RP: NSS Inquiry [NSS Inquiry] Mission One: Far From Home

City on Polup

Althea switched on her IR and moved to join the flanking movement the Lieutenant ordered. Whatever it was Sergeant Stein had seen probably was only a scout element. It would be important to fix their position, and any supports, before they could... She was caught totally out of the blue by the creature. Spinning, flashing lights blinded her worse then any stun grenade ever had. When they subsided, the PFC still felt a little sick to her stomach as whatever the hell that had been bounded off.

Her first thought was to switch off IR to the Monoeye's RADAR tactical sensor, that way she couldn't be electronically blinded again. Not totally at least. However, she was... Unable to move... Or convince the Hostile to do anything!?

City on Polup

Linda was a bit surprised that the breech was halted, but she quickly switched gears and watched the door until everyone was clear and it was closed, then she followed after them back towards the shuttle. When infrared was mentioned she quickly switched it one, believing that maybe they were dealing with optical camouflage.

What she got however was not at all expected, the flashing lights had caused some sort of paralysis in her body. Her training in IPG allowed her to react quickly however and bite her lip to...no she couldn't bite her lip. It was not forced spasms that were keeping her from moving, no she could not summon even the slightest bit of strength anywhere in her body. The sensation was like sleep paralysis, but she had not been poisoned.

What is this? It's not poison...the lights? No there has to be something more...did cause a feedback and overload our nerves..? The IPG operator's mind was moving in over drive because she couldn't move her body and her eyes moved as best they could to try and track everything she could.

Tobias tried to move, but couldn't. What was going on.

He tried to call out to his team, but couldn't speak.

He thought that maybe it had something to do with vision, but his eyes refused to close so that he could check if that was true.

Damn...

City on Polup

Alec kept close to Stein, following his lead and propping the amor down where he wanted it. As soon as Stein called out to him, Alec was up and carefully descending down the ramp, his HPAR at the ready as he scanned around for anything not in a suit of Nep metal. The HUD flicked over to IR in case whatever Stein heard was playing hide & seek.

As he made his away to Stein, Alec felt his suit seize mid stride and tumble to the side. With a dull thud, he landed on the on ground with a mix of surprise, shock, and disappointment. He tried moving to get back up but the suit seemed to resist on that matter. I'm going to need to talk to the quartermaster if every suit I get breaks...

City on Polup

The Master Sergeant followed setting up at the edge of the tree line. He watched the others as they moved forward and keep tabs on the unknown heat signatures. They were so low to ground, Stein was starting to wonder if he had just called everyone only to see the damn local fauna...

That was until the creatures stood up. Time seemed to slow as Stein sighted in on the unknown alien, and he began to squeeze the trigger when...

*Flash*

What the fuck was that? Stein thought as he tried to pull the trigger.

But he couldn't move...

What the FUCK was that?!?! He angrily thought in his mind as he fought to pull the damn trigger.

But the man did not budge. He couldn't do anything. All he could do was watch as they sprinted past them and towards the shuttle. Oh no...

He couldn't see what they were doing, but he heard straps popping and made the assumption that they were taking those PAs they had set down.

A few seconds later he heard a thud on the ship, and several different footfalls moving away from the ship.

Shit shit shit

Wilderness of Polup

From the moment Cadence had been stunned, she had been cursing and counting. It had been twenty seconds, she found, until she could move again. She had turned her head to look in the direction of the sounds she and Stein had heard.

A second after she had, a bubble of fire exploded towards them, then another pushed out the other side towards the city before another two burst out on either side of one another. The explosive bursts of fire retracted in on themselves after having knocked Stein and Alec off of their feet and sent them both flying forward. Fire plumed upwards into the sky as the sun hugged the horizon, ready to set.

"Corbin! Stein! Get up and if you can't, I'll come over there and make sure you do! We need to move!" Cadence said over comms, scanning the area and seeing no enemies in sight. There was a hill fifty yards away, though, and she pointed out the route on everyone's HUD's as she began running there. "We'll go there!"

City on Polup

Just as Stein was able to move his body, he was thrown with the force of the explosion behind him. He was tossed against a tree and came to rest against it. His head slumped as he blacked out for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes again, he cursed seeing where he had ended up.

He stood slowly, using the tree he had been thrown against to stand himself up. "Ro...roger that Lt. Everyone move out!" He ordered through gritted teeth as he made his way over to Corbin. "Let's go kid." He said, hefting the other soldier up to his feet carefully. He ached all over, and once the adrenaline and combat stims wore off he knew he would be hurting. For now though he had to keep moving.

City on Polup

Alec found himself flung across the ground, the armor finally unlocking and letting him tumble about as the explosion moved him away from the shuttle. With a line of swears and curses, he slide and came to rest next to Stein. There goes diplomacy...

His body ached from being tossed around, but he felt himself lifted up to his feet by the Master Sergeant. He tried breath, getting some air back in his lungs after having it kicked out of him from the explosion. His rifle raised and scanned the horizon as he followed Stein. "Seems like the locals don't like visitors!" He hollered over comms in a wheezed voice.

City on Polup

Linda could move again and she did not waste any time with it. She took a large breath and forced as much air into her lungs as she could before she started to make a sprint with the rest of the squad. There were a million things she wanted to do in response to the events, but she had to prioritize, time and processing power were limited. As she used her own eyes to watch out for possible flanks and ambushes, she had the suit begin to write a script. If she went into the same condition as before, the suit would continue to track as many non friendly signatures as it could

She did not know where the enemy was yet, but she readied her RDL-03a DART minimissiles so she could fire as soon as she got a target. The missiles were not very lethal, but with them she could scramble sensors and take down shields, maybe even prevent the attack form effecting them again if she was lucky.

Now that Tobias was free to move, he quickly toggled all of his visual sensors off. The enemy knew where they were, so he fired up his monoeye sensor suites and used their active subspace sensor pings to build him a sonar-like reconstruction of the visual world. Now the enemy probably wouldn't be able to disable him again.

He dashed towards the hill marked on his HUD, dodging several blasts of fire. He thought he saw something on the grainy reconstruction of the world, and fired upon it until he lost sight of it.

"Turn off your visual sensors! Use your Monoeyes pinging like a sonar, and have it build a model of what you would be seeing!"
He shouted over radar to everyone else.

Wilderness of Polup

"Nice thinking, Private Carrick!!" Cadence Newborn called as she herself switched over to his method of sonar pinging. "If we make it out alive, remind me to buy you a bottle!"

They rushed the hill and Cadence said, "Defensive positions!"

"Inquiry actual! This is Lieutenant Newborn! Requesting evac! Our shuttle has been destroyed by unknown hostiles! Repeat—" Cadence said once she was at the location she had set.

"We hear you loud and clear! Sending a shuttle immediately to your location!" Came the response.

"Much obliged!" Cadence replied as she took a deep breath and ascertained the situation around them. There was no enemies in sight, but she was on high alert and expected there to be some at any time. For a minute, she took stock of the situation as around her the squad took their positions. Something caught her peripheral vision's attention, though.

Cadence said as she looked up to the now-dark sky,"Holy fuck!"

In orbit the Inquiry was not alone.

She told the ship, "Inquiry, hostile approaching your location!"

"We're well aware! More ships are exiting FTL around us!" They replied. "Orbital engagement is not an option! We're going to have to leave you, Lieutenant. We'll be back for you when we ca—" They cut out.

"Inquiry! Repeat, Inquiry!" Cadence said as she looked around at her squad. "Inquiry, come in!"

Radio silence.

Wilderness of Polup

Linda heard the suggestion and pondered it for a while, without direct visual stimuli it would be possible for them to avoid the paralysis, but she wanted the visual data, they were on a new planet and against a new threat, plus the active sonar made them easier to target. She did not want to die however so she switched over to her sonar, however she had the optical systems continue to run, and have all the day deed into her datajockey for recording purposes.

Everything had gone well, or at least as good as it could do when one was ambushed. However things quickly fell apart with the appearance of another ship in orbit, they lost contact with the Inquiry as it tried to avoid combat, and they were stuck without reinforcements on a strange world.

"Lieutenant, they know we're on planet already, I believe they are going to either try to eliminate us or capture us. We should find a defensible position." Linda spoke as she tried to get a grasp of the surroundings. "Since they have air superiority they can drop in on us from above."

Wilderness of Polup

Alec hurriedly followed the Stein as they retreated from the burning wreck that was once their shuttle. Things were going too wrong too fast as his eyes darted around for whatever the hell cause his armor to seize up. "Is it too late to come in peac-" he started to joke.

Then he looked up as the sky darkened and shut up real quick. His pace slowed down as stared up in awe, the amount of enemy ships coming from nowhere and the Inquiry trying to haul it out of there; this mission had done more than one-up the last. "You've gotta be kidding me! How did we not see all those coming?"

Wilderness of Polup

Althea's monoeye glowed as soon as she regained control, not bothering to seek or give input on anyone else's decisions. Everyone here was a Marine after all; they should know how to operate in adverse conditions. When the shuttle blew, her helmeted head immediately swiveled to the accompanying bursts throughout the town. Of course it had been a trap. A totally empty shell, built like a bad cowboy show set?

Lt. Newborn's marker appeared on her HUD, and she waited for everyone else to start moving before following, still in the drag slot without contravening orders. She backed from the town with an eye for any more of those little fuckers in her sensor augmented vision. She kept them passive, just in case there were any more dazzling surprises awaiting them. Her hostile was the last to the hilltop rally point, not that it mattered for comms since they were all on the radio, and Althea mentally shrugged. This was command decision shit right here; whatever the Sergeant and L-T decided they were almost certainly 100% fucked.

Blood throbbed at the blond's temples. She fought the urge to grin or fidget at the thought of a fight against those odds. Everybody always bitched about last stands, mostly the last part, or at least that's how it went during mess hall bull sessions. Personally, there was something invigorating about knowing you were probably gonna eat it against impossible odds. It meant you were a real fuckin' badass if you survived.

"We're on a planet with lil' tiny sensors, Corbin," she remarked to her squadmate, "'less you meant how Inquiry missed it. That's probably 'cause they jumped right in her lap..."

Wilderness of Polup

Stein ignored the aches and pains as he ran up to the top of the hill and set up his sniper rifle. He scanned the trees and the forest with rapid fire sonar pings rather than with normal visuals. Then he heard Cadence over the command channel...

Damn it all to hell... He thought as he looked up and saw the fight raging. "Everyone, watch your sectors! We can figure out what to do after we are somewhere safe." He ordered tersely, keeping everyone focused.

He then opened a private channel to the Lieutenant. "Cadence, the sergeant has a point... We need to find shelter and fast... Like a cave. Or alternatively we can set up camp her and post people stand guard. Your call." He offered as he continued to scan for the enemy.

Wilderness of Polup

Cadence looked above herself as each one of the ships that exited FTL warped away from the planet.

"Something makes me think they're not going to drop in on us. Settle in and get comfy. This is where we're setting up shop. It's the high ground and it's defensible. We could get swarmed in a cave and we don't want to go trekking through the forest when we don't know where they are. On this hill we can see everyone coming towards us. It's our best bet. Stein and Corbin and I are on first watch."

She looked to the rest of them, "Everyone else, loosen up and don't look so tense. We're not fighting yet and you'll be alerted when we are. Set up camp and take a breather and check over your equipment. For fuck's sake, take a minute to pat each other on the back."

Cadence then did so to Stein, "Thanks, Sergeant," she said over private comms before she went to his 3 o'clock, off to his right side. "Not too dinged up from that fall, are you?"

Wilderness of Polup

"Yes, Sergeant," Althea responded instantly, facing outward and taking up a position looking outward towards the partially demolished 'town'. She kept a close eye for any ground based attackers, but, it was a complex threat environment. So her eyes shifted to the radar repeater from time to time.

Lt. Newborn ordered them all to loosen up... So, she lowered her HPAR's muzzle... Relax. Re-lax. Mentally turning over the order, she made sure to loosen up her limbs. But there wasn't anything to relax about. They were still in a combat zone after all. Althea took a knee and reached back for a sip from her canteen... If they were stuck here, they'd have to stretch their rations...

Wilderness of Polup

Linda gave a nod to Lt.Newborn's reply, it wasn't her preference but she was right that it had other risk to be worried about so she would not question it. She took the orders to relax seriously and found a spot she could sit down. She didn't get out of her armor though, that would be a mistake.

"I didn't get the chance, but did anyone run the ship through their systems, see if it brought up any ID?" She was rather calm for the situation, it was obvious that she had been through this kind of thing before.

Tobias sat down on the hill. This kind of combat was totally different from what he had gone through on the Interregnum. He was out of breath. But there wasn't any time to waste just sitting around.

"Is there some way we can dig in a bit here? Our power armor should be able to do some work making entrenchments and maybe make place to lie down out of our power armor?"

Wilderness of Polup

Alec took a moment to catch his breath as he looked out from their position across the horizon. He tried to seem relaxed but having been bombed and effectively disabled for a bit for a second time, the ease didn't wash over him easily. Still, he'd have to kick himself later for signing up for this and letting himself get almost blown up.

He moved to keep watch with Newborn and Stein before reaching to his side and unlatching the medical kit. "Anybody need any first aid?" He announced over comms. "Didn't see if anyone took some shrapnel or something during the run."