RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 12.3] Red Snow

Upon hearing the Taisa's instruction to attempt the capture of one or more of the enemy snipers, Reika responded with a sharp "Yes, ma'am.", and headed back towards the enemy still under stealth, moving to and from the available cover to avoid being his by stray enemy or friendly fire. It appeared Klein was already occupied with getting Lime out of danger, so Reika was going to have to do her best on her own for the time being.

After some careful effort relocating herself, the operative came up behind one of the enemy snipers. She timed her movements for when either the sniper was firing or her companions were returning fire to mask the sound of her movement in the snow as she gained increasingly closer proximity. Once she had closed the distance, she gently set her rifle down, and then lashed out with a precise blow to the back, then rapidly placed the converted Nekovalkyrja in a stranglehold with one arm, knocking aside her weapon with the other. Reika had to mix speed with careful and calculated movements so that she could render the enemy unconscious, but do so with sufficient speed that the enemy neko was unable to send a telepathic call for help to her allies. Accidentally breaking the Neko's neck with her strength amplified by the Daisy armor was also a risk.

Reika then reached down for the unconscious Neko's legs and discarded weapons, breaking them with her armored suits enhanced grip -- just in case the sniper regained conscious after she had continued on. Now the enemy would prove unable to get very far or do much damage.

After making sure that the enemy was knocked out but still apparently breathing, she recovered her rifle and continued to move through the enemies line until she located the next sniper -- hopefully, she could acquire at least one more captive before she was forced to resume more immediately lethal methods.

Takeyu gave a quick nod before he moved out from behind cover and unleashed fire in the direction that he saw the sniper shot come from that had missed Sune.

"Taisa, one minute till air support arrives," Takeyu shouted, trying to get his voice heard over the raining of enemy fire before he got up and re-deployed his forearm shield and placed himself between Sune/Armundo and enemy fire - the shield dome would protect them from enemy fire, or at least that was Takeyu's plan.

Takeyu then sent an order to one of his drones that was in the nearby area, it shot up into the air and then flew toward the location of the sniper that Takeyu pegged for it to harass. It's tiny laser wouldn't do much good at damaging the soldier, except maybe blind the bastard, but any time he could buy for Sune and the rest of the squad he would take.

"I wish I had a sniper rifle here..." Takeyu said absentmindedly.

"I'm a little busy at the moment Taisa, I'll start picking them off at my earliest convenience. However, I'm patching up Lime at the moment." Helen spoke over a comm-line as she went about doing just that, stabilizing Lime and ensuring that she would survive until Sune could get to her. Once the Nekovalkryja was stable, Helen spoke a reassurance; "I'll be back later to check on you." With that, she stepped out of the back of the tank and brought her CFS to life, hovering above the ground and evaluating the situation.

Noting through her AIES that Reika already had a portion of the sniper situation under control, and that air support was one minute off, Helen knew that she mostly had to ensure that until that minute passed, the tank and crew would not be overrun, and that the enemy would be unable to shoot down their air support before they were effective. What that led Helen to do, was to put her Kylie's forearm projectors into SMG mode, as she hovered about the tank, darting about it using it as cover, as she began to spray aether fire in the directions that sniper fire continued to come from. She wanted to make them put their heads down, or lose e'm. She knew full well those bursts of aetheric energy were enough to really ruin anyone's day if they were not in a power armor.

The NMX Nekovalkyrja began focusing on Reika, taking advantage of the weather to spot her armor's shape. Blue particle beams slammed into her torso but did not penetrate. As they fired the enemy nekos were moving away in a tactical retreat now, with an alternating cycle of some shooting while the others would move away. Their movement kept them away from Helen's aether fire.

Meanwhile, the Neko that Reika had tried to choke was up somehow up again, crawling on her knees over to her weapon to check it. It didn't work as a gun, but she used it as a bat to smash Takeyu's drone.

The Troll tank took a hit to the turret, sending it sliding back down the sandy riverbank and flinging everyone inside around into the left side wall as the tank spun to the right with the heavy impact. A large gouge was left in the turret's highly sloped turret front armor.

Luckily the hit also put the tank out of view for the other Flayer tanks. The attackers turned their attention on the TASHA. In turn, the TASHA was moving away from Hanako's group, trying to keep out of the Flayer tanks' gun range but keeping them in its own.

The Flayer Tank horde was moving fast, hovering over the snow with ease. They would be at the river in moments.

" Gaah !!"

A loud cry of pain erupted from the back as Armundo was flung against the wall, jostling his unset broken bones. He looked around the inside of the tank, trying to remember what had happened. He had lost consciousness a few seconds after he had hit the snow and now it seemed he was inside the tank. His blown out shoulder was patched up, but that was about it.

He noticed other wounded and he felt a lump form in his throat. Some were injured as badly or worse then he was. He scooted closer to the nearest injured to see if there was anything that he could do. However, his usefulness was next to zero, seeing as both his shoulders were either broken or blown out altogether. He still had his powerful cybernetic eyes that could probably pick targets out from a great distance in detail or at the very least provide thermal imaging to see where the targets were in all this snow. Sadly, he was not a Neko, nor did he have a cybernetic brain with which he could project images onto the screen.

He had wanted to preserve his human body as much as he could...but the cold truth was that, as he was, he was just a liability to the others. Here he was, wounded and useless, a dead weight while everyone else was fighting for their lives. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but he did not have time to brood on his own failures, he had to find a way to help somehow or at the very least stay out of the way so others could do what they needed to do.

Sune was in the middle of carefully putting Armundo into the tank when it suddenly decided to shift position thanks to Newton's laws.

Sune's only option was to unceremoniously dump Armundo into the tank and drop flat. While he succeeded in putting Armundo into the back it was not as careful as he would have preferred as the door of the tank clipped Sune causing him to face plant into the snow.

Other than scraping his PA Sune was unharmed. He stood back up and trudged over to the tanks new position to check on Armundo. Seeing that the soldier was awake he said, "I've done what I can for the moment, we have two other casualties. I could give you an injection of Hemosynth Fluid, but that would cause problems with your cybernetics. Once I'm sure the others are stable, I'll come back and see what I can do to further assist you."

Looking around and not seeing anybody nearby to help, Ramiro looked down at Mango. "Do I look like I can move you right now? I'm not in armor, I'm supposed to be inside the tank that just rolled down the hill." He pulled out his comm and linked in with Sune. "Chui, I'm in no position to move Mango while she's in the armor, and she's demanding to be dropped somewhere she can still shoot. The best I can do is hold people off until you get here. Ramiro out."

Ramiro looked down at Mango and said, "That's all I can do, you're just going to have to wait." He pulled out his NSP and switched to stun mode, firing at any of the enemy NMX that he could see. He didn't think it would do very much where he was currently located, but it was better than nothing.

Upon hearing Ramiro's "Chui, I'm in no position to move Mango while she's in the armor" Sune made his way over to where she was. "Okay Ramiro, I have it from here. Did you give her a Hemosynth fluid injection into the injury?" he inquired as he got into position to assist her.

"Mango, it is into the tank with you. You can man one of the stations while your body recovers. Meanwhile if you would please assist with your anti-grav I would appreciate it." Sune then hefted the armor clad crewmember into a vertical position, Mango's antigrav making the task easier. Sune was reluctant to try using the armor's propulsion because he had no idea how bad the Mindy's systems were damaged.

"I can try floating," Mango said. With a grunt, she rose to a hovering position, grabbed, her rifle, and crossed over the river to a position near the tank. She set herself down on the crest of the riverbank and began firing on the enemy tanks.

Just when they were about to reach the river, a dozen Hayabusa starfighters came screaming by overhead, laying down an advancing curtain of fire on the tank rush. The fighters then broke formation and began pursuing targets in pairs. The Hayabusa had turret coverage in most directions, so the stream of golden bolts coming from each was nearly constant. Missiles and anti-starship forward cannons hit the tanks even harder. The field in front of the river was quickly filling with burning, wrecked hulks and muddy craters...and running out of hostiles.

Takeyu was stunned for a moment when the tank was hit; he waited until the sound of metal grinding against the ground had stopped before he looked down at the tank.

"Taisa are you alright?!" he asked nervously before he saw the fighters fly in and start their runs on the NMX Tanks and infantry. He then started moving downward toward the tank, providing some fire whenver needed.

"I am alright," Hanako said. "We should take those prisoners and get ready to move again once the fighters clear the way. Our mission is not done yet."

Mango, suddenly realizing she was being a 'hero' instead of following orders, returned to tank. Still, she did not take a station like Sune asked. "No disrespect intended Chui Sune, but I think I am better off in the Mindy where it can continue to help me heal. I am able to hover around still," she explained.

Knowing that this particular battle was lost, the remaining handful of NMX nekos began fleeing the scene at full flight speed. Helen was able to gun a few down.

The enemy appeared to have noticed her presence-- opening fire upon her and managing to score a couple of hits on her torso before she brought her armors portable shield up and pulled back out of the line of fire. As she retreated away from the enemy, Reika deactivated her stealth and camouflage systems and brought her energy shield online for increased protection.

Her armors status display now showed a gold torso indicating damage -- camouflage, stealth armor and life-support compromised; now operating at reduced efficiency, overall armor integrity reduced to 78%.

At least it appeared that the enemy was also pulling out, but that meant she would have no more chances to capture their infantry for whatever purposes Hanako-Taisa intended. Reika continued to withdraw, taking the occasional shot at the enemy until they were no longer in line-of-sight.

Shortly thereafter, she reached the location where the NMX neko she had incapacitated had been left. The neko had since appeared to have woken up and made the attempt to escape-- following her trail in the snow Reika quickly found her on the ground nearby, clutching the broken remains of her rifle, appearing ready to use it as a club despite being unable to stand as yet.

Wordlessly, Reika caught hold of the gun as the Neko made the futile effort of beating against her legs with the broken weapon. The operative yanked it out of the downed snipers grip and tossed it away.

"Enough of that--" Reika then reached down, pulling the neko up by her uniform and tossing her over her shoulder like a sack of grain. The neko struggled uselessly for several moments, before she realized the futility of trying to overpower a person in power armor.

Sighing inside her suit, Reika headed back to the area where the rest of the crew were assembled.

Sune took advantage of the lull in hostilities to check the other casualties. It only took a moment for him to double check Helen's treatment of Lime. The Neko's metabolism was doing a good job, his skills were not needed.

Mango's situation required time, while he did not approve of her insisting on being ambulatory, he did not press the matter.

So Sune returned to Armundo, the shoulder that he had treated earlier was still sealed. But the prognosis on the other shoulder was not promising. Damn, those broken bones will need to be set when we get back to the Eucharis. He thought, while he sent a command to Armundo's power armor. "We need to immobilize your shoulder that has broken bones. Once we are back on the ship I can see about setting them. Give me a moment to immobilize the arm.

Your other shoulder I have repaired the major damage, but you will need to take it easy. If you must use it, do so without straining the tissue or your will rip open the work I performed."

Sune reached into his medical kit and withdrew the sling kit. Using the bandages from it, he immobilized Armundo's upper arm. He then fashioned a sling to support the lower arm.

"While we are still on this mission, it would probably be best if you remain in one of the vehicles, perhaps serving as Gunner or driver."

Hanako opened the cockpit hatch and looked at the bloody scene in the back for a moment or two before her eyes locked on Sune's face. "XO! Are we ready to move?"

She also told Reika, "Reika, I need intel on the location of Nekovalkyrja production centers. Ask our guest."

Armundo seemed more then a little down trodden. SLowing down his comrades in such a vicious fight was frustrating to say the least. He looked up at Sune, who continued to patch him up.

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." he said.He never wanted anything like this to happen again. He'd prefer not to, but if he had to he would order a synthetic body so that he could fight aloungside his fellows and protect them instead of the other way around.

He winced and bit his bottom lip as his arm was moved. His broken shoulder was terribly red and swollen, showing that it was more then just a dislocation, but possible damage to the rotator cup, maybe even a fractured collar bone.

He was instructed to remain in a veichle and act as a gunner or driver. It would be difficult, but it was better then nothing. He grunted as he moved towards a empty Gunner's seat, sitting down and taking hold of the controls with his better hand . He had to stick his head out to see the surrounding area, seeing as the turret camera had been shot out. His red eyes began to glow as they powered through the gloom, sweeping over the area in search for enemies in range of his machine gun.

"Ma'am we are as ready as we are going to be, we have patched up the wounded as best we can here in the field." Sune replied to Hanako's question.

Takeyu smiled when he heard the Taisa's voice, and promptly took up a position next to the tank, having slide down the side of the hill to get to it.

He raised his rifle and began to scan the area with his eyes, the drones he still had flew down and began to undergo a search pattern around the area, looking for any NMX that were still alive and a threat to them.

"Shosa, you alright?" asked Takeyu, he hadn't heard from the officer in awhile and glanced back in the direction he last saw her.

With the situation well under control, the tanks slagged, and the crew on the mend, Helen found herself landing beside the Taisa's tank, awaiting further orders, but entirely ready to move along with the vehicle the moment they would make their move. As she stood by, she let out a sigh at the general situation, there was no doubt that there was going to certainly be more where those tanks came from.

Sune took up a position outside of the tank, and re-engaged his armor's active camouflage. We are a long way from our objective, and crossing that body of water is far to open for my liking. We have been caught in an ambush once, I prefer to error on the side of caution. he thought.

He then took a moment to sync his AIES with the tanks Watchdog. It would help him to target any would be snipers.

"Close the rear hatch," Hanako said, helping Armundo sit next to her in the gunner seat. She left the hatch between the driver area and the passenger area open, though.

The tank lurched as its treads spun up on the sandy riverbank, launching it over the crest and into a huge, flat field of snow surrounded by jagged rocks on both sides, and filled with burning wreckage of NMX vehicles. Hanako used the remaining sensor eyes to look around instead of looking out the slightly-open ceiling hatch like Armundo. She drive at a fast pace but was cautiously looking around for any survivors.

Overhead, fighters were still occasionally flying by looking for any leftovers.