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

"I'm right behind you!" Henry told Stones as he stuck to his right and watched the targets light up on his screen, based upon all of the other marines inputs and target networking. Henry was going to try and be quick about this. Rushing and assaulting a weak point wasn't his normal role in a fight, but damned if it wasn't fun to let your hair down for a little.

Henry kept close to and covered Stones' flanks with streams of covering fire from his HPAR and bursts of minimissiles to deter anyone who'd pick him off as he charged ahead. If this was the cafeteria as Bastilen stated, then the bridge might not have been all that far away, "Leave 'em naked, give 'em nothing!"

You eat close to where you work, after all - and the Marines were dining heartily.

Lisa's heavy rounds and ARROWs crashed into the left flank of the barricade, blowing huge chunks of it out, spraying splinters into the NMX. A trio of NMX Nekos collapsed, screaming and clawing at their bloody wounds. They were swiftly silenced as more Marines advanced, firing as they went. As she advanced steadily, aether beams and a 50mm shell smashed into her shields. The former took down her shields temporarily, allowing the 50mm shell to explode on her right arm, destroying the CFC she had jury-rigged. Lisa's shields sprang back up after the overload and stopped the next round easily.

Wulfe's barrage tore more holes into the NMX lines and widened the gap. The problem, however, was that they were still in the killing zone and the NMX fire was pouring into them. He advanced to where Zyv was, in time to watch the Marine's maneuver.

Zyv's aim was off. Instead of the Mindy, he pulled Ulrich's machine towards him. The Hostile skittered violently across the floor, knocking the Mindy attacker off. It came to a halt near the duo, looking worse than the wrecked Bob nearby. Both of them started to take hits on their shields.

Henry, on Wulfe's left, advanced more along the center, behind one of the two remaining Bobs. He could see the chaingun's barrel starting to glow as the machine belched fire. The whirring staccato was like a giant buzzsaw, its effects were like a scythe through ripe wheat. In one moment, Nekos in the prime of their life were cut down systematically as the chaingun spun on its mount. What the Bob had failed to notice, which Henry did, were the Mindy units rushing to fill the gaps. With his HPAR and liberal application of mini-missiles, he took one down and forced the other to duck back into cover. This allowed him a moment to advance before enfilade fire chipped away at his shields.

Leon and Phaedra were next. The Marine Chief rushed forwards with a loud roar, firing his HPAR and launched his own explosive barrage. 80 minimissiles, 500 HPAR rounds and a single HE grenade. Not that he counted it at the time. One Mindy went down, its helmet a bloody mess. Another thrown backwards by the blast.

With each step forward, the Marines were taking hits. Heavy ones. But at the same time, they were getting kills. With each kill, the NMX fire slackened. The only unengaged units were Helszepont and her two bodyguards in the rear. All three of those Mindy's stood, watching, covered by the NMX troops up front. Helszepont, face covered by her helmet, was indistinguishable from the normal Nekos. Her own Mindy was unadorned.

"Tell that fool Izmarhk'resh to prepare to scuttle the ship. The Nepleslian armors are tougher than I thought. We may not be able to win."

Phaedra charged in beside Leon, carefully picking targets and firing controlled bursts from her HPAR.

Amidst the chaos, Phaedra caught sight of three Mindys just standing in the back, unengaged from the fighting. NMX Nekos were normally fanatical or cowardly, not like this.

"That does not make sense...unless..." thought Phaedra, thinking back to previous missions where NMX leaders had taken the field. Ever concerned with their own safety, they were more than willing to let their troops die before fleeing themselves.

"Chief, I think we might have a possible HVT towards the rear of the room. The three in the back."

"Fuck!" Lisa shouted as she got shot. Round got through her shields and damaged and most likely destroyed the CFC she made. Without thinking she discarded the said piece of equipment. There was so many fire against them and so many enemies and no cover. No cover anywhere.

Lisa still fired her chaingun spewing fire everywhere and as more rounds were pinging around her and against her shields, she found herself starting to panic. If we are gonna stay here we are all gonna die! She thought. Her mind stopped thinking rationally.

Her Push/Pull system aimed at what was left of the barricade on the left side pushed against it, trying to dismantle while she hit her thrusters. Her suit jumped forward rocketing into the barricade and into all the enemies on the side with her PPG raised to get through easily.

Henry was getting pounded by small arms and large arms fire, but mostly keeping his cool above the din of the melee and firefight. And he didn't seem to be the only one, at least not on his side.

All of the NMX he'd fought over the years were brainwashed fanatics high on drugs and out of their minds to sacrifice themselves to a greater bad. All of them, except for the leaders who were responsible for this prolonged puppet show cum morality play on the evils of tapping transdimensional energy and picking fights with cat eared killing machines.

Now this begged the question: Why would three Mindies, perfectly capable fighting machines a match for the Hostile be staying in the back rather than getting stuck into some prime slices of Nepleslian backside?

Because they were the smart ones, obviously.

"Those three in the back," Henry radioed to Leon, "Permission to cut off their means of escape?" His targetting reached to the elevator that lead to the bridge, and a soft lock-on was on the top of the elevator, aiming for its mechanisms, "We can saw it back open later."

At this point, it was Bastilen's turn to enter into the fray, falling in from behind with his own HPAR firing cutting lines of heat. The man was still awful frustrated earlier with his own out-burst, somewhat embarrassed even. In all honesty, it had been one of the first times since his release that he was able to act freely. Perhaps the building frustration over the years was finally getting to him, or maybe he was just insane. The latter was most likely, considering his internment in Abjection. He resolved, however, to fix that in the future.

After he helped with the Marines to push the assault. Bastilen had to push past the person in front of him to flood out to the side and unload a bundle of HPAR fire. The air, currently was filled with mini-missiles and heat trails, so the opportunity for another volley had to open itself later. Instead, the young P4C made a quick check around the field, before noticing Bridget. Apparently she had been cut down in the brunt of the assault, but hadn't moved yet.

So, Bastilen pushed forward between the Marines and the line to grab her armor, and drag her off the front, all the while laying out more HPAR fire alongside the massive fusillade.

Wulfe landed besides Zyv, he scanned the chaos around him, his Hostile's helmet scanning left and right as he watched the firefight enroll and as his armor registered hit after hit taxing his shields. Not wanting to get pinned down by enemy fire, he moved behind the Bob closest to the gap on their right side, taking cover behind it as the machine unloaded its deadly cargo on the enemy ranks.

He finally set his gaze on a target and locked on the mindy that had been atop of Ulrich as the marine's battered Hostile approached Zyv. He opened up with his HPAR on the enemy armor, sending a stream of molten metal towards it.

"Your decision, I'm a little busy!" Leon responded hastily, jumping forwards, out of the way of an attacking Mindy with aether blades drawn. He tried to turn his gun on her but the Mindy was already leaping at him. Shit....

A few rounds burst upon the Mindy's shields but then the Chief's HPAR got sliced open. Before he knew it, he had a powerful burning sensation in his gut. His shields had taken the brunt of the aether energy but enough power remained to burn through his armor, knocking him over.

His HUD immediately started flashing warnings: damage to the abdomen, low shields, increased heart rate and other medical crap. All Leon paid attention to were the white ceiling lights. His breath felt smoky, like he had inhaled ash. The lights were so... fixating. He stared at them, on his back, wondering about the smoky smell until his vision blurred into a white nothingness.

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"Chief's down!" Laura cried out, charging past the doors. Her own HPAR rattled violently as she saw the Chief take the hit and just fall. They'd already had one senior man dead today. Laura would be damned if they lost the other. She hadn't been there to help Ran Rui. She was present to help Leon Santiago. She, Laura Romero, was the Most Brilliant Medic in the Universe and she would save his wretched life because her reputation depended on it!

"Vital signs are weak! Bastilen, help me drag his suit back out!" Laura raced over to Leon. She had chased away the Mindy with intense HPAR fire and was satisfied that she had blown off one of its arms. Right now, she had to switch gears from killer to healer.

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

All around the battlefield, the Marines were taking a pounding but still advancing and killing. Mindy wrecks lay scattered about, smoking lifeless husks. Only six Mindys, plus the three in the rear, were left along with a dozen bloody Nekos.

The last two Bobs were down for the count. One was functional but had its legs blown off. The other had a neat 50mm hole drilled its central hull, which passed right through the robot's CPU. Despite some batterings and bruises, none of the Marines took serious damage due to the difficulties of the combat.

Suddenly, the three Mindy units began moving. Forwards.

A voluminous flurry of minimissiles was all the warning Henry gave to the trio of mindys before he rushed forward with the trigger pulled all the way down. It was his decision to let his hair down and go for it - but did that make it a poor decision simply because it appeared reckless? Could you choose to be reckless, or was it something you did unconsciously?

He closed the gap by having the last of his minimissiles open a battered section of the barricade off to one side and away from the other six standing Mindys, and moved through it while firing his HPAR over the Trio's heads. He had intentionally taken a longer approach, and didn't want to risk having to fight nine Mindys. By moving out of the way, he'd also given whoever else was in the back a chance to move up and join the fray.

Once he got within melee range, he dropped his depleted HPAR and drew the one thing he'd not put a hand on all mission - the chainsword. His other hand was free and he utilised his push-pull devices to push the Mindys back where they came from to stagger them.

He followed up with a flurry of controlled thrusts and carefully checked swings to counter and parry the Mindy's strikes, ensuring that his chainsword didn't meet the sharp edge of their aether sabres with the Push Pull system whilst twisting and contorting to evade their strikes. He was keeping the three of them tied up. He was a distraction. A ruse.

His soul was dark with indignation, but he was aware of each of his actions - not letting his anger control him or interfere with him, "Block the exits!" He roared to whoever was able to hear him over the comms, "Make sure nobody can leave this room!"

Phaedra was nearby when Leon got taken down.

"Chief!" she yelled. She quickly switched to her shotgun and then shoulder-charged the Mindy Laura had fired at. She then fired once point-blank at its head.

"Laura get him out of here!"

Then the three Mindys in the back rushed forward and Henry leapt forward to intercept.

"Cavaliers! Take the Mindys down! Disable the three in the back. I want them alive!" she said, tagging the trio on her HUD for the rest of the squad.

Phaedra ran towards one of the three Mindys by Henry and attempted to shoulder-charge it into the bulkhead, taking care not to skewer herself on an Aether sabre. She then fired two rounds from her shotgun at the Mindy's legs.

Wulfe didn't let go of the trigger of his HPAR, spraying fire against the three Mindy's in the back even as the Bob he used to take cover was put out of commission. He switched targets, catching a glimpse of Henry as the marine locked himself in melee with the enemy PAs.

Not wanting to risk friendly fire, he switched his aim to the only exit the enemy used, then brought up his HPAR towards it. He crept his torso out of the back of the Bob. He wasn't equipped with a shotgun or a proper weapon for melee, all he had was his VCBS and he knew he'd get sliced and diced if he got near those Mindys, just like the Chief had. He still had his HPAR, and of all the weapons that was the one he would stick with.

"Suppressing!" He yelled, firing at the elevator's door, hoping that the hail of molten metal would make the Mindys think twice about risking a retreat through there.

Sawyer stayed in the back considering the compromised integrity of his armor and shields, taking careful aim with his recently acquired PLR and firing short bursts of well aimed shots at the Mindys in the back of the enemy formation. His pan was to use the accurate fire to either drive back the enemy command group or to start crippling them so that they were either unable to withdraw and easier to kill or to hopefully kill one of them so the incoming fire to the rest of the Marines would slacken as the enemy forces attempted to protect their command group.

‘That did not go well.’ Was what went through Zyv’s mind at his poor use of the Hostiles push/pull system. No time to worry he shifted his attention to providing covering fire for Bastilen as he evacuated Bridget.

That done there was only one thing to do, move forward. Finding a spot where he was unlikely to be involved in friendly fire Rakowski sent a volley of 30 ARROWS in the NMX’s direction.

His intention was to use the following detonation to get past the barricade and, blasting away with his HPAR and Pulse lasers as needed, fulfill Morris’ order and cut off the NMX’s ability to escape.

Lisa was still in movement, bashing through the makeshift, barricade her two ton weighting Hostile forced its way through. She only half listened to what was going on. Mindies in the back were joining the fray and Henry went to fight them while giving orders to block the escape. Elevator was only escape and Lisa was not far.

Instead of stopping her charge she kept moving forward, ignoring enemy fire and concentrating on getting there. She rushed and flew right into it. Lisa tried to break, but still slammed into the elevator wall slightly. She noticed HPAR fire slammed into the elevator around her and fell on the ground, looking around.

Her eyes noticed the console and with bullets spraying the elevator she thought it might be great idea to just get away from the finding. Her hand snapped forward and pushed a button she would expect to be bridge. When the doors closed and elevator started moving, she quickly got up and gathered her weapon. "What did you get yourself into Simmons?" She asked herself after realising what she just did.

It was a deciding moment in combat, when the bodies started piling up. Corpses of allies were almost as dangerous as any bullet. Seeing compatriots and leaders fall was a striking blow directly to the heart, right under the armor. Sometimes helped to empower people, sometimes too much, sometimes too little. Whatever the matter, it always seemed to ruin the stability of unit, tatter them. It was inevitable.

Which was why Bastilen was pulling corpses and possible corpses to be to the back of the fighting line. As he set Bridget back with hand, shouldering his rifle with the other hand, he turned back just in time to watch the Chief go down. The sight was enough to chill his spine.

It was so strange how things stood out, as the bullets and fire encircled it, afraid to touch a field of view that would obscure it. Almost as if it were to be some divine sign of tunneling one's vision.

"Vital signs are weak! Bastilen, help me drag his suit back out!"

Click to expand...

Then that tunnel switched to Laura, his own customized HUD show her name in the smallest letters possible for the eye. Instead of speaking, he drew his LSP and fired into the fray, haphazardly firing on targets as he jogged forth, weathering more of the battle onto his armor. Peeling senses of dread rose up in the back of his mind as he came to Leon, gripping one of his collar plates. He halted for a moment, his heart fluttering and skipping a beat under the duress, and used the pause to squeeze a few shots off at retreating enemies.

"Men like you have no business dying," commented Bastilen gruffly as his nanomuscular thighs flexed, and began tugging Leon back into the relatively safety of the rear line.

Henry rushed forward his thruster assisted movement rocketing him at the three Mindies. Those three easily noticed him, two on the sides activating aether sabers on their right forearms, while activating the shields in the left as if the accepted his challenge. Before Henry got close, few shots flew at them from various marine, pestering the three neko. The one in the middle blocked most fire with shields, she curiously swiftly activated on her forearms.

Those two on the sides were not so lucky. They mostly caught the whole fire, shields on the right mindy held and took the fire. The one one the left got her shields brought down and incoming fire shot and destroyed gauss cannon on her shoulder. One shot also apparently grazed her helmet and put her off balance, slowing her little bit.

That gave Henry opportunity as the chainsword roared with his attack. The middle Mindy was not phased one bit at the swing coming at her as she jumped and somersaulted over Henry thrusting against her. Before Henry could react, her comrade on the run came and attacked him. Lucky for him, his shields were more then capable of blocking energy. The aether blade was indeed an energy weapon. His shields blocked most of the blade so it only grazed his chest plate, not doing any damage to the suit, apart for lowering its integrity. His blade did not rest either as he thrust again. The neko side stepped, but the blade still grazed her above hip, slicing the suit and obviously hurting her, though not fatally. Behind his adversary Henry could see that third neko was gaining up.
___

Phaedra's shoulder hit the arm-less Mindy who thrown back and slid on the ground, before a foot of Phaedra's Hostile landed on her chest stopping her. Before the neko could do anything she was looking inside a tunnel presented to her as Wolf'S shotgun was aimed at her. BANG. A shot came out and the neko's head exploded. That one won't hurt anyone else.

Quick look-around the battlefield showed Phaedra that fighting still kept on. Henry just went at the three commander-Mindies. There were still several other enemies scattered behind what was left of the barricade. Her hostile started moving, each stomp of two ton suit sprint's quaking the ground around her as she charged out to help Henry. Suddenly the the taller Mindy in the middle jumped over Henry and could easily see sergeant Volkov heading her way.

The Mindy deactivated her forearms shields, swapping them for aether blades. Shorter then usual, but on each forearm. As Phaedra tried to shoulder charge the woman side-stepped avoiding and swinging at the woman. That slash not aimed Phaedra herself but at the shotgun in her hands. The weapon was easyil cut in half and both women stop in motion several meters from each other. The Mindy waiting for Phaedra to do the first move.
___

Wulfe shots indeed hit the Mindy on the left, damaging her shields quite a lot. He was joined by the fire from Sawyer and Zyv. Combined fire brought the shields of the left neko down, shooting off her gauss cannon and slowing her down, as she had to take cover behind her forearm shields. It seemed they her hit her head too, though not disabling her. Then they had to stop shooting as Henry got too close the their targets.

Wulfe transferred his fire and started spraying the elevator, which was why he could easily see that Lisa in her charge practically flew into it. She fell on the ground as his shots pattered the elevators and before he could stop firing the elevator closed and rode off somewhere.

Sawyer had still plenty targets as among what was left of the barricade there were still neko's and Mindies scattered. A burst of his PLR rifle almost cut one neko in half and drained shields of another Mindy quite a lot. That drew attention to him, Wulfe and Zyv though as the remaining enemy started firing in their direction. His shields were luckily mostly recharged and shrugged of impaler power easily.

Then the world exploded.

Zvy's 30 ARROW missiled flew into right side of the room and obliterated several neko's and one Mindy that was there. It shattered the barricade there and pieces of metal and plastic whizzed around as shrapnells, hurting everything that was not in Power Armour. That made most of the lights on the ride side of the room go out.

The rest of enemy on the right side took notice of it of course and Zyv was suddenly under fire, impaler shots coming by. His shields took the gruff of it, but they could not take what came next. Two shots of aetheric energy came and hit him suddenly, first was stopped by the shields, but it drained them enough for the second to come in and devastate his left shoulder. He lost the mono-eye there and could feel his burning sensation. He was still alive and able to fight though.
___

"Come on, Come on, Come on!" Laura shouted as she joined Bastilen grabbing chief by his upper arm and helped with the dragging. The chief's suit was in bad shape and no response could be heard. What Bastilen did hear was a faint grunting, that gave away that for now the chief is still alive.

They reached the doorway and Laura set the man on the ground. "Go help others! I got his!" Said the The Most Brilliant Medic in The Universe. Bastilen was indeed still needed in the fight.

Phaedra was surpised when the Mindy destroyed her shotgun instead of trying to go in for the kill. Clearly more intelligent than the rest of the Nekos, this one had to be the leader. With aether blades drawn, it waited for Phaedra to make a move.

Phaedra ignored her impulse to draw her HPAR, as the leader Neko could just as easily destroy that weapon as well. She would have to improvise for the time being.

She drew her VBCS and revved the motor. After staring at the leader Neko for a moment, Phaedra suddenly drew her LSP and began firing at it. Expecting the leader to charge at her, Phaedra readied her PPD as well. Nothing is as simple as it seems, and Phaedra was not going to underestimate this Neko.

Bastilen only responded with a mild grunt, as he turned back into the action. The echoes of combat constantly rocked the inside of the armor, like a man listening to a war outside of his home. The NAM armors had a habit of this, shunting the volume from their audio reception to protect their ears. Every time it happened, it felt as if he had been plunged in a pool of water. Though, every time the loudness subsided for more volleys, the volume rose again, with his rising above the water again.

Luckily, it had been the latter when Bastilen turned about, holstering his LSP and drawing out his HPAR.

He had a few situations to contend with, but his first notion was disable the enemy with his particularly favorite mini-missle, the DART. A lot of marines failed to favor this little gem, but Bastilen did. It was known for its sensor-shattering, shield-breaking abilities, which sowed panic and retreat in more enemies than fire on a wooden boat. The DART didn't break armor like ARROW, or murdered like the BOLT, it stole the enemy's safety and security.

Which is why Bastilen stood back, instead of charging in. He gathered the minimal targetting resolutions needed, ensuring safe-launch coordinates were placed on each friendly, and fired a volley of twenty missiles around the room, ten from each pod.

‘The mechanics are going to hate me.’ The thought went through Zyv’s head as his left shoulder/monoeye joined the right in oblivion, as far as he was concerned, however, it was worth it. The barricade was shattered and he could hear the agony of the lightly armoured nekos scythed down by shrapnel and even the fact that the marine was now a target was good, that meant less fire was directed at those marines attempting to take down what they hoped was a high value target.

Scratch that, getting shot hurts.

The marine continued his attack aiming to get through the barricade, shooting at the lightly armoured nekos with the HPAR and sending a combination of DARTS and ARROWS at the power armoured ones, after checking there was no chance of friendly fire of course.

With the elevator gone and with some marines locked in melee with the enemy, Wulfe changed his aim to the other Nekos and any remaining PAs on the barricade. If they were shooting the marines in front of the barricade and not the ones behind then the ones engaging the HVTs could worry about not getting shot in back.


The marine kept firing, focusing the power of his HPAR on the enemy PAs instead of wasting the dead payload on the regular infantry.