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

Sam had chosen a NIGHT armor, outfitted with the NAM multiphase rifle. She had simply been training on the planet below, languishing in a firing range; she was glad to actually be doing something of use, though she was slightly nervous at being thrown into such intense combat right away. Of course, she didn't let her trepidation show. As the shuttle began to shake, she braced herself with one hand on the wall, the other clutching her rifle.

She barked her question with the rough maleness that came from long practice, and that she used constantly in public. "SIR! What is the terrain like, sir!"

Henry realised that all of his drones were now spent, and he was on his own. His shtick was that he'd deploy as many offensive and defensive drones as possible to give his enemies a headache whilst letting his friends pick off stragglers. However, he didn't have that luxury since all of his shield drones were spent.

Although, he still had shields, still had ammo, and a fusion cutter, along with other armaments which he'd not given focus to.
"Firing grenades!" Henry announced as he activated his Monoeyes to get a perfect aim and let his forearm launcher release a barrage of red-hued High Explosive grenades. Four grenades would sail across the field in an arc. Two grenades hit the Rippers in the centre of the field, whist one struck the Interceptor Ripper, and the final one striking the stunned Ripper that Sean was previously engaging.

However, he could only launch four at a time, and he had to wait seven seconds or so to recycle the spent grenade shells. Next time, he'd load some Scalar Pulse grenades in and let the Rippers 'suck on those', as the colloquialism goes.
The other problem was that activating his monoeyes had made him appear on the Ripper's radars, and he was out of shielding drones.

"Damn it," Henry cursed as he deactivated his monoeyes, laid low and tried to remain quiet whilst moving away from his previous position, which was easier said than done.

Talbain ducked under the edge of his crater long enough to let his savtech come up with a fire solution based of the Chief's Monoeyes before popping up to snap of a PAL shot to the one coming from the left. Ducking back under the edge of the crater he watched to see where the pods decided to go. One hand having reached for his AMP and the other resting on the hilt of his VCS. "Come on charge slagheap" he muttered inside his armor. whether to his suit or to a charging squid even he didn't know.

Ran simply looked to Jan and shrugged his shoulders. "Our orders are to reinforce them, since they're currently engaged by Mishhu Rippers." The Chief then looked to Sam and simply said "Expect dust and rocky conditions." At that, the inside of the troop loading bay was bathed in a green light. Soon after, the Viper had stopped ten feet above the ground.

Ran reached up to hold a handle on the ceiling, expecting the troop bays to open. "We're landing behind our friendly lines, so don't expect immediate fire. I don't want you all wasting ammunition while dropping into a secure zone."

The bay doors opened to reveal the ground beneath them, dust starting to swirl up into the troop bay from the winds that were kicking up on the planet. At that, the Chief simply let go of the handle and landed on the surface, immediately moving ten feet away from the Viper and ending up in a kneeling position, motioning for anyone landing behind him to rally on him.

With the timer set Avel began walking back to the elevator and opened up a secure line with the Master Chief. "We've finished rigging the reactor to blow, I'm sending you the exact amount of time we have to clear the area. We'll be with you once we finish evacuating the remaining guards." Just as she had finished she spotted a Ripper standing in the elevator but made no moves to shoot it. Instead she waved a hand through the creature and it vanished. Oh yes, she definitely needed some rest.

Anselm grumbled feeling his own body clamor for rest and some shut-eye; quirking an unseen eyebrow as Avel waved her hand in front of her, he ambled back into the elevator.

"Great, let's pick up those squishy guards and save everyone's asses from the Rippers still outside the plant... let's try not to open any locked doors, there might be a few nasties in hiding that the big boom is going to take care of for us..." the marine shook his head, "no wait... we have to check for... uh, people left behind... fuck it, we'll ask the guards if anyone else is in the building- IN THE CAR, LADS! NEXT STOP, MESS HALL!"

Once everyone was in the lift, the Albino snapped out of his tired smirk long enough to press the floor buttons carefully so as not to crush the cheaply made plastic covers and break their only route out of this soon-to-be atomic fireball.

Sam leapt from the troop carrier and landed on the dusty ground, crouching low behind Ran and waiting for Jan to come down as well. She held her gun loosely, since her superior officer had ordered her not to fire yet.

Jan was right behind Sam and Ran, crouching as he landed and hefting his rifle to his shoulder. The nepleslian's eyes, enhanced by his armor's sensors, scanned the surrounding areas for any hostiles waiting in ambush. Feeling that the immediate area was mostly safe, Jan gave the all clear.

"Good deal. Everyone form up on me. We're making our way to the Master Chief's position. Jan, take point. Sam, linger in the rear. Everyone else on either side of me." This formation would place Ran in the middle, with two Marines on either side of him, which made it easier for him to maintain control of the squad.

"Let's get going. We'll be passing through our inner defensive line in about a few miles" Keeping his LPA at an at-ready stance, the Chief started jogging, intent on linking up with the Master Chief as soon as possible.

While making their way to Fian's position, the Chief attempted to open a line of communication with the Master Chief. "MC Fian, this is Chief Rui. Need status report of your platoon. Bringing in a squad of reinforcements."

The interceptor Ripper, being attentive as always, quickly took down the first two of henry's FGL launched grenades. That done it barely managed to get away from the 3rd grenade aimed at it, fortunately for it the resulting explosion wasn't as large as the fusion mortar aimed at its Commander earlier. Off-balance, it could not intercept the 4th grenade landing into Sean's ex-hole. The spherical outline of a shield bubble could be seen highlighted by the black smoke after the explosion.

Sean's forceful entry into the Ripper's personal space was actively resisted by the Mishhu's shields. White arcs of energy were thrown about as both shields were pressed against each other with no effect. It would had remained this way if Keladrian wasn't sapping away the Ripper with his HPAR. At long last the Ripper's shields were sufficiently weakened for Sean to make a breakthrough, his Hostile crashed into and toppled the Ripper. The pod trashed around maniacally, repeatedly blind firing its gauss rifle and swinging its arms around in the widest arcs possible.

The two charging Mishus were partly surprised at the new outpouring of fire directed at them. First there was the Phaedra singature double MPR shot, the first rod expended its EMP tip but could not penetrate, the second rod broke through that weakened point and embedded itself in one of the Ripper's shoulders, her victim betrayed no sign of pain but continued to charge forward. Secondly there was Alexandra's HPAR bursts, these the Rippers shrugged off too.

What suddenly caused them to stop in their tracks and dive sideways was Talbain's vengeful PAL shot, at this range with little time for evasion they were surely at least to take serious damage. This consolation was denied to one of the Rippers who was held fast by the Master Chief's P/p field, half of it melted away as the plasma ball passed through it. The other was blown into the air by the resulting explosion, no shields protected it from the airborne bits and pieces of its comrade.

Both Avel and Ran were getting static from their attempts to contact the MC, Talbain's noisemaker was working at full force.

What the Chief's tiny group did make contact with however was the enemy. Pass two or three slopes from their drop point they were face to back with the rear of a green striped ripper peering over a rock, a little further down was the rear of another ripper providing covering fire. A small battle seems to be waging beyond that point.

Shit. Upon finding contacts on his radar, the Chief looked behind him and counted 6 armors; too much to hide with his EMF. Opting instead to camouflage himself against visual systems, the Chief engaged his suit's pigmentation camouflage, kneeling behind the ridge of the slope, keeping one slope between his squad and the Rippers.

From behind the ridge of the slope, the Chief peered over to look at the striped Mishhu which had it's back to his squad. Flashy paintjob. Not fighting, observing. Sounds like your average officer. Ran immediately turned to the squad and made the "zip it" motion, ordering his squad to not switch to comms. He wanted to get a jump on these Rippers.

Immediately, he directed the two pairs of Marines on either side of him to take up positions on the far the sides on the slope, with one providing suppressing fire against the firing Ripper and the other making sure the group wasn't going to be flanked.

Pointing towards Sam, the Chief made a circle with his thumb and pointer and placed it at his eye, then started tracing invisible lines on his armor with the same pointer, to signify that her target was the striped Ripper.

Ran then turned to Jan and again traced the same lines on his armor to show that their target was the striped Ripper. Better to take out what might be a command armor rather than waste a good surprise on some grunt that was already being engaged, anyway.

Once everyone was in position, the Chief would immediately engage his Mass Mesher device and target the striped Ripper, opening up the surprise attack by firing a burst from his LPA at the striped Ripper's back.

Deciding that enough was enough, Sean opted to finish the damn ripper he had tackled off in a rather simple and effective manner. Planting his foot on the shoulder with the gauss cannon to hold it in place, and employing his P/P system to hold the razor arm away from himself, he then braced himself to fire directly down, holding the muzzle of his HPAR about an inch and a half away from the brain slave's pod. Now set, he proceeded to open fire directly at the now unshielded brain slave, putting a goodly number of rounds into more or less the same spot. "Stay the fuck down this time, bastard. I'm getting tired of killing you guys."

"Chief come in! Do you read me?" Avel tried calling a few more times before giving up. "Damnit we're being jammed!" She yelled in anger and turned to Anselm when he voiced his plan. "Yes that would be a good idea, especially since I rigged the thing to automatically explode if anybody messes with it. Hopefully they're the only ones left and we can get out of here right away."

Keladrian smiled with satisfaction as Sean pinned the Ripper, and then blew it's brain's out.

"Nice one." Kel said, turning back towards the area outside of his hole. It was then he saw an odd site indeed. There was a brilliant flash, which he deduced to be the landing of a PAL shot, and then a Ripper was thrown into the air.

"You're mine bitch." Kel said, quickly clipping his HPAR to the Aggressor. He pulled out his AOP. While switching weapons, his SAVTECH was getting a pinpoint lock. Since the target was moving, it took a few more seconds, but the lights inside pinged green for destruction.

Keladrian followed the Rippers arc as designated by the computer, and pulled the trigger. The torpedo (High-explosive) had been lead, and was going to hit the target mid-flight. Along with this, Kel sent out a salvo of BOLT's, to ensure the Mishhu wouldn't be getting up.

As the AOP explosive round and the BOLT's flew through the air, the Mishhu's momentum turned him slightly. He saw his doom right as it hit.

The explosion was beautiful, and Mishhu gore flew in all directions.

Keladrian turned back to Sean and smiled underneath his helmet. Kel put up his index finger and blow imaginary smoke. "THAT's how I do things." He said, returning to the battle at hand.

Okay here we go. Sean blasted his pod and Keledrian changed the one in the ait into major example of fireworks. Pieces of ripper were falling down everywhere.

Okay then now only one remaining is the one holed up. And he looks rather stunned too. Time to earn you money Mayhew! Thought Alex as she jumped out of her hole and used P/P system to get near the stunned ripper. She landed few meter from her enemy with her rifle already aimed at him.

Ripper slowly turned to her but didn't have timo to do anything beacuse he got hit with a salvo of five darts followed by five arrows. Still stunned by Henry grenade barrage he didn't have time to react. Whatever remnants of its shield was not gone with five darts hitting from almost point blank. Explosion of arrow after it wasn't as flashy as Kels, but it id its job sending hurt Ripper on the ground. He lied on back in his holle as Alex jumped and aimed her rifle on him.

His last word woul probably be "Oh crud." But he never got to say them as Alex pulled trigger of her HPAR and started putting holes in him. Even when firing full auto she couldn't miss at this range. Soon Mishus PA was full of holles and pieces of slave inside were flying out as they were hit by penetrating amunniton.

As they advanced, Sam held her fire as ordered, but every few yards she raised her rifle and looked through the scope to check the terrain in front of them for enemies. She spotted the enemy armors just as she noticed the Chief acting oddly, and dropped the weapon to watch him. Ah... the striped one, she thought. I hope we can take it down.

She gave Ran a thumbs-up and crouched slightly, then brought up her rifle, targeting the striped Ripper. Pilot in the center... She waited for a moment, then raised her rifle to her eye and squeezed off a pair of shots at the armor's center of mass.

As Ran opened fire on the commander's Ripper, Jan joined, in kneeling for better accuracy as he shouldered his Money Shot. Aiming carefully, Jan started firing, three shot bursts of molten metal lancing from the rifle towards the Ripper's chest. "Die, Die Die!"

Fian Vel Steyr ducked as bits and pieces of Mishhu rained all over. Knowing that the battle is essentially over with the marines vastly outnumbering the remaining Mishhus he had Talbain's Noisemaker remotely turned off... He was then vastly outnumbered by the messages sent by the Combat Server somewhere in the Marine defence line, it had recorded and relayed the messages and requests for commlinks that had occurred while the all-interfering Noisemaker system was on. Most of these were routine reports, but a few including the commlink requests from P3C Avel and Chief Ran caught his eye.

In the meantime, the Interceptor Ripper had realized the quandary it was in and quickly boosted off parallel to the two Marine groups while it was still out of the effective ranges of most of the Marine's weapons. The Savtech's of the squad no longer labelled it as a threat.

To: MC Fian Vel Steyr
From: MC Cop Burnside
"We have evacuated all the wounded but intensifying Mishu Anti-Air fire is not letting any more shuttles through. High Command says they have a back-up plan but they need every marine that wants to get out of here alive to be back at base first. We don't have much time, the squids are gathering for a final attack. The joint Chiefs says the absolute limit is 1800hrs, set any remaining traps that you have left, and haul ass back here."

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Speaking about traps, the Master Chief patched a comm to Ms Avel.

"Private Sitkeas, if you have already rigged the plant, rendezvous with the squad immediately."

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He then opened a separate comm to Chief Ran.

"Your squad is ahead of our position. Finish up and link up."

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Lastly, a sub-squad wide comm.

"Everyone else, status report!"

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Meanwhile...

The Commander Ripper watched in horror as its whole squad was wiped out simultaneously over a span of ten seconds. Well, not really whole considering that it and the Interceptor Ripper remained but Ran's sub-squad was in the process of rectifying that. HPAR and LPA fire from five marines quickly brought down its shields to nothingness. The moderate range plus the stationary nature of the target ensured that all rounds hit their mark. The striped pod then turned around only to receive P3C Oliver's pair of MBR rods in the dead center, the first rod made only a large dent but the second one penetrated, skewered a few vital systems and exited through the other side. The Ripper dropped to its knees in defeat.

In the meantime the marine screening Ran's right flank fired ineffectively at the fleeting form of the other Ripper. The valley that it previously covered was pockmarked with craters and strewn with wreckages, green dots on the sub-squad's HUD showed the main squad inside that valley.

"All good over here on this end, sir." Sean stood back up, less cautious, but still keeping tabs on the remaining Misshu. "We're finishing up, and there's no major damage to my knowledge." He glanced at Kel for confirmation. "Give the order, and I'm ready."

The combined efforts of her squadmates eliminated the remaining Mishhu threat, and Phaedra suddenly found herself without any hostile targets. Before she had time to feel a pang of disappointment, the Master Chief came in over the comm.

"Everyone else, status report!"

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"Volkov reporting sir; no hostiles on my screen," she replied quickly. She relaxed her grip on the MPR and scanned the area, noting the locations of her fellow marines scattered around the power plant.