RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 4.5] Claw of the Beast

Alexandra helped Henry to get into medical care and on the she got back just as chieg was saying. "No matter what, they will know fear today." And then started moving towards hostiles.

First thing Alex done when she heard him was facepalm. Then she just slinged her smg and hurried to catch up to him. "If you think I will let you go by yourself in you state chief you think bad. Also I almost didn't fire a round today and I want to get some of those bastartds too, so if you think you can stop, you really can't. And if you get shot, someone has to drag you butt back." She said rather quietly as she went with chief, her smg ready.

When she realized it was her first time being defiant, her smile widened.

When that telltale tinkling of metal against metal, the rattle and role of a certain bounce reached Matt's ears, he went from sitting behind the wheel to belly on the ground. The grenade exploded in the truck bed. The Marine's ears went deaf before ringing started to come in, so he couldn't even hear ammunition in the truck bed cooking off. However, his eyes were working fine; since laying himself flat on the ground, he could see the enemy ID-SOL had dragged himself out of cover of the wheel.

Matt snapped up his SMG, made sure the safety was off and let rip into the hip and lower back of the target, letting the muzzle climb and hopefully punch through the sheet metal of the car and into the chest.

Viktor Kingston shambled to one of the freshly rent openings provided courtesy of the medevac armors. He sat, planted his good foot on the sheared metal, and let his ruined foot dangle over the side. Then he pulled the Longshot off his back, and gave it a once-over before deciding it was operational. P1C Kingston figured the least he could do was provide some aid to the Chief.

He brought his eye to the sight, caught a bead on the ID-SOL on the other side of the truck, and fired about the same time Matteo was unleashing his own fury.

The enemy ID-Sol climbing up the back side of the truck would end up falling to the ground with an unceremonious splat. His back and chest filled were filled holes that quickly overflowed with blood that pooled around where the hunk of meat had landed.

---

In the structure overlooking the monorail crash and the firefight going on near the gun truck was the remaining un-injured ID-Sol. He sat down on the eighth floor of the structure and counted his gear.
“SMG..., two magazines,
A few grenades…
And one rocket reload….damnit.”

The NMX soldier would use up his last reload, sliding the rockets out of their cloth carrying case and loading them into the back of the boxy four shot rocket launcher he had been carrying this entire time. He would drop his cloak as well and rip into it, pulling out the blue jeans and T-shirt that had been sewn into a hidden pocket in the cloth. They would be laid out on an overturned cubicle desk as the NMX went about his last set of preparations. His SMG and cloak were placed on the floor, an armed grenade weighted under them as a trap. The rocket launcher would then be hoisted up onto his shoulder as he went over his instructions in his head.

~Fire, run, disappear.~

---

Back at the monorail’s crash site one of the medics would be carrying Anselm’s body to the medivac’s lowered stretchers, laying him out before pressing the up button to send him upward towards the ship. The other would head back as well, tired of trying to deal with the marines. As his foot left the monorail wreck the windows on the eighth floor of the building overlooking the wreck would be blown out by a series of rockets that raced downward towards the monorail, each one exploding a fraction of a second before impact. The blasts would tear open the side of the monorail facing the structure and send hot pieces of metal tearing through the first two cars of the train.

---

Just prior to the blast a nepleslian transport truck had been carrying fresh soldiers to the fleet yard for transport to their ships. In a fraction of a second a bright light would transform the ride from a smooth movement through Nepleslia’s streets to a loud, fast, trip to the bottom of a small air pocket made from the hull of the truck and the remains of the building

For the people who had been riding in the back of the vehicle the world had shrunk down to a space only a few meters wide. Bodies with broken necks would line the bottom of the small space. One side was made up of the bottom of the truck, its bed twisted and deformed by the stresses from above. The remaining sides were made of thick chunks of concrete and rebar that had fallen from the buildings and monorail tracks which also happened to act as a ceiling for this small tomb. Dead silence was all that filled this small area for nearly half an hour until another large crash occurred. Above the air pocket a small battle had started between nepleslian marines in a crashed monorail and a group of NMX soldiers, both of which were seeking out any senators that may have survived the blast.

P3C Makari Aeron's superior was a little on the repetitive side. And that was being nice. All Makari wanted was to have a nice nap before the gun fight but no. No. His superior make he and his fellow soldiers recount the orders to the letter until they were nearly brainwashed. Makari assumed that his superior drilling their orders into their heads was some form of defense mechanism against fear. To hell with repeating the orders; once was good enough for him.

As his supervisor cleared his throat to announce that they would be repeating the orders yet again, Makari's world exploded. He blacked out.

A crunch and grinding sounds of metal awakened him. When he groggily and painfully came to, Makari realized that his current situation was not a good one. He coughed a few times and spat up some blood. Makari felt like his back had been bludgeoned repeatedly by metal pipes. It was a miracle his back was not broken; he was propped up on a concrete lab that had "magically appeared" during his time of unconsciousness.

Makari tried to glance around; he soon realized after kicking a few nearby people that all of his compatriots were dead or at the very least unconscious. Panic set in. Sheer panic. He was alone except for the dead or dying bodies of his comrades, some of which were plastered to the wall. He had to get out.

He took a moment to calm himself. I mean, what kind of woman would go crazy over a soldier who couldn't stay calm even when surrounded by his....dead....comrades. Ok so maybe that was a dumb thought but at least he was strangely calm. Well, sort of. Makari glanced up and noticed to his luck that there was a small beam of light between the concrete and the metal remnants of the truck. He quickly formulated a plan. If you could call it that.

P3C Makari Aeron checked his person for his armaments and hat. HHG? Check. 17mm Peashooter? Check. Standard General Assault Rifle? Check. Knife? Check. Ammo for all weapons? Check. Beret? Check. All set.

He pulled out his HHG which he had previously loaded with white hybrid shells before he left. Makari attempted to push and kick bodies out of the way; he couldn't stand the idea of harming a comrade, even one he disliked such as his superior. Luckily, his arm span (plus HHG) was long enough for the end of the barrel to just barely touch the bed of the truck which was staring him in the face since the explosion. He wrenched his left arm out from behind some bodies and realized that his left hand was quite broken; he quelled the urge to yell and ground his teeth. He gingerly (and poorly) supported the HHG with his left hand, disengaged the safety, and slowly squeezed the trigger. He desperately hoped that his already damaged arms would hold and that no one was on the other side.

Chad sat gun at ready the whole damn time while the unknown private had killed the driver of the truck. Chad had planned on doing it himself, but the little fucker was in the way and didn't look like he needed any help, and if he the P3C hadn't gotten it done then his squad mate Viktor would have.

Cheeky little fuckers. He thought as the ID-SOL slumped down. But effective.

Chad then proceeded to jump off the monorail track onto the ground. His HUD now displayed the unknown Nepleslian as Matteo Witt.

So like any good Skwigleff, he walked up to the fellow P3C and addressed him "Decent kill man, even if you did steal it from me. Whats your current squad and are they in the area?"

As his opponent fell, Matt vaulted up and into the truck bed, firing the last few rounds into the head from above. The magazine, spent, dropped to the sheet metal floor with a thunk. 'HURRY, HURRY, HURRY!' he thought. It was a mess; the gunner was mashed across everything stored in the truck bed. There were a few ammunition cans for the dual .50 caliber machine guns that weren't cooked off, but there were breaks in the links. Matteo's heart still pounded away as he bent over and scooped up what he thought was a grenade, and tossed the kidney aside. It wasn't until after the 2nd kidney that he found an actual grenade in his frantic, desperate searching for more firepower.

The pounding could be felt all the way up to the fingers, the slight sensation of high pressure blood inflating and deflating the tips. In between rummaging, the Private gave furtive glances to make sure he was safe. With ammunition for his SMG and handgun taken, he turned to the machine guns. Matteo's bloody hands fumbled with the broken links and tried to push them into the feed tray of one gun. "Crap, crap, crap." he swore, desperate, blood smeared fingers slipping occasionally as he rabidly linked the broken up ammunition belt together for a more proper length.

Matteo's heart skipped a beat as he suddenly jumped up, eyes wide as saucers when a voice called out to him. It was the look of an animal caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. He managed to snap out of it quickly, and went right back to the machine gun. "Please wait sir!" he cried out politely.

The tray was closed, the bolt worked, and the turret pointed to the other ID-SOL in the distance, just as the rockets left. Too late! Matt took aim and squeezed the butterfly triggers anyways.

"Dammit!"

Phaedra managed to haul back on the bolt of the Zweihander with her right hand. She deactivated the infrared function in her cybernetic eye and peered through the scope to find a new target. She was not able to find a new target however, as the windows from the building above her exploded outward and a pair of rockets detonated against the first two monorail cars. Shards of metal, glass, and rubble rained down around Phaedra, and all she could do was curl up into a fetal position and cover her head with her right arm.

Sean cursed under his breath, still watching the building in front of them, trusting their medic to take care of any injuries. "Do we pursue? Or are we just going to pull out now?" He kept his finger on the trigger, watching for any movement, though he didn't expect any. Why would the shooter stick around? He'd done enough damage and was outnumbered, no point in wasting his time and getting shot.

Luke was stuck, and he was stuck quite majorly. He awoke in a musty room, having been knocked unconcious by a surprise crash. He moved his head, his optics frantically searching the small tiny alcove he was in. He realised he was still in the truck, but it had been squashed considerably and all he could see was a gap in the very top, although this was being obscured.

He was covered in corpses of his Nepleslian allies. Already this mission was looking like a failure.

"I'm sent out to duty for the first time, and I have this kind of luck; this is a bad omen," Luke said to himself, pulling out one of his legs from the masses of already rotting bodies. He wriggled it free after some straining, and proceeded to get out his second leg. This one came out with ease, and the momentum from his over-compensating pull tripped Luke, making him fall further into the pile of bodies to the bottom of the broken truck.

"Uh...." he said from the confused effect his sensors were having, before they reinitialised. Luke checked his body and its mechanical parts. All were functional and connected.

Luke slowly crawled to the side where he could see rubble had crashed through the roof. He pushed up against the bodies and eventually managed to break to the surface.

Luke tried to scour for some kind of equipment. He soon realised that the throbbing in his ears was not a byproduct of the crash, but actual sound. With some sonic reconfiguration by the Left-Brain, he realised it was gunfire, coming from right above him. He drew his pistol in case enemies broke through the rubble.

Pushing against the bodies, he swam upwards, knocking their organs around, and eventually managed to get to them. Quickly, he used his cybernetic arm to punch and break a tiny hole in the rocky rubble.

"Anyone in here?" he called out to the truck, in case there were any survivors here, but he simultaneously peeked through the hole. There were enemy soldiers here.

Luke decided his position would be excellent as a pillbox, so he took his pistol and aimed, waiting for the soldiers to come close enough for him to easily engage them.

With a deafening crack the bullet would pierce through the truck bed and plow into concrete rubble on the other side sending small shards of concrete bouncing against the underside of the vehicle, a fine mist of rock dust shooting backwards into the small opening. The open backed truck would remain firmly stuck in place, surrounded by concrete.

Nearly a minute would pass before a metallic hand would jam itself into the small opening that had been allowing light through. It would take hold of the concrete slab above Makari and lift, sliding the slab up and to the right Standing above this new opening was a power armor clad individual. His blocky white armor had a red cross painted on the shoulder pad. He was reaching down towards Makari, his voice completely overwhelmed by the loud ringing in his ears.

Just beyond the power armor the soldiers could get a view of what had changed in time he had spent underground. The large towers of this downtown area had been leveled entirely. The high rises that they had originally been driving past now only existed as a large field of rubble with various burning buildings remaining standing towards the edge of this flattened area. The sky hadn’t escaped either, a dark cloud hanging over the entire area and blotting out the sun. A rescue ship was hovering over head, its three downward tilted engines and the fires that were burning provided the only light for this area.

After a few moments of watching the injured soldier the armored hand would withdraw, pulling out a small datapad that had been attached to the side of the armor. The small screen would then be held up towards Makari with two words on it.

“Injuries?

Survivors?”


Luke would find himself in a similar situation, having crawled out from under the bodies he was now in the same small cavity under ground that Makari was in, looking up at the medical power armor above him. The truck itself had been entirely buried, the driver’s cabin having been squished entirely.
---

The NMX soldier had already dropped his rocket launcher, running back towards the clothing he had laid out earlier when the torrent of bullets from below smashed into what remained of the window. The projectiles causing a deafening roar as they chewed large holes out of the floor and ceiling of the room, causing chunks of glass and concrete to fall to the ground below.

He would quickly tear off his remaining clothing, tossing his shirt aside as he hopped on one foot to remove his pants. When finished he would toss the clothing back over to the pile of equipment he had left booby trapped. He would then grab the shirt and pants that had been laid out, pulling the shirt on and then hopping into the pants as he tried to make a quick escape towards the building’s central staircase.

---

Back at the monorail Phaedra would feel a sharp pain in her legs. Small shards of monorail had punctured her body like splinters. These injuries were superficial but the large metal piece of chair was not. A bar nearly three feet long had been propelled through her right leg, cutting through the meat just under the knee and behind the shin.

To make matters worse there would be a high pitched whine that permeated the area near the monorail as the first car began to disintegrate entirely, the ceiling slowly crumpling downward, held up only by its connection to the car behind it and the remaining poles, seats, and doors that had not been smashed apart by the rockets. The slow pulling of the ceiling had another effect too, yanking the car that was still on the tracks forward, causing further cracks to develop in the support holding what remained of the monorail up off the ground.

Luke heard a noise and turned around to see a magnificent power armour among him. Shocked, he bowed in awe of the peice of machinery.

He got up to take a look at its state, it was in good condition, he wouldn't need to repair it, and even if he did, he had no equipment to repair with, all the standard fixing equipment had broken in the truck's crash. He could tell it was a medical unit from its markings, and since he wasn't in any need unlike the man it was currently attending to, he decided to break out of the truck and moved to a nearby tiny trench in the ground caused by the rubble from the truck, and got into prone position, keeping his pistol out.

He heard the rescue ship hovering about them, but he wasn't prepared to retreat, not with enemy soldiers nearby. He wanted to be useful, and if that meant being prepared to launch into fisticuffs with an NMX soldier, he wasn't willing to turn down the oppourtunity.

"I'll provide cover fire!" he said to the power armour, although he felt rather exposed with only a basic pistol. He peeked out from his trench and looked around for some weapon lying around.

Makari didn't hear Luke shout due to his deafened state. As the power armor tore through the debris, Makari, Thoroughly deafened and surprised, shouted "MY HAND IS A BIT BROKEN, BUT I'M OK. JUST DEAFENED MYSELF A BIT," in response to the power armor's message. He shook his head and the ringing cleared. That was not one of his best ideas. he concluded. However, he was glad to see at least one of his comrades was alive, though as usual he couldn't remember the guy's name. With the help of the power armor he clamored out of the refuse, pistol ready, and proceeded to look around for both enemies and cover in range before introducing himself to the power armor pilot and the rest of his team.

Kingston popped the chamber quick as he could and searched for another shot. What he saw instead was a quartet of rockets headed in his general direction. Bad news.

With no other way to avoid it, Viktor leaped. Although it wasn't really a leap; it was more like a guided fall to Painville. The ground below was nothing if not broken up and uneven, and he had one good foot to land on. Needless to say it hurt, but he didn't acquire any new wounds other than a few minor cuts and scrapes when he tumbled.

He had a pretty good view when it went boom too.

Phaedra's first reaction to having her calf impaled by three feet of metal was to yell in agony at the top of her lungs. After the initial wave of pain, Phaedra managed to open her eyes to examine the extent of her injuries. Her right calf was skewered by a piece of a monorail bench, pinning her bloody leg to the ground. Dozens of cuts covered her body where glass and metal shards managed to penetrate her combat armor. Due to the excruciating pain and blood loss, Phaedra could feel the first signs of shock beginning to set in. Gritting her teeth, she activated her comm-link.

"This is Wolf. I am immobilized and in need of medical assistance. Please respond," she said with evident strain.

Luke moved over to Makari and the power armour.

"Hey, soldier, identify yourself. We can't sit around here, we have to keep moving. Ideally we might be able to salvage things from in the truck first, but we need to do it quickly. I'll try to identify a way to dismantle one of the mounted weapons, it'd be useful if we could keep a heavy weapons. You could search for anything else of use, unless you have any better ideas?" Luke asked.

Luke got through the hole and examined one of the broken mounted machineguns. He detached the bullet feed and attempted to pull out the ammo box from it. Unless he found a weapon that could use it, it'd be useless, but with the low ammunition availible it'd be good to carry just in case.

"Power armour pilot, give me a hand and remove some of the rubble here? That is if the soldier is okay," Luke requested.

Makari took cover behind a chunk of debris to his right and answered his fellow comrade.
"P3C Makari Aeron, I don't quite recall yours. I think it started with an L. Damn I hate names," stated Makari, "sure, I can rummage around for some salvage. Just to let you know, I have some knowledge with machine repair and the like; however, I'm more of an explosives kinda guy." Then he shouted, "Any medic got a quick fix for a broken hand? I'd like to get the salvaging job done pronto!"

"Private Third Class Luke, don't worry about my last name, and I'm good at repairs... hmm, a broken hand, I have a generic medicine kit, it's probably got some bandages; I am not good at first aid, but I'll help you out."

Luke opened his backpack and went over to Makari; he amateurly applied the bandage so that it held the hand, although poorly.

"This will have to do until you can get some actual medical attention," Luke said sternly.

Luke went back to the truck, and managed to yank out the ammo feed. Now it was his task to get at the ammunition inside by breaking it open. It was resiliant and he realised he needed some kind of lever. Removing the detachable barrel of the machine-gun, Luke placed it near the edge of the box and pushed hard, making a small creak. He strained to lift the lid of the box off the main container. He strained but instead of the lid snapping off, the barrel caved and flung off, hitting Luke in the arm.

"Oww..." Luke said with annoyance. Luke attempted to find something else with which to break the container.

Alex was really ready to go with chief and to kick some ass. She was lookign forward to some retribution. She really wanted to kill those bastards in that building. But then she heard Wolf in the radio. "Oh bloody hell," she sweared and braked from her run. "This is Mayhew I am on the way Wolf!" She responded over the radio adn sprinted back.

Metal of the monorail car started whining from the damage. Alex was not happy about seeing that. She put her smg on the ground and carefuly climbed in the monorail. Wolf was where she saw her last time. She was all bloody with pieces of metal everywhere. But the problem was the large piece of metal in her calf.

"Do not worry lass you will be okay," Alex said to Wolf as she kneeled next to her. She took out her hypolathe. "I need to do something about that piece of metal before getting you out." She checked her hypolathe, there were just enough nanobots to create scalpel. "Good," she muttered for herself. After three second it took hypolathe to crate small about 5 centimeters long blade Alex proceeded to cut sides of metal stretching out of Phaedra's leg. And tehre was no time for painkillers. "Sorry Wolf you have to endure this."

When that was done, she carefully took Wolf into her arms and proceeded to evacuate the monorail car before it will completely crumble.

"Sorry Wolf, you will have to endure this," said Alex before she pulled the last piece of the bar out of Phaedra's leg.

Phaedra did everything in her power to stifle her need to cry out, but as soon the metal bar was removed she yelled in agony. She clenched her jaw tightly in an attempt ignore the pain that pulsed through her body. Alex helped Phaedra to her feet by pulling the sniper's right arm over her shoulders. Hearing the damaged monorail groan under stress, the two of them limped away from the dangling car and towards the Medivac.