RP: NSS Alliance [NSS Alliance] A Red Letter Day

Some time later, after the announcment for a meeting was called…


Wazu limped to the mess hall, explaining the repairs he made to the captain and bridge staff as he made his way toward the mess hall to talk to the crew. For ten seconds all of the power in the ship shut down and began to start powering back up systematically. The damaged systems had been bypassed and the hyperspace tap had taken over the bulk of the power needs of the ship. It was being carefully monitored so that it wouldn't overload.

Jet groaned and once the engineering section was secure he gave his marines a sign to remain there as he left to head for the mess hall, ending a message to Adrian for an update on the techs in the medbay. "Adrian, how's the techs? Any Survivors?" he asked as he made his way up.

Five minutes later most of the marines had been assembled in the Mess hall. When he found a good time to interject, Wazu shouted out, “ALRIGHT MARINES,” He cleared his throat and then continued, “The NSS Alliance has been damaged by sabotage and an attack by the Reds has damaged the shipyards above Nepleslia. Right now the Alliance is headed back to Nepleslia Prime, previously known as Planet X. An automated factory has been placed there. We should be there in a few minutes. The Alliance WILL make a landing and begin repairs. 2/3rds of the marines will be deployed in power armors from orbit to secure the facility while the rest will help repair the ship and move equipment from the factory to the ship. You have five minutes to grab something to eat then everyone is to suit up.”

"FIAN!" Wazu shouted over the crowd of marines who were quickly gathering food to eat before walking out of the mess hall, most with some form of anti-matter-o-bar hanging out of their mouth, "The Captain wants you to make a report about the incident planet-side before you suit up and head out. Make your way to the bridge."

---

Adrian handed the cyborg his datapad and went to fetch a new one, minus the blood-drawing attachment. He walked over to one of the other injured techs. "Alright... shit. Poor bastard's gone." He backed up and shook his head. "Suku, grab me a sheet please." He pulled up a third electronic message box for the day and pounded out a message quickly.
Quote:
Technical Sentry James P. Lawlenheimer has passed away in Medical Bay. Cause of death likely smoke inhalation and suffocation and severe burns to much of body.
Adrian lowered his pad just as Ally gave her message, and cursed as the power went down. He stood for several seconds in total darkness and then headed for the door as the power came back up. "Kokuten, let's go. Suku, take a look at the other injured tech. Restrain the other."

The medic hit his comm.-link when he received Jet's message. "One known survivor out of the three, one dead, and we haven't looked at the other. We have to get to the Cafeteria for an announcement." He finished speaking just as he entered the lounge, as Wazu finished his address.

"Damn, did you find out what the deal with the perforated tech was?" Jet asked as he walked briskly toward the mess hall.

"I didn't, Kokuten is working on that. Or at least will be once we're done with this shit." Adrian whispered into his mic, not wanting to attract too much attention to himself.

"Hrm, well I detected a poison actually, something that I only saw back in the Medical Academy. A seizure inducing agent called, "Velserine" it is not a common poison, mind you. it is a slow acting agent, and it is not fatal, but I bet the tech is having one hell of a time." Kokutn reported to Adrian as the walked to the Mess Hall.

---

Istvan began stuffing himself as quickly as only a part Super soldier could. The speed with which the food, and Cloqual, disappeared into him was awe-inspiring... He also made sure he was suited by the time it was declared that everyone should be suited up.

Gran kept an eyeful watch on the Sam person as they seated themselves into the mess hall. He moved over by Rico and spoke plainly, keeping his eye on Sam. "Rico, something's up with that Sam guy."

"Shit, quit bein' so damn paranoid. You’re bummin’ me out." Rico said to Gran with a sarcastic smirk.

Gran couldn't help but smile and cock an eyebrow at Rico. "Are you kidding? The guy was covered in blood and was practically running from us. Besides, Waltingtonson?"

"Baby, chill out and eat somethin’. Now that all this Elysian shit is over, this is the time to relax." Rico replied in a dismissive tone. He didn't particularly notice anything suspicious at all with that guy. "Besides...I've heard weirder names baby. Trust me on that."

Jet sighed and continued up to the mess hall and walked in looking around. "Well I see the usual chaos has returned..." he quipped as he just went in and took a seat, letting out a sigh.

After John checked his suit, he proceeded to shovel two platefuls of NSS Alliance home cookin' down his gullet and then made his way to the mess hall. Well at least there's no shortage of food on this mission.

---

"Shit... Velserine? Don't the Reds use that shit when they want to make someone shut the hell up? How big a dose?" He walked over to the food and grabbed some random delicious looking sandwich. "If the Reds went after Nepleslia itself, it would make sense for them to try and fuck with the Alliance."

"Well, yeah they do, but the length of the seizure measures on the dose given. A large dose will be cause for a long seizure, a small one will be for a short seizure. The poison is eventually eaten away by the white blood cells." Kokuten continued, grabbing just a burger, and took a bite.

---

The marines in the Mess hall were starting to file out now, carrying what food they could hold on their way to the power armor bay to suit up. Most had just gotten out of their armors and were taking this time to stretch, a few trying to stretch their arms around the serving staff only to have one of the other marines initiate a cockblocking maneuver to keep them off the girls.

Jet ran to meet Wazu as the marines began filing out of the doors. "Well just what'd I miss?" Jet asked Wazu, finally able to catch the Lieutenant long enough to query him.

Wazu was holding a pair of datapads, asking Ally something about Novacorp before responding to Jet, "Just some marine going nuts planet-side and a ridiculously long talk about sovereignty."

"Why not just have one of our guys tranq his ass?" Jet yawned as he got a beer.

"He was in a power armor." Wazu said, typing something into the pad before continuing, "to administer a tranq you'd need exposed skin of some sort.

"I hate PA's..." Jet muttered.


A few minutes later, in the NSS Alliance armor bays…


Marines began suiting up, again, and getting in line on the launch system. The third that weren't going to deploy from orbit were still suiting up, but heading to the cargo bay as per the orders displayed on their HUDs. The moment the marines were suited up they started to receive a second briefing through their HUD. The plan was for the marines to fall from orbit and establish a defensive perimeter while the Alliance lands. A timer was counting down to their launch time, leaving them with little more than three minutes to get ready and go.

Wazu took place at the front of the bay, overlooking the procedures while fiddling with his datapad.

Adrian headed for the door, walking backwards. "Yes, I know, but how long did they want the guy down for? And considering the stuff isn't readily available anywhere..."

"Hrm, the dose was about strong enough to put him down to a seizure for about 4 hours." Kokuten replied to the Lieutenant before he began talking to the Cadet.

Adrian stopped and noticed Wazu at the front of the armor bay. "Sir! I think it would be in our best interest to lock down the ship. One of the techs was hit with a poison used rather often by the Reds. We may have a Red agent onboard, and it would not be wise to let him off."

Wazu didn’t make any changes in his demeanor as the medic expressed his concerns. It took him a few minutes, but finally Wazu spoke a reply. "Sorry," Wazu said, looking up from his datapad, "Can you repeat that? I was slightly distracted." He put the pads back down by his side, turning his attention to the medics.

Adrian grunted. "Well, sir.... THE REDS ARE ONBOARD AND THEY POISONED SOMEONE! SO LOCK DOWN THE DAMN SHIP!" He yelled and then returned to a more passive and professional demeanor.

Wazu nodded, "Well they have no where to go on Nepleslia Prime. Ally is back online so if anyone tries to run we will know and can take them out. The best thing you can do is find out who the spy is quickly." Wazu said analytically, and turned back to his datapad.

---

Rico grinned widely as he neared the lines of NAM armors along with the rest of the marines. He felt very good, especially now that the Elysian mission was behind him. Compared to that, this little escort would be a well-deserved cakewalk. Rico walked up to a shiny, new AIR2 model, and started preparing himself to get inside.

Ally's cybernetic body ran up to Rico as he was suiting up, "Rico," she said with a smile as she stopped in front of him, her chest bouncing slightly from the movement. "Fian is going to be indisposed of for the moment, Wazu wanted me to tell you that you will be in charge of keeping the marines in line down there."

Rico assumed his usual suave smile as he recognized Ally’s voice, and turned to face her. Quickly running a hand through his hair and checking himself on a reflective surface of the AIR2, he leaned back against the armor casually, shooting her his best aloof glance. "Hey hey honey, tough luck for Fian, but good news for me," he spoke confidently. "...hey, I still owe you a dinner, don't I, beautiful?"

Ally smiled softly, slowing down for a few moments amongst the backdrop of the quickly hustling marines, "Yes, but two minutes is hardly enough time for that dinner."

"Absolutely right, gorgeous!” Rico laughed, throwing a playful pointing gesture at the cyborg. “Tell ya what...after I get back from this little escort, we'll hammer out the 'finer details'," Rico joked with his usual sly grin as he hopped skillfully into the innards of the armor. "And I'm sorry to say, sweety, you'll have to wait until the second date for anythin' more than a dinner,” he said slyly, throwing her a wink as he fitted himself into position. “Until then..." Rico allowed the closing of the armor to cut off his sentence, and initiated the start-up. As entertaining as a dinner with a Ship AI sounded, Rico knew he had a job to do.

---

Istvan nodded to himself "Alright" he murmured, getting into the familiar Water "Let's do this..."

John started to suit back up, wondering if he'd ever get to enjoy anytime out of his FIRE again. "Geez, suit goes on, suit comes off, suit goes on.." He muttered to himself and the marines around him in the amor bay.

"Could be worse," Istvan said calmly. "At least you get to take the suit off.”

"Well Gee Istvan" John replied "The ship's shot to hell, we're jumping in and out of our armors…did I miss anything." John chuckled at himself. "I mean really, how the fuck could it get much worse?"

Istvan snorted, replying to John "Well there was this one time" he says "When I was on patrol duty. The ship we were on got shot to hell and had no working life support... not even toilets! We had to spend a month in suits!"

John coughed in disgust as he put his helmet on. "Thanks Istvan...I'll try to forget those details..."

Istvan laughed darkly "It can always be worse..."

---

Gran walked alone, slowly he approached the Power Armor bay. Maybe Rico's right, maybe I am too suspicious. Gran sighed and thought as he entered the bay. He picked an empty AIR2 and started warming it up. Wait, if we launch armors now, wouldn't there be a chance of the traitor escaping? Gran hopped in the suit and sent a message to command: 'If we launch armors now, we risk losing the traitor.'

The NSS Alliance's warning lights turned online, "Marines, prepare for launch," Ally's voice said over the PA as her cybernetic body left the power armor bay.

Jet got up from where he was to go find the marines to get an idea of what was happening. Being down in engineering had temporarily cut him off from the rest of the crew, and he was a bit confused as to what was happening.

Adrian grumbled and swore as he walked down the halls to the PA Bay. "Fuckin' bastard lieutenant... hope that dumb shit dies in a fire..." He walked to one of the constructor pads and suited up in a Super Phalanx. Back down to the fun place, hmm? Adrian thought venomously as he got in the shortest line for the launch tubes.


Minutes later in Nepleslia Prime orbit…


The Alliance began to enter the planet’s atmosphere, opening the covers over its power armor launch system and firing out marines. They would pass under the ship, as they slowed down in the atmosphere, being strung out in a line a few miles above the surface with their landing co-ordinates highlighted on their HUDs. The automated factory they were to secure was directly below them and once the Alliance had finished dropping its marines it began to turn around, slowing down and aiming to land by the factory.

The NSS Alliance was planning to land on a large circular pad that used anti-gravity to keep the ship from actually touching the ground. This was attached to the factory by a series of tendrils stretching across the ground and into the shallow crater where the factory was. The factory itself was a cylindrical tower with a communication device on top, naturally made out of all sorts of spinning things and wires, along with an entire construction floor which was just then raising itself up to add another floor to the top of the tower. The tower itself was a series of stacked processing planets which were refining materials being brought to the tower by underground mining robots. The refined materials were then stored underground.

As the marines landed on the surface, one-by-one, they spread out to secure the perimeter of the ship and the surrounding area. The surface was relatively quiet, with no signs of hostiles whatsoever.

"Delta, I want a solid perimeter set up so our entry teams can effectively breach the tower." Ran's Mk.II Golem heaved the SIAR in both hands as the remainder of his squad lands around him, all immediately clearing out the launch pad area and keeping a look-out for any advancing troops, as well as lightly covering the tower itself. "Squad Leader, Delta is securing the area. We need some heavy boys for entry duty here." He was referring to any heavily-armored Marine to simply kick down one of the doors leading into the tower, in which Delta would move in after them to make way for the rest of the platoon. "I want all Medics in this squad to stay back until we have the interior of the first floor secured."

John heard the message over his suit's intercom, and jetted over to the tower, landing gently. He then walked over, tapped on the structure with his suit's hand, and then, with his PAL. The structure, of course, obliged him and a nice new door was formed. "Door, Sir!" he yelled to Ran over the PA.

"Well, what the fuck took you so long?! Breach and enter the structure!" He called up two Golems to join John in breaching the first floor, while he directed the rest of squad Delta to stack up on either side of the door next to the breaching party. "Serpentine as you move in, but try not to bump into each other." He flipped the safety off on his SIARS, and firmly tapped one of the breaching team members on the shoulder. "MOVE!"

As Rico landed, he also started giving instructions…although they were much more lax than Sergeant Ran’s. The marines that didn’t follow Ran to secure the factory and surrounding facilities slowly spread out to encompass the clearing, keeping their eyes open. Rico, on the other hand, simply stood off to one side, his combat systems down and his body relaxed…as far as he was concerned, this little escort duty would be a breeze compared to the tension of the Elysian mission.


A few minutes later…


Suddnely, a large group of missile-like objects would show up on the marine’s scanners, just out of sight for the moment. Each was about three times the size of a man and moving near mach 9 just above the tree tops, coming towards them from the south. They were still miles away but at that speed they would arrive within seconds. However instead of heading directly toward the alliance the missiles veered upward as they approached the factory.

The missiles were made up of two rocket like devices strapped to a power armor. As soon as they were within range the power armors dumped the missiles, letting them track and aim toward their own targets while they rained fire down upon the marines with a variety of weapons, ranging from solid metal to deadly plasma weaponry. The speed of their arrival prevented the marines from reacting swiftly while the atmosphere prevented the NSS Alliance from using its weapons or shields, to do so would destroy the factory that the Alliance was planning to use for repairs.

"You've got to be fucking me!!!" Ran screamed over the net while in the process of breaching into the building. "All personnel take cover!!!" He dropped to one knee and raised his SIAR up, joining the rest of the Marines still outside in trying to shoot as many missled down as possible, to at least minimize the damage they would do.

Istvan was around the perimeter as opposed to in the building. "Men, SHOOT THEM DOWN, FTL WEAPONTRY" he shouted firing his own weapons at the missiles...

"What the hell?!" Rico said in a surprised voice as the surprise attack caught the marines. He was expecting this little outing to be a breather compared to the stress of the Elysian mission...but apparently that was not meant to be. It didn't take but a moment for Rico to compose himself, however, lurching his AIR back up and rushing forward to meet them, mooneyes wavering and weapons blazing. "Wake up boys, we got us some guests!"

Adrian turned on his anti-grav about thirty meters above ground level and flew at a slow decline towards the tower. "Sergea- OH SHIT! ATTACK!" Adrian veered downwards, narrowly avoiding a plasma blast. He tilted his armor to it is side and aimed his disruption rifle up. He sighted one of the armors and let loose a stream of the destructive energy towards the armor. "Shit! Who the hell are these clowns?!"

John slammed his armor against the side of the door he had just made, and attempted to shot down the closest missile, using his pulse lasers in the hope of hitting something, while slamming on the button to fire his DARTS between the Alliance and the incoming missiles, hoping maybe they would hit or at least distract them. "Oh shiiiiiiit.."

The sheer amount of objects in the air prevented most of them from being shot down as explosions rained down upon the marines, missiles cutting through shields and plasma bolts scorching the ground. More than one shot found its way to Rico's shields as the attacking power armors flying through the air began targeting the power armor that lifted off the ground and charged at them…a single AIR2 unit, apparently not aware that he was practically alone in the air amidst the Reds.

Rico rapidly loaded and fired shots from his FMD in quick succession at multiple targets as he dived and weave between his enemies. He was hoping the other marines would follow his lead, similar to what they had done during the simulations...however, much to his dismay most of them were more interested in finding cover than meeting the enemy. Although he was a skilled AIR pilot in his own respect, not even he could dodge all of the fire be placed upon him, and his shields started to stress as a result. As another explosion rocked his AIR, knocking him off his trajectory, he cursed loudly into his communication link. "Sonuva bitch, I could use some assistance here!" Rico shouted through his teeth, and pivoted around in an attempt to fall back to the other marines.

"Don't group too close until all these fucking missiles disappear!" Ran got up from one knee and spun around, heading towards the opening of the tower, moving in a snaking fashion in order to avoid being fried by a stray plasma bolt. "Fuck!" A particularly strong round blew up the earth in front of him, causing him to hold his rifle up to his face. Looking around in disbelief that he was still alright, he practically dove into the structure, looking at a couple of the Marines who were still inside. "We're going back the fuck out there. These motherfuckers are flying, so I want you to LEAD your targets effectively. Don't worry about firing in bursts, just put as much lead into the air as possible, like all Marine do." The rest of the Marines inside nodded, and all followed Ran out with rifles blazing. "Achieve fire superiority! Put more lead and plasma towards them than they can us!"

Explosions and debris from both sides were kicking up a lot of dirt, creating a natural smoke screen that was blotting out the light. The Red soldiers started tossing grenades down onto the Marines while still flying through the air toward the Alliance which was just starting to touch down and was coming under missile attack herself.

"Oh heh, Jet, what kept you," John chuckled, his pulse lasers blasting at any missile he could lock onto. He followed ran out, moving to the outside of the formation, trying to find an enemy armor amongst all the incoming missile fire.

"Shit, shit!" Ran signaled for the Marines following him to disperse immediately, and that's when he heard an explosion and a shrill cry off to his left, followed by several "thud" sounds. "The Alliance?! God-damn it!" He immediately got up, hoping that his armor would withstand at least a few grenades. "Squad Delta, regroup and defend the Alliance!" He shouted over the comm link, hoping that the rest of the squads would follow suit.

Adrian looked at his sensors in his HUD. Almost there... When he came close to factory structure, he flicked off his flight, rolled into a ball, smashed to the ground, and rolled behind the large tower. He slung his disruption rifle and pulled the plasma cannon from his back, wincing as a grenade went off nearby. He ran parallel to the wall and looked out from behind it. He saw a nice looking formation of armors flying in relatively tight formation, aimed, and fired. The 20-foot-or-so blast radius of the plasma cannon would do some nice work on them.

---

Meanwhile, Percy Flaskri continued to pelt grenades from his weapon from the cover of the treeline, a good ways away from the main body of action occurring farther out in the large clearing. The black-skinned Nepleslian, his Dark Demon armor emblazoned with the Red Flag, hoped that this conjured plan would work against these Green blockheads.

---

Istvan screamed a visceral yaw as he tried to blast as much crap out of the air as possible "Rico!" he shouted "What are you doing in the air? I almost shot you down!" He continues to pump blasts in the air, attempting to clear the area of enemy armors.

Two of the red armors in Adrian’s HUD turned about, bolting in a sudden burst of motion toward Adrian, spiraling in a corkscrew formation. In perfect unison, the two rose their missile tubes and unloaded a full volley from every angle and then separated some 50 feet above him in opposite directions.

As Rico neared the main group of his comrades down below him, he glanced up towards the NSS Alliance in the distance…a few of the Reds were closing in on it, firing upon the hull of the massive DD4.

“damn it…guys! Guys, they’re attacking the Allian-“

A stray grenade, ignored by many, hit its mark as he struck Rico’s AIR.

In an instant, the stray grenade blew clear through the structural damage on the left side of Rico’s AIR2, tearing his entire left arm as well as a large portion of his chest and torso away in a flash of searing ashes and burning metal. Rico suddenly realized he didn’t finish his sentence. He felt something on his left side, and he didn’t know what it was. He wanted to look at it, but he couldn’t move his head or his eyes. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. All he felt was his powered armor slowing down from its thrust, and slowly beginning to plummet back down towards the rocky surface of Nepleslia Prime’s landscape.

Slowly, as Rico’s vision blurred into a fuzzy blackness, he saw images quickly come into view and fade away. He saw his father’s accident, and the smoldering ruins of the vehicle he had lost him in…he saw himself, looking rather good in the cheap suit, smiling a hugely exaggerated grin as he sat in the pews at his sisters wedding…he saw his induction into the Star Army of Nepleslia, and his recent promotion at the hands of the Lieutenant. He didn’t know why he was seeing these things. All he knew was that his AIR was falling…falling.

Rico Sanroma was dead before he hit the ground.

Delta Squad jetted onto the top of the Alliance, disregarding any danger that could befall them in doing so. There, they would set up a semi-defense on the top of the Alliance, providing cover for it until it could get it is weapons systems online to help them in their fight. "Once the Alliance gets fighting on it is own, we're joining the fight in the ai-" The sight of a falling figure caught his attention, and upon closer inspection, to his dismay, he knew that the power armor that was just shot down was one of the Greens. "God damn."

Istvan blinked in disbelief as he witnessed Rico’s demise. "MOTHER FUCKER!" He shouted "I SHOT DOWN RICO! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

---

"I... I got one! Holy shit! I got one!" Percy yelled over the comm as he saw his grenade take down one of the Greens. One of his Red comrades gave him a thumbs up on his first kill. Though, the battle was not over, the Reds assaulting from the treeline continued their relentless assault. Percy, himself, taking mark on some of the Marines firing on the Aireal team from the ground.

A gruff scottish accent rang in Percy's ear with a low hiss of engine scream. "True but don't be gettin overpleased with yoursen. Keep your eyes on the objective. Pepper, boy?" the ace announced as a stray glitter of rounds glanced and rushed over Istvan's head in two growling bursts.

"Y-Yes sir." Percys low toned, yet nervous ringed voice. "it is just, this the first time I've been in combat, I didn-... Uh... Nevermind." The Flaskri began to take keep up the fire.

Sergeant Chuck Hadley laughed as he watched the AIR fall and hit the ground. “Good shot Percy! Choice!” The Red sergeant said as he threw an O-K sign with the hands of his Dark Demon armor, continuing suppressive fire from his position further along the tree lines. This was like shooing fish in a barrel. However, before long, he saw one of the Green armors charging the entire line of marines positioned with him…the rest of his squad also noticed the long Green marine charging them. He chuckled, his chin wobbling slightly as he raised his Dark Demon’s Type-2. “Alright boys, let’s knock dis dumbass outta da air too. All fire on him!”

The Red soldiers did just that, concentrating heavy portions of fire on advancing armors, while keeping a small amount on the more distant figures for suppressive purposes.

---

Additional marines deployed from the NSS Alliance's cargo bay. They had armed themselves and were now joining the fight.

John was now laying down heavy fire into the distance with his PAL, hoping to spook the reds out of hiding. He was sweating in the suit, panting, and he just glanced at the falling armor a moment before. [I}Awwwhh shit…one of ours..[/I]

"You bastards.." Ran thought to himself, abandoning the defense of the NSS as more Marines poured out of the cargo bay. "Delta Squad, in the air!" He brought his SIAR up, aiming center mass at an incoming figure, spraying it with automatic fire, letting the recoil place the shots from center mass towards the head of the Power Armor, while his other hand went from gripping the SIAR's front to its grenade launcher, ready to blow a few Reds out of the sky.

Istvan saw blasts coming towards him, tracking them to their source. The rounds passed overhead, but he knew where the fire was coming from...off in the distance, in the rough foliage of the forests. Istvan began to lay a sheet of weapon fire into the general area, hoping that hit shots proved fruitful.

"Yes Sir" John screamed into his mike, relieved and thirsty for blood now, even if they might be from his home planet. He had been on the alliance awhile, and had grown attached to his ship mates. And he was now going to plasma rape anyone that tried to hurt them.

Adrian saw some of the missile launches and swore. This wouldn't be pretty. He waited, watching the missiles draw ever closer, crouched, and jumped. The closest of them would have been about 5 feet away. They shot below him. Adrian grinned... and then flew forward, his shields crackling and coming close to failing. He smashed to the ground and screamed curses. Then he saw Rico go down. He blinked. "Oh shit no... Oh fuck this... FUUUUUUCK! YOU FUCKING CUNTS! YOU silly friendly ladies I'LL EAT YOUR FUCKING HEARTS!!" Adrian stood, still yelling. He saw something glint in the trees... it looked like an armor. A stationary one. One he could kill. It was far away, though. Luckily, he was fast as hell. He jumped up and bolted forward, the armor taking him to blinding speeds.

The armor in question made a sudden stop, preparing its weapon as its sensors set focus. Rounds tore through the clearing as one of the two turned about. It was planned. One rushed above, upside-down to defeat the disadvantage of it is thruster-pack's limitation and the other rushed head to head with it is tubes spewing their explosive contents toward Adrian.

In the clearing of trees, a blue light burst as thrusters gave a whine and faded to silence. Istvan's assailants had moved, a rumble behind him. A low deep hum filled the man's ears, his sensors screaming EMP.

Istvan smiled grimly as he rolled, almost instinctively to the side, continuing the fire toward the rumble.

John came down in a clearing near the edge of the forest. He checked his sensors, and headed off full speed at the nearest enemy signal. Coming up behind him, luckily, he set off a shot from his PAL and then pointed his shoulder towards the enemy armor, intending to ram them at full force. "Hi there, let’s be friends ASSHOLE!"

"What the fuuuuuuuck?!" Ran had been blindsided by some random Red, who apparently thought it very sneaky and awesome to tackle a Sergeant in mid-air. ....Which worked, and now the two were plummeting towards the surface, with the Red's engines overtaking Ran's. Ran's narrowed eyes caught the wide-eyed look of a rather young soldier, who apparently also had the same type of blue eyes as his. "Not today, limp dick!" Ran opened the Vibro Blade at his right forearm, letting it come alive in his vice-grip. Aiming where the Red's engines should be, he gave them a good, powerful stab, listening for the whine of engines. "Christ!" He screamed, knocking the heavy armor off of him, watching it plummet to the tower. Getting ahold of his rifle, he flew back up.

---

"Yes sir!" Percy said, while he began to readjust his aim to the mad man rushing towards him. The Black Nepleslian was getting his blood moving quick. Percy let loose at Adrian, his weapon letting off charges, hoping to keep the man from kill him or any of his squad.

The Red contingent that had been originally hiding on the edges of the clearing quickly began to make their presence more known as they concentrated fire on the few marines unlucky enough to engage them with so few numbers. The rest of the Green marines were still in the clearing, still attempting to clear up the remaining Reds from the first initial upon the docked NSS Alliance.

---

Istvan was greeted with a distortion of air as the over-powered cloaking device claimed its cool-down time and his rounds smashed across the machine's shoulder. The limb was crippled and then torn cleanly away but the EMP rifle in the smoldering armor's right arm shone and unleashed it is payload with a direct aim in close-combat with Istvan. If he were to evade, it would be a very tight miss.

Istvan didn't evade. The Russian was too brave for that, the blast shutting down his armour, leaving it an unpowered shell. Istvan was a strong man though, and he kept moving, even though his armour was now just dead weight. Istvan used all his might to slog the armor back into the fray…what he planned to do with this useless metal shell, however, was still undecided.

Fian laid down on his bunk and started writing the report he had just given to the Captain into the datapad on his lap. There was a frown evident on the Vel Steyr's face just as the black rings that was slowly forming under his eyes.

Sit this one out, he said. Write that report and visit the medibay he said. Hah! Fian recalled what the Captain told him. He had not slept nor ate well in the past 48 hours and the stimulants he used during the Elysian mission has both worn off and his half Geshrin body was reacting unfavorably to the aftereffects. For the first time Fian looked like the other junkies on the ship.

He didnt want to go visit the Medibay, they'll just give him a sedative and he'll be out cold. There is still work to be done. People are still figthing outside. A blast shook the walls of the dormitory, Fian's eyes quickly shifted to the other datapad he laid next to him. It displayed a live report of the battle raging outside. The left of the screen had a namelist and some of the names had been crossed out with a red "X", indicating casualties.

Fian returned to penning the report. He would have went out there if a part of him did not say that in his current condition he just might end up as a liability to the rest of the marines. But another part of him said that he just cant go to sleep when his friends could be getting killed, which was why he stayed up to continue writing.

Five minutes later another shockwave passed through the Alliance. On cue the Vel Steyr turned his head sideways to look at the combat report datapad. A few more names had been crossed out, no matter, it was a 'normal' rate of loss and not a drastic drop that might signify a losing battle. Fian would have returned to the report if he had not dropped the pen in shock. The glass pen that he had been using as a stylus shattered on the floor, oozing out its reddish ink.

... One of the names was Rico Sanroma.

The battleground around the factory/tower was entirely choked by dust kicked up from the ground and by power armors flying overhead. A missile struck the communication equipment on top of the factory tower, followed by an encrypted message over the red communication channel.

“Attention: New Directives, all units cause as much damage to Green Marine compliment and extract to fallback positions.”

Fay had been temporarily reassigned by Adrian to the medbay. The battle outside sounded fierce, and the casualties that made it to the medbay looked even worse. Since most of the medical staff was busy on the more critical cases, the less-trained medic worked on patching up the marines inflicted with moderate laser wounds. Rubbing burn cream on the marine’s singed flesh was a little disgusting, but it seemed to make them feel a whole lot better.

Then, three very bloody marines entered the medbay. Two of the marines were hauling the third one over their shoulders. The marine being carried was loosing a lot of blood very quickly. Even with the marine’s Power Armor still on, Fay instantly recognized that the marine’s leg was missing! All that was left was a bloody stump and twisted metal. He was unconscious and very pale. Several of the medical staff finished up what they were doing and began to work on getting the marine stable. Fay was ordered to attend to one of the other two marines, who seemed to have the piece of his buddy’s lost leg inside his own.

After carefully removing the leg of the Power Armor, Fay gave the wounded marine a small dose of pain relievers to take the edge off. The femur shrapnel was lightly nestled in between the leg’s bone and muscle. Being wary of removing it too speedily, the shrapnel of bone slowly, yet surely, slid out of the little cove that it had created. After he had dressed the wound, Fay asked the marine, “What happened to your mate?”

The muscular Nepleslian replied gruffly, “A missile barrage took us by surprise and took out his leg. My armor took most of the metallic shrapnel damage from the missile, but that piece of bone easily pierced through it.” The platinum-blonde medic nodded slowly as he excused himself to check up on the marine without a leg. He looked better, but still seemed to be in serious condition.

Fian stumbled his way to the cargo bay and quietly got into his white AIR2 without anybody noticing. The machine powered up effortlessly. Waggling its fingers and rotating the monoeyes, Fian was satisfied with the mantainence performed on it.

There were two other marines in the bay that Fian recodnised as people that were formerly under his command. He raised his loudspeakers and a finger to point. "You, and you! Follow me." The two AIR2s stopped whatever they were doing moved next to the Vel Steyr.

Fian's HUD was showing that the enemy forces were in the middle of falling back. Like hell he was letting them do that after murdering his friend. The NSS Alliances shields and weapons may be offline, but the launch tubes were not. Setting it to maximum strength and the highest angle possible, Fian was first to load himself on the tube.

Eat the land based Vel Steyr manuver, punks.

A short moment later the Alliance spewed forth a trio of AIR2s at a near horizontal angle at a breakneck speed, wizzing pass their contemporaries on the ground. As soon as gravity pulled them down closer to the floor, they P/P rebounded back into the air and right over the retreating Reds. Although they were obviously spotted, their speed advantage meant the whole manuver was over before the enemy could react.

Fian's AIR2 ripped a good number of trees to slow to a halt. Turning around to face the enemy, the white mecha loaded a blue and a red shell into the FMD. The ground based Reds were now between them and the Green's advancing from the Alliance.

"This ones for you, Rico!" Fian shouted as his small team deforested their way to close the pincer.

The interesting about unpowered armour, Istvan noted, was that he did not give off any active emissions. Istvan pondered the implications of this; a hard smile slowly spread across his face. Istvan looked for some sort of hand-weapon with an independent power source, preferably a simple slug thrower. People were fighting frantically, paying attention, mostly, to their displays, and there was so much interference from other active scanners, that most people were forced to use passive scanners. Istvan was currently about as much a target (in terms of emissions) as a tree...

Istvan headed toward areas where the fighting was thick, taking out anyone he could conclusively identify as a red while they were distracted fighting people who still had power. He had a job to do. He was doing it.

"Matsobuki, get me some Plasma!" Kokuten barked to the Geshrin Nurse, they had attatched the Marine to one of the scanning devices and put some sedatives into him. Yet they still had to cover the blood loss, and the open wound. "Yes sir!" She tripped over after putting up the sedatives. The Nurse quickly pulled out a bag of Nepleslian Plasma, while the medic removed the Marines arm piece. Suku then pulled out a stand to hang the plasma on a needle to inject the plasma. Kokuten only nodded to her as he placed the needle into the mans arm.

"Okay, now pad some gauze to that wound while I get this thigh armor off." the Medic said, a little more relaxed than before. Kokuten carefully removed the twisted metal leg piece from the man's armor, trying not to poke holes in his Medical Gloves. The Marines face showed less sign of pain than usual, due to the sedatives. The Medic pulled the Marines bloody thigh piece off and placed it on a table next to himself. Suku applied the gauze to the mans leg and sped up the coagulation of his blood. The medic began to observ the mans disfigured leg, sadly, his femur was shattered from halfway up, which probably caused the damage to the other Marine. Though sharpenal was still noticable in the man's leg.

"How's his blood loss?" Kokuten asked Suku, reaching for some small picking equipment to remove the damage.

"it is slowed greatly, almost to none at all." Suku responded, breathing heavily, her smaller gloved hands almost soaked in blood.

"Excellent, hand me some of that gauze." The Medic responded, slinging some of the blood of his own gloved hands. He noticed Fay checking on the status of the Marine.

"He's going to be fine, for now, Suku, help Fay with what ever he needs to get done. I can finish this guy up." He ordered, Suku nodded and walked over to Fay, waiting for him. Kokuten slowly began to pull out pieces of shrapnel and applying gauze to where blood would begin to shoot out. One piece he pulled cause some blood to spray in his face. Yet he quieted that blood vessel down. The Marine was good, he was going to be okay with his leg stablilized. His heartrate was going well, and the Marine showed signs of calmness.

To think, my Father lives for things like this.

He walked over to a datapad to check for any unretrieved casualties. Kokuten looked over the list, noting the few, yet one name caught his eye.

Sanroma was marked as dead.

"Shit, Rico was Fian's friend? Right?" Kokuten asked particularly at anyone in the room, not knowing that Fian had already took off.

It would be best if Fian didn't know about this just yet...

The red soldiers whom had arrived via missile were beginning to make landings and withdraw into the tree line while dropping their grenades and other explosive devices behind them. The assortment of anti-personnel mines and timed grenades would only add to the shrapnel and dirt in the area. The Reds moving toward the tree line had to rely entirely on their sensors, as seeing through the soup of dirt and smoke in the air was virtually impossible.

“WHAT THE F, They are already ahead of us!” One of the reds shouted over the all hands channel for the reds as they encountered Fian’s pincer maneuver.

Sergeant Chuck growled in frustration as three NAM AIRs flew into view in front of his squads escape route. With the main body of Green soldiers hustling towards his position in the opposite direction, the Red sergeant had few choices of escape. However, as explosions continued to sound out from the clearing, a sudden gust of wind propelled an enormous cloud of dust and smoke from the area onto Chuck and his Red fire team. The husky Nepleslian smirked widely and took the opportunity and broadcasted a single message into his receiver. "Okay bois', acta'vate them cloaks...le's ditch these loosers."

Elsewhere, Jim eyed his hud very curiously. The older gruffer soldier come pilot gave a slow exhale nearing a groan as his fingers slid and tightened over the controls. Following procedure, he peered back as he engaged the stealth system of his armor. A low whir echoed through his ears, silenced quickly, noticing the minor slide and shift in the form of the armors behind him as they moved into stealth configuration. He thought he spotted something. "Red Four two, roll..." and then he saw through the clouds billowing that the armor had engaged the system properly. "Nevermind."

The rest of the Red Dark Demons followed suite, quickly merging with the swirling clouds of debris as they activated their cloaking measures. As the fog of black smoke and dust continued to sift through the forest surroundings, the hidden Dark Demons began inching their way towards Fian's small group of AIR2's, hoping to take advantage of the confusion and sneak past undetected.

Percy held his rifle close as he kept pace with the rest of the squad. He had made his first kill and now it looked like he wasn't even going to live to tell about it. The Flaskri was unsure how such a plan, acting on chace, would succeed.

"I hope this works..." Percy thought out loud over the Red Channel.

Adrian slammed his armor into a large crater, the creation of a grenade or two, breathing hard and trying to calm himself down a bit. He winced a bit as a flying AIR2 took a barrage of Lazer bolts, burst into flame, flew forward about thirty feet, a loud swooshing noise audible. He passed the tree line, sending several cloaked DDs ducking for cover before being brought to a stop by a particularly thick tree, which promptly shattered and burst into flames.

A yell of "What the heck?!" was heard from the Red line.

Crouching, Adrian moved to the lip of the crater and hefted his plasma cannon up. The medic looked at his HUD, thought a moment, and put his scanners to a more sensitive setting, and activated his "Blackout" suite.

After this, he took a look at his sensors. Come on... come on....
A moment later several glimmers appeared, most of them headed toward's Fian newly created formation.
"Fian, you have Dee-Dees coming up. They're stealthed, so you need to look close. I'll try and put a plasma blast near them."
He pointed the large plasma weapon towards the small glimmers, pulling up his targeter to help him find a decent spot to place the shot.

He lined his weapon up to about a point near their center. He calmed, lowered the power on his weapon so as not to vaporize Fian and his squad at the same time. He pumped the trigger, sending the shot at .8c towards the group of Reds, which would quickly blossom into 12-foot-wide explosion of death.

Fian swung his FMD blindly in the dust. The red group could be passing by his dragnet any moment now but he would not be able do anything about it, the murderers were about to get away. He was just about to cry out in frustration when Adrian sent him the comm.

"Incoming!" He shouted and propped his armor to the ground for additional support. The entire area was shrouded in a bright light, although his group was far from the blast zone, they were buffeted by the searing hot winds the weapon produced.

As soon as the air cleared, the Vel Steyr's HUD indicated at least six materializing DDs. One of them suffered a direct hit and was annihilated instantly, the other five were in varying degrees of health starting from a disabled cloak to missing limbs.

"Split up! Destroy as many as you can!"

Fian cycled out the Blue shell with another Red. He was in a mood to kill and the blast from these shells could reveal other Dark Demons nearby. He squeezed off both at the nearest DD and accelerated in a curve to the next one, twin VBCSes glinting in the sun. Giving his enemies a torturous death may not statisfy him completely, but it may help ease the pain.

Damm, damm, damm, damm...

The Battle continued to rage as the Reds pulled backwards into a tight circle while the Alliance Marines advanced, spraying them down with a torrent of fire. The multitude of bullets and plasma crashed against a powerful energy field which had erected itself around the red soldiers. In addition to the explosives of the Green army the Reds were given one thing, an order.

“Brace for extraction,”

"Gawddammit, it is about time!" Chuck bellowed as he glanced up at the open sky. He quickly turned his attention back to the Green soldiers charging his small group, laying a suppressive wave of fire upon them with his Type-2.

The ground started to shake, causing trees to fall over and dirt to fly upward. The sound of tearing wood and roots could be heard even through the power armors as a ship burst through the surface of the planet and stopped just red soldiers.

The ship itself had a smooth, dark red top that was sleek and very jagged in the front, having two swept forward wings that looked more like a exotic sword than something used for flight. Attached to the bottom was a dark grey mass with a series of sharp legs protruding down through it like an insect. These legs moved apart to expose small openings in the hull while reaching out and pointing toward the fallen red power armors. The dead reds were forcefully pulled along the ground until they slammed against the legs of the craft which started pulling them up into the holes under the armored shell on top of the craft.

Sergeant Hadley smiled devilishly as the Red vessel materialized overhead. He slapped Private Percy's Dark Demon on the back of the head with a free hand and pointed up. "Awwwright, pack it up bois, that's our ride!" He shouted through the radio channels as he activated his thrusters skyward. Private Percy and Private Jim followed suite almost instantly, all of them making a bee-line straight for the hatches littering the hull of the Red ship.

The hatches led into a small power armor bay with an uncomfortably short ceiling. "HEY CHUCK!" One of the techs on duty said, crouching as he ran toward the power armored soldier, "Check out the news feed! It looks like you are going to be busy for the next few weeks."

Fian who had just assumed the armored left hand stance was weaving in and out of the trees after stabbing the closest two Dark Demons stopped abruptly as the ship shot out of the ground. "What the hell?!" His two other teammates also halted. The Vel Steyr sheathed his knives."Get back, we cant fight the point defense guns on this thing alone!"

As the ship started rapidly picking up armors off the ground it also turned its 'rear' towards Fian, exposing a reward mounted cannon which turned bright white as it superheated a ball of plasma which was projected toward the Marines, creating a large explosion and a hail of dirt between the retreating soldiers and the ship itself.

Chuck turned to the Red soldier as he addressed him. "Shit, I dun care about that right now!" He turned to check on his squad...apparently only Percy and Jim had made it back on. It didn't matter much to Chuck if the rest were still alive or not, though, as his orders would've been the same either way. "Gedd'us the hell outta here, pilot!"

Fay had just finished patching up the marine's leg wound when Suzu walked over to him. He looked up at her and murmured, "This one's okay, I think. We might want to make sure that the bone itself wasn't damaged by the piece of shapnel that I pulled out. Better safe than sorry..."

He stood up and checked the third marine. He seemed unharmed for the most part. Fay then realized that he hadn't caught the nurse's name. He turned to her and asked politely, "I'm sorry, my name is PC3 Fay Saelus. I did not catch your name either." He looked at her with his normal-looking cybernetic eyes. They were fake, but they were specifically made to look like real eyes.

Fuck! Bastards are getting away!
Adrian stood, still partialy in cover, targeted the newly arrived ship, and opened fire with his plasma cannon. He sent a good three or four full powered shots towards the relatively small vessel before quickly ducking, fearing the huge blast that had blossomed between Fian and the ship.

"Fian, I would reccomend pulling back and trying to hit it with your blue and green shells. You won't survive a hit from that plasma cannon."
Adrian swung his weapon up again and leveled another deadly charge towards the vessel.

Percy looked at the ship as if it was a gift from some great diety to save them. Even if that great diety was Red Nepleslia Command. When the call was made to board, Percy was to make sure he was getting in. This was what cause the bliss of joy when he felt the floor of the Red ship. He smiled to himself as he leaned against the the wall and dropped his type 2, feeling as if he had finished a long days work.
Chuck Hadley wrote:
"Gedd'us the hell outta here, pilot!"


Percy's helmeted head shot up quickly.

"Whoa! What!? What about Spencer? What about Vintz, Malone, or Heebs!?" The Red Private exclaimed, before the ship could make it is ascent.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suku only replied Fay with a bored looking glance, his shyness seemed to contrast with sudden forwardness of most Marines. Unlike Adrian, he seemed to possess a certain sense of sanity, and unlike Kokuten, he didn't seem all professional.

"My name is Suku Matsobuki, it is, er... A pleasure to make your acquaintance , or something like that. "She finally said to him. "Now, are you going to oggle, or get to work?" she finished with a smirk.

Fay quietly scratched his head. His cheeks blushed slightly, but he quickly turned to avoid looking at her. He kept himself busy with the moderate laser burns and the occasional broken limb or two of the injured marines. The ship didn't seem to shake as violently now. Is the battle starting to subside? he wondered to himself as he glanced over at Suku one more time. Fay then added a tad more burn cream to the marine he was currently working on to finish up.

The red legs on the bottom of the red ship finished gathering the soldiers and folded inward, becoming flush with the underside of the craft as it turned away from the alliance, pointing its reward cannon toward the marines. Two more shots were fired quickly in succession, damaging trees and vaporizing one marine as the front of the ship started glowing white, beams of energy arcing from the wings to the tip of the craft as it angled downward.

The ship then shot forward, the heat at the front of the craft causing trees in front of it to explode from the vaporization of the water inside of them, sending shards of wood in all directions until the tip of the ship bit into the earth, churning up massive amounts of grass and mud as it pushed down into the surface of the planet.

Shortly afterwards two bright lights appeared in the sky, falling towards the planet and then entering the tunnel created by the ship. This was followed by a tremendous explosion sending a shockwave through the ground.

Fian's AIR2 was thrown back from the plasma blast and skidded to a halt. Much later, the shockwave caused by the bright lights made him drop to a knee. After that, the entire battlefield was shrouded by an eriee silence save for the crackling sound burning trees. There was nothing registering on his sensors. The fight was over.

Fian got up to take a good look at the hole the lights went into. His HUD registered them as a T-1 NAM Torpedo. He was disappointed that the satisfaction was denied from him, but at least the Reds were intercepted by the support. Noting that the tunnel walls were caved in and that there were no more signals from the Red Ship, Fian dismissed his small team and started making their way back to the Alliance.

Along the way he stopped by the place where Rico was shot down. The broken armor and blood was still there. The fatigue must have numbed his emotions because he did not cry nor felt a tinge of sorrow. The other parts of his brain were thankfully still marginally functioning as a memory of an entry in the ELEMENTAL Manual came to him. His Monoeyes darted left and right as the Savtech computer approximated the location of a certain object, sure enough, it was exacly where it should be.

Hovering a few meters away from the wreck, Fian bent down to pick up a bloodstained component that looked like the AIR2s armored head. A dim red light and beacon on the MEC told him that the life-saving device was functioning. Affirming his satisfaction with an undecipherable 'Hmmp' noise, he carried the object back to the Alliance.

As he crawled out of his blackened White AIR2, he slipped on the Prop indentations and fell backfirst and spreadeagled on the floor. The pain surged through him but at the same time he felt a relief from lying down as opposed to being suspended by straps in the armor. Much needed sleep was clawing at him from the cold metal ground. Resisting the temptation to shuteye right there and then, the Vel Steyr picked himself up.

He pulled the heavy object from the hands of his Power Armor and carried it with him. Passing by the medibay he set it down on the counter without much of a word or glance and left. He took off the Anti-Burn and Concussion suit that pilots wore next to his bunk and left it on the floor. Pushing away the datapads and extra pens he left there, he painstakingly lied down on the cushoned material and closed his black rimmed eyes. To hell with whatever obligations or responsibilities he still needed to carry out.

Reality can wait until I wake up.

Adrian stayed crouched as the vibrations shook the rock and dirt violently. He stared at the long line of shattered trees and the massive cloud of dust generated by the ship as it dove under. The medic stood slowly and looked out over the battlefield, still surprised that two missiles had just streaked in from orbit.

Deploying his tactical drones from their mini-hangar in his backpack to make sure they wouldn't be surprised by another Red hit-and-run stealth attack, Adrian walked over to Rico's body. He stood over it, and grit his teeth. Shit. He watched Fian as he reached down and grabbed something before heading back to the ship. Probably collecting souvenirs. Poor bastard must be torn up as hell.

He stepped back, shaking his head, and walked mournfully back to the ship.

Istvan felt something go Pop as the reds withdrew.... Then he felt something ELSE go pop. And he hurt... He was stabbed with the worst pain he had ever felt before.

Istvan had been lugging too much weight. His tendons, worn already, snapped, hamstringing him. His shoulders were dislocated... His muscles worked to no effect, and his power-amour gently toppled. Istvan screamed.

Adrian walked into the medbay, looking tired, sad, and quite like shit. He looked over at the various medical staff working hard on the injured marines and sighed. More shit to do. Suku looked up from the Marine Fay was assisting and smiled.
"Have fun tearing peoples' eyes out?"

The medic shook his head and groaned.
"Not now, Suku. I'm seriously not in the mood."
The Geshrin woman stuck out her tongue and extended her center-most finger. Adrian turned and walked out.
"I'm tired and feel sick. I'll be somewhere else."
He turned and walked dejectedly from the room.

Entering the marine bunks, Adrian spotted Fian already lying down. He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. Instead, he simply walked to his own bunk and laid down. The man placed his hand over his eyes. He felt rather sad, and a bit shocked. Shit... Rico's dead. Fuck. How? How the hell did he die? How the fuck did he die before I could even say anything? He kneaded his forehead, a tear or two building up in his eyes.
"Fuck."

"There is gonna be enough time to grieve for Rico!!!" Ran's armored hand back-fisted a Marine who had taken cover, crying behind a rock as the rounds from retreating Reds peppered their cover, only causing the Marine to scream and break down even more. "GET THE FUCK UP AND FIGHT!" Ran was about ready to throw his rifle down at him, just so he could have both hands free to strangle the Marine through the power armor. "damn it!!"

He threw his hands up, angrily emptying the second to the last canister of his SIAR at a retreating Red, half-enjoying the sight of armored legs being blown out from under an enemy.

"We are Marines, everyone!" He shouted into the comm link, stepping further out from cover, firing with one hand while dragging the broken-down Marine with the other towards where other squads had established casualty-collection points. "We're bred to fight and die, it is what we do!" He growled, kneeling low to the Marine, who was now starting to stop sobbing. "And when we die, wherever we go, we regroup!"

He gave the Marine his pistol and ran off to rejoin Delta Squad, his rifle raised and his form doubled-over to provide the enemy with a small target, which would be even harder to shoot now that he was serpentining. "Don't let the fuckin' Reds get away! Tear apart their ship with your hands if yo-"

Ran's angry order was cut short by the crushing blast that sent him tumbling backwards, skidding on his back at first then sending him legs-first backwards, narrowly missing other Marines in the process. He got up momentarily from the plasma blast, only to be sent back down by the shockwaves.

"Shit..." He thought to himself, suspended in those seconds he saw the earth shake up mounds of dirt and dust, crack in some places and groan from beneath. "it is like the earth is trying to suck me in..." He thought.
Hearing the small particles of dust echo off his power armor's head, he slowly looked around, seeing other Marines also slowly start to stand back up.

"Shit..." He gasped, feeling the area around his crotch was damp. One Marine passed by with another in tow, both which asked. "What's up, Sarge?" Ran lowered his rifle, and as if trying to feel his uniform underneath, touched the PA's crotch area. "....I pissed myself." He said plainly, as the other's walked off.

"....Well, fuck." He sighed, making contact with Delta over his comm link. "Four dead and two wounded, Sir." Reported the SC3 on the other line, causing Ran to silently swear yet again. "Make sure our wounded get to the NSS first. Then assist other squads in locating any of our or their missing members. The dead can wait later." It was a harsh thing to say, but in terms of necessity, it was the most practical thing to do.

"Adrian!" Kokuten called after the Medical Officer, yet it seemed he was to too distressed to notice. The Medic tilted his head to the side, wondering what could shake a guy like Adrian. His first assumption was Rico, the man was a tightly knit unit into the Alliance. That seemed to disturb Kokuten, as he felt not as much remorse, yet he did not know Rico as well in the first place.

"Er... Suku, Fay, clean up here, wait for more wounded." The Medic began to walk out of the door.

"What? You have a duty to do here!" Suku exclaimed sharply.

"I am, I'm going to go gather a combat report, get a good idea where we're going." He smiled, she thought he was obviously lying. Yet she didn't have to the time to call back as the Medic walked out of the rooms towards the bunks.

Rico, Rico, Rico... I honestly wish I had gotten to know that guy better.

It trully troubled him, Kokuten tried to reflect on it as he walked. The first moment he met Rico, he was in the cafeteria. Kokuten thought he was just some suave asshole. Yet it just seem to be the latter when Rico put his armor into the dirt during the sim. There was that one moment after the sim where he offered to help him up after he had gotten blue ball'd. After that, was the incident with the Geshrin woman, having a part in messing up his arm. Then, carrying him to the Medbay, and diagnosing him with Adrian. When that Sanroma woke up, he seemed to dismiss the Chiaki as a Med Bay grunt and called him an 'asshole' or something like that. Then was that moment where he resprayed Rico's arm with Synthetoskin, that moment was figuratively cloudy, even though more recent than the others. Yet the most recent, however, was seeing him go off with the diplomatic envoy along with the rest of the Marines. He didn't seem to notice him after that. By the time Kokuten could look up to gather his position he could already gather he was outside the Bunk Room.

The Medic walked in and searched around for Adrian. Soon he spotted the MO lying on his back. Kokuten put a metal hand on the back of the bunk, not in good view of Adrian's face, or his front for that matter.

"Adrian, you okay? We won, right?" asked the Medic.

Adrian removed his hand from his face and smiled at Kokuten. "Yeah, we won." He sat up and hopped off the bunk. "Crazy shit out there, mate. Just some crazy shit."

A new order was sent to the marines through their HUDs. All injured marines got the benefit of six hours to get better, eat, and sleep. The rest were being conscripted for repair duty and were to report to the forward storage bay post haste with their power armors.

Wazu was already there, a datapad clipped to his belt while another was held in his hand. He activated the external doors which folded downward from the sides to expose the storage areas of the Alliance to the outside while creating a ramp down to the surface.

Gran received the message and walked onto the Alliance with a tired step. His field time was rather uneventful, no major wounds inflicted or received. He felt somewhat dazed, his body lightly bruised from the multiple shocks of exploding nearby missiles and plasma rounds. He moved to an open space in the storage bay and locked the joints of his armor, relaxing his body, giving it some downtime as he awaited further orders.

Jet yawned leaning back in his chair as he monitored the repairs the techs were doing on the engines and the like, with everything going on he'd also increased security presence on the ship. But overall, he was really really bored and running checks with how progress was going.

Fian's blackened white AIR2 displayed the order on its HUD like it usually did, except the Vel Steyr was not in it at the moment. After a few seconds of data processing, Elsae replied with a text only 'Affirmative' and moved the armor slowly down to the forward repair bay, her Monoeyes scanning left and right rabidly to absorb as much environmental data as possible.

The Forward storage bay was a large open area. Towards the rear of the bay were a variety of canisters and cargo containers of various shapes and sizes, most labeled with the NAM logo. Towards the front was the wide ramp that led down to the surface, Wazu, and the rest of the marines that had so far arrived. “Get the door to the underground storage area open.” He said simply, “The communications system on the factory has been damaged so I can not open it remotely.”

The door itself was a large sliding metal panel that lay flat against the ground. It had been covered by dirt and shrapnel after the fight with the reds. Fortunately, it was highlighted on the power armors HUDs so it would be easy to find.

Deciding to go out and get something to drink, Jet got up and headed for the mess hall, also meaning to check in with how the marines that were returning were doing. Brushing his coat out of the way, his boots rang against the floor of the corridor as he continued. Damn I've been either busy keeping things somewhat orderly here or being bored, talk about a sucky day He thought

Elsae shifted her eyes to point at the large heavy metal door that needed to be opened. Carefully calculating the trajectory, she boosted the AIR2 into sky and landed right next to the door consoles. Scanning the screen, it appeared that the door hydraulics were broken. The AI began interfacing with controls the while trying to troubleshoot the problem.

The screen continued to repeat the same error message every time an attempt to open it using the controls was made. The error code in question had a small help window on it that stated that the hydraulics were inoperative because the user was unrecognized.

Drawing records from the long term memory databanks of her user, Elsae found an instance where Fian Vel Steyr had keyed in a code to a similar interface. Keying the exact code with the appropriate username, the door locks snapped open. She was slightly elated from completing the objectives but the door was still closed. Overruling a self imposed directives to avoid contact with the other marines, she moved closer to the door and hand signaled for assistance to pull it open.

Gran's armor had lurched back into motion, and signaled a few other marines to accompany him to the door. They arrived after Fian's armor, and saw that it needed assistance. They hunkered down around the door and grabbed onto whatever would withstand the grip and waited for Fian's armor to give the signal to lift.

Adrian clapped Kokuten on the shoulder. "Alright, man, I'm gonna head outside and see if any poor fucks need their dog tags removed still." Several moments later, Adrian had exited the suit, once again covered in Super Phalanx armor. Looking around, he spotted the maintenance crew running around working and... Fian's white AIR2. Adrian edged up to another observing marine. "Oi... is Fian in that armor?" The marine nodded. "Well, yeah, I mean who else would it be?" Adrian just nodded lightly and walked forward, do the group lifting the door, watching with quite an astounded look on his face.

The door started to slide open, revealing a large underground chamber that was lit appropriately for what you might find in a horror movie. It was filled with numerous stacks of metallic bricks of an assortment of colors. Wazu was quick to distribute a list of which ones were needed to the marines. “Alright. Get these onboard and we can begin distributing them. The automated repair system will do the rest.”

Gran and the marines with him entered the door and silently took what was highlighted, some of the larger items requiring a few small grunts of coordination between armors. They walked out silently and trudged their way back to the Alliance.

As the marines headed into the storage area, Adrian walked behind Fian's white armor. He suddenly lashed out a hand and grabbed its shoulder. "Hello, my good sir. And who might you be? Because you're sure as fuck not Fian Vel Steyr."

As Kokuten left in such a hurry after Adrian, Fay sighed lightly. He was sure that something disasterous had happened to shake up both Adrian and Kokuten, both sturdy marines, the way it did.

A marine was brought in with what looked to be a compound fracture. Fay walked over to the unconscious man and was about to try to reset the leg, when he noticed something. The man was ice cold! "Suku! We need something warm to..." He said before realization came to him. He grabbed the marine's neck, his wrist, and then his neck again. "Damn..." he murmured to himself as he removed the marine's dog tags. "Suzu," he said quietly, "Forget something warm. Get another bodybag." A sigh left his lips as he sat against a bulkhead.

Suzu nodded silently as she and a few other nurses brought a bodybag for the marine. She asked, "His wounds don't look life-threatening... What happened?"

Fay looked up and said gently, "He probably had some internal bleeding somewhere... probably from getting punched in the stomach or something. Either that, or he lost too much blood from that leg wound. It is hard to say at this moment." He sighed again as he stared at his boots. They had bloodstains all over them from the wounded marines that Fay had treated. What a waist... he thought to himself.

While other marines were talking, the ship itself was beginning the repair process. Metal bricks were being absorbed into the nanolath system, allowing the ship to literally print out new parts and armor mass into the damaged systems of the ship.

Meanwhile Wazu’s data pad beeped. He took a few moments to look over the information that scrolled over the screen before shouting out to the marines, “Double time marines! Finish loading up. We have orders to meet up with the fleet.”

ON> NSS Alliance

With a deep “THUNK,” The last metal brick was placed into the suddenly less spacious storage bay of the NSS Alliance.

“ALRIGHT MARINES,” The XO shouted. He was easily identifiable as the only man in the room not wearing a bulky power armor and having to rely on a cane in his right hand to move about. His left hand was holding a data pad while the armor he wore was the officer’s uniform that had gathered some dirt on it from the planeside operations. “WE HAVE ALL THE RESOURCES WE NEED. YOU ARE ALL DISMISSED FROM REPAIR DUTIES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.”

This sent a multitude of the armor clad marines back to the power armor bay to drop off their armors before dispersing into the ship to tend to their more base needs of food and sleep.

Istvan lay in the med-bay. His scowl was frightening. "More painkillers please" he rumbles. They had cut him, screaming, out of his power armor as it had been too banged up and disabled to open normally. His tendons had torn from his bones, and snapped in to from the stresses of lugging around the unpowered armor. He was NOT a happy camper "And could someone, for the umpteenth time, fix me up!"

Gran practically dropped the last box he was holding and trudged tiredly towards the armor bay along with other hordes of marines.

Benji'd helped everybody else in power armors load stuff onto the alliance and now he too trudged off to the PA bay. Once he managed to shed his Power armor the tired marine went straight to the showers and then trudged down to the mess hall.

The large doors on the sides of the ship started closing up slowly, cutting off the external light that was in the cargo bay as Wazu looked down to his Datapad. “Ally, would you mind connecting me to NAM’s medical department?”

After a short time had passed, a small holographic projection appeared in front of Wazu. The Lieutenant would be greeted by the image of a young Nepleslian man clad in the Star Army of Nepleslia uniform, sporting the colors of a medical officer. The officer kept silent for a few moments, his eyes gazing off to something else near his end of the screen before finally speaking to Wazu.

“Good evening Lieutenant. I understand that the NSS Alliance came under attack earlier today.”

“That is correct.” Wazu said, “We have taken some casualties. Two of them were ones that you wished to study should they be killed. I am going to transfer over the data that our computer has collected from the chips and when we arrive at the fleet staging area we will be transferring over the bodies.”

"I...err..." the medical officer stuttered for a moment, flipping through a few papers on the table before him before continuing. "I...see you've already been informed. Well...that's good. We will also need one of your medical officers on board. We are currently understaffed for this particular project, and command has reassigned one Kokuten...Giasis Chiaki?" the medical officer stopped and cleared his throat after butchering the medics name. "I assume this soldier is still under your command?"

“I will have to get clearance from my captain to approve the transfer,” Wazu said as he unclipped a second data pad from his belt. He used it to bring up a personel file on the medic Kokuten. “I do not believe there will be any problems in transferring Chiaki to your facility.”

"Very well. I also ask that you to put the bodies in a secure area. We don't want any more outside contact before analysis. If that is all, Lieutenant, I'm sure you have plenty of work that needs to be done," the Nepleslian said, his attention waning off to the side once more.

A pair of soldiers clad in WATER armors landed with heavy thuds besides Istvan’s armor, their mooneyes glancing to and fro over the armor. Contacting the suits owner through the normal means of communication proved to be useless, however the two soldiers could hear an occasional groan of pain leak outwards from the armors interior. After a short conversation, the two WATER-clad soldiers shouldered their beam rifles and attempted to hoist Istvan up before dragging him back towards the NSS Alliance.

Wazu nodded, and went to make the necessary preparations.

Istvan was screaming shortly, the weight of the suit making the pains much worse. Istvan was a tough man, but few people were tough enough to deal with tendons that had given-way

After stowing his armor Gran trudged through the routine of a shower, seeming either asleep or half-dead. He went straight to his bunk and curled up, sleep only coming through massive fatigue.

Kokuten, unknowing of the current situation lay his bunk, reading and older edition of "Yummy Yamataian". He flipped through the pages, it felt good to relax. So good, he felt like this was the perfect moment for a cigar. He whipped out a Zunibabi and lit it, and puffed it a little. "Ahhh... Relaxing." Kokuten said to himself.

END

"Simmer down guy, we're takin' ya to the medibay right now," the WATER-clad Nepleslian said loudly and he hoisted Istvans arm over his shoulder. "Yeah, how's about next time you try an' dodge those EMP blasts a bit more, ya know? Save us the trouble of haulin' your ass, ya know?" The other soldier chirped in as well. slapping a free hand on the chest of Istvan's armor as they headed up the entry ramps into the innards of the NSS Alliance.

After a few more minutes of dragging Istvan through the corridors of the ship, the two marines finally reached the archway leading into the medical bay. After depositing Istvan's body on the nearest bed, the two soldiers let out two deep sighs of relief in unison, before making a hasty exit back into the corridor.

"Good lord..." Ran muttered to himself, wiping the sweat from his shoulders that had accumulated from wearing the Power Armor for too long. Clad in a white wife beater and uniform bottoms, he sighed and knelt real low, feeling his knees start to strain even more from today. Pulling out another cigarette, he lit it, disregarding the coughs coming from the more young Marines around him.

"Well, shit boys" He said with a slightly relaxed and gentle voice, "Lets go get some fuckin' chow. Might as well, since the Medics seem to have everything down." The buzz hit him rather hard and fast, since he had taken the measure of removing the filter from the cancer stick. "The way I see it, you've got 2 hours of free time..." He chuckled, seeing the shocked expressions some of them had, still having their PAs on "...Starting...now."

Elsae's circuits overclocked to find a solution out of the situation she was in. The marine behind her was described as irrational and aggresive. Unlike a problem with defined conditions, the parameters are too great when taking into account a mind like his.

Option 1 wrote:
Lie

It was impossible as it would require a carefully constructed response matching the scope of the subject. In this case, the scope of the subject cannot be determined, or enough material could be formed for a beliveable lie. The lethal retribution for a failed response outweights the benefits.

Option 2 wrote:
Escape

The AIR2 could out accelerate the S.Phalanx but the NDI Armor has a higher top speed. On top of that, there was no possible destinations on this barren land, and fleeing might draw the unwanted attention of the other marines.

Option 3 wrote:
Shut Down

Elsae's sub-processors and troubleshooting routines were bluescreening one by one as they returned error messages, there appeared to be no possible escape from this Marine. All signs were telling her to follow the easy way out that generations upon generations of computers had used. It was to give up and shut down, and hang on the small probability that she will not be destroyed.

.
.
.

Option 4 wrote:
Truth, Confrontation

Everybody has a right to live, no matter what other people say.

The White AIR2 turned around to face Adrian. Turning up the loudspeakers to the standard conversational volume, Elsae spoke in her normal feminine voice. :"I am Fian Vel Steyr's personal AI, Elsae. Currently performing my master's duties as he would have done if he is not currently disabled." Not waiting for any further queries or responses (After all, she does not serve Adrian), she casually resumed her gathering of the metallic bricks.

Adrian blinked as the AI's voice rang out over the AIR2s speakers.
He was about to protest, but then remembered that Fian was, afterall,
related to one of the heads of NAM, which would probably give him rather
direct access to such goodies. The tall marine shrugged in his heavy armor,
turned, and walked back to the ship.

I really should start keeping an inventory on the weird shit my friends
have...

Fay saw the two marines bring Istvan into the medbay. He looked down at the marine and asked, "Now, what seems to be your problem, eh?" The Geshrin smiled casually as he called to Suzu, "Get me some armor cutters, please." Suzu just nodded and went to retrieve the armor cutters.

"You......... got...... any...... painkillers?" Istvan asked, barely lucid through gasps of pain. None of the automated equipment on his amour worked. In face all of it's circuitry was burned out, and it was so battered that none of the manuals would work either. "I... can't.... move... my arms.... or legs..." The inside of the amour was dark, with barely any light getting in from the outside. Istvan's eyes were pinpoints, however, from the pain of the torn tendons. He was covered in cold sweat from the pain.

"Sorry, marine," Fay replied disheartenly, "Unfortunately, we'll need to cut off this power armor before we can get a needle into your arm." Suzu returned with the armor cutters. Fay then began to carefully slice into Istvan's power armor.

Istvan stays as still as he can during the cutting.... he had been cut out of power amour before. The man grunted and groaned though, even screaming in pain once or twice when he was jostled wrong....