RP: NSS Acadia Mission 5: Quick Save

The red monoeye continued to stare at Fhion, even as the Marine spoke to the doctor. "That's only if she's bluffing Doctor." Matteo then spoke to Cedric over comm, hoping it wouldn't be privy to the conversation. "You take the Doc away and jerk the Officers over here, yeah?" He asked. Though most of the NH the NMX were using consisted of the 29's, there was always the oddball somewhere. Matteo, even though he was new to the Marines, knew that much; it was common sense after all.

"So, how do we know you're not bluffing?" he asked her politely.

“I haven’t broken anything here yet. That should be proof enough of my intentions.” Fhion replied as the doctor left the medical bay, moving to hide in the hallways of the ship while the marines handled the situation.

“And if you must know, this body is based on the 29 series but has a few upgrades. You shouldn’t have too much faith in your weapons ability to stop me.”

Makari kept both his silence and his bead drawn on the NMX. He didn't give a damn what she said, RED shells would put her in her place. Although he wished that he would have had some of those fabled black shells instead.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Anselm yelled, slamming a fist against the sound-muffling canopy. Catching his breath, the raging marine squirmed around inside the cramped tank, looking for an exit that wasn't electronically locked.

Communication, he thought, grinning as he thumbed the the 'send' button on his headset, "Somebody please shoot these nekos if they get close to each other," he gripped, sending an errant tool clanging around the inside of the tank as he looked up the turret for a manually-operated hatch that Drei couldn't keep locked, "actually, just shooting them now might save some paperwork".

"Are you an idiot?" Cedric snapped at Matteo, "Bring our officers to a potentially deadly target?" Cedric shook his head, ushering the medic out the door, and thus out of the line of fire.

He may have been one of the newest Marines on the ship but even he knew that it was a bad idea to do something like that. Then Anselm came through and Cedric paused. What kind of request was that? What had Harm apparently done to justify such a response? Cedric didn't know and he didn't find himself caring all that much as he raised his pistol once again. He kept his aim on Fhion's center-mass and was just short of enough pressure to fire his weapon.

"Mind explaining why we should?" Cedric asked, directing his question to Anselm.

"I can tell you why we shouldn't: either that crazy cat-bitch Harm knows too much or she's also an NMX. I'm not letting those two meet. Plus, why the hell else would she want ALL of us in the med bay at the same time? My money's on Harm being in cahoots with them," he spat out the last word with contempt.

"This is P3C Makari Aeron, the 'situation' in the medbay makes Harm suspicious, I recommend detaining her ASAP. I suspect her to be NMX," he radioed to the squad. He didn't care if Harm heard, these bitches were going down.

Makari then turned to the NMX, took a pace forward and shouted, "You want my answer? I say fuck you!" and proceeded to fire his HHG. The first two red shells he squeezed off were aimed for her head, the other six headed for her chest.

Cedric had been tense since the medic had announced that the blood was having a problem. The only problem was that he had hesitated, not sure if he should shoot Fhion once she revealed herself, or even when Anselm said they should. Then Makari stepped forward, his HHG's firing shattering any doubt Cedric had anymore. He had been trained on Fhion's chest already so he simply started emptying his HHG in her direction: WHITE rounds flying from his gun.

A hail of explosive rounds would tear apart the bed that Fhion was sitting on, sending pieces of foam padding, metal tools, and plastic coverings flying about the room. However instead of ending up as bullet filled corpse Fhion was entirely unharmed. In the moment before the bullets hit her body turned slightly transparent, allowing the solid mass to harmlessly pass through her and wreck what was behind her.

At this point, with the marines having blown their loads with nothing to show for it, she desperately wanted to taunt them. An ‘I told you so,’ a ‘Now we do this the hard way,’ or even just a haughty laugh would have provided her a deep satisfaction but in order to interact with the air enough to form words she would have to unphase which would leave her vulnerable to their weapons.

Instead she would give them a smile and then let herself start to fall through the floor. ~Now, to find something I can break…~


---

Harm was watching the scene unfold over her armor’s hud, and got an earful from Makari. “She’s using NMX Phase Tech. Hit her with your suit’s lasers instead of the solid stuff. Makari, come with me to the bridge, everyone else head up to engineering. Have Drei highlight the path for you.”

She was quite upset with the group of marines she had been handed for this job. She already had to lock one up in a tank and now a second one was heading towards a beating.

---

@ Anselm

The upper hatch of the tank had viewports all around the hatch allowing for a view of the cargo bay of the ship. A datapad was inset against the forward facing part of the hatch and was displaying a menu that listed the various components of the vehicle, weapons, sensors, defensive equipment, ect. By standing on the commander’s chair he could reach the locking mechanism where an electronic fast acting lock with six thin bolts extending into the walls of the tank held the hatch closed.

Cedric watched in horror as their rounds had little to no effect on her. Loading up his HPAR with the RED rounds heh ad, Cedric listened as Harm began barking orders in to his ear-piece. If there was one thing Cedric was hating right now: it was the irony of fighting an NMX cat, while also taking orders from a mercenary cat. Never-the-less: he had to suit up and help his fellow Marines shred this Mishu bitch.

Heading out of the medical bay, Cedric got to his armor once again. He felt a bit more secure in his Hostile. The only problem was that his rifle would be useless. That meant they'd all just have to use PLA systems to kill Fhion. If they could find her. Cedric couldn't worry about that, though. He had orders to follow so he started making his way up to engineering as quickly as possible.

Judging by Harm's response, Makari knew he fucked up but honestly he didn't care. Harm was suspicious and he didn't trust her one bit; both she and the NMX were crazy cat women but perhaps the NMX was a bit more evil. He quickly reloaded his HHG and took his Origin Standard General Assault Rifle off his back. It was a damn good thing he managed to convince his former (and now dead) officer that it was alright to have one of these. Alert and looking for the NMX, he quickly made his way up to the bridge waiting for the earful of crap Harm was going to throw at him.

"Great. She wasn't bluffing."

Matteo watched silently as the whole entire mess exploded in his face. People got fearful, and then trigger happy. And now maybe remorseful about their actions. Maybe. The NMX Neko was gone. Simply slipped away at her own discretion. He audibly sighed. "You know, maybe it's my fault, but I meant tossing the lady a comm so she could squawk up the chain." he explained, excitement seeping into his voice. The Hostile's weight echoed down the halls as armored feet slammed against the floor at a run.

"All it takes is a wrench jammed somewhere just right to cause us trouble I think. It's practically a race to see who can catch he before all hell breaks loose!" He was giddy with excitement.

Henry, who'd unsuited from his VOID and wasn't that injured wasn't in the medbay, like he was asked to. Instead, he decided that a spot of tea and something to eat would suffice. Intense combat and psychodrama left a man terribly hungry, after all.

He sat down with a black tea, strong, one sugar stirred thoroughly as he took a look at a nearby newspaper. Article headings included: "Man with Sideburns spotted at Dawn Station", "NMX War 'appears endless and pointless'" and "Man-Enhancement Scams! How you could save a bundle!"

He noticed that he saw a familiar face in the "Man with Sideburns" article, not the man himself, but the man behind him.
"John?" He asked himself, looking at person standing beside the man with sideburns.

However, he didn't have time to put the pieces together once he started hearing gunfire and NMX boasting. He almost crushed the mug of tea in his hand in surprise as a scowl came across his face.

I'd better get to engineering before the bitch does, He thought as he downed what was left of his tea in one gulp, left his biscuits on the table, and his newspaper in a heap as he made a rush for the engineering bay, pistol in hand.

As Fhion phased through the floor of the ship she would be treated with a view of various internal components, wires, and eventually the room below her. She was surrounded by Nepleslian rations here, making her think she was in a store room of some sort. She figured that given the size of the ship she had to be near the bottom center. Another level down might end up with her falling out of the ship so instead of continuing in the same direction she started to move forward, walking through wall after wall until she reached a new room.

This room had a projection of the space around the ship covering the walls and a table with numerous inputs in the center with three crew members sitting around it. Fhion realized that this was the ship’s command and control center just as quickly as the captain and her officers realized they were no longer alone. The NMX woman would reach out with her hand and use her gravity control to create an intense pull on the first officer’s head, crushing their brain before they could respond. She would then repeat the process for the other two as they scrambled for their side arms leaving a bloody mess splattered across the control table.

~And if I remember correctly, the computers are under the table…~ She thought to herself as she unphased and began searching the bodies for weapons she could use, making a mental note as to where engineering was based on the diagrams being shown on the display table.

---

@Makari

Harm soon caught up with Makari as they headed towards the bridge and opened up a private channel to his power armor, “I shouldn’t have to remind you that you’re a P3C, you aren’t paid to give orders you are paid to follow them. You put my ass in danger again and I’ll lock down your armor until we’re back on Nepleslia. I’m not going to end up dead because of your bullshit.”

Drei would then send a voice message to both Makari and Harm.

“Fhion has arrived on the bridge.”

Harm would then break into a run, heading for the bridge. Drei had opened the door and given the pair a clear view into the ship’s control center where Fhion was standing behind the center table, reaching into a dead officer’s uniform to get a hold of their service pistol.

---

@ Everyone Else

The engineering room of the ship was filled with a maze of equipment. Stacks of coffin sized power reactors and laser generators separated the large space into smaller rooms. Various workbenches were setup against the walls with built in automated manufacturing tools. Finally, inset into the walls and floors were small hatches that contained extra tools, supplies, and metals for use in repairs. A pair of junker drones maintained this room and were eager to greet the marines when they arrived. “GREETINGS! HOW MAY WE HELP YOU!?”

Anselm banged around the inside of the K4 hovertank, irate and slowly bleeding out as he looked for a small torch or anything else to ruin the electronic locking mechanism holding him inside the vehicle.

"Drei?" the albino addressed the ship's computer, "Drei, I'm sure you can hear me; let me out of this tin can before I run up a longer bill dismantling it; I'm going to get out either way so you might as well give an extra pair of hands more time to find that furry-eared NMX cat's throat..."

The marine blinked away his light-headedness again for the fifth time in as many minutes and kept digging around for any tool at all, "and since when did a Nepleslian computer take orders from a mercenary who can't do her job- and she's a cat on top of it- I'm sure anyone else would be shot... only you're a bunch of- electronic pulses... so maybe you should be... fried sunny side up... Drei! Let me out!"

Phaedra heard weapons discharge and she ran all the faster towards the med-bay. Still clad in her smaller NIGHT armor sans the helmet, she barreled down the corridor with her RPB drawn. When she arrived at the med-bay, there were several marines with weapons pointing at another Nekovalkyrja. Phaedra drew a bead on the Neko only for it to suddenly disappear through the floor.

"What the hell?" said Phaedra in astonishment.

"What part of the ship is directly below here?" she asked the ship's computer.

"Ship's kitchen," Drei responded.

Phaedra ran off towards the level below with all haste.

Makari only responded with a I-don't-give-a-damn grunt and followed her, rifle ready. At this point, he could care less if he was insubordinate, he did NOT trust her and if it came down to his gut instinct and her existence, well he knew what choice he would make. To put it frankly, Makari did not view Harm as one of his fellow "men-at-arms" (he used the term "men" lightly, from his point of view, there were some damn good women, Harm excluded, in this unit) and therefore felt no need to back her up if push came to shove. He was honestly surprised at this lack of emotion; typically he would do anything to protect his comrades. He guessed something about that Neko just rubbed him the wrong way.

Cedric came through in to the engine room and found himself confronted by the two junker drones.

"We've got an NMX girl in the ship trying to mess it up!" Cedric announced, "We've been ordered to secure the area!"

With his suit's PLAs ready, and his rifle instinctively rasied, Cedric began to move about the engine room, and set to work making sure that it was clear of any threats at the moment.

@Makari

“Go around to the left,” Harm told Makari as she entered the bridge and began moving to the right, keeping her gun trained towards the NMX cat hiding behind the center table on the bridge.

Fhion had grabbed the pistol from the dead officer and quickly reached out with her gravity manipulation to yank on the computer controls located under the table, followed by three shots from the gun itself. Once she had wrecked the ship’s computers to her satisfaction she made a dash towards the walls while phased. For a split second she’d be visible to both Harm and Makari as she came out from behind cover during her escape attempt.

@Phaedra

When Phaedra arrived at the ship’s kitchen she would find it already abandoned. Biscuits and a newspaper were laid out on the table along with an empty cup from a soldier who had left in a hurry.

A Junker drone was down here as well, refilling the cup of tea, picking up the paper, and generally putting the abandoned items back in order on the table. The drone’s black metallic body was covered with white lace cloth that looked vaguely like a French maid. It would then turn towards Phaedra, its single red eye glowing as it asked,

“Can I get you anything?”

A few moments later she would hear gunshots coming from where the bridge was located, only a few rooms down from the kitchen.


@ Anselm
Inside of the vehicle was a repair kit repair kit and a survival bag filled with a variety of gear. A store of cannon rounds and their explosive charges were in the turret along with HPAR ammo and numerous datapads that helped run the vehicle. All the remaining gear had either been removed or was bolted down and unusable. As he searched for tools Drei would be responding to his requests:

“I have been instructed to facilitate her commands for the duration of this operation and I am relatively certain she does not want you released from this vehicle. Threatening me does not help your case either. You should know that *bzzzt*”

Drei’s voice suddenly shut off mid sentence accompanied by an odd crackle over the intercom. The datapads in the tank would flicker as well, then the lights along the interior came on along with the boot screens displayed on the commander and pilot seat HUDs. A soft hum started to come from the vehicle’s generators too as they came online.


@ Cedric

The room was unoccupied for the moment aside from the junker drones, giving Cedric a chance to look around the maze of electronic components for a moment before a message was sent his way from Harm.

“The hostile just hit the bridge, if we don’t get her here then she’ll likely head up to engineering next. Be ready.”

Makari circled around to the left, rifle ready. He could hear the sparks from the dead computer. As he saw the NMX begin to phase he flicked the fire selector to auto and open fired.

Cedric sent a reply, "Don't worry: she'll be blasted to hell if she comes in here."

Cedric surveyed the room, and once it was cleared to his satisfaction he set about patrolling it...carefully. He kept his eyes particularly on the walls, floor, and doors. He didn't want her phasing in somewhere without his knowledge. That was when he got an idea. He looked to the two drones, grinning.

"Can you two move around the room and tell me if anybody enters here besides me?" He asked.

He didn't just stand there waiting for a response, however. He kept patrolling the room.