RP: Die Screaming [Die Screaming] Creepy Crawlies.

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Vehicle Bay. (Molotra, Minnie, Sebastian, And now lupin)


Chainguns tore tore baseball sized picks and holes in the mud as Sebastians armor roared its response to the insectoid menace that practically writhed under the sheer volume and boom of his guns alone had left him unscathed against the insects that where now clattering up his armor fruitfully shooting vehnom and attempting to gain purchase with mandables a thousand times too weak to bite through the nermimun and durandium of the VOIDs frame.

Otheres where doing not so well. Molotra, for her haste and crushed and shaken many of the almost rat sized ants that attempted to scale her but through either initiative or sensors it was plain to some sense that one of the large, housecat sized bugs was on an unreachable blindspot on the spacers back where their cumbersome ammo and hauling back was arranged and was scittering about higher and higher and was sooner or later going to find purchase behind her head and neck, The massive finger length mandibles of the soldiers ants proving they could cut through light armor with only moderate effort.

Lupin was as of yet untouched as he arrived before the chaos. Most of the bugs near him where swarming the inactive tank that obviously gave off some kind of foreign attack-scent to the bugs that they had yet abandoned it for flesh prey and could give him a moment to prepare and choose his actions and targets. Past them, however. The sniper could see the distant tracer fire of automatic weapons peppering the distant treeline as floodlights illuminated nothing for the naked eye but clearly the douzen or so marines on the western trench and bunker line where clearly shooting at something?

Mess (Carina)


Carina's frenzy was absolute panic and threaten to almost overwhelm the young girl. Marines ran left and right, Some searching for missing gear or misplaced weapons while others ran in one direction only to, disoriented, turn another. Above her the Small Death had come to life. Spotlights illuminating the entire camp and plasma turrets tracking from side to side looking for unseen threats. Even the great Svarog railcannon on the belly of the ship started turning in a careful broach above her head, The barrel of the great gun almost wide enough for her to crawl inside if it could be reached.

Sergeants nearby were grabbing men left and right and organizing them into teams while the nearby lieutenant barked out orders to go down the chain, The massive SOL's gaze locking with the disheveled medics with intensity and taking a steady stride towards the stunned girl shouting orders along the way. Upon reaching her, the officer simply towered over the young medic and blocked out one of the blinding spotlights above as he put a massive hand on her shoulder.

"Find your sergeant. Tell Valentine to set up a triage and prepare to take on any wounded." His voice calm but still louder than most of the panic around him before he turned his gaze away to grab a marine by the armored collar and shove him towards where he needed to go.

IPG Team (Tobias)

"Worst part was we had to explain to her it wasn't gunna wash off in time for her promotion hearing." Apples finished a rather intense story about his time in the star navy and a mishap between an admirals daughter and a rendezvous in the closet of her fathers flagship with excruciating detail about the application of certain permanent writing utilities and how they tended to bleed through uniforms. The whole tale done while slowly and methodically sharpening a small combat axe across a stone to sharpen the edge without actually looking up to see who if any of the team were paying attention.

"And look at me now." Locust mumbled nonplussed, Still looking towards the firefight in the distance and the firing beyond it. "That aside they're shooting at ghosts. Nothing in that treelines firing back."

Such conversations and quite monologuing went on as the team, already prepared for some time simply sat idle, One by one their gaze being drawn to their oddly quiet boss who was still staring off into the now long since dark and star-filled sky.

More than a few shooting stars seemed to be present that night. Though the frown on their hellions face seemed anything but entranced at their beauty and even seemed to be souring the longer she looked at them.

 

[SirSkully]

A distant rasping of his own breathing and a constant thumping in his temples were all the half-Hanyan could hear from behind the faceplate and visor of his helmet for a while as his amber orbs took it all in, the constant gunfire, the screams, the chunks of meat formerly referred to as marines - it was a lot for the green green to take in, growing up in Funky City meant it wasn't the first corpse he'd seen but~

It took someone firing their service rifle off to his left to kick the young lad back into action, or rather, feeling a hot bit of brass bounce off his forearm - such a small thing in the context of what was going on around him but Lupin was glad it had been enough. Enough to give him an opportunity to stomp on a stray bug with a broken antennae who'd wandered over and decided to munch on the Private's muddied boot - causing the sniper to flick it off and quickly crush the shelled being beneath his heel with a small huff of effort, sole rising up with entrails and all kinds of fluids dripping from it.

He refocused on the action a few meters ahead of himself though, on the bugs threatening to flood the camp and pick their bones clean if the constant waves of them weren't controlled - with one last deep inhale in some vain attempt to calm his nerves Lupin decided on what the fuck he was going to do at this moment, prompting the Marine to drop one knee into the mud and readjust the grip on his lightly personalized m3 before flicking the little tab on its side across to burst, taking time to rest it against a nearby DION crate before finally letting loose a few quick barrages of slugger rounds that ripped apart some meaningless amount of bugs in the large swarm - aiming with the weapon's high-powered laser rather than the variable-power scope mounted to its top rail, it seemed more appropriate given the circumstances...

 

[Alex Hart]

IPG Team
Tobias listened to the screaming and gunfire as the story finished, though his face belied his concern over the situation. Finally, he fetched his rifle and turned to Deuce. "I'm going to go see what the hell is going on over there. If there's a problem, we can help, if not, hopefully I can convince them to stop wasting ammunition." He said as he began to make his way over towards the main camp.

Once there, Tobias found the situation far worse than he could possibly have anticipated. Blood soaked the dirt and mud of the jungle's floor, partially obscured by the writhing mass of insect forms. This was nothing like fighting the Elefirn, where you had a definite target to shoot at. "We've got a situation here boss!" He called over the radio as he pressed a button, instructing his drones to make their way towards him, before finally flipping the safety off on his underbarrel plasma thrower and beginning to spray plasma onto the bugs, taking care to both back away from the swarm as it approached and to keep the plasma away from friendlies.

 

[Soresu]

Mess Hall

Carina cursed as she was jostled, jerked and pushed around in the crush of bodies running to and fro to their stations. She heard their yells and the barking orders of the Sergeants trying to get some semblance of order in place. An ID-SOL, not the half-breeds, but a ten and a half foot tall monster purebred pushed her aside like she wasn't even there. The shorter, lighter, and younger Marine came to a skidding, balance defying stop before a man who placed hands upon her shoulders. After the madness of the last few seconds, Carina was grateful for the short reprieve. Panting from the exertion of trying to not get trampled, the young woman looked up at the man as he spoke.

Her back went stiff as she took note of his being an officer, but made no move to release herself of his grip. After his curt orders, she was released back into hell while yelling, "Doctah'Valentine!" she shouted, hopping up and down as far as she could in the heavy armor which wasn't much. But every bit of height in this ruckus was necessary to try and find the tiny woman.

"Doctah'Valentine!" she called again, pushing through a small knot of marines carrying their rifles and rushing past. "Tha'fuck is she?!" she shouted to herself before having the bright idea of climbing onto one of the mess tables. "Doctah'Valentine!" she called again while using the added height to better aid her search. If she wasn't in the Mess anymore, she'd have to search outside. And it seemed outside was turning to hell in a handbasket if the gunfire and screams were to be believed.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Vehicle Bay

Sebastian laughed as his rounds tore through the sea of bugs that writhed around him. "Die you little shits!" He roared as he lept into the air, kicking on his jets to help knock loose some of the bugs clambering on his body. He relocated his fireing position to a nearby structure and began firing down straight hell fire.

Chainguns roared as the ID-SOL attempted to clear a path for the others. He also deployed all 12 of his shield drones which began linking up to form a wall for him to fire behind. He also hoped that it would help keep the bugs that tried to follow him up there at bay. "I really wish I could use my mortars and mini missiles right now..." he complained to no one in particular.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Vehicle Bay (Tobias, Lupin, Sebastian,Molotra, Minnie)

Tobias' call came unanswered over his encrypted comm channel. It was received at that range with no issue, and the lack of static on such a clear line afforded to the spooks was more of a blessing than a curse as it left no doubt his superior had chosen to ignore such distractions from their pre-mission that took priority over all else. Especially whatever had taken his disconnected leaders' attention beyond her usual teasing and jibes before the mask would slip and the dead silence of the killers trade would overtake most of the team for the duration of their mission.

But what had she seen?

His plasma however made up for the lack of manpower as even those ants that weren't hit fell over in twitching death throws as pencil thin legs wilted and small grapeshaped sections of body simple melted and peeled away from the intense heat.

Sebastian was having equal success in killing off the nests' inhabitants without even knowing it. High-velocity rounds hitting well within their weight class and then some as each shot cut through bugs of all sizes and detonated with wet slaps in the mud, hurrying themselves for a couple feet and the backpressure and force alone unknowingly collapsing sub-surface nest tunnels that may have otherwise funnels fresh fodder above.

The breach in the nest that the now missing marine; Long since directed by the ants was still pouring a constant stream of bugs into the vehicle bay and with the confusion few had come to aid in the fight and ammo would be running out soon.

The breach had to be more than just closed. It had to be purged.

The bright flash above all others from plasma was felt from more than just the ants as the night became day for an instant for lupin. He had long since adjusted to the dark and was picking out targets through muzzle flashes and his own tried and tested methods of marksmanship when the bright new flash practically tore him from his scope and filled his vision with sunspots and aches as he began to rub his eyes.; His natural nightvision ruined.

Away from his scope the marksman was able to pause and rub his eyes clear. And when he opened them again he was looking at the sky.

In the heavens above a bright and starry night dominated the sky and was almost bright enough it would have made his sunspots worse if something up there had not caught Lupins attention. Almost nobody had noticed in the confusion, and such a small detail would elude all but the keenest of eyes and minds.

But the starry sky was cut through with what appeared to be shooting stars. Any could see that.


But so many of them... Too many of them...


Triage Station (Carina, Brin)

Carina didn't have to look far in the triage station she had last seen her sergeant before she and Brin Bluestone bumped into one another. The latter standing on the short elevation of the hill the station was based on calmly appraising the situation as on one side of the camp the bunker and trench line was still firing without pause into the distant treeline, Luminescent plants softly glowing in the night shifting and swaying with the gunfire almost looking like distant moving objects that must have confused the front line who had yet to see past their target fixation.

and on the other was a firefight in the vehicle bay from ants too small for either of them to make out as people seemingly seemed to be firing at the ground for whatever reason to the degree that someone was even shooting plasma all over the place!

Unseen by Brin, but seen by Carina a small glowing figure the size of a small doll sat on the marines head in a cross-legged fashion. This being rested casually in the worlds smallest sundress seemed to be colored in all things in a soft glowing white from their dress to their waist-long smooth hair to even the tiny toes and fingernails of the small young girl. but above all else, a pair of large white and gold butterfly-like wings casually fluttered despite her stationary position on the mans scalp.

Noticing Carina however the nonplussed girl gave a mischievous smile to her and pointed one tiny finger at Brin and held another up to her mouth in the universal gesture for Silence.

 

[club24]

Brin moved a hand in greeting at the sight of another person at the triage station, so far he hadn't met anyone else from his new team since joining up, he'd spent the last couple of years at Horizon and most recently got to know the Neshaten species better, quite interesting little fluff balls they were.

"Hey there, the name's Brin Bluestone. I look forward to getting to work with my Nepleslian comrades again, it's been a while since I was on home soil."

 

[Soresu]

Carina, in her hurry and search, hadn't been prepared to bump into someone else at the moment of turning her head to look at the vehicle bay engagement. She collided with a clunky THUMP of metal armor plating. With a curse, Carina stumbled backward, looked up, glaring as the man simply held out that hand and spoke his name. 'Bastard ain't even fazed!' she thought. With a halfway grimace, she removed her hand from the rifle sling on her shoulder. Making a gut decision, the young Sanroma slowly reached for the hand.

"Carina," she said, just loud enough to be heard over the buzzing staccato of gunfire. Blinking, something caught her eye. Something glowing just above the stranger's head. She briefly wondered just what the hell she was seeing while simultaneously wondering what that cook had put in the stew to make her see it. Quickly, Carina's eyes dropped back to Bren's face. Clearing her throat, Carina added, "Sanroma." gripping his hand, and a hard shake, Carina let go. Still wary, she'd have to keep an eye on him for the time being.

 

[SirSkully]

Lupin couldn't help but let out a grunt of discomfort as his amber eyes were flooded with blinding light, sure his visor may have tried to compensate it a bit but the constant glow of burning gasses escaping all the barrels around him caused the thing's judgement to momentarily lapse and now here he was - the private's vision may have been swimming though he did at least have enough sense to immediately drop his rifle's barrel down to the ground and take his finger off the trigger, free hand instinctively moving to shield his eyes and swat at the sunspots as though it would do anything.

They may have begun clearing but fuck were the little patches of blindness annoying, moving across his vision like that would most likely keep catching his attention which was the last thing Lupin needed at the momen~

Wait, were those trails...? huh, it was usually so hard to see shooting stars through the dense smog that counted as Funky City's clouds.

It may have taken a moment for him to note their sheer volume though once realized it would send a shiver down his spine and cause the hairs on the back of his neck to stick up like pin-pricks poking into the back of Lupin's collar, the lad keeping his orange eyes peeled skywards as his eyebrows slowly rose beneath his visor - eyes unblinking as, with a faint huff of contemplation about what he was going to say, Lupin readied his mic to speak into their squad's channel.

"Sergeant Valentine, Sergeant Valentine~ this is Private Kennedy... I have reason to believe the timing and sheer density of the meteor shower means it may be a bombardment or enemy insertion, how copy? over~" the lad finished cleanly and concisely for the most part, handing over his suspicions to anyone else who may be listening as he spent a moment longer frowning up at the night sky before returning his attention to helping thin out the bugs a little - m3's barrel reciprocating backwards with each burst of fire he let loose into their masses.

It wasn't like he could shoot them down with his piddly little service rifle or anything~

 

[Gunhand4171]

Vehicle Bay

Sebastian looked up as Lupin called out to the sarge. As soon as he saw the 'stars' falling from the sky he had only 3 words run through his mind.

"For fuck sake..."

His weapons were starting to overheat from his nonstop fire into the ant mounds. The entire situation was FUBAR and now they had something coming from the skies that the marine didn't think was friendly.

He thought quickly formulating a plan. He turned on his speakers and let his voice boom across the area. "EVERYONE LISTEN UP! Rally up at the triage tent NOW! I'll cover you!" He ordered. He didn't have authority it was true. Armstrong was only a private, but things needed some unfucking. Plus he had the firepower to back up his statements.

He ordered his shield drones to begin circling the triage area preparing to form a dome shield around the survivors. Plus with everyone out of the way, he could let loose on the tunnel. The Void targeted the tunnel with a full salvo of mini missiles and fired as soon as the last one was out of the area.

He didn't even waste the time to see what his missiles would do. He turned and followed after the others, grabbing anyone who was moving fast enough. He had to get to his shield drones before the first of the fireballs hit.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

27 minutes later - The beginning of the end.

More than a few marines still looked to the night sky and the continuing light show almost a half-hour since it was first seen. Many others cleared up the mess and continued to instill order in anyone still out of the loop.

The loop. As it where was the sheer miscommunication and blunder of one singular private on the firing line who had mistook the slowly brightening luminescence of the glowing forest plants as an enemy movement. A lack of any callout and the immediate application of fire and subsequent flying of glowing plant debris from explosives almost made it look like muzzle flashes and tracers that sent an entire firing line of ten marines to dump a consecutive 7,245 rounds in less than the five minutes the ordeal in the camp persisted.

From the vehicle bay, four marines inspected the minor damage on the tank and even pulled a couple of ants still alive to be crushed by hand or stabbed through with knives. The scene in the bay now black as tar left little moving as the underground tunnels of ants mostly as wide as a man's forearm had collapsed in on the most surface levels and suffocated near hundreds of still ready to emerge soldier and drones to swarm the invaders on their doorstep.

The team had done well and the help of the Operator and Spacer had not gone unnoticed. That very team sat on the crashing adrenaline rush on some of the still unpacked medical crates and joined many in watching the worst possible scenario unfold above.

It hadn't taken long for the crew of the Small Death to finally be heard when the commotion had ceased and a single eavesdropped over their conversation with the lieutenant was all it took after that to spread the information like wildfire.

Kuvexian affiliated ships broadcasting a different Friend/Foe that was similar to the ships of the Kingdom of Kuvexia had entered the system shortly before the panic had started and had been confirmed not long after. First five, then ten, then thirty ships had come in the first wave and settled several astronomical units from the four Rook class defence stations and the Shaika class assault carrier Wormwood and its five Jackdaw and Atlas class escorts.

The marvel of NAM technologies had stayed any further progress as the staple Nepleslian Mass Mesher had obscured the true nature of the nep fleet and defence stations. The enemy knew something nepleslian was there. But how many and their exact size and class was impossible to tell beyond such readings. A second wave however was all the bravado that enemy fleet needed when an additional twenty ships entered the system and took formation and the bluff was called.

The light show above was the fighting withdrawal of the Wormwood and its escorts. Plasma and aether, Missiles and torpedoes and mass-drivers burned through the upper atmosphere and either struck somewhere planetside from near misses or burned up in the atmosphere. More than a few bright plumes sparked the distance at one discernable side of the engagement that was no doubt the cascade failures of shields and armor and subsequent explosions of ships. Too many to have been the entire carrier and its fellows so it naturally had to be the enemy.

Many ignored or didn't comment on the bright flashes from the closer fleet that pulled even further away.


For hours after the only falling stars visible in the skies would be the debris of ships, fighters, and the four defence stations alike burning up in the atmosphere; Not that anyone on the ground could tell as many speculated on the nature of how many nepleslian reinforcements must have arrived to continue the fight...