[NSMC 309th] Mission 2: Creating Hope

Fort Puckett, Outside Militia HQ.


Hypolathe, Painkillers, Sedatives, Surgical kit, Triage gear, Antiseptic, Antibiotics. Minnie made a mental check of her gear on hand as she threw her arms left and right, Up and down, testing her range of movement and making sure that she had properly equipped and dawned the cumbersome Golem armor.

After her medical checklist, She carefully patted each weapon to make sure they where all in place. Her Sterling 45. in its holster, Her knife and even her axe where accounted for. And her carbine was hanging limp but loaded on its sling, Bumping occasionally against her side reassuringly.

Finally with her Datajockey synced and stowed on her person, Her comms well set to the 309ths Proximity and Command Nets (unlike the last time). She let her mask stay against her armor and scooped up her helmet and goggles before she rejoined the rest of the squad, Coming in just in time to hear and take sentiment in Fangs trust in her.

"Thanks," Minnie rapped her knuckles against the side of Fangs armor, And acknowledged her alongside the other demolitions specialist. "i'll be in your care as well, again." Was all she could muster as a pit started to form in her stomach. Despite the fact she was actually ready, The month prior was still her first instance of combat after all, And it would likely be some time before she became as comfortable as someone like Private Zhou was with it.

Autumn stared up at the tank still, her helmet was still in her hands. "Why is this thing called 'Sokoo Neko'?" She disliked wearing her helmet longer than she needed to but it was time. With a swift motion, the helmet was on her head and she tightened the chinstrap before reconnecting the respirator. The marine took 2 deep breaths of filtered air to check the seals. All comms channels were turned back on.

"All right. Let's get this party started."

Joe listened to the Lieutenant and then hoppes to. He had always been an easy traveler, really only needing his emergency change of clothes and his toothbrush. He had his assigned weapons on him to store in his loading location within the belly of the beast. He strapped in his bag and pulled himself up and eventually in to the Soko Neko, sliding in to his new office.

He stuck his head out and, with a wave, called, "Come on in, it's far too unstifling hot and muggy in here for me." He was smiling as he ducked back down and started stowing his weapons and familiarizing himself with the lay out.

Fort Puckett, Outside Militia HQ.

Elld didn't pay any attention to Cha- Joe, as she sprinted towards the Sōkō Neko. With a bit of an audible struggle, she scrambled up the front of the tank before dropping down the hatch into the still decorated driver's compartment. She counted the pictures the pictures that surrounded her, tapped to the hull and around the electronics. While many would've considered a safety hazard, it proved to be a helpful way for her to remember where everything was in the tiny compartment. Once she was satisfied with the count, the diver let a out a sigh of relief.

But now was not the time for rest, the LT wanted the tank to be ready. She reached over to make sure the tank was in the correct the gear, the shift for it being close to the picture of Hanako leaning forward from her captain's chair. Once that was set she turned to the ignition, which was flanked by the relateable frustrated Hanako in a doll outfit. After a couple of revs and the roar of the beast known as the Sōkō Neko bellowed loudly, she double checked the pressure gauges, which were surrounded by some of the newer art nouveau pictures of Hanako, to make sure the black-handed grease monkeys didn't screw with any of the readings. As her checks finished up, she gave the engine one more roar to let Juno know the tank was ready.

Fort Puckett, Outside Militia HQ.

With the others, Fitz made her way to the Sōkō Neko, it was not her first time seeing it, she had been there just before the meeting, but she would not tell them that. She did have a smile on her face and she didn't try to hide that at all. "I'm going to have so much fun." She then got to work, first loading the turret gun because that was easy. But after that came the part that she looked forward to, loading the supply for the main gun.

Most of the shells were HE or HESH, cheap but still very effective. However, that wouldn't satisfy Fitz, she and the Longhorn crew found any excuse to fire the canon, even as a means to deliver festivities. "Hey, Boss Man, do we have any of those new APPE shells? I haven't gotten to fire one I want to see how it explodes today."

Hearing the sweet hum of the tank and also knowing Fitz was loading up the ammo he assisted from inside the tank, stacking and labeling to better help him when the fighting starts.

"Ohhhh, do we get to play with those," he asked through the hatch to Fitz.

Fort Puckett, Outside Militia HQ, Back-o-da Tank

"What's the meaning of Sokoo Neko?..." Fang Yin responded to Autumn's question with a rather strange gusto, her gravely voice peaking in the middle, somehow massively amused all of a sudden. "I didn't even think of that... A name is a name, after all!"

She let her carbine hang from it's sling, then held out their arms as if holding mass, or perhaps entering some kind of meditative state. The next stage involved pinching her fingers together... She was digging out distant memories of home, and her mother's work in fortune telling. A mountain of ritualistic knowledge, secret lore from the ancient obscure history of man... And also, knowledge that apparently nobody had thought to tell the mountain of a woman not to take so seriously.

Perhaps in the fear of the world's most deadly noogie?

"...Yes... It has good timing. Sokoo is unafraid of taking chances..." The digital vox noises were doing weird things to the tone, amplifying her whispering mutters automatically. It sounded kind of like a broken down carnival machine... "It is associated with the galactic north, and it's special number is... three!"

A hearty clap, arcing their head to one side. They really liked the fact that there were currently three soldiers on the back of the tank.

"This is portent is... Good!" One of her large paws strayed, returning the affection to Minnie's left shoulder pad by grasping it and rocking it gently. "Even if somebody does keep washing off my protective seals!"

Fort Puckett, Armor Bay

Minnie flinched when Fang clamped her shoulder. She defaulted to her usual response to sudden physical activity against her and went complete stiff, But eventually relaxed her muscles and let herself be gently rocked by the busty broad. She stared ahead idly, letting Fang drone on with her spiritualist ramblings. She was a doctor and a surgeon, Her trade demanded a faith in science and common sense understanding. But she wasn't so petty to lecture or belittle Private Zhou's beliefs.

Instead she just listened to Fang in the background, Sat on the pallots of the Soko with the infantry compliment and watched the tanks snipes climb in and out of the metal beast to perform their last checks and prime the tank, Wondering just what today's mission would entail.

"Protective seals?" The Geshrin tilted her head at Fang again. There was much she didn't understand about her new squad but she had time to learn. She waited for the order to mount up, she almost wished she was back in a Hostile again for this mission rather than the Golem but those were her orders. "Names usually mean something, right? I'm named after a season, it's just weird to see the tank named something in another language.

Fort Puckett, Armor Bay

The last to load onto the tank properly was Juno himself, sliding down and into the commander's hatch. It was left open as he initially ducked inside and sat upon what might as well have been the throne of a demi-god upon the face of the planet. Hands reaching out to check over the feed, seeing the checks and hearing the roars of everyone else, Juno linked his headset into the intercom as he finished setting himself in with a deposit of his personal firearm into its nook.

"We have some, but they're not loaded for the mission yet. Command wants us to avoid using anything new until we need to, since we have a low stock due to the necessity and rationing of supplies to the 309th. But don't worry, I'm sure there's something big enough for you in the tank somewhere, Fitz."

Pushing his way to the top, turning out and resting his metal hand along the rim with his headset around his collar-wrapped neck, Juno gave a small tug-down of his cap as his voice picked up over the tank and was easily audible to the nearby soldiers even with the engine of the name-disputed beast roaring thanks to their shared communication network.

"Let's get moving. We're missing our cook, but that's fine! He'll stay back and help pack things up... so for now, I want Private Zhou to handle the Aggressor! Go and hop in, then follow alongside! I don't think we'll need it, but it's better to have it since we'll be down a soldier. We keep things at a good pace, smile and wave, and try to make room for our guests."

Juno grasped the hatch as he lowered down and inside, closing the beast up and hoping the other tankers would follow suit. As if on cue, the recently one-armed ID-SOL climbed up and onto the tank beside Autumn with a grunt. His large duster and armor was in place by now, his low-sitting hat and protective mask matching the ballistic vest variant he wore well. The massive machinegun he used like an assault rifle was in his right arm's grasp, the strap around his chest helping him hold it rather casually. The two women, metal-chest and tiny tits, were just finishing up their own gear-up as they moved and climbed up onto the tank as well. They sat rather close, their assault rifles in hand as the one with the metal chest reached into her ballistic vest to pull the dick-shaped magnet out and offer it to Minnie.

"New Bernese luck. A woman with a good dick doesn't get shot. You should have it for saving our friend." Her voice hissed out almost metallic, likely due to the ballistic mask accompanying her hat. They were a stark contrast to the display a moment ago, now quiet and seeming far more tense. It was like these New Bernese commandos had practically been designed for war... and considering the cloning efforts of Nepleslia having been impressive once-upon a time, it wasn't impossible to believe the pair of women were conditioned for war to accompany the legions of men that joined the fray and fought for their own identity alongside the ancient cultural nation.

Autumn watched the others as they piled onto the tank. Her M2 was slung in the down position on her shoulder, while her detionation gear and spare ammunition were neatly stored in pouches and pockets. Her non-essential gear was stowed and secured in her duffel. She watched the ID-SOL clunk down next to her from behind her mask. She was always impressed by the weapons that they would take into battle. The recoil of that weapon along might break her Geshrin arm. "What type of rounds are you using for your machine gun?" She directed her question at the ID-SOL, not knowing his name.

She tried not to laugh as the other commandos tried to stick a dick magnet on Minnie.

Joe rapped the metal ceiling of his assigned little work cubicle, "I'm ready to go, shells are tied down, and I'm plugged in to the the comm network. I will keep an ear out for any extra frequencies in case the baddies are transmitting."

Joe moved his small bag as out of the way as he could and secured it down with some straps. He was cramped, already a bit warm and glad to have his headset on to shield his overly sensitive ears from the noise but his slightly goofy smile was still genuine on his face. There is no place he would rather be and he settled in for the ride.

Fort Puckett, Armor Bay

Minnie took the "magnet" with a shy smile and stuck it to her chest, And wondered if the luck was an actual practiced custom performed here, or if they where just playing fun at her, Not that she wouldn't enjoy a little playful teasing. She would check with private Wilde later, the woman having spent actual time around the locals and their customs. But for now she offered her gratitude.

Nodding back to woman and admiring her more obvious assets. She recalled back to having seen them tear into pirates from a distance, And had gotten a close up look at the Sol on her operating table. But it still have her time to appreciate such openly modified beings that she too wished to be able to emulate in the future, If at all possible even going full cyborg or close to its equivalent. She made a personal footnote to try to get some time alone with the two of them for a thorough and eager maintenance session on their enhancements if they'd allow her.

Fort Puckett, Armor Bay

After offering a warm smile to Autumn's interest in naming themes, Fang was suddenly shook out of her deeper considerations by Lieutenant Juno himself randomly telling her to armour up...

She hadn't used one since the academy! What kind of foods was Fergus even keeping in there, getting all molten and smelly? What could she possibly even name a machine she knew so little? These were serious problems!

Basically throwing her Golem armor off now, and turning her equipment inside-out by shoving her collared jacket into her backpack. Soon, the plates were squashed into a rough little ball, something not too laborious to leg over to a storage bench and dump it upon... Backup would have been nice, in case something went wrong with the third-hand Aggressor, but... Well, it wasn't really worth hanging it off the back of the tank where any local lout could pinch it, either.

Fortunately for her, the big green mini-mecha itself was still in the care of the maintenance teams, standing on a yellow storage ramp and plugged in for automatic size adjustment. Double-fortunately, the heavy frame was truly Nepleslian in scale within, and a simple vault of simian grace seen them swinging inside the gaping shoulder-level hatch.

Didn't like the feeling of the machine taking control so much, compressing against her spine and applying the neural-probe head cap. Being able to test and control the limbs didn't change the fact they could feel the cold metal on their collarbone, deflecting their breath back up at them... Not quite a tank, not quite a suit of armour; It had plenty of room for her arms and chest, but in lack of being squished onto her, had that untrustworthy feeling of sticking your limbs into an active machine.

Maybe Fergus just liked it because it was kind of like sitting in the fridge?

Thud thud thud. A slightly clumbsy forward march. Grasped the helmet off of the rack, attached it in place. HUD didn't make the nerves any better. Ridiculously chunky AOP gun felt like a toy in her hands.

"...R-Ready, sir." Nerves on their voice, bleating across the radio. But all in all, they had still accepted the task and gotten ready rather quickly. Their pride was worth that much at least. "You want me to take the mini-missile shoulder boxes, or leave 'em?..."

Starting to envy that cheap pink willy magnet Minnie had gotten, through. Fertility gods were way more common than machine gods. So that really meant that the medic was the more safe out of the two of them, didn't it?...

Minnie, Upon realizing Fang wasn't going to accompany them on foot made her apprehensive. She didnt doubt private Wilde's service record and her capability. But Minnie had come to think of Fang as becoming the closest thing to a friend she had made since her time at NepMed. At least the cute, almost shy version of Private Fang Yin Zhou.

She hesitated for a moment on the improper use of military equipment before sending a message through the squad link to Fang, hopping the Aggressor was synced.

Sty Safe, Dnt get hrt wrse thn i cn fix <3
-Doc V.

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Satisfied the message connected via a small icon on her Hud, She fumed about for a moment Suddenly oblivious to her new local comrades, opening and closing the message tab on her HUD and checking her Datajockey constantly like some overly armed and armored gossiping teenager.

Fort Puckett, Armor Bay

"Well, I'll at least get to fire the gun right?" Spoke Fitz as she dejectedly finished loading the munitions into the tank, and then slipped in right past Juno, not worried about his personal space as her body brushed against his.

Once inside she did a quick check on the electronics related to the gun just to make sure one final time that everything was right, then turned on her crew radio. "Since it's a hot day out, should we be taking our clothes off commander?" There was a tinge of sarcasm in her voice, a joke, that maybe only Juno would understand.

Fort Puckett, Armor Bay

Ella didn't respond to the LT's order. She simply let the tank give one more affirmative roar before rolling out of the armor bay out towards the base's exit. She kept the Sōkō Neko moving at a nominal pace, not wanting to run over any impromptu mud matches and dick waving the locals seemed to be fans of.

"Keep your clothes on." The driver hissed back over the comms. In her mind, a little mental scoreboard had some points taken off from it. "All your open sweating will stink up the tank and ruin the laminations..."

Autumn keep her eyes moving over the landscape as the tank moved forward. It felt weird to be sitting on top of the tank rather than moving around in power armor. She thought of Rok'Veru, the days that ran together, the claustrophobia of being confined in her Raider armor, the adrenaline from the fear of discovery as the Misshu roved by as she concealed herself in the muck and death of those that were less fortunate than her. The length of the Rok'Veru campaign made the night she spent reconnecting with her friend from the NSS Alliance seem like eternity. She wondered what happened to him and his attempt at a relationship with the crazy woman he worked for on Cirrus Station.

Her hands flexed around her rifle's stock and muzzle for a moment, seeking a more solid reality than her memories. The landscape of new Bernese was bland and rutted out. The whole system was dully but aptly named "Freemud". She almost longed for the smog filled urban chaos of Funky City or the mountains of Hanya after spending so long on New Bernese. She volunteered to come teach the militia but it didn't make her feel fulfilled personally or professionally. The locals were amiable enough to her but she had to work hard to get them to respect her.

Her helmeted gaze moved from the smears of brown towards the other Marines that sat on top of the tank with her. The locals were colorful but not new. The small medic awkwardly holding the dick magnet and the large shy Marine in the Aggressor armor were far more interesting. "How long have you been in, Marine?" She directed her question to Minnie by patching her comms channel to the small woman. "You and Fang seem shy."

"Last month was the first deployment I've had, Its all kind of new to me." Minnie answered Autumn over the direct proximity net between them, Putting her Datajockey away to meet the other woman's gaze. "I was supposed to be part of the support staff. You know, Rear line stuff like surgery and triage. But Lieutenant Janus stole me for a while and decided to keep me i guess."

Minnie broke contact for a moment to glance at the power armor trailing as part of the tanks screen. Fang certainly had an uncharacteristic shyness to her, Minnie couldn't argue that after today. But Autumn had only seen that side of her, She hadn't seen her detonating explosives danger-close to her person and then throw herself into savage melee against multiple opponents. And now she was in the aggressor, With even more destructive capability at her disposal, That would let her be even more reckless.

"Private Zhou isn't shy, Shes just... Eccentric" She answered back.

Minnie pushed the thought back and realized her thoughts where wandering again. And that she was in no way breaking the image that she was shy herself in Autumns point of view. "What about you, Private Wilde?" She changed the subject "You've been a marine for a while now right, Any helpful pointers other than don't die?"

The hulking olive-metal form was lumbering after the tank not with clumsily destructive footfalls now, but instead rather awkward, careful prancing. Holding the giant rifle like a watering can and raising their left hand straight up at the wrist, the mono-eye swiveled upwards just in time to look embarrassed when observed by Minnie.

You just dive behind the tank if anything goes south, ya hear? You're important!
-Private Zhou.

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They actually paused to send the message back, and after that, it perhaps became a little more obvious why they were taking the rhino on eggshells approach to maneuvering... Re-reading the instruction manual, whilst remembering how to connect to the support network, answering emails, carrying a gun and walking around with two forklifts strapped to your feet... It wasn't a task for the easily distracted.

Another sudden pause, and a little wave, as if only the two of them could see it.

Private Wilde isn't laughing at me, is she?
Can you tell her, I'm, like
testing the sensitivity for, like...
tripmines?
or you know, that kinda thing?

Only if she's laughing at me.

Thanks Minnie.

-Private Zhou.

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