RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 5.5] The Digging Cavaliers

Talbain started moving into a better position to fire from. Preferably from the side of the corridor where he could fire on the incoming infantry without having the mass of unidentified in his field of fire. This would cost him distance to engage his enemies at, but he was confident that his PCTs and AMP would more than make up for that against infantry.

"Watch your field of fire. We don't know what that group in the back is just yet."

"What the fuck did I say earlier!?" howled Bastilen as he heaved his energy-powered mining tool. There was an obvious disgust in his voice as the mine shuddered about them for a few moments. Deep inside there was the resonant fear that the rest of the place would start coming down on top them in cascading motion, but that quickly set aside as Phaedra had mention of his tool. Stan was on his way to pick it up, and he'd probably need show the man how to use it.

Then came Talbain's order to check on the other members. So, while the rest of the unit took to engaging and killing, Bastilen went off, picking up one of the other cutters, making the load on him significantly worse. These mining tools were not light, and carrying a full military load-out with it was tiring. Before he ran off, he managed to scoop up a few energy packs, stowing them away before heading off to catch Brandt half-way, plodding heavy footsteps.

"Alright, take this!" roared Bastilen as he practically threw the device at the ID-SOL, which would likely handle more like a hand tool for a man his size. "When we get there, you need blast the rocks on the top, and cut level to keep the plasma from shooting down. Pull as much as you can off before making cuts, this plasma can still slice through armor!"

"Oh what the fuck am I saying, no one listens to a god damned word I've said so far," growled Bastilen over comms pushing his legs to the limit as he charged back with Brandt. "Wulfe, I hope you get stuck with the fattest, ugliest nurse in the entire god damn Navy when we get back on ship."

"Ok, sir, less next time. Sorry," said Francis as he continued to fire at the NMX in two shot bursts. He hoped that the explosion from his BOLT had shaken up the enemy enough to make them easier targets, and then to add to that, the VTOL buzzed the entire area. Anyone left after that wouldn't be too hard to take out.

Gasping in surprise as Bastilen tossed the mining tool toward him, Stan scarcely managed to snatch the device out of the air. There was no time to catch his breath, however, as Bastilen launched into a crash course explanation of how to use the contraption. The ID-SOL had just managed to parse what Bastilen said when the Nepleslian decided it would be more expedient to just go along with Stan (which Brandt couldn't blame him for).

Sprinting, Stan was barely aware of Bastilen's ranting as he made his way back to where Wulfe was trapped.

"Yes, ma'am... I read you. I can't move and my suit tells me there's- there's metal in my body that the doctor didn't put in there," said Wulfe.

"Shit," thought Phaedra, pulling out another large chunk of rubble and tossing it to the side.

"Stay with me Private. We will not leave without you," said Phaedra, realizing she had no idea if she would be able to keep that promise. She pulled out pieces of the rubble with precise movements, well aware that pulling out the wrong piece in the wrong way would easily cause the ceiling to collapse again.

"Wreno, quit your griping and get over here," she said, crouching to clear away more rubble from the door opening.

"Follow your own advice and give me a hand with this. You too Brandt."

Outside
The gunships began their attack runs, firing their chainguns and volleys of Pufferfish missiles. Their ordnance wrought devastation upon the unarmored NMX Nekos. From their position, Leon, Laura and Francis could only see the airburst explosions and dirt being kicked up. This reduced the amount of incoming fire down to the enemy armors.

"This is Rochester, I have eyes on the target building. Be there in 30 seconds."

With their support gone and more hostile forces turning up, the NMX armors made a suicide charge at the three Marines while the gunships made their turns. "Focus fire, left to right! Drop those drones!" The armors were firing as they came when Laura deactivated the shield drones so that the Marines could return the favor.

The leading gunship turned tighter and opened fire with its chainguns, ripping one of the damaged NMX armors into scrap metal. From the Marines' perspective, it was like watching the machine disintegrate.

Their own fire brought down another one before it could get close. HPAR fire tore into the light durandium frame as if it was hot butter. But the NMX were using thrusters to close the distance and the last two were amongst the Marines.

Laura and Francis fought one together, using their Push/Pull systems to break up its balance before the Most Brilliant Medic in the Universe drove her vibrosaw knife into the armor's neck. The Chief, meanwhile, had a much tougher time due to his injuries. He had been knocked down and was being pummeled hard by the Mishhu armor until a round from Francis' HPAR stopped it dead. Leon did not get up.

His condition was not obvious from his vital signs. Laura wanted to get him out of armor. Hell, she wanted to get him off the dirtball and back into intensive care. She rushed to her commanding officer's side and deployed her medical kit.

Stable but weak lifesigns, confirmed internal and external bleeding, significantly lowered brain activity. He was unconscious and bleeding. Perhaps worse. Priority one: treat the bleeding. That she could do without taking him out. She triggered the Hostile's emergency blood coagulants remotely and then injected him with medical nano from her hypolathe.

At that moment, Rochester and his squad appeared ready to fight. "Chief's down, bad. I recommend emergency evac if we want to save him. Otherwise, we'll be taking back a body."

"Greer, help the girl. Evans, Thomas, Wilks, get to the roof, check for any more bad guys. If none, execute entry. I want prisoners. Rest of you, spread out and find out if the squiddies have left anymore presents for us. You, Lasalle, get down the mine shaft and tell Sergeant Volkov that she is now acting Ground Forces Commander - 4th Fleet Marines. We are awaiting her orders and we have a request for medical evacuation for Chief Santiago. And we have encountered a new model of NMX armor, temporarily dubbed "Spiky." GO!"

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Talbain's forward movement was noticed by the NMX thralls and Nekos on overwatch. They immediately opened fire with their Impaler beam rifles from behind their barricade. In turn, Talbain's armor shrugged off the weak beams like they were rain drops. His plasma turrets and AMP spat death of a different kind, which shredded the front row of NMX foot soldiers and their makeshift barricades. Nonetheless, he was alone in his advance so far.

"Just stating the obvious!" growled Bastilen in response to Phaedra. In a full run, with his nano-muscles spurring him forth, the Tech Expert reached the site of the rubble much sooner than he realized. With his ID-SOL compatriot just beside him, he thrust an armored gauntlet over to the top of the pile, where the thickened rocks laid. "See that up there? Pull everything that can move, and everything else that doesn't!"

Bastilen twisted a knob on the side of the mining device, spreading the bow-pick arms, and start a thrum deep inside of it. He swing it around like a pick axe, sinking the teeth of the tool behind rocks, and yanking them out. Whenever he hit a rock that wouldn't budge, he pressed the mouth of the plasma miner on the rock, split it, and tossed aside what rubble remained from that cutting. Though the Marine seemed to do it awkwardly, he had enough familiarity with the item to assure confidence in the average person.

"Keep doing it like this, and be sure to keep pulling from the top. The rubble will just roll the metal around in his leg if it shifts on him."

Francis listened to the orders Sgt. Rochester was giving him. After he had finished, Francis gave a salute and turned to enter the mineshaft. He boosted himself over to the doorway, then entered the facility again.

While he moved to where Sgt. Volkov was, Francis was sincerely hoping that the Chief would be ok. He knew that it was the NMX that had hurt him, but part of the Marine felt as if he could have saved the Chief by killing the armor quicker. He shook those thoughts out of his mind, however. Francis had more important things to be doing, and worrying about his CO wouldn't help him any.

After a little search, Francis finally arrived at Phaedra's location. He strode up to he and preceded his relaying of Sgt. Rochester's orders with a salute.

"Ma'am, Cheif Santiago is severely wounded, and I have been sent by Sgt. Rochester to inform you that you are now Ground Forces Commander for the 4th Fleet Marines. The sergeant also told me to request immediate med-evac for the Chief. Also, we've encountered a new model of NMX armor on the surface, which is being temporarily named the "Spiky". Sergeant Rochester is awaiting your further instructions, ma'am." After he completed telling Phaedra everything, Francis stood and waited to see if she needed him to do anything else.

"Yes, ma'am." Exceedingly thankful for Bastilen's instructions, which gave him much needed pointers, Stan made sure for a second time that his weapon was safe before obeying the Nepleslian, trying to strike a balance between speed and safety. He tried to remove as much rock as he could with each pull, eyes fixed on the rubble and the area around it.

"Don't worry, we're coming to get you out of there," murmured Stan, more to reassure himself rather than anything else. With all three of them working together - plus the added bonus of the mining equipment - they might be able to get Wulfe free soon. The ID-SOL didn't even notice Francis in his efforts to free his fellow Marine.

Phaedra was stunned for a moment. She was entirely surprised that she was appointed head of the ground forces over Rochester, but the surprise only lasted for a moment.

"Understood. Private, head down to Corporal Talbain's position and give him a hand," she said to Francis.

"Corporal, I am sending you LaSalle. Continue with your objective. Reinforcements will be on route," she said to Talbain.

"Wulfe, stay with us. You are almost out of there."

She turned to Brandt and Wreno.

"I trust the two of you can continue here? I will send Romero down here immediately to assist."

With that Phaedra boosted back up the mine shaft and out into the dusty plain. She came upon Laura hunched over the Chief with Rochester's squad nearby.

"Drei, I have Chief Santiago in critical condition and in need of immediate medievac at my location."

"Laura, Stones is being dug out from a small cave-in. He has metal in his chest and leg. Once the Chief is away get down the mineshaft and see what you can do."

"Rochester, sit-rep please. What can you tell me about these new "spiky" armors?"

"Morris, what is your status? I'm taking over for the Chief; give me a sit-rep."

On the surface, Laura and Matthias worked stabilize and improve Chief Santiago's health as best they could. Unfortunately, they were medics equipped with standard first aid. They weren't fully trained and equipped doctors with an operating room and the most advanced tools.

"Wait, what?" Laura asked incredulously. "You mean those idiots managed to cause a cave-in and trap themselves? Oh God... Bernie, come back soon. At least you knew what you were doing!"

She packed up her tools and grabbed her rifle. "Don't you die. I saved your ass twenty-fours ago and I'm going to kill you if you die so ungratefully!" she shouted at Leon as she left the Renegades.

Laura made her way down as Rochester's men on the top blew open a hole and executed a top down entry into the building's upper floors. She heard them squeeze off a couple bursts but nothing intense. She dropped down an elevator shaft using her thrusters to slow her descent.

The first thing she noticed was the wounded Neko just lying on the ground, waiting to die. "Do I...?" she asked Phaedra, pointing to the Neko.

"Sergeant Volkov, I am already receiving a similar request from Private Greer. Do you require two shuttles?" Drei asked Phaedra.

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"Sergeant Volkov, I have three men breaching the roof and securing the top floors. Chief's out like a light. We've got him pegged for a concussion and reopened wounds. The ones he got from yesterday. According to my lad, the gravity and strain of combat put too much stress on the sutures and stuff they did and now he's gotta get back before he bleeds out internally. The new armors are fast, like a Yam armor, and seem to be just as fragile. They've got spikes all over them so I don't suggest hugging them to death. We're trying to pop one open but nothing yet. Equipment seems to be... variable. They use the same particle beam rifles as the infantry but they've also got other weapons mounted. A Raider could take one down easily. I'd say we need to treat them as aggressive little sods who'll go down in a straight up firefight. Over."

Rochester paced around as Matthias called in the shuttle, listening to the occasional gunshot from the building or curse as he watched Sanders try to open one of the damaged Spikys.

The neko infantry firing at Talbain were bothersome more than anything else. Using the Aggressors boosters he charged straight into their position guns blazing. And on arrival through their barricades started to lash out at them, one hand swing his AMP like a club and his now free hand grabbing at any that were in reach. His weapon should be more solid than any of the nekos he was bound to smash with it. And the armor itself would keep him safe from harm.

"Romero see what you can do for the Neko there. It may have some intel we can use."

"Sergeant Volkov, I am already receiving a similar request from Private Greer. Do you require two shuttles?" Drei asked Phaedra.

"Negative. Only one shuttle is required at the moment," replied Phaedra, watching with interest as one of the Renegades attempted to extract the NMX pilot.

"Roger that, Sergeant. Have your men continue down and assist Corporal Talbain," said Phaedra with a nod to Rochester.

"Phaedra, we've moved - Someone else is covering you. We're with Holmes and doing a-...angh... what the shit was that? Apologies. Sawyer - turn down the lights!" replied Morris.

"Corporal Morris, say again? Are you in need of assistance?"

Stan looked behind himself and managed a nod. "Yes, ma'am."

As she left, Stan returned his attention to the rubble, remaining methodical as he worked. It felt as though hours had passed since he had started the work, but he knew that it must have only been several minutes at most. As he removed the rubble, the ID-SOL decided to get an update from Wulfe. "Hey, are you still okay?"

He toyed with the idea of asking Bastilen to give an estimate of how much longer they might have to dig, but stopped short of voicing it. He wasn't sure he could give an accurate answer, and regardless it was only hard work that would free Wulfe.

The opposition scattered as Talbain single-handedly made his advance. His fire had taken out three thralls and wounded another two. The rest were in full flight, only taking the occasional potshot at him over their backs. It was a particular irony that it was the Nekos leading the thralls in the rout.

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Laura sighed as she watched the idiots at work. This all could have been avoided if someone had possessed a standard issue brain. But it seemed that all of these dumb-fucks had forgotten to pick one up from their mommies. This was why clones were smarter than natural-borns. They were bred and trained solely for this job. Natural-borns were just bred.

For now, she turned her attention to the Neko, wondering what she could do. NH-29 Nekos were designed to be incompatible with Nepleslian medicine. Hemosynth and all of that crap. Medical nano was going to be useless since the immune system targeted the nanites. Laura had no desire to fix the creature's broken leg. An ambulatory prisoner was more dangerous than a crippled one.

The blood from her eyes and ears were caused by internal rather than external injuries. Those could not be treated with anything Laura had. Unless you counted a bullet to the head as a remedy to pain. That Neko would have to rely on its super wonderful synthetic internal wondersystems to survive until Laura dragged it back to the flagship.

Eventually, the Marines got Wulfe unburied and this was where Laura could get to work. He was still stuck, sandwiched between two large slabs of concrete with metal rods pierced through his armor. That problem was quickly solved by Laura's CFC as she cut through the rods holding Wulfe in place. Once he was free from both pieces of concrete, she rolled him over.

"Got stoned, did you?" Laura asked him as her armor connected wirelessly with his to retrieve the details of his armor's treatment thus far. Painkillers and blood coagulants to the affected areas so that he wouldn't bleed out. Nonetheless, Laura could clearly see where the blood had leaked out. "I got two options for you, Stoney. I can pull these out and pump you with nano. It'll hurt like hell but you'll be back in the fight. Or I can get you back to Dauntless on the bird coming in for the Chief. What's it gonna be? Fight in excruciating pain or take the ride home?"

Laura sincerely hoped he asked her to pull these rods out. She had always wanted to try out in situ trauma treatment on the real deal.

Francis descended into the elevator to find where Talbain was. Judging by the scene around him, the had been fighting, and killing too, because corpses were scattered around. At some point he started hearing sounds of the struggle continuing down a corridor. Francis made his way cautiously towards the noise, not knowing what was going on there. When he finally reached the epicenter of the comotion, Francis saw Talbain chasing away what looked like the remnants of an NMX force. After the corporal had done this, Francis approached him.

"Sir, Sgt. Volkov sent me down here to help with the fighting. Just tell me what you need me to do. Also, Sgt. Volkov is now the acting ground forces commander for all 4th Fleet Marines, 'cause the Chief was wounded topside by an NMX ambush."

Talbain kept his firepower pointed down the tunnel as Francis gave his report. The ID-SOL was a bit irked by the whole situation as it was explained to him. As for Lasalle, the only response he would receive at the moment was the Corporal's thought on the situation. "Chief shouldn't have been dirtside in the first place from what I was told." Still this didn't actually change what needed to be done.

"All untasked Cavaliers. This is Corporal Talbain. Move to my position ready to advance into the caves. We're still on the clock." The call was put our over the squad network so that all the Cavaliers could hear. Motioning for Lasalle to follow he started following the retreating forces down the tunnel the nekos and thralls had retreated down. Sensors active and weapons ready. One last message over the squad net as he went. "Just follow the warpath and you'll reach my position."

Thromp, Thrump!

The cries of the digging tool dirged quietly under the cacophony of gunfire and violence. Even as Wulfe was tugged out from under the debris, Bastilen continued to split rock and set aside further refuse. As he worked, a part of him mused belligerently at the idea of how he was doing this instead of his real job. Then again, the son of a miner is still the son of a miner. Part of it actually brought out a degree of comfort and relaxation, a way of getting in touch with his old self.

A younger mind, lost with time.

He turned to Brandt and pat the man on the arm, assuring him that he had done well enough. The Tech Expert emptied off one of the plasma batteries, the energy becoming dry in it, before setting aside the cutter. There was little else they could accomplish, short of making a new tunnel at this point. Even more, they were out of batteries, at leas in this end of the tunnel.

"Not bad, man," commented Bastilen, before pointing off at Laura, as she was still tending to Wulfe, "Stick around here, and keep an eye on these two. I'm going to go link up with Talbain."

With that, he unslung his HPAR and began skating down the tunnels to link back up with Talbain.

"Phaedra, we're conducting a raid to take a facility. We're trying to get it over with ASAP. I'd appreciate your help, but it'd draw the rest of the NMX to our position and we'd be forced to retreat."

"Affirmative, Corporal Morris," replied Phaedra.

"All untasked Cavaliers. This is Corporal Talbain. Move to my position ready to advance into the caves. We're still on the clock."

"You heard the Corporal, Cavaliers. We have a mission to complete! Get down there and kick some Squid ass!" she said over the squad channel.

Phaedra in one sense would have preferred to be down in the cramped tunnel with her squad, not up here on the surface. But someone had to take command, and it was her duty to take over for the Chief.

With HPAR in hand she stood next to Rochester and Greer; the prone form of the Chief lay still at their feet.

"Stay alive, you stubborn man," thought Phaedra.

She watched as Rochester's man attempted to extract the pilot from the "Spiky" armor.

"Having a ball, Brandt." Came the reply from the entombed marine.

Slowly but surely, Wulfe could hear the mining tools doing their work. No, he could feel it as the rocks shift around him. Eventually, he noticed he could move his right hand again (which unsurprisingly no longer held his weapon), then he could see the other marines around him, and that promted him to push against the stone slab on top of him.

'Never again.' He though bitterly as Romero cut him free from the metal rods and pulled him out, noticing how the cave in had done a tremendous job on repainting his armor bone white with the dust.

He considered the medic's offer for a while, picturing the warm and comfortable bed he'd be sent to, should he decide to take the easy way out. It was like the choice was already made.

"PulL it out, it's nothing." Wulfe replied before muting his comms. Last thing he wanted was the squad channel sounding like a scene from a slasher film while they pulled that metal from him.