RP: Kennewes Offensive [Delta/Epsilon] Fish In A Barrel

Deon paused for a moment more, still on edge and more then a little shaken by how he froze up in the recent fight. Though as he dropped he let his mind digest what did happen. A quiet moment of thinking which helped to calm him down, and gave him another small idea that was sent to Rico.

Sir those demons can beat most sensors, but can they beat simple physics? If we engage them again a weak PPG beam might reveal them. Cause if an AIR is pushed back when there's nothing to push off of (at least nothing visible) we should know where to aim.

Click to expand...

"Doubt it'll matter much, baby," Rico replied shortly to Deon as he took a few more steps forward. "That push pull field only goes so far. By the time we'd know it's pushin' against a cloaked Red, they'll be too close to care. Save it."

The sergeant then turned around silently, counting the rest of his men as they descended and landed, making sure that all of them were in the group before pressing forward. He wasn't sure what lied ahead, but he knew that he would need all of his men to make the push.

Gyles sighed, reminding himself that the booster pack was more trouble than it was worth. He had to jettison it before he entered the tunnel because he wouldn't be able to move around in the interior of the underwater strcuture, but it wouldn't be all bad. Though he lacked the extra thrust offered by the pack, he still had the Lance, and a half-full FMD. Besides, I can always pick it back up and carry it back later. Hey, I'm wondering...

"Yo, Rico. Do we have sonar equipped on our PA's? Modern stealth tech covers EM, but they can't fool sonic." The tech sentry said, looking around cautiously.

Rico waited for a moment as the last of the soldiers had hit bottom before beginning their trek forward. Gyle's question took a little time for Rico to figure out...he hadn't seen any functions like that on the original AIR models. Even so, it would doubtful that the Reds would allow such a simple method of detection slip by, especially with this particular group's affiliation with water-based equipment.

"No sonar. 'Least, none since the last time I checked."

The group would continue to move through the dimly-lit tunnel with no resistance whatsoever, the only sounds passing through their audio systems being the garbled chatter of the jammed communication arrays, as well as the distant sounds of battle waging above them.

---

Eventually the marines would round a bend and come within view of a large bulkhead door. The area around the door was lit with a greater amount of fluorescent strips, which shone in greater intensity to emphasis the exact proportions of the passageway. There were still no signs of enemy presence.

"Close in. Look for a panel. Eyes open." Rico commanded in short orders.

What was apparent, or rather what had become apparent, was the sentry guns lining the walls near the bulkhead door. While not noticeable at first, blending in well with the flat sides of the walls with their disc-like heads on rotating bases, roughly ten of them suddenly sprung to life as the group came into immediate vicinity of the door. The passageway left little in the ways of cover, and the bend they had turned previously suddenly seemed a much more daunting distance away than before. The automated guns swiveled and swung around until they fixated on Rico and the soldiers behind him.

Autumn shook her head as she noticed the movement of the defense turrets, "Hold on. We got some mounted defenses pointed at us. I think we'd better pull back and re-evaluate this plan before we get riddled with lead."

"Agreed, but... Why arn't they firing? I was on the assumption that turrets fired on the things they aim at first, and then process." Stromm grunted as his display lit up with warnings on the turret's signatures.

"We need to test those turrets, anyway, someone send up a drone, see what those turrets fire." The Sergeant fidgeted a little in his armor.

Uso quickly pointed her palms at two of the closest turrets. “How about we just blast them? Then the door? Then everything behind the door?” She could feel her suit beginning to lessen off on the counteragent to the white tear drugs still circulating in her system, once again putting her into a state of combat high.

“They aren’t shooting at us now, but I don’t feel like giving them a chance to. That means spreading out fire to hit each turret in the first volley.”

"What if these turrets don't actually shoot? by all rights they should have already. Either way they're just slowing us down and allowing for enemies to get to the other side of the door before we can do anything. I Agree with Uso there" Trey said, now more suspicous of the door than the turrets.

Rico did find it strange that they weren't already under fire by these defense turrets. They were certainly well within range of any cannon worth its salt. Rico kept his rifle at attention as he acknowledged the squads reactions and suggestions.

"Right. Alright, let's lay it on 'em with the-"

However, Rico was immediately cut off mid-sentence by the defense guns, which began to rotate and spring to life once more. They did not fire, however...instead, they did quite the opposite as they withdrew themselves back into the walls of the passageway. Once situated back into their slots, they did not make any further movements.

At the end of all of this, suddenly a few thousand strings of data blared in front of each of the squadmembers eyes. After that short amount of time, a small image display would replace these strings of random numbers and letters. The image was accompanied by no sounds or audio...just a simple, single-frame display, sent by some seemingly powerful method of communication near them by somebody whom had obvious knowledge of their communication channels. Tracking the exact source would be nearly impossible as things were, but it was quite clear that it was coming from somewhere behind the massive bulkhead ahead of them.

The image itself, however, was a tad more interesting than the anonymous sender that they had received it from. It was immediately noticeable that it was a map of some sorts...a complex layout that an engineer would use to find the more technical aspects of the building being depicted. Further examination by those wise enough to catch the series of shaft-like tunnels in the lower-left would reveal that this image could possibly be not just a detailed map...but a map of the very underwater installation they were in at that very moment.

Rico, of course, was not that wise.

"...the fuck is this shit? Which one a' ya wise asses is fuckin' with the command links?"

Mireille's attention was caught by the sudden stream of data sent by an unknown source. It was unlikely it was the IPG, as Lieutenant Stelshen or herself would have received some sort of notification, and these charts were incredibly detailed compared to the ones sent by the Alliance a short while ago.

And we don't have the equipment to trace it back. And what's this?

The intelligence officer was vigorously studying the map, noting the way the tunnels and passageways moved about, and noticed two areas that were significantly more detailed. Of these two locations one was marked as an anti-aircraft platform on the top deck, the other a command center on the middle deck. Mireille reflected on this new information, and opened a comm channel with the two Sergeants and the Lieutenant.

"If I can have your attention for a moment..." Mireille asked politely, as the two map detailed map sections appeared in the top corners of their HUDs. "These two sections may be of some interest. The latter, is the main command center for this installation, while the former is an anti-aircraft, possibly the one that has been cutting down our armored reinforcements and air support."

"If these correspond to our objectives, then it would be appropriate for Delta and Epsilon to split off and each go to an objective. Now, I'm not ordering either of you, sergeants, to do so, but these may be critical objectives." She concluded, removing the map sections from their Heads-Up Displays.

"On the other hand, it could just be another trap." She added, turning to Uso. "Lieutenant?"

Uso thought about things for a moment before responding over the laser communication system. “I’d have to say this is from a defector or someone who wants us to find our way in. After all there are much easier ways of tricking us into a trap that they could have used instead of sending us possibly critical intel.”

“Or at the very least I’m willing to bet your lives on it.” Uso replied. “I’m not a fan of splitting up, but we need to move fast. The reds should know that we are on our way.”

Kagura advanced a bit and watched. "We could give it the benefit of the doubt, we wouldn't get through here if it wasn't for them." Kagura said to Uso. "And you're coming with us IPG, prove you're not a coward."

"Say, you don't think it may be one of the Navy vessels from upstairs? We we're well on our winning the space battle when we landed down here." Stromm said, trying to recollect the information of the space battle.

"Sendin' us messages through all this interference, though? We can barely send laser communication a few freakin' meters..." Rico replied as he played over the plans the two IPG officers had given him. As he did that, however, the image faded away from each of their visual screens, and a few seconds later the large bulkhead door cranked, scrapped and clanged to life as he slowly began to open. Apparently their ‘new friends’ had enough sense to know when Rico and his men had gotten the picture, watching from whatever position they were in.

"This coming from the same people who just sent the most evil cloaked things..and bikes..and zombies..Well one thing's for certain, it's gonna be entertaining either way. And if this is where the AA guns are, that'd certainly give us the edge inside and out." Deon said, as that map got another look over. Though there's still the matter of a rather large door, that and anything else behind it. . . oh never mind." Deon trailed off as said door opened. But he didn't hesitate in pointing his FMD down the passageway.

"There might be a defector or a double agent." Kagura pointed out. "Though dropping one's guard would be really bad so let's proceed with caution." she said and started through the door, leading with her weapon.

"..well shit, this still sounds like the best bet we got," Rico replied turned back around to face his men. The Sergeant waited until the entire doorway had finished opening before taking a step forward, issuing orders for his squad mates to follow his lead. Each of them stepped into a much larger room, nearly double the size of the passageway, but much shorter in size. Almost immediately as they entered through the first bulkhead the marines were met with another. However, once all of them were inside, the first door closed, and the water level began to drop. Apparently the areas further ahead were meant for dry travel.

"Send a drone down the passageway, scan it out." Stromm grunted.

"We could rig this airlock to explode. If anything it should destroy this part of the facility when we set it off... if we need to." Uso said as the water drained out.

"Uso, try being optimistic for a change." Kagura snapped at her over the com. "It'd help."

"How about the both of you shut the hell up? I say we find the controls to this area, we can split up here, and also use it as a fallback point." Stromm relayed over the squad-wide comm.

"Fuck that. We should blow this facility." Ian chimed in. He was, after all, tactical advisor.

Rico didn’t seem to sweat the details much, but he did remain ready with his weapon. It seemed a bit convenient to have a traitor lead them in like this…but he could hardly complain with the job being done so far.

"Enough! We should probably leave this passage open…maybe a few of our signals got out to some of the nearby squads. They’ll be able to use the tunnel to gain entry, so we’re leavin’ it. Alright…Sergeant Stromm,” Rico said, turning a glance. “Splittin’ up might not be such a hot idea, but they do have some good points. We gotta hit this hard an’ fast. You take your Delta boys up to that weapon platform, bust it up some. At least that might get some of our ships down here to sort out this. I’ll take my Epsilon’s up and assault this command center. Hopefully put a plug on all this god damn jamming equipment. Once this door opens, we’re hittin’ it. Good luck.”

"Too bad we can't take it over and use it ourselves." Kagura mused on a private line to Rico.

"Hrm, fine then, Delta's, you catch that or do I have to repeat myself?" Stromm huffed angrily.

Adrian made a macho motion with his rifle, lifting it and pulling back the charging level. "I'm ready."

"I'm good," Uso replied.

"My boys are always ready, baby." Rico declared with smug pride.

"Ready sir, though if we can let's try to blow the place up after we leave. Seems a bit more prudent on the whole staying alive front."

"I'd rather we blow it up when we're not in it, ya know?" Rico answered Deon with a smirk as the water continued to funnel out of the room.

When the last of the water drained away and the room hissed as it pressurized and oxygenated itself, the bulkhead before them creaked open, leading into a large, rather empty submarine bay. There were a few sparse, unmanned submarine vehicles hanging from a few hydraulic stands in the center of the bay, as well as a series of doorways leading further into the base. The bay personnel, surprisingly, did not take notice to them at first; however, when a rather pudgy one began walking up towards the marines, nose buried deep into a datapad, a quick double-take was all it took for him to no-doubt wet himself before stumbling backwards to make a run for it.

"If we rig it now then we can blow it as needed. It isn't like the water is going to harm our power armors." Uso replied as the doors opened, "Ah fuck it, to late."

Adrian leveled his rifle at the opening, hoping to catch a kill.

"Steshlen has a point, why don't we just detonate it no- fuck." Ian aimed his own rifle at the door.

Kagura lifted her SIAR and plugged the fatty. "Sorry boy, can't have you running off and squealing."

"Hm..." Stromm made over the comm, and then cranked up his speakers. "SURPRISE YOU WRENCH TWISTING NEKO FUCKERS!" Stromm bellowed at the top of his lungs as he loaded three of his red rounds and firing them off into the room, hoping to take down most of the personnel and equipment.

Uso was more than willing to let the others go first.

"Kill tyme!" Adrian roared over the mic, opening fire with his Canister rifle. He stepped out of the lift after Stromm fired his own shots, pivoting to the right and searching for targets.

"ADRIAN, EVERYONE, ENOUGH!" Mireille barked, boosting forwards to the center of the bay, FMD at the ready. "I want access codes, and you probably all want to live. I suggest you play nice or more of you will die. Please, think about yourselves." She spoke eloquently through her PA's loudspeaker, her voice resonating throughout the vacuous sub pen.

"C-Cease fire! Cease fire!" Stromm yelled over the squadcom, "Friendly in the line of fire! Cease fire!"

"Well so much for being subtle..." Said Deon with a small sigh. Not it stopped him from keeping his own weapons at the ready. Just in case the reds didn't feel like listening.

"Death can suck my dick." Adrian mumbled, but stopped firing all the same.

The Reds were far too busy fleeing for their lives to listen to Green reasoning, unfortunately.

Mireille sighed. "Alright everyone. Back to work..."

The two squads were quick and efficient…well about as quick and efficient as a Nepleslian marine squad could be. Rico and Epsilon quickly made a destructive bee-line towards the lower exit, silencing the petty, unprepared opposition in their wake as they charged for the installations control center. Meanwhile, Stromm and his Delta’s leapt up towards the upper deck of the submarine bay, putting a few hefty potholes in the pretty Red marine craft as they ascended to their destination; the antiaircraft weapon platforms on the top decks of the facility.

And they were off.

Epsilon had a much longer path to take than Delta. One most likely filled with more hazards, as well.

While the weapon platforms were a relatively short distance away from where they entered, the control center was smack in the middle of the underwater facility…and if the map they had been given prior was correct, the maze-like corridors of the base itself did not help the situation. As Epsilon sped through the corridors, they would occasionally come across a random Red soldier, whom would look at them with startling surprise before being gunned down. Before long sirens could be heard blaring out, and flashing lightbulbs sparsely positioned on the ceiling rang in alarming clangor.

“Alright boys, keep yours eyes open. Look’s like the sneakin’ part is over…check your weapons, an’ get ready for some opposition.”

Kagura laughed and put her SIAR up and pulled out her autocannon. "Bring on the meat." she laughed.

Gyles loaded a set of 3 BLUE shells and ignited his plasma lance, grinning. "You know, I could just slice a fast way in..."

"Locked and loaded sir. Though I'm wishing I brought a few less red rounds now." Deon eyed the walls around them, "Hope this place is as sturdy as it looks, least for now."

“’Kay. I want Gyles up here with me. Deon, you take the rear, Autumn and Kagura, watch the sides. I don’t wanna get caught off gu-HURK!!”

Rico was immediately cut off as he was sent sprawling, ass over head, tumbling forward as his armor screeched to a halt on the corridor floor. Something had clothes-lined him pretty hard…and it wasn’t long before Gyles and Kagura also started getting a little unseen action as well. Both of them soon found themselves pinned against opposing sides of the passageway.

Autumn had quickly taken up a rear guard position as the corridor exploded into a cluster of gunfire and aggravated screams over the comm. She kept her SIAR up, not firing into the tangle of power armor that might lead into friendly fire.

---

Deon snapped his view forward the second Rico went down, and once he had a clean line of fire two EMP bursts flew over Rico's prone armor, hoping to catch whatever decked him.

The two blue shells missed the target entirely, flying farther down the hallway before detonating in a hazy cloud of blue electricity. The lighting fixtures in that area flickered and blacked out as a result…but the unseen enemy was still at large. In under a second, Deon would find himself thrown back a ways as an enormous force collided with his shield. His powered armor rang and in warning as his shield dissipated under the stress. The enemy was upon him.

"Plan B then!" Deon started charging his PPG as that alarm reached his ears, but rather then try to push that crooked off him the marine tried to pull his unseen attacker right in against him. Followed by a quick burst from the boosters to slam the cloaked red into the nearest wall as hard as he could.

Perhaps by some luck of the draw, Deon’s PPG burst did the job; although it would’ve been missed by those not paying attention, a rather notable dent accompanied by an equally noticeable crashing sound echoed in Deon’s ears. Whether or not the cloaked foe was dead or not, however, was hard to discern; it was still cloaked and hidden from sight.

Now that he had a grip Deon had no intention of letting that CD slip away. The marine hoping he could stay hugged in under its attacks as he spun his armor about. Followed by another boost right for the opposite wall, in a hope to really knock that CD pilot around.

Again, another harsh sound of metal colliding against metal sounded out, and another scuffle of dents and marks on the opposing wall confirmed another direct hit. However, as the cloaked armor continued to be held within Deon’s grasp, it unleash two waves of aetheric energy directly into Deon’s foremounted shields.

Deon winced inside his armor as he knew there was no way to dodge that point blank attack. He just hoped the shields and a desperate move would take enough of it as he unleashed one of his own. Every bit of power that wasn't going to the shields 180'ing that PPG beam. A wave of aether greeted by a wave of pure kinetic force back at the CD, though the extra side effect was him flying back down the hall. "Ohh this is gonna suck when I stop..."

This apparently did the job; the Crooked Demon’s cloaking field disabled itself and revealed a very limp, very dead Red powered armor. Deon would fly a few meters back before colliding against the corridor wall…a few nicks and bruises, but otherwise fine in most cases.

---

Kagura acked and jammed the point of her gun into whatever it was' gut and fired a burst of shots. "Not on the first date buddy."

The shots fired from Kagura's weapon bounced harmless off of whatever had a hold of her, before a sudden jerk of motion could be felt on her gun arm. Whatever it was that had her in a hold was quick to grab her gun hand and pull it outwards, away from it…and began pulling.

Kagura tried to move with the arm so it wouldn't get jerked out and braced against the wall to try and dropkick the opponent in the gut. "I said not today loser." she hissed and tried to use her other arm to grab her canister rifle.

Kagura’s enemy winced backwards for a moment from the force of the kick, but was quick to reassert itself and push her around, abruptly cutting her other arm off from reaching for her weapon. With a quick jerk the foe attempted to break her right arm, or at least cause the grip of the hand to lose its weapon. At the same time, Kagura would begin to receive multiple warnings about the armor integrity on the small of her back; a harsh, metallic drilling sound, like metal sawing against metal, accompanied this warning.

---

Gyles jabbed the blazing end of his fusion cutter at an upwards incline, directly in front of him.

Ian leveled his canister rifle at the space about a foot from Gyles. "Payback's a bitch, motherfucker!" The Cadet opened fire with a four-round burst.

Gyles was a bit more successful, however, as the fusion lance began sizzling momentarily as it contacted with the unseen foe. The connection was gone in but a second, however, just as Ian began firing at the armor. Ian’s canister rounds collided with the tiled flooring before bounding off farther into the corridor. The Crooked Demon was hiding, yet again…but not for long. Two bluish-white beams of energy erupted from an area of the ceiling, colliding against the shields of both Gyles and Ian in unison.

The shield on Ian's Warhawk shook in response to the attack, and Ian could feel himself pushed back. Ian raised his rifle and began pouring fire at the source of the beam, the lethal rounds screaming through the air at some inconceivable speed.

Trey, being in the back of the action decided it was time for some more Zanarium to go flying, and shoot at the section of roof the beams had come from, hoping to catch the preoccupied foe off-guard.

Gyles attempted to evade to the right, but was knocked against the wall by the sudden blast, damaging his AIR2's torso and left shoulder. "Ugh... fuck." He steadied himself and unleashed a BLUE shell in the approximate direction of the shot, preparing to lunge for a lethal stab attack.

---

Kagura snarled and fought back against the armor, pushing back against it with force and headbutt it hard, getting angry at the thing. She tried to move to kick the thing in the chest again, but that sound was scaring her. "Someone. Help!" she sent to the others. "something's drilling into my armor from the back and I can' get this thing off me."

---

"I would love to help but, there's a bigger chance of me putting a round in you than it, marine!" Ian yelled into his comm, continuing to pump rounds at the supposed site of his attacker.

The combined fire all the three marines worked to an extent; the armor could not dodge all of the attacks, but certainly made an effort to. The shielding on the enemy armor broke, distorting the cloaking field for the duration of the regeneration, just before it leapt to the opposing side and started making quick, jerking dodges as it returned aether-cannon fire upon the three armors.

Ian strafed to his right, putting him against the wall. His rifle came up to the newly revealed Crooked Demon engaged with Rico. He aimed for the back of the beast and opened fire.

Seizing the opportunity provided by having visual contact, Gyles followed up with another 2 BLUE shells to the left and right of the armor, as he boosted forwards, his lance blazing for a kill. His goal was to penetrate the torso with a shearing plasma strike while it's shields were down. "I'm closing in!" Gyles lasered to Kai.

"SHIT!" Trey yelled, jumping to the side in an attempt to dodge the Aether fire. Slamming into the wall, He became a bit dazed, but still sent a few shells in the direction of the Brickshitter that was running away from its foes.

Again, the Crooked Demon could not shake the combined efforts of three marines. It wasn’t long before he was caught in the current of hot metal being poured at it, and succumbed to the torrent. Gyles halted in mid-air as the Red armor tripped over itself in its dodgy advances, skidding across the ground before laying still.

---

"Ian..." Kagura said, feeling sad but kept trying to pull away from the sound and get the CD off her. Which was hard enough to do unarmed.

“I got it!” Rico yelled as he quickly came back into the scene. The blow early had certainly come as a surprise…but the precious moments he spent disoriented were quickly made up for as he aligned himself with the wall Kagura was being pushed against and unloaded his SIAR on the area behind her.

Rico’s shots were true enough; they winged the Crooked Demon’s shield quite a bit, enough for the Red armor to lost interest in his target and begin firing a shoulder-mounted aether cannon at his new opponent.

Kagura grabbed her canister rifle and opened fire on the Crooked Demon's rear, firing as many shots in as she could. "Die." She hissed angrily. Her arms hurt as she did but she grit and bore it.

The Crooked Demon attempted to back away and trail off until it regained its shielding capability…but the combined fire between multiple marines was making it difficult. The Red armor turned and continued to unleash more aetheric energy as Kagura and Rico as it attempted to make a hasty retreat into the darkened end of the corridor.

"WOO!" Trey called over the Comms as the CD fell to the floor. He looked around and saw Rico and Kagura firing at another Red armor and joined in on the fun.

Kagura strafed off to the side, her visual field lighting up as the energy narrowly missed her. But she took off pursuing the Crooked Demon, firing the canister shots at it as it tried to flee. "Oh no you don't you ugly fuck." She said, firing the rifle.

"Kill it!" Ian fired down the corridor after the fleeing Red, his explosive rounds chasing the armor's back.

Seeing the retreating CD's aether bursts, Autumn strafed to the right, firing at the Demon with her SIAR taking care to keep Rico and Kagura out of her rifle's sights.

That Crooked Demon was most certainly dead.

---

Kagura grumbled a bit, seeming to rub her left shoulder. "That freaked me out, something was cutting into the back of my armor.." She said.

“No time for talkin’, boys! We still have to get to that fuckin’ control center. Check your shit while you’re runnin’. Let’s move it!” Rico ordered as he took the lead again as he shot through the bullet-riddled passageway, towards his squads main objective. Rico could only hope that Stromm was faring better at his mission…they would most certainly need the additional support by the time they reached the inner areas of the installation.

Meanwhile, back in the Submarine Bay...

Stromm and the rest of Delta were positioned in front of the elevator door that led to the upper decks. The elevator, however, was not responding to the Sergeant's constant button pushes, which angered him. "Alright, we're deep in shit creek and the only way to get out of it is to take the Red's paddle, and break their spare." Stromm announced to his squad, "Make a final equipment check and stand-by, Keats, you're my tech, and this elevator doesn't seem to work, fix it."

Uso looked around, "Uummm.... its an elevator... it can't be that well armored. Why don't we just blow a hole in the top and fly up the shaft?" she said over the communication system.

"Because I don't want to poke a fucking hole in this bubble here. The atmosphere gives a little slack if our armor gets punctured, if this place fills up, one hole, and you're dead." Stromm grunted back to Uso.

Gran nodded behind the mask, a curt "Yes sir." passing back to the Sergeant. It was war and he had to keep his nerves steeled if he was going to make it out of this in one piece. His shield wasn't looking so hot from the fight with the Crooked Demons. Gran walked swiftly up to the pad and scanned over it, looking for any sort of access point of hidden switch.

Gran would see there was small panel in the wall with an indention made for a human-sized hand to open it.

Meanwhile Uso checked around the area, looking for anything of use such as weapons, equipment, computer terminals, datapads, and the like.

Uso's eyes would not land on much for anything as most of the things around were dead tech personnel from their first barrage. Though there was a small communications terminal rooted in the wall next to one of the sub pens.

Uso went to the communication terminal and attempted to use it, first recording what was displayed on the screen at the moment and then attempting to bring up any records or other data that might be stored in the local memory.

Adrian grabbed a corpse from the floor. Thanks to the Warhawk's enhanced strength, it was an easy life. He began to pull, and only the torso came with it. Adrian cocked an eyebrow, shrugged, and pulled the body to Gran, holding out the arm to the tech sentry.

The terminal housed information on recent arrivals and departures on the submarines in the pens. It also contained a shift schedule for the different tech's they had just slaughtered. Uso would, however, find that the last person to use it was still logged in. Further observation would conclude that a small cardkey still in the slot was how he was recognized by the terminal. The logged in name was: Lt. Capt. Jerald Spain, the picture of him looking surprisingly similar to the fat man Kagura had killed.

Uso tried going through the data as fast as possible, using her suit's onboard memory to take pictures of each image brought up by the terminal.

Gran grimaced slightly from the sight and took the body from Adrian. "Echh..." He nodded back to the soldier. "Thanks." He pulled the man's hand up to the pad and pushed his palm into the slot.

The terminal revealed a large amount of maps and information on the movements the Reds were making. It would show that the gun they needed to disable and/or smash was still in operation, and located in a large domed room at the top of their structure. Further observation would show that the Lt. Cpt. Spain had excellent security clearance for the gun's controls and maintenance.

Uso tried to find out what kind of control she had of the gun from this terminal.

The panel would open to a small touch-screen, it showed the door's controls and status. One large concern of this screen though, was the large red letters of the word 'LOCKDOWN'.

Adrian looked over Grans shoulder at the display and laughed. "Oh gee, I wonder how they ever could have noticed us," he said, motioning to the large number of corpses sprawled through the bay.

"We can always explode it," Uso called out from her place in front of the computer terminal.

Gran sighed slightly and used the man's hand to poke the screen in a few places, trying to see if any sort of dialogue box would come up. "Sergeant, the panel seems to be in lockdown. I could try to break into it, or we could force the doors."

"Hrm, you any good at hacking, Keats?" Stromm looked over his equipment. Although as their attention was turned from the terminal, the red letters of 'LOCKDOWN' dissappeared of the screen and the hum of the elevator came to life. Stromm's mono-eyes focused in on Gran, "Well hell, good job, Keats!".

Uso finished up her data gathering from the computer terminal and swiped the access card.

"Alright, pull yourselves together, we're moving topside." Stromm said, stepping to the side of the elevator's doors. "Stay out of the opening of this door when it comes down, don't know what will come down."

Another short "Yes sir." Came from Gran as he trotted into the elevator, standing at the back."

"Fuck," Uso commented, still holding the card in her hand, "...Hey, do any of you guys have pockets?"

Adrian opened the hangar on his back, revealing one of the empty drone slots. "Put it in here. We'll pull it out later."

"Alright," Uso said, sliding her hand into Adrian's open slot and placing the card inside.

"Hurry up and get your hand out so I can close it, Lieutenant." Adrian urged.

"Sorry." Uso replied, "hand got stuck." She yanked out the damaged SIAR from the drone slot.

The hangar on the Warhawk's back quickly closed. "S'alright, Lieutenant." Adrian replied.

"Hey! Hurry up and tak-!" Stromm yelled but was cut off as a lovely ding! was heard from the elevator. The door opened, at revealed a lone Crooked Demon, crouching in it's standard brick-shitting position.

---

Adrian didn't make a noise. Other than, of course, his Canister Rifle, which made one hell of a racket as it began spitting out its high-explosive rounds in full-auto.

Uso made a strategic tactical move, choosing to stand behind Adrian.

The explosive rounds crashed off the shields of the Crooked Demon as it blasted it's thrusters and shot out of the elevator and crashed into Adrian who crashed into Uso, aether claws were beginning to dig into Adrian's armor.

"Oh god dammit!" Keats shouted. He cycled the blue round he had loaded into the chamber, recalling that Stromm didn't want any damage to the elevator. He fired the round into the elevator, dashing back a bit with his jets.

"Don't you guys dare fucking shoot me," Uso said over the communication channel as she braced her legs against the ground and reached over Adrian's shoulder reaching for the attacker's armor and generating a superheated ball of plasma in her palm usint her suit's plasma projection system. All she needed to do was cut through any part of the armor so that the heat could kill the pilot in a deliciously graphic way.

"Gahh... agh... AW FUCK!" One of the nerimium claws pushed its way into the Warhawk's durandium chest, the blade cutting through flesh, tissue, and bone. The medic was pushed backwards, his armor sliding along the floor, sandwiched between Uso and the Red pilot. Not that it mattered. Another claw entered the armor, doing a similar deed. Adrian screamed again and went silent, his life signs dropping quickly as his chest was torn apart by the vibroblades.

Gran charged his PPC and readied his PFC, a small whirr sounding as the oversized generator kicked into high gear. He was waiting for a good shot with it, he didn't want to end up frying his squadmates. He blasted his PPC at the CD, trying to yank the CD into an open spot.

Adrian made an excellent shield for Uso as she poked a hole in the CD's armor, and introduced his head to extreme tempters. The Crooked Demon made an audible scream and quickly withdrew its claws from the poor medic. It's claws came up to it's face as it tried to recover from the heat.

Uso moved her hands over Adrian's shoulders, aiming both her palms at the enemy power armor and firing off her directed plasma blasts at short range, aiming for the weak point she had created in the armor to try and put the until down for good.

Gran charged his PPC and readied his PFC, a small whirr sounding as the oversized generator kicked into high gear. He was waiting for a good shot with it, he didn't want to end up frying his squadmates. He blasted his PPC at the CD, trying to yank the CD into an open spot, then trying to push it to the ground so he could royally fry it for killing Adrian.

The Crooked Demon was wasted from three direction when Gran peppered him with his PFC, Uso overheated him with plasma, and Stromm laid out anti-matter on him. The CD melted to slag as he was burned out, and was obviously dead.

"ALRIGHT," Uso said, checking Adrian's status through the squad uplink, "Beefman, turn on Adrian's Autopilot feature and lets get going." Now equipped with a canister rifle, Uso headed toward the elevator.

Stromm disregarded Uso for a moment and moved over to Adrian, noting his decreasing biometrics. "Adrian, can you hear me?" Stromm tapped the Medic's helmet.

Adrian moved his head slightly, so that the mask was facing Stromm. "Let me sit down." The medic coughed violently, blood splashing on the front of his helmet, much like his chest, which was a rather horrifying mess. He slumped backwards against Uso. "Don't forget my fuckin' chip."

Adrian would feel a tingle in his brain as his spider came to life, copying everything that was Adrian into its small databank.

Stromm grabbed Adrian and gently let the Medic down. "I've got you soldier..."

Adrian stared up at Stromm for a moment, closed his eyes as the tingling of the back-up subsided, and died.

Gran kicked one of the dead techie bodies into the melted slag of the CD. He wanted to spit, but it didn't seem like a good idea. He stepped over beside Stromm and next to Adrian's body. "Shit... he's dead?"

Uso was standing around in the entryway of the elevator. "Yeah... dead so says his vitals. Let’s get going and be sure to bring his power armor along."

Stromm removed Adrian's helmet, and saw the Medic's face, it slightly disturbed him. "Yes Keats, Decane is dead." Stromm said coldly as he placed the helmet back on the head. The man sighed heavily as he picked up the body and heaved on his way into the elevator.

"This kid have any friends?" Stromm added as he set Adrian's body to the side of the elevator.

"I knew him... some." Gran gritted his teeth in anger, and it was solely directed at the Reds. After all Adrian was not only a friendly acquaintance, but he was one of his squad, and since Gran was second under Stromm, he felt a bit of responsibility for it. He followed Stromm into the elevator, regretting that he hadn't acted faster. He only hoped that the CC would be able to bring him back.

The elevator door closed behind Delta squad, leaving them to themselves along with their one dead as the ascended to the top floor. They moved up slowly, allowing them some breathing time as they waited.

---

"Hand me the body," Uso said simply, holding out her left hand and cradling the canister rifle against her shoulder with the right.

"Keats." Stromm ordered, only leaning to the wall of the elevator.

Gran looked over to Stromm, re-loading a blue shell in the place of the one he had spent on the CD. "Yes sir?" He said plainly, trying to push his emotions out of the equation.

"Gi-" Stromm started, but stopped as the intercom speaker above them in the elevator whined to life, letting out a piercing hum as it turned on. Stromm's mono-eyes turned upward, a raspy, brushy, yet deep voice started up on the speaker. "Ahem, attention, squad of... er... Green soldiers." said the old voice.

Gran raised his FMD to the ceiling out of reflex, his Monoeyes matching Stromms.

"..." Uso moved over to the side of the elevator where Adrian's body was and propped it up against the exit door. Her left hand was holding Adrian's Armor's neck tightly, holding him upright while the right hand held Adrian's canister rifle, stabilizing it on the dead man's shoulder and aiming it towards the door.

"This is Grand Admiral Jeffery Welson Coleman, known to some as the, 'Red Admiral'. I, and my bridge crew have been monitoring your progress ever since you happened upon the passageway leading to the tunnel." The voice continued on.

"You may be wondering who the person who sent you the information you needed is. That was Ellen Oswald, my communications officer, she sent you the updated maps of the facility, and lifted the lockdown on the elevator you are currently riding. I am, however, sorry that we were unable warn you of the Crooked Demon who took advantage of that moment to descend to your level. Again, my deepest of sympathies." Jeffery stopped for a moment, perhaps to catch a response.

"So... you want to take this one beefman?" Uso asked over a private channel.

Stromm nodded to Uso, and piped in, "Why the hell are you helping us?" Stromm asked.

Gran looked over at Uso, speaking quietly on a private channel. "What are you doing with Adrian?"

"Stuff," Uso replied, keeping her sensors trained on the door.

Gran took a step towards Uso. "He is going back in one peice."

"Ok," Uso replied simply, still keeping Adrian's body in place.

Jeffery stayed silent for a few seconds and then responded, "Because my men are dying, Marine, just as one of yours has died."

Stromm attempted to respond, but found himself currently in common sympathy with the Admiral. The Sergeant dipped his head, seemingly in shame.

"It is obvious, that your Star Army is winning this battle, and I am attempting to save every man I can from the blade to do this. In the same way, I am reducing the amount of men against you, in fact, adding to your squad." Jeffery chuckled for a moment.

"What?" Stromm answered simply.

"Yes, we have contacted and convinced two Crooked Demon pilots to join our little coup, they are waiting for you at the end of elevator's destination. Their names are Cain, and Abel, brothers actually." Jeffery informed the Delta's. "We are currently using the Dark Demon pilots to defend the communications room from anyone who try and keep us from helping you. Use them wisely, we are making a big sacrifice for your squad."

"What about Epsilon?" Stromm asked, "They'll need help as well."

"I've withdrawn sending help to them as I haven’t gotten them to a viable place of communication just yet. If I send a Crooked Demon down to them, they'll only kill him. They are still performing admirably however." Jeffery answered.

Gran glanced up at the ceiling, the conversation seeming to take a very interesting turn, but he none-the-less turned back to Uso. "Drag him to the side, out of the way of fire from the front door."

"Alright..." Uso paused for a moment, not knowing the marines name or even what to nick name him, "... um, whoever you are, I'm not going to walk out of here first so either I get to use a dead body for protection or I'm going to keep you out infront of me to soak up the bullets. I'm sure if deadie here objected to my plan he would tell me."

"Shut the hell up Uso." Stromm snapped at her, as the elevator made another Ding!.

The doors slid up and revealed two Crooked Demons standing in normal position at the front of the elevator. One of them waved at the group, and his loudspeaker opened up. "Hello, my name is Cane, and this is my brother Abel, who's in charge?"

"I'm the one in charge here." Stromm stated as his squad faced the pair of Crooked Demons standing in front of them. The two CD's were hastily spray-painted green, to show their alignment. One CD had the name 'Livertwister' on his helmet, this one was Cain, the other had 'Headsmasher' on his, this one was Abel.

Uso kept her guard, and Adrian's body, up as the discourse took place.

Cain looked into the elevator. "Uh, excuse me, could the one who just said 'I'm in charge' indicate themselves to me? I don't know who you actually are." The Crooked Demon that covered the man was tapping its long monomolecular claws against its thigh. Apparently, it did this often, judging by the deeply engraved grooves in the area.

Gran was about to tell Uso where she could stick it, but remained quiet after Stromm snapped at her. He raised his FMD to the pair of CD's on instinct€ when the door opened. He sighed and took a step away from Stromm and towards Uso, trying to pull Adrian's body from her grasp.

"It's that one, you retard." Abel said, mistakenly pointing at Gran.

Cain shied away from the raised FMD, not quite stepping back, but visibly withdrawing. "Hey now, we're not here to kill you." He took a glance at the dead marine in front of Uso, not commenting on the situation.

Cain shrugged at Abel's suggestion, but had a strong feeling he was wrong. He kept it to himself, though.

Mireille loaded a string of RED shells and stared at the pair of CD's vehemently through her HUD display. "IPG. Explain yourselves. Immediately." She ordered, her tone much more emotional than her usual icy mannerisms.

Uso shoved the body over to Gran, aiming her canister rifle down at the ground to avoid threatening the CD pilots. At the moment they didn’t seem too threatening to her, instead she focused her sensors on the area beyond them, trying to get a feel for what was near the squad. She also decided to send Gran a short text message, 'don't loose that.'

Abel looked at his brother for a moment, "IPG? What the fuck's that?" he asked his brother.

"Hell if I know." Cain responded. "What's IPG, and how do you magically command us?"

Gran lowered his FMD as he shouldered the weight of Adrian in his blood-stained armor.

Mireille sighed and chuckled a little, slinging her FMD over her neck. "Imagine SAINT, only with cyborgs and no sexual deviancy. Now... would you kindly get out of the way?" She explained, in a matter-of-fact way.

"So... you don't want our help?" Abel scratched his helmeted head with his claw.

The intelligence officer shrugged and continued to stare at the armored siblings. "Are you genuine in the offer? I seem to get the odd feeling this isn't what it seems to be.."

"They had plenty of chances to kill us before now, We might as well trust them for now," Uso replied.

"Belmonte, you heard the Admiral, they're here to help us. We 'need' that help, especially with the loss of Adrian." Stromm's mono-eyes focused on the dead marine behind him.

"I do suppose my suspicions are entirely unfounded." Mireille replied quietly. "I will abide this."

"I'm in charge, and you are now under command. Welcome to Delta." Stromm finished, turning his attention back to the two Crooked Demons.

Cain shrugged again, his claws still tapping into the grooves he had dug in his armor. "'Kay."

"You don't suppose you could synchronize your battle data feeds to my Savtech, could you?" Mireille asked the two marines somewhat apologetically.

"Why?" Asked Cain.

"What?" Said Abel.

"Welcome to the greens." Gran said with a grunt as he situated Adrian's arm over his shoulder.

"Yeah, are we getting paid? You know... Just asking." Asked Abel.

"Let's see if we can make out of here first..." Gran replied, not roughly, just in a matter of fact tone.

"I'm Delta's active field intelligence officer, and I would rather be able keep everyone posted." Mireille responded gently, covering her slight annoyance with an almost excessively sweet tone. "And as for payment, I'm sure they're be an acceptable bonus for yourselves and the other members of your coup. You may also count it a blessing that you will not be put to death when this is all over." She concluded.

"Wow sorry for whatever we did to you." Abel grunted.

"Well... unfortunately, you can expect the troops that fail to surrender to be summarily executed. This really isn't my decision, but it will happen." Mireille answered defensively.

"Let's get moving, we have gun to knock-out." Stromm said, exiting the Elevator, and noticing a terminal that seemed to connect to some of the security systems of the underwater building. "Uso, get on that terminal, and watch Adrian's body. Everyone else, loose formation, on me." Stromm made a spinning motion with two of his fingers.

"Haw. I knew you were wrong," Cain said to his brother, pointing one of his non-bladed fingers at Stromm. "It was him, not the other guy." The Red soldier fell in behind the Green Sergeant.

"Hey! Fuck you, Cain! You didn't know who it was! At least I had the balls to point on out! Just like I had the balls to ask Ellen out before you did." Abel added in a cutting tone.

Cain's bladed index finger was at Abel's throat in an instant. "Shut the fuck up Abel." He withdrew his finger, and continued after Stromm.

Gran carried Adrian's body over by the terminal and set it down against a wall. He glanced at Uso then silently trotted back to Stromm.

"The gun's main room should be located at the end of this hall..." Stromm said, after Delta trekked uninterrupted for a few minutes. They had made a series of turns and stair climbs, most personnel had seeming left these halls. Armor presence was non-existent, other than the already dead pilots on the floor.

Abel jumped for a moment as he spotted a dead Dark Demon with it's chest ripped open. "Oh! Hey Cain! Remember when I got this one! He thought he had me, but I tore his chest right out!" Abel pumped one of his arms in a successive way. A closer observation would show that this Dark Demon was marked as a Medic, but apparently did not share similar views with the coup members.

"He was the worst. Doctor. Ever." Cain replied, giving the corpse a light kick.

Gran shook his head as they mused over the dead DD. "As long as he doesn't have one of those damned zombie boxes..."

"Aw man, those Nanite Boxes? I swear, they wanted to put one of those on 'me'." Abel said as the continued on.

Gran hummed slightly. "Where you guys come up with that stuff?"

"I blame the fucking crazies we hire, who the hell designs an armor with vibro'claws'?" Abel grunted.

"NRM, apparently." Mireille sighed.

"What?" Abel turned his head to Mireille, "You know a lot of crazy Acronyms, lady."

"Nepleslia Refitting and Munitions, dumbass. They make all our shit." Cain scoffed over the comm at his ill-informed brother.

"Kiss my ass, Cain!" Abel growled at his brother.

Stromm raised his fist in front of the door that led to the gun's controls. "Alright, we're here, Cain, can you tell me what we have to expect behind this?" Stromm grunted to Cain.

"If that smell that you're always carrying around is any indication, there's enough shit encrusting your cheeks to make sure I'd be kissin' a looong time before I kissed any actual ass." Cain was obviously enjoying goading his brother. He stopped, however, at Stromm's order. "We lost contact with everything over here a while ago, but I'd say a dozen or so gunnery operators, and maybe a couple PA-suited guards.”

"For the last fucking time, I said I didn't rim her-..." Abel stopped mid-sentence. "Yeah, we don't know if the situation has changed or not."

"Right, we need to-..." Stromm started, but stopped as the door in front of him opened, a Crooked Demon stood in front of two Dark Demons and a normal Demon armor. "Son of a bit-...!" Stromm yelled into his COM before the Crooked Demon swiped at the Marine, striking in mouth. His AIR2's mouth area was holed open, and his jaw was ripped off and gone. On the floor, was a stunned Stromm.

"Gran, get the Sergeant! Cain, Abel, wait for my volley and close in for a kill." In a second, Mireille reloaded her FMD with a BLUE and two REDs and proceeded to fire a full volley at the attacking CD's torso area. Her goal wasn't to actually kill him, but at the very least, distract him enough so he wouldn't attack Stromm while he was on the ground and cause 'some' damage.

Gran shouted wordlessly and pulled Stromm back with his PPG, trying to pull him onto his back to get a clear line of fire. He quickly poured as much energy as he could into his PFC, spraying a holy hail of plasma at the CD.

"Hey Gerald! Suck my dick!" Abel shot forward, slamming one of his claws into the open chest wound of the Crooked Demon. Then slamming the other into a rather startled Dark Demon, whose name had been called out. The Crooked Demon bled profusely, and crumpled to the floor in a heap as Abel would rip his claw out of him.

Cain decided to not rush in with his brother, instead directing a stream of Aether from his shoulder into the remaining Dark Demon's head.

The Dark Demon and the other Demon's head cam off as Cain melted their head off.

Delta squad would be welcomed by a hail of Type 1 Chaingun fire, pinging off their armor. It seemed that a group of Demons were waiting for them inside in the room.

Gran dragged Stromm's armor further back, regardless of whether or not his Sergeant was trying to get up. He thought for a split second, after all Stromm had put him second in charge. He quickly shouted out to rest of the squad. "Cover Cain and Able, and get that room clear!"

Cain slowly moved forward, stopping his Aether flow until he was in the door, right behind his brother. He then targeted two Demons and opened up with the shoulder cannons again, his forearm raised to his face to keep his uncovered parts from getting hammered.

"WEEEEE!!!" Abel shrilled as he shot into the room, found that it was actually lightly defended. The walls were painted in blood, as a small civil-war had took place in the room. Quickly spray-painted greed armors from the Reds and normal reds lay across the floor. Abel commenced slashing across and through the Demons.

"It seems I do forget myself sometimes, Private Keats. This is your squad, for now." Mireille said over her comms, quite coolly, before turning to enter the room being swept clean by the two armored siblings. "I'll have to deactivate those turrets."

Gran stood between Stromm's armor and the door to the room of DD's, taking a shot or two with BLACK rounds from his FMD when he could.

The eight Demons assigned to defend the room were quickly slaughtered as Cain and Abel made their bloody campaign. The three Dark Demons along with them, both of Gran's shell erupted into one of the DD's chests. While another was pounced on by Abel and brutally mauled, while the last was attempting to bring his rifle to bear on Abel.

The Demon targeting Abel was quickly the target of a viscous barrage of Aether to the should and legs, followed shortly by a running leap and viscous slash from Cain's vibroclaws.

"Hey, you bastard! You know the claws are 'my' style, you just stand back and shoot things!" Abel grunted at his brother as the Dark Demon's body turned into a bloody display.

"Fuck you, Abel!" Yelled Cain through the torrent of blood.

"I'm sorry, but Ellen's already got that position! Oh, WHOOPS. I hope I didn't touch a nerve." Abel said to Cain untastefully.

Abel was met with yet another threatening gesture by his brother due to the subject, this one in the form of an aether bolt shooting past his head, and a simple "Shut the fuck up, Abel."

"Focus!!" Was all Gran yelled as he looked around the body littered room.

Abel looked at Gran for a moment and then crossed his arms, looking away from his brother.

Mireille began accessing the computer's systems, and with relative ease, began shutting down the AA platform. The Reds didn't seem to have placed my safeguards and it was only a matter of seconds before she was in. "So that seems to be the end of it, for now."

"So we shut down the gun? I always thought we needed Spain's keycard for that." Abel scratched his head, his claws scratching on his helmet. He was silent for a moment and then turned to his brother, "Hey Cain, maybe you'll get the balls to as 'her' out."

"Yeah? Maybe I will, asshole." Cain replied.

"Oh ho ho ho, do it. C'mon, I can't wait to see it." Abel said anxiously.

"Can it, you two are just gonna be at each other throats again." Gran growled slightly, going back to Stromm's armor, looking over it. "Sergeant? You still there?"

"I... I will. Just not- oh fuck it." The soldier walked to the IPG FIO, ignoring Gran. "Excuse me... would you like to get a drink when we're done here?"

Stromm, during this entire assault, was still in a fit of shock. He didn't speak in response, only heavy, hafting breaths out of his jawless mouth. The Sergeant seemed to tremble, as if in pain.

Gran turned Stromm on his side so that his wound wouldn't bleed into his mouth. "Jeez... I'd ask how ya felt, but you probably can't talk..."

Stromm coughed for a moment, his loose teeth causing most of the blood. His mono-eyes searching for something, unknown what. For the next few moments he would just shake and let out an odd breathing noise. Then, he calmed, his breathing slowed down, and he rolled over on his knees, slowly helping himself up. "Hhhaaawwwhhhkkk..." Stromm said, as his mono-eyes looked to Gran.

"Sorry Cain... I... already have a date after the Offensive." Mireille said apologetically, before looking over to the sergeant. "Private Keats, I suggest we bring the Sergeant to adequate medical facilities before he bleeds to death."

Gran kneeled down in front of Stromm, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Sergeant... We gotta get you out of here..."

Stromm hawked some blood out of his mouth, his tongue hanging out of the open hole. "Huuoooaallgh!" Stromm breathed angrily. He placed a hand up to his mouth, and he seemed to chill as he noticed his missing jaw. Stromm dropped his hands to his sides and his mono-eyes looked around. Plenty of men and women had died to either defend or destroy this gun. They had simply come in and cleaned things up.

"Hrawk!" Stromm yelled, to get the squad's attention, he pointed down to floor, and then pumped his fist, signaling to hunker down and wait for orders. Without a mouth, Stromm wasn't much of a Sergeant, so Delta needed a new leader until he could communicate again. Stromm then looked at Gran, he pointed at him and then saluted, signifying Gran's place in command.

Gran saluted back to Stromm, thinking he understood what the jawless man was indicating. It was show time, even though it looked like the fighting was over, he had to give the squad his all. Gran cleared his throat and took a deep breath, then turned on the squad channel. "Everyone form up and keep an eye out. We got nothing lined up, we're waiting for orders."

He looked around and remembered Cain and Able. "Able, Cain, get in contact with your commander if you can."

As soon as the anti-air weapons were taken off-line by Stromm and his Delta squad, the Green forces above water wasted no time. In a matter of moments, five LHA vessels dove and approached the submerged installation, quickly asserting dominance over the submarine and powered armor forces stationed outside of the structure. The Reds not caught by the sudden ship support quickly retreated back into the recesses of the base, with the Greens following in hot pursuit. While the fighting in the water was over, conflict still raged on inside of the Red undersea station.

Epsilon met with little resistance as they trekked onward further towards the center of the base; the Green marine forces flooding into the underwater installment from all sides made sure that every Red in the station was kept busy. An occasionally Crooked Demon or un-armored personnel would cross their path, but Epsilon was quick to blow past this opposition. Friendly signatures would appear and disappear occasionally, but the jamming arrays were still making it difficult to communicate clearly with anyone outside of directional laser.

Eventually, Epsilon came to an abrupt stop as a large bulkhead door, sealed shut, stood between them and the main command center of the undersea base. Signatures from behind the bulkhead were scarce…but there were definitely bodies inside that room, milling and moving about quite vehemently.

“Gyles, Deon, Trey. Take the back, watch our flank. Everyone else stand back an’ eyes on that door…while I knock.”

Autumn's Warhawk nodded as She kept her SIAR raised with her good right arm at the door. She had chosen to remain silent again since their last encounter, hoping vainly that they wouldn't encounter any more surprises.

Kagura was tailing behind somewhat, covering the team's back as they advanced into the base. Paying close attention to the HUD and it's friendly/unfriendly displays and how they were coming back and forth. Her back was to them and the Canister rifle pointed in that direction. "Just don't cause it to flood on us babe." Kagura said to Rico.

Ian propped his Canister Rifle on his shoulder, staring at the door. "So, what? We blast through the fucker?"

“That’s the plan, baby,” Rico replied to Ian as he lowered his SIAR and lifted his free arm towards the doorway, readying his explosive disk projectors to place a nice-sized hole in the large bulkhead door. He didn’t waste any time; a short moment after firing, a few loud, shaking explosions coursed through the hallway behind them. Rico ordered them forward, taking the lead himself the moment his sensor arrays, quite clearly, rendered a visible opening made by the heavy explosives. “Go, go!”

---

"What the fuck!" yelled a male voice on the other side of the smoke. After the haze cleared, Epsilon would see then entrance to a rather bloody control room. Video screens had bullet holes in them, red soldiers lay on the floor, dead and bloodied. There were two types of bodies on the floor, ones with their uniforms spray-painted green, and those who's red uniforms hadn't been touched.

Those still standing were a few with spray-painted uniforms and two Demon armors with green spray painted armors. Three of the uniformed personnel were sitting on the ground nursing bullet wounds. One of them was being tended by a brown haired female, her metal nametag reading 'Oswald'. The one she was tending was an old, bald man. He had a long white beard (with a moustache joining them), and a bald head with several tribal tattoos decorating the top. His metal nametag read, 'Coleman'. The old man raised his hand, while holding another at his leg.

"We... We surrender..." The old man breathed. The female with him warned him about his condition but he swayed it aside. The demons looked at each other and then at Epsilon, with that they quickly threw their rifles to the side and put their hands up. Other uniformed personnel still standing raised their hands.

Autumn looked at the personnel in the control room and at Rico's back, still keeping her raised SIAR point at one of the Demons. "...someone's taggin' people now?"

Kagura turned to look. "No I think they're defectors Autumn." She said after a look around and the general behavior of the personnel.

The view that was presented before Rico was not one he was exactly expecting. For a moment, the sergeant stood still, his weapon moving from person to person through the room as his suit filed all of the incoming information to him. The signs were a bit convenient for the sudden appearance…but never the less, they had no weapons on them, and they were surrendering. Rico assailed his communication arrays to talk to his squad…only to find that they were crystal clear. A quick look at the control panel in the center of the room, broken and malfunctioning, confirmed that something indeed had happened in this room.

“Down on the ground, all a’ ya!” Rico shouted, training his weapon in a downward motion to ‘strongly suggest’ cooperation.

Ian kept his previous stance, staring into the room. He did, however, raise his left arm, and its explosive disk projector, to a 45 degree angle, aiming at the ground several feet away, waiting.

All of the standing personnel in the room fell to their knees, hands behind their heads, including the Demons. The female with the old man failed to do so, remaining at the old fella's side.

Rico hesitated a moment before training his weapon in the direction of the only two not cooperating. "I said everyone sugar. I ain't givin' ya another warnin'."

Kagura sighed and watched them, noticing the female. "She might be his aide or something...." she muttered more to herself than anyone else. "Rico, sir. He may have a reason that he can't, he seems to be injured." Kagura pointed out and turned to the old man. "Are you ok?" she asked through the mic.

Autumn frowned behind her face mask. "Dear heart, POWs situation, don’t argue with our squad leader over general communication," Autumn said through a private link to Kagura. "We want them to stay surrendered and not stab us in the back cuz they think we're weak."

"You have to extend trust to expect it..."Kagura said to Autumn through the same link. "I wasn't arguing merely providing a different point of view on it."

"We understand you guys are hurting, but unless you're holding your damn guts in, put the hands up. You think I haven't seen some dirty fuck pull a gun when he's grabbing a wound?" Ian spoke over the loudspeaker, raising his disk projector ever so slightly.

“…alright boys, recon the area. Check them all, I’m not in the mood for tricks.” Rico ordered, waving hand gestures to communicate the actions before turning his head to Ian. “Cadet, you got some medical experience, right?”

"Don't worry 'bout getting jumped" Trey spoke up for the first time in a while. "I got my eye on the corridor, so nothing funny should show up from there"

Autumn sent Rico a quick text message, "Sergeant, I've got 1 fucked arm. I'll provide cover in case."

Kagura looked at them and sighed a bit and visually swept the area and turned to cover the area behind them. Her arms ached from being pulled on but she'd survive it. "Sir, I have basic medical training as well maybe I can help but I'm not sure how in the armor." She sent to Rico.

Rico winced a bit as he watched the older man crumple, breaking into a jog as he motioned for Ian to follow. "Alright...Gyles, Deon, give Kagura some help. Deal with the wounded. Cadet, let's get the geezer back to a chatty condition. I wanna know what the fuck's goin' on," Rico said through his loudspeaker, so that the occupants of the room were clear with the orders. Rico stopped a few feet away from them, waving for the brunette to gain her attention. "startin' with you, sugar. I want some answers."

---

Kagura nodded and went over to them, putting her rifle up to show she wasn't going to hurt them and began to run scans of their vitals and condition as well as general assessment of injuries. "This might take a while to do." She said and sighed, seeing the injuries. "I'm going to have to lose my armor to treat these you two." Kagura said in a brisk tone as she began to disengage the armor locks and open it up to step out of. In a few moments, she pulled the helmet off, the sheen of violet hair catching the lighting as she slid from the warhawk, wearing the pilot’s body suit. Taking a moment, she checked the extras she'd brought along just in case of this, a small medical kit. "Alright.." Kagura said and approached the woman, pulling out extraction tools. "It's going to hurt." she said.

The female Nepleslian knelt down and began to carefully remove the shrapnel from the woman's side, deeming that to be the more severely injury. "Gyles." she said and paused to toss him a bandage roll. "wrap that around the mans' laceration to stop the bleeding while I do this."

Kagura continued to work on extracting the shrapnel from the other woman carefully, she'd take a few minutes to fix that, working methodically but quickly. "ARe you injured anywhere else?" she asked, to everyone else; Kagura's figure was showing by how the pilot bodysuit hugged her curves as she knelt down to tend to the wounds.

"I-... I think Silas n' me were tha' only ones hit." answered the female Kagura was working on.

"I know." Kagura said. "I mean are you hurt anywhere else besides the shrapnel?"

"I think m'fine... Thank ya'..." the Female breathed heavily.

---

Ian followed Rico up, his canister rifle now ready to fire against his should, although it was pointed to the ground. He stared at the trembling brunette for a moment, and then headed over to the older man. "How are you injured, where is the injury, and how long have you been wounded?" Ian asked, his voice containing more than a slight hint of malice. The massive rifle he carried helped nothing.

Autumn kept her eyes and rifle across the room looking for errant movement as she looked from person to person.

The woman began to tremble as she lowered a hand and pointed to herself with a questioning look on her face. "M-me..?" She shakily replied.

“Stand up and identify yourself an’ your affiliation,” Rico said, shouldering his SIAR but keeping it well within reaching distance none-the-less. “Trey, the communication lines are free again. Report to command for me, and find out where Delta is.”

The woman slowly and shakily got up on one leg, and then got up on the other. "M-my, name is Ellen Oswald, I am formerly Red Star Army pers-..." She stuttered for a moment as she began to tear up, obviously scared. "Personel... I... I am a communications officer on the RSS Vidermok."

"The little bastards shot me a minute before you came in. It went in my leg..." comfirmed the old man, putting a hand on his thigh. He looked up at Rico, "Oh, you're friends from Delta completed their objective, with flying colors I might add..."

"What's that supposed to mean, old man?" Rico said with a tone of aggression; apparently he took that particular line the wrong way.

The old man chuckled lightly as he tired looked at Rico. "Did you like that map we sent you? Was it helpful?" The geezer flashed a white-toothed grin.

---

Ian knelt down, looking at the wound. "Lay down. I need to get a good look at your leg. Did the bullet go straight through?"

"Eh, it went right through... hurt's the bitch..." Jeffery angrily responded to Ian.

Ian nodded in his armor. "Alright, makes things easier." He turned, shooting a look to the female marine working away on the two other wounded. "Kagura! Throw me some gauze."

Ian looked down to the Admiral again. "Oh, and a knife!"

Kagura nodded and took the one she had and threw to Ian. "There ya go," she said and nodded to the girl. "Sorry Ian I'm using it to help get these pieces out." she said and finished up with extraction and began to cleanse her wounds and went to bandage her up. "Just try to take it easy and don't reopen the wounds." Kagura said and moved on to the other man and checked his laceration. "how'd you get this?" she asked

"O-..." Silas grunted as he tried to respond to Kagura, "One of those god damned monitors blew up on me, I caught some glass in the arm..."

"Ouch." she said and began to check the cut to see if she could fish the glass out of it.

Ian caught the gauze, but didn't do anything but slowly lift the wounded leg off the ground. He did this without alerting the patient, however. He looked around the room. "Anyone got a blade or something? Might need a lighter, too."

"ARGH, GOD DAMMIT, I'M AN OLD FUCKING MAN, LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU'RE DOING THAT!!!" roared Jeffery as he was caught off guard by Ian's movement. Apparently the slow movement was enough to cause pain.

"I have a VBCS-01A, Sir," Autumn replied to Ian thoughtfully. As she tried to remember if she had a boot knife on her.

"Hmm.. I might have a boot knife on me, I have to get out of my armor to get it," Autumn replied as she disengaged her power armor, haphazardly slinging her SIAR.

"Shut up, Reddie." Was Ian's only response.

"'Shut up, Reddie'? I oughta kick your ass!" Jeffery angrily shot back.

"Shut up, Reddie." Ian repeated.

Kagura sighed. "Ian, stop harassing the poor man and just fix his injury." She said. Man you suck as a medic.

"Hurry up, Autumn. We don't wanna get jumped with you in your skivvies." Ian spoke, shooting a look to the door.

Autumn grinned as she hopped out of her power armor as soon as it opened, her left arm hung oddly at her side as she knelt down and reached into her right boot with her right hand and removed the blade. She hurried over to Ian and Coleman, her boots softly thudding against the deck and causing her dogtags to cling together against her chest. It seemed that despite her previous comment about piloting her armor naked- she was in fact wearing spandex black shorts and a white undershirt.

In a few short minutes, Kagura extracted the glass and began to stitch the man's wound with sterilized thread and a small needle. "We're almost done Silas...just be patient." she offered the man a comforting smile. She glanced to the admiral for a second. "By the way, do you know what happened to the turrets in that passage? They just suddenly seemed to turn off, was that your doing?"

The injured man Kagura was tending raised his hand, "That was me... I cut them off just at the right time." He smiled back at her weakly.

Ian held his hand out for the blade, taking a brief moment to look over Autumn, smiling to himself slightly behind his helmet.

"Sorry, I don't have a lighter on me." Autumn placed the knife carefully in Ian's hand. She lightly touched her very bruised left arm thoughtfully for a moment before offering both officers a reassuring smile and jogging back to her Warhawk.

---

It took a moment for the old man’s words to register and run through Rico’s mind. When they finally connected, the Sergeant lightened up a bit. “…alright. Cadet McCain here will help you with your leg. Ma’am,” Rico turned back to the newly-introduced Ellen, his tone much less hostile as he addressed her once more. “If you’re a Red, I wouldn’t suggest pullin’ any funny shit now. I still want some answers. Who are you, who is he…” Rico shot a nod towards the old geezer Ian was working on, before waving a broad armored hand across the rest of the room.. “…and who are they?”

"I've told you, I'm Ellen Oswald, a communications officer and we're the bridge crew of the RSS Vidermok." said Ellen, her tone more relaxed now. "That 'old man' you're talking to is Grand Admiral Jeffery Welson Coleman, more commonly know as the 'Red Admiral'.

"An' what's all this?" Rico motioned to the spray-painted uniforms, the green paint showing quite plainly above the fabrics below them. "Looks like ya wanted our attention. Now ya got it."

"Shortly after the space battle was lost, Grand Admiral Coleman came to the conclusion to save as many lives as he could and defected. He knew that the ground battle would take the lives of thousands, and to avoid that, he organized this little coup to try and save his men and women." Ellen explained to Rico.

After the fight in the hall Deon was a little relieved to see the calm of sorts in a control room. Not that it stopped him from taking up a position by the door to keep an eye on things outside. Though Ellen's comment made him look back for a moment. "Admiral? Well thanks for the map sir, though you know not starting the fight in the first place might have saved a few more. Just one other question, got an escape plan that doesn't involve spraypaint?"

“Defects, huh…gimme a sec.” Rico spoke softly as he began compiling a transmission to the NSS Alliance. This took a moment or two to reach to the DD4, and another equally short moment to receive an answer as he ignored the rest of the rabble happening nearby.. Rico turned back to Ellen and spoke again. “Alright. We’re takin’ you and the rest a’ ya’ with us. We got orders to protect ya, so I’d appreciate some cooperation if ya don’t mind, gorgeous.” Rico remained silent at the end of his statement, awaiting an answer.

Ellen exhaled deeply while putting a hand on her chest. "Oh... that's a relief..."

"I'll take that as a yes. We'll be meetin' up with Delta in the northeast submarine pen, and move to our ship through an LHA transport. We're movin' out in fifteen, folks," Rico said a bit louder as he shouldered his SIAR. "So be ready to move the wounded. Should have a clear passage there by then."

The passageways and corridors of the former Red installation were indeed clear by the time the wounded defectors were tended to stable conditions. Green occupation forces continued to scour the hallways and room of the base, cleaning up remaining pockets of resistance as they went about their own missions. For the most part, the battle here had been won; one less anti-aircraft facility plaguing space-bound ships.

Delta was quick to meet up with Epsilon half-way to the north-eastern submarine pen and assist in moving the wounded along the intended pathway. The Red defectors were very cooperative, and made no fuss as they were corralled onto the awaiting LHA-class vessel and ferried up towards the stars towards the NSS Alliance.

Even as they left, the remaining Reds in the underwater installation continued to fight, even when hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. They fought despite this, until their last man was shot down as he attempted a strafe between a set of large industrial crates in a southeastern storage bay. Afterwards, the base was sacked, evacuated and detonated, leaving little more than a mess of rubble and a wide crater at the bottom of the Kennewesian ocean.