[NSMC 309th] Mission 3: Hope Bringer

Killing Field
The hilly wastes were quiet, dead grass and explosions from previous airstrikes the norm. A few of the pirates were dug in and surrounded with plates of durandium set-up as cheap sheet-cover. Others dotted the landscape within the craters, a rocket launcher of junk-level proportions dotted to each group. They had been arming up, making adjustments, and preparing after the news from the Fort reached base months ago. They'd even brought out one of their OMBT, the tank entrenched heavily and its gun on alert. Modified Origin jeeps, fitted with SSGR mounts for anti-personnel, spotted the landscape as well. Against a force of mercenaries or the local militia, such a thing would be quite staggeringly difficult to best. Particularly as other forces would be limited in what their outfit or garrison would have.

But the OMBT meant nothing in a matter of seconds, the roar of the Maximus taking it over the hilltop and the gun descending so the track was spot on. Juno's command might as well have been a whisper over the intercom, the thump of the pre-loaded and pre-aimed shot sailing through. Inside, there had been little noise. Outside, the gun might as well have been the "fuck-off foghorn of war", the AT round smashing into the OMBT and detonating. The Origin tank was built tough, certainly, but was fighting a proper military vehicle above its grade firing ammunition designed long ago in a defensive preparation for battle against the likes of the Mishhu or Yamatai.

Even while not a RUSE, the Maximus' 155mm cannon carried the explosive and piercing force to slam through the shielding and armor. A silent thunk at first, followed by a powerful explosion that sent the turret of the pirate-controlled tank sailing skyward.

Before it crashed down on nearby infantry in a gore-filled display, sparking off the yells and firing of multiple rockets and the SSGR's. While the SSGR rounds slapped the shields of the Maximus, the RPGs sailed in. The quickness to fire made two sail off and detonate into the landscape behind and around the tank, though one smacked into the shield and detonated, caging the Soko Neko in fire momentarily.

"Reload HE. Those jury-rigged cars are next. Prime lasers to prioritize anti-rocket defense. Anyone gets close, we'll just have to pop out and shoot the shits... we've got to buy enough time against probably a couple hundred for the others to get ready."

Pin Cushion's Hillscape
The thunk and explosion might have been just out of sight - the flying turret briefly visible at least - but their plan at least executed well. The particularly grumpy driver of the APC settled the Jackelope in a matter of moments, the engine whirring down into idle slightly before pushing past and practically giving the Second Lieutenant a face-full of ass as she slid herself into the co-driver's chair and took control of the gun mounted above. The doors of the iron monster descended and let the less-stale air slip into the APC, the sounds of the battle nearby filling in. There was yelling from the hilltop particularly, though nothing aimed at them from how it seemed.

"Sweep of the gun reveals so far all-clear... covering dismount." The sole crew-woman scowled back, barking at the group. "Get moving! All of you!"

Outside of the APC, the crater was certainly protective for the group... but it put them in the shadow of the nearby hill. There was a hedge of brush, barren with rot, above that would allow a quiet approach. Pockets of dirt spotted the hillscape, however, in a signature and ancient method of waging war.

The hillside they were going to need to move up was mined, perhaps an indication that the pirates knew how vital a high hill could be in holding this territory. Or perhaps that something of value was up there.

Soko Neko

Joe had watched Fitz's shot go dead on, a low whoop escaped him as he grinned happily and looked over at the gunner. He reached out and thumped Fitz on the shoulder, hard enough to feel but not enough to jar her concentration. The call for the next round brought him back to life as he reached for the next HE round in line, he held it up giving it a brief glance to ensure no glaring imperfections then slid it into the firing chamber. He shut the trap and knocked on the metal between him and Juno, "HE up sir, and the lasers are warming."

He reached over and began fiddling with the point defense console, not his favorite job but he had trained hard for proficiency.

Hillscape, Jackalope.

The ramps decent and the sound of a hundred cymbals crashing at once from the OMBT's death spurned Minnie to action, Calling out an affirmation that the APC was covering their dismount, She launched herself out of the vehicle by sheer matter of habbit and to the right with her carbine at the ready, Full well knowing that either MCclain or the lieutenant would take the left and secure the dismount area before the lieutenant took charge and they began their attack.

"Clear." She mumbled, Knowing the radio would pick it up and transmit it over the idling engine of the APC.

She dared a glance over the crater while everyone got their bearings, The small mounds of dirt too arranged and out of place to be shrapnel embedded into the ground or any such habit. Her brain figured it out before she put the pieces togetgher, The phantom limb of her arm throbbing where the warped and twisted piece of shrapnel the lieutenant had once trod upon had torn through her like a hot knife through butter and destroyed her arm.

"LT." Her stoic façade broke when the lump caught in her throat made the restrained distress in her voice obvious. With a tense action she opened up the feed from her golems optics and shared it on the squad net. She didn't expect fang to have the time to help them in person, Or know what they where dealing with while they where still buried but it gave several more sets of eyes onto the situation than her own.

Killing Field Middle Ground

The Aggressor was far too big and heavy to be considered stealthy in a normal circumstance, but now that the malestrom of war was erupting before them, Fang had once again found themselves striding alone though the crater-bitten snow and trees. It hunkered through the dark like a solitary yeti, or perhaps the planet's only bear, just westward of her friends in the APC. Several dozen meters upward, on jagged gravel-strewn slopes.

Her hypersensitive eyes absorbed every little bit of information from the triad of passive monoeyes, willing the enemy to make the first risky self-exposure. Forcing out of her mind the depression of being separated from her friends. From the morbidity of this metal shell dictating her every waking action for her.

Bullfrogging, that's what she had come to call her chief tactic during the last few months. A solitary power armour was a complete sitting duck for bigger ordnance and faster vehicles whilst out in the open air, which means just leaping around was generally a bad idea. Yet, down here in the dirt, it was also blinded by the terrain, itself unable to take advance of such a situation. The only solution was to catch a glimpse of the enemy first, and then make one giant leap into the air, gliding slowly downwards whilst pummelling all around your intended target with explosive shells.

It happened even as Fang was thinking about it, a squad with RPGs unwittingly sending out the ping of rangefinders from their trench. The huge woman burst into the air, plasma impulse drives turning the trees behind her inside out. Her aim was made terrible by the shear in inertia, but it hardly mattered; A sprat of high explosive rounds from her 1B rifle ignited temporary suns in the mud around them, shredding and cooking the pirates in their own foxhole.

The landing put her right into the same pit, caring not about the smouldering gore cascading around the steel boots of the giant. Twin chaingun turrets in the shoulders sprayed the crew of the two closest Jeeps, not really caring about the engines, just suppressing the unprotected gun crews forced to peek out above the windshield.

"Soko." A short click of the radio, hollow interior giving Fang's understated, morose voice an even deeper, booming echo quality. "Eyes on you from the east. No stragglers. No AT.... Have your back, over."

Jackelope

Chiaki had to lean back not to catch Cruel's contemptuous posterior, and found himself leaning back into the troop bay. He had not managed to clear the bay before their squirrely driver began to move about. Still he was to the hatch by the time it was time to get moving out, and went peeling around the edge of the vehicle with his rifle at the ready. The Officer sweeped to one side, taking note of the chatter at the top of the hill. With the near-by sounds of war raging, the attentions of the others would likely not be on this edge. He quietly patted himself on the back for decided to taking the quiet route on this one.

Hillscape

There was almost a sigh of relief before the feed from Minnie's helm-cam came through on his HUD. She had spotted it first, and it took the Lieutenant a moment to realize just what exactly the Mouse was looking at, before his blood ran cold. Mines were no stranger on the battlefield, but his legs began to become even lighter than before as he imagined the weightlessness induced by stepping on a well-hidden mine. There was a ghostly hand on his chest, as if pulling him, the memories playing like a record in his mind. All he could remember, all he could feel was that little, bloodied hand pulling him away, lances of fire streaking above them.

"Ugh," groaned Chiaki, a bit of blackness in his tone, "where I'm from, we leave presents under Pasco Bandoliers, not piles of dirt. Really, where's the culture out here?"

He chuckled, albeit it seemed to be only to settle himself. "It's bunched up, and obvious. Probably AT mines, but we're not going to go investigating with our boots. McClain, get up up front, time to put the scout training to use. Keep your eyes low, and guide us through, stop if you think you don't think there's a safe way forward, and we'll move around. Keep as much space between the mounds as possible."

A moment passed where he drew a small box with his fingers, trying to label out the width of the minefield to the map. He marked it as "MINES" and uploaded it to the squad's map. "Corporal, if they see us moving up this way, we're going to need cover fire as soon as possible. Once we start climbing this hill, there's going to be no going down."

The Officer made one last look around for an alternate path, and sighed.

"Alright, let's get this over with. Valentine, you're in the rear, if this goes south, we'll need you with all your faculties."

Soko Neko

With shit kicking off and rockets flying towards the Soko Neko, the drive decided that now was not the best time to keep going on a straight line. Ella kept turning the tank, bringing it into an uneven serpentine motion. She tired not to jerk the tank too much with her motions lest she deal with the laments of the other crew members about "unstable firing bases" or "bashing their heads in on the equipment."

Soko Neko

There was a smile on Fitz face as she once again got the feel the pressure from the fire of the main cannon. It was a sensation that she loved, even in the midst of battle. More than a few would say she had a few screws loose for her preference, but she had long since forgotten what it was like to be normal in that regard.

Before the shell was even loaded Fitz was already positioning the cannon for a second shot. Once it was loaded she fired once again, letting Joe take care of the lasers. The second shot was aimed for a direct hit, there were too many cars for that. Instead it was aimed so it would get just under them and explode to flip one car into the next.

Jackalope
Hillscape

McClain decended down the ramp of the APC and turned left, sweeping the horizon with his eyes as he took a knee, his kneecap digging into the dirt as he secured the perimeter. No enemies that he could detect on this side. He heard the clear from his right, and transmitted his own voice over the radio. “Left clear.” He said, his M3 still at the ready in the off chance that enemies hid themselves so well his cybernetic eyes couldn’t detect them.

His orders were given, and the map was updated. Mines? Really? Well that’s great. Now he had to be careful when and who be shot and when and where he stepped. His orders were given and he looked up to the hill, noting a good vantage point. “That just may work...” he mumbled to himself, before speaking louder, “Copy, leading the way. There’s usually a pattern to the fields, something to allow those who place them to get through unharmed that easy for them, hard for us. I just have to figure out that pattern.” He said, stepping cautiously as he made his way to the top of hill, one foot at a time. He wasn’t going to lose a leg today, that he was certain of.

Every step he took was calculated, never stepping on anything more than a pebble the size of his toe. If the ground looked disturbed, he would point it out to those following him to watch out, and not to step on it. He suddenly wished he had gone for the x-Ray enhancement, then maybe he could just see them. Oh well, night vision was more important to him.

He continued his careful march towards the summit of the hill, stepping on areas of plain, natural dirt. If it looked touched by anything more than wind, he didn’t go foolishly stepping on it. Of course, climbing a hill they were also clear targets, so every few seconds he would stop, scan the area in front of him, and continue moving once deciding it was clear. It was a tedious process, as the mines may be better hid than some appeared, but this hill could prove useful, especially to marksmen like he. There was almost a pattern to the mine placement, with some random ones here and there, but otherwise he caught onto the pattern a bit, though he didn’t get overzealous with his steps. Just take it nice and easy. “Almost there guys, just step exactly where I step and we’ll be fine.” He said, more to comfort himself than anything, but hopefully that would also increase the squad’s trust in him. Hopefully.

Killing Field

"Confirmed, Aggressor!" Juno released the radio for the public net, his voice blasting over the intercom next. "Fire!"

Juno's display let him watch the HE shell land on one of the other vehicles, exploding in a bright chorus of flame and debris. Countless people nearby were simply killed from the natural shrapnel, Juno feeling the thump-cracking as the tank slammed some unfortunate pirate and ran them over in Ella's focus on stability and firing capacity. It was going very well, particularly the anti-infantry work that Fang was dishing out.

Then they ran over a mine.

The explosion barely shook the tank, but it did give warnings as sensors detected the track damage, the left tread sporting damage between two panels that made moving sticky and pull toward the damaged side. Even the pirates had been learning to improvise against the tank in preparation for heavier armor... likely because they weren't confident in their ability to beat the mobile might of a Maximus.

"Settle us down angled toward the enemy line! Reload and prioritize the laser defense!"

His hands reached up, clasping the hatch controls and opening it so he could raise out of the tank. The pinging of bullets against the shields didn't disturb him much, Juno scouting the terrain confidently as the lasers cooked one man who decided to scream and charge the tank with a grenade. They'd pushed into the thick of the hilly terrain, particularly resting in a gully. Not the best position to defend against infantry attack at all... they'd need support sooner rather than later. If they hit more mines, it'd only slow their assault down!

But he could see something that was juicy past their lines now. A forward bunker, various fabricated buildings ad-hoc armored up and geared. It would be a good fortress to assault once they reached it... and it might just hold the key to finding the annoying leader of this outfit at long last.

Hillscape

As the squad made its way up the hillside and the fighting intensified in the distance, they could feel each tremor of an explosion even this far away. If it wasn't for the fact these mines weren't ancient ones, such a shakedown might have detonated the deadly devices. But what it did do was shake away dirt off the pressure-plated cap of them occasionally. Their snaking path was effective for pushing their way up, steadily nearing that prized spot.

Until they all heard it at the exact same time. McClain's boot crunching down and the pressure plate thudding as it sank and armed the mine.

But there wasn't a detonation. His foot didn't weigh enough to cause it to explode, as an AT mine, but it had most certainly clicked armed. With their enemy just over the ridge, the shouting growing louder and clunks of something heavy obvious up above, they were now faced with a dilemma of pushing on and leaving the guy... or thinking fast enough to get the sniper off. And, of course, the most daring option of letting it detonate and hope it only had a shaped detonation that would allow him to only lose his foot while they all charged onward.

Hillscape

Click.

The whole group had heard it, reacting instinctively at the sound. Despite the roaring cacophony of War's Symphony raging over the hill, they were a group of trained boots, taught to know sounds and danger. They were like rats; angry, armored rats that knew when trouble had formed about them, or rather in this case below them. The Lieutenant held his M3 Carbine to his shoulder with one hand, a thousand thoughts going through his mind in a single second. Hearing the sound made him shift just so he could put the other hand back to halt the one mouse in this group of rats from advancing further. The sound of heart beats was almost as loud as the sounds of the roaring Maximus cannon and its foes.

And then, Chiaki started to laugh, a restrained mirth as he brought that staying hand to his head. The rush and sudden stop left him feeling giggly, "Heh heh heh... Holy shit.."

That gauntlet-clad hand tapped the officer bar on his armored helmet a couple of times.

"Bwe hehe he... Man, oh man, are we lucky or unlucky? Heh heh heh! That probably depends on if you're a half-full/half-empty kind of Marine, eh? Heh heh he..." said Chiaki as he came to one knee and began to disengage some of the mag-locks on his armor. The 2nd Lieutenant sounded like all of the strain and injury had finally caught up to his head, especially as he seemed to doff one half of his Golem. Despite the squad's situation, he appeared as though he was in a chipper mood, but the strangeness went on as he went down close to the mine, laying a bare, cyborg hand onto the ground. "Stand still for a second, Private, we're no demolition experts, but I know a thing or two about jury-rigging."

His other hand produced his axe to cut the fabric of his uniform, allowing him to reach the hand removal notches for his arm at the shoulder. The revealed arm in question, dug its fingers into the ground, and then shot its needles into the earth to act as pinions. With a few arcane motions at the shoulder, the arm was loose of the torso port on his body, hissing and whirring quietly. The Doctor hummed an odd tune as he positioned his former shoulder next to McClain's foot, and began hand-operating the servos to torque the arm into place. It was an involved process, but when he we was done, the arm had been torqued enough to apply about as much force as the private's foot was putting on it.

The Officer slapped his armor back together on the one side he had disengaged it, and stood, scooping up his Carbine as he did so. "Alright, we can come back for that in a bit. Just give me a second to step back before you come off that bad boy, and we can keep moving up the hill, yeah?"

Hillscape

The team was making good progress. McClain had figured out the pattern, and they were nearing the top. He allowed a grin to splay onto his face for a few seconds since he was in the front and no one could see his face. His foot lifted for the next step, and he took his eyes off the ground to scan the area in front of them, his potentially fatal mistake. His foot fell for his next step, and struck the ground. And then sank. And then a lab audible click as the mine armed.

Well shit.

The scout froze, unable to move even if he wanted to. His muscles were locked in place, and he faintly heard his teammates talking behind him through the blood rushing in his ears. He was afraid to move a muscle, unsure of how sensitive the mine was. Was it anti-armor or anti-personnel? He tried to calm himself, pushing the rushing thought aside as they flooded his brain, straining to hear his team. His heart felt like it was about to pump so fast and drill out of his chest, sweet beading on his forehead even more than before, streaking down his face to his chin. “P-Please help.” He whispered, inaudible to anyone without hearing enhancements. He simply couldn’t do... anything.

Finally calming his blood flow, he heard something. No, someone. Laughing? They were laughing! How could anyone be laughing? He was about to lose a leg, maybe his life. At the very least, it would hurt... a lot. And then Chiaki... that was Chiaki, right? Yeah, Chiaki did something with his hand, standing up and backing up with the group. “So, on a scale of one to ten, how much will this hurt if I lift this foot up and your jury-rigging doesn’t work?” He asked, stalling the inevitable. Eventually he would have to lift his foot, and either become engulfed by the explosion, or lose at the very least a foot. He was young, and wasn’t exactly ready for a cybernetic leg quite yet.

Hillscape/Minefield

"In my experience, it doesn't hurt until the adrenaline wears off," admitted Chiaki, patting his knee-caps with the barrel of his carbine. He was becoming increasingly aware of the continuing battle on the hill, but he kept his glowing visor on McClain. The officer, while currently supporting an empty sleeve on one side of his armor, seemed rather capable at just using one arm. He slung the weapon to his back, and stood just apart of the scout-sniper, holding out his one good hand, "Here's a show of faith, Marine. You're going to grab my hand, and when you do, I'm going to pull you off. There's a lot that can happen here, but I'm not going to leave you standing on your mortality, son."

The one-armed officer flexed his fingers, showing he was ready, "How you doing back there, Valentine?"

Hillscape/Minefield

"Im fine back here." Minnie responded over the radio, Having gained a good twenty meter distance between them and herself from the moment she was stopped and became aware of the mine. Unlike last time they had a demolitions specialist just a call away even if it was only in consultation.

Instead she slowly backtracked a few more meters and kept at the ready. The explosion would draw the ire and attention of the fatnecks and depending on who got thrown the farthest she might only be able to grab one...

"Soko just reported light damage and is going to hull-down." She squeaked, well aware the only thing keeping them from ending up in a killbox like the tank was time that they where running out of. And unlike the Soko, The squad didnt have two and a half feet of sloped metal and shielding to protect them from fire. "We arent going to make it at this rate, Im going to call Fang before you blow you and someone else up again, Sir!"

The explosion of the mine shook Fitz around inside the Soko Neko, but it wasn't enough to throw her off or to scare her, in fact it only made her more angry."Joe get me another HE, I'll take care of auxiliary!" she shouted as she took control of the PLA first and set them to point defense. They were vulnerable now that they had been damaged, and she wasn't going to let them just take hits on her watch.

There was another problem though as she let the PLA intercept attacks on their own briefly. There were likley many other mins placed on the field and any more could totally take out a tread. So she began to rotate the turretin thier forward arc, the mounted chain gun firing at teh ground as she tried to set off any mines in their path.

Killing Field

-"...Soko... Brace yourself, I'm coming to have a look at you..."- Fang's baritone voice could be heard on the tank's intercom just a few moments before they felt a sudden rush and rumble of air. Plasma thrusters decelerated the hulking ogre mid-flight before it planted both heels directly onto the rear hull of the vehicle, and they could hear it clambering around afterwards, crouching into cover behind the turret. -"...Okay... I'm on... Gimme a sec whilst I get my eyes out..."-

The fancy manoeuvre did have a purpose. If Fang accidentally jumped onto an anti-tank mine, they'd be looking far worse than the tank's tracks. And if they just stuck their head out and took the time to take a nice peaceful scan, it was only increasing the chances they'd take a SAM to the face.

Now in semi-decent cover, and snapping off just a few conservative shots with their shoulder chainguns towards the odd flicker of infantry movement, they could finally turn up the amplitude on their mono-eyes. A harsh spotlight of red beams glared out in passing sweeps of the terrain before them, dutifully picking out mounds of clearly disturbed earth and metallic objects as best Fang could under the circumstances, and then beamed the telemetry directly down into the tank's systems.

Good enough for now?

-"L-T Kokuten, how's your progress?"- A concerned tone. The strain in their voice from trying to do three things at once was abundantly clear. -"...We... erm... Heads up, we've encountered mines over here!"-

Hillscape/Minefield

The Lieutenant withdrew his hand for a moment, as he turned to look at Minnie. The Medic had seemed to lose faith in his plan to pull McClain off, though, not without good reason. Last time he insisted they push forward in such a dire environment, it ended up costing her arm. Chiaki was sure it would work, but his assistant had caught him on more than one case where his zealousness would have forced a clean-up. His soldiers were as much experts in these killing fields as he was, the only difference being he was the one that would need to make the final call here. This was just a little hare-brained, he thought, as sure as he was it would work.

"Alright," said Chiaki, calmly, his mirth having washed out for the moment, "just watch where you step out here. We'll give-- "

-"L-T Kokuten, how's your progress?"- A concerned tone. The strain in their voice from trying to do three things at once was abundantly clear. -"...We... erm... Heads up, we've encountered mines over here!"-

Click to expand...

-"Fang! Funny you should ask, we are advancing through a minefield right now, almost made it to the top. Our new Scout-Sniper found one of these rusted Bettys by accident, and we're trying to get around it without alerting the hilltop." - The Officer spoke about it as if they were on the phone at the office, rather than on a battlefield. He came to one knee, and offered the Demolition's Expert a look at the jury-rigged set-up he had placed out. She got a live-feed of McClain's foot sharing space with his cybernetic arm-weight. "I've torqued this down to where it's solid as a rock, should keep it pinned when his foot comes off. Still, we'd like to hear your judgement before we try it."-

Killing Field

"Sir!?..." Fang's voice was unusually rapid, not least because they were still in a far-off trench situation themselves. "It didn't go off already!?"

Dead air. They were trying to piece together how to help them.

"LT, sorry!- Probably another mine under that mine! Slow you down, n' kill the people who help stop to help!" Divided attentions. Kotuken could hear the rumble of the shoulder chainguns on both sides of Fang's head. "...You... You got an oh-one axe, right?... Use the coil in the base! Magnetise arm!- Sorry LT! Best advice I can give you right now!- Either that or start taking Golems apart!-"

Hillscape/Minefield

"Yeah, Neko's luck, right?" responded the Officer to Expert's incredulity.

Chiaki whipped out his Axe, flipping it once quite like a tomahawk, then sunk it into the ground. He kept the demolitionist on the feed as he worked with the bottom of the axe, his remaining hand worked to peel open and expose the robust firing mechanism. Once he managed to loose a bit of the paneling with needled fingers, he began testing the brutal melee weapon's coil against the detached arm, on an exposed portion of shiny gunmetal, making careful contact. "I know you're pretty busy, Private, but are we going to get any indicators when we do this?"

Killing Field

"Erm..." A raspy, strained sound of wincing. "It will feel heavy! You won't be able to take it off! Just, erm, don't stick around, the battery won't last!-"

Yeah, they needed telling that. Because generally getting shot was totally not a reason to hurry.

Hillscape/Minefield

"If it works, it works! Just like this... right? Right." Chiaki charged the weapon, and held it over the arm. There was a small pause as he stared at the cybernetic. An AwesomeCorp custom piece that was designed by his mother, specifically for his aged shoulder ports. It was part of a set of ornate, masterwork arms, gifted to him on his 25th birthday by a pair of proud parents. He felt like he'd miss it a lot more than he missed his legs.

The thought passed, drawn to the real leg in front of him, of a young Marine who wasn't ready to walk that same path, that of the Cyborg. "Well. You all heard her, once I set this down, we leg it up the hill, to the first piece of cover we can find. Roger?"

He waited a moment, in case Minnie needed to position herself, if McClain needed a moment to ready himself. He engaged the coil on the axe to the arm, doing as the Demo Expert had instructed.

Tck, thunk.

"Mmmkay, time to go!"