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

Wilderness of Polup

Althea looks appraisingly at Tobias, her cybernetic eyes refocusing, taking the mandated snack bars with a grateful slap of the pauldron, "Eh, probably. Good thing too. You would not survive the experience."

Wilderness of Polup

Alex tried listening in on everything over the comms. The whole situation felt like a complete 180 than his last group, and he couldn't help but smile. As her heard Althea talk, he turned around. "Ouch! Hey Tobias, let me know if need any ointment from that."

Wilderness of Polup

"Now, now," Cadence said as she heard talk of ointments brought up. "No need to give the stuff you used for jock itch, Private Corbin. That's for your use and your use only— Oh hell! Fucking check your perimeters! Hostiles approaching!"

A moment before she had said this, she and the rest of those on alert had been able to notice movement down from their hill. No less than fifty power armor emerged from the brush below with slow, methodical movements.

"Hold positions! They can't overtake us!" Cadence called out to her team. "Fire when fired upon!"

A moment later, the first shot belted out and the second, then third, then fourth blasted towards the Inquiry's team.

"Fire!" Cadence nearly yelled as she opened fire with her own weapon, picking out a target and pulling the trigger on her assault rifle to watch as the spray pulsed outwards, away from her and towards the enemy.

Wilderness of Polup

Linda stood up quickly when she heard Cadence's words, the disorientation only lasted a moment and she was almost immediately back into combat mode. All of her training was deeply ingrained in her body, even if she was technically in intelligence she was still trained to work on the field, no matter how 'unsuited' she was for it compared to other IPG.

The IPG operator moved to a position she could see the hostiles from and lowered herself to a kneeling posture, at the top of a hill she could make herself a smaller target like this. Her targets were unknowns, but clearly some time of power armor so it was tempting to use her HEAP rounds but they might have gone to waste. Instead she trained her LCA on a target with solid slugs.

She didn't have to wait long for orders to fire and did just that, aimed at those who were firing first to lower the aggression, she wasn't sure if they were the only ones in firing range or it was just their tactic. While she wanted to take down as many targets as possible, she also wanted data, and didn't want to waste bullets when they were cut off from supply, so she fired only in burst, taking careful aim at the center of mass. Shooting was not all she did either, she had her AI assist focus on gathering energy signatures of these power armor so that she could add it to the IFF and spread it to the rest of the squad.

Wilderness of Polup

Alec was preparing a somewhat witty retort before he reached for his rifle and crouched behind to the rock. He peered out from his cover to see the wall of hostiles appear from the brush. He quickly brought his rifle and waited for the order to shoot, a little voice in his head going "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..."

As soon a round was cracked off and striking his cover, the little voice started to sound a lot more like it was coming form his months as he ducked behind the rock. As soon as Linda's AI sent out the intel over the IFF, he quickly leaned out of his earthly defense and returned fire, firing a short controlled burst to match his "Oh shit"s.

Wilderness of Polup

Althea waited for the order, though her weapon was off safe the moment the hostile armor units appeared before her. No way these things wanted to talk after all, or if they did, surely it'd just be a boring demand for a surrender. She sealed up her Hostile's helmet, made sure the radar and lidar were both active, then sighted down on the slowly advancing enemy platoon.

"Watch flanks," she said, probably unnecessarily. A good part of her didn't think that anyone would just walk up hill at an enemy armor team without there being someone else somewhere else. Her sensors, and eyes, focused on the mass of targets more then the individual. She walked bursts of fire across their cluster without picking individual targets out yet.

Wilderness of Polup

Stein had been distracted by the banter, and he almost missed the enemy. "Shit!" He cursed to himself as he swung his anti material rifle around, narrowly avoiding the first salvo from the enemy. He snarled and belted out his own high powered round right back at them, the weapon kicking back with force. "Watch your fire lanes!" He called. as he cycled the next bullet into place, sitting down on the next target and depressing the trigger. The next round was unleashed on the enemy.

Stein sneered as he fired round after round. "Die you fuckers!"

Wilderness of Polup

O'Riley took a shot to his torso and cried out, "Hit!" Then, the shots began landing on the Inquiry team as it was barraged on all at once. Nearly everyone was hit, but their shields remained strong and active, not even nearly drained of their efficacy.

Alec from his position behind the rock was not hit, though he had an unclear shot at the enemy power armor that were encroaching on him from behind. They were being surrounded, though the enemies stayed at their own positions far enough away so that they wouldn't have to fight in melee combat and could narrowly avoid the shots being fired at them. The enemy were all fighting in bursts. They would pummel the Inquiry team with shots for a few seconds then would run in confuscating patterns around one another before the team could land many shots. They then gained positions to fire on the team, again.

"Keep engaging!" Cadence called out to her team when she realized the antlered-power armor were done with their dance for a few seconds.

Wilderness of Polup

Stein was struck with rounds from multiple small arms weapons. He cursed as he fired back at the ones that managed to catch him. He sighted in on the next target and fired, slid back the bolt, and chambered a new round. Repeat.

He watched as they began to reposition. "Fire in the hole!" He called as he popped a grenade and lobbed it down hill at the enemy. He swung his rifle back down and began picking off more targets. "We aren't going down here! Keep firing damn it!" He ordered as he unleashed another salvo of bullets.

Wilderness of Polup

Even after being struck by a few shots, Linda kept her calm and stayed low. The opposing power armor were rather frustrating however with their tactics and it took a lot of restraint on Linda's part to gather herself and collect her thoughts. Shecould not hit them while they moved about in such a pattern so instead she held her fire until they stopped, and then began to fire on them. She did not think things would go over well if they couldn't get the shields down however so she prepared her DART missile launcher and took aim, firing it into the crowd the next time they began their 'dance'

Tobias swept the enemy position with his HPAR, the rounds impacting both soft dirt, brush and the foe.

"Remember, if they know where we are, there's no disadvantage to using active pulse sonar."

Wilderness of Polup

Alec on the other hand was not having a very time. He tried to lean out from cover but a burst of rounds riddled away at his cover. Anytime he could peak out, he barely tell their movements and where they we're going. It felt like he fighting a swarm of armed flies. All he could do was poke his HPAR and blindly fire before ducking back as more rounds impacted into his dwindling cover.

"Getting pinned here, going to need to fall back!" he shouted over the comms. "Can some get a good look at their movements? Maybe we can get our optics to track them easier!"

Wilderness of Polup

Althea held her ground, not ready to toss her grenades in yet. She'd hold hers back in reserve, settling for bursts of fire at the frustrating, dodging targets.

Wilderness of Polup

When she got her chance, Nelson was able to push out her DART onto the group of enemies and there was a noticeable gap in the line for only a single second before it was filled in by those behind it as they simply jumped over the fallen.

"I've got you!" Cadence said, covering Alec as she let him fall back closer to their huddled group atop the hill.

No matter how many they took down, more took their place. It was as if they couldn't stop them from multiplying no matter how many appeared in front of them. The enemies did not push toward them, but held their ground while firing upon the group for a few moments before running in a great many directions the next.

Cadence nearly screamed, "Keep on pushing!"

Wilderness of Polup

Linda carefully watched the reaction of these horned power armor to the missiles and then frowned. They did not show fear and they didn't get hasty, rather they were just holding the line. This was more than a little troubling, and she opened a private channel to Cadence in response to it. "Lt. Newborn, something is not right. I know nothing about their battle history, but what they're doing now would not be the best way for them to win with their numbers. I would say they were scared, but since they have initiated all the attacks so far, I believe they are trying to stall and keep us here. If they rushed in they're afraid we might fly through an opening in their volley."

As she spoke she continued her firing, making sure her shots were well placed so as to not waste bullets. While she was at it she looked around to try and find any armors that looked special, different equipment, colors or anything that might indicate a superior.

Wilderness of Polup

It was like swatting at flies; even if you hit there were always more ready to take the fallen's place. Even though her armor was holding up, for the moment, it seemed inevitable they'd simply be overrun at the creatures' leisure if they ever decided to push... If they only had somewhere to go, they could make a breakout and regroup or evade, as anathema as that was to the Corps' ethos... Dying wouldn't do them any good.

Althea slammed in another magazine. They were eating through ammo too, like nobody's business. She felt the shock, but didn't see it, or really hear it as she nearly tumbled backwards. Apparently one of the enemy creatures had clipped a rock, sending a particularly large fragment spinning into her full-force. Grunting, she wondered if last stands were really that great anyway.

Wilderness of Polup

Alec found his cover chewed away to almost nothing very quick as he returned fire into the oncoming horde. Though he had some confidence in his armor keeping him safe, he didn't want to put all faith in it. "Moving!" he announced as he started his sprint back to the group, firing blindly behind him as he ran.

As he regrouped with the squad, Alec dove behind cover before fumbling with his rifle to reload. "If they aren't going to push up much farther, then they're probably going to call something in us." He said as he pushed a fresh new magazine in. "I'd rather not find out what. We need to find a break in their line and move before we're swarmed."

Wilderness of Polup

Stein kept fired again, cycled the bolt and heard a *click*. "Shit..." He muttered as he slammed a new magazine home and cycled the bolt again. He opened a private channel Cadence. "Boss... this doesn't look good. They just keep coming..." He said as he returned fire.

Things were not looking good, but Stein sure as shit wasn't going to die here. He moved and retreated back continuing to fire back.

Wilderness of Polup

Tobias's arms hurt from firing his weapons. He slotted a fresh magazine in to his HPAR. Then he fired all of his mini missiles into the throng of enemies, firing into the crowd with his HPAR.

"God damn... How many of there are there?" He shouted.

Wilderness of Polup

As the IPG agent called out to Cadence, the enemy power armor stopped moving about and began firing on them. The entire team took hits in some way or another. Alec, to his lower body and shoulder. Tobias' torso was hit while Linda took shots to her helmet. Althea had been clipped by the rock and Stein got shot in the leg and either arm. Then, the enemies did something they had not yet done. They parted and left a gap in their ranks about twenty feet wide.

Cadence began shouting out to the team, "There's our open—" She was cut off by a large cracking sound as if the world underneath them was splitting apart. Flashes of bright light tore through the sky from where the enemies had parted, towards the Inquiry away team.