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

"Copy." Trey replied, almost bored, Boosting up the side of the riverbed. He made his way towards what little cover he had, and switched from his LSP back to the rifle he had found, and set it to single fire so he could sharpshoot. His monoeyes scanned to the sides, so as to alert him of a flank, but he turned off most of his forward sensors, except visual, and began lining up shots with the comparatively squishy mishhuvurthyar soldiers on the other side, and began to fire away, taking five or six shots before finding the next cover he could.

Private Kingston kept stride with Morris as their troupe approached the Sunburn. Once there, he deployed his shields in two rectangular formations and one triangular formation between the squids and Sunburn (one droid was disabled, leaving him with 11). There he crouched and awaited further orders. In the meantime he kept his head on the swivel and LBR at the ready. "Defensive perimeter in place, but I don't imagine it'll last long if snipers show up or we lose the front line," he informed his team and Alpha squad.

Victor had hopped in to a Viper without a moments hesitation and on the ride over had simply been trying to cool his nerves for more fighting that he knew would come at them the moment the Vipers landed...and it did: pot-shots streaming by and the odd explosion every now and then that sent spouts of debris several feet in to the air. Victor had wasted no time in squeezing off a couple of rockets at nearby Mishu.

At that moment the Chief's command came over the radio.

"Yes sir." Victor replied.

He looked to his tactical map and made his way for Morris as quickly as he possibly could. Once he was there he took notice of both Morris and two other marines: Private Kingston and Private Keladrian. He caught up to them and kept stride, keeping his head constantly on the move for anything that might need a good rocket or two in it's face.

Avel and the three marines raised their HPARs and fired at a group of approaching Mishhuvurthyar. The high explosive rounds made quick work of them and they ducked behind the large rock just as a barrage of Gauss fire pummeled their position. Avel's HUD showed another three groups of Mishhuvurthyar heading right for their position.

"Target the group on the right." Avel ordered as she raised her HPAR and began firing at the Mishhuvurthyar. "Where are those reinforcements from Alpha?"

"Confirmed," Harrison said, "moving to reinforce Alpha." The ex-merc looked over the squad that had gathered around him. A few FIRE units with several EARTH gunners dispersed between them, marked with the colorful camouflage patterns and signage that differentiated them from one-another. Harrison didn't even hesitate to grin as he felt a sense of pride in looking at them.

"Alright then," The ex-merc grunted, "let's get over there and shred some squiddies." The artillery pilot shouted a "hooah" at the end of the statement, then set a waypoint at Alpha's position and hoofed it, the armors moving in his wake.

Alex and Avel cought up with Morris and went with hsi squad. Them moved swiftly and got to the downed Sunburn soon. It was in ravine wich looked like ex-river. They got there and put up defensive position until Vipers brought rest of the marines.

Chief Rui quickly gave orders to his men. That meant that Alex is part of the Bravo. She tossed a head of the marine into one of Vipers before it flew away and then run to her position. She linked up with two other marines and they started running uphill.

They are to meet with Mishu up there on the edge of the ravine. While running up they were met with some artillery fire. Other fire teams similiar to them were already on the edge firing on the Mishu. Alex and other had to run from the Sunburn so it took them a little longer. There were few explosion along the way but no one was hust.

Alex lied down at the edge of the ravine, letting her gone and small part of upper body be visible. She saw a lot of squids there. Plenty targets. Damn no using minirockets here so it is up to her HPAR. She started firing short and controlled bursts at the enemy.

Keeping pace with the rest of the group headed for the Sunburn, Sean had no problems at all staying with the group, aside from the expected enemy fire sent their way, which he returned with as much accuracy as he could in his mobile state. "So are we extracting the crew and running, or holding here until further notice, Chief?" Finishing his sentence, he slid to a stop beside some temporary cover and returned fire for a few seconds, suppressing the targets he could see as best he could before moving on, exchanging his now empty clip for a new one as he went.

Anselm dropped awkwardly into the riverbed alongside the half-dozen men he'd accompanied since the intersection, breathing somewhat heavily as he learned to exchange a magazine one-handed. Pausing a moment to collect his scattering thoughts, the Albino tasked his shield drones to idle until the Aggressor's badly depleted personal shielding took a hit. Taking a decisive breath, the one-armed marine joined his fellow soldiers at the top of the riverbank.

Keladrian watched as shield drones began setting up defensive positions around the Sunburn. To the north, he could hear artillery and small arms fire being exchanged by both sides of the fighting. He just hoped their side was exchanging more.

Kel approached the smoldering wreckage that had once been a Sunburn. He took up a defensive position behind a pile of dirt and rock that had been thrust upward into a small hill, about an ID-SOL and a half high. Climbing up to the top and peering over the edge, Kel scanned the top of the valley, awaiting orders.

The Chief was peeking above the ridge of the riverbed, looking several miles out at a large force of Mishhu converging in on the downed Sunburn.

"Reports say that our front lines have been forced back by the Mishhu." A Senior Chief was next to him, along with other Chiefs that were part of the flanking attack against the incoming Mishhu. The idea was for Bravo to draw other Mishhu forces more towards their side of the riverbed, shifting the strength of Mishhu forces onto one part of the line, and taking the pressure off of the rest of the Marine line to allow for them to maneuver and destroy the incoming Mishhu.

"I don't know why they decided to task a fucking platoon to grab this fly boy. Things would be better if we just bombarded the fucking crash site with artillery and save the platoon for the city's defense." The Senior Chief then gathered the Chiefs around and explained the plan to them, giving them 5 minutes to prepare.

At that, the Chief opened a Comm link with whomever was to join in in Bravo's diversion. "Listen up. The basic plan for us is to attack the right flank of the Mishhu forces while the rest of Bravo hold the line. The idea is that our attack will shift Mishhu focus off the line and to us primarily. That'll free up our boys down the line to maneuver against the enemy."

"Naturally, since we're a smaller-sized element attracting the attention of a very large-sized group, we'll need our big guns to stay sharp. If any of you are in danger of being overrun, call in artillery support. We need to keep the momentum of our attack going so that we continuously draw more attention to ourselves."

"Henry! Make sure you get that cockpit opened fucking fast so that Alpha can join in the assault. It's one thing to rescue this guy, but if we all fucking die by getting overrun, it's all for nothing."

While the shields Viktor had employed were doing their job, their very existence seemed to be drawing more attention and thus making their job that much more difficult. "Shields won't last much longer, either," he said in a calm tone as he trained his eye down the sight of his LBR. No, not much longer now. The shield ratings in his HUD were flashing a warning orange with the numbers all closing in on 50% capacity.

"Understood!" Henry replied as he begun deploying a Shield Dome over his area, encompassing any marines near him, and around his work site, "Take cover in the shield dome, you can still fire out of it."
Using what tools he had on him, he started to pry the cockpit of the downed Sunburn open with the Fusion Cutter, "Stay away from the wall," He cautioned to the pilot.

Eventually, he got a square metre cut out of the cockpit using the tip of the fusion blade, but it didn't fall out. A bit of extra effort was required. Henry plunged his hands into the freshly cut area, grabbed on and pulled it out.

"We need a medic to look after the pilot," Henry said as the pilot started to scramble to his side, with blood tricking down his leg being the worst of his injuries, "He's badly injured."

The fighting was pretty intenste. Mishu started returning fire as soon as they could. Luckily marines were in perfect defensive position. For now, there weren't any serious injuries nor deaths between her comrades.

She saw Avel firing her weapons about twenty yards. She was with her own team. These groups of three or four marines made good choice. They were enough scattered along the line to keep Mishus heads and tentacles down. Plus they were supported by heavy guns from down the ravine.

"We need a medic to look after the pilot," heard Alice in her communicator. She recognized that voice. Its owner was Morris, man who got them here to the downed Sunburm. "I am on my way!" responded Alex. She patted on marine from her team on shoulder. He nodded my way and kept firing.

Alex started running down the ridge with her head down. After few yards she used pull system to get to the Sunburn quickly. She had to use it twice, because she had to be careful. She didn't want to get into line of Aggresors and Voids line of fire.

She then run to the opened cockpit. Her HPAR was already on her back and she took out field medkit. She kneeled by the pilot to check his injuries and begin treatment.

Avel was too occupied with the incoming Mishhuvurthyar weapons fire to wonder where Alice was running off to. "Probably to help the injured pilot." Her thoughts were interrupted by incoming Gauss fire from the other two Mishhi groups who had gotten within range.

"I'll take the ones on the far left. You three take the right." Avel said as she reloaded her HPAR. "Kill them all!" She yelled as raised her HPAR and began firing at the Mishhuvurthyar. She managed to kill three in under five seconds and was in the process of taking out another two when she felt an overwhelming wave of dizziness.

"What?" She muttered out loud. Her confusion immediately transformed into a horrified realization as she fought against the dizziness with everything she had. But it was ultimately futile.

"No! Not now!" Her vision was starting to blur and she managed to take a few shaky steps back behind cover before falling flat on her back. "Damnit." She managed to mumble before her eyes closed and the images came.

Anselm slid down the embankment, fumbling with his HPAR one-handed, reloading well below the time limits he'd trained hard to beat in basic. Watching his shields slowly climb up to 60% and stick, the marine gritted his teeth and felt a familiar tightness across his left side, tensing up to check, Anselm grumbled to himself climbing stiffly back up the embankment as the tissue damage running down his torso went into rigor. Semi-molten coins resumed their steady precipitation from the Albino's weapon, flying out to meet the Nepleslian's alien foe with a warm welcome to death's door courtesy of NAM.

Keladrian poured fire into the Mishhu who attempted to approach the crash site. With the torrent of bullets coming from him and almost every marine in the designated 'Alpha' squad, no Mishhu made it through.

Keladrian paused to reload, ducking behind his tiny mountain of cover. He looked towards the Sunburn and saw a Shield Dome with a marine inside it working on the Sunburn. 'He must be getting the pilot out.' Keladrian thought, returning to the task at hand: Killing any Mishhuvurthyar bastard who tried to come close to the Sunburn.

Sean backed into the shield bubble with Henry, using his armor to shield Henry and the new opening in the Sunburn. He stepped aside to let Alice through, and promptly opened fire on another Ripper that had appeared, though he doubted he had killed it. Damn things were too tough unless you got a solid hit on them, and he hadn't had enough time or clear enough sight line to get anything like a solid hit. He moved to reload his HPAR, checking his ammunition as he went. Only 5 or 6 magazines left. Damn it, I wish I knew this was more then just extraction, I don't have enough ammo for anything extended.

While the majority of the Mishhu crashed into the line of Marines on the right, occasionally an armor would attempt to skirt around their defensive line. That was when Phaedra would answer with a deadly projectile from her MPR.

The Mishhu resistance been steady, and Phaedra found herself running low on ammo for her MPR. A pile of armored Mishhu corpses lay on the left side of the enbankment; results of failed flanking attempts.

"Ten rounds left," thought Phaedra. "Can't hold them off for too much longer if we don't leave soon."

She lay prone in the midst of a pile of rubble, occassionally firing at any hostile that veered too close to the left flank.

Kingston gave Henry a confirmation and thrusted in reverse to the safety of the bubble shield. His own shield drones withdrew to the safety of their charge slots on the VOID's backpack. He returned to taking slow and precise shots with his LBR. It was only a couple minutes later he noticed someone drop. The SAVTECH identified her as Private Avel.

"Private Avel, are you alright?" he inquired. Without waiting for a response, though, he moved beyond the bubble and aided his comrade in moving to safety. He didn't stop until she was fully within the shield's safety.

Keladrian watched as Kingston dragged a marine to safety. He was puzzled - he hadn't seen any fire being concentrated on that spot. Ensuring that the situation was momentarily under control at the front lines, Kel opened a comm channel to Private Kingston.

"Hey, is everything okay over there? Need a hand?" Keladrian questioned, moving to the side of his little mountain that faced the two marines. He ducked underneath some Mishhu fire, and answered in kind.