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

Sawyer ducked into the room and opened fire down the hallway with his LPA hoping to suppress the enemy through massive firepower. He also hurled another grenade down the hallway in the direction of the oncoming fire in the hopes of at least distracting them with the detonation. He'd begin firing and ducking into the room to let his shields recharge from the fire that he had taken already.

Lisa gulped as she three potentially quite dangerous target. Not to mention the light infantry, which could be dangerous too in larger amount. Lisa stood next to Leon as she opened fire and smacked herself mentally for freezing that single moment. Her shields were still full, she had all the missiles. Why should she be worried, not to mention there was cover of another room where she could get within moment with her push/pull plating. The game was finally on.

Lisa raised her large charingun and aimed it trough the hallway. "I'll cover you!" She shouted and opened fire at the enemy ranks slightly strafing at them to make them take cover too. That was point of covering fire, to make enemy lay low, while Lisa's comrades could do whatever they needed. If anything she was sure it will disperse the light infantry. To make things even worse for NMX she fired five Arrows from each of her launchers at the enemy. "FUCK YOU AND DIE!" She shouted to keep her courage.

The Tech Expert, seeing the enemies further ahead, threw one of his shins forward, just to the side of the rest of the group. His targeting indicators popped up over the screen, squaring in both of the shock-troopers, the leader, and a few infantry near them. This information was sent to the others with one note by each target: DART. Bastilen released six missles into the group ahead, two missiles head straight for the shocktroopers, one flying high to reach their leader, and the others twirling into the rest of the group.

And then? Bastilen chose to dive for the nearest cover. Like a boss.

After staying behind with Zyv and watching the rest of the squad take part in clearing the rooms from the halway, Wulfe moved forward, tapping Rakowski's armored shoulder as he moved, "The sailors got our backs, let's give our squad some cover." He said, where the enemy return fire had been coming from, some passing too close from him.

Without wasting too much time, Wulfe activated the rack of DART missiles on his Hostile and shot two of them once the halway was clear of friendlies, then raised his HPAR and started firing, aiming to suppress the enemies down the halway.

Phaedra ducked into one of the side rooms and quickly loaded a frag grenade into the tube beneath her HPAR.

"Fire in the hole!" shouted Phaedra.

She then popped out from behind cover and sent the grenade hurtling towards the feet of the Nekos in front, hoping that the ensuing blast would also damage the shields of the Shocktroopers behind. She added to the fire from the rest of the squad by firing her HPAR in short, controlled bursts.

"Take them out!" she shouted.

Sawyer's dive landed him into the same room that Henry had been so unceremoniously evicted from. However, with his attention entirely focused on the smoky corridor, he failed to notice the two Nekos who had evicted Henry. They, however, were fully aware of the appearance of another intruder in the room they were defending.

Something smacked against Sawyer's Hostile and flopped onto his feet. A moment later, an even larger detonation rocked the hallway which launched Sawyer's damaged armor into the far wall of the room he had entered. As the Marines' ears rung from the blast, the two Nekos opened fire on the armor with their Impalers.

Though his shields swatted the beams away, the armor was badly damaged. Only the Neriminium plating had stopped the blast from doing more serious damage. His shields were dangerously low and to top it off, Sawyer's ears were ringing to the point where he couldn't hear anything.

Outside, Zyv's attacks proved to be inconsequential. With smoke still lingering in the hallway, he couldn't see who was firing at him. He heard the two smaller explosions but whether they had killed anything was unknown. The volume of fire was still the same and three more beams slashed into his shields, dropping them to 70%.

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Lisa's AMP and ARROWs crashed into the NMX Neko infantry, killing some and scattering the rest. Despite the several dead, the Nekos reacted expertly and took cover in the doorways. Every few seconds, they would peak out and fire a couple particle beams as the two Shocktroopers slowly advanced on the Nepleslians. The NMX fired greenish-white beams from their dorsal cannons over the heads of the Nekos.

One of those eerie greenish beams hit Lisa's shields. She suffered no damage but her shields had been taken down to 80%. From behind, Laura fired a frag grenade from her launcher.

Both grenades, Laura's and Phaedra's crashed into the NMX ranks, killing another couple of Nekos and slowing them down.

Right behind them, Bastilen's mini-missiles skewered an already injured Neko before exploding and spraying her guts all over that section of the hallway. The others either exploded harmlessly or hit the shields of the Shocktroopers. His single DART that had been aimed at the Type 32 NMX in the rear clipped the ceiling and exploded.

Leon leaned out to fire a couple of plasma shells at the NMX, burning off the arm of one Neko and hitting another full on. Despite the severe losses, however, the NMX security forces continued to advance without hesitation. Their return fire was heavy but since much of the squad had taken cover, only the rearward members who had not taken cover quite so quickly were hit. Rayne, Bridget and Ulrich's shield lit up like fireworks as NMX energy beams hit them.

"What the..."

Bridget found herself a target as soon as she was back in the corridor. She could hardly hear Phaedra over her comms as she was rocked by energy beams that pounded her shield. Thanks to her teammates' efforts, there was a brief lull between NMX gunfire, just long enough for Bridget to duck into the nearest room, firing off a DART toward the NMX as she did so.

Rita had been incapacitated for a few moments by the blinding light from the plasma grenades exploding while her thermal optics were active. She ducked back behind cover during that time, blinking and shaking her head until she could see again. Then she put away her chainsword and grabbed the grip of her LPA with her left hand, ducking into the room that Henry had been blown out of and where Sawyer had been thrown into the wall. She leveled both weapons at the two nekos who were focusing their fire on her squadmate and opened up in full-auto, the recoil from her weapons having almost no affect on her aim as the mechanical servos in her arm automatically adjusted for drift.

"Checkmate! GET MELTED BITCHES!"

It'd taken Henry a few moments to recover from the disorientation of the fragmentation grenade that'd surprised him, but he took the opportunity to move to a more defensible position and to narrow his profile once he got his senses. He then saw Stenton run ahead into the room Henry was previously evicted from and promptly got mashed by the holed-in Nekovalkyrja.

Henry decided to launch an attack on the room using his Pulse Laser Array, a device normally meant to destroy incoming missiles, but was also effective at downing unarmoured personnel while keeping his distance. He could also use the system to detonate grenades, and he took advantage of the wide 180 angle of fire offered by the PLA to keep himself safe, and to ensure that the small blasts of laser fire did not injure Stenton.

Once the counterattack had died down, Henry turned his attention to "Stenton," He addressed the amazonian cyborg with a stern voice, "Tell me - what did running in blindly do to the last member of our squad?" The frown under his helmet was practically palpable, especially since he was making an example of his former Chief's reckless conduct, "Exactly. Now exercise some freaking caution, just throw a grenade in from a safe area and let the shrapnel sort 'em out. You got that?"

He wanted to make sure the people in his squad were able to put their caution into first gear. He wondered how difficult that'd be for someone like Rita, who craved combat for the thrill.

Bridget took up an ideal firing position near the edge of a wall.

"Well, that little missile was a fun overture, but let's start Act I, Birdie Blackwood!"

She peered around the side of the hallway, partly exposing her right side. She sent the rest of the pod of DARTs from her right leg soaring toward the shocktroopers, hoping to wreak havoc on their shields. As soon as the minimissiles had launched, Bridget ducked behind the wall again, save a sliver of her helmet and the barrel of her HPAR, which was readily pointing down the corridor and waiting to reap what advantages the damage from the DARTs had given her.

Lisa smiled as enemy fire grazed her shields. They were still up to eighty percent. No real reason to worry just yet. Her fire started concentrating on the two shocktroopers, firing full barrage of her chaingun at them. What would Lisa give to be in Aggressor right now. Young woman let her computer do the targeting, as she locked both Stromtroopers and send 10 Arrow mini-missiles each.

Ulrich swore loudly and ducked back into the cover of the butchery doorway, intent on avoiding any follow up fire; leaning out to fire three aimed shots from his ASG4S into the gaggle of NMX infantry, before ducking back in quickly. "First the meat locker and now the meat grinder! Fantastic!".

Rita blitzed the nekos to giblets and, upon finishing, rested both of her guns back on her shoulders and grinned beneath her helmet. She turned to face Henry and shook her head.

"I ran in so I could rescue my squadmate. I'll do that all I want if you don't mind. Not like anybody gives a shit if I die anyway, I'm the most expendable." she said, giving a light shrug and walking over to the man who'd been pinned against the wall by Impaler fire. "You alright?"

"Find some cover!" Wulfe yelled at Zyv from where he was once he saw more beams ping against the man's shields, prompting Wulfe to fire several more shots with his HPAR towards the end of the hallway and two more DARTs so that any enemies there would keep their heads down for a few seconds and then dashed towards the room where the rest of his squad was, arriving just in time to see the end of the slaughter.

He stared inside the room for a couple of seconds, and then towards Henry, "What are your oders, sir?", he asked.

“Fuck.”

That was about all the eloquence Zyv could muster at the moment and even than he didn’t bother to vocalize it. Instead the marine concentrated on putting suppressing fire on the NMX as he followed Wulfe into cover.

Joining the rest he cast a quick look around the room, confirmed it was safe before taking position near the door keeping an eye on the enemy and, using it as cover, shooting enough rounds to hopefully keep the NMX where they were and more concerning with hugging cover than shooting at the marines.

"Look at what that mentality did to Ran Rui!" Henry's voice rose against Rita. It was clear that he was losing his touch on the squad, "He charged in without giving a fuck and got fucking squashed! Its like I can't prevent anyone in this squad to be that fucking stupid!"

"If you want to die, go the fuck ahead! You said it yourself, you're the most expendable!" It was clear that his inexperience of command, and lack of 'grit' compared to other squad leaders like Ran Rui and Phaedra Volkov were beginning to show. He had the right ideas, just not the grit to show for it and to make others follow him into his plans.

He then turned to Wulfe, "Your orders? Try not to die." He then grumbled as he took the lead. He opened a line with Leon, "Leon, I swear to god, you're making me babysit these assholes as punishment."

While he awaited a response, he fired DARTS and his HPAR into the hallway whilst kneeling against the wall, with Wulfe just behind him and Zyv nearby to help while Rita and Sawyer were playing grabass, in Henry's view anyway. All Henry seemed to care about was getting this hallway clear and getting reciprocal with those daughters-of-bitches who called themselves gynoids.

"Clear the freaking corridor, leave nothing alive! I don't want survival stories from these things!"

Bridget's initial DART proved almost ineffectual against the NMX fire. It launched and zipped through the corridor, exploding quietly in the distance. Her follow-up proved far more effective as streams of DARTs sailed through the passageway. As fire and forget weapons, the unguided projectiles had a tendency to disperse in flight. Several dozen of them veered off into the bulkheads, ceiling and floor. But just under half reached the intended targets and exploded. Chunks of flesh were scattered all over the hallway as Nekos caught in the open were torn apart by the mini-missiles. Even the two advancing Shocktroopers staggered as their shields were battered by the terrific onslaught of DARTs and HPAR rounds.

The left Shocktrooper's shields collapsed when Lisa's fire was added to the mix. Her AMP rounds tore through the armor and ripped through several of its tentacles, spraying more blood across the hallway. Her ARROWs proved devastating as they left the Shocktrooper as a bloody mess on the floor. Still alive but unable to do anything. Its partner, however, stayed up and firing despite the battering.

As Ulrich was about to discharge his third shotgun shell, the green energy beam from the Shocktrooper struck his shields. The sudden focus on him forced the young Marine to duck back into cover. He hadn't even been sure if his two shotgun rounds had killed anything. Most of the Nekos were either dead or taking cover in the doorways.

Leon prepared to lean out and fire again but stopped when he heard Morris' call. He cursed, loudly, in response. "Damn it, Morris! If you can't babysit, I'll send someone who can!" He didn't even think about what he was saying. "Romero, double back and show Morris' newbies how its done! That's an order! The rest of you, advance from room to room! No prisoners until we find an officer!"

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Laura kept quiet, grinding her teeth as she activated her thrusters and zipped down the hallway faster than they had come. Stupid newbies being inexperienced, stupid Sawyer and Rita not doing their jobs, stupid Ran for dying, stupid Henry for not kicking them in the ass to do their jobs. Was everyone on that squad trying to be incompetent or were they just that uncoordinated?

As she turned into the hallway that Henry and his twits were in, she was surprised to see no one in it except for the NMX Nekos at the far end. All six of them. Her HUD had shifted into UV mode by a quick thought command, which was picked up by the neural probe. The small patches of heat were Nekos and the large patch was a detonation of some sort.

With another thought command, she activated her laser pulse array and immediately began firing indiscriminately at the Nekos. One was dropped by the laser pulses. A second later, she fired her Push/Pull system at the smoke, blasting it down the hall and dissipating its density. While her laser pulse array continued firing and tracking targets, Laura stood in the middle of the hallway and announced her arrival. "The Most Brilliant Medic in the Universe has come to rescue your sorry asses! Now get out here and kill these cats! There's only five left!"

The Private Fourth Class leaned his head out to view the fire as flew up into the hallway. He had to duck his head back every once and a while to avoid getting shot by people behind him, or at least, that's why his mind told him to tuck back for a second. Combat felt much more claustrophobic in a place like this, with little room to move, no fields to flank. This is what the agility of an AIR would've accomplished, simply blasting in and taking it to melee. The armors of the New Nepleslia Era were not quite ass efficient there, not in Melee.

The Tech Expert aimed his left hand to the wall.

THOOM! The PPP crashed against the metal, warping it, with a small dent.

The force sent Bastilen spinning out in the hall. He tucked his HPAR into his side as he turned, putting a spray to turn him a little more, his thrusters pitching to handle the bullet-speed movement. His armored boots squealed against the floor before his gravimetric drive took some of the strain off, and he began skating over the surface of the floor. As he pushed up the hall, at might speeds, he bent his knees, tucking his HPAR into his shoulder, firing burst after burst up the hall. He swayed left, and right, sending sparks off to the opposite sides as he moved.

Missile weaponry would be dangerous to launch at that speed, which is why he stuck to focusing his bursts on the still-living shocktrooper.

"Yeah, thanks. I just said that." Rita replied to Henry after he called her 'expendable.' Seeing as Sawyer wasn't responding to her and she was being ordered away, Rita simply shrugged and ran over to the hallway Henry had told her to go to. Once there, she saw Laura firing down the hallway at some nekos, and decided to join in the party. She leveled both her main weapons down the hallway and launched a sweeping spray of automatic fire towards the catgirl scum.

"Well hell that hurt like a mother" Sawyer said as he came back to his senses from getting the shit blown out of him by the explosives. He considered the way they detonated and decided it was a satchel charge of some sort. As he checked his systems and saw how low his shields were and the fact that his leg thrusters were inoperable he stuck his weapon only out into the hallway using the link between the weapon's sights and his armor to get visual on the conflict before sticking himself out there and engaging the remaining hostiles in support of Rita and Laura. "Holy hayl, that was a hell of blast, time to clear this hall so I can show them what a real explosion looks like" Sawyer said over the comms as he fired a number of bursts with his LPA, trying to burn the nekos down.