RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 1] A Side: "High and Dry over Golding"

There was movement to the left of Anselm, in a very surreal moment, the arm of the wrecked cyclone shuddered and pivoted at the elbow to press a .45 handgun to the warhead the Albino was holding. An emasculated 'click' followed in which the hammer was obstructed by something, probably by damage caused from the fall. Its attempt at going out with a literal bang failed, its last dregs of energy sapped away and the arm went limp, dropping the handgun with a clatter.

Trey passed the Master Chief on the 4th floor to proceed up to the 6th floor. No substantial opposition so far but the 7th floor door was open.

Viktor's grenades only temporarily resolved the situation. Seeing the high speed explosives hurtling upwards without the time to figure out which floor specifically it would land, both M2s quickly moved from the shaft as the grenade exploded. The effect of the second grenade was also unknown as it flew into the doors and exploded.

Taking advantage of the fact that the M2 units had retreated into the shaft and gotten their LBRs out of a firing line on him, Harrison began to move up the shaft, taking aim, again, at the post of the DD on the sixth floor with his AOP again, emptying the rest of the clip.

In a fit of rage and surprise Anselm pulled his pistol on the Cyclone and loosed several rounds into its torso far too late to stop its failed plot. As the shield drones occupied themselves with following Trey who was now in the lead, Anselm shuddered to himself and took his team mate's advice. "Copy that" he replied, moving the scattered warheads into the landing as fast as he could safely manage, still looking for any AOP shells in the mix or maybe a grenade or two.

Viktor was on his way up, just a couple floors beneath Harrison. Whether or not he'd hit those two, he wasn't too worried. They were now isolated, and easy targets. "Harrison, get in there while he's still isolated. I'm right behind you."

Talbain halted his ascent up the elevator shaft. So far it had been fairly quiet for him and that simple fact bothered him greatly. The large Aggressor armor started scanning with all of it's monoeyes and forwarding the data to the rest of the squad taking special care to look for the position of the FIRE1 at the top of the elevators. A little revenge for that shot it had fired earlier was in order and the ID-SOL would be glad to deliver.

With trademark NAM precision, Talbain's six Monoeyes scanned the area. The FIRE1 had started to move to the first shaft. There was an AIR2 waiting just behind and to the side of the 7th floor of his own shaft. When it knew that it was detected however, it kicked in his thrusters to warm up, but still waiting for the Aggressor to arrive on his floor.

Harrison's opposing DD launched a panzerfaust under each arm as their eyes connected . These two antimatter filled warheads, together with three of the mercenary's mini-torpedoes plus a few crates of ammunition dangerously close to the elevator doors produced an explosion so large, it engulfed the Dark Demon, sent Harrison EARTH1 embedded into the far side of the elevator shaft for 50% shield damage, and blew away the elevator doors on the same floor. Taking this opportunity, both M2s returned trying to locate and draw a bead on the EARTH1 amongst the remnants of the inferno.

The flying elevator doors hit Talbain for a negligible 5% shield damage, Trey Penton who had just arrived on the scene was less lucky, while also taking 5% damage, the shield could not fully stop something that large, the metal door passed through and smashed his LBR into half.

The large arms of the Aggressor assisted Anselm in simply shoving the explosives out of the shaft. In no time at all, all the stuff was scattered across the elevator hall but most importantly, not in the shaft. In the process however he found a blue-striped AOP magazine, with all six rounds still intact.

Upstairs on the highest floor, a pirate in a Hostile suit stared across the station surface to the Yui-4 orbiting around it. The control tower panels under the observation glass was lightless, shut down to prevent further system incursions. The station crew who were tied up in the corner was equally uncooperative. The raider was almost certain this wouldn't end well for him. Cursing, he grabbed the collar of a pink haired hostage he singled out a while back and dragged her towards the elevator shaft. If he couldn't have his way with her, no one can.

Lilly grunted in agitation as she was haphazardly dragged across the room by the big stupid power armor. If it weren't for the fact that the pirate was in it, she would have bit his throat off the first chance she got. "Let go of me, asshole!" she growled, trying to tear away from his grip. "You should run while you can; it sounds like your idiot friends are getting their asses kicked. Even better, go ahead and surrender. I'd just hate to have someone kill you before I had a chance to claw your eyes out!" She looked a bit like a feral kitten, the way she was writhing around in anger. A minute ago she'd been scared stiff, but with the battle raging just below her, she suddenly felt a spark of Nepleslian fire burning in her. The hopelessness of a moment past was replaced by the anticipation of annihilating her captors.

Anselm grinned, silently thanking the dice gods as he replaced one of his full drums for the blue mag on the Aggressor's belt, replacing the full drum for his currently loaded half-full one. The marine activated his boosters and made his way up towards Trey. Moving near one corner so he could fire past his comrade, Anselm engaged his monoeyes to spot any signs of pirate suits on each floor and at the top of the shaft while Trey was occupied with the sixth floor.

Trey swore, throwing the destroyed LBR onto the the ground at the 6th floor and exiting the elevator shaft. from his position, he could now see a very damaged DD standing near one of the other elevator doors, and did the first thing that came to mind: Grabbed him with the PPP and tried slamming him roughly against the wall, while reaching for his LSP with the other hand. As he pulled the sidearm out, he began firing on the foe, hoping to neutralize it while he thought of a way to replace his LBR until he could procure another.

Trey's PPP completely penetrated the Dark Demon's damaged and crumpled frontal armor and came out from the back, his fist actually touching the wall behind the DD. His LSP sidearm shot off the helmet of the Red-made suit, revealing a head of a Red-made android erupting in sparks. Unfortunately for the Sniper, this DD was carrying a Type 1.5. Though, the familiar barrel of a LBR-type weapon could be seen sticking out under the remains of another DD at the bottom of the shaft.

Far above Anselm (10 floors to be precise), a FIRE1 tipped over his unpowered weapons case to unleash a continuous avalanche of micro-missiles. It appeared like the roof was caving in, each missile barely had enough space to perform Brownian movement. The smoke trails generated by the ARROWs completely obscured the FIRE1.

With a little clever angling of his shots, Fian Vel Steyr moved to the 6th floor to direct his twin HE shells to the celling of the 7th floor shaft. The burst of the RED charges washed over the hostile AIR2, destroying it's shields and crushing bits of the armor. In vengeance, the AIR2 shot out into the shaft in plain contempt of the potential damage Talbain could do to him to launch two tungsten rounds on the Master Chief. Unable to fully utilize the AIR-Rs evasive ability at this range and cramped conditions, Fian took both hits on his raised forearm shield as he back-peddled downwards. A sickening crack could be heard as the rounds snapped the surface of the guard and something else. The Nepleslian shouted in pain as life support kicked in to constrict the limb and apply painkillers.

The pirate in the Hostile armor seemed unaffected by Lilly's hissing and struggling, this was further reinforced when the female Takarian's leg hit his in the trashing, causing a nasty bruise for her and nary a scratch for him. Thinking that none of the marines were going up shaft 4, he hung her over the side and let go. When the deed was done he quickly returned to the center of the room, trying to figure a way out of the mess.

Not wanting to go all the way down the shaft to get the gun, Trey reluctantly pulled his HPAR off the rack, readying it and stepping out to continue his movements up the elevator. He was suprised, when he looked up, to see a woman falling at him. Acting more than thinking, he quickly deactivated his shield, allowing his armor to catch the falling woman, and compensating with her speed so the hard Powered Armor did not hurt her. Having dropped two floors, the Sniper quickly boosted into the 4th floor corridor and set the woman down "Are you alright?" he asked, looking a bit concerned.

"Beautiful save, Trey," Kingston muttered to no one. It was one of those thoughts that was so overbearing the words simply slipped from one's lips, uttered without any real intent or expected result. The private himself hardly noticed he had even said anything as he came up from beneath the explosion that had sent Harrison rocketing through the elevator shaft. He slipped in, expecting an easy target, or a clean room.

"How're you feeling, Harrison? Looked pretty rough." He wanted to make sure his partner was still conscious and capable of combat while he investigated the damage done to the Dark Demon (oi, consonance).

"Like shit," Harrison said, keeping an eye on his status report from the crater he was now resting in near the bottom of the shaft. "Shields down at twenty-five percent, motor functions have been halved, and I think the percussive force damaged some of my systems... But i'll be fine."

Harrison reloaded his EOP, aiming up the shaft again and firing four rounds at the sniper on the eighth floor. "Just give me a second to rest up and recharge."

Talbain would have hovered there thinking "Did that AIR2 just offer itself up like that?" is it hadn't been for his trained reflexes already having him light up the enemy armor with rounds from his AMP. He started boosting his Aggressor up the elevator shaft again so he could get to the FIRE1 and maybe ram that AIR2 along the way, since it would make him feel better.

Anselm simply stared at the literal wall of missiles, it struck him that a single explosion could take out almost of all of the warheads. Discretion being the better part of valor, and liberal use high explosives being the better part of Nepleslian strategy, Anselm loosed three red shells from his newly reloaded AOP, spacing them to catch as many missiles in the blast as possible. A moment later it occured to the marine that taking cover would be a very good idea, especially since he had no idea how well his tactic would work, so the albino boosted deep into the nearest floor and activated his forward monoeyes and PCTs, just in case some of the missiles followed him and were maneuverable enough to make the turn.

Anselm was right, his first torpedo itself set off a chain reaction of explosions that led all the way to the still-firing FIRE1. The remainder of the ARROWs in its rack detonated, sending it facefirst to the opposite wall of the elevator and then falling into the two remaining torpedoes. Pieces of M3 and shaft wall was raining down like an early winter.

Meanwhile in the shaft next door, spalling from the explosions sent shrapnel flying in a horizontal rain. Fortunately the pieces of Duraplast had way lower ballistic properties than a Type 1 bullet. While Talbain received another round of Negligible damage, the Master Chief had one side of him looking like a porcupine. The enemy AIR2 too flinched enough to eat most of the ID-Sol's AMP, its molten remains bashed aside as the Aggressor continued its race upwards.

Even though none of the shrapnel penetrated, Fian hissed anyway from the bruising he received on his right side in addition to the potentially broken forearm on his left side.

The two WATER2s antagonizing Harrison as though shoved by an invisible hand (or command), launched themselves downwards towards the damaged EARTH1. Their rapidly fired LBRs dropped the ex-merc's recharging shields down to zero, breaking his shield bubble in an ear-splitting shatter. Cold electrified steel flashed in the light, as one of the M2s readied its Arrestor. They would pass by Viktor's floor with thrusters blazing in a few seconds.

Meanwhile, hoping that the increased aggression on the teleoperated units would buy him extra time, the pirate made his move to escape. Raising his HPAR inside the tower towards the Yui-4 outside the tower, he put his finger on the trigger to break the reinforced glass seperating the both of them.

Fed up with Jimmies, Anselm burst back into the shaft and raced upwards dropping his half-full red mag for the six blue rounds on his belt "deja vu..." he whispered to no one in particular, activating his Noisemaker in irritation "No more jimmies, now- heh, have some fun mopping up and leave a live one for me eh, Talbain?"

With Anselm's jamming and without a relay point in the form of the Pirate's Hostile to guide them, Harrison's would be assailants became lifeless, crashing in a heap around the ex-merc. The only resistance the marines will encounter now on the way up would be falling specks of dust and debris. They might not know it yet, but their battle on Golding Station has ended.

Reaching the top first in his high speed AIR-R, Fian ripped out the last offending piece of shrapnel stuck to his armor and boosted past the terrified hostages, over the control panels and to the windows. One of the Duraplast sheets were broken, and an emergency cover has fallen into place to prevent a decompression. A speck that was the Pirate Hostile can be seen bounding across the station surface far far away, even if the marines were to risk another decompression, he was most certainly out of effective range.

"Damm it." The Master Chief cursed, stowing his RAPTOR rifle so he could clench his working fist into a ball. "Squad, get up here."

The intercom came on briefly. "This is the NSS Emden, Captain Vera is wounded but we have her on board. We don't have enough crew to man the weapons. Exiting the dockyards and hitting the emergency fold drives before the Yui-4 pastes us."

Harrison relaxed slightly, engaging his boosters and heading for the top floor. "Fuck. I should've been a lot more careful." He grimaced as he came to a halt on the tenth floor and met up with his squadmates.

The sudden drop quickly threw the wind out of her as Lilly sped towards earth... or, rather, the bottom of the shaft. The sinking feeling in her stomach suddenly halted as she found herself coming to a rough - but relatively safe - landing in the hands of the Trey's Power Armor. He set her down on the landing of the 4th floor, and it was a long moment before her head stopped spinning. "Oh, what? Uh.... yes. Yeah..." she mumbled, trailing off as she stared into (figurative ) space. By the time she had replied, all that was left of the battle was the sound of crumbling walls and Power Armor thrusters. She stood, swaying somewhat precariously, by the shaft, feeling quite disoriented and rather nauseated. Aside from the disorientation, Lilly seemed to have few injuries beyond the considerable number of bruises she'd accumulated on her right leg and all along her torso.