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Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

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Operation Ice Breaker: Lower Base

"Calculating..." beeped Chlorate on a most likely futile yet serious attempt to figure out how this many people could actually be fit in two vehicles. Unable to come up with a reasonable solution, she asked "Father, how far are we from the surface? Are there any alternative exit routes?"
 
"we're taking the elevator shafts up if we have to. The sub bays aren't a viable option. Some doors closer top have been reported malfunctioning. A few we actually have to go through.", Mark said patting Chlorate on the head, "By the way Amit, meet your cousin Chlorate. She's my daughter."

Mark and the troops lead the way through the upper floors taking stairs as the elevators were offline with only emergency power available. After a few minutes of making good time, they finally hit a roadblock.

With everyone stopped as one of the doors they tried to use was derailed off of it's pneumatic track system. "Shit! We might have to blow through this, but we have no explosives left. I could cut through with my sword, but it might delay us too long to figure where to cut.", Mark said thoughtfully in annoyance.

The door began to groan as it was forced along the track, accompanied by the sound of breaking parts and strained tracks, the hiss of pressure forcefully released. A pair of pointed armored hands appeared as the door began to part. A few moments later a black revenant PA clad man could be seen, his suit's synthetic musculature bulging as he over clocked the system to a physically almost painful degree as it put great pressure on his own muscles. With a grunt, the door was given one last all out shove, slamming it the last foot into the walls interior where it normally slid into.

"What took you so long, don't you know, there's evac going on. Now where's Amit. Mark, where is my son?", Jack asked after a sigh, the bulging synthetic muscles shrinking again. His voice was calm, but there was a hint of frantic urgency.
 
Dee would recover his gear and the others prisoners as well passing them out to their respective owners. Afterwards he would rapel up the elevator shaft and swing into the upper room. "Define what you mean by 'fine'. Anyways if you want to get out of here anytime soon you'll have to leave now and folkfo me. I know this place like the back of my hand. It shouldn't sink but if that explosion did what I think it did you could get buried on your way out if you're not careful."
 
Cousin? Great. Amit didn't really show much of a interest, the only thing to show that he took notice of her and thus Mark words regarding her, was a small glance that he quickly looked away. He wasn't interested in meeting more 'family' he just wanted out of here. Following along, he grabbed a red long coat and put it over the jumpsuit that he was wearing. It would at least make him look a little more normal; fat chance it would work though.

"Lovely..." Amit commented about the issue with their escape route.

Though his ears started to hurt as the groan of metal hit his ears and he put his hands against the sides of his head. Wanting the horrid screeching and grinding to stop. he was still able to see though who came through and he had to stiffle a laugh. Oh god...what was he wearing? The voice was good enough for him to know who it was.

"You look like a worse Asshole." Amit commented as he removed his hands from his ears.
 
Jack looked at Amit, not recognizing him, the mental image of his own year old boy having dominance in his mind.

"Who's this prick? Where's my son Mark? I asked you a fucking question.", Jack said a little more hostile than needed, a sinking feeling about the man starting to eat at him.

"Jack......that's Amit. Now I kno-", mark began.

"Don't give me that bullshit. My son is ten, not fucking 20.", Jack said not wanting to believe it.

"Run the scan yourself, his DNA profile matches. He's not a clone, not a ST copy, not in a new body. It's Amit. I don't know what they did to him, but he's your son.", Mark said solemnly not backing down.

Jack looked to Amit a couple times, the reality setting in. He slowly took a step towards the man before him, who used to be his little boy.

"What have they done to you?", Jack asked his voice having a strained quality as he spoke.
 
As much as Amit hated it, he struggled with his other side. Once the canine in him had lashed out at Jack when it had been scared. Yet some part of the canine wanted the older male to recognize em. Though when it was clear that they didn't, Amit gritted his teeth; which had sightly sharpened due to his own rising emotions.

"Oh I'm the prick eh? Look whose talking 'man who outran a tank'." Amit growled as he folded his arms.

Seeing the man take a step closer to him, other instincts kicked in. Quickly, Amit took several steps away from em. The feral nature of the dog was surfacing in a way and as such, Amit wasn't a submissive pup anymore. Now the canine part of himself had more of a dominate personality to it.

"What do you think Jack ass?" Amit growled. "They did whatever the hell they wanted to! Just like the first time after all, this honestly shouldn't be a surprise to you."
 
Mark stepped aside his head hung slightly low as he felt a pain for what Jack was feeling. He was the one who outran the tank after all.

Jack didn't back down but he still flinched under the helmet. Tears began to well in his eyes, as just how much Amit had changed sank in like a knife to the heart. "I'm sorry, I failed you. I tried so hard to get you back.... especially from that bastard! For months I never stopped looking, never stopped searching, following every clue. The whole time unable to look your mother straight in the eye, knowing I failed. Spending more time in the office working than at home, hoping something would point out where they had taken you. Your older sister even deployed with us to come get you. Adria even tried to stow away. Right now your mother is waiting for me to bring you home, to meet your newborn baby brother and sister....Amit, I'm sorry my son.", Jack said his voicing breaking as he tried to hold back his emotions, as he removed his helmet with a hiss and click as the seals popped out and released. The tears flowed freely as he dropped the helmet. His hands and arms held out in a defeated surrender.

Mark's head hung lower, he gently placed a suited hand on Jack's shoulder pauldron, ".....come on. We're not in the green yet, we can continue this later. Dee Jay, help me get the evacuees moving again."

Stepping away as he slowly began to follow the rescued prisoners, "Teams Osiris and Onyx, begin exfil, take the elevator shafts up. Disengage Essex, we can't bring the bike with us. I want casualty reports, and status updates. All teams order as given, commence full exfil."
 
Chlorate thought about Essex, confused. That bike wasn't Essex? If she wasn't the bike, then where was she? "Father, how can Essex disengage? I did not see anyone on that bike while we were in the ship."
 
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Dee would not. "You got it. C'mon people you heard the man kids find a soldier to go with. Jack I need your men to do this." Dee would latch a kid onto his rappelling gear. After making sure the kid was comfortable he would throw his hook up and continue heading up the shaft. "You might want to use power armor to carry that bike up if it's so important. Watch out for the troll clones they probably survived."
 
Vier would head to Essex, looking to take the pistol out of its holster on the bike along with the communications gear built into the bike itself.

"I figure your primary node must be attached to one of these." Vier explained. It made sense that the computer would be right next to the comms gear.

Or she could be wrong entirely.

"If you would prefer, I think I could try riding you out of here."
 
"Easy, easy, don't cock this up." Essex chided Vier as she began to disengage the hefty firearm from where it had been holstered on the Desert Rider. "Primary who? Don't give a toss about Jack's bike. He's got'em everywhere." The weighty, oversized handgun was still glowing with the power provided by that likely incredibly unnecessary HONEY PUNCH reactor as Vier tried to determine just what she needed to bring along for their evacuation. After a moment, one of the side panels flipped open, the screen displaying Essie's avatar with a rather bored, impatient expression. "Get on with it already!"
 
Jace kept pressure on his wound as he got the word to evacuate and used his spear as a walking stick to help him. he got over to Vier "anything i can help with i know i seem useless right now but i'm not"
 
The team Neera was with, regrouped with Vier's team a few moments later on their way up to the surface.

"Jace! Are you okay?", Neera asked concerned as they entered the room. She immediately moved to support him, putting his armor over her shoulders as she ducked her helmeted under it. Her armor was scuffed, and scratched, clearly having seen combat.

"Come on, we have been ordered to evacuate. All other teams have begun heading to the surface. we need to head up and take the elevator shafts up.", she added as the troopers began to collect what they before heading towards the way up.
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Jack, Mark, and company reached the top of the shaft to hoist themselves through the broken elevator doors of the top most accessible floor. It was littered with debris and scorching from the blast, sizable rents, tears, and holes in the ceiling, walls, and floors. there would clearly be hindrances along the way, but for now it was traverse able.

"Come on, once we get close to the surface our forces can quickly excavate us out. Mark, place a nav route for the units still heading up.", Jack said examining the corridor and not liking it's condition.

"On it. Leaving a trail now. Our guys should not have any trouble as long as they follow our route out. The XM1s are enroute to our projected exit point. They should be there ahead of us within a couple minutes. Reports from orbit say hostiles in the immediate vicinity of the planet have been passified, but more are appearing in system on the fringes and will begin advancing in soon. Time is of the essence.", Mark replied as he hoisted up.

"Yeah, tell me something i don't know.", Jack quipped.
 
Vier would wait around, looking to be the last one lifted up the elevator,

"Jace, please allow Neera to withdraw you from this area. You do not need to risk further injury."

As she spoke she would be examining Essex's body... the handgun had a reactor larger than what she used for her own man-sized drones. She didn't quite know what would happen if she fired it.

Of course, testing it out in an underwater facility might not be the best of ideas.

But they were about to leave.

Uso probably would have said something about no time like now.

Once everyone was heading up the elevator shaft, Vier would point Essex down the hallway and pull the trigger...
 
Essex, the firearm itself, was bulky, heavy, unwieldy and unbalanced. Almost as long as a rifle (and twice as heavy) without any sort of stock or grip for extra support. The massive handgun just didn't feel right in Vier's hand, not at all. It was a bit of an effort just to lift and aim the thing. At least the side panel had snapped just as the gun was hefted up, although Vier had caught a surprised, almost gleeful look on the avatar's face before the screen was hidden away.

From the moment her finger began to exert pressure on the sensitive trigger, things began happening. Essex needed someone to pull the trigger, or to at least consent to her pulling it for them, but once the process started she was totally in control of what happened next. And, since it had a been a long day, spent teasing her with the promise of a big battle without ever actually firing her, her eagerness could almost be understood. She was a gun, she really couldn't help herself.

So, as the trigger moved, the business end of the weapon began to...open up. The top and bottom sections unfolding, deploying additional barrels and nozzles around the two that had already been visible. Then everything, and those in attendance would agree that it really did seem to be 'everything', fired seemingly at once. A massive gout of flame spouted from one barrel, as the .50 cal overpressure armor piercing round exited first. The violent discharge likely snapped Vier's unprotected, unaugmented, unupgraded Human wrist like a twig. Before the recoil could register or even begin affecting her, a grenade launched as well.

As her arm snapped backwards and her body headed for the floor, the handgun tilted upwards, a brilliant beam of light blossoming forth as the energy weapon feature blasted a furrow through the ceiling. By now Vier had fully pulled the trigger, and was most likely skidding along the floor on her backside towards the rest of the group. The flamethrower briefly discharged, before the extra bits retracted as fast as they'd appeared.

Essex bounced out of Vier's grip and tumbled across the floor, coming to a halt as the others dealt with the noise and damage of the .50 cal round and grenade hitting one of the far walls. Almost like she'd forgotten, the forward sword blade and recessed hilt blade suddenly popped out, making the weapon jump about one last time, before they retracted as well.

"...ah...that's the stuff. Was it good for you, too, luv?"
 
Jace nodded to Vier gladly letting Neera take his arm as he looked to her "its just a flesh wound" he joked a little a slight smile on his serious looking face. His HUD showing his status and how much damage he took. he saw that he was able to fight if necessary but that the strain would slowly further damage him "guess your my nurse" he lightly joked again at Neera
 
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Dee would yell at Essex firing. "Bollocks that was loud as shite. Who the bloody 'ell brought a cannon?." Clearing his throat he would continue. "I would recommend you don't do that again while the CRADLE system is sturdy I don't think it'll withstand another shot like that." As if in response the whole structure would groan followed by several portions of the hallway collapsing leaving thin areas that would still be traversable.
 
From the outsider's perspective, it may have looked like Vier had fired the weapon down the hallway and then threw it as hard as she could in the opposite direction, her arm snapping back rapidly from the unexpected additional recoil. The momentum spinning her around and leaving her flat on her ass.

She would use her floating shield, sliding it over and lifting her body up a bit, one arm hanging down to her side limply.

"I take it you are intended for power armored-users." Vier said, reflecting upon the current situation. The additional damage done to the lower part of the structure making it seem like a good idea to leave sooner rather than later.... the woman going to pick Essex up again, examining the weapon for a safety switch.
 
"I'll just pretend I didn't see that." came Jay's voice, as he walked up to Vier. Cutting broadcasting on his comms, he continued.

"Now that everyone's out of earshot, have you noticed something... strange about this whole thing? Jack thinks nothing of it, and maybe it's just me, but something seems wrong. Like everything just... stopped."
 
Three sand demons would descend to land with dull thumps near where the ruins of the upper base opened to the frozen wastes, their ramps lowering.

Jack and Mark would direct the prisoners and the couple of squads that accompanied them to the first dropships. More squads emerged from below with a hustle in their step and boarded as well, Soon filling the first ship. The first sand demon lifted off as it raised it's ramp. Quickly moving off then returning to orbit at full burn to re-dock with the USV-Anvil.

"Guys we do not have time, this place isn't stable, and we have additional NMX jumping into local space. No hustle it, we need leave.", Mark ordered over the comms as troops were now boarding the second dropships.

"Nagato, we agreed on a cease fire. One of our frigates went down as well as a few of the breaching pods. The enemy had gathered them up. In return for safe passage we got our people back. Now get your team up here ASAP.", Jack chimed in irritated it was taking this long.
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Neera laughed lightly as she began to try and carry Jace along to follow those heading topside.

"Disappointed there's no outfit? Come on, let's get going."
 
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