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RP: NSS Acadia Mission 5: Quick Save

Seeing her target eliminated, Phaedra pressed forward and joined up with the rest of the squad. She saw that there were four clones left, each with a human hostage.

“BACK OFF NEPPIES! YOU CAN’T WIN THIS! OUR BACKUP IS ALMOST HERE!” shouted one of the clones near the center of the group.

Phaedra, quite a distance away from the four clones, aimed her MPR at the shouting clone and placed her targeting reticle on the upper portion of the clone's face.

"I have a shot, permission to fire."
 
"God dammit, Morris, my sh-" Anselm watched as the clone toppled in several pieces, "HELL YEAH!" he whooped, almost losing his grip on the HPAR.

The marine tapped his radio to make sure Henry, and the rest of the squad, heard him, "Hey, don't go charging straight in, flank, flank, take us up, we might need to drop some fire on their heads, use the ground as a backstop; those civies are top priority right now!"
 
Cedric had been caught completely off-guard. While relocating to avoid enemy counter-fire, the last thing he had been expecting to happen to him was that the ground would give out beneath his feet. With a cry of surprise over his comms, he fell to the bottom of the tunnel, and barely reached out in time to stop his armor just short of face-planting. He scrambled to his feet and was trying to look for a way out when the shields formed above and behind him.

"Oh crap." Cedric muttered grimly.

Well, if this wasn't funneling him in to a death-trap, then Cedric would be surprised. He moved at a pace steady enough to keep him just in front of the shield at his back.

"This is Cedric: I just fell through the ground in to some kind of tunnel. There's a shield forcing me to keep going and one on top stopping me from getting out: please advise." Cedric was nervous, scared even.

They did not cover this in training. He did not want to end up a slave or prisoner: he had a niece he stlil needed to meet! Cedric debated shooting the shields, wondering if there would be a ricochet.
 
Viktor grimaced, watching his own rounds tear up a man and woman- the first seemed dead already, but the second was clearly alive and aware of her situation. He sighed heavily, pushing it from his mind as the Type 32 was overcome. When he turned to engage the clones, however, he realized he wasn't equipped for such a thing. He was carrying the AMP, which was far too powerful and carried too large a round to trust hitting such a small target. Likewise his AOP- shit, I've got to go pick that up- was straight out of the question. That left only missiles, which were a no-brainer (DO NOT USE), and the plasma turrets which couldn't be trusted to handle such precision either. Well, shit.

His gaze fell back to the woman still tethered to the downed Misshu armor. Another sigh. "This is Kingston, I'm dismounting and going to free those people." He wasn't quite sure how he'd do it, or if it could even be done, but Viktor was true to his word and clambered out of the Aggressor.

He armed himself with the Vibrosword before sprinting to the injured captive's side- the woman who'd lost a leg due to his own actions. He realized throughout the process of exiting his armor and coming to the woman's aid that he would probably receive a lot of flak for leaving his Powered Armor and proceeding on foot, but it made sense to him in a way that was hard to explain. The P1C didn't trust the armor to cut accurately, if that were needed, nor would it be a very reassuring sight, he imagined, watching some suit of armor that had just blasted your leg away come to 'set you free.' No, a man had to do this- flesh and blood and straining muscles had to make this happen.

"I'm going to get you out of here!" he declared as he knelt by her side, and wholeheartedly believed in his ability to fulfill such a promise.
 
Makari continued to travel towards the prison, following the path taken by the previously escaping Aggressor. He could see the friendly Aggressor as the next wave of missiles approached. Makari readied his push pull plating for next wave of missiles once they were within five meters.
 
“Hold off on the shooting,” Harm replied, pulling off another stun grenade from her armor. “They don’t have enough firepower to really hurt our armors. Just get in close and melee them down.” She would arm and then toss the grenade over at the clone soldiers before beginning a short rocket hop in their direction. This caused the soldiers to open up on her armor, the small arms bullets bringing down her depleted shields and then shattering against the heavy armor of her Hostile.

As the stun grenade went off Harm reached for the closest clone soldier’s neck, squeezing it with her enhanced strength, popping the head off. “AND SOMEONE FIND CEDRIC!” She would then turn over to a private channel to talk with Cedric.

“They could have just blown you up with land mines. Because they didn’t I am assuming you are in some sort of prisoner recovery system. Can you tell if you are being led further into the facility or further away?”

Cedric was currently underground, the force fields generated by the tunnels slowly moving him further and further underground. Until he reached a room under the facility filled with chains, tasers, and other restraining devices. A series of vertical bars block his way forward while the force fields block his way back. A soft female voice then chimed in, “Welcome Prisoner. You should know that escape is impossible. Your designated prisoner reclamation officer will be with you shortly to administer behavior modification and escort you back to your cell.” A heavy door made of the same odd green metal was on the far end of the room, and had been left open.

After a few moments, no NMX soldiers had arrived yet, and the soft female voice came back on. “Welcome Prisoner….”

---

Meanwhile above ground Viktor was busying himself trying to cut the captives loose from the exterior of the Type 32 Mishhu. The occasional small arms bullet would fly overhead, the volume of NMX fire having greatly decreased now that most of the clone soldiers had been eliminated. He would find the sticky substance used to hold the prisoners against the creatures was only semi-solid, not having dried yet and though the woman who’s legs were amputated had already passed out due to blood loss, the other captives were still quite alive.

“HOLY SHIT I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA DIE!” A Nepleslian male shouted from the back of the Type 32 while another on the side cut in, “You are getting us out of here right?”
 
Surviving the missiles thanks to his PPP, Makari moved in place to guard Kingston who had apparently hopped out of his Aggressor in order to free some people from the Type 32's body.

"P3C Makari Aeron here. I'll guard you until you're done, or would you like some help cutting them free?"
 
Viktor's initial response was that he wanted to do it alone, right his wrongs, correct his own mistakes, but he knew that wouldn't work. He pointed to another downed Misshu not far. "Start there, Aeron!" he shouted, making sure he was heard over the gunfire, as he no longer possessed any means of direct communication. Still, he never took his eyes off his work, barely even met the gazes of those men he was rescuing. "Yes," he reassured in a calm and quieter tone. He freed the men first before cutting the unconscious woman free of the Misshuvurthuyar's clutches. Lacking a proper medkit, he told the men to find something really hot to seal the woman's wounds while he continued to free others. Kingston didn't wait for a response, but expected them to do as they were told while he did what was expected of him.
 
"Roger that Kingston," he responded.

Makari promptly searched around for any enemy signatures and then exited his Hostile. He jogged over to the Type 32 indicated by Kingston and whipped out his mono-molecular blade and began to free the nearest prisoner. "Everyone alive here? If anyone needs medical attention, I'm sorry to say I don't have much expertise in that; however, I can cut the alive ones loose," he said while keeping his left hand on his HHG. Makari took no chances, it was loaded with red shells.
 
Henry, who'd almost forgotten his tactical mind was given a swift reminder by Anselm, stopping mid-step and looking over at the ID-SOLS with their human shields, "Hrm, damned if I do and damned if I don't," Henry dryly commented as he looked around and noticed that the Shredder was still alive and kicking in the cornfield, "Third option available, but suicidal, since tank commanders have mince for brains."

He then looked over to Anselm, "Tell me, can you land properly in your state?" He didn't wait for a reply before opening fire at the ID-SOL with his PLA's.

However, upon further inspection, he wasn't firing AT THE ID-SOL, but DIRECTLY ABOVE THEM. The idea behind this apparently wild tactic was to keep their heads down for a moment, and that's all Henry needed for this to work.

He then proceeded to give Anselm a very ballsy heave-ho, directly towards the ID-SOL quartet while they kept their heads down.
As Anselm sailed through the air, Henry boosted hard to circle-strafe around the other ID-SOL, now free of having to worry about his payload. All he could hope for now is that Anselm landed properly, and that Henry got behind them in time.
 

"Lan-NNFFFUUCK!" Anselm began to ask before the sudden acceleration turned his question into a crude exclamation. With seemingly practiced discoordination, the marine held his HPAR out in front of him which would, if the fates allowed, clothesline the remaining two traitors and slow Anselm down enough to roll to a stop across a meter or two of pavement. Built tough and trained to be tougher, the albino would spring off the ground in the space of half a second, scratched and bruised with a whirring VCBS Knife in his grasp and a wicked, shit-eating, bloodthirsty grin plastering his face as he charged into melee range with the NMX-raised ID-Sols right off the cuff.
 
As the Mishhu dropped dead, Matteo grabbed it and tossed it aside to keep the hostages out of the way. As he charged at the final one, the Marine grasped the vibroblade at his side and got ready to order the PPG to pull it towards him if it tried to flee. The loud 'SPACK!' of a projectile entering into the fleshy eye, pushing through tough alloy and carapace into the soft and mushy brain immediately told him his effort was unnecessary. He tucked away the blade, but still activated the PPG, pulling the corpse, hostages attached, to him as he pulled them to safety.

"Hang on, I'm cutting you guys out. Hold still and say cheese!" As the ID-SOL's continued to hold the others hostage, Matteo unsheathed his vibroblade again and started carving the prisoners off the hull.

"I'll look for him as soon as I get these hostages mobile again. Otherwise they're sitting ducks." He spoke over the comms.
 
One of the hostages would clear her eyes just in time to catch the Id-Sol rapidly falling towards her with an HPAR held out for a clothesline. With a pained twist of her neck she would be able to move her face out of the way of the rifle, letting it slam home against the soldier holding her in place. This knocked the Id-Sol clone onto his ass, the backward motion yanking the girl down onto the ground as well. The second soldier and his hostage both ended up getting struck in the head by Anselm’s rifle, both falling to the ground like rag dolls with severe injuries to the head.

This left a single NMX soldier who was already ditching his rifle. One massive arm was holding a young Nepleslian male around the throat, holding him out in front as a human shield while the other reached for the pins on the grenades strapped to his chest. Sense the tables were turning against him, he was going to take out as many Neppies as he could. He would turn his human shield towards Henry and run straight at him.


Near Matteo, the gooey green globs holding the hostages to the skin of the Mishhu were slowly giving way, allowing the terrified Nepleslians to start crouching behind the creature’s body for cover. “You got a plan for getting us out of here right?” The captive asked, “I heard them say we’re like… deep in NMX space.”
 
"Hold off on the shooting,” Harm replied, throwing a stun grenade at the four clones.

“They don’t have enough firepower to really hurt our armors. Just get in close and melee them down.”

"Roger that," said Phaedra, advancing with the rest of the squad. She was rather suprised when Henry, still in his PA, deftly grabbed the armorless Anselm and heaved him at the four clones. Attempting to give him some cover, Phaedra zoomed in on the assailants. But Anselm managed to take most of them out, leaving one ID-SOL left.

And that was when Phaedra saw the clone throw his weapon away. She was suddenly reminded of the fighting she had experienced on the NSS Emden and she zoomed in on to the ID-SOL, seeing him reaching for something strapped to his chest.

"Oh shit!" thought Phaedra, who suddenly boosted toward the clone in an attempt to stop him. She had an idea of what that ID-SOL was thinking, and there was no way she was going to let him detonate something with her comrades and the hostages nearby. She yanked out the VCBS from the scabbard on her chest and quickly closed the distance.

"Get clear! He's got explosives strapped to him!"
 
"I'm not sure...I think I'm being led further in." Cedric replied.

He had watched the tunnel carefully as he had advanced before he suddenly found his environment changing. He was suddenly surrounded by what looked like, for lack of any better term, a torture chamber. Well that answered whether he was being moved further in to or out of the facility. Listening to the voice, Cedric had tensed for a fight, and kept his HPAR prepared to blast any Mishu scum-bag that even tried to "administer behavior modification".

They had made a big mistake. He had done a complete one hundred and eight degree emotional shift: his fear had turned in to anger.

"An automated PA system just told me that an officer would be along to "administer behavior modifications" to me...but nobody is showing up..." Cedric paused, listening to the message once again, "...and it's on loop. I think they're all too busy up top: I could try to break through these bars in front of me and mess some things up down here for you." Cedric offered.

Taking aim at the top of one of the bars, Cedric squeezed off a simple two-round "burst" to test their strength.
 
cyborgakadjmoose said:
"Get clear! He's got explosives strapped to him!"
Click to expand...

Thanks, I already know, Anselm thought, the menacing grin still marring his otherwise comfortable-to-look-at face as the albino continued the charge, footfalls muffled by the lack of any severe footwear and the traitor-clone's shouting; he'd thought about putting a bullet through the clone's head, but he'd only packed heavy RED rounds that would have made a mess of the hostage. The VCBS was silent in the marine's hand as he attempted to grapple the clone's head, switching the anti-armor vibrochainsaw on when he had the opening to saw the enemy's head clean off in one quick action.

If he was caught out before that though, Anselm was more than prepared to dice up the hostage in order to prevent another suicide attempt like the one that took away his shields earlier, now was not the time to extend such a chance to the enemy when the blast would take out him and several of the prisoners. The unconscious NMX conscript would get the option to surrender, at least from Anselm, once he was safely disarmed and bound for transport if no one else dispatched him.

Hopefully though, Anselm would be able to get the other ID-Sol in a headlock long enough for the hostage to escape, he was counting on Henry or Viktor's good sense to barricade himself and the omnicidal soldier inside a shield wall. A message forwarded to him from a man at Nepleslian Arms and Munitions sat on his datapad back aboard the NSS Acadia, he recalled it wistfully as the adrenaline sharpened his perception of time:


It won't be bad to see her again, he thought, his murderous grin melting into a serene expression, not quite a smile and not quite a frown, and if it goes well, hey, I've got a new job.
 
Seeing what Anselm was doing, the hair on back of Henry's neck went bolt upright as he watched Anselm do some of the ballsiest stuff he'd ever seen in a war zone. However, Anselm still had work to do, and he wouldn't be terribly useful in several places at once.

"ANSELM!" He yelled out as all twelve shield drones instinctively came out of his backpack and attempted to surround Anselm and the ID-SOL to contain the blast and make sure the other hostages would survive.

He was also able to get two drones to form a barrier, however thin, between Anselm and the ID-SOL. However, Henry would be a moment too late to shield Anselm completely - chances were that his legs and lower torso would be seriously wounded by the blast.

Henry only realised this a moment too late as he clenched his jaw and his eyes widened in shock.

No... His conscience was weighing heavily on him more than ever.
 
Harm watched as a terrified hostage fell to the ground as a freshly decapitated soldier started spewing blood up like a fountain from where his neck used to be. Moments later a force field would encircle them all stopping the hostage from scurrying away as a second field popped into existence, pushing Anslem and the headless soldier apart. The body would fall forward, landing face down with the live grenades between it and the ground.

A short pause…

Then the body turned into a cloud of red mist as the grenades detonated. Shards of metal and bone filled the forcefield domes leaving bloody shards embedded in the legs and back of the hostage as well as the entire front side of Anslem. Shallow, but large tears were left in his flesh along with small fragments of metal and pieces of what used to be an Id-Sol spine.

Some of the fragments also escaped the shield, flying into the prisoner pen after cutting through the thin fabric and chain mesh fence. There did not seem to be a door anywhere around the rectangular pen, leaving the only way in to either break down a wall or to fly over the top.

“Makari, suit up again and follow me into their science building, we need to find a way downstairs.” She would then switch the channel over to maximum loudness while making a rocket propelled jump towards the science building’s main door. “Everyone else, break into the prisoner pen and make sure all the prisoners are stable and ready to move. Be sure to check for parasites and other weapons. The transports should be here in four minutes.” Overhead Shredder gunships would make supersonic passes over the facility, firing down a hail of plasma bolts as they retreated. The NMX were pulling back their air assets to re-group and the Nepleslian air support was about to explain why,

“This is GreenBean, A group of NMX Tanks and Mecha are massing not to far from here. Hope you guys are about finished...”



---

Meanwhile under the prisoner complex Cedric’s HPAR blasted out a chunk of metal that was holding the prison bars in place. The heavy looking bar was bent just slightly from the shots and looked flexible enough to bend with the power armor’s enhanced strength. The voice would then chime in again. “Welcome Prisoner. You should know that escape is impossible….”

Harm would then cut in over his suit’s comm. System. “You’re probably under one of the buildings, We’re going to look for a way to get down into a basement then find you.”
 
The rest of the world hardly existed while one Private First Class worked to rescue civilians from the vile mechanisms of the Misshuvurthuyar. Once he'd cut them all free- or someone else had beaten Viktor to it- the Marine suited up again and spoke over the PA system.

"All civilians, stick close to me, the really bulky Power Armor," he announced, stepping up to them. "I shall be your chauffeur, guiding you out of this Hell. Do as your told and so long as the rest of the Marines do their job, we'll all be out of here alive in short time. If you know how and have the strength to use them, grab a gun. Otherwise just stick close and keep quiet, but NEVER directly behind me, always off to the side a little. Don't want to make any Misshu aware of civilians running free, and I sure don't want to injure any of you should I fall or activate anything with backwash."

Then Kingston knelt before the pair of men he had first rescued. They had found a means to cauterize the one-legged woman's injuries, but she still looked horrible. He didn't even know if she was alive, or if she could make it all the way back, but he was determined to make it right. "Give her to me," he requested in a much softer tone. They did and he cradled her in one arm, AMP grasped tightly in the other hand. Sure, he'd be less effective wielding the weapon one-handed, and yeah, she was probably already dead or would be before they could get help, but Viktor yearned so deeply to rectify his prior actions that such ideas held no sway over his decision making. He would do this.

Taking note of which direction GreenBean indicated the NMX were planning to attack, P1C Kingston led the freed civilians toward the opposite entrance of the compound- and if there wasn't an entrance, he had the power to make one. On his way, he announced this to the squad. "I'm leading this group of civvies away from the amassment of NMX, and I'll be watching the gate until we've gathered the rest from the pens." This was a statement, and it was clear by the tone of his voice he hadn't the slightest inkling in his mind to do anything else.
 
Makari finished freeing his civilians shortly after Kingston. Most of his were in alright shape, most just frightened and worse for the wear. Makari escorted them over to the other group just in time to hear Kingston's speech.


He hopped back in his PA and did a quick scan for hostiles; luckily none were within a dangerous range or coming their way. After Kingston had finished his statement to the squad, Makari chimed in, "This is Aeron, I'm assisting Kingston with the escort."
 
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