RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 3.5]: Back into the Frying Pan

*Whrrrrrrrr*

Fian Vel Steyr's boosters hummed along, his AIR-R throwing up puffs of dust as he approached Charlie hole. Nobody was going in that general direction so he decided to take it up on himself. It was just as unexciting as his thrusters, the hole was completely empty. The MC settled at the bottom of it to wait for the others.

*Stomp stomp stomp*

Alexandra Mayhew's footsteps echoed her heart, her Hostile's Monoeyes were passively and maniacally scanning every crater in sight. Yellow warning lights flashed across her HUD as the lenses focused on something in Delta hole. The upper half of a Ripper was creeping into view... And nothing more, the lower half was completely missing, probably blown away by whatever that made the crater. The head unit was partially destroyed, revealing wires, sensory devices and half an organic brain. It was whats left of a Brain Slave.

*STOMP STOMP STOMP*

Keladrian Santhis was in no NIGHT1, his PA would be unwelcome in a residential area. Indeed, two of such residents gave him a piece of their mind by standing up in crater Bravo (Revealing themselves to the entire Acadia Squad) and firing all their weapons. The first Gauss rifle shot was fired just as soon as his head came into view, which was too early, the slug was easily deflected by the curvature of his shields dealing minimum damage. The second Ripper in the hole had to turn around to face the marine, by that time more of Keladrian could be seen. The second Gauss rifle shot impacted squarely on his shields dealing maximum damage. Combined with a barrage of Aetheric and Scalar pulses from both hands of both Mishus the Marine could barely see out of the distortions of his shields. His own future wasn't so clear either, his shields were down to 30%.

Keladrian had barely looked over the lip of the crater when the Gauss round was deflected off of his shielding.

"Holy shi-!!!" Was all that there was time to shout. In a matter of milli-seconds, a torrent of fire was barreling down on him. His shields were knocked down to thirty percent, and a warning blared in his ear. Under such heavy fire, he couldn't see his targets, but he squeezed the trigger of his AOP and sent out a barrage of BOLT missiles, hopping to hit something.

"Holy shi-!!!" shouted Keladrian over the comm.

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Phaedra had seen the sudden movement in the distance and had no time to shout a warning. She aimed her MPR at the first Ripper and pulled the trigger. Immediately she slid back the action to eject the spent casing, aimed, and then fired on the second Mishhu.

"No one dies on my watch," thought Phaedra.

Ezra Brand's datapad successfully interfaced with the two Power Armors, the data was being downloaded seamlessly. The map showed that most of the Power Plant was underground. Security, administration and living areas occupied the upper floors. Storage was in the middle, and the actual mighty fusion generator taking up the bottom-most floor. The elevator at the end of the first floor would take the Marines right to where they need to be.

*Warning! Enemy Contact!
*Warning! P3C Keladrian Santhis Red Shields!

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A yellow scrolling marquee flashed across the screens of the two Power Armor suited marines, warning them that the rest of the squad is in direct contact with the enemy. It would be best to hurry.

In the meantime Brand's datapad received a message from a Garrison Chief.

"Hey rookie, mind checking if all the Power Plant workers are gone? There is a shuttle waiting for you once you're done. Thanks.

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A protective metal sliding door sealed the Power Plant shut, the marines did not have the code but a firm grip and a strong pull will do the trick. Behind the door was the reception area, scattered papers and disarrayed furniture set up a scenery befitting the chaos of a hasty evacuation. Two doors in this room led to the security gaurd's room and a scanning chamber that regulated all ins and outs of the plant be it personnel or cargo. The path leading all the way up to the elevator is large enough for Power Armor, the rest of the rooms are not so.

Sean was moving forward, headed for the last crater when Kel got hit hard. When the rounds went off, he dropped to a knee, pivoting as Kel and Phaedra opened fire, and aiming down his sights to finish anything off once the smoke cleared, finger on the trigger.

Kingston's instincts were different from those around him, which was perhaps a saving grace. Rather than shell out in a wild attempt to strike his target, he grabbed hold of Santhis's left arm and pulled him back from the line of fire, his boosters supplying the necessary level of assistance. Almost simultaneously, he deployed a TRACER, aiming for the occupied crater. "Harrison, I've marked them," he announced curtly.

Alex aimed at dead body and let out nervous sigh. Okay that is done. Alex checked her HUD. MC was at Charlie and Keledrian took Bravo. "Move over mate," said Alex and jumped in crater next to dead reaper. "I have one dead body MC. Ripper, finishing him to be sure." said Alice over the comm but then gunfire has started.

She could se on HUD that Kels shield went down. She could also saw that others started movinh in his direction. Okay they should handle it. SHe quickly locked her PLA on remnants of probably-dead rippers brain and tried to blew it of with foccused laser. No ammo spent. She then took defensive position. This would be perfect time for other reaper to jump out. All the others are focusing on beta. Alex hopes she is not only one focusing on other dangers that could present itself and was carefully checking area around her.

Whilst Henry was meditating on the principles of how to keep one's gun steady without strength support, he noticed that his drone went missing shortly after he'd deployed it, and that Kel had dealt with it.

"Hm. That was quicker than usual," He sighed to himself as he moved alongside Kel, "I don't usually set up drones to die, but alas." He said as he started to use his monoeyes to scout for signs of metal, or power of some sort. There were trace signals, but faint ones. A gut feeling formed in his stomach as he assisted the marines in scouting out the Rippers.

"This almost seems too easy," Henry echoed his sentiments, "I suggest we exercise cauti-"
Keladrian Santhis was given a rather brutal, and sudden beating.
"Fuck!" He scowled as he suddenly stopped worrying about the low powered armours, "It's a diversion! Get to cover, quick!"

As he ran towards a way to keep himself concealed, he set up shield drones over Kel to compensate for his drained shields. He would then wait for a lull in the fighting to continue...

Talbain jumped his pitted aggressor over a decent sized wall that may or may not have used to be a building and set his sav-tech to plotting trajectories for hole delta and farther out from the squad. When the firing started he was in no position to fire on enemies that close to friendlies not with an eyeballed shot anyways. "Get clear of the hole!" he shouted over the squad line. Canceling the original trajectories he prioritized bravo and got into position to fire his PAL as soon as he had a fire solution. "Well guess that's going to be their signal to attack us." He gritted his teeth at the headache his concussion and own humor caused.

Avel walked into the reception room, her HPAR raised and ready to fire. The sound of fighting suddenly erupted behind her and she instinctively whipped around. She mentally cursed herself for being so jumpy. Then she noticed the three hovering shield drones. "I almost completely forgot about those. I don't think I'll really be needing them but I know someone who will." "Hey Anselm, take these." She sent her three shield drones over the marine. "I doubt they'll be of much use to me."

As the door lurched open, Ezra peered in at the mess inside. "Must've buggered out quick," he thought to himself. He moved cautiously through reception area, keeping his pistol at the ready.

While the two marines were exchanging shield drones, Ezra moved towards the security office, taking cover beside the door before attempting to open it. "I'll see if I can buzz you guys through the checkpoint. If you want to, go on ahead and start setting everything up. I'm gonna do a quick sweep through the office areas up here to make sure everybody got out okay."

Avel three drones immediately lurched back after their original ward, Anselm's Aggressor gave the other marine a malevolent stare, "Kingston gave those to you for a reason, trust his judgement," the walking tank motioned to the four drones already hovering in attendance about him somewhat sarcastically, as if their presence should be obvious to everyone present, "besides, I already have several."

"Negative, Brand;" Anselm assayed the plant's first floor quickly, taking a moment to double-check his plan against the small team's assests, "Sitkeas, take the Checkpoint Entry, I'll move through the Security Room itself, we'll breach the lockers in tandem. Brand, I hope you don't mind sitting in cover," the four shield drones milling about the marine's Aggressor quickly snapped into formation in front of Ezra, ready to throw their shield up on Anselm's direction, "but you're an asset right now, so don't try anything brave till we can get you in a tin can that can take a hit."

The Albino queried what information he had recieved on the Plant for any indication of PA lockers that might have an old E-series or two left behind in the bug-out as he moved into position on the reception's southerly door into the plant complex. As an after-thought the marine queried specifications on the doors they would be breaching, just in case either he or Avel would need to knock them down instead of using the handle like good boys and girls.

((southerly refers to the 'down' direction when looking at Fian's Map of the Plant as Anselm stacks up at the door to the 'Security' Room))

At max shields, the Ripper that Phaedra was first aiming at bounced off her MPR bolt easily, the EMP component of that weapon did a small amount of shield damage but failed to create the necessary hole in the bubble for the kinetic penetrator component to pass through.

During this time Keladrian's many mini missiles and one mini torpedo were still in transit. While the Mishus were not actively intercepting the guided munitions, he was lucky that these were not hit upon by accident with regards to the firepower the Rippers were throwing at him. Without a lock, the high explosive AOP round did not score a direct hit, but was generally aimed enough to detonate inside the crater. This and the twenty-something BOLTs that careened from above would have utterly destroyed a lesser Power Armor, but the new Rippers were merely staggered with a 50% shield loss each.

The first thing Sean saw after the smoke cleared was the head of the closer Ripper sticking out from the crater. To compensate for the low profile offered by his target, the Marine's SAVTECH switched the HPAR from automatic to burst fire mode for more accurate shooting. Unfortunately this low rate of fire combined with the high deflection angle of hitting the shields at its extremities only netted P3C Masson 10% shield damage.

Keladrian's Aggressor did not frustrate the attempts to move it by Viktor's VOID. The Aggressor upped its antigravitic field in an automatic mechanism that minimizes damage from unintentional collusions of friendly Power Armors. Even with the reduced weight however Kingston's thrusters were only sufficient for his own suit, moving the even bigger M9 into cover would take some time and cooperation.

The rather exposed position the two marines found themselves in were slightly mitigated by two other events. Firstly Volkov's second shot by sheer luck managed to take advantage of the shield distortions created by Sean's high angle shot (which, from the sniper's position, was her dead center shot), coupled with the more than halved shields her MPR bolt penetrated the shield bubble and smashed into the base of the Ripper's Gauss Rifle mount, rendering it beyond repair.

The second of which was Henry's shield drones. The drones took the brunt of the attack, losing all charge and one drone in the process. A few scattered beams nailed Kingston in the rear for negligible damage. The total fire directed at Keladrian in round two were the same as in round one, except minus one Gauss Rifle shot and that the Aether/Scalar beams were shakily delivered owing to the pounding both suits received. Keladrian is now at 20% shields with regeneration factored in.

At the sight of P2C Talbain's orange ball of doom coming in, both Rippers tried to make a break for it by turning around and boosting upwards at a 45*Degree angle. Conversely the Master Chief triggered every propulsion system he had to rush towards Bravo crater. By the time the PAL shot landed in the crater one of them was in the air retreating and not in the blast zone. The second one was held only 10 feet of the ground by Fian's P/p field. The massive plasma blast shorted out the Ripper's thrusters and it dropped like a rock into the hell below with no chance of redemption.

Far in the distance near in the furthermost crater Alex could see the top of a green-striped Ripper observing the skirmish intently. An aura of authority seems to radiate from it. As soon as the other Ripper took to the air however it somehow realized that it is being watched, and is now content to stare back at Mrs Mayhew with impunity.

By virtue of his post P3C Ezra Brand was given a digital security pass for most of the plant, of which were also copied over to the other two marines. The checkpoint was empty save for a few scanner lenses in the corner of the room and decontamination shower nozzles in the celling. The airtight door leading into the locker room was mechanically shut.

The data was not specific enough to have door specs or any indication of Power Armors stored in the plant.

In the security room was a number of consoles that controlled the security systems and cameras, a few weapons lockers and a large one-way window that looked into the checkpoint room. The lockers were cleared out with the exception of a Styrling Shot 12 Pump Action shotgun fitted with some sort of thermal scope plus a few grenades. Most of the cameras were offline, except that in the Cafeteria. Two security guards could be briefly seen walking past the camera on patrol.

Looks like others were done. Alex was looking around checking for additional targets when she saw that ripper. He was far away, sitting in a crater and just watching. That was a little weird. And then it seemed to notice Alex and started looking at her. Just looking. That was creepy and even more weird. Alex's orange skin started to sweat.

First thing Alex did was pinpoiting location of ripper on her minimap and sendind that location to Harrison. She then opened commnuciation link.
"Here si Mayhew I have located enemy. Looks like commanding unit of some sorts, it just stares on the field. Harrison I have sent you its rough location, do you handiwork. I will keep its head down." That was what she said and changed firing mode to bursts.

(Other paragraph will happen if there is still time in this round.)

Alex stood up to be able to fire mini-missiles and fire a volley of 10 darts to harm rippers shields. She then took aim with her rifle and started firing accurate bursts.

Anselm stared at the one working camera for a second before moving to secure his door, "Security clear, keep your eyes open and monoeyes sharp; Brand, I think this shotgun has your name on it, move up once we clear the lockers; ready to breach, Sitkeas?" the marine readied his own door to open, hands gripping his AMP tightly in anticipation of hostile action... or the possibility of a few startled plant workers.

One nagging left everything uncertain, 'why is the security room empty with a battlefield almost at the door?' He checked his observation probe once more to ensure Ezra was indeed in a safe place. In a small fit of paranoia, the marine flushed his room with the Aggressor's shoulder-mounted monoeyes, just in case.

Keladrian noticed a lull in the fight. That, and the fact that he could see again, gave him the hope that perhaps he wasn't dead. He began backpedalling as fast as the Aggressor would let him, being careful to avoid Kingston.

"Kingston, concentrate fire on the remaining Ripper." Kel said into his comm unit. Now that his systems weren't overloaded by the Mishhu weaponry, he let his computer get a lock on the final bastard. "Eat shit and die." Keladrian muttered, pulling up his AOP and firing again. Another volley of BOLT missiles were ejected from the rack on his suit. Keladrian wanted to blow this thing to hell and back.

"Security clear, keep your eyes open and monoeyes sharp; Brand, I think this shotgun has your name on it, move up once we clear the lockers; ready to breach, Sitkeas?"

Dammit, I wanted that gun. Avel thought as she raised her HPAR, ready to shoot whatever hostile happened to be behind the door. "Yes I'm ready and I'll bet you a thousand DA that there's something nasty waiting for us in the next room." She replied to Anselm. If her luck held out she would be getting some money in her pocket. Assuming she survived the whole 'disobeying orders and going on a suicide mission' thing.

Holstering his pistol, Ezra picked up the shotgun and immediately disengaged the safety. As he moved up behend the other two marines, he cought something on the security monitors: a pair of guards moving by one of the cameras calmly, like they were patrolling. From what he could tell, it was in the cafeteria. What made it even more confusing was that all of the other cameras were out.

He didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle yet, but something definitely didn't feel right. "Guys, before you breach that door, we've got at least two others in here with us. Guards, looked like they were in the cafeteria. I couldn't tell what direction they were heading in, but it looked like they were on patrol..."

Viktor released his hold on Keladrian, and his Powered Armor gave the slightest nod of affirmation. Now both hands were back on the LPA, and his monoeyes were flickering to life to guide his shots properly. The rounds flew, the gun working on full-auto at this range. To make sure he went down quick, Kingston added his PLAs to the onsalught, and it wasn't going to stop until the bastard dropped.