RP: NSS Sledge Mama [NSS Sledge Mama] Ep. 3 - Into Steel

Delta

Richard kept his rifle firing until his HPAR on the Daisies until the GREEN was fired seeing this as a chance. He hoped he wouldn't be the only one to react to this, but things couldn't continue at their distance stalemate, they had to pounce. He activated his snake skin systems and pulled out his AS4GS getting ready for close quarters combat and then while the smoke was still covering the field he made a quick thruster dash to cover most of no mans land in one swoop.

Once he touched down he used the smoke to help obscure his location more and moved to get into some cover on the flank of where the Daisies were before the explosion. He couldn't be sure of their location after the blast, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from taking advantage of an opportunity. Once settled he partially powered down his suit to reduce his sensor ping further and waited for any of the Daisies to show themselves.

Delta - North-east

Terrence wasn't looking for a multi-kill, he was looking for somebody important. Unfortunately, it seemed that he ran into the YSA's picket line. The marine dived to the nearest piece of cover. "I can't let her report my position if I want to get the drop on somebody." He thought. He waited for his shields to recharge to half way, thinking for a solution. He could blast the Yammie soldier up ahead with his mini-missiles, but if the enemy's cannoneers had armor as heavy as the NSMC's, he'd need everything he had. Then he had an idea, if a bit foolish when dealing with a force known for melee combat. "Okay, let's do this shit." Terrence holstered his HPAR and retrieved his vibrosaw and SMG. He took a breath to calm himself then charged out, using his PPG to send the Yummie flying to the other side of her hole, discharging his SMG to suppress his opponent, vibrosaw humming to life.

Bravo

The HPAR never stopped firing, even when Wulfe set the monoeye on his armor's helmet to the active mode, locking in on his opponent.Each time the nimble armor leaped or changed direction, the marine kept tabs on it, and his armor's AI assisted him in that, feeding the information. While he fired, his PA's PPP charged. He waited until the Mindy was as close as he could allow it, then pointed his left hand at the enemy armor, activating the fully charged Push Pull rod beneath the armor plating of his left forearm in full force, aiming to push the lighter Yamataian armor away while the nanomuscles of his left arm strained with their strength to hold the HPAR steady.

Alpha

Rachael frowned lightly, noticing her attack had missed then seemed just a tad bit surprised when the Sylph attacked Mark so quickly, and wound up severely damaging him. Despite this however, she tried to keep from being intimidated.. This was a battle against some of the most dangerous types of soldiers. She brought up her comms and spoke to Ylfa and Mark biting her lip a bit. "How are we totally out matched by this woman!" She quickly brought up the drones she had around Alpha, and put up a shield between Mark and the cat. Late, for sure, but she growled a bit in frustration. "She seems more then capable of countering anything we can do...she moves just to quickly...if only there was a way to stop her from being able to move so quickly.."

Delta

Sawyer shrugged in his armor slightly and started to take the heavy armor into the assault, his chainguns continuing to flash as he readied more green rounds and fired a small volley of bolts in the vicinity of the Daisies, whenever he'd see the telltale signs of a shield bending the explosion away from itself he'd light off a GREEN round at the area, intending to inundate the region with massive amounts of firepower.

Delta

The last thing Max remembered before his world went black was a bright flash and lots of shaking. As he opened his eyes, he could still see the blackness about him but could hear a low hum amidst the buzzing in his ears. As he looked up he saw a small flicker of light and slowly more. He wasn't sure if he was dead or what. Max was shaken and stirred but slowly gathered the meaning of all the lights going on around him. "System Rebooting" he saw in front of him. "Trauma detected... morphine administered" he heard a voice say to him. Good old Nep tech he thought, even though he laid in a metal coffin he felt good. It appeared as if his computer had auto-rebooted itself and prioritized medical as the first systems to bring back online. The little body display showed a couple of yellow spots and a red one around his ribs. "Yep definitely broken" he thought as he struggled to move. Slowly but surely the big metal beast creaked back to life, Max hoisted himself up on a blown out tree as he attempted to get his bearings.
Max grabbed his AOP almost instinctively, not sure if the weapon was even operational and began to reload it. Max wasn't sure if he was dazed or in shock but he remembered he was still in combat. Orienting himself towards the combat area and slowly trudged forward. "Computer weapons check" he said out loud to the voice system, hoping he would have at least one functional weapon. He might be banged up, but he wasn't out of this fight. He would move up and engage the enemy with whatever he happened to have left. If he had to, he'd go hand to hand and rip the cats apart himself. "YOU WONT BE KILLING ME THAT EASY!!" he cursed as a mix of pain and anger assaulted his system. Max was determined to find the Neko that nuked him and beat him into submission. It probably wasn't the most logical thing to do, but he was borderline rage mode as his system evened out and he recovered from the bombardment. Someone was going to get fucked up today, of that he was sure. He just didn't want it to be him.

DELTA
Liam shook his head to clear the near-vertigo feeling from being knocked back, every sound echoing and his ears ringing loudly. He held his gauntleted hands to his head for a brief moment, eyes closed as he took several deep breaths. Soreness in his side made him suspect he had a broken rib or two. "God dammit..." He got to his feet and hoisted his weapon, his fire aimed back at the Daisies as he gritted his teeth and held back - if only barely - a long strong of old school Marine curses. He ignored the throbbing pain in his ribs as he looked near his position and saw Max getting back on his feet. Still firing bursts towards the enemy positions, he took a moment to yell over. "Max! You all right?"

Alpha

Despite being on the west flank, dirt, dust and black ash had swept over the members of Alpha, concealing them from each other. Their outlines had simply become shadows in the dark, the muzzle flash of Ylfa's rifle strobing through the gloom as she fired. Even then, their sensors still pierced through as much as possible, outlining not only them, but the environment. As the Sergeant doggedly guarded them from the gun drones as best she could, Mark managed to leap away from the blade wielding Sylph in anger to take cover. Freia, seeing Rachael's drones quickly fanning out to deploy their shield, had leaped back and away, vanishing into the murky shadow of the bomb, her gun drones retreating.

With the momentary breathing room, they could all take stock of how they were; Rachael was in decent shape, Mark lost his primary weapon and some fingers, but Ylfa's shields were mostly drained and spots on her armor wept liquid metal. The drones were wearing her down. "Ara, this is most embarrassing!" the Nekovalkyrja's voice began chiming to them over their comms. Though they got a general direction of the broadcast, they couldn't pin down the dainty power armor's precise location at all.

"Use your heads," Ylfa spoke to the two marines through the comms as well, making sure she could be heard over their enemy's babble. "Your weapons need to be used in combination so they complement each other properly." A faint electronic echo came along with her speech. Chances were, she wasn't even taking the risk of actually speaking to them with her mouth. It was her cybernetics doing the talking. "Otherwise, she'll see right through it."

"I can't believe I got so riled up from all that talk - my team was only outfitted to handle the rabble of heimin from before. Not to properly kill Nepleslians like yourselves. You let them run their mouths on purpose, didn't you, Diadottr?" she delightedly mused.

"I don't expect either of you to get the hang of it so soon, so we need to get back to Delta. Mark, you still have your PPG and some mini-missiles left. Rachael, the same. Plus, you haven't used your mini-guns or mortars - just dial down the blast radius if you're that worried, maybe even airburst it like flak," she told the two. Though it was confusing to hear both of them at once, with two different conversations, there was no other choice. "Well, you got me," Ylfa admitted over the comms at Freia, the words set to a lower volume so they could focus on the important details of her other speech. "So what are you going to do now, huh? Throw in the towel?" she added, trying to buy more time. "Mini-missiles and gun fire is just more fire, so she can dodge that out of habit. Mix it up with the PPG. Toss in some mortars," the Sergeant suggested. "And make sure to either focus on just the drones or her - I can pick up the slack where you two don't, but not for too long."

"Oh, please! Don't be so silly," Freia remarked, addressing them like funny friends. "I'm going to kill you!"

Violet lances of light pierced through the dusty gloom, striking both Rachael and Mark - the drones had deployed and were firing down from above! Their shields crackled and drained as the beams began to bend away, but not enough! Sparks and molten metal flew as their armor was struck, a pair of shallow, glowing pits burning into Rachael's more thinly armored abdomen while Mark was struck in the shin, the shot narrowly missing his missiles. They could both feel the heat rising in their suits as the girlishly dainty power armor burst out from the dark, blade glinting in the dull light - she was heading straight for Ylfa!

Bravo

Through the dark, bright tracers chased after their target across the dusty winds as the Mushroom cloud continued to rise. Despite the towering form being far too close, the Mindy that Wulfe was gunning for was just as unfazed as he was. Bright white blades glowed brightly in the chokingly dusty winds, furiously hissing and howling as the very air was torn apart by their unnatural energy, closing in fast on the Nepleslian. It was nearly impossible for him to get a proper bead on her as she moved like an acrobat despite the armor of her suit. Elegant dives, flips and tucks brought her in, and seeing as she was close, the blades drew back for the final rush and strike! Wulfe simply couldn't bring the gun to bear fast enough as she landed just a few feet from his side, but his hand did.

The Mindy was blasted back by an invisible force and sent tumbling from his PPG, the Heavy Penetrating Rifle in his right hand finally being brought to bear. Shields crackled and air distorted as the liquid metal projectiles peppered her. Despite this, the Mindy looked like it was suddenly dragged across the ground as his tracers chased after it, his foe barely managing to regain its footing as it clumsily retreated away and into cover, some of its limbs locked in place. Already, he could hear the Mindy bashing away at herself, desperate to break apart the Moneyshot's solidifying spray from its joints. But that wasn't what held Wulfe's attention the most - a spot of crimson shone brightly on the blackened forest floor.

At the same time, explosions blossomed nearby as Kelly fought to hold her own against the other Mindy. Unlike Wulfe, she was faring far worse - though her missiles were powerful in numbers, they just didn't have the punch of a rifle. Lisa, further back, could only let out brief, short bursts at the enemy that was bearing down on the stubborn Freespacer. The Mindy had made sure to keep the Hostile between itself and Lisa's VOID as much as possible, using her as a shield. "I could use a hand here!" she yelled, backpedaling as quickly as she could without tripping over the rooty forest floor. Unable to fully close in for the kill, the shoulder mounted cannon spat out white death at the marine at every opportunity, rapidly beating down her shields to nothing. "Lisa! New guy! Get off your lazy asses and do something!"

Calf launchers opened as missiles streaked in on Kelly.

Delta

Pushing forward as far as he could, Richard was caught completely by surprise. Scanning left, scanning right, desperately looking for the enemy through the dark haze as he fought to find them, he came up completely empty. Missiles streaked by overhead as Sawyer fired a volley of mini-missiles while Liam's tracers scything through dead, broken and burnt trees. He had no clue where they had gone, and his suit quietly relayed that to the others behind him. It was frustrating not being able to see them die up close, firing everything they had into the forest only for them to keep coming and going! The Yamataians had slipped away in the aftermath of the GREEN rounds. Except for one. Being further forward of the squad, Richard could make out the staccato sound of a LASR's fire, and then a vibroblade humming to life to the east of himself, out of view in the billowing smoke and ash.

It was Terrance, facing down a sole Daisy. As he squared himself and drew his knife, unfolding his machinegun, his opponent raised her shield. Charging forward like an armored bull, palm outstretched, the unseen hammer of gravitons struck the Daisy dead on, sending it flying back.

"Nope!"

The Daisy tumbled once but recovered as quickly as she could, thrusters flaring as she tried to hop away. Though still in his view, she was definitely running.

As anger coursed through Max, his veins burning with the desire for revenge, he triumphantly rose like a great beast emerging from the abyss. Only to find that the scene was eerily quiet, save for the odd and distant machine-pistol fire. It was obvious now; the Yamataians had short changed them again, denying them any proper satisfaction at having beaten them down with sheer dakka and explosions. They were a complete tease. "Delta!" Ylfa's voice crackled over their comms. "We need reinforcements, ASAP!" she ordered them. "Sawyer, Terrance and Liam, on me. Max and Richard, get to Bravo!"

Though they had a brief moment to catch their breaths - save for one perhaps - there was still plenty going on. Terrance was facing the white rabbit, while at the same time, both of the other fireteams were in need of help. Even if Delta didn't get the satisfaction of literally crushing their enemy under their boots, they still had the golden opportunity to be The Calvary.

Delta - East of Richard's position

Terrence slid into the position the Daisy had taken before, setting up his SMG to sit against the cover to steady his aim. He fired a few bursts after the retreating Neko before ceasing fire at the sound of Ylfa's voice. "Disintegrate the center? Alright, she's in charge." He watched the girl ahead fall back to likely rally with her allies. "I'll see you later! ... I guess." He called after her like a stranger who she randomly glomped and befriend. Hell, she probably did it before, knowing Nekoes. The young marine had debated with himself to pursue, but that thought was quickly shut down with the very real possibility of getting ambushed. And even if he was able to catch her, he would be letting his own allies down. He couldn't bear that thought, so he turned his back on the hostile soldier and made his way to Ylfa's position. "Yes, Master Sergeant." Terrence acknowledged over comms.

Alpha

Mark jumped in surprise and prayed that he wouldn't explode as the violet beam hit him and watched it hit Rachel. "Shit, you alright?" He asked taking a step back and to look for the Sylph and saw it going right for Ylfa. "Rachel put a shield between them and see if you can't get an angle for your mortars while I use the ppg and my mini missiles to get her off the sarge." He said side stepping until he decided he would be clear of the shield. He raised his arm pointing his push pull rod at the armor. "Alright here we go." He muttered mainly to himself over the comms as he activated the rod and fired some mini missiles at the area he was hoping to push he into as well as directly at her.

Delta -> Bravo

Richard touched down where he thought the Daisies would be, only to see that none of them were around. The only weapons fire he could hear was from his own team and the sound of fire a bit distant from him. He was going to go check it out , possibly help finish off a Daisy and get a bit of satisfaction, but before he could move Ylfa gave a call for reinforcements, which he could not ignore. He turned his attention away from pursuit and quickly started to head towards Bravo's location. He used a series of short low thruster dashes to clear no mans land this time so that he wasn't in the air long and quickly change directions if he came under fire. "Bravo this is Richard, what's your situation?" He was hoping to get at least some sort of reply to gauge as much as he could before he arrived.

Bravo

Leonel cursed to himself as the Freespacer bounced off over the trees. “No, not chess.” He shook his head and wondered how he got lumped with such abject stupidity. This was to be his new squad? He might as well join the fucking cats. Rocking back slowly, Leonel breathed in the fresh, recycled, digital air that the simulation provided him and studied the surrounds. Even after training on Nepleslia, trees and forests were still very much out of his area of comfort.

With three of the marines fleeing – no, heading – south-east towards the two Mindy’s that blasted towards the Marines pinned down in the center of all this mess, it was tempting to just desert them and lay fire upon the Daisys to the north. Certainly if they were unarmoured, that’s exactly what he would do. But having worked at NAM, he knew exactly why their armor should be called Overpowered Armor. This thing he wore, these things he made, were the death of any form of logical warfare – but he knew that when he was trying to destroy these things without any form of exo-suit. Leonel slowly stood up and began walking east-by-south-east at a regular pace, HPAR cradled across his body and considered the dance that was being played out by his suit’s AI, watching his comrades jump and dash around the overpowered Yamatai powered armor. A lone gunman could do very little against such an opponent, with many of the training exercises gone over in Funky City having closed to close-combat. For once in the history of man, weapons simply have not evolved to the level where they can effectively defeat a target. This was truly a revitalisation of the age of knights and plate armor, grappling and battering each other until they die.

This fight was nothing like chess – the traditional push and pull, the weighing of sacrifice and gain in order to win a battle. Nor was it like Go –but then again, go has been about strategy and chess about tactics… however there was neither to show here from the Nepleslian side. ‘Get in close and batter the shit out of them’ was about as pisspoor of a tactic you could get.

Leonel smirked when his radio crackled with the almost panicked cry for help from the Freespacer. That’s what you get when you discard any form of thought. Absently he checked the map of the area and noticed the tag for two friendly units per Yamatai, with another closing. The disadvantage in getting close and trying to batter the shit out of your enemy is that you left little opportunity for anyone to help you out. Allies uncoordinated in thought and ability would just make it more difficult for themselves and easier for the enemy, and Leonel felt no such attachment to anyone within the group. So he resigned himself to seeing about freeing the members of the centre team.

Absently he informed the Freespacer of his conclusions and intentions. There were too many blues for reds in that area and any assistance he could provide would more likely end up a hindrance in such an enclosed AO.

Checking the geography in the area he was in, he located the one place where he would be unobstructed by terrain between himself and the northern group of enemies. For a weapon that fired at over twice its effective engagement range per second, the HPAR would have no problem cutting through such minor obstacles such as trees, light structures or people. Solid earth or water on the other hand, was a significant enough of an obstacle to prevent the deadly coin for travelling on it’s intended path. Sure, going through a tree might knock the coin slightly off course, but you could almost be certain that the obstacle wouldn’t be there next time.

Leonel looked up at the small rise, bent his legs and in one bounce made it halfway up slope, jolting this way and that as his armor took out some of the larger foliage that foolishly got the way of a two ton warmachine. Needlessly to say the plants immediately regretted their decision. Another bounce landed him just short of the crest, where he crouched partially concealed by the trees – useless unless there was some kind of unaugmented eyes upon him. However it was the feeling of concealment that counted, and Leonel could feel himself sink further into his armor in an effort to make himself smaller. Some habits die hard and, he hoped, not at all. To Leonel’s West-North-West there was a massive crater where a grove of trees once lived, evidently the explosion he felt, heard and saw earlier. His sensors – and those of his comrades – told him that there lay several Yamatai powered armor hidden in the dust cloud, and dancing around the outskirts firing and then taking cover. Fuck, he didn’t even need his sensors, he could see the muzzle flashes.

Looking around, Leonel realised that once he started laying down fire he would start to become an issue for the enemy to deal with if he caused enough annoyance. There was no way he could be lethal at this range – again, the analogy of knights comes to mind – however he only sought to shake the aim of the cats enough for his comrades to uproot themselves and get out of harm’s way. Hopefully they would also organise themselves while they were at it.

In the time it took Leonel to reach back and release his probe, the suit’s AI had already ran a triangulation of enemy positions using the sensor data from the suits further south and his own. The AI had also ran a direct flight path between him and the nearest enemy to the west and south and programmed firing solutions for his calf missiles for a simultaneous strike on obstacles between him and them. Unfortunately this came at the cost of his ghost map, having to run constant triangulations and updated firing solutions would tax the free space he had allocated for more intense warfare. The ghost map would now only exist close to him in the data provided by his probes and the suits own sensor suite. However Leonel felt no urge to complain, he had killed cats with a lot less in his arsenal than this.

It took his local ghost less than a minute to populate. If any cats made it within five hundred meters of him he would know about it. They would also probably know exactly where he was. As a result, unless specified otherwise, his suit would immediately fling him through the trees to the south. However if it was a solitary cat showing little indication that they knew where he was, Leonel felt fairly confident that he could flatten them and bug out. If he got lucky he might be able to injure them. However hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

Lowering himself into an appropriate stance, Leonel rested the HPAR as best as he could. Within the suit he felt little recoil, given that the recoil alone could shatter his unarmoured body. When firing at full capacity and intending to hit the target – seven coins a second – a little extra help wouldn’t hurt. Lining up on the first target that he predicted would be causing some frustration for those marines near-by, Leonel flicked the HPAR to burst and started hammering away. His aim, assisted by the suit's AI, swayed slightly to compensate for the recoil. Movement need not be considered, the target wasn't moving, was unlikely to start moving, and it's movements would not be completed before rounds started landing on target. The first coin would hit the target before the second burst was even finished. Seventy rounds – ten seconds – then he would move. He had eight jumps pre-programmed. The rapid fire should at least cause some distraction and frustration for the cats, with luck it would also cause some damage.

Alpha

Rachael felt her shields gave way, and the attack hit her square in her lightly armored chest, for a moment she seemed only slightly stunned before her eyes narrowed and she almost dashed forward to engage again. Before she heard Mark, She didn't hesitate on that order though, Mark was clearly more experienced then her. So she quickly moved her Drones in-between the Sylph and Ylfa, while activating her targeting sensors to get a good shot on the Sylph with her Mortars. Once she gets targeting situated she quickly fires the mortars around the Sylph.

Delta-Bravo

Max groaned as he realized that the enemy had retreated away from them. They had failed to box them in and finish them off. He certainly knew that'd likely come to regret this misstep later, but right now they were tasked with a new job. This time he wouldn't make the same mistake. "Richard let's move, they are under fire that's all that matters!" he said over the comms as he began to move towards the area where Bravo was hold up. He could see his allies on his hud, Kelly and Lisa looked to be engaging a target illumated on the HUD closest to them. They were in an odd arrangement as the Mindy appeared to be moving around them to prevent them from getting a cleanshot. Max decided to move around and outflank the Mindy as he saw missiles streak it.

Not having full time to gauge the situation, he aimed his chainguns and let loose on the missiles, hoping to at least knock some of them down. Luckily they were still operable after his brush with death but he couldn't say the same for his shields. Hopefully he could stay out of danger long enough for them to build back up, least he have to rely on his armor. Noting the situation he called to Richard, "ENGAGE THE MINDY CLOSEST TO KELLY! We pick a target and smash it!" remembering his folly from before as his chainguns spat to life as he moved in closer to the combat area. If Max got even a couple of the missiles it he would be happy that he helped. What did help was the Mindy making itself a much better target thanks to its firing of the missiles. Max decided to return the favor, firing Darts towards his adversary. If the Mindy fell back enough trying to evade, he would fire a Red Round at it, hopefully reminding them that they were in for a hell of a fight.

Delta

"Acknowledged." Liam hopped up to move with Ylfa, continuing to fire short bursts and covering their movement while passing by Max with a brief glance but no further words. The man's dark eyes settled on the firefight they approached as he steeled himself for action once more. He quietly willed the bastards to come out of their hiding spots and give him a few clean shots at them, but he would take his opportunities as they arose.

Bravo

Wulfe kept firing his HPAR at the Mindy, letting out the bright lines of superheated metal until he heard the freespacer's request for support. Damn it all, why wasn't the rest of the fireteam doing anything to help them both? His lips curled in a grimmace as he felt the frustration at the situation, letting his finger off the trigger to support the freespacer. 'Confirm the kill,' rang the familiar voice in his head as he was about to turn around, prompting him to let loose another salvo of BOLTS towards the enemy armor he had been engaging, and watching as the counter for the BOLTs went dangerously low. He realized that he probably would have only one more meaningful salvo left befor ehe'd have to use the ARROWs.

He didn't even turn around to watch the salvo land, hoping that at the very worst it would buy him some seconds to cover the freespacer in the few heartbeats that it took him to perform the actions. He also briefly noticed how he hadn't even thought by them, but instead had simply acted like that was the right, obvious thing to do. The marine activated his suit's PLA, letting the AI-assisted aim target the mini-missiles that were bearing down on the freespacer. At the same time, his left hand shot up again, actvating the PPP, except that particular time it wasn't working in a single, focused burst, but as a constant cone of force pushing the incoming objects away with the tractor rod beneath the forearm plates.

Nepleslian Base

"Great. Just as it was getting good," Emi sighed.

Two Hostiles idly sat on the parapets of the Nepleslian base, the antimatter induced mushroom cloud still visible through the thick dust that hung in the air. Jamming systems flooded the forest with invisible clutter while the explosion of exotic material threw radiation of all types every which way. And this was on top of the innate stealth of every single power armor had to some degree. It was nearly impossible to get a good read with their sensors. "Hey, what do you think they're doing out there?" Mayumi asked.

"Beats me," the other Neko shrugged.

Bravo-Delta

Lances of liquid metal showered the hiding Mindy's position as Wulfe pinned her down. He saw blood splattered onto the scorched earth, and heard her trying to bash loose joints stuck fast by his rifle. The marine knew for sure he had her on the ropes - all he needed to do was finish off the Neko with a few good bursts from his moneyshot! Hearing Kelly in trouble, he made a call. Firing off a small salvo of missiles at the Mindy's position, the Marine turned as the collar mounted lasers sliced through the air. Chaingun fire joined them as missiles were swatted out of the air, but the moment Wulfe turned back, he realized that the Aether contact on his sensors he was shooting at was gone. The missiles he had fired were shot down the same time he fired on the other enemy's salvo.

At the same time, Lisa had made to sprint around Kelly, swinging wide to avoid getting caught in the melee as she tried to get a good angle, but the enemy power armor was too savvy. Fast and nimble, the Nepleslian woman could only watch as she danced around the Freespacer, keeping her between the two of them. More cautious than her counterpart, unholy white streaks of light had managed to completely drain her target's shields before pelting armor plate. But the robot girl stood firm - Lisa let loose a small salvo of missiles overhead the moment she did too, forcing the Mindy to retreat. Dancing back and forward on her toes like a gun toting dancer, throwing her hips to stylishly toss her weight, she deftly mowed down the persistent projectiles and dodged the rest while keeping the two blocking one another, retreating in the explosive cover as her Aether systems powered down.

Just as most of Delta waded through the radioactive dust and came into full view. Most of them.

Leonel were further north of the group, hunting through the blackish-grey ash in the air. He hoped to flank the main body of Daisies from earlier, but they had already scattered by the time he started moving. Even then however, he hunkered down. Soon, a pair of contacts came up on their sensors. Quickly bringing the muzzle of his gun to bear, he fired, scything through charred trees and earth alike. But the sensor contact flickered and vanished, reappearing further off to the side. And then buzzed. And turned into three. Then one. Then four. Then -

He heard laughter. He heard their girlish giggling.

"Shit, shit, shit!" the Freespacer swore, spots on her armor glowing a nasty bright orange from the hits she took. "The scrub that just arrived is going to get blasted - he needs backup!" Kelly's voice called over Bravo-Delta's comms.

Alpha-Delta

Ylfa's rifle was already hammering away in her hands as she began leaping back, thrusters burning away. Palm out, charred wood splintered and burst as concussive force missed its target. She was trying to force her away, buy time and back off, but the Sylph dodged her counters and closed in fast and hard. With the two close and getting closer by the heartbeat, Mark didn't dare fire a shot but thrust his palm out instead. The blue power armor was knocked forward from the push from behind and tumbled long enough for Ylfa to get a few shots in, Even then, for a split second, he could have sworn Freia glanced back at him in rage - a trio of purple lances shot down from the three gun drones above before they fled and blinded him from letting loose his missiles. Shields completely drained, the defensive field of his Hostile collapsed in a shower of electrical sparks and light, a pair of glowing pits appearing on his upper pack and another right on the armored collar of his suit, dangerously close to his neck. There was just too much bloodlust to stop her from getting to Ylfa!

Until Rachael's solid shield wall appeared.

Nearly colliding with it, blade drawn, the Sylph paused just long enough for the VOID clad woman to level her mortars. Moving to dodge, a line of tracers from Liam's gun sliced through the air where Freiya was about to move around the shield wall, briefly stopping her. The members from Delta, approaching fast, saw the explosion through the haze. Even Terrance, who was the furthest off, saw it. Electric blue light flashed brightly through the dirty air as the superheated gas burst out of their shells, vaporizing everything in its way and glassing the very earth itself. In the briefest split second, Rachael could see the enemy armor leap, only to get overtaken and flung away by the explosion like a ragdoll. As dust and smoke cleared slightly, the Sergeant could be seen standing on the only patch of soil that wasn't turned to black obsidian, the shield drones destroyed in their sacrifice.

"Marines, defensive formation! Did anyone get an ID on where she - "

"Oh my, it seems that I'm likely going to lose," Freia's voice cut Ylfa off. "Whatever could I do?" she asked them all.

Alpha

Standing there, blood dripping onto his feet and the earth around him from his hand, Mark felt a familiar sensation welling up inside of him. Rage. It was bad enough that his plans have had a tendency to go wrong but to get injured by a cat. That was the last straw. His head turned from side to side at he surveyed the carnage and the arrival of the reinforcements.

"Rachel get the fuck up. This isn't the time to be laying around on the job," He barked through the comms. "And you," he shouted rounding on the new arrivals. "What the fuck took you so long to get here? We could of used your help a long time ago." Wildly waving his injured hand around sending drops of blood all around as he shouted with his vision going slightly blurry from rage that was so intense it made his eyes water. "Someone just get me something to shoot that cat bitch with when she gets back because next time she dies."

Stopping off towards the front of the group to look around some more he took stock of his ammo. Unsurprisingly with how many missiles he's been firing, he discovered he only had enough for maybe two decent attacks if he was careful.

Bravo

Leonel sighed as he saw that he was going to get flanked from the north-east. So much for his attempted flanking manoeuvre. It seemed as though nothing was going to be easy, especially with the AI that is running this sim being on the cat’s side.

Leonel was already on the move before he had finished that though, bouncing through the trees with ease. For the moment he suppressed the targeting solutions he had organised earlier, attempting to move west into the heart of the anti-matter ground zero. As his sensors started to wash out, he turned and fired another two bursts at one of the more stationary targets, before bouncing into the heart of the explosion.

His suit immediately regretted his decision, his sensors going haywire as the radiation played hell with what limited visibility he would have. Outside of the grey zone, his drones passively flitted through the trees, seeking to detect any active sensors. With them emitting as little electronic signal as possible, it would be hard to detect – but then it can only find people who are actively searching for targets.

Once Leonel was free from the trees he could distance himself again. He would shoot south making full use of the speed that the suit would give him. There is no reason to get in a close quarters fight when you have a weapon that shoots at twice the speed of its effective range.

Bravo-Delta

Richard heard Kelly on his radio shouting about the new guy and looked to his radar to pick him up and get a position on his location. "Boot, you need to stop moving about like a chicken with it's head cut off. Get your snake skin activated and fall back on our position otherwise you're just a moving target." He had to decide what to do and quickly to make sure the Neko's couldn't take advantage of it. When he landed from his short dashes near Kelly and Lisa, he looked the two over to assess the damage to their suits. "We should probably fall back and form up, focus our attention on small groups instead of spreading out. Sarge didn't mention anything about them having an armor like the VOID in the briefing. So we can hunker down and blast them when they stick their heads out."