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

Richard stepped out of the elevator and chuckled a little at Emi and Terrance's little performance. However at Mark's remark he lost a bit of that joy. "Hey I gave us the upper hand with that, and I told you guys I was about to do it too." He looked towards Ylfa and sighed, seeing the new hostile sitting there and remembering what his looked like after he got out only made it that much more clear just how much the things got beat up in the fight. His attention turned to Emi afterwards though

"That reminds me, always wanted to ask someone from your place. How did it come about that you guys outlawed gum?"
 
"Hmmm," Emi stared at the young man hard. "You'd better have something a lot better to give me then." Her voice took on a much more mischievous tone as a finger picked at his belt. "Or, maybe you're hiding something from - GAH! STOP!" she cried, a spray bottle opening up on her as Ylfa pulled the trigger.

"Down kitty! It's supposed to be the other way around!" Ylfa let out an explosive sigh before setting the container back down."Really guys? Where's that Oldschool Nepleslian Manliness gone off to?" the buxom woman exclaimed in exasperation, standing up and walking to the other side of the bin so that she could look them all in the eyes as she rummaged. "Catgirls are supposed to be all aloof and superior right up until their panties get melted by our awesomeness! Not practically pin you down and take what they want from you!"

She paused for a moment.

"No offense you two." What she said was playful and obviously meant to only rib them, but it did rib a bit harder than it was meant to. Especially given the fact that Ylfa's smooth, toned form suddenly bulged as her muscles tensed and flexed, veins popping up as a massive piece of Nerimium armor was hefted up and out in a near-deadlift.

Brought to the top of the pile, they could all see that it was horrifically pitted and riddled with holes, with some being shallow like craters on a moon, while others went deep into the ultra-dense alloy. Whatever fire it had taken had gone on long enough that the plate was at one point softened and half-melted from the sheer heat and friction of impact. "Phew. Lifting a quarter ton or so never gets any easier!" The moment she reached in again and placed her old helmet on top of it, they recognized it for what it was - her old chestplate.

"Chewing gum is a barbarously dirty practice," Mayumi pridefully answered Richard from beside Rachael. Coming out of cover that the taller woman offered, it seemed a certain energy had come back to her with the change of topic as she puffed up her chest. "After finishing with it, your people spit it onto the ground and stain our pure white cement with your unclean fluids!"

"That's Yamatai for you. Same with smoking too. Now..." Rubbing her hands together, she spoke eagerly, "A Neko out of armor and a Neko in armor are two different things, and that's where I'll be heading after I get on our own gear first. So, any last words before our lesson really begins? Liam maybe? You've been quiet."

It was hard to tell with the armor bay being properly lit, but they could have sworn her eyes glowed red.
 
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Sawyer continued to rest most of his weight on his cybernetic leg and started looking at the warped chestplate piece. "You're lucky with that Top, last time I took fire like that I almost lost my arm. Ravager's are dangerous as hell no matter what powered armor you're in" he said as he looked at the others in the bay and pondered who would be an asset and who would end up being a liability among the newbies. He knew Simmons from when they served in the 4th AASP and trusted her, the others were relative unknowns since they'd only been on one operation together and it hadn't offered much of a chance to see the others in open field action. He turned to the new female who had joined their squad and nodded a greeting to her before looking at the Nekos and looking at the new stuttery private that had joined them. He decided that at a later point he'd take them aside to give them a short briefing on the facts of military courtesy as they related to NCOs and Staff NCOs.
 
"Land of the free," Wulfe muttered mockingly as he looked around the armor bay. It didn't matter His gaze fell back on Sawyer when the other marine mentioned the Ravager, and the brief image of Ran Rui being crushed inside his armor and then thrown around like a discarded toy during the boarding action with the 4th Fleet briefly crossed his mind. It had been a long time since his last operation, an actual combat at that, in raiding the PUTCo Headquarters in Gartaga, and he longed to be in another fight again, even if the fight was a fake one.
 
"In my defense my pants have not been tampered with." Richard chuckled some and then just to have some fun he pulled out a pack of chewing gum, took a piece and put it in his mouth and started chewing, making sure Mayumi saw him do it. There was something that came to mind in response to her comment about fluids on white surfaces, but he wasn't the kind of person to make a joke like that, so he left the obvious landmine to someone else.

Seeing Ylfa bring up her own chest plate and helm he was rather impressed by the damage that it sustained. He didn't know much about armor or ballistic science but even he could tell some of those were really dangerous even in the Hostile. "We really took a beating out there didn't we?"
 
Terrence's expression turned to a look of pure horror which, undoubtedly, would make Mayumi look spunky. The young man naturally resorted to any innocent colonist's explanation. "M- mah- mah mo- momma says- my momma says th- that-." His incoherent babbling was stopped by the Nepleslian combat support firing water rounds, in which the red-faced chap slipped away and thanked his lucky stars, as well as Ylfa's parents. He stumbled over to Richard, shuddering at the thought of defying one of his mother's major points of dignity by fornicating before he married. Right now, he was just willing to talk about something else. When Terrence turned to look at Richard's face when the other marine spoke, he realized this guy was kind of familiar. "S- say, have we met?" The stutter takes time to go away completely, especially after times of extreme stress, you understand.
 
Richard looked to Terrence as he spoke to him and then thought for a moment. "Hmm...I don't believe so. Well maybe we met at a signing or something? I'm not really sure. But you really shouldn't speak to a guy with lines like that. Sounds like a pick up line, save it for the girl." He chuckled a little at that and then offered him some gum since he still had it out.
 
"Don't tell me that melting panties will end up on me," Lisa said and chuckled, she looked at Emi and gave her a wink. She knew that Mayumi was still in psychical troubles around sexual stuff. Emi though? Who knew. Lisa was never with a neko so it could be fun, that said Emi was POW, so nothing would probably happen with that. But who knows. Maybe the Eart will shake before Emi would have to go wherever they will take her. Lisa still think that captured NMX neko would make good mascot for Sledge Mama though.

The blonde then looked at Terrence. She took a pack of cigarettes from her breast pocket and fished out one. She lit on and put the pack one. "Land of freedom indeed," Lisa replied to Wulfe. She then walked to Terrance and smacked him over the back. "Come on private. Chin up, loose the nerves. You got nothing to worry here and now. Safe the nerves for when Top gets to school us all. Or for squids."
 
Rachael continued to watch the going ons quietly, amused perhaps at the friendliness in the air despite the dangers that were everywhere across the galaxy and universe. She watched Ylfa bring up her chest plate and then looked at the other recruit who was talking to Richard, that other recruit was stuttering quite a bit, he seemed to be nervous or have a tick or something she found this annoying to some degree, to the point that she would find an innate desire to pick on him. However she ignores that desire and just refocuses, trying to ignore the amount of testosterone in the general vicinity and focus on what was before her, she couldn't help but smirk at the Neko getting sprayed, or the panties comment, both amused her greatly.
 
Sawyer dug into his pocket and pulled out a hardcopy notepad, not an electronic datapad but an actual notepad made of tree pulp paper. He started taking notes in a somewhat crabbed handwriting while observing the newbies and pondering the events of the initial assault on the NMX ship. It hadn't been nearly as coordinated or planned as the last ship assault he'd been on. He noted that another former 4th fleet Marine had joined them and remembered that he was the one that had gotten buried when one of the other newbies in their old squad managed to hit a boiler with a red round and detonated it. He gave Wulfe a slight wave before going back to taking his notes and occasionally setting up another doodle/design every few pages to have inscribed on his cybernetic leg and to have other designs for any future replacement parts.
 
Terrence visibly contemplated his apparent memory of Richard before shrugging. "Eh, I'll figure it out later." He muttered a "t- thanks" as he grabbed the gum. He was about to chew on it when suddenly he was getting enthusiastically patted on the back, nearly causing him to choke. "Blegh, I've got plenty to w- worry about, seeing as to how things are going. I'm not nervous anymore, i-it's just the stutter hangs around fer a while." His face turned slightly darker at the mention of the NMX overlords. He looked off to the side as he grumbled darkly. "Fuck the squids. Hell, they don't even deserve the damn courtesy for a reach around afterwards." Terrence cleared his throat, chewing on his gum quietly.
 
"Hmph! Free to be stupid!" Mayumi snapped back, crossing her arms. "Bleeeeh!" As she briefly stuck her tongue out at them, Emi had dried herself off with a terrycloth she pulled out from one of the packs of them left lying around. When Lisa spoke up about not liking Ylfa's idea of how Nepleslian-Nekovalkyra Relations were supposed to go, she rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, whether or not that happens depends on you, or these guys," the white haired Neko replied. The fact that her counterpart blushed at that, wasn't left unnoticed by her either - then again, it seemed it was all Mayumi could do with all these Nepleslians around her!

"Hahaha! I'll take that as a no!" Ylfa laughed at their antics.

"Your mama might have told you to how to be a good boy out there as a civvie, but I'm pretty damn sure she didn't tell you how to be a marine," the Sergeant teased Terrance. Jabbing her thumb at Sawyer, she added, "He's got it half right though. If you're going to keep The Land of the Free the way it is so you can chew bubblegum and kick ass when you run out, you're going to need plenty of luck, and even more killer know-how." She rapped her knuckles on the armor plate that she had stacked up on top. "The Hostile's armor isn't the heaviest thing around, but it's not the lightest either, meaning it can take one hell of a beating. Something small, like the Star Army' Light Armor Service Rifle - which did this mess here - just isn't going to get through the armor if it's all spread out like when those Mishhu Troopers were blind-firing at us," she began to properly explain. "Now, see something a little odd here?" Ylfa asked them.

Pointing her finger, they could see a strip of the armor plate that was relatively untouched. Right at the upper torso and near the neck.

"I didn't let the rounds hit there by holding up my arm and using it as a shield - why? Because the LASR they use is still nasty with how fast it spits out bullets. If it finds a seam or joint, you're screwed." Lifting up her chin and jabbing her thumb at her throat several times, she emphasized what would happen if a depleted uranium slug made it through the suit there of all places. "In other words, guard your neck and head." Looking around, she traced a finger about in the air, drawing lazy circles before settling on one person on a whim.

"Moving on with the bigger guns the Star Army has - you know anything about them? Maybe the fifty cal they use?" she asked Rachael.
 
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"Top are you meaning the handheld stuff their power armor uses or something like those 50mm gauss rifles that the powered armors from the Mishhu use?" Sawyer asked.
 
Rachael opens her mouth to answer however gets stopped when Sawyer speaks up and she kinda just looks at him, and then looks back at Ylfa. "Well I know the Gauss Cannon is the...Ke-M2-W2905... I...believe?" She doesn't sound a hundred percent sure on that. "I just know whatever is on their armor is going to hurt like a bitch, Ma'am if we get hit by it."
 
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"That's the one guys, and you're both right," she snapped her fingers. "That cannon's popular with both the Star Army and the Squids since it hits harder than almost everything they have. Except for Aether, and without the eff-huge energy sig."

"It's only popular with them because they stole it," Mayumi quickly chimed in. Emi, chained to Ylfa's side, moved to lean against the Hostile by her before crossing her arms.

"Hey, it works," she nonchalantly replied. "My old masters held the idiot ball a lot, but they're not that stupid." The Neko paused in thought as her eyes darted to the ground. "Most of the time."

"Right. It's one of the weapons you all are going to have to keep an eye out for in particular," the Sergeant continued. "If I say, took a single shot from my HPAR at a Hostile's head, it'd pierce the shields and probably bounce off the helmet, right?" she asked, knocking her old helmet. "Your nanomuscle would kick in and protect you like their Hemosynth would, but you'd still get a massive headache or even get knocked out. But if it's that shoulder mounted cannon?" The Sergeant reached over and knocked the helmet over. "You got a broken neck if it's anything more than a glancing hit. Both the fifty millimeter shoulder cannon and our HPAR eat armor alive, but their gun is a specialized piece meant for sniping, Not for assault. And since it's just a coil gun? Won't detect it. They'll try picking you off from the distance."

"On the bright side, the gun's big and with an ammo drum the size of a gallon milk jug for just its 18 shots. It doesn't help hiding it with the fact that it's shoulder mounted either. Best advice is to keep your profile high and tight when you shoulder your gun so your forearm protects you, and keep an eye out. Following me so far?"
 
A scowl came across Mark's face as he listened to Terrance and his stuttering. "I'm following but not even close to enjoying it." He said taking a pack of cigarettes from his pants pocket and removing one and lighting it. "How soon before the teaching stops and we get to kill somethin', I'm gettin' tired of listening to these people speak; especially the god damn stuttered." He muttered angrily as he turned his head to glare at Terrance.
 
"Only eighteen shots...but eighteen shoots that'll probably kill huh? That's a pretty nasty gun...If it's on the shoulder then we might be able to hit it if they're not that far away, worse come to worse. But that's really troublesome...they can hide pretty easily and just expose the canon couldn't they?" He rubbed his chin and tried to ponder over the information., "How common is that canon maybe if we had someone with a more defensive suit we might be able to put some counter measures against them. Or..maybe the drones..they're kind of obvious but maybe we could have them constantly scoping the area to keep a look out for snipers?"
 
Terrence narrowed his right eye in agitation at Mark's statement. "Well shit, I'm real sorry for my genetic disorder showing off." At the very least, the stutter was gone until the next anxiety trigger. Normally, he would've walked away from anyone making a remark ridiculing his stutter. However, he hadn't exactly been told to screw off by the highest rank here, so he just tried to focus entirely on what the others were discussing on the subject of the Star Army of Yamatai. He scratched the back of his head when a suggestion came up. "I guess you could just get some fire on their position and suppress 'em, make them shit their pants enough to get 'em to hunker down."
 
Rachael looked at Mark when he spoke up about Terrence's stuttering, then looked at Terrence's rebuttal to the statement, a genetic disorder eh? Intriguing, she was curious how a stutter could be a genetic disorder, but decided that was best left to professionals in that said field. She had taken a moment to listen to the other ideas that the people had, and was pretty impressed by the idea of drones, Richard might be on to something there. She, however, decided to stay back and not offer an opinion opting to learn instead of do.
 
"Top, I have a few comments about other situations that took place during the last fight" Sawyer said respectfully but somewhat firmly as he looked around the room and especially at Lisa the other Corporal in the group. "I noted that we had a very centralized command structure that was inordinately rigid with all orders coming directly from you with little to no room for improvisation or initiative by the NCOs in the squad. Frankly when we have a rigid command structure of that sort then we run the risk of having a single lucky shot essentially decapitating our organization since everyone in the squad is expecting you to give them direct instructions. If that were to happen I see our combat effectiveness dropping essentially to zero.
 
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