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

Alex stood up. Even when seh hti the deck she was still hurled few meter across the hangar. Sheh it her back adn it hurt a little but she was alive and had nothing broken.

WHen shuttles were brought up on the deck, Alex was stacking up on grenades left. She put one in each pocked of her throusers and three on her armour. She even found a drum magazine and battery for her smg in now almost-empy box. Looks like not many soldiers took same thing as her.

WIth nod she ran and got on shuttle. "Come on folks, there is not that much time!" she shouted on others climbing in shuttle.

Kajiim lifted himself from the deck and helped Phaedra up from her hard landing. Just then he heard Master Chief Vel Steyr list him off with the other greenhorns. Turning round he recieved instructions to suit up. "I don't like this.. I mean really unpowered power armor?? Dammit. Kajiim thought to himself as he accepted with a "Yes Sir".

Wasting no time Kajiim ran to a HOSTILE and climbed in side leaving his weapons (save the two revolvers holstered at his hip) at its feet. Once inside he picked up his shotgun and panzerfaust. And began to make his way to the catapult, watching his comrades prepare. Nervously he waited.

As Jack pried himself from the floor of the deck, something from one of his instructors in boot camp came back to him as Master Chief Vel Steyr came up and promptly informed Jack and his three other green horns that they couldn't afford to wait the thirty precious minutes required to fully restart the systems in the power armor: "I know you boys don't think you need this, but you'll thank me!" the instructor had yelled. At the time Jack hadn't believed the man but as Jack sealed himself in the armor he realized just how correct that man had been.

Jack approached the catapult as fast as the armor could allow, holding his shotgun to his chest with both hands as he came to stand on one of the launchers next to his fellow green-horn and bunk-mate Kajiim.

"Are you alright, K?" He asked, not looking at his fellow Marine but rather straight ahead.

This had the potential to go very bad and Jack could only hope that Murphy was merciful in the application of his laws.

After the flying, and the falling, and the hurting, Chad got up and got the worst orders ever. "Suit up, and get in the Catapult", was really all Chad heard, but at least the training in powered down armor would actually pay off.

Chad through away the shotgun and the STAR, but left all three secondary weapons holstered. He climbed into an AIR2 because it was a hell of a lot lighter than any of the other armors, so mobility wouldn't be nearly as hindered. He grabbed an HPAR now, (even though he hated the freaky ass coin round), and started moving toward the catapults. The thump was about to be laid down.

Helping the NAM Rep off the deck, Lucas took stock. He seemed to be fine, and his companion was Really cute... he thought, then shook his head quickly and looked away when he noticed the girl looking back at him. He mumbled out an "Are you ok?"

His awkward chat with the NAM girl was cut short, however, as the Master Chief patted him on the shoulder and ordered he and the other rookies to get suited up and get to the Catapult. Lucas' eyes widened as he took in the order: they'd be going in, not only to his first battle, but only with semi-powered armor and lightly armed. I do not like this... Lucas thought, giving a hesitant "Yes sir!" before getting suited up, grabbing his Ripshot, and following Kajim, Jack, and Chad to the catapult.

Responding to Jack's question, "Don't worry about me I'm fine.... it's just that this situation's really heavy and it doesn't helped that we're going in practically handicapped."

Kajiim finished talking to Jack as the two younger greenhorns arrived, "We ready?", Kajiim asked the PA fireteam.

Phaedra let out yelp when one of the newer recruits flew straight into her. She believed that his name was Chad, but she had never introduced herself.

"Careful, you're currently sitting on top of a two-foot anti-matter warhead..." said Phaedra, pointing out the four-foot Panzerfaust laying across her body. Eventually, the marines began to pick themselves up and Kajiim extended a hand to Phaedra.

"Thank you," said Phaedra as Kajiim helped her onto her feet. Setting down the Panzerfaust, she helped to extract Chief Ran from under the bulky crate.

"Are you alright, Chief?" she said, extending a hand to help him up. After a few moments helping those nearby that needed assistance, Phaedra collected the Panzerfaust and then quickly headed to the nearest shuttle.

Sean stepped back into the shuttle bay, finishing strapping into his armor right when the MC gave the order for the majority of them to load up into the shuttle. "Roger that." He climbed in, but stayed close to the exit, wanting to get a clear shot if they dropped in hot.

Sam hauled herself up off the floor, her legs already going before she was fully upright. She ran as fast as her strong legs could carry her to the shuttle, swinging into it by grabbing onto the top rather than simply running inside. She landed on one of the seats with a grunt and began to check her weapons over.

Anselm picked himself off the deck and boarded the shuttle before strapping himself and the massive HPAR down for the ride.

"Alright," he grinned, looking across the small hold at Sam and Sean, "let's kick some ass for Rok'veru!"

"Fuck." Harrison grunted. He was hauling himself off the floor of the hallway just outside the hangar. Having been a little bit hung over and a little bit unconscious in his bunk, Harrison (who had really lived up his shore leave) was unaware of anything going on aboard the Acadia until more urgent commands began being shouted about. Then the ex-mercenary hauled himself off his bunk and started moving, realizing the trouble that was soon to be afoot.

He was out of his bunk and moving as soon as his still-booted feet hit the ground (he had passed out in full uniform, as was rapidly becoming tradition after shore leave). He had covered most of the corridors to the hangar bay after that first announcement, but found himself too late to make it to the hangar bay before the Acadia made its jump.

As a result, he went from running to face-down against the wall in a matter of seconds, hurled to the floor by the inertia of the massive Acadia jumping to well past the speed of light. Harrison held himself against the ground until he managed to feel the ship slow down again, and then immediately pried himself off the deck and headed into the hangar bay.

His FIRE sat in a state of disarray, but there were crates filled with infantry weapons that a few other stragglers were picking through. Harrison didn't even stop to think. He pulled out a suit of Muur armor and a helmet, secured it quickly, and moved on. He pulled two HHGs and a GSAR from one crate, six frag grenades from another, a Styrling Longbolt from a third, and corresponding ammunition from a fourth. Eight RED clips for the HHG, three standard mags for the GSAR, another mag for the Longbolt.

The ex-mercenary set out for the shuttle that his squad was on, shouting "Hold her on the fucking deck!" and similar oaths as he sprinted for it. Eventually he made it to the shuttle, where he ungracefully hurled himself through the open doors and occupied the nearest open seat.

The suit felt cramped and heavy with only the backup power running. Lucas hoped the generators would spin up quicker, and that they'd be in good enough shape to be used then; the pilots or the armors, for that matter. But Lucas felt less afraid and more...alive. He grinned a little to himself as his body pumped a starter wave of adrenaline through him, readying himself for combat. Just another obstacle to overcome, he realized. Another part of the flow.

"We ready?", Kajiim asked the PA fireteam.

Click to expand...

Lucas snapped out of his reverie and nodded at the other Marine. "Ready to go." He took a few calming breaths, reminding himself not to let the flow sweep him away. He took one last look at the other soldiers, then turned to the Catapult again, nodding to himself.

"Let us show them what we are made of," Lucas said finally, loud enough for the others to hear.

UPSTAIRS

"Captain, I'm picking up a high energy reaction!" The Sensors Officer yelled. Even with Monoeyes, spotting a stealthed S1 was difficult unless the ship voluntarily gives itself away, in this case by charging its Aether Shock Cannon. The main screen zoomed for a visual.

"Maker, its the NSS Alder!" Captain Peters nearly jumped out of his seat. It was the NSS Acadia's partner vessel during the operation to retake the NSS Emden. The ship was presumed destroyed when the Mishhus lauched their surprise invasion. The presumption was not entirely wrong, as the Alder on the screen looked like a zombie of a ship with severe battle damage and tacked-on Misshu components to keep it afloat. "Charge the Aether Cannon!"

"But sir, the Alder started charging first. Shouldn't we take evasive actions?" The Nav officer piqued.

"The Alder isn't aiming at us. It's trying to finish off the Senate." The Captain stood on his feet, he had served on the ancient NSS Alder as a trainee, it was both sad and blasphemous that such a venerable ship was now used to strike against the heart of the Empire. "Besides, it wont get a chance to if we fire now." Peters then swung his hand forward with a vengeance, centring his pointer finger on the opposing S1. "FIRE!"

As it was an express command by the Captain, the Acadia's SAVTECH overrode all prohibitions and safeties to produce a lance of all-annihilating Aether on demand. Normally the cannon hatch and stealth sheath forward of the Aether Cannon would only begin to open at half charge to dissipate excess energy being built up inside the ship, this was the stage the Alder was at when it was detected.

At 1/4ths of full charge when the Captain ordered the attack, the hydraulics used to retract both hatch and sheath were barely even warmed up. As a result both of these were annihilated. The thin beam that the Acadia produced crossed a thousand kilometers in a heartbeat to strike against the side of the Alder, pushing it over the damage threshold accumulated from the Wazu Nebula encounter and breeching the containment field in its cannon holding a near full charge, causing it to disgorge all the Aether into itself. One bright flash of light later it was safe to say for sure that the NSS Alder no longer existed in this universe.

Peters breathed a silent prayer for the ship and its crew before returning his thoughts to the planet and its people. "Take us down, helmsman."

DOWNSTAIRS

The MC could barely feel the Aether Cannon going off under his feet nor the destruction of two small pieces of the Acadia, but he could feel the slow shudder of the ship entering the atmosphere and the thought of the unthinkable gnawing at the back of his head. He quickly grabbed a versatile IPG Model 01 Assault Rifle, a 12mm RPB Pistol (He was not a fool to believe that the ESG he was issued with was good for anything other than hunting vermin), three concussion grenades, MUUR body armor and plenty of ammo. This done he clambered aboard the shuttle containing Ran's squad.

The only people left standing on the deck were the four greenhorns in their PAs and the NAM Representatives. Due to the relative newness of the Representative program, the supervisor of the latter was not one himself, but rather an egghead from the Company's PA division. He was cowering near a stack of boxes in fear. With youthful initiative and ingenuity however, the fifteen or so mostly female Reps had procured a number of disposable thrusters for rocket-assisted takeoff and short-vertical landings. These had their own one-shot power supply and were consequently attached to the waist of each of the greenhorn's PAs by the fours.

A tall, blue haired Rep moved to the front and side of the Catapult to issue instructions while her compatriots made sure the rockets were properly attached and programmed. A detonator like device was pressed into the hands of each of the PA pilots. "Remember." She began, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Trigger the rockets at the 100 meter mark. Because your suits are out, we'll tell you when that is so keep your comm channels open." Lucas Vanguard may be forgiven if he wasn't paying attention because his oh-so-cute Representative was busy writing down her NAM.net number on the back of his suit. "Call me!" She whispered, before having to obey the orders of her new self-appointed leader. "Start the warm up sequence on the rest of the reactors now even if they aren't attached yet! The Company will pay for your anti-rad meds!"

With a groan the ship's hangar doors opened for the first time since jumping. The curvature of the Planet Nepleslia could be seen in the horizon. Above that line were the lights of numerous stars and ships in orbit, below that line were equally numerous lights of the enormous city that covered the whole of the planet. All this was tinted the greenish hue of the hangar's force field, streaked with red lines of superheated gas from the re-entry.

Fian poked his head out of the shuttle doors to yell at the recruits... Again. "The security forces can't hold on much longer, you guys are going down first. Godspeed!"

"Trajectory set, the Nepleslian Senate." The blue haired Rep intoned before triggering the magnetic fields that would propel the Power Armors out of the bay in speeds exceeding 160 KM/h "LAUNCH!"

Three seconds later the greenhorns were dangling their toes over the stratosphere of the planet, it was a long way down... fifty kilometers to be exact.

Jack had been quiet during the whole affair, waiting patiently on the catapult while he watched the representatives begin the finishing portions of the process needed to get the suits started from a cold start so that in the next half hour Jack wouldn't need to lug this thing around under his own weight, and while he did this he made a curious note of the fact that it seemed all but one of the people assigned to upgrade their armors were females...petite, attractive, and obviously very feminine females at that.

Jack listened to enough of what one of them said about the rockets on his waist now to know that he was just going to need to listen later on for when to press the device placed in his hand now. Jack might have said something during this whole affair relating to the orders but it seemed that he was too stunned by the view before him as the doors opened and the roar of reentry entered the hanger: a planet through a stream of fire filled his single active camera.

"Wow." Jack said in a deceptively monotone voice "Isn't that beautiful?"

Then Master Chief Fian leaned out to yell at the four of them one last time before they would be sent with the trust of the veterans on their shoulders to secure an effective landing zone for them, a hefty responsibility for the four of them no doubt.

"Aye aye, sir!" Jack replied to the MC.

Then all that could be heard from Jack was a grunt as he was unceremoniously flung from the hanger of the ship with the assistance of the catapults planned from their very conception for just such a purpose: leaving he and the others in free-fall above the planet.

Getting up from the deck with Phaedra's help, the Chief immediately dusted himself off and started rounding up Marines to get into the shuttles, joining a variety of other NCOs all trying to accomplish the same task so soon after coming out of a rather shaky jump.

With the rest of the Marines loaded up, the Chief grabbed his CQBS-A2, and swiped up a helmet belonging to his Styrling armor, much to the chagrin of one of the Quartermasters near him. "Fuck off! I'll pay you later!" Was his only response as he piled into a shuttle, followed by the Master Chief.

Seated down in the shuttle, the Chief immediately placed the helmet on his head, doing a basic function check to see that all of the electronics were in working condition. Satisfied, the Chief pulled the helmet off momentarily to spit out a few pieces of nicotine gum, and placed the helmet back on his head.

Glancing over at the Master Chief, Ran moved over to lean close to him. "We expecting anything big down there?" Was his only question.

Kajiim payed close attention to the lady giving instructions on the rockets that the technicians attached he watched them with mild interest, "Why can't several women surround me when I'm not in a metal coffin about to be launched into certain death." Kajiim complained to himself with a smile of amusement rising upon his face.

He saw the hangar doors open and caught an eyeful of planet, Kajiim whistled audibly at the sight. Prepping himself for the launch he adjusted his radio and radar acorrdingly. He took a deep breath right before....

...Speeding out of the Acadia Kajiim gripped the controls tightly as he plummted through the atmosphere it was at this point in time that his childhood fear of heights decided to return. Screaming "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!" all the way down.

True to expectations, Lucas barely heard a word the lead NAM Rep said as the girl he had been stricken with wrote her number on his suit. He felt his face heat up at the girl's request to call, and he simply nodded once, hoping it would seem confident; he was extremely thankful for the enclosing helmet, as well. I will buy you dinner, once we are out of this he though, smiling to himself. Once again, his fantasies were cut short, as the hangar doors opened for the four's hot drop into a combat zone. He stared out into the view, the height just serving to peak his rush more. Then, he felt the magnetic field energize around them, and braced himself for the...

BOOM!

Lucas felt himself compressed in the suit as they hurtled toward the Senate at breakneck speeds, and then...nothing. The freefall let Lucas take in the rapidly expanding landscape, and though Nepleslia was a horrible gritty urban mess on the surface, from his vantage point Nepleslia looked almost beautiful to Lucas. Wonder how bad it is on the ground...

The engines of the shuttle had started to roar, progressively drowning out the Master Chief's reply. "Parasited Zombies, lots of them. The infected are mostly Nepleslian citizens so expect them to be heavily armed. There are also unconfirmed reports of at least one Shocktrooper. Chief you're better at infantry combat so you're running this show." Fian hit the shockproof military grade datapad against the pilot's compartment door before passing it to Chief Ran. "Lets go!" The shuttle's exit from the bay was a lot gentler than the four unfortunates.

Alex was listening to what could be described as briefing with fantasy. At least they are not going against Rippers. Zombies shouldn'T be too bad, her SMG should ripp throught them if she activates mass driver.

What bugged her more was that zombies were Nepleslians. She knew there is not much they could do. Some of zombies could be still alive and if parasites would be taken out they could be saved. It all depended on time. But there won'T be any time so it was better to just kill them. Even for them. Alex shivered in thought that one day she could be infected with NMS parasite.

The other thing, she didn't hear about yet. What could be shocktrooper. Alex looked at chief Ran. "Sir what is Shoctroper and what should we expect from that wanker?" She asked.

Halfway there. The Greenhorns could now pick up groundside radio from 25 KM off the ground. The city was a mess, zombies were indiscriminately attacking everything and were massing for an attack on the senate. Key infrastructure buildings like powerplants and offices within twenty kilometers of the city center were stormed by masked insurgents or set on fire. Emergency services are held up and the police have no control over the streets. If it weren't for the galactic implications of the event, it would look like a regular bad day for crime-ridden Nepleslia from up there.

And the bad day had just begun for the four. A shuttle zoomed past the group, throwing the falling aerodynamics of the greenhorns out of wack. It was no shuttle from the NSS Acadia, but had the words NSS Alder stencilled on the side. This was the least of their worries as Jack was blown so far away from the group that no amount of fancy skydiving could reunite them and Kajiim had somehow lost his rocket-trigger thing. The other two were tossed slightly but were otherwise unaffected.