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

Mark set about replacing the bolts he had fired, reloaded his AMP and replaced what he had used. "Well while we have time, would anyone happen to have any cigarettes?" He asked as he started pacing. He didn't like waiting when a perfectly good fight was about to go down. "I don't know much about coming up with formations, but we to be able to overwhelm them with fire since with how nimble they are, there is no way we could out maneuver them." He said stopping to look at Richard and Max.

Lisa looked around and smirked. It seemed they will fight the cats anyway, oh well it would be good exercise. Though she would be more happy to just get a shower and booze up, this was okay as well. Lisa though for a while about changing her loadout, and there would be few changes.

"I will saw my Arrows for BOLTs, otherwise I am good. I will also grab few grenades, two relaxants and two EMPs." Lisa said to others as she made the changes in the simulation. "Ma'am how about we put half othe team on snake sking and let the rest prounce about. It might get their attention, thinking we divided into two groups. They jump us and our stealth guys can jump them. It is not perfect, but it simple is usually best solution. Also I got my mortars, but in this forest their use will be a bit limited at closer ranges. I can shell area around their flag as soon as we start though. Mortars has very big area of effect after all. Something around 500 meters."

Wulfe did a last weapon's check to his HPAR, taking in his surroundings as he looked around. The terrain was very similar to the first simulation he had partaken in 4th fleet, which gave him already a headstart regarding what not to do in one such scenario. Nanomuscle enhanced hands tapped at the length of the HPAR barrel as the marine scanned the possible points of concealment - to call it cover when one fought in a PA was somewhat of a stretch- as the rookies spoke up their mind. He didn't care for those, only the squad's leader order would matter anyway, and if anyone else's did, they would've been made an NCO, lest they spend the entire battle deciding on the best course of action.

"Standing by for your orders, sergeant," he said, waiting for the defactor leader to give her orders, the lone monoeye on his Hostile's helmet swung left and right as his suit's Savtech highlighted the best positions for him to take.

"Permission granted; grab those GREENs," she replied to Sawyer. The antimatter rounds were as powerful as they were hazardous, but in proper, experienced hands, they were a gift from god.

"If you think this can't be too different, you really need to think again Marine," she rebuked Terrance. Being 'buck bare' and in armor were two entirely different worlds. "And laugh now while you can marine, maybe even light a virtual smoke while you're at it," Ylfa spoke to Rachael and Mark. Unlike the friendly tones from before when they were just on the ship, her voice had taken on a cold frost and a hard, steely edge as well - she meant business. "The Neko in command is likely pissed to the point she wants our heads, not the flag, but her girls might just be level headed enough to do that tree trick when they come after us so keep a lookout." Leaping onto a rock as the seconds counted down, the squad leader stood tall, making sure each and every single one of them was in her sight. "First and foremost, we're not going to be able to outmaneuver them easily," Ylfa's red monoeye stared at them. "Your ideas are good squad, but these just aren't Squids. Their suits are generally just as stealthy as ours at the least, they're not stupid enough to just aggressively brute-force us head on, and they'll definitely prioritize their targets. Some of you WILL die. But pull this off, and we have a good chance of beating them."

"We need to hold them so we can get some good punches in to drop them, but it needs to be be alluring enough that they commit. That's why I want Delta to center on Aubry and Carter; your Aggressors are going to be the core of the whole formation . You two need to hunker down within supporting distance of each other and basically try to ambush anything your passive sensors detect. Once you start shooting, switch to active so they really know you're there. Now, you two," she pointed an armored finger to Richard, Terrance and Liam, "You three will also be in Delta as well. Point defense; keep those damn cats off our Big Guys. They can take the hits, but not some of that space-magic. Spread out around them and hunker down until one of the two shoot first. Same sensor conditions." Turning to the last of her group, Ylfa gathered up the last five squad members.

"You guys, I'm dividing up into Alpha and Bravo fireteams. Our job is to be out on the flanks of Delta, and stealthily move in to outflank or pincer as soon as we think the enemy is seriously going after them. We need to be unnoticed until then, so we'll be hunkering down with good concealment and put our suits into standby. You three - " she pointed to Wulfe, Lisa and Kelly, " - are going to be Bravo, right flank. Meanwhile, the two of you are with me," the Sergeant addressed Rachael and Mark. "Last notes. I want the VOIDs to leave some of their drones with Delta, deactivated until they need the protection. When Alpha and Bravo move out, I don't want top-down mortar strikes. Your munitions are guided, so go for direct fire or low-arc shots to avoid those damn branches," Ylfa added, the final seconds bleeding away. "Delta, settle down somewhere approximately 300 meters from the base. Alpha, Bravo, I want 100 meters from Delta's flanks! Go, go go!"

"Hata-tori Gēmu!~~~~<3" a young woman's voice delightedly announced from above.

'Capture the Flag' just didn't sound the same in Yamatai-Go.

"Rog." Mark said as he sprinted to the left flank. At 200 meters out, he armed and buried small RX33 blocks between the trees and linked them with detcord. He then felled a couple trees at 150 meters to take cover behind and dug a shallow hole to crouch in to better hide his 7'11 frame.

"Rachel, take this." He said over the comms, tossing her the spare detonator. "They kill me or my detonator stops working and hopefully there will be at least a couple by the plastic for you to blow the fuck up."

"I guess being technologically inferior in the civil war has it's advantages, isn't that right Bubba?" He asked looking over to Ylfa. "Otherwise, I might be worse at the burying of plastic happiness. Now if only I had though to get some gasoline earlier we could of rigged that to it and had an even better time when it explodes."

"Roger that top," was all Sawyer said as he continued loading his spare ammo cylinders for his AOP, 1/2 red, 1/2 Green. To allow for at least some semblance of dialable damage. "Top, if we had more time I'd recommend that the newbies take their VBCS and create some firebreaks for us so that we'd have clear lines of sight without having to deal with all these damned trees." He said as he started embedding himself into the ground at the location that was designated for his firing position.

Liam moved into his firing position while reloading his weapons, eyes scanning the terrain around him once he was done getting his weapons loaded and set. His dark eyes betrayed nothing as he listened to the sounds of others around him. He was gradually learning the sound of each member of the unit's footfalls. He grinned but said nothing.

"Damnit, not far enough - Alpha, take cover now," Ylfa grunted under her breath, silently darting for cover herself behind a rock. Turning she hissed, at the demoman. "I said no F*ing noise! " With the tree falling, Alpha likely tipped their hand, and were forced to hunker down or else get spotted and shot first. They weren't going to be able to quietly flank the enemy with any element of surprise. "And negative on that firebreak - they're already here."

Having tossed her drones out far and wide like seeds being sown in a field, she had a good eye on them all, even though they were only passively scanning the area. Both of Delta's heavies were hunkered down in two separate depressions or folds in the terrain with roughly 30 meters between the two, Sawyer behind a small hill on the left and Max in the old, overgrown crater to the right; just bending their knees, they could easily go hull down with only their head and shoulders exposed, while kneeling would get them both completely in cover. Sawyer would still be exposed from the sides however, unlike Max in his massive hole. The rest of Delta was scattered around the two Aggressors, using either folds or features in terrain, large rocks, or in the worst cases, trees.

While Alpha was hamstrung, they also didn't have much hard cover to go by. The terrain here was undulating with small hills and mounds, which made up for this - if they were careful in how they moved, they could use these features just as well. Meanwhile, Bravo managed to get into a good position a hundred meters to the right of Delta. The terrain in that area was particularly rough. Though the ground under there feet was thankfully soft soil, rather than being gravely and therefore a risk to stealth, there were many large boulders that served as ideal cover. They'd be the safest from cover out of the three groups, but would be hindered by the very same features.

And, like Ylfa said, 'They' were already nearby.

Somewhere ahead of them, a twig snapped. Gravel crunched underfoot. Leafs crackled. Birds took off. Undoubtedly, the Yamataians likely perceived the same exact thing from the Neplesalians, but it was obvious that the squad of Nekovalkyrja had chosen to be the ones on the move, just as Ylfa had predicted. And just as she predicted, neither group could make out the other. Not quite. Unless someone decided to suddenly go active with their sensors, it was a game of cat and mouse. Yamataian armors had both thermal and optical camouflage, but the Nepleslian Marines had partially powered down their suits, just as Ylfa had asked. Furrowing her brow, biting her lips, she placed several red markers onto their HUDs for Delta. The first was by a clustered group of bushes that swayed ever so slightly, by wind or touch, it was hard to tell. The second was by a set of trees as a squirrel rapidly raced upwards and into safety. And the third? Flower petals had dropped from a group of tall, blooming plants.

Delta had to choose which one to strike first, or wait for them to come closer. And if they did open fire? Both Alpha and Bravo had to move up, unseen, to flank the moment the enemy started to reveal themselves.

Terrence found himself in the middle of Delta's point defense position, in a hole with a sizable branch he had gotten off of Max's love tree. Hey, you might as well use what somebody else's fuck up provided in order to make the most of the mistake. But regardless, Terrence had his back against the walls of the hole, raising a knee and placing his elbow on the cap in order to minimize recoil and steady his aim. He was scanning the ranks of the enemy, looking for anything that differentiated the officers from the NCOs, the NCOs from the rankers. He contacted the Boss. "Boss, I'm looking for HVIs here. I say I take somebody important out and turn on my suit's functions. Then Carter and Aubrey blows the Hell out of my position." He whispered through clenched teeth to minimize stuttering and noise. Terrence's heart was beating in synchronization with everyone of the cats' footfalls. "Here, kitties. Come get your treat."

Richard found his way behind a boulder and activated his snake skin camo. His cover was about chest high so he didn't have much trouble getting his whole body covered by it, and if things went wrong he was just a short thruster burst from the crater. Once he was settled he remembered that he needed to send out his drone and did just that, sending it into the forest and then up to make sure it wasn't shoot down too soon.

However with his suit partially powered off as he heard the sounds of the Nekos approaching he could not pin point their location, he had to rely on his ears and his wits to try to piece together what was going on on the other side of the boulder. Though there was chatter going on he kept himself quiet thinking about the situation, there were three possible targets, the least likely one to be a mistake was the flowers but if he fired and no one followed there would be problems. He decided to wait though, maybe his drone could get a good look in and narrow things down, or maybe one of the heavy Agressors would make the first move, with more than enough power to stop a armor even if no one followed them. Either way the needed the kitties to commit, so they had to get them in deep into their range.

Mark visibly stiffened when Ylfa hissed at him. He crouched in his hole by the trees he had stupidly cut down scanning the area. When Ylfa put the markers on their HUDs, he slowly turned his head to look in the general direction. "Well the using Delta as bait part of the plan seems to be working." he thought to himself. "With the surprise of Bravo and if any of the nekos were stupid enough to come bumbling over to the explosives after the noise he made, we might just have a chance." All this went through his mind as he went back to scanning the area and began to fiddle with the detonator.

Rachael had followed her orders, stopping her laughing almost immediately when Ylfa chastized her for doing so. She listened to Mark and took the explosives and their detonators, she quickly left her drones with Detla squad and stuck close to Alpha team, she quickly followed orders and got hunkered down quietly checking her ammo supply and her explosive supplies before peeking lightly over the rock only to cringe when the sound of trees being cut down and falling hit the ground, she was down under that rock almost immediately with and groan that could barely be audible. After a moment she looked at her hud and looked towards the marker thinking to herself quietly.

'This is going to get interesting' Sawyer muttered to himself as he set his AOP off to the side and pulled the AMP off his back, he targeted roughly the area he thought the Nekos and their armor would be near the bushes that were strangely shaking with the lack of wind his sensors detected and decided to turn there and the area within 50 meters into a freefire zone as he set his plasma chainguns to fire in coordination and he began to lay down an absolutely massive hail of fire in that region.

Max chuckled to himself as he readied his weapon. "Well this was certainly going to be fun he thought". He listened to his orders, knowing that the whole operation hinged on him and his fire, Max made careful consideration to where to shoot. Ylfa had presented them with three targets, which ordinarily would have been a problem had he not been in an Aggressor. Why pick one when you can hit two of them. He set his bolt missiles to target the treeline. Firing off two salvos should be enough to shake off anyone who happened to be there. He then targeted the flowers with his AOP and chain guns. Max felt it odd that petals would be falling off freshly bloomed flowers, so best to concentrate the bulk of his fire there. Firing off a Red Missile and lightening up the flower petals would certainly ruin anyone's day who happen to be in there.

"No Heroics," Ylfa's voice chided Terrance through their laser based comms. Unlike before where she just mostly sat back and let the squad do as they pleased, the woman was taking this match seriously. With everyone hunkered down, and their drones deployed, it was on the two Aggressors of their squad to take the lead in this dance.

Hefting the massive cannon and swapping it for the AMP, the sound of metal-on-metal could be heard no matter how quietly Sawyer moved. Just as he brought the multi-barreled weapon to bear, birds burst into the air as unseen forms dashed - the deafening roar of his three chainguns drowned out the sound of everything else as the weapons scythed through the entire area of trees and bushes marked on his HUD. Felling trees like a lumberjack, a pair of energy barriers flickered from amongst the foliage as the occasional rounds found their marks, their owners dashing for hard cover. Following his lead, Max let off a pair of Salvos right at the same marked treeline before bringing the massive Missile-Cannon to bear and letting it boom.

The mini-missiles streaked in but changed course at the last moment, chasing something the marines didn't see. The small, overlapping explosions fell short of their mark, but the air rippled as hot fragments buffeted a third invisible form as it dodged, the volumetric camouflage dazzled by the excess of light and fury around its user. At the same time, the far beefier RED round fired from his AOP whistled in like a massive shell and exploded right amongst the tall flowers. The blast tore a crater into the earth as it was all ripped out and tossed about, an armor's barriers flashing brightly as it barely held on, the hit far more solid than the rest before it.

'Tch, scouts. Light them up Delta!" Right at her bellow, one of the drones activated its active sensors, scanning the environment with its radar imaging system. Briefly highlighted by the little machines, the red marked silhouettes of four different Daisies appeared on their HUDs. Northwest and to the front of Delta, the first two revealed seemed to be making it for two separate sets of rounded boulders as they began to fade away again, but the other two that Max managed to flush out were dashing for more fragile cover. The leftmost of the pair to the northeast of Delta was from the treelines that his mini-missiles dove into - she ran and leaped towards a deep ditch formed by the rolling landscape of the forest. The second, from the flowers erased by the AOP and the rightmost of all of them, backpeadled into the concealment of foliage as fast as she could, fading from their HUD as the sensor ping died.

"Alpha, Bravo - move up and get on their flanks! Delta's making noise so just don't get seen!" Leading by example, Ylfa burst out of cover and began to make short dashes between each piece of cover she could find, moving north.

Right as the deafening cracks of cannon fire boomed.

A trio of massive shells practically two inches wide smashed themselves right into Max, his Aggressor's energy barriers releasing heat and light as they attempted to deflect the rounds. In less than a heartbeat, the projectiles started to veer off course, but punched through to hammer against his armor, sending a jolt through the marine inside. Though his shields were holding, they were going through by sheer brute force, two impacting his chest as a third scraped the top of his helmet as it screamed by!

The scouts were spotting for their cannon gunners further back.

Terrence had hoped that there would be some way to distinguish someone important out of the Nekoes' ranks but their cloaking devices combined with the large amount of firepower the others were putting downrange made that an impossible task. Besides, the most he'd probably be able to bag would probably be a corporal, or whatever was the equivalent in the Star Army, if he was lucky. These were only scouts, after all. Regardless, they were about to fight to soften up their defenses, so he needed to start taking some shots. The ones aiming for the most sturdy cover were the hostiles going for the rounded boulders, so in turn he aimed for them. "Alpha Actual, two hostiles near your boulders, over." Terrence reported to the others as he fired.

Mark followed Ylfa's example and dashed from cover to cover following close behind her. "Careful Rachel, I'd hate for you to tip, hit the detonator, and blow me the fuck up while I'm runnin'." He said as he swung to Ylfa's right so he would be behind her when they had to start shooting. "Stutter you really want to die like that here and you can pin them to the explosives while I blow your ass through your mind." He said through clenched teeth, each word dripping with sarcasm.

Richard smirked when the Aggressors started to fire, he was already read to make his move. He sprung up from behind his boulder and instead of targeting the neko he aimed right for the boulder as she was heading for it and fired both barrels of his AS4GS simultaneously at the heart of the boulder, trying to shatter it. He even followed up with a second shot just in case, putting four devastating rounds into the stone in just a few seconds. That wasn't all though, a barrage of mini-missiles then came rushing in towards the Neko, the leading five were DARTs aiming to lower her shields, and the trailing five were ARROW trying to make an attempt at a finishing blow.

He could not make the most intricate movements with his drone as his attention was on the quick sequence he tried to pull off, but he tried to move his done past the 'no mans land' between the two sides and activate it's sensors. He was not truly aware of the fact that one of them had vanished again, but hearing that these were scouts made him think there might be a second wave behind them, and finding them a chance to really pour on the pressure. If nothing else though the sudden ping on the Yammies' radars would at least distract them from those moving to the flanks.

Rachael kept her head down and peeked over the rock ever so slightly, she quickly moved to follow Ylfa when she moved from cover looking at Mark when he commented on tripping and shook her head lightly. "Just watch your head and don't get it blasted off, Boy." She said with a slight grimace at the idea. "I'm not tripping anytime soon." She looks at her drones and begin maneuvering them over near delta squad, but keeps them officially deactivated. One she moves to cover Richard, and another she moves to cover Liam, One to cover Sawyer, and one to cover Max. The few drones she had left she discretely moves three over to Bravo using cover to keep them from sight, and then keeps three with their group to use as back up for them. She keeps her gun up, and her head low, moving closer and closer to the flank.

Max smiled to himself as his fire plan had managed to flush out the enemy. "HERE KITTY KITTY KITTY!" He taunted them as he watched them appear on his HUD, making their position with his drones before he was struck by three guass rounds. "FUCK THAT!" Max thought as he lowered himself into his crater seeking cover to minimize his suit from more return fire. "He guys, I could really use those shield drones now", he said over laser comms as he swiveled his chain guns to bear on the Neko who was attempting cover in the foliage to his right lighting it up with all manner of hell as he sprayed down the area. He fired off another salvo of bolts in that general direction of the trench where the other Neko had gone, hoping to make her cover less safe. As he worked on his suppression of the spotters on his side, he had set his computer to work out the trajectory of the three cannon rounds, hoping to give him a general direction to fire his AOP towards the artillery. A Red Missile should show those Neko bitches he didn't appreciate their fire.

Max would be sure to pass on the guess to his squad mates, particularly the voids so they could send some fusion rounds down range. He was going to make sure that the Neps weren't outmatched in terms of raw firepower to the cat ladies. It was a blow his honor couldn't take.