RP: New Dusk Conclave Side Ops: Crimson Jungle

THE SHADOWS

Ven coiled into her hiding place as the four targets moved towards her. The point man stepped too close and she sprang out from her hiding place with a knife in her hand. Ven's knife slipped into the point man's throat before he had even realized that she was there. The three others got shots off, but they were aimed at where she wasn't anymore. She was wrapping herself around their left flank and bringing her own carbine around, firing off two shots that hit the left flanker in the chest. She used the left flanker for cover even as she squeezed the life out of him, the increased strength of the Revenant allowing her to crush bones with her tail. She lined up her last shots and it was over almost as soon as it began. Ven didn't take any time to admire her handywork before heading off to see where she could be of more use in the battle.

FOG OF WAR
With the TK dead, the crimson force had lost their bravado, their fanatic will tested as what was seen as their trump card, suddenly a ball of fire. Not to mention the sudden appearance of reinforcements. Despite knowing the engagement here was lost, the battle was far from over. A unheard order to retreat was spread to the surviving forces, the crimson force beginning to back pedal. To which the frontline of the joint force began to advance, the numerous power armored troops of S6 and the combat armor clad Dovanian soldiers forming a mass firing line as they advanced and fired together.

Fleeing enemies fell in number, the wall of fire swarming them through the fog from the intensity. Valentina would in fact hear rounds ping off the wreck of the TK, signalling that she should stay low as she ran through the trench cutting a bloody swath. Quite a few of the crimson dropped into the trench thinking it would save them, only to encounter the blade dancing woman. However, this didn't mean the area behind her was still clear, as those from the side of the line she had gone around, were now also dropping in.

Blade would find unfocused enemy fire, sprayed his way, splinters sheering off the great trees from numerous impacts. A few would graze him, but since it was panicked, most would go wide. But it would be best for him to move quickly as to avoid getting a lucky few in him, Aztec could only do so much in this case. But that being said, the now mass of running enemies stirred the fog, making them more visible through the mass disturbance.

The remaining heavy infantry composed of the surviving Mk IIs and still functioning Zytones, lead the advance, their chainguns, Storm Rifles, LMGs putting fire down range. Lighter infantry units joined along side and just behind them with carbines, LMGs, and DMRs. Sasha would be among these as she also advanced with the line, her SMG showing no signs of overheating at all, and rather effective for a gun of it's size and caliber. Behind that was the few surviving Hydra's as well as the cavalry of various MRGTs, or "Hounds". Craig would find his rounds hit true on most occasions as they hammered through light cover, and tore through enemy combat armor. Now he would find that the other vehicles joined him in the onslaught.


BEHIND THE JOINT FORCE LINE
Thad would find his attempts to drop, or ward off attackers was sufficient until the advance began, which at that point they weren't needed. As the allied forces pressed ahead, one of the newly arrived APCs came carrying medics. Two of these personnel quickly had the vehicle pull over to collect the pair for treatment, hopping out and approaching them with medkits. A very roughed up Mark Tazar could be seen sitting in the back, his leg being treated by another medic. "Sir, and ma'am, please come with us so that we may check the extent of her injuries. Maximus, we're going to check you over as well, so please bring Trooper Jacky to the rear of the vehicle if possible.", came the almost matronly voice of a female medic as she approached the two.

Talos's Zytone lay in the mud, the heavy rounds from the TK's nose turret having tore up the heavy power armor. The suit had saved his life, the chest plates barely stopping one such round, but was crippled by the spray that had shot it up from the now dead threat. He felt the tip pushed into the undersuit that covered his chest, a rather sore bruise from the force of impact which was lessened, but not eliminated by the gel like material of it. The man groaned as he drew a pained breath, pointing out there may be more then a bruise there, but nothing more then a fracture of a rib.....or two at most......maybe three, but no matter the damage, at least he was alive.

However, the suit would not open, leaving the Major trapped in the ruined armor. His optic sensors which still worked, detected Elisys as she headed for one of the remaining Hydras. With his one still functioning arm of the Zytone, he waved at her in hoped of flagging her down for assistance. He cursed from his discomfort, hoping that she saw, and arrived to free him from this armored shell.

SHADOWS
Ven would soon find that her work in the dark was more, or less done, unless she wanted to pick off those who strayed towards the sideline to escape the firing line. Options were few at this point without orders, other then to obviously eliminate hostile forces, and to cover the advance.

As Elisys made her way to one of the Hydras, she saw someone trying to flag her down. ‘The Hydra can wait a little, some might be injured!’ The closer she got, the more she assessed the damage. The armor was hit to shit mostly, not adding in the TK turret rounds. She crouched down once she got to the suit and went to open it. “Major Talos? How are you holding up?”

As the enemy started to retreat Craig still in thermal vision continued to torment them with growing accuracy the more the fog dissipated , rapidly changeing from target to target.
At first some bullets coming from the enemy frontiline reached his hound but the longer he kept shooting the lesser the enemy fired back.

When the other apcs and jeeps joined in the slaughter, he truly started to enjoyed the view. He didn't cared who the enemy was nor what they did, as long as he could see them falling and screaming in pain, he felt satisfied.

Ven checked to make sure her IFF was good, and waited for the line to pass her before returning to the rear, to keep an eye on that side of things.

Thad looked to the medic and gave a quick nod. "Doc Thad at your service." He said with a smile as he picked up Jacky. The gears started to turn as it sank in that he was princess carrying a girl. "Well isn't this fun, I am not the only one crazy enough to charge heavy armor with grenades." He let out a chuckle as he moved towards the medic.

Jacky gave a few little, pained, grunts of appreciation as her armoured bulk was picked up and moved across to receive extra treatment, causing the clone to wonder who the hell this guy was if he could lift all this heavy armour with such ease as she tried to say thanks by putting a hand on his chest. Then her suit's helmet made a hissing sound as it unsealed but the nulled pain was getting to her along with the bullets wedged between what were quickly becoming bruises, whoever Thaddeus was carrying couldn't quite muster the strength to remove their own helmet - Jacky really had given it her all and counter herself lucky the reckless tactic hadn't gotten her killed.

Thad placed her down gently on one of the medical blanket they had laid out for them. One of the medics came over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Give give me a moment." He said shaking the hand off. He had no intention of leaving till he was damn ready. His gaze returned to the busted up person that lay before him. He reached down and helped to remove the helmet.

For some reason she couldn't quite explain, maybe it was some primordial instinct that caused Jacky to hold her breath as the helmet was slipped off but she did regardless, letting her bleached-white hair fall into place as the sore sight that was her face was revealed. Porcelain skin, white hair obscuring the right side of her face with hints of the natural raven tones at the roots, a singular red eye framed by a few scratches when the clone's helmet had taken a direct hit.

Strip away the grime and gore of battle and she was subjectively pretty with high cheekbones and a triangular jaw as Jacky tasted the air then let the held breath roll out of her lips.

"Th~thank you..." she spoke with a weak smile, partially due to the secretly heterochromatic woman's disposition for shyness and partially due to the sustained injuries.

"Think nothing of it. Anyone doing something that bad ass is worth saving." He reached up and removed his helmet. As he did his long black hair fell around his shoulders. The addition of the dirt only enhanced his good looks. "So don't you go dying on me, earned a beer this day." He started to laugh then quickly stopped to grab his side. "Damn, those rounds hurt something bad." He had caught a few rounds during his run which he just now noticed.

Now that she was still again the girl's armour kept her alive, or at least in a good enough condition to stay alive until Thaddeus let the medical people have their way with her. "I~I... I don't drink... but you should get somebody to look at that," Jacky spoke with a good bit of warranted concern as she saw just what made him grunt in pain, causing her to shift over a fraction on the medical blanket with another pained grunt before gesturing for him to sit too.

Thad took the hint and dropped himself next to her. "You was sober when you did that crazy move!?" He tried not to laugh but failed. "Owww, fuck, stop making me laugh." Through the pain he gave her a quick smile. "Either way that was some crazy shit you did." He reached over and brushed her bangs covering part of her face. "Get a good look at the girl I took a bullet for."

Jacky visibly tensed up as the curtain of white hair over the blue eye she purposefully hid began to get brushed back, it might have hurt a lot but instinctively the girl craned her neck away from Thad's touch to hide the hint of blue he had no doubt seen. "P~please don't... I'm just... just another Jane clone," she spoke unconvincingly, even when armoured it was clear she stood a tiny bit taller and overall was built a little differently to her genetic sisters.

"I... can help with the pain though~" the clone offered with a look that spoke equal parts sympathy and apology towards this long-haired man.

Thad retracted his hand as to not have her try and move around too much. "Not to me your not just another clone. Something tells me you are special. In that charge forward screaming a war cry kind of special." He chuckled at his own over the top comment. Though he did have to admit it took nerves to do what she did.

"Help with the pain huh. I was hoping I might find myself a nurse out here on the battlefield." He looked over to the real medics who just sighed at him. For whatever reason his papers had him listed as a combat doctor. Instead of trying to correct the mistake he just ran with it. He did have good experience saving someone injured. He grinned as he remembered that time.

The frown that had begun forming as Thad began to mention being different faded when he got to the why, not because her eyebrows didn't match her hair or because there were dark streaks in what should be pure white hair but her actions - that part did make the clone smile faintly though being as inexperienced about the world as she was the part about nurses flew straight over her head.

"Thank you... this is~ it's going to hurt," Jacky spoke as she used the less-injured arm to scoop up a decent bit of the medical goo her suit was bleeding and then held the healing stuff against Thad's exposed wound - it would sting like hell at the start and she felt bad for that but the cocktail of medical substances would help a lot even if medical personnel still needed to remove the actual fragments of bullets and such.

His eyes went wide as pain coursed through his body. Whatever she did caused his adrenaline to pump like crazy. "Ahhh fucking A woman!" He finally said after the initial shock passed. "One hell of a touch you have there. If it wasn't searing pain I might call it love." He reached down and placed his hand over hers. "Thanks partner, though next time it's my turn to charge head first. Can't have you stealing all the glory." He raised his free hand into the air slight. This was followed by a grunt as his side twitched with pain.

The clone's cheeks grew a little pinker before her look changed purely to an apologetic one, "I'm sorry... I said it would hurt~" Jacky reciprocated before she felt the hand against her armoured one, which caused the woman to gulp and then relax a little - much like how Talos' or Lynn's physical presence helped get those pesky nerves under some semblance of control.

Her eyes went wide and Jacky looked around frantically before spying somebody helping Talos out of his armour, her helmet had only been on a moment ago and his vitals had been within safe parameters so she slumped a little further back as relief washed through her system. "I hope... that there isn't a next time~" the young Jane clone finished before giving the medical personnel a small nod to invite them over.

A grin crossed his face. "I hope there is a next time. Just with less lead in our bodies." He chuckle groaned as he waved the medics over. There was a war that needed fought after all.

Aztec still took a few more aimed shots, but it was clear from what he saw, he’ll to anyone really, that Crimson was in retreat. Not a rout, they weren’t just abandoning their positions, they were trying to cover their retreat, though the combined friendly forces were making that extremely difficult; any Crimson unit that tried to cover the retreat had hardly enough time to fire one volley, anymore and they’d be overrun.
Either way, his current position wouldn’t be useful much longer. “Command, Aztec” he started, keying his com “Crimson units are falling back, we’ve overrun their initial defensive line. Moving to secondary overwatch, out”
He shifted from his near prone position, back the way he’d come, then moved toward his next waypoint, liberated AR in his hands, as stealth was less of a priority at this point. Crimson very much knew they were here now....

Joint Force Front Line -> Fog of War

With the enemy force pulling back, two more Hydra tanks rolled up to the front line. Tanker Trooper Lena Aldea in one, her squadmate Sean Donahue in the other, the camo-patterned vehicles tore their tread-marks and kicked up mud and broken tree detritus at their passage, racing to keep pace with the power armor pushing the front forward through the jungle.

"Eyes up, Donahue," Lena spoke coolly through the helmet comms. "Watch for any more of those crab tank-killers. You take left flank, I'll go right."

"Roger that," came the crackled reply, and Lena grinned. She wasn't Donahue's senior by rank, but by virtue of her effectiveness as a tank pilot. She pulled at the controls, maneuvering the massive Hydra off to the right of the infantry formation, seeing Donahue do the same on her left. She then concentrated on the screens before her as she pushed the vehicle through the fog-covered jungle along the right flank of the infantry advance. Her eyes darted over the screens, scanning for any sign of enemy armor, ignoring the infantry for now, but keeping an eye out for anything that looked heavy enough to punch her armor, ready to call it out.

FOG OF WAR


Sasha was actually amazed as her new SMG seemed to be stronger than what she have thought, with SMG’s barrel showing no sign of overheating at all. She kept walking straight, while trying to aim her new SMG like her old and now useless GP-1 rifle by force of habit.


“ Hey, this ain’t that bad... “



After few more rounds of hundreds, Sasha finally decided that the SMG was strong enough to withstand fully automatic fires, and decided to squeeze the trigger like as if she was firing an LMG. Rounds after rounds, she felt satisfaction as her SMG took the heating pretty well, and her new suit was helping her advance even faster than she would have had if she didn’t wear one.

Maybe it was time for her to adopt to new things. After all, everything changes through time.

The fact Talos was still in his armour worried Jacky as the slightly taller than average clone's heterochromatic gaze settled on the ruined hunk of metal once more, with a few mumbled apologies she brushed the medical staff away and painfully hauled herself upright with more than a few grunts of pain - likely undoing any of the work the medics had done as the odd-clone let in a sharp inhale and began trudging over to her brother's armour on unsteady legs, focusing more on the eventual destination rather than the pain along the way... he had to be okay, right?

Surely...

Jacky brushed the thought aside as she reached the armour, gripping the Zytone's armoured entry port with a wince before she began pulling - sound of rather intense pain muffled only through gritted teeth as the clone's own strong muscles worked alongside her suit's (arguably equally) synthetic ones to force the locked-up mechanism against itself and then discard it with one final huff as her bloodied, broken armour that was the only thing holding the exhausted and injured clone up leant against the Zytone's frame for support.

"T~Tal?" was all she could muster, eyes glassing up from pain both physical and potential at the prospect of... she didn't even remember that her helmet was still over with Thaddeus, that's how focused Jacky was on what might come to light, only one of two things as far as she could see.

Eventually a armored gauntlet was raised in the air as the advancing troops were ordered to cease fire. The trooper second in command looked back at the smoking metal form of Talos's Zytone. "All units hold here. Await for further orders.", they barked to everyone as the front formed a proper line.

Talos felt pain, and the heat of smoke through where rounds had ripped gashes, and winced at a shard of metal buried somewhere in his flesh. with the sudden cry of tortured metal, the front of his armor was torn off. At first he thought it was that engineer girl, but to his surprise, it was Jacky standing over him. Good, she was okay at least, "At least you didn't wait to ask first." he said with a grimace. The way his armor was, his right arm slipped free easily enough, as did his legs thankfully. However, he grunted in pain from the metal shard again, and realized as he looked at his left arm why it suddenly wouldn't budge. The shard was through his bicep and pinning his arm inside the armored arm of the zytone. Giving a yank only caused him to gasp, "Jacky, my arm is pinned."

Mark Tazar made his way to the front again, finding the second in command and getting a SITREP. Seeing that Talos needed help, he decided to pass a order, knowing they needed to pull their shit together. "Everyone! Collect our dead, regroup, and make camp. We'll advance again on the Major's order, but we have plenty of wounded. Now double time it!", he shouted with a firm bark of authority. Void, he hated to use it, but it was necessary given the situation.

Ven picked up one of the dead in her arms and one in her tail and carried them to the collection point. She worked efficiently to help collect the dead and start making their camp.

"D~Don't try to take it out... I'll see what I can do~" the tall Jane warned him, by nature shrapnel wounds didn't tend to bleed too much so long as you left it in and as a member of the armed forces she knew a bit about the injuries that came with the occupation, she looked around for a moment as a few medical personnel came over to tell the clone she shouldn't be up and moving about with the own sustained injuries - but that was all background noise as Jacky reached for a small hydraulic pair of metal shears from a nearby pack of equipment, usually meant to just through safety locks on airlocks and such she felt the compact tool would do well to make the shard of metal small enough for Tal to free his arm.

She returned with a grunt of pained effort as the medical personnel began detaching various parts of her armour to staunch the flow of blood but Jacky pushed on, teeth gritted as she reached into the cavity the injured limb was recessed into and began trying to cut down the foreign metal object as carefully as she could - hopefully freeing her twin so that people specifically trained to keep him alive could do so.

Elisys found someone who was lying facedown unmoving. She quickly picks them up and makes her way back. ‘Please be unconscious, please be unconscious!”

(Can I still participate in this?)

It was shaping up to be another long night, the equine marksman thought. While both the night and his own experience during his previous time in service helped, the enemy patrols and the occasional wildlife encounter had slowed him more than he'd liked. The former he avoided almost entirely, mainly marking their location and composition for a later sitrep. There had been more patrols than he'd expected however, leading him to believe there was a larger Crimson presence than initially believed. Or it may be a deception, there was no way of knowing.

It was very early morning when Aztec reached the second possible FOB location, having seen nothing at the previous potential location intel suspected. Next was finding a hide. Usually, he'd have plotted some potentials from maps of the area, but being that there really weren't any detailed scans meant he was on his own, though he knew what he was looking for. Soon, he had his position, a kind of foxhole like cave, created by the partial collapse of some rock structure, giving him a sightline of most of a side of the Crimson outpost. Not an ideal FFP, but if it really came down to his Harbinger having to make a difference in this fight, things had to have gone completely FUBAR. A scan of the inside revealed nothing had claimed the hole as their home, so he dropped in. It was enough to fit into without needing to expose his weapon.....barely. Between his recent body change and the Revenant armor he wore, well, it was a good thing he'd not had to cram anything or one else into here. He settled in, beginning to scan this Crimson outpost.

About 40 minutes later, Aztec opened his coms, as at this point the combined S6/MoD force was underway.

"Command, Trooper Aztec. In position, have an updated SitRep, over"

Craig tapped with his fist the top plate of the hound, warning the crew that we was leaving. Then exited from top with an athletic hop, then looked at the battlefield, hundreds of dead bodies and the suffering laments of the woundeds, he gave a long sigh gazing at that sight. He didn't want to but he had to follow the orders and go save the ones still breathing, *At least let's make it quick* he thought right before releasing the nergy of the thrusters with an explosion and fly to the middle of the field.

He checked for suvirvors, bringing the ones back to the field hospital. Going back and for between the two places tirelessly, darting with his thrusters, without talking not even once in the whole process. But at a certain point a nice thing happened, or at least something to break the settling monotony. Right next to a hole carved from a plasma explosion there was a wounded crimson soldier.

While the enemy soldier was laying on the ground, lamenting for both his legs broken, the tall figure of Craig darkened the sun from the crimson vision "Uhuhu, what we got here?". The tall man extracted the sword on his flank nonchalantly as the crimson started to fidget, trying to find a tool to kill herself with. Craig continued his process by detaching the pistol inside his gunblade "Major Talos, this is Craig Mulder. I got a survived crimson, orders?". Craig waited patiently for a response looking around, meanwhile the wounded enemy succeded on take a knife and with a lot of noise as she contorced and grovel, gasping.

No response came back. Craig again with his nonchalance, slightly raised the pistol and fired at the hand of the crimson soldier without looking at it, the very hand which was holding the knife aimed to her own throat. " Looks like I've to decide for your fate" He turned to see the crimson screaming in pain. "Oh come on don't make that face, it's just a bullet" he crouched next to the wounded enemy and squeezed the shooted hand, causing another scream of pain. Craig sniggered , then shot at the other arm, the soldier resisted from not passing out but the screams became cries. Though the mercenary thought he had enough of that little show. He relocated the pistol in the blade and sheathed it, before bringing back to the camp that defenseless prisoner.

Metal groaned as the large fragment was sheared at the top, then the bottom under his arm. Once free, the sudden shift brought sharp grunt of pain before he started to slide his arm out. Now free, Talos out and off the ruined shell as blood ran from his arm where he had been pierced, the shift having opened the wound further. Sealant began to fill the opening once more to stop the bleeding. The medics who had been fussing over the Jane now focused on their more urgent charge present.

"We need to get him to the medical tent. He's bleeding pretty badly from his arm, and he has several lacerations that need attention as well. Mrs. Pine, please come with us as well." one of the doctors ordered.

"Tell..tell the men to finish setting camp for the night and being establishing a perimeter and patrols. Tazar is in charge until I can resume command properly," Talos ordered to be delegated as he was helped up, a stim injected into his exposed neck, "Jacky, thank you, you need to get checked out too. Your bleeding sis."


Mark despite his injuries was helping collect their dead, as numerous others were. He and another trooper laid the armored remains in a bag, the warrant officer dropping to a knee with a grunt as began to zip the bag over a lifeless body. His hand only stopped long enough to grab the tag from around a suited neck, before zipping the rest of the way. "Strike Trooper, Deven A. Liang" he stated as he read off the tag, the man having died in the detonation of one of the Hydras the TK took out. A sigh left the ex-marine as he looked over the other 50 or more bags lined up before him.

"Sir, the Major has given you command. He's being taken to the medical tent with injuries." came the filtered voice of the trooper beside him as he stood up. He gave a nod to the armored man, "Get some rest, you've all earned it."

Thaddeaus had made his way over to the shredded shell of armor. He left Jacky be as he could tell she was focused on the task at hand and he could do little to support at this very moment. That was till he overheard the order for her to get checked out. He was pretty cut up too but what was a few more scars he thought to himself.

"You walking to the tent on your own or you need a lift?" He asked as he walked up next to Jacky. He had to admit to himself how impressed he was to see her continue to push forward despite her wounds. This was someone he could respect and enjoy getting to know better. Granted that would have to wait till after the battle since there was work left to do.