[NSMC 309th] Mission 3: Hope Bringer

Hillscape/Minefield

Wait, Now? The small medic started off at a jog, Covering the lost ground. The only thing worse than the lieutenant blowing himself up would be for a time delayed explosion to happen well after they passed, Leaving Minnie as the last and closest person to a variable fuse. Quickly positioning herself behind her superior and catching her breath.

"Killing time is the same as killing us, Move it or lose it, MCclain." She found the irony of telling him to lose his leg. She found her motivation, A gentle hand on the lieutenants shoulder signally her at the ready. "Sir."

While it seemed the rest of the crew had been fairly unphased, Joe was physically and mentally shook up by the incident with the mine. It was really his first run in with anything that could really have had major consequences with his sheltered existence inside the tank. He had gripped his console and was white knuckling it until Fitz's voice broke through.

Stuttering and clearly shaken he replied,"Uh, uh, aye, yeah HE round loading." He reached over and willed his hands to calmly take the round and slide it home, it wasn't his best or smoothest time but it went in successfully.

"HE loaed, taking PLA controls from you Fitz," Joe said as he took manual control of the point defense. Sending a laser here and there as a deterent before having to actually glaze anyone.

Soko Neko

Ella was almost at a state of perfect calm, or close as she could get in the tank, before the mine and Juno's yelling of orders shook through the tank. She angled the tank towards the enemy before going full stop as commanded with a huff. Her eyes glanced up at the perch the Hanako doll was and scanned around the tank before darting back to the perch.

It was empty. Again.

"Yare yare..." she looked around behind her seat, wondering if one of the mongoloids was playing a prank on her.

Soko Neko

Fitz noticed how shaken Joe was, but there was little she could do for him, and even if she could, she did not have the time. They were faced with an unexpectedly competent opponent, and it was frustrating. But being told the cannon had been loaded did make her feel a little better.

She switched controls almost immediately and gave the auxiliary weapons to Joe. She already knew what her next target was and dialed in on it, there were two Origin Jeeps that were less mobile than the others. They might have been scared since the OMBT was destroyed, but the reason did not concern Fitz,she squared her shot right between the two jeeps that were less than a car length apart.

With the pull of the trigger the cannon boomed and another round was sent down the field, this one not aimed as a perpetrator, instead it headed to impact between the two jeeps and explode.

"Come on, they need to pull out their big guns or this will be too easy!" Fitz shouted as she scanned for other targets.

Soko Neko

Kill them, my child. Kill them all-
The Hanako doll smiled up as Ella took it back into her grasp; the tank firing and a loud explosion tearing through the battle as one of the jeeps was dislodged from its entrenched position and sent tumbling. The other, fortunately for its crew, cursed and hung on to avoid being thrown in the explosion.

And it was then that Joe felt the firm, cold grip of his CO, Juno looking to the view displays and giving him a simple confident declaration.

"You won't die today; no pirate fucks a Nepleslian up with a gun as big as ours."

The screen relayed all the mines nearby, the thunking heavy above them being quite useful; perhaps Fang was worth a good wrestling match to see if she was really as strong as she appeared to be. Being intelligent enough to relay sensory feed that the tank wasn't designed to spot was perfect and unlike most muscleheads even among the few ID-SOL he had fought alongside in his day.

The whirring of the laser defenses suppressing and blasting at any pirate dumb enough to slip into range would be good for now, though; his voice bellowing through the tank to the cockpit.

"Duville! Prepare a charge!" His finger punched at the display, the suite relaying the target at the remaining jeep. There were a few mines between them and the jeep, but there was a track-moving path easily visible through the mess. "Full speed! Fitz; I want an HE prepared to fire backwards! Keep the lasers rolling an- I want you to hop clear of us, Muscles!"

The last part was thumbed over the comms, Juno turning his eyes to grab the controls for the command turret. The whirring gun gave little warning, turning and thunking a few of the phosphorous explosives out along their flanks. It was an impromptu smokescreen of death; one that should give them plenty of time to not worry about any flanking attacks.

Hillscape/Minefield

And just like that, the group were able to free the private; but not without an impressive explosion of dirt.

But that was all it was. Dirt. The mine had been upside down.

Not that it was much better; Minnie felt the hot air burst upward to her flank, one of the nearby mines detonating in a plume of plasma-discharging death. And then another... and another. And worst of all, despite the fact none of them were reaching the infantry... they were sending flakes of super-heated plasma into the air; burning cinders all around.

They had saved the private, but now felt their golems hissing as some of the first bits of super-heated material reached them. They were now in the middle of an exploding field of heated plasma. And from how it was shaping, their rear was almost instantly getting far worse. Large gouts of the goopy plasma spilled out and set flame to the ground, piling up and feeding the heat of one another as it steadily turned the place into a gooey replica of a volcanic site. They'd better start running toward the top; the shouts of the folks above were quickly growing louder, too.

Just in time for three figures to run through the brush, their guns in a low carry as they paled and readied to fire before vanishing in a pasting burst of fire from their APC not too far away. They had cover fire but no element of surprise.

All they had to do was not step in the liquid death or get any on their skin beneath their heavy suits. While running from a large amount of it. No problem.

Reinforcements

"Move! Move!" One of the sergeants of a back-up squad barked loudly, boots stomping as he led a group of Nepleslians across the hills; additional forces from the 309th intended to be behind the precise hammer of the tank. "No time to dawdle!"

The sounds of the battle ahead were still somewhat off; a couple hundred meters at least. Half of the squad was outfitted in Golems - much the same as the infantry - but there were also suits of Hostile-suited men trudging along with them. Suits of taller, stronger, and better armed soldiers with the most intimidating red eye in the entire Kikyo sector. The sergeant himself wore the old-fashioned VOID, pointing a big and beefy hand forward for the half-PA, half-infantry comprised force.

"I want the team without armor to go assist the infantry! Us in powered armor will advance toward the tank and provide fire support!"

Two of these Golem-clad lads were SPECIAL in the eyes of fate of course; a strong buff lady and strong buff man. Jezper and Baki could see the minefield exploding ahead of them in a fiery hellscape across the hillside.

Looks like fun.

Hilltop - Cavalry

Pvt Jezper Chrystoff Zusak clunked forward with the rest of the reinforcements, his heavily armoured form leaving deep recessions in the ground with each step he took - his cybernetic arms, trapped inside the hostile suit, hefted the 30mm chaingun he was so fond of not letting other people touch. The engine whirred a few times and caused the barrels to spin part way as a smile lit up behind his face plate, "10-4 sir, consider their shit fucked up" the private with double-barrelled and unhyphenated surname confirmed as he began to stomp down towards their friendly tanks.

"Anybody to my right who doesn't have a faceplate - get ready to spit or swallow" He warned as the weapon began spinning up to its fullest, the trigger was held down and his baby began roaring - sending a torrent of 30mm Mass Driver Rounds towards the jeeps and their crews as the man continued to march forwards at a steady pace, wanting to actually hit the targets as a shower of detached links were ejected out the right side of the chaingun.

Reinforcements - Hillside

The mountain of a woman, Private Baki Hansen, grinned at the confident chaingunner laying down a deluge of suppressing fire. "I always swallow, Zusak. Give 'em hell!" Hopefully he'd hear her over the cacophany, at least over their helmet radios. Speaking of radios, she halted for a moment to patch herself into the vanguard infantry's comm channel, before hastening ahead along with the rest of the Golem-suited team.

She looked out at the molten earth and explosions through her visor, the tint turned low to reveal her emerald eyes. Her grin grew ever more manic at the sight, and she quickened her pace to follow close behind the pointmen. "Needle, this is the cavalry. We're comin' to join you in the frying pan, but the sergeant's busy sticking with his armored boys. Can you give us a rendezvous? Try not to die before we can get to ya, huh?" She ran with her rifle-variant M3 braced against her shoulder, ready to pop any OpFors who dared show themselves.

Soko Neko / Enemy Battle Line

Chaos. Fang thrusted into the air immediately as Juno had requested, massive and heavy PA only just missing the rotating barrel with their flaring rockets... But now the real problem was, where should they land? The soldier had built up a pretty good mental picture of the battlefield at this point, but her digital map of anti-tank mine locations was still full of un-scanned red zones. Staying in the air for too long didn't really seem like a great idea either.

Hovering. The hillside to the west was now completely on fire. The Soko was blitzing straight ahead behind them.

Decided to land with their back to a rocky outcrop, and do a little house cleaning before moving on.

There was a jeep here that still looked mobile and threat to their infantry, despite it's smashed windscreen and shrapnel-bitten crew. Could still see the enemy milling and regrouping in their foxholes nearby, so had to put a few rounds in their direction to keep their heads down, whilst she dealt with it.

Slammed a foot down against the footwell so that it bent the entire chassis, then peeled the entire pintle gun mount off like it was made of cardboard. Not too bad...

But then, a targeting signature sounded! There was another jeep that had slid into a crater about thirty foot away, with the back axle all bent and busted. It didn't need to be mobile to operate the gauss rifle on the back, however, and there was a buff ash-coated maniac currently pointing the thing right at her.

Muzzle flashes. Both combatants shot at the same time. First enemy round struck Fang's rifle in the targeting sensor and caused all three rounds of the responding burst to go wild. Second shot struck them in the right shoulder's mono-eye, cracking the casing and suddenly filling her field of vision with a flash of static.

Sidearm came out like a flash, the Aggressor's backup SMG in her left hand.

"Sleep."

The word, cast like a spell, returned that scene to red silence.

Area clear. The infantry were no longer in danger of being flanked.

Time to catch up with the Soko again.

Minefield.

Minnie staggered in time to avoid being coated in the intended amount of death as she ran onwards after the lietenant and MCsteponmines. She could feel something intensely hot burning her shoulder down to her flank, Instant alarm sounds blaring in her head. Simple drops of plasma coated her and where burning through her armor millimeter by millimeter, Already sending intense burning pain everywhere it touched until they slowly burned out and subsided into black dots raking the entire left half of her armor. Burns on her darker skin often turned white and she knew by the time she disrobed at the end of all this she would look like a polka-dotted freak.

She dodged another plume and vaulter over a puddle of threatening death right on time for the Jack to open up from its overwatch.

"We've Been made!" She shouted unnecessarily loud into the proximity microphone within her mask, Catching a hot lungful of recycled plasmic air. It tasted like ozone, She hated the taste and smell of plasmic discharge!

Needle, this is the cavalry. We're comin' to join you in the frying pan, but the sergeant's busy sticking with his armored boys. Can you give us a rendezvous? Try not to die before we can get to ya, huh?

Click to expand...

She chose not to respond and let the lieutenant do the ordering, She hated their sister squad sometimes. Too cocky for their own good...

Hillscape/Minefield

Hot.
Hot.
HOT.

The whole hill had turned into something reminiscent of a paint-party at an Aethersperm concert, except all the paint was so hot it'd burn through anything it coated. His legs began to crunch into the broken ground, pressing forward for as long as what was under him was still solid. Heated air buffeted his back, the air pressure of the surrounding hillside turned it into a miniature storm as hell rose out of the ground to meet them. Neon bright streaks cut about around the running Marines like ripping waves in a sea of lava. The Lieutenant had not trouble ensuring his squadmates were still with them, as they were black silhouettes to the light show of perdition that threatened to seize them. He could see McClain a bit easier as he was ahead; Minnie was a dark figure, but he could see the burning in her eyes.

Burning... Hot! Hot!?

A spray of hot plasma melded onto his plates, and he could feel the Golem just barely protecting his delicate complexion and mostly metal frame from being pock-marked. He groaned under the effort, having long forgotten the master-crafted arm that was now just one with the ether with how hot it was. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been if the enemy managed to show themselves.

Of course, that's exactly what happened.

The Officer contemplated his maker, as he tucked his carbine into his side, readying a spray to meet a deadly exchange. His finger looped the trigger right as the mounted Moneyshot on Cruel's Jackelope unleashed a load of supporting fire onto their enemies. The Lieutenant turned just so, pointing straight up the hill to where their enemies had been cut down. A waypoint pinged at the brush.

"That way! We need to cap this hill before it caps us!" roared Chiaki, turning to wave back at the Jackelope, "Corporal, that was beautiful! Keep their heads down!"

He whipped along, trying to outpace the super-heated sludge.

"Needle, this is the cavalry. We're comin' to join you in the frying pan, but the sergeant's busy sticking with his armored boys. Can you give us a rendezvous? Try not to die before we can get to ya, huh?"

Click to expand...

"Calvary, this is Needle! Setting waypoint: Rendezvous," answered the Lieutenant sharply, setting a point at the peak of the hill, his ability to point hampered a bit by holding the carbine, "Proceed up the edge of the field as it cools down, the Jackelope will light up targets as it sees them, mind the tracers!"

Hissssss...

"And the lava!"

Soko Neko

After having seen Juno try to comfort Joe, Fitz let out a bit of a heavy sigh and looked Joe's way. "Trust me a little, I'll hit them way before they can hit us." She then elbowed Joe in the side and got back to work. However her orders this time were a little weird.

"Joe, stay on the lasers, I'll prep the gun." She didn't want the lasers to stop, her gut was telling her that things were about to develop pretty quickly and looking away would be a problem. So she squeezed around Joe and did the loading her. She got back to the controls right away and turned the cannon around, unsure of what could be back there, but orders were orders.

Reinforcements - Hillside

"Wilco, Needle." The tone of Baki's reply was far more professional and less arrogant than she had been. The LT didn't seem in a joking mood, and she couldn't blame him, being trapped in a literal hell on earth with the only escape being directly through enemy lines. "We'll keep our heads down and link up with you ASAP. Good hunting."

She found the waypoint on her Golem's HUD and pointed it out to the PFC in charge of her fireteam. The group double-timed it, eventually making their way along the trail of liquid earth left from the exploded mines. Hopefully the icy weather here would cool the lava quickly. As much as she enjoyed danger, she preferred having an enemy she could fight. She couldn't do much about environmental hazards.

Soko Neko

The faint voice coming from the doll caused Ella to double take as she reached for the doll. It couldn't have talked, right? It's doll, and as much as Ella would've loved to talk to Hanako, this is only a vinyl doll; Totally incapable of speech or the desire to murder the lesser race of Nepleslian scum that remain so defiant to the Empress' wishes.

Juno's orders forced her to end that line of thought for now. She hopped back in the driver and placed Hanako back in her perch before eyeing the little path through the mines. With order the to charge ahead at full speed, Ella cracked the throttle to max and maneuvered through the mine field with speed and grace.

Or at least with what speed and grace a massive hulking tank would allow.

The last thing she wanted to do is run over yet another mine at this speed. It very well dent a track or scratch more of the paint off.

Soko Neko

The carnage of the jeep crews and the big girl and average-sized man in PA was in a different world inside the beast; Juno's attention was fixed on the viewer port as the clunking of the next shell being loaded filled the command compartment. The lurching of the massive fusion-powered warbeast as it cut through the mines was compensated for the crew within, the lieutenant grabbing onto a stabilizing grip nearby as they took a turn rather hard. The tank itself could drift and tear through the battlefield like it was made of jelly, but that didn't mean the interior was entirely safe. The distinct thunking of the Aggressor's SMG and the exploding dirt of the 30mm rounds thunking into one of the reinforcing jeeps racing at the 309th.

And then the still-stationary target met with 94 tons of Nepleslian Nerimium and Meridium; the Origin-made jeep exploded and was sent rolling over the hull and smashed into pieces like it was made of glass. If the gun had been forwards, it would have been totally wreathed in pirate jeep parts; instead it rolled over and around the tank as they rolled into view of the bunker position.

"Gun, re-align! Prepare to fire-"

The powerful thunk of a very big cannon sounded, the shields of the Maximus blocking something big. Not all of it was stopped however; part of the turret dented inward above the group, Juno cursing at the metal about a foot away from crushing his skull within the commander cupola.

"Fuck! Those pirates made something that could actually beat our shields!? Full reverse, drift us and prepare angled positioning! Now!"

The suits of PA could see the smoke of a lengthy cannon barrel poking out the large pillbox position; an electricity-cackling jury-rigged railgun that was likely pulled off some ship. They didn't have the angle to kill its crew - countless infantry turning their guns toward both Fang and Jezper despite their displays of killing and the suppression being laid into them. The pirates seeing the tank's shields buckle were steadily catching their footing; they were rallying.

Hillside

Thankful for the giant woman running up on the group's trail, the chilly wind worked fast to counteract the plasma's heat; the ground cooled enough that the crunching through dirt and glass was barely noticeable heat-wise. But for the others? Running was definitely more interesting.

For one, they were somehow escaping a molten, melting death; not that it was very easy for some of the shorter and stumpier medics. But as the crew charged their way up the hill there was thankfully no one running to meet them.

As all of them came over and into some immediate cover, however, they found that they were not yet alone nor victorious in taking the hill; durandium barriers ping and spark as ricocheting rounds fly off-course or land in the dirt. They had cover, but at least fifteen or so of the pirates were dug-in and hiding in various mortar dug-outs and hideaways; one of them was even flipping open a box and pulling out what looked like a rocket launcher. One man was daring of course; charging at them with a grenade in one hand and firing at them with an arm-rigged shotgun cybernetic. The pellets bounced harmlessly off them compared to the plasma that singed at them... but they had a fight at long last. Just in time as the man chucked the grenade at the group.

Joe was visibly relieved at the support he got from both Juno and Fitz. It showed that they had his back and he wasn't alone, so with renewed confidence he set to maintaining the perimeter lasers, scooching slightly as Fitz wiggled behind him. Of course the took a momentary pause from tank defense as he grasped the sway bars about him with the lurching of the tank. He moved his right hand to his earset and his left to the the radio dial, " Lieutenant! I am getting a lot of feedback on my comms, I think they are using some kind of magnet or electricity based muntions. I can only give a general direction, nothing confirmed with what I have available."

He quickly typed out the general location from where the shot could have come from and about how much megahertz he recorded. Moving back to the defense systems he prepped to face the emboldened hostiles.

Jezper lifted an armour-plated arm up to his face when the tank let out a pained groan of metal being forced in on itself, then the Private remembered - he was god-damn invincible inside this fucking suit, a bulwark of Nerimium and other shit he couldn't quite remember that roared a fiery breath of 30mm, chain-fed rounds out his hi-rpm maw. This roar however ceased momentarily as the still-spinning weapon was moved aside and hatches on either side of the 'borg's suited legs opened up to reveal racks of mini-missiles that just begged him to be let loose. A cocky grin was plastered across the man's face at the response his previous war-cry had gotten, he might have to try taking her up on the offer later but for now his job was to be the wall that hit back harder than it could be hit.

"Rest in many pieces," Pvt Chrystoff Zusak maniacally cackled out as he paused a moment for dramatic effect before firing off two or three racks of mini-missiles from each leg with the intention of blanketing the enemy's entrenched position in glorious hellfire.

Soko Neko

At first, Fitz was really unsure about why the gun had been turned and what the plan was as she held on amidst the rocking machine. However when the sound of crunching metal could be heard from the front after they rammed the jeep, things became more clear. It pulled a boisterous laugh out of Fitz when she realized and she spoke up. "Not exactly my first choice but it works!"

On command she began to resit the position, but they were hit by something powerful and she was tossed about slightly. That wasn't some little gun mounted on the back of a Jeep, it was an actual threat. "Mine is still bigger!" She shouted to no one in particular as she changed her focus to whatever shot them, turning her barrel in the general direction of where they were hit from.

"Can you narrow it down Joe, I want to blow them out of the system."

Soko Neko

There was a pause of shock in Ella the tank was rocked from the shot. The little Hanako nearly fell from her purch. It was less of a shock of "Oh god, I'm going die" and more of a "Did these just fucking hit my fucking tank?" The driver looked up at the doll, confirming it didn't fall.

But she saw something else with the doll... Something that spoke to her...

She slammed the tank in full reverse as she eyed through her optics for the canon that dented the tank.

"WHO DID THAT?" She yelled over comms. "I WANT LOCATIONS. I WANT HEADINGS. I WANT TARGETS."

Hillside

Baki and her fireteam kept up the pace, eventually closing in on Needle's rendezvous. An eager grin grew upon her face as she prepared to greet her comrades... which then quickly fell away as she crested the hill to see the enemy had already greeted them first. Her keen eyes, trained on the rough streets of Nepleslia, spotted the explosive just as it was leaving the aggressive tango's hand. For a fraction of a second, she considered diving for it and tossing it back. But she was too far away for that, and it was possible the reckless soldier had cooked the thing for a second or two.

She called out, both to Needle and her own men. "Grenade, get down!" As she rushed behind the nearest cover to heed her own advice, she loosed a few bursts of fire from her rifle in the general direction of the enemy position. She didn't have time to aim, instead hoping to help keep them suppressed until her allies had time to retaliate.

Hillside.

"Lieutenant! Little sister is shooting at us, Again!" Minnie squeaked as mini-missiles streaked overhead and beside them into enemy positions. Little sister had coined a term from one of the many recruits who came and went with the winds into the squad, Remarking on their sister squad. It wasnt a poor term, They did have fire control and impulse issues and it wasnt the first danger close event from them.

she ducked slightly, Head lowered hoping to not only stay the smallest target, But also to engross that even more by limiting her silhouette to something less shootable.

"I bet its Mathison!" She remarked, Keeping pace behind the other two. "Or Baki, She-"

"Grenade, get down!".

Click to expand...

Minnie noticed it almost simultaneously as the call went out. She shifted slightly, Not quite able to judge where it was arcing but taking a wild guess anyway. Her golem would absorb the shrapnel if she stayed far enough away. It was the concussion that was damaging in those cases.

Unless it was a plasma grenade. She hoped it wasn't more plasma...