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

Hearing the Corporal over the squad line, Aleksei nodded as he swallowed hard one last time before falling in behind the tanks with Henry. The plan seemed simple enough, though Aleksei wasn't going to question orders. He was going to follow them to the letter and gun down the first NMX soldier the squad came across.

Claire shakes off her musings. What was she saying? She wasn't one to lie down and die. If her superiors were going to get themselves killed, she didn't have to die with them. She'd just have to be better. With that she hops down and follows behind the tanks with the others, switching to the plasma on her Kegbuster. No sense in wasting rockets unless a target of opportunity presented itself. She only had a handful anyway.

The five tanks fired their rounds, one after another, at the side torso. Each sabot round was aimed at the same spot to maximize the chance of penetration. The first couple of rounds would probably be deflected easily but it was the following rounds which would have a chance to pierce the behemoth's shields and armor.

As Toby expected the first two bounced, as did the third. The fourth smashed on contact with the Ravager's armor but the fifth round managed to puncture the thick armor.

Not that Toby's busdrivers hung around to watch.

They were already speeding downhill firing their secondary weapons and cutting their own path through the NMX.

The Minutemen followed right behind.

Sawyer would follow the tanks, launching a pair of green antimatter rounds at the Ravager that was being targeted by the tank's main gun as well as any targets of opportunity, while his plasma chainguns directed their fire at the light infantry and other NMX powered armors on the ground. Maximum suppression was his goal and he intended to do everything he could to minimize return fire from enemy forces. He had no desire to see any of the members of his team injured or killed. They had to work together to make sure that any of them got off this rock and he'd do his best to help them out.

Max heard the corporal over the squad channel and saw the tanks moving down the hill. He remembered having the turrets pointed at him and was now happy that they were assaulting the enemy instead of trying to blow him up. His orders for the operation were simply enough and he knew his part in the greater plan.

Max focused his HPAR fire on the armored-infantry units that were aiming at the tanks. He fired 10, three-round bursts at his targets. Granted this wasn't the first time he had been under fire, but it was still nerve raking.

Thundering along behind the tanks, Aleksei targeted the light infantry with his plasma chainguns while he let the AMP fire in short bursts at the area where the tanks had punched a hole in the Ravager's armor. Hoping to get the perfect opportunity to fire a volley of BOLT's at the monster. His hope was that the matter-antimatter blast would loosen up some of the NMX infantry around the Ravager along with some damage to the Ravager itself.

Making sure he was still in formation with the rest of the squad, he had no intentions of finding himself surrounded by the NMX forces in the area.

A double check of his systems should have been all that Zyv should have had to do before charging. Should. With a sigh he contacted Henry.

- ‘Corporal? Not wanting to jinx us but does “Don’t stop moving” translate as “Leave the wounded where they fall?” Just want to be clear on that before it happens.’

Even as he spoke Rakowski joined the squad as it followed the tanks in their charge.

Right at that moment, a 50mm hypervelocity round exploded underneath Zyv's feet, causing him to lose balance and fall flat on his face. Other than the insult to his pride, he was unharmed. However, in those seconds in which he had taken to recover, the rest of the unit had ploughed on ahead of him.

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Sawyer and Alexei's combined antimatter munitions visibly hurt the Ravager as it showed visible signs of damage. Much of its armor was now blackened, warped and rent in grotesque angles. The scoring made the Ravager look more like a black monster from a bad horror movie than a war machine.

The effects of the explosion weren't keenly felt by the Marines, except for the bright detonations which blinded both friend and foe alike. Yet, for all the damage two AM shells and 40 BOLTs had done, the Ravager still stood, roaring its defiance. In retaliation, it started firing at the fast moving Marines.

The giant gatling guns began spitting streams of high explosive rounds at the Marine spearhead. As if in slow motion, Henry watched as the tracer rounds smashed through the leftmost K4's shields and then into its side armor and lastly through the opposite side. The K4 swerved violently away before slamming into the dirt, kicking up red-brown muck until it settled. Both tankers clambered out, wearing nothing but their duty uniforms and tank helmets. Armed with a pair of rifles and their side arms, the two immediately began firing at the approaching Nekos and thralls. In the blink of an eye, the Ravager had wiped out one of the best tanks Nepleslia could field.

The other four tanks continued on like nothing happened, firing as rapidly as possible.

Behind them, Max's efforts were met with mixed success. Firing on the move was always difficult. Even more so when the gravity was three times the normal. His first attempts kept missing the intended targets as he hadn't quite factored in the speed at which he and his targets were moving at. Slowly, his adjustments resulted in more hits but they were sporadic and always against shielded opponents.

"If you fall I ain't catchin'-" Henry was replying to Zyv as he thrusted ahead - gasping as he watched a 50mm round blow up by Zyv's feet. According to the heart and armour monitors of his Squad, Zyv was perfectly fine. No armour damage, heart rate and vitals nominal save for perhaps some injured pride.

"-you. Up, go." He finished his reply to Raikowski with no small modicum of urgency. Henry knew he couldn't stop, and Raikowski had no reason not to afterburn and catch up. What he could do however, was throw a trio of drones behind him to cover Raikowski.

While that was happening, Henry was ahead and firing beams of plasma in bursts of five or ten on Rapid Fire mode. Occasionally he'd pause to let the weapon cool down, recharge a fraction of ammo and he'd raise his forearm launcher.

He fired three HE grenades into the crowd of thralls ahead of him, knowing that they'd not survive the blasts. His first grenade would fall short, but the second and third readily compensated for the gravity and movement. And if they did survive the blasts, he'd be firing his LPA, and by his ammo count, he'd fired at least 200 pulses worth of plasma energy or so.

It was funny, Zyv decided, how long it seemed to take for his armoured form to hit the ground. The moments before, by contrast, seemed to have taken no time at all. Less than a seconds warning from his armours systems followed by flash and next he knew he was somewhere between earth and sky. When he did hit the ground it with teeth rattling force that pushed the air out of his lungs. Despite this he still managed to roll and, with his armours gyroscope helping, the marine was on his feet even as the corporal finished the word “Go”, so he did just that.

- ‘Roger corporal.’

Was all Rakowski said this time round, partially because he didn’t have the breath to waste and partially because he worried about the possibility of another odd round striking him.

Despite moving quickly Zyv was still lagging so his targets were limited. The medic therefore took to targeting any NMX left behind by the rest of his squad that might prove a threat. Rakowski used his weapons sparingly as his primary concern was not to be left too far behind the rest of the marines.

Well, shit was all Sawyer could think when he saw the Ravager still standing

Uh Corp, and the rest of you guys, you may want to avoid looking at that Ravager here for a minute, or just really turn up the light filtering on your visors because it's gonna get bright

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he sent to the squad as he swiveled his arms and set his AOP to his shoulder and fired the remaining 4 rounds in his first magazine, all GREEN rounds and followed them up with a volley of 15 BOLTS from each of his minimissile packs. Hopefully that will be enough to put that one down for the count.

Hearing the message from Sawyer over the squad's channel, Aleksei focused his AMP on the Ravager firing in short controlled bursts.

Got your back, brother.

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Continuing the short bursts he let 10 BOLT's from each of his packs loose at the ravager, hoping to add a bit more to the punishment the Ravager was about to endure. 'Go down, fucker.' came the angry thought from the rookie marine's mind before turning his armor's light filter up enough to compensate for the brilliant flash of light that would no doubt follow the antimatter charges.

Lisa charged along with others. First she tried to align her mortars, but other moved too fast and got too close too fast. She could still pull it off, but it was still risky. The blonde marine has several options now as she raced down firing her Waist-vulcans and HPAR at the Raveger to help soften it up. Her HUD also showed her that Sawyer was taking care of it pretty well. Tags on his missiles showed they were green. Aka the most deadly shit in aggressors arsenal.

Lisa decided to help elsewhere. "Corporal, I am going to go and back-up those tankers!" She shouted and blasted off, using her thrusters. She already started giving her shield bots instructions.

They were to form a wall in front of the tank and tanker to protect them from the thralls and neko-fire. Lisa herself landed behind a wall and started firing her forearm grenade launcher over the shield wall at the thralls.

Max was annoyed with his aim. He was usually a good shot, but firing on the move was much harder. Especially in this gravity setting. However he had to do his part and wouldn't give up. Max clicked his rifle over to full auto, figuring it would be better than his 3 round burst.

He started to squeeze off 5 round streams at his targets. Max started leading them a bit more, trying to compensate for speed and distance of his targets. He was doing his best to keep up with the assault tanks as they plowed ahead. This level of combat was much tougher than anything he had ever encountered with his time on the police force; and Max loved every minute of it.

Despite the difficulty of running and gunning in three times normal gravity, the Marines were definitely making the NMX hurt. Nekos and thralls were falling like flies against this new wave of Nepleslian lead and fire. However, the NMX had started to recover faster than the previous assault. Rippers and the newer spiky armors were gathering to stop the Minutemen and their tank support.

Incoming fire started wearing down the Marines' shields quickly, the tanks more so as they were leading the charge. A 50mm round smashed straight into Aleksei's shields. It exploded and wore down his shields but the real damage was in its kinetic force which knocked the ID-SOL backwards so that he lay face up on the dirt.

Aether beams lanced towards Lisa as she made for the trapped tankers. One of them tried to wave her away but the Marine continued resolutely forwards, shielding the pair. Her grenades detonated amidst a cluster of thralls, killing or wounding the majority. The uninjured continued to advance towards the tankers while the wounded lay where they had fallen and tried to shoot Lisa or the tankers. Unsurprisingly, their shots usually went wide.

Suddenly another white fireball blotted out everyone's vision. When it cleared, the Ravager closest to the Minutemen still stood. Except it was missing everything but its legs. However, in the detonation, Holmes' squad had continued firing unaware that there was going to be another explosion. One of their rockets had fallen into the Minutemen group and detonated, pushing Henry and Max onto the ground. It was a near miss that caused no damage save for some dirt and scratches on almost everyone's armors.

Claire was not so lucky. She took six simultaneous aether beams to the front and it only needed four hits to take down her shields. The last two lanced into her chest, burning the armor and knocking the wind out of her.

Sawyer reloaded and smiled inside his armor as he slotted another 6 round canister of GREEN rounds into his AOP Well that was effective, but sure wastes a lot of ammo. Then again those things are the biggest threats out here he thought to himself as he took aim at the other Ravager and let loose another volley of AOP rounds, counting on his adjustments to see the rounds to target and hopefully taking that monstrosity down, as his shoulder mounted chainguns gave firesupport to the others, he saw Claire take a massive volley of Aether rounds and started heading in her direction in order to give her the cover of his armor's mass while her shields recharged. He'd continue letting loose massive volleys from his shoulder batteries to try and suppress the foot infantry fire from the NMX nekos and thralls while engaging the Ravager, that was the biggest threat to the heavy armor on the field and when it was down he'd switch to red and white rounds to engage the NMX powered armors.

Might want to watch y'alls eyes again folks, it's gonna get bright.

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was all he sent on the squad comms.

Claire could only assume she was being targeted because of her weapon. Though it didn't pierce her armor, she certainly felt the heat and impact bruise her chest. Still in the back of the formation and still hit six times, she shuffled over to get better cover with the tanks and squadmates, but not before firing a RED rocket at the offending enemies, aiming up slightly and letting the propelled explosive fly with the aid of the adjusted targeting data for the planet's gravity. She had long since shut off her outgoing communications so no one could hear her curse inside of her armor.

His forward momentum was suddenly halted as he took the high velocity round to the chest. Feeling his entire weight hit the ground which with the added gravity did not feel pleasant in the slightest. "Fucking hell!" cursed the rookie while he rolled to his hands and knees before pushing himself up and hitting full thrust to catch up with the continuing charge, checking his shields as he did so. Letting his shoulder mounted chainguns fire volley after volley of the deadly plasma at the NMX forces while he targeted the Ravager again. His irritation at the monster's almost god-like stamina turning to anger as he gave the trigger of the AMP a hard squeeze while he let the weapon unleash the rage he was feeling on the Ravager.

Hearing Sawyer's warning over the comms, he made sure his light filtration was still set to the appropriate setting, deciding that he would send 20 BOLT's from each of his packs when the chance arose. Dropping that Ravager was his main focus for the time being.

Max smiled as the bright flash and explosion above him meant that the Ravager had been taken down. He could only enjoy the victory for a moment before he felt the conclusive blast of the rocket hit him, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"That hurt!" Max thought to himself as he got up from the impact. He wasn't sure where the shot had come from but all that mattered was that he wasn't hurt. His systems checked out and Max recovered.

He heard Sawyer say over the comms,

Might want to watch y'alls eyes again folks, it's gonna get bright.

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Max made sure not to look in the direction of the Ravager as he raised is shield to block the incoming fire from the enemies who were trying to pick off the down Marine. Max returned fire in short 10 round bursts, moving himself to get out of the direct line of fire.

"Morris, what is your status? I'm taking over for the Chief; give me a Sitrep," said Phaedra over the comm.