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

Bastilen nodded to Chief Santiago before curling towards inside part of the door. Once again, out came the chain-knife, and once again, a panel was torn from the wall. Wires became exposed again, with a few several he recognized. The panel itself was receiving no transmission for other sources, so his work on the outside had done it's job. This panel was supplementary, to make the door work from the inside. He could do the same here as he did there, as the connections to the panel's board were simply for the purpose of telling the door to open or close. Bastilen pulled some of the wires out, similar to those he had done before, but also pulled a seperate wire, one he considered related to the automatic opening system.

Zzt! With a zap of the door's control wires, the opening out into space closed behind them.

Rita couldn't help grinning underneath her helmet. This was what she had been waiting for. That twinge of nervousness in her gut just before combat, those pangs of anxiety that she took as a good thing, an indicator of the thrill to come.

"Got it." She replied to Henry, letting her HPAR drop to her side and hang off the sling before switching her LPA to her right hand and drawing out her VBCS Longsword with her opposite hand. She waited to engage that whirring chain of death, not so much to be quiet, but to conserve the battery. She'd use it when she needed it. She stayed to one side of the corridor, her eyes carefully gazing down towards any entrance their enemies might emerge from, mostly along the opposite side of the wall.

If they were smart, they could create a crossfire down the hallway and decimate an ambush force in seconds. This would require, however, that Henry continue to be as resourceful as he appeared to be. Rita didn't doubt he had the capability, but it was easier for her than most to stay cool under duress. She hoped the same rang true for her current group commander.

"This is looking like it's gonna be one hell of a party... Stay frosty."

Lisa was waiting patiently as Bastilen worked on the door. As they opened she poured in with others, her large weapon at the ready. There was not much room in the hallways and that was bad. It means using of mini-missiles and thrusters will be very limited. Not to mention that numbers won't mean all that much.

As she got order to breach the doors she moved next to them. "Okay Hollister," she said to her partner. "I got big gun, so I open the doors and you go in first. I will be right behind you don't worry. You move to the left, I'll go to the round. On your mark!" Her hand hovered in front of the door opening button.

Bridget fell into position along with Ulrich, crouching slightly lower in order to cover all angles on their side.

"Got your back, battle buddy!" she said to Ulrich.

Rifle in hand, Bridget readied for the doors to open. Part of her almost hoped she'd have a chance to use her vibrosaw, even though it was preferable to solve things with a loaded weapon. But close range conflict was just so... thrilling.

A tingle went up her spine and she inadvertently giggled. It was no laughing matter, but she couldn't help herself. War was madness.

"Fuck it," Ran simply grunted. His plan was to immediately rush through the door to cover the middle of the room, expecting two other Marines to follow immediately by covering and clearing the sides of the room. "You assholes are buying me drinks after this shit."

With his HPAR raised, the former Chief kicked the button and rushed forward.

Ulrich placed his hand on the entry button and turned to face Bridget "That's...reassuring twinkletoes. Anyway, I'll move in first and take the right, you stick to my back and cover the left; that way now ones exposed and we've got all round coverage...couldn't be easier. Agreed?.

"Totally agreed!" said Bridget. She patted the side of her HPAR and waited for Ulrich to open the doors.

Ran's impetuous move caused the door to slide open and he rushed in without a care. The interior of the room was cavernous in comparison to the hallway that they had just been in. It proved to be a maintenance area for mecha that had been converted into a casualty collection area. NMX Nekos, wounded as well as able, were all over the shop. Some were treating the wounded while others continued their work on several power armor. In the middle of the room, close to the entrance, a Ravager was suspended as it underwent repairs. The room was barely large enough to fit the mecha, which was missing both of its legs. Ran's entrance caused a tangible pause as both sides stared at each other in surprise. Almost none of the NMX nekos were armed but that didn't stop Ran from firing on them indiscriminately his laser pulse array and plasma autocannon.

His opening fire cut down half a dozen NMX Nekos where they stood before the other scrambled in a panic for cover. One of the Nekos slammed her fist onto an alarm button, causing sirens to go off all over the ship. As the other Marines entered the room, they saw the Ravager, still suspended on its maintenance frame, loom over the unsuspecting Ran, reaching out one of its gargantuan arms towards him. In an instant, five long, thin fingers encircled Ran and crushed his suit. The pilot wasn't dead but anyone could see that the sheer force exerted onto the suit was destroying him. But for the moment, his head was intact. The Marines fired at the suspended Ravager, their shots impacting against its thick armor, leaving the mecha unfazed as it continued to slowly squeeze the life out of Ran.

As the Marines poured their fire onto the Ravager and its frame, they also bore witness to Ran's demise. With a surreal slowness, the Ravager raised its arm and hurled the dying Marine and his armor straight at the far wall. Ran did nothing to slow or prevent his impact, having fallen unconscious moments earlier. As if to defy the invincibility of Ran Rui, reality changed. The former Marine Chief smashed into the far wall, head first, before crashing down onto the ground in front of Rita and Henry.

A combination of hits from Sawyer, Rita and Wulfe struck the Ravager's neck and caused something to explode internally. This set off a series of smaller internal explosions which visibly rocked the Ravager before it went limp. Black smoke poured out of every opening, casting a dark fog over the room. NMX Nekos continued to scramble for cover, searching desperately for weapons.

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The sudden blare of sirens shocked Leon and the rest of the Cavaliers. "GO GO GO!" he yelled at the assault teams. "Romero, with me. Hit the one on the far right. Phaedra, Wreno hit the far left one!" he added. They needed to secure and get out of this corridor fast.

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Bridge, XSS Momoranth

The sudden blare of sirens shocked all present. Everyone had been focused on either the oncoming reinforcements or the strange Nepleslian tactic of ignoring them. The sirens meant a security breach. But how had the Nepleslians breached them when they had been so far off? "What is going on? What have they done now! Report!" Helszepont demanded angrily, competing with the sirens in volume.

"Isn't it obvious, Nightmare? We have been boarded. There must be shuttles filled with assault troops amongst the fighters flitting about around my ship," Izmarhk'resh said coldly. His mind raced, considering each possibility from the Nepleslian commander's standpoint. It made sense now. Decapitate the head and the body will fall. That was why the battleships had all been disabled while their escorts had been utterly destroyed. That was why the Nepleslians continued to have hundreds of fighters and automated drones lingering around the battleships! Izmarhk'resh had done half of the job for the Nepleslian commander by splitting his force and presenting his back to him! And now, Izmarhk'resh had to focus on the defense of his ship as well as the coordination of his fleet. Part of him seethed but another part enjoyed the challenge, it made him interested in an otherwise dull environment.

"Intruders?!" the Nightmare screeched in disbelief. Then she stopped and considered for a moment. "I will deal with them! You focus on destroying those warships! Tell my bodyguard to meet me outside my chambers, prepared to repel these insects!" Helszepont ordered before stalking off the bridge, a feline predator off to hunt.

"Holy shit! Ahhh, what the hell, eat hot plasma bitches!" Rita couldn't help but throw out a few ultra-generic taunts while she and the rest of her squad poured weapons fire downrange. As the Ravager grabbed hold of Ran's suit, Rita's eyes widened underneath her visor. "OH, HELL NO! Hang on asshole, don't you give up yet!". She jumped into the air and engaged her suit's thrusters, zooming through the room and slamming feet-first into the Ravager's massive arm. It wasn't enough force to dislodge its grip, so she engaged the magnetic boots and stood on its upper arm while slamming her VBCS longsword into its wrist. The whirring chain blades cut through the metal slowly... Too slowly.

A few moments later, Ran's body was chucked aside like a ragdoll, and Rita nearly facepalmed. "You son of a bitch... Are you kidding me?! You just fucked with the wrong cyborg!" She yelled, incensed by her wasted effort. She slammed the longsword into the opening made in the Ravager's neck by combined weapons fire (which she carefully made sure to avoid by using the ravager's arm as cover) and then tore out through the side while leaping off of the Ravager. She landed on the ground and used the smoke as concealment to wade through the room slaughtering NMX nekos left and right with a combination of plasma rifle blasts and sword swings.

"Roger!" said Phaedra in reply. She rushed over to the doorway on the left and motioned for the Private to follow. Stacking up on the right side of the door, she signaled with her hand for the two of them to enter and clear the room. Once Bastilen was in position, Phaedra nodded for him to open the door. The instant the door slid open Phaedra was in the room, HPAR up at eye level and scanning for foes.

Zzrt! buzzed the door's wires as Bastilen jacked them open. Phaedra's ability surprised him as she was already in as the door split, causing him to affirm the abilities of the squad, as it were. He didn't give much time at staring at Phaedra's armored rear as it entered; The soldier was moving in right behind it once he got his fingers free of the wires.

The room it self was dark save for the lights coming off the console monitors, and the light's mounted on the Marines' HPARs. Their lights shined a beam that showed sizzling computer equipment, and fluttering smoke from some of that said equipment. Sparks would come off a torn console every now and then, giving a little ambient light to the entire array, letting them see a bit better. The open door way cut open a clear field of vision through most of the room. Shadows beside it appeared to dance at their edges like a curious night terror, though that illusion was perhaps the adrenaline.

Bastilen had saddled up on Phaedra's right, and the P4C kept a steady vigil on his end of the room. Nothing but smoke, it seemed, but there was something wrong.

There were sounds, faint, odd sounds. Something was making a noise beyond the sparks. Both Phaedra's and Bastilen's trained hearing could tell it, the noise, like a pattering of small hands, sounded every time the sparks did, as if trying to hide itself. Then, the door closed behind them, squeezing the life out of the light that flowed from the ambiance in the previous room. They both saw it.

Something caused a shadow to cut over that ambient light as it disappeared, a mistimed leap.

Bastilen turned as the room consumed itself in almost complete darkness. His light turned on the door, but that, he found, was the wrong target of his rifle-mounted lantern. He saw it, she saw it, a pair of hands reaching from the darkness, Bastilen turned his light on it just in time to illuminate a NMX Nekovalkyrja with a feral glee on her face as she leaped to pin Bastilen to the ground.

She hissed and screamed, and went to grab the soldier's helmet to snap his neck when she found that tackling to the floor wouldn't work.

"Contact!" said Phaedra over the comm when the Neko jumped out. It scrambled on top of Bastilen and grabbed at his helmet. Phaedra quickly grabbed the Neko by the neck and slammed it into the nearest wall, taking care not to snap its neck. She held the Neko in place against the wall to keep it from running away.

"Large amount of computers and tech in here, Chief, though most seems to be destroyed. One Neko in custody," Phaedra reported.

"Wreno, see if you can find any intel in here. Maybe ship schematics?" said Phaedra, shaking the Neko every time it tried to struggle out of her grip.

The music was long turned off; now Zyv had nothing to listen to except comm. traffic, the ring of power-armoured bodies moving across through the corridor and the sound of the ship groaning around him.

He confirmed his orders when necessary, reported in as necessary and conducted himself in a manner expected in a CQB.

As the team moved into the maintenance room he followed snapping off shots at the Neko as he took cover. To say that he was unperturbed by Rui’s fall would be a lie, Zyv found himself fighting the urge to run to and check on the corporal and instead focused on the enemy still present leaving the task of checking Ran’s state to those closest to the corporals body.

Aim for the torso, pull the trigger, confirm target hit, acquire a new target and repeat until you run out of targets, which happened in a heartbeat. Soon there was nothing but dead Nekos littering the area, a mixture of ragged, bloody holes from HPAR’s and clean burns from Plasma. Rakowski walked amongst the fallen, kicking and prodding just to be certain that they were dead.

- ‘Clear.’

He reported in though stayed where he was shifting his attention from making sure the Neko were no longer a threat to finding and securing any entry points. He found himself fighting the urge to use the comm again, he would be told of Rui's status soon enough.

"Yes ma'am," said Bastilen as he shook his head to regain his senses from the sudden assault. He turned over on his hands and knees, gripping his HPAR, and used that as a sort of make-shift cane to help himself up off the floor. That armored gauntlet patted his head a few times as he stepped over to the console. Allowing him to calm the sudden rush of blood to his head. He worked better relaxed than ready to fight.

His mono-eye shifted from side-to-side, scanning its partially damaged surface, before leaning his weapon next to the computer. His finger, protected from the elements as it was, poked a little in the damaged surface of the machine.

"Looks like she tried to destroy this before we got here. The damage appears to be only on the surface, though, she didn't get much luck actually damaging anything important," reported Bastilen as he tugged a wire from a storage pocket on his armor, "Well it would be important if we needed the keyboard, that shit's melted all to hell."

Bastilen pried open one of the access ports on the computer, and plugged his armor into the machine.


A short string of code appeared in front of the Tech Expert's vision, before turning into a visual display. He quickly moved about in the system, hunting down specific directories that the array may have been a part of. Meanwhile, he worked on uploading a few of his own viruses to any network paths that hadn't yet been closed to him.

"Here's hoping the A.I. doesn't lock me out before I can get this shit sorted."

"Wait, Corporal-" Henry blurted as Rui pushed ahead of him and stormed in. He had no choice but to follow and anticipate what was ahead of him - something he wasn't used to doing without any prior warning. Then came target prioritisation, unarmoured Nekovalkyrja or a Ravager. The choice was obvious as Ran was hammered by the mecha.

"No, no, NO!" Henry yelled as he unloaded his HPAR on the thing's arms, trying to get them to release the corporal. Eventually Rui was thrown against the wall, bouncing and landing by his feet. Henry checked his HUD for a pulse, and his suit wasn't transmitting any information. Muttering in shock, Henry ducked down to try and check for a pulse, or an intact head.

He found neither. Just twisted metal, shredded flesh and shattered bones. He could be heard sniffling over the squad communications for a brief moment before standing up and walking towards what was left of the Ravager, since the NMX Nekovalkyrja had already been gunned down by Rita. In an act of bloody defiance, Henry fired his HPAR on full auto into what was left of the Ravager's head, eventually shredding and melting it to pieces. He fired about fifty shots or so.

After breathing heavily and regaining his composure after his catharsis had passed, he reported solemnly: "Man down. Chief Rui is dead and unrecoverable." He paused to sniff before continuing, "We continue the mission, for him." He couldn't wipe away the lone tear inside his helmet, but he would evaporate it with the heat of his rage and his HPAR's reports.

He helped Rita finish of whatever was left, taking little joy in it, making single, calculated shots to end their manufactured lives. Chief Rui was not a manufactured life, and he and the Nepleslian marines would never bow down to their machinations.

Lisa was waiting for the man's go when Henry's report went in. Her face changed as angry expression showed up. So far there were injuries on team. Not deaths. Unrecoverable. That meant his cerebral chip was destroyed and he cannot be recloned.

"Shit, they got Angerman!" Lisa exclaimed. "Fuck this!" She then said, hit the opening button of the doors and went in. She was angry and blood was boiling in her veins. Her large chaigun came to life as barrels started to rotate. She walked in. "WHATEVER MOVES IS DEAD!" She shouted and was ready to kill anything and everything.

Wulfe fanned into the room, opening up with his LPA-02a and his HPAR on anything in front of him, watching as the Nekos dropped one after another. A small part of him pondered if that was the right to do, shooting all those unarmed Nekos, but a much bigger part - to which he listened- said it was. These same Nekos were the ones torching down the system he was fighting for, it wasn't just an opportunity to kill them, it was a privilege.

The enemy Ravager attacking and killing Ran Rui only served to reinforce that chain of thought, making Wulfe aim towards the Ravager's neck and open fire at it until the thing was done for good.

He fell into formation besides Henry, checking his HPAR and then looking at what was left of Ran's Hostile. No way to revive that guy. "Ready to move." He stated afterwards and waited for orders.

Leon didn't bother with anything fancy. Fancy, poncy stuff he saved for dates with women. NMX doors deserved violent, brute force. He kicked it down and backed off to let Laura enter first. The door clattered violently inside as the young clone went in. Despite all the warnings that the other medics had given him, the young clone was an excellent soldier. At least, when it came to the real deal and what they were paid for. He followed her, shotgun and laser pulse ready to fire.

Laura's entry was marked by the instant discharge of her laser pulse array as it tracked two Nekos. The first one was gunned down instantly as she leapt, nude from Laura's momentary observation, at the Hostile. As a medic, Laura knew how to save, or kill, people. As good as Nekovalkyrja were, they usually didn't survive taking lasers to the face or having their brains vaporized.

The second Neko, uniform hanging undone across her shoulders, pulled out a Type 31 energy pistol and fired two beams at Laura. Her shields easily deflected the laser while Laura slammed the Neko face-first into the fleshy wall. It had lasted only a few seconds. Laura's speed and aggression were exemplary. The whole room seemed to be like the interior of a bloody intestine. "Prisoner?" Laura asked the Chief.

Leon paused to think. If they took the Neko prisoner, she would be handed over to the SAOY. If they killed her now, she'd be dead. Which was the better option? The Neko was still struggling against the Hostile's greater strength. Leon looked from it to the waiting medic. She was asking permission to kill it, not to take the Neko prisoner. "Put it down. Permanently." A rabid animal is best put down, not sent back to the pet store.

As Laura fired a single laser pulse through the Neko's heart, both of them heard the cry that announced Corporal Rui's death. "KIA? Unrecoverable? How?" Leon demanded. "Simple, sir. If the head is destroyed, we can't recover the brain spider or the brain itself," Laura replied casually, "That's why the fighter pilots always have to get replacements. When they explode, no one can retrieve their back-up."

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The room Lisa had entered was empty, save for some bedding and scraps of food.

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Bridget and Ulrich broke into their assigned room to find it stacked with canned food on one side and recently butchered meat on another. Nothing else was present.

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As Bastilen worked, the ship's A.I. began noticing unusual activity unrelated to the battle or the recent alarm. Combined with the orders to repel boarders, the A.I. came to the obvious conclusion that whoever needed to know basic information during a critical moment in the battle had to be an intruder unfamiliar with the ship. And immediately shut down their access to its systems.

All Bastilen managed to get before he was locked out was the general layout of the warship. No other information, such as crew locations, security measures or room contents, could be downloaded from this panel.

"Put it down. Permanently," said Leon.

Phaedra knew that the Chief was talking to Laura at that instant. But when she saw the Neko futilely gnawing on her armored wrist, she shrugged and deftly snapped the Neko's neck. She then promptly dropped the corpse and readied her HPAR.

"Didn't want to bother with a rabid one anyway," she thought. At least she could tell the Admrial that she tried to take prisoners, and the Chief denied it.

"Wreno, get anything?" she said, glancing at the Private.

And then she heard the report of Ran's death. Unrecoverable death. She paused for a moment before continuing to the door.

"Come on, lets get moving," she said.

"The time to mourn is later," she thought.

Leon left the room and went back into the hallway to look for the rest of the Cavaliers. "Wreno, can you open this blast door?" Leon looked at the large metallic doors the sealed the way forward. The combination of mechanical and organic interiors was very unsettling. Leon didn't even want to think how the wiring worked.

"Volkov, get your squad assembled out here. Morris, continue the mission! We'll have the sailors pick up Rui's body."