"Boohoo for you,
Staff Sergeant! Cry more, why dont'cha?" Black called over an open channel for everyone to hear.
Not that it took much of their attention. The doorway, from which Rita and Henry had come, exploded violently, knocking them down. The stairway which the squad was using exploded, crumbling and dropping Samuel, Bernhard, Cedric, Matteo, Lisa and Alexandra a floor down. Phaedra, Sawyer, Henry, and Rita were left alone at the fifth floor entrance.
From the doorways nearest, six Rippers and four Mindy armors emerged, firing all their weaponry. Behind them from farther down the corridor, NMX Nekos and Mishhu emerged armed to the teeth with anti-armor weapons.
The corridor was shorter than the ones below. At the end, there was a door to what seemed like a large room. The Nekos and squids were positioned behind a makeshift barricade which blocked the door. They had even managed to set up a couple turrets armed with grenade launchers.
Because Henry and Rita had been knocked over, most of the fire hit Phaedra and Sawyer. Phaedra's shields were completely taken out and several NMX rounds had penetrated her right shoulder and wounded her. Sawyer's larger Aggressor was down to 10% shields and gauss round hit had broken his left arm while aether streams had come close to burning to stomach.
-------------------------------
In Orbit
The Nepleslian fighter squadrons had engaged the hundreds NMX battlepods farther out to prevent them from reaching the larger warships. But still most were slipping past the cordon and 4th Fleet's anti-fighter weapons began throwing out a wall of plasma, high velocity rounds and lasers to stop the NMX strike units.
Only through sheer numbers were NMX battlepods able to breach the Nepleslian's defenses and begin their suicide missile runs. Over four hundred battlepods had attacked the 4th Fleet warships. Only about one hundred were actually being stopped by the fighters. Even as dozens of battlepods bloomed in fiery death, more were able to release their deadly payloads.
The escorts
Steadfast and
Meteor listed and vented oxygen and debris as NMX warheads struck their port. Moments later, NMX battlepods crashed into the same warships' stern. The
Meteor exploded as its engines and fusion cores overloaded.
Steadfast began launching evacuation shuttles packed with wounded and shell-shocked crew. Only the bridge crew had remained to keep the guns firing and the ship in formation.
Sabre and
Ardent suffered from similar attack from their starboard. Yet through a supreme effort, both ships continued to stay in the fight and maintain their formation to protect the larger vessels whose greater firepower was required when the NMX warships closed.
Only the
Eclipse was troubled as its shields were reduced and its hull armor damaged in several places. However, its weapons and crew were unfazed.
Slowly, almost lazily, the NMX warships, now identified as two carriers, four battleships, four Cruisers, six Pillagers, ten destroyers, eight scouts and eight LP ships advanced.
"Send the shuttles to the moon's surface. Detach a flight from Grey Squadron to protect them," Admiral Valken ordered. He turned to his console and sent a coded message to Sergeant Volkov.
Code:
Fleet has engaged. Shuttles are en route for pick up. Fleet's survival paramount. You have fifteen minutes before I order the Fleet to withdraw.
"Captain, get the crew from
Steadfast aboard," he looked for the nearest cruiser, "Warhound. The Fleet needs to buy the Marines twenty minutes, think we can manage?"
"Considering how slow the Marines always are, I'm surprised you're only asking for twenty. But, maybe," Ironside replied, trying to appear less stiff.
Valken simply nodded. The Fleet's survival as a naval fighting force was key to Nepleslia. Marines could be replaced faster than warships. That was the cruel mathematics of warfare.
