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

Finished clearing his vision, Terrence set down his rifle to aim down into the automated Daisies' path, checking his magazine again out of habit. "Hey, man, I'm a majestic eagle, not a bulldozer. Gunnery Sergeant's already got someone on it, just keep those suits down until he can finish!"

"This is fucking great!" Max thought as he sprinted down the hall with the horde close behind. Reaching the atrium he turned to see a mass of hostiles approaching. He glanced over to see the FNG finally following orders for once. Turning around, he took aim at a mass of daises approaching him. Raising his plasma rifle, toggling his missiles and guass cannon, he let loose with a volley of missiles and a trio of quick shots from his cannon followed by lots of hot plasma from his rifle. "COME GET SOME!!!!!" He screamed as he poured suppressive fire down the hallway, hopefully slowing down the mass long enough for Stenos to get the door open. There were certainly way too many of them to fight straight up and not he was wishing that they hadn't got into that firefight earlier. But those were the cards they got dealt and now they had to play.

The moment Quentin sliced through the elevator doors, he found himself looking at an empty shaft. Cautiously looking in however, he could see the elevator car itself just a few floors above, blocking their route up. As the squad dug in, Kelly grumbled over the comms at Terrance, "You're not an eagle yet Marine - you didn't kill that one and got yourself stuck on it."

"A cat can hold her breath for 10 minutes in space before she's dead, but she can't survive autocannon rounds, so don't count on them" Ylfa added. Having flown through the hallways, they had left the shambling masses behind, but not for long. Unable to even hear their approach in the airless vacuum , the marines had to wait in silence. Right up until the first armor stepped into view, quickly followed by the rest of the group that most women seemed to travel in. "Let them have it!" Stepping into the main hall in front of them from seemingly every side passage, their numbers grew as faster than they could kill them. With their sheer numbers, the marines couldn't even tell who was shooting what.

Rifle fire sprayed the oncoming mass down, shields flickering and flashing as depleted uranium shells smashed into their bodies like a fist punching through steel. However, Tatiana found her magazine running dry; reaching to reload, the thick thighs of her armor sprang open to reveal several magazines at the ready. Grabbing a fresh one, she tossed its predecessor aside and slapped it into place before firing again as Takahiro's rifle clicked dry. Lances of light accompanied her shots as others added to the fray, boiling away metal and sliced through limbs, the crowd raising their arms and firing back, advancing over their fallen. At the same time, the decorative stone bricks in front of the marines cracked and burst as bolts of energy struck them, flowers and plants instantly turning to ash. Their shields flickered and flared as the occasional round struck them, but the trunk of the Sakura tree was flamelessly turning to ashes and giving away. Max's missiles streaked into the advancing mass just as air suddenly rushed back into the station with a screaming hiss. The jets of air refilling the room, sakura petals began to slowly fall to the floor from above.

Right as explosions furiously hammered their ears and swept across the oncoming crowd as they properly heard again for the first time since coming to the station. As Kelly kept firing both her aether weapons into the main hall, Ylfa quickly turned her rifle to the right side passage as a pair of enemy armors came out of the side passage, far closer than the main crowd. Shattering the first one with a long burst of her rifle followed by both cannons booming at once, she yelled, "They're coming from the right side now!", three more quickly coming in after the first two. "Miller, what's taking so long?!" the Sergeant shouted back at him, a lucky burst stitching across her shields.

And then they heard it. Off in the distance, explosions could be heard as their helmet displays started coming to life. The odd, lined figures of Yamataian text started streaming in as points were marked all across the station.

"It's the cats! They're teleporting in!" the Freespacer told them as the sakura blossoms fell.

"Aw, come on, Kelly, don't bust my balls! You gotta admit, that was pretty cool!" Terrence replied excitedly, before returning to the business at hand. He fired as quickly as the rest of them, aiming for the torso in the hopes that his rifle fire would fare better against the enemy's armor than his wrist-blade. He cursed at the warning that the enemy suits were starting to flank them. "Fuck! Displacin'! Up, up, and away!" He yelled back as he hit the switch, moving in a jet-pack fashion over to another peripheral position to help cover the now open right flank. He landed clumsily, still not quite used to this feature in his suit, but quickly laid down his rifle on top of his new position and fired away, thinking of what his superhero colors would be. "Green and white, of course!"

Richard was having trouble keeping track of all the different directions the battle was going, were it not for the IFF systems he would have likely shot his own team by now. He quickly emptied the few remaining bullets in his magazine before fore sending 2 missiles form each pod down the path on the right, wanting to stall them at least to get the squad a bit more time to react to them. As the missiles hurtled forward, he quickly reloaded his weapon.

The markers that appeared all over his HUD suddenly were confusing, but Kelly's outburst made things more clear. The words were likely more IFF identifications, but they weren't there to help out the Sledge Mama crew at that moment, so they still had to take care of things themselves. He leveled his rifle at the hall on the right and laid down a constant stream of fire, wanting to get at least get rid of a suit or two on his own.

Rachael found herself focused more than she ever had been focused before. Shooting down the enemy one by one, soon her ammo ran dry and she pulled up another from her thighs before letting loose another barrage. She was so focused on the enemy that she almost didn't see the new lettering coming across her HUD announcing that the pussy cats were teleporting in. She, for one, didn't care. She quickly resumed shooting the enemies and when Richard turned her gaze turned towards the way he was facing, however she kept shooting the enemy infront of them. "Fucking rats...an infestation..."

Tatianna kept firing into the on coming hoard she was running out of ammo this couldn't go on forever, but she stayed focused and kept putting precise shots into the shambling masses. When she realized that reinforcements were coming she let out a sigh of relief until she realized where they were from "FUCK! The cats? No fucking fair this was our win!"

Quentin started moving as soon as he saw the obstacle, intent on removing it from the path. Flying directly upwards and moving to a 'standing' position on the wall of the shaft, he started quickly cutting a hole a bit more than double the size needed for the larger armors to pass through into the elevator. he finished right about the time the atmosphere came back in, dodging the falling piece of metal as it clanged along down the sides of the shaft. "Sorry ma'am, there was an obstruction... wait atmosphere is coming back in AND cats are teleporting in? I feel like they are trying to give us surprise chemotherapy... any way the way is almost clear if you don't count the roof of the elevator or the doors." He couldnt see what was happening but the addition of the atmosphere letting sound travel around once again, plus the chatter on the comms made it clear that there were a lot of enemies down there. Quentin contemplated leaving a copious amount of explosives to block the way for the daisies to follow before reminding himself that not all yammy suits could fly like a UFO.

"There better be free alcohol and smokes at the end of this shit," Mark yelled over the comms as he fired a couple of missiles into the growing hoard of PAs. Turning to the right he opened up with the cannon and LASR at the nearest of flanking armors. "If you haven't noticed I don't think we were going to win on our own in the first place," he replied to Tatianna whilst reloading and maneuvering for a better position before returning fire down the side passage.

Things in no way looked good from Mark's perspective, even with the cats coming to the rescue. It was ludicrous but there was no way he was going to stop. A lot of men died today and he didn't plan on joining them any time soon. Without further time to think, he settled on firing five more missiles into the hallway to get some nice explosions to coincide with the LASR and 50 fire.

Wisteria Station
Command Module
Engineering: Level Six

"5@38$90&@21!!!! - ! " Garbled static and random beeps streamed over their comms before Kelly's voice could be clearly heard again - "Terrance, you autist! You're going to give m3 @ f33db@ck l00p!" The young man had fired a burst into the main hall, cutting the legs out from under a walker and forcing it into a crawl at them before his suit's thrusters kicked in. Rapidly moving, he jetted over Rachael's head before he landed behind another one of the raised flower beds. Bringing his rifle to bear, the weapon hammered away in his hands as he pulled back the trigger, cutting down the shields of an enemy Daisy, only for it to suddenly run dry! A quartet of missiles streaked in after Richard emptied his magazine into the main hall, briefly covering them in smoke and fire and knocking Terrance's target onto the ground.

As it got back up, both Richard and Terrance ejected the spent magazines from their rifles, the suits doing the same and opening up their thigh compartments for them to draw out another magazine. The two, rising out of their cover, opened up with their fresh rifles, chewing through armor plate to core one of the Daisies in a fiery blue burst before and tearing the arm off another with their sheer volume of combined fire. Mark joined the two and took aim with everything he had, only for the rifle in his hands to spit out a single round and click dry. Thinking fast, his shoulder mounted cannon boomed as he reloaded, the massive slug smashing into the third flanking Daisy before several of his mini-missiles streaked in. Shattered, it collapsed on the floor as the fourth began to claw its way forward on its hands.

Mark needed to reload!

Completely in the zone, Rachael methodically made every single bullet count as she burned through her magazine and reloaded, firing again into the main hall. One after another fell, but the approaching horde was firing back as well, and the sakura tree she was hiding behind suddenly groaned. Tatiana was right - they couldn't keep this up, and the fact her rifle suddenly ran dry, clicking in her hands, seemed to be trying to tell her the very same thing. Suddenly, wood splintered as its trunk split, the entire tree falling forward and showering the air with its petals as its canopy obscured their line of fire.

Just as Quentin cleared the way!

"Marines, put out covering fire as you fall back into the elevator and fly up! Get to level four and go for the computer room!" Ylfa shouted at them. Turning, she rose out of cover just enough to bring both her cannons to bear and began hammering away, non stop. Booming, left-right-left-right-left-right, the Master Sergeant was rapidly burning through her ammo to lay down the suppression the rest of the squad needed to flee. Kelly did the same, but what her Mindy's shoulder cannons fired was nothing like the white lance Quentin had made before. The beams were widening out the further they went, reacting with the air and wasting its energy; the sakura tree's petals and leaves were instantly vaporized into ash along with all the other flowers and plants as an invisible heat-wave washed through the room, the air itself distorting as her shots sprayed over the horde with little effect.

"Stupid beam bloom!" the Freespacer Girl shouted. "Come on, we're bugging out!" Retreating back, she leaped through the elevator doors and stood on one of the shaft's side walls. In a surreal, almost dreamlike moment, ran up it hopped through the still molten hole in the car. "That one, right there!" she pointed, a pair of doors marked with the unmistakable number four. "They're probably waiting on the other side, so put another charge there for a breach and clear!"

"Uh... A feedback loop?" Evidently, Terrance was not versed in the electronic arts, understandably. Upon the call for a fighting retreat, the colonist rose and fired a burst before retreating five paces. Upon reaching said distance, he turned and fired a burst of suppressing fire and retreated another five paces. Upon putting some distance between his previous position and himself, he proceeded to rush backwards as he provided covering fire, eventually hitting the wall next to the elevator door. Terrence rushed inside and quickly inserted a fresh magazine before rushing back out, crouching to continue to provide suppressing for those that still lingered.

"Got it," Takahiro said, standing up from his covered position and laying down suppressing fire with his 50mm. He slowly backed up toward the elevator, never lifting his finger from the trigger.
Now that he saw the massive numbers moving into the room, he wasn't sure if reinforcements were gonna make much of a difference.

Richard wasted no time getting up when it was time to and began laying down cover fire, though he was shooting with the intent to take some down. He held back at the entrance to the elevator shaft and continued with support fire, giving everyone time to get to the shaft.

Max feel back to the elevator, backpeddling and laying down plasma fire as the rest of the team headed up the shaft. Letting out a constant stream he jumped back and flew up into the small opening as rounds slashed around him. "So the Cats finally show up to take their station back. Better late than never I suppose" Max said sarcastically as he watched the power meter on his weapon rebuild, catching his breath as he looked himself over for damage before doing an ammo count on his Guass Rounds and missiles. Assured that he was ready for the next bout, he prepared to move out before the rest of the horde caught up with them.

Quentin grinned at the prospect of a breach and clear. He was fairly competent with all things 'explosion'. He could make a whisper quiet shaped charge, a fire storm from hell, even makeshift grenades. But turning a door into a lethal projectile never got old. "Yes ma'am." He moved into position, and pulled two packets of the material out along with a detonator. "When all this is over, I think more than a few of us are going to need a nice strong drink."

Rapidly falling back to the elevator door, bursts of automatic fire crackled across shields as lances of plasma hammered against their defenses. Massive slugs were constantly booming away, slamming into their bodies. Takahiro's rifle clicked dry, forcing him to reload before burning through the next, but despite this, the ranks of mechanical undead rapidly closed in as the squad's volume of fire fell, their armored boots stomping over the remains of the fallen as they swept in like a crushing tide. Leaping in and activating their thrusters, the marines each flew up and through the wrecked remains of the elevator car above as several of the hacked Daisies simply kept on coming through the passage. Tumbling down the shaft, their limbs flailed as they fell, only to hit the floor a few stories down. Like lemmings, a few more followed, but the flow soon stopped.

It was the strangest of things, hearing an AI take in a deep breath, but they could hear Kelly do just that as she got ready to reply to Terrance. "An aneurysm. For meat-heads like you, i7's @n @NeuRy$m!" she lashed out at him with her digital tongue. The distant, concussive blasts of the Nekos teleporting in couldn't be heard anymore, but the sounds of battle still rang through the station, muffled by the walls. Max's sarcastic comment managed to draw something surprisingly optimistic however.

"Look on the bright side Private, it's that much less attention on us!" Ylfa reminded Max. Just as Quentin finished planting the explosives however, she nodded to him. "Don't screw this up marines, and drinks are on me - now hit it!" The Yamataian supplied detonator neatly clicked as the explosives tore through the elevator door, their thrusters coming to life as they rushed through the gap. Flying through smoke and dust as they stormed in, the squad came into what was possibly the most expansive section of the station. Dark and glittering, they could see the massive room consisted of several concentric pits ringed with seats and computer consoles at every level as whole worlds, stars and entire systems hung above them. It was the Astrometric Bay. The four closest to them were smaller, and perhaps a few dozen meters across each, and deep enough to easily take cover in. Meanwhile, the fifth, largest one was also the furthest away, and in the distance, almost looked like a small Colosseum descending downwards into the floor.

Most importantly however, were the large holes blasted into the wall to the right nearly a hundred and fifty meters away; from it, they could all hear the sounds of a savage fight raging on and on, and it was also where their navigation markers were pointing them to as well. "Alright marines, we're going to - " A massive metal spider came barreling through the gap and quickly pivoted on its feet, bringing both its massive cannon and underslung gatling gun to bear before Ylfa could finish. "Take cover!"

Spinning up, rapid fire lances of pure white light stabbed through the air and rapidly chewed a path across the ground, straight towards the squad!

Quentin was only mildly disapointed there wasn't something standing close enough to feel the wrath of a door slicing into it as he stepped into the room. the feeling of disapointment quickly shifted to one of intense suprise. "Aw shi-" The words were, for lack of a better term, swept away as the marine focused on avoiding the over compensation cannon, and firing his own, in comparision, entirely underwhelming shoulder cannon mid flight at the spider before throwing himself down into one of the computer pits.

The sounds of the Nekos fighting on other parts of the station still brought Tatianna some comfort even if she would never admit it. She moved into the bay trying to stick to back of the group like always. When the spider charged in she rolled into the same pit that Quentin fell into. "Why the hell do they even have this thing?" She ducked down as one burst of fire flew over her head. When the beam past over she poked her head up and fired off two shots with her shoulder cannon before ducking back into the pit.

Richard couldn't even pretend like he was expecting such a thing to appear, in fact he nearly jumped when it did. "Who the fuck makes a robot spider!?" Of course it didn't give him the time to think on it before it began firing it's gatling gun at them. He wanted to buckle down and try to defend himself but he wasn't sure if the shields would hold out against the thing. Instead he made a quick dash to the side using his thrusters and fired some shots forward, trying to aim at the gatling gun, he wasn't sure if the thing had a shield so he didn't fire anything heavy yet.

"Crab battle!" Terrence shouted as he brought his LASR down to bear. He promptly decided that the trade between his weapon and the giant robot spider's Gatling gun would likely go very poorly. He used his own thrusters to keep up with Richard, firing from the hip, shots being widely distributed across the enemy machine on the off-chance he hit something that would be important. After that quick burst, he would rush to the left of the robot spider and dive into cover in one of the computer pits. "Somebody go around him!" The Colonist shouted as he rose again to fire at the robot spider's Gatling gun, elbow propped on the side of the computer pit to stabilize his fire.