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RP: Die Screaming [Die Screaming] I Shall Not Die From The Cold.

Shuttle Exterior

"Molo! ...damnit~" Lupin called out as he saw the former tank reverse the hell out of there, her laser would have been real useful right about now, especially with Tobias' plasma-thrower lighting up the immediate area around... whatever the fuzzy ape-man Infront of them was. Had it been there the whole time under their feet? had it crawled over the past few hours of darkness like he was trained to do in a ghillie suit? It didn't matter much now, they just needed to either kill the thing or scare it off, preferably the former.

Lupin retreated a few meters and let the carbine fall to his chest, what might have initially looked like a retreat of cowardice was just the sniper falling back further out of arm's-reach of the towering snowman, gloved hands reaching back to rip his long-rifle from its scabbard. He fell to one knee and popped the lens covers off his scope, unfolding the stock wrapping the sling around his forearm with machine-line precision that came with the territory of his position within the squad, racking a black-cased round into the chamber as the scope's illuminated reticule was centred on the beast's left eye.

"Focus fire on his face and eyes, drive him back!" Lupin's barking faded into a slow exhale as the sniper's pulse rattled around in his skull, another slow breath passing his lips as the rifle's safety was flicked off, and one last exhale as he felt the trigger break with just a few pounds of pressure - the rifle's retort roaring across the snowy purgatory they were stuck in.
 
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Tanya saw the massive hairy snowman and how regular rounds and such were pretty much doing jack shit to it. It was big, strong and tanky.
While she did see one of her squad doing the seeming smart thing and using a plasma launcher on it, she didn't have any incendiary weapons. Her M43 may do the trick, but she wasn't confident. She did see that the thing had eyes though, and got an idea.
She slung her M43 around and shouldered her custom shotgun, Grimacing as she began loading it with her special black cartridges and flicked the switch to turn on the barrels special feature.
Heavy tungsten ball bearings in a supercharged 4 gauge shell, combined with the HHG system she had worked into the barrel of this monstrous weapon.
Raising the weapon and slipping her finger from the guard to the trigger as she aimed towards the creature's eyes, breathing slowly as she lined it up.
'This is going to hurt.' She thought ruefully as she squeezed the trigger.
This mode and ammunition was after all, designed to be used when she was wearing power armor.
 
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And so the predator became prey...

Caffran's eyes widened as the huge size of the creature became apparent. If this was the size of the fauna, why the Feth had command not assigned them all PA! Caff thought as he moved. He pumped his shotgun again and fired while moving, getting out of the way of his teammates fire. It might have a thick hide, but the amount of firepower they were poring into it would destroy a PA with ease.
 
Shuttle Exterior

A bright flash of plasma in the dark instantly fried everyones natural nightvision as Tobias plasma gout and the natural wind caused those not already squinting to shut their eyes from the sunspot flares even as various caliber rounds and even a few energy weapons all struck the local predator but seemingly did little more than cause flashes of steam as compacted snow gave and drenched and matted fur burned as the odor was thankfully blown away with the never-ending midnight breeze.

When any of them opened their eyes it was too late. Tanya, already braced on the bulwark saw only a hand and palm the size of her entire upper body lunging a grasp at her only for the recoil of her round to jerk the weapon up and almost out of her grip and throw off her center of balance as she lost her footing and fell onto her back just as the round punched into its open and leathery palm with little more effect than a BB-pellet might. An arm over twice as long as she was tall passed over her as long mop-like hairs brushed close enough over that it brushed over her like a wet and musky mop but did not cause her any more physical harm than hurting her pride and getting an awful aftertaste on her lips and a horrid smell up her nose like only a giant testosterone-full ape could create until she was able to roll out from under it and back on her feet.

Almost immediately in their midst the massive Yeti punched into the bulwark Clayton and others spent so long to make and they were greeted by its face smashing through the snow and without hesitation as it pulled its outstretched arm inwards in a grasping motion grabbed a mercenary by the ankles and yanked him off his feet only to slam him against the hull of the shuttle with lethal force and then over its shoulder as it opened its maw mere feet from them and screamed a primal sound as a head larger than any of them were tall snapped shut on the outstretched arm of another mercenary and curved protruding lower tusk-fangs as long and sharp as combat blades clacked with the sound of teeth smashing as the limb was separated at the elbow as he tried to pull the pin on some kind of grenade for the inevitable thought of throwing it down its gullet as the arm and unprimed explosive were swallowed whole and the merc spun screaming as he began coating his surroundings in an arterial spray.

There was an instant of finality as the imposing yeti would have no doubt pushed further into their midst and ended all the lives present until it withdrew just as fast and then spun around to face the two mercenaries who had advanced to the other side of the shuttle; Giving everyone in the bulwark a front row view of its business district and the angry bleeding red welts the two mercs had just caused to its backside as it focussed all its attention on two imminent corpses.

"We don't have anything heavy enough to kill the beast!" Borok shouted over the continued ineffective small arms fire that either seemed to fail to burn through its thick coat like a slow-burning cigarette or get caught in it if not its outer fat while a few rifle-fired grenades did little more than stagger it like a pathetic shrug while explosives were clearly muted by its thick coat and hide and the couple incendiary weapons had failed to catch due to the blizzard-like winds which blew most of the payload away with the wind to glide off the ships hull like errant sparks. Still firing his HHG all the same even as the powered armored Rammi finally joined them outside and clearly hesitated as to what a suit of armor with no actual loaded weapons could accomplish.

There was little left any of them could do even as one of the two distant mercs ducked under a swipe while his fellow was scooped up and smashed hard enough against the hull that the corpse was impaled into a dent in the hull.

It had little visible flesh other than its now ample backside that most of the mercs seemed to be too hesitant to shoot like their dying comrades lest to aggro it, or its face which with the constant movement of the worlds greatest ape was a harder target than it seemed.

Still staring the PA suit may have seemed frozen in fear or apprehension until it launched an arm out and grabbed Borok on the shoulder, the suit-amplified voice easy enough for everyone close to hear as Rammi pointed past the beast and into the dark.

"There's a ship, boss!" He pointed past the beast at something his optics could see that the naked eye could not. Those quicker on the draw and with the ability to do so being only Tobias may not have noticed it before but when checking his local sensors there very much was a vessel with a transponder in the open and circling their location lazily.

Ze-T1-1c Mass-produced transport-dropship "Unlucky Star"
Terrene class assault ship
Local identification number ZZ8Y9345X-11A
Stenkagorad Planetary Militia
4.9km

The Unlucky Star loitered in a clear holding pattern several kilometers out as it circled its position for who knew how long as Tobias was able to see the same advertised local transponder data Rammi had no doubt seen through his optics. When the suit of Impulse armor shot up into the sky it began shooting off all its active-decoy flares to light up their location as he likely began broadcasting on various communications channels as the suit of impulse armor loitered in the air and fought against the elements while slowly depleting its flares.

Had Rammi not done so and lit up the area none of them might have seen just fourty meters behind it and slowly slogging through the snow another massive Yeti nearly invisible in the snow if not for the large shadow behind it that it cast until it was able to be made out its profile. As if materialized into existence when the closest Yetti roared it answered back with a bellow of its own.

And then one after another four more somewhere behind even that answered one after another somewhere off in the blizzard as a pack of the beasts began converging towards their location...

Somewhere in their midst, one of the mercs still on her feet vocalized what the majority of them were no doubt thinking but had yet to put to words.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" And then abandoned the fight and ran back inside the shelter.

Shuttle Interior.

The fighting was only picking up outside as a man short one arm was dragged inside and out of the way as a couple of the walking wounded dragged him away from the entrance and did what they could to staunch the bleeding as Molotra and Carina loomed over Francis.

The former star empire commisar was looking pale, even more so than usual and unbuckling the waist-belt of her greatcoat caused an audible groan and gasp from her as it was slowly peeled off of her side where dark-black sticking blood on her side had almost glued it to her where the belt was cinched to keep pressure on the wound. Once again exposed and irritated it pulsed a dribble of fresh blood and had yet to coagulate around a laceration halfway up her left side.

While not a large injury it looked remarkably deep and the yellow-white underside of one of her ribs was visible just barely inside. While Molotra poked exploringly with her middling medical Knowledge Carina at least was able to tell at a glance before she even checked that due to the location and estimated depth of the cut it had gone deep enough that if the smell the exposed wound gave off was any indicator Francis possibly had pierced either the outer lining of her stomach or the pancreas; Both being of immediate concern especially with the physical effort Francis having exuded the past few hours a small and insignificant gash to either may have become exacerbated into a possible death sentence.

Within Carinas equipment was her medical supplies, albeit diminished by the treatment of what Mercs could be saved. Medical nanites and her Hypolathe were present but without a recent shot of a basic nanite package to control the process and guide them to the damaged tissues the most either of those would do is seal the flesh over the still open internal damage and all of Carinas recent refresher training leaned her towards the least desirable outcome for the situation with no other options presenting themselves; Field Surgery.


Unlucky Star


The ship had been closing in on what Tsar had told him was the last known position of the crash site for several minutes at that point and even his men had sorted through their chaos phase of readiness and were all loitering around at the ready with a concerning amount of firearms present and at least twelve suits of powered armor active ranging from Origin-made impulse armor to some more Nepleslian-oriented Warlocks, and at least one gray-black-white painted suit of Powered armor that looked concerningly of Kuvexian make with its sleek design and pyramidal-cut portions of the shoulders, elbows, and knees.

For his part the commander Tsar simply loitered in his presence with his imposing monstrosity of a horse-sized dire canine, occasionally scratching the beast behind the ears as it lay next to them the size of a large couch, or making attempts at Smalltalk.

Eventually, though he was pulled away by one of his subordinates just out of earshot before being handed an earpiece which he held to the side of his head and listened intently; Occasionally shooting Masato a glance when it was clear he thought he wasn't looking. After a short discussion, the commander shook his head to his subordinate and walked back over to join Masato.

"We're still executing a search pattern of the area but it will likely take a while longer. If you'd like accommodations have been arranged for you in one of the crew cabins and I can send one of my men with news as soon as there is some, Lieutenant."

Not reading their superior's tone, or perhaps not in the loop it was obvious at a glance past Tsar when some of his men by the still closed hangar door deployed several turret mounts that rose from the floor and began prepping them for use.
 
Cold, Alone, and feeling Ice-olated

Hearing the continued sporadic gunfire, and witnessing the mangled mercenary get pulled into the shuttle interior, a trail of blood that rapidly froze behind him. Waller looked to the girl, then to Carina and Francis. There was no value he could add here. He stood and shouldered his M43 with its underslung launcher. He quickly moved down the wall of the shuttle to the opening leading outside. He peaked out of the makeshift curtain/windbreak, the scene that greeted him was chaotic and morbid. Tanya was on her back, the imposing form of a Yeti ass looming over her. Plenty of rounds were hitting the creature, but seemed to be having little, if any effect.

Waller knew what he had to do, but did not know if he had the courage to do it....

He steeled himself, said a silent prayer to the gods of guns, sex and rock and roll. Then charged the yeti in an attempt to administer the most uncomfortable suppository this planet had ever seen.
 
Tanya meanwhile was getting REALLY bloody annoyed at these damn Yeti's. Yes the damn rounds were for armored humanoids not giant hairy monsters but Come on.
As she stood she pumped the slide back and as the still smoking large brass cartridge flew into the snow she loaded a tungsten slug. She didn't have many of those.
Backing up she aimed at the hairy giant that just tried to snatch her and, crouching first, fired at the things eye.
This time she was prepared for the recoil, and used it to quickly roll backwards down a slope, getting her footing as she grunted in pain from her shoulder, running as she loaded her 2nd and unfortunately, Only remaining penetrator.
 
Why didn't I just shoot myself in the foot and stay in the hospital? Anonymous

Caffran couldn't believe the how much firepower this thing was absorbing. If they ever brought this thing down he was going to get some of that hide and make a rug out of it. When a ship was spotted Caffran, like most of the other survivors, was relived. They were finally going to get out of this nightmare. That was when Caffran noticed that the creature wasn't alone. Several more creatures had been reveled by the light of the flares. "Ah, Sacred Feth!"

Caffran wrapped his camo cloak around his head and practically disappeared into the snow. He wasn't sure how long it would take the shuttle to reach them but he needed to slow down the other creatures from reaching the wounded. He was a stealth expert. Had hunted and stalked both predators and prey his whole life, though admittedly nothing quite so terrifying as these.

Moving through the snow Caffran headed right towards the other creatures. It was difficult to keep sight of them but now that Caffran knew what to look for it he was able to track them. He approached the first one. He could hear the creature breathing. The distance was 20 yards and closing. Caff primed a flare shell into his Svafnir then aimed for the creatures face. The flare should blind the creature for at least a few minuets and hopefully discourage it from coming closer to the group. Caffran fired, then disappeared again into the snow and moved around to the next creature.
 
The Great Stenkagorad Ape Hunt

At the sight of a ship circling around the crash site, Tobias saw an opportunity. There was a chance that this ship had been sent by whoever had been responsible for shooting down their shuttle in the first place. There was, however, also the possibility that it had been sent by those who had a vested interest in the survival of Borok's mercenaries, or whatever remained thereof.

Still, with Rami now thoroughly occupied with the other apes, it would have to fall to him and Molotra to get a signal out. Perhaps he could use the Freespacer and Rami's armor as signal boosters in order to transmit a stronger signal through the storm. As the operator made his way away from the ape inside the shuttle, trying to find a vantage point higher up and on the outside of the shuttle's wreck from which to transmit, he saw Caffran's flashbang detonate.

As his hands worked to ready his rifle, Tobias reached out to Rammi and Molotra, the former's armor and the latter's body being the most sophisticated electronic systems he had remaining at his disposal. <<Molo, Rammi, can you slave control of your comms systems to me?>> The operator sent with his mindware, <<I'm going to try to synch us up to act as a compound antenna and boost our SOS's strength. That ship's still circling, probably can't find us in this damn snow.>> If either, or both, of the two responded in the affirmative, he would start work on just that.

In the brief bloom of light from Caffran's flashbang, Tobias was able to make out more apes, which the sergeant was clearly doing his best to hold off. As Tobias began to work mentally on setting up a broadcast, he began to squeeze off plasma shots in support, aiming for the faces of the apes near Caffran. Perhaps the plasma blasts would sear the retinas or burst the eyeballs of the creatures. Maybe burn the air out of their lungs, anything to incapacitate them for a while, even if he couldn't kill them outright.
 
Shuttle Exterior.


Charging at something, even remotely close, waller was slowed drastically by the snow dredge to an almost crawl as he tried to break through almost waist-high snow as he attempted to close the gap in what looked more like a series of hops and pelvic thrusts to the outsiders.

Almost three-quarters of the way there the greatest of apes briefly looked over its shoulder it was reminded at the remembered prey in the bulwark when it was hit by beam and bullet alike, and then did an almost comical double take when it took note of Waller while it registered the pain a moment later.it winced in pain and spun at the close approaching prey; Swinging an arm wide and swept it inwards to snatch him or swat him. Waller was saved only at the last moment when Tanya's slug punched not into its eye but just below it into the upper-cheek fat, under its eye entirely, and into the soft and fatal flesh of its brain as the creature pulled its arm up just in time in a jerking reaction to miss taking off the marines head as it slapped its own face with a meaty thwack and then fell almost theatrically to the side where it slammed against the shuttle and slid down it while propping its head up at the neck at an awkward angle to stare slack jawed at the mercs and marines with its massive fangs jutting out and flecked with blood as thick steam of final breath pushed out of its lungs with a sigh of finality the body went slack but for what could either be twitching or the wind blowing its fur.

Tanya, still completely focused brought her gun up to bear only for a massive hand to grab her by the shoulder and yank her back before she even registered the loss of threat.

"Easy, child!" Borok released her and gave her a slamming meaty smack on it almost hard enough to stagger her as the Sol gave her a mirthful smile. "You've done good, little one; Breathe now!" he attempted to steady her from the clear adrenaline rush even as he and the rest of them became aware of the rest of the encroaching tribe even as one of them came into view at least a hundred meters away and then at a distance and hard to make out made wild gestures and almost looked like it was trying to bury itself in the snow?...

"There will be more need for your gun yet before this night is out, cousin."

When the first Yeti fell the only indication to Caffran was the dwindling volume of fire as he crept, unable to take his attention from his objective so close as even a single betrayed movement would give him away. When he fired the flare hit the Yeti in the side of the head and, while not the face, got tangled in its fur and despite being a rather small flare still burned bright as the creature made a very undignified noise of suprise and then pain as it ran massive hands against the side of its head as if it could wipe the flare off but only pressed it harder against what was likely its skin even as it sunk to its knees and began shoving the side of its head into the snow whimpering to no avail even as a gout of plasma raked it across the back from a distant Tobias and caused the already beleaguered beast to screech in abject pain and anger as it performed a comical flailing dance of triyng to rip the flare from its fur and cool the unquenchable plasma burning on its back in the snow..

The others were much closer together and in a group and stood their ground at leat a hundred meters from the shuttle as they hooted and hollered and made wild gestures of anger and challenge at the shuttle itself as if it was a living creature; Not at all far from a possibility in size if some of Boroks passing comments about the unfathomable size of some of the planets megafauna were to be believed.

Of the four, three were comparably smaller by almost half but still well taller than even Lupin and maybe only just more so than Borok and clung close to an also smaller but clearly adult yeti who, unlike the others, seemed of a slightly different build, a female, and most concerning of all held a long metal struct from the scattered debris and swung it around like a weapon.

If the first two had been males and were actively hunting, then the latter was a female, and the vulnerable (comparatively) young. They made no moves forward but if one was that much more trouble even if the marines delt with the other male the female and three still dangerous young might be a death-nail in the coffin. As Caffran slowly crept, however, there was a feeling of something approaching at high speeds and, before he could even react, Rammi in his impulse armor hit the snow just six feet off to his side and then exploded back into the air as the female took note of him and while trying to track him swung the girder around menacingly.

Clearly having the same thought as Caffran the mercenary pilot occasionally touched down while he flew around them in a circular pattern only to burn his retro thrusters when the female lunged or swung at him to avoid the blow as the much simpler creature failed to understand how the powered armor was changing direction mid-flight to avoid it. Daringly Rammi even dove in their midst several times to flash his propulsion thrusters in the females face which had the added effect of startling and scaring off the young who separated from their mother and the terrifying machine to put some distance.

One such young made a semi-circle away from its mother and, by the time he heard it crunching off to his side it was too late as the young ape stumbled into, onto, and then over Caffran as it tripped over him and then began to flail in the snow until it got its ground and whirled in his direction. At almost nine foot it was much leaner than the adult males and looked very much like a tall mophead with its long matted fur as it breathed heavily and attempted to puff itself up larger at the much smaller Marine. With open palms it swatted its chest with audible thuds and screeched and screamed at him, bearing its smalled but razor-like fangs compared to the massive combat-blade-teeth of its adult kin.

It did not take much context to figure out that the young Yeti was not an experienced hunter and while larger and almost certainly stronger than Caffran still lacked the independent initiative it would gain through experience in adulthood.

Still puffing itself up and swatting its chest the young beast despite its caution was still a being of animalistic instinct and made the first move as it made a very telegraphed but still fast swing of an open palm right at Caffrans head.

"I am-" Rammi's stressed voice answered Tobias as the operator turned marine and started his uplink, "A bit busy, marine!"

In the distance, it was not hard to make out where Rammi was as the distant pinpricks of his thrusters and anti-missile flares shot about to illuminate briefly another massive megafauna who he was in the midst of. For a brief moment, the form took to the sky again and with a pant the mercenary pilot answered with bated breath.

"It knows we are here, damn pisnyet. If I can see it-it can see me!" He likely referred to his own IFF which was active as were the starships that still held in its holding pattern. "Hearin me too! Been broadcasting in the open and I know it hearin' me but that's a militia ship!"

Explaining no further before diving back in there was a flare of light and a cry of intense animalistic pain as the impulse armor lit up with a glow of burning fur as it flared its thrusters right in the back of a Yeti.

He didn't have to explain either. The animosity between the mercenary-filled planetary militia and the legitimate government own filled with locals and mercs like the Black Snakes was well within Tobias' briefing package. Not outright at war with one another it was unlikely that the ship would intervene or possibly even touch down at all for just a bunch of rival kuznyetski mercs and would either let them all die, or freeze to death and claim they got there too late. They would hear Rammi and ignore him altogether and not respond while loitering around just in the distance.

What's more a civilian vessel like the Terrene assault shuttle would be blind to the IPG beacon and in all likelihood assumed the crash to be exclusively their cold-war rivals and had no idea or inclination of SMDIoN personnel being in distress...
 
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Sub-Optimal Conditions

Lupin didn't try to broadcast any crackling screams of desperation across the team's already over-burdened comms system, he didn't call out for the sergeant to come back from his suicidal charge into the midst of the surviving yetis, instead Lupin threw himself upright with little more than a grunt and started after Caffran. Powder poured off Lupin's uniform as the sniper stripped a pyrotechnic-backed tracer into his rifle's chamber and began trudging after the other man, each footstep was easier than the last as Lupin rose a few inches with each visibly-sparking step, until the sniper was practically sprinting across the snowy wastes as though he weighed little more than a feather.

Small sparks flew from Lupin's boots as he closed the distance on the squad's sergeant, while his suit's EMF generators were intended for slowing descents they seemed to have enough kick to push him to the surface of this waist-deep snowdrift, even if it was rapidly draining his undersuit's power reserves.

Now 2/3 of the way closer Lupin dropped into a slide and kicked up snow as he bled all that momentum in an instant, not-quite belly-flopping into the snow before adjusting his stance to better-suite what'd been drilled into his greymatter during sniper school. One knee tucked up, as low to the ground as he could go, Lupin let that tracer fly off into the darkness - where it landed was inconsequential and it likely wouldn't have done much to even these younger beasts, but Lupin committed the path of that rapidly shrinking blob of light to memory before readjusting his aim.

The bolt was racked and steam from his breath bled into the frigid air as Lupin tracked the head of the younger Yeti harrassing Caffran, taking that previous flight path into consideration as he waited for the young beast to rear back its head and let out another howl, waiting for the fleshy roof of his mouth to reveal itself to his tungsten-cored projectile~
 
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Carina swore to herself at Francis' state. As if a woman possessed, Molotra would see the girl going around in a mad dash and clearing things away, trying her best to set up a sterile field around the wounded and even more deathly pale commissar. Everything she could sanitize was done, her short hair tied back as much as could be had and cloth covered her head after being thoroughly shaken out, doused in a little antiseptic. She donned a mask and pair of gloves when she was satisfied.

Her hands didn't tremble, the cold and headwear kept the sweat at bay. The area was numbed, and a light sedative was given to the woman to keep her from going absolutely batshit while she was being operated on. She went about the task with a focus and intensity she didn't usually possess. The normally wisecracking, sarcastic, pissy, bitchy, and violent Nepleslian moving from one tool to the next. Injections, taking a sample of Francis' genetic material (Which was readily abundant) and programmed the 'lathe setting it aside to initiate the necessary programming she uploaded to it via her implants. Supplies were low enough as is. And now this of all things.

Behind her mask, Carina swore under her breath while continuing the task.

<~Good'n Bad news. Good news, Francis is alive. Bad news, I'm havin' to wing this shit. Field surgery is a bitch and my supplies are low. Y'come across anythin' lemme 'know',~> Carina sent to Tobias using their private little network she'd swapped out her encryption key as well, giving him a brief view of the wounded Francis a pair of hands swathed in blue nitrile performing what the uninitiated may consider torture. She still had that contact lens it would seem.
 
Shuttle Exterior
Oh No.

Quilly coughed awake as her nervous system seemed to come online all at once. Immediately, she felt the chill once again, as she shook the snow off of her body - pushing herself up and looking bleakly about the dark perimeter before the sounds of obvious combat forced her to pick up the pace a little bit. She didn't remember how she ended up here - though by the canister by her feet, it seems the bird had tripped and lay unconscious from what was probably, maybe, almost certainly a concussion.

As if the sprained joints on my side weren't enough, she thought to herself as she took quick stock. Enough explosives to do... Something. She could see well enough but how was her arm? Best to grab the canister too, it's not too big.

Lights in the sky let the quail figure out where everything was happening, some sort of flying creatures were attacking the group, she wouldn't...


...


Those weren't flying.

Forcing herself to stand up, the fresh-never-frozen (except that one time in The Swamp) Elysian grabbed a little plasma-filled present in her good arm and stretched it out, stumbling-shuffling like a mecha with a busted leg to the body of the ruined shuttle. She was lucky enough to not be in the heat of the action, giving her a clear enough path (from her perspective, at least) of approach. Her plan? Get close enough for someone to tell her what the hell is happening, and fry any unlucky sunuvabitch that gets in her no-no range on the way.
 
Waller tried not to retch as the massive hairy arm wafted over his head. The creature grabbed it's face and fell over and seemed to break it's neck against the shuttle. Waller stopped wading in the snow and stared in wide eyed wonder, then started laughing.

"DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT! I SCARED IT TO DEATH!" He waded over and began to fire over blasts into the great Apes face. You know. Just to make sure, that is when he saw the bullet wound and quickly turned to see Tanya's firing position. Which led to a long and creative stream of curses. He propped himself on the dead Yeti's head and used the creatures hairy shoulder to set up a steady firing position and began to take potshots at the juvenile yeti he could see sparring with someone out in the snow.
 
Size and strength is no substitute for experience. Old drill Sergeant

Caffran knew that there was risks getting closer to these things. This was their natural environment. Their impressive size and long legs allowed them to move much easier through the snow than he could. Still, the risk was justified as since every moment he was able to distract the beast was a moment the wounded weren't getting attacked.

But when one of the younger beasts actually tripped over him as he was hiding in the snow, Caffran knew he was in real trouble. He got his feet, swaying a little as he tried to get his breath back after the heavy kick. The young male seemed to be puffing itself up, maybe he thought Caff would be an easy fight. A chance for the young male to score a kill and prove itself to the group. Well, if that was the case, Caffran would just have to teach the young buck a lesson. That you couldn't just assume because something was smaller than you that the thing would be an easy prey.

As creature puffed itself up and roared, Caffran jumped in close. The young male swiped a massive paw at the Nep Sergeant which Caff easily ducked under and planted two hard jabs into the creatures stomach. Caff's right arm and shoulder were cybernetically enhanced and packed a surprising punch for such a small creature. The snow beast stepped back, clearly taken aback at the unexpected attack. But it quickly recovered and moved to grab Caffran. Again the Nep Sergeant avoided the grip and landed another punishing attack where the creature breathed. But a flailing arm caught him a glancing blow. Even so, Caff was sent flying a good ten feet and fell on his back into the snow.

In the deep snow, he couldn't get to his feet quickly and would have been an easy target had not his team began to fire on the creature. Under the veil of the covering fire, Caffran was able to get out of the snow and move away. He used his camo cloak to again blend into the snow and put some distance between himself and the young beast. He didn't want to get hit with friendly fire. He kept his eye on the mother and other creature. He had another flare loaded into his shotgun and would use it if they came closer to their shelter. He risked an open transmission. "Any word on that shuttle yet? Do they see us?"
 
Shuttle Interior

Molotra's body had effectively gone into autopilot with helping Carina, realising that she couldn't really do much to help Francis other than sterilize things, dress the young medic, and hand over the supplies whilst she worked.

Caffran's transmission was the thing that jolted them back to sentience, realising that they'd froze up without responding to Tobias' transmission, too buried in the horror of the moment to effectively respond. Working through the backlog of data, catching up with the turn of events outside, she had to agree with Rammi- That ship would have to be a real piece of crap if it still couldn't see them.

<"Tobias, have you seen the bird?... Damn it, we can't just let them wait for plausible deniability up there!..."> Her mindware dumped her voice onto the squad coms channel, making it sound awkwardly unemotional, text-to-speak. <"I can give you a b-b-boost from my mindware, b-b-but...">

A grunt and a wheeze in real life. Her metal hands had to be careful wiping the sweat from Francis' brow, and then swapping the cutting implement in Carina's hand for some cleaned forceps.

"It's okay darling, it's okay. We will be done soon. Don't look at it, look at me." It was difficult to act as if this was all super casual, in order not to panic the woman with another person's hands inside their chest. "This is nothing, right? You've lived through the entire length of the yam empire, this is just one more bad day..."

Molotra... did get an idea to deal with that shuttle, in the mist of all this. Not exactly too busy to do it, but maybe... Too busy to think about the consequences.

Through his mindware, Tobias received several messages, and data packages, in short order.

///

FROM (MoloAspect412~#Port_83512)

Attachment #082- Zachitnik-Class Shuttle Manufacturer's Debugging Tool.rtr (VIRUS CHECKSUM FAILED)

Attachment #082b- NAM standard docking auto-alignment routine request.rdg

FROM (MoloAspect412~#Port_83512)

Attachment #083- How to crash NAM shuttle ground-distance safety lidar in three easy steps.txt

FROM (MoloAspect412~#Port_83512)

"Please make sure there is a shuttle airlock the right way up out there, Tobias."
"If you kill them it isn't on me."

-Molotra.
 
Unlucky Star

"Noted," replied Masato somewhat absentmindedly as he finished separating the Styrling holster from its belt, set about attaching it to his AMES, and did his best to actively focus on whatever Tsar was saying about the Kuznyetski; though he knew full well that he could always just play back the relevant section of his memory later once the SAR mission was over, doing so was in the Minkan's opinion one of those things that fell under "Bad Habits" due to the mental laziness it encouraged - and besides, thought the Shoi, it's a) petty, b) foolish, and c) moronic to deliberately make enemies like I did back on the Requi-

Masato realized much too late that he in fact hadn't been paying attention when the presence of a decidedly massive cloud-colored... thing caused his exponentially-growing train of thought to came to a crashing, screeching halt. "U-Uhm, I'm indeed not a fan of dogs, and, uh, yes, I am a cat enthusiast. Why do you a-"

The Minkan's voice died mid-sentence as belatedly put two and two together. "Matte, dakishimete kudasai... Hoji... Hoji shite kudasai. Th-That thing is a frelling Empress-forsaken dog?

* * *

Having managed to mostly recover from the utterly traumatic realization that some Nepleslian canines were the size of horses, the Shoi (who over his years of service had grown intimately familiar with the 'hurry up and wait' aspect of military life) opened his mouth to reply, then immediately shut it again as the Kuvexian power armor in the background - the one that had unearthed quite a few nightmarish memories when he'd seen it entering the Star's cargo bay several minutes prior - made him remember something.
Something very, very important.
When I was clinging to life in that blown-off section of the Melody, the only thing that let me be rescued was the communicator I had with me. I wonder...

After spending a few fistfuls of seconds - one to recall the squad's comm codes, the rest to program them into the AMES' integrated communicator - the Shoi toggled the aforementioned communicator on and in a voice clearly belonging to a Yamataian said, "Uhm, this is Shoi Matokai Masato of the Star Army. If there are any survivors on this channel, would you please shoot up a flare or do something to reveal your location? We're, uhm, having a hard time finding you down there."
 
Tobias Carrick Made This Docking Ring in a Snowstorm With a Box of Scrap

Acting quickly following Molotra's transmission, Tobias continued to scrabble across the exterior of the Feast of the Stars' wreckage, searching for the telltale circular shape of a docking ring. As the winds buffetted the operator, his mind had begun to unpack Molotra's plan with his mindware. The first step would be to send another SOS, crafted to conceal a small archived file in its signal. Once read by the Terrene's comms system, it would un-archive itself and begin to execute its various processes and, if the program didn't find itself within a Terrene within close proximity to the signal's origin, self-delete the hidden processes.

The ship's LIDAR sensors wouldn't need much help to overload, being inside a snowstorm had certainly already all but blinded them with so much particulate in the air to scatter the lasers. Still, a subtle readjustment wouldnt' hurt, ensuring the landing systems didn't seize up on approach and cause an outright crash. Next, the concealed docking auto-alignment request, helpfully provided by Molotra, would process, and finally he'd utilize the debugging tools she'd given him in order to lock the pilot out of the navigation systems until the landing had finished.

The last step was providing the other ship with a landing beacon of some kind, which was why Tobias was up on top of the wreckage of the Feast in the middle of this snowstorm, searching for a docking ring. The docking ring would, if he could manage to power it back up, serve as the beacon for the other ship, guiding it in safely for its unplanned landing.

Finally finding his objective, Tobias used a tight-beam setting on his plasma caster to melt it from what remained of its mounting, taking care to avoid its electronics. Just as he was finishing attaching a spare power cell for his rifle's magnetic accelerator to the ring, enough to power it for maybe an hour, a transmission came through, one not originating from a squad member or one of Borok's mercenaries.

<<I read you Shoi, this is Corporal Carrick of the NSMC, we're holed up down here in our wreck with monsters beating down the door. As for a flare, I'll do you one better. See you on the ground, Yamataian.>> The former operator said, before throwing the docking ring and its newly attached power cell with all the strength his IPG-augmented cybernetics could offer, sending it sailing a few hundred meters away into the snow and, thanks to weight left from the hull it was cut away from making it "bottom" heavy, landing docking-ring-side up to ensure a safe landing.

Then, Tobias executed the plan, and began to broadcast his SOS signal, trojan horse though it was for the bogus landing request and nav lockout, and waited. If he could hack IPG servers, this much would be easy. He hoped.
 
Shuttle Interior.

Francis' insides werent the mess Carina feared when she began to cut and fold back the skin of her side by artificial lighting provided by some of the nearby Kuz. It wasnt surgical lighting; Lacked strength and focus. But it worked none the less.

The patient, herself, had gone glassey-eyed and simply looked upwards dully with her mouth hanging open like a fish eternally gasping for breath. She was still breathing and was semi-conscious if illucid as she was operated on. Tears seemed to roll freely down her cheeks though it seemed more out of reaction than any pain she was unlikely to be Feeling.

The actual operation, janked as it was, wasnt complicated. She frequently needed to siphon blood which, without a suction tube, was more about carefully positioning her on the side and occasionally turning her slightly while gravity carefully did the work. Besides that it seemed straight forwards. There was a clear lasceration deep in her side that had cut almost laterally through her pancreas and had spilled a concerning amount of bile and prepanc into her insides which had created an explosion of bacteria and enflamed her liver and appendices which, coincidentally, would also have to be removed otherwise if it burst now no amount of antibiotics would save her.

The Pancreas had to be removed. An artificial insulin pump or cybernetic replacement could be put in later but for now it was a source of free-flowing blood and bacteria into her already poisoned insides. The pancreas came next as an afterthought, and her intensines, bowels, and the outer lining of her stomach had to be treated with an antibiotic nanite regime that would kill the surface bacteria and at least keep any brewing infection at bay until she could get Francis to a proper medical facility and some real treatment.

The fever was bad. But with how cold it was her body temperature had already been low from the blood loss and was at least barely over 100F and was more likely to break sooner than later if her bodies natural processes could start running and her basic nanite package could start flowing through her system faster.

It was touch and go. But if Francis Euphoria survived the night she would have a fighting chance.

Outside, there was a large thump and dragging sound against the shuttle hard enough to send a shudder through the shelter and some cheering as it sounded like the boys managed to kill something, finally.

Outside

Before Caffran even hit the ground a high-velocity round tore through the collarbone of the great ape and left a hole the side of its head out its back. As he began to run it was his natural sense of direction that all his clan shared that let him know even in the snow the right direction to go.

Had he ran the opposite way when he stood up that others might have would have cost him his life.

Still far away the assault transport banked suddenly and began moving their way as its auto-docking sequence took over the pilots controls who, in the sudden panic, did not even realize the system was active and began fighting against the controls to no avail. In the snow Caffran and Lupin only had to look behind them at a growing form that seemed to be pointed almost directly at them and picked up the pace back towards the shuttle as the Terrene plunged into the snow belly-first and began to slide directly after them a hundred meters away and closing.

It was obvious it would overtake them and flatten them to death before one of the side thrusters flared and began a slight arc to the side and towards the docking ring as it passed them by with perhaps twenty meters to spare and with a wake of soft snow enough to almost bury them all over again.

Up close the lights on the side of the ship might as well have been spotlights as it slid to a stop a half-hundred meters from the wreckage of the mega shuttle and bathed its surroundings in a soft white glow as the massive ship compared to them lay there as snow made audible popping and hissing noises en-mass from its rear thrusters that still filled the air with the scent of ozone.

The men at the bulwark stared blankly at it, unsure of just what happened or how to react. Even Borok, professional that he was, looked at it like a whale had just suddenly flopped onto a beach right in front of them.

"Did..." He began, looking around to make sure he wasn't the only one that just witnessed the crash landing.

"Did we do that?"

The Yeti' crushed or killed, seemed safe for the moment. But rescue or not there was now a shuttle full of who knew what, And the question of their own crash landing and its origin point was still in the minds of everyone.

"Ammo check!" Someone snapped out of it first and mercenaries fanned out with guns raised toward an entire starship...

Unlucky Star

It had been sudden. Tsar had not even heard Masatos message when shortly after the ship seemed to lurch hard enough that even the artificial gravity wasn't enough and men and equipment began to fall and slide to one side of the hangar. Tsar, his dog, some of his men, all slid out of sight and then more were thrown again when it leveled.

The sinking feeling in their guts was all the indicator they needed when the ship began to drop rapidly and any faster might have lifted some of them off the deck.

Then it hit the ground belly-first. The Ship was luckily armored on its underside fur just such occasions but it still threw anyone still standing hard onto the deck and kept them there as the entire ship shuddered and vibrated and let none find their footing. When it turned again there was now a familiar cry of voices as everyone found themselves lodged together in a heap at one side of the hangar before it finally stilled and men and powered armor and giant dog alike moaned or fought about in a mass of bodies to try to get back up again.

In one cabin onboard the ship was someone quickly regretting the rescue offer when she accompanied the mercs down from the starbase the day before to await her new squad. Unaware of Masato as he was of her Haisley Goenkof managed to stumble out of her cabin now thoroughly thrown about and fight back the urge to vomit all over the hall.
 
Unlucky Star - The Washing Machine

Haisley had been minding her own business, reading some magazines she'd never admit to anyone she subscribed to not that anyone would believe she was into any kind of clothing other than her usual freerunner punk style. When suddenly she was being thrown to the floor, immediately the hidden cybernetics embedded within this pink haired mini-nepleslian sprung into action. Haisley dug into the floor with her nerimium claws, tail fully extended for balance while her eyes and ears were constantly scanning the room picking up every minute detail to feed her as much info as possible.

"Tch, figures."

She stumbled out of the room and looked up and down the corridor not seeing anyone immediately, that suited her just fine as she took off in a low scurry keeping to the walls and floor all the while searching for a room with a view or better yet something to gain access to the ship's system and figure out what was going on.

"Really wishing I'd packed that suit as carry on right about now."
 
Apparently Purgatory is Real, it's REAL COLD

That was another yeti down, their anatomy still had the regular squishy fallacies that most biological species were cursed with, he could work with this. Lupin barely had time to rejoice at another kill and Caffran's continued survival when the shuttle made itself known, managing to start scrambling away when the wall of snow hit the sniper and snatched away his sense of direction, buffeting and burying the young man in the blink of an eye.

The freshly upturned snow settled where he had been, sterile, unbroken and without any signs of life as smaller particulates made their way down. Painful moments passed without any hint of the young prince's whereabouts, until the snow cracked and shifted slightly, a rifle and the black-gloved hand holding it bursting through the snow - Lupin in tow. The lad sat himself upright and shook the fresh powder from his clothes, making no attempt to find his long-lost beanie as Lupin climbed out of the marshmallowy mass and swapped his rifle for his carbine. Replacing the partially used magazine with the unused sibling it was coupled to as he trudged towards the freshly crash-landed shuttle, quickly checking extremities and under his plate carrier for any bleeds or bits of shrapnel poking out.

"This is Kennedy, I'm sore but uninjured, everyone accounted for?" Lupin called out over comms, neck cracking as he shouldered the stubby weapon and met up with Borok's men.
 
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