RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 3]: Between Lambs and Wolves

Anselm crudely parried another crushing blow with his chainsword, the Mishhu's bladed and decorated forearm coming around as the marine struggled to recover, a shallow gouge joined a dozen others on the Aggressor's armored skin. 'Dammit, this bastard just won't let up, I'm exhausted and he's fucking playing with me.'

{INSIGNIFICANT} Another blow came at the marine, one that would finish the fight, slower though. Anselm ditched his BULLDOG and BOLT rack in a awkward and frantic duck-and-boost that left scant millimeters between the Mishhu's pristine weaponized arm and the Nepleslian Armor's scuffed and dinged torso.

{INFERIOR} A fourth blow in the combo dug the axe-like forearm into Anselm's side, parting the Aggressor's Nerimium-Durandium composite plating like soft butter. The entire armorsuit recoiled from the blow as the Albino's shock and pain drove both man and machine on reflex.

{FODDER} The Ripper's left arm was up now, the fun was over and it was time to move the game to its logical conclusion, death.

'I-' "I don't want to die," the marine complained, raising an arm in protest of the oncoming blow. Nerimium-laced plates shattering to bleed away kinetic energy as the axe-like blade sheared away Anselm's left forearm, sticking the the Aggressor's breastplate. Blaring red alerts popped across the marine's HUD as adrenaline, morphine, and clotting agents pumped into his sytem.

'I'M NOT GOING TO DIE.' Plasma bolts speared into the Ripper's face, burning away the optics and armor on the faceplate. The Mishhu armor stumbled back, firing wildly, a scalar pulse winging the Nepleslian armor, dropping its gravatic shielding down almost two-thirds. 'I'M NOT GOING TO DIE, ESPECIALLY-' "not to the likes of you." Anselm growled, shoving the whirring and shrieking teeth of his chainsword through the Ripper's scarred faceplate.

{EVENTUALLY} was the last thing the Ripper's pilot thought before the gruesome blade turned its body into a bloody pulp.

Talbain's Aggressor popped up over the ridge just after the squids breached the second line. As soon as his torso cleared the ridge he pointed the AMP into the thickest pile of mishhu and let fly on full auto joined shortly after by PCTs and Bolts from both of his racks. This is what he had been waiting for, a smile across his face he almost stayed up over the ridge. Incoming fire placed the enjoyment of letting fly with all his weapons on hold though. Once it was more than just the stray rounds impacting the shield drones he dropped back behind the ridge. Boosting along the cover behind the ridge he picked a random spot for his next pop up. He paused a second to check the targeting options the drones had on the map. "This is great and all but any time estimates for how much longer the evacuation is going to take?"

By the time he finished asking the question he already had his next mass of the enemies picked out for his fire. Such a target rich environment, it had to be a good day. A small grin was planted on his face.

"Phaedra, I think I see a big head for your target practice. Here's what I've got," Kingston chimed in over the comm. An additional target appeared on her HUD, surrounded by a myriad of others.

"Happy hunting out there," he said again.

Phaedra shifted her gaze to the location Viktor had designated. She spotted a hulking suit of power armor in the midst of the advancing Mishhu.

"Roger, target verified," she responded. Phaedra held the MPR tightly, the NIGHT's systems making short work of hefting the large weapon. Despite the suit's HUD marking out the optimum targeting trajectory, Phaedra ignored the HUD and went with her instincts. She aimed at what appeared to be the pilot compartment and squeezed the trigger.

The transport was rocked by another explosion.

"Try AVOIDING the shells would ya!?" Keladrian yelled to the drivers. The ID-SOL stood eight inches over seven feet, and his head kept hitting the ceiling. "We're trying, but the Mishhu keep targeting us!" Came the reply from the cockpit. Keladrian grumbled something unintelligable, and then lowered his head a little more.

Everything had gone to shit when the Mishhu invaded. He was seperated from his squad, and on top of that, he was reassigned. 'Some ship called the NSS Acadia.' He remembered, trying to distract himself from the bombardment.

The transport turned slightly. They were supposed to be heading towards the area where some Chief was. Kel would have to remind himself to try and remember his name. "Hey Kel" one of the drivers yelled, "looks like we got a Marine up there! In Power Armor!" 'Well good, that means we're getting close.' "Looks like he's wounded too! Should we stop and help him?" Keladrian didn't even stop to think about it. "Hell yes we should!" He responded, heading towards his power armor that was stored in the rear of the transport. The Aggressor armor was a beautiful sight, and Kel was very happy to be the driver of this particular model. He absolutely adored it. Basically, this suit meant death to whichever Mishhu SoB got in front of him.

"Lower the ramp and let us out!" Kel said as he strapped in. He ran a quick diagnostics check, and everything showed green. "Alrighty boys," Kel said, addressing the group of four other marines who had been rescued by the transport, "lets go save a life."

The ramp dropped and Kel ran out. The marine was about 50 yards away, and it looked like he was missing an arm. "This way!" Keladrian yelled, running towards the wounded marine.

"Hey! You alright in there?" He asked of the pilot. 'Man I hope he's not dead.' Keladrian thought grimly.

Harrison's supporting fire came crashing down in the middle of the advancing Mishhu, not necessarily suppressing them but thinning their ranks enough so that the Marines positioned on the flanks of the Mishhu were able to consolidate forces and begin the task of grinding it out with the Mishhu troops on the ground, the goal to eventually encircle the penetrating enemy forces and destroy them.

The artillery fire brought back reprisals from the Mishhu as several missiles screamed towards and impacted amidst the Marine lines, leaving snaking black lines of smoke hanging in the already smokey air. Attempting to get rid of the artillery elements of the Marines, several Mishhu opened up with their 50mm gauss rifles artillery positions, several rounds blowing holes through the overturned truck Harrison was taking cover behind.

The Mishhu would soon catch wind of where Kingston's concealed position was, and immediately hammered it with fire from gauss rifles and a few missiles, the latter threat being taken care of by the pulse laser arrays of several Marines that were between the missiles and Kingston.

The target Kingston gave Phaedra had taken a near-hit from a PAL a split second before Volkov pulled the trigger, meaning that the damage its shields took made it all the more easier for Phaedra's round to penetrate the power armor, which came crashing to the ground as it attempted to reposition itself.

"Kingston, advise that you get back to the front and protect our heavy guys. Don't waste your drones on me, there are a shit ton of Chiefs around here." Was the only word Ran got out once he headed for the last line of defense where the Senior Chief in charge of their platoon was staging a rather hurried gathering of Chiefs.

During his hurried stroll over to the Senior Chief, Ran noted a sudden hole being put in the frontlines of the advancing Mishhu, the position of which corresponded to where Talbain's armor showed up on his radar. Nodding in muted amusement, the Chief would make sure that he asked Talbain's question once he met up with the Senior Chief, who was huddled in a circle with other Chiefs, flanked by protecting
enlisted men.

"Looks like fucking 'take my time smelling the red roses' Chief Rui is finally here! We can start the sitrep now!" Hidden behind power armor, the Chief mouthed a friendly "fuck you" to the Senior Chief, and kneeled down in the huddle amidst several Chiefs who were alternating between ducking into cover or pissing off the Senior Chief by returning fire rather than listening.

"Evacuation was fucking completed before our lines made contact with the Squids, so we've essentially just been earning bullshit commendations and pinning new rank badges on moronic ladder-climbers with inferiority complexes this whole time."

"The reason why we're not off this shitty, sand-infested crotch of a planet is because the Navy is getting its fucking toys together to awe the general populace and politicians back at home. ETA to their arrival is either in around forty five minutes or in a few days when the Generals are streaming roses and flowers and shit over our graves." A few missiles impacted on the bubble shield that was placed around the officers.

"Our current plan right now is to flank and encircle the Mishhu that have made a bulge in our lines. From there, we can work on continuing our defense of this shitty city, as the higher-ups have deemed a fighting retreat to be too complicated for anyone not sipping coffee with politicians."

"Chief Rui, take your men and reposition yourselves on the right flank of the advance. Why you sent a few Marines over there anddivided your squad is fucking beyond me. Now go."

Biting his lip in the face of very accurate criticisms, the Chief hurried back to the front lines, doubled over in order to avoid incoming fire. "Morris, Harrison. Hold your positions. I'm bringing the rest of the family to where you guys are. I want my sharpshooters to fucking cover our advance. Anyone you see getting a lock on us, put a fucking round through the center of their eyes."

Ran had noticed on the miniature map of Marine positions that there was one Marine far behind the city unaccounted for, a Keladrian Michael Santhis. Signaling for the rest of his guys to hurry, the Chief opened up a channel with Santhis. "I'm guessing you're with us. Hold your position, I'm sending someone over."

Knowing that one sniper was enough to pin down an enemy force, the Chief opened a channel with Volkov. "Volkov, let Trey take your position and grab the new guy. Try to bring him here without either of you dying or suffering combat-impairing wounds."

"Sir," was Kingston's quiet confirmation. The shield drones flitted away from Ran Rui's Power Armor and fixed themselves around Keladrian, who seemed more than ready to just throw himself into danger. "Watch yourself; squids all over the place," he said in a curt and slightly irritated tone. As if to prove the statement 'Karma's a bitch,' the floor beneath Kingston's VOID cracked and then crumbled as missiles pelted it. He hit ground level several seconds later with an, "Oof-fuck!" Additional fire rained on his position through the dust cloud that rose as he fell.

Kingston realized it was time to relocate. To emphasize this was Chief Ran's order to move to the right flank of the Misshu's. Out of the dust cloud he ran toward Anselm's debilitated form. "Out of the way!" he shouted at Keladrian, and hefted the Aggressor PA to its feet, supporting his colleague with the VOID should he be incapable of keeping himself afoot. "We need to move, Anselm. Can you get about on your own?"

"I'm guessing you're with us. Hold your position, I'm sending someone over." Keladrian's comm crackled and the voice of his new CO, Chief Ran Rui, piped through.

"Yes sir!" Keladrian replied into the comm-link, glad to have someone telling him what to do in this god-forsaken place. It was easier when someone told you who to kill.

Less then a minute later he saw another Power Armor suit running towards his location. 'Here comes the backup.' Keladrian thought, watching as the marine came to a halt next to the wounded man in the power armor.

"Out of the way!" He barked, an order which Keladrian was happy to oblige. Kel took three steps backwards, giving the marine plenty of space to lift the wounded marine, who was apparently named 'Anselm,' or at least called that.

"I've got four other marines with me, where are we headed?" Keladrian asked of the newcomer to his little party. Another Mishhu rocket exploded somewhere near their location. "And wherever we're going, we need to get there quick."

Kingston didn't give a response verbally but instead transmitted the GPS data straight to Keladrian's helm. "Rendezvousing with two members of our squad already over there in the hopes of cutting off the deep Misshu incursion and rebuilding the second line of defense. Bring the big guns."

Anselm waved away Kingston's hand as a medic in a Hostile powersuit leapt at an opening to tend to the wounded marine.

"Gods be damned, someone get this motherly medic offa my arm and get me a weapon, I can get metal bolted on after the squids are scattered to ashes!" the battered Aggressor cursed over its loudspeakers as the other marine tended to his already cauterized stump of a forearm.

"Good god," the medic remarked, injecting a painkiller before doing his best to bandage the wound "what did you use to-" he fell speachless as Anselm pointed the the smouldering Mishhu PA laying several yards away, heat-blackening splayed across its mail shirt.

"Plasma sticks to it," was all the explanation he gave before looking at the other five to press his first point with unabated enthusiasm "anyone got a spare rifle?"

"I'm holding steady, Chief." Harrison grunted as another gauss round punched through the overturned truck the ex-merc was hiding behind. The shot had penetrated mere centimeters away from his right shoulder; close enough for the shockwave to be felt right on his arm. The merc cringed at the thought of his arm being smashed into not-fruity pulp by another round like that, and tapped into his new drone's camera feed.

He took a quick look at the enemy advance routes, analyzing their movements, and hoped for a way around them as another volley of gauss rounds shredded the last bit of his cover, and with it his chances of survival in his current position. Harrison quickly decided on a relocation area and sprinted away as a last gauss round turned his cover position into swiss cheese. With more ammunition whistling around his head, the ex-merc crouched into a wide alley between two tall warehouses, somewhat protected from the Mishhu advance. Boosting up to the roof, the merc went prone, tapped the feed to his camera drone again and positioned himself for the next death volley.

"Huh?" Trey muttered, amused to hear his name called out over the Comms, in the chief's voice. Reviewing what was said, Trey pinpointed Phaedra's position and adjusted his course to make it there. Trey continued to look over the rifle, and found the mode selector, switching it to three-round burst for the time being.

Coming closer to the front, Trey noted as the amount of fire whizzing over his head and around his armor went from annoyance to decidedly hazardous, he began to search for targets of Opportunity, Pausing momentarily to throw a burst of his own Gauss fire downrange at the pink tentacle-y bastards who were attacking the city.

"I'm on my way to take you position, Phaedra, Give me a few minutes" the Yamataian-bodied Nepleslian called, ducking into a semi-demolished building to avoid some more fire coming from the Mishhu.

"Anyone got a spare rifle?"

"As a matter of fact..." Keladrian trailed off as he hustled back to the transport. He found what he was searching for: an AMP-01a. "Here ya go." Keladrian replied, returning to Anselm and handing him the gun. "I'm pretty sure the clip is full, so have at it."

Keladrian opened his tactical map and looked at the waypoint indicated on it. It didn't look to be too far. While he was looking, he noticed that his HUD also displayed the location of his new squad mates. 'Awesome, now I'll now who they all are.' Keladrian thought in an offhand sort of way. In the distance, another explosion rocked the earth.

"Well, we should get moving then..."

Anselm stood up and hefted the Plasma Chaingun in one hand, gauging how quickly he could move in combat, 'not very' he mused silently as the medic finished patching his stump. Returning to the reality of his part in the larger defense, Anselm cringed inside the Aggressor's armored helm as he brought up a conglomerated map of several tactical feeds on a preset request to his Savtech, seeing the horde of Mishhu surrounding the icons of marines his suit was receiving any telemetry from. Scaling the feed back to just his squad, the Albino tromped over to his new squadmate and grunted his agreement, not feeling up for using words at the moment.

Sean rolled his neck, still getting used to the feeling of being in the heavy Hostile armor again. He hadn't been front lines, and hadn't been in a true power armor since training. First actual combat experience, and I'm lucky enough to start with a war. Lucky me. He snorted.

The transport he was on rocked and dropped about twenty feet in the turbulence from incoming fire. Assuming I MAKE it to the zone. As the transport finally made it down behind the lines, he stood up, and balanced himself against the side for the last little bit. He let his HUD link in, and blinked when he saw he had managed to land behind two of his new squadmates, though it seemed they were a bit separated from the rest of the squad.

Slinging his HPAR, he ran towards the nearest location of a squad mate; a guy named Harrison. He ducked inside the lower level of the building Harrison was somewhere in or on, and paused. "Hey, Harrison, names Sean. Just got assigned to the squad, and thought I'd come lend a hand."

Private 3rd Class Victor Adair looked at the Marines around him from within the helmet of his "Aggressor" armored suit, watching in silence like the rest of them did while the Viper transport they all rode in was coming in low and fast: the crew desperate to avoid Mishu ground fire. Occasionally somebody would grunt as the Viper raised and lowered eratically.

"This is great." Victor thought to himself "I just get done with my demolitions training and pop; it's off to war." Victor thought nervously to himself.

All Victor could hope for, though, was to simply not die in the coming conflict. He had a sister and some civilian friends who he had to return home to. Victor felt safe though. You couldn't help but at least feel a little safe in "Aggressor" armor with a NAM AOP-01a with three extra solid tungsten clips, plus two high-explosive clips in reserve.

"ETA in five." Came a voice from the ship's speakers.

Victor's muscles tensed up within his suit as he felt the ship drop drastically to avoid fire once more. Then he felt it reducing speed before starting to drop at a drastically fast rate. Once it had the ramp opened and Victor immediatelly stormed out...where he was nearly greeted in the side by stray fire from the Mishu. Instead the incoming rounds nearly destroyes a waist-high stone wall to his right.

Victor broke out in a dead-run for the nearest cover: a three-story building that still had it's front door surprisingly intact...but that was fixed when Victor slammed in to it with the shoulder of his armor before moving across the living room, in to the kitchen, and ducked down by a window that gave him a semi-decent view of the fighting up ahead while he linked up his HUD to display the positions of his squad members in all the confusion.

"This is Private Third Class Victor Adair: is Chief Ran Rui out here?" He asked in to his radio...and then nearly cringed in to his armor as he watched a portion of the window-sill nearby get torn away by more stray fire from the Mishu "Hell, is Chief Ruis even alive?!" He asked, almost as if joking...but it seemed like he was almost serious.

Phaedra calmly reloaded her MPR and then brought it up to her shoulder again; she aimed at a new hulking target and sent another deadly projectile on its way. That was when the Chief chimed in over the comm:

"Volkov, let Trey take your position and grab the new guy. Try to bring him here without either of you dying or suffering combat-impairing wounds."

"Roger," replied Phaedra. She again reloaded her MPR and then leapt off the tall building, landing in a crouch.

"I'm on my way to take your position, Phaedra, give me a few minutes," said Trey.

Phaedra's HUD displayed Trey's location, as well as new names she had heard tossed about on the comm; Santhis and Adair. Noting their locations, Phaedra stormed through the dusty streets in her black NIGHT armor, dodging explosions and stray shots as she did so.

She shortly arrived near to Trey's location and hugged the wall of a nearby building, scanning for Mishhu in the vicinity. Spotting the Mishhu that was firing on Trey, she took aim with her MPR and fired.

"I've got you covered Trey," said Phaedra, "Make a run for it." She then placed her comm-link on broadcast.

"Santhis, Adair, and anyone else who has just arrived, this is Wolf. Hold your current positions, I will be escorting you to the Chief."

"No problem Wolf." Victor replied.

Victor didn't have much time to contemplate what kind of name 'Wolf' was, obviously some kind of call sign, because another portion of the window was torn away be incoming Mishu fire. Victor came around the edge of the window and raised his AOP-01a up to the first target he saw...which happened to be a Mishu soldier who had just let loose with the last volley on his position.

Two solid tungsten rounds were sent in that scum-bags direction and cleaned up that situation for the time being, while Victor ducked back out of the window. All he could do now was just wait for the woman who had identified herself as Wolf to show up and help him get to the Chief he had just been assigned to.

Viktor Kingston felt it necessary to interject then. "No, Volkov, orders were to move to Harrison's position and close in on the Misshu. Also, the Chief is busy and I'd rather not make him pissy hauling greens over there and interrupting business." He pinged is own location on his team's tactical map. "That's my position, Kingston, and I'm in a VOID. Adair, Santhis, stick with me and Anselm; we're headed for our rendezvous toward the front."

For a second he was rather irritated with Phaedra, but let it go. She was busy being a sniper, off in her own world. As a tactical Power Armor pilot, though, Kingston's job- if not given then self-determined- was to make sure everyone was adhering to the plan and accounted for; essentially, Private Kingston micromanaged for the Chief when he wasn't capable of doing so himself.

Like right now. "Anselm, I'll cover your lesser half," he informed with a completely flat tone. "Let's move now! The longer we dawdle, the less likely Harrison and the others will be in one piece when we get there." To make his imperious statements clear, he began moving quickly toward the rendezvous.

"Okay Kingston." Victor replied, watching on his HUD as the man's position appeared for him.

Victor stepped out in to the window once more and fired two more shots, mentally keeping tabs that he only two more left before he would have to reload. Moments after firnig Victor pulled away from the window and left through the same door of the building that he had come in to: pressing against a wall while he scanned his bullet-ridden surroundings while he tried to pick the best route to reach Kingston.

Deciding on a nearby alley as his first position, Victor moved across a street, past a partially tilted light pole, and ducked in to the alley just as a barrage of fire from some of the Mishu landed in his general area. Then Victor continued to move down the alley and across a few streets until he turned a corner to find himself just up the street from a man who appeared to be missing an arm and his partner.

Victor approached down the street and came to a stop before them.

"Private Third Class Victor Adair, reporting for duty." He said.

"Thank you, Volkov" Trey said over the Comms as the other sniper readied herself to cover his move. Readying the PPP, Trey aimed at a nearby building, and pulled, goosing his boosters to give him a little extra speed. This resulted in one Hostile smashing straight through the wall and tumbing inside the building for a moment before he could regain himself, and the note that there was still a good amount pf fire pouring after him, but the building mostly stopped any enemy efforts to shoot him
"I can make it from here, Volkov, I'll cover you on your way now" he said, kindly exiting out the door on the other side of the building and peeking over the corner, firing several bursts with the new HGR he had found, the gauss propelled DU rounds nicely penetrating Mishhu carapaces like they were butter, dropping any he saw like flies.

"I like this gun" he muttered to himself.