RP: NSS Acadia Mission 5: Quick Save

As soon as he tucked the civilian away behind some cover, Matteo joined Cedric's fire with his own. If they were lucky, the fields would come down quickly enough, and they'd be able to leave. If not...well, they had backups didn't they? But the prisoner on the other hand, who knew? The marine redoubled his efforts, opening fire with his lasers as well. 'Damn. If I was still in my old job, I'd try and hack this or something!' He thought to himself.

"Is the field weakening any?" He asked over the din. "Because if this doesn't bring it down, these shields are overkill for a prison!"

Kingston aided the many civilians into the craft, saw to it that the woman he'd ki- INJURED- was addressed by medical staff, and then proceeded to the pen. There wasn't much time left with the NMX reinforcements moving in, but he had to free as many as possible. Those that could not transport themselves he either carried, or Viktor ordered able-bodied men and women to do so in his stead. Utilizing the civilians as assistance made the job exponentially easier and faster.

Despite the lack of response to his request, Makari was finding his way to Harm. When in doubt, he thought, find the commander no matter how bat-shit crazy she may be. The alarm klaxons were damn obnoxious. He wanted to punch the person who turned those things on. Plus, it wasn't hard to follow the path of destruction through the interior of the base. As his arrow inched closer to Harm and crew's dots on the HUD, Makari could faintly hear EMP Pistol shots being fired.

And then he saw them. Harm and two other soldiers were firing at a shield wall. Damn, if only I had my missiles. Stupid shredder, thought Makari. He announced his presence, "This is P3C Makari Aeron reporting for backup. Need any help with that wall? I've got an HHG with Red and Blue shells. Unfortunately, all my BOLTs are spent."

Luke smashed through a weakpoint in the building wall, alarms ringing, and disorientated. "Why must this always happen to me!" Luke shouted with anger. Luke ran through the halls, trying to find some shred of life. His sensors weren't functioning for whatever reason. Luke hated being in a position he had no idea what to do in.

Luke eventually could hear gunfire and his sensors restored functionality. Seeing his fellow crewmen and Harm firing at shields and he joined in, firing his HPAR at it.

Luke knew that the shield wall could be severed more easily if he could get at the electronics, but he didn't know NMX electronics very well at all.

Luke focused his weapon at the base of the shield rather than the centre, hoping the field was weaker at that point like in some shield designs.

At the Prison Pen:

With the aid of the capable prisoners the loading of the transports went quickly. The injured were carried, limped, or otherwise helped along into the transports in the perimeter. Everyone still above ground would receive another message from Harm.

“We’re almost done here.” She said, “If you’ve got smoke grenades now is the time to use them. Set a smokescreen up between us and the fresh NMX.” The tank would use up the last of its smoke, building a small wall of smoke before turning towards the transport for the marines and sliding into the cargo hold. The transports front doors remained open, waiting for the remaining marines to load up.

Near Anselm:

The girl Anselm checked had no heartbeat and numerous cuts all along her body. With no heartbeat, the cuts weren’t bleeding unlike Anslem’s wounds. Even with the makeshift bandages the bleeding didn’t seem to be stopping.

In short order a medic power armor would reach his side after leaving the transport, letting Kingston fend for himself in delivering the injured to the med bay. He would pull a small fire extinguisher looking device off the side of his power armor and take aim at Anslem. With a few short bursts he fired globs of grey foam onto Anslem’s arms, chest, and legs. The grey foam would mix with his blood and quickly harden around the wounds to create makeshift scabs. “That shit is temporary, get to a medbay before your internal injures kill you.” Without sticking around for a response he turned his attention to the girl, checking her vitals and placing his hands on her side and chest to deliver an electric shock.

Meanwhile Downstairs:

The marines were able to take down the shield the hard way, by repeatedly hammering it with firepower. “Outside and out.” Harm shouted as soon as the field dropped. “Keep that civvy separate from the others and be sure you check her for weapons.” Harm would then turn around and head back for the upstairs, being sure to move slow enough for the other marines and the female in the prisoner outfit to follow. The exit path took them through a variety of medical rooms with various bodies that had been dissected, placed on slabs, or flash frozen in large tubes. The worst of it had recently been set on fire and had just started burning. A staircase and a run through the industrial sized vats in the building upstairs would allow the marines to reach the outside and the waiting transports.

“So… how are we going to escape this planet?” The female prisoner asked, hiding behind the corner that lead into the airlock.

Cedric nodded to Harm, taking up position in front of the prisoner girl, and following Harm on their way out of the facility. He trusted that Matteo would take the time to check the girl for weapons. Cedric would just focus on trying to make such a rookie mistake as thinking like he was still in training. He would simply keep the path in front of the prisoner secure until they got to the surface. Then he'd simply follow Harm's orders by keeping her seperate from the others.

With a small chuckle, "Well, we thought we'd ask the Mishu if they would kindly give us a ride back home." Cedric didn't bother looking back to her, "Don't worry your pretty little head: if you're not infected then you're going to get out of here just fine."

Anselm stared down the armor-clad medic, who was too busy to notice, for a moment before turning towards the transport and taking the journey gingerly in a slow walk, pistol holstered and eyes watching the pris- no, evacuees, watching the evacuees being ushered to or carried aboard the Nepleslian transports, ready to lend a hand if any of the Acadians, former POWs, or rescue personnel thought to call for him though his body asked the marine less than kindly that he refrain from doing anything more than finding an abusive nurse to slather him with insults, unethical dosages of questionably acquired drugs, and medical care.

That could have been much worse... the albino bleakly mused, hoping no one tried to help him, least of all one of the medics.

Kingston sighed, though it was audible only to himself within the Power Armor. Things were not looking good for the blond, and so Kingston's mood was beginning to plummet. "Please... let me know if she makes it. I'll be in the next transport." He pointed a metal finger to clarify his meaning then strode off, not wanting to be present for the results; he'd much rather have the news broken to him.

On his way, he found Anselm and smiled weakly to himself. "Anselm," he spoke over the PA. "Look like you've been through hell." It was a dry joke, but Viktor was never particularly imaginative in that respect, and his dour mood only made it worse.

The medic would nod to Kingston, “I’ll send word,” Before taking the injured girl he would grab the soldier’s name off his HUD and save it for later. Then in moments he would take the girl and disappear into the ship.

The prisoner girl would stay close to Cedric, letting him pat her down for weapons. He would find nothing on her other than a pair of C-cups hidden behind the tight fitting black prisoner uniform the NMX had given her. She would then duck down behind the massive power armor as she ran with him towards the exit. By the time they reached the surface the transports were starting to leave, closing the doors on the cargo containers full of people as they lifted them up into the belly of the craft.

“They are leaving without us?” The prisoner said, pointing at one of the transports that was taking off. As soon as she did the transport would stop moving upwards, the cargo containers on its underside would bulge outward and then explode, sending fiery shards raining downwards onto the ground. An intense flash of light broke the craft in two, causing it to fall back towards the ground. In moments the rescue transport had turned into a large piece of twisted metal complete with intensely hot fires that were consuming anything that wasn’t metal on the craft.

There was still one armed transport left, carrying a tank inside its cargo hold and waiting for the rest of the marines to board. Harm would then call out to everyone, unphased by the destruction of the transport “Nothing left here, Get aboard our ride home before the NMX arrive.”

Sean had been staying behind for the moment, since he didn't want to test how many times his armor could deal with starting up on battery power and help the prisoners, so he had more or less self-assigned himself to guard duty. With almost all of the evacuees on board a transport and headed out, he figured there were probably enough Marines with working equipment left to hold the line without him, so he headed on board, joining up with the rest of his (now battered and broken, probably somewhat confused) squad. He found a spot up against the tank in the hold and put his armor up against it, powering as many systems down as he safely could.

Though Matteo was going to do the search, Cedric moved first and did an old fashioned patdown of the girl. Regardless of this, the new marine used the monoeye of his armor to scan her over, checking for anything the other may have missed. "And scans show up clear too." he spoke aloud. Just as they made their way out to the transports, Matteo heard the prisoner girl's worries. Before he could answer though, the first to lift off exploded in a fiery display of light and sound. He moved as quickly as he could to cover her from any raining debris until the shower of fragments was past.

"I was never the first to leave anyways...so second time's the charm I hope?" he offered, moving with the others to the remaining craft.

"ShhiiiIIIT!" Anselm griped, ignoring Kingston's commentary as the transport came apart under fire. The albino started into a half-run for the military transport, breaking the scabbing agent up as he stressed his battered body, covering the last few yards painfully quick before grabbing a seat and a headset.

"Everyone had better hurry up before the anti-air gets a chance to strand us on another NMX-controlled planet," the marine more or less ordered, "and forget the cat, if she can't make it she'll do fine as a brain slave or breeding cow, now get moving, Acadians!"

Tuning the headset to the pilots, he barked more orders more out of stress than anything else, "those engines had better be ready for liftoff and evasive motherfucking action by the time everyone embarks, our squad is not gaining a reputation for being shot out every transport we ride through combat!"

Cedric came to the surface just as the first of the transports was taking off. Looking up to a hopefully safe departure, Cedric would have his hopes dashed as the container where the rescued prisoners had been kept was blown outward, and the ship literally split in two. If he had still been working as a demolitionist, he might have admired the total destruction of the ship. There were human lives on that, though...and there was something else.

Had there been any incoming fire?

Cedric tried to remember if he had seen any, but he couldn't remember: he hadn't exactly been loking for it.

"Hey, boss." It was a catch-all term for any higher-ranked Marines listening, "I don't think I saw any incoming fire. It may have been one of the prisoners." These people had been NMX prisoners for a while now. As much as he hated to admit it, they were suspects.

Harm would quickly reach the transport once she was outside by using a single rocket powered jump. She would then turn around and get on the comm system. “Cedric, Matteo, Kingston, Luke, and Makari. Get onboard, we’re leaving.”

Cedric was brought out of his focus on the ship at Harm's orders. Deciding that the girl they had rescued wasn't moving fast enough on her own, Cedric scooped her up, and ran for the shuttle bay. He rushed past Harm, came to a stop, and quickly set the rescued prisoner girl down. They weren't out of the woods yet, though.

They still had to get off the surface, after all.

That, and Cedric would be keeping an eye on the girl. Even if she had been compliant so far, that didn't mean she wasn't infected. She could be biding her time, couldn't she? Or maybe it was just new-guy jitters?

Harm would open up a private channel to Cedric,

"Take her to this ships medbay and have her checked out. Tell the medics to search for biological weapons in her blood. I doubt the NMX would bother with biohazard precautions if there wasn't a biohazard threat."

"You got it, Cat." Cedric replied.

Cedric ushered the girl towards the ship medical bay. There he placed her in front of the medics, standing between her and the door out.

"Cat's orders: this girl needs to be checked for any biological weapons, especially in her blood." Cedric motioned to her.

After that he just assumed the role of the silent guard in the doorway, watching the medics, and the girl carefully. All the while he was silently praying nothing else would go wrong.

Feeling useless as he had traveled to the commander as they had finished their job, Makari returned to the ship that Kingston had dropped off the former prisoners.

Kingston was right behind Anselm and Harm in climbing aboard, crouching in the doorway to keep watch for potential threats. Otherwise he was motionless and silent. His mind was abuzz, however, with all sorts of thoughts less than pleasing.

Matteo rapidly boarded the craft after the others, taking a single, quick glance back at the prison before moving deeper in. He wondered just how many prisoners were aboard that last transport before it went down. And how many Marines were on it as well? The ex-syndicate member hurried up his pace and caught up with Cedric.

"I'll go with Cedric too, just in case. It's always safer if we go in pairs anyways."