didn't particularly help the Corporal's mood that the Reaper that Sif had just dealt with had easily managed to evade all of her incoming fire and then decided getting into a wrestling match with a pair of knives involved was more important than the half a hundred uranium darts it had just waltz through.


Tapping Aya's shoulder the Abwehran clicked open a direct line to the other soldier. “I'm off your back for a bit, there is some drama we don't need going on right now – or ever – brewing up. Take care of yourself.”


Dashing her way over to where the Reaper and Niel had become entangled Fieke grabbed the limp enemy PA with one hand and flipped it off the SAoY trooper. Reloading her weapon while she keeping one worried eye on the fight with the Render, Fieke opened her comms to the downed Yamataian in front of her.


“That Vet tried to put you through the wringer, eh? You good to go – the squad looks like it could use the extra hands.” The OriSec Corporal tone was serious as she finished loading her last magazine into her ASGR. Fieke found herself turning her attention away from the far side of the battle and instead locking onto the still form of Sif. The Abwehran had to bite at her tongue to keep from yelling at either her or Nakamura Juni again – one of their own's life was on the line and they practically wanted to put it up to private committee instead of giving a single clear order to anyone of the people under their command.
 
Rin quickly stowed the bazooka on her back and drew her plasma rifle. She grabbed Damien by the collar of his armor and began to drag him away from the crazed Render, firing her plasma rifle at the mecha as she did so.

"Stay awake. I've got you," she said.

She dragged Damien to one side of the tunnel behind a large chunk of rubble where he would have sufficient cover. From there, Rin continued to fire at the Render, attempting to destroy its other arm.
 
"Coverin' fire comin' right up." Anzu adjusted her grip on the bazooka, the long weapon not being much use in this situation. Keeping her shield up, she finally dropped her camo, needing the extra energy for her suit's built-in blasters. Energy was rapidly launched from both limbs as she tried to keep the Reapers from firing on April or Rin. Thankfully the others in her squad seemed to be dealing with the smaller enemies fairly well.

The damaged arm being discarded gave her an opening, her armor barely stumbling from the force of the nearby explosion. She darted forward as the Render began to turn around, not wanting any part of that gatling fire. The giant machine was focused on April for the moment, giving Anzu a chance to take her earlier advice. The Neko wound up safely below the titan, for now. "Again, it'd be real nice if these things had some kinda blade on 'em..." She grumbled, before targeting the body of the beast above her. It would hopefully be less shielded from this direction, and there were always the leg joints to aim for. Cranking the PEW up as high as she could, Anzu let loose with both barrels.

What was the worst that could happen?
 
Damien screamed out in joy as he saw the Render's arm explode and fall off. "TAKE THAT MOTHERFUCKER!" he shouted in joy at his accomplishment. His joy was short-lived as the Render, now aware of his presence decided to swat him for the damage inflicted upon it. Damien saw the claw sweep coming as if it was in slow motion. Damien was fast, but not fast enough to get out of the way of the swipe. He managed to get his shield up and back away a few feet but still took the brunt of the blow. Alarms and warning lights filled Damien's HUD as he felt pain shoot through his body.

"ARRGH!!!" Damien screamed as he was thrown across the room. He looked down at his trashed armor and right side. He rifle was in pieces, at least the parts he had been able to hold on to anyway. Damien couldn't move his right arm and his leg hurt like hell. He wasn't sure how, but he was still mostly intact. As he agonized, waiting for his suits medical protocols to kick in and numb the pain, he looked up to see Rin pulling on his collar. Rin dragged him to a bit of cover while the shock of his injuries wore off. When he wasn't in quite so much pain, he looked up at the ceiling in his dazed state and could see the light from the muzzle flashes above him. He realized that the rest of the squad was still locked in combat. Despite his condition, Damien knew that he needed to get back in the fight, however trivial his contribution might be.

"Thanks for the save Rin" Damien managed to get out between coughs of blood. Damien tossed his shield to the side, or what was left of it and rolled over to see the Render. It looked like the rest of the squad was still pouring on the fire. While the thing had been damaged, it was by no means destroyed. Damien, while in pain was still combat ready, plus he had a score to settle with the Render. Charging his left PEW he aimed and fired his last weapon at the Render, groaning in pain the whole time.
 
"Understood," Aya managed to force out through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the taste of blood. Hopefully that single word would suffice for all the messages coming her way. She peeked out of cover, and tensed in preparation of sprinting to grab Damien, but Rin got there before she did; the Abwehran solved Niel's predicament for her as well. Aya felt a pang of regret that she wasn't able to help out in a timely manner, but decided that she could still contribute.

Looking past the debris once more, she jumped to her feet and activated her thrusters for a short spell, using it to traverse the distance to where Rin and Damien were as quickly as possible. Making sure that she wasn't in either squadmate's line of fire, she ducked down behind the piece of rubble. "If you need to pull him further back, I'll cover you." Aya fired a grenade from her LASR-SLAG at whichever point looked the weakest on the Render's armour, following it up with the remainder of the ammunition in her current magazine.

This thing is tough, she thought. If we don't defeat it soon, it might do more damage to us - or worse, bring this tunnel crashing down around our ears...

Aya shuddered involuntarily at the idea, but forced herself to keep her cool despite the angry, hot pain still running through her body. They wouldn't just defeat this thing, they'd wipe the floor with it. At the very least, Aya wanted to make the NMX machine regret ever tangling with the Unluckies.
 
Reactions: Kai
"Son of a bitch..." Niel gasped as the heavy weight of one of the reapers collapsed on him. That had hurt.

"Thanks for the assist." he transmitted. both to Sif and the Abwehran of whom he did not know the name. Stowing both blades with a wince as pain shot through his wrist, the reaper had twisted it when he fell. Otherwise he couldn't feel much more then a few bruises. Eyeing the spiked armour he grimaced slightly. That could have easily impaled him had it hit a weak spot.

Niel took a quick glance at the battle. The render was out of his combat scope and he had literally nothing that would even dent its hide. The recently ripped off armorment left an opening but he was out of grenades and thus unable to make use of the opportunity, unless...

"Got a spare grenade?" Niel asked the abwheran.
 
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Despite running on auto for the majority of the fight so far Freyja had managed to avoid the missile from the render and survive the counter attack from the reapers. Counting herself lucky to not be in many small pieces the nekovalkyrja quickly grabbed her LASR rifle off her back and with one rifle in each hand stepped forward to fire thinking dear god I hope this works.

Raising her plasma rifle and LASR she opened fire on the annoyed mecha that was bloody infuriating with its complete lack of becoming scrap metal. as soon as the LASR clicked empty she swung it onto her back and sprinted forward hoping to follow April's example and blast the render at point-blank though instead of the ceiling Freyja thought it would be much better to simply climb onto other bits of the machine and try to enrage it into hitting itself with its claws. I must be freaking crazy to come up with an idea this insane she muttered to herself while carghing forward
 
BANG! BOOM! CRASH! Rounds impacted on the Render as it flailed about, wildly attempting to swat away the Unluckies with its remaining arm, but with the legs more or less disabled, it was unable to keep proper balance, which resulted in it being relatively safe to go near the frame. Soon, its weak spots were exploited by the Squad, large amounts of fire undermining its thick hide and burrowing deep into the internal structure before suddenly the Render stopped cold. Its Brainslave ended, the machine simply shut off, all the automatic locks and controlled movements simply done. It sat there for a moment, arm raised in vain fury, before a series of hisses, pops, and crunching noises announced that it had finally had enough, and in a burst of hydraulic fluids and shrapnel, the beast finally collapsed in a heap, caving in on itself from its own weight, no longer the fearsome foe it had been just minutes ago.

"Unluckies! Report!" Nakamura Juni's voice thundered over the radio, the Daisy II armor lifting off from the ground briefly, and the Juni landing himself on the frame's carcass. "All able soldiers, help those who are injured. I would like someone to make sure that Geiger's body is located so we can have a cleanup crew deal with it later. Right now, I need us to get ready to assault the CP beyond the tunnel's end, is that clear?"

Jackson-Heisho was one of the first to respond. "Sir! Ah am in workin' condition. Ah can see the CP from here, it looks like it migh' be best for us to come out through the hole in the ceiling instead'a tryin' ta get through the rubble."

"Thank you, Heisho" The Juni returned, surveying the battlefield.
 
Light thrusters came to life as a familiar red figure flew, landing before the felled giant.

And then she started banging on it with her severed arm.

"It is dead," Sif remarked with utter seriousness. Turning to Nakamura, she directly addressed him. "Unless their condition is worse than it appears sir, they should all be capable of combat. We should keep moving and ignore the body as well - retrieval is a luxury." At that, the dainty, five foot tall figure did something abnormal, even for her; grabbing the severed arm by the pauldron, Sif slapped the severed stumps together and held it there. Moments passed by, but then! The fingers flexed - the hand clenched. The arm was reattached. "I do not know how experienced or not any of you are, so I will state this regardless," she began, now roughly prodding a finger into the fleshy seam, " - if you are in pain, focus on it and will the sensation away. The ability is standard for all Nekovalkyrja and will function so long as you maintain focus. As for your wounds, the suit's internal flesh insert will start growing into them to stop the bleeding and begin healing. You merely need to check that it is working properly. Notify us if it cannot stop your bleeding."

Sif was barely paying any attention to them as she spoke, now pulling the suit at her shoulder back to better inspect what was underneath - a fresh pink seam and alabaster skin smeared by blood was briefly visible before her armored hand pulled the bodysuit and plate back into place. "I'll have to re-knit the Yarvex," she noted to herself.
 
"Hei Rin reporting Juni! I am unharmed. Hei Damien is injured but seems to be stable," she reported. She offered a hand to Damien to help him to his feet. Rin then picked her way through some of the nearby rubble to search for Geiger's body. Eventually she located part of what was left of Geiger: a barely recognizable torso with one limb still attached.

"I have located Geiger's....remains...Juni," said Rin, feeling suddenly sick to her stomach. Unable to stave off the oncoming rush of bile, Rin popped the seal on her helmet and yanked it off. She then fell to her hands and knees and promptly retched out the contents of her stomach. Anyone who saw her do this would notice her uncommon crimson skintone. In an attempt to regain what little dignity she had left, Rin discreetly wiped her mouth and placed the helmet back over her head.

With a quick cough from behind her helmet, Rin was back onto her feet with her plasma rifle in hand . She glanced up to the hole in the ceiling that Jackson had mentioned.
 
Anzu blinked as the Render simply froze up above her. Her fire slowed to a stop, as she hesitated. Once the thing began to shift, she determined it was time to get out. With a yelp she dove out of the way of the collapsing machine, skidding on rubble before she managed to roll back to her feet in a clatter of weaponry. "Looks like we made it! And I'm in one piece this time." She giggled, loading a fresh set of rounds into her bazooka while they had a moment. "Alright new girl, let's get out of this hole." She moved to assist Aya, offering her support to the wounded Neko. She'd handle the heavy lifting and thrusting to get them up and outside where they could join April, letting Aya's suit concentrate on holding her together.
 
"Never mind." Niel said shaking his head. The stealth trooper switched to squadwide comms.

"This is Finchard-hei, we're heading back." Glancing at the downed reapers he grimaced.

'That could have easily been me.' He thought. Shaking his head he hopped up and over the rubble in front of him. He turned to the abwheran corporal.

"Ye comin?"
 
Aya felt a surge of elation tempered by pain as the stubborn Render finally succumbed to the inevitable and shut down. It was all she could do not to punch the air in triumph (not least because of the loss of one of their own). Hearing the Juni's request, she said, "Hei Miyamoto here, Juni - I'm in pain, but I can still fight." She wasn't entirely sure if that was just her sense of pride talking or reality, but she took the fact that she wasn't currently gasping for air in a pool of her own blood as an encouraging sign.

Sif's impromptu lesson was a welcome one to the Santo Hei. Focusing on her pain, she tried to force the sensation to disappear. It felt a little silly, like she was playing some sort of game of make-believe, but it seemed to be working. In the corner of her eye she caught the sight of Rin's skin tone and smiled. Good to know I'm not the only one in this squad with a unique skin colour.

"Sure. If we see another of those stupid things it'll be too soon." Aya let Anzu support her, scowling at the Render's cooling hulk as though she might disintegrate the offending war machine through sheer force of will. Though she let her Daisy focus on recovery efforts, she tried to help with the task of propelling the pair of Neko out into the open. It was then that she realised something, and her stormy expression faded to be replaced with something else. "See? They should have realised that you never get in our way! Mess with the best, die like the rest!" She chuckled slightly at her own attempt to inject levity into the situation.
 
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