RP: YSS Mikomi Mission 3: Part 2-The Caves of Bowhordia

Masako was panting hard as she and the Chusa provided covering fire for their fleeing comrades. Landing under cover as Kestral suggested, the young neko was also confused when the firing halted. Listening to the plan, Masako positioned herself two meters to the right-rear of Chusa Kestral and began to move low to the ground as she could without hindering her speed.

Shifting her nearly empty aether rifle back to it's slot, she kept her plasma rifle at the ready just in case any more turrets decided to use her crewmates as target practice.

Saeki herself took the left rear position farthest out, keeping a sharp eye on their left flank. She kept her rifle ready, glaring out across the endless expanse of solid ground. It was going to be a long day, she reckoned.

"Understood bossâ€

Natalie jumped as the XO started to talk to the group.

"Sir!, i will humbly request the back position, sir. I want to mend the time i lost when i was taking Carlos back to the Mikomi. Ill fight bravely for the group, that´s for sure, sir." - she said with a strong tone, making sure her intentions were honest towards her superior and the group.

"Aye sir." the lanky Geshrin responded, rolling her eyes to the sudden change of attitude. Maybe that wounded soldier impressed something on her. she thought hopefully, accelerating a touch closer with a spin to the lead PHALANX. Just keep your thoughts on this particular small unit formation to yourself. she reminded herself, keying her sensors again.

Their course was uncertain, she hoped the information she was getting through the trickle of intricate calculations from scanning data provided by the Mikomi would prove better than their last intel, which was sparse. "Go find out what happened to the dead Nekovalkryja." seemed an interesting set of orders, though no less suicidal than her last patrol had been. That thought cleared her mind quickly, as she checked her atmospheric targetting calibration again, scanning for more hostile contacts.

Kestral walked forward, he could feel the others behind him. The ridge was a couple of hundred metres away and he was going to lead them right to it. This seemed the most logical area to go, as high ground would give them a view of the surrounding area. He continued walking, keeping low at all-time and looking around him constantly. He didn't want to be ambushed.

Suzi piloted the ship forwards after she had dropped the two soldiers of. She was headed towards the ridge, and knew she would get there first. This way she could warn them of what was over the ridge. As she brought the ship forward she began to see over the ledge. So far it looked the same. Then there was another patch of ground and something totally different lay there, something she did not expect to see. Why was it there, of all places. She flew over the ridge and as soon as this happened, guns fired at her. She flew round the object and back over the ridge, where she flew low to the ground so that the guns could no longer see the ship. "Kestral, you will never believe what I just saw over the ridge." She called in to the speaker. She was trying to get a lock on their signal, however it wasn't there yet.

Roken was just a few steps from the signal, after ducking and dodging and almost being blown to bits Roken keyed his communicator hoping they were on his side. "This is Roken Techard can you hear me over," roken waited behind cover for a respons.

"Chusa Bowman, with all due respect I don't think its very prudent for you to be on point. You're the most valuable crewmember here." Saeki said quietly into her communicator, starting forward with hte rest of the group, gun up and sweeping over their left flank to make sure no ambushes could get them.

Kestral recieved the message from Roken. The signal was a lot better. He quickly responded, "Roken make you way forward and going to back. We are moving forwards out of this position. It seems as though we destroyed all enemies around." He smiled, this was in fact what they had done. He turned to Saeki, "Please do not worry for my sake, I do not want to put anyone in as much danger as I already have. I am finding that maybe this task was a bad idea." This was said to Saeki and only she could hear it. He turned and faced her, with a big smile on his face. "Thank you for your concern." He carried on moving, it was so quite.

"Yes sir," Roken let out a sigh of relief and made his way to where he was told "Is everyone alright?" Roken was curious, he hadn't seen anyone since his drop and the fire fight had caught him off guard, Roken checked to see how bad his suit was: The shoulder plate was a little melted and his gun was destroyed during his last fight he still had one weapon left and it was doing just fine, he didn't have time to set the suit to his augmented eyes so he was forced to use the power armors basics. Whatever's going on here it must be big, with all the firepower they are using on us this could be some kind of assembly area or a military outpost, or a pirate hideout. Roken pushed his to the side and focused on what was need to be done now.

After hearing the words from Kestral that all of the enemies had been cleared out of their immediate vicinity, Daduar's spirit was raised immensely by hearing this news, but he began to worry because due to the immense resistance they first met, where would their backups be? Hopefully they weren't fighting autonomous weapons set by a computer to destroy any unknown signals and that there would be actual figures running the plasma batteries.

"Suzi, I need a complete scan of the next 10 miles, full spectrum range and please transfer that information to me, if possibleâ€

Technician Henessey eased up from his position in the middle of the formation and snorted in bemusement. So the enemy had cleared off just as Lachlan had shown up? Wryly remembering his old instructor's voice, he repeated to himself: 'Combat is 90% boredom, 10% sheerest terror." So far it seemed that Lachlan was destined for the boredom side of things. But then, when things were finally balanced out, that was no bad thing.

"Yeah, I'm fine," replied Lachlan, addressing Roken. "Anybody need any patches to their armour?"

Suzi didn't receive the signal from Daduar, she was to busy moving through the beams flying towards her. Ever since she went over the ridge she had been firing at guns everywhere. She scanned the ground for any movement, but found none. There where only these droids, and they where annoying as hell. She had managed quite well to clear the area closest to the ridge, however she was running out of torpedoes, and some of here droids had been destroyed. It was at the point where she was considering turning back, when she saw the ship. It was lying earth bound, sand over it. She could only just see it, and she knew that it had been there for at least a year. She flew forwards keeping firing at all around here, and manoeuvring around the beams heading straight for her, of course she would be hit occasionally and this would knock her back a little bit. However she kept fighting on. She couldn't tell what ship it was, all she could presume was that it was the last crews ship. The group that had never returned. The ship was then hit hard, not by one of the small aether beams, but by a much bigger one, coming from a huge gun, placed at the entrance to a cave. She also felt a great forced dragging her towards this cave. She decided to turned back and tell Kestral what she had seen. Suzi moved the ship quickly and was back over the ridge in no time, safe, for the time being.

"Kestral. It is Suzi, there are some big things over there. One is that there is a ship lying over the ridge. Who piloted it I do not know, it has been there a while and it is covered with sand. The other is that there is a cave, with a drone, about ten times the size of these small ones. It must be hiding something, I think that is what we where looking for. Out." Kestral received the transmission with a nod. This was it, they had a place to go finally on the planet.

"Suzi is there a possibility of covering us? I suggest firing at the thing." He smiled to himself, of course she was going to do that, he didn't really need to ask. Suzi did so immediately. She flew back over the ridge, and concentrated all her fire on the thing. Releasing her firepower, not to much of it, she waited until the hit. It came quickly, and all that was left was smoke. Suzi thought until the smoke passed and the machine was still there. She hovered back over Kestral's position. "No use Sir. It has a strong shield." Kestral nodded again, and kept on walking until he got to the ridge and looked over. He could see the ship, just, but he could see far enough towards the cave. "Right then, we are going to have to cross that ridge when we get there. Let's take a ten minute break people and have a look at our armours."

Natalie hold her position, guarding the back position she was ordered to cover. The constant heavy fire by the Mikomi made the earth crumble, showing it´s might over a enemy that, far from putting a honorable battle, it was putting things even more harder that they already were.

Taking a break was good, but Natalie didn´t need it, since she switched armors a while ago. "Ill keep the guarding, sir. I just switched armors a while ago when i took Carlos to the Mikomi, so it is in top shape. However, if a medic is around, i´ll appreciate her to take a look to this bleeding leg of mine. "

Saeki seemed to relax a bit as the order for a ten minute break was called. She lowered her weapon slightly and let out a low sigh of relief. Well, she had survived this far. It looked like they would have to get up close to the gun and take it out from there...a good old sapper mission. She just hoped they had the firepower to take it down, or at least knock the shield out.

Roken checked the damage on his armor there were minor scorch marks, he put his hand on his shoulder a felt a slight pain where the last shot hit his shoulder armor nothing painkillers and rest couldn't cure, Roken activated his communicator "this is Roken I could use a patch on my shoulder armor and a replacement gun for my Phalanx," Roken stopped for a moment and looked around the field most of the area had burns and crater marks where the team and the defenders had fought, Roken smiled to himself realizing how much he enjoyed combat it was what he was trained for. Roken turned his communicator back on "So what's the plan sir we know what they were protecting," Roken hoped for good news but he knew that in his line of work there was none.

Mmmnn, still a full load on the cannon. the First Sergeant thought blandly as she re-rotated it through it's range of motion. "Sir, I suggest transmitting a report to fleet before moving ahead, in case of the worst." the Geshrin girl transmitted to her commander. Well, if there's anything alive around here they couldn't have missed that.. she surmised to herself.

Letting her guard down for a second, Masako began the process of checking her armor and her inventory. Scorching on her armor was the most damage she had taken thus far, but at the cost of nearly depleting her aether rifle. Her plasma rifle was still in fairly good condition and her survival pack and pistol were still taped to her thighs.

Finding herself to be pretty well off, the young neko took a few steps ahead of her Chusa and took up position guarding the front to protect her comrades. Sensors and eyes both scanned the area for any hint of danger.

A few minutes to regain composure and to regain his footing was what exactly Daduar needed. He began to look over at the other places on his armor that were scorched from the plasma blasts, and began to wonder if he should continue on with the group or go back to the ship and see if they had another power armor that would fit him. His weapons were still in good condition and his armor was overall, except for the penetrating wound on his shoulder.

He turned to Kestral and began to speak "Kestral, what do you think would be best for me to do? Would you prefer me to continue on with the group or go back to the ship and try to find a suit of armor that fits?â€

Fingers strumming the field repair kit strapped to his armour, Technician Henessey inobtrusively moved closer to Daduar. He dared not speak up in the presence of a superior officer. All the same, he still hoped to catch somebody's eye. Scorched and penetrated armour? Nothing a little patch-job couldn't keep together till they were all safely home on the Mikomi.

After all, it was apparently rather hairy down here on the ground floor. The more rifles watching Lachlan's back, the chirpier he was.