RP: NSS Acadia Mission 5: Quick Save

"Harm, this is Cedric." He chimed in amongst all the radio traffic, "I'm going to start breaking shit down here and see what happens. If I find any prisoners I'll escort them to the surface."

He couldn't have felt better knowing that the bars wouldn't stand up to his fire. Come to think of it: the tunnel probably had never been meant for somebody like him. They were most likely designed for prisoners trying to run away: to get them back in. Not for angry Marines in full suits of PA. Cedric went to work quickly demolishing the rest of the bars and carefully stepped through with his rifle raised to observe his surroundings for any signs of hostiles or prisoners.

Harm had just broken into the door to the science building and quickly ran through the large storage tanks, tubes, and computers to try and find a staircase of elevator that would lead downwards.

“Make it quick,” Harm responded to Cedric, “If you aren’t topside by the time the transports leave we’re going to have to self destruct your armor and rez you back on the ship.”

Ahead of Cedric was a door that had been left open as a rushed NMX soldier ran upstairs during the initial attack. Just outside was another maze of unlit green hallways that stretched out to the left and right. Along the hallways were transparent metal doors that blocked off small individual prison cells. The one closest to Cedric had a single prisoner laying on his back, bleeding from the eyes, ears, and virtually every other orifice the man had. There was some food in his cell, but the nutrient blocks all looked old and uneaten.


---

Meanwhile on the outside:


In one direction, a pair of NMX Mecha were massing along with a line of tanks, preparing to head towards the prison compound and wipe out the Nepleslians. In the other, were the six transport ships of the 4th fleet were flying very close to the ground.

The roughly 2000 prisoners who hadn’t been used as shields were still held inside of the prison pen. Almost all had black bags over their heads and tight fitting black NMX prisoner uniforms and nearly one third had their feet amputated making it virtually impossible for them to walk. Only a handful were standing, most were sitting down, and a few were laying on their backs curled up into a ball. A few of the prisoners closest to the fences were bleeding from grenade shrapnel while a few towards the back had been hit by HPAR rounds.

Those that had been rescued still had one question,
“Uh… dood… where are we going?”

Cedric turned pale at the idea of his suit self-destructing. Resurrection probably wouldn't be a pleasant experience. In fact, he was sure of it. Looking both ways, Cedric cranked up his speakers as loud as possible for anybody in the cells to hear him. He had no way of telling they were infected, though seeing as he was in his PA: they wouldn't be able to do much to him if they tried to rush him.

"Yo: if anybody is alive then make a noise!" He bellowed.

He listened closely for any response as he then moved to the nearest door.

A response would come in the form of a soft thumping on the door of a cell further in from where Cedric was standing. A dark skinned female was inside, yelling something and banging on the door. Her long black hair covered her ears and came down just above her shoulders where the jet black NMX prisoner uniform took over. There was also another girl in the cell, curled up in a ball, unmoving, naked, and with her head missing.

Cedric snapped to at the noise: priorities. Even if she was being controlled, there was a chance she wasn't, and so that meant that she was the priority over all the people laying in the cells doing nothing. Moving over to the door and keepin a constant surveillance around him, Cedric came to a stop at the door, and motioned the girl to get to the side of the door. The moment she was clear, he would boot in the door, and step out in order for her to step out in to the hall.

"Harm, this is Cedric again." He looked about at all the prison doors, "You may have to blow the suit anyways: there are a lot of cells down here and I can't leave without checking to see if there's any chance of getting them out."

“That sounds like a terrible idea, so hurry up…..eww.” Harm’s transmission cut out for a moment.

The dark skinned female would hurry out of the prison cell, “Are you guys here to retake the planet?” She asked, “I didn’t think I would see a neppie this far out.” As she spoke she was looking around, checking one hallway and then looking down the other, “I… I think I’m the last one alive down here.” Of course there were plenty more cells to check, all of which were soundproofed.

“These prisoners might be hot. You haven’t left your armor have you?” She eventually asked.

Though the green goo was dissolving, getting the hostages back on their feet ate up most of Matteo's time. "You heard the Big Guy! Follow him out of here." As a prisoner stumbled, the Marine doubled back and gently grasped him with a power armored hand to help him back up. "C'mon, don't make me glue you to his back or something!" he growled. When the prisoner looked up at him in horror, he held a hand up in defense. "I was joking!". As the civilians gathered about the other Marine, Matt glanced back at the pens. Even if he and the rest of the group tried to get them out, chances were, they were going to end up bogged down and overrun. Unless, there were some trucks or something? The Marine opened his comm.

"This is Matteo, I'ma try and break open another section of the tunnel and pursue Cedric. And I hope there's some intact transports or something lying around. The wounded aren't going to up and fly after all." The FNG then searched out the shielded hole; even if it was covered now, that didn't mean he couldn't make another break in the tunnel! Matteo peered through the shield and eyeballed where Cedric was most likely headed.

The Hostile leaped up into the air and slammed down on a more forward section of the tunnel.

The tunnel around the perimeter of the facility would open up its forcefields for just a moment as Matteo tried to break in, and then turn them back on. This left the marine trapped in the same tunnel system as Cedric. A secondary forcefield would then turn on and start sweeping him further down the tunnel system towards where Cedric was.

Harm then responded directly to Matteo.

“Negative, work on getting the prisoners ready to move. If you break into the tunnels then…Crap, you already jumped in didn’t you?” She asked, watching as his armor started showing up on her hud at a slightly lower elevation than before.

"We came here for the prisoners, cat: if I have to get blown to hell getting them out then I've done my job." Cedric replied, "I may be an idealist, but I'm a Marine, too: I have my orders."

Cedric then turned to the woman who he had just liberated.

"I'm just a grunt with a job, and right now that's you." Cedric replied sternly.

He was suspicious, but that just came with being an FNG he guessed. If she wasn't being controlled then her statement was most likely just what she truly thought. If she was being controlled then she might be trying to convince him to leave still living prisoners behind for when the NMX reclaimed the facility...which they would. Cedric didn't know what to decide: stay and search the other places or get out with the prisoner he had? He was too new for this...but he stelled his nerves again. Like he had told Harm, he was a Marine! Marines don't whimp out when they get stuck in a tough situation!

"Listen: I'm going to best some more of these cells open." Cedric explained to the girl, "You just stay back behind me in case somebody comes out swinging." Cedric was about to get to work when he paused, "Oh...do you remember the way out of here, perchance?"

“If you explode down here, you’re going to end up taking everyone you’ve found down here with you. Find a way out first then you can dick around in this facility.” Harm replied, checking her orientation on the HUD and rocketing down the corridors in Cedric’s direction, doing her best not to slam into the corners as she went through the twisting facility, “I Hope you can hear my rockets otherwise you might be in serious trouble.” She added.

The sound from the rockets was muffled by some object inbetween where Harm was and where Cedric was, allowing the woman to respond clearly. “Uh… I think it is that way,” She said, pointing down the tunnel. The next few cells were either empty, or contained a long dead occupant. Though there were plenty more to check in this area.

"Sorry about that Ma'am. I'll do my best to find Cedric and any other prisoners, plus getting out before this place becomes overrun." The Hostile started running down the tunnel, no need to be ushered along by the moving forcefield. "If worse comes to worse, we may just be able to jump and smash our way out, since it was frail enough to have Cedric fall in here in the first place." He went by the looping sound track, and soon found the other marine plus prisoner.

"Heh, there you are. And I thought I'd be the one to end up like this first." he quipped. Matteo gestured with his HPAR at another cell. "You wanted to open one of these cans up? I'll smash and pull it open while you cover it with your own weapon. How's that sound?"

Cedric once again turned pale, at two different things. The first was that he hadn't quite thought about the size of his blast. The second was that he could hear Harm's rockets coming. Cedric turned back to the prisoner girl and scooped her up. He rushed past Matteo, moving in to the room that he had recently been ushered to. He didn't want to risk Harm taking out the girl.

"I hear you coming: don't worry, cat." Cedric replied, now turning to the newly arrived Matteo, "Look out: Harm's coming this way and fast!" He warned

He turned to the girl.

"Don't worry: a friend is on the way." He assured her.

Seeing the cavalry on its way, Kingston smiled. There were no threats as of yet, so now was the best time to get moving. "Aeron, go help them free the civilians in the pen. I'm going to start evacuating the ones already free." Without waiting for a response, he voiced this over the PA to the Nepleslians around him.

"The sooner you get to them, the sooner we can get you all off this forsaken planet. So go, I'll be right behind you all." Several took off at a sprint while Viktor put his gun on his back and picked up a pair of injured folks with his freed arm. He strode briskly, keeping pace with the slowest of the escapees, while radioing to the aircraft. "Transports, we've got quite the load of civilians coming your way. I've got about twenty present with me now, and countless more still in the prison. I think it's safe to assume the place was at least a quarter full, and several of them are in dire need of medical attention." Private Kingston glanced down briefly at the still form of the woman he'd severely wounded as he spoke.

Be okay. Please be okay. It was the closest he would ever come to a prayer.

Yellow warning lights and a loud siren suddenly turned on in the corridors, bathing the sickly green walls in a disorienting yellow light. Harm would then speak up over the com. “Damnit… You guys have any explosives?” Harm asked. “I ran into a bit of a roadblock here. Head towards the sound of my rockets.”

Down the hallway was an airlock, one transparent door on each side and a spray system on the inside designed to burn off contaminates. Harm had ripped the door on her side open, but this had triggered a force field to spring into existence in the middle of the airlock itself.

---

Meanwhile, Outside:

The transports were just starting to arrive. E3b transports swiveled their engines downward to come into a hover above the prison camp. They would lower their storage containers and open them up. There were plenty of seats and cargo nets for people to stand or sit in. There were also a pair of E3A military transports circling overhead ready to pick up the soldiers when they were done.

“Greenbean here again, We’ve got tanks and mecha heading our way. We’re moving to intercept.”

"Well...crap." Cedric muttered.

He stepped in to the hall once again, looking to Matteo, "The supply boys gave me some RX33 before we went wheels-up: I'll go bust the cat out." He thumbed to the prisoner girl, "Lag behind me nad keep an eye on her. I think it's safe to say this place is hot."

Cedric started moving down the hall in the direction where the sound seemed to be coming from. He kept his HPAR ready in case he needed to turn anybody who came at him in to paste. He kept up a relatively quick pace to avoid Harm sitting exposed by this "roadblock". A few two-pound blocks of high-explosives would probably take care of whatever it was that was holding Harm up just fine.

"Roger that Kingston," Makari replied and then turned to his civs and gave them a good luck wave. Then he radioed to the rest of the squad, "This is Aeron requesting current location of prison group."

Unfortunately all Cedric had took with him when he left the ship was his hostile power armor. The only gear he had with him was what came standard on the hostile itself. While the two soldiers and their rescued prisoner were working on bringing down the force field blocking the exit from their side, Harm had started zapping it with her EMP pistol, slowly dealing damage to it from her end.

---

The remaining prisoners on the surface were all still in the prisoner pen, a large rectangular area fenced in by metal mesh and black cloth. Roughly 2000 prisoners were left there, almost all with black bags over their heads and tight fitting black NMX prisoner uniforms. Nearly one third of the prisoners had their feet amputated, making it impossible for them to walk. Only a handful were still standing, most were sitting down and a few were laying on their sides and curled up into a ball. Some were bleeding from grenade shrapnel from before and others had been hit by falling HPAR rounds.

One of the military transports would land nearby, its front opening up to reveal its cargo area and a white painted hostile with red crosses painted on its shoulders. “HEY YOU!” The armor shouted towards Kingston, “Bring the injured over here and we’ll take them up to the medbay.”

Matteo stood there for a moment, taking the civilian and putting her off to the side for her own safety. That is, until Matteo realized something. "Cedric? What explosives?" The Marine let that hang for an awkward moment before Harm's staccatto firing broke the silence. The Hostile shifted back and forward uneasily before putting forward a suggestion. "Maybe we should just start shooting at the field like the commander is and hopefully bring it down that way. We'll bring some explosives next time." As the HPAR was leveled at the field, he quickly added on; "And besides; even if we don't make it out of here, I'm sure our next selves will be debriefed, facepalm at our prior selves' failure and make sure to bring some next time around."

The monoeye turned to to the civilian prisoner. "I'd take cover if I were you. There might me ricochet."

Cedric wanted to face-palm himself now. He was too used to his training. There, as a demolitionist, he had always had explosives. He felt like such an idiot! However, he still wasn't looking forward to the idea of having his suit blown up. Cedric set to work tearing away the clear door on their side of the forcefield. Once he had done that, he glanced back to make sure the prisoner girl was safe, and then started firing in to the shield with his HPAR to take it down.

He was muttering to himself the whole time: something along the lines of "Wow, I was such an idiot."

Anselm coughed and then gasped, inhaling a lungful of air as his brain recovered from the blast and returning the marine to consciousness. The albino clenched his hands into fists before bending his arms at the elbows checking the function of each part of his body in turn, wincing as the activity irritated one of many new scars-to-be on his body, but nothing seemed to be out of place or missing. Climbing to his feet, Anselm cast about for a weapons, and upon seeing both the HPAR and VCBS Knife scattered across the area in partially recognizable chunks, pulled out his HHG and checked the action for damage before dumping out the RED shells currently loaded, letting them clatter to the ground, and loading BLACK rounds.

Mostly fit for duty though bloody and mildly disoriented, the marine looked around, noticing the two hostages, one with a severe head wound and the other with major shrapnel damage, he rushed over the the shrapnel-riddled girl and checked her vitals, calling to the landing transports and white-armored figures that looked like medical personnel in a raspy voice before finding his usual rumble, "-mediiic- ...MEDIC!"

Shuffling quickly over to the NMX conscript and his former hostage, the albino ripped a piece of his suit off to wipe away the blood and do his best to asses the wounds with only battlefield experience to guide his intuition.