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

Trey who was first out of the door, turned to see a Dark Demon in a ready stance with its Type 1.5 warmed up. The barrage of reddish beams pressed themselves upon his M2's shields, at this range it was hard to miss, and the DD itself seemed hell bent on dealing as much damage as possible even to ignoring the ARROW threat from the Sniper who was clearly out of his element. As though in vengeance for the damage caused to their user, the fifteen micromissiles slammed into the DD, smashing its shields and ripping away whole armor plates, leaving the PA barely standing and Trey down to 60%.

Talbain's lumbering behemoth of a Powersuit was next, his SAVTECH auto locked on the devastated DD and an unseen AIR2 racing down towards the group. His AMP, much more superior to the FIRE1 forearm mounted weapons, spat out plasma pellets at an alarming speed reducing the DD's torso to molten gunk.

The above mentioned AIR2 also turned the corner to meet headfirst with unrelenting plasmafire from Talbain's handheld and shoulder mounted guns. It raised its forearm guard to deflect some of the shots that overpowered its shields, the attack preventing it from firing its FMD but its right skirt armor released a salvo of DARTs towards the Aggressor, dealing a miserly 10% damage and sensor disturbance, which was negligible at the range this combat was held.

Anselm boosted out of the door to have his work cut out for him, however a little more fancy thrusterwork and suppressive shooting from his LSPs he managed to wind up beyond the corner and just next to the beseiged AIR2. But in this process he also wound up monoeye locked and fired at by an M2 and a DD with an LBR-00p at a junction much further down that corner. The first blue bolt severly damaged his shields, the second one from the DD broke it and then continuing on to smash slightly above his left knee joint, being close enough to a structural weakness to deal good armor damage, but far enough to not impair the joint mechanisms. However the albino could feel the hit, along with some metal fragments lodged in his flesh from spalling.

Harrison, turning right from the doorway came face to face with the previous two-red-shells firing AIR2. It was in the process of reloading its FMD when Fian's squad started streaming out of the door and catching it helpless from stopping them. The range between the M1 and M3 was close enough for a melee attack, but far enough to require some forward boosting to do so. Nevertheless it would be futile as both combatants had 100% shields. All it could do was to continue the loading process and to depend on his squad mate's DD turning the corner and about 30 DARTs lauched to distract the former mercenary.

Fian and Viktor was still inside the armory. The latter in this brief moment of playing second fiddle had regained shield energy up to 80%.

Harrison grunted as the missile alerts started blaring through his cockpit. He activated his PLAs and started retreating towards Talbain, step-by-step, as he fired with his wrist chainguns.

With shields back up to 80% and his monoeyes activated, Viktor boosted out and to the right, knowing that only Harrison had been given the task of heading that direction. Coming around, he also noticed the AIR2. He pressed himself along the right wall as he approached the bend in the trench, using his computer-aided lock to dole out as much damage as possible, rapidly firing his LBR and launching the eight DARTs from his right leg. As he was launching his own assault, he noticed the massive swarm of missiles all converging on Harrison and reversed his boosters as quickly as possible, attempting to backtrack and turn his PLAs and monoeyes toward the cloud of ARROWs; for the moment he ceased firing his LBR more worried about keeping his teammate alive and in good condition.

Precipice SAVTECH said:

"Warning, pilot damage detected, minor injury... proximity threat detected, low-"

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Anselm interupted his SAVTECH's diagnostics routine "Engage repulsor burst-" dropping his left-hand pistol he launched a punch at the AIR2 "NOW" Repulsor waves distorted the air around the hostile's fist, bare inches from the AIR2 power armor, sending it flying. His earlier salvo had been interupted before he could launch them and now he had enough time and cover while the AIR2 would be flying down the hallway towards its allies "Cliff, launch BOLT salvo", the only affirmation was the presure of the calf-mounted launchers firing half-second volleys, sending ten BOLT missiles after the airborne AIR2 PA.

Anselm's damaged leg gave out and he engaged his gravimetric drive by reflex, using a small thruster push to get into cover, crashing into the ruined Dark Demon before collapsing against the pain.

Precipice SAVTECH said:

"Pilot disabled, administering painkillers and tissue regenerators... armor damage assessment... minor functional damage, combat abilities expected to be hindered by three percent and unassisted mobility hindered by eight percent"

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"Well, shit" Anselm opened his comm so the squad could hear him "Master Chief, just let me know when you'll be needing a noisemaker." The marine checked his pistol, his secondary unit still in the middle of the hallway junction, and sighed watching the scuffle down the hall near the opposite junction where Harrison was engaging an AIR2. He couldn't provide any support seeing as half the squad was between him and any potential targets so he kept an eye on his side, hoping Talbain or Trey would be coming his way.

Talbain moved his Aggressor up to the corner of the hallway across form Anselm. Looking at the ammunition counter for his AMP he frowned, It wouldn't hold up to many more burst fire uses. He set his weapon to single fire while waiting for the Bolts to explode. As soon as he heard the explosion clear he would come around the corner and put a controlled pair of rounds into any hostiles that managed to survive.

Sufficiently warmed up, Harrison's Plasma Chainguns got to work quickly. The barrage from the twin PFCs passed through the DART cloud, taking a few out in the process, before reaching the AIR2. The M1 was designed with evasion as a primary defence... It could not do so here in this tight corridor. The small balls of plasma in this short distance overwhelmed the M1's relatively weak shields and started melting off parts of its armor. Staggering backwards from the onslaught, It let off the only shell it managed to load into its FMD and launched its remaining DARTs before a literal bolt out of the blue (...Muzzle flare of an LBR) penetrated its weakened chestpiece, passing through the Jimmy inside and finally disabling its generator. The suit knelt in defeat.

Viktor's and Harrison's PLAs had some difficulty cutting down the DART cloud headed towards them owing to the short distance between the two groups of combatants. The single red shell shot out of the cloud to smack right into the ex-merc's FIRE1, it took out a few DARTs in the process, dropped his shields by 30% and sent the suit stumbling backwards for compensation. The remaining Micro Missiles either had an explosive encounter with Kingston's own DARTs, or prematurely detonated by his Flash Shields dealing a miserly 10% damage which was inconsequential as the M2's shields recharged back to full power immediately afterwards.

About four of Viktor's DARTs impacted upon the far wall. His Monoeye read that the incoming DD has second thoughts, and instead started backtracking cautiously just beyond the corner. Due to Mass Mesher and DART interference, Viktor could detect that the DD was packing a lot of Anti-matter, but appeared to be holding just one Panzerfaust in one hand.

On the other side

A satisfying "CRACK" was heard as Anselm slammed his fist into the AIR2. It stayed where I landed on the floor, motionless. The Albino nearly got away from the corner taking extra damage, an LBR bolt wizzed just centimeters from his back and would have counted as a hit if his shield bubble was there to absorb it. About four of his BOLTs were intercepted by the AIR2's and the WATER2's auto PLA, the rest detonated messily on the prone M1, reducing it to a mangled and molten mess of metal.

Talbain's Aggressor upon turning the corner was met with two accurate LBR bolts hitting his lumbering PA, both dropping his shields to one third of maximum strength (after taking into account the damage from his previous run in with a CD and shield regeneration). His SAVTECH guided and Nanomuscle steadied hands fired off four AMP plasma bolts. The first two were directed at the DD, but one hit the M2's shields while the second one completely ripped off the Demon's left arm. The next two first overpowered the M2's shields but wasn't strong enough to penetrate the chestpiece, instead melted off tens of kilograms of Durandium from that general area.

Fian looked back to see the third door close. The progress of the heat was slowing down. He opened a line to Anselm, concerned. "Do you need to be carried, soldier?"

Harrison stumbled back to his feet as he regained control of his FIRE's momentum and read over the reports scrolling across his HUD. With his shields dropped to 70% (or 30%, the HUD glitched for a moment before Harrison passed the status report off his screen), Harrison moved to a position closer to Viktor.

"Thanks for the assist, Kingston," Vincent said as he trained his eyes on the far-off corner, warming his chainguns for another volley.

Anselm grinned, holstering his remaining LSP so he could pull out the HPAR on his back "No, sir-" he checked the rifle's mechanisms out of reflex "my leg's just fine, a little shrapnel wound won't slow me down much, we already got one guy slowin us down, don't need a second... how's he doin' by the way?"

Anselm used a shoulder-mounted monoeye to peek round his corner, ready to put Moneyshot down-range if Talbain needed cover.

Noting the damage he had taken, and his own failure at Melee combat, Trey pulled his LBR back out, quickly extending it to it's full length. While the gun might be a bit ungainly in the hallways, he felt better wielding it regardless. "Anything a good distance away that needs to die?" Trey asked, not wanting to turn the corner yet because he knew he would be in trouble without info about what was over there. To remedy this, he Poked his Monoye-clad Shoulder around the corner to give him a sensor view and an idea of what he faced.

Talbain shifted his armors position to bring the shoulder shield to the front for extra protection and activated his shoulder turrets, giving them priority on the Demon. He put two more double taps down the hall focusing on the Water armor first. He wanted this to be taken care of quickly but wasn't about to rush headlong into a firefight with his shields as damaged as they were. After taking his shots he ducked back behind the corner of the hallway to avoid the inevitable return fire.

Again, he smirked to himself as a natural reflex. "Not a problem, Harrison. I'd say we rush the bastard, but he's hefting heavy weaponry and probably already posted up in a defensive position. He's wielding a panzerfaust to be sure, but I didn't see anything else before he got around the corner. I'm open to suggestions." As he spoke, Viktor had trained his LBR on the corner and glanced at the reports from his HUD every second or so. The AIR unit was defeated, shields were back to full green, and he'd only expended half his DARTs. Other than that, there was nothing of significance, and he had known all of that before he'd read it.

"I've got a full load of ARROWs," Harrison said, "But I can't establish a lock from this angle. My PAL could probably take him out, but the blast would also probably kill us in the process."

The merc processed his thoughts for a moment. If he went out, he ran the risk of getting his bulky, slow-turning armor caught in the DD's firing line and having a Panzerfaust rip a painful hole in any one of numerous body parts. If he let Viktor draw it out, he saved his own life; but in the process put his comrade in danger. It would be a bit of a moral dilemma, but Harrison would get over it eventually...

"Kingston, can you try and draw it out? Just far enough that I can lock on with my ARROWs, then you just have to run back and cover your ass while I pound it with everything I've got." As if confirming the statement, the ex-merc's ARROW racks began to open as Harrison armed them for firing. "I could try and blind-fire 'em around the corner too, if you want; but the blast radius might be just sufficient enough to piss him off; maybe drop his shields a little bit."

Viktor's Monoeyes also detected a second regular DD meeting up with the first. At first there was a pause, as though some kind of discussion was going on, and then the new arrival took up position infront of his partner. If Harrison and Kingston wanted to take the offensive, now is the time or else their opponents would make their moves.

Other side

The enemy WATER2 down the corridor ignored the damage dealt to it by Talbain's Aggressor and also the two red Monoeye dots poking out from both juction corners to squeeze off one more shot before the Marine's AMP melted off a section of its shoulder and head. It fell over backwards defeated. The LBR-00p armed DD, while not taking any new damage, was having a hard time coping with its existing ones. Its shaky one-handed shot left much to be desired.

Talbain took the accurate shot from the WATER2 before he managed to get into cover. The bluish bolt washed over his shields, reducing it to almost nothing and nearly broke the shield bubble. The DD's bolt went wide, hitting the wall closer to Anselm than to Trey whose corner Talbain ducked into.

The Albino's M8 had finally reconstructed the shield bubble, showing a solid 30% shield strength on the readout. Also, from his view, his Monoeyes detected a second M2 coming out of the room next to the DD to take up positions where its comrade had fallen. The shield value on this unit was 80%, and the reading on the shield bubble surface appeared calm, as though it wasn't regenerating from damage but from suit powerup. It lowered it's LBR-02a and aimed it at the first red dot it saw. A positron bolt would follow a split second later if Anselm didn't react.

Trey's suit had regenerated shields to 95% pending shield calibration and achieved Monoeye lock on both enemies. Seeing a little further back and down the corridor he could detect about three unsuited and unarmed Jimmies running towards the pair. The room which the M2 came out from was labelled as 'General Storage' but there was no telling how wide the scope of 'General' was.

Feeling confident that the damaged DD was a non-issue in this context, as were the jimmies, Trey poked the rest of his body out past the corner and drew a bead on the newly arriving M2, going for a torso shot as he could not afford to miss in this situation, and therefore didn't feel like trying for a headshot. As the enemy's shields were, he wasn't likely to kill it in one hit, so he pulled the trigger twice as fast as he knew the gun could handle before popping back behind the corner.

"Never mind the ARROW thing, it would take too long to blind-fire them." Harrison sighed. "Kingston, see if you can draw their fire and I'll supress them."

Talbain looked his readouts over quickly once he got behind cover. "Could have gone better" he thought to himself when he passed over the shielding status. Then an idea came to him. He started activating his boosters and put his AMP away. "Come on shields" he muttered under his breath, though no one could hear him with his communications off.

Viktor had been contemplating a similar plan and nodded the WATER's headpiece while arming his remaining DARTs. "Alright. Making my move now." He boosted toward the corner, LBR at the ready. As soon as the first Dark Demon could be seen, he loosed the eight armed DARTs and reversed his boosters. During his retreat, he had the LBR pounding away in an attempt to cause distraction and reduce shields. As he neared the right wall, Private Kingston's SAVTECH moved some power to the rear thrusters to avoid collision; the PA pilot took to the adjustment quite naturally and followed the wall backward until he was laterally even with Harrison. There he crouched, gave himself half a second to aim and his SAVTECH to get a lock before loosing another trio of bolts from his rifle.

"Thank you, Viktor." Harrison pulled the wrist chainguns up level with his shoulders and waited, the whole time bringing his chainguns up to speed and arming his ARROWs, waiting for the DD to enter his firing range.

When it moved out, Harrison would fire his ARROWs and chainguns in harmony.

It didn't take long for Viktor's proximity alarms to sound as he feinted a move round the corner. The opposing DD immediately responded with staggered Type 1.5 fire, knocking away some of his DARTs and peppering Kingston's shields. The DD kept charging forward even as the M2 boosted to a stop, in one quick moment as its side panels went slid down, it produced a Panzerfaust under its left arm aimed and armed. Unfortunately for it however, the DARTs cloud interfered with the teleoperation connection briefly, causing it to pause for a split second, and causing it to be riddled with many small holes from Harrison's PFC and one big hole from Viktor's LBR.

The second DD following close by attempted the same thing, only to be pummelled to a mush by the angry swarm of Harrison's ARROWs, which after the demise of it's first target relocked onto the second DD in mid-flight. Viktor's SAVTECH also switched targets, contributing the remaining two LBR bolts but these disappeared into the blackish cloud, their effect unknown.

When the smoke cleared all that was left was a blackened pile of junk, and three AM Panzerfausts daisy chained into one which was thrown clear by the explosion(s). Had they deployed this weapon in the corridor where its inherent inaccuracies were offset by the short range, it would have completely annihilated a suit and bought down the celling.

Viktor's Monoeyes detected faint signals of more suits headed towards the long corridor they just cleared. It was 200 meters long with many sub-corridors joined to it. It was empty for now, but they were coming.

Down the road

Trey was right about the one armed DD, it completely missed its shot again. But the M2 quickly swung its rifle with Monoeyes blaring just as the Sniper bought his own up. A peculiar thing happened, both identical bolts from both identical LBRs met halfway to clash in a flash of light, taking out parts of the walls with them. It was not so peculiar when you take into account the identical targeting computers and stances, but what was not identical was Penton's skill, his suit forcing the recoil down quickly managed to let off one more shot before the other could react, dealing heavy damage to his opponent's shields. As a final act of triumph, he managed to duck back down before his opponent could retaliate.

Through the tireless efforts of his three UCF-4as, Talbain's shields regenerated back up to 35%. It wasn't much, but in a different perspective it was equivalent to over 50% of the M2's shield strength.

"Damn... Thanks again, Viktor, now cover me." Harrison asked as he ran out to the daisy-chained Panzerfausts and brought them back to his position. He began looking the weapons over, remembering his brief introduction to the destructive power of the gun in basic, before placing them back on the ground.

"Maybe if I rig these to explode, I could cut this hallway off from reinforcements..." Harrison thought to himself. "... Or I could decompress this whole section of the station..." Again, a moral dilemma presented itself in front of Harrison.

"No, too dangerous. I'll use them as a fallback if I have to." Harrison scanned the hallway with his monoeyes before making his call.

"Let's see if we can pin the reinforcements down in this hallway." Harrison said over his comm to Viktor.