RP: Die Screaming [Die Screaming] A red death.

Outer trench line
L Fékete.
(I do not own this music, it is used as ambiance.)

The trenchline erupted into a beautiful cacophony of liquified dirt, torn sand bags and what little was left of both kuvexian and reds, unlucky enough to be caught in his explosion. Watching the looting begin slowly after his masterpiece, forced the smile Lou had worn into an annoyed Scowl. After all, the enemy wouldn't wait for such a thing. Not to mention, these men looted like savages, unorganized, no real class to the craft of theivery."You bastards waisting time while the squids take what little you cat loving commies have eh?" He couldn't help but yell into the several reds looting as Louis himself threw a grenade to meet the near by kuvexian troops.

As he fired once again, into the wave of enemies, a thought crossed his mind." I wonder how well it would work, if we used their rifles against 'em? Are there any not broken near by?" The thought stuck in Lou's head as he continued to place his shots carefully knowing ammo would begin to get scarce. Looking up to the snipers nest above him, Lou saw the aether trail leading up to the position. Pressing on his comms he chuckled."hey pretty boy, you dead yet? I hope not, if the squids get ya, those same reds might loot you too!" He erupted in laughter through all of the chaos, keeping a watchful eye on both kuvexians and now the possible threat of greedy Reds.

Trenchline

As the battle raged, a golden combatant made a showy entrance, killed some people and had the audacity to charge at Sebastian. The armor jumped to the air, brandishing it's swords and aiming for his head. He brought an arm up to deflect the blow, which also gave his chainguns an opening to fire as he orientated himself towards the enemy. At the same time, he tasked one of his several shield drones to crash into the Kuvexian armor. At worst it distract him, at best it would knock him off course.

This gold armored imbecile was in for a surprise. Sebastian was not going to die like some Red grunt. He was a full blooded Green ID-SOL. The soldier was going to rip the pilot out of his armor, then rip his spine out his ass.

Trenches
Lopin

Lupin's muddied form lay silent and unmoving on the ground for a short moment, white-knuckled grip on his M3 and the lad's elevated heart-rate the only indications he was not yet a casualty, but with all his scurrying and rolling away from incoming fire it was getting hard to tell where the trench ended and his Golem suit began. He simply... blinked a few times as the assault raged on around him, if his faceplate wasn't always attached then the others around him would have been able to tell his expression currently resembled that of a hooked fish being confused as to why it was no longer in its watery home.

"You're not a pig yet, Kennedy~" his instructor's voice echoed through Lupin's mind, something that had been said a few months back during the first phase of his sniper training.

"So get your sorry ass out of the mud before someone fries your bacon!" was all the lad needed to snap himself out of it, he took a deep breath and then realized the team's other Lou was trying to get his attention. Pretty boy... that was a new one, must have been the hair. So Lupin quickly checked himself over and let that breath roll out in the form of a sight of relief, he didn't think he had been hurt yet, and if there was a bullet in him somewhere he couldn't feel it between the adrenaline and the cold mud caking his armour.

"Kennedy here... I-I'm good but it was a close call," Lupin confirmed, swallowing down hard to keep the nerves at bay and keep his speech clear before continuing.

"Enemy sniper is a decent shot and packing some large-bore aetheric weapon capable of punching through the trenches, I'm going to try and take care of them but keep your head down if you can, over and out," the marksman finished up before falling onto his elbows and opting to crawl through the slush, staying as low as possible to sneak under the channels cut through his cover by the deadly aether.

He popped up a few meters away from his previous position and took a moment to assess the situation as well as rack his brain for some way to track down the enemy marksman, spying half an armoured red corpse with her helmet intact gave the half-Hanyan an idea but by no means was it the best, it was going to be messy and barbaric but he needed a third point of reference to better triangulate where the shots were coming from...

It'd give him some idea, and right now Lupin would take whatever he could get.

Moving low and with haste, Lupin moved to gather the dead woman's upper body, which left a trail of viscera and gore as it detached from what was left of her plasma-seared lower half. He muttered an apology under his breath and told himself this was for the best before moving into position with his back to the enemy once more, not something he liked doing but Lupin needed to do his job.

Carefully he tilted her head forwards and gripped each wrist with one hand while simultaneously pushing his boots into her chest to keep the corpse upright. Blood was mixing with the grime coating his armour but Lupin paid it no mind.

Instead he pushed the corpse up enough for her helmet to poke over the trench line and kept his eyes glue to the polarized visor, ears open to listen for that distinct retort he'd heard snippets of while rolling around as all other sounds faded away.

Trenches - Lupin, Sebastian Lou

The greedy reds paid Lou little mind other than a pause to wonder momentarily what a commie was before shrugging it off. By the time the reds had finished one had an impressive lightweight golden vest under his greatcoat with the kuvexians combat webbing while the other had a sleek and efficient looking silver and violet trimmed rifle with accompanying ammunition and a compact pistol of some kind tucked into his waistband.

Unlike Lou who had kept up the fight their proximity to the fight had gone unmolested and the three reds cut their corpse shopping short when a kuvexian mercenary slipped more than jumped into the muddy trench and gave the reds just enough time to turn his face into a lack thereof when a newly looted aetheric rifle left a cavity the size of a fist through the mercs pale-purple face. With a grin at his fellows the reds began a slow combat pace back the trench and towards Lou until they had reached his position and passed him by with little formality other than to offer casual or strict nods or to flash new loot in the most bragging ways they could before their backs were to him and he was once again alone.

Only for as long as it took for two metal hulks to crash past him, the two Couriers practically racing neck and neck as they neared the trenches entrance and the death-stack of kuvexians Lou could see but not get a firing angle on. The couriers burst into the open field, surprising the douzen off mercs.

Whatever happened Lou was unable to see as a gap in his cognition occurred when the next time he opened his eyes he was looking at the smoke-filled sky and on his back with a pain like he got punched dead square in his chest. Upon rising and looking over the field, a large crater the size of a small bus still full of plasmic flame and fury swirled as a nice and temporary cork to the particular hole he had been guarding in the trenches with heat so strong he could even feel it through his armor.

Nearby Lupin had simular if different luck in his endeavors as his corpse-puppet suddenly exploded a fist-sized hole directly through its shoulder, The force of the shot pushing it off his grip but not before an impressively timed followup shot exploded its pelvis with sadistic precision as the wounds would have maimed a living soldier into a screaming and dying mess.

Lupin however had just enough time after scrambling a glance over the edge to catch the afterglow of an energy trail in a particular section at the far end of the field. The area was undesirable with his naked eye, however. Luckily he had just the optic to rectify that.

Through his scope tempting targets still ran by as a steady stream of mercenaries continued across the field in worrying numbers outside of his concern until he settled upon where he had seen the energy trail. Two corpses lay criss-crossed ontop of one another with the clear back of a small explosive crater creating a nice hide and cover for any marksman as through his scope what could be nothing other than the long barrel of his trade angled slightly to the left enough to fire one single shot somewhere at the hillfort before pausing and scanning again. The shooter was unseen other than their weapon but their cover was luckily paper-thin for someone with a weapon such as lupin.

Not far away and before the detonation of the couriers, two sets of shields burst as the VOIDs chainguns first ruptured the Golden gods protection but not before the shield drone broke from a single short burst of energy erupting from somewhere on the armors gauntlet as a wrist-mounted weapon pierced it effortlessly. Sebastian had little time to think and only react as the enemy readjusted and he could feel more than see the enemy close first within striking range but then roll over the VOIDs back when his death-blow against the shield drone threw his angle but none the less let the enemy practically summersault over the more inexperience SOL.

Through the exterior secondary monoeyes on the VOIDs back Sebastian was able to track the landing and slow, almost theatrical performance as the golden god landed perfectly and turned to face the back of its large foe. With a casual and irritating bow the god nodded forwards ever so slightly in respect before the glaive was in both hands again with the point poised mere inches from the center of the VOIDs spine.

Slowly, Sebastian was unable to turn fast enough and could only watch as with a sadistic killers grace the golden power armor pulled its glaive back in preparation for a spears thrust and killing blow.

Then the two couriers detonated their micro fusion reactors in a massive gaping maw of plasma. Sebastian, his head turned had no time to process the blast as he turned now halfway to face the enemy who had hesitated a lethal moment too long to glance sidelong at the blast and thrust his glaive too late as it cut across now the shoulder of the VOID harmlessly as Nermimum plates resisted the aetheric energy of the glaive in the armors thick center mass.

The VOID now stood directly over the golden god; Its enemy pushing off with its heel as if in slow motion as the adrenaline in the SOLs blood pumped fast enough and hyper-chemicals racing through his brain processed the scene before him in slow motion.

Bunker- Carina, Minnie, Tobias, Locust.

Carinas gratitude fell on deaf ears from the operator as the day turned excruciatingly bright outside with the detonation of the couriers and forced the two operators and the sergeant into cover as the flash-frying heat threated even the brivita and golem armors and their squishy bodies inside.

"Hard targets too big a target." Minnie started to nobody in particular as another gout of suppressive fire raked the bunker and would have forced their heads down anyway before she looked towards the two operators and asked "Situations untenable. How much longer does Duece need?"

While the sergeant waited for an answer a number of reds ran past the bunker's entrance with ducked heads as they moved to exfil to a higher fortification as the kuvexians overwhelmed the lower levels making it apparent to all that their time was truly running short.

Upon any checks over the encrypted IPG net the young operator would receive a casual comment from his superior that she was not only "done" but had been for some time now and was waiting patiently for them where it had all started; At the landing pad the Corona had originally dropped them at with Apples and Cutter and would very much like his "Cute little bottom" and "Locust too if shes had enough fun." to meet up and prepare to exfiltrate.

The older female operator looked at Tobias nonplussed, also privy to the communique and simply rested her head against the wall of the bunker and stared at the ceiling with a silent sigh before looking back down and nodding with a barely perceptible gesture before the comm opened one more time.

"Oh and bring mouse and her kids too if they wont slow us down."

Slowly, Locust glanced over Minnie to loom over Carina with her dead stare for an extended period of time that only seemed to grow in intensity when the younger marine took note with no sign of what the terrifying older operator had running through her head.

Bunker

Carina breathed a short-sighted sigh of relief. The threat to her person had been eliminated. Her uncle Wii may have chided her for a lapse in being able to thoroughly stab the fucker to death. Well, more like her mother, Suku. The young medic made to run a hand through her thick, black hair but only met composite helmet. Damn if she didn't hate wearing the thing. Cupid bow lips formed into thin lines at that. Looking up, Carina saw several Reds, the seemingly largely ill-equipped, and shitty dregs of Nepleslians hoof it. Her gaze roved over the few members of her squad in the crumbling bunker. The Sergeant was busy doing well... Sergeant things and that was when she felt the cold chill of death running an ice-cold finger down her spine.

It drew her eyes over to the huddled group of Operators, spooks, boogeymen, the IPG. The fuckers who'd black bag you as soon as just say hello. As her hazel eyes looked up, Carina saw one of the spooky bastards looking dead at her. And with equally dead eyes. It was enough for her to feel a lump form in her throat. One possible death at the hands of one of the cowards in Red seemingly replaced by the corpse-eyed stare of an IPG Operator. Well, fuck it. Carina's trembling lips formed into a cheeky, dimpled smile. Her heart was thudding like a maddened Francian mammoth with a shard of Francian hellwood up its ass, but she smiled all the same she saved her life after all. Even gave the woman a cheery wave. After that faded away, Carina held up the universal sign for 'Ok', fingers forming the symbol before tearing her own bright-eyed look from the woman to her immediate superior. When times were tough, it paid to be a little ballsy, especially in this sort of shitshow of a life or death situation. Uncle Wii's rules, particularly rule three, fear makes you stupid, nut up and get your wits about you. Because no fucking body else will do it for you.

" 'ey Sarge, tha'fuckin Reds're high tailin' it." fully aware the operator was likely still staring at her. "When we gonna cut tail'n bail outta this concrete tomb? 'cause them gold-plated fucknuts'r gettin' awful close." asked as she practically manhandled her rifle, fully ready to use it if need be. Truth was, Carina was a better shot with the hand cannon on her hip versus the short-barreled rifle readily in hand. Not to mention the stench. Blood, viscera, and the simple fact that the dead treacherous Reds who'd only just earlier introduced themselves had all but voided their bowels. Funny how they never tell you about that last fact in basic or even medical school at SAW. The rank and putrid stench were making her tummy do little gurgling flips as she waited for the short-statured woman to respond.

Trenches -

Sebastian had no time for an expletive as the gold armor was on him. The smaller more nimble frame had the advantage in close quarters, and the enemy pilot knew it...

The ID-SOL did all he could to stay alive during their deadly dance. Fortunately the shield drone was able to throw off the first strike, but then the enemy pilot had the audacity to roll right down Sebastian's back. On top of that, he began to taunt the much larger ID-SOL.

He was starting to get seriously pissed off at this point. Again the VOID caught a lucky break. The explosion threw off the Kuvexian's strike and now Sebastian stood over the little bastard.

As the golden armor began to kick off, Sebastian pressed his advantage. He fired his thrusters and and aimed massive gauntleted fist at the enemy armor. At the same time he let loose with his chainguns once more. He hoped dumping another salvo from the cannons at point blank range, he would finally do some damage to the cocky fucker.

Trench line
L. Fekete

Watching the reds fire on the Kuvexian Merc was indeed impressive. Their weaponry seemed to be powerful. Though the smug looks after they looted the corpse, sent his blood boiling, but the mission came first. Watching the two couriers quickly dart past into the crowd of kuvexian soldiers.before seeing a flash.

Staring up at the sky, his ears rung continuously, drowning out the sounds of combat. Making each report of the reds m2 rifles and the enemies aether based weapons, nothing more than a bass filled thud. In that moment, he could remember his hometown, his fiancee smiling at him the day she said yes the town seemed to disappear with just her face, before his memory flashed to the last day they saw eachother. His fiancee in her officers uniform as she handed back the ring he had given her. Reaching out to take her hand. Is when Louis snapped back into reality, his ears still ringing, now starting to move rolling up to a sitting position his body realizing his breath had been knocked out of his lungs by the sheer force of the explosion. Coughing and wheezing came next. Then the need, the urge to remove the claustrophobic feeling of his helmet at that time. Unclipping the helmet, he tossed it to the side, next to his bag that had also been knocked over, the trench now lined with a mixture of mud, viscera and tattered remains of soldiers from both sides. Coughing hard, he looked around, seeing the massive crater the couriers supposedly made. the heat was almost unbearable, securing his helmet to his waist and the bag over his shoulder, Louis winced slightly."dammit, I knew they were broken." He coughed again now feeling two cracked ribs as he adjusted his pack once more.
Unclipping the helmet from his waist Lou begrudgingly placed it back on his head for comms, despite the constant timing and the pain of his ribs. Lou gritted his teeth hard yelling out over the comms." Sarg' it's looking like a shit storm out here! The kuvvies are coming through the first line. Do we stand by or fall back, How copy?" His words loud but pained coughing occasionally still due to the stench of combat, as well as the injury sustained.

Trenches, Lupin's Gore-Pit

Dickhead was the word that came to mind as Lupin's magnified lens hovered over his rival's protruding barrel, not even an insult really, he was just wondering how the hell he'd forgotten such an obvious fundamental that came with this line of work. He was grateful for it, made the young sniper's job a little easier, but Lupin still put a bit more thought into it than was necessary.

Lupin kept his rifle steady with one hand as the other reached down to grab a solid brass projectile with a steel casing from a pouch on his hip, using the thumb and pointer finger from that same hand to cycle his rifle's bolt back quickly and catch the ejected munition. Showing quite a bit of dexterity to nobody but the corpses around him Lupin pushed the more standard round back down into his rifle's magazine, sliding the steel-cased cartridge he'd cooked up a few weeks back forward into the chamber and then sliding the bolt forwards. Those helmeted, amber eyes never left the lad's target, studying the axis his opponent's rifle pivoted off of to gauge the rifle's full length and where the bastard's head would probably be.

The golden rifle was beginning to swing back towards his position, so while Lupin wanted time to wrap his rifle's sling around his forearm a few times to perfect his stance and improve his cheek-weld it was simply a luxury the lad couldn't afford, so instead Lupin let out a breath and pulled his index finger back until the trigger gave him that satisfying and very positive click.

It was over in a heartbeat. Simply the sensation of Lupin's rifle pushing into his shoulder and confirmation of his kill as a splatter of blue blood from behind the corpses, shortly followed by the golden rifle's barrel tilting upwards, indicated it's owner's newfound lack of life.

"Kennedy here, OpFor marksman is incapacitated... if we're moving I believe we should do it now before someone else grabs their rifle, over," Lupin spoke over comms before cycling his rifle's bolt and taking a shot at one of the many mercs that were getting too close for comfort, moving closer to the bunker before taking another shot, repeating this process until finding himself at the entrance to the bunker with an empty rifle on his back and his M4 in his hands.

Covered in a mix of mud and cruor he was quite a sight to behold, Lupin looking as though he'd been birthed from the trench walls themselves.

Bunker

Tobias began to move towards the exit, signaling his intent with a single gesture to Locust. He then turned his helmeted head back towards Minnie and Carina and spoke aloud. "If you intend to get your marines out, you'd best follow us." He simply said, and began to move towards Duce's position, sending a quick report on the status of the Courier drones, though he suspected that she'd likely been monitoring the drones on her own.

Trenches - Sebastian, Lou

The golden god's speed was clearly what allowed the lighter armor to take on frames the size of the crooked demon that the reds might field or even the VOID that Sebastian had but in such tight confines such as the trenches and with no leverage to get airborne the only direction the kuvexian could pitch away from he SOL was back. With plasmic jetwash the suit flashed back as fast as it could but wasn't nearly fast enough as a hand jutted from the operator just in time to raise a dirrectional barrier shield and catch the point blank salvo of the VOIDs chainguns dead on.

They held just long enough to get a couple meters of breathing room before the golden suit would eventually slam into the earthen trenchworks but it wasn't space that was needed but time. Lost and discarded; The now missing glaive might have seemed to disarm the pilot but for a veteran such as the golden god it wasn't his first time going toe-to-toe with unfavorable odds. Sebastian couldn't see the grin on the pilots face when he took fighting stance that a dozen other pilots had failed against before; None of them knowing or even predicting the sheer point-blank blast of aether that would vent from his gauntlents and wipe away most of the trench-line in the process as the golden gods trump card vented its reserves.

The golden god only hoped there would be a scrap of metal left from the massive and primative frame before him after all was said and done to hang on his wall alongside the hundred other campaign trophies of his dynasty. With a cock of the wrists the golden god mentally prepared to undo the activation locks for an aether-gout directly-

The mercenary never completed the action as he hesitated a fraction of a second too slowly from the obscene posture of the VOID and how uncharacteristic it was. For in its charge Sebastian finally learned the truth about the prank he thought others were pulling on him with his armor when the smallest and breifest flash or red in the form of a micro-second prompt warned of and then corrected a glitch in the armors internal coding. A bug so minor it never registered on the diagnostic but had such an odd result that caused the servo motors in the shoulders to tense and pull a series of cyber-muscles rigid just enough that the arms would pull straight up and lock into a fist with the exception of a single particular finger that made for all the world to see as the VOID "flipped the bird" mid flight with both arms pulling straight up.

With all the cyber muscular strength it could manage and with the jet-propelled force of sebastians charge, the VOID forced a single finger upwards at the most opertune time and directly through the chin and through the soft flesh of the golden gods mouth to scramble the pilots brain. The golden suit impaled on a single finger twitched before the VOID slammed it into the trench wall and buried the top half of the golden armor several feet into the earth until only its legs remained propped up.

When sebastian finally got control over his suits arms again, a particular finger was almost painted in golden zesuaium.

====

A strange feeling seemed to slowly overtake Lou when all was said and done. Things seemed quieter despite the continued ruckus going on and an odd sensation was forming in the right side of his head... and arm... and side... and just about everything on his right side until it seemed to physically weigh down on him and pull him down like physical arms pulling him towards the ground ever so slowly.

A tickle in his ear might have meant a response in his comms but something was nagging him. Within the span of a few heartbeats he had gone from fighting for his life to...

Where was he? The thought seemed to bubble up and repeat itself over and over along with other questions that he seemed unable to hold on to as slowly and against his will the demolitionist sagged against his will until he was laying on his back and staring up at the sky. Strange lights danced as purple and golden light fell from the sky only to stop against a shimmering force while bellow it odd aircraft he couldn't place zoomed all over and flying, twisted orb-like armors of red and brown chased and were chased by golden and silver humanoid armors with angelic grace.

A blackness crept over Lou's vision but not one of the impending dark but a series of shadows that loomed over him.

Bunker- Tobias, Minnie, Lupin, Carina.

"Bout fuckin time!" The sergeant declared when their time had finally come to play the bug-out-boogie. It took only a moment to crack her gear and grab Carina who seemed rightfully out of it and likely a bit shellshocked as she made weird gestures at the spooks before the sergeant practically dragged the other medic towards the exit but stopped short.

Lupin was there, Looking like he had his own hardships that the medic cataloged for a later date for a checkup to make sure that his mental state didn't match his physical and let her PMOPE fall on its sling and free up her other hand. She didn't say so much as word and didn't let the sniper get one in edge wise either as with her strong arm she literally shoved the sniper and then Carina ahead of them and after the spooks.

She only turned around briefly to respond to Louis when the tide of other fleeing bodies forced her onwards and her response got cut out. She luckily made it down stream and kept up with the team long enough to collect Sebastian whose suit garnered a few new gashes along its nermimum in the form of new battle scars and sent the VOID ahead to look for Louis.

when the tide of bodies finally started to split between the upper trenches and towards the airfield the team was finally able to rendezvous near their original air pad as the team reconvened with the full complement of spooks; Including the enigma that was Duece who seemed rather uninterested at the firefight on the airstrip that had now reached the closest hangars as mercenaries overwhelmed pilots and defenders alike. Wordlessly, if only because of the sheer sound of the battle and the impacts against the overhead shield she simply gestured a questioning glance towards the sky as if to wonder about their ride.

The argument was short and one sided as the taller woman smirked down at the smaller sergeant that included a lot of finger-pointing and gesturing that the team could only guess while Minnie gestured pointedly back the way of the trench lines before Dues casually pointed sidelong towards a group of reds that had joined them.

With the reds was a collapsable stretcher with the obvious form of a Golem armor-clad marine on it that could be none other than Louis, His helmet removed and off to the side to reveal half his face covered in red bandages and a blank look on his face as he stared deadpanned at the sky.

She hadn't made it half way to him, A half-formed sentence leaving her throat when the overhead shield was finally punctured and a gout of aetheric energy lanced into the hillfort and everyone's vision went black.