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

As the machinegun's short, cobbled together belt of ammunition jammed in the feed tray, the Private swore. "Shit, I missed." He then turned a more observant eye on the other Nepleslian Marine and looked about for a rank and name patch. It took a short bit to get his eyes to focus again after the bright muzzle flashes. "I'm Private Third Class Matteo Witt. Just Matt though." He jumped off to the opposite side of the truck, and rummaged over the legless ID-SOL. "I wasn't assigned a unit yet; just told to run out and kill anything not following the good old Nepleslia Way." Matt gave out an exclamation as he found what he was looking for.

"Skwigleff, cold potato!" A pineapple grenade was chucked over the truck bed and right at the other Private. "Grab that and let's get out of the open. I'd rather not have the guy who lent me a hand biting the dust the same way he helped." He popped back up from behind the other side of the truck, holding another SMG and belt of magazines.

"Hey, you want this? The big stick says you're compensating, but this doesn't."

Scalpel wasn'T sharp enough to cut the piece of metal without it moving too much. Alex didn't have any other choice, the metal had to go out. "Brave lass," Alex said as she took metal out. Wolf jaw was tight shut, her eyes closed in pain. With metal out, lot of blood started to pour out of the wound, but that would have to waith until they are out of the train.

With Wolf's arm over her shoulder Alex helped her comrade limp out of car. Once they were cler she set Wolf behind some rubble so they will be covered. "I have to stop this bleeding before we will get you to medevac," Alex said. She then turned to the nearest PA medic. "YO I could use hypolathe hear ironman!"

Alex then proceeded to take out her medical kit and pressure bandage from it. SHe then wrapped it tigh around the wound. There was not much else she could do. Hypolathe would do nicely, but her was empty so. "Okay Wolfie remember one thing. Stay awake! You have to stay awake, not like some wee problem like bloodloss could stay in you way right?" Alex said as she looked into Wolfs eyes so she had something to focus on.

tomaszavenger said:

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

Click to expand...

"Thanks a bunch man, I owe ya."

Makari proceeded to glance around for supplies to gather up when he heard and "Oww..." from Luke. Luke was trying to pry open a container. Makari yelled "Luke!" and waited a moment until he had the man's attention, "Catch!" and tossed his knife underhanded to Luke. "Use my knife. If you push the button on the side it pops out."

Makari then returned to his scavenging; to the right, he noticed a heavily scuffed Styrling Silver Special .45, the gunmetal black, hopefully with a full magazine behind another piece of debris. A bit further, and out of cover, away he spotted a Styrling Shot 12 and some packaged supplies; however, he was too far away to see the condition of said items. He did a dive roll to the nearby cover and proceeded to examine the handgun. On further inspection, the handgun's barrel was warped to the right and the magazine was jammed; unusable. He took a deep breath and popped his head above the debris a little to spot any potential enemies before diving for the remaining nearby supplies.

Luke took the thrown knife and wedged it on a button, pushing down on it. The button made the lid spring open, revealing a mass of linked bullets. Tom took the belt out, putting the bullets into his backpack.

"The bullets ar salvaged, we can give it to another machine-gunner... hey, Makari, you found a Styrling? Pass it here! I might be able to unjam the magazine with your knife and use it," Luke said, turning his attention to the soldier. He moved over to help him with the salvage.

Luke's strength allowed him to move over some of the heavier boulders with some ease. He noticed a shining shard of metal on the ground where one of the boulders had once lain.

"I found something, wait... it's nothing. Just a snapped off weapon's barrel. Maybe if you find the body the magazine will still be useful. If we don't find anything, we'll just have to keep moving," Luke said, popping his head around and aiming his pistol, in case enemies were trying to ambush them. The surrounding area was still clear from what he could see.

Makari passed the Styrling to Luke and said "the clip may be salvagable, I haven't taken the time to check."

If for some reason the Chief was asked about what happened after he began advancing upon the truck, all he could really respond with was "Just a lot of shit going down at once." With his shotgun raised, the Chief had started his advance on the truck, only to see the enemy ID-SOL fall to the ground after being enveloped by several puffs of red mist.

While he lowered his shotgun and attempted to hail Matteo by waving at him, he saw the Private immediately man the mounted machine gun and fire past him and into the building where several rockets streaked out from towards the monorail car, only to explode and send shrapnel flying around inside the car.

With his medic racing away from him and towards the monorail car, the Chief felt the most powerful sense of loneliness. There he was, standing there with a gun, unable to offer any help other than shooting at a few possible windows where fire would come from.

Hearing the explosions in the distance which resulted from an attack on a Nepleslian transport truck, the Chief simply sauntered over to the truck which Matteo was in, and sat down. Resting his shotgun on the edge of the bed and lighting up a cigarette, the Chief sat there and just took it all in. A colossal screw-up, thanks to him not getting his team out of the monorail car, and to him allowing his team to get on the car in the first place.

Attempting to contact his squad via his microphone, the Chief hesitated, choosing instead to not do such a thing. It'd cause more shit if his squad heard the following orders from the NCO that put them in their current position. "Morrison." The Chief addressed Henry flatly, pausing to take a drag from his cigarette. "Get some Vipers down here and order the retreat, on my authority. I don't need anyone else getting hurt."

Looking across at the number of wounded, as well as the lack of Marines combat ready, the Chief felt a terrible sinking sensation in his stomach. It was either a feeling of helplessness, or the terrible realization that he could do nothing.

He sat castrated, a man used to getting his hands dirty, thrust into a position where he had to order people to fight for him. "Private, make sure you get out before you hit Sergeant." The Chief said to Matteo, allowing the burning end of the cigarette to warm the inside of his fingers as it advanced further towards the filter.

"It's awfully lonely further at the top."

Luke took the Styrling pistol passed to him by Makari. The main gun was clearly unusable. He remembered his training for fixing jams, and with his knife on the end of the magazine, tapped the bolt release catch with his finger and simultaneously heaved with the knife. The magazine came off rather easily, leaving only a wedged bullet stuck in the pistol chamber.

Luke threw away the rest of the pistol, and stored the magazine in his backpack.

"Okay... I got the magazine. Makari, any ideas on what to do next?" Luke asked, realising they were going to get nowhere if they expected a rescue party.

Luke walked away from the rubble and got back into the trench.

"You know, we should get over to the other soldiers, there's a bit of smoke in the distance, we could follow it Makari, your call," Luke said, unwilling to make a decision on his own. This was his first mission, and he didn't know anyone very well, he hoped Makari would have more experience in this matter.

Luke threw back Makari's knife to him, no longer needing it.

Makari caught the knife and sheathed it, glad to have al of his weapons back on his person. Seeing no surrounding enemies, he jogged over and picked up the supplies and the shotgun. The supplies were slightly charred, but mostly useable. It contained a day's worth of rations. The Styrling 12 Shot on the other hand had a cracked stock. On further inspection, the rest of the shotgun seemed in alright condition; a few scratches and burn marks. He trotted on back towards Luke and passed the shotgun to him.

"You look like you need a bigger gun. Except for the stock, it seems in okay condition," said Makari, "I agree, we should go towards the smoke, unless..." He paused and asked the power armor pilot, "Any radio commmunication from other units? Do we continue the attack or pull back?"

Luke took the weapon: a badly damaged piece of junk; usable, but with only one magazine would hardly be useful. Still, he had to agree with Makari, better this than simply a standardised pistol.

He holstered his pistol and kept the 12-shot in his arms. The burns on the side had created a peeling effect on the side metal, and he'd probably have to sand this down the second he could get to a workshop.

"Thanks Makari," Luke said with a nod, awaiting the power armour's response for orders. He pushed up and quickly got out of the trench, inspecting the ruins of the truck for one last time. He noticed something poking out of the rocks. He took a look at it: it was a small set of wire clippers.

"Must have come off one of the engineer's toolkits, I'll hold onto this, just in case," Luke thought.

Chad looked at the Pvt. and gave a chuckle, not that Matt could see it through the silver AIR-R helm. "I think I've got plenty of fire power man," he said as he hefted his RAPTOR. He then motioned to the grenade on the ground and held up his FMD clad wrist, "and I'm given this thing for a reason." He laughed, what a classic tender foot mistake to underestimate the power of an AIR.

"Pvt. 3rd Class Chad Skwigleff, under Commander Rui's squad of the NSS Acadia. I'm the designated Ace in the Hole." He smiled again, although once again no one could see it.

"Speaking of which, follow me man". He then led the Pvt over to Ran for orders. "Chief, here is some fresh meat to put to work." He looked around as two more greens showed up on the HUD. "And it looks like there might be more chief. Orders?"

Ran had finished his second cigarette, and by now had produced a small flask which he kept jammed tight under the plates of his body armor. His nose burning at the smell of old alcohol, the Chief took a swig of whiskey.

At the arrival of Skwigleff, the Chief slid the flask back into it's space, not making an effort to hide what he was doing. The only sort of acknowledgment the Chief gave Matteo was a single cursory glance...which soon turned into a stare. Right into Matteo's eyes.

Not turning away, the Chief said "We need to form a perimeter around the wounded. We don't have enough men to send a search party for the newcomers." Lighting up a third cigarette, Ran directed his stare away from Matteo and stood up, picking up his shotgun.

"You're with me." The Chief nudged Matteo uncouthly with the barrel of his shotgun and started walking off towards the monorail. "Skwigleff, I want you with us as fire support. Unless you think you can pick up the newcomers, in which case I cannot guarantee we can immediately come to the rescue if shit goes down." The Chief did not like the idea of two Marines being left out in the cold, and the presence of a mobile armor as fire support did not sit well with him.

"I'll hold with you Chief. But I'm gonna call into those other guys and see if there is anyway they can get over here."

Chad brought up the greens on his HUD and found a Pvt. Areon and accessed his Comm link, "Pvt. Aeron, this is Pvt. Skwigleff of the NSS Acadia. We request Rendevous near the monorail crashsite. Any and all fire power will be appreciated, over".

After the explosion, P1C Viktor Kingston had laid in something of a daze for several long moments. Slowly he returned to his senses and made to his feet in a very delicate fashion that was quite unbecoming of a Nepleslian. Once on his feet he began the excruciatingly painful and arduous process of limping toward Chief Rui on one broken foot- or was it his ankle? He didn't fucking know, but it wasn't pleasant either way. Thankfully Ran could be seen heading his way, and Kingston gave a small wave of acknowledgment, but didn't stop. His mind was quickly numbing, and thoughts becoming nothing more than left foot... right foot... left foot... right foot....

“Negative on the vipers, have all soldiers in the area fall back to the Sugarpea immediately for reassignment.” The voice on the other end had a rushed sense of annoyance about it, eager to get underway with something else which in their mind had much greater importance than the injured marines

The medics in power armor had seemed distracted as well, receiving new orders for an immediate return to the ship hovering overhead as well. One ended up outright ignoring Makari’s request for something to patch up his hand, moving away from the other marines and making a quick thruster assisted jump back up to the ship hovering overhead. The other had ended up next to the monorail, quickly trying to pull it apart to see if anyone else had remained under the debris. “Get back onto the Sugarpea, we’ve got enough gear to fix up you guys up once we’re on our way,” He said to anyone close enough to hear.

---

Up above, onboard the SugarPea Anselm had just arrived, having been pulled onboard by the stretchers that had been lowered down for use. A pair of white painted junker drones picked up the stretcher and moved him into one of the ship’s hallways. Lining the white halls on either side were all of the injured that had been collected by the ship in the short amount of time it had spent after the blast. They were mainly civilians sporting burns and puncture wounds from the bombs that had been set off in the city. Some had yet to even be bandaged as the drones continued their work in absence of the ship’s doctors.

Makari acknowledges the medic's statement and climbs aboard a stretcher. "I'll see ya top side Luke," calls Makari and pushes the UP button. He quickly ascends to the Sugarpea.

Luke nodded, and took a spare stretcher, pushing the up key to return to the ship. Luke wasn't used to the fast ascent sequence and almost fell off, but the device seemed to stabilise itself to catch him, so he relaxed and simply whimpered from the force.

Luke accidentally dropped his unholstered Styrling 12-shot, the old metal device falling slowly to the surface. Luke laughed as he imagined an NMX soldier being bonked on the head with the falling metal.

Luke soon entered the Sugarpea.

"Maybe it's a good idea to purchase some weaponry and ammunition after all, and see what tools I can also get hold of," Luke thought.

"Okay Wolfie remember one thing; stay awake! You have to stay awake, not like some wee little problem like bloodloss could stay in your way right?"

Phaedra nodded grimly. She focused on Alex's gaze while a tourniquet was tightened just below her knee. With Alex supporting her, Phaedra managed to limp to the medivac, grunting in pain the whole way. She was put onto a stretcher and swiftly sent up into the Sugarpea.

Aside from the pain clouding her mind, Phaedra's only thought was, "Sugarpea? What kind of a name is that?"

Matteo returned the chief's gaze, but not in quite the same manner. His eyes were relaxed yet alert with a hint of sleepy glee behind them. A ghost of a smile was hiding in his face somewhere, just ever so slightly out of view yet just so slightly in view. It was the kind of face that said, 'Hello.' in a mellow voice without actually saying so. He kept on staring at Ram expectantly until the order was given. "Sure thing sir." he replied, an SMG in each hand.

"I"m right behind you."

Alex (The CIVILIAN Alex) rushed to stop bleeding and patch people up, the girl by no means a doctor but resourceful. people kept coming in and there weren't really any more medics in sight, but she had gotten the hang of it more or less. She treated some old men, young soldiers, anyone who was injured and coming through the doors.

She didn't have TOO much trouble -- those who were in pain seemed to be able to focus on her excessively tight and braless shirt what she wore after being saved from the Mishhu, and managed to endure.