Beta Squad
Kurt's movement took him away from the battlefield but there was nothing on the barren moon from which he could use to capitalize on.
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Rana's first trio of RED mass driver shells impacted on the shields of a Ripper, causing the armor to stagger and kicking up dust around it. Otherwise, the Ripper seemed unharmed by the burst.
Her second burst was more effective, destroying the shields and blowing off its left arm at the elbow and destroying its aether rifle.
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The three tungsten carbide from Cedric's AS4GS burst brilliantly on the Ripper's shields, diverting its attention from another Nepleslian unit.
In retaliation, the Ripper fired a swarm of mini-missiles at Cedric. Most of these missed but enough hit his armor and around him to shake the Marine up.
Cedric's observation probe could see explosions in the distance, signs that the other Marine units from 4th Fleet were also engaged with the NMX. It also meant that Volkov's Cavaliers were the closest unit to the objective.
But how did the NMX troops intercept the other squads before they'd gotten closer? None of the Marines had seen NMX troops leaving the base. The Fleet would have destroyed them en route.
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By chance, Rita's BOLTs and moneyshots struck an unshielded Ripper, carving large chunks of armor plating off and destroying its shoulder mounted weaponry.
Bernhard, seeing Rita's strike, switched his target to her's. He fired three bursts of plasma rounds, jetting in a different direction after each burst. The NMX fire was slowly chewing away at his shields.
The Ripper they'd been aiming at collapsed. Most likely dead.
Rita's maneuvre with the PP Rod was partially sucessful, the Ripper was lifted into the air but not high enough to her. The Ripper decided that it had had enough of Rita's games. It activated its thrusters and sped towards her, Yama-Dura right forearm blade unsheathed.
It slashed at her but Rita parried the attack. Her own attack was also parried by the blade and her shields took hits from the Ripper's left forearm aether cannon.
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The shuttle pilot cursed as Lisa's mortars fired and rocked his ship. Her swift departure had also left the shuttle still wobbling badly. Other shuttles had long since departed but as the pilot tried to wrestle with his controls, NMX gauss rounds started slamming into the shields.
One round finally broke through the shields and carved a large hole in the middle of the shuttle's side. Though the crew were alive and the shuttle lifted off successfully, it was obvious that some repairs were needed.
Lisa's mortar rounds destroyed an unshielded Ripper and damaged the shields of two more near it.
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Alpha Squad
Victor's spray proved ineffectual. The shielded Rippers had moved to the fore, using their shields to absorb shots. Even then, the Rippers were unfazed. Too much firepower had been divided over too many targets to cause any significant damage to the NMX armors.
All it seemed to have done was point Victor out as a target worth shooting at. A positron beam glanced off his shields, reducing it 52%.
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Phaedra's shot was on target but exploded harmlessly on the Ripper's shields.
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Matteo's HPAR rounds struck true, killing the damaged Ripper before it could do anymore damage.
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The Ripper Artan had fired at shifted position after moneyshots blew off its dorsal armor. Aether beams slashed out from its forearm weapons at Artan's Hostile, damaging his shields even more.
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Alrik's move would have made sense in an urban environment or if there had been cover. But all it did was make him a motionless target in an open, airless environment. His shots were absorbed by his target's shields.
For his efforts, Alrik's suit was lashed by aether and positron beams, dropping his shields to 40% in those few moments when he'd been stationary.
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Laura cursed as another trio of her drones were overloaded by a gauss round meant for Matteo.
Her forearm plasma chainguns and laser gatlings were eating away at Phaedra's target's shields but were unable to break through. In frustration, she launched a BLUE 40mm mass driver shell from her shoulder mounted launcher at the Ripper. The kinetic force of the shell cause the Ripper to stagger and took down its shields, much to Laura's jubilant surprise.
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Above the battlefield, Admiral Valken watched the Marines' advance get bogged down. "Detach Green Squadron from the furball and begin ground attack runs. The Greys and drones should be able to handle the rest of the battlepods," he ordered.
On his display, Valken watched the 54 surviving craft of Green Squadron broke from combat and started heading towards the moon.
He turned his attention to the issue of the other Marine squads. Volkov's squad had gotten in close but all other squad should have made rendezvous with them within minutes. But they'd been ambushed within minutes of deployment. So far, no casualties though some close run things.
More importantly, Valken pondered what the sudden, seemingly magical appearance of NMX ground troops meant. "Admiral, will you stop pacing?"
