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RP: NSS Altomir [Mission 1.1] Gathering the Bearings

I'm surrounded by idiots, Bernhard sighed to himself. Then again, one could say that his plan was idiotic as well. But then again, they were only facing a handful of unarmed light infantry right now. Why was anyone even bothering with a gunfight? A swift assault was all that was needed. "Alex, charge the bastards!" Bernhard yelled.

Chief Santiago's lessons had not been lost on him. Infantry in power armor always had the technical advantage over light infantry. And the best way to make use of that was to make use of the armor to assault the weaker foe.

He activated his thrusters and Push/Pull system. As his armor hurtled speedily towards the three Nekos taking cover in the book store, Bernhard fired a few laser pulses with the weapon embedded in his left shoulder. The goal was only to keep their heads down.

Bernhard felt the impact as his armor crashed through the store's front door. A moment later, he fired his PPP on the "Push" setting to blast the bookshelves out of his way, still firing his laser pulses indiscriminately ahead of him.
 
Paperbacks and hardcovers flew in multiple directions as Bernhard sent a number of wooden book displays sailing, his laser pulse array flinging electromagnetic beams at his targets. The NMX soldiers hidden amongst the store split into three directions as he neared, moving in quick succession in hopes of evading the invader. Two of them raised their weapons and fired as they ran, skirting around him to the left and right. The other neko forwent a counterattack, instead diving for the register and hiding behind the counter, weapon still in hand. Between her dive, Bernhard's LPA tracked her movements and landed a few solid hits on her lower body, although it became difficult to see how much damage she actually sustained after hiding herself behind the register counter.

Bernhards assault succeeded in flushing them out, but it also presented him as a more vulnerable target. The two clone-bred neko soldiers shot their Impaler rifles in unison, the close proximity aiding their aim. A number of rounds bent around the Nepleslian's distortion shielding, but it wasn't before long that the safety mechanisms within his Hostile drew down the shield, leaving his armor vulnerable to the deadly particle beams.

---

Back near the entrance, several of the marines near the two stairways were instantly warned of a new set of incoming signatures. Yuriko was the closest to the twin set of nonfunctioning escalators, her Hostile's sensor suite informing her of seven new signatures up above in the street, heading towards the entrance to the Liganda Subway Station. At that moment, the signatures were too far away and not directly visible to ascertain what sort of entity they belonged to; however, judging by how quickly they were heading towards the stairs, it wouldn't be long before they entered.
 
Bernhard rounded on the next Neko to his right. It was ducking between collapsing book shelves. Bernhard fired the PPP to his left and used that momentum and thrusters to launch himself at the Neko. Hopefully it also caught the other Neko in its blast and stunned in it for the few moments between his assault and the others' arrival. Also, that assumed the others weren't continuing their idiocy by sitting in place. Man, Bernhard felt that he was beginning to sound like Laura.

His LPA continued firing as Bernhard switched the PPP to "Pull" and fired it at his intended target.
 
Devlin merely watched as Bernhard crashed into the bookstore and began flailing every which way to draw off the Impalers.  "Why does he get all the action?" the redhead cried, outraged that his fun had been spoiled just as he had gotten the hang of mindlessly firing in one direction, "I deserve a crack at them as well."  He reached under his skirt for a new magazine, slamming it into the LSP after ejecting the old one.  

Placing his hands on the platform, he leapt onto the edge.  Devlin lowered his stance and, with a click of his tongue, boosted toward the bookstore on full thrusters.  PLA beams led the charge, aimed at the exposed Neko on the left as the Hostile neared the store's shattered front.  Devlin aimed the P/P guard at the back wall, hoping to "push" his upper body backwards, mid-flight, and allow his legs to rear their beautiful boots at the enemy to the left. He pulled his feet back and snapped them out in a swift motion, delivering a two ton, flying kick against the Neko just as Bernhard went for the other.
 
"Greer, Mayhew everyone else! Wrap this up fast. We got seven unknowns incoming near my position and they're coming in quick." the transmission from her suit was short, clipped as it shifted position to cover the stairwell.

"i want two on either side of the escalators, the rest assist in taking down the enemy infantry already down here."

After saying this, Yuriko, and two others from her squad took up positions using the walls on either side for cover. Meanwhile the remainder of her squad moved in to help Greer and Mayhew to eliminate the NMX Neko threats. LSPs and Vibroknives in hand they laid down suppressive fire to keep the Nekos pinned hopefully while Bernhard continued.
 
Saveli had ducked back behind cover when he had finished his range of fire. He let the fire fly to the wall, waiting for an opportune moment to lean back out. When he did, though, he saw both Devlin and the bandit from before leaping right into the bookstore with reckless abandon. Those two neko were tied up, for sure. Though he wasn't sure about the two targets in the Panel Gate room. So, he limped back out into the open, following the wall.

When he got to the edge of the door, he poked his LSP in, and layed out a spray of fire inside the room, letting the sight on his gun guide his vision.
 
Alexandra gritted her teeth as the neko ducked down just a fragment of second before she would be hit and killed. She thought there was no hurry and need to put herself in danger so she was about the aim again, but then Bernhard happened. That idiot just took up and charged without any coordination with rest of the team.

"Bollocks!" Swore Alex and quickly locked HPAR on her back, drawing her pistol and moving forward. While Bernie and Marsh attacked book-store she headed for the side door herself. "Heading for the side door!"

"Mort come with me!" She shouted and used push/pull system to pull herself literally inside the doorway, trying to surprise and overwhelm both nekos. With nekos all she really needed were her fists, also because she though that getting a prisoner might not be such a bad idea. She draw LSP just to be sure.
 
Mort watched as Bernhard and then Devlin charge the bookstore in a daring plan to assault the defenders. If anything, Thomas came to the conclusion that the man had some serious guts to do so, and then turned his attention back to the fight when his name was called. He switched his HPAR for his much lighter LSP, locking the heavier weapon on his Hostile's back and then grabbing his vibroknife. He broke off his cover, jumping back on the platform.


Whatever shred of metal was left of the panel gate was violently crushed as Thomas mimicked Alexandra's actions, using his PPP to hurl himself through the doorway and get inside after the woman. He skidded to a halt on one knee, raising his LSP and aiming at the nearest enemy he could see, then opened fire.
 
Without anywhere else to go and pinned down by so much fire, the two hostiles inside of the side-room garage were easy targets for Saveli, Alexandra and Mort. Saveli's blind strafe of fire followed her Hostile's recommended trajectory, leaving the neko opposite of Saveli's cover position riddled with small arms fire, tossing her to the ground. The other neko, whom had taken a knee to avoid the previous HPAR rounds, attempted to get up in response, only to be greeted by Alexandra and Mort's sudden advance following Saveli's attack. Mort's LSP trained on the NMX neko and snuffed her in quick succession.

---

Bernhard had the advantage of speed on his target. Traveling at the neko soldiers at high velocity continued to put him in harms way, and he would feel the brunt; the NMX was able to land two solid hits from her weapon before succumbing to Bernhard's near point-blank barrage of pulse laser array fire. The first shot, luckily, struck the chest plate, which had the highest concentration of armor on the Hostile. The beam collided with the nerimium surface, searing a deep, definitive gash across the surface as it was bent and deflected. The second shot hit him just as he wasted his target; the sudden jerk of the neko's body as it was riddled with a number of electromagnetic pulses caused the shot to stray, colliding with the right shoulder of Bernhard's powered armorsuit.

The damage was immediate; the right shoulder was significantly less-armored than the right, designed to protection during proper firing position. As a result, the entire monoeye subsystem locating in the right shoulder exploded in a small plume of fire, smoke and scrap metal. The resulting force of the hit caused Bernhard to jerk back, throwing off his propulsion arc and causing him to hit the ground on his back, sliding along the ground and through the bottom of a book display.

Devlin's sudden appearance capitalized on Bernhard's distraction quite prudently. The NMX neko did not notice Devlin's sudden charge until it was all too late, barely having time to retrain her weapon on the new attacker. The Nepleslian soldier's kick carried the neko with it instead of immediately ejecting her in the opposite direction, and as Devlin's lower body made contact with the floor once more, the NMX soldier was already where he would land, her body taking the full inertia and force of his landing, essentially crushing her.

---

As this was happening, Yuriko continued to hold the entrance to the subway station diligently. Above her, the seven contacts began to become clearer, and had apparently divided themselves into three groups; a group of two leading the back, another group of three, and then another duo much farther away, at the rear.

Yuriko's Hostile wouldn't recognize the first two signatures as they ran down the halted escalator, although it wasn't long before she would see them. Two NMX neko soldiers, similar to the ones the rest of her team were engaging. They scaled down the stairs with relative quickness, but halted just shy of the exit into the subway station to turn and discharge their weapons back up the stairs, slowly pedaling back as they did so. They fired not Impaler particle rifles, but smaller pistol-like weapons; NMX-made Type 31 service pistols, no doubt. They both had their Impaler rifles strapped along their backs. It was not clear what had warranted their attention so much that they did not notice Yuriko and the other's hiding just along the sides of the stairwell until the two groups were perfectly aligned. One of the neko's, by chance, caught sight of Yuriko, quickly turning her pistol away and towards the Hostile-armored woman.

As though the sudden actions of the two NMX weren't enough, Yuriko's Hostile suddenly began to read the next group, the group of three members, running down the stairwell. However, close proximity alerts revealed a different sort of surprise for them; of the three figures that the NMX nekos were firing upon, one of them was, if Yuriko's readings were to be trusted, a fellow Nepleslian Hostile armorsuit, transmitting similar frequencies and signatures. This would explain the neko's concentrated fire up the stairwell, although Yuriko's sensor suite did not recognize the two other subjects running alongside the newly-appeared Hostile.
 
Alex moved as fast as she can. Mort with Saveli already positively killed one of the nekoes. Alex could not be mad at them for it. Not like she told anyone she wanted to get one of them alive. There was still one alive, luckily. Said neko was tossed to the ground by small arms fire, but her bullet-proof armour seemed to protect her enough. Alex made the one more needed step towards her, leaning forward and grabbing her. She immediately looked if the Neko had any grenades, afraid that her prisoner might try to blow herself up and damage her Hostile along with it.

"SURRENDER!" Alex shouted at the neko, holding her tightly by her neck, making sure not to snap it.
 
It all seemed to happen in an instant, the gun pointed at her and then the sound of the LSP in her hand going off in response. These were no kin to her, no remorse was necessary if they served the NMX. And she showed none.

The two Hostiles covering the escalators swung their HPAR's down, pointing them to the new Nepleslian armor; laser-sights aimed at separate locations. One on the head, the other on center mass.

"Identify yourself!"
 
Thomas raised his LSP, moving closer to the dead Neko to inspect his kill, staring at the body for some uncomfortable seconds, looking for any signs of movement. Satisfied that the target wouldn't ever get up again, he turned around and faced the subway entrance, sparing a quick glance at Mayhew as she tried to ‘persuade’ one of the enemies to surrender. He turned his gaze back to the room again to see if nothing else would jump at him and then at was going on outside.

“I’ll check to see if the room is clear.” He announced briefly to Alexandra moved deeper inside the garage towards the halftrack that was parked there, raising his LSP again and scanning left and right as he approached the vehicle to examine it.
 
Saveli turned into the Panel Gate room to check it for remaining contacts. Both of the remaining Nekos were flat dead on the floor, their remains burned across the floor. Though, one thing Saveli saw that made his eyes sparkle under his helmet. Guns. Guns and ammo. Guns, ammo, and salvageable equipment on hated corpses. These Nekos were the enemy, and rather soulless according to the Nepleslian military. So, no one would mind, would they? Of course they wouldn't. Who'd get mad at a little 'salvaging'. It was to each their own, right? Anyone who had a problem with it could suck his toe. Even as he was trying to justify the actions in his mind, he was already pulling objects off the dead bodies.

Though, he wasn't foolish, he knew they were still in combat. Saveli went for the most pertinent items, the Impaler rifle. He reached for a few pieces that looked like magazines for the weapon, and stuffed them in his suit's ammo containers. He chose to holster the pistol, before whipping around, and looting the other corpse of similar trinkets, and 'another' Impaler rifle.
 
Devlin sat up with a jolt.  His trophy should have been pinned to the wall from the force of his kick, but there were no signs of the Neko among the haphazard bullet marks.  The Hostile scrambled to its feet, unsheathing the vibrosaw from its side and spun in place, anticipating a counterattack from the sneaky bandit.  He looked down at the sound of a crack! and paled considerably.  "Eww," moaned Devlin as he lifted his boot off the Neko crushed faceplate and took a step back, receiving more snaps! and pops! from the body beneath him.

He turned in time to see Bernhard skid across the floor with his dignity in question.  Devlin brought his LSP up and crossed his arms to use as a rest against the gun's kickback while he held the foot-long knife in his other fist.  It did not take long to find Bernhard's attacker through the cleared spaces in the bookshelves, and Private Marsh fired at her through the constricted view, with the trigger held down.
 
"Get up, you idiot!" a very familiar voice said. "Laura? What the hell are you doing here?" Bernhard asked. "I'm your fucking imagination telling you to wake up and get back into the fight! Not this boring ass dreamland you've consigned me to!" the Laura-hallucination spat.

Bernhard opened his eyes. Oh, right. Now wasn't the time for a nap, though it did sound tempting. He found himself buried beneath a pile of books and simply rose out of them.

Two kills and a damaged mono-eye. Oh well. Then he realized that he had better check on that Neko behind the counter. Bernhard grabbed the particle rifle from his last victim and two spare magazines. If he didn't get his HPAR back, this was still better than nothing. As he approached the counter that he had seen the first Neko dive behind, he readied his LPA for a second round, in case the Neko wanted to put up a fight.
 

The neko that Alex was attempting to subdue had been previously injured by the sudden rush of the parking garage. Although she attempted to retaliate, Alexandra's Hostile was far more powerful than her, and it didn't take long before the neko's constant flailing for freedom eventually died down. The NMX soldier remained silent, however, but Alex could tell that the moment she let go, the neko would more than likely attempt either escape or counterattack.

---


The nekos that had entered from the stairwell had little chance, being in such close proximity to Yuriko and her small team of armored soldiers. The LSP tore through them quite easily at near point-blank range, tossing them to the side lightly before they had a chance to retaliate. With the two of them gone, the threw newer, possibly Nepleslian signatures approached all the quicker.

"Hold your fire! Friendly!" A female voice sounded out, not from Yuriko's external speakers, from a communication link that had found its way into her suit. The channel was a secure one, although unlike armor-to-armor communication, this signal she was receiving granted no other additional information.

A quick look down the hall revealed why. The first one leading the group of three was, indeed, a Hostile armorsuit, thumping heavily down the halted escalator. It held a standard LSP in its right hand, but upon seeing the two SMX nekos before it on the ground, slain by Yuriko, the Hostile drew back its weapon into a ready position, pointed at the sky.

Behind the Hostile was a female Nepleslian, wearing an officer's uniform underneath a simple bullet-resistant vest. Her hair was pulled into a tight bun, and although she was not wearing a helmet, a large communication earpiece was sitting on her left ear, revealing her to potentially be the voice that had answered Yuriko's call for identification. She followed directly behind the Hostile in front of her, using the marine's armored frame as a sort of shield, in case Yuriko and her men were not as friendly as they had appeared. She also, apparently, carried no weapon.

The third figure trailing the pack of three commanded the most attention, due to its sheer size. At that distance, Yuriko would most likely recognize it as an Aggressor powered armorsuit, the giant armor towering over the other two, its head only a foot or so away from the top of the tunnel as it carefully trailed down the steps. It was armed, from the appearance of its silhouette, but strangely enough, not Yuriko nor any sensor systems were detecting the presence of an Aggressor unit.

---


Thomas' approach towards the large vehicle revealed no additional troops. His quick scan of the truck revealed nothing, although it could have been noted that while it had been close to the firefight, there was no detrimental damage to the vehicle itself.

---


Dragging his malfunctioning leg behind him, Saveli was able to gather up two of the Impaler rifles. However, the two nekos only had a single cylindrical battery-like object between them. Saveli was able to retrieve the items with no resistance.

---



Fortunately, the neko that had taken shelter from the ensuing combat had already bled out from the wounds she received whilst diving for cover. She still gripped her Impaler rifle, but lay motionless amongst a rather large pool of blood.

---

The voice trailed back into Yuriko's ears, visibly matching the movement of the female officers lips as they neared the group. "Three friendly, two hostiles incoming from the rear! Behind us!" Although they were already close, the three of them continued on in caution until they received a reply.

Two final signals were rapidly approaching, just as the woman had warned. In seconds, they would appear at the upper end of the stairwell in hot pursuit.
 
'Why?' Thought P3C Krystian Czarnecki, 'Why, by whatever divine will the Creator has, did this happen to me?'

His first posting in the Marines after his boot camp had been to the NSS Grand Rose, the flagship of the 1st Fleet, and had been awaiting his chance to see action for the first time. Rok'Veru was going to be his chance, his squad leader had told him, to go down, and help his fellow Marines fight the NMX forces. They had warned him, too. It wouldn't be some glorious conquest like all the movies that he so secretly enjoyed watching. They wouldn't be knights in shining armor. It would be violent, bloody, and not the least bit pleasent for any of those involved. However, he was also told that they wouldn't be going in right away. As far as to why, he hadn't really concerned himself with it. He had just sat aboard the ship, listening to music, and waiting orders -- and then the ship had begun to fall apart around him in moments.

It had been a scramble to get to the escape pod in time.

Then he had come crashing down to the planet's surface, smashing through an apartment block, skimming the top of a parking structure, and then crashing in to what had lloked vaguely like the remains of a steam bath. He had gotten out of his pod as quickly as possible, remembering his training as if it were yesterday -- which it just about had been. The landing point was the hottest point, they had taught him. So he had gotten away as quickly as possible, with only an LSP, and his knife to defend himself with meaning that he had been forced to lay low and entirely avoid enemy forces that he might have considered engaging had he been better equipped. Not to mention he had been alone. Yet that hadn't lasted too long either, which was both a blessing for the additional firepower granted by the Aggressor, and a curse.

If the Creator had a sense of humor, he had seen fit to use it at Krystian's expense.

He found himself being placed in the position of guarding an Admiral. That in itself was not as bad as it sounded. He was a crack shot and his reactions were good, even considering the situation in which he found himself, and with nothing more than just his LSP. So to place him in charge of the safety of a fleet officer was an -- imposing -- but not impossible idea for him. The only down side? The Creator, for whatever reason, had seen fit to go, and put him in charge of the safety of somebody who had been brought in to this world with the "gift" of an extra X chromosome. However, orders were orders, and his orders were more-or-less to be a bullet-shield and a life-taker for this woman so long as she walked on the surface of Rok'Veru. That, and the massive and well-armed Aggressor with them, served as incentives to do a good job, and so he wasn't about to let anybody down on this matter.

Leading the way down the escelator, he was on edge.

He knew there was a commotion going on downstairs, but if they were to come down in to a hostile environment then the three of them would be at a marked disadvantage. Krystian was a good shot, but he didn't have nearly the rounds needed to repel any really sizable enemy force. If he engaged anybody in this station -- it would be in the grim and fast-paced world of close combat. So he made sure to place himself between Admiral De Luca and any potential firing angles ahead of them as possible. His armor could take the blows that might be coming. Her vest was not so dependable against such things.

Steppind down the escelator, he was leading the way, and his LSP was at the ready until he reached the bottom. There, his suit's system scanned those in the area, and quickly began to recognize those present as fellow Marines. Of course, his suit's signature also recognized the two hostile signatures that were coming in behind them. He turned to Admiral De Luca and motioned rather broadly to the room that they had just entered before he spoke through a secure communication line.

"I suggest you take cover, ma'am. I don't want you in the way of enemy fire."

To those around, it may have been like he didn't care about the other Marines at all -- and he didn't, because he had much more pressing matters. Like the well-being of an Admiral.
 
Bernhard snagged the second rifle as well as three more fully charged magazines and headed to rejoin Yuriko. Just in time to see the new arrivals.

It was that Admiral who had been at the 4th Fleet HQ ceremony a week ago. Or was it last year? Time seemed to have lengthened in Bernhard' memory. And if she was here, then the big guy must be close by. "Heads up, Mayhew. Admiral De Luca is here. And I'm sure her boss isn't too far behind," he lasered to Alexandra.

"Got an extra particle rifle and magazines if someone needs something a little more powerful," he reported to Yuriko, offering her an Impaler rifle.
 
Thomas examined the vehicle, it was like one of the many his father -and later himself too- used to service on his repair shop. He turned around and headed for the exit upon seeing that the damage to it was superficial, as it wouldn't be a bad idea to use the vehicle as a possible escape vehicle if push came to shove.

He spotted Greer, noticing that the man's suit had a few more burn marks and dents than last time when they met, also remembering how the P2C seemed to want his HPAR back when he returned. He was reluctant to return the weapon, as trading it would one way or another reduce his life expectancy, but his good sense, however, told him otherwise. "I'll trade you." Thomas replied, unlocking the HPAR from the back of his suit, and moving towards the Bernhard.
 
Alex kept holding the neko while it struggled for a while. She did not feel sorry for her, really; she was an enemy and Alex would not have even dared to give the thing any special treatment. "Don't move and you might survive, cat!" Alex told the NMX neko, and stripped the cat of her ammo belt and sidearm.

"I hear you Greer," Alex replied to Bernhard and walked out of the garage back into the station. "P1C Towa, the station is clear for now. I also managed to caught one cat alive, what is the situation upstairs? I hear something about Admiral De Luca?" Alex communicated to Yuriko. She then turned to Saveli. "Private Saveli, are you hurt?" She asked noticing his limping.
 
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