RP: NSS Altomir [Mission 1.2] Bal'Sharok Boogie

With each voice siding with the idea of somehow saving the civilians they had acquired, Flint Vanderhuge's look continued to sour. Eventually the ID-SOL drew in a sharp breath and released a tense sigh. Closing his eyes, and with his extra-large pistol gripped tightly in his fist, Flint scratched at the bottom of his jawline with the end of the barrel, a clear sign of frustration growing behind his stone-faced visage. Their sentimentality was admirable, but apparently they were unaware of the bigger picture. Flint, as large as he was, could see it much clearer.

"What you all seem to not understand," Flint finally spoke out of his aggravated state, his voice more discernibly impatient. "Is that bringing them with us isn't an option for those very reasons. There aren't any evacs, and there won't be any until we reach our next rendezvous and clear those skies for our birds. We can't afford to have them slow our progress, or more people will die."

The heated argument between the two sides didn't do much to put the citizens at ease. While the three urban youths seemed to be growing agitated at the idea of being left behind, the Delsaurian and two Geshrin seemed to shrink away from Flint's imposing form and troubling words. In the midst of Flint's explanation, Violetta De Luca sighed and carefully rose from her kneeling position to the side of the civilian group.

"Grand Admiral, I feel I must agree with the men," Violetta said, choosing her words and tone carefully as Flint turned his piercing gaze in her direction. The female officer stood firm, despite the stern glare, readjusting her glasses and crossing her arms beneath her chest. "We can't leave them here; if they had they will no doubt be discovered, and they cannot outrun NMX search parties-"

"Then perhaps you should have just let them pass us, De Luca," Flint replied in a bitter tone.

Violetta cleared her throat before continuing, faint traces of nervousness breaking across her brow. "Still, Grand Admiral, if we brought them with us until we found somewhere where they can hide until our carriers can continue sending support-"

"Aside from the ships that fell while in your command," Flint interrupted again, the calm nature of his reply in stark contrast to his previous words.

"... yes, sir. We can take them with us a safe distance away from here and then move on. We can't just... leave them."

After Violetta finished, Flint Vanderhuge remained silent, his narrowed eyes surveying the rest of the room. Having listened to the opposing opinions of his men and his second-in-command, Flint released another aggravated sigh, holstering his weapon. "Well De Luca, I put you at the head of this operation earlier. Looks like you get to keep it. For now," Flint said, looking intensely at the woman as she visibly tensed further under his words and relinquishment of command. Flint seemed to not be bothered by it nearly as much as Violetta appeared to be, casually glancing around the area before speaking again to the female officer. "Now, Admiral, think you can explain to me how you plan to ferry six civilians and two lame soldiers to our destination point? Because I'm still scratching my head as to how you and the others must be seeing something I'm not."

Violetta, unfortunately, didn't have much of an answer for him. She glanced around the room for a moment, tracing the walls from the rest area, the bookstore and sliding panel door, back to the center of the room. Continued silence seemed to slowly drain her past enthusiasm from her.

"The Admiral has a strong point." Saveli started again, bringing up his voice which had been immediately silenced by the large Admiral earlier. "The civilians are dead weight as far as a mission is concerned, and we'd certainly be making this world much safer by completing it faster. However, we'd be undoing the whole point of saving the civilians if we just left them here."

The Iromakuanhe looked to his fellow Marines, and then back to the woman in charge of the operation, DeLuca. She was a rather stern looking woman, even when cast under doubt. Like the rest of them, she had morals decorating her conscience, unlike the Grand Admiral, who had no use for such thing when a job needed to be done. He quietly thought back to his own home system, Iroutl.

"During the Third Outer Sytem Conflict, a war my people waged among themselves, Martulri Ishaz Ibn Fahim was faced with this same problem. He had been shot down near a village that had been tending to Vanguard soldiers, a problem as extremists in the opposition of this war killed people who helped the commonwealth. His VANDR, a mecha my people use, was still functional enough to defend the settlement, but he was faced with the problem of extracting fifteen to twenty people over the harsh, cold landscape of Mazerin." Saveli seemed to explain with a certain flourish, his hands playing gently in the air as he spun the tale. "So, he took a sehaya, an old hoverhome, and packed them inside, and carried them on his VANDR's back all the way to his extraction point, where he was picked up with the civilians."

Saveli pointed at the damaged truck. "There are many of us with strong arms, and I bet if we take off the bed of that truck, we could simply ferry the civilian's inside. We only have so many Marines using HPARs, any Marine without a two-handed weapon could be used to help carry the truck bed."

"And if that truck is fusion-powered, it'd have fuel. Fuel we can use to possibly replenish the generators in our suits." Yuriko added, patting Saveli on the shoulder several times. "Good call there."

"Um, I might be wounded but I don't believe I'm hallucinating yet. Isn't there that other truck? You know, the one with the MPR that was used by a certain incompetent marksman?"

Bernhard spoke with sarcasm and bitterness. He was quite happy to be vindictive at this moment. If that fool, Marsh, had aimed better, Bernhard wouldn't be injured as he was right now.

"I mean, it's only sitting right fucking there!" he waved at the truck on the rails.

"Sure, if you can fit two tons of fat metal ass into the driver's seat." Yuriko said while looking at the truck. Eventually her Hostile's head shook. "Naw, it'll make too much noise as we travel. An engine tells the enemy something's moving. So chances are they'd come in force to investigate.

If we use the truckbed, we have the civilians keep quiet, we get through undetected for the most part."

She looked over to Greer then. "The medic give you any painkillers for that leg of yours?"

"I'm too important to see a medic as lowly as myself. It's not the leg as much as the back. Something with my spine maybe. And I don't mean using the truck for me. I can walk, my thrusters kinda work. Just hurts to run and do the active stuff. We're not driving on the streets, are we? We just drive that thing down the rail lines, stay underground. Our Hostiles aren't gonna be quiet down there either. Sixteen tons of walking death aren't easy to hide. And even if we don't start the engine, it has wheels. We just put the thing is neutral or something and drag it along. A lot less resistance. And we seal the tunnel behind us once we get moving so the NMX can't track us from the station."

"I can also drive something, if that helps," John offered, trying to keep discussions on the topic, and be helpful at the same time. "Whatever we decide to do, we can definitely help these people! Besides, it was quite a harrowing experience getting these folks in the first place, if I may add so."

"This is assuming that there are no obstructions on the railways." answered Saveli in the moment, raising an armored finger in the air to signify his point, "Yes, it would be much easier to use the rail, but the ϠЮЊӌמּאּᶗתҦ here is not guaranteed to last. We will have more consistency carrying the civilians over any difficult terrain that has collapsed or damaged the rail lines."

Elsewhere...

Private Second Class Wilde was having a bad week. Her unit had been dropped to Rok’Veru for almost three weeks now in an attempt to reclaim some territory for a temporary holding base but things got gotten hairy quickly. In the confusion of the skirmishes that followed, she had somehow become separated from her unit and radio communication resulted in static.

She had done her best not to panic and had engaged as many NMX units that she could handle on her own using the best hit and run tactics she could muster. But the Demolitions Specialist was not equipped to sustain that many engagements without supplies or back-up, so she started being more selective in what units she engaged. For the most part, she targeted stragglers and hid from the bigger ones or the large groups.

The Geshrin Marine inwardly laughed as, noise would only draw unwanted attention, she hid when she realized that had not stunk this bad since the weeks they had spent in the field during survival training in boot camp. Her Raider armor made it easier for her to hide, especially with the added layer of muck, blood and mire that had accumulated during this engagement, it helped her blend in better and disrupt the radar silhouette of her suit. All the technology in the world and my best bet is shadows and mud, this sucks… at least on Kennewes we were under water.

Autumn smiled despite herself. She truly missed her old squad mates from Epsilon Squad on the Alliance and Nerkat. Those were simpler days for her, she had back-up and at least the bad guys were people not… these things that ate people while doing horrible things to their bodies at the same time. The mental image bothered her but she did not want to risk attracting attention with fresh blood and she could not afford to lose more for the sake of relieving her anxiety. The single neat scab on her forearm itched, and the throb of her sore muscles comforted her, she was not past the point of her mental nor physical endurance, but fear kept her alive if exhausted.

The sounds of a call to rendezvous and regroup shattered her mental stillness, she was too startled that she almost didn’t catch it on the first cycle. Where are they? How long will it take me to get there? She thought as she checked the origination point of the signal against her map, she really had no idea just how old the message was but it gave her some hope of getting off this planet.

After listening to a few of the alternative, Violetta De Luca looked over towards the opened shutter doors of the maintenance garage. Sure enough, the K16 truck was plainly visible to not only her, but the civilians as they too watched the conversation shift between the two possibilities. K16's were made by NAM, but often found use in areas of heavy construction as load-movers. Sturdy construction made mainly for military use made the vehicle a slightly more acceptable choice in Violetta's viewpoint.

"As much as I would like to remain as low-key as possible," Violetta began to speak as she turned back to the small group of soldiers and citizens before her. "I doubt we have the luxury of stealth at this point; that signal flare made sure of that. We need to get these people away from here, as quickly as possible. That truck is here to traverse this sort of terrain... it might be our best bet. If it's still functional."

Violetta's hint of worry lacing her final line brought a modicum of skepticism to Flint Vanderhuge, he himself taking a small glance at the vehicle. "Well, it would fit a couple of our gimp marines and the civilians, that's for sure. If you want to use it, you better go find out if it's functional or not," Flint stated flatly, still sounding slightly aggravated, more than likely because Violetta was working against his original wishes for more direct progress. The female officer nodded along with Flint's assessment. "The Grand Admiral is correct. Everyone relocate to the garage, help the civilians into the back of the truck, and somebody see if they can get that started."

The civilians seemed more than happy to hustle up from their seats, waiting to be lead to the garage beyond the doorway. Turning her head towards John, Violetta looked to him as she spoke again in her commanding tone, slowly growing more authoritative with each passing word. "Marine, you think you can operate that vehicle? Does anyone else feel familiar with this machine?"

"I was given familiarization courses with most Nepleslian vehicles," noted Saveli, holding up a single hand in response to Violetta's request. The idea of taken a louder approach to the objective made him cringe. Taking the louder approach broached the chance that this would result in them being found. At the same time, if it proved fast enough, they could simply outrun the ranges of detection.

Still, best to have direction, than to question constantly.

"It might be best to go with a native, though," mentioned P3C Borzakov, turning his attention onto Davis.

Yuriko would've been rubbing her face if not for the helmet. "One of those pieces of shit?" She pointed at the vehicle, coming close to laughter. "If even one of those wheels are screwed up that thing won't move. Since the damn things are:' Her suit's fingers came up, doing air quotations. "Combined suspension, propulsion and braking system."

The Hostile gestured past Violetta. "We need to check what type of power source this P.O.S is using plus all those wheels. Godforbid it's using a Tap. We'd be lit up like that flare."

With a dull sigh, Daniel shifted the weight of his armorsuit and took several heavy foot-steps off towards the truck under discussion. At first glance there seemed nothing obviously wrong with the vehicle, though that didn't mean there weren't internal problems that would render it mostly useless for their purposes under the hood.

"Not likely to be a problem," he said in response to Yuriko's last statement. "Most trucks of this type typically use generators that run off good old-fashioned hydrogen cells. Less expensive, less maintenance required, and repairs don't need as much technicial expertise."

"They were originally built for military use as well," Violetta added, hoping to relieve some of Yuriko's worries. "I recall them being used to carry ordinance before NAM contracts reached out and sold to private sectors."

"NAM K16a, it comes in two flavors power wise. One is a combustible running on alcohols, liquid hydrogen, all manner of petrol fuel and fertilizer." Yuriko held up a hand. "And no, I'm no poster girl for this thing. The other power source it uses is a Hyperspace Tap."

The Hostile began making a suitcase shape with its hands. "About yay-big. Either one could be in there. But we'd be able to tell the difference by checking under the hood. If it's the former we'll need a fuel source if it's dry. If it's the latter, pray they're not looking for something like this."

"Yes, I can drive it," John said. "And could we not refer to the vehicle that may be our salvation as, I quote, a 'piece of shit?'"

The marine walked over to the vehicle and began inspecting it.

"I can drive anything, even it has a bum wheel," he said. "All one must do is find a way to adapt. I do believe, though, that if we keep talking and not doing, we will be unfortunately short in the allotted time we would be permitted to do said adapting. Enemies and all."

Elsewhere

Autumn had managed to get to the top of a building in order to get hear bearings. The map had indicated that she was not that far from the subway. She scanned the landscape wearily for possible hostiles. Her eyes widened at what her scans found and she scrambled to get off the roof.

Damn! Better book it, I have to warn them! She thought as she hurried towards the subway.

"Then you," Yuriko clamped a gauntlet'd hand down on John's metal shoulder. "Get to check the tracks. If one of those wheels are out of alignment, or has gone bad expect the track to do one of three things. Snap, Underperform or Fall off from too much slack. Make sure they're aligned, use your Jane to do it to save time."

To Saveli, she pointed toward the hood. "Check the engine. If it was the former I referred to, it'll be a big blocky engine, the latter a small suitcase sized box with a lot of wire hookups." She turned around and looked at the rest of the Marines.

"Who wants to look for fuel in case we need it?"

Thomas stood around examining the vehicle. His home was basically the back area of a repair shop, which his father used to run, and he couldn't exactly remember how many afternoons he had spent there learning how to fix things with his old man.

"I'll look into it." He said, approaching the vehicle. He was familiar with the vehicle, and if the fuel tank was empty he was sure the thing could run off pretty much anything as long it was combustible, even fertilizer or booze, although he was sure no one in their right mind would use theirs.

The marine approached the halftrack, leaning down and looking under the vehicle to check for any damage to the fuel tank.

While everyone was talking about truck and checking stuff, Alexandra noticed, that nobody guarded main entrance. Well everyone was checking on it, she was sure, but there was no proper guard. So she took out her LSP and went to guard it herself. She leaned againt the wall so only enough of her shoulder stuck out for her mono-eye to see behind the corner and up towards the subway entrance.