RP: Die Screaming [Die Screaming] Operation Glass Jaw

Hell, Recently Left out to Defrost

Lupin made quick work of stuffing ammo and any other bits of gear he could get his hands on into the ill-fitting chest rig he'd been assigned some weeks ago, making sure to grip his rifle tight and control his breathing, hopefully mitigating the surprise impact whenever it might come~

And there it was, the jarring impact throwing Lupin forwards into his harness right between breaths when his lungs were full of air, leaving the lad momentarily grunting and wheezing as his shaky hands fought with the metal buckle binding the sniper to his own seat. Half-stumbling to his feet Lupin had enough wits about him to grab an extra gas mask filter and loose smoke grenade left unattended by some other poor soul caught up in this whole mess. The scruffy-haired sniper let loose a raspy little cough as he stumbled out of the drop pod with the other dead men walking, seating a magazine into his rifle and working the bolt as his eyes began adjusting to the outside world.

It was his first time seeing a natural skyline with his newly mutated eyes... and it took a good bit of blinking for them to begin settling down, focusing on the finer details. He could see the sun half hidden behind a distant peak, though despite that his visibility of what should have been a rather shadowy area was as good as it'd be on the sunniest of days, the rocky landscape retaining enough heat to bathe the area with glorious infrared radiation.

Unfortunately, Lupin didn't currently have any time to sit and marvel at the way the world looked through his amber-tinted vision, instead the young bastard prince buckled his helmet on and set his rifle up on a rocky outcrop behind Dyna's position.

"Shit~" was all the young man muttered as he looked across the sea of oncoming cats, so this was it, they really weren't expected to come back from all this - just to make a dent.

If this was to be his last moments then Lupin vowed to make one hell of a fucking dent, or at least chip away for as long as he could hold his rifle. And when that failed, he always had that big knife strapped to his shoulder, like he'd even get the chance to pull that out.

With a quick inhale Lupin raised his rifle and lined one of the rabid cats up with his scope, using the way he saw the occasional tracer round flew from Dyna's Spaid as a good indication for where he should be aiming, though even if he missed one cat the round would probably go through two others. He began picking off targets, working the bolt between shots with both eyes open, one lining up his scope's reticle while the other looked for his next target, trying desperately to spy anything out of the ordinary.

Once the ship had finished it's crash landing, he clawed his way out the back of the ship and began laying down suppressive fire.

It took slightly longer for the Lieutenant to come back around after their crash landing. "Son of a bitch... I'm going to make someone's head roll for this." He cursed through his teeth. "All survivors form a perimeter around our crash site. Give me time to scrounge up what supplies I can then we are getting the fuck out of here." He ordered as he began throwing anything that could be salvaged in his pack. Using his mindware he kept tabs on everyone's status.

Red Sleigh Down
It was like the Primary Buffer Panel, or the Entry Couplings

Carina's ears had rung whilst stumbling out of the downed dropship. Once the lockers had 'opened', the small medic had been in the thick of it as well. Grabbing spare magazines, smoke, and even a frag grenade. But what had held her interest was the selection of knives that had clattered about. While she had her family heirloom, it never paid not to have a backup. She even found a couple of plasma fuel cells that had rolled by her boot. With Zen Armament's logo emblazoned on it, her delight grew. Now her ZARC would be a nasty motherfucker. Not to mention once Molotra had mumbled offhandedly about 'chemical throwers'. And now, Carina had a miniature plasma thrower. The thing wouldn't last indefinitely. Snatching it up before a sinewy woman beside her could, she gave her a warning look.

The medical kit which she'd guarded like it was the most precious thing in the universe never left her side. And if anyone came close to trying to steal it, they'd been promptly met with a girl who was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked. Or perhaps reminded of the rumors she'd spread about her supposed 'crimes' to keep from having to constantly watch her back and earn some respect from the real convicts. And all the while, she'd let her little friend, Elsae delicately probe at the little bomb implanted within her. Never trying to trigger the thing. But she'd been unable to get clear scans of it from the dingy medbay and wished she could've. All in a bid to disarm it, and try to tackle whatever else the bastards had put inside of her.

Since their little stint amongst this merry band of ne're do wells, she'd made an effort to get to know some. Make herself a bit indispensable as it were. When you could get your hands on some ready-made potato scraps and peels, a bit of distilling, and could make the poor man's vodka, tasted for shit at times, but it got you plenty buzzed. Or, other little things. A piece of candy, a dessert from a ration pack. She would trade back and forth as if it were some sort of black market. And in a way it was. Hell, she'd even sat with the giant, Rhindol on occasion and asked the mutant just how in the hell he managed to steal a tank. Clearly impressed by this feat. And in a way she'd found a bit of a kinship with the burly bastard when it came to theft. Even if she argued the point that NOTHING beat stealing from some rich asshole.

Especially if it were a valuable vehicle, like the old antique Tigershot airbikes and letting the wind flow through your hair going at a hellish speed laughing all the while fleeing from the NPCD. Her father owned one, and she'd more than once stolen it out from under his nose and raised hell with it.

But now as the proverbial shit had hit the fan Carina had been thankful for pocketing a few items from the dead drops. Molotra had trundled along after her at times. A wee-little 'spacer tank ghost. Other times it was Tobias who strolled along to find other bits and pieces in places he could rightly enter and exit. With her being a medic, she'd had access to medical areas to some degree. And found a few little bits and bobs here and there as well. Mostly simple things, stimulants, and other necessities for performing whatever it was that needed doing.

Yet even as their 'LT' barked his orders, it seemed like some had fallen into step before he'd even managed as far as she could tell. Carina fell in beside Tobias sparing a moment to survey as he had, a simple blink of the eyes to take what she saw in, and moved on. The pocket maps they'd come across, she'd committed some to memory and squirreled them away for both Bottom Barrel and herself. If only they had the contacts, then she supposed that it would be them that had to get things handled, or rather get the ball rolling and figure all this out.

But for now... now there was a horde of mad cat women barreling down upon them.

"Well, Islandah, we ain't gonna let no cat-fuckin' melee happen, yeah?" Carina called to the tiny bird-woman granted she wondered how she would stack up to one of them in actual melee combat. No fucking of course. She was still of the opinion however that Quilly's island home and its people would steal your soul if you let'em. Was still nice to have a fellow female that also enjoyed pickpocketing suckers and thieving and crime. Explosions were also a plus.

Bringing her ZARC up, Carina had managed to scrounge up a bit of kit for it. A decent stock, and sight. With a small click, the underslung plasma thrower opened and a small 'thwunk' followed and another click. With a mad little grin that echoed Quilly's earlier, it seemed the third shortest of their little group had found something SHE liked.

And as soon as the mad cats got close enough, she would make that little mousy tank'spacer green with envy. In a good-natured manner of course. But for now, she was merely content to send one-hundred and fifty-five grains of armor-piercing love into the midst of that onrush of enemies.

Dropship - Everyone

The opening salvos on both sides were lackluster as both sides began to first zero in and range their shots. While the marines opening salvo was intense and disciplined the neko's side traded a clear lack of discipline for overwhelming might as particle streams and dark energy blasts cut furrows in the dirt and rocks with all the fury of a scorned god.

There had been a briefing on the ship some days before about the expectations of the conflict. While the SMX remnants had been building and actively raiding over the years it was surmised from speculation on the part of the IPG that their command structure and overall armed forces cohesion would have deteriorated over so many years.

After all with so many years of just letting the neko population swell and having no overt manufacturing base to equip them or enough veteran squids and cats from the last war to train them then the quality of their forces should hypothetically be at an all time low.

This was only partly true as the force arrayed against the marines fanned out to cover and returned fire that while clearly their situational awareness was lacking their unit cohesion and discipline in this case was still a match to any armed force. This ensured that when the shooting started none of them gawked or hesitated for more than a moment before they sprung into action.

While most of the Neko returned fire and tried to establish small arms superiority through heavier firepower against the marines greater numbers a seperate group above and behind the scouting force on higher ground had already found cover while the initial salvo targetted the scouts and a heavier weapon was brought to bear as an intense stream of accelerated particles tore a trench into the ground only a few douzen meters from the marines cover as it too began to range find.

"Herstal! Lagrang! I want those fucking cats on the hill suppressed or dead!" Easy shouted at Lupin and another marksman as she ran down the line. "Bird, Mostrokov, Makovich, Bungo; Keep supression on the main force!" She shouted to Quilly,, Dyna and a few others.

"You lot!" She shouted at one of the flanks of marines "Pop smoke and prepare to fan the right flank, You!" She shouted at a smaller pocket that contained Tobias, Otto, Sebastian, Carina, and especially Molotra who her finger specifically landed on with her twin rifles "You're with me. We're falling back past the dropship and flanking wide to get behind the cats, wait for the smoke!"

While everyone scrambled to move the latest groups attention was brought to Easy and her orders. For a specific two of them with contacts there was a metric of green-brown radiation emanating from Easy, though her constant movement was making identifying its source on her near impossible as she never stayed quite still. Brandishing a very new looking Nova rifle with a wicked chainsaw bayonet; Easy urged the wide-flank group on and behind the cover of the hill and the dropship as smoke dispensers shot out in a wide arc to the sides and behind the dropship as smoke canisters exploded and immediately blanketed everything not in front of the ship with smoke.

As the flank group made a wide path around the ship for several hundred meters on a separate hill they were able to see just outside of the bowl they found themselves. In the distance, almost a hundred kilomiters away the distant and foggy silhouettes of what appeared to be a city peaked in the distance beyond a great wasteland of rocky terrain. Much closer the scarred trenches of another dropship splayed the land from a bad crash landing, and the distant pinpricks of tracers a couple miles further clearly represented another pocket of fighting.

Eventually, however the small group was able to come abreast of the main fighting and managed to hold a position just beyond the fighting where the only thing between them and a group of intense murder-cats was a small rocky hill.

"Sayonara, Strongarm, Leopard, And you; Type-2" She gestured to everyone and then Molotra, "Swing north where the spacer can scale better and hit the fuckers from the back, the rest of you," She gestured at everyone else which included Tobias, "We scale here and draw their attention for the flankers. When they swing on us we keep their attention until the flank hits and then drop back, when they switch to the group behind them we hit again and finish them off!" She stated with a devilish grin.

"Oh and if you run just remember if i dont uplink a status update tonight you get a new hole in your skull, so dont even try it."



Back at the dropship - Dyna, Quilly, William, Lupin

As the volume of fire from the marines dropped off from the flanking manuevers and the enemy had them zeroed in the fire became overwhelming and only allowed for the bravest to take quick potshots.

The heavy weapon, luckily, had suffered some kind of malfunction or one of the two snipers had actually gotten a lucky shot so there was little chance of it blowing the dropship up ontop of them. But there was still an overwhelming volume of fire quickly digging them out.

It wasnt until the smoke had faded and visibility became clear again that Lupin first had noticed movement from his scope and trained to see ten cats much much closer than they should have been as they bolted from outcrop to outcrop of cover as fast as their neko bodies allowed them (which was pretty damn fast!). They were now in grenade range to the dropship and the marines hiding in the bowl but either none of them had thought of it yet or had any equipped meant none were tossed in.

But Regardless there were now almost a bakers douzen killing machines only a few douzen feet from them while their comrades had the marines supressed. One of them flashed past williams vision for just a moment as he caught sight of a rifle on a sling and a knife drawn as the point neko practically exploded forwards from cover and crossed the distance in barely two seconds.

More followed and with only one of them catching returning fire nine neko vaulted the lip of the bowl and were in the midst of the marines with knives, sidearms, and rifles entering a deadly opening attack at the closest marines to them.

Dyna, off to the side was far enough away that she was not part of the initial melee but was quickly in danger as a brown-armored neko ripped her knife out of the throat of a marine and behind her wicked helmet and mask locked directly on to Dyna and with barely a shift was already in motion and closing the distance faster than the gunner could swing her weapon.

Quilly for her part had also been left from the melee like dyna but had enough room between her and the fighting that she was left without an attacker.

William, one of the largest in the group and a clear threat was targetted by two neko as one of them fired an energy pistol at him before being tackled by a marine and missing her shots while another used the opportunity to close into melee and bring a marines axe she had salvaged in the fighting in a side-swipe at Williams gut.

Nobody saw Lupin where he stood. Which was convenient and also terrifying when a neko stood directly over him, his barrel literally between her feet as she unloaded her rifle above him at someone. She had yet to look down at what clearly had been thought a lying corpse.

William cursed as he was tackled to the ground, then he noticed a neko charging him with an axe. "You stupid..." grabbing the handle of the axe mid swing, and pulled the neko up to him and headed butted her. "... fucking bitch." He finished, drawing his side arm and putting a bullet through his opponent's face. Once the first opponent was out of the way he slid into cover and attempted to find the second shooter, taking shots at targets of opportunity when they presented themselves.

Sebastian followed the group back behind the ship and around. "Well this sucks. I want my power armor... or a minigun." He murmured. The ID-SOL looked back at Easy when she started to give orders, an annoyed scowl on his face. "Aye aye Warden..." He replied, venomously as he started his climb.

Downed Dropship

Lupin barely had time to pat around the pouches slung over his torso to find and feed a new magazine into his rifle before the cats he spotted were on top of the nearby Marines, and then suddenly, the dim sun grew even darker.

His eyes slowly followed the set of brown-plated legs up to the figure of a feral Neko standing over himself, her stattaco bursts of gunfire just above his head immediately blowing out the sniper's eardrums as he simply gulped. Lupin quickly racked his brain for what to do without a pistol on hand, his knife? no, there was no way he'd be able to clamber up in time to shiv the enemy effectively.

Gloved hands worked to deftly slam his rifle's bolt forwards and bring the rifle in closer to his chest, Lupin quickly flinging himself sideways and onto his back with a grunt as the rifle was pointed skywards, a quick squeeze of his index finger and the cat went stiff for a moment.

Blood splashed across the young sniper's face and even a little got into his gritted maw as the cat's body realized neurons were no longer firing, an almost unicorn-like dent protruding from the top of her brown helmet as she slumped forwards and onto Lupin, who let his rifle drop to its sling and reached out to grab at her pouches and armoured plates. In one quick moment the bastard prince crocodile-rolled sideways with the cat's corpse in tow, wedging both of them into a slight indent in the rocks as Lupin reached past the dead weight to the weapon she'd been wielding.

"Fuck you~" he hissed from beneath the dead body, one hand stabilizing the strange weapon while the other squeezed at the cat's hand that was still wrapped around the (probably) ID-locked firing mechanism, squeezing off a few quick bursts of gunfire at the cat that was charging Dyna's position.

Dropship - William, Lupin, Dyna, Quilly.

Despite the surprise attack, the numbers advantage was quickly overwhelming the Neko charge. Only a few remained in the midst of the marines with a fourth standing just until Lupin put a beam of particle destabilizing energy into her hip and blew a hole the size of a basketball where her right hip had just been. And they had more or less entrentched themselves behind soft cover like debris and craters, while one had flown up the top of the dropship and was skirting about to take potshots at those below while they couldnt expose themselves to counter her without exposing themselves to the rest of the enemies on the hill.

Those enemies had lightened their fire while their comrades charged.

The Flank - Tobias, Carina, Molotra, Sebastian.

For those who crested the hill and peaked over it was an unnerving sight.

Practically a stone's throw away an entire squad of chocolate-skinned neko began breaking their position below and started at a brisk job (Practically a sprint for a non-neko) as they just about glided over the terrain and down towards the dropship where the return fire had stopped.

Above that group and just behind Sebastian, Tobias, Carina, and Molotra could see over the heads of some ten Neko manning a heavy weapon's emplacement that currently covered the advancing group. They were close enough to the overwatch group that they could make out individual details on the faces of the young-looking girls; Their age was muddied by their youthful appearance of teenage girls despite the hardness of their faces.

Among the overwatch group was three neko manning a very large heavy particle weapon on a tripod; Quite the feat considering the raw strength and capabiliy any one of them could put out that the weapon required three of them. A sniper under a canvas-style cloak-tarp with the barrel of a much longer rifle was only noticeable from the groups current angle. The rest seemed to be misc infantry and a clear leader figure despite her plain armor due to how she kept casually adjusting the overwatch teams infantry complement to better support the advancing kill-teams.

None of the overwatching Neko had yet realized the marines behind them, but time was quickly growing short as the kill-teams between them and the dropship began moving in for the kill on the marines left at the ship...

Back with Easy and the group on the side of the overwatch team, Easy had taken point and scaled their own side of the hill. The irregulars with her all took up positions and stayed remarkably silent as if a single sound or wrong movement would draw the attention of the target-fixated neko. For Tobias, as close to Easy as he was there was now no doubt that from the eminating lines of radiation coming off of her from the one contact he had on that there was something mission-critical on her person.

Flank Group Easy

As Tobias watched Carina's group move up, he edged closer to Easy, attempting to use the contact to identify what and where on her person the mission-critical item was. As he did so, he gripped the shotgun and checked his ammunition. Peeking his head over the hill slightly, he noticed the sniper and the heavy weapons team and sent a ping to Carina's implanted communications gear.

Heavy weapons and a sniper threatening you, try to smoke them up and then clean them out. I'm working on Easy. Sending you a feed from my vision, do the same.

Slipping the shotgun over his back, Tobias switched to the M3 that he had picked up off of Carmine and checked it. Looking over to Easy, he asked "Warden, what's the plan if we survive this? Just keep moving?" He did his best to sound like a young man, uncertain and afraid, looking for a source of authority to follow.

Dropship more like DropSHIT

In the initial attack Dyna's heart sank, they had guns why the fuck did they feel the need to charge in, it didn't make sense. Every part of her screamed to turn and lay down fire on the little melee cats but there was no way in hell she was putting ammo anywhere near her comrades! She focused her energy on the ones that were still coming. It was only when she heard the sound of metal and then a wet gurgle did she turn to see a neko charging right for her!

"Shit..." There was a pause, some noise, and an all new wet sound.

Dyna blinked at the now royally fucked up neko that Lupin had just so nicely given her. "Where did you're hi-" She let out a quick burst of heavy ammo to help speed the neko along on her trip to the ground she figured it wasn't an important question as long as she stayed dead. "Going light to keep them in their holes." She fed a new belt into MG. When a spray of dirt and sparks pulled her attention to cat girl scrabbling around on top of the ship. "Fucking how'd you get up there?" Two more shots came closer than the last

She punched Quilly on the arm "Yo, you wanna pop that bitch up there? I'll keep her friends in the ground. Count us down if you're good for it." She finished her loading and closed the cover with a little jingle from the belt draped over her elbow.

Landing Site
Now crawling with filthy catgirls that have nothing better to do than waste our taxpayer dollars

Quilly hefted her miniaturized grenade launcher up, leveling it with the Nekovalkyrie within the half-trench before she found out that the target in question has been partially liquefied already - disgusting, surprising, but thankfully not resulting in her or Dyna's deaths. The little bird had to keep the retching down as she turned forward again, noticing that quite a few of the attackers had made themselves a lot less visible. Damn their natural tactics! She thought, not keeping her head visible for more than half a second. The bulk of the attackes were too far out to hit with a grenade, and the Gjallahorn was rather heavy to be hefting around on a snapshot like this. She'd need to-

"Ow, what?" The quail asked Dyna, before seeing the indication. She'd missed how many reds had made it up there, and even one was one too many. A squint of Quilly's baby blues was all it took to focus her mind.

"I got it, don't worry." Ship's already fucked anyways, another hole won't matter, Quilly added mentally as she re-equipped the fragmentation explosive in her hand. It had a five-second fuse, and would coat a majority of the dropship's roof with debilitating shrapnel - not to mention a truly deadly explosion for five meters at the heart of it all. She also grabbed an ordinary, somewhat grenade-sized rock.


Five seconds.

Four seconds. Three. Now!

With a little grunt, the birb threw both objects up to the roof of the dropship, both payloads bouncing with a menacing tink. The neko would have a split second to react... But also that same split second to even realize one of the grenades wasn't even real. And that was just enough time for the real explosive to do its work.

BOOM

The explosion tore a hole in the fragile dropship's roof, spreading shrapnel across nearly its whole surface while also twisting the metal into an unstable, burning piece of work. Even if the cat had managed to avoid it, she couldn't use the dropship as a vantage point anymore.

Shit, Just Turned Normandy Up in Here


Carina hadn't reacted to the intrusive nature of Tobias' warning. The young woman just seemed to be going about slowly pulling the smoke grenade she'd nabbed in the free for all, just before the crash. The feed from him hadn't been disorienting so much as just... odd. Her Jane was handling the processing, appearing as mere thought, something not quite a daydream, but just a visual representation of an idea. It was hard to describe but it didn't interfere with what she was doing. And just as he sent his sight to her, she did the same for him. Half of what she saw was the contact, the other half, her own sight unfiltered. The optic nerve connecting to her brain, vision fed to her Jane, and then to him.

Half and half. He would see the grenade in hand, her other having pulled the pin and a signal given to those with her. Her intentions made clear. Smoke, and fire. The girl, no, the woman now warning the small ragtag group that danger lurked just above the rise. Giving them a twitching of her fingers for 'Heavy' and then 'Weapon'.

And if the handsome sniper of their group was paying any mind to his comms, he'd receive an update from her. The voice was low, almost too much so. Not for a lack of range, but because she was likely near danger.

'Enemy sniper near my position take'em out. Use them eyes'a yours.' it was his opportunity for a Hogstooth. Or near to it.

With a giant at her side, and a squeaky-voiced mini-tank of death on the other. The pin pulled, the grenade cooked off for a moment, just long enough for it to begin emitting smoke as it landed amongst the unawares enemy Neko. With the lens in one eye, it would be easier for her to pick them out, and off. Armor-piercing ammunition had its uses, their body armor seemed light, and if it proved too much for 7.5mm of love then she had a nasty, superheated surprise for them.

With her free hand, Carina gave them a three count. As soon as it hit one, the grenade was tossed, tumbling through the air and her hands on the rifle. As it hit the ground amidst the heavy weapons Neko, and the smoke began to form a thick plume, the medic surged forward, a grim look twisting her cute countenance. With the contact in one eye, she would be able to pick them out easy enough, and once her ZARC began its BARC, the rattle of the gun met the heavy thump and whine of the heavy particle cannon along with the crack of a shot from the plasma launcher. Whether the others had followed her lead or not, Carina was going in, and if it came to it, the young woman would find out just how much she'd learned from the psychotic killer for she had knives aplenty to play with and strength, speed, and god knew what else to ply her bloody trade with.

Dropship-

William continued his barrage, engaging the nekos that got too close in melee. Using the axe he tore from the first neko's hands, he cut a bloody swathe through the incoming enemy soldiers. "Come on! Give me more!" He roared as he cleaved his axe through another advancing soldier.

Flanking group-

Sebastian did the same as Tobias and slowly worked his light machine gun off his back and set it into place. As he finished setting up, he wanted for the grenade to go off before he unleashed a long salvo from his SAW. If they hadn't been caught by the blast they were gonna get hit by his stream of bullets.

Dropship - Lupin, Dyna, William, Quilly.

With the immediate threats that had been directly in their midst dealt with the group at the dropship was able to suddenly appreciate a new, much more numerous group of neko barely a stones throw away and closing in for the kill.

Their inevitable slaughter was paused only briefly by shooting in the hills beyond them where their overwatch support that had been pinning down Dyna and the others counter suppression had died off completely.

Almost ten cats were left exposed and in the open.

But before any of the marines could turn and counter their charge Quillys' grenade detonated and a particularly stubborn Neko that had been holding her position on the ships roof screamed in pain and anger and vaulted off the roof; Using her flight ability to launch directly at the nearest marine and wrap her legs around his neck...

William, for his part had been trying to shake the distressingly light corpse of the faux mockery of a teenage girl off his axe when roughly 60 pounds of Neko landed on the back of his neck and rode him down until she had just about smothered him and wrapped her legs around his neck. Even with the muscles of a SOL on his side, there was no defence against suddenly having ones air supply cut off, even in such a romantic way as having a beautiful girl wrap them around your face.

If such thoughts had any time to enter Williams mind they were immediately cut short by his neck muscles protesting when the neko used her own remarkable strength to try to wrench the Sol's head to the side and expose the jugular. It didnt take a genius; Even an air starved one, to know that a knife would be coming next.

The flank - Tobias

"Shut the fuck up and shoot, Kid." Easy reprimanded at Tobias as the shooting started and turned her back to him as she and the few others lined up shots and followed through on the plan. Her rifle barked a single bright lance of energy that caught a neko in the open right in the flank and blew the girls leg off at the knee, causing her to fall over flailing and no doubt screaming if not for the bark of gunfire.

Like had been intended the first salvo from the other group had sucker-punched the overwatch team good and hard. And right as they had begun to counter-fire with their larger numbers and supress the other team; Easy's group had delivered the second blow and cut ribbons out of those out of cover.

The still present lines of barely noticeable radiation still emanated from the webbing on Easys' belt pouches, and there was a chance Tobias could take advantage of adrenaline and Erins target fixation to try to pickpocket.

But a part of his training brought his hackles up as part of his innate danger sense rose and a sudden sense that he had missed something very important took over. Observing his surroundings nothing appeared amiss other than that the other distant firefight from the other dropship some miles out had died off. Whatever that entailed, however, was nothing he could worry about at the moment with more pressing matters to worry about.

The OTHER flank - Carina, Molotra, Sebastian

After being forced down by counter-fire that kicked up rocks and debris around them in its snapshot nature, the fire died off suddenly as a new salvo; This time from the other group, supressed or drew the fire of the overwatch group, allowing Sebastian, Carina, and Molotra's group to once again survey the battlefield and re-engage.

The cats were scattering like flies to whatever cover they could find and picking out any of the previous individuals was next to impossible now. But regardless there were cats in the open, and beyond them even more trying to rush and overrun their fellow marines!

On the side of this group, forced to take a more steady path so she could look over cover but not be too far from the rest Molotra was having a different encounter. Too far from the group to have made it in such a short time after the salvo scattered them a single Neko darted from some of the rare brush and half-dead trees and rolled directly a few paces across Molotras' path in what was less of a tactical move and more of a blatant tripping despite the nekos nature of flight and gravity control.

Stumbling onto her hands and knees the Cat clearly cursed in its own tounge and then looked directly up at the pair of treads just a few inches from her face and then up even more at the Spacer attached to it. The cat hissed in a sharp intake of breath from between her teeth and struggled to pull up her rifle where it was pinned under her knees where she had landed.

The Hill Was Less Than Easy

Molotra would be lying, if she didn't say she wasn't sleepwalking through that initial death march up the side of the hill. She didn't like taking orders from Easy, her tracks weren't dealing with the sucking sludge and gravel all that well, and she knew her ad-hoc guns were going to be way too short ranged for this kind of encounter.

Somewhere deep in that morose daydream, she thought about a not-too-distant alternate reality where the NMX neko ended up on the Freespacer's side. Those little hardbitten lasses manning the gun were actually pretty cute. Through bleary half-thoughts, her brain told her that she kinda wanted some, big gun included.

Carina's smoke grenade was like water on the canvas, running the mental image away into blind fog, and finally nothing...

Then the situation became real.

A lone straggler clambered down before them- Clattering with their gun-

This person looked disorganised, maybe she could take them prisoner?-

Reflex and cold logic brought their double barrelled arm up even whilst they were still thinking of pleasantries, spiting fire and blowing scarlet chunks out of the spinning ragdoll at point blank. Meaty strings dragged the mess back together mid-air, before elastically dancing away along the heated stones like a grotesque cartoon.

A cordite smell lingered.

"...Enemy is melee superior." Molotra reminded themselves out loud, despite feeling like they'd just betrayed their own last remaining shred of good nature. "I... should use ordnance to engage at mid range..."

A fell mood set in, and they looked up at the backs of their comrades making strides under duress, squeezing the life out of the enemy down below as the smoke cleared once more. Started moving again, but difficult to keep pace. Sebastian was already opening up now anyway.

If any more stragglers got through, it would just have to be her job to put a few holes in them too.

Dropship-

William was brought to the ground by the Neko that had maneuvered around him. He cursed as she managed to get atop him and began strangling the life out of him. It took all he had to keep the damn cat from turning his neck far enough to slice him wide open.

Using his mindware, he broadcasted to his unit "An assist would be appreciated right about now!"

As he did he continued to buck and twist his body from under the neko. He also tried to reach for his side arm or his combat knife. Whichever his hand landed on first.

The flank-

As Sebastian layed down suppressing fire, he saw the neko move directly into the path of Molotra. Without thinking, he swung hus weapon at the neko and unleashed a 5 second long salvo. "Die you damn bitch!" He roared over the staccato of his machine gun.

Dropship

There was a lot going on at once, to the point where the constant screams for help almost became a constant, deafening drone for the young prince as he scrambled around beneath a dead Neko.

He was only one man, he could only do so much on his own, so Lupin dropped the dead Neko's particle rifle and rolled back over onto his stomach - chambering a new round into his trusty bolt action rifle.

"I'm looking, I'm looking..." he mumbled, only parts of it being picked up by the shitty communications system's voice detection systems as Lupin dragged his rifle's scope across the side of the hill, looking for anything out of place. The mix of regular colour from his eye behind the lens, and the orange-tinted heat signatures from his naked eye was still somewhat disconcerting, but after a panicked gulp the young man's attention was grabbed by something just outside his peripheral vision.

A visible little artifact caused by less-than-perfect optical camo being pushed to its limits, and the orange haze of a recently fired weapon.

Lupin put his crosshairs in the lower half of that heat signature he'd briefly seen, adjusted his breathing, and gave his crisp trigger one light squeeze.

Carina didn't bother turning as Sebastian began his rendition of Lewis Pasco's last stand. She knew Molotra was back there, and with the beefy SOL roaring his head off along with his machine gun, the smaller medic had focused on those Neko who had dived for cover. Her ZARC's underslung plasma thrower belched two more packets of super-heated, ionized gas toward where they'd been scattering for cover. So intent was she on violence that when she had finally snapped out of it, Carina pulled back enough and gave the taller ID-SOL a sharp punch to his side. She'd been learning to control her weird-ass strength and had put just enough 'Umph' behind the blow to catch the bastard's attention.

"Ya'fucktard! Y'tryin't hurt'er?" her voice going shrill before forcefully turning the nearly eight-foot tall slab of walking muscle around and pointing to where those they had ambushed had fled and nodded toward those trying to rush the others. "Kill shit!" her roar answering his own, "'an if'ya fuckin' don't, I will punch'ya in the dick so hard y'outie is gonna become an innie and I swear to all that is fuckin' glorious in the universe not even regrownin'ya ass in a tank'll make it peek back out!" not waiting to see if he listened to the implied threat, which, she would act upon given the opportunity and the unique medical challenge such a thing would provide, Carina lowered herself down enough to make for a smaller target as she made her way toward Molotra.

A bead of sweat trickled down her nose as she neared the little Type-2 and the NMX Neko on the ground. As an afterthought, Carina pulled a knife from somewhere on her person, jamming it into the cervical region of the spinal cord, giving it a vicious twist, and pulling the blade out, wiped it and hid it again. Even if they looked dead, the creepy catgirls could seemingly rise from the grave if you weren't careful.

"C'mon lil'tank, y'fallin behind." her voice low enough for Molo to hear. Then curiously, the foul-mouthed Nepleslian girl got behind the 'spacer. There were two somewhat meaty (And metallic sounding) slaps on the sides of the awkward girl and a sound of great strain and effort from Carina. Molotra's slow ascent soon began to pick up the pace.

"Fuckin'hell you gotta'fat ass." grunted the medic as she heaved then pushed three hundred and forty-two kilograms of metal, and squeaky-voiced Folk forward. "We're gettin'ya some fuckin'bettah engines or somethin'."

The flank - Tobias

Either the marines over at the distant dropship had won their firefight or, more likely, they had lost. That meant that NMX troops were probably on the way, and the fact that they were Neko meant that they'd be here rather soon. Though Tobias considered warning Easy, he decided to wait and utilize the potential confusion to his own ends. He lowered himself to one knee and brought up his rifle, aiming it at the group of Neko that Easy was firing at.

It would be easy to put a bullet in the back of her head, but the operator wasn't sure if or how she was responsible for keeping their bombs from detonating on a mission like this, and it was likely that anyone who decided to take their chances and make a break for it would end up with an explosion in their heads. Of course, there were the other convicts present too, but he didn't doubt that most would jump at the chance for freedom. No, for now she was too valuable to let die.

As he opened fire with his M3, Tobias sent a message to Carina. The fighting at the dropship nearest us has died out, I suspect trouble. I've ID'd the location of the item on the warden, but until we know how these bombs work it's too soon to move. I'm going to start analyzing it, but it may take some time.

The operator moved from target to target almost automatically, and as he stopped to reload the rifle he began to gingerly probe at the bomb using his mindware, feeling for the wireless node that he knew would need to be there. If he could gain access, he was confident that he could learn how to disable at least his own and Carina's.

Drop(ing like flies)ship

Dyna was having fun picking off Neko after Neko during her suppression session but she was quickly taken out of it by William’s request. She turned around to see him about to be smothered, stabbed, and strangled all at the same time. “Shit, fuck!” She debated bringing her MG but thought against it, she needed her hands free.

“Yo Quilly don’t let anyone steal my gun!” She announced before running full tilt at William and the Neko pulling her knife out. Dyna charged the Neko’s back, leaping just before she got to William’s legs. She didn’t know if Neko’s were resistant to knives to the face but she wanted to be sure. She was hoping to wrap her left arm around the Neko’s neck. Normally she would use her other arm to pull her partner’s head forward to protect her partner’s neck. Instead, she was using her right arm to put her knife into the Neko’s eye. When the two of them would hit the ground Dyna would land on her ass while the Neko would land flat on her face driving the knife as far as it can get.

Dropship - Dyna, quilly, william, lupin.

Dyna wasnt as tall as William. And not even close enough to be tall enough to stand and grab the extra three feet of Neko above his neck.

At least not without gravity taking its course. She was able to get a hold on the back-collar of the Nekos armor and, coming back down, wrench her back until she was practically performing a rather sexual position with William where one might reciprocate oral sex on one another.

Still locked around his neck with her legs the Neko was pretty much held to his chest and faced Dyna with a look of wild hysteria as she waved a wicked and literally twisted knife made to make almost un-closeable stab-wounds. She waved it about frantically, but despite the Nekos increased control over her center of gravity the sudden change to being upside down was not an easy transition.

Dyna got her wish from the Neko's exposed throat and was able to plunge her knife straight for the young-looking girl's jugular. It was unsettlig to hear the almost childlike shriek of panic when it made eye contact with her and realized what was about to happen. The sound was cut off with a high-pitched note and then a short gurgle as Dyna's knife plunged deep down into her neck and, considering the angle, into her skull.

The neko thrashed, twitched, and convulsed but then fell limp.

Except for her legs which retained a death-grip on William, and had even tightened. But was more easily rectified to wrench them off of him without the issue of a live Neko adjusting its leglock on him. The body flopped to the ground unceremoniously and took Dynas' knife with her as it fell.

There was little time for gratitude for the save, however, as William was once again reminded by the oncoming tide of another, and much larger and unposed wave of Neko bearing down on them.


The Flank(s) - Molotra, carina, sebastian, tobias, otto

"Move in, Move in!" Easy shouted and made contact with the other flank as she vaulted and pushed at a combat-pace into the overwatch position practically unopposed. Tobias, behind her, was almost left behind distracted as he was when he was finally able to get the vaguest idea prodding his implant.

It was a simple thing he could tell at a glance. Not simple in the sense of explosive and trigger, but to his training and expertise, it might as well have been now that he had a base understanding of it. It was efficient enough to keep simple prisoners in line and receive the right triggers if certain conditions were met. But for an actual operator such as him it was a far cry from the IPG standard capsule implanted under his brainspider which was also still there and active.

Catching up with her and the other group along the way with Carina, molotra, sebastian, and rhindol, they formed a line and quick-marched into the overwatch position.

Only a single Neko stood to meet their assault when she popped up from cover. She didnt even have enough time to raise her weapon before half a dozen marines turned her into swiss cheese.

"Control!" Easy declared and started off towards the heavy weapon emplacement while the others looked around at their handiwork.

"That means double-tap the bodies in the head before one of them springs back up and fucks you in the ass; All kill, no capture!" She snapped at them. Tobias had known what the order had meant even if the others hadn't before Easy had clarified...

As if to prove her point something snapped nearby and a camouflaged tarp jolted upwards as a Neko reeled, covering her face with both hands as she screamed into them while blood poured from her fingers. The massive rifle under her had toppled over but the half-exploded scope on it gave some indication as to what had happened even if none of them knew of Lupins shot down below.

Like the Neko before, she was put down in a hail of gunfire before she even knew what hit her.

"Take up positions and get ready to light those fuckers below up on my mark!" Easy pointed down the way at the charging Neko approaching the dropship. "You, big fucker. No, not you-you mutant fuck, HIM!" Easy pointed at Sebastian and then shoo'd off rhindol when he pointed at himself.

"Get on the gun." She pointed at the heavy emplaced energy weapon now pointing up and away. While it looked intimidating at a glance and unweildy for its size for a Neko, it was just Sebastians size and looked easy enough to fire even with the three-fingered grip meant he had to hold it pretty much with just a thumb and index finger only.

"The rest of you get any ordinance you can and get ready to blow these bitches asses out, Nepleslian-style!"

Not far off to the side, Carina and Molotra found themselves in position but had their attention drawn away when a series of coughs behind them got their attention. A neko on the ground who had been obscured was plainly visible just behind them by a few feet where she lay.

It was no ambush. The girl lay on her back looking at them but unmoving as she gurgled and coughed blood from lips pulled tight. While she was missing one arm from the clear effect of a plasma weapon, it was the half-douzen dents in her armor and the two that had clearly penetrated right into a likely now shattered collarbone that had done the cat in.

Wheezing and with clear hostility in the slowly fading light in her eyes she attempted to maneuver a long, tube-like weapon up at them but was finding no luck considering all that remained of her other arm ended at the mutilated stump of a hand. Instead she more or less just shifted and rolled what looked a lot like an anti-tank weapon around and weakly thumped at its side.