Fian checked the strategy map again, it was totally clear. No sign of the enemy at all. He has got to give credit to Alpha squad, they were being much more chicken than the reds. "Well, they have no where to hide now." He brought up the group list and switched to Gamma and Charlie. "Right, it looks like we have to flush them out. Gamma and Charlie, advance cautiously." He then turned the channel to Rico. "Epsilon One, secure the perimeter."
As Rico received Fian's transmission, he quickly reactivated this thruster array, the rest of Epsilon One following suit. The squad moved quickly from one of the battlefield to the other, checking each cave entrance they came across. Rico quirked an eyebrow as he noticed a pattern between the cavern holes, and quickly relayed a message back to Fian. "Perimeter looks tight baby. But it looks like all the caves've been plugged."
"It's possible they have something up their sleeve..." Soreta commented as Fian doled out his orders. Her combat experience may have been limited, but even she knew that this was a lot easier that it should've been. "What are your thoughts on the situation?" She asked, turning to Fian.
"The same thing. We must force their hand first." Fian replied back to Soreta. He signaled to the rest of Epsilon Two. "Descend into the cloud, we'll be closer to the tunnels." The Vel Steyr then slowly turned on his re-entry thrusters and fell to the earth. Soreta followed Fian on his left wing, readying her weapons for combat as her engines roared, bringing her closer and closer to the planet below. "Our forces are probably more tightly organized...your doing, of course." A smile, but only to herself.
Lewis nodded as he received the transmission. "Charlie, rally up with Gamma." The squad replied with a quick 'yes sir'.
Istvan began to advance, as per orders, sweeping for snipers. He had everyone move in a careful formation so that they all cover each other. As they marched on, each one nervous and ever-alert, Istvan began to chant a slow marching song softly, just to his team. Perhaps to calm their nerves, but mostly to calm his own. Lewis responded to Gammas movements with his own set of orders. "Stay low; I want a loose column formation, right behind the Gammas." The squad complied silently and with a quick flow. Kokuten noticed Lewis limping, and stayed behind him in case he took another shot in the legs.
---
Gran and his small squad neared the exit of the long tunnel leading to the other side of the continent. "Alright boys, keep an eye out. Drop you drones boys." He and his team deployed their drones scattering the skies. "Look for something that resembles a command squad and give all your info to Benji."
"Oi Benji, we got a general idea of how this thing works," Adrian patted the large cannon next to him. "Just give us latitude/ longitude coordinates and we can get it. By the way, lots of shaking up there, we doing all right?"
---
The drone network that was hiding in the electromagnetic cloud relayed something to Fian. A group of monoeye emitting units has appeared at the edge of the map. He called up Charlie on the communication link. "FTL Weapons, Target Practice." Fian chose not to answer Soreta's complement, things were finally heating up. A single monoeye emitting unit can be a group of NAM Armors, but many at once just indicated a bunch of Drones. Fian quickly relayed a communication. "FTL Weapons, Enemy drones on the edge of the map, long-range target practice."
Rico perked up a bit as he heard about the drone sightings on the edge of the map. However, he was quickly disappointed by Fian assigning the other teams to investigate and dispatch them. Rico let out another frustrated sigh, continuing to rocket across his patrol routes.
Istvan walked carefully, his drone scouring the area... He continues to advance, noting Kokutan's squad forming a column behind his. He assigns a subordinate to keep up the chant...keeping his eyes open while he responded to Fian's orders. "FTL weapons?" he asks over the communication link. "Good move..." Lewis nodded as he received the transmission "We got marks on the edge of the area, Fian wants FTL weapons, looks like Gamma got the same message." Lewis relayed to the squad, they picked up their weapons and had them ready. "Alright, this is the part where I get to finally shoot this thing..." Lewis began to relay to Istvan, "Gamma, we'll open up on your first shot, Charlie out."
The drones flew scattered throughout the air, scanning and scoping. Gran pulled his team a little further back into the tunnel. "Alright two of you set your drones on auto, replay directly to Benji, and keep a watch of the outside; I don't want someone ripping us to shreds while we stare at aerial photos." Two of Gran's wing quickly went prone towards the mouth of the cave, scanning the horizon for anything suspicious. "Benji, you getting anything from the drones?"
Istvan orders his men to fire upon the drones. Lewis grunted as Gamma opened up, "Charlie, do you all have confirmation of the drones?" The squad responded with nods and 'yes sir's. "The FUCK EM UP!" Lewis yelled, Charlie popped up and began letting hell loose on the drones. "Think they can hear this?" Loss said to Kokuten. "They're deaf if they don't." Kokuten said, enjoying the firing session." Lewis looked in Loss's and Kokutens's direction. "Cut the damn chatter."
---
Benji looked at the sensor data coming from the Gran's drones. He saw a bunch of little dots, indicating NDI armors, and... a big area of interference over the battlefield. "Adrian, I have an idea where the command team may be. Almost directly above you. Aim Sophia's 40 up and get ready to pull." Adrian grinned as he received Benji's orders. He rattled some coordinates off, and double-checked to make sure none of Alpha Team was within his cannon's trajectory. "ALL SQUADS, ZA WANDA!" Adrian shouted loudly as he hammered the fire key. After a few seconds of aetheric glow and a loud humming, the cannon fired, the beam sent blasting at the speed of light towards Fian, Soreta, and all the other marines unlucky enough to be sitting with them.
"Benji, Adrian, why do I have to stay out here? I'm worried about being found, I'm sure they see my dro--" He stopped as all his squad lost contact with the drones one by one. Gran ducked back, surprised a bit at the sudden loss. "Alright, all the drones are dead. I have a general idea of where the shots came from. Want me to pull back into the caves and collapse the tunnel?" He smiled as he heard Adrian's phrase and the rumbling of the beam cutting into the sky at the end of his sentence.
Fian's eyes slowly widened. The blood was flowing down to his trigger finger instead of remaining in his head, something was happening, and it was happening right now. An all too familiar Aether Beam shot out of the ground and ripped the AIR2 next to him a new one. Thankfully the interference and the presence of the other Monoeye Drones had messed up the targeting of the beam, if only but a few feet. Fian had only words left to say. After that, it would be all action. "They played their hand...we go now."
"An aether gun, huh? Since when did those guys have that?" But Soreta's objection was short-lived as she dove into the atmosphere at top speed; they still had the advantage, as their cards were still hidden. It would be entirely likely that the aether cannon was their one trick, and it could easily be dealt with.
Istvan was thrown to the ground as the Aether beam erupted out of the planet's surface in the distance "MOTHER FUCKER!" he shouted, and quickly nodded at Fian's command. He gave the order to begin digging through the cavern hole they had reached, and in a matter of moments, cleared the rubble with some quickly placed explosives "Men, assemble! We start moving in here, keep an eye on our backs!" Istvan pointed an armored hand into the dark cavern hole. The rest of Gamma responded by swifly diving into the cave, weapons at the ready.
"Charlie Team, they fired the pop gun! Let's go!" The Water 2's flowed into the cave after the Gammas like, well, water. Charlie kept close behind the Gammas. Istvan yells a battle cry as he charges through into the cave, he and his men were NOT throwing caution to the wind, but were rather covering each other even as they charged, firing at anything they say, especially anything that shot back. Istvan's blood pumped fiercely, his heart going a mile a minute.
---
Adrian quickly ordered his men away from the Aether cannon in case of quick retaliation. "Benji, in case you didn't see, WE FIRED. We need support in here NOW!" Benji nodded to himself and ordered a squad down to help Adrian. He also sent an order. "If you can, fire some more into that cloud and make sure you got them. Gran, get outside and get visuals on this."
"Men! They will be focused on the hole made by the aether beam! we poke out little heads out of the hole and take as many as we can! Will Frank! You are on EMP! Me and Dan are Tugsten. Move!" Gran dashed to entrance of the cave and grabbed a spot of cover, his men taking other positions near him. They were but seconds too late to catch Rico and his squad, however, and witnessed them diving straight into the freshly-cut cavern before they could fire a shot.
----
Meanwhile, a distance away from the first blast of the aether cannon, Fian ordered the remaining drones to make for the a bunch of previously sealed tunnels with a few hand signals. With the same hand he commanded Epsilon Two towards a sealed tunnel near the central area where a sniper was previously spotted. Fian did not see any sight of the previous assailant, however. "Double Green Shells!" Fian shouted. "Fire at tunnels A-2, B-2, B-4, C-6 and C-7! Clear us a path!" He loaded his own FMD and fired at the blocked entrance they were diving towards, the twin antimatter shells exited his gun and impacted upon the rock, vaporizing the obstructions in a bright white light and leaving the tunnel open. His squad moved through the tunnel quickly...attempting to find the location of the enemies aether weapon before they many more chances to use it.
---
Rico's squad continued rapidly bounding across the area. His men were beginning to share Rico's impatience, which was growing by the minute, as well as the slight feeling of nausea from the repeated use of the AIRs tractor field-driven movement. However, this was cut short when Rico witnessed the large aether blast tear through the earth a few kilometers away. Rico didn't need Fian's orders to know what to do next. In but a matter of seconds, Rico's squad of six AIRs flew straight into the freshly cut hole in the earth, the sides still hot from the previous aether blast. "SPEED IT UP!" Rico yelled to his fellow Epsilon members as they exploited the full speed capabilities of the tractor fields, constantly tugging at the solid walls ahead of them to careen themselves forward, reaching blinding speeds as they rocketed through the cavern.
Adrian saw the armors coming down the tunnel and mumbled a stream of profanities. "Hit that fucking fire button, take 'em out if you can." However, he knew that the cannon needed a few seconds to recharge...he whipped out his NDI carbine, leaped back, and fired rapidly at them. "Benji, we need that support real fuckin' fast if we're gonna live down here..."
Rico's monoeye sensors quickly materialized Adrian's small team of marines far ahead of them. Rico knew he didn't have much time to react to them, let alone slow down enough to make a clean shot with their FMDs. The solid, almost perfect tunnel the aether beam had carved left little in the ways of cover from the fire...it would be a gauntlet to reach them, with Rico and his men at a severe disadvantage. He stuttered quickly, trying to put words to the thoughts that raced through his mind. "Ah...ah shit, RETURN FIRE, BUT KEEP GOING!" Rico shouted his orders. The AIRs quickly began moving more sporadically in an attempt to dodge as many shots as possible, returning blind fire when they could. It wasn't looking good...Rico saw one of his men take a shot to the chest before disappearing behind the group, and Rico had taken a shot to the shoulder, his left monoeye system completely gone. Rico could start to make out the edges of the cavern mouth far below him.'Nearly...there...'
Adrian grinned as one of his shots took out an AIR armor, one of many screaming down the tunnel. Luckily, they weren't quite there... and the cooldown for the aether cannon had finished. Adrian reached for the fire key and punched it again. The beam fired up the same way it had before, only now with more things in it's path.
Rico watched in horror as the tip of the large object in the distance began to glow bright blue once more...the aether cannon had finished it's cool-down period, and they were firing it again. Rico's squad of battered AIRs were close...so very close to the end. '...Almost...there...!!!'
Many things happened at once at this point. Rico grinned maniacally as they reached the end of the tunnel, nanoseconds before the solid beam of aetheric energy burst forth from the cannon. Everything was a blur now...Rico and two other AIRs barely managed to escape the blast, while the last two AIRs of his squad were disintegrated in the blast as it tore through the hole once more. Time itself seemed to stand still to everyone in the large open cavern. Rico and his final remaining AIR 2 units suspended dangerously close to the bluish-white energy beam, Rico's left shoulder monoeye array charred black and useless, the arm growing sluggish from the simulated wound. He staring downwards at Adrian and the handful his marines as they stared up at them, everyone caught in a moment of disbelief, everyone illuminated in the ghostly glow of the aetheric energy. And then, it was gone.
----
Lewis kicked in the thrusters following in behind Gamma. "Deploy your shields, and keep your smokescreens ready, this'll be a tough slog." Charlie complied with good motion, Kokuten was becoming a rather good pilot by now. Loss flew next to him, the rest of the squad keeping on Gamma tail. Istvan was deeper inside now, with his scouting drones checking the area ahead. He shared all of his data with Charlie. Kokuten kept his shield forward, trying to focus on the data and the path at once. He was ready. It was time, time for war.
Istvan saw a small group of Alpha Marines coming and began to open fire onto them before they could react. The skirmish didn't last long...with both Gamma and Charlie and their combined firepower, the handful of enemy marines were lost under the flow of energy and metal. He kept moving, finding his way around the tunnels by drone, slowly gaining ground towards the large cavern that the main objective was being housed...
---
Benji heard reports streaming in over the comm links of teams going down, and didn't like them at all. "Someone get to that junction and get some bombs set up for traps. Get ready for them..." He said, and readied his weapon, keeping the caverns around the objective in sight.
Gran did not have enough time, or the numbers to attempt to give chase to Fian and his group, instead, he slowly advanced "Here we go guys! Monoeyes and...fire!" Gran shouted to his teammates as Epsilon 2 neared them. The eyes glowed red, and shots rained out, waves of EMP charges followed by tungsten shells. The charges were seconds too late, however, as Rico and his marines dove into the cavern hole.
"Fuck!" Gran shouted, waving his partners to advance onto the freshly-carved cavern. "Explosives! Explosives!" Gran and his team quickly loaded red shells and started to chase Rico down the newly-created cavern. However, he quickly retreated back out of the hole as Adrian announced another aether beam was being fired up the cavern to obliterate Rico before he could reach it. Gran would have to wait until the aether beam was gone before attempting to commence the chase...
------
Epsilon Two dove right into the hole at breakneck speed with their thrusters screaming, the overcharged repulsion field interacted with the curve of the tunnel and made sure they didn't hit the wall but tore chunks of rock from the walls. Of the whole of Epsilon Two only Fian had his Monoeyes on, this was to confuse the enemy as there were Monoeye'd drones running down the other tunnels they previously freed. Due to the fact that they thought the tunnels were sealed for good, Epsilon Two only ran across a single Phalanx that was heading for the fight.
Soreta kept close to Fian as he worked; her time wasn't now. Using the unknown rifle, she fired needle rounds into the targets Fian was, and cursed herself for not choosing the FMD, which would've been of much more use in these cramped cavern tunnels. "Damnit..."
Fian Vel Steyr locked his Monoeyes on the poor Alpha and transmitted it to the whole squad. As he flew past the marine he let loose an EMP round. The next Epsilon Two gave another EMP, the third one gave a White, fourth a drop kick and finally Soreta cut the poor soul in half with her twin daisho. Fian continued downwards into the cavern, moving on the readings Rico's monoeyes were giving. Rico had found the aether weapon...but things didn't look good for him. "Let's hurry."
[OOC: Everyone please see my map in the OOC thread, and give a detailed description of your characters current status and position in you're posts after this.]
