RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [SMoDIN] Graduation Day

Lucia would see a mostly empty gym, all of the exercise equipment had been pushed into a semi-circular barricade around the elevators. Among this pile of metal pieces was the barrel of an SMG. Someone behind the barricade would turn it towards the door, aiming it at Lucia and firing off a short bust, chewing holes into the walls and door.

Meanwhile, outside of the NNN building one of the white and red E3-Cs would arrive, slowing down to a hover near the building and training its thermal cameras on the lowest floor, slowly sweeping them up the structure. Orion would be provided with the results, showing a large thermal signature under the building, one behind the barricade, and several in the lobby with more showing up as the camera swept upwards towards the higher floors that the other marines were clearing.

Lucia had not fully exposed her self, and by reflex she vanished back behind effective cover. She was sitting low with her back against the wall, staying close enough to be able to lean into the door way and return fire. She how ever did not. “AAAAAAHHHH!!!! “ She yelled with a big smile on her face. “He got me, the bastard got me!!” She shouted doing a pretty good mimic of what a wounded soldier would sound like.

She kept up the charade, but looked up at Naomi and motioned for her to take position at the other door.

Lucia piped down. “We have one target, behind a barricade, from what I can tell this building is locked tighter then a crab’s ass(A crab’s ass is air tight).On my signal we both start laying down fire on that position, check your target though he may move. Lucia then sat her self up, ready to start blind firing into the gym.

"Listen up better, Rich Girl," Naomi said to the smart-ass tech standing behind her, not even raising her voice. "Is it my fault you can't hear me hollering at you?"

Not bothering to await a reply, she stacked up with Lucia and the others in the small group. She could feel muscles tighten all through her body as Lucia led the charge...

And promptly jerked back against a hail of SMG fire, sitting up against the wall, howling as though she had been wounded. Naomi cocked a brow and looked at her, but almost in the same instant realized what she was doing.

"Got it," she said calmly, moving swiftly to the other door, as Lucia had requested (it was hard to give orders when nobody outranked anybody), readying herself out of sight next to the doorway.

Once she was ready, a raised hand served as signal to Lucia.

Her mind was racing. Her hands tightened on the MG. Sweat ran down her brow.

She waited.

Orion felt the urge to update the marines on the new data discovered. However, the spray of bullets and the screaming distracted him. "Warmonger! Are you alright!?" Of course, Orion wasn't exactly as 'witty' as these marines. He didn't get the deceit that was going on, and so he would ask in a normal tone of voice. "You seem to be alright... are you sure you've been shot? I don't see any blood. On that note, I have gotten new information regarding the shots within the room.

There's only one person behind that large semi-circular structure. There is no one else inside that room. We can overwhelm him if we strike at the same time.

There is a large thermal signature underneath the building. Judging by it's size it may be a Misshuvurthyar... the image is too blurry to discern whether it is armored or not." He noticed the marines moving towards both doors, and realized they were already way ahead of him. "Ah! Right, well... in that case..."

Orion walked to the door opposite to Lucia, where Naomi was. He aimed the machine gun at the door, and aimed for the thermal signature within the room at the other side of the semi-circular barricade. "I await your orders." He told Naomi.

“Taking your sweet time aren’t you greenies?!”

A voice yelled out from inside of the gym as sporadic gunfire was heard overhead, other marines busy clearing the upper levels of the NNN building. Undoubtedly the group’s Sergeant was getting in on that action.

“I Just wanted you to know, that you are probably going to kill me, but the NMX will bring me back in a new body. My family and I will be rewarded with a better life, food, and some place to live other than the slums. You’re just helping keep the people down, when they do reach Nepleslia, and they will, you can either help and receive your rewards or be washed away like filth on Nepleslia soon will be.”

After his little speech the man behind the barricade would move to the right, not wanting to stay in exactly the same position after yelling out to the people who were shooting at him.

Lucia nearly wanted to bust out laughing as the damn drone stated its opinion on the current politics of this situation. She how ever did not. As he rambled on she positioned started positioning her self. “Now” She hissed as she leaned into the door and caught the guy in mid run. Lucia emptied her weapon as she followed him. It was not an aimed shot, but rather a spray and pray maneuvers. The fast firing rounds may graze the unfortunate man, and deny him the pleasure of being brought back by the NMX. Or he may not get hit all together. The truth was Lucia was trying to kill him.

Once the magazine was emptier she shouted back with her retort. “Hell no, we are just savoring the moment! Brought back if you die? What the hell do the NMX do to those who fail them? If we die we stay dead, you, get to keep doing it over and over, so who has the shit end of that stick?” With that statement Lucia finished reloading and was prepped to dump another magazine onto the guy.

The NMX soldier was still moving to his right, but remained behind the barricade as bullets deflected off the heavy gym equipment that made up his cover. Once the barrage of bullets from Lucia stopped he would point his weapon towards the doorway she had been firing from and then lifted it up over the barricade just long enough to fire two short busts to keep them from advancing.

Now was not a time to argue, it was a time to act. When the man started attacking Lucia, Orion opened the door, slid his gun arm into the room and pulled the trigger.

A shower of different kinds of bullets closed their distance between them and the soldier on the other side of the barricade. Even were the soldier to hide behind the metal bars and work out machines around him, he'd find that the bullets coming from Lucia's gun were no match to the bullets of the W31, which were designed to penetrate through armor, explode upon impact, burst through flesh, causing constant deafening flashes and then redirecting aim. Even if he moved while behind cover, Orion's link to the sensors outside provided him with almost impeccable aim; he'd know where the man was due to the thermal signature being displayed in synchronization with his vision. Shell after shell clicked as it hit the floor.

Even if he didn't get hit, he'd probably get extremely rattled up by the flurry of explosions and impacts punching through the metal. Mowing this man down should be no problem for this trio.

Chunks of metal would be torn off of the barricade as the machinegun rounds ripped through, spraying the elevator area behind it with shrapnel as the NMX soldier ducked down as far as he could, trying to stay near the thicker base of the barricade instead of the upper area that was being torn apart. The occasional explosive rounds in the mix would send a deep boom through the room, lighting up like small firecrackers against the barricade leaving the man behind it with bleeding ears, though he was still out of direct sight.

Lucia had no intention of being a hero, she merely wished to have this situation resolved. So as Orion sprayed the man’s position she entered the room, and had her weapon trained on the NMX soldier’s relative location. She moved quickly, and climbed into the swimming pool, naturally taking care not to get her gun wet. When the soldier exposed him self she would empty another magazine in his direction. She was completely ignorant of the fact the soldier probably did not hear her entrance into the room.

Seeing the spray of bullets had been rather futile despite their extremely powerful nature, Orion stopped shooting the man and concealed himself behind the wall next to the door he had popped out of. "The barricade is stronger than I calculated! We must get closer and attack!"

He pulled his machine gun closer to himself, and looked at Naomi. "Issue orders! I will follow!" The 'spacer turned to look at Lucia, and noticed she was gone. Using the sensors of the layout of the building, he turned to look into the room, seeing two thermal images within the room.

"Ah! Seems she is ahead of us!"

Fortunately for Lucia, the shallow end of the pool was closest to the barricade, allowing her to stand in the warm water while still being hidden behind the stone lip of the pool. The water would begin soaking into her uniform, weighing it down and creating a lot of drag as she moved around, pushing a few floating bits of fabric out of the way as she got into position.

Meanwhile Orion’s thermal camera view would show the enemy not moving around, remaining on the floor behind the make-shift barricade. Lucia’s thermal image would also be slightly reduced as she entered the water. The outline on the ground penetrating radar would also be reduced, but Lucia’s outline was still detectable there as well.

The man behind the barricade wouldn’t pop up, remaining out of sight of the attackers. Orion would b e able to see his outline and thermal image, his body laying on the ground and still not moving sense he had last looked.

Naomi had watched as Lucia moved forward through the pool, shooting at her target, who was also being suppressed by the Freespacer's fire. She'd intended to begin moving forward without firing as the man was forced to keep his head down, and maybe come up on his flank unseen.

Now, however, he wasn't moving.

"Stay here and keep us covered," she said to Orion in a low voice. "He comes up again, I'll drop and return fire, so you can shoot over me."

Easing through the door and into the room, she began to move forward, catching Lucia's eyes as she'd hoped, and nodding once before motioning to the barricade.

Keeping the MG raised as she advanced, she was all too aware of the room around her, and her environment in general, from the gentle sound made by the pool water, to the weight of the assault rifle on her back to her own sweat running down her face. She was trying to keep her pace with Lucia, stopping roughly even with the "top" of the pool, holding close to the wall.

Looking at Lucia again, Naomi motioned with her chin in a questioning manner, wordlessly asking if the Marine wanted to close in.

"Very well!" the 'spacer agreed enthusiastically. He aimed his machinegun into the room, at the figure behind the barricade. "He doesn't seem to be moving. Perhaps I was successful in hitting him. Proceed with caution!" The words were spoken as Naomi passed by him and entered the room, directed at her, but it could also be heard by Lucia down by the pool due to the echo the hollow room created.

Naomi looked at Lucia, but the other Marine seemed to be struck by some kind of indecision. Deciding she could not wait much longer, Naomi started in the direction of the enemy position.

Upon reaching the barrier, she closed the last few yards at a rush, moving her MG up to fire across it if necessary.

It wasn't.

"Holy shit, dudes!" she exclaimed. "This one's hamburger! Alright, let's go."

Looking back to the doorways, she motioned to their tag-along buddies.

"Alright, you guys, let's move on!"

Their attacker was currently laying face down with a large chunk of metal workout equipment protruding up through his back, pieces of which had been torn loose from the barricade and were now scattered across the floor heading towards the elevators along with meaty chunks of what used to be ID-Sol. The ID-Sol laying face down had similar clothing, and the exact same facial features, hair color, and style that the first attacker had in the lobby earlier. His Zen Arms 10mm SubMachine Pistol was under his right arm and a thick leather grenade belt was tucked under his stomach where blood was pooling out onto the floor. The lack of any motion in his body and the sheer amount of chunks that were missing left little question as to if he was alive or not.

On either side of the hallway were the elevators that serviced the rest of the building. Each one had a grenade taped down to the floor by the entrance with the ignition pen tied to a string, the other end taped to the closed elevator doors.

Past these doors was the staircase that led into the server room. It was double wide and went down one floor. Two heavy double doors blocked the way into the server room, each had a metallic locking system and card reader on them which had been torn open by a hole extending deep into the device and out the other side of the door. The door itself was also deformed slightly, having been bent and torn as something moved through them. Naturally due to the damage they were entirely unlocked. They also contained a toxic chemical warning printing on the doors, indicating that the room had a Halon fire extinguishing system in the form of various pipes on the ceiling and highly compressed gas tanks just outside of the doors.

The inside of the server room itself was start white, two rows of electronics in large rectangular glass cases stretched down the center of the room, leaving a small hallway between them, and between themselves and the walls. Various pieces had been broken off, keyboards, monitors, and some plugs all having been smashed apart leaving the server to continually broadcast the NMX’s message to Nepleslia. One interface did still seem to be intact, a monitor towards the end of the room with a keyboard hidden away in a metal box that had been tapped shut under the monitor inside of the glass case.

Orion would find that the large heat signature that the external cameras were detecting were the servers themselves, producing enough waste heat to warrant a powerful air-conditioning system to cool the room.

Orion followed the Nepleslian marine female into the room, keeping his gun pointed at the barricade. Eventually they both settled that the man was dead. A slight rush of adrenaline overcame Orion's brain, and the neon lines across his body turned into a very bright neon purple.

It was the first person he had ever killed.

He didn't mention anything, but in his head there was a mixture of doubt, self-fulfillment and remorse. How could I have killed a man? Me, a simple engineer? He can no longer repent for his ways... he can no longer change his mind about what he is. Now he is not anymore. It's just a body on the floor, who used to be a confused man... The AI companion spoke back to him. Remember Orion, you are here to establish forced peace onto Nepleslia. At the moment there are several people in danger. You are here to save them. Remember the Jaywalker. Here you are making a difference for the first time.

I... I... yes. You're right. I mustn't fall victim to my own insecurities. I must endure!

As Orion walked past the barricade, he noticed the doors, and when looking down, noticed the heat signatures were the large servers, which emanated enough heat to seem like a large stationary creature from a distance. "The heat signatures from the room below are the servers! I must enter the basement room!

Lead the way! I will follow!"

Grim faced and unamused as ever, the rush of battle was starting to wear off, and reality was beginning to set in.

Lucia aimed her weapon at Orion. "Who the hell are you, and what is going on."

This was a shitty thing to do, but this was a horrible situation where as soldiers, they needed to question their surroundings. Lucia was not a puppet soldier, and would not dance to any strings, especially when strange new people decided to join the grunts in "fighting"

"The NNN is loaded with squids, we got shot at by our own civilians, and then in a POOF of fairy dust you and your buds from DION intelligence? Appear out of no where to come and save the mouth of Nepleslia? I smell bullshit, and you had better start spraying the air freshener."

The Sergent would probably bash her skull in for not blowing Orion away, he was a very shoot first, fuck questions kind of guy. Lucia figured Naomi already had a problem, so they were roughly on the same page concerning these new people. "Naomi keep watch." Lucia said this as a request, rather then an order.

The hybrot was going to continue his descent into the NNN building when Lucia suddenly aimed her gun at him and began asking questions. Orion stopped and turned to face her. He was perplexed. Was she that doubtful about herself that she would doubt his status? It didn't seem possible to Orion at first that she would not know who he was, but then he remembered that Nepleslia had no real Polysentience, and that the information she required had not yet been given to her.

To the marines and anyone else around him, it would just seem Orion had turned to the woman, lowered the machinegun on his right hand and hesitated for a second, before snapping his left hand's middle and thumb fingers and raising his left index finger into the air. "Ah. I see. You have not been informed! See, this is exactly why Nepleslia needs Mindware and its own Polysentience, if only for military purposes!"

His left hand extended towards her in an open palm and shook, in a gesture that probably meant he wanted to correct a mistake.

"I am a Freespacer. Bodytailor Orion 72-3933-9428, Type Four of the deceased fleetship The Jaywalker. I am a contract engineer for SMoDIN working under command of general Heram J. Wazu. The only reason I have been assigned to assist in this mission is because I was part of the Hacker Cult when I still lived in my fleetship, and am thus a capable hacker.

Once I get to the servers I can hack the system and re-establish Nepleslian command to the NNN. Or at least, attempt to.

If you wish I can patch you through to Heram and he can explain everything, though I would think that's a bit excessive. If you really must question your directives, I don't suggest doing so now at this critical moment. I have just killed a man, for instance, and the thought permeates my being with guilt, but I know for a fact it was necessary to establish peace in Nepleslia. With that in mind, my guilt is appeased and am no longer questioning myself over it. It had to be done.

In a similar way, perhaps, you may reflect upon what is right to do at the moment, and what must be done. I urge you to reconsider your position, and assure you I am on your side."

Orion wasn't exactly sure what she was getting at. He could understand her confusion as to why these people were helping her out of the blue, but it shouldn't be enough to actually go pointing guns.

Soaking wet, and irritated, Lucia saw no reason to not give the machine man the benefit of the doubt. "Alright." she said clearing her sinuses and spitting out a large nugget of phlegm on to deck. "But only because you kill squid puppets good."

With that Lucia held her weapon, and advanced towards their goal as carefully as possible.