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

Mark could tell that his squirming was getting him nowhere. Taking several deep breaths, Mark tried to relax as best he could with the impending threat of getting crushed by a bug. Having very little time to think, he went back to his original plan that got him into this mess and fired several rockets at the TASHA before firing his thrusters and redoubled his efforts of escape by mass flailing.

Tatianna was taken aback by everyone's headlong rush into the flying Tasha. She had to physically shake her self to bring her back to the action. Knowing that she really wasn't the type to run face first into danger she got up and started running around looking for any kind of opening to exploit with her missle launcher. At least she could contribute in some way.

When Terrence looked up and noted the TASHA's underbelly staring right at his face, the color drained from his face under his helmet. His eyes widened when he also noticed Mark under the thing already, the large Marine being harassed by hands coming from the walker. He once again kicked away from the edge of the pit, but instead of going down, he activated his thrusters and blasted backwards. He bit down on his lower lip when he placed the LASR into his shoulder and fired as he landed and slid along the deck, aiming at the base of where the hands were originating. He took the opportunity to fire three missiles at the TASHA's face to distract it from the... Ahem, the individuals that were charging directly into the upper portion of the titanic war machine. "Rip it's fuckin' circuits out!" The colonist shouted at them as he receded into the background, firing concentrated bursts into the belly of the beast.

It all came down to their split second decisions and all that happened in just a few heartbeats.

Without a moment to lose, the floor burned as a whirlwind came to life around Rachael, her thruster-wash incinerating what little paperwork remained as she leaped into the air. Slamming into it's crumbling armored hide, the marine was almost crushed by the sheer force, and could even feel the hemosynth of her suit stiffen to protect her from the impact. Which budged it's fall. For Mark, that was all he needed! As a limb slipped out of its grasp, mini-missiles spewed out of his launchers and engulfed them in flame. Though his shields were weakened, it was what he needed; heavy fusion thruster burning fast, he broke free, making to land nearby. But just as he got away, Richard and Quentin did the exact opposite and closed!

As Richard pressed his shield against its armored hide and made for the cannon as fast as he could in the heartbeat of contact they had, a wide, torch-like blade of pure white flame erupted from Quentin's wrist. Howling with fury as the air itself was literally consumed and spewed back out as heat and light by the Aether, the edge bit. As though a massive blow-torch had been taken to it, armor boiled and vaporized on contact in a wide swath as the limb was utterly savaged mid-air. Down below, Terrance watched as the others closed in mid-air.

Seeing an opportunity, Tatiana was easily able to get an angle on its rear. As she fired several shots into its exposed back, smoke billowed out of its hull as a fire started. Max chased after it along with the others, but swung around as it fell and unloaded everything he had into the leg he hit earlier. Weakened by the incendiary paste, his shoulder-cannon plowed into the Yamataium plating like it was clay and tore chunks away, exposing the Zesuaium under-layer; pulling the trigger as fast as his plasma rifle would let him, the rounds burned through the adamant armor, damaging the leg. Terrance opened up as well, firing his rifle and following up with a few missiles himself, a pair of arms tumbling out of the smoke and fire above. From his spot, the young man watched as his shots impacted against the softer underbelly and ate into the armor. And found himself with a not-so-itsy-bitsy-spider about to land right on his head. Running, then leaping out of the way as it tried to change course and chase him down, he literally bounced as it landed just a few feet behind him, the station floor crumpling.

Their assault bought Terrance just enough leeway to survive.

Slammed and jostled by the impact, Rachael and Quentin were sent flying back a few meters, with Mark there in arms reach of them. Even then, Richard managed to cling on top by sheer luck. Activating his own weapon, an edge of pure blue-white ignited from the wrist of his armor. Slashing down, he managed to cutting into and damaging the armored cannon as it rose, its legs and arms clambering after Terrance. With the marines this close, cutting into its hide, it did the unthinkable. A massive blast floored each and sent every single one of the marines close by flying as it fired its damaged cannon, knocking down their shields to zero. Their vision spinning and ears ringing, they could see the TASHA laying there on the floor, it's main cannon turned into a molten banana peel.

And then it started to rise on shaky legs, the infernal gatling spinning up to slowly point at Terrance.

"Rush it! Rush it now!" Ylfa yelled at them all, sprinting forward to close in and execute it point-blank.

Quentin had no sheilds, battered armor, and was high on adrenaline. It took very little to make him think beins as close as possible to the spider was the best place to be. He fired the aether cannon as he stood up, and shot forward with the thrusters, Working to close in and slice off the spiders limbs with the aether blades like a sadistic toddler.

Richard had figured himself fortunate when he managed to stay on top of the TASHA, but after the blast he kind of wished he had been knocked away earlier. He pulled himself up after the black and groaned his shields too most of the blast but it was still disorienting. Hearing the order to charge the hulk he rushed back in deploying he blade once more and jumped at the hull stabbing into it as best he could. He kept thrusting, trying to hit the power supply or a main power line and shut the walking tank down as quickly as possible.

After putting a good distance between himself and the TASHA, Terrence rolled back and popped up, though he nearly tripped due to the velocity he had been moving along at. "That looked cooler in my head." That thought was quickly disregarded as the colonist looked up in time to see the war machine wasn't quite done with him yet, as it now aimed a really big gun at his figure. His eyebrow twitched as he heard Ylfa call for a full-out assault on the thing. "Aw, fuck it!" He replied as he dashed forward, erratically as to avoid taking some Aether right to the face. As he drew closer, he would fire his mini-missiles thrice at the weapon currently threatening his existance to give the TASHA more to deal with, however much more that could add to the chaos of a large group of Marines jumping the thing. The plan was to attempt to scale the TASHA's fore and start fucking up it's shit by ripping off panels and shooting into the circuits... "Or something like that, I don't know how this- SHIT WORKS!"

Moving in fast, the marines tore at every single inch of the TASHA they could get to.

Rising to his feet, Quentin fired his the Aether cannon again; the column of light collided with armored hull and annihilated the Zesuaium plate from existence. Thick black smoke billowed out from where he struck it as flames started to rise from inside. Not stoping there the marine's Mindy flew forward without a noise as white hellfire burst from its wrist. Closing in, hacking and slashing at a leg, he watched as layers of armor were practically wiped away by the constantly dissipating edge. Machinery and hydraulics locked up moments before they were exposed and burned out, the spider mech quickly losing its balance.

Richard's fusion thrusters ignited and quickly lifted him off the ground. Soaring through the air as the TASHA flailed below, he practically pounced on its back. Boots firmly hammering into its hull as the machine underneath tried to buck him off, the marine stayed steady and lit his plasma projector before bringing it down into its hide. His hands clutched onto the remains of an autocannon as he rode it like bull, the electric-blue blade melting through armor and hull into the systems below. He could hear belts of shells cooking off inside as compressed tanks of air for its plasma cannon vented and ruptured.

Despite the threat, Terrance dove headfirst into danger. Missiles streaking out of his suit's launchers, the young marine could almost swear he could hear the metallic clack of the warheads striking the war-machine before they exploded. Diving into the fiery light and darkening smoke, arm outstretched, he grasped onto the first thing he could and pulled. His suit's muscles straining against him as the spider tried to pull away, the ruined quad-barreled gatling tore; defenseless without the frontal shields, the missiles struck like lightning. Seeing a chance, Terrance stabbed his rifle forward into the gap and squeezed, a torrent of rounds flooding into the interior and tearing it apart from the inside.

Like a swarm, the marines had closed in for the kill. Cannons fired into the weakened, sluggish mech's joints, knocking them loose and tearing the legs out of their sockets while rifles were emptied into every nook and cranny they could find. Throughout all this, the TASHA relentlessly struggled, its dying limbs flailing about before a burst of brilliantly bright white light shone from within. The small explosion threw Richard off as the upper half of the machine flipped end over end before landing on the ground like a great, giant saucer with a broken handle.

Swarming it like ants, they finally killed it.

Terrence clutched to the TASHA tightly as it fell, grunting when it finally tipped over and died. It didn't register for a moment as he stared at the piece of hull he was clinging to, as if waiting for it to resurrect for one final scare. Eventually, his grip started to loosen and he flipped over, lying with his back to the hull. His breathing was haggard, and he was pretty sure he had torn up his throat slightly, but he was alive. No, better than alive, victorious. The colonist shot up, rifle in one hand as he felt the exhilaration shoot through his body, wiping away the exhaustion in his body for just this moment. "For the Imperium!" Although rather overt, the Marine's cry did not waver as he began the fist-pumping vigorously, evidently drunk on the achievement that he and the rest of his squad shared. Suddenly feeling like fool, Terrence slid down the side of the hull and sat against it, watching the breach in the wall where the sounds of another firefight raged. The exhaustion came back as he continued to breathe deeply, replacing the magazine he had spent in rendering the TASHA inoperable. Despite that, his morale was bursting through the ceiling, a big grin on his face under the helmet.

Quentin stood staring at the machine for just a moment longer, half tempted to take another shot with the aether cannon-just to be safe. But half the spider was on the other side of the room, so it was safe to say there wouldn't be much to worry about. With nothing trying to kill, crush, and/or destroy him and his new squad, he cackled somewhat maniacally, picking up the LASR once again, and walking back over to the not as crazy people that didn't rush the spider with blades made of FIRE.

"Damn, that was something."

Tatianna was actually embarrassed she didn't take her chance to bring the thing but down. She was still psyched regardless. " Holy shit that was awesome!" Was about all she could say before plopping down on her ass from exhaustion.

Rachael slowly came down from her action high, and took a deep breath. She slowly sat down and groaned before slowly looking around opening up communications. "...Is everyone alright?" She stated almost quietly before remembering something, she forced herself to stand and moved over towards where she last saw Briggs, the guy was breathing last she saw, but there was a chance he wasn't now. Maybe, however, just maybe he was alright.

Richard picked himself up once more and let out a sigh. Some how they had managed to take out the spider mech and things were looking up. If it were a movie though a second foe would've shown up to assault them while they were weakened, so Richard quickly looked around to make sure they were in the clear. "That...was definitely not what I signed up for...is there some kind of 'that was above my pay grade' bonus? I would like to know where to apply."

Max deactivated his plasma projectors as he jump down off the burning hulk of the Tasha. "Down came the marines and wiped the spider out" hummed Max to himself, making up a rather morbid take on a kids nursery rhyme. Catching his breath he surveyed the carnage. It was an impressive amount of damage but they had made it. If they could make it through this, perhaps they could make it through anything. "So Sarge what's next?"

With the TASHA destroyed, its remains strewn across the ground in front of them, the marines could feel themselves basking in a golden glow of satisfaction. Or, it could have been a bit of heat from the fire permeating their suits. Still, it was always a milestone in a person's life to kill something like this for the first time, and even for those that have done it before, something worth weight. With their exclamations of amazement and awe came a cold voice on their heels.

"Not really," Ylfa quickly stifled Quentin and Tatiana. Unlike before, where she joked around with them, her tone was flat and to the point; she wasn't happy in the slightest. "There's bigger things out there, especially with the Mishhu," the Master Sergeant explained to them, quickly striding away from the squad and towards where they initially entered the room. As though both she and Rachael had the same idea, the woman was already making her way over to the wounded in their squad. "And no again," she dispassionately added, glancing over the wrecked power armor that laid on the floor. With multiple suit breaches and a good portion of the thin armor simply destroyed, they could all see the pulsating, translucent red flesh of the Daisy which grew out and into the pilot. "Kelly, strip the suit of as much weight as possible and teleport Briggs to the medical bay at the module we were on earlier," she ordered the Freespacer.

"As long as I get to come back and actually kill something worthwhile!" the machine-girl replied. Kneeling down, she was careful not to disturb the grievously wounded marine as her hands got to work with mechanical precision. "Haha! In your dreams Richie! Someone in the Corps thought it'd be really funny to include a section in the sign-up sheets specifically addressing giant robots, monsters and stuff like that. We're obligated to kill them if they're in our way." Being a machine, it wasn't hard to imagine Kelly literally scanning the documents, if not outright downloading them during an electronic signing. "The only break we get is with special monsters called 'Kaiju'; if they're not attacking us and the cats are too stubborn to ask for help, we just let them wreck Yamatai!~" she added with far too much glee.

They soon realized why.

Through the breech in the wall, they could hear the ongoing fight with clarity now that their own battle was over. They could all hear gunfire. Explosions. And screams. Not the typical screams of gusto and rage, or even pain. This was far too sharp, like nails on a chalkboard. These were screams of horror. Whatever was going on, the Star Army Mindies on the other side were in deep shit. They knew the Neko were playful little kittens, but they had a job to do, and did it well enough. However, whatever was happening here was something else entirely. Ylfa was ahead of them, and was standing near the hellmouth, drone deployed as the occasional stray round whizzed by.

"Shit!" Leaping out of the way, a lone Mindy flew through the air and bounced across the ground, its pilot finding safety in the observatory. "They stopped looking - check that pilot before they remember we're here!"

The Mindy began to stand, stabilizing itself before looking up at the other marines. The armor was roughed up, but still in fairly good shape. The Mindy Pilot checked his weapon systems before looking at the others, while PANTHEON NSDs docked in the small hangars in his upper thighs.

"Finally, good old Nepleslians! I'm Private 3rd Class Vaikon, Nepleslian Marine. And...what the hell is that thing?" said the pilot, looking at the huge, wrecked spider while he adjusted his helmet.

Quentin nodded at Yifa's comment and contained himself to some small degree, triple checking his supples again. Half a clip in the LASR? Would still be a waste to just swap out... Then he heard the screams, and the flying pilot made its grand entrance. Vaikon? sounds familiar. Shrugging off the vauge feeling of recognition, the giant shrugged at Vaikon's question and said "Well, I can say for sure it's a lot less of a problem than it was about a minute ago, so more importantly, what was making the cats sing those high notes over there?"

As he talked he had been walking, eventually stopping near Tatiana. "Oh hey, you okay down there? You sure look comftorable." he said a bit jokingly, before glancing back to the breach, and hearing those screams.

Vaikon grinned behind his helmet. He recognized that voice. He had only heard a little bit of it before, but it wasn't one you forgot. Especially when the owner of that voice beat the crap out've you.

"Quentin? Heh, never thought I'd see you again. But that's beside the point. There's a whole bunch of upgraded Militants on that side," he said, pointing at where he had come from, "but there's something...I can't explain it really. It's like a Cyber-Neko of some sort. And it's fucking terrifying. When it attacked, the Nekoes that were with me starting freaking."

Mark laid on the ground where he landed and had no intention of getting up. Even when a power armor clad person came flying into the observatory all he was willing to do was turn his head to look in the general direction of the new comer.

"That's real nice and all new guy but if it's got the cats worried that means I'd quite like to go and shoot it in the face after I catch my breath," Mark declared before shifting his gaze to look at the ceiling. Wrestlin' with that thing wore him out a bit and he could tell that he was going to be sore in the morning.

Vaikon nodded, looking at Mark. "Yeah, you sure your up for it? You don't look so good. None of you do, to be honest. I suppose I wouldn't be either after killing that...thing. But whichever one of you is Nepleslian and has the highest rank around here, I'm yours. Nice to have some Nepleslians for a change."

Vaikon looked around, observing the TASHA but also looking at the other members. This was his first deployment, and it sure was a lively one. Maybe he'd earn all that honor and prestige he had dreamed about a little bit sooner in this screwed up, mess of a galaxy.