RP [Fall of Osman] Operation 'Hard Hedoro'

Column to the Highway

When he volunteered for assignment to the 1st Fujiko Expeditionary Unit, Specialist Second Class Cliff Radcliffe had been promised some combat action. From the reports from Alpha Company to their experience thus far, it was seriously making him doubt he was ever going to finally send some hate to the NMX squidies those former NMX nekos were always talking about. Not that he had any real personal reasons to want beyond that they were squids, he was a fairly fresh Lily-Type Artificial Nepleslian that knows of them only second hand.

He looked out of commander optic at the devastation of the terrain located at the top of the remote controlled turret. He flipped through thermal, ultraviolet, and lidar settings to get an overall feel of it all. The FSC had one hell of a battle against the NMX, that much is for sure.

1st Platoon's 3rd Squad had slowly become just as bored and laxed at the vehicle commander with the trend of "Ghost Cats". Despite repeated orders for Serviceman Apprentice Demetrius Vermillion to close the troop bay's right upper hatch and sit down by his squad leader, Demetrius continued to be an atypical Red thinking he was more useful actually looking as opposed to looking through the sights located right next to him. Eventually his squad leader decided Demetrius was just going to possibly learn the safety lesson the hard way.

"What are we even doing here?" Specialist Third Class Alex Sato, gunner for the lead Ironblood IFV, remarked as his left eye was glued to the gunner's scope as he sweeped the turret from side to side looking for targets.

"You'd have to take that up all the way to the Board of Executives. Just mentioning NMX should have gotten the Cats into a blood rage yet the Star Army of Yamatai is nowhere near here. Just shows how much of a cesspool of genetics this group of homo sapiens sapiens must be." Cliff simply replied back. Before he could continue bashing on the Osmanians he was cut off by Alex.

Seeing something on top of a hillock, he instantly switched to the coalition commnet to alert everyone. "Contact!!" Alex exclaimed, not seeing enough to properly say anything beyond that. He just knew whatever it was was out of place enough to clearly be a weapon system of some kind poking out.

"Bravo Company, mounted echelon left and bounding overwatch to flank in sequence! 1st and 4th platoons set. 2nd and 3rd Bound. Mortar teams set up at this location and fire a visible, IR, and UV lumination round on that hillock!" Ben Daeng said, commanding his company into action after his IFV's Olivia quickly determined the general point of origin of the weapon fire from the tracers. The barking sounds of the 14 Reds' Desert Wind Autocannons filled the once silent outer edges of the midport, slinging High Explosive Fragmentation rounds straight at the hillock.

Not knowing where exactly the target was, the gunners were firing only in the general direction with the aim of making whoever is there keep their heads down. The dismounted infantry added to the display of firepower as those not presently bounding sent down their hate with the "Cao" General Purpose Machine Gun and NRM's particle beam rifle, letting out their frustration for not firing their weapons at the general direction of the hillock as well.

"Jiao, move us behind that building 11 o'clock 200 meters!" Cliff said as he attempted to maneuver the IFV into some form of cover with just the turret sticking to provide.

"Aye aye Specialist!" Servicemember Apprentice Ingrid Jiao said as she looked through her optics and proceeded to move.

Both Alex and Ingrid saw the telltale sights of a missile. The IFVs not really having point defense systems, he proceeded to try to use the anti-air capabilities of the Desert Wind to destroy it but was it actually evading? Despite his best efforts the missile was still coming in.

"Ah shit!" they said in unison on the internal comm net. The Ingrid attempted to evade by driving sharply to the left in an attempt to have the engine compartment take the brunt of the damage with their shields being depleted by the previous weapons fire. But the thing about the drivers' optics is that it was really only fine tuned for looking forward and to the sides, it wasn't really designed to look above beyond just giving the driver general spatial awareness. The impact of the weapon was not as close as she was anticipating and she forgot the Ironblood can be unstable when making hard turns at top speed.

The cabin and troop bay of the Ironblood IFV was filled with even more colorful language as individuals, secured in their safety harnesses, were tossed about within their seats as the IFV commenced rolling. While their Paradin Infantry Armor Kit kept them safe from much of the hard typical of a roll over, it didn't keep them completely safe from the forces of gravity. At least they did not end up like the idiot.

Not listening to his squad leader, Demetrius was ejected from the IFV, having managed to ducked into the troop bay right before being cut in half. Just as protected as his squadmates and crewmembers, he had the worst of it with his arms and legs spread like a star as he cartwheeled several feet into the air before smashing with added force into the hard surface. Bouncing, he landed for a second time before rolling to a complete stop. If he was human or not a Raijin Type Artificial Nepleslian, he would be dead. But at this moment, he really was wishing he was.

"And this is why you don't hang out of your vehicle like that with expected enemy contact like Servicemember Recruit Vermillion right there." Ben said, giving him a demotion right on the spot, one of the worst demerits a Red could give: public demotion and humiliation to teach a point. Not that anyone really was paying that close attention to the spectacle.

As Bravo Company moved, the 3 81mm "Jade Stinger" Mortar Tubes of the company's weapon platoon arrived at their designated spot with cover to operate behind. Not taking the time to set up the base of the tubes, each tube was loaded with a respective type of illumination round as the gunner digitally linked with the tube's targeting systems. Looking at the hillock, they adjusted the angle of the tube until the indicated path and programmed point of explosions was roughly where they wanted due to the lack of stability the base would provide. Sitting back down behind their cover and a press of a button on the tube, the illumination rounds were sent down range.

Charmaylarg Dufrain said:

Furthern down the line in the convoy one of the FSC units picked up a crackling, distorted transmission on their common net of undiscernible words in a male tone as they picked up tidbits here and there.

Click to expand...

"What's going on down there?" Captain Tyson asked tersely. His radio responded with the voice of a young man explaining a stray radio signal and tracer fire. "Oh, that might be bad. Figure it out, Specialist. Get that transmission figured out. If they ain't Squiddies make 'em stand down." His mecha began to ascend to peek over his covered position and set gently down atop the nearest building, its feet sinking into the asphalt roof. Its outriggers lowering and howitzers leveling with the hilltop. The cannons whined as the capacitors charged. "All units, Tyson here. Please ID the force, they might be locals."

The howitzer displays showed no payload in the breeches, exactly what he wanted. Using the telescopic gunsight he aimed at the base of the hilltop, where the impact would be less-lethal but the boom would make even the boldest of men piss themselves under the force of a compressed earthquake. "Time for some shock and awe. Let's see if these are really soldiers or just scared kids," he muttered as he adjusted the fit of his sound-proofed helmet, "Red boys, cover your ears if you don't have ear pro. Graviton howitzers are being fired." A moment later light warped at the tip of the long barrel and the flash of a black streak tore through the sky with a terrible, thunderous roar that most would describe as pure evil. The ground around the point of impact shook with the force of a mighty earthquake and scattered earth 25 meters into the air. The echo of the horrible roar echoed out as the impact reported. If these weren't hardened soldiers, they'd run. If they were NMX they'd need new drawers, and if they were FSC or local defenders they'd know EXACTLY what that blast was from and who they were fighting.

Mid-Port

As Bravo Company laid down suppressive fire towards the hillock, the loud crack caused a number of them to look towards the source of the discharge of energy. Their helmets muffled some of the power of the soundwaves produced, but the Reds' enclosed combat helmet was not designed to be soundproof.

"What the frack was that!?!" One Red infantryman said as he momentarily lost his focus of shooting at the base of the hillock.

Commercial District

"Where did those birdmen go to?" a voice on the Reds internal communication network rang in the ears of every Red within Charlie Company of the 1st Expeditionary Battalion, 1st Fujiko Expeditionary Unit. Charlie Company had moved north mainly to support the Elysians, it quickly dawned on its leadership that they were not acting more like a cavalry scout company down than a mechanized infantry unit. "Recon by force" as the Reds tend to say, though a number of tanks would be with them which they had none.

Each soldier had to pay more attention of their soundings, their sensor data from their helmets being piped into their respective Ironblood IFV so its Olivia AI could parse the data to improve the situational awareness of their respective vehicle commander. Any particularly time-sensitive and/or actionable data was sent directly to Lieutenant Kimura's volumetric display mapping out their soundings with the help of each "sensor" (every soldier is a sensor).

She could only imagine what it was like for the FSC to fight the NMX, looking at the outlines of all the wreckage and carnage from their fighting. She watched as a squad from 3rd Platoon cleared out some ruins along forward of their latest route being mapped out by the Jessie droids scouting further ahead with an ad-hoc scout unit of Hermes Type Reds assigned to the company.

Clearing out locations became increasingly hard as more and more buildings were intact, but at least their routes were becoming less congested, allowing them to start following a more zig-zag pattern (using a map created based on the visual data from the drones above) as they needed to gather more information of what had occured and a place to establish a foothold once they had gotten the general idea of what occured.

"Whoa, what was that?" the gunner of the IFV said when he noticed very briefly the bleep on the thermals. "Olivia, replay the thermal vision on optical 3 in the last minute and confirm." he said as his vehicle commander, a 158cm taun-skinned female with blue eyes and red-orange hair hidden behind her vehicle crewmmember uniform simply looked over to her left to look at him.

After a few moments of waiting as they continued, the IFV's Olivia AI's avatar flashed on to the volumetric display between them. A dark skinned woman with a simply techwear sundress with long dark hair she looked over towards the vehicle commander. "Confirmed, positive infrared contact. Resolution is too for me determine what exactly it is though. Already sent relevant information to Lt. Kimura."

"Column halt!" Lt. Kimura came on the entire Reds' network almost as soon as she finished her sentence. "1st Platoon, clear and hold this position. 3rd Platoon, take and hold waypoint G now marked on the tactical point. 2nd Platoon set up and prepare to provide support to the investigation team at waypoint H." she said, marking each position where she wanted elements of her platoon to gather. That left the weapons platoon, but there was not much for them to do within this environment at this moment. Thus their squads were split between the three others and the mortar teams moving in with infantry squads secured in already cleared buildings.

The IFVs of 3rd Platoon neutral pivoted and together with their infantrymen walking on both sides of their IFVs made their way towards their designation. This was followed by 2nd Platoon as 1st Platoon infantry were in the process of clearing the buildings next to them to setup defensive positions in. Weapons were pointed towards the road in question as 3rd platoon bounded across it in the possible likely case the blip was hostile. Once 2nd and 3rd platoons were in place, their respective infantry begun to clear and set up their own defensive positions.

As this occur a pair of individuals made their way towards the intersection with the Jessie drones assigned to the company in tow. Dressed in cloaks, the two Orion Type scouts crouched down behind some cover before directing two of the Jessie drones with less advanced sensors to work their way up to the thermal source to get a better look at it. Provided nothing occurred, they would start advancing the rest of the Jessies in bounds.

Highway. Day-17 0330 Hours

The shooting did not, in fact, stop even under the fire from the FSC mecha or the new engaged reds of the collum. In fact it took a whole minute and a half; Nearly an eternity in the drawn out perception of time most soldiers had when in combat for the distant FSC garrison to finally get a propper transmission through that was incoherent shouting, static, or muffled background noise.

When the first vehicles reached the elevated hill it was hard not to curse. Vehicles both local, civilian, and military were piled up on and around it like some sort of barricade, and all were burnt. Craters and pock marks covered the entire hill to the point an entire side of the hill had collapsed down in a ramp of dirt only to be filled back over and covered by several light vehicles filled with an expanding construction foam that turned hard as a rock when exposed to the sun.

Ontop of that had once been a small compound with earthen and concrete walls. Now all that was left was three barely standing walls at chest height and a small outbuilding one might generously call a shack.

It was on this hill that from a month prior some thirty seven of a company of formerly one hundred FSC armed security forces had held in order to stop the constant advance of the NMX from completely encircling the city. When the coalition arrived at that exact moment there were four. Bodies littered the entire area, laid over walls, on the ground, strewn about the hillside, covered in dirt, mud, and dried blood and long past reaching the point where some of them had gone beyond festering and now were starting to turn black as they rotted.

The four men didn't even seem to notice. Empty eyes and worn, slackened postures were only offset by their still clean weapons and the two crew served weapons they had managed to keep running. All they had left at that point was ammo after their comrades has lost the ability to use it. So when the coalition finally arrived the seven men; Four now that the blue-on-blue incident had taken three of the few remaining survivors, had entered their sites the men hadn't even checked but to assume it was just more of the NMX they had been watching pull out of the city the past couple weeks. On that, they wearily explained all that they had seen between carefully drinking from canteens offered and nibbling at cold rations that they had run out of close to four days earlier.

The NMX had taken Dawnton. They had done so well ahead of schedule two weeks earlier. But that had only been the end of it. The men told tales of parasites popping up around the city, funneled in through sewers and from upriver. Of unrelenting particle artillery barrages. Of lightning raids and diversionary attacks from powered armor in the sky.

And then, after a month long siege the squids enacted their plan. They had shot down the megashuttle too late. After flying almost straight-down onto the city it was impossible to stop it as it caused a raging inferno to take over in the eastern portion of the city. While that went on neko-sappers already hidden in the city moved about unleashing caches of thousands of parasites smuggled in likely through the sewers and positioned barely a few blocks from the closet entrenched positions of the osman security forces and the two FSC companies in the city. It had been chaos and pandemonium while half the men were tasked into the city to aid in the firefighting only to be ambushed by sappers, and half the remained were fighting a two-front battle between parasite and host on one side, and a renewed shock assault on the other. As soon as the NMX managed to drive their forces like a wedge in from the west the defence was over.

The man explained several days of street fighting and retreating south while trying to protect civilian bunkers and shelters.

a lot of them had been empty or full of parasite hosts. They locked the latter but warned that city was full of hundreds of bunkers with tens if not hundreds of thousands of parasites and hosts by now. By the time his company had made their stand on the hill to keep NMX forces from shortcutting into the eastern parts of the city and those few civilians who attempted to evacuate without boats down the river they could only watch and get into enough skirmishes to keep them isolated while the NMX ferried in and out of the city from the west with miles-long convoys of trucks.

It had been several days since the last convoy had come. And had as of yet no signs of leaving assuming that there were at least a few companies worth of NMX in the city somewhere doing something.

"But the citie's lost." He stated, no sign of reproach, defeat, or even grief but for the factual tone of resignation. "We haven't seen a civilian in two weeks. Only parasites and hosts."

Dawnton. Commercial District.

The couple reds that moved ahead as forward elements down the street were unnerved. Despite their training there was an unnaturalness to a city without streetlights or lamps and but quiet and dark. As their drones moved forwards towards the end of the block there was only their training and the reassurance of all the men at their backs to cover them that kept their steps steady.

One of the iris, unsure of what had tripped the notion to do so found himself, near the end of the block, looking outside of his sector of control. on a sidewalk near a storefront he had looked aside an alley to find nothing but even after moving forwards did a short double-take at a wall on his peripheral. There was nothing there that he could see at a first glance, and yet...

Heart hammering in his head he switched from his thermal vision and froze. It was there, pressed flat against the wall, unnoticed from whatever the armor it wore masked its signature to the wall behind it. Just over five foot tall it... She... didn't wear the usual terrifying mask of most NMX neko but that made it all the more terrifying for the fur that went up her neck to her ears and the cold, intelligent eyes through the simply holographic illusion as the Nightmare watched him with a stoic and assessing gaze. Impossible not to have realized she had noticed him, the Jessie drones too far and his partner not even yet on the uptake the Nepleslian Red Froze.

For what felt like an eternity but was perhaps only a fraction of a second they simply made eye contact. And then his finger twitched to move to his weapons safety.

All the reds down the street around the Ironblood IFVs saw was one of their pointmen fall over. The other moved a few steps and then turned, the click of some kind; Like the clicque of a tongue the only sound until he fell over twitching on the ground. All happening in under two seconds as weapons came up and orders were shouted. One of the scouts was flatlined; No lifesigns to show on any devices but another was still alive even if his heartrate was dangerously high and irratic and he was slowly flailing about on the ground as if trying to roll around in a thick, viscous liquid or in slow motion.

It was at this moment some of the reds noticed the sound.

Hyper-aware as they were it was impossible to miss. Sounding like hail, or a stream of thick rocksalt against metal a few dared look towards the front most IFV. Blacker than the night around them and lacking the right occular vision modes to perceive it properly they didn't see the lance of particle energy for the second it was active. Instead all the saw was a stream of glitter glowing in the night in a trail that passed through one of the building walls and into the side of the armored vehicle.

Then, comically almost, the IFV swelled slightly like a balloon with too little air blown into it and then as the stream of energy finished expanding within the vehicle, killing everyone inside instantly, detonated and cooked off even in their ammo lockers all of the vehicles bunkers of ammo as a fireball expanded from the armored vehicle and a shockwave of heat and force knocked all the reds to the ground and shattered every window for a block.

Not even having time to rise, one of the reds, recently admonished for turning out in a critical environment tried to make sense of what was going on before he was blinded and defended and blood had filled his helmet from his nose and mouth. Wrenching the thing off to breathe in the normally cold air he coughed at the heat and blinked rapidly, confused, as the mask of the NMX neko looked into his eyes mere inches away as blood exploded from his mouth in a cough and the stilletto-like blade in a star-shaped pattern like a wicked flanged spike was wrenched from his neck and with strength belying her small stature his body was wrenched out of the cupola and thrown to the street as without even looking the Neko pulled a canister-like grenade off her side and with the same hand flicked it in a rehersed action as a small light not even bright enough to see unless you were the one holding it flashed to acknowledge it as prime as she neko raised her hand above her about to spike the grenade into the hatch.

Down the street, the stunned scout tried to gain control of his confused body as a small but strong set of hands grabbed him by the armor and dragged him into the nearby alley, the drones down the street that might otherwise have turned to engage the revealed Nightmare disabled on the ground as from either side of the street around the corner of the buildings several forms tuned the corner to fire both at a knee and over those kneeling down the street at the reds and particle and aether-energy fire alike was unloaded into the ranks of the reds...

Mid-port

Bravo Company's pace of firing at the hillock reduced as ammo discipline finally started to calm down and actually focus on what they were doing. Once 2nd and 3rd Platoons had gotten into position, 1st and 4th Platoons shifted their fire to allow the 2nd and 3rd to sweep the hillock. At least that was the plan until the FSC forces at the hillock finally got a clearer transmission through.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!!!" various members of the company's leadership said, waving their arms. One machine gunner, too focused on firing wasn't paying attention. For his focus he got 2 hard kicks into his sides from his squad leader, causing him to roll to the side partially in pain and just from the created momentum.

Highway, Hillock

Ben Daeng was glad he was wearing his helmet, he could only imagine the stench and smell of the hillock upon seeing the carnage. He then directed the medics to start discreetly collecting DNA samples from the corpses FSC and NMX thrall alike. While they were certainly checking with "medispectra" hand-held scanners for causes of death and future identification, it was a half-ruse for their real goal. He doubted he would get them to agree to letting the Reds recycle the bodies for biomass, but at least they might have made this trip worthwhile.

One Red handed one of the survivors a Xenolite Ration pack of a flavor she hated but drew the short straw when opening the crate: Yamatai-Styled Fish Mix. Ben was watching the medics and combat engineers assessing for anything worth examining when Ben's personal Olivia opened a comm channel with him.

"Sir! Charlie Company has made contact with a NMX element of unknown size." she said, prompting him to switch over to the Reds' general communications channel. He winced, lowering down the volume as the cacophony of voices losing their military bearing clogged the channel with their voices, talking on top of each other. But the general feeling from what he could understand was complete confusion and shock whatever was going on over there.


"Get a line with the battalion and appraise them of the situation. This operation is a complete clusterfuck. But we finally have engaged those slippery bastards."

Commercial District
Battle OST

Posted up with his squad from 2nd Platoon on the second floor of a building at the intersection, Serviceman Cliff Zaher looked at the pair of scouts and their Jessie droids approach the source of the thermal signature through the scope of his Type 45 Particle Beam Rifle's Multispectral Marksman Scope linked physically (at the pistol grip) with his enclosed helmet. Switching between thermals and infrared settings, he zoomed in onto the nightmare. Before he could register it as an NMX individual and fire, it was already too late for the scouts.

1 scout fell over as their “dogtag” information disappeared over their head and replaced with a light gray outline surrounding his body with an X indicating his lifesigns had flatlined in the Reds' battlenet. A second later the scout's body started to spike in Cliff's thermal vision as their Phoenix Preservation Protocol (PPP) was in full effect. Essentially nanites filled with thermite, the PPP's role to reduce the body and any equipment on them to a pile of ash or at least in a state useless to the NMX was at full display for all to see.

"The scouts are down!" Cliff said loud enough for his squad to hear. The Jessie droids were similarly reduced into an inoperable state somehow as they frailed and shook themselves to the ground. A localized EMP? Unknown, none of the Reds had the sensors to assess these sorts of things. They were soldiers, not scientists damn it.

"The fuck is that!?" A female voice came over the channel as she witnessed whatever particle weapon passed through the building like it wasn't there, prompting Cliff to look around for what was going on until he switched back to visuals and saw the tail end of the glitter show. Somehow the weapon bypassed the Ironblood's electrostatic and gravimetric shielding as he watched the IFV warp and then explode with enough force to knock him and anyone else at the windows, showering them with broken glass. Luckily for them their Paradin Infantry Army Kits protected them from that harm.

"Use your frailing Visual Synthetic ARs and figure out where they are firing from!!" The deep voice of a platoon sergeant rang out on the Reds' general frequency as aether and particle fire erupted in the direction of 2nd Platoon. The inexperience of the soldiers of the Reds could be seen as a number of them started to shoot wildly into the assumed direction of the weapons fire, not really trying to focus on looking for muzzle fire. Leadership, not receiving orders from Lt. Kimura just yet, defaulted to their battle drills when contact is made.

The remaining three IFVs of 2nd Platoon opened fire as the loud barking reports of their Desert Wind Autocannons roared to life. Clearly not caring about the well being of the remaining scout since his life signs were erratic and he was too deep into the danger zone to bother rescuing, HE-Plasma rounds ripped towards both sides of the road, aimed to land just behind corners and any potential hiding places where the area effect of the explosion is maximized.

They held their positions, making vain attempts to only expose their remote turrets, as 2nd Platoon next to the exploded IFV recover and used the corpse of the IFV as crude cover, popping a bubble blower grenade as they laid prone and set up a Cao General Purpose Machine Gun to lay down suppressive fire on the buildings.

The remaining squads continued to move to take cover within or behind the buildings at the intersection to give them some form of protection to engage the NMX with. Soldiers, each equipped with a Bubble Blower grenade, deployed them in sequence should they become depleted from the weapons fire directed at them.

Cliff, setting himself up at a different window this time, looked over towards the IFVs on the right of 3rd Platoon and the company command team maneuvering to gain some form of cover against being the target of the next "glitter show". He looked over towards Lieutenant Kimura's IFV parked in the rear corner of a building.

He caught the tail end of the exchange between a NMX Neko floating up to the LT's driver turning out like an idiot. He started firing his Particle Beam Rifle, the sound of popping joining the rest of the popping and bangs of his squad as bolts of purple particles raced towards the head and torso of the neko. Lieutenant Kimura, seeing her driver get yanked out, remotely closed the hatch from her end and took over control of driving by connecting through her neural interface. She began backing the IFV away from the building, but keeping it and the estimated position of the NMX unit between them.

"Bounding overwatch. 1st and 2nd Platoons, fallback to rally point bravo. 3rd and Weapons Platoons, fallback to rally point charlie." Kimura ordered, directing her IFV towards the route they were going before turning towards rally point charlie. Each rally point was near each other, towards the river and piers.

"This is Charlie Company calling artillery on this net, fire for effect. Immediate suppression, 100 meters west by southwest from our current position, extreme danger close!" Specialist, 3rd Class Michael Akai broadcasted on the coalition's general network under Lt. Kimura's orders. All of the surviving IFVs launched their Type 46 IR/Radar including infrared bafflers and broadband electromagnetic spectrum chaff. Designed to obscure infrared, UV, and radar based sensor systems, it provided decent enough concealment for their maneuvers. But it did the same for seeing what the NMX were up to on the other side of the rapidly spreading veil of darkness spreading between them.

Month prior to landfall on Osman

"The mishhu are nasty bastards we just cannot seem to get rid of." a slender Nepleslian woman with cream like skin with yellow undertones. Her heart shaped face and a broad nose thanks to her mixed heritage were complemented with almond shaped steel blue eyes that look like they could penetrate into someone's soul. Her professionally groomed shoulder length black layered hair with red streaks highlighted that she was not a woman to mess with, keeping the Reds assembled before her silent.

“Them and their Neko thralls will do whatever it takes to use you for their purposes with the use of their parasites.” she said, switching the large volumetric display to an image of mishhu parasites. “Do not take these buggers lightly. Just like every NH-series lifeform they love to fly and make you curse that humanity is an evolutionary dead end. If you give them enough room to accelerate, they are quite capable of delivering enough kinetic force as a 7.62x54mm KS round and likely penetrate your combat suit. Once they are able to burrow into you, game over.”

“How can we counter them?” a light-skinned female with pink eyes and silver hair asked the instructor.

“You don’t, all you can do is make sure they will not turn you against your fellow Reds. That is why each and every one of you will be receiving the Phoenix Preservation Protocol Implant before you make your way to Osman. While extreme, we do not know what nasty surprises the NMX has been creating since the Star Army last fought them. Better to give them nothing and continue into the next iteration as you believe than to zombify you.

And if you somehow fail to activate it, it is up to each and every one of you to check for rips and tears in your suits when you encounter any area the NMX once were. Also regularly check and clean out the nooks and crannies of your vehicles and equipment, anyplace those bastards might hide in.” she continued before pausing to let the gravity of the possibility weigh on their young minds.

The volumetric changed again to the front and rear views of a male and female models. “Next we will go over all of the locations they will try to enter and hide in…”

Commercial District, present day

Serviceman Apprentice Karl Rudd was continuing to struggle to push past the mental static he was experiencing. The Orion Type looked over towards his fellow batchmate Erik Rudd actively burning in a controlled manner to embers. He then looked up and barely could see the face of the nightmare mishhu working her way towards him as a very distinctive tracer from the Ironblood IFVs hissed by above them.

When she finally grabbed onto him and started dragging him towards the alley he could do the only sensible thing to prevent him from being used against the Reds, "preservation". Continuing to do his best to push past the mental static, he tried to pull up the menu for the "Phoenix Preservation Protocol" , his vision heavily distorted.

Hilltop Hilloc Day-17 0500 Hours

The survivors of the FSC garrison company were in poor shape but not yet on the edge of their performance capabilities. Tired, a bit malnourished, sleep deprived, and mentally unsound they were coddled as best could be, but for their own safety and those of the coalition; Disarmed. None of the handful batted an eye at the action, barely noticing when they were gently sat down, their weapons, magazines, and few remaining explosives removed and for the better part seemed to finally relax the moment the inconsequential weight of their arms and some of their accompanying equipment was removed that had been weighing them down physically as well as mentally.

The bodies of the FSC fatalities were moved by the reds, seemingly eager for the task despite the less-than whole nature of some of them as the sole remaining outbuilding was made into a makeshift morgue after the little remaining equipment was removed. Any documentation, information, or sensitive equipment had already been destroyed before their arrival, the troopers expecting to be overrun.

The NMX dead too were placed in the outbuilding after carefully accessing that they were dead and checked for being parasite hosts. Their equipment; Armor, weapons, explosives, and equipment had been partially recovered by the FSC troopers before things got bad and with those recovered now by the arrival of the Coalition made a small but respectably cache of Particle, energy weapons, Themic-explosives, nu-aether weapons, ammunition, and equipment which was all gathered up without order by the some of the more industrious members of the Coalition as soon as those officers that noticed them first sent the order down. There was no fighting or competition over the auxiliary weapons between the various companies but a first-come-first-server system had risen without even conversation on the matter as reds took trophy weapons, some Duskerian Legionaires appraised aether weapons and tucked away NMX masks as spoils, and FSC troopers knowing their own infrastructure and doctorines knew exactly where to look for the larger caches their men had collected.

All in all the trove was not much. But between loot, salvage, the capturing of some ships that crash-landed planetside and their armories, and first-hand collecting the Coalitions members had acquired quite the collection between them which was only ever interrupted by higher-leadership in the form of the Warmaster herself requisitioning a portion of each hoard which then turned into returned capital by those investors accompanying the fleet who bought the war-spoils outright from the coalition in return for continued funding.

With only enough base-funding by the various investors in Osmans liberation for a single month that was quickly coming to a close it added hours and eventually days to their operations before those mercenary free-captains and companies abandoned them as soon as the pay dried out. The investors would sell the arms and armor to whoever would buy outside the bans of the larger factions of the Kikyo sector or who might overly tax such sales. And at least a couple were very clearly stockpiling to either saturate the market, create artificial scarcity, or in some cases possibly arm their own private armies.

The bodies of the NMX neko likewise went for a high price. No wounded had willingly be turned over despite protests of some of the larger investors who would no doubt turn them into hemosynth and neko-slave farms. But their blood came as a high commodity with one of the major backers of the coalition being none other than the Nepleslian NYRDS who paid well for hemosythetic fluid by the pint and was the Coalitions major source of triage as their combat medics risked significantly to set up rear-line hospitals and triage centers.

The goal was to liberate osman. But not far from the top was to squeeze the conflict dry of ever single DA possible to keep such operations growing as Reds, Elysians, and others saw first hand the secondary nature of warfare conducted by those who did not have the backing and funding of major factions to war without worry. The Duskerian troopers knew it to a lesser degree even if many of them knew it only as it was taught from their history and roots from the seemingly old now history of Section-6 who themselves had half robbed the old OSO blind on their way off of osman.

As this went on, from the hilloc despite not having significant elevation itself could see the occasional distant and almost missed skip of a tracer, and the much more noticeable bloom of heavy laser weapons deeper in it.

It was some such Duskerians watching the distant renewed minor conflict in the city who first noticed in their low-light optics the shadows cast in the dark between them and the city. Easily mistaken as rocks or distant hills at first it took only someone with a seeking suspicion to get one of the mecha to use their better optics to take a more concentrated look before the scattering of what might have been just the thousands of rocks in the landscape turned up nearly blinding in thermal vision as, from the city, the population set loose moved towards them.

Not in a concentrated mass but in a respectable scattering there was still seemingly thousands stumbling out of the city and through the construction zone into the highway over a kilometer away. With no lights at all to announce them the parasite hosts most forward elements had managed to jog to within five hundred meters of the coalition on the hilltop of those dismounted were too busy collecting spoils and the dead to have taken overmuch situational awareness. Those forward most crouched or crawled to make themselves as small as possible as they tried to inch closer and closer as the light on the hilloc and those from the coalitions vehicles might as well have been the only one in a dark world. Some were less impatient and more instinctual as they walked, jogged, or even sprinted to close the distance, easily quiet...


Commercial District.

The neko poised above the open hatch of the IFV realed and jerked as first one and then two attacks pierced her. Dropping the grenade as the arm practically exploded at the shoulder and another through her stomach the typer-29 rolled off the side of the vehicle even as it pulled back and crashed through the storefront of a building. Barely phased by having half her side blown off the faceless mask looked about quickly from side to side after the grenade, still undetonated by the hand on the severed arm still clamped around it laid still. Tried to bolt towards one of the nearby buildings only to make it barely a few lunging steps before nearly half a dozen Reds turned her into swiss cheese. Even still, on the ground the nmx trooper moved her free arm, digging her knuckles into the ground to push herself up as if only inconvenienced right until someone unloaded an entire charged mag into the cat until she finally stopped moving and even then a few more were sent into the corpse.

There was shooting back at them as well. Not in force like they were but clear skirmishers took potshots at them in ones and twos before fading away as every building, tree, and shape was unloaded into. One of the IFVs had even begun shooting through the building that the heavy particle fire had come through to unknown results. The only answer was a small pop and burst of dust from an alley the nightmare had gone.

Despite receiving little return fire the reds were stacking up casualties. Unlike themselves the NMX were at least in the most part battle-hardended troops from the last mishhu war over a decade before. In the fast-passing generations of Neko due to their short childhoods the troops arrayed against them might as well have been the most seasoned shock troops outside of the Legions of the Rikugun. Nearly every particle or aether lance scored a hit or near enough to keep someone from firing as first one and then four and then nearly seven of the Fujiko expeditionary troopers were either unmoving or thrashing on the ground with only one being a walking-wounded. Those injured were dragged, those unmoving were forcibly abandoned with those attempting to recover the dead or save the wounded getting specifically targetted.

With no idea even of the force arrayed against them due to its ephemeral nature the reds were finally able to pull around a corner and down block after block to the south. Occassionaly a thermal signature would pop up on their rear as the IFVs moved and the infantry covered each other as they jogged but other than one neko trying to cross the road and a lucky shot from the IFV bisecting her torso from the rest of her there was little continued contact.

At least until the southern-most reds nearing their rally point came under fire. Unable to out-run flight-capable neko from the rooftops the enemy had skillfully repositioned to intercept them as part of the road before one of the IFVs sank into the ground before it. Not from any trap or mine but from a particle lance missing and turning a 3-foot segment of the road into a trench. The IFV, needing to turn to avoid the hazard on its side had no other choice than to take a side-streeth heading east instead of south. With one of its sister vehicles coming up on its rear it could only continue east or get bogged down as the other vics and infantry came up on it and made it impossible to turn and would no doubt create a killbox for the enemy who even now from hidden alcoves engaged and were engaged by the next vehicle and the upcoming infantry.

The NMX were herding them, and the company commander knew it.

Hillock

The Red medics were a bit surprised that no one questioned their actions in determining causes of death and gathering the dead among other things. But watching everyone make a mad dash towards the "loot" made them shrug their shoulders and continue their jobs. A number of servicemembers did indeed gather watch war toys that they could. Some thought they were going to be able to hide them and the NMX masks and other parts of their clothing they were collecting as war trophies.

“Platoon leaders! Get this under control and establish a security perimeter already.” Ben said before he continued to listen to the Reds' comms net as Charlie Company was conducting their feigned retreat from NMX rather unsuccessfully.

The Expeditionary Force was designed to operate as a battalion effort, individual companies were not designed to handle a wide range of threats since they were not power armor with even heavier weapons like the Yamataians or even their old former glory. Which would have been fine if the coalition had lived up to its name. But the Reds were increasingly finding that they were on their own with the lack of coordination and more interest in looting than anything else. But getting the battalion back together to operate was something for the Lieutenant Commander to figure out, Bravo and Charlie Companies were going to need to figure out how to survive on their own in the meantime.

The Elysians for all their pomp and arrogant chest beating seemed to have gotten lost somewhere in the city. The snakes of the IPEX seemed to have confused the beach as one of their ancestral nesting grounds. At least that could be the only reason they have remained in the same spot for so long after they had moved out from their initial landing.

His opinion of the Duskerians was starting to drop due to their inaction as well in regards to one of their allies being under assault. But then there was the Osmanians themselves. Oh where to begin about those people he thought to himself as he looked in the direction of the fire fight though his optics.

Commercial District

"Where the hell is Third Platoon going?" a voice said when one of their IFVs diverted to avoid the unseen hazard. "I don't know, follow them. They must have found a shortcut out of this."

"No! Maintain you, belay that!! 3rd Platoon sweep and destroy, hunker down at waypoint C." Lieutenant Kimura said, shots from her IFVs autocannon audible in the communication as her gunner clearly thought he got a positive ID on the NMX. She cursed the NRM engineers that made these IFVs, all of its sensors were clearly the result of their usual corner cutting. She could barely see anything despite having infrared and UV vision in her optics.

It was time to bring an end to the feigned retreat though. Still mentally occupied piloting her IFV, she ordered 3rd platoon to push through to establish the eastern corner of a new battle line. The jogging Reds next to their IFVs took off into a full sprint with their weapons at the high ready as they rushed forward to probe the east and establish the start of the Reds' battle line if no NMX responded to the action.

Meanwhile the 4 IFVs (2 point to the right and two pointed to the left), aimed their autocannons upwards and started firing HE-plasma rounds at the rooftops and upper floors of buildings, while the remote operated Type 46 Plasma Support Weapons were aimed at the lower floors, ready to attack anything moving.
The Reds were well aware of the Nekos' flying abilities, they just couldn't see with their inferior optics. Any muzzle flash from the telltale signs of aether weaponry was greeted with one of the IFV's 4 anti-mecha tier compressed plasma missiles.

One servicemember apprentice finally got it into his head that he should start paying more attention to way was above him than below him, relying on his squad mates to establish security. Activating his ViSAR, he linked himself to his IFV's network and looked through his radar enhanced vision for the flying cats.

"1st platoon halt where you are and establish battle positions. 2nd Platoon, continue 300 meters and establish battle positions at waypoint F. Kimura continued barking orders to her company. She then switched back to the coalition net.

"Coalition forces, this is 1st FEU Charlie indeterminate size of NMX forces to our South/Southwest positions. Requesting immediate fire support!!" she continued over and over to get some kind of response from her so-called allies.

"Holding our position, we are done running." she continued when she continued to receive no response. The Reds made a tight perimeter centered around a pair of buildings with their Ironblood IFVs establishing fire sectors around the two. The infantry still combat capable and not abandoned, popped their bubble grenades if cover was not available for them to utilize, but they always knelt down to provide as little of a target as possible.

Hillock

"Mortars ready, sir!!" The ensign leading the weapons platoon said, seeming to take forever to properly dig pits and set up rudimentary earthworks to protect it all towards the rear of the hillock's outpost.

"Well what are you fucking waiting for, fucking commence the fire mission Ensign Keating!!" Ben said, enraged that the ensign was not showing any initiative. Charlie Company had been continually updating their location and where they thought the NMX where. There were extended range rounds that were essentially mini-missiles, but none were loaded as the battalion did not expect such extreme ranges to be encountered. One by one, the three 81mm mortars started to unleash HE rounds towards their targets. And there was a steady stream of coordinates coming in as their gunners, lacking a target acquisition detachment and fires cell, had to manually calculate everything with the help of the Olivias.

A side development from mini-missiles, each follows an unguided trajectory but for their targeting AI activates and scans the landing zone as it enters terminal phase. And signature (visual or infrared) that does not have a friendly signal it does its best to maneuver to hit. If there is a much larger number of non-friendly signatures than friendly within the zone, it will engage regardless and disarm if friendlies are the only signatures within and it can verify as such.