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

Stripe looked at Ylfa strangely. "Why the frack would I use an AXE to SHOOT a BUTTON to close the door!? No, I'm going in a charge shield-first to shut the door, then getting the frack away as fast as I can."

Then he returned his focus on his goal.

"Roger!" Alec dropped his rifle and pulled the LAOW up to aim. He slid to the side to aim and make sure it was clear behind him. "Firing!" He shouted over the comms as he sent a rocket down range towards the massacring machines.

As he rocket soared towards the target, Alec was already back to rifle ready to cover Stripe. "I'll keep you covered from here."

Jamie laid down fire towards the advancing machine-horde. He moved slightly away from the shuttlecraft and launched more calf-missiles. "I've got your covering fire, just hurry the HELL up!" He continued for burn through his ammunition.

He laughed through comms, "We came from a warship with guns, and are we ever going to bring in the heavy artillery?" It was half sarcasm, half futility.

"Sledge Mama, you think you can poke a few holes in this base so we have more options if this opening fails?" Stripe asked as he made sure his Shoulder Railgun could fire over the shield.

"Going for the panel in three, two, one, MARK!" Stripe shouted as he rocketed forward, shield up covering him from enemy fire while his axe at the ready, Railgun desperately trying to keep a path clear.

Sawyer would simply shrug, setting his shield and then moving to get a better spot as he let out volleys of fire from his shoulder minigun while his railgun rested against the side of the shield, punching out a round every few seconds, aimed deliberately at the oncoming war machines, seeking to disable one after the next.

Even though the Marine had been entangled, brawling with the automatons, hanging back and drawing their attention had worked. Being bait always sucked. The remainder of the squad they were attached to had gotten out with little fire coming their way. HUD icons flickered announcing shield status and with a curse their Hostile's PPG system came to life, barreling them further away from he oncoming horde and with a little flip, the machine landed on their feet.

The longsword went over their back, a magnetic plate holding it in place while both hands now held onto their HPAR. The weapon spat out superheated liquid metal at the charging Militants. But that was not all, with a warning to all the present Marines. Covers popping open along the unit's right calf, a missile streaked forth, a series of TRACERs aimed toward the group of Militants intended to broadcast telemetry and sensor data just before what came next. Meanwhile from the left calf, and a split second later a DART burst forth to scramble their sensors and lay down a thick gout of smoke to obscure their optics and allow some much needed maneuvering undercover directly in the middle of their formation. The Hostile's HPAR barked silently in vacuum. Even if the Marines couldn't see, with the TRACERs fired at the robotic death machines, they'd still get at least some sensor data to facilitate weapons locks before becoming completely useless.

Missiles fired, the Marine's underslung UMD Launcher let loose a RED round to cause a bit more havoc amongst the enemy.

Richard had been slow to react to the situation, he had a minigun ready to fire but the first thing to show were allies, who then made it rather difficult to shoot at the enemies behind them. He had no option but to move to a different location to try and get a better angle. From his new vantage point he could see how things were playing out, there was enough cover and distraction at the hall to keep Stripe alive and make things work. But they also needed to get the hangar shield up. He decided to make a move for hangar command, making a quick 'jump' with his thrusters. He mad his landing with the minigun in one hand and the new model long sword in the other, it would serve much better in close-quarters if there were any surprises. He made his way in carefully looking around as he did and then heading over to the console to try and access it and turn the hangar fields back on.

"If that's what you're going to do, don't mince your words - I'm covering!" Ylfa yelled over to Stripe, the rifle in her hand hammering away.

The launcher in Alec's hand let loose a streak of fire into the hallway ahead, but the missile fell short - one of the leading Super Militants leaped forward, and thrusters burning, collided with the projectile. Vanishing in the soundless blast, the rumble dull in their suits as it conducted through the floor, the machines kept on coming. Both sides were exchanging fire, and every moment the Militants got the upper hand, no matter how brief, moved up from side room to side room, closer and closer to the mouth of the hall. Right then and there though, new sensor data started pouring onto their HUDs as smoke enveloped the hall; the sword-wielding marine from earlier still had their backs! With the spreading smoke, the Machines tried pushing, but she slammed them back down as her underbarrel mass driver sent a high-explosive into the mess. With each trigger pull, Alec's HP-DMR would spit out powerful, precise death, but it still took a few good rounds to bring down their shields and finally crack open their hulls in a shower of sparks.

As Jamie let out burst after burst of rifle fire, he decided to chance it again despite the chilling scene from before. A cluster of BOLT mini-missiles streaked out from his calf launcher, and unlike before, the machines ducked for cover as the scene in front of them was temporarily burned away by the flash and rumble of anti-matter fueled fire. The entire hallway was black and burnt now, but the machines kept on popping up out of the woodwork like undying, apocalyptic roaches. In the middle of all this, Stripe made one last request before he made his move. Short, brief bursts of plasma splattered against his shield as he moved forward, but the squad held firm; they weren't going to gut him, not now! Sawyer's shoulder minigun sprayed down a stream of tracers with a 'Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt!', forcing the Militants into cover, only to be followed up by the cannon-like boom of his large bore railgun. Parts literally flew as shields collapsed, limbs being dislocated or torn out of their sockets.

As Stripe made it to the side of the hall and slammed his armored hand into the button to close the blast doors, Richard made his way into the hangar's command center. Blasted open and exposed to space, he could see the remains of a plain, original Militant which had prompted the heavy firepower from some previous squad. However, luck shined for both marines. Shields popped into place as atmosphere hissed back in. Down below, the thick, heavy doors slowly slid closed. It was then however, they heard it.

"Hun? You're asking for a scalpel from the Sledge Mama," they heard the ship reply to Stripe. "Try getting there first with this, then I'll consider coming in swinging~" As Stripe's armored fist brought the blast doors slowly grinding to a close, air hissed back into the hangar as a shield popped into place thanks to Richard's efforts. But most of all? An armored giant fell into the hangar as several crates of ammo and supplies followed.

An Aggressor stood there, lonely and waiting for its pilot.

"Squad, grab those heavy shields, we're going to shove our way in deep," Ylfa spoke with some relief, reloading her rifle. "And Sawyer? You said you specialized in running those?"

Sawyer would smile wolfishly inside his hostile as he took off at a sprint for the Aggressor suit. His voice would come out of his comms to the rest of the squad. "On it Top, and yes I do specialize in Aggressors. Cover me everybody, I'm going to be rather exposed while I get into this monstrosity." As he said that, he'd slam to a stop right by where he'd be entering the Aggressor, facing his armor exit to the entrance of the other armor to prevent having that much exposure as he popped the back of his armor out and veritably leapt across to the Aggressor, popping it open and clambering inside as he smiled, starting the diagnostics and grabbing his heavy shield back from the Hostile.

Jaime looked over at the Corporal jump into his new toy, He sighed and smiled beneath his armor, "Any more fun ceiling Aggressors?" He sprinted over to the heavy shields, grinding his feet against the hanger floor. He reloaded his rifle and took a heavy sprint to the shields and supplies. He then put suppressing fire down and dove to the cover of the boxes, so the rest of the squad could rearm and shield up.

"Laying Down Suppressing Fire!" He pulled the trigger making the bursts longer than before but still somewhat accurate. "Come re-up and get back into the fight!"

Taking a quick glance at his armour, shield and weapons to see what there state was, Stripe let out an shakily elated "Hoorah! That's how it's d-"

His speech came to an halt as he stumbled once he saw the 'gift' from the Sledge Mama. "Sledge Mama? I take all my grumbling and moaning back. All of it." Stripe stated happily, somewhat high off adrenaline, as he proceeded to search for a Rocket Launcher or some Explosives, as well as any gear he needed to replace.

Satisfied with the effect of their aid, the Hostile brought their HPAR up, placing a hand against an armored dispenser on the suit. A red striped soda-can sized round soon found its way slotted into the underslung UMD Launcher. The mass driver emitting a low-grade whined pitch as it fit snuggly into place. The large weapon moved smoothly in the Hostile's armored hands with a bespoken, practiced ease.

To anyone bothering to glance at the longsword wielding Hostile, 'Yuriko Towa, Sergeant, Easy Platoon' popped up on their HUD's IFF display. It however made no move for the shields. Instead glancing back down the hall where the other squad had fled. Not following suit, it instead released its sole Recon Drone to flit about the area and gather data. "Who's the squad leader for this unit?" a feminine voice spoke over their squad net, the easy drawl of Los Apagos tinging the words.

Alec barely registered massive care package slammed into the hangar, still somewhat in shock from how ineffective the LAOW proved before looking and seeing the Aggressor and a hefty cache of ammo waiting for the them. He backtracked towards the ammo as he tried to keep up his covering fire, using the push/pull system to cover the ground more quickly. He reached over and tried to grab some clips for the HP-DMR with one hand and maybe searched for some sort more ordnance for the LAOW just in case.

"Master Sergent Diadottr, ma'am!" he replied to the new voice over the net as the sounds chaos rang around his suit. He didn't want point her out though, remembering what happened the last night he almost made it obvious on who the lead was.

Jamie lifted his fire, and stood up. The barrel had begun to steam with the atmosphere restored. "I think they're pinned or they ran off." He grabbed a shield and changed the drum of his HPAR tossing the used one to the ground at the foot of the crates. He mounted the shield to his back and used his left arm to feel for his folding axe. It was still attached. He raised his HPAR back towards the hall, looking at his HUD to see where everyone was. He saw the off-named Hostile but didn't speak, just thought.

He saw that the others were starting to get back to the supplies. He let out a sigh and queued up his mic, "Ready."

As Sawyer scrambled to get to the armored giant, random shots flew by as Jaime poured one long burst after another down into the closing gap to try and suppress the enemy.

Cold and stubborn, the machines weren't having it. Yellow and blue tracers crossed paths as the two sides exchanged fire, but with a solid, heavy thump which shook their feet told them what they needed to know. The passage was finally sealed. As Stripe cheered and Sawyer clambered into his suit, Ylfa sighed. Things were never easy for a Marine on the Sledge Mama. At least things were calm, for now; Stripe already managed to find himself a few more of the experimental rocket tubes - the LAOWs - and some mini-missile speed loaders as well. Carrying those around was a hazard in and of themselves since a good hit could set them off, but a crafty marine could make use of them. Especially since the suit itself could 'talk' to the missiles. Meanwhile, Sawyer found himself in an Aggressor loaded with mostly BLUE rounds and just a few REDs; it made sense, considering what they were up against, and they didn't want the base to collapse on them either.

"Bummer - nobody pointed me out for me to get picked off," the woman sarcastically replied to Alec. Though she smiled in her helmet, it wasn't like anybody could see. Looking at the 'newcomer', she greeted her in turn. "Ylfa Diadottr, Master Sergeant of Bravo Squad. It's nice to see a big, damned hero for once. Though, there's no contact with Alpha with all the static these 'Spacers are throwing around, so we're sticking to our orders." Grabbing herself a heavy tower shield for herself, she asked, "What was your squad's? Search and Destroy, or Catch the Rabbit?" Though Ylfa watched Jamie reload and ready himself out of the corner of her eyes, it was Kelly that worried her. The Freespacer AI was poking at the remains that were blasted into the hangar from the fight, and held one of their heads in her Hostile's armored hand.

Worse still, they only managed to save three marines out of the five that arrived. These were bad odds. But they were going to turn this around.

After a moment of thought, Stripe carefully wrapped the Mini Missile Loader in such a way they were cushioned and tied the package to the inside of his shield, and picked up a LAOW.

"Alright, so what's the plan? They'll blow the door open at some point, and I'd rather either have an ambush set up or be elsewhere." He stated frankly as he carefully tested to ensure the package would stay tied to the shield. "Honestly, both would be nice if we could booby trap the door... does this hanger have any other ways in?"

Stripe looked around the hanger carefully, satisfied that he wasn't casually about to blow himself to kingdom come. "Ducts, conveyors, maintenance hatches? Something?"

Sawyer would check over his inventory, seeing that he had an AOP instead of his normal AMP he figured he'd be doing more of an explosive fire support role this time, his twin plasma chainguns however were already spooling up in preparation for when they started to move more deeply into the facility. He'd retrieve his heavy shield as well as the other weapons that he'd had with his Hostile, setting them into the edtra hardpoints oon the Aggressor and grabbing ammo for them, he anted something other than pure explosive death for a primary weapon. After he got done running system checks he'd send his comms over to Ylfa. "I'm up top, all geared up and prepped for battle."

Jaime sighed and looked around for other areas of advance. His thoughts began to wander, even though he was only a Private First Class, he still checked his HUD afterward to see if everyone was still up and at 'em. He looked at Stripe, "Probably has a few access ways, just need to get them open." He lowered his weapon across his chest, and began looking for access doors. He thought back to training and the impromptu lessons from wartime. "Even if there is somewhere we could go, Stripe's right. We'll need to haul ass out of here before that door goes down."

Alec took the moment to catch his breath from his first actual firefight. His heart was still racing from it all before he did his best to remain calm as he changed out his magazine and grabbed himself a light shield and another LAOW just in case before joining the others in looking for another access route. "I mean if all else fails we could always just make another entrance. Provided we feel inclined to."

If it were possible, Yuriko's Hostile appeared thoughtful, at least in pose and gesture as it brought its Recon Drone back aboard. "Rabbit." came the response followed by a spreading of the arms and the sliding over of the hero remark, "Unfortunately we did not make it far. These Militants are new models. Armor seems tougher than their standard tungsten-belted plating and buckypaper. I could be wrong, quantity over quality." the Hostile rolled one of its hands as that easy Los Apagos drawl carried on.

Nudging the drone, it floated back to its container. The information on their present location it had gathered flickering on the individual HUDs. "That should provide us," she used the word quite confidently, "with the location of hatches, vents, access ways." the Hostile leveled the barrel of its HPAR toward the deck. "Since I'm here, I think I will stick with you guys."