//The following is a joint post between @Luca, @The Real Bames Jond, and @Eistheid. Due to @The Real Bames Jond going missing, this joint post was unable to continue. At the same time, @Luca thought it would be a waste if the writing wasn't published. So, this joint post has been published. If Jond wants to continue it if he returns, he may.//
//Otherwise, enjoy the post.//
//This takes place during Interlude 3.//
START!
Hope System (P-01), Planet Hope, Outskirts of Jovian Peak
On some parts of the planet, the days and nights lasted for months, turning the extremities of the iceball planet of Hope into a sea of sleet, or a pitch black blizzard. Jovian Peak, a well-known resort and getaway for Nepleslian extreme sporting enthusiasts, was close to the northern pole of Hope. The nights were noticeably longer in the middle of winter, with only a few hours of sunlight a day.
Ideal conditions for a night raid, as some pirates and bandits entering into coalition had figured out. A distress signal had gone out, and the Phoenix Service Group had answered. A low flying freighter was skimming across the ice with a few occupants inside, using a low-power stealth mode.
Inside, four people and a pilot were checking armaments and going over what would be a smash and grab. "So," Luca said, rolling the cylinder of his revolver across his forearm before holstering it, "we're about six kilometres out, its dark and snowy, and our targets have settled in for the evening. A police counterattack on the place failed because its so remote, and they've been threatening to kill hostages if the military shows up." A projector in the ceiling of the cargo-bay turned seating area showed some of the news reports.
Noppera sat bundled up as warmly as she could manage in the back of the shuttle and brushing shoulders with a particularly nasty-looking and heavily tattooed man who she had learned shared her "past" experience. Jeanne Lock was the name she was going under for her enlistment into the PSG: a former member of the Nepleslian special operations community who had made her early career fighting the NMX out on the Nepleslian colonial expanses. A back story with only the thinnest sliver of truth.
She was acting the part. Stoic expression hidden under the mask of her Muur armor's helmet, a hand always at her rifle as if she was expecting a fight could start at any minute, and she didn't seem to waste time looking around the transport compartment. Instead she kept her eyes exclusively on the display from the briefing and the supposed living legend that stood before the small team for the briefing.
Tamamo's presence was an oddity in many ways. Her presence was that of a small figure bound in a white fur-lined jacket, her hands plunged into the deep pockets on the front and her face largely hidden behind the tall neck of the garment. With her slouched posture and the large heavy hood, little could be seen of the occupant, aside from a pair of what might have been fluffy violet furred ear tips, and glowing crosses within the depths of the hood.
Her reserved posture hid the energy that she felt, they were going to go play in the snow. Tamamo being odd as she was, wanted nothing more than to venture out into the frozen, lightless world that awaited her. She didn't think much about the smAR Fatboy slung over a shoulder, nor did she think about the blue Spotter Rifle that rested behind her back. No, all that was on the small girl's mind was the joy that the cold air and eruption into the snowwy landscape would bring.
To this end Tamamo was doing a poor job of paying attention to the briefing, only the vaguest information about pirate raiders penetrating her mental landscape. Not that she had much to worry about. Unlike the others sitting around her she could catch up on the talking that she had ignored.
The ringleader of this operation was checking his rifle again, pulling the bolt back and looking into the magazine well, snapping it shut with a click that echoed inside the vehicle. He was wearing the gear Jeanne had seen in the advertisements - purple jacket, white under padding, blue pants, black boots, and a copper trim. All he had for warmth were snow goggles on his forehead and a silk scarf wrapped around his neck, steady breathing making a lazy fog in front of him.
They looked back up at the news reports, then made a dismissive wave at the hologram, bringing up something the Intel team had picked up after a cursory glance at Jovian Peak. Ski trails, maps, the locations of buildings, and the key locations of infrastructure. Apparently, someone in the intel team had been there on holidays before too. Luca leaned forward in his seat and pointed into the hologram.
"We're going to be dropping ourselves off around here and going for a walk," he indicated near the base of the mountain. A lazy finger begun tracing up the side of the mountain until it reached a plateau where the skiing resort was located, walled in with a red fade. "Once we're in the hot zone, we'll have to split up. Jeanne, you're our designated forward scout," he snapped his fingers at her, "listening?"
From what he knew of the woman, she definitely sounded like she fit the Special Forces bill with her results on training, but she never specified which branch she hailed from. He didn't think much of it for the moment.
When prompted with a snapped finger, Noppera gave Luca only a curt nod. Forward scouting? It wasn't where she wanted to be the most of all. When bullets started flying, scouts had a bad habit of being in horrible cover because they were the first one into the killzone. She'd much rather have had literally any of the craft's other occupants between her and the incoming fire. Even the quiet little thing huddled off by itself all in white.
Noppera was a killer. Not a soldier.
With the city-girl inflection of Funky City that she'd gotten so good at, she spoke up, "Do we know what kind of fire we're walking into when things get noisy?"
"Looked to be a hodgepodge. Apparently a roving pirate clan landed here with some bandits who are used to the icy conditions." Luca nodded as he started bringing up relevant intel. A crudely painted emblem of a skull impaled by an icicle, and a spray painted black fist with red boots around them. "Got really drunk together one night and decided to have the afterparty here. I'm guessing they'll have smallarms, explosives, probably a power armour or two for the ringleaders, saw them in the security footage in the reports."
He pointed out something in "Of note, Jovian Peak has some automated defences on it. Perhaps hacking them's worth a shot if the bandits haven't destroyed them already," he frowned, "but I'm not sure where the controls are."
He patted the M'cel on his rifle, and looked over to the boxes of 40mm munitions nearby, along with the other ammunition supplies on this mobile centre. One box was labelled 'HIGH EXPLOSIVE' in white stencil lettering, the other was labelled 'PLASMA', with blue-tipped shells resting there. Apparently a gift from the Lorath. "Take what you need. A direct hit should kill an armour."
Thankfully the mask concealed her face when she watched Luca go on. A builing full of pirate and bandits? With explosives? And power armor? And here he was droning on like he'd just told her that the milk had gone and spoiled. And now here they were in Muur armor and snow jackets, or at least most of the people were save for the fearless leader, and being told that all they had to go toe-to-toe with PAs was some M'cel ammo.
It was better than with just her rifle so Noppera joined the others when prompted in gathering spare HE and plasma grenades to stow away in the spare pockets of her carrier rig before taking her seat and remaining silent from then on.
"Tamamo, you're covering Jeanne. Biers and I will be trying to sneak through and disable sentries," Luca directed as he slipped a suppressor out of one of his pouches and screwed it onto the end of the rifle. It'd probably get abused into uselessness once the real fighting started, but it was the thought that counted.
The other man in Muur armour, identified as Biers nodded at everyone, looking around as they were stashing grenades into their rigs. He only had a pistol with a suppressor, while draped across his chest was a light machine gun.
Prompted by the direct adress, Tamamo spoke up. A bright, peppy voice that would have fit an idol on some Yamataian station better than a soldier, floated from the depths of her jacket, "Hai, hai, Taisa." The response was short, and perhaps a little derisive toward her technical superior, however it wasn't out of place from the small girl as he knew all too well.
Despite this show of life from the otherwise motionless entity stuffed into a corner of the room, Tamamo failed to show any other signs of life. Notably the absence of a M'Cel on her person negated the need for grenades, and allowed her to remain bundled in her corner for the moment as she focused her attentions on a conversation that had little to do with the present.
The locks on the hatch clacked side to side and slowly begun opening, letting the winter chill inside and white flakes melting against the deck. Luca stood up immediately and looked outside, scanning the outside and realising that the drop wasn't too big - for him anyway.
♫ Goldeneye 007 - Surface 1 ♫
The drop became considerably shorter as the back of the freighter kissed the ice, and Luca stepped out and examined the mountainous terrain ahead of them, keeping his grip on the ice as a light hiss of heat eminated off the device on his right arm. Biers stood up too, ammunition rattling in the drum they had fixed to their machine gun. When they stepped out, they realised that the icy ground wasn't so forgiving with his top-heavy armour, and stumbled before standing with his knees bent.
She would have been the first one out of the ship, if Biers hadn't stood up in front of her. Tamamo's momentum cancelling in mid air before she redirected and shot toward the ceiling, trailing a length of pale violet fur terminating in an inky black tip as she scuttled along the ceiling and out into the cold.
Sailing through the air, her 'tail' split, fanning out into an array of fur, eight tips visible faintly in the darkness of Hope's night, as she landed in a roll. Once on her feet crampon clad boots cut into the ice as she hopped about in a small circle visibly searching for a patch of snow before slowly coming to terms with the solidity of the landscape.
Her hood having fallen back in the excitement she looked toward the ship and the crew, her long triangular ears twitching atop her head, glowing eyes lost in pools of blackness, perhaps looking dismayed. It was hard to tell. A silent bit of encouragement and a non-existant pat on the head from across the stars improved her mood quickly, a quick motion pulling her hood back up as she started up her internal HUD.
A grid overlayed itself over the world around Tamamo as various diagnostic systems reported on the general status of the myriad of sub-systems throughout her body. As well the recording of the trip in the freighter finally began to play at four times normal speed catching her up with what she had neglected to notice during the ride.
Collecting her fluffy tails around her feet Tamamo once again looked toward the freighter waiting to see when they would start moving. Maybe they'd find snow further along.
They could call her a forward scout and a point woman all they wanted but Noppera was still happily the last of the quartet to leave the shuttle. Her footing was slow and cautious even as crampons bit into the ice and promised her a more sure footing. It seemed like the young woman that Noppera was putting her life in the hands of had the focus of a child ... and the acrobatic talent of a spider. She didn't know how she felt about all of that.
When the bitter cold hit her the 'Nepleslian commando' did her best to suppress a shiver and huddle in on herself. She instead tried to focus on taking in as much of her surroundings as she could without making it obvious that internal hemosynthesis meant she was seeing clear into the infrared spectrum. It felt weird using a hud and the radio around her neck so often but she had to remind herself that she was just an ordinary Nepleslian.
Well. Mostly ordinary.
Clear of the shuttle but uncomfortable standing out in the open so plainly, Noppera tried to find the nearest patch of trees or rise in the terrain that would give them some cover in case the pirates and bandits had sent out anybody on patrols to keep the area secure.
She activated her mike for everybody to hear over their comms net, "I don't like being out in the open like this." Because even if she wasn't a soldier she knew a potential killzone when she was standing in one, "I'd suggest we get moving."
And with that being said she suddenly remembered. She was the forward scout.
Noppera looked to her 'partner' who'd just finished prancing about on the ice, "You ready?"
There was a long moment of silence. Nearly ninety seconds, if one were to keep count, during which Tamamo had done little aside from blink slowly. The lights disappearing, before slowly being revealed. Then without warning the cheery voice returned, though not spoken aloud instead bleeding in through the headsets in the comm network, "Hai~"
Turning her attention to the mountain before them Tamamo tilted her head back, tracing the likely path that they would be taking up to the unpleasantly named, 'hot zone' where they would be engaging in the fireworks portion of the field trip.
After a moment more of consideration she inquired, "Take the lead?" She wasn't sure what sort of prompt their scout would require. She wasn't used to the idea of working with the PSG yet, and it seemed that her absence from their activities had left her in the dark as to how one was supposed to properly interact. Not that it was too different from normal.
Noppera had stared. And stared. Just as lost in silence as her apparent partner until she had finally received a response. And boy she didn't regret that it had been close to two minutes more time exposed just to be told "yes". Oh that was definitely worth it. The mask hid Noppera's grimace as she too looked up the mountain ahead of them.
She didn't want to take the lead. She honestly didn't want to be on this mountain right now, freezing, listening to the snow roar around her, and needing to pretend to be partially blind so people wouldn't ask questions that she couldn't answer. But she'd signed up with this group for a reason and this was just the price she had to pay for it.
So she didn't say anything outside of a grunt and a vague hand signal for the other woman to follow her before she started trudging her way across the ice towards their objective. It'd be a hell of a walk in this weather, needing to "accidentally" kick a rock or break in the ice that she just "couldn't see" as she lead the way up. Not too much of course since she was a trained commando after all. Or that's what she said.
Noppera kept her rifle to her shoulder and used her seeing into the thermal spectrum to keep an eye out for any defensive structures or possible hostiles lurking out in the snow and ice.
Noppera - rather than Jeanne saw no thermal signatures on the icy plains save for the breath in front of her, the strange blue-faced woman, the man who should've really been wearing more, and the nondescript in the armour. Of note, Luca's right arm seemed to be emitting a steady stream of electric energy. Yamataians couldn't have cybernetics - maybe it was some sort of glove where the Phoenix Punch came from. Nobody on the NMX side could figure out how it worked, though.
"Let's go." He directed, pointing towards the rocky mountain jutting out of the ice and snow. "Biers, you're with me; Tamamo, stick with Jeanne." Biers seemed relieved that he was sticking with the saner of the three on board. At least he hoped so.
Noppera said nothing. Instead she adjusted the grip on her rifle and gave a small nod.
Some time later...
The craggy grey peaks and white drifts of snow made for a tough traverse, especially for Biers and his heavy equipment. Still, he was trained to move, and with Luca - seemingly immune to the cold thanks to an upbringing in Ralt - was leading the way up the mountain. Every now and again, he'd radio his status in - and looking at his approximate position, he could be 'seen' on their communications and HUDs. Similarly, he could look back at them.
Tamamo and Jeanne had a different route up the tor, amidst some designer trees donated by Burke's Pines. Jovian Peak was undergoing a bit of decoration when the pirates struck, trying to gentrify and mix up the scenery a bit to get a wider alpine audience during the warmer months. The ground beneath their feet was softer, more like soil compared to the normal rock and ice of Hope.
For her part Tamamo had gone from uncomfortably active, to uncannily quiet. The sound of her crampons biting into the ice or clashing with the rare portion of exposed stone, was muted at most, her gait minimizing the noise while also being comfortably efficient. Notably she hadn't started to breathe more heavily over the course of the trek.
More notable was that her external body temperature had dropped to a point that was much closer to that of the snow and ice around her only her core betraying her thermal signature. Contrasting with Luca's apparent disdain for the cold, she seemed to be adapted for it.
While trailing Jeanne in near silence, Tamamo was hardly idle, curiously casting her gaze about raking the landscape visually with periodic shifts between infrared, normal visual, and ultraviolet spectrums. Additionally as she had progressed, her hood fell back slightly allowing her large ears to swivel freely, hunting for any faint sound that might give away the presence of another living thing on the mountain. Due to the limited composition of their group she knew that any minor advantage would be worth seizing, and it was in her interest that she do her best to provide it.
Noppera kept her head on a swivel as she led the duo up the mountain. She kept her breathing steady, her footing sure, and she was always looking out into the darkness around her. If the pirates and bandits up in the lodge had sobered up then it was more than possible they'd start sending out patrols further down the mountain. Probably nowhere near the city to avoid getting caught out in the open by the local authorities, but in their shoes she'd want to find anybody like her before they'd gotten all the way up to the lodges.
It was weird living this double-life for as long as she had. She'd been "undercover" before but that had usually been for periods of hours or perhaps a little over a day or two in the enemy's uniform. She'd be in and out before anybody realized they were up an extra soldier. Jeanne Lock was somebody with a life though, even if it was a little vague. Nepleslian, born out on colonial territory, and she'd made it into the military just in time to fight the SMX and NMX. She'd kept it vague, had just the right papers to fool most background checks, and did her best to make sure nobody ever saw the SPINE interface or genetic stamps on her back.
With a moment of focus, Noppera manipulated her eyes to keep her preferred shooting eye in the thermal spectrum while the other returned to "normal" light. She scanned their surroundings as she stalked between the trees. What a lack of traditional neko ears cost her for hearing, she made up for with her sight as she advanced.
"Do you hear anything?" She whispered to her newly assigned partner.
Tamamo's sensitive ears, and spectrum of data viewing were picking up whispers in the air, and the scent of fresh cigarette smoke coming downwind through the pine trees. Looking over a snowdrift, Tamamo could see the face of a man in grunge-green clothing, bearded, and having a smoke while they were on lookout with a torch under their rifle, casting shadows through the pines and against the white and grey.
The rifle in their hands looked like it'd come from the Nepleslias, with a banana-curved magazine and a robust construction, firing the 6.8mm cartridge. Against people, it was effective enough. Against the likes of Noppera and Tamamo ... probably not so much.
Tamamo could also see a data signal coming from their shoulder, listening to the signals of a radio. An empty channel at the moment.
The response from Tamamo came quickly, matching her companion for volume with uncomfortable precision, "Single hostile, male, green clothing. Automatic rile, Nepleslian make. Active radio comm, not presently in use." She accompanied the brief description with a guesture that would hopefully point Jeanne toward the hostile, as she lacked the capacity to directly paint a digital marker that her companion could see.
Hunched low to the ground, Tamamo's silhouette was less than two feet tall, giving her the most cover that the open terrain could offer. From this comfortable position she awaited the decision of her 'scout' on what course of action the Nepleslian desired. Tamamo contented herself with keeping her observations mobile to avoid target fixation should there be more to see apart from the single obvious target.
Noppera drew a sharp breath when she saw the target's outline. The snow was ice around him and while she couldn't make the best details she could tell he was armed. She found cover at the nearest tree and hugged low against the ground. She even managed to ignore the bite of the snow through her uniform as she peaked out from around the trunk of the tree and wondered just how well it would do at stopping any lead thrown her way.
The tree seemed quite solid to the touch, more than she was expecting for a lab-grown project. They usually produced things that gave out bigger numbers of oxygen, while looking sickly. These were trees. She was fairly confident a bullet could be stopped if it hit the middle.
Tamamo's further observation paid off: She traced the line of the digital signal to another approaching unit, carrying similar armament. They were wearing more arctic colours and a black balaclava, better for blending in with the snow. The green-clad pirate looked over their shoulder and saw them coming. The snow bandit seemed to be swapping positions with their previous companion, taking a different stance and kneeling down near a log while looking out at the forest.
Then Noppera and Tamamo saw them looking down and grabbing something behind the log. They placed it on their head and over their eyes. Nightvision. The green pirate, kept shining their torch where the ice bandit wasn't looking, mindful of blinding them.
After a moment of watching the new circumstances Tamamo wondered whether it would be simplest to merely fire upon the two sentries. Even so, she wasn't running a solo mission and it would probably be best for her PSG compainion to get in some experience, at least that was what she thought Luca would want. As such Tamamo inquired, "Suggestions?"
Perhaps this Jeanne would have some experience in the field that would prove useful, at the very least Tamamo would have a better idea of who she was working with. Valuable information in its own way.
Noppera was quick to duck back behind the tree. She didn't have any tarp or cover to throw over herself to hide her body temperature and even if she did that would only work if those goggles were infrared So she waited behind her cover and peaked out to keep track of their patterns. Slow and sweeping movements. Slow enough, she told herself. Slow enough.
A check of the magazine. Cold and gleaming brass.
"Ready to go loud?" She whispered to her partner.
"Hai Shosho~" Apparently it wasn't only the Captain that was given sickeningly cheerful, if inappropriate rank titles. An explaination would never come however, instead Tamamo slipped the custom Spotter Rifle from her back and settled the grip into her left hand as she brought it up to her shoulder.
Casually flicking the safety off, switching the Spotter Rifle into its normal mode of operation, Tamamo casually lined up the with her chosen target. The night vision equipped hostile. Let his more poorly prepared companion juggle his flashlight in the dark.
Slowing her already relaxed breathing, Tamamo watched the poor man, or perhaps it was a woman for a few seconds before speaking quietly to Jeanne, "When you're ready to move, the one in white will die." Fairly certain that she had attended to her communication duties, Tamamo waited for her PSG companion to move, ready to snuff the life of an unfortunate individual.
Noppera steadied her nerves. It would only be a few seconds and it'd be done.
"Now."
♫ Ace Combat Zero - Glacial Skies ♫
She came from around the tree and was already shouldering her rifle. She tried to use her abilities without pushing herself too far beyond what the Nepleslian Jeane could be expect to do so the snow wouldn't slow her down as much and her rifle would stay steady on its target. A brilliant blue beam came from behind a tree and struck the white-clad trooper squarely in the chest, burning their camouflage and searing their flesh. Insult to injury, the brilliant flash blinded them too.
The one who remained standing was surprised by the sudden burst of light, yelling in surprise. Noppera was relying on the nightvision clad guard's death to distract the flashlight wielder before his beam would come on her. As she closed the distance she let off a staccato burst of automatic gunfire for that one's center mass. The gunfire echoed through the nighttime, drowning out the sounds of the bullets striking the fallen tree his companion was near. Two of them grazed the green soldier in the shoulder and making him yelp, before clumsily returning fire in a cone between Noppera and Tamamo.
Noppera tossed her rifle to her back and let the sling catch it from flying off into the snow as she came inside a few meters of the screaming guard. His "cover" would have been paltry if Noppera had brought heavier firepower and it was totally useless now that she was closing in. She jumped up and planted a single boot on it before a subtle manipulation threw her forward to bring her other knee crashing into his face.
She came down on top of him and ended up straddling him at the shoulders. One punch. Another. A third. "Pulled" by her normal standards but enough that she felt his nose and teeth give way by the second hit. She finished by drawing her 10mm, pressing it under the man's chin, and putting a round through his brainpan.
She rose up and holstered the pistol again before grabbing her rifle, "We need to move!"
The echoes of gunfire could be heard a ways away from Noppera and Tamamo's position. It seemed like there was contact over on Luca's side of things as well, but there was no time to confirm what was happening. Lights on buildings begun to pop open, giving the grey and blue buildings yellow and white squares in the windows close to ground floor, visible from the forest the two were in.
With their last known position being the forest they were standing, the fireteam could stay amidst the thick pines and utilise the cover and concealment from a downhill position, or head out into a snowfield outside of town together, using the contours of the white mounds for concealment. Or, if they wanted, they could meet an unknown number of enemies head on.
A crackle came over the radio from Luca: "I've got some slight interference on my end." He understated as what sounded like a Phoenix Punch came over the radio, followed by a screaming man's voice disappearing. "Yoyo them." The line cut out.
Noppera watched the lights come alive and tried to think of what she could do next. Her HUD gave her Luca's position and even if she wasn't an expert the gunfire and screaming on the radio didn't sound like "slight interference".
"Hey Tamamo, think you can pick off anybody who comes outside?" She waved towards the buildings, "Keep them distracted and afraid to move? I'm going to pull a one-woman flank on whoever it is thats busting down on the Captain."
With that she took off at a run for Luca's marked position on her HUD.
Already in motion well before Jeanne had finished off her first target, Tamamo's ears, head, and shoulders popped over the edge of the low cover and had provided the small woman a place to rest her rifle comfortably. Turning what was minimal cover for most into fairly effectve chest high cover.
Maintaining her good behaviour and communication Tamamo was quick to respond, "If anyone tries to leave, I'll pin them down... Though I'd much rather they just remain inside and provide silhouettes..."
True to her word, Tamamo was already combing the windows of the building slipping from illuminated window to illuminated window hunting for the tell tale silhouette of a soldier who had decided that they wanted to look out into the night to see who might be approaching their position.
Tamamo supposed that there was probably a game or something with similar parameters. She'd have to look it up later though. Peering through her scope, she could see the windows lighting up, and the light in the rooms moving around, so people were moving around, but they were staying away from the windows. Credit where it was due, they were playing smart.
As Noppera was getting closer to Luca, the sounds of war got clearer - fully automatic gunfire that seemed to keep going on and on from her left, punctuated with mass-driver shots, and rifle fire coming from the buildings to her right. Looking over to her right, there seemed to be a skiing slope, with three hostiles coming down the slope, two wearing arctic equipment and the other remarkably underdressed.
Luca's position was out of sight behind the slope and skipping across the side of the hill. A hand grenade went sailing through the air from his position and landed in the snow - exploding and distracting to the three advancing troops, who'd now hit the deck. Biers was on the other side of the slope and closer to Noppera, providing suppressing fire at a building that appeared to be barricaded, the flashes of gunfire poking out of the windows.
Noppera came bounding up on Bier's position from out of the woodline.
"Friendly coming in! Friendly!"
She performed a baseball-slide through the thinner snow to come up beside Biers. She held the position and flicked off the safety for the M'Cel launcher attached to the udnerside of her GP-1. A high explosive shell was already loaded in and she had more in her webbing.
"Frag out!" She yelled.
And if Biers didn't hear that from her then he'd get to see it as she set sights on one of the windows and fired off the round. She immediately worked on loading a second to follow it. Indeed, he was more focussed on making sure the guys on the slope weren't going to interfere with Noppera's shot at the window. The grenade sailed through the air and struck one of the windows, lighting up the dark resort town with an explosion and 'pacifying' whoever was in there.
Hot on the heels of the explosion, Biers had to swap magazines on his light machine gun, having spent over two thirds of the can's belt, and opening the tray to start the lengthly reloading process. Noppera watched Luca come out from the shadow of the hill and charge at the three trooper's pinned positions with his own GP-1, flanking them.
Meanwhile, Tamamo begun to see shapes getting closer to the window, looking out at what'd happened across snowfield to the other side of the village, some of them raising rifles and looking out, then taking potshots at an exposed Luca from a distance. Noppera watched a bullet strike him in the chest as he was firing at the trio, and it made him stumble from sheer weight, putting a dent in his chestpiece.
There were two camouflaged troopers left on the slope for Noppera, and two riflemen on the other side, visible to Tamamo.
A soft sigh escaped into the cool air, as the habitants finally took to the windows. It was like the satisfaction after a long period of anticipation. Cathartic. Shifting her aim to pick the one closer to Jeanne, Biers, and Luca, Tamamo made haste knowing that people generally preferred not to have gunfire to worry about as she squeezed the trigger, the window borne rifleman filling her scope vanishing momentarily in a flash of blue light.
Simulated recoil helped direct Tamamo to her next target, the second of the pair that had tried to use their abode as a tactical advantage. Lining up the shot Tamamo calmed herself for an instant before once again squeezing the trigger, aiming to remove both threats from behind her allies in one smooth motion.
With a window blasted open and everybody behind it either dead or not eager to get back up to fight, Noppera had no better chance than now to move for Luca. But just to be sure she fired the freshly loaded grenade into the opening in the building to fill the hall or room beyond with shrapnel before putting her attention on Luca's attackers.
She slapped the machine gunner on his shoulder to get his attention, "Biers! Cover me!"
"Gotcha!" Biers replied as he closed the firing tray and pulled his machine gun out, ready to provide cover fire.
She didn't offer anything else as she sprinted onto the slope. Two enemies and a nearly fully loaded magazine. Adrenaline was keeping her on edge and keeping her senses sharp when she set her sights on the back of one of the two arctic-dressed targets. Single shots: three for his chest and a more sloppy and off-the-hip shot for his head.
The second was given a volley of four aimed at his chest as she ran for Luca. The captain of the operation regained their footing and raised their gun immediately, watching the two arctic soldiers swivel towards him and try to put more lead into him - when the one in the back suddenly fell facefirst into the snow with red splatters in their chest. He could see Jeanne behind the final trooper, and fired at the last snow trooper, putting five rounds in their chest and closing the gap.
He walked over to Jeanne as he dug around in his chestplate for the bullet that'd struck him. "All quiet things end with a bang," he mumbled as he pulled the squashed bullet out and tossed it away. In his stumbling, he could vaguely recall some blue lances going through the air at the buildings just northeast of his position. Tamamo's work, hopefully dealing with the sniper.
"No time to chat, we need to move up. Get back to Tamamo and make flanks," Luca ordered everyone over radio. Biers got out from their position and begun jogging up the hill with machine gun in hand, sweltering in his armour despite the arctic conditions.
The visible target was the town square, where two aerospace shuttles had landed and were serving as the quarters for the two bandit leaders, who were well and truly cluey to something going on. They didn't know who it was though, nobody had been able to make a confirmed sighting. They did confirm the sight of someone going flying through the air over radio.
Noppera was already gone at Luca's orders and running for where she had last left Tamamo. Her head was on a swivel and her theramlly inclined eye was helping to spot any unexpected surprises in the forests or around her.
She spoke over her radio, "Tamamo, are you doing okay?"
The "Nepleslian" didn't wait for a reply.
"We need to link up and manuever. Drive in on them."
After firing upon the building Tamamo had done as any good markswoman should and had relocated burying herself in a snow drift to better mask her location should anyone remain to preform counter-sniper work.
♫ Ace Combat Zero Soundtrack - Sortie III ♫
The mesage from Jeanne had her head pop out of the snow followed by the rest of the small girl's body as she started bounding across the ground at an alarming speed as she reunited with her 'scout' and companion. She didn't know what was intended by 'driving in' on the foe but she was certain that Jeanne's actions would tell her all she needed to know soon enough.
Luca was already leading the charge, getting to higher ground with the Grapple Stunner and walking along the spine of a roof. The nighttime clouds had begun to clear up, and a moonless sky, illuminated by the light reflecting from the two asteroid belts which surrounded Hope. Quite a nice night for a showdown now that the weather had cleared, but the weather was killing their concealment.
By now, most of the towns' rowdy inhabitants were aware that someone was coming for them from the woods and the snowfield. Biers was moving a little more tactically on the ground, from cover to cover, prepared to run and gun with a light machinegun as he moved. Ahead of them, there was a long, windy street that you could ski down and directly into the intermediate slopes if there weren't any cars on the road.
Some hasty roadblocks made from overturned cars and rescue trucks nixed that possibility, but they provided solid battlements to the defenders, who were firing at Luca, who slipped down one of the steep roofs for cover before leaping to a flat-topped building and moving ahead of Jeanne, Biers, and Tamamo. Biers was firing at the overturned truck, bullets slamming into the undercarriage of the rescue truck.
"Let's go, Tamamo!" Noppera nodded her head to the outermost lodge the snipers had called home and ejected the shell into her palm before stuffing it away in her webbing.
A brand new shell replaced it as Noppera jogged up to the edge of the tree-line. She shouldered the rifle and picked a spot somewhere along the outer wall. It was arbitrary. She fired off the round and blasted through the masonry.
With the dust still thick in the air she focused to turn both her eyes into the thermal spectrum again and moved on the opening with her rifle poised. The blast had knocked out whatever lights had been on in the room on the otherside but darkness wasn't an issue. She stepped through and when she found nothing she moved for the door.
She spoke through the radio again, "Tamamo, do you think you'd like a spot up on the roof? Use that fancy rifle of yours to put down some serious fire?"
A burst of rounds through the door was meant to surprise and hopefully kill anybody on the other side before she kicked it wide open to step through.
The roof? That was an idea she supposed. Tamamo was a little loathe to leave the PSG woman on her own in a potentially hostile building, but she supposed she could make do with her circumstances. Leaping from the ground, Tamamo erupted in a spray of snow shooting up to the roof before landing on the virgin snow with an almost silent creak of packing snow.
Taking the time to cycle a fresh battery into her Spotter Rifle Tamamo decided that she would do one better than merely sit on the roof. Wandering along the snow covered roof toward the centre of town, Tamamo took a breath settling herself out of habbit into the relaxed state that she preferred for shooting. Then she jumped a second time.
Nullifying her weight Tamamo sailed up, and up above the town, the buildings shrinking below her as she balled up into a tight crouch, minimizing her silhouette against the night sky as she looked down through her scope sighting at the ground before using the unique angle to eliminate the cover provided by the makeshift barricades scattered about town.
She had six shots before she had to go back down. Best make them count. She could see eight barricades between the group on the ground (or on the roofs in Luca's case) and the centre of town from the main road, but Tamamo could see backstreets and alleys that didn't have as major an impediment or a guard. Her scan of the area turned her into a one-fox UAV drone providing overwatch.
There was still a bottleneck, as the town had been built along the spine of a mountain, with a sharp dropoff into the forest and the black-diamond slopes, while the continuation of the spine and a smoother gradient made up the easier slopes As such it was quite narrow, almost a rectangle with a knobly circle on the end to Tamamo.
Luca leapt at the very foot of the overturned car from his rooftop position, and punched it.
Yes. He punched it loud enough to wake up the dead and moved it a good six feet back, eliminating the first barrier and creating roadkill. Another was up ahead, this time made of a flipped sedan and an overturned city car with chains on the tyres that was too clean-looking to be a Nepleslian holiday maker. Two men were manning the makeshift battlements with a mounted machine gun, and Luca had to get out of the way of a shower of bullets that followed him and Biers.
Perhaps for these two, head on wasn't the way. Precision elimination from either Noppera or Tamamo, or a flank was necessary. Tamamo could see that a tributary alley between the buildings to the PSG team's left, or perhaps through the building.
Noppera, meanwhile, found someone dead on the ground when she moved in, and watching Luca's position, she had a decent shot from the second floor at the machine gunners. Perhaps, with Biers following Luca's lead, she could bend the rules a little to get from building to building and blame it on the bandits.
Noppera stepped over the corpse and looked either way down the hall. Smoke and the acrid smell of explosives and gunfire were thick in the air but there wasn't a soul to be seen. Not even her own team. Noppera smiled underneath her helmet as she realized that. But that smile went away when she heard the heavy bark of the machine gun out at the front. She supposed it was good that she'd get to break her own rules a little.
Noppera secured her rifle behind her again and set her eyes on the wall at the far end of the hall. This was something she was better at. Wanton destruction and chaos. She didn't even pretend to take a run up and just flung herself through the air with her shoulder leading the way towards the wall the whole time. When she met the wall, it blew out from the force.
The wall just across the alley didn't stop her, either. It was a rubble-showering mess but Noppera kept moving forward in a sort of arching circle out away from the main road that Luca and Bier had caught themselves up on. By the end of it she'd left an erratic series of holes blasted through the walls behind her when she finally came out into a final alley.
From here she found herself flanking the busy machine gun set up to look over the road and still carrying a modest supply and variety of explosives. But she found herself grinning when she reached into a belt pack and her hand rested against a small, unmarked box. She drew it out and popped it open, dropping to one knee in the safety of the alley's shadows.
A half-dozen latex-like pink spheres she'd brought along. Just in case.
What was more fun than an old fashioned explosion?
Good old fashioned neko strength hurled the kaserine aerosol grenade through the air towards the machinegunners still trying so hard to riddle Biers and Pavone full of holes.
Her HUD was quick to update her map of the town, the layout rapidly converting itself into a three dimentional model for Tamamo to reference at her leisure. In addition to the basic layout her HUD lit up with a flurry of markers, one for the Captain, one PSG symbol for Biers, and a helpful scattering of markers for every hostile visible from the sky.
Deciding that it was important to maintain the task of providing field experience for the PSG they had along, Tamamo was generous and only fired on every other target that she could spot starting from the next closest group of enemies to Luca and Biers, a flurry of blue-white beams lancing down out of the night sky delivering painful, boiling flesh and blood, and leaving pairs lonely as she fell from the sky, her tails trailing behind her small body making a descent fascimily and decoy for her actual flesh.
As she fell however a series of impacts caught her attention, her HUD lighting up in a meandering path with bright warning markers before her attention was drawn to a... Pink mist? Her experience found only one match for such a thing, but she couldn't place why it was there. After all why would Jeanne be carrying kaserine grenades?
Said pink mist was curling around the feet of the machine gunners, who were happily chipping away at the corner of a building Luca and Biers were hiding behind, until suddenly, it all stopped. Luca raised an eyebrow at Biers, and looked around the corner, seeing that the machine gunners were now absent, and in their place was an odd pink mist.
Luca blinked. Did they drop a grenade on themselves by accident? Did frostbite make them forget to put the pin back in? He saw two electric lances skewer the next set of obstacles from above and looked up, giving Tamamo a thumbs up before advancing towards the barricade, watching the pink mist start to fade away.
"I wish I had your gas mask right now." Luca told Biers as he elected to take the long way around, looking around cautiously. He'd heard of pirates using SMX/NMX surplus, finding the tech in caches or abandoned warships scattered around, then selling it off on the black market or keeping it for themselves. He fired the Grapple Stunner at a lamp post and got above the action to look down at two men ... appearing to wrestle with each other naked.
Upon closer inspection, which Luca really shouldn't have been doing, they were no longer men, and writhing with each other, moaning loudly. He looked at their gunner nest and couldn't see any gas grenades amidst their nest, just boxes of bullets and bags of frags. "Huh." Luca said before leaping over to the next lamp post, and over the barricade where two men with a shotgun and a sniper had holes in their head from a very unusual trajectory, bleeding into the snow.
Biers waddled over the barricade and followed Luca, looking around for Tamamo or Jeanne. "What was that?" He asked.
"Airborne kaserine." Luca said. "Basically, flash-vaporised kaserine in grenade form. Popular with pirates, mishhu, or making a boring party interesting." He recalled one time he had on Lor with one hell of a swinger.
Biers awkwardly tiptoed past the two girls laying into each other. "How do you know that?" The soldier asked as he kept an eye open for more hostiles. Luca bit his tongue. The next barrier was simply built all the way up, too high to climb up, four overturned trucks stacked on top of each other and about two storeys tall. There had to be another way around...
Noppera cackled at the display when she watched the two women disappear into their fighting position in a flurry of ... "discovery". It was good to have a little fun with things sometimes. As they always said if you loved what you did then you'd never work a day in your life. With that in mind she snapped the case shut and returned it to its pouch.
A side door into the next building was found and she emptied the rest of the magazine through it, returned the empty magazine to its pouch, and in the same motion she drew a fresh one to drive home into the magazine well. The bolt was driven into place at the same time that she kicked in the splintered remains of the door.
"Knock-knock, bitches!" Her laugh was a maniac's as she swept the room with automatic fire: busting into a room that three pirates had been calling a shelter, ripping through puffy Arctic coats, flesh, bones, and even thin walls, "Mamma's home!"
She stomped through the room for the next door while replacing the magazine as smoothly as she had before. She was getting into her element and she could imagine the sounds of Nepleslian Marines barking orders while trying to flank or surround her over the roar of crew served weapons and explosions.
Noppera stepped out into the hall and swept it for any signs of life. Nothing.
Then she remembered something as she spoke over the radio, "You all can thank me for the grenade later!" Her message ended with her peeling laughter cut short.
A door ahead of her burst open but the shotgun-wielding pirate didn't get a chance to fire as his chest was ripped into. He wasn't even wearing a vest so the rounds carried through him and into the door from the close range. Noppera stepped over the body now spread across the floor and continued roving on in search of her next kill.
Attempting to compile a list of instructions that would lead Luca and Biers around their present obstacle Tamamo had landed without fanfare on another snow covered roof her crampons biting in to the shingles and preventing what would have been an unfortunate trip to the ground.
Moving to follow the sounds of gunfire, Tamamo was quick to confirm that Jeanne had been near the gun emplacement that had been gassed. Her curiosity being further cultivated by the laughter, Tamamo had to admit that she wasn't surprised when the message came over the comm line. Jeanne as it turned out wasn't the typical ex-operative.
What this meant was an entirely new question, as Tamamo continued her ghostly procession across the rooftops, slowly feeding directions to Luca over their radio as she guided his icon along with Biers through the three dimensional map in her HUD.
All the while, Tamamo continued to play guardian angel for Jeanne as she cut her way from building to building working their way toward their objective.
Luca had the instructions overlaid in his minds eye. Biers takes the first floor with that big sodding gun, Luca goes the second and acts as shock and awe they draw everyone into a stairway bottleneck if there's more in the upper levels. "Gotcha. Biers," Luca transmitted as he aimed his fist at the edge of the building's roof, taking a few paces back, "breach and destroy through the ground floor when I get through the window above."
"Yessir!" Biers said, dancing on his toes as he started firing through the wall, sweeping it through as Luca launched a line at the roof, reeled up, and with a violent thrust of gravity manipulation, smashed through a window with his revolver in hand, skidding on the floor as he begun to scan for targets. It looked like an upper foyer for a skiing lodge, the smell of pinewood, thick, coarse carpets; yellowy lighting. And a defrosting room with a hole in the door.
Okay, maybe the hole wasn't supposed to be there. Nor was the glass in the front window supposed to be smashed open and tracking snow into the lobby down below. The sounds of more gunfire, shouting, rushing footsteps was echoing throughout. Biers was battletanking through.
And suddenly, they stopped. They lost momentum. Crap, they were pinned down by someone, or something. He'd be cut to ribbons. Luca's solution: Leap up and punch through floor.
Tamamo meanwhile was able to see other gangers hearing all of this ruckus, and scrambling from other buildings to act as reinforcements. They all wanted a piece of whoever had the gall to disturb two warlords and their bands! For all Luca knew, they were probably working out a coalition or trade agreement!
Tamamo counted one, two, three, four, six, eight, eleven. This could get sticky, but this could be the last them. Noppera's indoors romp - a roaring disregard for the lives of the hostile personnel - had a good vantage on them all from a balcony. Grenades? Machine gun fire? Relapse into Hand to hand murder and more Kaserine?
No - she couldn't - the fox would be watching, formulating how to identify and keep a track of them all rather than acting as a poor man's kill satellite. Noppera couldn't pull the stops with this sort of scrutiny...
PAUSE!
//Otherwise, enjoy the post.//
//This takes place during Interlude 3.//
START!
Hope System (P-01), Planet Hope, Outskirts of Jovian Peak
On some parts of the planet, the days and nights lasted for months, turning the extremities of the iceball planet of Hope into a sea of sleet, or a pitch black blizzard. Jovian Peak, a well-known resort and getaway for Nepleslian extreme sporting enthusiasts, was close to the northern pole of Hope. The nights were noticeably longer in the middle of winter, with only a few hours of sunlight a day.
Ideal conditions for a night raid, as some pirates and bandits entering into coalition had figured out. A distress signal had gone out, and the Phoenix Service Group had answered. A low flying freighter was skimming across the ice with a few occupants inside, using a low-power stealth mode.
Inside, four people and a pilot were checking armaments and going over what would be a smash and grab. "So," Luca said, rolling the cylinder of his revolver across his forearm before holstering it, "we're about six kilometres out, its dark and snowy, and our targets have settled in for the evening. A police counterattack on the place failed because its so remote, and they've been threatening to kill hostages if the military shows up." A projector in the ceiling of the cargo-bay turned seating area showed some of the news reports.
Noppera sat bundled up as warmly as she could manage in the back of the shuttle and brushing shoulders with a particularly nasty-looking and heavily tattooed man who she had learned shared her "past" experience. Jeanne Lock was the name she was going under for her enlistment into the PSG: a former member of the Nepleslian special operations community who had made her early career fighting the NMX out on the Nepleslian colonial expanses. A back story with only the thinnest sliver of truth.
She was acting the part. Stoic expression hidden under the mask of her Muur armor's helmet, a hand always at her rifle as if she was expecting a fight could start at any minute, and she didn't seem to waste time looking around the transport compartment. Instead she kept her eyes exclusively on the display from the briefing and the supposed living legend that stood before the small team for the briefing.
Tamamo's presence was an oddity in many ways. Her presence was that of a small figure bound in a white fur-lined jacket, her hands plunged into the deep pockets on the front and her face largely hidden behind the tall neck of the garment. With her slouched posture and the large heavy hood, little could be seen of the occupant, aside from a pair of what might have been fluffy violet furred ear tips, and glowing crosses within the depths of the hood.
Her reserved posture hid the energy that she felt, they were going to go play in the snow. Tamamo being odd as she was, wanted nothing more than to venture out into the frozen, lightless world that awaited her. She didn't think much about the smAR Fatboy slung over a shoulder, nor did she think about the blue Spotter Rifle that rested behind her back. No, all that was on the small girl's mind was the joy that the cold air and eruption into the snowwy landscape would bring.
To this end Tamamo was doing a poor job of paying attention to the briefing, only the vaguest information about pirate raiders penetrating her mental landscape. Not that she had much to worry about. Unlike the others sitting around her she could catch up on the talking that she had ignored.
The ringleader of this operation was checking his rifle again, pulling the bolt back and looking into the magazine well, snapping it shut with a click that echoed inside the vehicle. He was wearing the gear Jeanne had seen in the advertisements - purple jacket, white under padding, blue pants, black boots, and a copper trim. All he had for warmth were snow goggles on his forehead and a silk scarf wrapped around his neck, steady breathing making a lazy fog in front of him.
They looked back up at the news reports, then made a dismissive wave at the hologram, bringing up something the Intel team had picked up after a cursory glance at Jovian Peak. Ski trails, maps, the locations of buildings, and the key locations of infrastructure. Apparently, someone in the intel team had been there on holidays before too. Luca leaned forward in his seat and pointed into the hologram.
"We're going to be dropping ourselves off around here and going for a walk," he indicated near the base of the mountain. A lazy finger begun tracing up the side of the mountain until it reached a plateau where the skiing resort was located, walled in with a red fade. "Once we're in the hot zone, we'll have to split up. Jeanne, you're our designated forward scout," he snapped his fingers at her, "listening?"
From what he knew of the woman, she definitely sounded like she fit the Special Forces bill with her results on training, but she never specified which branch she hailed from. He didn't think much of it for the moment.
When prompted with a snapped finger, Noppera gave Luca only a curt nod. Forward scouting? It wasn't where she wanted to be the most of all. When bullets started flying, scouts had a bad habit of being in horrible cover because they were the first one into the killzone. She'd much rather have had literally any of the craft's other occupants between her and the incoming fire. Even the quiet little thing huddled off by itself all in white.
Noppera was a killer. Not a soldier.
With the city-girl inflection of Funky City that she'd gotten so good at, she spoke up, "Do we know what kind of fire we're walking into when things get noisy?"
"Looked to be a hodgepodge. Apparently a roving pirate clan landed here with some bandits who are used to the icy conditions." Luca nodded as he started bringing up relevant intel. A crudely painted emblem of a skull impaled by an icicle, and a spray painted black fist with red boots around them. "Got really drunk together one night and decided to have the afterparty here. I'm guessing they'll have smallarms, explosives, probably a power armour or two for the ringleaders, saw them in the security footage in the reports."
He pointed out something in "Of note, Jovian Peak has some automated defences on it. Perhaps hacking them's worth a shot if the bandits haven't destroyed them already," he frowned, "but I'm not sure where the controls are."
He patted the M'cel on his rifle, and looked over to the boxes of 40mm munitions nearby, along with the other ammunition supplies on this mobile centre. One box was labelled 'HIGH EXPLOSIVE' in white stencil lettering, the other was labelled 'PLASMA', with blue-tipped shells resting there. Apparently a gift from the Lorath. "Take what you need. A direct hit should kill an armour."
Thankfully the mask concealed her face when she watched Luca go on. A builing full of pirate and bandits? With explosives? And power armor? And here he was droning on like he'd just told her that the milk had gone and spoiled. And now here they were in Muur armor and snow jackets, or at least most of the people were save for the fearless leader, and being told that all they had to go toe-to-toe with PAs was some M'cel ammo.
It was better than with just her rifle so Noppera joined the others when prompted in gathering spare HE and plasma grenades to stow away in the spare pockets of her carrier rig before taking her seat and remaining silent from then on.
"Tamamo, you're covering Jeanne. Biers and I will be trying to sneak through and disable sentries," Luca directed as he slipped a suppressor out of one of his pouches and screwed it onto the end of the rifle. It'd probably get abused into uselessness once the real fighting started, but it was the thought that counted.
The other man in Muur armour, identified as Biers nodded at everyone, looking around as they were stashing grenades into their rigs. He only had a pistol with a suppressor, while draped across his chest was a light machine gun.
Prompted by the direct adress, Tamamo spoke up. A bright, peppy voice that would have fit an idol on some Yamataian station better than a soldier, floated from the depths of her jacket, "Hai, hai, Taisa." The response was short, and perhaps a little derisive toward her technical superior, however it wasn't out of place from the small girl as he knew all too well.
Despite this show of life from the otherwise motionless entity stuffed into a corner of the room, Tamamo failed to show any other signs of life. Notably the absence of a M'Cel on her person negated the need for grenades, and allowed her to remain bundled in her corner for the moment as she focused her attentions on a conversation that had little to do with the present.
The locks on the hatch clacked side to side and slowly begun opening, letting the winter chill inside and white flakes melting against the deck. Luca stood up immediately and looked outside, scanning the outside and realising that the drop wasn't too big - for him anyway.
♫ Goldeneye 007 - Surface 1 ♫
The drop became considerably shorter as the back of the freighter kissed the ice, and Luca stepped out and examined the mountainous terrain ahead of them, keeping his grip on the ice as a light hiss of heat eminated off the device on his right arm. Biers stood up too, ammunition rattling in the drum they had fixed to their machine gun. When they stepped out, they realised that the icy ground wasn't so forgiving with his top-heavy armour, and stumbled before standing with his knees bent.
She would have been the first one out of the ship, if Biers hadn't stood up in front of her. Tamamo's momentum cancelling in mid air before she redirected and shot toward the ceiling, trailing a length of pale violet fur terminating in an inky black tip as she scuttled along the ceiling and out into the cold.
Sailing through the air, her 'tail' split, fanning out into an array of fur, eight tips visible faintly in the darkness of Hope's night, as she landed in a roll. Once on her feet crampon clad boots cut into the ice as she hopped about in a small circle visibly searching for a patch of snow before slowly coming to terms with the solidity of the landscape.
Her hood having fallen back in the excitement she looked toward the ship and the crew, her long triangular ears twitching atop her head, glowing eyes lost in pools of blackness, perhaps looking dismayed. It was hard to tell. A silent bit of encouragement and a non-existant pat on the head from across the stars improved her mood quickly, a quick motion pulling her hood back up as she started up her internal HUD.
A grid overlayed itself over the world around Tamamo as various diagnostic systems reported on the general status of the myriad of sub-systems throughout her body. As well the recording of the trip in the freighter finally began to play at four times normal speed catching her up with what she had neglected to notice during the ride.
Collecting her fluffy tails around her feet Tamamo once again looked toward the freighter waiting to see when they would start moving. Maybe they'd find snow further along.
They could call her a forward scout and a point woman all they wanted but Noppera was still happily the last of the quartet to leave the shuttle. Her footing was slow and cautious even as crampons bit into the ice and promised her a more sure footing. It seemed like the young woman that Noppera was putting her life in the hands of had the focus of a child ... and the acrobatic talent of a spider. She didn't know how she felt about all of that.
When the bitter cold hit her the 'Nepleslian commando' did her best to suppress a shiver and huddle in on herself. She instead tried to focus on taking in as much of her surroundings as she could without making it obvious that internal hemosynthesis meant she was seeing clear into the infrared spectrum. It felt weird using a hud and the radio around her neck so often but she had to remind herself that she was just an ordinary Nepleslian.
Well. Mostly ordinary.
Clear of the shuttle but uncomfortable standing out in the open so plainly, Noppera tried to find the nearest patch of trees or rise in the terrain that would give them some cover in case the pirates and bandits had sent out anybody on patrols to keep the area secure.
She activated her mike for everybody to hear over their comms net, "I don't like being out in the open like this." Because even if she wasn't a soldier she knew a potential killzone when she was standing in one, "I'd suggest we get moving."
And with that being said she suddenly remembered. She was the forward scout.
Noppera looked to her 'partner' who'd just finished prancing about on the ice, "You ready?"
There was a long moment of silence. Nearly ninety seconds, if one were to keep count, during which Tamamo had done little aside from blink slowly. The lights disappearing, before slowly being revealed. Then without warning the cheery voice returned, though not spoken aloud instead bleeding in through the headsets in the comm network, "Hai~"
Turning her attention to the mountain before them Tamamo tilted her head back, tracing the likely path that they would be taking up to the unpleasantly named, 'hot zone' where they would be engaging in the fireworks portion of the field trip.
After a moment more of consideration she inquired, "Take the lead?" She wasn't sure what sort of prompt their scout would require. She wasn't used to the idea of working with the PSG yet, and it seemed that her absence from their activities had left her in the dark as to how one was supposed to properly interact. Not that it was too different from normal.
Noppera had stared. And stared. Just as lost in silence as her apparent partner until she had finally received a response. And boy she didn't regret that it had been close to two minutes more time exposed just to be told "yes". Oh that was definitely worth it. The mask hid Noppera's grimace as she too looked up the mountain ahead of them.
She didn't want to take the lead. She honestly didn't want to be on this mountain right now, freezing, listening to the snow roar around her, and needing to pretend to be partially blind so people wouldn't ask questions that she couldn't answer. But she'd signed up with this group for a reason and this was just the price she had to pay for it.
So she didn't say anything outside of a grunt and a vague hand signal for the other woman to follow her before she started trudging her way across the ice towards their objective. It'd be a hell of a walk in this weather, needing to "accidentally" kick a rock or break in the ice that she just "couldn't see" as she lead the way up. Not too much of course since she was a trained commando after all. Or that's what she said.
Noppera kept her rifle to her shoulder and used her seeing into the thermal spectrum to keep an eye out for any defensive structures or possible hostiles lurking out in the snow and ice.
Noppera - rather than Jeanne saw no thermal signatures on the icy plains save for the breath in front of her, the strange blue-faced woman, the man who should've really been wearing more, and the nondescript in the armour. Of note, Luca's right arm seemed to be emitting a steady stream of electric energy. Yamataians couldn't have cybernetics - maybe it was some sort of glove where the Phoenix Punch came from. Nobody on the NMX side could figure out how it worked, though.
"Let's go." He directed, pointing towards the rocky mountain jutting out of the ice and snow. "Biers, you're with me; Tamamo, stick with Jeanne." Biers seemed relieved that he was sticking with the saner of the three on board. At least he hoped so.
Noppera said nothing. Instead she adjusted the grip on her rifle and gave a small nod.
Some time later...
The craggy grey peaks and white drifts of snow made for a tough traverse, especially for Biers and his heavy equipment. Still, he was trained to move, and with Luca - seemingly immune to the cold thanks to an upbringing in Ralt - was leading the way up the mountain. Every now and again, he'd radio his status in - and looking at his approximate position, he could be 'seen' on their communications and HUDs. Similarly, he could look back at them.
Tamamo and Jeanne had a different route up the tor, amidst some designer trees donated by Burke's Pines. Jovian Peak was undergoing a bit of decoration when the pirates struck, trying to gentrify and mix up the scenery a bit to get a wider alpine audience during the warmer months. The ground beneath their feet was softer, more like soil compared to the normal rock and ice of Hope.
For her part Tamamo had gone from uncomfortably active, to uncannily quiet. The sound of her crampons biting into the ice or clashing with the rare portion of exposed stone, was muted at most, her gait minimizing the noise while also being comfortably efficient. Notably she hadn't started to breathe more heavily over the course of the trek.
More notable was that her external body temperature had dropped to a point that was much closer to that of the snow and ice around her only her core betraying her thermal signature. Contrasting with Luca's apparent disdain for the cold, she seemed to be adapted for it.
While trailing Jeanne in near silence, Tamamo was hardly idle, curiously casting her gaze about raking the landscape visually with periodic shifts between infrared, normal visual, and ultraviolet spectrums. Additionally as she had progressed, her hood fell back slightly allowing her large ears to swivel freely, hunting for any faint sound that might give away the presence of another living thing on the mountain. Due to the limited composition of their group she knew that any minor advantage would be worth seizing, and it was in her interest that she do her best to provide it.
Noppera kept her head on a swivel as she led the duo up the mountain. She kept her breathing steady, her footing sure, and she was always looking out into the darkness around her. If the pirates and bandits up in the lodge had sobered up then it was more than possible they'd start sending out patrols further down the mountain. Probably nowhere near the city to avoid getting caught out in the open by the local authorities, but in their shoes she'd want to find anybody like her before they'd gotten all the way up to the lodges.
It was weird living this double-life for as long as she had. She'd been "undercover" before but that had usually been for periods of hours or perhaps a little over a day or two in the enemy's uniform. She'd be in and out before anybody realized they were up an extra soldier. Jeanne Lock was somebody with a life though, even if it was a little vague. Nepleslian, born out on colonial territory, and she'd made it into the military just in time to fight the SMX and NMX. She'd kept it vague, had just the right papers to fool most background checks, and did her best to make sure nobody ever saw the SPINE interface or genetic stamps on her back.
With a moment of focus, Noppera manipulated her eyes to keep her preferred shooting eye in the thermal spectrum while the other returned to "normal" light. She scanned their surroundings as she stalked between the trees. What a lack of traditional neko ears cost her for hearing, she made up for with her sight as she advanced.
"Do you hear anything?" She whispered to her newly assigned partner.
Tamamo's sensitive ears, and spectrum of data viewing were picking up whispers in the air, and the scent of fresh cigarette smoke coming downwind through the pine trees. Looking over a snowdrift, Tamamo could see the face of a man in grunge-green clothing, bearded, and having a smoke while they were on lookout with a torch under their rifle, casting shadows through the pines and against the white and grey.
The rifle in their hands looked like it'd come from the Nepleslias, with a banana-curved magazine and a robust construction, firing the 6.8mm cartridge. Against people, it was effective enough. Against the likes of Noppera and Tamamo ... probably not so much.
Tamamo could also see a data signal coming from their shoulder, listening to the signals of a radio. An empty channel at the moment.
The response from Tamamo came quickly, matching her companion for volume with uncomfortable precision, "Single hostile, male, green clothing. Automatic rile, Nepleslian make. Active radio comm, not presently in use." She accompanied the brief description with a guesture that would hopefully point Jeanne toward the hostile, as she lacked the capacity to directly paint a digital marker that her companion could see.
Hunched low to the ground, Tamamo's silhouette was less than two feet tall, giving her the most cover that the open terrain could offer. From this comfortable position she awaited the decision of her 'scout' on what course of action the Nepleslian desired. Tamamo contented herself with keeping her observations mobile to avoid target fixation should there be more to see apart from the single obvious target.
Noppera drew a sharp breath when she saw the target's outline. The snow was ice around him and while she couldn't make the best details she could tell he was armed. She found cover at the nearest tree and hugged low against the ground. She even managed to ignore the bite of the snow through her uniform as she peaked out from around the trunk of the tree and wondered just how well it would do at stopping any lead thrown her way.
The tree seemed quite solid to the touch, more than she was expecting for a lab-grown project. They usually produced things that gave out bigger numbers of oxygen, while looking sickly. These were trees. She was fairly confident a bullet could be stopped if it hit the middle.
Tamamo's further observation paid off: She traced the line of the digital signal to another approaching unit, carrying similar armament. They were wearing more arctic colours and a black balaclava, better for blending in with the snow. The green-clad pirate looked over their shoulder and saw them coming. The snow bandit seemed to be swapping positions with their previous companion, taking a different stance and kneeling down near a log while looking out at the forest.
Then Noppera and Tamamo saw them looking down and grabbing something behind the log. They placed it on their head and over their eyes. Nightvision. The green pirate, kept shining their torch where the ice bandit wasn't looking, mindful of blinding them.
After a moment of watching the new circumstances Tamamo wondered whether it would be simplest to merely fire upon the two sentries. Even so, she wasn't running a solo mission and it would probably be best for her PSG compainion to get in some experience, at least that was what she thought Luca would want. As such Tamamo inquired, "Suggestions?"
Perhaps this Jeanne would have some experience in the field that would prove useful, at the very least Tamamo would have a better idea of who she was working with. Valuable information in its own way.
Noppera was quick to duck back behind the tree. She didn't have any tarp or cover to throw over herself to hide her body temperature and even if she did that would only work if those goggles were infrared So she waited behind her cover and peaked out to keep track of their patterns. Slow and sweeping movements. Slow enough, she told herself. Slow enough.
A check of the magazine. Cold and gleaming brass.
"Ready to go loud?" She whispered to her partner.
"Hai Shosho~" Apparently it wasn't only the Captain that was given sickeningly cheerful, if inappropriate rank titles. An explaination would never come however, instead Tamamo slipped the custom Spotter Rifle from her back and settled the grip into her left hand as she brought it up to her shoulder.
Casually flicking the safety off, switching the Spotter Rifle into its normal mode of operation, Tamamo casually lined up the with her chosen target. The night vision equipped hostile. Let his more poorly prepared companion juggle his flashlight in the dark.
Slowing her already relaxed breathing, Tamamo watched the poor man, or perhaps it was a woman for a few seconds before speaking quietly to Jeanne, "When you're ready to move, the one in white will die." Fairly certain that she had attended to her communication duties, Tamamo waited for her PSG companion to move, ready to snuff the life of an unfortunate individual.
Noppera steadied her nerves. It would only be a few seconds and it'd be done.
"Now."
♫ Ace Combat Zero - Glacial Skies ♫
She came from around the tree and was already shouldering her rifle. She tried to use her abilities without pushing herself too far beyond what the Nepleslian Jeane could be expect to do so the snow wouldn't slow her down as much and her rifle would stay steady on its target. A brilliant blue beam came from behind a tree and struck the white-clad trooper squarely in the chest, burning their camouflage and searing their flesh. Insult to injury, the brilliant flash blinded them too.
The one who remained standing was surprised by the sudden burst of light, yelling in surprise. Noppera was relying on the nightvision clad guard's death to distract the flashlight wielder before his beam would come on her. As she closed the distance she let off a staccato burst of automatic gunfire for that one's center mass. The gunfire echoed through the nighttime, drowning out the sounds of the bullets striking the fallen tree his companion was near. Two of them grazed the green soldier in the shoulder and making him yelp, before clumsily returning fire in a cone between Noppera and Tamamo.
Noppera tossed her rifle to her back and let the sling catch it from flying off into the snow as she came inside a few meters of the screaming guard. His "cover" would have been paltry if Noppera had brought heavier firepower and it was totally useless now that she was closing in. She jumped up and planted a single boot on it before a subtle manipulation threw her forward to bring her other knee crashing into his face.
She came down on top of him and ended up straddling him at the shoulders. One punch. Another. A third. "Pulled" by her normal standards but enough that she felt his nose and teeth give way by the second hit. She finished by drawing her 10mm, pressing it under the man's chin, and putting a round through his brainpan.
She rose up and holstered the pistol again before grabbing her rifle, "We need to move!"
The echoes of gunfire could be heard a ways away from Noppera and Tamamo's position. It seemed like there was contact over on Luca's side of things as well, but there was no time to confirm what was happening. Lights on buildings begun to pop open, giving the grey and blue buildings yellow and white squares in the windows close to ground floor, visible from the forest the two were in.
With their last known position being the forest they were standing, the fireteam could stay amidst the thick pines and utilise the cover and concealment from a downhill position, or head out into a snowfield outside of town together, using the contours of the white mounds for concealment. Or, if they wanted, they could meet an unknown number of enemies head on.
A crackle came over the radio from Luca: "I've got some slight interference on my end." He understated as what sounded like a Phoenix Punch came over the radio, followed by a screaming man's voice disappearing. "Yoyo them." The line cut out.
Noppera watched the lights come alive and tried to think of what she could do next. Her HUD gave her Luca's position and even if she wasn't an expert the gunfire and screaming on the radio didn't sound like "slight interference".
"Hey Tamamo, think you can pick off anybody who comes outside?" She waved towards the buildings, "Keep them distracted and afraid to move? I'm going to pull a one-woman flank on whoever it is thats busting down on the Captain."
With that she took off at a run for Luca's marked position on her HUD.
Already in motion well before Jeanne had finished off her first target, Tamamo's ears, head, and shoulders popped over the edge of the low cover and had provided the small woman a place to rest her rifle comfortably. Turning what was minimal cover for most into fairly effectve chest high cover.
Maintaining her good behaviour and communication Tamamo was quick to respond, "If anyone tries to leave, I'll pin them down... Though I'd much rather they just remain inside and provide silhouettes..."
True to her word, Tamamo was already combing the windows of the building slipping from illuminated window to illuminated window hunting for the tell tale silhouette of a soldier who had decided that they wanted to look out into the night to see who might be approaching their position.
Tamamo supposed that there was probably a game or something with similar parameters. She'd have to look it up later though. Peering through her scope, she could see the windows lighting up, and the light in the rooms moving around, so people were moving around, but they were staying away from the windows. Credit where it was due, they were playing smart.
As Noppera was getting closer to Luca, the sounds of war got clearer - fully automatic gunfire that seemed to keep going on and on from her left, punctuated with mass-driver shots, and rifle fire coming from the buildings to her right. Looking over to her right, there seemed to be a skiing slope, with three hostiles coming down the slope, two wearing arctic equipment and the other remarkably underdressed.
Luca's position was out of sight behind the slope and skipping across the side of the hill. A hand grenade went sailing through the air from his position and landed in the snow - exploding and distracting to the three advancing troops, who'd now hit the deck. Biers was on the other side of the slope and closer to Noppera, providing suppressing fire at a building that appeared to be barricaded, the flashes of gunfire poking out of the windows.
Noppera came bounding up on Bier's position from out of the woodline.
"Friendly coming in! Friendly!"
She performed a baseball-slide through the thinner snow to come up beside Biers. She held the position and flicked off the safety for the M'Cel launcher attached to the udnerside of her GP-1. A high explosive shell was already loaded in and she had more in her webbing.
"Frag out!" She yelled.
And if Biers didn't hear that from her then he'd get to see it as she set sights on one of the windows and fired off the round. She immediately worked on loading a second to follow it. Indeed, he was more focussed on making sure the guys on the slope weren't going to interfere with Noppera's shot at the window. The grenade sailed through the air and struck one of the windows, lighting up the dark resort town with an explosion and 'pacifying' whoever was in there.
Hot on the heels of the explosion, Biers had to swap magazines on his light machine gun, having spent over two thirds of the can's belt, and opening the tray to start the lengthly reloading process. Noppera watched Luca come out from the shadow of the hill and charge at the three trooper's pinned positions with his own GP-1, flanking them.
Meanwhile, Tamamo begun to see shapes getting closer to the window, looking out at what'd happened across snowfield to the other side of the village, some of them raising rifles and looking out, then taking potshots at an exposed Luca from a distance. Noppera watched a bullet strike him in the chest as he was firing at the trio, and it made him stumble from sheer weight, putting a dent in his chestpiece.
There were two camouflaged troopers left on the slope for Noppera, and two riflemen on the other side, visible to Tamamo.
A soft sigh escaped into the cool air, as the habitants finally took to the windows. It was like the satisfaction after a long period of anticipation. Cathartic. Shifting her aim to pick the one closer to Jeanne, Biers, and Luca, Tamamo made haste knowing that people generally preferred not to have gunfire to worry about as she squeezed the trigger, the window borne rifleman filling her scope vanishing momentarily in a flash of blue light.
Simulated recoil helped direct Tamamo to her next target, the second of the pair that had tried to use their abode as a tactical advantage. Lining up the shot Tamamo calmed herself for an instant before once again squeezing the trigger, aiming to remove both threats from behind her allies in one smooth motion.
With a window blasted open and everybody behind it either dead or not eager to get back up to fight, Noppera had no better chance than now to move for Luca. But just to be sure she fired the freshly loaded grenade into the opening in the building to fill the hall or room beyond with shrapnel before putting her attention on Luca's attackers.
She slapped the machine gunner on his shoulder to get his attention, "Biers! Cover me!"
"Gotcha!" Biers replied as he closed the firing tray and pulled his machine gun out, ready to provide cover fire.
She didn't offer anything else as she sprinted onto the slope. Two enemies and a nearly fully loaded magazine. Adrenaline was keeping her on edge and keeping her senses sharp when she set her sights on the back of one of the two arctic-dressed targets. Single shots: three for his chest and a more sloppy and off-the-hip shot for his head.
The second was given a volley of four aimed at his chest as she ran for Luca. The captain of the operation regained their footing and raised their gun immediately, watching the two arctic soldiers swivel towards him and try to put more lead into him - when the one in the back suddenly fell facefirst into the snow with red splatters in their chest. He could see Jeanne behind the final trooper, and fired at the last snow trooper, putting five rounds in their chest and closing the gap.
He walked over to Jeanne as he dug around in his chestplate for the bullet that'd struck him. "All quiet things end with a bang," he mumbled as he pulled the squashed bullet out and tossed it away. In his stumbling, he could vaguely recall some blue lances going through the air at the buildings just northeast of his position. Tamamo's work, hopefully dealing with the sniper.
"No time to chat, we need to move up. Get back to Tamamo and make flanks," Luca ordered everyone over radio. Biers got out from their position and begun jogging up the hill with machine gun in hand, sweltering in his armour despite the arctic conditions.
The visible target was the town square, where two aerospace shuttles had landed and were serving as the quarters for the two bandit leaders, who were well and truly cluey to something going on. They didn't know who it was though, nobody had been able to make a confirmed sighting. They did confirm the sight of someone going flying through the air over radio.
Noppera was already gone at Luca's orders and running for where she had last left Tamamo. Her head was on a swivel and her theramlly inclined eye was helping to spot any unexpected surprises in the forests or around her.
She spoke over her radio, "Tamamo, are you doing okay?"
The "Nepleslian" didn't wait for a reply.
"We need to link up and manuever. Drive in on them."
After firing upon the building Tamamo had done as any good markswoman should and had relocated burying herself in a snow drift to better mask her location should anyone remain to preform counter-sniper work.
♫ Ace Combat Zero Soundtrack - Sortie III ♫
The mesage from Jeanne had her head pop out of the snow followed by the rest of the small girl's body as she started bounding across the ground at an alarming speed as she reunited with her 'scout' and companion. She didn't know what was intended by 'driving in' on the foe but she was certain that Jeanne's actions would tell her all she needed to know soon enough.
Luca was already leading the charge, getting to higher ground with the Grapple Stunner and walking along the spine of a roof. The nighttime clouds had begun to clear up, and a moonless sky, illuminated by the light reflecting from the two asteroid belts which surrounded Hope. Quite a nice night for a showdown now that the weather had cleared, but the weather was killing their concealment.
By now, most of the towns' rowdy inhabitants were aware that someone was coming for them from the woods and the snowfield. Biers was moving a little more tactically on the ground, from cover to cover, prepared to run and gun with a light machinegun as he moved. Ahead of them, there was a long, windy street that you could ski down and directly into the intermediate slopes if there weren't any cars on the road.
Some hasty roadblocks made from overturned cars and rescue trucks nixed that possibility, but they provided solid battlements to the defenders, who were firing at Luca, who slipped down one of the steep roofs for cover before leaping to a flat-topped building and moving ahead of Jeanne, Biers, and Tamamo. Biers was firing at the overturned truck, bullets slamming into the undercarriage of the rescue truck.
"Let's go, Tamamo!" Noppera nodded her head to the outermost lodge the snipers had called home and ejected the shell into her palm before stuffing it away in her webbing.
A brand new shell replaced it as Noppera jogged up to the edge of the tree-line. She shouldered the rifle and picked a spot somewhere along the outer wall. It was arbitrary. She fired off the round and blasted through the masonry.
With the dust still thick in the air she focused to turn both her eyes into the thermal spectrum again and moved on the opening with her rifle poised. The blast had knocked out whatever lights had been on in the room on the otherside but darkness wasn't an issue. She stepped through and when she found nothing she moved for the door.
She spoke through the radio again, "Tamamo, do you think you'd like a spot up on the roof? Use that fancy rifle of yours to put down some serious fire?"
A burst of rounds through the door was meant to surprise and hopefully kill anybody on the other side before she kicked it wide open to step through.
The roof? That was an idea she supposed. Tamamo was a little loathe to leave the PSG woman on her own in a potentially hostile building, but she supposed she could make do with her circumstances. Leaping from the ground, Tamamo erupted in a spray of snow shooting up to the roof before landing on the virgin snow with an almost silent creak of packing snow.
Taking the time to cycle a fresh battery into her Spotter Rifle Tamamo decided that she would do one better than merely sit on the roof. Wandering along the snow covered roof toward the centre of town, Tamamo took a breath settling herself out of habbit into the relaxed state that she preferred for shooting. Then she jumped a second time.
Nullifying her weight Tamamo sailed up, and up above the town, the buildings shrinking below her as she balled up into a tight crouch, minimizing her silhouette against the night sky as she looked down through her scope sighting at the ground before using the unique angle to eliminate the cover provided by the makeshift barricades scattered about town.
She had six shots before she had to go back down. Best make them count. She could see eight barricades between the group on the ground (or on the roofs in Luca's case) and the centre of town from the main road, but Tamamo could see backstreets and alleys that didn't have as major an impediment or a guard. Her scan of the area turned her into a one-fox UAV drone providing overwatch.
There was still a bottleneck, as the town had been built along the spine of a mountain, with a sharp dropoff into the forest and the black-diamond slopes, while the continuation of the spine and a smoother gradient made up the easier slopes As such it was quite narrow, almost a rectangle with a knobly circle on the end to Tamamo.
Luca leapt at the very foot of the overturned car from his rooftop position, and punched it.
Yes. He punched it loud enough to wake up the dead and moved it a good six feet back, eliminating the first barrier and creating roadkill. Another was up ahead, this time made of a flipped sedan and an overturned city car with chains on the tyres that was too clean-looking to be a Nepleslian holiday maker. Two men were manning the makeshift battlements with a mounted machine gun, and Luca had to get out of the way of a shower of bullets that followed him and Biers.
Perhaps for these two, head on wasn't the way. Precision elimination from either Noppera or Tamamo, or a flank was necessary. Tamamo could see that a tributary alley between the buildings to the PSG team's left, or perhaps through the building.
Noppera, meanwhile, found someone dead on the ground when she moved in, and watching Luca's position, she had a decent shot from the second floor at the machine gunners. Perhaps, with Biers following Luca's lead, she could bend the rules a little to get from building to building and blame it on the bandits.
Noppera stepped over the corpse and looked either way down the hall. Smoke and the acrid smell of explosives and gunfire were thick in the air but there wasn't a soul to be seen. Not even her own team. Noppera smiled underneath her helmet as she realized that. But that smile went away when she heard the heavy bark of the machine gun out at the front. She supposed it was good that she'd get to break her own rules a little.
Noppera secured her rifle behind her again and set her eyes on the wall at the far end of the hall. This was something she was better at. Wanton destruction and chaos. She didn't even pretend to take a run up and just flung herself through the air with her shoulder leading the way towards the wall the whole time. When she met the wall, it blew out from the force.
The wall just across the alley didn't stop her, either. It was a rubble-showering mess but Noppera kept moving forward in a sort of arching circle out away from the main road that Luca and Bier had caught themselves up on. By the end of it she'd left an erratic series of holes blasted through the walls behind her when she finally came out into a final alley.
From here she found herself flanking the busy machine gun set up to look over the road and still carrying a modest supply and variety of explosives. But she found herself grinning when she reached into a belt pack and her hand rested against a small, unmarked box. She drew it out and popped it open, dropping to one knee in the safety of the alley's shadows.
A half-dozen latex-like pink spheres she'd brought along. Just in case.
What was more fun than an old fashioned explosion?
Good old fashioned neko strength hurled the kaserine aerosol grenade through the air towards the machinegunners still trying so hard to riddle Biers and Pavone full of holes.
Her HUD was quick to update her map of the town, the layout rapidly converting itself into a three dimentional model for Tamamo to reference at her leisure. In addition to the basic layout her HUD lit up with a flurry of markers, one for the Captain, one PSG symbol for Biers, and a helpful scattering of markers for every hostile visible from the sky.
Deciding that it was important to maintain the task of providing field experience for the PSG they had along, Tamamo was generous and only fired on every other target that she could spot starting from the next closest group of enemies to Luca and Biers, a flurry of blue-white beams lancing down out of the night sky delivering painful, boiling flesh and blood, and leaving pairs lonely as she fell from the sky, her tails trailing behind her small body making a descent fascimily and decoy for her actual flesh.
As she fell however a series of impacts caught her attention, her HUD lighting up in a meandering path with bright warning markers before her attention was drawn to a... Pink mist? Her experience found only one match for such a thing, but she couldn't place why it was there. After all why would Jeanne be carrying kaserine grenades?
Said pink mist was curling around the feet of the machine gunners, who were happily chipping away at the corner of a building Luca and Biers were hiding behind, until suddenly, it all stopped. Luca raised an eyebrow at Biers, and looked around the corner, seeing that the machine gunners were now absent, and in their place was an odd pink mist.
Luca blinked. Did they drop a grenade on themselves by accident? Did frostbite make them forget to put the pin back in? He saw two electric lances skewer the next set of obstacles from above and looked up, giving Tamamo a thumbs up before advancing towards the barricade, watching the pink mist start to fade away.
"I wish I had your gas mask right now." Luca told Biers as he elected to take the long way around, looking around cautiously. He'd heard of pirates using SMX/NMX surplus, finding the tech in caches or abandoned warships scattered around, then selling it off on the black market or keeping it for themselves. He fired the Grapple Stunner at a lamp post and got above the action to look down at two men ... appearing to wrestle with each other naked.
Upon closer inspection, which Luca really shouldn't have been doing, they were no longer men, and writhing with each other, moaning loudly. He looked at their gunner nest and couldn't see any gas grenades amidst their nest, just boxes of bullets and bags of frags. "Huh." Luca said before leaping over to the next lamp post, and over the barricade where two men with a shotgun and a sniper had holes in their head from a very unusual trajectory, bleeding into the snow.
Biers waddled over the barricade and followed Luca, looking around for Tamamo or Jeanne. "What was that?" He asked.
"Airborne kaserine." Luca said. "Basically, flash-vaporised kaserine in grenade form. Popular with pirates, mishhu, or making a boring party interesting." He recalled one time he had on Lor with one hell of a swinger.
Biers awkwardly tiptoed past the two girls laying into each other. "How do you know that?" The soldier asked as he kept an eye open for more hostiles. Luca bit his tongue. The next barrier was simply built all the way up, too high to climb up, four overturned trucks stacked on top of each other and about two storeys tall. There had to be another way around...
Noppera cackled at the display when she watched the two women disappear into their fighting position in a flurry of ... "discovery". It was good to have a little fun with things sometimes. As they always said if you loved what you did then you'd never work a day in your life. With that in mind she snapped the case shut and returned it to its pouch.
A side door into the next building was found and she emptied the rest of the magazine through it, returned the empty magazine to its pouch, and in the same motion she drew a fresh one to drive home into the magazine well. The bolt was driven into place at the same time that she kicked in the splintered remains of the door.
"Knock-knock, bitches!" Her laugh was a maniac's as she swept the room with automatic fire: busting into a room that three pirates had been calling a shelter, ripping through puffy Arctic coats, flesh, bones, and even thin walls, "Mamma's home!"
She stomped through the room for the next door while replacing the magazine as smoothly as she had before. She was getting into her element and she could imagine the sounds of Nepleslian Marines barking orders while trying to flank or surround her over the roar of crew served weapons and explosions.
Noppera stepped out into the hall and swept it for any signs of life. Nothing.
Then she remembered something as she spoke over the radio, "You all can thank me for the grenade later!" Her message ended with her peeling laughter cut short.
A door ahead of her burst open but the shotgun-wielding pirate didn't get a chance to fire as his chest was ripped into. He wasn't even wearing a vest so the rounds carried through him and into the door from the close range. Noppera stepped over the body now spread across the floor and continued roving on in search of her next kill.
Attempting to compile a list of instructions that would lead Luca and Biers around their present obstacle Tamamo had landed without fanfare on another snow covered roof her crampons biting in to the shingles and preventing what would have been an unfortunate trip to the ground.
Moving to follow the sounds of gunfire, Tamamo was quick to confirm that Jeanne had been near the gun emplacement that had been gassed. Her curiosity being further cultivated by the laughter, Tamamo had to admit that she wasn't surprised when the message came over the comm line. Jeanne as it turned out wasn't the typical ex-operative.
What this meant was an entirely new question, as Tamamo continued her ghostly procession across the rooftops, slowly feeding directions to Luca over their radio as she guided his icon along with Biers through the three dimensional map in her HUD.
All the while, Tamamo continued to play guardian angel for Jeanne as she cut her way from building to building working their way toward their objective.
Luca had the instructions overlaid in his minds eye. Biers takes the first floor with that big sodding gun, Luca goes the second and acts as shock and awe they draw everyone into a stairway bottleneck if there's more in the upper levels. "Gotcha. Biers," Luca transmitted as he aimed his fist at the edge of the building's roof, taking a few paces back, "breach and destroy through the ground floor when I get through the window above."
"Yessir!" Biers said, dancing on his toes as he started firing through the wall, sweeping it through as Luca launched a line at the roof, reeled up, and with a violent thrust of gravity manipulation, smashed through a window with his revolver in hand, skidding on the floor as he begun to scan for targets. It looked like an upper foyer for a skiing lodge, the smell of pinewood, thick, coarse carpets; yellowy lighting. And a defrosting room with a hole in the door.
Okay, maybe the hole wasn't supposed to be there. Nor was the glass in the front window supposed to be smashed open and tracking snow into the lobby down below. The sounds of more gunfire, shouting, rushing footsteps was echoing throughout. Biers was battletanking through.
And suddenly, they stopped. They lost momentum. Crap, they were pinned down by someone, or something. He'd be cut to ribbons. Luca's solution: Leap up and punch through floor.
Tamamo meanwhile was able to see other gangers hearing all of this ruckus, and scrambling from other buildings to act as reinforcements. They all wanted a piece of whoever had the gall to disturb two warlords and their bands! For all Luca knew, they were probably working out a coalition or trade agreement!
Tamamo counted one, two, three, four, six, eight, eleven. This could get sticky, but this could be the last them. Noppera's indoors romp - a roaring disregard for the lives of the hostile personnel - had a good vantage on them all from a balcony. Grenades? Machine gun fire? Relapse into Hand to hand murder and more Kaserine?
No - she couldn't - the fox would be watching, formulating how to identify and keep a track of them all rather than acting as a poor man's kill satellite. Noppera couldn't pull the stops with this sort of scrutiny...
PAUSE!
