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

"Damn it. Not this again." Wulfe complained as the beams were deflected by his shield. He looked back at Stan's Aggressor, figuring out that the heavier weapons would be put to better useagainst the Ravager than the enemies that were assailing them. "Go help the others with the Ravager while I deal with these." He told Stan, turning his monoeye towards towards the man's aggressor and activating his thrusters to close in on the enemy afterwards.

Wulfe locked in on the first Neko after he landed, firing a couple of ARROWs that were left on the compartment located on his Hostile's right calf, as the ones on the left were already expended. He fired the volley, then jumped closer to the trio again, this time switching his aim to another one and firing his HPAR.

Henry was beginning to wonder whether or not his performance to keep fighting or to run and live another day. Well. It wouldn't exactly matter, but Henry's gut was telling him to stay and fight. It was the honourable thing to do, his HPAR still had ammo, and he had some Minimissiles that still needed to be fired at the Ravager.

Henry wasn't sure as to whether or not the Ravager turned around because he ambushed it from behind earlier, or because of the retaliation from the Tanks, courtesy of Rochester, Kerr and Holmes. There were still Rippers and NMX Nekovalkyrja in Mindies and Daisies to his knowledge, and on the HUD. However, the Ravager was a bigger threat - it had more guns, and it required more guns to put down.

"Yes ma'am!" Henry was enthusiastic to reply as he raised his HPAR, stood beside Phaedra, firing at the Ravager to finish what he and the marines had started. He was going to hang onto his minimissiles though. He was going to save those for the resistance from the surviving Nekovalkyrja.

‘This is bad.’

That was the thought going through Zyv’s head when he found the sky and earth change positions. The simulator doing a good job to inform him of a hard landing, the marine almost felt his teeth rattle. Vision restored he stood up, looked through his suits status and swore in a rather vulgar manner.

Shooting a few bursts towards the Neko responsible for his situation Rakowski put some distance between his shield-less suit and the enemy, till the order came to engage the Ravager.

With a “Roger that” he stopped, aimed and added his DARTS and BOLTS to the fire aimed at the warmachine.

Alexandra did not wait too long. Her shields took quite a beating and even her armour was in bad shape too. She started moving fast firing her HPAR at the raveger and firingy all the ARROW missiles she could at the time. She fired them in fire and forget mode.

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Lisa gritted her teeth it was looking bed. They started taking casualties already and that was bad. She hated this and it was time to put that bitch down.

"Firing shitload of BOLTs in five seconds!" she reported. "except interference with missile targeting! Use non-guided missiles!" She then aimed her BOLTs at backs of the Raveger. That meant almost no point-defence on his side. It won't go anywhere now. She turned of targeting of her missiles and just let it fly straight at the enemy so their targeting won't be messed up by anyone else.

She then fired sixty missiles from each launcher over next three seconds, not letting up her plasma fire from turrets and AMP.

"AWWW, fuckin' tits!" Ran screamed, putting away his AMP and attempting to pull out his AOP while trying to avoid enemy fire. Seeing that the general consensus was to take out the Ravager and concentrate on the enemy Nekos later, Ran immediately opened up on the Ravager, targeting one of its forearm shields with all of his Plasma Chaingun Turrets, and firing rounds from his AOP at the large mech's knees, intending to cripple it.

Leon thought his simulator had fried for a moment when the screen suddenly went white. Then he thought he was going to crushed when the simulator shuddered violently. The only thing assuring him that the machine was still functioning were the outcries of multiple Marines similarly blinded and disoriented by the suddenness of what turned out to be a massive explosion.

It really didn't matter who or what else had fired afterwards. No one could see the results from the blinding light. Only the watching technicians in the simulator room could see the damage statistics, if not the actual picture of a Ravager being torn apart by concentrated high explosives.

As the Marines' sight began to return, Leon and Rochester could see the broken up Ravager had toppled onto its side. Gaping, smoking holes were gutted throughout the mecha. But, despite the damage done to the NMX armor, both were horrified to watch the last seconds of flight of a couple RED shells, which landed and exploded amongst the dazed simulation Nekos just meters away from them, splattering Leon with simulated blood.

In front of the Cavaliers, there were multiple dead Nekos lying on the ground as well as numerous others completely stunned and dazed by the armageddon that had just been visited upon them. "Marines, I want prisoners now!" Leon ordered, blinking the brightness away.

"You heard the Chief! Detain any surviving Nekos!" said Phaedra, advancing with her LSP raised and the motor of her VCBS growling.

A hand instinctively shot up to shield his eyes from the light and for a second there was neither sound nor anything to see, the philosopher in Zyv wondered whether death was something similar. That was al the time he got to waste as the order came to take prisoners.

- ‘Roger that.’

Zyv confirmed he received the order and made his way to the mess of simulated body parts and writhing forms. He wasn’t sure whether it was proof of the simulator providing information for all the senses or whether it was his own mind filling in the gaps with information it knew should be present but the marine smelt burnt bacon.
HPAR trained on the neko’s he gingerly made his way among them, wary of any suicide bombings with the satchel charges that destroyed his shields and could have “killed” him.

The first neko he checked slid from his grasp, leaving him burnt skin and muscle in the hand as the rest of the corpse hit the ground. He didn’t bother to check the second for anything but a hand on a detonator, barely alive now the intestines spreading across the ground meant the neko would be dead shortly anyway. The third he came across had just stood up on shaky legs and was looking around as if confused when he hit it in the back, sending the neko to the mud again.

In short, sharp movements the man removed any weapons he saw before hoisting the neko to its knees and addressed it via speaker.

- ‘Stay on your knees, hands behind your head. Do anything stupid and I shoot you.’

Did nekos understand a normal language? Did the NMX? Rakowski doubted that but he assumed certain things were interplanetary; being disarmed by a representive of your enemies’ armed forces that was pointing a gun at you and not blowing your brains out for example. The simulator would accept that, wouldn’t it?

Faced with the prospect of guarding POWs and trying to keep an eye open for neko’s playing dead ready to shoot a marine in the back he decided to radio in.

- ‘Rakowski here. Anybody feel like giving me a hand? I’d rather not look for live ones and guard those already disarmed at the same time.’

Stan's first thought when confronted with the new combatants was to turn his weapons against them, but Wulfe's message put paid to that plan. Uttering a confirmation, Stan continued his barrage against the Ravager.

This soon turned out to be rather redundant as there was a brilliant flash - at first, Stan thought he had 'died' in the simulation, and was about to wait for confirmation of the fact when the light faded. He whistled quietly at the resulting destruction.

Hearing the latest set of orders, he said, "Understood."

Like Zyv he began to work his way through the area, looking for any nekos that were still armed and reacting as appropriate if they were. He felt rather tense - even though the battle was nominally over, he couldn't allow himself to relax too easily. His comrade's request was met with the response, "Brandt here. Don't worry, I'm on it."

- ‘Cheers Brandt.’

Zyv greeted the other marine. Double-checking the speaker was off (no need for the neko to hear) he presented his idea to the ID-SOL.

- ‘You watch the disarmed Neko’s and look menacing, hopefully that will be enough to convince them to stay put. I’ll be out there looking for any live ones to add to the herd.’

Zyv had emphasized the point by jerking a thumb at the casualties lying around and had already starting moving to do as he said when the marine stopped.

- ‘You good with that plan?’

Rakowski asked. After all even if the two were equal rank Brandt had been in the 4th Fleet longer than he had. Brandt had not struck Zyv as the type to care much about that kind of seniority but there was no point in risking it.

Just as the simulated Nekos began to surrender, the simulation ended and the machines opened up to let bright light blind the Marines. Slowly they began worming their way out and realizing how sweaty some of them were. Laura, Bernhard and the other "casualties" lined up as they waited for their squads to assemble.

"Crushed by a falling tank," one of them groused. "Not as bad being stomped on by the Ravager," Bernhard commented. "True," the first Marine said, "But we seriously need to improve our coordination. Firing EMPs right when you give a warning doesn't give the tank jockeys much time to clear out." A number of Marines nodded vigorously.

Chief Santiago joined the group of "dead" Marines. "Well done, ladies and gents. Especially you, Holmes. Rather merciless with your Yamataian Daisy impersonations," he said to them with a grin. "Come on, let's go pull out the survivors."

Just a few moments before the simulation ended Wulfe had started to engage the three contacts when he was interrupted by a bright white flash moments before, making the marine blink frenetically to adjust his vision back to normal, half expecting for his simulated death to come, but only to find himself along with the other survivors taking virtual prisoners.

The whole thing ended so abruptly for him that for a moment Wulfe thought that his 'box' might have been malfunctioning, but then simply put two plus two together to realize that the thing was actually over. For someone that never took make-believe or hypothetical situations like in a simulation or training exercises too seriously, he had to admit that the simulation itself felt pretty real, and on several moments he had found himself more than scared at the whole thing.

He sighed, let his muscles relax and enjoyed a short break before actually making any effort about getting out of his simulator.

Lisa vision blackened as simulation ended. When the maching opened, she blink few times and climbed out. She stretched as her body was still stiff. Sigh left her lips too. Lisa knew she messed up real bad with the EMP. She walked to other marines waiting there and looked rather gloomy.

"Damn I fucked up," she said for herself as she leaned against the wall. She felt like lighting a cigarette, but chief would probably shout at her for that.

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Alex climbed out of the machine with mixed feelings. She was still not sure if this mission could be called success or not. Orange skinned woman joined other marines.

"So... were those Nekoes NMX or Yammies? They seemed pretty skilled so I expect them to be Yammies." She said to others as she joined them in waiting.

"Fine by me," said Stan as he set about doing just as he had been asked. However, it was all for naught as the simulation ended. Wincing and shielding his eyes with an arm, Stan clambered out of the simulator and observed the others while he waited patiently for everyone to finish exiting the sim. He felt a slight twinge of pride at having managed to avoid "dying". It was a relatively minor achievement, but he figured it at least counted for something.

He didn't expect real operations to be as easy as the training mission, but you had to start somewhere, and this sort of thing would hopefully build his confidence.

"Right, let's start in order of seniority. Rochester, you needed to get a better handle on your squad right after that tank came down. I'm just as to blame for not giving orders to organize your squad. So we both need to keep that in mind. Otherwise, not much else since we got into the fight late." Leon had pulled out a notepad and reading off it. How he had found a way to jot down notes in the simulator was anyone's guess.

"Phaedra, oh where shall I begin? I can see why your unit got in trouble for excessive anti-matter. Well, good job attempting to make diplomatic contact with Holmes and his pretend-Yammies," Leon jabbed a finger at the nonchalant corporal and his grinning squad. "A pity that Holmes decided to play the evil, supremacist, do-things-our-way-or-else Neko rather than the happy to work together kind," Leon chuckled and was joined by the other Marines. To most of them, the YSE was still that overbearing empire which refused to consider anyone else truly equal and Nekos were just tools, not even human.

"Can't fault the effort. But, you and your squad need to make more use of thrusters. Even if you're not going full speed, they're still faster than slogging through mud on foot. Good idea splitting the squad into two sections. However, Morris, you need to be a little more proactive in leadership. Good ideas with the probes. Effective attack on the Ravager but if you were going to attempt that, you should have gotten your section to provide support. Also, Phaedra, I do suggest you take a second weapon, not just a sniper rifle. As you saw, if your primary gets damaged, neither the LPA nor the peashooter is useful against anything your size or bigger."

Leon continued to go through each squad leader's faults and complimenting them on the things they did well.

"So far, so good. I know that simulation was not the most realistic but the point was to get you guys in a sim, working together and see how you react. We've got some work to do but that's to be expected, and things could be worse. At least you all know which end of the gun points towards the enemy!" Leon said at the end.

"Questions, comments, concerns?"

In the process of disarming another neko Zyv looked somewhat unintelligent as his vision turned to white before being replaced with black and than white again as the simulation box opened.

Shifting his neck till he heard a crack the marine got out of the simulators confines and repeated the process for his back and arms. Initially annoyed with himself for the damp patches under his arms he cheered up slightly at the sight of others with similar marks. Joining the growing group of marines he was in time to overhear a question concerning the heritage (or should that be pedigree?) of their simulated enemies.

ShotJon said:

"So... were those Nekoes NMX or Yammies? They seemed pretty skilled so I expect them to be Yammies."

Click to expand...

- ‘Bear in mind they were serving alongside typical NMX gear, so probably NMX. Not that it really matters, we’re fighting NMX now and in a year or ten we might be fighting the Yammies.’

The man shrugged at that before offering a slight smile.

- ‘I’m Zyv Rakowski by the way. As of today assigned to the 4th fleet and the Cavaliers for what will hopefully be a fruitful tour.’

Ever since the marine had learned he was being reassigned he mulled over how best to do so and opted for the direct approach in the hopes that in that way he’d quickly become a face with a name to the squad.

…………………..

Rakowski assumed an “at ease” stance when the chief began his assessment, thankfully going at the NCO’s for the moment.
The marine himself had no questions but he took an interest in what his new squad mates would do. For the foreseeable future he would be working with them and it was never too early to get some sort of idea what sort of people he was dealing with.

Henry's self assessment of his performance on the simulation once he felt fresh air was fairly succinct: "Probably won't be repeating that stunt with the Ravager in reality, co-ordinate my attacks with others better for maximum effect, and I should shoot the Nekovalkyrja shields before taking them."

Leon, as callous as he did come off at times previous, was correct in his assessment. Henry was a good thinker, but not a leader. It could've been a problem in co-ordination, or his spur-of-the-moment retaliation against the Ravager, or some of his shyness in being able to communicate his plans and the possibility of being met with resistance.

However, he knew that there was someone who everybody in the squad would gladly follow, regardless of circumstances: "Phaedra, have you got a few minutes after this? Leon's got a point, and I think we need to co-ordinate."

Phaedra stood at ease while the Chief debriefed them. As usual, she accepted Leon's criticism without complaint; he was more experienced at leading his fellow Marines than she was.

Phaedra had to admit that her pride was wounded a little bit everytime Leon had to correct her. But this was not about her; this was about her Marines and getting them to be the best that they could be. This was necessary, and she would do whatever it took to learn the ropes of leadership.

"Questions, comments, concerns?" asked Leon.

"None at this time, sir," replied Phaedra. But she did have several concerns; concerns that would be addressed in private, not in front of the rest of the squad.

"Phaedra, have you got a few minutes after this? Leon's got a point, and I think we need to co-ordinate."

Phaedra nodded in reply. She would wait until they were dismissed before talking to Henry.

"None at all, sir," replied Stan. It seemed that he and the others had worked well together in the simulation, although clearly they had a way to go before they were at peak efficiency. Still, if they built upon their success he didn't see why they couldn't achieve their full potential.

Of course, there was every possibility the opposite could happen, but Stan chose not to dwell on it. Onwards and upwards and all that.

"Dismissed for the rest of the day. Kerr, Motoyama, a quick word," Leon said first to the assembled Marines and then to the young tank jockey.

The trio of Marines moved aside and, at first, Kerr looked like he was in trouble though not quite sure of what and Motoyama looked curious, more than anything. As the conversation continued, Kerr looked less mollified and more terrified while Motoyama's face grew much graver.

At the same time, Laura Romero bounded up to the squad, followed by Bernhard, and asked, "Showers then who's up for Neppies?"