RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 2]: Brotherhood and Sisterly Love

"No?" Henry asked for confirmation, as all of the gear on his back rattled, ready to use when he boarded the NSS Emden, "No other luggage? Fine. Away I go."
Henry was launched with ease, although, not as much as he'd usually enjoy with the slightly different setup of the Aggressor.

Henry figured that since he was playing as pack-mule until he boarded, he'd keep out of the fights and stay well behind the front lines, watching his back periodically, and shielding his presence from the radars with antimatter dispensers.

Then he remembered: Fiddlesticks! Aggressors don't have those! Clearly, Henry had gotten complacent with using the old WATER M2, Need to use something else... or just keep my head down and blend with the crowd.

With that in mind, he didn't stay to the very back, but somewhere in the middle until an opening to board came available.

Anselm's BOLTs launched in a cloud of exhaust, the missiles spread out, forming a wall of antimatter-tipped death behind the screen of dummies. "On it." Anselm voxxed, pushing his Aggressor above the group, the Albino activated his mono-eyes, locking onto the Crooked Demons and fired a Blue and White Shell at one from his AOP, hopefully the shells' integral tracking and maneuvering devices would offset the shaking from his suit's velocity. Shutting his monoeyes off, Anselm popped thirty more BOLTs in the direction of the CDs before diving back into the group, hoping no one had used his monoeyes to launch any ordinance his way, and if they had he hoped his team mates anti-missile defenses could pick them off.

Fian's HE-Tipped .50 RAPTOR bullets were followed by a rain of HPAR shots from the other marines. A large majority of the shot hit... The Emden, however the sheer amount of rounds expended managed to bring the shields of the three brave DDs to zero and cause minor armor damage. It also managed to snap three additional pirate armors out of their daze. An EARTH1 immediately opened up with an Alpha Strike, sending plasma rounds, ARROWs and a single AOP mini-torpedo. A WATER2 propped itself against the hull of the Hray and fired off a trio of LBR bolts, Monoeye active. The last one, an AIR2 boosted forward in a suicidal banzai attack, meeting Lilly head-on with a charged Push Pull Guard.

The ELEMENTAL series of suits in the Marine's group has already coordinated and set up a group-wide Mass Mesher field. The fourth generation suits, lacking the MM system, triggered their Noisemakers filling the air with static but leaving a small and shifting bandwidth for friendly communications. It is through telemetry transmitted in this bandwidth that the friendly ARROWs, DARTs and assorted micro-missiles guided themselves through the ever shifting marine suits to pass into the space between both groups of combatants. In that space micro-missile met micro-missile and depending on which side fired them, interception by Type 1.5s or Pulse Laser Arrays. The few marine missiles that made it out of that killing field distributed themselves amongst the pirates to little effect (except draw in two more DDs to the fight), while on the opposite side an AOP made it out without a lock, it detonated in the middle of Gamma's formation dealing moderate shield damage and tossing a few suits off-course momentarily.

Being somewhat in the middle, Trey's suit was temporarily shielded by the wake of another suit upfront. This brief respite from the pitter-patter of lasers allowed him to shoot off a leg from his DD. Small reddish spheres like cherries trailed off from the limb as it journeyed to the galaxy's edge. In retaliation, both CDs unleashed their Aetheric beams to cut a swath across Epsilon's formation, their projected course intercepting Trey, Anselm and a few other unlucky marines. Someone yanked Trey out of the way with P/p, Anselm being in a really large suit was not so fortunate. While the exposure to a pair of sweeping Aether beams was slight, he lost half his shield strength. Even less fortunate was a greenhorn who froze at the projection that his suit was in the path of FOUR BEAMS, members of Delta scrambled from the Acadia to retrieve his MEC.

"Hey what th-" The Master Chief shouted when Lilly passed him on her AIR2 Lancer. "Stay in the MM Fiel-" Fian was interrupted a second time when a second barrage of Type 1.5 fire bought his shields down to dangerously low. He decided to slow down a bit to have someone else take the heat while his shields recharge. Just as he did a single LBR bolt passed through the space he once occupied.

Lastly, the various UMD shells arrived at their destinations with little issue by the virtue of the TRACER rounds fired by Viktor. Four EMP shells detonated in the mass of stupefied pirates, two suits had their circuitry permanently fried. Two DDs and a FIRE1 took shield damage, they turned around to face the marines. The rest fled, perhaps to join the even larger mass of pirate suits coming from the destroyed transport. One EMP shell exploded near one of the first shieldless DDs, partly disabling it. Fian's HE shell also exploded nearby, partly disabling it further by ripping out an arm and a leg.

Out of the two mini-torpedoes fired by Anselm, the blue one was lost in the chaos, the remainder somewhat forgotten by both marines and pirates, discreetly flew right up to one of the Crooked Demons and threw its entire tungsten-fortified weight into the suit's head. The CD literally clawed its face violator as it sunk out of sight from the edge of the Emden. Its a big loss to the defending pirates forces as the Marines have moved into a suitable range to fire all their weapons while in a jittery condition.

Several Moments Ago...

"Are you ready for this?" said a familiar voice that awoke Phaedra from her reverie. She had been on edge ever since she entered her Hostile and waited for the order to launch. It took her a moment to realize that Amelia was speaking to her.

"Huh? Oh...yeah...I can't wait to get over to the Emden; then I can get out of this thing..." she said as her voice trailed of.

Phaedra doubted that was the answer Amelia was looking for, but before she could think of something else to say, Squad Gamma was called up to launch.

Currently...

Phaedra hated this.

She hated being in the metal beast, completely dependent on it for her survival. She hated recalling that only a couple inches of Durandium stood between her and the vacuum of space. Despite this, she launched with the rest of Squad Gamma. She followed the Chief closely, also sticking close to Amelia when possible. Her Hostile lugged half of the squad's small arms in a case held in the left hand. Phaedra held the HPAR in the right hand at the ready should any of the enemy make it past the Epsilon Squad.

Sweat beaded on Phaedra's brow; despite being in a relatively safe position behind her comrades, she couldn't feel comfortable until she had both her feet on the ground or on the deck of the ship. At least she had her comrades at her side. Phaedra checked the status of her armor and HPAR on the HUD, the display showing that all was well.

"Just hang on a little longer; you'll be out of here, and you'll be storming up the holds of the Emden," she thought.

Talbain drove forward through the hail of opening shots taking the few hits he had coming. Now though he was at a range where he could give a proper retaliation without having to worry about just wasting his ammo. Turning on all his monoeyes he picked out the FIRE1 as the most immediate threat and laid into it with his AMP on full auto.

Talbain called into the squad's comms channel "Forwarding targeting data." moments after he started firing.

"Shit, that was close" Trey muttered as he was tugged out of the way of the Aether beam "Thanks for the save" He commented to whomever had done so. As the Sniper drifted closer, he figured the amount of countermeasures out would be good enough for him to be able to activate all three Monoeyes, which searched around before they found a Juicy target; One of the Crooked Demons. Trey lined up a Savtech and Monoeye-aided shot, and pulled the trigger two pumps before switching the Monoeyes off and then boosting out of the way, hoping to hide from any possible retaliation shot.

His weapons reloaded, and Viktor fired off another volley of EMP shells from the SGL and GAFM. Then he shrugged the Mortar launcher over his shoulder and brought up his LPA to line up a shot. As he activated his monoeyes to aid his accuracy, he remembered how obvious a target that would make him. While the suit lined up a shot with the monoeyes and SAVTECH, Viktor activated the shield drones. Three of them formed a triangle in front of him, and the other three trios formed up on Anselm, Fian, and Talbain as they seemed to be under heavy scrutiny by the enemy. "Make good use of them," he said to his teammates. "You'll get ten minutes out of them at best." Then he began firing in controlled bursts at the FIRE1 coming toward Epsilon squadron.

"I'll take the door." Monoeyes glowing, Anselm cycled his AOP to a white shell and fired it at the Dark Demon in front of the hangar doors, unlimbering his HPAR from its backpack mount, the Albino peppered the group of Dark Demons to the Emden's side as he closed with the hangar. Holstering his AOP, the marine drew his chainsword, Sindri, in preparation for his clash with the DD in front of him and the coming boarding action he was going to cover.

Lilly felt a jolt of fear run down her spine as she saw the AIR2 bull-rushing her, the PPG charged for a fatal attack. At the very least she didn't seem to be getting much attention from ranged assailants. The shiver of fear still shaking her concentration, Lilly pulled herself together. She had to think! Only a couple seconds until they closed on each other...

She waited until they were just about to close on each other, then she acted, relying on her SAVTECH to fill in any gap between her terrible marksmanship and the point blank target. A volley of 15 DARTS darted ( ) out of her bulky skirt, headed straight for the AIR2's sensors, in the hopes of knocking out both the sensor and shield systems in one strike. For good measure, Lilly's FMD sent an EMP canister chasing after them. The preliminary phase of her attack completed, Lilly quickly thrusted her armor sideways, putting herself a safe distance from the PPG arm of her opponent. As the moment to strike approached, Lilly snapped her Lance forward, activating both of its systems with a burst of energy. As she moved to pass alongside her opponent, Lilly held her Lance out horizontally, putting its deadly HFC blade directly in the path of her opponent. At the same time, Lilly sent a wave of force out of its PPG system, aiming for the PPG of the other PA in the hopes of nullifying any attack made by it.

All this said, she was still on a full-speed course for the Emden.

"Well. I'll never get used to this." The Chief sighed as he got into position to launch, watching Morrison and Volkov launch before him to join a few other Marines from Gamma who were already on their way to the Emden. Seeing that they were already taking fire, the Chief armed the BOLT launchers on his Hostile and targeted the DDs who were providing suppression fire.

Firing off three DARTS, the Chief's armor immediately shook from the exploding AOP ordnance, causing a brief burst of high traffic on his squad-level comm. "I want anyone with DARTs to fire those motherfuckers off to take some heat off of the MC's squad. Get in close to those fuckers and spread out. I don't need another rocket shaking up multiple Marines, again."

"Morrison, hand me one of those containers and get your AMP up. Volkov, cover him and take one of his containers, as well. Make sure you intercept missiles heading his way since these fuckers will want to kill the heavy guys."

"Everyone needs to suppress those motherfuckers so the MC's squad can close in." At that, the Chief locked onto the WATER who was currently firing off LBR shots, and fired off 4 missiles, followed by a few bursts from his HPAR.

The start of Lilly's assault was stared down by the AIR2's Monoeyes. With computer assisted actions it shot down some of the DARTS as they left the Lancer, making it fly right into its own clouds of charged particles. It also narrowly auto-dodged the EMP round, which proximity fused a little behind the suit to wipe out all shields. To add insult to injury it remembered the existence of its Forearm Mass Driver to launch two RED shells at the Tarkarian, one completely missed and the second one exploded to the side of the Lancer, regardless, Lilly's shields were close to zero. In the light of new developments her Savtech increased the side boost to evade the follow up PPG attack, and her lance missed center mass and as a result tore through a shoulder Monoeye instead. The brief encounter was over as both combatants sped past each other at max speed.

No more additional enemy Power Armors were exiting the Emden's hangar, to add finality to that, the hangar doors themselves were starting to close. In contrast, a pair of friendly N/F-As from the NSS Alder swooped down from above the marines, the first one 30mm Cannoned the hangar door mechanism, jamming it in place. The second one flew over the Emden but not before donating another string of 30mms to the second Crooked Demon, excavating a good portion of its frontal armor and systems. Trey's follow up shots quickly finished it off. The pair were eventually warded off by PA fire and some of the Hray's twin plasma turrets that were slowly recovering from the EMP blast.

As the marines closed in, the enemy suits were stepping up to the challenge, moving themselves to the front for some reason seemingly regardless of the increasing amount of firepower being thrown around. The Monoeyes of all the enemy ELEMENT series suits were blazing hot and were actively evading attacks. The FIRE1 made a mistake by hunkering down to stabilize its Plasma Artillery shot, the heavy pounding it received by the plasma-based HPARs and AMPs made it spontaneously combust from the heat. The EARTH1 while soaking up considerable shield damage lumbered up to the front, firing only its plasma turrets. The WATER2 decided to sit back and continue unloading LBR bolts. The DDs, seemingly unfazed by the kinetic death of a comrade by Anselm's AOP round also moved up, oblivious to their lack of defensive systems.

A small yellow 'New Developments' tab was blinking in one corner of Master Chief Fian Vel Steyr's. Between an M2 next to him eating an entire PAL globe, an M1 taking two consecutive positron bolts to limp back to the Acadia and his own AIR-R seeking shelter under a shield drone, he was in no condition to read a lengthy but nicely worded report. However he could surmise that it had something to do with the NSS Alder and its remaining pair of N/F-As moving further southwards. Though, he was more concerned as to why the pirates were suddenly acting so brazenly. It was only when more DDs started showing at the edges of the Emden and the EARTH1's largish missile racks reopened that it hit him. Both his own missile racks and mouth snapped open.

"THEY ARE GOING TO DROWN US IN MICROMISSILES, FIRE EVERYTHING!"

The resulting chain of explosions could probably be seen as far as beyond the Wazu Nebula in Mishu territory. The debris from the thousands of missiles created a large and still expanding dust cloud which impaired both sensors and plain eyeball. Shell shocked into a blur, suits from both sides either wandered into the cloud or were engulfed by it. The squadwide Savtech network decided it was best to wake up the marines with a dose of Adrenalin, it wasn't Shore Leave yet to be wandering in a daze.

Anselm avoided most of the wave of missiles as Viktor's shield drones took most of the punishment from the two DDs in front of him, his Aggressor's Plasma Chainguns knocking several down in the DDs' faces. Two of Viktor's drones retreated back to him, the third drifting away from Anselm, shedding sparks as it formed a minscule debris cloud that would make an affectionate thump on the Emden's hull in a few moments. "Suck, HPAR, You Bastards!" the Albino yelled, letting loose a torrent of semi-molten anti-armor cones at the two DDs, peppering one's arm and leg while the other took several in the face, clawing at its visor for a few seconds before it went limp.

The return fire was minimal, but knocked Anselm's shields close to zero as he charged through the fire and hacked at the remaining Demon with his chainsword, ripping open the pilot's side in a spray of red with a shriek and grinding only the two of them could hear. The landing was fast and hard, the Albino had to direct most of his thrust backwards to avoid the hangar deck ripping his feet out from underneath him. Recovering quickly thanks to the adrenaline boost coursing through his system, Anselm readied the remaining 30 BOLTs in his pods and switched his chainsword out for the AOP, ready to use the two remaining Blue rounds on any suits he might encounter, specifically the one that was almost powered up.

"UNNHH!!" Lilly cried out with intensity akin to an orgasm, though of a completely different sort. After her Lancer rocketed past the other AIR2, she had to take a long moment to regain her bearings. Though the poor use of the DARTs and the EMP shot were her own fault, the encounter left Lilly with a bitter hatred for her Savtech. Why did it mess with my thrusters??! If she hadn't been thrown off course, that AIR2 would would be IN two. Dipping towards the lower edge of the Emden, Lilly pulled herself together.

With a few good thruster bursts, she cut a hard angle back around towards the enemy PAs who were now behind her. She came about just in time to see a miniature Armageddon unleash itself in the space between the two ships. The smoldering haze of debris was murky, but from outside of it, Lilly could definitely make out a pair of Dark Demons in the outer edges of it. Everything else was more or less a solid fog, with shadows darting around in it. She started scanning the cloud passively, but could only pick up telemetry on the two DDs.

Determined to redeem herself, Lilly turned on her inter-squad com and forced a single, baleful statement through her clenched teeth. "If you have targeting information, send it to me. NOW." By the sound of her last words, she didn't have to add the implied "or I'm going to bite your head off!" As she spoke, she sped up the side of the Emden, her MMD masking her presence. She quickly used the autoloader that Anselm had thankfully suggested, loading two RED shells into the barrel, two more into the chamber, and 'hotkeying' the loader to auto-load REDs unless she commanded otherwise. In the short moment it took her to do this, her Lancer had reached a point on the Emden just about parallel to the two DDs.

With an uncharacteristically deep roar, which served only to satiate her rage in the silence of space, Lilly slammed her Lance against the (new and mostly unscathed) hull of the Emden (putting an ugly dent in it and chipping off some paint) and fired her PPS full-force. Simultaneously, she fired off her ion boosters, combining the two to send herself blasting off the side of the Emden. The sudden lunge slammed her backwards inside the armor, giving her some nice big scratches and bruises to take home with her. In the corner of her screen, status alerts flashed for dozens of micro-fractures in the bones of her arms and legs. Though her head and torso hadn't been spared the punishment, she only suffered bone damage in a few ribs thanks to her homemade padding. The odd tingling sensation of bones that were cracking and ready to break like the thin ice of a frozen pool was quickly replaced by the odder sensation of nonfeeling imparted by painkillers flooding into her system.

Lilly ignored the state of her own body as she shot like a bullet towards the debris cloud, aiming at the two DDs, who were firing frantically at some unseen marine. Thanks to the decent amount of passive scanning that she'd done on the DDs, she had a good lock on them. Targeting blips for a handful of other PAs began to pop onto her HUD as other marines began to forward her what little information they could scan up in the Cloud of Chaos. A brief moment after she launched herself off like a missile, she had closed on the still unsuspecting DDs. Coming up on a course that would pass them a few meters to the left, Lilly cut her boosters, spun about with her thrusters, and gave her boosters another short burst. Her perpendicular course was now parallel to the DDs, bringing her straight past their backs. Too late to save themselves, they turned their rifles on her. Her Lance at the ready, Lilly repeated the tactic that had failed on the AIR2: she simply flew past them, her outstretched Lance slicing through their weak armor like a hot knife through butter.

The unlucky pirates were more or less hacked in two, little marbles of blood shooting out of them like piñata candy, mixing with the stagnant debris of the cloud. The neatly sliced hunks of aluminum-wrapped flesh remained where they were, slowly bumping against each other in the currentless sea of space. Lilly's Lancer sped on, completely unwinded by the simple act of tearing two men in half. Lilly quickly glanced over her HUD, looking for an unseen foe that she would soon press into a similar fate.

"Fire Every..?- WHOAH!" Trey muttered watching at the onset of all those Minimissiles, He had forgotten about his own, but thankfully due to his lower speed and lack of as much momentum as everyone else, The Sniper gently glided into the cloud of death after the missile salvo. Knowing his LBR was useless as the moment, he stowed it, pulling out the LSP instead. Knowing his Monoeyes would be basically useless in the particle cloud, Trey switched on his standard sensors, and attempted to augment his visuals, peering through the dust. As his armor glided about, tiny particles the Shields didn't bother to stop pinged against his armor plating, sounding like an odd metallic rain.

A shadow blew past, and after a second of sensing(and seeing the type 1.5 fire spraying in another direction) the marine figured it was indeed an enemy, and opened fire, the Machine pistol easily ripping into the lackluster armor of the demon suit, ripping into the man's flesh and turning him into a Popsicle before he could even die of blood loss or his gunshot wounds. A second similar shadow brushed by his vision, this time firing AT trey, so he didn't think, and just used his PPP.

The effect would have been comical, if it weren't so gruesome. The power Trey put into the PPP ripped the armor's head off, pulling it straight at the Yamataian-bodied Nepleslian, and eventually bouncing off of his armored shoulder, separating the helmet from the head, a determined expression on the man's face showing he had died instantly. trey didn't notice, the head floating off behind him, and he simply kept moving. at this point, Trey figured it was best to keep moving, the Type 1.5 fire starting to bring his shielding near critical, and so he boosted forwards, suddenly appearing outside the cloud into the relative brightness of unobstructed space.

Blinking, Trey darkened the visual sensors before latching onto the Emden with his PPP and pulling himself down towards the ship, into the jammed door, and through a skid on the hangar floor that ended with the man Having pulled out his LBR and put the LSP away (this having been initiated while he was swinging into the bay). Straightening his posture, Trey aimed at Anselm's prospective target, the whatever-it-was powering up inside the bay.

Viktor's response to Fian's command was simple enough: empty half of his BOLT rack. The ensuing cloud of debris convinced Viktor to shut down his monoeyes immediately and focus on visuals and short-range sensors. As he pressed through the cloud, his shield drones cut a triangular swath through the miscellaneous particles. It was a rather peaceful trip through the visionless void for Viktor. It was only interrupted twice by Dark Demons. Private Kingston had the advantage with his shield drones at half and his suit's shields at 70%. As soon as Demon came into sight, Viktor opened up with his GLC and LPA; the DD didn't have a chance, and was torn to shreds in a matter of seconds.

The excessive amount of fire must have attracted some attention as another DD came toward Viktor full throttle from his right. The shield drones attempted to move to an appropriate defending position while the VOID's pilot unleashed his trio of automatic weapons yet again and activated his Condensed Fusion Cutter. It was a kamikaze blitz the Dark Demon had committed to, and it never so much as hesitated, but maintained a straight line toward the VOID armor. Anticipating the collision, the VOID tried to boost out of the way, but Viktor yanked it back and held out his arm, CFC beam glowing ominously. The DD didn't so much as blink before ramming into Kingston, impaling himself on the fusion reaction energy. Inertia from the Dark Demon sent it and Kingston waltzing back in the direction the marine had come until the VOID's CFC was deactivated.

It was only a few quiet minutes later that the VOID M7's 'Emden Protocol' was activated and Private Kingston touched down in the hangar.

Ran watched in muted satisfaction as, despite the WATER2's best efforts towards the contrary, two of his four missiles scored hits on the ELEMENT series PA. The bursts following it up mostly landed around the WATER, but those that did score a hit did well to melt into the WATER's armor, sending the pilot twitching and flailing around as the superheated ammunition cooked him inside.

"Fucking beautiful. I love the shit our guys produce." Shortly after, the Chief's attention was directed to the multiple numbers of missiles that had suddenly shown up on his screen, followed by the Master Chief's sudden order to expend all ammunition. Unable to really get a decent lock on any of the missiles with his PLA, the Chief found himself caught up in the chaos that followed the detonation, with him being awoken to a terrible start later by the suit injecting adrenaline into him.

"Oh fuck! Oh fuck!" Was all he could muster, as he started to shiver due to the effects of the adrenaline being injected into him. Grinding his teeth to calm himself, while focusing his attention on suppressing the Dark Demons that were left over by the outpouring of firepower from the platoon, the Chief opened up a communication line with the rest of Gamma. "I want everyone in Gamma to stack up on either side of the hangar bay. Let the MC's squad get in there first to clear it out. We'll cover them while they do so."

At that, the Chief boosted towards the hangar bay, already seeing a few Marines on the other squad enter it. The most he offered were a few token bursts from his HPAR at any Dark Demon that would threaten the boarding action, as his missile systems had been damaged by debris from the explosion.

Fian exited the dust cloud and entered the hangar bay doors in a 60*degree dive, much steeper than any of the other marines performing the landing. This can be easily explained by the stranglehold the EARTH1 had on him, the ID-SOL suit was using its larger thrusters to bring the Master Chief down hard on the flight deck of the Emden. What couldn't be easily explained was the loud screeching noise in the air even before the two suits made touchdown. In a dramatic reversal, the Master Chief finally managed to pass his Vibro Broadsword which had been progressively whittling through the thickness of the M4 out of the other side.

The two halves of the EARTH1 crashed noisily on the deck, followed by a third crunching sound as the Master Chief rode one half as a shock absorber and skateboard. He got off before the disembowelled wreck hit the closed door on the other side of the hangar. He then boosted his scorched and worn suit over to the parked DD and pointed the tip of the bloody sword at its neck.

"Get the fuck out."

The pilot agreed, he knelt next to his suit with his hands on his head while the Master Chief cleaved it into half.

While everyone else was in a rush to get out of the cloud, Lilly had rushed in. Using conic bursts from her PPS, Lilly shoved debris out of her; until her shields had time to recharge, and do the job itself. Most of the targeting blips that popped up from other soldier's sensors quickly disappeared in gruesome close-range flashes. Despite the DD genocide that was going on around her, Lilly still managed to find herself a few. The first she didn't really expect, but she quickly flailed her Lance at it, catching an arm and half of its head in an uppercut swing. She was more prepared for number two, thrusting her Lance through its upper chest before it even saw her. It flailed around in terror for a moment, clawing at the searing fusion cutter and cutting off its own hands, but quickly went limp. The third one actually got the jump on her, but had made the unfortunate mistake of surprising a pissed off Nepleslian woman. Her FMD sent a pair of RED shells exploding into its chest and face before the already-fatally wounded pirate had a monomolecular blade slam down on its head and cut a vertical slice halfway down its belly, before arcing to the right and hewing him into two lopsided pieces.

Her PMSy rage mostly satisfied, she began moving out of the cloud when a large object came hurtling at her from behind. Her sensors picking it up in time, she spun about with her Lance at the ready, before surprisedly dropping (and deactivating) it. She thrust her arms out, and caught the limp Hostile. A pang of sympathy rung out in her mind for the dead comrade before she could connect the dots. A second object came hurtling at her from behind, and she was lucky enough to keep the dead Hostile propped in her arms as she turned to see what this new thing was. Her eyes went wide and she gasped, nearly dropping the Hostile in shock, yet clinging onto it for the same reason. An AIR2 with a missing shoulder slammed into her, thrusting its charged PPG forward and setting it off with a crack. The Hostile hung in the way, its dead pilot bravely absorbing most of the kinetic force for Lilly.

The AIR2 thrusted backwards to have another go at her, but Lilly had come to her senses. Gently pushing the Hostile aside, Lilly didn't hesitate. She charged the AIR2 dead on. It thrust its right arm up, trying hit her with a FMD shot. Lilly was on it, though, and slapped it aside with her own FMD, grabbing it by the wrist. It barely had its PPG raised when Lilly grabbed it by its other wrist as well, her Lance dangling from her forearm. Its primary weapons rendered useless, it began pelting Lilly with its PLA, but her own lasers quickly fired back, frying them into worthless lumps of metal. The legs and heads of the two units too inflexible to use as weapons, Lilly could do little else but boost her ion thrusters, pushing the two units out of the dust cloud. She aimed them into the hangar of the Emden, trying to slam the other AIR into the floor. It activated its own ion boosters, pushing it away from the floor, but the net thrust of the two PAs quickly had Lilly slamming him into the closed hangar door on the opposite end. The systems on the back of his armor were crushed as Lilly pressed the pirate into a deep crater. His ion props exploded, causing negligible damage to the two of them, and the generator for his PPG was shattered. It took Lilly a long moment to realize this second fact. The man activated his external com, screaming at Lilly, "Bring it, f*#$er!!!" Finally becoming aware of his disabled PPG, she released his left arm and fumbled for her Lance. Not going down without a fight, the man immediately took a swing at her, smashing the monoeye on her right shoulder. "T'chya!!" the pirate yelled proudly. He brought his fist back for another swing, but Lilly had gotten ahold of her Lance, and pressed the metal rod into his face. "Oh, f-" the pirate's unfinished dying words were drowned out by the foom of Lilly's PPS goopifying his brains.

Lilly released the man, whose body remained crushed into the crater in the bay door. Panting heavily, she stumbled over to the rest of her squad.

Anselm lowered his weapons as the Master Chief took care of the suit, taking stock of the situation he changed out his AOP magazine for a fresh one filled with red shells. Checking his HPAR, the marine read the ammo counter [624]. "Alright," he muttered, sweeping his monoeyes across the hangar, ready with his HPAR and Red-loaded AOP for any infantry to try and ambush his or Gamma's team while they landed "looks clear, what's the plan for Gamma?"

'If any of the pirates try anything it'll most likely be when Gamma starts dismounting and collecting their gear and each second we stand here is another they have to organize defenses.' He thought to himself, waiting for the MC to dispense orders.

Viktor was quick to move aside so that the others could make their entrances. As several of them did so, the VOID pilot couldn't fight back a twinge of jealousy when they came in mid-struggle and managed not only to defeat their opponent but land-- and in Fian's case, with gratuitous amounts of flair. He took a deep breath and replaced his grim expression with a smirk. "I feel like I got the short end of the stick, here," Viktor complained in a light tone, trying to emphasize their interesting escapades rather than his bland venture from space to steel.