RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 5.3] Debriefing and Preparations

Reading the message from Volkov as it scrolled across the bottom of his HUD Talbain stood fully upright from the supply counter. "Sorry but I have sim training in a few. Think you could stash those supplies nearby? I'll be back to sign for them after I'm done." Talbain's statement was punctuated by his stomping as he slowly turned around in his armor then trudged off towards where his armor had started off.

Arriving at his destination he popped armor open. Even just the trip back and forth from the supply counter had caused the ID-SOL to start to sweat. Working his arm free he snatched one of the energy drinks he had taken out of the mess hall and chugged it down quickly. Sliding back into the Aggressor Talbain sealed it up, reset the movement systems to normal, and sorted through his defaulted weapons for the sim training. Trading out the AOP for the AMP on his listings.

"Hey, Sergeant, I heard NMX Nekos spit acid. That true?" Laura asked, innocently looking up at the taller clone. Matthias wondered if his brother's girlfriend was entirely... sane. How had the normally dull and unexciting Bernhard gotten involved with this girl?

She was certainly physically attractive and the combination of her hair and eyes made her even more striking. But her personality seemed to shift from mature adult to playful kid from moment to moment.

Why wasn't his brother here to give him the real score on what crackpot unit he had just joined?

"Hey, Sergeant, I heard NMX Nekos spit acid. That true?" Laura asked.

Phaedra looked up from her Datajockey and raised an eyebrow at Laura's question.

"I find that highly doubtful, Laura," said Phaedra, returning to tapping on her datapad.

As the sim began, the Marines would find themselves in an alley that was closed off behind them. Barely at the edge of their sight was the Neppies. NMX personnel patrolled around a small wall surrounding the restaurant and numerous taller buildings looked down upon the small lot. A low fog floated across the entire map.

The message scrolled across the screen. It began to count down the seconds before the mission would begin.

Once the simulation began, Phaedra began to record the session on her datapad. She kept it in her hand as she walked from the armory and headed for the Med-Bay.

Talbain hurried through his equipment selection. AMP, BOLTs, and one of those ridiculous observation probe drones. Using the rest of his countdown timer he started pulling all of the intel data that the simulation would give him concerning the combat area. Looking it over for avenues of approach and for overlooks that he could send the probe to without alerting the enemy forces to the teams presence. He'd need to know what his two team mates were bringing to the fight before he could have a solid plan though.

Francis read Phaedra's message and pulled up his weapon options. He looked it over and went with the HPAR as his main, the LSP-01 as his secondary with the PLA-02 on his shoulders, and BOLTs to fill in any explosive needs. Francis had only used the Hostile a few times before, so he was still in the process of experimenting with the possible loadouts. He felt confident in what he had chosen, though.

After he had completed his selection, Francis looked over what intel was provided, and then sent Talbain a message saying he was ready to begin.

Ice frowned for a second at the truncated weapons array open to her. Well, if they were going to go brute force... She pulled up the menu and chose chose a AS4GS as her primary weapon. An HPAR would be more universally useful, but the shotgun would be easier to maneuver in close quarters and the plasma torch function would be good for snap shots. Some loose ammo for the AS4, enough to last through a fire fight at least, and since there was no ammo feed for the shotgun she had two thigh packs for her missiles. To level the playing field against the enemy PA, she opted for a pack of DARTs, backed up with a pack of ARROWs to provide some extra punch that wouldn't turn the hostages into fine particulate matter. Leaving the rest of her ancillary equipment untouched to provide a backup, she rounded out her loadout with a remote observation probe.

Satisfied, Ice went back to studying what tactical map they had for the sim, waiting for the poor bastard that had to wrangle them to give them orders.

Talbain looked at the load outs. It was a balanced force which meant their little group wouldn't have any weak areas. But their size meant they wouldn't have a particular strength. Activating the snakeskin on the AGGRESSOR he had a rough plan in mind.

"We know that the enemy force wants the hostages alive. Or they would have been dead already." His statements were off handed remarks while he plotted a route outside the line of sight of anyone near the objective. Ending his plot next to one of the taller buildings. "We also know we're drastically outnumbered and need to maximize surprise. Ice, you and I will be sending our probes along this path. Circling wide to remain out of contact with the enemy." The maps on the team's updated to show the path he had selected. "When they arrive at their final destination they will go monoeyes active. When the enemy reacts will be our opportunity to strike."

"I will be advancing as point with Ice in tow. Francis you will be remaining in cover with camouflage running. Ice open up with your missiles. But be sure to leave enough for one last salvo if we need it. Francis you don't engage until you either get a clean kill shot on armor or your position is compromised. With any luck they'll be worried about the enemy they can see and not looking for you. Our goal is to make the building. Don't stop to shoot their infantry. Crush them if they get close enough. Open up with bolts on any stragglers and go for overkill. Order of priority is Rippers, Mindys, then cats. Questions, suggestions?" Talbain stopped to look his team mates over.

"One last thing. If rescue becomes impossible I will give the order to execute the hostage. Their capture by enemy forces is even less acceptable than failure."

Francis listened to Talbain go over his plan. It seemed solid enough, but it had plenty of room for changes should something go wrong. More likely, when something went wrong. However, Francis could not come up with something better, and Talbain obviously had cobat experience since he was a corporal. He wondered where Talbain wanted him to post up and eliminate the armored NMX.

"Sir, where do you want me to be while I lay down covering fire?" Francis asked. He assumed it would be in one of the buildings surounding the lot, but he wanted to make sure of what Talbain wanted.

The timer for the simulation hit zero. The words
flashed across the screen and a timer now began to count the seconds that had elapsed in the mission.

Silhouettes of Neko guards could be seen pacing back and forth near to the wall, but the fog was too thick to see any further from the squad's current location.

=====

Phaedra was already impressed with Talbain's plan. She admitted that a hostage rescue would be difficult, but it could still be pulled off if they were careful. Her only concern was Talbain's order to execute the hostage. While such a tactic had its place, she wondered if Ms. DD would actually have any information that would warrant such an action. She looked forward to seeing the results of this exercise.

"Santiago, Leon," said Phaedra when she arrived at the Med-Bay. One of the orderlies led her through the commotion to his bed. Upon seeing him, Phaedra was relieved that he looked better than she had hoped. Most apparent were the fresh bandages around his midsection, but he appeared otherwise unharmed. She suddenly found her heart pounding in her chest and felt her face flush.

"What is wrong with me?" she thought.

"Chief," said Phaedra tentatively. She cautiously approached the bed and stood next him.

"Clear sir." Ice said, nodding along with Talbain's plan. It seemed straight forward enough, get in close as possible and then hit them hard. Cuing up her missiles to fire in five missile salvos, she finished the last pre-mission checks on her suit. Setting her snakeskin system and 'checking' her shotgun, she waited for the go word.

'MISSION START' flashed in her HUD, and Ice took the opportunity to deploy the drone. It's readouts appeared in the corner of her HUD, it's sensors not yet picking up anything that her suit hadn't noticed either. Once Talbain gave her a line of advance, she'd send the little drone along ahead to pick up any enemies waiting for them.

"You get to pick your position. But you need to be able to vacate it fast if necessary." The statement to Francis was the last thing he managed to get out before the mission time started.

Sending his drone on it's way he made the hand motion for moving out. Activating the snakeskin system he started moving down the ally towards the objective. The goal was to stop short of end of the cover before the wall and wait for the drones to do their part. But he had his weapon at the ready. No telling what would happen.

As the corporal sent out his drone, Ice mirrored him, sending her drone off to cover the angles that his couldn't, to give their team the most complete view of the situation she could.

Ice moved out behind Talbain, keeping one eye on the readouts from her recce drone. She kept cover on the Corporal's six, watching for any thing or one that got behind the point man. She hugged cover the whole way up, covering all angles left, right, up and down as Talbain.

Francis nodded as Talbain told him to pick his place for covering fire. Then the simulation started, and Francis quickly turned on his snakeskin camouflage. He broke off from Ice and Talbain and quickly moved into one of the buildings that had an overview of the lot. He also made sure that he could see the path that his squad mates were following.

Inside the building, Francis looked for a window facing the lot, but one that was also large enough for his to fit through for a quick exit. He set up on the third story, opened the window, propped his HPAR on the windowsill, and began scanning for targets.

The moment the drones reached their position they activated their monoeyes. The drones counted twelve Neko infantry, four Mindys, and one Ripper surrounding the Neppies Restaurant. It took only a few moments for the NMX forces to realize that they were being targeted. The Nekos nearest to the Marines quickly left their positions as shouts of alarm came out across the compound. It would only be a matter of moments before the drones would be eliminated as a threat.

Considering the drone double expendable since this was a simulation, Ice waited until it was clear the NMX were going to attack before random walking her drone off and away from the teams line of advance. If it was going to be blown up anyway, she might as well use it to distract at least a few of the enemy PAs. If the little drone could draw off one of the Mindys long enough for them to hit the rest, then it would be worthwhile.

Hunching down in cover, she looked reflexively towards Talbain for the sign to go.

Talbain waited. Sending his drone into cover to see if any of the enemy units would give chase. Irregardless he was picking targets from the data feed. There was a bevy of information he had to evaluate on the spot but he had a few priorities. Where the Ripper was, if there were any mindies or neko infantry groups next to the wall, and lastly if the wall was thin enough for his aggressor to punch a hole in if he hit it at full tilt. Talbain reached out towards Plainsview, ready to give them a tap when he decided to make his rush.

Francis looked into the compound to see what the NMX had to oppose his squad. He could see four mindys a ripper and a bunch of infantry. He would ignore the grunts; they were no threat. The ripper would be his primary target, followed by the mindys. The ripper may need some BOLTs in addition to the rounds the HPAR threw at it. Francis continued to wait in his perch until a clean shot on either the ripper or mindy appeared.

The Nekos fired bursts from their beam rifles at the two drones, destroying Ice's drone in a cloud of shrapnel. Talbain's drone was able to avoid the fire from the Nekos, but two of the Mindy's gave chase. They boosted away from the restaurant, one of them slicing the drone in half with an aether blade.

The Ripper relocated to the front of the restaurant, looking left and right for unseen foes.

Seeing two of the Mindy armor's separate from the rest of their group Talbain gave Plainsview a pair of taps on the shoulder before barreling at the wall. He picked the spot he could do the most damage to the infantry and lowered his shoulder into position for the thicker armor to take the brunt of the impact while holding his AMP to keep it safe. Once through the wall he was ready to light up the Ripper using his AMP and the PCTs. Stealth would be fairly pointless by that point after all.

Ice tensed as the Mindys moved, realizing that their turn would come soon. When Talbain tapped her shoulder, she likewise launched through the wall. She didn't have the raw firepower of the AMP-equipped Agressor, so she was happy to leave the Ripper to him. Instead, she fired a salvo of DARTs set to wide spread at the nearest Mindy, both to drop the PA's shields and to distract the pilot as she boosted into the thirty meter sweet spot of her AS4. Mindful of her backstop, it'd be a Bad Thing to incinerate the hostages, Ice unleashed a plume of plasma on the enemy suit, hopefully before it had a chance to react.