RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Training Mission 1.0] Welcome to Boot Camp. Again.

"Those pussycats have sharp claws, after all." Wulfe said to no one in particular as he grunted inside his box as it shook in response to what had happened in the simulation and threw his aim off balance, several red lights turned on, showing for some damage he had sustained during the simulation. The only thing that it told him was that he needed to change tactics. Soon.

He lowered his HPAR and prepared the rack of ARROWS on the left calf of his hostile as he activated the thrusters and bolted out of the tree he had been using as cover.

He landed on one of the small artificial clearings that had been created in the firefight, just in range to activate his missiles. He got a lock on and fired several of them, not realizing that soon half of his supply had been depleted, leaving him only the right calf of his PA. He watched the missiles take flight for a few seconds like a swarm of angry bees and then turned around.

Wulfe activated his thrusters again and bailed out of the clearing.

In response to Laura, Henry mumbled, "Well, they're one and the sa-"

Henry then wondered why his leg wasn't moving, and why the simulation had made his right leg movement so jerky and squishing it, "Huh? What the...?" It was then that he realised that, for some obscene reason, the Daisy had a forearm aether blade. He knew that a Daisy had no forearm blade - he'd disarmed one himself on the field and had files on them! This was a clear inconsistency with reality, and simulations were supposed to be reality, "OI!"

"I demand to see whoever designed this simulation afterwards! What next? Yamataians shit rainbows and bunnies?" He groaned, but he now had the benefit of having his legs free to fire his DARTS and BOLTS, in addition to having extra mobility. (Save for the skewered leg, but the thrusters were unharmed)

"I've had more realism playing NSS DeathWish!" He yelled as he bailed out with the others and fired his DARTS and BOLTS at the NMX Nekovalkyrja in retreat. He was mostly trying to get out of dodge and find somewhere to hide with the others, knowing that his shields and armour wouldn't last forever against an Aether onslaught.

Lisa held her AOP tight, but looking at the sky and seeing two tanks dodging fire to their best capabilities showed up, that they had not time to send targeting data. She frowned and turned around. Combat already brewed on between NMX/Yamatai or whatever they were. Lisa did not really care by now. They were shooting at her mates and she would not have any of it.

She raised her AOP and searched for a place where fire was coming from. Jungle or no jungle AOP did not care. She fully activated her mono-eyes and as soon as she got lock on she fired two red rockets.

"Eat fire kitties!" Lisa shouted and looked for more targets.

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Alexandra boosted behind closest tree. She saw that everyone started firing at the bushes and whatever targets they locked on. She personally never fought against Yamataians. Her specialty were Rippers as those were enemies she met most often. But she was trained well and spent a quite some time under Masterchief Fian Vel'Steyr. Yammies are not known for standing the line. As her current chief said, they rely on mobility and superior firepower. Last thing they were most known for were their battle tactics.

Alexandra did not start firing yet, she activated her mono-eyes though and started scanning. In jungle as thick as this, if she was yammie and wanted to get a jump on Cavaliers she would flank them. Moving around this jungle without being seen is not such a problem. She started scanning their surroundings and looking for anyone trying to flank them or get into their backs.

"Volkov, get your squad moving. Your armors have thrusters for a reason! Use them!"

"Everyone disperse! Find some cover!" shouted Phaedra. She boosted across the murky ground and ducked behind the nearest grouping of trees. She glanced at her sensors to locate the nearest group of hostiles.

Cautiously peering out from behind her cover, Phaedra aimed and fired at the first Daisy that she saw. She then boosted through the foliage towards the south. Spotting another Daisy, she slowed down to draw a bead on her target. This time, Phaedra fired a volley of ARROWS at her target to weaken its shields. As the missiles launched Phaedra aimed and fired a bolt of plasma from her PLR at the Daisy's head.

"Cavaliers! Stay mobile! Don't become easy targets!" she said, moving once again to into the cover of the trees.

Leon had been in the midst of ordering the Cavaliers about when he heard the question about what to do.

"I'm taking Rochester and his squad to attack the Ravager. We need to prevent a link up. If Phaedra Volkov and her troops can't finish off a squad of Nekos, they should be sent back to Boot Camp. Corporal Rui, these tardies are your command. If you're going to take them to join up with the Cavaliers or help me take down the Ravager, I don't care but they're your command."

When Kerr and his tanks finished their transport duty, Leon planned to send them back to get Motoyama's squad. "Where's that gunship support, Kerr?"

"They're on standby. They want to know what to attack." Leon turned his attention back to his HUD's display of the battle.

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"Screw this! Screw this, screw this!" Laura cursed as she watched her fire miss the Nekos. Again. She activated her thrusters and charged the trees where she had seen a Daisy disappear. As the large hulking Aggressor sped forwards, Laura activated her Push/Pull system and cranked its power up to blast away whatever was in front of her. To her delight, Laura watched the Daisy tumble and smack into a tree before righting itself. In an instant, she towered gleefully over the Neko and began pounding down onto it. The Yamataian armor, in turn, did its best to get out from under her and retaliate.

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Bernhard boosted around, firing ahead of the nimble Daisy units in the hopes that his shots would intercept them as they moved. So far, he couldn't tell.

But as he looked around, he could see the squad was having some success with its mini-arsenal. Two charred and pitted Daisy armors were lying motionless. One had its right arm twenty meters behind it in a crumpled mess. The other had a very large, very obvious smoking hole in its faceplate. Whose kills they were, he wasn't sure. Nor was he sure how many more Nekos there were.

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As Wulfe ducked and weaved, his shields took a hit from an aether beam that penetrated to blow off a chunk of his shoulder guard. No real damage beyond cosmetics.

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Lisa's two rockets exploded brilliantly, catapulting a Daisy into the air. For the brief seconds which she could see it, Lisa noted how odd the Daisy looked missing both of its legs.

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Alexandra's efforts paid off, revealing how there still seven Yamataian armors circling the Cavaliers. They seemed to be operating individually but with overlapping fields of fire to give the impression of working in concert and larger numbers than they actually possessed.

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The plasma lance seemed to hit its target but Phaedra was unable to confirm the kill as the Daisy fell backwards into thick undergrowth. Before she could check on it, another Daisy began firing plasma beams at her with its rifle. The rapid fire damaged her shields and started melting armor on her left shoulder before she took evasive maneuvers.

"Sergeant Volkov, gunships have been ordered to attack the Ravager and its units. Your squad is too intermingled with the enemy. Any attack run would result in friendly fire. Our ETA is two minutes. Rochester and I will take on the Ravager. Not sure what your Corporal Rui plans to do," Phaedra heard Leon say to her as a 50mm shell exploded in the mud in front of her.

Sawyer began boosting in a random pattern while all 4 of his plasma chainguns fired in a random search pattern hosing the jungle surrounding them with fire while deliberately avoiding hitting any of the allied armors searching for the enemies firing upon the squad.

Ran had basically been zoning out for most of the time in the tank, only really roused back to reality by Private Brandt's queries of what the plan was, as well as Chief Santiago's orders.

"Alright" Ran leaned forward "We've got gunship support to take care of that fuckin' Ravager, but it's not going to amount to anything if the flyboys are too afraid of shredding Sergeant Volkov's squad along with it."

"We're going to reinforce their squad. Our job is to hit those hostiles hard and fast and draw aggro so Volkov can regroup her squad and get the fuck out of there for the gunships to do their runs." At that, the Corporal brought up a list of what weapons Privates Rakowksi and Brandt outfitted their PAs with.

"I want all of us to clear the fucking tank and get guns up and firing ASAP. Rakowksi, you and I are going to saturate the general direction of the enemy with DARTs. That'll take their attention off of Volkov's squad, will more than likely confuse them, and soften them up for Brandt's ARROWs."

"Remember, we fire and move. I don't want anyone firing single shots or bursts; a disciplined and heavy volume of fire will win the day for us. That means I want our Chaingun Turrets, AMPs, HPARs, even our fuckin' dicks firing on full auto."

Ran hefted his AMP at that.

"Chief, let Volkov know what we're doing and get her people ready to spit out as much firepower as possible when we land."

"From what I can tell, Sergeant Volkov and her squad aren't in combat with the Ravager. They're about a kilometer away, plenty of space for the gunships to make their runs. I'm the one preventing them from hitting Volkov's squad. They're all zipping about down there now but the Ravager and its units are condensed together," Leon replied as he relayed the confirmation orders to drop the six gunships onto the Ravager and its escorts.

The ramp opened. As Ran looked out, it was twenty meters to the ground. "Out, out, out! Ravager's spotted us on radar!" Corporal Kerr yelled over their radios.

Stan listened to Leon and Ran's explanations with a growing sense of relief. He didn't expect to make a mistake, but the simpler a plan was the less there was to go wrong with it. At least, now that they had an idea of what they were doing there was going to be less confusion on the ground.

Once Rui had finished, Stan simply said, "Gotcha, sir."

He was fairly certain he could do this - after all, even the most braindead soldier could shoot willy-nilly. It wouldn't do to get cocky, though. He faintly remembered his father saying something to that effect, though he couldn't remember the specifics.

Any rememberance was cut short though as Leon called for them to leave behind the tank. Feeling rather vulnerable despite the slab-sided powered armour between him and the enemy, Stan didn't need to be told twice. Taking a brief moment to ensure he wouldn't endanger himself or anyone else, Stan let go and tried to ignore the abrupt feeling of vertigo.

He decided to cushion the landing by making brief use of the thrusters. A jarring landing would mean that he was more vulnerable, even if only for a few moments, and that would be unacceptable if the group were going straight into battle. Once he recovered, Stan immediately swept the area for targets using his Monoeyes and prepared to make use of his weapons.

"HA-HAAAA!" Lisa called out as she exploded on of the nekoes. She started to like this suit. It was a bit heavy and clunky, but the firepower was just something to love. She opened up in the jungle with her shoulder-mounted turrets and took a few seconds to check the situation. Situation she then described with one word. Shitstorm.

"Sarge sorry to bulge in, but we are getting too mixed with enemy. I can't use ma AOP and if I remember right enemy is nimble bastard. If we get too close they will use their agile armours to fuck us up." She commed as she switched back to AMP, found a target and opened fire. She made sure to keep distance from the enemy. Maybe Yammies had a lot of firepower, but in close combat she knew she would just not be able to keep up with enemy. At distance she had the advantage. A lot of firepower, but also a lot of shields and armour, while Yammies used more light-weight approach.

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Bloody hell, thought Alexandra for herself. For a second she freezed. Seven enemies trying to circle and get into the units back. That was bad.

"WOLF! I got seven enemies circling around us. I will try to slow them down, get some Aggy to handle them!" She reported and then rushed forward. She boosted right at the enemy Daisies trying to surprise them. HPAR in her right hand and vibro-knife in her left. First she opened fire with Arrows and Push/pull system before she went right into middle of them firing all she got.

Wulfe felt the impact from the aether beam inside his box, making his left shoulder jerk backwards and mess up with his direction with the thrusters by a fraction.

The tactic seemed to have worked, as the amount of punishment his Hostile had received had been far less than the previous. He decided he would stick with it until further orders.

And so he repeated the same thing, landing and firing at an enemy for a few seconds with his HPAR, and then jumping off again with the thrusters, never staying more than five seconds in a single place before taking off again, moving on a random pattern to prevent anyone tracking him to predict his next more.

"Sergeant Volkov, gunships have been ordered to attack the Ravager and its units. Your squad is too intermingled with the enemy. Any attack run would result in friendly fire. Our ETA is two minutes. Rochester and I will take on the Ravager. Not sure what your Corporal Rui plans to do," said the Chief.

"WOLF! I got seven enemies circling around us. I will try to slow them down, get some Aggy to handle them!" said Alex

"Shit..." thought Phaedra, turning towards Alex's location.

"Cavaliers, Nekos at our rear! Everyone by twos! Make your way to my location and focus your fire! Take them out!" shouted Phaedra, coming up alongside Alex and taking aim at one of the Daisies that appeared in front of her. Phaedra fired a salvo of missiles at the target before firing her PLR at the Neko's chest.

Lisa's deadly stream of plasma and high explosives was tearing down jungle faster than industrial deforestation, resulting in less and less cover for the Yamataian suits. One Daisy staggered backwards, trying to use its forearm shield to stop Lisa's plasma from burning right through the suit.

It was only saved when one of its comrades leapt at Lisa, crashed into her, sending both sprawling and then with the nimble fluidity of a cat, leapt back into the treeline. As Lisa looked for her original target, it too had fallen back farther into the trees.

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From the cloud of Alexandra's impact, a Daisy shot skywards before zipping down towards her, firing with both forearm weapons. As aether splayed across her shields, Alex sent high-velocity HPAR rounds into the Daisy. She even saw the shields collapse and moneyshots penetrate the Daisy's chestplate. Alex tried to swipe at the Yammie armor but was a fraction too late. Still, she was rewarded by the sight of the Daisy crumple to the ground upon landing. It still moved, trying to crawl on all fours.

The only damage Alex had taken was a drop in her shields to 30%.

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Wulfe's bursts weren't doing much damage to the enemy but his movements were also preventing him taking damage.

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The plasma lance penetrated right through the moving Neko's faceplate and it came to an awkward, tumbling halt before being battered by the mini-missiles.

- ‘Roger that corporal.’

Zyv confirmed the orders he received even as the K4’s ramp began to lower. Even before the first “Out!” was shouted Zyv left the vehicle, using the thrusters sparingly to break the fall without slowing him down to much.

The result was a landing that rattled his teeth despite the proper stance. Without pausing he “bounced”, a small boost from the thrusters on landing moving him away from his landing out of any possible fire and others exiting the transport, the HPAR went up even as he landed ready to fire.

His eyes moved from the visual data to the IFF, shooting a combination of DARTs and “coins” at enemy positions. Despite Ran's demand for full auto the marine fired in a manner to minimize the chance of friendly fire.

Bernhard watched as Sawyer's random plasma set more and more trees alight. "Hey, Aubrey! Focus fire, not spray like a maniac!" he said. The man wasn't accomplishing anything besides making them more visible to the Ravager.

"Bernie, shut up and help me take down that stupid cat!" Laura chastised him in return. She had highlighted a Daisy skirting around them.

Laura was leading it with her AMP and plasma chainguns, forcing the Daisy to keep changing direction so that Bernhard could close. He pulled out his AS4GS and began firing plasma spread shells in the Daisy's general direction. In turn, he took aether fire which dropped his shields to 25% and burns along his armor.

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Overhead, six Corona gunships flew by firing everything they had. The noise and explosions could be heard by the Cavaliers as the Coronas made their attack runs. Phaedra looked up for a moment to watch and saw one gunship immediately explode as it was laced with aether fire from the ground.

"Our turn to take on the Ravager. Looks like we just pissed it off," Leon said to Phaedra over the radio.

"With respect, sir. I wasn't talking about the Ravager. I was talking about whatever fuckin' assholes are pinning Volkov dow-"

Corporal Kerr said:

"Out, out, out! Ravager's spotted us on radar!"

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Ran hated being interrupted.

"FUCK YOU, you glorified pussy-ass chauffer! Howabout you get out of this simulation, find your dick where you left it in some rotten-ass Caretaker, and go fuck yourself!" Ran had accidentally screamed at the K4 driver over the platoon-wide comms, letting everyone witness his prowess at cursing.

At that, Ran followed Zyv and Stan down into the battlefield, boosting quite a bit before landing comparatively hard, accidentally biting his tongue in the process. "Bullshit-ass...what kind of armor lets us off and runs off crying? Aren't tanks supposed to take on big shit like Ravagers?" Ran bitched and moaned, while sucking the blood from his tongue.

"Get your locks and hose these motherfuckers. Don't spray and pray, but if you find someone, you keep firing until they can't get back up." At that, Ran activated his mono-eyes and scanned the surroundings, bringing his AMP up to bear.

"Sergeant Volkov, I've got two new shooters ready. Where do you need us?" Ran asked, opening a comm with Volkov.

Leon exited Corporal Kerr's tank and landed with a loud squelch in the mud. Lovely place, he thought, what should I blow up first? "Corporal Kerr, take three tanks and pick up Corporal Motoyama's squad. We can't leave our new UOC colleagues to walk on foot."

Kerr acknowledged as Leon watched three tanks speed away for the pick up. He also saw one explode in the distance. Lancer Three. "All units, be advised, Lancer Three is gone. Fire support has been reduced."

After that initial run, the Coronas had pulled out. In doing so, another gunship caught enemy ground fire and exploded. "Bloody useless gun run," Leon commented aloud bitterly.

"They did take out a couple Rippers, Chief," Rochester added from his position, "Be with you in a minute."

As Alex landed again she boosted next to crawling Neko, aiming her rifle on the helmet. She fired two second burst and proceeded to pick up dead neko. She did what Henry did before, using the neko as a shield with one hand, hugging her against herself. She turned to another contact and started firing her rifle.

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Lisa grinded her teeth as she was kicked by enemy suits. Daisy got too damn close and then jumped away into the trees again. Bloody trees. Lisa has enough of this. It was hard to shoot at enemy she could not see.

"Fuck this," Lisa said and took her AOP back. It was time to deal with that stupid foliage and red shells were more then enough. Firing along the enemy line, Lisa sent four rockets at the enemy, supporting it with 15 bolt missiles from each rack and plasma fire from her turrets.

"Get your locks and hose these motherfuckers. Don't spray and pray, but if you find someone, you keep firing until they can't get back up."

Click to expand...

"Right, sir," replied Stan, continuing to monitor the feedback from his mono-eyes while keeping a firm grip on his own AMP. He kept a faintly nervous eye on the vehicles that exploded, but his main concern was with the dangers in front of him for now.

Instead of a reply from Phaedra, a damaged Daisy burst from cover and fired its plasma rifle and mini-missiles right at Ran. The wild plasma bolts missed the grizzled Corporal but the mini-missiles exploded against his shields. Several managed to damage his armor, causing a slight degradation in his video quality.

The Daisy blasted away, trying to escape from the Nepleslian guns before they could be turned on it. But with so much of the forest now destroyed by the Cavaliers, it had farther to run and a short window of time for Ran and his two subordinates to target the Diasy.