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

Alpha

Rachael heard what Mark was yelling but it didn't register, the only thing she was focused on was following that Sylph, her scanners scan quickly trying to find where she had jumped too. She stood up and turned around bringing back a few of her drones from Bravo since her drones were destroyed. She kept herself alert, but knew deep down chances are she was going down next she heard Ylfa ask for her location but paused when she heard her over their comms and tried to continue to pinpoint her location.

Bravo-Delta

Max nodded as Richard started giving our suggestions. He was right on every count. Max had learned from their previous encounter that they needed to form up and flush out the enemy. Pick a target and smash them. Which the rookie running around, being cut-off there was little they could do for him if they didn't fight like a fireteam.

"Richard is right, everyone form up, we need to make a push, the Mindies are between us and those hostrile contacts, we find them, destroy them and then engage the main group. We can't let them get away this time, we have numbers and we know they are there. Let's do this!" commented Max as he moved forward to link up with his team. He wanted to move into the middle of the formation so that his heavy firepower could support everyone equally. Then they would move up and advance, knocking out enemies with coordinated fire. Max just hoped that the enemy was out of heavy weapons as his armor and shields had certainly taken a pounding during their last engagement.

Bravo

Wulfe fired a few few shots towards the direction of the retreating Mindy, more out of frustation than actually hoping to hit something through the mess that his sensors had become, but he quickly gave up on that, baring his teeth and putting his finger off the trigger to conserve the ammo. Frustrating, very frustrating. Added to that, there were also the whiny voices of the two other privates; their opinions didn't matter to him, if they were in the position to direct the fireteam they would've made NCO. Only the fireteam leader's orders, Kelly's orders, mattered. "Shut up," Wulfe said, matter-of-factly as his HPAR panned left and right once, scanning his surroundings as the radioactive dust wafted around them, and then towards Leonel's direction, covering the marine's retreat from his last, vulnerable position. 'How utterly annoying,' he briefly thought.

"Corporal, Phipps is pulling back, what are your orders?" The marine asked Kelly, already turning on the snakeskin pigmentation of his suit and lowering the output of the two fusion reactors encased within the back of the Hostile. The internal, constant humm of his suit calmed several levels in intensity, while the hard metal surface blended with the surrounding vegetation and terrain as he hugged the cover more closely.

Alpha

"Save it for the cats Marine," Ylfa snapped at Mark. The Sergeant was tossing aside the nearly empty magazine on her HPAR and made to reload it, slapping the new drum of ammo home with a satisfying solidity. "Everyone center their positions on Sawyer. I want a decent dispersion between us this time - not too close together, and not too far. We can't see shit with all the junk in the air, but I don't want Freia being able to carve us up one after another because we were too close either." She then tossed her weapon over to the angry marine before unfolding an SMG. Having had his massive gun slagged by that blue Sylph, Mark would need it.

"Sawyer, make that GREEN count, because it makes too much of a mess each time. Terrance and Gervasius, take up the rear and watch our backs." For a brief moment, her red monoeye swept over them all. "We're not here to keep playing games with the local cats, and I say that this kiddy grade stuff's gone on long enough. We're moving for the flag to end this," Ylfa declared, taking the lead towards the enemy base.

Bravo

As Leonel's thrusters burst to life as he began bounding through cover, a quick burst of gunfire rained on him from behind. Shields crackled and sparked as he leaped, the staccato sound of the LASRs following right on the heels of each leap he did. With each muzzle flash, they whittled him down fast, the shots coming in from a slightly different angle each time. Even then, it was clear that there were only two, and that the women themselves were just barely out of sight. The Daisies had to be following the flash and roar of his suit's engines through the black and gray veil of dirt and dust! Making out some of their own thruster wash and muzzle flashes, he fired back at them, an electric flicker briefly coming to life.

Through the mess, Kelly could make a good guess at what was happening.

"They're right," she replied to Wulfe. "If he's left alone, he'll be toast. We're coming after him, cats or no cats!" Rallying them best she could, Bravo made a beeline straight for the fight.

Alpha

Moving quickly but surely, Ylfa had Alpha move north in short bursts, scanning the environment around them as they leapfrogged with each other. She knew that it wasn't going to be that easy, getting the flag. The Yamataians, and Freia in particular, had to be planning something. "How rude!" the devil herself spoke over their comms. "Not even so much has a single word in reply? I'm offended!" At her word, a pair of service rifles opened up on Alpha, the weapons quickly sweeping across their position and getting their attention. Sawyer quickly leveled his AOP with the rest of the squad, but right as they turned to fire at the contacts, a trio of drones appeared overhead and rained fire down on the squad as fast as their particle cannons could cycle, rapidly wearing down Rachael, Mark and Terrance's shields.

Before they could decide which ones to shoot, an Aether source popped up on their sensors from behind, clear as day - rapid footsteps rushed in as a blade was shoved right through the back of Sawyer's knee. "Let's have one last dance!" Freia shouted from behind the man, his blood spurting from the wound.

Bravo

The fireteam was moving as fast as they can, and when Leonel burst into view of Bravo, it was not a moment too soon, his shields collapsing under the assault. The moment he did though, the Yamataians went all in.

Both Daisies pursuing the Marine kept right at his tail, making any shots with explosives danger-close. But their sensors screamed at them as contacts appeared at their flanks! The two Mindy armors were after them again, this time diving in for the kill, no matter the consequences. From the west, Richard and Max found themselves with one bearing down on them fast, the armor closing in with leaps and bounds. Max was pelted by unnatural lances of energy as its shoulder cannon opened up on his AOP to suppress him, while it's footwork made it clear - she wanted to cut down Richard. At the same time, Wulfe and Lisa could see wristblades glowing brightly through the haze to the east, his side of Bravo. Their blinding white after images burned into his eyes as the Mindy rapidly closed in, her shoulder cannon hammering into his shields as she closed the gap.

"G-gomen!" the Mindy dove at him!

Bravo

"Sod off," Lisa said out loud as Mindy dove at them with wristblades up. Those were dangerous thing, but they had to get close. Lisa would not want that at all so she activated her Push-Pull system and aimed it at the Mindy. She want to slam it away, because those blades where just way too dangers. If that would work, Lisa would just raise her HPAR and opened up on the enemy PA.

Bravo

Max shielded himself and his main weapon as he started getting pelted by the energy lances from the Mindies shoulder cannons. "Is this bitch really trying to suppress me? Oh hells no! In Neplisia, you don't suppress Aggressor, Aggressor suppresses you!!!!" Max thought to himself as he spun up his chainguns and returned fire on the Mindy. From his earlier experience Max remembered that simply shooting at them wouldn't take them down, it would be a combination of things. He needed to disorient the Mindy and give them some space to hit them with the big guns. Looking at Richard he began to close the distance between the two of them and put himself at an angle to smash the Mindy with their combined PPGs. Then he would blast the Neko with his AOP and Chainguns and hopefully bring them down. Of course he needed to coordinate with his teammate but didn't have a lot of time to lay out a plan. So thinking quickly at something Richard would understand over laser comms, he said, "USE THE FORCE!" as Max barreled towards the Mindy on an intercept course, hopefully their plan would work and they could put this cat to sleep.

Alpha

"Not this again." Mark muttered as Freia stabbed Sawyer. He darted over to the side and raised his arm, leveling his push pull rod while aiming the HPAR Ylfa gave him in his good hand. "Which do we focus on Sargent?" He asked as he activated the rod to get Freia off Sawyer. Even if there was a chance to knock him back with the cat, Mark had to get him away from Freia.

Terrence had sighed in relief when Ylfa spoke of finally capturing the flag. He didn't know how long they'd been fucking around with these Yamataian forces, but he would be glad when it was over all the same. Now he saw that the quick solution wasn't always the easiest solution. Being in the rearguard of their formation, he had been entrusted with making sure no tangos came in on their rear with the element of surprise. Freia just blasted past him like he was an idle tree and stabbed Sawyer before he could react... That didn't make him happy, enraged more like, but he was still able to retain some sense. "They're targeting Sawyer! Fuck the drones, I'm helpin' him out!" The colonist yelled as he ran to Freia and Sawyer. "If I fire, I'll probably hit Sawyer with every shot I miss... Guess I'll just have to use something with a manageable rate of fire." Terrence pulled out his trusty revolver with one hand and his vibrosaw in the other. He advanced on the enemy CO, chambers spinning as he took measured shots (or as measured as you can when you're getting shot at by drones) to mitigate the chances of shooting Sawyer.

Bravo

Richard turned quickly to face the Mindy, getting out of the path and acting a bit like a wall to give Kelly room to rush forward to Leon. Seeing that she was rushing forward without backing down he thought she must be pretty confident in her mobility, so he decided the first thing to do would be to cut that off. He fired his PLAs from his shoulders aiming slightly wide to create a sort of cage to narrow her area of movement if even for a moment. Seeing Max's actions however he was confused for a moment until he spoke, that with his gesturing allowed him to realize that he was about to use the PPG, so Richard followed up after him as quickly as he could, sending out a pulse to try and smack the neko around a bit.

Richard did not appreciate her coming in to try to kill him however and decided to close in just like Max, however he chose to use a thruster dash, plotting a path in a moment that would lead him past the hopefully stumbling neko at high speeds and moving a heads of Max. He had no intention of just rushing by however, as he passed Max his pulled the triggers on his AS4GS firing two shells simultaneously that broke apart as they were heated with plasma, sending a white hot cloud of molten tungsten towards the neko.

Bravo

Wulfe didn't have time to comply to Kelly's order. As soon as he started to reply his HUD lit up with a white flash, momentarily blinding him. It took a while for the Monoeye to adapt to it, focusing on the brightness of the wristblade for him to see the bounding form of the Mindy.

Leaving his concealment and bringing his Armor's reactors to full yield, he prepared for the incoming foe. The snakeskin camo soon gave way to reveal the battered, greenish metal plates of his Hostile as. 'Two can play this game,' The marine thought, looking at the enemy armor.

With little time to react, Wulfe turned to face the incoming armor, firing all that he could at the enemy once it was clear it wanted all or nothing. The marine bared his teeth as he greeted the Mindy with was the last of his remaining BOLTs, added with a salvo of the still unused ARROW rack, as soon as his helmet's Monoeye got an active lock on the armor; as soon as he managed to, his HPAR was also raised right at the nimble Yamataian armor, letting loose the hot metal towards his target. Nanomuscle groaned and protested as he fired the weapon single-handed again, bringing his other arm level to try and push it back with the PPP. Even his suit's PLA were firing.

Alpha

Rachael regroups with Mark and Ylfa quickly trying to think of something as she pulls the last of her shield bots from Delta quickly putting them up infront of them to keep them from being shot at. "Sawyer is going to hold us back, I suggest Sacrificing him to take down an enemy that'll kill far more then just him." She looks at Ylfa. "...Of course its your call. I'm not exactly keen on sacrificing a comrade if there is another way to end that cat c***." She said looking back over towards Saywer and Freia the six drones forming a dome shield around them to keep them protected for the moment.

At Alpha, glorious laughter escaped Freia's lips as she dodged Mark's graviton pulse. Grabbing onto the hulking armor for leverage and pulling, she nimbly leaped up as Sawyer's crippled leg was swiftly yanked out from under him by that invisible force, making the Aggressor fall forward and onto all fours. "This is just a delight!" the Sylph cried out, landing on the back of the man's neck. As Terrance marched forward, firing his personal sidearm, Freia simply loosened her grip and spun until she was upside down, blinding Sawyer's optics with nothing but the neathers of her suit. As the Sylph's legs closed in around his helmet like a vice, the palm of her free hand pointed straight at the young man, pulses of energy hammering Terrance as one of the drones continued to light him up.

While Mark and Ylfa were hunkered down behind Rachael's shields from the two cannon drones, his armor started to give off an orange glow as it was torn into and slagged by the assault. At the same time, Liam found himself facing down the two Daisies as they advanced, shields raised; they were eating away at his shields now, simply pouring on the lead as fast as they could. Ylfa glanced over her questioning marines and shrugged. "Next time, cannon drones first, then the big bitch herself," she pointed out. Tossing aside her machine pistol, she charged out of the shield bubble at a dead sprint at Freia.

"Here kitty, kitty!"

Off at Bravo, Max was getting ready to use the PPG, only to suddenly realize with horror that the Aggressor didn't come with it like the Hostile did. Improvising as fast as he could, the marine combined his attack with Richard's! The moment the Hostile's PPG fired, he let loose a storm of plasma bolts from both chainguns. Watching the Mindy, she swiftly pulled a side flip away from the invisible hammer, only to start getting tripped up by the rapid-fire rounds that followed up, shields rapidly dwindling as Richard's thrusters howled, the marine dashing forward in a blur. The double barreled weapon boomed, but as the brief disorientation wore off at landing, he realized a charcoal tree was shredded to bits - the timing was completely off.

Seeing a gap, the Mindy fought through the heated pulses her plates were taking; legs becoming a blur, she rapidly closed the remaining distance between herself and the damaged Aggressor, too close for the AOP!

At the same time, Kelly's thrusters lit off as she bull-rushed one of the two Daisies trying to gun down Leonel, the two colliding with a shower of sparks. Rounds continued to bite into his armor however; without help, she had him beat!

Meanwhile, Wulfe and Lisa squared off against the bloodied Mindy as she charged. Lisa's PPG pulse was dodged, as expected, but she didn't open up with her weapons right away. But Wulfe did. Firing everything, he let loose every single missile he had left and went full auto with the rifle in his hands. In the briefest of moments, he could see the Mindy's head tilt up in shock before she tried to dodge and shoot down the incoming swarm, but several rounds peppered her across the chest before they streaked in. Knowing they were going to hit no matter what, she recommitted and charged straight forward! Explosions tore apart her defensive field as heavy, penetrating rounds began to bore into armor.

It was all coming down to the last, final moments for everyone.

Richard turned to see armor boiling and bubbling as Aether quickly slashed across Max's chest, the Mindy landing behind the Aggressor with a dramatic flourish, only for the scarred armor to turn and bring its AOP down on the Mindy like a club, a scream of panic finally escaping her lips. Terrance toppled and fell under the assault, his arm flying off as the cannon-drone severed it with a purple-pink lance. Liam was fighting two to one and was losing, his shields down and armor being chipped away, fast. Rachael and Mark hunkered down, watching as all this unfolded, uncertain as to what to do. Kelly tumbled with her Daisy and tore the shield away with sheer brute strength, sparks flying as she smashing her fists into the other woman's helmet. Leonel, still fighting against the last Daisy, hammered away with his HPAR, but found it blocked by the metal shield she carried; his leg gave way, a stream of bullets to the knee cutting it out from under him. The Mindy that Lisa and Wulfe faced burst out of the smoke and fire, an arm shot clean off as she raised the blinding blade to finally swing. And Freia met Ylfa mid-sprint, the Zesuaium blade stabbing in between plates, up and into the blond woman's chest.

Just as armored hands wrapped around the Sylph's neck.

*****

They physically fought, punched, shot, died and went through all the motions. All as they woke up in a room, sitting in their simulator's chairs. And around them, alarms sounded across the Yamataian base they were invited into. Rising fast, Ylfa called out, loud and commanding, "What the hell's going on here?"

"Well, Sawyer got the better end of this deal, at least he has some Yammie action going on up there." That was the only thought that entered his mind that wasn't... Intense. Terrence didn't feel the pain, but he felt the... Awkward absence of where his shooting arm was supposed to be. He looked down and immediately wished he didn't. Not only was his arm suspiciously absent, it was lying not too far away to his right. He froze, staring at it in horror even as more enemy fire continued to descend on him. Then, he felt the searing pain of losing a limb... Except it wasn't focused on his newly-acquired stump, more like if someone flayed the skin off his arm. But it wasn't even on anymore! Wha- how the- "M-m-..." An unfamiliar feeling coiled up in his stomach as his grip tightened on his vibrosaw in shock... Or something else. Could have been bile coming up, could have been a scream of terror and pain... No, Terrence had never felt this before... But then, we wouldn't find out just what it was this time.

Terrence woke up with a start and a scream of pain. He scrambled off the chair and slapped his left hand onto his right shoulder, patting up and down the limb to confirm it was still on. "Fuckin'... I've never bad-mouthed anyone without due cause, but whoever allowed that kind of pain to be programmed into that is a fuckin' sadist!" More concerning would be the new-found blow to his confidence. I'm not kidding this time. But the alarms are of more pressing concerns, I reckon. Not Terrence, he's just shivering right about now. Eh, he'll be fine, go on.

Mark kneeled behind the shield sweeping with the HPAR. He fired quick bursts between different cannon drones and Friea as he took in the chaos around him. Blood, bullets, and lasers were flying though the air all around him and there was little that he could do to even protect himself. He could feel the sting of the drones firing on him and used the last of his BOLTs in an effort to take them out. Mark kept desperately fighting for his own survival but the suit couldn't keep up the necessary morphine output and he collapsed in crippling pain.

*******

Mark's eyes snapped open and he bolted up in the chair as the alarms blared in the base. He instinctively flexed the fingers of his hands to make sure they were in working order before taking off the helmet and hopping out of the chair. He removed his 10mm from the holster on his leg and chambered a round before putting it back. "I don't know Top, maybe they're throwing us a surprise party and one of the attendents is just stupid," he dryly said to Ylfa, scanned the room and the other occupants. "Hey Terrence, you surprised me out there. I thought you would of died before we made it that far."

Rachael found herself witnessing a massacre her eyes wide as she followed Mark's movements, moving to fire on Freia and the others as they fought. She didn't have much time to do so however before Mark suddenly collapsed in crippling pain, she looked over towards him and quickly moves infront of him to take a few shots that break through her shield, she stumbles back a bit before wincing and moving to help mark up the shots having pierced her suit, As she helped him up however a bullet whizzed right through her suit and into her chest sending her stumbling as it penetrated through her heart.

She suddenly jerked up holding her chest her eyes wide as she gasps for air before the normally quiet girl begins spouting off obscenities. "Fucking cock sucking god damn kitten bitches with their cheating ass fucking super armors and god damn overpowered shit tiering-" She paused her obscenities when her senses come back to her hearing the Alarms as they blared out deafeningly. She quickly stood up and looked around back to being quiet, she quickly followed Mark's thought pattern and removed her pistol from her holster and chambered a bullet grunting a bit in response to Ylfa's declaration of what was going on. "Don't know..."

For a moment, Rachael had forgotten that she had been in a simulation, she closed her eyes for a moment trying to regain herself from the fear and powerful emotional damage the feeling of death gave to her, and thanks to her training she overcame that rather easily. She grit her teeth and finally took a breath to completely calm herself going back to that scowling look and moving towards the door to the simulation chamber. She opened the door and slowly peeked out of the room just enough that half her head could be seen in either direction, looking at the situation outside the simulation room in question.

The last thing Richard had wanted to do was miss that shot, but seeing that he did he quickly turned himself around. The Mindy had already made it's move by then however and went to charge Max before Richard could properly react. However he had no intention of simply sitting around and pulled out his knife, dashing in once more to try to finish the Mindy while it was distracted. Before he could reach however suddenly every thing went black.

*****

Richard came back to his senses inside the simulation chair with a groan as the alarms blared in the background. He already had problems with transitions in simulators, but with the alarms sounding too, it just gave him a headache. "Argh, what now? Can't they bring us out a little more gently?" He sounded grouchy, like he had just woken up from bed, and his eyes were squinting as he pulled the helmet off.

Max was in a bloodlust as he raised his AOP towards the downed Mindy, bashing it with the 6 foot weapon. This wasn't how the weapon was supposed to be used, but leave it to a Nep Marine to find a creative way to use his weapon. As he raised his weapon again to deliver another crushing blow to the Mindy below him, he was suddenly awakened in the simulator room. "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!?!" Max shouted outloud as he bolted upright in the seat. He quickly removed his helmet and waited for his eyes to adjust. He could see the other marines in the room were having similar system shocks. "Hell of a disconnect!" Max thought as he gathered his bearings. The first immediate notion he had was that there were alarms going off. "Holy crap, are we under attack or is this part of the Sim?" Asked Max outloud to no one in particular. He drew his sidearm and waited for someone to tell him what the hell was going on.

Liam blinked and shook his head once. His eyes were dark as he frowned at a personal thought. Taking a deep breath, anyone near him would hear a simple, "Hm..." come from the Marine.

Terrence barely heard Mark over his own shaking but he made an effort to be polite and respond. "They got close plenty of times, and they did get me in the end. But thanks." He said, but only loud enough to be heard over the alarms. In the case of weaponry, he grabbed his trusty revolver from the standard-issue holster in it's usual position, pulling out to absent-mindedly see if all the rounds he had fired were gone. He pushed himself off of the sim chair, looking around the room with a surprisingly calm look on his face. "If it was anythin' other than an attack, I reckon they would at least pull us out gently. I doubt this is a drill or some politician payin' a surprise visit to increase his standin' with the military and public..." At his own words, the green marine watched the doors leading into the room, rubbing his index finger around the trigger guard of his revolver. However, he took his eyes off the entrances to see if Emi had entered the simulation from the same room.

Despite the blaring klaxons, Ylfa sat there in her own seat, eyes open and staring into the ceiling.

"I-I-I-I can't hear the others! The Polysentience - it's not there!" Kelly started to sputter, clutching her head as the red light on her faceplate flitted back and forward like a person shaking their head in denial.

"My telepathy isn't working either!" Mayumi added to the chatter, her feline ears flicking back and drooping with worry.

"Just a fancy way of calling it radio," the dark skinned Neko slumped her shoulders. It seemed Emi wasn't particularly bothered, already leaning against the wall with her arms crossed with annoyance.

"I'm getting nothing but crud too. We're being jammed," the Sergent grumbled, yanking a cord out of her neck. Hopping to her feet, Ylfa gave them the standard order every Nepleslian knew to follow when in doubt; get the guns. "Marines! I want weapons at the ready. We've got no clue what's going on and we've got to find out fast." Already, she was making her way to the doorway. The moment it slid open though, the blond woman was already slamming her fist into the button to close it. Their own room was at the junction of a T-intersection, meaning they all got a good look for themselves.

The dead, all dressed in the Star Army uniform, were scattered across the red-lit hallway. A lone woman was hysterically crying as she dragged the upper half of a Nekovalkyrja. Looking up, she caught a glimpse of the Nepleslians, only for the telltale 'THOOM-THOOM-THOOM-THOOM' of an autocannon to announce the gaping holes that suddenly appeared in her chest. Their backs turned to the Marines, a pair of war machines were moving through the halls, their footfalls heavy thuds as they gunned down anyone in sight. One opened the doorway to a room and marched in, the steady thunder of its autocannon hammering away as bursts of light exploded over its chassis. Its surface glowed bright as liquid metal wept onto the floor, but it kept on marching on, vanishing from sight. The second made to follow it in at a steady pace, pulling the pin for a hand grenade just as it passed the doorway.

"Shit-shit-shit-shit! Why won't it close?!" Ylfa swore, grabbing the emergency lever. More energy weapons discharged in the not-too-distant room, only for waves of liquid fire to suddenly spew out of it as the incendiary grenade went off. The screams of the Nekovalkyrja burning to death poured out as a humanoid form steadily walked out of the inferno, napalm clinging to its chassis. Slamming the door closed, the sergeant leaped out of the way as a burst of autocannon fire went through it like cardboard. Moving back and taking cover behind one of the chairs and drawing her HHG, she spun the chamber and shouted, "The thing's been hit several times in the chest, and its left leg isn't looking good either! The head's mostly intact, but it took one shot to the right side." The doorway started to groan as it began to peel inwards, the war machine shoving its way in with brute force.

"It's gonna be a tough kill boys and girls!"