RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 4]: Heads of the Beast

"I've been soldiering since I was old enough to spell my name, Phaedra," Harrison said in reply, also cracking a smile, "so I think I'll be fine."

Of course this was a bit of hyperbole, but it wasn't too far from the truth. He'd been fighting since time immemorial, and his home planet's siege was just another notch on the belt.

Numerous other squads had already assembled outside of the mall, positioned at several breach points on the two sides of the mall's first floor, with one larger squad at the entrance. Several blasts would be the cue for Ran to move his squad to the mall, a process he started in his usual manner; screaming orders at everyone.

The several blasts were from the squads blowing holes through several points in the few concrete walls of the mall, also accompanied by smaller explosions as Marines tossed grenades through the murder holes they made. What was strangely absent were the sounds of small arms. Apparently, all ground forces inside of the mall had retreated into the concrete bunker in the back of it that made up the monorail station.

By the time Ran's squad got to their destination, there were already two other squads there, helping to secure the parking lot and street leading to the mall. The Chief's squad was ordered to simply stand by and guard the demolition team as they gathered all of the explosives they needed to blow a hole in the large doors leading to the monorail station.

A short time later, the squad leader of the demo team gave Ran the thumbs up. "Okay, we're going to set up in the lobby of the mall. There are already three squads in there, so it looks like we won't need to be assaulting the station. Kind of a bummer, but at least we'll come out of this relatively unharmed." At that, the Chief started heading towards the lobby of the mall, which had two escalators leading to the 2nd floor, as well as a large staircase in the middle.

"Henry, get that gunship pilot on the line. I need to make sure he or she is in the area before the demo team breaches."

Despite being on foot, Anselm was still an armor pilot, and he'd be damned if he didn't feel a small amount of relief at having a vanguard pushing ahead of his unit through the urban death trap that was the mall complex. Even with the threat of a direct attack diminished, his eyes were still sharp for booby traps left behind from the Mishhu retreat into the monorail station.

"Keep your eyes open for any parting gifts, I'd rather not be cleaning up any of my friends because our guard was lax," he grumbled up at the demolition team's leader, glancing away from his cover of the street for a moment to make sure his craggy voice carried over the shouted orders of other squads nearby.

Kingston was breathing easy, but he was still on alert. It wasn't much like the Misshu to pull guerrilla tactics like impromptu explosives, but he wouldn't put it past them since they'd taken Nepleslians as hosts. He'd grabbed a Panzerfaust before leaving the makeshift armory and was cradling it in both arms as he walked with his team into the lobby.

"This mission has been going rather smoothly," he commented quietly, which sparked memory of the squad being split up. "Wonder how the greenhorns are doing..."

"Yes sir," Henry said as he patched his premade connection through to the pilot with a few thoughts and some key presses. He was able to get the pilot's name and identification with ease, and the make and model of the Sunburn.

"Cadet Krasnova, rally to our location ASAP," As he spoke, he reviewed the Sunburn's armaments and made a quick tactical analysis, "Be prepared to provide us with back up with tactical grenade launchers or the machine gun if we encounter heavy resistance. We'll have a spotter ready to watch out for you and scout targets."

Henry then tapped in a command that gave the Squad's location a 'ping' on the Gunship's radar, providing Krasnova with a clear direction, and a possible landing location if things got too hectic.

He then turned over to Sam with a nod, "Get a good view, somewhere high enough to see the mall, maybe in this building," He then realised that he forgot to send a line of connection to her, and opened the encrypted channel to her radio with a few more keystrokes, "And keep your weapons ready, just in case."

This meant that Henry, Sam, El's Gunship and Ran were on the same encrypted frequency.

"Roger," El replied over the channel, though she was a tiny bit surprised that her name was used. She didn't recall giving it, but whatever.

With her pre-flight checks done, her Sunburn started up it's rotors and began it's journey into the city, heading towards the given coordinates. She lightly kicked the back of the chair in front of her. "Hey, make sure we don't get shot or killed, kay?"

"Sunburn is en route," she then gave over the comm.

Sam set up on the roof at an almost leisurely pace. She knew it would take a bit for the other marines to get to the mall and set up, so she had a bit; once she was done with making sure she had a good view on the mall and the street nearby, she sat on a bit of rubble next to her deployed Zweihander and looked out at the city. During operations like this she dreaded free time - it was so much easier to not think about what she was doing while she was doing it. She hoped her family was safe.

It took almost no time at all for Chad and Kajiim to reach the Hospital. Apparently it wasn't as far as he thought, and that was definately a good thing.

He landed in the courtyard in front of the armed barricade where two Aggressors were on alert looking for possible threats to the hundreds of wounded inside the hospital. "Hold it there jimmy!", one of the brutish PA operators yelled at Chad. "Where the hell do you think your going?". More military confrontation, all Chad wanted to hear. "Listen fuckers, I've got one of the pilots that just saved the senate here, and he is bleeding like a stuck pig. I need to get his ass in there now or he won't have a whole lot of fucking time left!".

The guards then opened up a path up to the hospital where Chad saw several hundred patients lying on the mortar ridden lawn awaiting treatment. a lot of them looked either dead, or nearly dead, and Chad hoped his roomie wasn't gonna end up out here.

The door opened with a few nurses pushing one of those rolly bed things that you see all over hospitals and had Chad put Kajiim on it. "He is in good hands now", the leader said to Chad. "We heard you were coming from somehigher ups and we got orders to make him top priority". The rest of the nurses left with Kajiim leaving Chad and the charismatic head nurse to talk. Chad couldn't really make out anyface that matched the nurse but it was definately female and somewhere in her thirties judging by the voice. "Well he better make it, he's a pretty straight shooting kid and I'd hate for him to die," Chad said with a little sternity. "Where is your radio? Mine is a little weak and I need to get in touch with the unarmored portion of our squad. They got dropped a little farther from the senate building than we did, and I need to know how long it will be till we can safely evacuate the senators."

The nurse gave a motion with her hands and replied, "There is one right inside the main office right inside the door. You should be able to pinpoint any Nepleslian signal from there with decent clarity."

"Thank you ma'am", Chad walked in the door feeling a little awkward in his PA, and proceeded to the main desk with the radio on it. He pushed aside a few cowering civilians and turned on the radio and downloaded the chanel with his HUD. Chad then called up his long lost squad. "Commander Ran and company, this is Pvt. Chad Skwigleff. We have secured the senate building and are wondering where the hell you guys are and when we can get these bastard senators off-planet? Response from any member of squad is requested. Skwigleff out".

Private Third Class Allen had stacked at the rear of his squad's tactical column, breathing slowly and quietly, in order to control the surge of adrenaline he had always felt before breaching through a wall. Keeping his eye trained on the lead man in the column, who was counting down from 5, James Allen switched the safety off on the weapon, holding it in a ready position.

As soon as the explosive charge detonated, the first man in the column was through the hole the charge created, followed quickly by three more Marines, depleting the length of the column Allen was behind. Several shots followed; some fired by his squad, others by whatever hostiles were being shot on the other side, as well as distant shots and explosions by other breaching teams. As he crossed through the threshold, the Private kept his back to the right wall and moved along the inner perimeter of the room they had breached into, securing it while the initial Marines who breached rushed out of the room into cover.

Surprisingly, no shots answered the Marines that rushed out into the mall, and apart from a clean shot through a Marine's shoulder, the assault on the mall had gone rather well.

"Bastards must be holed up and shit inside the station." Sergeant Hill said, almost making the nervous Private jump at his unexpected appearance. At that moment, the demolition team entered the mall, helping each other carry the heavy crates of ordnance up the stairs to the heavy doors leading to the train station. "Everyone stack up, left side" Was the Sergeant's only orders before the Marines stacked up on the left side of the door, far enough from the blast radius. Another squad of Marines joined them to the right, and another squad was in the lobby to act as a back-up force.

Private Allen found himself in the front of the column, this time counting down with a noticeably shaky hand. Something definitely noticed by his fellow Marines, who would inevitably give the rookie shit for it later.

After the explosion, the Private lead his column into the train station, which apart from a few dim red lights, was completely dark. Ordered to secure the ticket boxes, the Private took two other Marines with him to accomplish the job. Upon finding the door to be locked, the Private ordered the two Marines to stack on his left, who would immediately throw grenades and run into the room after the Private kicked the door open and roll out of the way.

Allen carefully watched the mouth of one of the Marines, who had begun a silent countdown, barely lit by the glowing red lights inside of the station. Raising his leg up to kick the door down, he brought it forward as soon as he could make out the "o" in his partner mouthing "one."

As unexpected as the Private flinching in hesitation, what seemed like a battering ram plowed over the private, as the flying metal door sailed down the dark station, bowling over other Marines who had come to help Allen's group. Two heavy arms crashed through the wall next to the door, grabbing either of the two other Marines by the neck, breaking them in their death grip.

With little regard to how much messed it caused, the assailant with either private in hand, widened the holes it made in the concrete wall. Through the darkness, the shocked Marines stared agape at four glowing eyes, bobbing gently in the darkness as the hulking form of a certain machine came into view.

===========

Outside the mall, Rui's and other squads sat bored, intently listening to the explosions and gunfire that signaled the squads breaching the mall. Several status reports followed, adding only to the nervousness of the Marines who were stuck outside on guard duty. Silence followed the last status report, indicating the demolition team had set their charges.

Five minutes later, their comm systems were flooded with panicked voices, accompanied by the sound of heavy gunfire within the mall. Most of it was identifiable as small arms fire, but a loud, extremely angry-sounding weapon could be heard apart from the Marines' gunfire. Over the din of the gunfire, one could make out the word "--pper" over the comm systems.

"What the fuck. Morris, get that fucking Sunburn here ASAP. Everyone else, grab a panzerfaust." The Chief grabbed one himself, standing up and shouldering it, watching the rest of the squads outside gear up in a similar fashion. "Fuckin' squids must have a heavy weapon in there or som-" The Chief looked through the glass structure of the mall and froze.

Through the glass, the Chief could barely make out the forms of several retreating Marines, one in particular being speared and quickly crushed against a pillar. Advancing on the parking lot where Ran's squad was, the form of a Ripper came into view. "FUCK! FIND SOME COVER!" Was all he got out before he frantically armed the launcher.

El yawned. The flying itself was kind of boring. It's fun when you first start it, but it's the same thing over and over, so after a while the magical-ness of flying in a gunship wasn't all the amazing. But then again, the inevitable fireworks at the end of this run would be worth it, she hoped. Which actually reminded her of something.

"Cadet Krasnova here. ETA... not too long. Any heavy resistance now or is it just going to be a simple blow up the zombies to smithereens?" she asked, well timed, over the comm.

"FUCK! FIND SOME COVER!" shouted the Chief.

Phaedra saw the hulking form of the Ripper heading straight towards the squad, and she immediately ducked behind a nearby ruined car. She threw her GSAR onto the asphalt and unstrapped the Panzerfaust from her back. Arming the weapon, she hefted the tube on her shoulder and placed the eyepiece against her right eye. She steadied herself and exhaled slowly to lessen the rush of adrenaline that flooded her viens. Phaedra then popped up from behind the car and aimed the Panzerfaust at the Ripper until the display read LOCKED ON.

"Fire in the hole!" shouted Phaedra before pulling the trigger.

Chief Ran said:

"Fuckin' squids must have a heavy weapon in there or som-"

Click to expand...

"Oh hell yes," Anselm breathed, taking a corner as Chief Rui took a moment to realize what Anselm was already firing at, shoulder kicking back several inches with each coin the HPAR put down range.

Phaedra Volkov said:

"Fire in the hole!"

Click to expand...

"TASTE IT!" he whooped, pulling back from his firing position and into cover, as Phaedra gave her warning and sent the anti-matter warhead streaking towards the squid-built armor. The marine nonchalantly tightened the chinstrap on his helmet and rolled upright along the wall, resuming his kneeled firing position, and pumping several more semi-molten coins in the specific direction of the Ripper.

"Commander Ran Rui and company, do you copy? This is Pvt. Chad Skwigleff looking for conframation that you are all still alive. Me and the other Greenies have secured senate building. Over".

Of course there was a Ripper; it just wouldn't be a normal day for the Marines of the Acadia if there wasn't something completely and terribly wrong. Private Viktor Kingston was planted against the low wall of the mall's exterior when he heard the call, and confirmed with a brief glimpse through the many windows.

For five seconds Kingston's panzerfaust was an impromptu battering ram used to smash the window so he could get a clear and safe shot at the Ripper. There was still a lot of stuff- there isn't a more general word for all the miscellaneous things- between him and the target, but no time to worry about that. Armed and locked, he fired.

"Firing!" he shouted, then took cover again to see Anselm coming up alongside him.

The Ripper had begun it's assault by carving through the Marine squad taking cover in the lobby of the mall, and apart from a few scratches to its armor from small arms fire and a panzerfaust exploding impotently on the ground in front of it, the Mishhu power armor remained relatively unharmed, until several coin rounds from Anselm's HPAR impacted on it's left forearm, beginning it's job of melting over and caking the firing port of it's forearm cannons.

Before Anselm could fire off a panzerfaust, the Ripper immediately rocketed through the glass wall of the mall, firing several 50mm projectiles at Anselm's position while doing so, in order to keep what was registered as the enemy force's heavy weapon suppressed. Due to it's sudden maneuver, Kingston's panzerfaust barely clipped the Mishhu armor, streaking through the other side of the mall and into the distance.

The Ripper continued it's sideward motion, intending to flank the Marine platoon on the left, before being knocked a bit off course by Phaedra's panzerfaust, which despite curving off-course, managed to clip the right leg of the Ripper.

Several other Marines in the platoon finally fired a volley of panzerfausts at the Ripper; most being prematurely detonated by its scalar projectors, some impacting dangerously close, and one hitting it square in the chest. Seeking to put as much hard cover between itself and the comparatively light (but numerous) heavy weapons of the Marines, the Ripper crashed through the wall of the building to the left of where Henry and Sam were situated, disappearing inside.

Thunderous crashes were heard soon after, becoming more and more distant. It became apparent that the Ripper was currently on the move. A Sunburn was already in pursuit, though it was unable to fire due to the fact that the Ripper was using the surrounding structures as cover.

====

"Fuck!" The Chief had no time to fire off a panzerfaust, busy with last-minute adjustments to the placing of other Marines in cover. Watching in disbelief as the hulking armor skillfully evaded the storm of panzerfausts sent it's way, as well as disappearing into the building, the Chief was stuck in place for a moment. Until two reports came in over the comm.

Cadet Krasnova said:

"Cadet Krasnova here. ETA... not too long. Any heavy resistance now or is it just going to be a simple blow up the zombies to smithereens?"

Click to expand...

The Chief's response, heavily laden with profanity, as well as muffled by the sound of an entire platoon reorganizing and pursuing, was a bit hard to understand. The general gist of it was for the gunship to pursue the Ripper.

Calming down and ordering the squad to rearm and prepare to pursue, the Chief addressed Chad's report: "We are currently in pursuit of a Ripper. Get your asses into a shuttle, immediately."

"Morris, Sam, get topside and track that fucking Ripper!" Ran's voice came in over the comm, set to several frantic hand motions that the two up high would be able to see.

"Well then," Henry said as he reached for a grenade on his belt, surprisingly calm about the situation around him, "I guess that puts a damper on our afternoon."
The grenade he'd reached for was labelled 'Sc.Pulse.' and he handed another one to Sam. Now, he only had two EMP grenades, and a scalar pulse grenade, "It'll give the Ripper a headache if it gets too close."

He then replied to El, with his other hand free, "To clarify the Chief: We have a pissed-off Ripper bearing down on us," Whilst calm, he did sound relatively miffed, "Now get your arse over here and deal with it!"

He then got out of his comfortable position, and started heading up the stairs of the apartment, eventually reaching the roof after about three or four flights of stairs. When he reached the top, he opened the access door slowly and kept a crouched position as he moved towards the edge of the building.

"In position," He radioed as he peeked over the edge of the building, now fully aware of the riotous chaos.

"Sonovabitch! Not again!" Anselm groaned, following Henry as he smashed his bullet-riddled cybernetic hand against the wall to get the remaining portions of finger moving enough to grip the underside of the HPAR.

"This is the third time my arm's been scrapped, and the second damned cybernetic I'll be going through, I must be cursed" the marine grumbled, uncomfortably adjusting to having his off-hand on the trigger.

Sean followed along behind Anselm, taking care to keep track of where the Ripper was. It really wouldn't be a good idea to get surprised by that Ripper inside, as the first squad of Marines had shown very clearly. He snorted at Anselm's comment. "Or maybe you just can't wait to get back to the ever-so-loving ministrations of our resident doctor."

Alice was crouched behind one of the cars when NMX hulkling powerarmour made its appearence. She didn't expected Ripper so world around received once more one of hers Bloody hell's shouted out in anger. She quickly ducked letting her smg on sling and grabbed her panzerfaust. It took her short while rain of of enemy fire cut car over her head almost in two. She also heard beatiful sound of Anselms HPAR and lots of fired panzerfausts. WHen she was on her knees again Ripper dissappeared inside one of the buildings.

She didn't pay much reaction to Anselms swearing. It looked like only his mechanical arm was damaged and she can't do much with that. She is a medic but she can't be helping others while there is Ripper running around. And by its movement it was no ordinary Ripper.

Alice ran half-crouched towards the building where Ripper crashed through Wall. She ran towards the hole and stoped at one of its sides breathing heavily. "Bloody hell," she whispered again and shook her head. Than she slowly moved towards the edge of the hole to peek inside. Panzerfaust in her hands ready.

Not much of a time for jokes, but Viktor Kingston still found himself grinning at Sean's remark. "Focus, now. We've got a Ripper moving high-speed." The P1C reloaded and jogged as he spoke. He tapped Alice's shoulder as he kept running straight through the impromptu door the Ripper blew open. "Let's go!" Admittedly, running with not only a panzerfaust but a rifle slung over his back made him a bit sluggish, but Kingston would be damned before he gave up the pursuit at the beginning.