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RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 5.51] The Watchful Minutemen

Sigma- Is this the correct thread you and I were chatting about?

GM Note: Yes it is. Please restrict ALL Out of Character (OOC) notes to the OOC Thread that is stickied to the Forum page. Role Play threads for In-Character (IC) posts ONLY
 
Leon looked at Tim Kerr's boots to see what the tank man thought of the response. Instead, he heard Kerr's reply over the radio.

"Morris, you damned fool! You're not bloody qualified to lead a group of choir boys with that attitude! Do you seriously think you know more about what the hell is going than the Chief? Do you really think that the battlefield is so goddamn safe?"

The man was Leon's age but lacked the self-control Leon had, most of the time. Corporal Kerr was an unassuming man most of the time, with a quiet excitement about him. When he got into a K4, he became aggressive and hot headed. It was a duality that fitted Tim Kerr and made him such a useful battlefield asset. However, lacking anything to shoot, he was spouting off all the wrong things in the wrong order.

"Enough, Kerr." Leon spoke firmly, signalling with a thumbs up to the man sitting above him in the turret.

"Corporal Morris, if you want me to piss off, then I'm afraid I can't give you battlefield updates. If I can't do that, then I place Sergeant Volkov's unit in danger because I'm blinding her only above-ground protection. So it would be easier if I just aborted this mission and explained to the Admiral that due to a minor mutiny by my newest squad leader, the mission could not be completed.

"If that's your preference, I'll pull your squad right now and replace them with Sergeant Hardman's. And you can go right back to the Dauntless and listen to the reports of NMX troops making holes in our lines."

Chief Santiago's voice modulated from calm and stern to increasingly angered. He had no time for Morris' stupidity. Whatever happened, the man was on a charge and the 'Minutemen' might not exist as a unit tomorrow.

"Because, Corporal Morris, the goddamn squids are breaking through 3rd Marine lines all over the place and using goddamn parasites to infect dead and wounded Marines. So, if your men have not confirmed that those 3rd Fleet Marines are NOT infected and that they are who they say they are, I'd say that doubly makes me question your leadership abilities. Have they confirmed their identities and status, Corporal Morris?"

It was amazing, Leon Santiago marveled, at how his newest squad leader proved to be the most useless one. The only one not headhunted by the Admiral. The only one chosen by Leon would be the one who was the weakest link.

He had chosen Morris over Talbain for a single reason. Morris seemed less like a robot. He wasn't a particular cheerful man but he did exhibit more personality than the stern faced ID-SOL. Obviously, though, Leon had been wrong. Morris was clearly not qualified to lead a squad.
 
Glancing back with one of the monoeyes in his Aggressor's backpack, he saw one of the Hostiles sitting in a crater working on something. 'Note to self. Learn names. Second note.... Just learn names.' he thought to himself as he rose from his position backing up to the outside of the crater positioning himself in a way he could cover Lisa as she worked on the drone station.

Taking a knee once again, he scanned the area, switching between monoeyes. He didn't like switching between them with all the unknowns of a battlefield environment.
 
It wasn’t easy, with an 80 mm gun pointing at you but Zyv continued his work, sighing with relief when he finished and opened comms to Henry.

- ‘Corporal? Rakowski here. The third fleet grunts are clean of infestation. Shall I drag them to you, send them on their way or maybe decapitate them just in case?’

As he spoke the marines hands took their place on his gun as he shifted his stance to have the third fleet marines in his sight.
 
Within minutes the device was almost done. Charging station was hooked to the transformer, which was hooked to the reactor. Cables were attached properly and she was sure she used the right cables. She needed the software now, before she could work her magic and test it.

Lisa set the device back in the box and left her hidey hole, running to Henry. She of course could not hear his chat with Leon, as it was private line. Lisa held her HPAR in one hand and datajockey in seconds.

"Howdy corporal," she stated as she crouched next to Henry. "What a lovely mudball is this place." She joked with laugh and brought the datajockey. "I need to you to get me that programming I mentioned in the shuttle Boss. I cannot do that, but you can. I need programming from VOID suit about recharging so I can operate the device with it. I am counting on ya boss."
 
"Oh spare me, Kerr." Henry replied with bathos laden pomp to the mouthy marine. When Santiago got him to shut up at last, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you Chief."
‘Corporal? Rakowski here. The third fleet grunts are clean of infestation. Shall I drag them to you, send them on their way or maybe decapitate them just in case?’
"Hello, PFC 3rd Class Max Carter of the 3rd Marine Unit, 23rd Infantry Division. These are my squad mates, Maggie Meyers and Jim Calypto. My comrade Jim is injured can you assist?"
Henry forwarded these messages to Santiago as he rolled his eyes at the Chief's diatribe. "Does that answer your queries? Its your call now, Chief." Henry replied to his Chief with some measure of bare restraint. The Chief was the one with an 80mm cannon pointed towards them, and collectively there were bigger fish to fry.

He then made a reply to Raikowski and Noone: "Alright, get your asses back here before Chief and I decide otherwise." He then looked to Simmons. "Yes, lovely. Listen, I need to keep alert - here you go." He passed her a snippet of code from the VOID's programming and hoped she could do the rest.
Code:
include nam/pa/newgen/void/comps/drones/recharge_ports.c
"Best of luck." He said as he begun looking around for any hostiles. It was too calm. "As soon as you're done we need to find something, anything." He had to look like he was doing his job after all.
 
"Oh this is great. "First mission out and killed by friendly fire, just great..." Max thought to himself. They had just survived an ambush by the NMX and now they had tank cannons pointed at them. Hopefully whatever Raikowski was telling them would lead to them not getting blown up. That would make for a really bad day indeed...
 
Leon stopped to listen. Not to Henry. Their mercenary prodigy, Holmes, had called in something big. Intelligence was something that none of the Marines had. It was a problem incumbent with most NMX worlds. Penetrating their defenses was difficult, sneaking past them and spying on their squishy interior was even harder. So it was only when the Marines finally had boots on the ground that the information started rolling in.

Now the problem was dividing the manpower. He couldn't leave the Cavaliers with no cover. Nor could he leave the tanks or Hardman's squad here. Those were assault units, ones he knew would be needed to help Holmes. He couldn't leave the Minutemen here because he needed the manpower in the Minutemen.

Rochester's squad could be here soon. That was his answer. "Drop the ramp, I'm getting off here." Kerr's driver looked confused but complied. Leon exited, dropping a few feet to the ground. The impact hurt and made him instantly regret the macho move. His gut still wasn't healed.

He made sure he was on the squad leaders' channel so all of the squad commanders heard him. "Change of plans, Morris. The fuel depot that Motoyam and Holmes were going to hit is swarming with an NMX battlegroup. And they're getting reinforced by the minute. We're going to need to hit them before they hit us or the 3rd Marines. Get all of your asses into Kerr's tanks. Tell Simmons, leave that gear here. Get on the horn with Romero and transfer those drones to her. You'll meet up with Holmes, Motoyama, Hardman and Toby. Hardman will have command.

"Rochester, abort your mission and move to my position. I remember your report saying that the facility was already damaged so it is no longer strategically important."

Leon looked around and remembered that there were gunships inbound. "Spitfire Wing, divert to these coordinates," he said as he transmitted Holmes' position.

"I'll hold the exterior until Rochester's boys get here. Go kill the bastards, Morris."
 
"Now you're talking, Chief." Henry's tone was elated upon the mention of seeing action. "I'll get the Minutemen onto it now, Sir!" He then opened a line to the other Minutemen: "Minutemen we're getting a transfer - we're going to be seeing action at a Fuel Depot with Motoyama and Holmes - they need reinforcements, we're it. Rochester's squad will be here in our stead. Kerr's going to be giving us a lift."

Then he got to some more specific messages as he engaged the safety on his LPA and walked towards the tank's ramp. "Lisa I'm afraid we're going to have to leave our pet project behind. No time for fine tuning - just get it working for Rochester's boys and transfer the extra Shield Drones to Romero down below."

The little drones were smart enough to navigate obstacles and buildings when a transfer of users was necessary, since it took the map data from both the host and the receiver to paint a picture and plot a route of where to go best. Simple but useful and ingenious programming as the drones went off on their way.

Henry, meanwhile, found somewhere to stand in the tank, and kept his finger off of the trigger, waiting for the other marines to get in. "C'mon, wake up you pillocks!" He yelled for encouragement.
 
Lisa connected the datajockey to the device and cracked her fingers. Software. She gulped getting ready to copy the data she needed. The path was on the datajockey, but that did not make it that much easier for her. She started going through her VOID suits savtech to look for the data needed when she got the call from Henry.

"The fuck?" She reacted at first. "I mean yes sir, corporal! I am so happy to leave my half-built machine here and go to help our comrades. Happier then ever." She said with noted sarcasm in her voice. Lisa sighed and contacted Romero.

"Yo Lisa here," she said hoping ROmero could talk. "We are being send somewhere else Laura so I am transfering you control over all those extra shield drones I brough. Three of them will carry the recharger I almost finished. Mechanical parts are okay, and on the datajockey attached to is the list of data you need from your VOID suit. Bastilen can get it working for you lass. I got to bolt!" She said and gave the control to Laura

Lisa then quickly ran and hopped into the tank where Henry was. She did not responded to him, just walk in and sat inside. "Hey Claire," Lisa opened a personal line to the red-head. "You ready for this? We will see some action now. Wanna bet who gets more?"
 
- ‘Roger that corporal, we’re moving out.’

Rakowski confirmed his orders before switching channels and addressed the third fleet marines.

- ‘Right muppets, looks like your stuck with us for a while. Sleeping beauty here,’ – Zyv prodded Calypto’s form, - ‘Is stable and you get the privilege of carrying him until the stims do their magic and he decides he’s had enough napping. Follow me.’

That done he made to contact Blake and Noone but was interrupted as the orders changed, with a sigh he opened the comms again.

- ‘As you have heard our superiors changed their mind and we are now catching a lift so get your collective ass in gear and plant them in that tank!’

No longer needing to serve as a guide Zyv hung back to ensure that everyone got on before taking his spot on the closest K4.
 
Max nodded inside his helmet as he received the privates orders. Seeing as how they would be working with the minutemen for a while, he figured he might as well find their channel and tell Maggie to do the same.

"Maggie, switch over to the minutemen frequency, looks like we have new comrades. Hopefully we won't get lost this time" he said jokingly as he switched over the comms on his radio.

With that done, he lifted up him and placed Jim into one of Kerr's tanks before taking a defensive position to wait for the others to show up and get loaded before embarking in the tank he had loaded Jim in.
 
The Minutemen piled aboard the K4 tanks, two or three per vehicle. Once they were seated, the tanks rose and took off for Motoyama and Holmes.

Fifteen minutes later
The tanks pulled up to the side of a ridge where a squad of Raiders and a squad of Hostiles waited. Between the two squads, there were no Aggressors or VOIDs.

Motoyama's squad, in their new Raiders, wanted to emphasize speed and precision strikes while Holmes focused on his squad's choice of weaponry while relying on the versatility of the Hostile. They were the two most suited squads that Chief Santiago could field for a strike on a fuel depot, where a misplaced round could end with a fireball.

The Minutemen promptly disembarked as the other squad of tanks arrived with Sergeant Hardman's squad arrived.

Three Aggressors and three more Raiders joined the group. Then, the squad leaders moved to one side.

"Aight, what are we looking at?" Hardman asked. Motoyama drew an X in the dirt and farther away, a large circle. Between them, a line that lay in front of half the circle. "This is us," he motioned at the X. "Ridgeline," he indicated to the long, curved line. "The depot and a reinforced battalion," Motoyama finished.

"Normally, we could just blow up the depot and take out the guys. Problem is that they've got troops scattered everywhere and they keep coming in. Impossible to take anything out big if we blow the depot. We'd give ourselves away and have a horde drop onto us. To complicate matters, I count two Ravagers. One here," Holmes picked up from the dour Jiyuuian and pointed to the top of the circle, "And here." The 3 o'clock of the circle.

"So you needed more bodies. I'm guessing you want to try a two pronged assault?" Hardman asked, towering over all of them in his Aggressor. "No, three. Two will inevitably cause a Ravager to go after them. That would leave a third able to start hitting them without worrying about a Ravager. We've got the gunships now so we can get an attack run to precede us. Problem here is dividing our ... talent pool," Holmes said, turning to look at Henry, as if he was waiting to hear what the newest squad leader had to say.

---------------

Two Aggressors stood next to three Raiders, pointing and gesticulating as if in argument. More Raiders and Hostiles stood around, weapons ready and looking alert. The Minutemen simply waited for their squad leader to rejoin them. "Which one of you is Rakowski?" a female voice asked as a Hostile marched up to the Minutemen.
 
The fact that the K4’s had not been shot out of the sky or the marines gunned down as they exited was a pleasant surprise in Zyv’s book. The fact that the perimeter was already secure and that he might get a breather was also nice.

- "Which one of you is Rakowski?"

Or not. Zyv looked up at his name and muttered a curse under his breath before moving towards the Hostile asking for him.

- ‘That’s me.’

Came the simple reply.
 
"Considering I have a rocket launcher and you need to stay back a little, I'd say I would. I won't humiliate you with a bet just yet though, dear." Came the reply to Lisa from Claire's end. The redheaded Geshrin followed along, interested yet worried that there was going to be more than holding the line. Who was going to watch the cavalier's backs now?

As they reached their destination and listened in, she frowned a little bit. She replied through their private comm once again. "Ehhh. Looks like we may get split up. My launcher would probably be good for assaulting the facility. You'd probably be good for backing up one of the squads against the Ravagers unless he thinks you can disable any defenses at the facility."

She turned her head towards Henry, looking at him expectantly. She only hoped that her new friends would make it back okay. Battle was unpredictable, but she hoped the units would stick together well enough to cover any injuries taken.
 
Lisa chuckled as Claired call her back. Her lips then turned into a smirk as the rocket launcher was mentioned. Lisa hopped out of the tank and found Claire in her massive Aggressor suit.

"Well my dear Claire," she kept talking on private line. Her thumb pointed to two mortars on her back. "I do happen to have two massive fusion mortars. So let's just fold this back to our buller-spewing guns. You got a rifle in your kegbuster and I have my HPAR. Let's bet who gets more with that, because we won't get to shoot explosives all the time."

Lisa then shut up and listened to what squad-leaders had to say. So two ravagers at least, that won't be nice. But Nepleslian marines will be way more agile and will have advantage of that.

"Sirs," Lisa spoke out. "If I am not mistaken those Ravegers will be held up by the high gravity a lot more then we are. Also me and Corp. Morris have VOIDs. If you want to hit those Frames hard our mortars as best for that. Minutemen even have few Aggressors with rocket launchers."
 
Sawyer unassed from the tank and replied as well, "I've got my AOP with 2 mags of green rounds for dealing with the Ravagers, I can use my plasma chainguns and my AMP for if infantry gets in too close to accurately engage with antimatter rounds." He then simply waited for the others to reply to give him information on where he was supposed to go
 
Aleksei followed the rest of the Minutemen to where the squad leaders began the planning. Letting the barrels of the AMP spin again with impatience of all the waiting. Watching the leaders go over a rough map, he heard the bit about Ravagers. Hearing Sawyer's statement about covering the force with his AMP and plasma chainguns, Aleksei thought for a moment.

'Nah. Better to say nothing.' his mind said to him, which was something he was only too willing to listen to until the Corporal cooled off and he got his punishment from the Captain.
 
Carter dismounted for the tank he was in after checking to make sure that Jim was secured. They had apparently driven over to a staging area with some other squads. Whatever the squad leaders were planning it would be big as there was talk about Ravangers are other nasty surprises. While impatient, he would simply have to wait for his orders. Hopefully the squad leaders hadn't forgot that he was tagging along and would find something for him to do that involved killing NMX soldiers. This time however he hoped to not get cut off and abandoned by the rest of his team...
 
"The Corp asked me to double check that you had a medical kit and all the right stuff. Show it to me," Corporal Janet Watson said to Zyv.

--------------------------

A couple Raiders, shorter than Sawyer's Hostile, approached. "You are Aubrey Sawyer?" one of them, male, asked Sawyer.

---------------------------

The input from the others in his team wasn't asked for, but it wasn't completely unwelcome either to Henry. To some they would've been speaking out of turn and lacked discipline - but their contributions were worth mulling over. Henry and Lisa did have mortars between them that could punch a hole in a Ravager - but could risk bringing down an even bigger assault. Sawyer's heavy armament meant that he could take on a Ravager embedded in one of the squads. Claire's Kegbuster wasn't to be sneezed at either.

However, the problem with all of these heavier armaments was mobility - the one advantage that could be had over a Ravager. If nothing else, Henry was sitting on top of a team of walking, talking and trustworthy ordnance bunkers. Henry trusted them to know their abilities and armaments, and they trusted Henry to lead the way and fight alongside them. However, this same mutual trust didn't seem to be present between Henry and a couple of the men before him.
"Your men are stating the obvious, Corporal," Sergeant Hardman observed, "And are they usually so eager to interrupt their squad leaders?"

The other 4th Fleet squad leaders, the ones who had been around when Lisa had made her outburst in front of Chief Santiago and Admiral Valken, held their tongues. They wanted to see how the newest member of the Squad Leader's Club responded. The ones who had not, like Motoyama and Toby, knew better than to interrupt this proceeding. It was a test, designed to see how much control the NCO had over his subordinates. A lack of control was just as dangerous as enemy fire. Nepleslian Marines may be gung-ho to the extreme but they weren't usually idiots.

Before Henry answered that question, he looked behind him and held up a palm to indicate for them to stop before pointing them away. "Simmons, Aubrey, Winters, stand down and fall in. Enthusiasm appreciated, but not needed right now. Save it for shore leave." He then turned back around to the squad leaders assembled. "They still treat me as a fellow marine before they do an non-commissioned officer - but that is not our current concern." He leaned in to take a closer look at the map made in the dirt, kneeling down and examining the relative positions of everything and re-sketching them in an overlay of the known map upon his HUD.

He ruminated briefly upon what was there. A ridge line, a depot further down away from it, and two ravagers that stuck out like sore thumbnails. Two pronged assault was feasible but risked drawing greater fire from one of the Ravagers while a three-pronger was also possible as the expense of being harder to manage. His thought process meant that his pointer finger was hovering over the dirt - appearing indecisive until he opened his mouth.

"We'll split onto Squads Une, Deux and Troix." Henry noted as he made three dimples along the ridge. "Une will move ahead towards one Ravager and attempt to draw them closer towards the ridge line, where Deux, armed with the heavier ordnance can properly barrage the Ravager with the aid of the Gunships - without risking damage to the facility and drawing the attention of the horde." He drew a line from Squad Une and drew it towards the first Ravager, then double backed, and drew an arrow from Squad Deux at the projected path of the Ravager to indicate fire.

"Squad Troix then disengages from Deux and joins Une to attack the remaining Ravager. Once Squad Deux is finished with the first Ravager, they swap weapons and go for the facility under the cover of the Gunships." And that was Henry's honest opinion of how they should proceed with taking the facility - but it wasn't the law, it was just a theory at this point and open to more. "Any further input from you, gentlemen?" His tone was sincere in asking for further recommendations from the others.

"If all our squads were as diverse as yours, it would be sound. As it is however... It doesn't take advantage of our assets. I've reviewed Sergeant Hardman's Hammers, their capabilities and combat history," Corporal Holmes started to say.

"Find anything interesting?" the ID-SOL asked.
The ex-mercenary ignored the ID-SOL's remark in a calculated attempt to remain on task. "They are a pure assault group. While Sergeant Hardman may think the decisive force of his squad is diminished with the recent addition of Corporal Suzuki's team, they are actually our most potent shock troops."

Holmes pointed to the other Hammers, 2 Aggressors and 3 Raiders, arguing and pointing fingers at each other. They weren't armed with AOPs, AMPs or anything else one normally expected to find on a fire support unit. The Aggressors touted the large Kegbuster launchers while the Raiders all carried AS4GS. "While your Marine plans to use the Kegbuster as a support weapon, Morris, Sergeant Hardman's team use them up close. This makes them an ideal assault unit."

"The moment we attack is when any assault has the greatest chance of doing damage. If we can get the Hammers and Avengers in, amongst the NMX armor and troops, right after the initial bombing run, we can then play to our advantages. Unit One can do exactly as you outline. It should be composed of the Lancers and my own Irregulars. Unit Two will be the Minutemen and Dragoons. These two groups will be responsible for distracting the Ravagers long enough for Hardman and Motoyama to get in amongst them and cause chaos."
Holmes paused but was interrupted by Sergeant Hardman, who finished the plan so that Holmes would shut up and they could attack sometime today.

"We're not stopping. We blast in one end, we blast out the other, turn around and do it again. There is no stopping for a melee, no loss of momentum. Morris, Holmes, once Motoyama and I finish our first run, you two need to dive in and keep up the confusion. The tanks and gunships will be the real fire support.

"We cannot outgun a Ravager but we can get under their guns and use their own forces to minimise our own casualties. Good idea, Morris, just lacking in the details. Remember, do not stop. Plow through them from end to end, turn around and smash through them again. When we stop, we lose the initiative. Speed is the key to this assault. Ten minutes to get into position. I read the current local time as 0250. Everyone synchronize on that. It'll be getting dark by the time we launch our assault. Six hour day and everything."
Hardman looked around for the acknowledgments.

"Understood, Sergeant." Henry replied curtly with a nod and a smile. It seemed as though they had a plan. He turned to the tanks that he'd be riding alongside and hoped that Toby had gotten wind of the planning. "Corporal Toby, what say you?"

Henry couldn't see the smile on the tanker's face but his jovial attitude came right across in the positive response. "Pleasure to work with you guys. Might be quieter than listening to Hardman's boys and girls bickering all the time," Toby laughed over the radio from his K4. The five K4 tanks from the Dragoons dropped their ramps for the Marines.

"Whenever your squad is ready, buddy!"

It was now Henry's job to relay what'd been set in stone by the tacticians assembled to his individual squad, just as the others were.

"Minutemen, listen up!" He opened on his command line to them. "We have ten - no, nine minutes-" It was now 0251 hours by Hardman's watch. "-to get into position to take this facility. The Lancers and Minutemen will be the second ones in after the Hammers and Avengers do a run of the facility. Our main job is to take down the Ravager that's left in their wake, and to take pressure off of the Third Marines." By destroying their reinforcements as they were. "We're going to be collaborating with the Dragoons, and we cannot stay still. I repeat - we cannot. Stay. Still."

"Now pile in!" Henry ordered as he directed towards Toby's K4 tanks. He was the first to move towards the tanks. "Once we're in position, we dismount, and fly alongside the tanks. Are my orders clear, Minutemen? Can I get a Hooah?" This time he did the traditional marine battlecry a little closer to its roots.
 
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