RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mision 5.1] Operation Roundhouse

"Wreno, get on that terminal! I want a schematic and update yesterday!" Leon ordered, following Lisa's entry to gaze at the Nekos.

"Ammo checks, everyone. Now!" he added to give the entire unit something to do.

He looked at the two creatures. Wounded, pitiful, unarmed weapons of mass destruction. "Romero, up front and give me an assessment." The Marine Chief held his shotgun up visibly as he advanced towards the two Nekos. Both of whom seemed to be shivering and trying to play possum.

His empty shotgun was hardly a threat but his laser pulse was ready to gun them down the moment he assessed them as a threat. A simple thought trigger would activate the laser and it would almost instantly throw out laser pulses at the speed of light. Its primary purpose was anti-missile defense but its usefulness as an anti-infantry weapon could not be exaggerated.

Laura Romero, the only qualified medic in the squad, came up behind him. Her HPAR was up and armed. Leon watched as she stood and analyzed the Nekos. His scans showed no weapons, no bombs. Doubtless she was flipping through the various EM spectrums to see check. "Wounded, unarmed, in shock. High levels of adrenalin and probably freaking terrified right now."

"Acknowledged, Private. Cuff them for retrieval. I'll cover you. Simmons, Wreno, crack that terminal and get me intel."

-----------

Laura moved forwards slowly. The Chief immediately started shouting something through his suit's loudspeakers at the Nekos. She assumed it was Yamataian because the Nekos trembled even more. Whatever he was saying, they didn't seem to believe him.

"Chief, just tell them I'm here to help them. I'm going to treat them and make them better. And bring them somewhere nice and safe."

There was a pause as Laura stopped and waited for her boss to translate. Who knew he could speak such a weird language? At some level, Laura was peeved at being upstaged in something. But her annoyance was with her own failure to realize that knowing the enemy's language would have been helpful. Still, the Most Brilliant Medic in the Universe was impressed by the fluid and soothing tones in which the Chief spoke that tongue.

One Neko was still trembling but the other, who lay as though dead, opened an eye to see before slamming it shut. Laura sighed, setting her MED down and pulling out the medical kit to treat the Nekos.

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

In the hallway, as the Marines checked their weapons, a squad of sailors arrived, led by four J2C combat robots. The robots stood as tall as a Hostile and their weapons swiveled laconically as their mechanical sensors identified the Marines and flagged them as friendly.

"Ahoy Marines! Petty Officer Reddy, NSS Fearless!" the Nepleslian leading shouted. All of the sailors were wearing Styrling Muur armor and carried an assortment of hand weapons. Their only defense against something difficult like a Ripper would be the Bobs that were in front of them. "Which way's them Squiddies?"

"Henry, see if this door can be opened. Keep it sealed until the Chief gives the order," said Phaedra as she checked her ammo. She also loaded another grenade into the tube under her HPAR.

Phaedra was surprised by the arrival of the Navy troops, but welcomed the unexpected support.

"Hold position, Petty Officer. The NMX retreated past this bulkhead and we are grabbing a layout of what lies beyond. Standby."

"Yes ma'am!" Henry replied, now that he had something else to do while waiting for things to move along. He headed towards the blast doors, and knelt down to retrieve his toolbox. Using the tools inside, he got to work on keeping the door sealed.

He had a passing familiarity with how the doors operated by working on one previously. However, since the element of surprise was severely diminished and he considered that the AI would be able to detect any tampering with the door. He had to proceed as non-invasively as possible.

He made sure that there was no current going in or out of his handheld controls as he wired the familiar parts with a single-use pulse to open the doors when need be, or to close them in a hurry if they were to be opened. He wanted to ensure that the AI was completely unaware that the flow of electricity was undisrupted.

Having learned from his previous encounter, Henry found the wires that the AI used to control the door and put something around them that would cut the wires if the situation warranted, and then put another remote wire cutter around the door's power wires and breaking the circuit to it, if all else failed. Using his datapad to keep tabs on everything he'd put down and what they did, he stepped away and waited.

If the doors opened, he'd cut the AI out, then close the doors and bolt them on his signal. If they tried opening again, he'd cut the power and then force open them manually.

Nanomachines always made him woozy. The pain in itself was mild due to the light cut, and big wounds always looked more painful than they were anyway. Still, it was difficult to keep his balance as he felt the medical nanites swirling through his systems. Bastilen didn't let that stop him, he had orders and was intent on following them. So he stepped his way into the terminal room, before eying the Neko they appeared to be taking prisoner.

Bastilen looked down at his blood-stained gauntlet, and then at the Nekos. He went up to the terminal anyway, and began to put his hacking protocols to make him appear as a friendly engineer, and a bit of junk to slow down any uploading commands into the console. With that, he quickly searched for a schematic to download for the squad.

"I thought we weren't taking prisoners until we had the one we came looking for." said Bastilen, somewhat absent-mindedly.

"Considering the speed of our progress, we'd better take some just in case," Leon snapped at the P4C.

The console that Bastilen was working on beeped as it began to pull up a schematic. However, things were set against him. The AI, alerted to the query, consulted the Nightmare on the other side. Immediately, Helszepont ordered the AI to shut down access once they had a schematic but no picture of the barricades made by the NMX. A partial picture, she imagined, would draw the Marines in.

So all that Bastilen could pull was a simple schematic of a large, squarish room that was supposed to be a mess or cafeteria of some sort. Right after that, the AI cut the terminal from the network.

Laura, meanwhile, had a pressure bandage for one of the Nekos who had a large gash in her sides. She advanced slowly to the Neko, who had opened her eyes to watch Laura. The young clone could see fear in the creature's eyes. But no movement. Laura placed the bandage on her and backed away. Immediately, the Neko screeched as the bandage pressurized the wound and sealed it. For the other Neko, Laura felt that she would recover well enough without any medical assistance. Their enhanced body systems would work on their own to recover and fix the minor burns and scratches.

She reported that much to Leon.

In turn, he ordered, in Yamataian, that the less injured Neko carry the wounded one. "We got sailors out there now?" Leon asked, glancing outside.

Sawyer was ready with his acquired gun, standing somewhat to the rear of the others considering the compromised quality of his armor and shielding systems.

Zyv checked and than double-checked his weapons before taking his assigned position in front of the, to be breached, doors as he waited for further orders.

"We got sailors out there now?"

"Affrimative, Chief. One squad, plus four J2Cs. Cavaliers! Stack up and prepare for entry," said Phaedra.

Wulfe checked the ammo count on his HPAR, then lowered the weapon, taking position near his squad and preparing to the breach.

"Ready." The marine said, taking slow, deep breaths as he prepared for whatever the NMX was going to throw at them.

So those nekoes were alive after all. Lisa watched over Laura's work until chief and then sarge ordered them to stack up. She left the room picking up her chaingun. Lisa checked her weapon and could see it still had plenty ammo. And should it come to close combat, her cutter could go for minutes. Lisa took a deep breath as she stacked up, holding her weapon at the ready.

Henry kept his fingers on the controller. His thumb was positioned between the "Lock" button and the "Open" button. He was simply waiting for the order to go or to bolt the door. Once he heard it, he'd do so. He gave Phaedra and Leon a nod, and a quick "READY WHEN YOU ARE!" indication via a text communication to indicate that he was on standby.

His previous ammo check had finished running in the background, analysing his weapons, and it tallied itself on his display. He still had a lot of ammo to burn through in this campaign against the NMX, and he was certain that by himself, it wouldn't be enough. What he did have were marines he could depend on to help even the odds.

"Hold! Goddam hold!" Leon ordered. "Wreno, what have we pulled? What the hell does the next area look like before we go barging in?" he asked the Private Fourth Class.

Laura behind him was escorting the prisoners outwards and handed them off to a sailor with Jiyuuian features. That sailor immediately began talking in a calming manner, in the gibberish called Yamataian, and made it clear to Laura that they were no longer her responsibility. The clone watched the sailor and prisoners walk away, flanked a couple of burly, heavily armed men. All the while, the Jiyuuian female was yammering away in her language.

The medic quickly gathered up her medical equipment, already aware of her combat status. "Shields at 100 and ready to give the squids a one-way ticket to oblivion!"

Bastilen's eye settled onto the console, looking the screen up and down with a certain mild paranoia. The man's heart began to thump heavily as he saw the line cut after download finished. No. No no no no. No no no. No no no no. No no no. No no. No.

Nothing happens with such convenience. That sort of shit only happens in movies. You don't just get what you want and the system magically closes right when the download finishes. That doesn't happen!

The only times he was ever cut out like that was the system administrator was trying to trap him. Force him to take some kind of virus infested data to counter-act his downloads. Make him think he was smart for being able to trick an A.I. or a handy administrator. No. No no.

This data was dangerous, the information was dangerous.

"ARUGH!" Bastilen let out an insane yell as his SAVtech immediately deleted everything he just took from the console. Then, with an intense, unhinged rage, he PPG'd the screen and continued to punch the console.

"DON'T!"

Smash!

"FUCK!"

Smash!

"WITH!"

Smash!

"ME!"

Crunch! The console bent under his added pressure and force.

"A CAFETERIA!? SCREW YOU!" roared Bastilen, bring down both his heavy gauntlets on the console. He smashed it a few more times, mincing the circuit boards and fleshy components in a silicon-flesh massacre.

"Sir! Situation is SNAFU, the A.I. is SCREWING WITH ME." reported Bastilen, screaming that last part at the ceiling with his externals. "It cut off uplink right after my download. That's. Not. Right. That. Doesn't. Happen. We're being fed shit and kicked off as soon as we get our fill. WELL, I'M NOT GUNNA' GET FED SHIT, YOU HEAR ME? YOU CRANK BOLT SACK OF SCRAP!"

"I've got an immensely bad feeling. If they're feeding us garbage, they know we're here. They don't feed us garbage without a purpose," muttered Bastilen as he began to settle down again, feeling slightly woozy from the kick of endorphins.

After hearing Bastilien's report of the situation, Phaedra did not like what she heard one bit.

"Henry, any way to blow that door open without also blowing a hole in the ship? If we are being led into a trap, then doing something unexpected to keep our enemies down would do us some good."

XSS Momoranth, Mwigflukbajik. 30 minutes after the Marines boarded.

Leon stopped listening to Bastilen after he said that what the computer had done was not right. The man was raving and displaying his poor self-control. If the next room was a trap...

"Petty Officer, your Bobs are leading the way. Move them to the front. Corporal Morris, once the Bobs are ready, open the door and let 'em through. We follow behind them.

"Blackwood and Vater, you're on point behind the Bobs! Rakowski, Simmons, you're right behind them. Morris, Stones, you're next. Phaedra and me. Romero, Wreno and Aubrey bring up the rear with the sailors. We go in guns blazing."

The power armored Marines parted to let the quartet of large combat robots pass between them.

"Any questions, confessions, comments before we do this?"

"I recommend that we do not shoot our teammates in the back..." said Phaedra, letting the statement dangle in the air for the culprit of the friendly-fire incident earlier.

Phaedra then opened up a private channel to the Chief. She thought that his arrangement of the squad was acceptable, but she wanted to voice her opinions. She would have actually preferred to lead from the front instead of two ranks behind.

Maybe it was just the adrenaline talking, what came out instead was:

"You would need me to watch your ass."
"Sir," she quickly added.

Phaedra facepalmed her armored glove into her helmet and then ended the private channel.

The four Bobs, two by two, stopped by the door.

"Best person to trust that ass with, Sergeant." Leon's reply was also over a private channel. Before she could reply, the Chief barked out the order to open the doors and let the Bobs through.

The blast doors split sideways and the first two combat robots strode forwards. Immediately, the NMX opened up and the bright colors of death and fire splashed against the Bobs' shields. Both leading robots opened fire instantly with every weapon available. Chaingun rounds and shotgun pellets tore into the NMX ranks whilst the laser cut a swathe into a couple Mindy's. Then the room was filled with smoke as the two robots launched, simultaneously, all of their missiles.

The left Bob's shields collapsed under the intense salvo and blew off its legs. It ground to a halt, falling forwards several meters ahead of the door

As the next pair marched forwards, the missiles detonated, shaking that section of the ship. Two of the NMX Mindy's were dead, along with several Nekos. But that still left another twenty-two Mindy's waiting to ambush the Nepleslians. The second pair of Bobs spread out to cover more ground, firing as they advanced. Likewise, they released their missile payloads as soon as they confirmed hostiles.

The warheads crashed into the NMX ranks, tearing a hole in their barricade on the right side and killing two more Mindys. The second Bob from the first exploded as a trio of 50mm rounds smashed into its hull and detonated.

"Go!" Leon ordered the two privates who entered the NMX ambush. Bridget and Ulrich rushed forwards using their thrusters, firing everything like the Bobs. They both rushed for the opening made on the right side. Mini-missile loads emptied into the NMX gathered there. A pair of Mindy's guarding the breach in the wall fell down from their swift, fierce assault. But as the two lead Marines reached the breach, Bridget was shot down by numerous aether blasts. Ulrich tried to help her up but was assaulted by a Mindy with its aether blade drawn.

"GO! GO! GO!" Leon repeated, urging Zyv and Lisa forwards.

"Way to go Sarge!" Lisa sent text message to Phaedra's Sav-tech. Seems like sarge was interested in the chief too. Lisa might not like him, but if Phaedra did, that was her thing. There were more important things to focus on right now. They were about to make final stretch of the bridge and everything they came here for. Lisa shivered a little, a bridge meant Misshu most likely. Lisa was a little nervous thinking that she might go against Misshu. She hear the stories and well... she was scared.

The doors opened and the robots rushed hin. First two and then second two closely followed by Bridget and Ulrich. Lisa did not wait one bit and moved forward too. She saw Bridget being gunned down by stream of fire and hoped her own shields will hold on. Her chaingun came to live and started spraying shots at the enemy. She had chaingun so she started laying covering fire, moving to the left to keep the way cleared for those moving for the opening.

"Zyv help Ulrich!" Lisa shouted, still holding the trigger down. She also fired ten arrows from each of her launchers to where it seemed that bulk of the enemy was.

- ‘GO, GO, GO!’

Rakowski did just that, pushing forward behind the robots and the other marines. Ignoring the odd shot hitting his shields he fanned out as soon as possible bringing down a combination of HPAR rounds, pulse lasers, arrows and darts to suppress those NMX not already under fire.

Stuck without cover he faced the choice of standing in the open and get shot at or press forward… no choice really and he promptly boosted towards the barricade.

That was when Lisa’s voice came in over the comm. drawing Zyv’s attention to the plight of other marines. Rakowski’s first instinct to shoot the offending aliens was dismissed as he feared it merely result in blue on blue that left little option.

Targeting the Closest Mindy with the “Pull” of his armours “push/pull” system Zyv boosted towards the NMX armour, drawing his VCBS even as the marine attempted to get a good shot in before contact.
It was more or less at this point that he realised what he was doing and that there were two likely outcomes. The first involved the marine barrelling over neko and free to go on his way, directly into more NMX. The second involved the neko getting the drop on Zyv adding another name to the casualty list.

‘Blast’ was all that went through the marines head as he did his best to ensure it was not the second outcome…

Wulfe moved in right after Zyv and Lisa had stormed into the NMX position. He had the opportunity to watch the BOBs tear a breach into the NMX barricade and decided to take in that opportunity as the firefight evolved.

"Opening! There's a opening on their defenses! I'm assaulting!" He yelled over the comms, facing the spot and hoping someone would have the same idea as him, sure that if he went in there alone he'd be good as dead. But so would he if he hesitated then.

The marine started running at first, firing his HPAR and PLA with the aid of his PA's monoeyes as they helped him pick out the targets in the mess as well as emptying for good the only operational missile rack on his Hostile. He wanted to be sure the place was softened as much as possible by his assault then activated his thrusters to propel himself towards what looked like a very bad idea, still firing his HPAR towards the enemy as he saw the missiles fly towards their mark.