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

"What the fuck?" Mark muttered turning to see the voice, but nothing was there. He scowled and scratched the back of his head. "I'm fucking losing it." He muttered to himself. Mark thought about asking the others if they saw the pony but he didn't want them to know he was going crazy.

Richard nodded softly at Ylfa's confirmation. "Do you think we could get a raider or two to help with the situation Sarge, or do we need the fire power of the Hostile?" While he didn't know too much about military things he at least understood strategy on a basic level, and he knew that having more options generally gave you better results. "I guess it wouldn't hurt too much to get some of the other armors that are standard issue too...umm Void and Aggressor right? It sounds like some have some experience with some of those suits, it might give us an edge."

Ylfa raised an eyebrow as Mayumi seemed to be working herself up to something. Leaning over, she replied to Richard's concern. "Honestly, that armor is a bit too much like a Yamataian one. We go with firepower. Everyone bringing some drones will do fine."

And right on time.

"You Gaijin all don't know about the Daisy?" Mayumi began, Emi holding back a laugh as the other Neko got started. "While the Mindy is the star in space, the Daisy is a gemstone on the ground! It's tougher than our other power armors and is most famous for its Zesuaium shield!" she began to explain to them. "Completely unbreakable, it's practically the will of Yamatai given form! Like steel folded a million times, the shield of the Daisy is unfathomably str - "

"You cowtitted Valkyrie, what kind of insanity are you letting 'The Cats' go on about? It's like you're melting your soldiers' brains for giggleshits!" another voice suddenly shot out at them furiously. Though wearing the uniform, none of the marines saw another person. What they saw was a faceless death-bot marching towards them as its servos faintly whirred, a single red light showing from under the black glass of its roughly human shaped head. Coming to a halt, it introduced itself without a salute, the voice sounding clearly feminine despite the faint electronic edge to it. "Corporal Warmonger Kinetic 33-Y374-1634, otherwise known as 'Kelly' Ma'am. I'll be your medic."It jabbed a finger at Mark. "I'm familiar with this Warmonger here already."

"A modified combat chassis? Nice," the Sergeant observed. "I'm just letting them see and hear a bit about what they'll be dealing with soon," Ylfa casually replied, waving off the insults. Despite the tone of voice that the machine addressed her by at first, she didn't seem to be bothered by it in the slightest. The fact that Mayumi was now speechless didn't either, since she was quickly preempted by a hug from behind by the bigger woman. Her head resting on a warm set of pillows, the Neko was having a hard time snapping back at the newcomer - the Sergeant that held her knew exactly what she was doing . They could tell that she did want to say something badly. The look of despair the Neko had as she bit her lip, ears wilting said that much. "Delivering any news in person?" The machine tilted its head, the single red light floating behind the obsidian black plastic drifting upwards in thought. As odd as it was, her next few words didn't sound angry like she had a moment ago. She sounded thoughtful.

"Not at all, you Yammi-grown bimbo. But I can tell the ship is going to come out of hyperspace soon. Mama's taking it slow, so an hour I bet. I can feel it in my plates. You'd better put those two genocidal cats back in their cardboard box to hand them over soon." Kelly was already turning to walk over to one of the nearby power armors.

"Why do I keep getting new people?" Ylfa asked nobody in particular with exasperation. She shrugged. "Class dismissed guys. Pick your loadouts, and send it to me for approval while I get these two dressed up all nice," Ylfa ordered them. "Honestly though, I'm starting to wonder why you guys are all treating these two so nicely given all the shit that's gone down in the past. Especially Yamatai trying to wipe out our best buddies." She got up and ushered the two Nekovalkyrja with her along.

"Yeah, me too," Emi muttered, her chains rankling as she walked away with the other two. Looking over her shoulder though, she quickly added, "I'll be bored in my room, so if any of you guys or girls are going to be too, remember misery loves company."

"E-Emi! I thought you were scared of them too! You thought that they were all going to...well..." Mayumi quickly spoke up in shock, her words trailing off.

"Yeah, but I'm so bored I wouldn't mind. That patriotism didn't help either."

The black haired Neko blushed for the umpteenth time.

"They helped and are still helping my some of my buddies; letting them work and construct shit." Mark said taking a seated position on a nearby bin. "Before I leave to pass out in my bunk; I was wonderin' if you could tell me how you know me Kelly." He asked the robot. Her voice sounded kinda familiar but the thing that possessed it last time was a pony he just saw, so he couldn't be too sure.

'At last, someone with half a mind in this madness,' Wulfe thought, shifting his weight from one feet to the other to regard the freespacer that had joined them. Although, in his blunt honesty, by then he wasn't even paying attention to their ramblings; their whiny voices had become nothing more than an irritable background noise after he tuned out of the briefing. He had fought and survived against those armors and knew all that was needed about them. By then, even the sergeant seemed to have reminded herself to remind everyone of how things really were.

"Because, sarge, they still haven't seen their buddies get squished inside their armor in the most painful way imaginable," the marine said, breaking into a sharp salute. 'Nor have they seen the concentration camps in Rok'Veru," he also though, but it wasn't like anyone would take in the gravity of it unless they experienced it themselves, so he didn't feel the need to add it. "Excuse me," The marine quickly added, breaking from the salute and turning around before walking away from the group.

"I'm not much for warfare or politics Sarge. While everyone was dealing with the war, I was dealing with some other things. A slave's got it bad whether they're Neko or Nepleslian." Richard spoke flatly but with a sense of conviction that might have been the one thing he picked up over the years that he wasn't going to let the boot camp or anyone else tell him was wrong. "If they come to fight though, I'll give them one. That's one thing about athletes, we can be partying with someone one day, and then the next be ready to knock them on their ass the next." He gave a small salute to Ylfa and then walked over to where Kelly was.

In honest when he heard Kelly's voice back on the NMX ship he was picturing a young shapely brunette woman and not a Type Four Freespacer. However no matter what she was, it didn't change the fact that she helped him get his armor back up and running when he was being held down by the weight. "Hey Kelly." He said as he came to a stop beside her. "I didn't really thank you back there for getting my armor back on it's feet after I screwed up. I'd probably have made my leg worse trying to struggle around and find some fuel."

"Well I might be a nepleslian, but I was born a spacer. I saw a ton of aliens, even some nekoes and could see the people, not the nations I guess." Lisa shrugged and lit another cigarette. "Plus tonfuck of NMX nekoes were liberated and dunno if Yamatai brainwashes them, but if we just kill them or something, we would not be much worse then squids now, would we? Shooting someone in a fight is all right, but if they give up, you take them prisoner. Well nekoes. Now Squids, it is good that squids don't give up. Haha. As for Yamatai? Yeah Yamatai are bunch of arseholes, but they got a lot of power, so I guess they earned a right to be arseholes to everyone."

Lisa took a puff and continued.

"I mean look at Lorath, Lorath act like arseholes too and no one cares. Why? Cause compared to Yamatai, they do not have enough power. So yeah Yamatai did a lot of bad shit, but those were high up super cats who done that. Girls like Mayumi are grunts as we are, so why should I hate here? Unless she gives me reason to hate her, I won't give a fuck. Call me a blood weakling if you dare and after I make you eat your own teeth, I will laugh up your face. In short, I try to not look at nations, I try to look at individuals and then decide who I am cool with and who I hate."

Terrence had already figured out the loadout he'd be taking into combat. That knowledge was something he had gained from fan-boying over the NSMC. "M3 assault rifle, my trusty revolver, and some Hostile armor. Sounds good to me." It was what he always dreamed of killing Squids with back home since he was a little boy. How could he forget that? His real interest was the NMX Neko who just walked away. Despite the fact she tried to molest him earlier, (she didn't seem serious to me, but Terrence was too terrified of his mother to know that) she sounded lonely to him. Not to mention he didn't know the others too well, but he could learn about them in the lulls in the action later. Emi wasn't going to be around for too much longer. For reasons not entirely known to even him, he walked after Emi. "Hey, you don't mind me hanging around with you, do you?" He called after her.

"I watched people I knew that I would go drinking with and my best friend slowly die in a gas attack while my lungs where destroyed. Instead of hating everyone from that group, I saw the bigger picture and joined you greens. I don't hate everyone, just the man who ordered it. I would drill through his toes and lace wire through the holes to hang him upside down, but that doesn't mean I would try to take it out on you guys." Mark said to Wulfe as he walked out.

"Am I the only one from the last mission that doesn't know who Kelly is?" He asked when he heard Richard talk to the robot, shifting to a laying position on the bins and closing his eyes.

Liam leaned against the wall, arms crossed. He simply smiled.

"Heh. True." The single, humorless sound came from her after Wulfe spoke. When her head turned to look at them over her shoulder, it was a darkness that they saw. It was a certain 'pissed off' look someone had when they remembered their dog just died because the neighbor ran it over. "You boys and girls can love a person all you want, but you still need to watch out for their boss. Double if it's Yamatai." The way she said it, the words were still lighthearted and playful, but her expression was anything but. "Or you won't see The End coming for you. What kind? I'd have a hard time choosing between slavery or genocide though," she smiled. As the three left, Emi and Mayumi looked back; one was sullen, the other downcast.

"Well, you tell me marine," green eyes glanced at Terrance, an edge in her voice quickly dulling for him. And with that, the lift doors closed, and they were gone. And the Type Four Freespacer's headlight turned green.

"Unless you think the stars and universe just toss stuff out for us to use Mad Marine, someone had to give Top the med-injector she stuck in your ass!" the Machine-Woman replied, holding a finger up in the air for emphasis. "You were on some sort of super psychedelic journey somewhere. An uber-hard trip - I wish I could trip like that! I'm so jelly of you!" she exclaimed, tossing both her arms up in jealousy. The faint sound of her servos could be heard as Kelly tilted to the side and looked past him. "You leaving Wulfe? Don't forget to figure out your loadout!" Turning to the rest of the group, she added, "If you guys figure out what you want to use, I can just relay it to the boss," Kelly explained. Hands on her hips, she started to talk to herself right then and there. "I really thought The Valkyrie was going to be really, really bitchy. Like, Big Bitch of Bitchington or something - but if she's looking at Yamatai with a leery eye, than The Book is probably ok with her!" It didn't stop yet. "And most of the people here come off as weenies, but that's ok too, since they seem nice and maybe too forgiving!"

She was positively pacing around at this point, right past and then back to Richard like a wind-up soldier.

"OH! I almost didn't notice you - you're the one that got shot. In the butt!" Kelly kept on pacing back and forward. "It's no problem at all; I'd be glad to fix that leg or patch your tush up spic and span any time of the day! Meatbags are meaty!~ :3 ," the lights on her 'face' glowed at him. Even then though. The Freespacer's pacing started to slow down to a crawl before finally just stopping dead in her tracks. She had ignored Lisa, right up until a single mechanical finger was pointed straight at the woman to her side. The happy little green expression came back together into a single monoeye that shifted from green to yellow to red, only to transition into yellow again. In that black pit that was her face, the light in the middle of it slid to the side, as though Kelly's eyes were looking at the Nepleslian woman now. "Don't ever say they had a right to do what they did to us. Never again."

"So, what are you all using?" the Freespacer eccentrically asked, wheeling about on her heel to look at them all, the light swiftly turning green. "I'm just going to grab a standard loadout with the Hostile. HPAR, some mini-missiles and a drone case. Any of you getting something exciting?"

Wulfe didn't need to figure out his loadout, the choice of the tried and tested Hostile with the HPAR was more than set on his mind as he moved away from the group and further down the displayed suits of power armor. His boots thudded against the hard metal deck until he eventually stopped in front of a particular suit of armor. The armor was still pitted and scarred with incidental impacts from its last missions, and the metal on two circular spots in the torso and left leg shined more than the rest of it, betraying the recent repairs. The metal plate covering the left shoulder was what distinguished it from the others, marking the suit as his; it still had the same cracked skull under a white mountain crudely etched with white paint in what could only be the very darkest of humors, considering how he had been buried alive for some time in one of his earlier missions.

The knightly helmet painted on the left thigh still marked the suit as being part of Volkov's Cavaliers from 4th fleet, and he would have to address that later when, or if, he found what what the current squad's nickname was. The marine pulled out his Datajockey and quickly typed out a short message to Ylfa's. He chose that particular loadout because it worked with the blunt and direct efficiency; it might not be the strongest, or faster, or have the most firepower, but it had enough of each to allow him to adapt to an enemy, and if they were going up against the cats in an exercise, that would be more than needed.

Wulfe's Hostile Loadout:
HPAR - three extra drums
Left Minimissle rack: Arrow
Right Minimissile rack: Bolts

Click to expand...

"Oh great a murder bot, just what we need" Max thought to himself. He listened to the complaints about them being nice to the Cat people. He had to admit it did make a lot of sense. The cats had royally screwed them over in the past, but Max remembered the things that he saw as police officer. The things that the Neps did to each other on a daily basis was just as bad. It would be nice to fight them again to hash out some of the animosity between the two nations. A little "friendly" competition never hurt anyone.

Turning his attention to the competition at hand, Max pulled out his datapad and began to plan his load out. He figured that while the HPAR was great, he wanted a weapon with a bigger bang. Scanning through the inventory, he selected the Light Plasma Autocannon. He figured it'd be a great addition to his Hostile. Selecting a missile pod of Arrows and a compliment of Arrows would do nicely. Remembering that their plan consisted of using drones, Max made sure that his drone case was attached to his armor.

"Hey Sarge, sending you my load out. If we are lacking in firepower, I'd be willing to switch my LPA for a Kegbuster. Just let me know."

"Yeah because everyone wants a big black man to sit on them while a flaming pony talks to you right?" Mark asked sarcastically to Kelly.

"I'm just going with a pretty standard setup." He said getting up, entering it into a datajockey, and sending it to the Sarge while he spoke."

Hostile:
NAM Assault Mass Repeater
Covert Ops 10mm - 3 spare mags
Vibroblade
RX33 Explosives & 2 Detonators
50ft Spool of Detcord
Mini-Missiles - 2 Bolt racks

Click to expand...

Mark strode to where his armor was and withdrew the gauntlets and helmet before walking back to sit on the bins again. He pulled a knife from his boot and began to etch two serpents entwining their bodies around each forearm with their heads resting on the wrist and the outline of a snake's mouth with four inch fangs stretching from his chin and forehead on the helmet. "If we're arriving when you say we are Kelly then hopefully I can get at least part of this done. He said not looking up. While doing this, Max was attempting to bring the mental pony out of hiding. It seemed to know how he felt and thought about things and he found that puzzling considering that he didn't really know.

Richard was a bit taken back by how animated Kelly was both with gestures and with her voice. He chuckled a little bit at her comment about being happy to fix him up. "While I think I'd do fine with you watching my back, I think Sarge would give me extra training if I came back injured too often." He leaned over a railing and relaxed a bit, looking at the armors. "Hey Kelly, do you have any tips for a clumsy meatbag like me on how to work these armors? Well besides not getting shot I think I got that one pretty well practiced now."

Liam tapped a mechanical finger against the sleeve of his tunic as he watched the conversation progress, nodding at Richardr. "Always check your seals. Don't want it falling off of you mid-combat. Don't take a 'little' spot of damage for granted. You'll be fine."

Lisa looked at the robot as it spat out the words at her and she frowned. "Yeah, sure take the words I said out of context and change their meaning. I never said they had right to do what they did to your people, I just said their have right to act like arseholes, because they have power for it." Lisa tried to explained some more. "Never said, they should act like arseholes, but they do. And what happened to your people, that was just atrocity. No one has right to do that and I am pretty miffed Yamatai was never punished for it. Or rather the cat-bitch who decided to do that." With that Lisa was done.

She took out her Datajockey and set up her load out.


When she was done, she sent it up to Ylfa.

Though Kelly was turned towards her own suit, her head spun around right at Max in an inhuman 180. "Murder Bot?" she asked. "Murder Bot! If I get a call-sign, I want it to be Murder Bot!" she sang, a happy green eyebrow appearing above her eye as she turned back to her own work. "Murder Bot, Murder Bot, Murder Bot!~" Kelly hummed. "Oh, wait," the mechanical Freespacer paused. "Ylfa says your loadouts are A-OK!" Watching her work on her own suit, it was clear that her loadout was the last thing on her mind. Instead, her fingers divided into almost a dozen more as parts of the suit was nimbly taken apart, the internals rearranged until she was satisfied. Despite being the squad's medic, she fit the stereotype of Freespacers being gifted with technology. Without missing a beat or pausing for a second thought, Kelly instantly answered Richard when he spoke up, asking for advice. "What he said. You already know what Ylfa told you about it, so keep shooting at The Cats even if it's a bad shot - if it's just one round that makes it, it'll still punch through their barriers and splatter on their armor if it doesn't penetrate. Cover them in that white hot stuff and bog them down!"

She stopped being so merry when Lisa spoke back though. Her head turning slightly to 'look over ' her shoulder, she asked, "Act? Be? What's the difference? Does it even matter?" The words were bitter and angry, but they weren't hotly snapping back at the Nepleslian woman. "Yui acting like an asshole means she still does asshole things like shit on people. I just wish Nepleslia was there act like a dick and do dick things to he back." At that, their medic stormed off.

As harsh as it was, it was another truth - Nepleslia wasn't there to stop the worst of it from happening to their best friends.


*****

It wasn't until later that they all each other again proper. Standing in the dropship, packed like sardines, it was Ylfa that broke the silence. "Remember, we're the tanks. Grab their attention and hold it while they do the damage," she reminded them.

"I really hope this crack idea is going to be fun," Homura Emi spoke up from inside a Hostile. Annoyed and a little bored sounding, the NMX Neko spoke up from beside them all, decked out in the best of Nepleslian Military Technology.

"It's not every day we get to do this! And to imagine the rest of your people wanted to just be spectators on that dinky Nepleslian ship!" Ichiki Mayumi quickly replied from inside her own Hostile. Though the other NMX POWs preferred to 'spectate' from the Sledge Mama to her distaste, she seemed excited like a child in a candy shop, and was thrilled by the simplest thing, like the rifle in her armored hands.

"I still can't believe both commands were ok with this," Ylfa moaned, next taking a deep breath to calm herself. "Here we go - MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"

The very moment the doors opened, autocannon fire raked the dropship's interior, splashing across their shields as they tried to orientate themselves. With the sudden rush of violence, they could barely make out much, but they could already see what their lives were going to depend on. Below them was a hangar bay filled with crates of various goods and large shipping containers. Closest, there were several of these that were tossed about as explosions erupted across the landing site, scattering cover for them to use in every which way. And already, the hangar bay was filled with dozens of Militants which the Independent World League terrorists favored. All raising and firing their wrist guns as one massed unit on the Nepleslian Marines.

Staying up there, they weren't going to last long!

"Take cover!" Ylfa yelled, her Hostile taking the lead as she leaped and plummeted to the surface below.

"All right cats," Lisa spoke to both nekoes, as they traveled in the dropship. "Hostile might not be as agile as the suits you are used to, but it has its own agility. Just use thrusters and Push-Pull plating and you can be mobile as all get out darlings. I am in VOID now I will be setting up mobile shield-barriers with my drones. Be sure to keep a lookout for them, they can take a lot of punishment!" With that Lisa gave both nekoes pat on the helmet.

As the dropship landed with a thud and the gate opened, Lisa was out right behind Ylfa. Her HUD showed up enemy targets, militans with their wrist mounted automatic guns. Not exactly easy enemy, but still a lot better then RIPPERs. Well almost anything was better then rippers. Especially Rippers covered in zesaium.

As soon as Lisa's heavy armoured boots hit the ground, she activated her bots. They left the docking and quickly set up three triangle shields that could cover any nepleslian armours. Lisa quickly moved behind one, hoping that others would stack behind as they moved forward towards the more solid cover. "Shields up!~" Lisa shouted at others. The woman also activated her shoulder mounted grenade launchers and fired few rounds on the move at the enemy further back for some suppression.

Terrence had a flashback to one of his favorite war movies when enemy fire started to pepper the interior of the transport: Saving Private Bryan. It wasn't the best of omens to him. He ground his teeth together as he followed the two NCOs off of the dropship. He had been nervous before, then he was struck by the fear that accompanies getting shot at. However, it was that fear that got him out of that dropship in the first place. He followed after Lisa and took cover along side her, placing his hand on the top of his helmet as a particularly enthusiastic burst of fire was directed at them. "Holy shit!" He cursed, his voice heightening in tone. Terrence placed his left hand back on the foregrip of his rifle and fired around Lisa's shield. He wasn't shooting at any of the robots in particular, but they were self-aware so hopefully he could give them a little suppression so everyone else had a better chance of not getting shot in the face.