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

"Yes, Ma'am!" Bridget replied to Phaedra. She double-timed to her superior's position and rallied behind her. She kept her HPAR close, and she was ready to deal with whatever was on the other side of that door. She hoped it wasn't another meat locker, anyway.

Rayne tightened up and closed on sGT voLKov'S PA, covering her armor, followin gher lead in the sweep and clear. Heartracing, Rayne began to recite ingredients and recipe directions eilently, hoping the familiar would calm his nerves enough to survive combat

"Thanks ma'am," Was Lisa's reply to Phaedra. Lisa then moved away from the door, turning the cutter of to let it cool off. She has put it back on its resting spot on its back and let Leon and Bastilen open the doors. She quickly ran back to pick up her chaingun again, before she got back to the rest of the group. This time it was her job to watch the back of the group. At least she will make sure not to shoot others in their back.

Leon and Bastilen, in their Hostiles, managed to shift the unpowered doors enough to allow a Hostile to squeeze through, one at a time. The lights in the hall were still on but flickered occasionally. From what the two men could see, there were no doors or rooms. Leon, shotgun in hand, went through first scanning for anything. But the hallway was deserted.

"Follow me. Vater, stay there and don't do anything stupid."

Behind the Chief, Bastilen, Phaedra, Lisa, Rayne and Bridget followed, weapons leveled and ready. Oh great, another door.

"Wreno, Simmons, front and center and get to work on that door." Leon pointed at the door at the end of the hallway.

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As Henry's squad spread out, they began firing with greater effectiveness. Now all of them had a clear shot at the NMX.

Henry entered the same room as Rita only to find bloody and mangled pieces of flesh scattered throughout the room, blood on the walls and on Rita's armor. "What?" she asked.

Laura, farther behind them, leaned out of the room she had just seized and fired without any of thought of ammunition conservation. Her HPAR blazed as round after round zipped at high velocity towards the NMX Rippers. For good measure, she sent 30 ARROWs at them from her left calf launcher. "Take the next room in front of me!" Laura ordered the newbies still in the hallway. She wasn't terribly sure of their names at this moment but hopefully, they were smart enough to recognize the order from her.

The warheads streaked through the hallway and exploded brilliantly at the far end. As the smoke cleared, one Ripper was missing its left arm while the other's shoulder weapons were completely knocked out. It was clear that the Rippers and shocktrooper were shielding the NMX crabs behind them, which seemed to be armed but were more focused on directing the surviving Nekos' fire.

Energy beams of various hues smashed into Zyv and Wulfe while Sawyer barely managed to get by with only singes to his armor.

Seeing that his line of sight was finally clear, Sawyer began firing his LPA in bursts, focusing his fire on the Rippers and the shock trooper. When he was sure his flight path was clear he also fired a volley of 30 missiles from his right missile pod at the shocktrooper hoping to overwhelm its defenses.

Wulfe grimaced as the energy beams impacted against his shields, displaying several warnings on his HUD. He didn't have time to check if there was any serious damage or how much his shields had dropped, waiting for Sawyer to finish his salvo and listened to Laura's orders. He wasn't sure who the order was directed to, but after soaking up enemy fire like he had done had made the prospect of receiving the same treatment again something he didn't look forward to do.

"Moving to breach the room!" He replied over the comms.

The marine moved forward and fired his own volley of 30 ARROWs at the ripper on the end of the halway, then propelled himself with his HOSTILE's calf thrusters towards the said room as the mini-missiles impacted. He landed besides the door, readied himself and then stormed in, HPAR at the ready.

"Let me try something, sir." requested Bastilen as he stepped over to the dead door, after having to force the other one open by hand. The delays were getting unacceptable, and the fact that he had allowed the A.I. to loose a leash over there necks was enough as is. The blood covered Marine stepped over to the door, and jammed his chainknife into split in between the air-lock doors, causing them to seperate a little bit. It would be just enough to fit his knuckles on the inside edge of one of the doors, but it was enough to serve his purposes.

THOOOM! With his Push-Pull he'd shove an amazing amount of force into the door, pushing it back into it's slot and opening up one end easily.

The first blow sent him staggering back the second merely slowed him down as the marine straightened and moved into cover. Once there Zyv slammed a hand into the side of his helmet, fixing the problem with his vision before looking through his AI’s report, damage to shield and the shoulder. Looking down the man clicked his tongue in annoyance at the sight of the mess that used to be part of the Hostiles monoeye system. With a sigh he shifted his weight, took his position and reported in.

- ‘Moving up to assist Stones.’

Before following Wulfe down the corridor, sending a volley of 5 DARTS and a burst of HPAR at the NMX power armour to keep them occupied. A short pause and he followed the other marine into the room covering those parts that the other did not.

Lisa just got back with her chaingun. She smirked at seeing another door, not wanting to fire up the cutter once again. Luckily Bastilen seem to have another idea. "Be my guest," she replied to him once he said he wants to try something. She just raised her chaingun ready to storm in once the doors were open. Tactically of course.

She also checked her HUD to see where all the friendlies were. Other team could be close and she would hate to shoot one of them. Good thing her armour was monitoring for friendlies.

20 mins since arrival - Henry's Group
Wulfe and Zyv found themselves coming under fire from the NMX as they crossed the hallway to the next room. Both of them registered the hits their shields were taking as well as the singes to their armor from the energy blasts that were being barely deflected by their shields. Pumped up on adrenaline, neither of them paid much attention to the damage.

The two Nekos in the room that they were taking died quickly under the 30mm coin rounds. However, it meant that neither of them really saw the effects of their volleys. Sawyer and Laura, however, were witness to it and watched as a Ripper exploded from the multiple mini-missile impacts from three Marines. Just as quickly as a gap appeared, the NMX shocktrooper moved to cover it.

Nor did things go entirely for the Nepleslians. Laura dove back into the room as an aether beam slashed through her shields. Sawyer, though, without any cover and in full view of the NMX, took the brunt of their assault. Mini-missiles exploded against his shields as a pair of energy beams smashed straight into his chest plate armor. The durandium plating hissed and sizzled as they melted and cooled.

The Savtech began advising Sawyer to seek cover before he received any real injuries as well as any more damage to the armor.

20 mins since arrival - Phaedra's Group

The right side door shot open, as if magically commanded by Bastilen. Just as it did so, the Marines witnessed a Ripper explode suddenly in front of them. Another Ripper trudged forwards, accompanied by a floating shocktrooper. Both seemed unaware of the Marines or the door. But then a pair of Crab NMX stopped and gazed at the open door and the Marines beyond it. They seemed to be trying to figure out what this new group meant and what they should do.

"Marines, charge!" Leon commanded. He needed to get the Marines out of this corridor. The squad presented perfect targets, lined up as they were. But then, the opening was only large enough for one Hostile to squeeze through at a time. Wreno had better move it!

Bastilen cut into the room, his left shoulder pauldron forward in his charge forward as he laid out a spray on the onset of his movement. The shoulder eye gave clear targeting sight to the soldier as he picked his targets. He pushed to one side, trying to make it so those behind him could press the advantage without having to shoot through him.

Sawyer cursed to himself as he saw the damage flash up on his HUD, with that he ducked into the circular room to his left to allow his shields to recover before he took any more fire from the NMX heavy units. Once his shields were recovered he'd start popping out to fire short bursts of plasma at the remaining ripper and the crabs and then ducking back into the room to avoid as much return fire as he possibly could.

As Bastilen went in, Lisa was right behind him. She had big gun so she guess she should go the the right where there were more enemies. That mean having few of them in her back, but she also had Henry's squad in there too.

"Friendlies coming in!" She reported and moved in behind Bastilen, she turned to the right and stuck to the wall. She started firing her massive chaingun at the first thing she saw. All three of her monoeyes were activated and started getting locks to help aim both her and her team-mates.

Leon and Phaedra followed the two techies, both of them with their shotguns out. Leon burst into the corridor facing the back of the two shielded NMX opponents and fired a pair of slugs (plasma and solid) simultaneously at the Shocktrooper's back. The loud discharge, followed by his Push/Pull Guard's blast at the Shocktrooper left no doubt about the fact that there were Marines now mixed in with the NMX. The recoil from it could be seen by those closest to him.

Phaedra, behind him, faced the other way covering his back and fired a pair of plasma shells at a Crab. Unlike Leon, who had gone for a double-barreled discharge, Phaedra fired singly. Her gun's report, and recoil, were much reduced compared to Leon.

Down the hallway, Laura ceased firing and watched for a moment. The lone Ripper was trying to decide whether to deal with the new group or continue the attack. It was hesitating. She would give Henry three seconds to give the right order. Otherwise, she'd start screaming it herself.

Closely following Phaedra Rayne spun his hostile to face the nearest shocktrooper greeting it with a two barrelled blast of plasma.

Well, how about that? Henry blinked as he watched reinforcements arrive to help him and his squad deal with what could've been the biggest defenders the Ship had mustered so far. "Sawyer, get back!" He advised upon seeing his HUD flash with the demolition man's armour starting to fade into a poor condition. Henry noted that he could probably take the man's place in combat since he had more shields and less overall damage, "I'll take your place!"

Henry moved to where Sawyer was standing a few moments ago to cover his escape, and he noticed that the Ripper had paused for a moment, its Brain Slave pilot processing that there were additional threats in the room, and taken by surprise. Henry decided to open up with a firm push from its Push-Pull system to knock it further off balance, followed by some DARTS to muddy its shields, and some ARROWS. He was hoping to knock it over and make it even less of a threat.

"Hit the Ripper, don't give it room to breathe!" He yelled his orders over the destruction he was causing, "That which hesitates is fucked!"

The nearest crab that Bastilen engaged flailed in agony as the hot metal melted through its carapace and into its inner flesh on impact. The HPAR rounds also had the added bonus of slicing through one of its legs, causing it to crash onto the deck. Phaedra's twin plasma rounds finished off the Crab Mishhu in explosive style.

Behind her, Rayne and Leon had blown the NMX Shocktrooper apart with their shotgun rounds at close quarters. The trio of plasma rocked the Shocktrooper's shields, overloading and collapsing them as the single solid round that Leon had fired drove through the soft rear that it presented to them. The Mishhu flopped to the deck, its metal and fleshy hide making an odd combination of metallic ring and squishy plop.

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Sawyer's plasma fire played against the Ripper's shields like a light drizzle and was just as ineffectual. His move, though, had reminded the Ripper to continue its advance, firing at the doorway behind which the Marine had ducked. A single positron blast was enough to destroy the doorway and trap Sawyer within the empty, circular room.

Henry's HPAR rounds were more effective, most of them blew up against the Ripper's shields but enough broke through to destroy both of its shoulder mounted weapons, forcing the Ripper to use its forearm aether weapons to blast at Henry.

The Most Brilliant Medic in the Universe took this opportunity to aim at the Ripper while it concentrated on Henry. Laura grinned at the orders and opened fire at the Ripper with her beam. Her Hostile's synthetic muscles and servos more than compensated for the light recoil on the weapon. It slashed through the weakened shields with ease and began burning off large pieces of its durandium chestplate.

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Things, however, did not go all for the Nepleslians. The rearmost Crab began backing away with the few remaining Nekos but the other two Crabs charged forwards. One knocked Bastilen to his side and began smashing at his armor with his huge claws and combat tentacles. It wrecked both of his monoeyes and tore a gouge in his suit's stomach that cut all the way to his own. It was only a scratch but it also meant that his suit had a gaping hole. If the NMX decided to vent the atmosphere, he'd lose all of his oxygen very quickly.

The other Crab crashed past Leon and Phaedra, knocking both of them down, and threw itself on Rayne to pin him as it did likewise to the Marine. Claws and combat tentacles smashed against Rayne's back, tearing up his backpack unit and one tentacle penetrated all the way into his right leg, tearing through his armor and his flesh. Another tentacle knocked his AS4GS away.

The Ripper had grown tired of blasting at people and flew towards Henry and Rita's position with its Zesuaium blades out. It slashed at Henry, who rolled away. Rita, true to form, charged at it with her sword. The blow was parried by the Ripper as it kicked Rita to the ground. She tried again to drive her chainsword through the Ripper, penetrating part of its armor. If the Ripper noticed, it hardly gave sign as it drove a forearm blade through Rita's arm and severing it, cackling grotesquely.

Farther down the corridor, a wounded Neko saw two Marines enter her room and panicked. They were here to rape and eat her! She pulled out the last plasma grenade she had, pulled its pin and hoped for a quick end. The plasma explosion threw Wulfe at Zyv, causing both to fall out into the hallway with their shields already taxed. Wulfe's HUD reported an issue with the left calf launcher and that it couldn't be fired. Not unless he wanted to blow his leg off.

Wulfe groaned as he got up, the afterimage of the enemy neko and the subsequent white flash still vivid on his sight. He should have paid more attention to realize something like this would happen again, just like it had happened to Sawyer earlier. The marine picked up his HPAR on the floor and moved back towards the room, leaning out of the doorway and trailing his main weapon towards the enemy Ripper on the hallway.

"Come on!" He exclaimed to Zyv, motioning his head towards the room and opening up on the Ripper, adding his firepower.

Rushing forward was becoming a harrowing tactic for the Marine, but for all intents, he only had that. If he had pressed forward, the rest of the squad would still be in a bottleneck. Now, he was in a precarious situation, where his stomach was exposed to the air, and the rest of the world. His seal was broken, and he was in a great degree of trouble, not to mention the potential of instant death with that singular hole in the armor. Was this the cusp of his end? Did he come back to the world to hold off this beast so the others could make it forward? Was that his legacy?

He'd need to shake off the bleary vision in his eyes to find out. He could feel his blood dripping cold to the air. The opening would have to be taken care of when he wasn't in the immediate chance of dying.

The man leveled his HPAR from his braced position on the ground, and pushed himself over the floor with his thrusters. He strafed across the hall, in an albeit loud fashion, and unleashed a hail of fire on his crab enemy.

Phaedra shook her head and then climbed back onto her feet. Seeing Bastilen free himself from under the Crab, Phaedra raised her shotgun to her shoulder and fired several slugs at the creature's side.

"Kill it!" she snarled over the comm.