RP: NSS Kestrel EPISODE 1, PART 1: Flight of the Falcon

Ian leaned against the hull of the Kestrel, watching the others going about their busy work. He considered pulling off his helmet and searching for a cig or two, but decided against it, especially with blasts going off left and right. He flipped on his mic.
"Come on Marines! Let's hustle! Get this shit movin'!"

Valen heard Ian's orders over the comm just as he reached the sensor tail. He hurriedly moved a few heavy containers, with a little trouble, to get to the sensor terminal. The terminal was locked internally! "Alright, Tori, now it's your time to shine," he said as he manually plugged his laptop into the terminal. Tori digitally transferred herself into the terminal and began to chip away at the security barrier with it.

Jonah worked his way to the Kestrel. Pushing his way through the mobs of crazed people and personel. He cursed and spat out insulting words as those who rushed and ran into him. Eventually he made his way fully over to the laying ship. Marines were at work loading crates on, and other bustling activity was going on as the booms and explosions could be heard outside and inside the station.

He wasn't going to report to an officer or anything. He just wanted to get in a power armor and put some holes into these bastards. Who he guess were most likely Reds. He dashed throughout the area, eventually finding an AIR2 Power Suit to throw himself into. He straightened himself, as he threw himself into the Suit. He shifted in the slightly padded space as he strapped himself in. He interfaced himself into the controls, the systems all driving on as he felt the coldness come over him as took control of it.

He ran a sensors check as to possibly find out anything about what was going on. Then he noticed something, in the tunnels about to enter. The signal was obscure and hard to get off, but he knew they were Reds. Though how many or how well equipped he could not tell. He simply knew, that the action was about to begin. He spoke into the mic of the Suit.

"Reds in the Tunnels! Most likely stealthed!"

Ian pushed off the hull and stood straight.
"The fuck you say, Marine?"
Ian ran the loader on his FMD to pull in two Red shells.
"MARINES! WE GOT SOME DICKS COMING IN! PUMP THOSE FUCKERS!" He raised his weapon and pointed it towards one of the entrances while running a scanner check to see if Jonah was accurate or not. Unfortunately, he was.
"Hey, Marine, load some shells! We're the first line!"

Jonah heard the ranking officers words. He loaded two red shells as well into his FDM. He braced himself as he watched the entrance, waiting for the Reds to make their entrance. In the mind of Jonah, the first bastard that would come out of the tunnel was going to be a dead idiot. His sensors told him the Reds were almost there. He would see his first real action now.

He and the ranking Marine were the ones who would recieve these bastards and give them one hell of a welcoming. Jonah felt sweat at his forehead, he couldn't fathom why though. He had trained for this, he had prepared for years to take these rebel scum out. But now was his chance to shine, to kill these people whom he had hated. He didn't know the other Marine, but he liked his idea of how to handle this. He spoke out, into his comm. As he saw the blurry image of the stealth suit move to the entrance, blazing at a fast speed.

"Let's give these bastards one hell of a show, Come On!"

He said these words, iced with anger as he fired his FDM. Firing the two Explosive rounds into the entrance of the tunnel, and into the oncoming Reds.

Rudie Anderson watched as one of his Dark Demon-suited comrades flew backwards, smashing into another soldier, and sending the both to the floor. The man who had taken the NAM Shell screamed, holding up a bloodied stump of an arm.
"Sir! If we come out the tunnel they'll blast us!"
"Shut up, Norbie. Biggs, take out those g-durn lights. We gotta get those folks down and out real quick-like. Command won't take any mess-ups on our part."
The short lieutenant shifted in his powered Kylie suit, it's black paint barely reflecting light.
Biggs nodded. He moved his bulky frame towards the doorway, and looked outside. From his vantage point, he'd have some trouble getting all the lights.... and then he grinned. He saw a fusebox mounted on the wall.
"Lieutenant Anderson! I can see a fusebox... I think this might work..."
Biggs raised his rifle, the long white stripe pointing straight down his arm lining up perfectly with his target. He pumped the trigger once...

-----------------------

"Ah shit..."
Ian looked up as the lights dimmed into a sort of almost-twilight, just bright enough to tell if your hand was an inch from your own face.
Ian swore. Red wasn't good enough anymore. A moment later, the two red shells were expended towards the entrance the reds were using to enter. They were replaced in the barrel by something far more sinister. Even in the darkness, the bright neon green was just barely visible.
"Watch out! These fuckers are sneaky!

------------------------

Rudie felt the concussion from the two red shells impacting behind him, and saw one of the status lights on his HUD go from green (Decent Condition.), to yellow (incapacitated) to red (deceased.) in the space of several seconds. Luckily, Anderson had already cleared the door. He raised his forearm, his aether weapons activated.
"Charge them, mah fellow Neplesians!"
An instant later, energy of all types was loosed upon the marines.

Casey had decided to try to stay back when the Reds began their assault, he would just get in the way, his clumsy piloting might get one of them killed. His suit rattled with the station from the shockwaves off the explosive shells fired. Awwww... no... he groaned in his head. Lights would be critical in fighting.

He smiled. Time to go to work. He waited for Ian to fire the two explosive rounds and used the split second of mayhem to break out from under the spaceship. He raced to the fuse box with a slight stumble or two, trying to stay behind boxes and doing his best not to alert the enemy to himself by knocking anything over.

When he came upon the fuse box, it seemed like it didn't exist any more, the metal surrounding the large hole sheared off in all direction. He drew up specs of the electrical work on the station, his HUD automatically highlighting wires used for the bay lights. Damn, where are my tools. He hadn't thought about equipping his armor with them when he jumped in. He sighed and smiled, mumbling: "Improvise." It was one his favorite parts of engineering, making your own solution to a problem.

He activated his Pulse Laser Array, forcing the computer to lower it's power output to a heat where it could just bond the wires. He pulled spare wires from the station's other, and currently useless, systems, water pumps and filtration for example, and started working on re-wiring the lights. Only now did he speak to his fellow marines. "Hey guys, lights should be up ina sec, but I don't wanna get shot in the back, any help would be well appreciated."

Stromm, preoccupied with the things he was carrying, carelessly dropped his items when he heard that the Reds were on their way. The Sergeant found some cover distancing away from the enterance, but with a good enough view to make his FIRE effective. He kept quiet as the Cadet barked orders, the cyborg figured to keep his authority to himself if Ian wished to do it. Though, he would try to make sure to cover any points of command the ID-SOL missed.

When the lights went out to almost darkness, Stromms head twisted and turned around, looking to see what had happened. His natural paranoia began to grip him again. Things like this made him edgy and uncomfortable. Yet, it made him a bit more ready, he was more reactive, more prone to action than hesitation.

This was what happened when the Reds began their charge, the Sarge put himself in a ready stance, and unloaded a full-power PAL round straight into the enterance. While using the PAL in his left, he raised his right and put down a continuous spray of chaingun fire into the enterance.

"Any FIRE's available need to be here, now, and putting down what ever support fire they can on the incoming reds!" The Sarge barked through an open channel, hoping that the other Marines would catch it without the Reds knowing if they had more than one FIRE or not.

Ronan rushed to the AIR2 power armor when he heard the orders, finally they were getting some actions. The neural probe entering in contact with him and he moved the fingers and arms of the machine slightly just to test that everything was in order. Apparently a few reds had managed to get in and they had to fight them a bit until they managed to get out.

"Computer release observation probe"

The observation probe were released and apparently due to the kind of power armor the reds were using it was hard to tell them apart with any kind of sensor. This might prove to be a problem, well then back to do it the old fashion way.

Someone sent a communication about having light up in a second and apparently didn't want to get shot in the back as soon as the lights would be on and Ronan decided to position in himself not too far from the man.

"I got your back, in position."

The monoeye came quite handy as he was able to see everything in a 360 radius and armed his PPG and the NAM FMD. Putting two green bullets in the chamber, this would come quite in handy as soon as the lights were on.

"Come out and play!"

Red that was perfect, maybe his father would hear of this little confrontation who knew.

Zervus, stayed in engineering waiting for his next order and making sure the engines would be able to run when needed. He looked around and noticed that the marine, who had helped him, had left. Zervus made sure his arm was sufficiently implace and waited for further instructions.

Shit... anti-matter's out...
"You stupid shits! Move outa there! The damn reds aren't gonna fuckin' wait!"
Ian reached for his thigh, and ripped free a vibro-blade. He saw numerous shifts in the dark, trying to figure out who was who. Small blips on his radar were all over the place, with only Casey, Ronan, and one other armor visible. Ian pointed his blade at one of the sensor wisps and was preparing to rush when a number of white discs of energy streamed from the darkness towards him.
"OH SHIT!" The cadet careened his armor away from the aether shots and rammed his shoulder into the Kestrel's hull.

-------------------

Rudie furrowed his eyebrows as the energy missed the Green Cadet, but decided it was fine when an unarmored technician, who happened to be standing in a very wrong place at a very wrong time, took the shots. Blood and steam filled the area around him. The man barely had time to scream.
Glancing once more at his sensors, he picked up the two armors heading for the fuse box.
"Norbie, Ficks, check on that fusebox. Don't let those Green yellowbellies turn those lights back on."

The two reds complied, and looked towards the box. They raised their weapons and fired, small blasts kicking up everywhere.

-----------------

Ian was hesitant. He didn't want to fire the anti-matter for fear of annihilating his allies, but this had to stop. He sighted a slight movement, a good ways away from the box, pointed his FMD, and pumped two green rouinds out. An instant later, three of the DD armors were silhouted for a bare second, and a massive burst of light filled the entire room.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment, with everything revealed in a garish blast of lethal energy.

Ian felt the automatic reload on his weapon. One white charge, the other blue. "Marines! Find targets and FIRE!" He noticed the Kylie near the center of the red group, and aimed his FMD.
"Come on, red bitch! Let's tango!"

Valen could hear fighting somewhere, but he wasn't sure where. Tori was still working on the security barrier to let him into the terminal. I need to get this stupid sensor tail online! he mentally kicked himself for losing time with moving those heavy containers. Luckily, Tori managed to unlock the terminal. "Thanks, Tori," he whispered as the AI returned to his laptop via the physical link.

After a few moments of fast typing, Valen sighed with success. The sensor tail beeped slightly as it activated. He activated his radio and said, "Bridge, the sensor tail and SaviTech AI are both online. Requesting further orders." Valen unplugged his laptop and proceeded to cautiously leave the area. He wasn't sure if the ship had been boarded yet, but he didn't want to take that chance.

Casey worked, his mind rushing trying to fix the lights before everyone was nipped to pieces by the stealth suits. The hands of the armor making it slightly clumsy work, he contemplated taking one of the gloves off but quickly rethought this when an exposed wire scrapped across the armor, sending small sparks everywhere and leaving black splotches in it's wake.

He smiled, the wires almost fixed. He switched on his commlink, "And Casey said: Let there be light." Heh.. I've always wanted to say that. He smirked as he melted one last wire together, the lights glimmering back on. But he wasn't paying attention to the enemy who were approaching him and his guard. The shots took Casey completely by surprise.

Thankfully, his Water2's powerful shields could take the first few rounds of the energy weapons, the blasts of the enemy's bolts on his shield throwing him up against the wall and the just salvaged fuse box. Sparks issued as the armor grated with the exposed wires, the lights becoming extraordinarily bright, one or two bursting from the intense change in heat. Casey jerked himself away and the lights returned to normal, minus a few.

He was in a dilemma, leave the fuse box and have them just bust the lights again, or stand guard and possibly get shot down. He was definitely not the type to take them on by himself, but with another marine beside him, Ronan, he felt more confident. However, he panicked slightly, he hadn't taken a LBR with him, he only had what was already attached to his armor. He brought up the computer, a quick query to tactics. A pop-up simply said:

"Incoming fire detected.
Enemy strength: Unknown.
Return fire: Arrows.
Distract: Particle Dispenser combined with Mass Mesher.
Find cover."

Casey quickly fired a full salvo of 8 from one legs and followed with the Charged Particles, the explosive arrows streaking out of the charged cloud towards their target. With the blasts from the enemy still raining against him, his shields cut out from the damage, a few rounds sizzling notches into the thick armor of the Water2, one shot hitting some nanomuscle in the right arm, quickly burning it, the heat singeing Casey flesh. He jerked to the side, grunting from the burn, moving behind a cargo box.

"Gravific drive pressure rising normally."

"Plasma turrets warming up in fifteen seconds!"

"Sensor Tail online! Err... Running combat grade sensor sweeps!"

Karl was momentarily stunned by the three new bridge crews that Slade has managed to scourge up. He did not know the names of the new blue suited girls and guys because the came right in, shouted a thing or two and quickly settled down. Now the only station left unattended was the Cloak controls.

"I have the exact positions of the enemy armors, sir. Patching them to the marine contigent." The brown haired man said, cloaked or not, being this close to a starship sensor array was asking for it.

Karl grabbed the external microphone, setting it to direct his voice to the refugees onboard and the marines figthing down below as the Kestrel lifted itself a few feet off the ground, tearing a part of the scaffolding in the process. "This is your captain speaking, get on board because we are busting outta of here!" He shouted as the twelve plasma turrets opened up on the remaining Reds.

Anderson looked back towards the massive flash that had enveloped several of his men, a slight shockwave rolling over his shields. He quickly turned his attention back to the marines near the ship. Raising his Aether cannon-mounted forearms, he began spraying a good deal of fire towards the Green troops.
"Fall back men. Command would deem these casualties too high." He sprayed more fire before turning and heading for the door. He quietly sent a transmission to Biggs as well. "Hit the docking clamps, please. Don't allow the ship to get out without some damage."

Biggs shuffled quickly jumped over to the dock control console, he began flipping switches, pressing buttons. He began to configure the controls to keep the Kestrel from leaving dock so easy. The Red worked quickly, hearing the call to fall back.

Stromm pulled back the PAL weapons case and raised his left chain gun. The intimidating weapons began to unload a string of plasma in the direction of the plasma fire. Though with Aether skimming his head, the Sergeant was forced to take cover in suppression, his supressive fire going with him. "Son of a bitch, that one almost got me!" grunted the Sarge.

Jonah moved behind cover as the hail of Aether fire shot around him. He loaded another two red shells into his FDM, he hissed as a last volley of the shots soared past. He looked out, they were falling back those bastards. Jonah cursed into his comm, then moving from the cover he had taken. He rushed forward towards the tunnel, firing his two shells from his FDM as he crossed the space in an attempt to catch the running Reds. He hissed. "Come back you bastards! Don't you run away from me!"

Anderson turned as a red shell flew past him. He knew he needed to hurry, but killing a marine was an excellent oppurtunity. He charged up his right aether cannon, aimed towards Jonah's leg, and fired a stream of the lethal energy. Rudie Anderson was not necessarily a cruel man, but he was not impractical. Blood would be spilled, and he would bathe in it.

The Sarge watched in surprise as the soldier near him took the gung-ho approach and had rushed forward. "Wait, no you stupid shit!" The Sarge yelled as he tried reaching after him, but he failed. Such a tactic, the one man rush, was a desperation tactic, not to be used in the sight of victory. Yet, the Sarge could only watch as the Marine took off into Reds direction.

"You bastards!" Jonah was all Jonah hissed out before the Aether stream pelted into his leg, blowing it clear off as his suit crashed to the ground from it's sudden loss of balance. The shrieking of metel could be heard as Jonah smashed to the ground. His sensors and own sight blurring suddenly as things fizzled. He grabbed at the ground with his hands, trying to pull himself up as his systems tried to recover from such a powerful blast. Pain surged through Jonah's body as he struggled. Fear entered the edge of his soul as he realized this was the end.

"AH FUCK!" Ian raised his FMD and fired several rounds. "FUCK IT, MARINE! GET BACK HERE! TURN ON YOUR DAMN FLIGHT! NO WAY IN HELL IS THIS SHIT GOING DOWN!" Ian vaulted over one of the numerous obstacles in the room, about to run to Jonah's aid when several of the Dark Demons decided to fire on him. Ian didn't even yell as his armor smashed to the floor and skitted back. He only silently streamed obscenities.

Rudie saw both armors topple down, but was more interested in crushing Jonah than Ian. He took a step forward, and charged his Aether cannon. He did not expell the energy, though. Over the years, he had received many modifications to his prized armor, putting it on par with far newer ones. This was one such modification. The two foot aether blade was quickly raised above his head. An instant later, the short lieutenant had it buried in Jonah's upper chest, then dragging it upwards to the neck to prevent the MEC from kicking in.

Jonah watched as the figure charged up his weapon, creating the long blade that he was sure would end him. He couldn't think of what to do, anything to do. He saw his life flash before his eyes, he was young he realized that. In Jonah's heart, he just wanted to go home. But he saw the blade move for him, he knew his time had come. Jonah closed his eyes and breathed his last breath as the blade buried within the torso. Darkness consumed him.

Stromm watched the Cadet go down as the Red's rather heavy fire fell on him. The Sarge acted quickly, pulling up his right chaingun to suppress the Reds putting down the fire. It was then that he turned his head to see Jonah get scewered by the Red commander. Stromm picked up his left chaingun, and aimed towards the Red. "You fuckin' sack of piss!" The Sarge yelled as the plasma flew.

Rudie switched off his blade, turned and ran quickly to the door as the plasma turrets began to charge and fire. Two of the Red DDPAs bought it, and a round of plasma annihilated the console Biggs stood at, the blast rocking the man's armor. "All of you, pull out! This fight is ovah! Sergeant Biggs! Hurry up, son!" He exited the room with Biggs on his heels just as the remaining soldier were eliminated by Green fire,

Ian stood shakily, the chest of his armor burned and cratered. He felt sick to his stomach. That's one way to start off a fucking career, those damn red bastards. He walked forward slowly, surveying the wrecked docking bay. 9 downed Dark Demons dotted the room, along with several ruined technician corpses. The cadet walked forward, took out his vibro-knife, and began cutting Jonah's body loose of his armor. "Sergeant Stromm, please instruct the marines to pick up our friendlies. Let's get out of here." He put away his knife and roughly pulled Jonah's corpse out. Slinging it over his shoulder, he headed for the ship.

Stromm stopped firing as he saw the Red Commander take off in retreat. Though it was mostly that his gun fire was dwarfed by the magnificent power of the Plasma Turrets. He was only distracted for a few moments as he watched the broadside weapons take full-effect. His attention returned when the Cadet gave orders. "Yes sir." He complied turning as Ian took Jonah's body. "Alright men, you heard him, and I'll be damne if I have to repeat it for a third time. Pick up our dead, they deserve what's proper, and don't let me catch you wasting any of your ammo on the fallen Reds, they arn't worth the waste." Stromm said pointing his chaingun off in a general direction of the fighting field. "Get it done so we can return to the fight." Stromm said, picking up a corpse himself.

Valen managed to sneak his way to the bridge. He didn't want to be noticed by any Reds, so it is better to be safe than sorry. "PC3 Valen Sasorix reporting for further orders, sir!â€

Akane had been sitting in one of the many messes on the station, finishing her meal ignoring the glances her "parentageâ€

Ian didn't gave a wayward glance towards the AIR2 and the small group of civilians headed towards the ship. He stopped and stared at them, Jonah's body still draped over his shoulder.
"Hurry up, Cadet. We're set to leave soon."

Ian then stood and waited for the other warrant officer to reach his position before he entered the ship.

Terra had found the first explosions outside of the ship entertaining, entertaining enough for her to let out a hysterical laugh then go back to sleep. But eventually, the repeated explosions and cries of alarm kept her up from slumber. She got up with a cat like meow as she got up and quickly threw her uniform on. Grabbing her .45, she darted out the door.

She made her way through the hallways, passing the cauterized tunnels, and dying civilians as she moved in no real specific direction. Though, by sheer twist of fate, she came to the main hangar. Seeing the hails of gunfire back and forth from the Greens and the Reds. And the apparent suicidal charge of one of the Marines, which ended in his demise. She stood silent for a few minutes, just watching the fight go back and forth with amusement.

Terra quickly scuttled among the ruined crates and debris, eventually finding one of the few AIR2 suits left for her to claim. This one had forgone the FDM for the Type-1 Rifle. Terra liked this even more, the more shooty the Suit had, the better it was. She moved inside, setting herself down. She watched as the systems and sensors came online. Then, she heard the call for a falling back.

The Nepleslian woman moved quickly over to the ship, the stride of her suit even playful as to her personality. She saluted and giggled as she spoke to the man standing outside of the ship.

"Soldier, 3rd Class Terra Ferell here for some damn good duty!"

As the commotion raged on outside the NSS Kestrel, Slade finally returned to the bridge with another small handful of civilians. He was lucky; a few of the men and women he had found holed up in the storage bays did indeed have experience flying civilian vessels, but none of them had any military experience. Slade didn't have the luxury of time to teach them, and simply sent them to the bridge. Anything was better than the current captain.

As Slade moved into the bridge, he shoved Valen harshly to the side. "Out of my way marine. You, report," Slade said, pointing a finger at one of the civilian crew members at the nearest console.

"U-uh...we're ready to take off I think. We just need to open the bay doors."
"Good. Make it so."

As Dominic gave his orders, he peered onto one of the many data screens littering the bridge. To his slight delight, a number of the ship systems were online, and ready. After a moment of thought, Slade turned back to the marine he had just pushed out of the way. A quick look at his rank plate revealed that this marine was a technical sentry. Dominic waited until the marine had recomposed himself before giving another set of orders in his usual commanding tone.

"Alright marine. I want you to go down to the torpedo bays. There should be some crates in there, as well as a few in the storage bays. I want every torpedo on this ship loaded and ready, understand?"