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

Even when the weapon stopped firing by lack of ammo, Terrence looked like he was going to beat the revolver's handle over the Militant's head, which probably would've ended up with him dead. Thankfully, Mayumi did him a solid and took him down. He tried desperately to get out from under the dainty-looking Neko, hollering and screaming all kinds of expletives as the rest of the Marines finished the hated machine off. He ran out of steam when he lost the drive to attack the literal pile of scrap. He didn't register Ylfa's words for a moment, looking up at her with a blank expression on his face for a few seconds.. He needed a moment to register that the red in his vision was leaving, you see. His face drained of blood as his expression changed, remembering what, in the first place, had sent him into a suicide charge against the enemy. He shot up and ran over to Emi, sliding on his knees the last foot or two. He flipped her over, looking over her body, the same that had tried to seduce him, only his eyes were wide out of general fear, not what had been before. "E- Emi?"

Removing his weapon Mark took a long breath to settle himself. The smell of gunpowder from the hail of bullets he had unleashed filled his nose. "C'mon Nic-" he said aloud before cutting himself off. Picking up the ammo backpack he slowly started down the hall he had come from toward the exit without a word.

Mark was hardly paying attention to what he was doing. He felt sick to his stomach and was desperately trying to clear his head. "Top let's just get out of here," he said, his voice quivering slightly. The sight of all the dead marines paired with the relatively calm moment brought back dreaded memories. His lack of attention to things around him was so great he never even noticed Terrence or Emi.

Seeing that the Militant was taken down without friendly fire Richard let out a sigh of relief and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The situation worked itself out but it still took a toll on his mental state. "Terrance, you're supposed to avoid bullets, no throw yourself in front of them." That was all he could muster on the situation, thinking more on it at the moment would just make his head hurt and wouldn't help anything.

He left it at that and went to secure the area like he was told, heading to the North Western passage to make sure if any hostiles came down the hall he would spot them. On the way he picked up any HAS or HHG ammunition he could find. If he was lucky he might find a larger gun along the way, he wasn't picky if it was Yamataian or Nepleslian at this point, he just wanted a little more protection.

Max picked himself up off the floor and tried to wipe some of the blood off his hands before dumping the second spent magazine. Hopefully that would be the end of the hard targets but on incase it wasn't he began to go through the bodies of th dead and find more weapons. Grenades pistol mags hell even a knife would be better than what he had.

As he rummage through the bodies he turned back to see emi laying on the ground. He was sure that her grenade throw had saved his life but it was odd to him that the militant had gone after her instead of him when he was a much easier target.

"Hey Top you don't find it odd that the militants are after the nekos instead of us? Seems like this is a targeted mission against them. Do you even think they'd know we'd be here? I suppose the better question would be how did they breach the base so easy?" Questioned Max as he started to go through more bodies on his scavenger hunt.

"We're okay, sergeant. Nothing of value was lost," Wulfe said on the comms as he stepped out of the room, staring at the mess of metal that the militant had become for a while, and then at the red splotch that the body it had thrown had left on the wall. The marine turned the procured NSP around his hand for a bit, before holstering the spent weapon and drawing the .357 pistol that he had been using before. He quickly went about searching the bodies on the hallway again like he had been ordered.

Rachael only took one minuet to look towards Terrence and feel sorry for the loss of Emi, the universe would've been a better place if Emi had not died, but Terrence had instead. Harsh, but true. She then followed Richard to quickly secure the area, not giving it another thought as she did. Eyes scanned the area, ensuring that nothing was going to jump out at them, and weapon stood at the ready.

The Master Sergeant crossed her arms under her bust and leaned against a bullet riddled wall, deep in thought as she watched the green marine gingerly turn the bullet riddled young woman over, the other Cat kneeling down opposite from him. Hearing Mark cut himself off, she briefly raised an eyebrow at him. "Hold your horses Marine. We keep on going like we did, and we'll end up like her," the woman nodded at Emi. The Neko was limp as he turned her over, and having done so, they could all see the blood soaked white shirt she wore. The hollow point rounds that every Nepleslian loved were evenly spaced over her chest, leaving five puckered holes punched through her once flawless skin. "And that's if we don't accidentally shoot each other either," Ylfa added. The woman shook her head when Max raised a point however. "Nope. Kelly, you mind?"

"The Independent Worlds League has been trying to get revenge, but being pacifists, we Freespacers kinda suck at this stuff," the female automaton explained. "It's kinda why I left. I'm actually pretty shocked they finally did something," she shrugged. Ylfa's eyebrows both rose at that before settling down.

"I wish I agreed Stones," the Sergeant replied to Wulfe, the marine managing to easily find a few more batteries for his pistol. Bending over, Ylfa casually made to do the same, like someone picking vegetables from a garden. "Mayumi. I'd like to grab better gear, but we'd probably never make it, and Freia's probably dead set on acting like a bulldog protecting a box of kittens. Even getting back to our ship's going to be a long way, so where's the nearest escape pod?" The raven haired Neko's cheeks didn't even flush at the casual insinuation, but what she did say was unpleasant.

"Level two of this Habitat Module along with its bridge," she explained. "There's probably more enemies the higher we go too; they're probably all there, taking hostages or trying to get intel. And since our Goddess isn't speaking to us, they probably did something at level four, where she's at." It was bad news all around, and Ylfa's scowl just deepened as it got worse - they were at level six.

"Any of you apes got an idea? I got one, but it's a bit crazy, even for me," she admitted solemnly.

"St-upid....V-virgin," Emi whimpered.

"Hey, come on, don't be like that." Terrence responded surprisingly casually. However, he was quick to respond to the situation he was facing. He examined Emi's back, looking for exit wounds. "Mayumi, you know the ship model, right? Where the Hell's the medical bay?" Of course, the marine doubted the doctors were still alive. Unless these terrorists needed more medical supplies and personnel, they probably wouldn't bother leaving the surgeons on this ship alive. Regardless, there would still be supplies that Kelly might be able to work with to deal with Emi's wounds.

"All my ideas involve blood frenzies, blowing shit up, and shooting motherfuckers in the face while yelling like some old action movie star. I hope you have something better than that but I'm not opposed to high explosives and shooting things in the face, it's almost therapeutic in a way," Mark said while checking his ammo for his weapons before kneeling in the hall to steady his aim so he'd be ready in case of an ambush.

"Either way, the sooner we leave this hell hole the better even if I have to follow you into another one sometime later. You know, maybe I should have gotten a safer job. I already fought one war," Mark said reflectively. He knew what he was getting into when he signed up to fight in the infantry but it wouldn't of hurt to get a much more relaxed job. Selling guns or fast food or both didn't seem like a terrible alternative when faced with getting shot, or blown up, or stabbed, or all three. Unfortunately his life would of been a lot more boring.

Richard opened the door in the north west seeing another Habitat zone that did not look remotely as bad off as their own has ended. "It looks like things went a little better to the west of us, still bad though as far as I can tell." He collected some more ammunition for his HAS. He listened to the plan as it was spoken and what everyone was going to try to do, but something stuck out to him.

"Top, if they're after Yamatai, wouldn't they shoot down any escape pods from the station with what ever ship brought them here? I can't imagine they'd be willing to just let people through."

Rachael pauses a moment and looks down at the ground at Richards words. "I doubt they'd have the mentality to think there may not be Yam's in the pods, so they'd probably blow us up on principal... I doubt the IWL cares what exactly they blow up anyway.." She kicks the ground a bit and kept a look out for any NSP magazines she could use, finding one she picks it up and stays focused, she wanted to make it out of here alive, she didn't come this far to die on a bloody Yam ship. "We might be fucked either way..." She sighs a bit more.

Wulfe remained silent, walking over the corpses in the hallway while he searched for more ammo. "The sooner we get our PA's the sooner we'll be combat effective, sergeant," he said, staring once again at the body of the neko that had died earlier, despite being cut in half by an enemy robot before that. The marine kept an eye on the back of the hallway, securing the perimeter while the rest of the marines scavenged the body.

For better or worse, Terrance could see that the bullets she was hit with didn't punch through. Slapping his hands out of the way however, Mayumi grabbed Emi's top and tore it apart in a single swift tug, one of the bloody buttons bouncing off of the Nepleslian's face as she did so. "It's a station Neppy. And medical is all the way down at seventeen and eighteen, while we're at six," the Neko reminded Terrance. With the wounds exposed and easier to work with, she grabbed the 'medical supplies' laying around nearby. It was a severed arm that she started squeezing and wringing for blood over Emi's wounds.

"If they had a ship, they'd do the E-Z thing and hit the station. Maybe even ram it," Kelly pointed out to Richard and Rachael. "Sledge Mama's a big, mean bitch that won't stand for that, so I don't think they got a ship. Meaning that we're lucky," she told them. "Probably." The pause on her part had to be deliberate. Listening to her marines speak, Ylfa watched as the fake blood dripped down onto Emi's chest. If she and the others didn't know what to look for, they wouldn't notice the way the red fluid just happened to pool in just the right way over the bullet holes.

"Kelly's probably right, given her background. We're lucky. Even then, I'm of the same mind as some of my marines. I'd rather fight. I know that in order to get back to the Sledge Mama, we gotta go up to deck four so we can get on the transit system leading to the beanstalk, and then go down that." She shook her head. "There's no way we'd get that far on our own, and the other marines still on the ship are probably tied to it with red tape, so we're on our own. That means, we do it the Nepleslian Way - where's the Power Armor?" the Master Sergeant asked with a sharp toothed grin.

"Normally? Level six and seven. We crammed it all into level seven since we got the sims here," she explained. "I'm guessing they expected to hit a power armor bay here, but got us instead." Before the raven haired Neko finished, Ylfa was already at the elevator.

"Come on you dumb apes!" Grabbing the emergency handle, the woman forced the door open, revealing the shaft beyond. "You wanna live forever?"

They'd have to traverse the shaft and work their way down through the zero-g shaft. If there was an enemy watching, they'd be locked own and unable to proceed further, and worse still, if they were caught right as they were all inside, it'd be a shooting gallery. But, the reward was as big as the risk; the promised power armors weren't Made in Nepleslia, but they were still power armors. Ones they could possibly use to take the fight right back to the enemy. But, with the way Ylfa was gung-ho was about shoving the IWL's shit in, she didn't seem to plan anything for Emi either.

But, from the traditional Nepleslian perspective, wasn't she just another cat?

Well, Terrence isn't a traditional Nepsleslian in that regard.

Terrence got worried with the bullets that were certainly lodged in Emi's upper body. He'd heard of it before, bullets that punctured through the body only to hit shoulder blades and bounce back in. Then there was those nasty motherfuckers who expanded and tore up more tissue. Negative attitudes like that weren't going to make the Neko any better, so the Nep glanced around the surrounding area for something to help with, not paying any attention to the lack of a shirt and the button popping him. However, he did notice Mayumi picking up an arm. He gawked at her with an eyebrow raised, but he wasn't going to say anything. "Sure, she knows more about Nekos than I do, on account of bein' one, but surely an arm isn't goin' to help Emi get bett- OH, HOLY SHIT." That was... Unexpected, to say the least. As it were, the blood from the arm was clotting Emi's wounds, which would help with the whole bleeding issue. Terrence was impressed, he hadn't heard of this kind of stuff. "I gotta learn more about Nekos when I get back to the Sledge Mama." He thought with an astonished look on his face. "So, uh, that's pretty cool, Mayumi. Is there anything else we can do to improve her chances?"

Mark sighed as he watched Ylfa. "Well Top, a shred of a chance is better than waiting up here for more to arrive," he said walking over to the elevator. "If there was a way to cut the oxygen to the immediate area we'll be arriving at it might possibly make it easier. Anyway, what exactly is this plan of yours?" Mark replied. He knew that people need to breath air but it slips his mind sometimes that not everyone has built in O2 tanks.

Richard wondered a moment at Kelly's words, if they didn't have a ship who let them in so easily, but that was a problem for another time. Hearing Ylfa he grinned a bit. "I'm not too much one for fighting, but I really don't like running away from some guys that thought they could get the drop on us and get away with it. I just hope Yam armor isn't too small." Seeing that his direction was clear for now he closed the door, just in case, before anything saw them and went to head back to the group, looking down the shaft a moment.

"Anyone got cybernetic legs? Maybe just drop right now down and land on your feet and pry the doors open? Then we can repel in commando style."

"No plan survives contact with the enemy dude. Richard if you're not one for fighting, you picked the wrong line of work." commented Max as he moved closer to Emi. "Top if we're bringing her with us I suppose I don't mind carrying her. She did sorta save me back there. Another question is, when we make it to the armor bay and suit up, wouldn't it be feasible for us to EVA our way back to the Sledge?"

Mayumi's feline ears flicked back as she fought to wring more out of the severed limb. "Hai. You could clear the station for us," she remarked, the sarcastic suggestion spoken as seriously as possible. A single laugh from Ylfa cut him off from saying anything else for the moment however.

"You can stop staring at her and get moving scrub!" she called out to Terrance. When Mark spoke up however, she put her hands at her hips. "C'mon marine, you can't think cutting the O2 would stop those tin cans, do you?" she asked him, a finger pointed at the still smoking Militant on the floor. "If we did that, it'd be just you, me and Kelly. Last I checked, that's bad unless that's what you're after," Ylfa mischievously grinned. Walking over to Richard however, she threw an arm over his shoulders and brought the young man close to herself. Very close. Cushy close. "Richard, Richard, Richard," the Master Sergeant began, walking over to the open elevator shaft. "Sometimes, you need to take a - "

"L3AP!" Kelly suddenly shoved him in.

"We probably won't bring Emi with us Private - it might destabilize her, and she'd be dead weight too," Ylfa turned back to face Max. Behind her, Richard was floating in mid-air as the faceless robot-girl hopped into the Zero-G shaft with him, giggling. "Besides, I think Mayumi will be staying with her, and there's the room full of other Cats that our Fearless Freia is guarding, right?" she asked, the Neko in question grimly nodded back. Looking at Richard again, she tilted her head. "Huh. So they're either incompetent or are short on personnel. Both if we're lucky - there's nobody posted in the shaft to shoot people trying to go through it," Ylfa observed. "Honestly, Carter? We could take that easy way out, but I'd rather take the fight to them for our own dead boys and girls." Grabbing Richard by the ankle with her bad hand and giving him a gentle shove down, she leaped in herself.

"Well marines? Move it!"

Terrence nodded, giving Emi some space when he felt like she would be fine. He turned to Freia and gave her a nod of respect. "I would appreciate that, ma'am." He stated. He was going to say something about debt, but that was probably a bad idea with someone like her. She'd probably make him... Scrub her unit's latrines or something, I don't know. Regardless, the colonist quickly followed after Richard. "Yes, Master Sergeant." He allowed his momentum to take him to the other side of the shaft and used the wall to stop himself. He trained his revolver on the bottom of the shaft, but he inwardly wondered how using projectiles in a zero-g environment was a good idea, and it showed on his face. Regretfully, he stowed his revolver and pulled out Ylfa's holdout pistol from earlier. Maybe energy beams would fare better in zero-g. He intended to wait on everyone else to go before him, as he didn't want them to get antsy and think he was going to block their fields of fire again. Besides, as stated before, his combat effectiveness was down thanks to the damage to his hand.

Richard kind of sensed something was coming when Ylfa put his arm around him, but he did not expect to be pushed into the elevator shaft. To his surprise, a pleasant one at that, the elevator shaft was zero gravity and he did not go plummeting to his death at comedic expense. He had planned to say a cool line about it either being marines or jail time to Max, but after nearly screaming like a child there was no way to say such a dramatic line without getting laughed at.

"Wait you weren't sure that no one would start firing?! You at least knew it was zero-g right?" Part of him did not want to know the answer to that question, if she did not know then they were okay with him getting severely injured, if they did they just wanted to play a nasty joke on him. Either way he straightened himself up and glanced to Max as he descended.

"Let's just say...I didn't have many options."