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

Rita landed on the roof on the opposite side of the block and pivoted to turn back toward the ravager. At this rate, she wasn't going to be able to draw it's fire, so she boosted into the air toward the next building down, using her PPS to pull rubble and dust up from the destroyed street and obscure the Ravager's view of her. From within the smoke, she unleashed all of her weapons at once - The pulse laser array, DARTs, her HPAR in one hand, and her HHG loaded with two BLUE rounds and four RED HE rounds in the other.

The BLUE rounds were first in the cylinder. While pouring everything she had into the ravager, she used her boosters to zig-zag on her way down to the next building's roof in order to avoid oncoming fire. She continued running back toward her comrades once she made it down, hopping that she had at least taken out its shields for Matteo.

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

"Private Romero, it is quite possible that Private Greer is in need of immediate medical attention. His suit is still functioning, indicating that the part of it that deals with uplinks is still powered. Though any information from the suit is gibberish, likely due to physical damage,"said Drei.

"...Sergeant, I need... I need someone to watch my back while I treat him," Laura said shakily.

"Alright Marines, withdraw to the terminal and maintain the perimeter. Don't let any of the NMX get near the civilians. I will accompany Laura to check out Bernhard. Romero, move it."

Phaedra boosted over to the ruined building near the twitching Ravager. She cautiously trained her MPR on the NMX for several moments before she landed on the building, the NIGHT's wings folding up on her back. Still not taking her eyes off of the Ravager, she folded up the MPR and stowed it behind the small of her back. Phaedra then turned and quickly began to dig through the rubble as well as she could, lifting chunks of concrete and rebar and hurling them out onto the street.

"Bernhard, do you copy? Private Greer, what is your status?" said Phaedra

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

Jan oof'd as he was thrown against the building, and smiled when the Ripper moved in to finish him off.

Opening it up to his counter-counter attack. Jan flipped his vibrosaw knife around, re-sheathing it while firing a steady stream of RED shells from his mass driver at all three Rippers. Instead of directly rushing in to try to stab them with his CFC, Jan used his superior speed and mobility to circle his enemies, making slashing attacks with the CFC and Push-Pull Greaves whenever he had an opening.

"Sorry Sergeant, I'm a tad bit busy right now!"

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

Laura activated her jet thrusters and flew over to where Phaedra and Bernhard were. She had holstered her AMP to the Aggressor's back. When she landed, Laura bent down shakily and began pulling rubble off the pile. "Bernie? Bernie!"

The combined efforts of both women revealed a very battered Hostile head and shoulders. The monoeye was smashed and the top of the head appeared to have caved in. Laura knew, on an intellectual level, that it did not mean that Bernhard's head had been smashed but with her emotional distress so high, her fear simply grew.

"We need... we.. um.. we need to g-get to the torso free at least for m-me to ... to run run diagnostics," she said to Phaedra.

------------

Sawyer's aim was not badly off but it was still significant enough to cause all of his shots to impact into the building which Laura had just vacated.

------------

Rita's attacks impacted all over the Ravager. The HPAR and laser pulses did far more visible damage than the HHG rounds.

Seeming to realize that it had lost this round, the Ravager took the air once more in an attempt to escape. However, as it cleared the two hundred meter mark away from the space port, the Ravagar crashed into the buildings and went dark. None of the Marines' systems could detect any meaningful activity.

-----------

One of the RED shells blew off the left arm of the pinned Ripper, another impacted on the chest of the crippled Ripper whilst the third remained unscathed as it dodged the shells.

The relatively undamaged Ripper had taken to the air, firing aether and gauss rounds at Jan. Its fire was complemented by the ground based attacks from the two damaged Rippers, both eager to take Jan with them to the afterlife.

Though he was barely able to dodge the gauss rounds for the moment, Jan was suddenly struck on his left arm and chest by a crossfire of aether beams. The searing heat burned through the armor and caused a great amount of pain to the Marine as his arm and chest were burned by the heat.

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

A Normal man would've given up and ran away at this point. A normal man would've took being brought to the ground as a sign from his deity that this was not a battle to be won.

Jan was not a normal man. Jan was a Delsaurian. Jan was a Nepleslian. Jan was a Marine. And most of all, Jan Kancre was an Lancer!

Picking himself up and off the ground, he rushed, ignoring the blinding pain in his arm and chest, towards the ripper pinned to the wall, with a single goal in mind:Retrieving his Lance. Pushing himself, Jan fired off more RED rounds at the Ripper while zig-zagging enough to keep from getting hit, charging both Push/Pull Greaves in his armor's leg. The entire time, he was screaming triumphantly in the face of death, calling out to it, daring the reaper to come and take his soul before Mama Nepleslia was safe from the marauding hordes of barbarians and fascists.

"COME AND TAKE ME IF YOU CAN, DEATH! DEAAAAATH! DEAAAAAAAAAAAAAATH!"

Just before he would've slammed into the Ripper, Jan turned around, letting his inertia slam his armored boots into the NMX armor, grabbing his lance, and pushing with all three Push/Pull devices (Lance, both legs) at full force against the impaled ripper.

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

Tunnel vision. It was a horrible blight that affected combat soldiers everywhere; even the most seasoned of veterans found themselves focusing on too narrow a view, forgetting about the larger picture. Matteo ignored the Rippers nearby, someone else was handling them for now. Matteo ignored the audible terror that Laura was going through, he was busy. Matteo ignored Sawyer getting pummeled, it wasn't pummeling him. The whole time, Matteo squeezed off one careful burst after another into the tender spots of the Ravager before it took off and away, vanishing from sensor contact. Just as the marine was going to start leaping across rooftops to pursue, something entirely, absolutely unwelcome exploded into his ear in a soul destroying cacophony.

The Hostile's monoeye turned towards the general location of Jan as he spat, dismayed and bitter at being shaken out of his zone. "What. The. F*ck.". The mechanical iris contracted as he zoomed in. It was far, but the HPAR was built to hit things in atmosphere at up to 2,000 meters.

Matteo carefully aimed and fired off a single burst at the upper torso and head of the Ripper just as the screaming man came in to impact.

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

'Fucking haylfire, that won't do at all, better get my ass over to help dig other medic boy out the rubble' Sawyer said as he sprinted out of the side of the building leaped up and activated his boosters to fly as fast as he could to where they were attempting to extricate Bernhard. Then upon noting that Laura and Phaedra were already there working on it and that Jan was in quite a bit of trouble he turned and opened fire on the remaining rippers as he boosted towards them hoping that his targeting systems would get better over time as he fired and hoping that volume of fire would be of assistance as well.

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

"Ravager's retreating, possibly neutralized! I'm not getting any readings from it anymore, should I pursue and confirm?" Rita asked through her comm, staying on the building she landed on, staying far enough away from the sides so she wouldn't be spotted by the rippers below. She hid behind the nearest cover and took a few deep breaths to steady herself while she waited for a response.

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

"Captain Ironside, the Subjugators are needed at other space ports. I have ordered them to help the evacuation at other sites. NSS Destiny will remain to embark the civilians at Kazumori then proceed to the next assigned space port for further civilian embarkation. Sergeant Volkov's Marines and the UOC personnel will also evacuate aboard the Destiny. Continue your efforts to hold on," Valken's message stated.

Valencia Ironside frowned and continued pacing about the bridge. Swatting the NMX flies was child's play with a ship like the Destiny. At first, assignment to the Destiny and Admiral Valken's weirdly named Operation Dynamo had seemed like chance at action. Now, it was far too tame for her.

"Where are those damned civilians?!" she growled, watching the Subjugators take off and head towards other space ports.

-------------------

The RED shots impacted around the Ripper, blowing off its blade arm and a leg. But then Matteo's high velocity HPAR rounds streaked past him. The well aimed shots penetrated the Ripper's head and torso, killing the suit before Jan could vent his fury at it.

As he was momentarily distracted, the Ripper with the smashed leg threw itself at Jan. The two power armored warriors struggled, tussling on the pavement. Jan sliced off its blade arm with his CFC whilst the Ripper crushed the AIR2's head with its other arm.

Finally, Jan managed to kill the Ripper with his CFC by stabbing it through the torso. But his suit was badly damaged, his targeting system down, his head's mono-eye gone, and his own face badly cut up from the sharp edges from the broken head. Now he had to rely on the two eyes in his shoulders. Both of which were scratched and blurry now.

"Private Kancre, retreat to the NSS Destiny for a medical check-up. Technicians will attempt to do field repairs. Your suit is no longer capable of front line duty," Drei spoke in his ears.

------------------

Matteo had been spot on with his marksmanship. He'd killed the Ripper Jan was aiming for. It was time for the next target.

------------------

Sawyer arrived to find a single Ripper left. The volume of fire his Aggressor put out swiftly dispatched the NMX Power Armor.

As he landed on the war torn streets, several shell shocked Nekos dressed in NMX uniforms appeared with their hands up.

------------------

At the Kazumori spaceport, thousands of civilians were starting to arrive under the protection of UOC Peacekeepers in very battered looking armor and uniforms.

"Sergeant Volkov, we're sweeping the area now for anyone in hiding. I estimate loading to be done in half an hour since it looks like we're cramming everyone into one ship."

-------------------

"Yeehaa! Who missed us? Oh did you really miss us, you cute 'lil mud puppies you... Green Squadron's back! Green Six at your service again, Marines! Got two drones with me and I'm seeing lots of civvies from everywhere. Oh, and Nekos coming from the North! Looks like a hundred plus! But... hold on..." Green Six announced over the Marines' communications.

Above, the trio of FA4s roared past them, barely 10 meters off the ground. They were headed north and swiftly buzzed the Nekos.

"Nekos are unarmed! I repeat Nekos are unarmed! No NMX, no PA. Just lots of cat-girls!"

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

"We need... we.. um.. we need to g-get to the torso free at least for m-me to ... to run-run diagnostics," said Laura.

Phaedra pushed what rubble she could away from Bernhard's armor, but she could not remove the PA from the rubble it was buried in.

"We do not have much time, Laura. Give me a hand," she said while pushing away another large piece of concrete.

"Sergeant Volkov, we're sweeping the area now for anyone in hiding. I estimate loading to be done in half an hour since it looks like we're cramming everyone into one ship."

"Affrimative," she replied and then switched back to the squad frequency.

"Marines, estimated departure in 30 mikes."

"Yeehaa! Who missed us? Oh did you really miss us, you cute 'lil mud puppies you... Green Squadron's back! Green Six at your service again, Marines! Got two drones with me and I'm seeing lots of civvies from everywhere. Oh, and Nekos coming from the North! Looks like a hundred plus! But... hold on..."

Phaedra, upon hearing Green Squadron's transmission, glanced skyward and smirked beneath her helmet. She returned to freeing Bernhard while she waited for Green Squadron to respond.

"Nekos are unarmed! I repeat Nekos are unarmed! No NMX, no PA. Just lots of cat-girls!"

Phaedra switched back to the UOC frequency.

"Petty Officer Motoyama, this is Sergeant Volkov. My eyes in the sky report a large number of Nekos inbound to my position from the North. These Nekos are apparently unarmed. Can you confirm that these are UOC personnel?
Repeat, large group of Nekos inbound to my position from the North, presumably unarmed. Can you confirm them as UOC personnel?"

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

"Tch... No time to wait for a response." Rita muttered, running across the building's rooftop and leaping off the side. She activated her boosters and zoomed back toward the rest of her squad, arriving back at the spaceport in record time. After locating Phaedra with her HUD, she jumped down off the roof of the spaceport and headed over to her. "Reporting, ma'am. One of the Ravagers is MIA, and it looks like Matteo and Jan are taking care of the Rippers. I'm ready to receive your orders."

After scanning her monoeye between Laura and Phaedra, it suddenly occurred to Rita what they were doing. Bernhard had been smashed into a building and his PA was buried in the wreckage. Rita stepped forward and began to assist her comrades in digging him out of the rubble.

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

Jan calmly began to pull back in short rocket-assisted jumps. On his way back to the Destiny, he landed directly behind Phaedra(Again), and saluted.

"Ma'am. I've been ordered to fall back to the Destiny. Jan Kancre, Out." Saluting the clone, Jan jumped away, eventually getting to the NSS Destiny.

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

"BAMBAMBAM-BAMBAMBAM-BAMBAMBAM." Went Matteo's rifle.

Short bursts were thrown out at the Rippers as fast as the marine could manage. He had to cover the other until he was out of the killzone! "Damn it! Get the hell out of there!" he yelled, HPAR barking again and again as he tried to keep the Rippers down off Jan. They clamored after him like a relentless horde of the undead, but both Matteo and Jan were lucky; though it took more than one burst sometimes, there was few of them left and they broke cover in unorganized numbers to try and score a kill on Jan. With their attention elsewhere, he cut them down quickly enough.

When Jan was finally Scot Free, Matteo breathed a sigh of relief before leaping down onto street level. The pavement shattered under his weight, the shock running through his body, dampened by the suit. Still, he shook it off before speaking, keeping his monoeye scanning for safe's sake.

"This is Witt; hostiles appear to be neutralized. Requesting further orders Volkov."

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

With Rita's help, the three women cleared the rubble off the battered Hostile. It was dented, broken, warped, burned and in some places, gouged open. Thin lacerations all over the exterior indicated where shrapnel had cut through the armor.

Quickly, Laura connected the datascreen to Bernhard's Hostile. Please be alive, please be alive, she willed.

In agonizing slowness, the data came back. Faint heart beat, multiple broken bones, numerous locations of blunt trauma, internal injuries, probably concussion, deep wounds from a couple shards of NMX shrapnel. But Bernhard was barely alive and unconscious. The armor had done its job.

Laura triggered the suit's emergency medical release to get it to open up. As it did so, she retrieved the MED from her Aggressor's back and pulled out the necessary tools. The stretcher was assembled and laid nearby, the medical kit and hypolathe were ready. Now she just had to pull him out while supporting his body.

It was a delicate maneuver but a challenge worthy of the universe's self-proclaimed most brilliant medic. Somehow, Laura managed to get Bernhard's battered body onto the stretcher with a lot of help from Rita and Phaedra.

She immediately set about treating him with liberal amounts of medical nano and splinting his limbs and putting a neck brace on. "We need to get him to the ship, they have the better stuff. The suit's a wreck; best we destroy it before we leave," Laura said stonily to Phaedra and Rita.

-------------

"Sergeant Volkov, we have no Nekos! Any Nekos here are NMX personnel. But why are they unarmed? Suicide vests? But such a large group wouldn't make sense. Suicide vests are best used by infiltrators... We don't have anyone free to investigate. Send one of your most level-headed Marines over. Maybe we can take them prisoner," Motoyama responded, glancing at the Rippers his squad was engaging while they covered the fleeing civilians.

He fired a quick burst at it and took to the rooftops to get a better view of the NMX movements.

"Good to see the Nep air umbrella is back," he said to himself, not allowing the smile inside to come out. He'd smile only when the civilians were in space and headed away from the doomed planet.

---------------------

At the Destiny, Jan was met by a trio of NSN sailors, including a medical officer. "Get out of the suit, Marine. These two lads will see what they do to get it in good shape. Mean time, Drei says you've got burns and lacerations all over it."

Around Jan, armed sailors were dealing with terrified UOC civilians. The sudden departure of the Subjugators had made them believe they were being left behind so the Destiny's sailors were doing their best to assure them that there was plenty of space aboard.

Some were leading uninfected civilians aboard, others were inspecting their baggage and persons for NMX devices or infection. More were further out, at the concrete wall, shooting out at the NMX besiegers.

In the corner of his eye, Jan saw an attractive female officer dressed in an immaculate Captain's uniform walking precisely towards the various medical inspection teams. She was flanked by four well armed, tough looking sailors.

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

"Sergeant, I volunteer to go investigate the Nekos, if necessary even with my damaged targeting systems I can put out enough firepower to wipe them off the map" Sawyer radioed over to Phaedra as he looked around to check his area.

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

"You could also frighten them with the large hulking Aggressor! Send Matteo in his Hostile! He's 100%. If they're thinking of attacking, he's in the best shape to take them on!" Laura snapped suddenly at Sawyer over her radio. She had carried Bernhard's stretcher to the medics outside the NSS Destiny but had been attentive enough to the radio.

Jan was two score meters from her and could see the Navy medical personnel rushing to the dying medic's side.

With her tirade done, Laura turned to the task of updating them on Bernhard's condition.

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

Jan pulled himself out of the damaged Lancer, wincing as he noticed that he was indeed burnt on his arms and chest. Still, that friendly squad was out there and needed help, and Jan didn't like to sit around doing nothing.

"Drei can, with my thanks and greatest apologies, sod off. I could've gotten these burns cooking for all she knows. Just get me back in the fight."

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

"Reporting, ma'am. One of the Ravagers is MIA, and it looks like Matteo and Jan are taking care of the Rippers. I'm ready to receive your orders," said Rita.

"Good work, Rita. Standby."

"Ma'am. I've been ordered to fall back to the Destiny. Jan Kancre, Out."

"Roger that," replied Phaedra.

"This is Witt; hostiles appear to be neutralized. Requesting further orders Volkov."

"You are to address me as Sergeant in a combat environment, Private. You may not address me as Volkov. Standby for further orders."

"We need to get him to the ship, they have the better stuff. The suit's a wreck; best we destroy it before we leave," reported Laura.

"I will take care of the Hostile. Get him to the Destiny, pronto!"

"Sergeant Volkov, we have no Nekos! Any Nekos here are NMX personnel. But why are they unarmed? Suicide vests? But such a large group wouldn't make sense. Suicide vests are best used by infiltrators... We don't have anyone free to investigate. Send one of your most level-headed Marines over. Maybe we can take them prisoner," Motoyama responded.

"Take them prisoner? Like that one time we let that NMX bitch Shion onto our ship. Not on my watch," thought Phaedra.

"Sergeant, I volunteer to go investigate the Nekos, if necessary even with my damaged targeting systems I can put out enough firepower to wipe them off the map," said Sawyer.

Phaedra switched her comm back to the squad only channel.

"Matteo, Rita; despite appearing unarmed, those Nekos are NMX weapons. You will not let a single Neko reach the terminal alive. Is that clear?"

"Sawyer, thanks for volunteering, but meet up with Laura at the landing pad and see if she or any Navy personnel require assistance."

Phaedra knelt by Bernhard's Hostile and used the emergency datascreen. She took a moment set the dual UCF-4a generators to overload and then quickly unfurled her armor's wings. With a blast of thrust she leapt into the air and boosted towards the terminal.

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

Rita let out a guffaw and grinned behind her helmet, then snapped to a salute. "Yes ma'am!" Rita took extreme pleasure in slaughtering those Yamataian catgirls, even the ones that the NMX fielded, not because she hated them, but because it proved just how superior she was. Besides, there was more than a little fun to be had when fighting a horde of squishy things in a suit of power armor. Rita sprinted over to the side of the terminal that the horde of nekos were approaching from and found the nearest collapsed column or hunk of concrete that she could use as cover, just in case. Then, she lifted her HPAR up onto her cover and fired in full-auto at the oncoming nekos, sweeping through their ranks with the HPAR held against the surface like a mounted machinegun.

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

Matteo bristled with a hint of annoyance. 'Damn, fine! I'll call you Sargent, but next time tell me afterwards!' He could imagine Phaedra similarly annoyed, but he couldn't help but feel so himself. As Matteo blasted off and flew low to the ground towards the wave of NMX Nekos, Rita's rifle fire shook him out of his train of thought. Adrenaline shot through his blood as orders conflicted with sentiment. "But Sargent, they're unarmed! Didn't someone say something about taking prisoners?" he asked, nearing the other marine.

He held a love/hate feeling towards the Nekos like most other male Nepleslians but was perfectly willing to smear them into a paste if the occasion demanded it. But this.

Was this stepping over the line?