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

Fian said:

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

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Ran had just received the message mere seconds after watching the striped Ripper go down, keeping his LPA trained on it in case it got back up.

"Oliver, take care of this thing." Hearing fire from his right, the Chief looked in the direction of the fleeing Ripper, summoning up all self control in favor of not pursuing it. "I don't want anyone pursuing that Ripper and getting sucked into an ambush. We'll link up with the Master Chief once this squid is dead."

Ran turned his head to Jan, still leveling the LPA at the Ripper. "Jan, guess who's on point again?"

Ah... Sam made a low, satisfied sound deep in her throat as she watched her second shot punch a clean hole in the Ripper. Her joy quickly turned to frustration, though, as it simply dropped to its knees instead of toppling over, and without the fountain of gore she'd expected had she hit a pilot. She deduced that there therefore must not be an actual pilot - but there had to be something driving the thing, and that something was probably a slave-brain.

She stared intently through her scope, holding her breath out of reflex, though the NIGHT compensated for the bobbing. She gave the rifle's bottom a tap, nudging it up just the slight bit she needed to aim at where a pilot's head would be inside the armor. Heartbeat one... heartbeat two... She fired, the rod shooting towards its target straight and true. ...heartbeat three. This time, when the metal pole exited its target, it was covered in pinkish-grey ooze, and the armor crumpled to the ground, the stripes around the exit wound spattered with brain.

"Mayhew reporting. I am okay and on targets in sight, I am going to check-up on Santhis." she said and jumped out of her. As medic she had her duty. She noticed that Santhis got in meelle fight earlier and wanted to chech up on him.

She ran to him. "Are you okay Santhis?" she asked because he certainly looked okay, but with sheer mass of Aggresor he could be bleeding and it wouldn't be seen at first glance.

MC Vel Steyr said:

"Everyone else, status report!"

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Static filtered through Harrison's finally-revived comlink. He didn't know what had happened. He had assumed a partially-obscured vantage point and was taking advantage of the view when he experienced a massive system failure. One by one, his armor's systems blinked off until he was basically frozen on the spot. Harrison had been forced to manually reboot the SAVTECH on board and then stumble through the reactivation process before he was finally able to get the bleeding FIRE back online entirely.

By that point the battle was over.

Slowly, the static filtered out of Harrison's COMM until his voice could be heard loud and clear. "Catastrophic equipment failure, Chief. Complete shutdown. I'm back in action now. Do you want me to rendezvous with the rest of the strike team or make my way to the HQ by myself?"

Jan chuckled as he moved to the front of the squad, waiting for the order to move out. "Well, looks like today is my lucky day."

Seeing Sam's finisher on the ripper, he couldn't help but whistle as she got a definitive kill. "Hey, Sam, you can watch my ass any day, if you can do shots like that regularly."

"No permanent damage Chief." The ID-SOL stayed low in the crater while he waited for his suit's shields to recharge and for Vel Steyr's next set of instruction. With the lull in combat his concussion felt it was time to reassert it's presence much to Talbains displeasure.

A piece of Mishhu landed on Kel, smearing gore down the front of his Aggressor. "Aww, sonofabitch!" He yelled into the helmet, cursing his flashy display. "I'm going to have to scrub this for hours now..."

"Everyone else, status report!" Vel Steyr ordered into the comm unit. His voice burst into the Aggressor's radio.

"Doin' fine here sir, just finishing up." Keladrian responded, looking at Sean and Meyhew, giving them thumbs up. "Ready and waiting for your orders, sir." Keladrian switched back to the HPAR, and scanned the immediate area for more hostiles.

Hm. Not Kingston's best rodeo, but he couldn't very well be the star of every show now could he? He shrugged it off and made his report. "Kingston, reloading and all in the green, sir." Monoeyes were deactivated and shield drones recalled; awaiting orders was always a bit of a drag, but reviewing the most recent skirmish was always a good way to pass the time.

Ran finally lowered his LPA from the Ripper upon seeing Sam's shot permanently incapacitate the Ripper. Anticipating the retreating Ripper to bring more friends, the Chief ordered the squad into the same formation as before, instead of just advancing towards the Master Chief in a straight line.

"Watch our flanks. Let's hurry the fuck up and link up with the MC." At that, the Chief started moving, and sent a reply to the Master Chief.

Chf .Rui said:

On our way. No casualties. Striped enemy Ripper killed. Did not pursue one Ripper in favor of linking up. Expecting possible counterattack soon.

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"Everyone give me an ammo count!" Ran counted 614 rounds left in his LPA after the encounter with the striped Ripper. Obviously, his LPA's ammunition would be replenished upon linking up with Fian.

Sam lingered behind until the squad was a little in front of her, happily admiring her kill through her scope. Once she was once again in position she started jogging forward once more.

Her response to Ran was quick and sharp. "Three rounds gone, Chief!"

Harrison boosted his FIRE carefully down from the vantage he had been briefly stranded at, admiring the scenery as he came in and landed with his squad. His feet touched the ground with a splortch sound, and (to Harrison's dismay) he found that he'd stepped on a liquefied brain slave. He grimaced for a second before stepping out of the bug puddle, then linked with the squad.

"Still good on charge, Chief," Harrison grunted.

"Take a breather, gentlemen." Fian stowed away his Assault Carbine. "Neither the squids or the Power Plant team is here yet, we'll give them some time."

"Hey Volkov, you okay?" The MC sounded on the squad-link, being far away and on an elevated position made visual confirmation difficult. Speaking of visual confirmation, the lead element of Ran's sub-squad was positively identified on his HUD, Fian's white AIR-R waved to P3C Jan Kancre.

Just to be Sure Alex loked at Keledrian arms. Luckily it was okay. "You know Santhis, you shouldn't dance with squids. It is much safer to just blow them to pieces from distance," she said then with a little chuckle.

She was more at ease now btu she quickly got herself together and started looking aroudn again, with her rifle ready to shoot. "I wonder how are double A doing," she said.

"Go-go-go," Anselm kicked open the doors to the mess hall, AMP up and finger to the trigger as the marine cleared the entryway while doing his best not to startle anything on his side of the war too badly.

"Everyone give me an ammo count!" shouted Chief Ran over the comm.

"Volkov reporting sir; twenty-three sabot rounds and four IFF rounds remaining," said Phaedra. She scanned her HUD for any sign of Mishhu in the vicinity, and noted that her squadmates were regrouping at the base of the slope.

"Take a breather, gentlemen. Neither the squids or the Power Plant team is here yet, we'll give them some time," said Fian over the comm.

"Hey Volkov, you okay?" he added quickly.

"Nothing to report Master Chief," said Phaedra, climbing out of the crater she had used for cover.

"I was scanning for squids one last time before descending, sir," she said. She traversed down the crater-strewn slope, using her thrusters to avoid the largest of them. She made her way to the foot of the elevation and strode up to the squad. She held the MPR in her right hand and rested the stock on her right hip. The first thing Phaedra noticed were the two Marines she had not met before; their names displayed on her HUD. The first was Jan, who was clad in a HOSTILE. The second was Sam, who wore a NIGHT and was equipped with a MPR.

"Another sniper," she thought. She crossed through the squad and introduced herself.

"P3C Phaedra Volkov, Sniper and Reconnaissance; but you can call me Wolf. You two just arrived with the Chief then?"

Phaedra saw Harrison in her peripheral vision for a moment and glanced toward him, only to quickly do a double take.

"What happened to you?" she asked, motioning towards the slick goo covering portions of his armor.

"So, Kel. Plan on doing much more 'dancing' with the Misshu? You seem like a good guy and all, but I can't go tackling them every damn time you do." Sean chuckled to take the bite out of his words. He let his HPAR hang by it's sling for the moment, keeping one hand on it though. Despite the fact that they'd been told they could stand down, he kept his eyes outward, not wanting to chance a Ripper sneaking up on them.

To lighten the mood, Kingston took a deep, sighing breath, and made sure everyone could hear it over the intercom. "Done, sir. Next?" There was an obvious smile in his voice, with a tinge of sarcasm to boot. He had been walking all this time, and had just now arrived at his destination which was beside Keladrian. He put an armored hand on the soldier's armored shoulder. "You seem to have a thing for partners that want to eat your brains. Maybe you should do some reevaluating, hm? We can't keep them off you forever."

The cafeteria door gave Anselm's Power-Armored boot a lot more resistance than expected. When it finally gave, pieces of barricade material like wielded metal and wood cracked and splintered in all directions. There were at least twenty civilians in here, slightly pale looking considering the stuffy air and ill-illumination of the room, but nonetheless unhurt. Those in the powerplant worker suits quickly and wordlessly filed past the three marines and into the hallway, presumably on the way outside. The remaining two in security guard getup approached Anselm.

"Gee, thanks. We barricaded ourselves for safety, made a mistake of over-barricading to the point of making it un-barricadable though." One of them explained, the other had his eyes set on Brand.

In the corner of her eye and the darkness of the room, Avel could spot a man-sized floating squid staring back at her. It wasn't in Anselm or Brand's line of sight, but the powerplant workers were brushing past it like it wasn't there.

Jan's Hostile waved back to Fian, the Delsaurian still keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings as he moved to link up with the MC.

"Sir, I have visual confirmation on the Master Chief's squad."

"So, Kel. Plan on doing much more 'dancing' with the Misshu? You seem like a good guy and all, but I can't go tackling them every damn time you do."

Keladrian let out a roaring laugh, and clipped his HPAR to this Aggressor's hardpoint. "Don't worry Sean, next time I'll save your ass. Sound fair?" The ID-SOL laughed again, and turned to see the newcomers to their little group.

He hopped out of the crater, hop being used figuratively. In order for someone to 'hop' in an Aggressor, it took an enormous amount of thrust. When Keladrian landed, a cloud of smoke and dust rose to about his waist's height. He began walking over to where the three new squadmates were, when he recognized one of them.

"Chief, it's good to have you back sir." Keladrian said over the comm.