RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the Enemy

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"Hmm, Laura I think we oughta go take up position in the northwest portion of the terminal. The main enemy force seems to be coming from that direction and we're the best suited for dealing with the ripper mechs." Sawyer called out as he took his own advice moving to a position at the northwest section of the terminal and began cutting a firing port as well as a viewport in the wall and then activated his snakeskin active camouflage system.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

Laura ignored Sawyer, instead piling debris around one of the doors to act as a makeshift barricade. "Wouldn't it make some sense to send a delaying force out while the rest of us set up for defence?" she asked over the squad frequency so that Phaedra could hear as well.

Meanwhile Bernhard had reached the second floor, looking at empty shops. All the nicely packaged souvenirs were still on the shelves, albeit covered with dust. It spoke of comfortable, happy lives brutally interrupted. Bernhard wondered what that was like. Nepleslia had never been particularly safe, comfortable or happy. His family had moved to Prime City but he had never been there.

But then he saw movement behind one of the counters. Quickly, he brought up his HPAR and armed his lasers. "This is the NSMC! Behind the counter! Come out with your hands up now and I will not blow you away!" he spoke through the suit's speakers.

Slowly, four Jiyuuian civilians stood with their hands up. From their looks, they were obviously very much afraid and very much in need of help. "Sergeant, Matteo, we have civilians here! What do you want me to do?" he said over the squad frequency.

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Phaedra's vantage point gave her an excellent position to see the two incoming groups. One from the northwest and one coming down from the north. Rippers and Crab-types escorted by NMX nekos. The position also gave her an excellent shot on either group of enemies.

As she watched, some of the Nekos from the northwestern group dragged two injured UOC men out from behind a wrecked land vehicle. It became instantly obvious what their aim was. Two shots later, the men were dead.

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"To any NSMC personnel near the Kazumori Spaceport receiving this transmission, this is Petty Officer Motoyama. My squad and I are heading towards the spaceport from the east. Please have your commanding officer contact me so we can start the evacuation."

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"And what now?" said Arieg.

"Recon for the moment. You will get your chance."

Phaedra scanned the area around the terminal and took stock of the enemy numbers.

"Listen up Marines. We have two groups of Squids approaching our position. Four Rippers, three Crabs, and approximately twenty Nekos coming in from the north; looks like three Rippers and approximately ten Nekos coming in from the northwest."

"Wouldn't it make some sense to send a delaying force out while the rest of us set up for defence?" asked Laura.

Phaedra drew a bead on the closest enemy Ripper to the north with her MPR, zoomed in and aimed at its faceplate, and then pulled the trigger.

"Thanks for volunteering, Romero. Laura and Sawyer, I want you to lay down some fire on the Squids with your AMPs. Saturate the area and keep them at bay."

Phaedra yanked on the action to load a new round in to the chamber, and then aimed at the nearest Crab.

"Sergeant, Matteo, we have civilians here! What do you want me to do?"

"You better do a thermal scan to check for infected before you let your guard down, Private. If they are clear, Bernhard, start escorting them outside our entrance by the LZ. Mark any for medical attention at your own discretion."

Phaedra zoomed in onto the Crab's eyeport and then fired another round.

"Rita, Matteo: secure the rest of the building and dig in. Support Laura and Sawyer as best you can." She then turned to Arieg as she ejected the spent round.

"Alright, Sergeant, show me what you can do. Lets harrass the Squid group to the Northwest, shall we?"

"To any NSMC personnel near the Kazumori Spaceport receiving this transmission, this is Petty Officer Motoyama. My squad and I are heading towards the spaceport from the east. Please have your commanding officer contact me so we can start the evacuation. "

Phaedra looked to the east, eventually spotting the UOC unit. She switched her comm channel over to the UOC frequency.

"Reading you loud and clear, Petty Officer. This is Sergeant Volkov, CO of the NSMC unit occupying the Spaceport. We are currently securing the Terminal and are using it as a strongpoint for the evac. Be advised, strong NMX presence to the north and northwest." She switched back to her previous channel.

"Admiral, the UOC have made contact, and we have civilians on site."

Phaedra then switched to the squad-only channel.

"Be on your toes when the UOC unit arrives. Assume they are infected until you prove otherwise. Be careful; zero friendly fire."

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"Here they come!" Rita called out, taking a deep breath and steeling herself for combat. She aimed down the sight of her moneyshot and exhaled slowly, just as the enemy nekos approaching from the northwest came into view. "Contact, northwest!" Rita said over the squad's communication channel, her finger squeezing the trigger lightly.

BABOOMBOOMBOOM!

The HPAR mounted on the kiosk counter rattled out a burst of fire at the approaching nekos, two shots to center mass and one to the head, again and again, one after the other. Rita certainly was well-trained, at least. "One by one, single file, ladies! Sorry, but you'll have to wait in line!" Rita joked as she fired, laughing loudly.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"F*ck!" Matteo swore. He was uncertain as to where the Mishhu would be hitting them, right up until the moment they finally got intel. And since he had the troops deploy all around the perimeter, it mean that they'd have to waste valuable moments moving into position. "Scratch the 360; relocate and focus on the forces coming in by the north and northwest." Since he was holding the reins for the moment, he wasn't going to fire and reveal his own position quite yet. The civilians...this was going to get messy fast as they streamed in. "Sarge, where are the ships going to be touching down? We need to get those civies moved out to here and there while we hold these bastards off!"

Matteo instinctively brought his HPAR to bear as a Neko tried to dash from cover to cover. The rifle spat hot, liquid metal rounds that vaporized through her soft flesh and tore her to shreds, the run turning into a messy tumble. "Shit!" The Marine dashed out from behind his cover and slid in behind a countertop as particle beams peppered his position. 'Rippers and crabs. How are we going to take care of them?' he thought hard. Matteo had an idea, and if the squad could pull this off flawlessly...

"Aggressors, hold fire for now, and stay hidden!" Matteo ordered. "Hostiles, maintain fire and draw enemy attention. We gotta get the Rippers and Crabs to pay attention to us so that the big guys can line up shots and concentrate firepower on one target at a time!" He explained. Matteo popped out of cover and squeezed off a burst before leaning back in, the rounds splattering across the chest of a Ripper and hopefully pissing it off.

"I hope you guys with the better guns can coordinate the thunder proper." the marine commented, an Impaler beam burned by, forcing him to keep his head down. 'Damn, I can't spot for them and draw attention at the same time. They'll have to work it out among themselves. I hope this works...'

Matteo let off another burst, changing targets to a Crab's hard shell in order to grab its attention.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

Rita's and Matteo's shots towards the Nekos killed three and horribly wounded another. The sudden attack caused the rest to take cover. The Rippers advanced forwards, already aiming their weapons in Rita's general direction.

Three Gauss 50mm rounds smashed through the terminal building around them, sending shards of glass and debris flying. None of them hit the Marines but before either could react, they were forced to take cover as a hail of aether beams and Impaler particle beams ripped through the terminal.

The nekos threw smoke grenades in front of them as the Rippers continued pouring 50mm rounds and aether beams into the terminal. Soon, a thick grey smokescreen blocked all the NMX forces from view and the NMX used it to their advantage to advance faster.

Matteo's shots at the Crab cracked the shell but did little more damage.

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"Sergeant Volkov, thank the stars you've come. We don't have the heavy lift capacity to get everyone off. We have the terminal in sight. Sounds like you have some visitors. My squad can hit them from the flank if you tell me where their positions are," Motoyama replied, relief in his voice.

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Bernhard herded the group of civilians he'd found to the empty cafeteria, checked them and then told them to stay put. Those four were uninfected but they knew they weren't the only ones here. More of the civilians were supposed to be on the third or fourth floors.

"Sergeant, continuing search for civilians in the structure. The ones I found were clean. Said there were more upstairs. I've got my lasers armed to burn down any zombies," Bernhard reported as he scanned with his thermal imaging for heat sources. Yes, there were definitely more on the second floor and the others.

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Laura looked back and forth between Matteo and Sawyer. Sergeant Volkov had ordered her to interdict, Matteo had ordered her not to fire. In the unfathomable labyrinthine processing of her mind, Laura decided that meant she was supposed to go outside and get into position.

In a break in the firing, she ran outside and boosted to the top of a three storey hotel across the street from the space port. "Eyes on both groups, Sergeant. Which one do you want dead first?" she asked, peering through the smoke with her thermal imaging.

Stupid Bernhard wasn't even fighting. He was off playing with civilians.

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The first of Phaedra's rounds damaged the Ripper's optics and targeting sensors. It flailed about trying to figure out what it was doing before being put down by one of the other Rippers.

Her second round glanced off the hard shell of the Crab above its eye. In the split second between her shot and impact, the creature had moved just enough to change the location of impact. It continued onwards, uncaring about the sniper or its near brush with death.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

Seeing the smoke screen spring up Sawyer took that as his cue to move to a better position. Turning to where the initial entry was made he ran to the entrance and used his boosters to get himself to a position where he could interlock his fire with Laura's. "I'm in position Sergeant, which group should we concentrate our fire on?" Sawyer commed as he went back into a camouflaged state and crouched to look for some sort of cover as he got his AMP set up to fire as well as his plasma chain-guns to fire at the same target. He also popped a couple of grenades out of the case on his back to use if anything decided to try to enter the building below him.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

While Matteo distracted one of the crabs, Rita immediately ducked down to avoid a hail of fire, but that didn't stop her from advancing forward. She let the HPAR hang across her body on the sling and roadie-ran under the head-height aether fire while drawing her vibrosaw knife from the sheath on her chest. While Matteo took its attention, Rita leaped up onto its back and tried to slam the vibrosaw into the red monoeye on the front and tear it upward, exposing a cavity into the things guts. If successful, Rita would jump back off while sheathing the vibrosaw, spin in mid-air and fire the moneyshot into the opening. When she hit the ground, she'd let the momentum carry her body backward in a roll and then twist around again to roadie-running back into cover.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"Sarge, where are the ships going to be touching down? We need to get those civies moved out to here and there while we hold these bastards off!"

"The shuttles will be touching down momentarily at the landing zone to the south."

"Sergeant Volkov, thank the stars you've come. We don't have the heavy lift capacity to get everyone off. We have the terminal in sight. Sounds like you have some visitors. My squad can hit them from the flank if you tell me where their positions are."

"Roger that, Petty Officer. My unit is currently engaging NMX forces to the North and Northwest. Flank the larger contingent to the North." Phaedra then switched back to the squad channel.

"Marines, be avised; UOC personnel supporting us from the East, flanking the Squids to the North. Watch your fire. Repeat; watch your fire!"

"Sergeant, continuing search for civilians in the structure. The ones I found were clean. Said there were more upstairs. I've got my lasers armed to burn down any zombies."

"Good work Bernhard. Continue to search the terminal for any survivors. Once you have it secured, bring them to the landing zone and assist any Navy personnel with the evac of the civilians."

Phaedra took aim at another Ripper with her MPR, zooming in on its faceplate and firing a round. She worked the action to eject the spent round and then aimed and fired at the faceplate of a second Ripper.

"Eyes on both groups, Sergeant. Which one do you want dead first?"

"I'm in position Sergeant, which group should we concentrate our fire on?"

"Laura, Sawyer, concentrate fire on the Squids to the Northwest. Matteo, Rita, continue fire on the group to the North."

Phaedra lined up a shot on the Crab closest to the terminal. She zoomed in on the thing's eye and waited. Once the Crab seemed to pause in its movement, Phaedra pulled the trigger and let loose another sabot round. She then ejected the spent magazine and slammed another into place.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

'Smoke grenades. Why smoke grenades? Matteo grumbled to himself. And then there was Rita, charging right into the mess! If they didn't tear her to ribbons...none of them were making the job suddenly tossed his way any easier, that was for sure. He couldn't afford to worry about one soldier right now though; the Sarge put him in charge of getting the whole group through, and that meant he had to focus on tactics! Smoke - that was the biggest problem right now; even if Laura and Sawyer opened fire right now, there was no guarantee they'd hit anything, and their shots counted the most.

"Rita, you're too deep in! Get out of there!" He called out to her. Matteo gritted his teeth, hoping this plan would work. "Phaedra, requesting permission to airburst mini-missiles across enemy lines to disperse the smokescreen as soon as Rita gets the f*ck out of that brawl!" He called out over their comms. "Laura and Sawyer will follow up with concentrated fire on one of those big bastards at a time as soon as they have a clear line of sight!" The marine further explained.

"I hate to be an asshole, but I think any civies down there with the squids are toast now!" Matteo justified the missile use. 'If it weren't for the Admiral's orders, I'd have already done this! Damn it! We're wasting time!' The thought of civilians turned his mind back towards the small group they found; they had to be dealt with, kept safe. "Bernard, round up the civilians in the building and get them ready to flee to the shuttles!"

A grim thought came across his mind as he gave out these orders and requests; even if it turned out he sucked balls at leading a small group and eventually got them all killed, they'd definitely would at least buy enough time for the civilians to flee.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

With a click of acknowledgement to Sgt Phaedra's orders, Sawyer was puzzled at Matteo's bizarre request. "Uhm Matteo, I have clear line of sight to the enemy and my scanners rip right through the smoke, you may want to adjust yours to do the same" he said in a calm voice as he targeted one of the rippers with both his plasma chain-guns as well as his AMP. He let off a burst of 50 rounds from the AMP and a dual 50 round burst from both of the shoulder mounted guns hoping that sheer massive firepower would take the enemy down.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

As the fighting continued to escalate Arieg had slipped away from the marine sergeant and had found his way quietly off the roof. He'd received coded instructions in suit that informed him of the termination of any contracts with DION's 4th fleet, his included.

Now he found himself running along roof tops, cloaked, as the fighting raged around him. A small navigational marker giving the only real indication of his present objectives.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"Phaedra, requesting permission to airburst mini-missiles across enemy lines to disperse the smokescreen as soon as Rita gets the fuck out of that brawl! Laura and Sawyer will follow up with concentrated fire on one of those big bastards at a time as soon as they have a clear line of sight! I hate to be an asshole, but I think any civies down there with the squids are toast now!"

"Matteo, request denied. We currently have the advantage of elevation and a clear field of fire. Our objective is to hold this terminal until we can get the civilians evacuated. We must try to save as many civilians as we can, but we simply cannot save everyone. Hold your ground."

Phaedra raised her MPR to line up another shot when she noticed that Arieg was not nearby. In fact, he was heading away from the NMX forces.

"Arieg, what the hell are you doing?"

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"Arieg, what the hell are you doing?"

A small click killed the COM channel and deactivated his FF tag, at least toward DION forces. As he left from roof to roof he activated a seldom used VHF set on the PA's backpack. Waiting for the odd electronic sound of a cypher to activate he 'squawked' and immediately got a ping. He keyed in his COM.

"This is Stray Dog to Pound, you active?" he transmitted as he jumped from a rooftop onto another.

The response came quickly, "Roger Stray Dog, suggest you hustle, this place is a target rich environment in the bad way." The voice had a slight accent to it, no matter.

"Roger Pound, contact in fifteen mikes, out." He killed the channel and boosted to the next roof, three klicks already and a few more to go.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

A message signal of unknown origin was detected by Drei. It did not correspond to SMDIoN, NMX or UOC frequencies. Two minutes after detecting it and searching the digital archives for similar matches, Drei found that the signal frequency and encryption type matched those of the Paragon Initiative.

Drei duly informed the Admiral, who in turn, vectored more Green Squadron craft to the only known Paragon contractor on the planet. And in orbit, more F2 drones were deployed to shoot down any unauthorized craft. Though, if anything, mercenaries were unparalleled at running away undetected.

"Sergeant Volkov, when can I start sending transports down to you? Other sites have already started boarding civilians," Valken asked Phaedra.

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Though all of Phaedra's shots hit their target, none of them had the desired effect. Her shots at the Rippers missed their mark slightly, knocking out the shoulder weapons system of one and the armour of another.

Her shot at the Crab wounded the creature but it resiliently kept advancing.

Though Phaedra's NIGHT was impossible for the Rippers to see on their sensors, they had knew that only a sniper could be taking such precise shots. 50mm gauss rounds started slamming into the building Phaedra was atop of.

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In its throes of agony, the Crab that Rita vaulted onto rocked back and forth violently as it tried to shake her off. Though her maneuvre was successful, the violence of the dying Crab's rocking caused her to land wrong-footed. Her aim was true and the moneyshot killed the Crab. Rita's recovery was slower, giving time for multiple Impaler shots to reduce her shields down to a third.

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Sawyer's shots mowed down two more Nekos and damaged one of the Rippers. Return fire from the remaining Rippers and Nekos were absorbed by Sawyer's shields. 50mm rounds smashed into the top of the space port.

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As Bernhard worked his way through the terminal, he found more and more civilians. Some were sadly infected, those he quickly cut down with his pulse laser. Those who were clean were herded downstairs. It was a laborious process, checking each individual and bringing each group down. By the time he got to the fourth level, all he saw were infected.

"This is Greer, fourth floor is nothing but zombies. Clearing them out and checking for survivors," he reported on the squad channel shortly before opening fire. He hated not being where the fighting was.

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Laura fired into the Northwest group with her AMP and plasma turrets. Three more Nekos died and one of the Rippers was knocked down but they were still advancing fearlessly. The disabled Ripper got right back up and began pouring 50mm rounds at Laura's position.

"Sergeant, can you call in one of the Greenbeans and get them to do a strafing run? We can't slow down these squids while they're moving and shooting so damn well."

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

Rita didn't let getting hit by a few rounds of fire slow her down. She kept roadie running and vaulted over a counter behind cover, all the while firing her HPAR at the incoming nekos. The bottom floor was starting to get a little ridiculous. "Could use some bigger guns on the bottom floor, sir!" Rita said, swinging her moneyshot onto the table and using the surface to stabilize the rifle while she fired another trio of bursts downrange.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"Alright hell with this" Sawyer muttered to himself as he toggled his monoeye targeting system on and painted the already damaged ripper as his target. "Lasing target" he said over the comms and opened fire with his AMP and his plasma turrets hoping that others would see what he was doing and add their fire to his so that they could get rid of one and then move on to the rest so that they wouldn't get anymore chances to return fire if possible.

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

Jan Kancre, P3C, NSMC, often wondered if his luck was something he made for himself, or if strange beings beyond his comprehension were amused by his life.

Five seconds ago was one of those times. His entire airborne infantry squad, operating a few kilometers away from Kazumori Spaceport on interdiction missions, attempting to delay advancing squiddies while the evacuation continued. All had been going well, at least until a Ravager surprised the squad, managing to take out Jan's wingmates in a few minutes. Leaving Jan, once again, the lone survivor. Which is when Drei jumped onto his comlink, ordering him to assist a squad of marines holding the terminal of Kazumori Spaceport. After checking over maps and recon data, he realized that they were south west of him, and the attacking squids were between him and them.

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And this is where we find Jan Kancre, his high-speed AIR 2 Lancer cruising at around half its maximum speed.

Drei fed more detailed information to Jan, especially the locations of both attacking groups. She suggested it wise to hail the squad sergeant before making a strafing run. Several of the squad's members were antsy about incoming aircraft. Drei also informed Jan of the presence of several FA4 combat craft from Green Squadron in the area. According to her information, their primary duties was air superiority with only limited ground attack capability.

Jan took the time to pull up information on the squad, and was surprised to see that it was led by someone he had served with on the Acadia. Odd. Nonetheless, Jan pulled in closer to the ground, now flying just above the roofs of buildings. He opened the comlink, having Drei relay a message to the marines on the ground and Green Squadron, while also requesting information on any high-value targets that would be on the ground. He wanted time to prepare before swooping in.

"Be advised Marines at the Terminal, incoming airborne infantry from the northwest. I'll be coming in hard and fast at their rear, so be ready to take advantage of it. And please don't shoot me."

"Green Squadron, this is P3C Kancre, I need you to do a co-ordinated low-level super-sonic flyby of a group of NMX forces South-Southwest of me, coming in from the south. We have Lancers and are preparing to attack their rear, and would like to be able to get as close as possible before they hear or see us." Jan didn't think it prudent to let it be known he was just one man.

"Green Six here, vectoring two unmanned FA4s for low-level flyby over northwestern assault group. Let me know when your unit is in position," one of the FA4 pilots replied. High above, two unammned FA4s dove downwards, getting ready to buzz the NMX at Mach 3.

Drei highlighted the remaining Ripper power armours as last reported by the 4th Fleet Marines. These had stopped and were placing streams of anti-armour rounds at the locations they believed housed the defending Marines. Because of the explosions erupting around her from NMX 50mm rounds, Sgt. Phaedra Volkov did not hear the message about incoming reinforcements and, thus, could not inform the squad. Regardless, at this point, the Marines' attention was hardly focused on any airborne threats.

Drei also highlighted Sergeant Volkov's location for Jan to report to.

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Which was when Jan made his move. Accelerating to top speed, he locked his armor's right arm down to keep it from breaking from recoil, the massive KPL-01a lance, now in Heavy-Fusion-Cutter mode, pointed forward and blazing. Two GREEN rounds, his only two rounds of the precious buckshot, were in the barrel of the bulwark, ready to be followed up by two additional BLACKs, and with the ammo feed set to continuously load reds. Clicking the c-link, he sent a simple message to Green Squadron: "Green Squadron, Lancers are a-go. Start your run."

"Roger that, Lancer squad. Fast flyers are a go. Happy hunting," Green Six replied, as the drone controller behind sent the FA4s into a straight run, just five meters above the top of the buildings. Having come in so fast, the NMX were unable to change their targeting systems to the FA4s. The sonic-boom from the jets stunned the Neko infantry and dispersed the smokescreen they had laid.

On the rooftop across the spaceport, Laura Romero wondered what had brought in the FA4s so low. But the smoke was gone, the squids were off balance and she still had lots of ammo

"Oh lord, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for I am going Mach 7.9!" Jan said as he came in from around a small building. Swooping in low at a speed of around Mach 7.9, he fired his first green shell into the back of a Ripper shortly before his lance impacted just above the same spot, the heavy fusion cutter easily dooing its job. Not anywhere near done, Jan unlocked the armor's arm and did a pirouette, firing the second green round into another Ripper while bringing the fusion blade of the lance around at it, the rotational momentum of the manuever adding energy to the blow. Finishing his spin so he was facing the terminal, he tossed the KPL-01a at it's back and fired the two BLACK shells at a third ripper before boosting again, up and over the squids, the chord linking the lance to his armor retracting and pulling it back into his hand, the airborne marine coming to a halt behind the line of marines, right next to Phaedra's position.

"Private Third Class, Jan Kancre, reporting to your command, Ma'am!"

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

There! "All units, green light to engage! Hit 'em hard while they're off balance!" Matteo called over their comms system. With Rita practically at their feet, with Sawyer in his Aggressor opening fire, followed by the AIR 2 out of nowhere - it all had to have caused disarray and divide the NMX attention! Matteo leaned out and fired a long burst from his HPAR on the same Ripper that Saywer was going after.

"Hit the big bastards first, and the rest'll be just meat!"

Re: [Mission 3.2] When a Plan Makes First Contact With the E

"Woohoo! C'mere, ya little bastards!" Rita cried out as she placed her hand on the counter and pushed off. While they were off balance, he said. Perfect! Rita flew over the desk and stepped down heavily with a THUD, then dashed into the group of disoriented Nekovalkyrja, holding her HPAR under one arm and firing rounds from only a few feet away. In the other hand, she drew her vibrosaw, and began to hack, slash and stab her way through the group of them.

When they began to fight back, she'd use her superior reflexes and perception to avoid gunfire, by staring at their trigger fingers and juking out of the way just before their weapons fired. If they tried to fight back in melee, well, it was simple enough to hack off their hands or arms, or smash them in the gut with the front of her rifle, or kick them in the kneecaps and then shoot them. Once the disorienting effect began to wear off, Rita would crouch down and run back behind cover.