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

A beeping came upon Henry's communicator as he frantically tried to stay head and shoulders above the fight figuratively, and keep an eye on everyone's statuses. He wouldn't be able to stop for Claire - they had to keep momentum - even if it made him look like a terrible being. "Roger that!" He replied to Lisa as she branched off to the tanks. He then addressed the beeping in his ear.

"Phaedra, we've moved - Someone else is covering you." He replied whilst streaming a video feed of what was happening around him. "We're with Holmes and doing a-" Henry was relaying to his Sergeant and colleague just before a tank round exploded near him and Max, knocking the two down to the ground like suitcases tossed from a speeding car. Their momentum plus the sudden application of the explosion meant that they hit the ground hard.

Phaedra could hear the mechanics and metal smashing and impacting against the ground, followed Henry gasping for a few moments before his breathing slowed down. "...angh... what the shit was that?" He could be heard getting back into action. "Apologies. Sawyer - turn down the lights!" He switched channels briefly in conversation. "The tank crew nearly got us with that last one while they were blinded!"

Still gathering his bearings, he decided to call for a "Sound off, Minutemen!" to check who was still paying attention. Meanwhile, he started firing at the Ravager with his LPA, intent to bring down the last Ravager along with the others. "Brightvision on, people!"

Oh, and he got his 'sunglasses' for his visor on by changing the light amplification and making it akin to 'Brightvision' rather than 'Nightvision' so he could keep firing at the Ravager. You could reliably stare down a sun with it turned on.

Max fired a few more rounds when he heard the call for brightvision on. Quickly switching his HUD to compensate for the brightness, he heard a request for the squad to sound off. He moved to where Corporal Morris was to cover him while the rest of the squad checked in.

"Sir, Carter here. I'm still in the fight". He said as he fired off more rounds towards the oncoming enemies.

Lisa kept in cover as bits and pieces were flying around. She gestured to the tankers to keep their heads down. There were too many bullets and shrapnels flying around. Then she noticed her HUD. The dots of green shells flying from Sawyer, one being fired after another and literally tens of bolts flying from that Id-Sol guy.

"Cover your eyes!" Lisa shouted at the tankers and quickly programmed three bots to set up triangle shield right in front of her and the two tankers.

With the constant brightness from the antimatter rounds, some of the NMX thralls and Nekos looked dazed as they fired blindly. Others, however, were more sure of themselves. One thrall suicide bomber rolled under a tank and detonated himself. The explosion rocked the tank and its comparatively weaker belly, sending it careening off to another side before ploughing into the dirt. In its death dive, the tank had crushed one of the new spiky armors and a few NMX ground troops. The wreck came to a stop belly-up

Unlike the first tank, no crewmen climbed out. Either they were dead or unconscious or trapped.

Behind them, the Marines continued their lightning advance. By now, the first drive had reached the other side of the NMX formation and continued on to gain some distance before swinging back around.

All of Fenix's and Sawyer's munitions failed to reach their targets. Not because of NMX CIWS but because of the Irregulars' CIWS. They intercepted the missiles, destroying them in mid-air. The AM rounds exploded brilliantly. "Aubrey, stop firing at every thing you see and use your head for a minute. If you keep lobbing shells at the Ravager, we can't advance down the ridge!" Corporal Holmes said sternly over the radio.

When the light dimmed, the two remaining squads began their assault.

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Claire's RED round missed her intended target but found a group of NMX thralls. In a target rich environment, it was difficult not to hit something. Unless it was intercepted by your own side to prevent any uncomfortable incidents.

Alerted to its companion's demise, the remaining Ravager sent a stream of high velocity gatling rounds towards the Minutemen. Due to their speed, however, the rounds ended up cutting into a pair of Rippers that had tried to come at the Marines from behind.

"Hah, the Squiddies just scored an own goal!" Kerr shouted over the radio.

"So far so good, keep up the pressure, boys and girls!" Hardman added. "Speed kills!" another voice enthused loudly. "Can it, Boomer!" Hardman snapped, "We're gonna make for the first downed tank and then swing to the second."

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"This is Spitfire Wing, we've got four birds incoming with a full load of AGMs. Where do you want us to lay some eggs?"

Lisa waited for the large explosion, but it never came. Holmes and his people shot all the missiles in middle of the flight. She blinked once. She blinked twice. Then she shook her head and went back into battle. It was no time to try and see logic in some way.

Lisa re-called the triangle shield and extended the wall shield in front of the tank, but only upwards. Then she used her thrusters to jump on the tank, the shield now reaching up to her armours waist. Now if she crouched down, she could get in cover, but if she stood up and stepped on the tanks turret she could use all her weapons.

"Sir," she radioed on private line to Henry. "Henry, be so kind and tell that bloody wanker Holmes that if he wants us to use our heavy bloody arsenal to give him support, he should not go and hug the target we want to kill. Otherwise he can go suck a dick and deal with it himself."

With that she tood up and stepped on the turretunleashing fire at the thralls and nekoes advancing towards the tank. She fired her HPAR on full auto, as well as her hip-mounted Gatling Laser Cannons and since the enemy was mostly unarmoured she fired of her PLA as well, at least it would be already firing, should they sent a rocket her way.

Lisa kept an eye on her shields, being ready to hop back into the cover, before they should be brought down.

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

Watching as his and his comrade's munitions were destroyed short of their target. "What the fuck!?" cursed the marine as his jaw dropped inside his helmet. Keeping his AMP trained on the Ravager while he fired short controlled bursts, the rookie heard the call from the Corporal over the comms.

"Voronov, reporting Corporal." replied Aleksei over the comms while he fired burst after burst at the monster.

After getting his bearings back, Henry was quick to get Phaedra up to date: "Phaedra, we're conducting a raid to take a facility. We're trying to get it over with ASAP" He double checked the ammo on his LPA and decided to make more decisive shots, picking out targets like suicide bombers rather than spray and pray.

Of course, that was easier said than done at high speeds, he'd lob the occasional HE grenade in there to soften up larger groups - and exploit the chain reaction explosions of suicide-bombers. "I'd appreciate your help, but it'd draw the rest of the NMX to our position and we'd be forced to retreat."

He then turned his attention to Holmes and Sawyer, "One thing at a time you two. Holmes - you get first salvo - hit them with what you've got. Aubrey, you'll be firing as Holmes' main guns reload." The interleaving would hopefully allow the two to attack the Ravager without interrupting each other. "And Holmes, move ten paces back while maintaining speed - don't hug the bloody Ravager!"

"Voronov, reporting Corporal."

Click to expand...

"Acknowledged. Voronov, aim for suicide troopers and armours. They pose a bigger threat to our tanks than the Ravager at this point."

"Spitfire Wing," Henry got to the last people in order of his attention span, pausing his fire to bring up a map. "Lay some eggs here!" He marked two blind spots to either side of the Minutemen and Kerr's tanks, and a path that would remain untravelled by all three prongs of this attack. He also marked a space immediately behind each group - the logic behind this was to ensure that if anyone had to double back, there'd be a clear way through.

Max picked up the order from the Corporal. While it wasn't his squad leader or directed at him, it made a lot of sense. If they lost the tanks they would have a much tougher fight on their hands. So max shifted his fire towards the Thralls, letting out short bursts as he realized he should probably conserve his ammo.

The pilots acknowledged and confirmed their target orders. Each in their turn dove down, spitting missiles, plasma and chaingun rounds into the NMX ranks. Return fire from the NMX was minimal as they were still concentrating on the Nepleslian ground forces and not their air support. The destruction wrought was plain for the Minutemen to see along their flanks. Where once had thronged a vicious a hostile horde, lay charred and smoking craters of various sizes.

All the while, the Minutemen, minus Lisa, continued their advance behind Toby's surviving tanks, gunning down the NMX forces before they could get close. Just as it seemed like they were about to break out, they found their way barred by six of the new Spiky armors and six Rippers. The K4s, already weakened during the charge, scattered in the face of the volley fired. The tankers were well aware that their vehicles could not stand up to such concentrated fire. Two of the K4s, including Toby's, went down with only a badly damaged one making it into the air.

One had taken a 50mm round through the underbelly, crashing unceremoniously to the ground. The other went down when a plasma shell destroyed the driver's cockpit, vaporizing its occupant and causing the tank to crash.

Next it was Henry Morris' turn to face the NMX blockade. Despite fresher shields, the Marine infantry would be overwhelmed if they stopped.

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The two tankers below Lisa looked up in awe as the woman fired everything she had. Her aim wasn't spectacular but this was one instance of accuracy by volume. All that was missing was for her to fire a shitload of mini-missiles right there and then.

The leading thralls and Nekos went down, bloodied and broken but those behind them immediately dove into the ground and fired in increasingly accurate volleys with their Impalers. The blue-white beams kept lancing through the air and hitting the shields.

One volley would try to weaken the shields. The next would try to hit Lisa when she appeared. And it would continue. In the breaks when Lisa was forced to stop firing to take cover, NMX infantry moved forwards under fire from two assault rifles. The situation was becoming more desperate since the NMX were simply throwing more bodies at Lisa than she could gun down.

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Kerr's tanks and Holmes' infantry were already flying down the hill, alternating fire between NMX troops around them and the Ravager. Two of Holmes' men, armed with Kegbusters, were concentrating their fire on one of the Ravager's legs. By their third salvo, the shields there had given up and by their last salvo before reloading, they had seriously damaged that leg. It still held together but if that Ravager took a step in any direction, it risked tearing its leg off.

Beyond them, Hardman and Motoyama's squads were coming back for another pass. They had suffered no casualties on their first run but as they began their second, a Spiky armor jumped one of the Raiders in Hardman's squad. The two became locked in a high speed struggle until one of Hardman's Aggressors broke formation (without orders) and made his way to the combatants. He jammed his VBCS into the armor's back and used the Aggressor's raw power to enhance his own superhuman strength to rip the NMX's head off. Then he unceremoniously picked up the stunned Raider and carried it back to the formation.

Another Raider from Motoyama's squad was not so lucky. He took a plasma blast to his arm and the next second, was down on the ground in agony from the burns. While most of the arm had simply been vaporized instantly, a small stump remained and the nerve endings had boiled and burst in a fraction of a second. The man's brain was only just receiving the death cries of his pain receptors.

Hearing the order from the Corporal, Aleksei locked his jaw under his helmet. He wanted to turn the patch of dirt that Ravager occupied into a smoking crater, though he was a marine and marines followed orders to the letter. Turning his attention to the the NMX infantry as Spitfire wing shot overhead and strafed the NMX forces. As the missiles detonated within the clusters of enemy infantry, an almost childlike glee overtook the ID-SOL. Bodies flew in the air and landed in twisted masses of flesh and metal causing the rookie to call loudly in his helmet. "Die you fuckers! Hahahahaha!"

All the while he turned his attention to the NMX forces closest to the squad as he focused his AMP and plasma chainguns on them, firing the AMP in short bursts and switching targets as the shoulder mounted weapons fired what he hoped would be the kill shot of each target he had targeted with his AMP.

Zyv kept his position, slightly behind the rest of the squad, and continued to fire sparingly at any NMX that ended behind the other Minutemen as well as delivering coup-de-grace to those wounded. He spared a look to Lisa who had ended up staying behind and was tempted to request permission to fall back to aid her, he didn't.

Primarily because he was no longer a grunt with no other job than shooting, Romero had been very clear that medics are not to play the hero unless necessary. The other was the appearance of power armoured enemies before the minutemen and taking into account previous combat meant that all their firepower may be needed.

Rakowski could not fire immediately as that would result in hitting the squad in the back so instead he concentrated on keeping the flanks clear and being ready to move as needed and engage as ordered.

"Onwards! We cannot lose our momentum!" Henry surged ahead and above to lead the Minutemen's final leg of the charge, holding his rifle high and letting his waist become exposed so he could fire the hip-mounted GLC weapons. These weapons were usually required for point defence, but their secondary use for killing swathes of unarmoured targets couldn't be ignored either.

Bolts of red ionised light flew overhead and struck into what was left of the horde as he focused a continuous beam from his PLA at the Ravager's weapons pack on its back, able to spot the missile launchers towering over its shoulders. Henry's VOID wasn't so different in design, with two large mortar launchers on his back.

He kept that beam focussed as the GLC kept raining suppressing fire down on the other targets. When he looked ahead, he was able to see the facility coming closer and closer, and he made a sharp left turn to look at the Ravager's back, still aiming at the mortar pack on the Ravager's back.

He was hoping to cook the payload in those main missiles and take out the Ravager with it.

Lisa cursed. Once, twice and soon for third time. This was bad, she was only thing that stood between wave of NMX and those two tankers. She did not just plan to let them die. All those thralls and nekoes needed to die first so the tankers could retreat. That meant using the heavy weapons.

Lisa never stopped firing her on board hip-gatlings and PLA, but HPAR silenced for a bit. Its mag was almost empty anyway. It was time for heavy metal.

"Die you wankers!" Lisa shouted at the enemy and started firing her grenade launcher at them. She also sub-sequently unleashed 30 bolt missiles spread into the ranks of enemy.

Max cried out in joy as he watched the air strike tear up the enemy lines. He always loved watching them in the holovids, and now he was in the middle of one. It was pretty freaking exciting, and much louder than he expected. Still he was in the middle of an assault and had to focus.

As he watched Henry step forward to lead the charge, he knew that this was the time to finish the job. Max let out his own war cry and then picked up the pace to keep up with Henry. Max aimed his rifle at some of the approaching thralls which now blocked his path. Max squeezed off a sweeping burst into the line of thralls in front of him.

By now he had gotten his aiming on the move down and had adjusted to the planets gravity. He watched as three of the thralls he was aiming at fly back from hits from his rifle. "HELL YEAH TAKE THAT!!!!" He shouted as he shifted his fire towards the rest of the line as he kept moving forward.

The Aggressor armor of the young marine thundered alongside the Corporal in his VOID armor, covering the right flank to the best of his abilities. Firing burst after burst from his AMP into the ranks of NMX infantry while the whole time his shoulder mounted plasma chainguns fired a swath of death behind every burst. Thanks to the software Sawyer had handed out, the gravity was causing little more than a minor irritation at the constant use of the thrusters in order to keep the large armor frame moving at a decent pace.

Targeting a large grouping of enemy infantry, Aleksei fired off 15 BOLT's, before returning to the havoc closer to the squad.

Sawyer shrugged in his armor, loaded a magazine of RED rounds into his AOP and began taking shots at groups of Nekos and Thralls, trying to make sure that the explosion would take out as many in one hit as possible while also laying down a withering hail of fire to cut down on incoming from the foot troops. He cursed to himself as he saw Lisa get bogged down by a group of nekos and lobbed a round of RED into them to try to at least disrupt their advance until he was able to get into a better support position.

Two Spiky armors and a Ripper crashed before the two sides collided in a melee. The momentum from the Minutemen's advance evaporated as Marines and NMX drew their combat weapons for the close quarters brawl.

Henry found himself facing off a Ripper with a custom paint job. Obviously some big-shot in the NMX PA troops. Both arm blades were extended but the Ripper just circled Henry, trying to get the Marine to attack first.

Two of the Spiky armors danced around Aleksei, each one holding a large combat knife. In the hands of a regular person, it would have been a small sword. With neither one attacking, Aleksei would have to make the first move.

Max found himself wrestling with a Spiky, both combatants pushing against the other with their armors' augmented musculature grinding loudly. This was a contest of strength. Whoever won or lost would do so purely because of the combination of their physical strength and their armor's endurance.

Right after he fired, Sawyer was pounced upon by a Ripper, which dragged him to the ground where they began tussling.

Zyv, at the back of the column, was confronted by a Spiky with a large bayonet attached to its Impaler rifle. The medic had to switch off his conservative mindset and fight aggressively like his fellow Marines.

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The only one not fighting in hand to hand was Lisa. She was still fending off waves of NMX thralls. The nekos were hanging back, using their superior senses to try to snipe while the expendable thralls screamed mindlessly as they ran into Lisa's fire. It was a futile gesture, especially when Sawyer's shells began landing, since most of them were going to die.

A few well-timed shots took down Lisa's shield wall, overloaded the drones and left the two tankers exposed. One of them, the tank driver, took a particle beam to the elbow, vaporizing the entire joint. His hand flopped to the ground, smoking. Likewise, the blackened stump smoked and fizzled grotesquely until the tanker started howling in pain.

From the other downed tanks, survivors began crawling out and defending themselves as they could.

Eyeballing the two NMX armors in front of him, Aleksei wasted no time starting the combat between them. Spinning up his shoulder mounted chain guns along with his AMP, the marine attempted to switch between both targets. Hoping he would be able gun them down before they could close in to use their knives. In the event that they somehow got through the hellish onslaught of the three miniguns, Aleksei was completely prepared to use his primary weapon as a melee tool along with the sheer size and power of his own armor.

"Come on! Let's dance!" challenged the Aggressor clad marine as he maintained his fire on the two enemy armors. The sooner he was done with these two, the sooner he could assist the other Minutemen with their own preoccupations. Thundering toward the nearest spike as he kept a close eye on it's partner that danced nearby to avoid the hail of gunfire, the rookie hit the thrusters hoping to get close enough to slam his weapon into the spike oil it's head.

Despite the suppression, the armor was still able to dance from underneath it's larger opponent's weapon. As he did so, the second NMX armor plowed into the Aggressor clad marine sending them both to the ground in a cloud of dirt and dust. Both armors groaned as the weight of the platforms along with the planet's natural gravity pushing against them. 'Fuck this. I'm not gonna go out without a fight' thought the marine as he threw a punch into his opponents lower abdomen feeling a brief satisfaction as the spike's armor gave and the grip on him slacked. Pushing against the enemy armor was short lived a Aleksei saw the knife hand flash toward him, grazing against his armor, leaving a terrific gouge through the chest plate.

Vitals read normal, though he was furious at his lack of attention to detail. The knife flew toward him again however the marine was ready this time. Reaching forward the marine grabbed the spike's arm in his left hand as his right grabbed for the VCS. Feeling the comforting grip of the knifes pommel, Aleksei pulled the knife free of it's sheath ha locked the spike's arm in a vice thanks to his armor and his own strength, before driving the VCS into the pilot's abdomen.

A spasm of pain could be seen as the marine worked the melee weapon upwards as best he could cutting through the armor and the pilot until finally the armor ceased moving. Moving as quickly as he could to push the dead NMX off of him before the other joined the fray, he felt a sharp pain in his left arm the had just moments before viced upon the spike's arm.

Glancing to his left, Aleksei could see the second spike's knife had been rammed through the plate of his armor and secured it into the surface of the planet. Looking up he could see the NMX soldier preparing to being its boot down upon his chest. 'Not today fucker.' Thought the man as he got a lock with the left plasma chaingun and fired at the spike's legs and groin. The fire didn't cut through the armor as he had hoped due to the shields, but it did surprise the enemy pilot long enough for Aleksei to slash at it's leg with his VCS. The large blade left an impressive gash in the spike's plating.

Taking the brief reprieve to quickly jerk his arm over the blade, which he regretted almost immediately as the hilt and handle caused more damage to his arm, the marine quickly pulled himself from the ground as thw weight of the NMX armor crashed into him. Setting his feet, the two armors slid across the ground but not falling to it. "You're going to die here. Not me." Spat the marine, not caring in the least if the enemy pilot heard or not. Twisting as best he could against the enemy frame while launching a powerful elbow strike.

The blow was a glance at best though it was enough to relax the grip on the rookie he hit the thrusters to escape before he was grabbed again. Turning to face his adversary with his VCS at the ready, Aleksei found the spike on it's back. The sudden activation of the thrusters had sent the NMX Soldier backwards along with scorching and burning the armor. Wasting no time to think or speak, the young marine responded with another activation of the thrusters to close the distance.

As the NMX attempted to fend the marine off with no weapon, to no avail as Aleksei drove his VCS into the neck as a splash of blood shot across his armor. The marine worked the blade across the throat before driving it to the hilt in the NMX pilot's chest and grabbing the two spikes on either side of the head and despite the pain the flared in his injured arm, tore the head from the spike's body as another splash of blood shot across the ground.

Throwing the head to the side, Aleksei retrieved his VCS, sheathing it as he glanced around for his AMP finding underneath the corpse of his first opponent. A cursory inspection showed the weapon was still in working order despite the weight of the NMX power armor crushing it against his chest.

One of them got through.

Past the thin line of marines ahead and past the fired rounds meant to keep the flanks clean one of the NMX got through and was charging him, bayonet fixed.

Even as Zyv shifted his weight in an attempt to bring his own weapon round the picture bothered him, why charge? Why not just shoot? And why the hell am I asking myself this question?

The spikey was fast, there would be no time to fire in a manner other than a wild spray of plasma more likely to hit an ally than it’s intended target and spike was already thrusting.

Textbook attack, low thrust to the gut. Zyv replied with a text book counter, catching his opponents weapon with his own, pushing it aside while shifting his weight forward ready to follow up with a blow from his weapons stock to his opponents head. Textbook said there were two outcomes; spike either gets clobbered, losses his balance and is finished off by the next attack or jumps back to put some distance between the two and prepares for the next round. Spike opted for neither.

The NMX continued moving forward and slammed into the marine, rifle held between them as if he were crosschecking during “Hockey Night in Nepleslia”. Zyv was in the wrong stance for that and his form was knocked off balance. What next? A hard landing on the ground followed by the sharp pain of a bayonet punching into his body before being twisted and yanked out leaving him to scream as he died?

‘No. I refuse.’

Rakowski let go of his weapon and reached out, grabbed hold of spikes power armoured form and pulled even as he fell. There was a moment’s resistance before spike lost his balance and followed the marine to the ground. Dust enveloped the two forms as they hit the planetoids surface. Zyv managed to hold on to his opponent during the landing and spike now attempted escape the marines power armoured grip, pulling back before pushing down on the rifle between the two. Achieving nothing the NMX pulled back his head ready to use it to bludgeon the marine.

Holding his opponent back with his right hand Rakowski used his left to punch spike once, twice, thrice. It seemed that despite the layers of armour and padding spike registered the fact as the pressure he applied to the marine slackened a bit, enough for Zyv to throw his enemy off.

As spike landed in a cloud of dust Zyv rolled to his knees. As spike started to roll to his feet Zyv drew his VCS. As spike looked up Zyv boosted towards the NMX.

This time it was the marine with the momentum and the much heavier HOSTILE simply smashed the NMX armour to the ground. The marine grabbed spike by the helmet and pulled it sideways, exposing the weaker armoured neck for the vibrosaw in his right.

Metal shrieked in protest accompanied by sparks as the VCS slammed into its target. For a brief second nothing happened save for the shrieking metal and shower of sparks when the weapon suddenly pushed through and the sparks were replaced with a shower of blood.

Spike twisted under the marine and Zyv kept pushing the VCS in until his opponent stopped moving. The marine released the breath he had not been aware he had been holding and pulled the weapon free. Running the saw again to shake the blood off Rakowski sheathed the weapon back to its scabbard before moving to pick up his rifle.

As much as he’d like to rest there was a battle going on.