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

Anselm pulled his rifle back up when the plasma cutter started to burn through the tunnel doors and lowered it just as quick 'A little jumpy,' he thought "keep it cool."

"The bots in the hallway shouldn't be too hard to take care of," He replied to both Fian and Viktor "we were engaging mostly to draw them away from the other armory."

His suit turned back to face the hallway doors he had come through moments earlier "Tele-operated huh?" he thought aloud "We'll be a target when the Jammers are on..." Anselm turned back to the group holding his rifle up so the barrel was above his head and pointing at the ceiling, an obvious macho statement "Master Cheif, Sir, we could split into two teams, half of us can engage the suits with my Noisemaker squaking and Talbain can accompany the others with our wounded to the armory, ECM off so you don't draw any company. It'll be a good distraction and we can peel off when it gets heavy."

Inside his helmet, the Private was grinning "Who's up for joining me in a duck hunt?"

"I'm not entirely certain that you can peel off, we'll be attacked from multiple directions." Fian almost mumbled that one. "And I would like it if we move as quickly as possible so they wont bite us in the ass."

"Once we move out of that door, I want everyone to fire at will, but for Nep's sake keep moving! I want your feet off the ground!" He moved over to the door switch. "Your HUD will display the route to the armory, if your shields get dropped, fall back to the rear of the column to recharge. Anselm, you are the pointman. Talbain, bring up the rear."

At this moment, the plasma cutter had stopped after it went through all the hinges of the door. An eerie silence befell the group.

"Sir" Anselm replied tersely, moving away from the switch and in front of the hallway doors readying his HPAR to fan the hallway with liquid metal should his pursuers still be there when it opened. "I'll save the Noisemaker till I need it - can't have Jimmy forces piling on top of us since we're all together." He thought glumly.

With the sudden silence, Trey turned around and tensed, switching his LBR to the continuous stream mode for now, just to be sure that he could get as much coverage as possible if he needed it. In a close quarters situation like this, he was useless without something like the PPG from the AIR PA, Trey needed room, distance, and the time to aim, none of which he had here.

Talbain continued looking through his HUD at the information displays for the torpedo. Everything was looking good. No problems activating it and it took the flight path the first time it was entered. He stepped back and called out "Anselm, help me move this into position to fire down the hallway. It's ready and I don't want to take chances with it."

Private Kingston shifted the LBR in his grip and took a deep breath. It was about to get really intense, and he was practically trembling with adrenaline. "Sir," was his quiet acknowledgment to the plan set before him. He took a quick look around through his HUD to discern the path toward the next armory then laid eyes on the door at the end of the tunnel. Any second now enemies were going to burst through the door and a whole lot of heat was going to be flying their way. Any second now...

"Why the hell is he asking me?"

"Uh... sure," "Fuck!" Anselm quickly holstered his rifle, jogged over to the torpedo, and made ready to grab it on Talbain's mark "Better not get my ass shot off because of this... then again I was just volunteering to do just that seconds ago - Fuck, they're almost through!"

With Anselm's help Talbain moved the torpedo quickly into place.
"Once the door comes down it's going to launch. Don't be in it's way when that happens."
With the torpedo in place he got his AMP-01a ready to lay down some fire and moved to the back of the line.

Anselm scurried off and made it back to the front of the group just as the tunnel doors fell down, out of curiosity he glanced back as he drew his two LSPs off their hip-mounted holsters.

Harrison, as usual totally out of loop to the sudden change in plans, carefully monitored the movement of the torpedo while spinning his FEC-01as up to speed.

"Anselm, Talbain, I've got you covered. Watch it with that torpedo."

The rear door fell forward to reveal a Crooked Demon in the squat position. In one of its sub-arms was a small plasma torch, more menacingly, its twin aether cannons charged and ready were down and pointed straight down the tunnel. The twin beams arched over Talbain's tall Aggressor, grazing his shields down by half and then striking the double doors infront of the group, ripping it open violently.

Behind the double doors was a corridor going left and right, a wrecked AIR2 laid directly behind it, but there was no doubt there were others waiting somewhere beyond.

'Bolt launcher, left calf, three shot burst, arm, IR filter engage' Anselm steped to the edge of the door, looking right he could spot the signature off an AIR2 'fire' a trio of BOLT missiles popped off his Hostile's calf launcher about the same time he tapped a burst (4 rounds) out of one of his LSPs. In the 0.3 seconds it took to launch the missiles Anselm was already pulling back out of his opponent's line of fire to the other side of the door.

His Precipice A.I. squawked out his ammunitions expenditures and suit status in a pleasent monotone.

H.U.D. said:

"Weapon Status...
"RBL-01a, Left Calf: sixty-seven BOLTs remaining out of seventy, three round burst, armed... tracking launch...
"LSP-01a, Primary, Left Hand: one-hundred ninety-six rounds remaining out of two-hundred, automatic fire, armed... minor heat fluctuation due to firing... condition nominal.
"LSP-01a, Secondary, Right Hand: two-hundred rounds reamaining out of two-hundred, automatic fire, armed, condition nominal.
"RBL-01a, Right Calf: seventy BOLTs remaining out of seventy, locked, condition nominal, advise arming.
"HPAR-01a: six-hundred twenty-two rounds remaining out of seven-hundred, stowed, condition nominal.
"Shield Status... fully charged, condition nominal.
"Armor Status... minor impacts detected, advise routine repairs and maintenance when able."

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It lacked the personality and independance of a JANE unit, but Anselm was more used to the Precipice and somewhat enjoyed its machine-like responses.

Viktor glanced back to see the Crooked Demon. He could almost have sworn these things were stalking him for vengeance. Regardless, he had been given post on the front door and so he reluctantly turned his attention away from the CD, his fear lessened now that the aether cannons had been discharged. As he came up along the left wall, he gazed at Anselm in the Hostile PA, and felt a twinge of jealousy; he was wishing he had a Power Armor that was actually armed for extended combat. He sighed, trying to push that thought away. He'd work with what he had.

Down the right side he could glimpse an AIR2 unit, and when he peeked around left he could just make out the form of a Dark Demon. There was no way that was it, but it was all he could see for now. "We've got a DD visible to the left and an AIR2 to the right," he said to the rest of his team.

From his vantage point, Trey could make out the CD, but it was halfway obscured behind a wall. Knowing he could be useful in distracting the enemies, he scooted to the side for clearer aim and began to fire his LBR on continuous stream voraciously at the hulking enemy PA, Hoping to at least distract it if not kill it.

Talbain scowled at the fact that his sheilds had been knocked down to have by the aether cannons. "Launching" He called out sending the launch signal to the torpedo before the Crooked Demon could fire again. Moving to the side of the door to avoid any debris that would come down the tunnel when the torpedo blew.

While even though the range was short, two of Anselm's BOLTs were intercepted by the AIR2's PLA. They exploded into thin orange clouds to no effect. The third BOLT detonated in the face of the AIR2, severely weakening its shields. The albino's follow up shots completely dissipated it. Swinging its right arm forward as though to ward away the scorching smoke, its twin mass drivers warmed up to fire two deadly RED shells into the doorway where a number of the Marines were huddled behind. This was in conjunction with an Anti-PA grenade thrown in by the DD on the other side.

The closest to the twin doors and the AIR2's intended target, Anselm, took the brunt of the blast. His shields dropped by half and the force of the explosion threw him backwards, sliding at least a few meters. The second closest which was Viktor took at least 40% shield damage, while his CPS-03a was state of the art when the M2 first rolled out, its defensive strength was outclassed by the newer M8's CPS-05h. To compensate for the shock his armor took a few steps back, walking into Trey's line of fire and causing his SAVTECH to quickly cancel the positron ionizing sequence on the LBR's secondary barrel.

The backblast of the Torpedo Talbain set loose almost swept him off his feet if he hadn't moved. The usually starfigther mounted missile raced down the tunnel to slam into the CD, the resulting collusion was inelastic, and the Crooked Demon was taken up in the air together with the torpedo. Its sub-arms grappled with the missile's body in confusion, while other DDs just outside the entrance stood still gawking at the sight. It didn't last long. Just as the CD/Missile combination cleared the doorway, it prematurely exploded before reaching Talbain's set distance. The angry orange inferno worthy of bringing down entire starships engulfed the all the Demons, taking them into its fiery hell.

The first tunnel door slammed shut in response to the overwhelming heat. For the first few seconds it seemed fine, until it started to glow red and melt. Its adjoining tunnel section also started warping and collapsing, which triggered the second door to close.

Fian did not claim to be an expert in Nepleslian Fighter Anti-Starship Torpedo yields, but the sight of the second door overheating made him reconsider his study priorities. He seemed to have traded one problem after another. One thing was for certain, he didn't want to be still in the room if and when the fourth door melts. He was also not pleased that two of his highly shielded PAs took heavy damage, and that they were still in the room when it happened. "GODDAM! Trey, Talbain, you two still have shields, rush the door and take a left! Harrison, cover the right and bring up the rear!" He shouted as he kicked in his Boosters, hovering with an M2 over one shoulder was no mean feat. "GO GO GO!"

"Ten-four, Master Chief!" Harrison made sure that his chainguns were charged and moved after Trey and Talbain, hoping that the Chief knew where he was going as he kept an eye on the right flank.

At a loss of what to do, having never really been trained to extensively in CQ PA combat, Trey stowed his LBR (a bit peeved that he didn't get his shot off) and pulled out the chainsword thinking it may help somewhat. Arming his ARROW's, he rushed through the door, aiming at the nearest enemy and launching.

Activating his monoeyes and shoulder turrets before he hit the doorway. Talbain waited for Trey's missiles to launch then rushed down the side of the hallway armored shoulder first laying into the enemy there with his AMP and letting the turrets take shots on anything that was hostile. He also started arming both his bolt launchers in case there were any nasty surprises around the corner.

"Shit!" Anselm grimaced as his teammates powered past him.

Precipice SAVTECH said:

"Shields drained 50%, advise immediate cover... detecting heat source, advise immediate evacuation... conflicting advisory... revised, close-range engagement is desirable"

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"Thank you, Cliff" Anselm grumbled to his SAVTECH, it didn't respond to the thanks or the sarcasm. "Arm both BOLT launchers, five round burst, set mode to sidewinder; set LSPs to five round burst as well; charge push/pull rod, full repulsive burst"

Precipice SAVTECH said:

"Confirmed, advise caution"

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The monotone stated.

Anselm rolled off of the wall after Talbain and Trey and covered their backside, a Dark Demon was sitting down the left side of the hall "FIRE!" Ten BOLTs lept from the Hostile Power Armor and spiralled their way after the DD, turning and looping through the air to make the anti-missile defenses work harder. Anselm trailed just behind the darting missiles firing several bursts from his LSPs, closing the distance to the Dark Demon and whatever might be around the corner, the BOLT missiles would reach the target well before his Hostile came within blast range.

Precipice SAVTECH said:

"Push/Pull Rod fully charged, repulsor burst mode set."

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Anselm would keep the burst ready for anything that tried to engage him in melee and his pistols would ensure he got the first shot.

His SAVTECH rattled off the ammunitions expenditure along with the retinal H.U.D. counting down the ice blue icons in unison to the SAVTECH's terse utterances.