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RP [Die Screaming] A red death.

Though her wary expression seemed to sour as they hadn't dusted off just as they had managed to finally board. Muttering curses to herself, she joined the rest of the squad once everyone had finally assembled and began boarding. Readying herself to get awkwardly aboard, Carina saw a coffee-skinned hand reach down toward her. Looking up, the medic's previous scowl turned into an appreciative grin. Slinging her rifle over her other shoulder allowing her to clasp his hand, and to scoot herself in.

"'ey! Thanks there, Lulu! I uh, appreciate it man!" it followed with a good-natured chuckle that may have fallen on deaf ears over the Corona's whine.

She had expected a simple, and easy assignment. Instead, it seemed fate had dropped her into a tiny slice of hell. Well, she had gotten herself into this fine shitshow of a mess. And it wouldn't stop her from attempting to get out of it.
 
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Command Center --> Airfield

"I hate to say it, Ma'am, but we're not leaving until the boss gets back here. I'll do my best to help keep the ship safe, but I suggest you get the crew and your marines ready for a fight." Tobias said, matter-of-factly. Outwardly, there was little sign of hesitation in the young operator, with only a quick glance back towards the command center belying his worry.

Tobias made his way into a covered position and began to activate the combat-spec courier drones. Armed with a variety of weapons, with everything from quad-mounted assault rifles to 105mm railguns. The drones began to spread out, forming a perimeter around the gunship and activating their barrier shields, the facings interlocking to create a sort of pseudo-fortifications. "This ought to help some." He said aloud, to no one in particular.
 
Airfield, Corona - Everyone~

The short-stacked sergeant flinched, a curse clearly forming but simply instead uttering a defeated "we're committed then".

With the decision made, The squad was ordered out of the gunship and a cybernetic palm slapped twice on the fuselage, A questioning glance from the pilot before a casual nod sealed their fate. By the time the second and last courier had deployed from its pod, The pilot nodded and took off, clearing low under the shield and away from the airfield.

It flew off to the southeast and didn't turn back...

"Airfields fucked and too open." Their squad leader declared, the commonly shared proximity net amplifying her high-pitched voice even for Tobias before she placed a hand on Carinas back and without warning pushed the younger medic towards the base of the hillfort and wordlessly expected the rest of the team to follow as all leaders did.

Hillfort - Everyone

Nobody so much as blanched at the marines as they re-entered the hillforts perimeter. The controlled chaos of the location was settling as men found bunkers, trenches, and fortified positions to take cover in as the highest of emplaced weapons opened up to the north at targets only they could currently see; The impacts of automatic grenade launchers, guided missiles, and heavy emplaced weapons sounding a lot closer than any of the team might have expected to hear.

A shirtless red wearing nothing but brown fatigue pants, combat webbing over his bare chest, and a scarf around his waist that revealed in the breeze a silver sergeants epaulets appraised the marines wearily and opened his mouth to speak. He was drowned out by the whine and sound of jetwash as two round crooked demon powered armors took off to the skies nearby and soared into contact somewhere below.

"I said your blacks took up at the level trenches!" He repeated after the distant powered armor was far enough away to be heard, Pointing down a well-worn mud and clay path lined with floorboards that led down the hillfort and to the north where several men were already running down.

The level trenches were exactly what they seemed when the team arrived. Trench lines level with the bottom of the hillfort and facing towards the north and off to the side of the airfield; They were filled with the swarming mass of red and brown fatigued soldiers and blood-red humanoid robots as cans full of munitions were passed down and humanoid drones scampered out of the trenches with concertina wire, mines, cables, and various objects to place.

Since the moment they left the corona the team with Tobias in tow had barely time to think as they were headed from place to place until finally, they arrived at an earthwork and stone bunker and were rushed inside.

The bunker was a single-story affair with a long slit that looked off into a clearing to the north almost a kilometer out and overlooked the airfield. Inside, three reds huddled around a splayed open crate and hastily arrayed power cells and magazines in neat rows on nearby berms as a strange legged gynoid, the IPG operator locust peered out into the clearing with barely a glance behind her at the marines.

To her left, a dirt ramp lead out of the bunker and into the clearing where another operator, apples, slid down and hurried past the marines without a word and into the trench lines.

The bunker was large enough to fit all the marines and even the couriers and was quickly put into order as Minnie practically sat Carina down with the three reds and ordered her to make some room, we're gonna need it with a corner of the bunker.

To the rest, she simply ordered them on the line. Glancing casually at tobias, his two couriers, and the other operator locust wordlessly with a noncommittal gaze as if she expected little from them.

Voices and excited shouts began as hundreds of meters away at the end of the clearing red and brown shapes began to break from the treeline in a staccato of gunfire. A large cargo-5 truck even cut from the clearing with men clambering up and onto it in an attempt to escape. The three dozen men made it almost halfway before an eerie calm took over as for a brief moment all chatter in the trenches ceased and even the bombardment above paused for just long enough for Locust to casually declare in a nonplussed tone that sealed the fleeing men's fate that as easily as she had said the words:

"They won't make it."

A hundred meters to the north of the fleeing men a single figure broke the cover of the treeline. In a distinguished armor of dulled gold and rich violet raised a rifle and took aim.

"Get ready! Take positions!" Minnie shouted and was echoed by many of the red NCOs at the same time as every non commissioned officer 6th sense took over.

And then the treeline erupted with weapons fire from the north and the fleeing men ceased to exist under an oppressive salvo of energy and aether weapons fire...
 

Hillfort

If it weren't for all the dangerous hubbub going on around them then Lupin's panting would have been heard as the squad reached the bunker, the weight of all his gear was getting to the spry young lad but not a single complaint was heard as he followed along with Minnie and the others like a good little duckling. His shoulders were definitely more slumped than usual though but that was hardly the focus of what was going on, and after a moment Lupin forced his spine to straighten out as his plated chest rose and fell with each breath.

When told to get set-up of course Lupin's mind immediately went to the slit in their protective little bunker... the slit that would see a lot of action the moment larger guns started firing out of it, it'd be hard to keep his rifle steady if the thing he was stabilizing it on was being peppered with constant gunfire - and so Private Kennedy's helmet pivoted around thoughtfully, even peeking back out the door they had just entered through~

"I~..." he started speaking, but took a second to breathe some more and further oxygenate his blood before attempting again, this time actually turning on his helmet's headset.

"Private Kennedyl here, I'm going to set up just outside... don't worry about me I'll keh- keep my head down~" Lou panted out before backtracking a few meters. For someone so green and racked by nerves he wasted little time acting on his words, Lupin resting his M3 against the side of the trench and removing the bag from his back, quickly pressing his back into the wall of the trench in a low squat and moving the bag to his lap to not take up too much of the available space. He tried for the bag's zipper though shaking hands betrayed him, causing the marksman to growl beneath his breath and ball them into fists, quickly slamming his hands into the trench-wall behind his back to force them into submission before continuing.

Acting mostly on muscle memory Lupin quickly relocated the contents of the bag, strapping a belt of magazines onto his free hip, threading the shrouded suppressor onto his rifle and stuffing the black 5-shot revolver into his rig before the bag was discarded off to the side. DSR01 in-hand, Lupin leant further forwards onto the slope and was about to poke his head over the precipice when all the hairs on the back of his head stood on end... it took Lupin a moment to realize why.

...Yeah no, bad idea, Lulu wasn't dumb enough to do that.

Instead he took a moment to unsheathe the knife he'd been gifted, flipping it over, using the toothed backside to cut a jagged peep-hole into a plank making up the rim of the trench and pushing aside some debris before replacing the knife in its sheath. It wasn't some comical thing that Lupin would poke his rifle and half his body through but hopefully it'd work for his more realistic intention, the unblooded sniper wrapping the rifle's sling around his bulkier-plated arm and bracing that same elbow onto the knee that was lifted part-way up the slope.

Even now among the sea of red and brown the NSMC sniper managed to not draw too much attention, steadily feeding a magazine into his rifle and chambering a round before attempting to lower his face onto the stock, finding that the helmet prevented him from obtaining a proper cheek-weld.

So in one smooth motion it was discarded to sit next to his M3, revealing Lupin's sweat-slick face and matted hair that he quickly brushed back with one hand before lowering his face to the rifle once more, attempting to slow his breath and steady his aim enough to properly see what was going on beyond no-man's land, camouflaged suppressor poking past the trench the only hint anyone was even there.
 
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The Hillfort-Airfield

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Celldweller - Into the Void (Official Lyric Video)

Celldweller continues to explore the edges of electronic-rock in the expansive universe of his upcoming 5th studio album Satellites, with the new single "Int...
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L.Fekete

The order came, he knew they weren't going to leave. hearing the high pitched orders barked out by his squad leader solidified his speculation. Instead of worrying. He took a breath keeping his M33 tight atop his head, checking the magazine of his M3 before keeping pace with the squad, now ignoring his feelings about the Reds.

Trenchline-

As he made his way to the muddy trench line, his boots sinking into the mud slightly with each step. Staying on the line, Louis stowed his pack replacing his cap for a helmet. Taking a deep breath once more. It was no different than gang wars back home. On the exhale he chuckled to himself noting the amount of explosives he knew he had to work with. Attaching additional ammunition to his vest as well as several grenades and shape charges to a dump pouch on his belt. Louis knew he might not make it. Especially hearing the tall spook call out the deaths of the reds and their technical in the treeline. Pressing his PTT system to hail his team, Louis took a breath first. "Sargeant, this is Private Fekete. we have enough explosives to level at least the hillfort. Not saying I will. But since these damned squids want to play, give the order and I'll send them to whatever bullshit maker they believe in." Letting go of the switch he kept his pack close to his knees and rested into one of the innumerable shooting positions on the main trench line looking out against the imminent kuvexian threat.
 
Outside the Bunker

As the marines filed into the bunker, Sebastian began to deploy his shield drones and arranged 3 rectangular shield walls around him in preparation.

The ID-SOL grinned as the enemy came into range. "All units enjoy the fire works!" He called as he locked into place and fired both of his Fusion Mortars in a creeping barrage across their lines. Following up the attack, Sebastain launched a full salvo mini missiles into the enemy's line.

"Come on you skinny bastards! Get some!!!" He yelled as his weapons belting out their report.
 
Hillfort

Carina's state of mind had switched to mildly affable as she clambered aboard the gunship, to something akin to: 'Oh holy fuckin' god I'mma fucking die!' screeched in the back of her mind. Both from running toward the enemy instead of away. That and the damned armor, and full kit she bore tested her endurance as she scooted along with the rest of her squad. Her rifle, the trusty, and standard-issued M3 Rifle in hand, the barrel adorning the weapon being the happy medium between the different configurations. It'd allow her some reach, as well as being short enough to not become too much of a hindrance. By the time she'd gotten there, her tanned cheeks red and she sucked in lungfuls of air for the first few seconds.

Crouching down among her comrades, Carina wheezed once and went tightlipped as she saw the flashing glow and discharge of high-energy weapons. Their thunderous crack resonating in her skull as the bright light seemed to burn its way into her vision. The poor bastards who'd tried to make a break for it fell to those weapons. She'd only ever shot at cans, bottles, the odd and feared Nepleslian Sewer Rat, and occasionally the paper targets one could seem to find at virtually any convenience store on Nepleslia and within her territories.

She'd grown up around and had been familiar with guns and her beloved butterfly knife from the age of six to now. The young medic did a quick check of the weapon. It was more as a physical reminder she should keep to the present and not drift off to those hazy days in Nexim City on Kennewes or Los Apagos on the Nepleslian home world. The stiff medical kit slung over her shoulder caused a bit of discomfort as she readied her weapon. All hell was about to break loose, and she was the gal with the drugs, moxie, and Hypolathe to suture, mend, cauterize or cut off the poor bastard's limb if need be. And she prayed it wouldn't be needed today.
 
Trenches - Everyone.

The fleeing men fell in seconds. Purple-black aetheric fire, white hot flashes of energy fire, and even the brief flight of a high-speed rocket of some kind cut down the men first and literally cartwheeled the massive five-ton truck from the back to land upside down, the occupants that weren't immediately shredded before hand thrown in all directions to meet a delayed fate when the oncoming fire caught up to them.

The trenches were silent from the reds as the mini-slaughter commenced. Those closest to lupin and Sebastian outside the trenches had been cheering on and encouraging their comrades to simply hurry and go faster! Now stood stock silent and peered through earthen hillworks and bunkers in silent mourning for the dead.

Then the screaming started. Not the screams of the dead or dying but those of men possessed by sheer uncontrollable rage. The brown and red uniformed men roared insults and incoherent screams louder than even the ongoing detonations against the overhead shield as each man drew the courage required to face their oncoming foe. Sebastian had not been the first to fire but his mortars joined the heavy crew served weapons of automatic grenade launchers, heavy machineguns, mortars, and even some early small-arms fire into the treeline as the first dozen kuvexian troops finally saw past their kills and turned or backpedaled too late.

More than a few munitions landed short but enough struck home in the dense treeline that more men than had been witnessed before flew out of the treeline in ragdoll like motions as explosives struck, Or ran to cover as a tree thicker than their torso was simply cut in half only for the soldier to find the same fate. When all was said and done the carnage began to obscure as smoke and dust wafted and thrown smoke grenades covered the entire three hundred meters of the treeline. More than a few reds cursing as that much space getting covered with smoke compared to the munitions being targeted at only a small section foreshadowed to just how many men must have been at the ready before the first units broke cover to engage the fleeing reds.

Inside the bunker following the first exchange, A firm hand shoved Carina down and out from viewing the attack before it finished. Her sergeant practically dragging her to sit beside the two equally young reds who were clutching red-manufactured versions of the M2 assault rifles with their sizeable pile of magazines luckily compatible with the marines M3s.

"Stay down." The sergeant ordered with a tone of finality. "Let the others fight, your job is to see to them when they can't anymore, private. Everythings going to be alright in the end, If its not alright its not the end so just ignore everything but your training and remember to breathe. We'll take care of the rest."

Regardless of the words not being for them, the two reds seemed to take solace in the words meant for Carina and nodded towards the young medic. Surrounded by Golem armored NSMC marines unlike their simple uniforms and armored vests and helmets the marines looked all the world like shock-troops from hell and drew strength from their presence.

"I'm Jax, This here's my bud Lucas. We never thought we'd end up fighting alongside greens on this humid rock." The two boys seemed a rare breed of youth among a group known for their sizeable army of clones and rapidly-grown soldiers and fighting stock. As if noticing the 309th insignia on Carinas breastplate the second red, Lucas, nudged his comrade and gestured towards the young medic with a question forming that never came as the shooting started.

While the two boys had been greeting their people's former enemies the rest of the team had time to appraise the situation. Ahead of them the smoke had begun to thin and drift with the wind and revealed a gruesome sight. The entire treeline in its greens and browns and blues now had for every meter across specks of gold and purple as silhouettes ran from cover to cover and took up positions as what must have been an entire company strength of kuvexian troops took position now visible.

The smoke never fully dissipated before speakers inside each bunker and along the trench started relaying orders from an unseen officer. Sergeants echoed the order before the voice even finished the order.

"Open Fire!"

The combined arms of hundreds of red and brown clad soldiers opened up in a depressing barrage before the kuevxians could finish their base of fire. From their positions inside the bunker Tobias and the other operator, Locust received a simple order on their shared net from Duece with a rather lazy tone as if deep in the command center she had grown bored of the whole situation.

"Play with the reds a little longer and buy me about eight more minutes. Big-boy in here is being stubborn about leaving his fodder behind."

Any further message never came but would be cut off by minnies next orders if it did.

"Lopin!" She called over the shared net. "Targets of opportunity until they start to push. When they do, and trust me they will if they don't want to keep getting hammered until the reds run out of ammo; keep as many of their heads down as you can and wound if you can get away with it we want them occupied dragging their wounded off the line and not in our face!"

"Sebastian! Keep an eye out for any powered armor frames. Looks like the reds are throwing most of their at the kuvies already on the airfield to keep them from damaging the strip and any of its craft landing and taking off. If you can kill them at range, do so. But don't take off yet! We don't know what else the kuvies have and I'm not risking you in the open against whatever they have until i see some red-suits closer to home."

To those in the bunker she gestured towards Louis with an equally simple order.

"Keep on the line with me but get ready to leave a trail if we need to bug out. I want to delay anyone who breaches the trench behind us for as long as we can. "

To the two operators she glanced first at Tobias and the two, large couriers barely fitting in the bunker as it was. Tobias would knew she had no authority to order him or Locust around but even with the Golem armors helmet and mask obscuring her the unspoken question was there.

Are you going to use those things or just block the door?

Locust, on the other hand, lowered herself to tobias' level on her cybernetic legs as the sergeant braced to fire from the lip of the bunker and spoke just quietly enough for him and him alone to hear.

"Take her PMOPE if she drops. You'll need the firepower more, Valentines a pacifist and wont actually do more than shoot over their heads with it." The operators tone was cold as ice and was clearly anything other than a joke as she readied her SPAID on the line as well.

The first reds had only just begun reloading when the kuvexians fired back. The bunker shook and all its occupants took cover as a mass of aetheric and energy weapons fire cut into the trench line. Those outside the bunker like Lopin and Sebastian were misfortunate enough to see the slower red soldiers simply slump over as the lack of force but sheer power of the enemy aether and energy fire simply burned holes through them like a blowtorch through butter.

When firing dulled enough for anyone to look over hundreds of kuvexian mercenaries were advancing from the treeline and into the nearest craters, boulders, rocks, and cover. They were still several hundred meters away but every step they took was backed with immense firepower covering their advance as just as many in the treeline sought to suppress the reds heavy weapons.

The speakers blared again and sergeants echoed the order once more.

" OPEN FIRE! "
 
Trench, Lulu's Loophole

"Copy that Sergeant, will do, over," Lupin barked into the helmet that sat next to him, the armoured thing's polarized visor reflecting the marksman's focused features back at him as the most minute adjustment of his rifle's angle caused his scope to sweep across the sight of the advancing sea of golden armour.

"Fuck~" he muttered through gritted teeth, head rising up from his rifle's stock in disbelief at the sight that lay before them. He grew up in Funky City you see, gunfire was nothing new but usually it was wads of lead being thrown about, not wads of super-heated energy that left behind charred hunks of what was formerly a person, Lupin's bottom lip quivering as he stared wide-eyed at the first aetheric casualty he'd ever seen.

"...fuck~" the marksman muttered again, frozen and finding it hard to tear himself away from the burnt mass of what used to be a Red autorifleman, managing to shake himself free from the sight of whatever the fuck he'd decide to call that later... he honestly didn't know how long he'd been stood there, only that it was time wasted. Forcing it to the back of his mind, Lupin lowered his face to his rifle once more and held its rubber butt firmly against his shoulder as the high-power optic swept through the enemy's ranks.

Then he saw it, a merc setting up a heavy-looking autocannon on some waist-high cover, so the young half-Hanyan tightened his brow as he concentrated on further steadying his rifle's crosshairs with a slow exhale. Even if his hearing wasn't trying desperately to recover from the constant retort of gunfire than his shot would have sounded pathetic against all the automatic gunfire as the burning gasses were trapped by the rifle's suppressor, recoil kicking back into Lupin's shoulder as the 150 grain slug was sent in the opposite direction.

...Except he never saw it impact the targeted merc's abdomen?

Lupin frowned until he saw the autocannon-wielding tango look back, everything about his body-language screamed distress, so the marksman moved his infrared-enabled scope a few hairs to reveal another merc rolling around gripping what was left of their left leg.

Well that worked too he supposed.

Lupin racked his rifle's bolt and fiddled with the dials of his rifle's scope briefly, supposing maybe it'd been jostled around at some point, it wasn't completely out of the question.

With his rifle now correctly zeroed for the current distance Lupin squeezed the trigger again, this bullet caving in the lower back of his intended first target's heavy chestpiece and most likely shattering his spine in a few places before the victim fell out of sight behind his waist-high cover.

Now he just need to figure out what the hell might distinguish mercenaries with some degree of leadership over the others from your rank-and-file fodder, observant amber eyes panning across what he could see from this position - he'd worry about the implications of what he'd just done later.
 
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Carina's eyes had gone wide as a doe's as she watched some of the carnage unfold. Shouts, screams, gunfire versus aetheric fury. The explosions and ragdolling bodies flew through the air. Some, she could just barely make out was nothing more than limbs and charred bits of meat. It felt as if an icy finger of death trailed intimately down her spine. The young Sanroma's brutal, hypnotic reverie had been interrupted as a hand clamped down on her shoulder. Instinctively, Carina gripped the rifle tighter, ready to swing before the familiar voice of their pint-sized sergeant tickled her ears. Mutely, she nodded her head furiously as she was ducked in cover. With a ragged, but cleansing breath, her eyes swept to the side toward the pair of young men in red fatigues and vests.

Before she could say much of anything to the strapping young lads, the shooting had begun. With a gulp, Carina braced herself, ready to jump into action if necessary. The staccato report of massed rifle fire and the cracking thunderclap of discharged energy weapons violated her ears. Orders came in, the voice crackling over speakers, the sergeants shouting them out as needed. These poor bastards were in naught but armored vests, old as dirt rifles and minimal powered armor support. The Reds, it seemed cared little for their men. Fodder, nothing more, nothing less. A mass of Nepleslian meat shields firing downrange at a superior enemy likely in both training and equipment. But what this enemy didn't know was, Red or Green, Nepleslians were tough, tenacious bastards when pressed with a streak of street-smarts and underhandedness.

Then the bunker rumbled. Dust, debris, both concrete, and dirt was churned up as the Kuvexians returned fire. All hell was breaking loose.

She just hoped the Nepleslians stubbornness would shine through in this battle.
 
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-trenchline-

Hearing the report of both familiar machinegun fire and now, the sudden snap of aether fire. Attaching an explosive charge to the trench line, Louis prepared for the team to fall back, sprinting with his pack, deftly placing charges at 20 ft intervals.each charge sinking into the muddy walls of the trench, the Reds too busy with the enemy to care, Louis couldn't help but grin. Using three charges he secured his pack. connecting each chsrge to one of his remote detonators before returning to the line.

Seeing the golden line move towards their trench. His grin never changing, Louis rested his rifle on a sandbag, as he began to fire quick, accurate bursts. Aiming not for center mass but for the abdomen and pelvic girdle. The first few bursts seemed to have no effect on the heavier armoured Kuvexians. Before several jerked back, that familiar movement, before several would collapse, calling out for help. Waiting to see if the enemy would take the chance to aid their comrades in the hellstorm of Aether and machinegun fire. Seeing one thinner mercenary run out into the open. It wasn't long before several more bursts barked out from his rifle, louis' only focus was on the smell, the smell of mud, gunpowder and aether fire, the smell of battle twirled around his nose as he ensured another kuvexian would fall, before reloading, slipping his empty magazine into his pocket as he returned focus to the line.
 
Trenches/Bunker

Tobias nodded an affirmative to Locust, his helmet hiding a face of consternation. Once again he began to order the drones to support the 'friendly' troops in the trenches, the heavier power-armor grade weaponry provided by the machines beginning to open up on the Kuvexian troops as their shields provided cover for the Nepleslian troops. Tobias watched ammunition counters tick downwards as the drones aimed and fired, one falling under enemy fire.

He made his way over to the firing ports in the bunkers, aiming his rifle out through it and flicking the firing selector to full-auto, and beginning to fire short bursts into the horde of Kuvexians, doing his best to use every tool at his disposal to stem the tide of hostiles.
 
Outside the Bunker

Sebastian smirked as he watched the carnage his Void armor accomplished. "Get some you Kuvie sons of bitches!" He yelled as he pulled out his heavy machine gun, and began laying down heavy fire into the woods.

After receiving his orders from the Sergeant, he replied. "You got it, Boss. Watching for armor." He continued to cut bloody swathes through the advancing lines of enemies. As soon as his fusion launcher was reloaded, two distinctive thumps were heard coming from the ID-SOLs armor as he unleashed another deadly salvo.

He tasked his shield drones to continue protecting him from enemy fire, essentially setting them up to resemble a pill box.

"I'll destroy you all! Even if I have to burn this whole planet down to embers!" He roared as his machine gun and chainguns screamed out their thunderous report.
 
Trench Line - Everyone

The mercenaries may have been guns for hire but were far from their nepleslian counterparts. A steady professional rhythm took place as ever so slowly the gold and purple line advanced. From behind them support gunners the like lupin had engaged once already kept a steady staccato of energy weapons fire on the upper-most trenches where the heavier weapons had started to grow silent with the more bold, brave, or stupid red support crews still keeping up just barely enough firepower to keep the kuvexians from achieving fire superiority.

While their advance was slow, and their fire impressive their aim was anything but off. The reds outside the bunker that could be seen by Lupin and Sebastian caught drastic fire and scores simply slumped as their near useless body armor offered no resistance to a kuvexian energy lance or aetheric rifle. So powerful was even their basic infantryman rifle that when an errant beam cut across the trench line and struck one of the Couriers square in its frontal armor it was a miracle the machine was able to stagger back up as it jerked away just in time to avoid critical damage.


The reds own drones faired not so well. Jimmy combat robots lay strewn about in the dozens as their less than human reflexes left more than their fair share in the open too long to take cover in time while the more modern Steve style robots attempted to fire M2 rifles with missing arms and holes in their armor that would slowly bleed out their vital fluids or burn their electronics.

Most of this was lost to Lupin at least as he kept his eye glued to his scope for his target. Pressed down enough as he was he remained out of sight for now but would no doubt be discovered as the mercs grew ever closer. But his time had come and so had his quarry. Apart from the gold and purple armored mercenaries a kuvexian stood haughty just behind the front lines. His thick golden chestpiece adorn with flecks of gold that from that distance almost looked like medals was second only to the long purple cape and red plume of his helmet. He was casually striding without a care in the world with two heavily armored mercs on his flanks with of all things a sword drawn and held lazily towards the ground that seemed to glow with a faint blue-black light.

Sebastians own quarry was equally important and made even more of an entrance. From the skies a golden meteor hurtled towards earth and slammed down with all the force of the falling heavens. The golden giant slid with one foot forward for almost five meters in the mud and through either skill or luck kept its footing in perfect technique. Fire and even grenades simply glanced off the golden perfection of the armored giant as it turned its tragedy mask that imitated a weeping face so perfect that Sebastian could see no imperfections in the split second it stood before him.

Before with little preparation, the powered armor exploded into action and with incomprehensible speed had already slammed into a nearby bunker to his flank. A massive glaive of some kind cutting through reinforced material as the armor disappeared inside like a hot knife through butter. The explosion out the other side left little imagination as to which direction the slightly smaller PA frame had gone, Luckily it seemed to be coming towards him down the trench line just out of view.

In the bunker things were about as hectic. Being a hard target the structure was subject to oppressive fire and most of the team was forced to stay low as even the lucky shot made its way through the firing lines. Only Locust kept her will to remain upright through either complete disregard for her life or absolute stalwart professionalism. While low, Tobias had enough time to appraise his drones through his brivita armors hud. Both had suffered nominal damage but all the weapons were at least functional if losing ammo fast; As it stood the two couriers would be dry in a matter of minutes.

By the time the fire died down and the others like Tobias and Minnie were able to raise their heads again the mercs were close enough that individual features on their armors could be made at close range. What was worse was when all was said and done and time was found to shoulder weapons their sergeant simply continued to aim at the enemy. From next to carina one of the reds gawked when unlike the android operator next to her who had yet to lay off the trigger the golem armored marine simply held a stalwart pose on the advancing kuvexians. The red looked between Carina and the sergeants back. With some kind of conclusion and without warning his friend an internal struggle had reached some kind of conclusion and the red jolted at Carina, A hand wrapping around the foregrip of her rifle as he attempted to jerk the strap over her head and take control of the weapon.

Even carina could see them close as they were down below. With less than a minute at best before they breached the trenchline, A particularly unlucky group of mercenaries seemed to be making a beeline straight for one of the trench entrances where Louis had placed a pre-emptive charge...
 
Lupin's Loophole - Trenches

The nearing retort of gunfire continued to be forced to the back of Lupin's mind as the young marksman attempted to keep all his attention to what was ahead of him and not what was around him, the adrenaline surging through his veins was making the lad's teeth chatter right up until Lupin clamped his jaw shut tighter, occasional hisses of superheated atmosphere bleeding into his little conical bubble of awareness but his breathing remained steady throughout and his scope as stable as it could considerably be given the circumstances.

Private Kennedy observed the important looking target a little longer, taking the heavy straps that held his decorated chestpiece in place, the air of haughtiness emanating from that body language and of course the way he kept an eye on what those around him were doing.

Even to Lupin's inexperienced peepers it was painfully obvious it all denoted some form of elevated rank.

He breathed in another lung-full of battle-tainted air, pushing past the scents of burnt flesh as well as the metallic scent of both blood and casings alike before the marksman slowly began letting it roll past his thin lips. At the end of his breath he waited a fraction of a second longer, waiting for his target to turn back slightly and expose their less-armoured side before the rifle's trigger reached the end of its pull, Lupin waited to confirm his round had entered through the side of the target's pelvis before he cycled the bolt once more and ejected another spent casing onto the muddy floor with the safety flicked on.

With a huff Lupin finally raised his head away from his current rifle, rolling his neck from side to side before realizing the approaching horde funnily enough looked closer when not peeking through his magnified optic, causing Lupin to quickly snap the small part of his head that had been exposed back into cover behind the parapet. He wasted little time slinging the DSR over his shoulders and slamming the helmet back onto his lil noggin, finding comfort in the electronically-filtered audio as Lupin shouldered his M3 once more and moved a little closer to the bunker's entrance, flicking onto the 2-round burst and letting loose a few well-aimed volleys in the direction of their attackers.

He wanted to tell the others they were being pushed hard but managed to stop himself, it wasn't like they were blind for fucks sake so Lupin focused on putting rounds down-range with his fancy little long barrel and yet another magnified optic.
 
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Dat Bunker

Carina's wide-eyed stare at the blank, slate-grey reinforced concrete wall had been accompanied by salvos of slugthrower fire, energy weapon cracks, and screams. The plucky young medic did as she'd been taught to what had passed as a 'kindly' drill sergeant everyone had called 'Johnny Two-Times' behind his back. He'd made damned sure he got his point across, twice as loud and angry as the others. But he'd spared her some of the frothings at the mouth anger to teach her a little trick. If ever she was frightened, close her eyes, and count to three. It allowed her three seconds of indulging in that fear, before opening them up once more to get shit done, and done right. That was what she had been about to do as her sergeant, the short-stacked Valentine peered over the lip of the bunker.

Even though the fire had begun to wane, she closed her hazel eyes to do just that. Closed, Carina had begun to silently count even as she heard movement. With a jolt, she felt a pressure wrenching at her shoulder. The jangle of her weapon and a sharp tugging sensation. Startled, Carina opened her eyes and looked. One of the young Reds, well, one of the two that had introduced themselves had his hands upon her rifle! With a surprised cry, Carina leaned heavily to her side, a hand gripped tight on the weapon and using her weight as leverage to hold his grabby handed display off. But she wasn't particularly heavy at only fifty-two kilos wet. Instead, it was a stalling measure as her other hand reached toward her belt. Still playing tug'o'war, her hand came up with what appeared to be just two long, rounded and dull pieces of metal clasped together. Holes drilled into them, they didn't look particularly menacing until she flicked her wrist.

The well-oiled pivot and tang pins parted to the glint of polished metal. A slim, sharpened blade flashed, just for a second, on the blade had been engraved the name 'Fukov' in elegant script. The handles flapped around once, coming together as she held them tightly before plunging the blade toward the uppity Red's wrist. That was the great thing about learning medicine. While still new to it, she knew enough to keep a person alive. Or, if need be, make them very dead. In this instance, her medical acumen screamed at her to shift her aim just a little to the right as the blade came down. If she had it right, and by god, she hoped she did, it'd hit a particular spot in his wrist. Right where an artery was located. The name of it escaped her in that jarring few seconds of heated and explosive action. But, she knew it was there and what it'd do to the bastard if punctured.
 
Trench line

L Fékete

Watching the carnage continue, the mercenary forces, seemed like a well oiled machine, much to Louis' dismay. Ducking from several bolts of aether coming his way he cursed noticing the gold and purple now in the trench line with him. "Sergeant, this is Private Fékete, keep your heads down it's going to rain squids." Thankfully his helmet comms still seemed to be in working order, when from his pocket, came a small detonator. As one of the Kuvexian soldiers looked his way, Louis smiled, waving briefly before watching the far trench line become a crater, turning any and everything in it into a pulverized most. The armor only seen in mangled contorted pieces falling from the sky as the enemy ducked in response to the massive blast. Louis chuckled to himself setting his rifle down, before pulling a small roll of tape from the bag at his feet. Attaching the detonator to his arm, for ease of use, consolidating what explosives he had left, whispering to himself as an explosion hit next to the top of the trench line above him."fuck off for five seconds can't you see I'm counting!?" Louis stood up with his rifle in hand firing several bursts before kneeling and returning to his bag. Finishing the count he tied it off, slinging the pack over his shoulder, seeing how the enemy continued to push. Resting his rifle in a small slot once more firing bursts into the closest enemies pushing his sector. One fell as another fired a flurry of aether in his direction, forcing him to duck once more."looks like we pissed them off, damn talk about tour." He chuckled to himself standing back up to once again return fire.
 
Trenches Lou, Lupin, Sebastian.

For a brief second a section of the trench lines went completely quiet as the aftermath of the explosions that funneled through the dugouts like water gushing from a pipe ceased all noise and action. Lou couldn't see his handiwork when the dirt, debris, and smoke kicked up. What he could see and was rarely a sight for a green to be glad for was three reds sliding down the above trench line into his.

Two made it, One simply crumpled into a ragdolling corpse when a spear of energy passed through his chest. It was for the best that none of them could've seen the gruesome wound. The two stared at Lou for a moment And then glanced down the line at his handiwork before wordlessly starting towards the breached section of trenches and the few visible corpses that had been thrown their way.

Even in life and death the spoils of war called to some more than most as with careful and tactical movements one of them men put a round from his M2 into each corpse to ensure their death before quickly swinging his rifle towards one mercenary with the poor grace to have staggered back to his feet before the red put him into the dirt.

Momentarily Lou could see that his section of the trench was clearly cleared enough by his action that some could dane to come down and loot or offer the smallest modicum of breathing room. His options became limited from looting or preparation when behind him the remarkably quiet bunker suddenly erupted with a burst of gunfire.

For Lupin above Lou the wider picture was visible to him. Across the entire trench line purple and gold clad soldiers had breached in key locations and were drawing resources of fire from the reds within taking the pressure off the other advancing troops. More than a few had fallen to his rifle and the closer ones to his M3 before the charges went off giving them some breathing room but it was a lot shorter for the marksman than his fellow below when a certain itch seemed to start at his palms and work its way up his arms and it seemed to feel a lot colder for a brief moment.

His instincts were just barely fast enough as every single sense on high alert working on overdrive drove him beyond all logic to roll from his cover right as the mud, dirt, and rock had a large cylindrical hole cut in it as wide as his arm when a purple beam of energy lanced through where he had been not a moment before.

If he had not kept rolling the second shot would have caught him in his next location. Everything when quiet for him as all other sounds seemed to fade as Lupin took stock and figured out he was not the only marksman on the field and that his shot against the officer had clearly drawn the attention of the other hunter looking to do exactly the same as he had but to the red side. Whats more the other sniper had seen his position exactly but for Lupin the angle of fire left an area just large enough that guess-work would be fatal.


Sebastians ordeals were the most straightforward of all. The Gold armored knight had cut down whatever lay in his path down the trench line without so much as slowing down and what brief images the VOID was able to glance was never enough to get a clear shot as the much smaller and faster armor seemed to wield his glave with proficiency that more than made up for its disadvantage in such close and tight fighting without missing a beat.

When the armor did actually get within his line of fire it charged forward with refined abandon, The aether bleeding off the blade of the glaive simply melting through the trench it was buried in like a blowtorch through butter. The VOIDs secondaries fired with but the briefest of intent but glimmered off a shield when the free hand of the beautiful armor put a hand up before him while still charging onwards and a rippling shield of gold absorbed the plasma fire like it was nothing.

Time to think for Sebastian was short however when only a few dozen yards away the golden night launched into the air and started to plumit towards him, Spinning with the momentum his glaive swung around and around with a coming decapitating blow towards the larger DIoN powered armor.


Bunker - Minnie, Carina, Tobias.

Carinas lunge was prematurely blocked when the second red grabbed her wrist and yanked it into the air, His other hand trying to wrest his comrades own wrist from her rifle strap.

What're you doing?! He demanded of his fellow who ignored him and shouldered him hard enough in the nose that a spray of blood erupted from the break and he managed to free his own knife in time to cut through the leather strap before Carina could act.

For whatever reason he acted, whatever he planned to do and whoever he planned to shoot Carina would have never known. Because one moment he managed to bring the M3 to his should and click the safety off and the next moment Carinas vision was temporarily filled by black and gray metal as from across the bunker the matronly looking IPG operator Locust had launched one of her wicked cybernetic legs out like a raptor and punched the Red in the chest with it, taloned mechanical like claws easily wide enough to grip his entire upper torso sunk into the young mans ribs with much the same cruelty as any predator shows their prey when the claws sink in.

The angle from which the operator seemed to launch herself looked awkward from Tobias' point of view, Who had shamefully missed the possible enemy at their backs. What he could see however when the red was slammed against the solid wall, his ability to scream in pain taken away as the air rushed out of his lungs was the sheer lack of empathy on his fellow operators face that looked not unlike the expression a child bored with ripping the wings off of a fly might have as without a seconds warning raised the SPAID with remarkable strength in one arm and let out a short one-second burst straight into the mans stomach up to his head with a couple bullets striking harmlessly against the solid durrandium of her cybernetics.

He convulsed as the rounds struck him but after that the only movement he made was his body crumpling to the floor when he taloned feet released their grip. For Tobias and Carina, The only ones with time to pay attention the scene lasted only a second longer when Locust, without warning, swung her massive leg over Carinas head and buried the talons of the very same foot into the stunned face of the second Red with sickening strength that left no doubt after she withdrew the attack and stood back to her normal posture that the cavity left in the boys face was untenable.

She had killed them both without hesitation in less than two seconds. Just long enough for the rookie sergeant nearby to wheel and appraise the situation. Minnie's facial expression was unknowable behind the Golem armors mask but the way her head snapped from the long pause on Locust to Carina made the stare at the younger medic clear she wanted to ask if she was alright but was also clearly still trying to process the whole situation that had just happened.

Locust for her part just hefted her SPAID back up on the line without explanation and looked ahead with the same kind smile and relaxed posture she often used with Tobias and the rest of the team that gave more of the impression of a kind and motherly protector than what was clearly an uncaring and sanguine murderer in her element hidden behind that mask.

Over the IPG operators private net, Apples and Cutter took turns clicking their tounges as the two somewhere signaled each other silently between soft and surprised grunts head in the background as they too dealt in their trade.
 
Bunker

Tobias was somewhat shaken by Locust's quick dispatching of the offending reds, but there was little way to tell that through his suit and helmet beside his stance changing. There was no time to contemplate the events that had occurred, as the enemy was almost upon them. He kept firing his rifle until his magazine ran dry, and then ducked down below the walls of the bunker, pulling up the status of the courier drones.

One had run dry of its ammunition, and the other was on its last few rounds. Pulling up the emergency routine he had written for this sort of occasion ahead of time, Tobias deactivated the coolant systems on the drones' reactors, and then set them bounding deep into the ranks of the enemy soldiers. It was just a matter of time now, and he had to get the drones as deep as possible, cause as much of a disruption as he could. With reactors this small, the event wouldn't be a criticality event, but it should still be a hell of a fireworks show, Tobias thought.

The reactors inside the couriers began to heat their housing, and soon the electronics within began to overheat, and the drones became sluggish, slow to respond to commands and evasion algorithms, and the Kuvexian fire cut them down, but it was too late to stop the meltdown. Casings and reactor housings warped and melted, and fusion plasma touched the relatively cold atmosphere of the moon. And then... the flash...
 
Still Dat Bunker

The struggle, however, brief left Carina undoubtedly rattled as she tried to thrust or scrape with the balisong with her wrist locked. The pinko, commie Red asshole continued wrestling with her for possession of the firearm. But, for whatever reason, or happenstance, the rifle left her shoulder with the strap cut. With a little yelp, the young medic teetered to the opposite side as the sudden pulling sensation ceased. In that split second, the rifle in the other Red's hands had her fumbling for her revolver before a spray of crimson suddenly blossomed before her very eyes.

Well, it wasn't too much, but enough that elicited a gasp from her, and a gurgling whatever in the hell it was that came from the now pinned Red. That first death surprised her, yet the second, with the red-clad soldier boy with her rifle in hand only rattled the cage a little as the same chicken-legged looking prosthetic vengefully swept out and brought about his demise as well. With a calming shake of the head, the jittering of her hands slowed to nothing but still, she wore now wore a brief look of puzzlement. As the cyborg-bawker leg swept back to where it had come from, Carina saw its owner, shivered once, and gave the woman a nod.

"'E'Ey... th-thanks there." she had to stop herself from adding the further moniker of 'Chicken Momma' lest she suffers a similar fate or wrathful pecking by god knows what else.
 
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