RP The golden band: Into the unknown

As the Anti-personnel rounds from the Mothballed hades Corp mech began tearing chunks out of the group of soldiers removing arms, legs and parts of the trooper's torsos. They still attempted to move in on the Golden band forces. Those that even lost most of their bodies crawled, those without working arms would find a way to put a knife between their teeth as they moved in closer. Like out of some sort of horror movie, the troops that were Moving in seemed as if they were corpses, some in worse states that others patched together with extensive cybernetics as they moved in.

Those who could still fire did so with their rifles making thunderous booms as the rounds slammed into one of the guns of the mech as the delayed detonation of their shots started slagging its barrels and causing sparks in the mech suit. As rounds started making noticeable dents.

Another volly would rip off hitting boxes walls as the other golden band forces attempted to pin down the attackers. Unfortunately, their shots would start hitting home as a round would find its way in the young golden band trooper near Ian the round smashed into the man's sternum before detonating, blowing him wide open mere meters from Ian. Another several shots would be fired off blowing some of the crates apart where the lumen was. Shrapnel of which splashed several Golden band troops thankfully their armor soaked it up with little injury.

The grizzled Nep platoon leader by this point began taking charge by action. “Get to cover, those who are already in cover provide indirect fire, pin those freaks down! Spooky we need a exit out of this murder hall now.”

The coms would light up across the board as the various Golden band forces were coming into contacts of similar quality. Causing Ty to rise from his seat. Key the coms. “Be advised. Enemy contacts fit description of Hades Corp doll soldiers. They arn't like you or me either blow off the head or turn them into hamburger, they don't die like we do.”

Passing the Info, the platoon sergeant would get from Spooky that there was a balcony overlooking their position giving a possible flank. He yelled out over coms. “vedica, Move through the door on your right take the stairs up and flank these guys. Someone goes with her." As he finished his sentence a doll soldier somehow managed to get past Sharlet's mech and began moving in on Lilith. before getting shot multiple times in its chest spewing sparks and cybernetics and gristle on the ground slowing it down. The shots coming from the golden band trooper promising to watch their back.

Ty would change the comm channel to the Senti scrapper ship. "Your now being tasks with rescuing the survivors my team will distract the enemy forces so move fast."

Ian wiped bits of the kid who’d been standing not too far from him off of his visor. Ian the corporate suit took a back seat for a while and Cpl. Stoner the marine gunner took over. Thanking NAM for the 50 round mag (200 DA), he began squeezing off tight controlled bursts like he’d been trained all those years ago.

Start with the closest. A five round burst starting at the high thoracic. The last round burst from the back of the doll soldier’s head and it kept staggering forward. “Well fuck me,” he grunted and adjusted his aim lower. Ian decided he’d be horrified about this whole ordeal later. He fired another burst taking out the creature's knees. Not dead, but crawling was better than running. It seemed, suppressing fire meant something different when your enemy didn’t fear getting shot. He chose another target and blew out its knees. He quickly chewed through the rest of his drum mag on knees and shins. By the time he reloaded, his suppressor was reading noticeably hot on his HUD. Hopefully that gave the PMCs time to get to cover. He didn’t come all the way out here to sell guns to fucking zombies.

"This is an absolute shit show..." Vedica mentioned to herself and she wasn't referring to the Hades Corps whatever, she was referring to the utter state of the command structure. The platoon leader was doing his job, it was the of the platoon sergeants that was touching a nerve. But now was not the time. Besides she needed a better look since there was absolutely no battle intelligence getting to her to coordinate.

Lobbing shots to stop some of the dolls so those closer can get headshots, she moved swiftly through the door and activated her helmet's Video Synthetic Aperture Radar (ViSAR) to get a detailed mapping of the corridor leading up to the stairs.

Keeping her Bushi Carbine at the high ready to triple tap anything that moved, she made her way up and tried to move as stealthy as she could quickly to get into a flanking position with some actual cover. She activated the ViSAR to map out the battlefield long enough before she started firing from her position.

Senti Ship

This was nothing like the Duskerian Legion.

Priscilla nearly faltered as one of the mercenaries was simply blown open by a shot to the sternum, next to the NAM contractor who had only joined the company to pawn off outdated (though admittedly reliable) hardware to the group of ragtag mercenaries. Naturally, Priscilla didn’t like him, but she hoped that he might be useful as cannon fodder, especially if he had that much confidence in his thick suit of Golem armor. For her part, Priscilla didn't acknowledge his presence as she set her sights on one of the charging Doll Soldiers, placing her crosshairs over the mindless drones’ head before squeezing the trigger to unleash a single, .50 caliber round aimed to blow open the thing's skull. Then, upon hearing the direction from her Sergeant, she decided to accompany Vedica.

“I’ll go with her!” Priscilla called out as Vedica moved. All the while, Priscilla covered her with a salvo of aimed fire directed towards the advancing Doll Soldiers, aiming for heads, necks, and chests where possible, in the hopes of putting down as many of the creatures as she could.

“Cover me, moving!” Priscilla said as she moved after Vedica, pulling out her hand cannon as she ascended the stairs. By the time she reached the top, Vedica was already in position and had opened fire on the Doll Soldiers. It went without saying that Priscilla was awestruck at how quickly and effectively the woman moved, but she didn’t waste a moment in joining her after quickly sweeping their immediate area and holstering her hand cannon. Then, setting up her sniper rifle’s bipod, Priscilla opened fire on the Doll Soldiers once more, aiming for the same places as before!

Senti Ship

Lilith heard the call outs and put some stuff together of what these were, she had noticed the one coming towards her and was thankful someone dealt with it since she wasn't prepared. She didn't like the idea of these Dolls and something clicked as she heard one of the others ask for the cover, it was someone headed to help from a flanking position that she noticed someone else in, that must be Vedica from what she heard over the radio. She readied her pistol and fired some shots as Dolls that had noticed the two others getting into position "hey now, focus on me!"

She knew this wasn't the best stratergy, especially after a handful of Dolls turned to the shout, she grinned, she still liked this as she shot at them, she kept track of the shots fired, and wasn't using the heavy mode. She didn't think it would matter and having it be a distraction for Vedica and the other, then also ease pressure of the main squad, even just a little was a bonus "Yea that's it, co-" Her taunt was struck short as a Doll's Shot connected with the cover she was behind, the detonation flinging sharp shrapnel at her, no time to turn or block, some connected with her face, leaving fresh scars and pieces inbedded into her cheek.

When she looked back at the Dolls, they were closer, with a hiss, she fell back and fired at them, she quickened her pace to find new cover, her distraction working a little to well for her own good as the few that noticed and engaged her, kept track of her.

Lumine's doll-like calm continued to be at odds with the surroundings, as the small mousey thing raised their EM-W2 plasma pistol and discharged it directly into the face of an approaching meat-weapon.

The blast didn't stay in a neat blue ball like in the movies- The shrill inferno of the beam was really more like an intense blowtorch, and the nurse droid was taking maximum advantage of that by intentionally waiting until enemies were point blank. This event was a particularly graphic show of rapidly peeling layers, sandblasting the enemy's skull into an empty husk within seconds.

She recorded it, internally. Lumine couldn't help but find these 'dolls' rather fascinating. Was it nanomachines keeping their organic components alive, or some other mechanical alteration?

The ponderous expression on their face was rapidly replaced by that of aloof disgruntlement, however, watching that shell impact the man close to Ian and completely blow his torso apart. Her earlier diagnosis of HEAT munitions was correct- But it was rather rude of them, making her job as a medical robot redundant just by sheer overkill.

Then something exploded beside Lilith, and for a moment, the blue-clad machine thought the rather odd genetic creation had bought the farm too.

"Do you require medical assistance?" Lumine offered blankly, giving the cover fire of her pistol whilst the pale thing retreated.

Had to duck behind a pair of stacked metal crates themselves, as a high calibre explosive round zipped past, detonating somewhere behind them.

Too much power drop off with range, her guns were basically the worst load out for this...

<"Please take note, we are likely to become over-run."> A message over the impromptu command net. <"Medical recommendations for destruction of foe; Explosive weapons are preferable, but immobilisation by physical body deconstruction also a valid use of force.">

Left-handing their pistol, a half meter blade popped out from the box on their right wrist, emitting the pervasive hum of a vibroblade.

Just needed to let these creatures get a little closer before springing into action again...

Senti Ship

Sharlett was doing her best to not panic given how quickly things turned crazy. She was thankful she had backup around her. Even if she was still having to be the meat shield since she was one of the few mechs. She opened comms with the team once more. "Pushing forward, give me backup." As the line dropped she leaned out of cover and started to blast away at the dolls. She took note of some of them moving around to try and flank but was too focused on the ones in front of her to take any action.

She started moving slowly forward, trying to take out dolls as she moved from cover to cover. The round hitting around her and sometimes making contact with the armor. They must had been glancing shots as they did not cause her any trouble. As she neared close, she dropped into a slide and took out a couple more dolls before slamming into cover near them. She was fairly far ahead of the team though not so much that they would not be able to assist should she need it.

Threw a mixture of Charlie Battalions efforts and above average leadership the golden band forces would be thinning out the numbers of the enemy forces however as information started flowing up the chain of command it was clear things were looking bad. The Charlie battalion grizzled nep would be getting info fed to him via Spooky’s sensor sweet.

Keying his coms. “All remaining Golden band forces regroup on Charlie battalions location and position has parse cover but multiple holdable routes. I repeat make your way here over.”

The coms of panicking Golden Band f forces were coming in. “This is Alpha Battalion leader, My mech is heavily damaged and the rest of the battalion is wiped out. I'm moving up with the bravo battalion which has suffered heavy casualties coming to you ETA five mikes.”

The grizzled nep nodded his head. Before keying up his mike. "Understood Alpha 1-1 make your way on our location with the others well lock it down.”

Looking to the Charlie battalion he began belting out orders. As the hades corp troopers seemed to be retreating to regroup somewhere on the ship. “Lumine escorts the wounded back to the rear, anyone who you believe is savable, anyone you don't think can make it give them mercy.” he said, letting the order hang there for a bit. They were a good distance from the hanger they came from and couldn't risk getting routed from these things if they spread out too quickly. Looking around at the Doll soldiers and their dead. “Sharlett, get back to the firing line, we can't risk losing your fire support, on the double." Pointing to multiple members of the golden band. "Troops. Start stacking the dead and we're going to have to use them as makeshift sandbags."

The Senti scrap cruiser having docked in one of the hangers on the ship began making their way to assist the survivors. As the golden band forces distracted the enemy forces and consolidated their own the Senti would be able to make their way to pockets of the survivors and would keep Ty updated as things were being done.

A Senti child could be heard calling out for help. They sounded scared a few rooms away from Ian, “Someone help please, the door is stuck, I can't get out there's a bad man chasing me please!” threw a crack in the doorway the shape of a Senti child could be seen against the door. As forces began flowing in and bodies were stacked like cordwood. The Charlie battalion leader was looking around. “I want a shell and headcount. I need to know what we're working with.”

With how things were going for the golden band forces. A panicking bravo company trooper threw down his rifle. “Man fuck this I'm out of here. These things aren't normal. I didn't sign up to fight horror creatures." As the man turned to walk away he would get about 4 feet before collapsing from a bullet to the back of the head.

The smoking gun belonged to Charliee squad leader, Holstering his pistol. He looked around. “Anyone else attempting to leave their post? No? Then get back in line if we break the survivors of this ship are fucked and we may get out of this but we would be cowards. We’ve lost a lot today but I'd rather die than let women and children die if I can help it. We will hold the bloody line to the last man until they are extracted. Do I make myself clear?” he started earning hard stares and nods from the rest of their forces. They didn't have to wait long though as the sounds of boots in lock step were coming in all directions leading to their position. The young Neplessian golden band trooper passed Lilith his IFAK. trying to assist her with the shrapnel in her face. “Names Douge” he started passing her his canteen of water and a roll of bandages. “If you need assistance I can help you to the wounded location."

Down the hallway they came from due to the large size of the ship. Spooky the crazy pilot began maneuvering the shuttle in hover mode landing it in the open hallway. “Lets go, get the fuck off my bird you bunch of gaggle fucks,” he stated before calling over to Charlie battalion leader. “Get your wounded on board the shuttle craft. I'm marking this large hallway as a secondary LZ. I can't promise much but I'll fairly wound off this hunk of metal and provide air support in this peace. You call the targets I'll take them out.”

The Charlie platoon leader nodded, tossing his ComLink up to the balcony with Vedica, before talking to her on a secure line. “Captain, I need you to call in those strikes as you see fit to need them. I need to focus on keeping this shit show afloat down here.”

By this point, Ian was down to his 30 rounders. At least he learned that a well placed shot or two to the brainpan did them in, even if it took a moment for them to realize.

Breath. Shoot. A Doll drops. Repeat.


Eventually the onslaught began to peter out. He took up a sentry position while the battalion began to reorganize. He was in the process of lifting his helmet to dump out the ocean of sweat pooling inside when he heard a child’s voice. She was terrified. He slammed it back down in time to hear the Battalion Commander ask for a status update.

“Stoner here,” he reported, “Four full mags, and one mostly full. I spotted a survivor in a hall on our three, permission to take some guys and check it?” His feet strained to go charging out after the Senti girl, but he gritted his teeth and settled for using his helmet’s IR scanners to look for the “Bad man.”

Waiting on the occasional lull in enemy fire, Lumine darted out from cover only when the enemy was reloading. A lightly built synthetic doll of sorts herself, the gleaming chrome thing was a leaping glimmer- Her weapon was ineffective against this enemy, but there was an advantage in the fact they weren't equipped to fight her either.

Grunting aberrantly, a twisted creature turned to raise it's cumbersome rifle as she leapt back towards their new rally point- Her vibroblade lashed out like the spin of a marching conductor's baton, surgically severing it's wrists, and then it's neck with a follow up strike.

The grace was coincidental. Fighting such an enemy, she would have preferred to use a pyrophoric flame thrower of some variety.

"Affirmative Sir." Was her brisk response to the commanding officer over the comlink... Maybe it would have sounded more humane if they hesitated, over the concept of mercy killings?... NMX zombie parasites, or even the strange psychic contamination of the great Yamatai plague of YE 08, were just two of the ways that being sentimental could lead to problems, however.

Judgements were swift. Those with immobilisation, limb loss or shrapnel injuries were prioritized.

Her body was a bit small for physically carrying such oversized people back to their own reformed lines, especially where power armour was concerned. Had to resort to throwing one of their arms over her shoulder, and manually walking them back within the cover Sharlett's mecha physically provided. Could have done with an orderly for assistance.

Those too injured to realistically save in this situation were catalogued the entire time, and finished off on separate trips using their plasma pistol.

Potential survivors were not permitted to see this.

They'd shoot at her if she came to save them within the same trip.

That would not be an efficient situation.

Lilith hissed at Lumine, sadly it was all she could do at the moment, her voice had shut down with how she was feeling, the more animalistic side coming out as the other came to help and then a second person and she broke through her conditioning "I don't need help... I need to kill though things." She wasn't happy, prey didn't win and those things her her prey right now. She pushed past the young Neplessian and picked up her weapon firing it. She wouldn't let them win, she was in a perfect position and knew at the moment this was needed and through her hiss spoke to the guy "Douge.... if you want to help, cover me." She smiled as she sharp teeth were on show and with the scars, both fresh and old, she looked like a monster from a story, she jumped from the cover and fired at the closet enemy, thinking about if these were learning, doing the unexected, what they wouldn't have fought, might give her an edge.

Senti Ship

Ten out. Five down.

“Reloading, cover me!”

Pulling the magazine from her rifle, Priscilla slammed a fresh one into the receiver before letting loose a renewed salvo of precise high-caliber fire against the onslaught of Doll Soldiers, aiming for heads, necks, and upper chests as she did, in that order of priority. The sniper directed her fire in the area of the battalion’s mysterious medical gynoid, with the intention of covering her so that she could carry out her (presumably) work of pulling the wounded out from the fray without being assailed by the charging Doll Soldiers. Of course, Priscilla didn’t see the gynoid mercy killing those who were too wounded to save. Regardless, she maintained her stream of fire, not aiming to suppress, but to kill.

If none of the enemy feared death, then attempting to suppress them was worse than useless.

Vedica simply coded in morse code she got the message. She was busy trying to formulate some kind of battle plan. But the complete lack of a command structure and feces for brain Nepleslian men were not really helping it. It was hard for her to believe that the older generation of Reds had lost to these people. But then again the Old Guard had the same amount of feces instead of brains as she recalls her history lessons during her deep learning.

The one benefit of the design of her Yuuki helmet was that she didn't need to expose much of her head to use the Video Synthetic Apreture Radar that was within the horn of the helmet. She kept continual scans to develop a map of the battlefield, where the Hades were positioned as they fired on her position, and how their movement was changing. She fed the information to Sharlett since she was the only one really able to even recieve the uplink.

With the arrival of the shuttle pilot, she added the craft to her uplink for updated battlefield conditions. Both would see three flashing red spots. "These are the highest concentrations and the most threatening to our forces. Will update as I ID more." Vedica said as she entered the comm channel the pilot was using.

She then popped up long enough to make two double taps from her Bushi before dropping back down to avoid the return fire.

The shuttle flew through space, its occupants where two members of the beauties a unit within the Golden Band comprised of cyborg women.

"Someone dropped the ball." Grimm said her voice cool and flowed like water. The Cyborg woman manned the ships ECM suite but moved over to coms.

"No its just Hades corp, take the helm i'm going in through a alternate way. Enter through the hanger and link up with the remains of Alpha and Bravo." Hawke the red headed team leader said as she moved to the back of the shuttle and put her helmet on before opening the rear door to the vacuum of space. The redheaded cyborg activated her flight unit and flew towards the Senti ship. She pulled up the quickest route to Charlie and determined the best way to do that was a window on the side of the ship. She flew at it full speed and angled herself so her powerful legs would hit the glass and absorb the shock like they were designed.

The glass shattered and vented the rooms atmosphere to the vacuum of space and she crushed a hades corp doll's head as she hit it on the way in. She hovered in place fighting the escape of oxygen while the room sealed itself back up. Her SPAID popped up on her back to track targets behind her and she extended her forearm blades.

Grimm landed the shuttle hard in the hanger bay of the senti ship and disembarked the craft. She took a look around and made her way to the squad guarding it. "Report. Wheres Alpha and Bravo?" Her voice was cool and seemed to flow like water. The woman seemed to lurch slowly when she moved but she was in fact quite fast and she made almost no noise as she approached the soldiers.

Golden band lead transport ship

With the firefight in full swing, Ty sat by and listened to the coms flair up with panicked screams his mind flaring up with thoughts about all their deaths being his fault. Standing up from his chair. “Helmsman you have the bridge I'm heading down there.”

“Spooky I'm going down there be ready for lift off in ten.“

Senti ship Hanger bay

The remnants of alpha and bravo were busy trying to fight their way through the hades Corp forces in the hanger. Attempting to flank into Hydroponics. The heavily damaged mech of alpha team leader hammering away at the doll soldiers firing upon their forces. The cockpit of his mech long since cracked open its pilot, wounded but still ready to rock Red. “Sitrep is pinned down here in a hangar, all of Alpha has been wiped out leaving me the only survivor and bravo is facing heavy casualties but we're making 'em pay for every inch. A few slag rifle shots pinged off the back of his armor causing him to turn around and below another 10-20 rounds downrange at the dolls pushing into the hanger. “Any help ma’am would be useful.”

Senti Ship Hydroponics

With Charlie's battalion holding strong thanks to a mixture of Vedica and Pricilla’s overwatch capabilities and Lilith's close quarter fury. Hades Corp forces seemed to be thinning out from a horde of enemies to a more organized series of squads. Indicating the majority of dolls slain thus far were the hades Corp equivalent of conscripts.

However further up the hallway Due to overextending herself from the firing line. Sharlett’s mech suffered a mobility kill as the back legs hydraulics were ripped apart from volleys of slag rifles leaving her face down and pinned as hades Corp units moved in on her position.

As Lilith moved up Douge provided as much cover fire as he could given the situation before a round exploded near him thankfully due to it not being a direct hit he wasn't eviscerated. However the shrapnel ripped into his leg and arms as his flak took a majority of the blast. Knocking him out.

Fighting could be picked up by Vedica further into the ship as the Senti from the golden bands scrap cruiser fought to get the civilians out of harm's way.

Senti ship Hydroponics Crew quarters

The small squad of Golden band troopers that went with Ian spread out as they seeped and cleared rooms. As Ian activated his IR sensors a rather large being seemed to be in the room with the child. The being seemed to be a Senti based on size and shape. As one of the golden band troopers attempted to pry open the door the child was in. a fist busted through the wall grabbing the golden band soldier the arm looked like a cybernetically augmented Senti arm but the skin being more of a peach color. before forcing his body threw the small hole it punched into the wall. The child's voice could be heard again. As its tone changed gradually to the sound of a gravelly adult Senti voice. “Oops looks like the bad man cometh hahaha. Make peace with your gods as I’m coming for your necks.”

Its words cold and playful. Before it called over its coms. “Send the spiders to my location” as the person on the IR sensors walked away from the hole in the wall the door the to the room opened revealing the creature. A large senti cobbled together with cybernetics and some strange symbiote moving between at all his peach skin stained red with blood as he carried in one hand a combat knife and in the other multiple golden band dogtags. the burnt remains of the child falling into the room with ian and the other two golden band forces the creature that was once senti switched its voice again to that of a child. "Do you guys wanna play a game?"

"Sounds like these freaks are being engaged further up." Vedica said, speaking on the comm channel with the platoon leader. She then could see what was going to happen with Sharlett.

"Our Mech pilot has overextended. We are going to need to bound and overwatch the squads if you are in the rescuing mood. The real dolls are clustering up in what I guess is their organizations." she said as she popped up again to fire some suppressing shots. But they seem to be getting her number as she dropped as fast as she could to avoid the shots.

How she wished she had the money to buy a couple bubble blower grenades. She and the others could use them.

Primal panic and seething rage at the desiccated remains of the Senti child clawed at his professional calm, threatening to overwhelm it.This is like something from a bad horror movie. It was the first coherent thought the ex-Marine managed after watching one of his men, no boys, yanked through a small hole to be replaced by a warped Senti doll soldier.

He raised his rifle and fired a quick burst at the thing’s face. Arguably the second coherent thought.

A third thought began to form. We route, we die. “Stay calm. Fighting retreat. Riley, you back out first,” he said, preparing to leapfrog and hoping the kid wouldn’t just run. Chinning his mic, he opened the battalion frequency, “I think I found the boss, and he’s calling for backup.”

Grimm said nothing and simply vanished right in front of the soldiers eyes as she activated her optical camouflage systems and advanced towards the enemy. She activated her electronic warfare systems and would lay down a wide jamming field. Golden Band communications would be affected but not jammed unlike the hades corp stuff. Her terror tactics may not work on the dolls but she could easily carve through them with her scythe. Grimm raised her robotic arm and directed a EM Pulse into the dolls formation. This however would disrupt her optical camouflage but she didn't mind as she started to hack into the enemy with her scythe holoprojectors in her body made Grimm appear slightly out of place.

"Alpha, Bravo. Get ready to attack the enemy when they are disrupted." she raised her arm and fired another EM pulse at the hades line.

Hawke was a menace the halls where big enough to fly and ow enough she could just cut the dolls heads off with her wings and arm blades and could crush the enemy with her foot claws.

"Say again you found the boss?" Hawke said over her helmet mic. "What's your position, im headed there to provide heavy fire support."

Hawke hovered in position firing her thrusters to cook a doll she held with her foot claws.

Ian risked a glance over his shoulder, Riley wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Davis! Move,” he shouted at the other man. The young Nep stood frozen.

"Say again you found the boss?" A voice was saying over his comm. "What's your position? I'm headed there to provide heavy fire support."
No time to respond, the pink skinned monstrosity’s face twisted into a sickly grin as slowly approached singing a gleeful nursery rhyme in a child’s voice.

“Of all the…” Ian grunted, firing another burst at the warped Senti before yanking on Davis’s webbing to get him moving. He didn’t dare turn his back on the thing, but they needed to put some space between them and it. He turned breaking into a run, dragging Davis along after him. He caught sight of a door to his left and pushed Davis through moments before a pair of rocket accelerated rounds tore through the space he’d just vacated.

Covering the doorway with his rifle, Ian chinned his comm again, “Freaky, pink, Senti cyborg. Ping my suit transponder–”

Davis’s hoarse scream followed by the booming report or a GP-1 cut him off. Ian snapped his head around to see a spindly many legged creature fall from the ceiling.

Senti Ship

Don’t stop shooting.

Five more of the Doll Soldiers dropped dead from Priscilla’s salvo of high-caliber sniper fire, but she could already sense that the enemy were getting organized, to the point that their return fire had forced her and Vedica back into cover. Not to mention, Charlie Battalion’s most valuable asset—the light mech piloted by Sharlett Von Killian—had its legs taken out, causing the machine to slam into the ground with a heavy, dense thud.

As if that wasn’t enough, there was something else that based on the comms activity, Priscilla could only describe as a monster.

“Yeah, looks like they’ve expended their cannon fodder.” Priscilla answered in response to Vedica’s comm, before sending a transmission to the Nepleslian gun salesman. Of course, Priscilla didn't like him, but when it came to survival, it was an easy decision for her to put her dislike for him aside.

“If your squad can lure those…things out of crew quarters, I can get shots on them with my .50.” The sniper said. “Does it look like it has any weak points?” Priscilla said as she lined her crosshairs up with the position where she anticipated that one of the monsters might present themselves, based on auditory cues and the data from her helmet's sensor readout.