Operation: Ice Breaker

Jay sighed as Aster left him. He knew Jack would hardly think of endangering her unnecessarily, but he was apprehensive nonetheless.

He signaled to his personal team to break to their assigned stations, the loud clanking steps of his Vikhr power armour standing out from the general noise. He couldn't help but feel a sense of power, knowing that the armour would be enough to stop most if not all of what the PsychoPomp ground forces could throw at him. Or at least in theory.

I guess that's why I'm testing this thing in the first place, isn't it? he thought to himself. Even so, the mounted micro missile pack and flares would ensure he could deal with anything unexpected. It would take some getting used to, but Jay was also confident in his weapon choice - a chem-rail assaut rifle and revolver for a secondary. He never did like the P1 very much anyway.

Lazarus stepped out into the cold, though he felt nothing towards it. His emotions as devoid as the frozen wasteland that was this planet. Taking a slow approach, he came to Valentina's side. The wind caused his hood to flap like the lower part of the black trench coat. He wore combat armor, the design giving maximum plate coverage, but leaving joints mostly uncovered to prevent hindrance of movement. It's black coated metals and undersuite standing out amongst the icy environments shear white. His hands were similarly covered, but the fingers had a claw almost appearance. His fingers twitched slightly.

"So they come. Scans show a decent sized fleet, but it makes no difference. We'll kill them all as they come. They can retreat, or stay and paint the snow crimson with their blood......Tell me Valentina......What do you see when you see me?", He said removing his helmet that had the visage of fanged black skull with red optic eyes with a click. His crimson eyes held a glazed appearance as if unfocused, devoid of emotion. His lower jaw had replaced with black metallic skeletal jaw, the teeth razor sharp. It did not move as he spoke, instead his voice came from a speaker like device within.

Down his neck below the skin, black cords and vein like things connected to the jaw and speaker. It all connected to a collar implanted into his neck, it's surface bare on the outside while the rest was beneath the flesh.

Surface
The SSI teams that were stationed on the planet would walk out. Ace walked up behind Lazarus. "If you ask me I see an idiot. Anyways lets get this show going. He would input a command into his datapad. A signal would be sent to the ships in orbit activating the engines. Some of the ships would hail the incoming fleet. The message going through would be from groups of sentient robots pleading for the fleet not to fire as they had gotten mixed into the large group and were attempting not to get themselves blown up. They also offered to help the fleet with their attack in exchange for saving them.

Surface
Ace would speak. "For now we let the field buy us time to prepare more. We have some AB projects on base we can use. These ones use Troll DNA and are fairly intelligent so we should be fine for a while. We need to hold out till an NMX fleet comes to back us up in a few hours." He would think to see if there was anything else. "Oh yeah also keep the head here safe she's in the bunker also seems Paul's a traitor so he's been detained and USO got their hands on a clone of the boss. I'm going to suit up in my PA now. Aries is working the AA guns until we can secure air superiority." Ace would begin to walk off but stopped after a few steps. "Oh and Lazarus the boss said thanks for the USO tech. Also there are some abductees you can use if your feeling... that urge." With that Ace would disappear inside to get his gear.

"...so are you comin' with? Or you just gonna fanny around up here, luv?" It took a few moments for Essex to deal with the sudden flood of data from that connection. She wasn't exactly designed to handle a big picture like that. She also wasn't very interested in anything outside her firing range, really. Once she'd dialed down the incoming stream to a trickle, mostly concerning the room they were in, she continued. "My capabilities? Ugh, fine, ya bloody..." She grumbled, finally sending something from her side of the connection to Vier. "There, ya cheeky tart. Think you can fire me without losin' a bloody arm?" The Desert Rider continued to idle while Essex waited for the ship to land and the real fighting to start. "Extra ammo in the saddlebags." She helpfully added.

"Affirmative," said to Mark, loudly clanking her way into the Possessor. Her robotic clanking only stopped when the gynoid docked herself with the modified seat in the back. She interfaced with the mech, using her robotic systems.

Adria grumbled in one of the crates Jack was standing on, hissing "JEEZE, do you have to be so loud?!" Her crate visibly shifted and made a few bumping sounds, giving away her hiding spot.

Jack sat in his chair contemplative, "Indigoes prep barages, everyone else open fire on my command." He said.

"Sir, movement and hails! Coming from the did."

"That's iffy at best. Tell them to stay away, or we will fire upon them.", Jack replied already considering new formations.

Neera sat in her directed landing unit, her mind racing with thoughts, Hold on Amit, I'm coming baby brother. We'll kill that scythed freak and bring you home![I/]

Mark had been waiting to show off the mech, and eagerly waited in his seat to activate. It was new and top of the line. A S6-XM1 under that name.

-------------------------------------

Lazarus said nothing to the man who was his commander. But signaled for his mech.

"What I am is a weapon. And weapons are made to kill for their masters. I will do so now." He said, a black winged mech being rolled out of the base on a skiff.

The ships at the front of the mass would begin to break apart and spew fire from their hulls masking the signatures of those behind them. Though the fires would normally had been extinguished due to the lack of oxygen it would seem that the ships were stocked full of promethium allowing them to burn in the vacuum. The ships effectively made a wall of fire that approached the fleet at a relatively fast speed as the engines somehow remained intact.

"Evasive maneuvers now! 90° vertical by 40° horizontal, adjust heading! All hands prepare for possible collision!", Jack said cursing inwardly, this won't stop me, "All weapons fire through the fire, try and knock out those ships!"

The fleet began turn up and left while firing and weapons that had an angle on the approaching fire wall. Guns thundered silently in the void hurling Starfire shells into the approaching wall. The indigo guided missile frigates launched missiles into the mass, while U-1 escorts maneuvered out of the way. The frigates were quick to move, the cruisers almost as fast with a slower turn speed, and followed in the rear by the Albions. The two battle carriers we're not the fasted ships in the fleet and their turn rate matched.

Vier would do her best to provide reasonable targeting data, her two U-1 drones juking away at high speed, looking to get around the firewall to provide more useful targeting data to the larger ships.

---

Meanwhile, the Vier onboard the ship was looking at the motorcycle and pistol that was in-front of her.

It was certainly a non-standard load-out.

"I will be joining you, as well as piloting the boarding pods that were put together for this operation." She explained.

The ship was loaded with the boarding pods...



... each had enough room for 4-5 people inside, though it was certainly a tight fit. Including the Motorcycle and all the gear she was already carrying would make it quite the tight fit for anyone else joining them.

"Though I have reservations about having you handle the driving of this machine. I would assume you are more suited to being a weapon system rather than a pilot."

"I'm an excellent bloody driver!" Essex almost sounded like she was sputtering, she was so indignant about her capabilities being questioned. "You just watch. I can drive a pod. I can drive a ruddy good pod." She grumbled, the Desert Rider turning to begin rolling towards the nearest pod that Vier had indicated. "Acting all high and mighty, with your...arms...and...fingers...!" The motorcycle had left Vier, now bumping its front wheel up against the pod's entrance. Physically trying to push forward before Essex thought to reach out wirelessly to command the thing to open for her.

Moving towards his assigned landing pod, Jay quickly tested the suit's comms, then contacted Vier.

"Right, I'm going to need a feed of the scanning data from those drones - I want to know as soon as we find a suitable landing area for the package. Besides that and the tugs, that's all I'm going to need. Does that work for you?"

Entering the landing pod, he noticed Neera sitting along the side.

"So, you here on or off the record?" he said, jokingly.

Vier would pass her sensor feed on to Jay,

"We will be inserting the pods under the ice, and moving to breach the facility from underwater." She explained, "The primary goal will be to locate and secure Amit. Any secondary intel you can find would be appriciated, however we do not need to be here any longer than it takes to recover our target."

The rear pod door would fold downward, creating a nice ramp for Essex, as Vier slowly approached, placing her hand on the back of the Motorcycle to try and help it get up into the transport, "Are you certain you wish to participate using this body?" She would ask.

A thumping and crashing could be heard as the maneuver tipped Adria's crate over. It didn't make the ordinary sounds of a... well... a falling crate. Alongside the noise of the box hitting the floor and bumping into other crates there was a yelping, perhaps a pissed utterance or two. Adria came tumbling out of the crate, and her wings instantly flopped out unfolded after being compressed in the cube for too long. She got up with her antennae bobbling, jostled by the fall.

Space
The ships that survived the barrage would ram into the slower ships of the S6 fleet either exploding due to reactor meltdowns or ramming into the ships then bursting into promethium fueled flames causing infernos to break out in breached sections of the impacted ships. These would cripple the cruisers and deal minor to moderate damage to the Albions.

Orbital Defense Platform
The platform's crew would jump into action as they got their prospective stations online. The weapons and defensive systems would whir into life as the station prepared for the S6 fleet to arrive.

Surface
The AA guns and EM cannon equipped to the base would turn to the sky as the crews prepared to hit their targets before they were able to reach the ground. The EM cannon would buzz as it charged up for firing and the final preparations for defense were finished. Deep within the facility other machines would whir into life as they prepared for their first test in an actual battle.

Surface

Valentina jogged inside of the base and to the armory as Lazarus entered his mech. When she arrived at her destination, she placed her rifle on her back and picked up one of the many self-guided anti-tank weapons on the rack. Valentina picked up two warheads as well. She would have taken more, but two was all she could carry comfortably, without having to leave another part of her kit behind. The weapon itself was already taller than her, but the Wind suit at least made it easy to carry.

If anything, she didn't intend to sit around during the orbital defense portion of the operation, and with luck she could thwart the efforts of the landing craft as well.

Having spent less than a minute inside, she was outside of the base in a few moments, taking a defensive position on the rooftop.

Now, all she had to do was wait.

Space
The guns of the Section 6 fleet would destroy a number of the unarmored commercial ships, but their speed guaranteed some made it threw. USV-Spear and USV-Broadsider were crippled as their shields were depleted from detonations then crippled from the prometium.

The Albions were the bigger targets, but their anti-ship arsenal decimated most of the incoming makeshift weapons. They weathered those couple that made it through, the massive ships shields easily absorbing the damage of the smaller ships to their powerful shields.

The ships booked it still at their fastest speeds to clear the firewall.

Aboard USV-Hammer:
Flight deck
Neera giggled, "On record, Lt. Commander. I would be remiss as a big sister not to help save my brother."

The ship rocked and vibrated with every nearby detonation. Neera watched those scurrying about the flight deck moving to stations, or moving supplies to where they were needed. The stack of crates toppling, had instinctively caught her attention, but what fell out even more so.

"Adria?!", Neera said before running out of the pod and over to the butterfly girl, "Adria, what are you doing here?! Your supposed to be home, not on the battle field. I'm guessing dad doesn't know your here. Hey, crewman! Take her to the bridge." Neera said frustrated with her sister. The crewman she had yelled at had stopped and looked down at the girl before doing what he was told. Hoisting Adria up he began to drag her off towards the bridge.

Bridge
"All ships maneuver into a partial shell formation, show em your broadsides. I want all guns to bear! Comms officer! Keep hailing Spear and Broadsides, I want to know if we have survivors for pickup later and there status.", Jack said passing orders to his bridge crew. His vision had been replaced with a HUD display for the fleet, readouts and statuses to either side with a 3D sphere battle space in the center.

He ignored the hiss of the bridge's pneumatic door until a crewman tapped him on his armored shoulder. Minimizing the HUD, he turned around first to see the man then what he had dragged with him.

"You have a lot of explaining to do young lady. Why are you here instead of home with your mother, and where is your brother Adilis. Did you pull him into danger with you?", Jack said inwardly pissed, but also now somewhat fearful. He did not want his children who were not prepared for this to be in harm's way. He was not going to lose more to Psychopomp.

Spora-ground
Lazarus was grabbed by his mech and tossed into the cockpit to climb into the chair. As he synched with it, his perception and feelings we're replaced. His vision switched with that of the scan and targeting optics of his machine, the cold ice now felt underfoot, and the wind blowing against his plates. He flexed his hands, the mechanical figures, now like the rest of the body moving in a more organic manner.

"Come father, it is time for the moment of Truth. Either die showing how absolete you are, or end my cursed existence and learn the truth we share.", He said to himself too low for anyone else to hear. Spreading his wings, he equipped his modified rifle for sniping and his scythe, the plasma blade sending up plumes of steam as it was brushed against the ice.

Bridge
"HEY! Put me down!" Adria snapped at the crewman. She flailed around to no avail until the crewman brought her to the bridge. She gave Jack a long, hard glare, telling him "I told you dad, I'm ready for this mission. I want to save Amit, and no I didn't bring the marshmallow with me."

Jace walked up passed the bike into the pod and was about to take a seat then the ship shook from the explosions "shit must be beginning" he looked to Essex "you good at maneuvering in close quarters?" it was strange to him seeing vehicle for a situation like this going into close quarter battle like this "sure you wont get stuck?" he chuckled taking a seat and loaded his Maverick "cause you know you could high center" he just wanted to get back at her for the insults she spat out earlier