RP: NSS Sledge Mama Ep. 5.5 - I Hear You Like Cats?

Richard's ears were ringing and it was causing quite the headache, the situation was confusing enough when he could think clearly so he just tried to focus and take it in, well at least until his sensors were back on line, he put his helmet back on and let the suit inject him with some pain killers to get rid of the headache. He used his sensor suite to scant his surroundings and take in everything that was happening, making sure he didn't miss anything that was happening. "This sounds like someone trying to save their ass Top, they might run when they get the chance."

"Just hang in there for a little bit longer devil dog - it's almost over," Ylfa muttered to Stripe, donning her helmet again. This kind of enemy was the most frustrating type to deal with, and was worse than a sniper. But, it also happened to be paired with a sniper this time around. Of all fucking things. She only nodded to Jaime though; the standoff wasn't just something to fear. It was something that got under her skin and made her quietly rage. Ylfa already had a good idea of what she'd do if it were just her alone, but, what of the squad? Teamwork was not her thing. Just as her thoughts slowly darkened, the woman gave out a short laugh. "Ha! Damn straight Richie." He was on the mark.

However, as the Militants started to rouse, Yuriko got an answer.

"We...We are Jerry, Unit Zero Four. Nekovalkyrja with cybernetic augmentations. Was. I...I was. Haruhi?" the distraught voice spoke through the machines. As Richard started to sweep the parade grounds and the surroundings, the marines could see it. Curled up behind a pile of bodies just a few dozen meters away. And perhaps just as importantly, the silhouette of their sniper up in the control room. The moment they did, the marines could hear her laughter start reverberating through the chambers, streaming out of every single machine still functional. "I can't let you do that Alexis."

The sniper was locked out of her access as 'Jerry' started to rise. Their sensors could see her, and she knew it.

"Right. Hang this crap. Get cover" growled Stripe as he hefted his LAOW and fired, then went for cover. "I am NOT letting Jerry close the range into melee again, thank you."

Alec kept his head down, his helmet almost busted beyond use. He holstered his pistol and brought his rifle back up, aiming it wildly around the room as the militants began rising. "Shoot, don't shoot, surrounded by bombs, this is not lookin' good!"

Jaime began to look to say something else to Ylfa until Stripe fired his LAOW suddenly, without his helmet the noise dampening was terrible and he clutched at his left ear with his other arm and vocally replied, "SON OF A BITCH!" The headache that followed the concussive reaction was dampened with the suits medical functions but his head still left an ache. He watched the LAOW's payload and gripped his HPAR tightly, looking at the 'Jerry' units rise up. His mind was ablaze with slight fear and ringing. His face drooped to an empty, tired-looking frown. His looked to Ylfa again, and gave a hollow smile,

"Well what the FUCK do we do now?"

Alexis stared at the lockout screen for a few moments, unwilling to believe what had just happened, feeling the tension in her guts draw to an almost unbearable level.

Shit, she thought.

Well, there went the plan, all to hell. Her plan to get out of here alive, and unscathed, right down the literal toilet. It took her a while to realize that she had sucked the tobacco right out of the cigarette, and the filter tasted bland. She flicked it away at the robotic bartender, who paused to pick it up.

Then she drew her Lupara and blasted its head off. It collapsed in a heap of sparks and metal.

Her mechanical arm soaked the recoil, but for once she found it annoying that she couldn’t feel it, except for what remained of her shoulder. A sharp pain or something, anything, might stave off her sudden urge to vomit. Perhaps Jerry had been right, and she should have just hidden and waited, and surrendered. Why did she have to shove her foot into everyone’s business like this?

She snapped the sawn-off shotgun open and produced two more rounds for it, replacing the spent shells.

Down below, the fight continued in earnest. She glanced at it through the window. The glass window. The glass window that had been bulletproofed?

Leveling the Lupara, her modified Shot 12, she blasted it point-blank. The first shot shattered the glass from the inside, but it held. The second shot punched a hole about the size of her fist through the already spiderwebbed mess.

And through this hole she put Deliverance. She punched a few shards from the beginning of her peep-hole, and braced her legs wide for the shock of the high-caliber rifle. Even then, she knew she wouldn’t have as stable a platform as she might if she used the bipod. But, no choice now. She pulled her hood back and let her sliver hair fall out, though not over the scope. There, in that little tube, she sighted down.

And began to fire.

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.

The magazine empty, she discarded it, snapping another into its place. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.

They were just dolls, after all. She had set up the explosives herself, set up all the dominoes that had led to the soldiers being surrounded. This house of cards was hers. She had built it. She could topple it. Or at least, if she couldn’t topple it, she could try to even the playing field for them, blow out some of those drones, and hope they believed she were sincere.

Sorry, Jerry. Survive.

The moment Stripe warned them, Ylfa winced behind her helmet. Anyone that didn't plug their ears or scramble to put their helmet on was going to be in a world of hurt as the rocket streaked away and exploded against the pile, bits of Militant rained down as the Cyber Neko tried to hide again. Hearing Alec's cry of pain only confirmed what she already knew; they were going to need new ears.

"Damnit! Shoot the things, but get that Neko in one piece! Find her!" Ylfa yelled at the marines. As the machines started to stir, their red lights dim but growing stronger, explosions started to rip through their ranks as an uncomfortably familiar retort sounded through the grounds. The roided out GP-1 snapped from target to target, sending hot lead right into IED after IED with ligntning speed as Super Militants were thrown around like children's toys by the blasts. But already, a small handfull had risen. If one were facing the control booth up above, a pair of the machines to their right, their 3 'o clock, would snap their heads about to suddenly face the Marines, bright blue blades immediately bursting to life from their wrists mid-charge.

Yet, Ylfa didn't even look at them. The Cyber Neko - Jerry - was gone. Reaching an armored hand up, she grasped her helmet and tore it off as quickly as she could. The moment it came off, and all the pieces finally fell into place.

"She can't spoof our suits or cloak from us at the same time! Half of us gotta go helmetless!" the Sergeant bellowed loudly enough for even the most deafened of them to hear. Attaching her helmet to her suit's waist, Ylfa drew her sword again and took her first steps towards Jerry. Frozen like a deer caught in headlights with a look of disbelief and horror, she was right in the open at their 12 'o clock, back turned to the turncoat sniper.

"Cut her arms and legs off if you have to, but she's coming in alive!"

Alexis breathed out, feeling like her lungs were burning. She coughed a few times. Maybe the cigarettes were getting to her. Maybe she was breathing too hard.

She took a moment to breathe. Yes. Breathing. Useful. Nobody had died yet. Nobody was going to die. She wasn’t going to be the cause of anyone’s actual deaths. This was Okay. Nothing was going to happen. She almost chanted that under her breath. No. She wasn’t killing her people.

Okay.

She fitted her eye back to the scope, peering through the crosshairs at the battle happening on the far edge of her abilities. She had blown the shit out of most of the IED’s that she had hidden near the militants, and that had at least confused most of them. She knew that Jerry could only control a certain number of the things locally; so she swayed the sights a little bit and picked those off, in her mind. One. Two

Okay.

Then she swiveled back and tried to find Jerry.

Aha.

There she was.

Alexis held her in the crosshairs for a moment. Though the automaton was moving sideways, horizontally, a position that would normally be quite difficult for any sniper to hit, Alexis knew that she could make the shot. A single pull of the trigger. She could brain the girl, if she wanted to.

But she hesitated, because the truth, the absolute truth, was that she didn’t want to kill Jerry. Fuck all of it, but Jerry had somehow, in the strange and brief interactions they had been given, become a person in her eyes. And Alexis Kimball-Styrling would not kill a ‘person’, if she could help it. No. No, she would never do that. Mishhuvurthyar. Automatons. Not people.

The scope drifted a little bit lower.

Injury, she could do.

So where wouldn’t hurt? Where, wouldn’t hurt?

The crosshairs drifted. Back and forth. Alexis took a slow inward breath, making sure that Deliverance rested in perfect stillness. Making sure that she didn’t breath, anymore. Did Jerry breathe? Alexis didn’t know. Anyway, she held it in. And the crosshairs… caught an arm.

Bam!

Stripe dropped the LAOW and quickly reached for his HPDMR and started firing at the militants with both the Rifle and shoulder mount, taking care to stay out of melee range. He couldn't hear anything- perhaps he should have thought things through- so he tried his best to ensure he wasn't caught off guard as a result.

Jaime did something that he hadn't done since his junior days, he went into a shell shock. His ears went to shit as he dropped slowly and picked up his helmet, latching it on before gripping his shield and rifle again. He began to shake himself awake and began firing. His helmet still was broken, and it dropping to the floor ruined its view and damaged the seal. He let it pop back off as his hearing returned slightly. His face looked dark with anger and determination. He marched forward and tore at his closest opponent, letting off a cold scream.

"Stripe, I swear by the end of the fucking day, I will have you fucking HEAD!"

He probably didn't mean, or know really that it was that loud but his anger was real. His bolts switched back and forth from the Automaton to the Sniper's nest. His counter-step was to raise his shield and attempt to fire with his head covered but his accuracy seemed t dip as a result.

Richard had his helmet on when all of the chaos unfolded so the LAOW blast did not deafen him, he could hear clearly, even if it took a moment to catch up to everything that had happened. As things unfolded he made the decision to remove his helmet once more. This cyber neko needed to be dealt with. Once he looked over however, he had a moment of pause, she looked so pathetic, but he had a job to do and he didn't want to end up dead because he had sympathy. He steeled himself and rose his LSP and pointed it at the neko as he approached. " Stand down! I'm not so good a shot that I can garuntee I wont hit your head if you move."

Sawyer would grumble inside his armor after he'd replaced his helmet, just in time to keep from getting deafened...again by the launch of the LAOW. He'd mutter a few choice curses to himself as he thought about the situation they were in, the steady motion of the activating Militants drawing his eye and causing him to take aim, concentrating the fire of both his railgun and his shoulder mounted minigun on them while he kept the shield as a barrier between them.

The sudden sound of an LAOW launching right next to him rattled Alec. His eats started ringing painfully as he panicked, firing his HPDMR wildly at nothing in particular while screaming. He continued to pull the trigger long after the magazine had emptied and the gun clicked for several seconds. He could just barely make out what Ylfa was saying. Something about no helmets... Well his was busted enough as is and it'd better to be just deaf than blind and deaf. He reloaded his rifle and tried to take aim at the hostile neko thing.

As Sawyer moved, turning to fire on the two Super Militants, Ylfa quickly slid in behind the marine, using him for cover. The minigun's constant roar sent a stream of tracers cutting across the oncoming machines, but they were relentless, nevermind the way they were haphazardly running, always nearly tripping, falling. Armor shattered and tore as his railgun boomed again, sending it sprawling, both their ears ringing. But the third time was perhaps the charm; they were getting used to it, or there just wasn't much hearing left to lose. Ylfa's rifle bucked in her hands, hammering into the second and knocking it down like a target plate. Already, more were rising; momentarily deaf Stripe was quick to get the initiative and follow their lead. Striking down the next and the next, cutting into armor with his fire and breaking limbs at the joints, he quickly thinned the numbers as best he could. But there were so many more rising like bodies from a grave.

For what felt like the longest time, Jerry simply stared as Richard yelled at her, brandishing his gun.

"I - We can't," she spoke, her face stricken with grief. Brandishing its weapon, the Cyber Neko stood its ground as the tip of its weapon pointed at the young man, only for its right arm to suddenly shatter. The blade falling to the ground, the pig tailed Cyber Neko simply stared at its ruined limb before turning around to look upon the shooter. "Alexis..." Tears slipped away from her lifeless, mechanical eyes as the feeling of betrayal and guilt came down on them both. Before more could be said, missiles streamed out as a still dazed Jaime fired. The high explosive projectiles streaked in on both the Cyber Neko and the Sniper, but suddenly veered off at the last second as Jerry's running lights glowed just a little bit more brightly. Still looking up at her new friend, she managed to smile as her remaining limbs shattered, rounds punching through her chest as both Jaime and Alec opened fire on her back.

She fell to the floor with a heavy metallic thud, and the machines stood still. It was over. Just like that. Like flicking a switch, it was all over.

Alexis peered down the scope at what she saw, at the ending of this little drama. She wondered for a moment if she had made the right decisions, from meeting this woman months ago, to ruining her ability to fight, now. Would allowing her to die in battle have been a better option, or had she died anyway?

She wondered.

And Alexis wanted to smoke. And she wanted to drink. And she wanted to take her arm off, set it aside, and go lay down and curl up and be warm somewhere else. The heavy thing weighed on her, making her feel strange and lopsided, even in armor. Suddenly, she just wanted to take it off then and there, but she knew that she couldn’t do that quite yet. Ever since it had been put on her in the Submarine, during that desperate struggle, she and it had been uncomfortably bound together for combat, for sociality, for… anything she needed a right arm for.

But she didn’t really want it. She couldn’t even feel it flex, though it did, when she looked at it.

How must Jerry feel? Had that been why Alexis had fought, at all?

The Marines would be up here soon enough, now; they knew where Alexis was. So with the weary finality of a tired veteran retiring from the field, she drew the barrel of Deliverance back through her peep-hole, cleared the action, checked the magazine. Five shots left. She slung the weapon over her shoulder and began to pick up the spent casings. She would reload them later, as she always did after shooting.

Eventually when that couldn’t hold her attention, she sat down at the bar with its ruined bartender, leaning across to serve her own scotch. The fare on tap was haphazard at best, and might have even been meant to impress her. It didn’t, but she would never have told her buyer that.

It turned out there was ice, apparently just to remind her that she wasn’t quite in hell yet, so she poured a few fingers of whisky and resigned herself to sip at it while she waited for the inevitable.

Stripe cautiously came out, warily keeping an eye out for the Sniper... and irate, deaf team mates. He opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it- no point in speaking when half the team couldn't hear you. Instead, he walked through the room poking around the militant corpses looking for anything else out of the ordinary, keeping an eye out for any which were still rigged to explode.

Richard was ready to shoot when the cyber neko raised it's weapon at him, but he wasn't the one who fired. By time he registered what had happened several more shots had hit the neko. All her limbs were disabled and it would be to apprehend her, the situation had become easier. However some people were over zealous and not listened to orders, as Richard approached the neko she was pierced by several bullets to the chest and collapsed.

The marine quickly covered her to stop any more shots and turned his head towards his own squad members, rather angry. "Top said -alive- you idiots!" He crouched down and checked for any signs that she might still be alive, he wasn't sure if she even had a pulse to begin with though. Either way there was value in bringing her back even if it was reverse engineering after her death, so he picked her up with mixed feelings, unsure where her allegiance was exactly.

"Well fuck," the Sergeant said allowed to the squad in general. "Congratulfuckinglations." gesturing to the downed Neko with her HPAR. "Y'all just killed a god damned unicorn." watching Richard lift the limp form. "How many Nekovalkyrja did you all know like that? None! And now its a corpse." hunching her suit's shoulders, the veteran muttered. "The IPG are going to have a field day shitfitting over this."

In his own armor, the Corporal in the group would shake his own head and mutter about the stupidity of boots before he spoke. "Oh joy, I love when we have to go through institutional scab picking with the IPG. This is going to be so much fun." In an incredibly sarcastic tone would come through the comms and through his external speakers. His armored body would then turn to look at the bar where he saw a figure sitting on one of the chairs and he'd send a close-beam comm to Ylfa "Top, I'm going to go find out just who that is sitting in that burned out bar over there, it might be our sniper."

Jaime's eyes began to refocus, but he swore that he was aiming at LIMBS not the damn heart. He didn't say anything but the look on his face was evident. Prepare to lose your bars you stupid fuck... He knew that deep down this was his fault and he couldn't put it off. He began to look like he was to say something before he began to look around the room. His head hurt, his body hurt, the spot where his cybernetics met his shoulder hurt, and now he was going to probably be masted and shot for incompetence. He let out an audible sigh.

He felt his head wander up to the sniper's nest and he noticed a figure at the bar and the sniper's nest oddly quiet. He squinted to make out the figure since his helmet lay somewhere around him almost in pieces. He looked at Ylfa with an exhausted, woeful look then spoke, "Somebody's up there, and I haven't been shot yet," his voice became tired and winded, "and besides the damned minefield, I think they gave up trying to kill us."