The Exusian fleet hung in the void, a massive collection of scarred metal behemoths drifting through space. Years of war had taken its toll on the fleet; nearly every vessel was marred in some way or another. At the head of the fleet, dwarfing every other vessel, was the dreadnought Fate. 10 kilometers long, it had taken nearly 10 years to construct in the shipyards in orbit over Olympus. Too large to land on a planet, Fate would be spending its entire existence in space. In theory, Fate possessed enough firepower to wipe out a small planet, though that remained a point of contention throughout the upper ranks of the Exusian military.
"So let me get this straight, Ares: You've assembled everything we have that has guns on it and instead of sending us straight to Aurora Prime we're going to be engaging them in the Borderlands? Seems like an unnecessary step."
"You're not going to Aurora Prime, Admiral. The Aurorans have a very hard time working together unless something cataclysmic happens. What do you think an orbital bombardment of their homeworld would do? Yeah, it might end the war or it might cause Herran and Mokash to decide that they hate us more than each other. The Aurorans are working together now but their cooperation is strained, most of the colonies we've taken are seen as losses to the individual Houses that controlled them, not to their Empire as a whole. If we bombarded their homeworld and they didn't give up we'd be throwing away a lot of our fleet for nothing, and they would come back at us with a vengeance that would make the gods take notice. They have more ships than us, in case you've forgotten."
"So we throw ourselves away in the Borderlands instead? Why are we inviting them to a pitched battle halfway between their space and our space?"
"Because I said YOU were not going to Aurora Prime, not that we weren't. You're going to draw them into a battle on the edge of the Borderlands, hopefully making them think they caught the fleet in transit to a real objective. We're going to need a few days of distraction, minimum."
"We're INVADING Aurora Prime?!"
"Like I said before, Admiral, you're not."
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Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away drifted a fleet of a different kind. Nearly every dropship, carrier, and transport Exusia had left was quietly edging its way towards Auroran space, taking a sweeping approach southward to come up on Aurora Prime from behind, hopefully avoiding the Auroran fleet in the process. Once the Exusian battle fleet had engaged the Aurorans, this considerably less impressive looking force would make a hard burn for Aurora Prime and drop everything the Exusians could spare straight on the planet. It was a bold gamble.
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The player characters are currently all on the Dromedary, a relatively new dropship housing several Gunslingers and upper-tier combat units (as opposed to the ships carrying more conventional infantry). You're about 3 days out from combat and other than Achilles and the other Gunslingers none of you know exactly what you're about to hit.
Weston stands in the barracks, lighting the cigarette that hangs from the corner of his mouth with his lighter. He takes a long drag from the cigarette, using his finger to flip the top closed on the lighter before stowing it in his front right pocket. A long trail of smoke exits the opposite corner of his mouth, and he scans the rooms with his eyes, looking at the assorted crew. He notes the Gunslingers present, and looks down at his own plained uniform, and build, muttering to himself, "It's either a good sign they're here, or we're about to get fucked.". Continuing to take periodic drags from the cigarette Weston walks across the barracks, and approaches Achilles, saying as he draws the cigarette from his mouth and into his hands, "Should I be worried that they sent you with us? Doesn't necessarily bode well for this assignment if they think we'll need you guys.".
Achilles looks Weston over and shrugs "I don't think you have anything to worry about sergeant." He then takes a sip of his cup of tea before saying "Yeah, I think you'll be fine."
Quote from: Tom on 02-09-2013
Achilles looks Weston over and shrugs "I don't think you have anything to worry about sergeant." He then takes a sip of his cup of tea before saying "Yeah, I think you'll be fine."
Weston wrinkles his mouth at the response, "Forgive me if I don't take your word on this one, I mean sure we've got the element of surprise, but we're also leading the van.". He looks around after finishing the sentence, "I mean hell, most of these guys are specialists from various units, this isn't some standard assault.", and brings his gaze back to Achilles, folding his arms irritably.
'Janus' is seen hunched over, writing in a small, leather bound, black book the size of a playing card. Every few pages he flipped, he would mutter quietly to himself in a very foreign tongue.
"Should I be worried that they sent you with us? Doesn't necessarily bode well for this assignment if they think we'll need you guys."
"I don't think you have anything to worry about sergeant." He then takes a sip of his cup of tea before saying "Yeah, I think you'll be fine."
Weston wrinkles his mouth at the response, "Forgive me if I don't take your word on this one, I mean sure we've got the element of surprise, but we're also leading the van.". He looks around after finishing the sentence, "I mean hell, most of these guys are specialists from various units, this isn't some standard assault.", and brings his gaze back to Achilles, folding his arms irritably.
'Janus' closes his book and tucks it inside his duster. He get's up and walks a few steps towards the worried sergeant.
"Why art thou fearing the unknown, Sergeant?" He says in a just audible,but calming voice.
.// sorry if my old English is rusty (basically Janus said Why are you fearing the unknown)
.// annnnnd did some clean up.
Weston raises the brow above his right eye as he turns to address the newcomer, "It's not the unknown I'm afraid of, it's the Auroran's that we're going to fight that worry me.". He adjusts his uniform, and taps the patch on his shoulder, "Plus, I'm starting to feel a little under-qualified for this op.".
Conveniently leaning on a wall near the conversation, Alexey smirks. He says in an obvious Auroran accent: "I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to be some super tactical surgery strike task force. If we would be a vanguard cannon fodder against Aurorans then there wouldn't be even a single Gunslinger here."
Achilles chuckles at the Sergeant, "If you're here that means you're one of the best, otherwise you would've been stuck on one of the other ships that have more standard type troops. Like I said Sergeant, you have nothing to be concerned about." He then turns his attention to the obvious Auroran and gives him a funny look "When did we start hiring Aurorans to fight?"
Alexey chuckles. "Since the clash of Emperors. Many kinds of people end up in mercenary platoons." He walks over to his bed and starts to look for something in his backpack.
"It's not the unknown I'm afraid of, it's the Auroran's that we're going to fight that worry me.". He adjusts his uniform, and taps the patch on his shoulder, "Plus, I'm starting to feel a little under-qualified for this op."
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" Thou should be filled with pride, not fear. Thou has been selected among all of the Empire to fight along side with us, not cower in the corner, but to stand tall among thy fellow man. Now prove thyself, Sergeant. Prove that thou has what it takes to be among us." 'Janus' finishes preaching his gospel with a smile on his face.
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"I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to be some super tactical surgery strike task force. If we would be a vanguard cannon fodder against Aurorans then there wouldn't be even a single Gunslinger here."
"If you're here that means you're one of the best, otherwise you would've been stuck on one of the other ships that have more standard type troops. Like I said Sergeant, you have nothing to be concerned about." He then turns his attention to the obvious Auroran and gives him a funny look "When did we start hiring Aurorans to fight?"
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'Janus' throws a scowl at 'Achillies', displeased with 'Achillies' statement. He decides he has had enough and might as well continue to rest. He spins around and begins to make his leave.
Weston gives a passive shrug of the shoulders as he says, "Well, not like we have much of a choice anyway.". He pulls out another cigarette from the pack, tapping it on his wrist nervously before sliding it into the corner of his mouth. The silver lighter in his pocket gleams as the light strikes it. With a few flicks of his thumb the lighter ignites, and the flame quickly moves to the butt of his cigarette, catching after a moment of trepidation. Weston glances around as he takes a long drag, slipping both the lighter, and pack of cigarettes into his pockets in a single fluid motion. Smoke wisps from the opposite corner of his mouth after a moment, and he runs a hand through his hair. He catches the cigarette between his fingers, and holds it in front of himself as he says, "Plus, a little nervousness can help keep you alive..".
The ship's loudspeaker hisses to life. A female voice speaks.
"We've just left Exusian space. If you are at all curious as to where we are going and what we are going to do when we get there, head to the cargo bay in 15 minutes. If you aren't curious, I'm sure you'll hear of it all the same. This is a big one, that's all I'll say over the speak. Eris out."
Achilles and Janus would know the name Eris as belonging to a Gunslinger with a penchant for blowing things up and using a battle rifle instead of the usual bolt/pump guns most of the rest of the group use. She's more experienced than either of them and is especially famous for blowing up an Auroran destroyer using nothing but a single satchel charge, a wrench, and a pickle. Unlike many Gunslingers who tend to be aloof or cold, Eris is known for being playful and friendly.
Weston and Alexey may have heard of her by reputation but probably have never actually met her.
Achilles starts to respond to Weston saying "Yeah bu-" when the loud speaker interrupts him mid sentence, he listens and when he realizes who it is he cracks a grin and abruptly leaves the Sergeant without even finishing his sentence, seeming anxious and weirdly excited to get to the cargo bay first before anyone else does.
Weston glances to the loudspeaker as it crackles to life, and breathes out a sigh, "Oh boy, if that's actually who I think it is then we are in for something big.". He pulls the cigarette out, and steps on it with his heel, grinding it against the floor. Moving towards the cargo bay he spots Achilles trying to lead the pack, but neglects to catch up, resigning to meander back with the other grunts.
Cerberus was already in the cargo bay at the time of the announcement, the screech of the speaker warming up rousing him from his nap. After coming to the realization that more people were on their way, and a nap would now be almost impossible, he decided he would fully wake up and at least pay attention to the upcoming circumstances they were heading towards.
He grabbed the pole he had been hanging upside-down from and flipped over, landing down upon the 5th story walkway of the hold. After briefly shaking his head to re-orientate himself, he became fully awake, and took a menacing balisong out from his pocket, beginning deftly maneuver it into an infinite and flawless dance around his hand. As he did so, a tune found its way into his head, and consequently began being whistled as he strolled down the walkways to the main deck of the hold for the debriefing.
Alexey takes out a pack of chocolate (yeah, chocolate) then puts it away in a pocket and catches up to Weston. "You got any idea who's that on the microphone? I didn't care about Gunslingers until now."
Virgil begins meticulously packing his medical kit before following the others. These men are not unlike those back in Vega. Blood is on the road ahead. Make sure to bring plenty of bandages, Virgil. He quietly follows closely behind Alexey before saying in a hushed tone, "Gunslingers are dangerous. That's all you need to know."
'Janus' stops dead in his tracks listening to the speakers. 'Janus' cracks a smile after identifying the gunslinger as one of his comrade as well as friend. He begins to walk at a brisk pace, catching up to 'Achilles'.
"Is it who I think it is?" asks 'Janus'.
Weston strides into the cargo bay hands clasped behind his head, helmet tipped forward to allow his hands to strain through his thick brown hair. He comes to a stop in the body of the gathering crowd, resting in the middle of the mob. Folding his arms in front of him he looks for the Gunslinger who spoke over the loudspeaker expecting to see her in a form matching the folklore, and tales, perhaps with C4 signifying her explosive entrance or an extravagant fireworks show. The thought brings a smile to his mouth, the corners of his mouth peaking as he breathes out a faint laugh.
Achilles stands in the front of the crowd gathering in the cargo bay, he stands there trying to figure out how the pickle came into play when she destroyed that ship. He also reminisces about some of the past missions they had carried out, especially about the one where they sneaked onto an Auroran cruiser and to destroy a spy ship that had been intercepted by the Aurorans and captured and how they blew up a good portion of the cruiser while sending it straight into Myrgrad. He mumbles that was a wild mission.
"Hail, Gunslinger" Eris greeted Achilles with a smile and a fistbump as he passed through the cargo doors ahead of everyone else. Eris was a short, rail-thin woman of about 25-30. She kept her hair very short and her one vanity seemed to be cycling through hair colors between missions. At the moment she was a redhead. Her gunbelt hung low on her hips over cargo pants and her jacket was unzipped, revealing a bare torso and a sports bra.
"Been keeping yourself busy, Achilles? Have heard all sorts of stories about you. Is it true you knocked up a Sentinel?" she nudged him with her elbow, grinning. As the cargo bay filled she vaulted her way upwards onto a large container and pulled a remote from her pocket. She pushed a button on it and with a loud fizzle and some pops the pyrotechnics on the wall behind her ignited, changing colors as they burned from blue to green to. The wall stated "Shut the Fuck Up" with fire.
After the cargo bay had quieted Eris began. "I got the call from Ares that I could share this information today. So as you have all probably guessed we are making a push into Auroran space with this one. We're not hitting Mokash or Herran's homeworlds though as I've heard some of you assume. We're going somewhere a little more interesting: Aurora Prime."
She waited for the gasps and "holy shits" to die down before continuing. "Currently every ship we have is out in the Borderlands drawing the Aurorans out to fight. We are going the long way around where we will swoop in from the far side of the planet and drop onto their capital. Once we're on the ground we will need to move our asses quickly because if we are still fighting when the Auroran fleet returns, well it's going to be quite a long walk back home when our ships get the shit blown out of them."
"We're going to be the first drop. Our target is the Deep Space Comm Center which is about 5 miles from their capitol building. Wrecking that will make it harder for them to communicate with their fleet though it is very likely they will get a few messages off before we land so we need to be fast there as well. Once we blow that up it's off to the races for the capitol building and their rulers. If we can nab them we can force a surrender. Does anyone have any questions?"
"Been keeping yourself busy, Achilles? Have heard all sorts of stories about you. Is it true you knocked up a Sentinel?" she nudged him with her elbow, grinning.
Achilles chuckles and says "Knocked up a Sentinel? Nah that wasn't me I swear."
When she climbs on stage and sets off the pyrotechnics he can't help but laugh a little bit about that, throughout the "briefing" he nods as if he's digesting new information, but this information isn't really news to him as he was briefed long before going on the mission. When she asks for questions he raises his hand and asks
"What will we use to destroy the comm center? A frag grenade, a paperclip, a 9 volt battery, and a potato?"
Virgil puts his hands in his face, thinking to himself, "Another suicide mission. Why, oh why, am I always the doctor for a suicide mission? So redundant..."
"So terribly redundant..." He says out loud. He adjusts his harness, making sure its tight.
Cerberus was more enthusiastic about Eris' pyrotechnics than the announcement. Maybe it was just because he heard it earlier in between his nodding off, he didn't know.
That didn't mean he wasn't excited, far from it in fact. He could have never been happier. Not only could he finally manage to gain some more spoils for his "collection", but this would be one hell of a fight. It had been a long time since he'd seen HIM, and as he thought of the incident, he laughed, quietly and manically to himself, clutching the pendant that held the gift he had been reserving for just such an occasion.
Weston quietly congratulates himself on seeing the pyrotechnics display, the corners of his mouth moving into a smirk, "A little predictability never hurts I suppose.". He places a hand on his helmet as he casually maneuvers through the crowd bumping into a few troops, and brushing off the apologies that follow before ending up near Eris. "Hey, I've actually got a few questions about the op if you don't mind?", and removes the hand from his helmet extending it towards her, "The name's Weston by the way.".
Eris called on Achilles first. She gave the idea some consideration. "Well if you figure out a way to use those things to break the comm center I don't think they are going to be too picky on Olympus. I was thinking of doing it with normal explosives but there is something to be said for style points."
She dropped nimbly off of the crate and offered Weston a fist bump over his handshake. "Eris. What can I do for you?"
Weston closes the fist , giving hers a bump before jumping straight into his question, "Should we be expecting any fire or armoured support on this mission, or is strictly going to be us infantry?".
"No armor but some of these buckets have guns. This is going to be about speed more than anything. Probably not what you wanted to hear but hey, you volunteered for this...I think. Not sure how the picked the infantry, actually."
Richards looks up from the pink metal case in his hand, looking under his brow at Eris, grunting under his breath "Life'n Prison or this.". Then moving his hand to the strap under his chin, giving it a yank to tighten it. The corners of his mouth begin to sharpen into a smile as he probes a comment; "You sh'watch y'fellow brother not everyone is on y'moral highground".
As the rest of the soldiers began filing out of the cargo hold, Cerberus felt it a good time to approach some of his compatriots. Considering Eris was the closest, he supposed he'd start there. He slid down the rail of the walkway down to the main floor of the hold, and walked up to Eris and the other soldier she was talking with. Still maneuvering the balisong in a dance about his fingers, he approached the two, and in the midst of a yawn, addressed the two.
"Hey Eris, when's the ETA? I gotta get some kinda hand-to-hand combat training in before we arrive, but I'd rather not wear myself out right before the assault."
"We're less than a day out so that's up to you. I don't think you're going to want to be fighting anyone hand to hand when we land, though. The Aurorans are pretty good at that game."
She looked around for anyone else with questions and then headed up to the mess deck in search of food.
As he watched Eris walk off, he closed and locked the balisong in a quick succession of clacks before sliding it into his pocket, and pulling an Auroran Switchblade out. He gave a slight chuckle and turned to Weston, showing off the knife, "Yeah, so am I." He flips open the blade and begins cleaning his nails with it, and addresses Weston. "I don't believe we've met. They call me Cerberus." He closes back up the knife and extends his free hand in a handshake.
Virgil looks at Cerberus, "The odds of you engaging in a hand-to-hand combat situation is less than one percent. Odds are higher, statistically, you'll be shot in the back." He looks back down at his feet. "Just statistics..."
Richards begins to tuck the small pink painted metal tin into his vest pouch, reaching up again to unclip the strap previously tightened. He drones; "What s'at 'posed t'mean?", glaring under his thick caterpillar eyebrows at Virgil. "Y'know something we don't?" he questions further, his eyebrows raising to show some interest.
Weston turns to face Cerberus, acknowledging the knife as he says, "I don't really think that pig stick of yours is gonna' come in handy to much, the doc's right, you'll just end up getting shot during the initial push, and he's gonna' be the one who has to patch ya' up. Oh, and I'm Weston.". He stretches his shoulders back slightly, expelling a droning yawn. Spinning on his heels he turns to face Virgil, "You mind if I stick with you during the assault? For obvious reasons of course.", and finishes the sentence with a faint smile.
Achilles looks at Cerberus and says "The Aurorans aren't the type of people you'd want to get in a fight with when it comes to hand to hand... or knife fighting. Ever heard about the many great Cunjo hunts of Aurora? Its where they get large groups of yougn aurorans and put them on a world with Cunjos, usually the world are covered in jungle." He chuckles a bit "They hunt these massive deadly beasts not with guns or explosives but with spears, swords, and anything like that really." He scratches the back of his head "They also kick ass in martial arts." He rests his elbow on the hilt of a blade rhat is poking out of his duster "If I where you id practice shooting since i don't think we'll get close enough to any of them to wrestle anyway."
The group hears a moan and Alexey walks up to his teammates. "No CQC? I bought a new knife just for that!" He chuckles and introduces himself. "I am Alexey, the only, at least I think, Auroran mercenary and unofficial translator. I also teach how to taunt at Aurorans in their own language."
Richards perks his head up, a slight grin stretching across his face as he looks over to Alexey Chuckling; "Som'o these fellows cant even say th'own name. Never-mind 'nother language.". He then reaches for the pink tin in his vest pocket to remove it before starting to walk off yelling back "Dinner time is it? I can smell the Mess Already".
Spinning on his heels he turns to face Virgil, "You mind if I stick with you during the assault? For obvious reasons of course.", and finishes the sentence with a faint smile.
Virgil looks at Weston. "I cannot really think of a reason not." He then looks around the room at the other troops. "You all sure talk a lot for people about to die, its really quite fascinating."
"And what should we do? Despair on our oh so bad luck? I can safely assume everyone here is trained enough to not care about it and do what your empire wants you to do or the amount of zeros in the contract really motivate them."
He looks at the exit.
"It was nice seeing you again but my pedantic part of character demands that I check my crappy equipment again. But before that I'll probably go and eat something, so anyone want to come with me to the mess hall?
"Yeah I guess it'd be a good idea to get something to eat, I'm getting kinda hungry. I'll go with you Auroran.
The mess hall is one deck up, a cavernous room with long tables and benches in the middle that are bolted to the floor to prevent them from flying around during a rough reentry. Since everyone was just in the cargo bay for the briefing, it's pretty empty. Some people trickle in from the cargo bay. On offer is a hot meal that is cooked from "normal" food (nonperishable, of course since this is space) and, for the soldier with either low standards or a desire for convenience, several types of protein packs that Gunslingers have taken to calling "goo" because of their consistency. While this stuff doesn't look terribly appealing, it tastes alright and one goo pack will last for a day easily in terms of energy and nutritional content.
Eris is in line for the real food.
Alexey walks up to the "real food" queue. He coincidentally ends up just behind Eris. "Nice fireworks by the way."
Achilles files into the real food line as well behind Alexey.
Weston yawns, stretching his arms back behind his head, as he departs from the cargo bay, making his way leisurely to the mess hall, lifting a try up, and sliding it onto the counter, moving along with the line.
Eris laughs "Yeah well people pay more attention when fire is involved. Must be some evolutionary hold over or something."
She takes her plate and heads to a table. The others are all served in turn, looks to be some sort of pasta.
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"Ares this is Fate, the fleet is in position and we have what looks like scouts blipping on our long range sensors but no sustained contact just yet though the scout fighters look to have markings from the 875th and 909th. That means at least two of their big boys must be just outside of sensor range. I estimate another day at most before the shooting starts."
"Get your guns warmed up, Admiral. You're in for a long fight. Orders remain the same and the timing is perfect. Ares out."
Weston sits down a table full of other troops, straightening his helmet as he glances down to the paste. He makes a face, and grasps the fork, starting to eat it as he says aloud, "I was hopin' my last meal before the drop would be a burger, or steak.".
Virgil sits beside Weston with a tube of goo. "Red meat increases likelihood of cramps during long periods of running. Why would you want to further decrease your odds of survival, Sergeant?"
Achilles sits down at the table with Eris after getting his food since he doesn't want to sit with the depressing medic. "Hey Eris, I've been meaning to ask you. . . where the hell did the pickle come into play?"
"Was wondering who would bring that up first. Alright I guess we got time for that story.
So I'm on the Vorona, smuggled myself on in a provisions crate. Had to travel light, obviously. Crate was full of pickles, guess the Aurorans like them. I was hoping to get to the magazine or engines and satchel charge the shit out of one of those places to cripple it. Well, the cargo hold was near the engine room so I went there and discovered that a single satchel charge versus several tons of engines wasn't going to cut it.
Luckily the great part about the engine room is it's also where steering is controlled. We were still in orbit at this point because I wasn't going to sit in a box full of pickles for days to get to deep space so I tore off some panels and figured out the contacts for the engine firing timing. I wish I could say I did it on purpose but it was pretty random. Turns out pickles are rather conductive. Jammed one in there until the ship started lurching violently, replaced the panel, booked it to an escape pod. They couldn't unfuck it in time since they were in low orbit and the Vorona get stuck in the planet's gravity. So now there's a nice new destroyer at the bottom of the ocean on...huh I don't even remember what planet it was."
Achilles laughs at the end of her story
"That makes that probe mission we did not too long ago look textbook."
Quote from: Cutch on 18-09-2013
Virgil sits beside Weston with a tube of goo. "Red meat increases likelihood of cramps during long periods of running. Why would you want to further decrease your odds of survival, Sergeant?"
Weston shrugs his shoulders, starting to eat as he adds, "I'd rather be happy then healthy to be honest, if I'm going to sacrifice my life for the country I sure as hell can sacrifice my cholesterol for some burgers.".
"That was you? The news were all talking about a giant system failure in that ship. Later on it was all about a tsunami." He takes a bite of his croquette. "There's actual meat in this? Nice."
The sounds from the galley drifted to Cerberus, now walking around the Bay, he chuckled a little to himself about the fool he made himself out to be to some of the other members. His little rant about bringing a knife to the gunfight probably made some of the other soldiers laugh, but that was the goal. It would be better for them to laugh in this time of stress, especially coming from a psychological standpoint. He would have probably continued to be the joke for the sake of the moment, but he needed to get some things done, and the solitude would help.
He tore open a packet of goo he managed to nab from the mess hall earlier, and downed it in a single gulp as he entered his access code into the keypad of the hangar. As the conformation key came in, he gave the lock his authentication code before they opened. The door to his section opened revealing a small but capable assault ship, beaten and worn in appearance but not function, and along the side was the tag "Styx" with an attractive woman brandishing an executioners garb.
He approached the ship and patted the hull before walking inside the main body. Once inside, he began loading up the armament drop-pods he had installed with a few extra guns, ammo, and grenades. In the process he decided he would grab a few extra clips for his ASV-2, and having finished with his last minute preparations, synced up the on-board system AI to get out of the bay and into formation once they arrived to the planet, and began leaving the hangar.
"Well it was textbook in the sense that no one had used a probe like that before. Granted, there's probably a reason for that but we're all still alive and I have all my fingers so that means I get to write the book. You can be the editor."
Eris turned to Alexey "Yes that was me. We do the impossible pretty regularly. It makes us mighty." She laughed.
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The last night before the drop (if you could call it that, the void perpetually dark) passed quickly. Soldiers sent messages home (carefully edited to remove an reference to the upcoming drop) maintained weapons, practiced hand to hand techniques that they would likely never use and forced themselves to eat and sleep. It would be the last time many of them would ever do those things.
Sirens blared. Looming in the portholes was Aurora Prime, a rugged rock hanging in space like a challenge. The intercom buzzed to life.
"Ladies and Gentlemen I received word our fleet has engaged the Aurorans in the Borderlands. It looks like our ruse worked, skies are clear for us. Welcome to Aurora Prime. Those going in the first wave get to the drop pods. You know who you are ((aka everyone in this thread)). The rest of you are landing closer to the capital after the comms go down. Fight well, move fast, stay safe. If you keep any gods, may you be in their favor today. Eris out."
Cerberus was the first one up, throwing on his black tactical gear and grabbing his earpiece off of its charger, his ASV-2 off of the chair, and slid his heavy pistol off of the table and into its holster on his leg. Having packed all of his gear with what he needed the night before, he was one of the first to run charging down the halls, and jumping over crates that had yet to be unpacked for the reinforcements. As he reached the end of his walkway, he slid down the staircase banister past the other soldiers that had begun to wake up and rush around.
As he his the ground, he put on his earpiece and sent the signal to his ship to take off out of the bay and go into a low-altitude satellite orbit near the drop-zone. Just as he received the conformation from the ship's A.I. that the command had been initiated, he rounded the corner to the drop-pods, ready to head down to the surface.
Achilles had already been up in his quarters waiting for the drop alarm to sound. He had been drinking coffee at the time, he had already put his armor on anticipating the alarm to sound. When the Alarm did sound he chugged what was left of his coffee set it down on his footlocker and grabbed his weapons and gear, he then made his way to the drop pods putting his enclosed helmet on while he was en-route to the drop pods.
He's leading the pack of other soldiers/gunslingers heading to the drop-pod bay that are in the strike to take out the comm center.
Alexey follows the group, checking if he has everything in his backpack, webbing and other places. "Gee, I'm sort of happy that the time has come. I was literally bursting to use a drop pod and take down that communications tower myself."
Virgil steps up next to the rest of the troops, beginning to do his pre-launch stretches.
Janus sits at the bridge watching the void while scribbling in his black book . Something about looking at the stars puts Janus at ease but also in an excited state. The sirens come to life, signalling the beginning of the a new chapter to be written in the galaxy's history. As he writes down some last things into his book, a man, heavy on the upper body, walks in.
"You got any mail to send home?" speaks the heavy man.
Janus stops writing and takes out a pocket watch that looked like a sun. He puts it in the hands of the man. " Send this to the gunslinger in training named 'Eurus'." He then puts his book into his duster and grabs his sniper off the wall. He begins to walk towards the drop pods, saying some Chronatic Prayers.
Janus enters the drop pod room and finds Achilles, pumped up and ready to go. " It appears this one is ready for the new chapter to be written." He chuckles. "Anyways friend, if you are not aware, I am proficient with my sniper as well as my revolvers, do you have any requests on my role. I ask this of you because it seems like you are getting ready for a head on assault and I could provide back up from a distance, but if you see me best by your side with our revolvers held high, I will gladly take your request."
Eris strides into the launch room, wearing surprisingly little in the way of armor for someone whose specialty is explosives. Under her jacket a hard armor chestplate is visible but her limbs are uncovered. Since yesterday when she made the announcement she dyed her hair again. It's now jet black...or maybe that's her natural color. She has a small assault pack with her, presumably filled with explosives along with her rifle and revolver hanging off of her thigh. She takes a pod "See you planetside."
The door closes and the pod drops free.
Achilles follows suit and takes a pod without even answering Janus's question, before he hits the button he says to Janus "Oh uhh, about that question, we'll see when we get down there." He waves with a slight smile and the door to the pod closes and drops free.
Weston saunters into the launch room, watching the others as they each enter a pod, and drop to the surface of the planet. He looks around for a moment before spotting the Doctor, walking over to him as he finally clips his helmet into place, "Alright, let's stick together, get the pod next to mine.", and without waiting for a reply steps into a pod, takes a deep breathe, and pounds the button with his fist, jettisoning to the planet below.
"I hope they have elevator music in these pods." He enters the pod, closes the door, does everything what was written on the OSH instructions of dropping and drops down on the planet below.
Virgil nods and steps gingerly into the pod, attempting to press the button five times but stopping each time out of fear. The deck officer finally walks by and presses the button for him, the sliding door silencing an objecting Virgil in tears. If space could hear a scream, it would be his as the pod launched into space.
Janus tips his hat as Achilles drops and gets into his own drop pod and slams the button, descending calmly.
Cerberus swings off of the ceiling into his pod, tossing on the straps, but not bothering to actually secure them, and kicks his launch button, jettisoning him down to the surface.
As his pod soars down through the atmosphere, he clicks on the inter-pod com system, and speaks jokingly:
"Well guys, looks like I should have brought my camera. Might be the last time this place is seen in one piece considering Eris' and Achilles' luck." As he clicks off the comm, he clicks his belt and laughs. he always liked feeling the initial launch.
((Sorry been extraordinarily busy this week. I will have a post hopefully later today to move this along.))
The pods hurtled through the atmosphere, glowing like meteors in the twilight sky. Within minutes the lights of the capital streaked into visibility, followed by buildings, cars, and then the concrete. With an impact that rattled bones and teeth the pods slammed into the ground ((Kokkaku you've been reduced to a gooey paste if you never actually buckled your harness in)) of a well-lit plaza that was rather populated this early in the evening. The crowds were stunned as the Exusian soldiers freed themselves from their capsules.
Eris unstrapped herself and stood on the concrete, rifle in her hands. She keyed her mic "Who's still alive?" She scanned the area, not terribly happy with the landing zone but realizing it was about the only place open enough to land pods without ending up in a skyscraper or someone's apartment.
Janus hurls himself out of the pod with his revolvers drawn. He scans the area noticing the shock and mental processing of the situation going through each person's head. The information hasn't fully digested among the Aurorian crowd and for the few individuals who caught on, are smart to keep quiet. He takes a quick glance to the right and see's Eris, only a few yards away from him.
"Eris, we need to start moving, we have a good 10 minutes of unobstructed movement until the standing forces start mobilizing." Janus says into his comm.
He quickly glances his gps and starts to walk at a brisk pace towards the crowd. "Move aside" says Janus in clean Aurorian.
The sea of people effortlessly parts, giving Janus a trail out of the Plaza and towards the street. As soldiers begin to pop out, one by one, they see the lone gunslinger, a few yards ahead of them. Three soldiers begin to file behind him, hopefully exercising Janus's pacificity towards the civilians and ignoring their existence as a whole.
Virgil stumbles out of the pod and vomits. He looks up and sees the rest of the soldiers mobilizing. Wiping his eyes, he begins walking over to where Weston's pod landed.
Cerberus' pod opened up, and he unfastened himself, got out, and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He caught the eye of a few Aurorans eyeing it, and read the shock and fear it instilled in their eyes. He pretended like he didn't notice it, and ran over to help the doctor, obviously sick from his drop.
He commed in to Eris, " I'll hold up the rear, make sure we got no stragglers. Styx is up and running, so we've got a bit of support outside of what we can directly see. Let me know if you need her."
((Will post at some point been really busy at work))
Achilles busts the door open to his pod and comes out with his revolver drawn and announces that he is still alive, he would've busted out around the same time everyone else did. "I'm ready to go whenever you guys are"
As soon as the drop pod lands, Alexey unfastens his safety belts and rushes outside while the dust still obstructs the view. He runs up to the group, slowing down to their pace. With a lowered tone he says: "Better get out of here. Fast. Aurorans still have melee weaponry."
Virgil recovers from his nausea, talking into his earpiece, "Showing solid vitals for essential personnel. Ready to go."
"I don't know how long Styx is going to last, I got to believe someone has a rocket launcher somewhere. We might need a run at the comm tower, they will be smart enough to know that's where we want to go."
Eris led the squad at a run off the main thoroughfare and through smaller side streets. The Communications Center was well-lit and the huge parabolic antennas made it easy to pick out even around the skyscrapers. The side streets were quieter than the main drag though people did seem to be trying to figure out what the hell the crashing noises were. And when they do this will get quite interesting.
Eris stopped them at an alley just before the target. A small guardpost overlooked the main entrance and roving patrols could be seen in the main courtyard.
"Cerberus deal with the one in the guardpost. Janus grab the patrols. Achilles take Virgil and Weston around the back. Alexey, you're with me."
"Right." Cerberus rounds another corner in the alleyway and sets up his rifle in sniper mode. Looking through the eyepiece, he adjusts for wind and distance and watches the guard look around before lighting a cigarette and leaning against a guardrail. a slight display appears a thermal satellite view of the tower, marking the hostiles.
He radioed everyone in a hushed tone. "Green light for go. Set up in position. Check in once frosty. Execute on my mark."
Janus nods, he watches the patrols while Cerberus sets up. After drawing a rough mental picture, he gets up.
" I'm going to vault the wall and try to take the most I can out quietly. Afterwards, I'll comm in and i'm going to start making my way inside the building. Cerberus, if you hear the slightest commotion, you fire and the rest of you start gunning in. Let the Time Weavers see value in all of you."
Janus begins to make his way towards a section of the courtyard wall where he perceived little movement. He takes out one of his revolvers and a dagger. He puts the dagger in his mouth and begins to vault the wall. He lands gracefully and with the least amount of noise possible and quickly grabs cover behind a line of bushes about 6 feet tall. He looks through the bushes and see's that a fountain in the middle of the courtyard. A few guardsmen are watching the front gate while a few others make their scans through the bushes. In the center, he see's three guardsmen taking a smoke break. They are bantering on about their wives and about how much money they spend on their mistresses.
Janus disposes of the few guardsmen (in a span of 5 minutes) that made their patrols through the outer side of the bushes and slides the corpses under the bushes. "Eris, I picked off a few, best I can do. The rest I can't take quietly. Cerb, take care of the patrolbox guy and the three smoking. I'll take care of the guys at the door." whispers Janus into his comm.
Janus puts away his dagger and grabs his other revolver and begins to wait.
Achilles would take Weston and Virgil quietly around back and scope out what type of resistance they'd be dealing with or if there would be a stealthy way in that would avoid alerting any nearby guards that they're sneaking in.
Cerberus receives Janus' transition and lines up the guard in the tower. He eyes the man, taking in his bored expression as he paces over and sits into a chair, pulling out a magazine, likely filled with women. Taking the opportunity, Cerberus takes the shot, nailing the guard right between the eyes.
He quickly moves and readjusts towards the main gate, lining up the swaying targets and calculating their movements. As they begin laughing, one shifts his weight to the right, likely due to his left leg going numb, one leans on the wall behind him, and the other paces and stops, lining up all three heads in a row.
Their mistresses would be loosing some money tonight. The men's bodies all hit the floor at the same time.
"Your green." Cerberus comms in to Janus, and quickly gathers his things to re-position.
Alexey throws his helmet on a pile of garbage. It blends in well (because it's as bad as most protective wear made for Auroran grunts). He puts his pilotka on. "There's a chance they'll mistake me for an Auroran in this. Or hell, maybe a Sentinel."
After the lookouts were neutralized, Alexey follows Eris.
// optionally takes auroran uniform pieces from the bodies if they sneak through the checkpoint to look as auroran as possible
Cerberus climbs up a fire escape on the side of a building to get a better view of the courtyard. He sets up his rifle and scans the area for hostiles as his squad members advance.
((Sorry for not posting, currently away from home/reliable internet right now for a water polo tournament. Should have something by Sunday.))
The back side of the building has a loading bay but no guards visible at the moment (likely because Cerberus and Janus killed the patrols already). The bay is even open, with a truck sitting in it that looks to be offloading a server. A few workers are dealing with that but it looks like no one is armed.
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From his perch Cerberus can see movement in the windows but it looks like no one has noticed the bodies yet as activity inside looks normal. That probably won't last too long as the rest of the Exusians are likely only minutes away from landing.
Janus likewise doesn't see much happening from his position though the guards by the door do seem slightly suspicious of the suppressed shots from earlier.
Eris turns to Alexey "You're going to get shot if you do that and we get split up ((and I told you over SF that that is a stupid idea))." She moves to stack up on the guardpost wall.
"How's everybody looking?" she radios.
no fun allowed
Alexey listens to Eris' advice and stops the masking and just takes yet another helmet from the dead Aurorans, getting rid of any Auroran symbols on them. He takes cover and looks out for any enemy movement when Eris calls for a sitrep.
((Sorry, exams and stuff))
Weston follows the squad, sticking towards the back of the group, moving with his rifle shouldered, "Our back looks to be clear, just those in front seem like the problem.".
"Yeah, there's even an open loading bay with no guards and just workers off loading probably a replacement server, it doesn't appear any of the workers are armed, but looks could be deceiving" Achilles radios in after Weston.
.// will get a post up tonight, been busy with school.
Janus takes a quick peak over the hedge after the bodies hit the floor.
"Nice work, Cerberus."
"Eris, I'm sitting idle, I don't see a way of myself getting in without attracting attention and minding time. If I'm not mistaken, *he looks at his pocket watch*, we don't have a lot of time. I say we make like cowboys and go in guns blazing. I'm merely suggesting and I am at your command."
"Was thinking the same thing. Alright, let's get loud. Achilles head through the back, everyone else on me and we're going through the front."
Eris stepped around the wall with her rifle up, shooting at one of the remaining guards in the doorway. The reports echoed in the courtyard as the bodies fell. Everything was quiet for the seconds it took for them to cross the courtyard and enter the building into a lobby area that contained more guards.
And then the alarms started to go off.
Cerberus saw the guard walking by the window after he killed the three in the front. He had just finished using Styx to hack into their satellites and backdoor the surveillance systems when Eris called for everyone to check in. As the live map began to update and display itself in front of him, he was about to check in when,
"Alright, let's get loud."
Before he had a chance to suggest a course of action, the report of Eris' gun had already reached his ears. As the alarm sounded he quickly pulled up the live feeds, all pieced together to form a live map of the floor-plan, highlighting friendlies and enemies green and red respectfully. He had just reached the building as Eris and the others reached the front door. He toggled his gun into assault mode, and quickly calculated the options, pulling up his map. He noticed about 4 soldiers already at the front door, ready for an attack, but what caught his eye was a troop of about 15 reinforcements coming out of the armory and around a hallway, likely to back up the guards at the front.
Right on the other side of his wall.
Cerberus radios in to Eris quickly. "Boss, you got 5 hostiles on the other side of that breach. I'll take care of the reinforcements before they reach you, as well as distract them"
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cerberus quickly slaps down two breaching charges on the wall. He backs up and eyes his map, waiting for the dots to round the corner, waiting for his opportunity. As they round the corner, he times the group to be right next to the high powered breaching charges before triggering them, and drawing his gun to eliminate the survivors.
Weston keeps his rifle shouldered as he quickly makes his way across the courtyard, arriving at the lobby, but swivelling around to watch the entrance, covering the others as they move across. He calls over his shoulders to Eris, and the others already inside, "We should move quickly now that they know we're here, they can swamp us in a play like this.".
Achilles hears Eris's rifle go off and then the Alarm, he springs out from cover turning on his voice coder and runs into the loading bay where the startled dock-workers are. He says in Auroran "Get down!" while pointing his gun at them. The unarmed civilians do so since they don't want to get shot. He runs up to the door which leads into the actual building and finds it has a door card lock on it. He digs in his pocket and pulls out a Cryptographic Sequencer and uses it on the door and sparks fly out of the card slot, he tries the knob and it opens, he bolts in and checks either side of the hallway to find that there isn't much in the way of guards, for the moment anyway. He figures he shouldn't try his luck. He radios to Eris "My way is clear, do you want me to come up behind the guys at the front and help you all or do you want me to continue deeper into the building?"
"Great." After the alarm kicks in and Aurorans start to pour in, Alexey provides support with his rifle, although occasionally. He mostly watches out for any flankers or soldiers who are smart enough to attack from the rear or side.
He shoots and wounds a soldier attempting to attack from their left. "So what are we going to do now after our only advantage went to the shitter?"
Cerberus' breach flattened the small squad as the shaped charge turned the thick concrete into a hammer. From the bloody mess leftover it seems unlikely any of them are going to be getting up again. Cerberus steps through the breach just as the rest of the squad enters the front door. Within a few moments the lobby is cleared from the volume of fire from the marauding Exusians. As the last body hits the floor (the one Alexey wounded) Eris keys her radio, ignoring the groaning from the wounded soldier.
"Good show, Cerberus. Weston and Alexey, you guys act like this is my first dance, would you kindly calm the fuck down? This is going to get much more exciting before it's over. Live behind your gun and we'll be fine." The blaring alarms made it slightly harder to concentrate as Eris tried to remember where the comm controls were. She tapped at the PDA on her wrist and glanced at it to orient herself. "Alright...upstairs to the top. Cerberus, now would be a good time to bring Styx around because I got to believe we're going to have a response coming through the front."
"Achilles, we need to take stairs, the lobby elevators look . The target is on the top floor, see if there's a service elevator or something down there for transporting the stuff they were unloading to the top that will make your trip shorter. Might even be a direct path to the comm room from there. I think we drew most of the guards, Cerberus blew a large, loud hole in the wall."
Alexey nods after the reprimand and starts to cover the team's rear.
"Soooo we're not going to enter the armory here? If there is any. Could be used to plant the explosives and get ourselves a bigger boom. Nah, just forget I said anything."
He takes out the magazine from his rifle and inserts a full magazine.
.// will post tonight. And if this is a comm building, I assume there isn't much of an armory, maybe a locker room with gun cabinets and some ammo.
.// sorry super busy with work I'm trying to get time to do this.
(don't think its necro-posting as much as necessary revival)
Cerberus nods towards Eris. "I'll have it drop a few weapons pods off before circling out to give cover fire." As he relays his intentions, he comms in to Styx, inputting their location and his commands for supply drop and its secondary instructions to circle farther back after drop and give gunship support. "And make sure in the drop armament pods 2, 5, and 9 are dropped", are his last commands before the computer acknowledges its orders.
In less than a minute, a low rumbling is heard, followed by the sounds of a fast moving craft rocketing overhead and the impact of 3 metal containers in the front doorway of the building. The pods fronts release their pressure seals, and the panels drop to the floor, revealing a few extra tools, weapons and ammo. He sprints over to one of the pods and takes out four quad-rotor drones with machine guns mounted and sets them on to swarm the yard, and grabs a metal, quick-deploy cover and uses it to patch the hole in the wall he came through.
He announces over the comm, "I'm set up. They wont be getting through."
((Yeah you're fine. Was waiting for Misha but it's been two weeks. I'm approaching finals, will try to have something tomorrow.))
.// I just came home a few days ago and I am on break. I'm willing to restart this if you guys are all willing to.
((yeah sure))
((For fuck's sake Misha are you going to post or not?))
((should we accept the death of the session, or are we continuing regardless of...incidents?))
Quote from: Kokkaku Kishu on 07-01-2014
((should we accept the death of the session, or are we continuing regardless of...incidents?))
I'd keep on playing, but I guess we've got to wait for Paintcheck to answer.
See thread I just posted. in the interest of not cluttering this one if you are still here and want to continue post in it, please so I can see how many are interested.
Eris finished the call and saw that Cerberus was set up. She looked around for the others. Alexey was still up, there was no sign of Janus, Weston, or the doctor. Shit.
She tried Achilles again "Have you had any luck finding a way up?" She turned to Cerberus and Alexey "I need to head up to blow the comms, you two need to hold here while I do." She started up the stairs, her rifle on her shoulder.
Cerberus nods to Eris after her commands. He briefly runs the odds through his head of the coming moments. not necessarily in their favor, but still attainable. Then again, when were the odds ever truly decent?
Cerberus glances at Alexey. "I'm not going to say we'll be fine, but just try to keep a calm head alright."
It's strange though, Cerberus thought to himself as he eyed the data that was being sent to him from his ship. Styx's scanners still haven't detected any more hostile movement.
Alexey looks around and stretches his arms, while looking for a good defensive spot. "Same for you. Say, did you get a few mags for my rifle? No? Oh, pardon me for a second..."
Using the silence before the storm moment, he walks up to some dead Auroran and rummages him for a bunch of magazines and puts them near his designated position.
// I'll post tomorrow when I'm not tired. Had to work yesterday and today.
Achilles finds a service elevator conveniently placed not to far from his entrance, that likely goes to the top of the communications tower. He radios in "Found a service elevator on my end probably for lifting stuff to the top of the tower. Everything looks clear over here for now. Might not be that way for long though, so you might want to hurry over here with the explosives."
Cerberus sighs. He sends a command to Styx to widen it's sensors to cover the whole city, and to begin cycling through monitoring programs and camera modes until it picks up hostiles ((I'll let you guys tell me when it picks up something :P)).
Cerberus reaches into a pocket he had hidden in his jacket and produces two candy bars. He tosses one to Alexey as he walks over. "Personally, if I were to die, I'd like one of my last memories to be something sweet." He crouches down to check some of the other dead bodies. He manages to find a couple rounds for his revolver, a few stun grenades and an ornamental knife which he takes for his collection.
There is a bit of groaning, and the soldier that Alexey wounded is still laying on the ground. Cerberus looks at Alexey and motions with his thumb towards the dying Auroran. "You want to take care of it or shall I?"
Alexey barely catches the candy bar since he was readying up his position. "Yeah, not something as bitter." He checks the magazines lying around and takes some Auroran assault rifles and puts them beside himself.
Then he looks at the wounded guy. "Well, we Aurorans generally don't shoot wounded, after all fighting with your injuries is a honourable fight too, something which at least partially helps you to clean your honour." He thinks a bit. "Unless I've shot him in the lower stomach. Then it'll be a mercy shot."
Cerberus looks at the soldier's body. The gunshot appears to pass near the thigh-inner pelvis area, maybe cutting the femoral artery. It was difficult to tell. "looks like you may have grazed and cut an artery. Considering you're Auroran, I'll let you make the decision, do whatever rites or rituals he deserves." Cerberus gets up, dusting himself off, and making sure to pocket the spoils he looted earlier.
As if the wounded soldier understood the conversation, he loses consciousness (and most likely dies in the next few posts). Alexey shrugs. "Well, seems he was smart enough to realise what we were talking about." He then continues eating his candy bar.
In a moment, Styx's sensors light up like a Christmas tree and pollutes Cerberus's HUD with notifications as hundreds of enemy signatures are recognized on the ground and in the atmosphere above.
Seconds later, a burning star of light blooms on the horizon as a screaming salvo of metal penetrates the air and crackles with ozone as the molten slug of metal rips through the sky. It arcs to the east, flying a distance behind the party and sending the sound of impact into their ears.
The soldier's eyes light up in fear and, in a whisper the wounded soldier lets free a single warning cry:
"Bombardment."
Shells begin raining from the sky, each shot tearing the heavens like the burning feathers of angels. The superballistic uranium pellets pound home on the planet, ripping the sun-baked earth asunder and throwing brittle asphalt and hunks of re-bar into the air.
Twenty miles to the east, the city block is torn asunder in a bloom of smoke and fire.
((Uh...who's bombarding what with what, exactly, Rags?))
Eris climbs the flights of stairs cautiously but quickly. She met no resistance and arrived at the communications room several minutes after Achilles, breathing hard from the jog up the flights of stairs. She reached into her pack and tossed Achilles chargepacks "You do that side of the room, I'll do this one." As she planted the explosives, she called in to the fleet in orbit.
"Eris here, we've taken the communications center, some casualties but we're ready to blow it."
"Acknowledged, Eris. We're starting the landings now. Hold position and we'll send a squad to pick you up."
She looked over Achilles' work. "Sloppy," she teased him as she wired up the detonators, then turned to exit the room to blow them.
Done below, the wounded Auroran dies from the massive blood loss. Styx picked up movement from mall side where the Exusians originally dropped from. A lot of movement. The Aurorans were mounting a counterattack, armed civilians and local police and militia swarmed to the satellite relay. It would not save the relay in time, but it might assuage their bloodlust slightly. Several missiles stab into the sky at the offending drone, swatting it down like a mosquito a block out.
High above on his starship, Lord Militant Xavier Montpelier sips a crystal chalice of fine red and smirks down at the blossoms of artillery fire.
"Sir" the Ensign quavers up from the banks of consoles. "W- We missed.."
"WE WHAT."
Cerberus stands up, trying to take in the massive amount of data and warnings that began bombarding him from his eyepiece.
And then it all blinked out as the sound of a distant explosion filled the air.
Cursing under his breath, Cerberus ran to the window and looked up to the the smoldering carcass of his ship rocket overhead, and crashing with an earth-rumbling impact. As he is knocked to his knees, he feels a bit of grief and then looses it arguing away the inevitability of the loss of his ship. That hunk of junk had lasted him forever, saved his ass many times before. He knew it would go down eventually, but there would be no salvaging it this time. Adieu old friend.
Cerberus quickly comms in to Eris and Achilles. "You guys need to hurry up with blowing that relay. We have a mass of armed civilians, local militia and police forces closing in on our position, and they shot my ship out of the sky which means what little support we had just got hit by a rocket and crashed about a block behind us. I'll hold them off to the best of my ability, but when evac gets here you better be on it."
First stray shots are heard as the encouraged mob approaches the defensive perimeter set up by Cerberus and the Auroran mercenary.
"Hope there are some reinforcements coming. Or more air support." Alexey says to Cerberus, shivering at the thought of getting into the angry civilians' hands.
"We're not even on the right planet, sir. I have no idea who gave you those coordinates but this is definitely not the world we were told to bombard." Xavier's personal assistant chimed in from her station.
"Well we showed whoever that is what-for, Erica, that much is certain. I'm sure we killed some enemy or something."
"Sir... It's not just that, it's..."
As Erica swiveled her console screen towards him, the color drained out of the Captain's face.
"O-oh. Oh no."
"Sir, we're being targetted."
Cerberus readies, aiming the SAW at the entrance to the compound.
As he aims down his sights, waiting for the first body to come through the kill-box, he addresses his fellow soldier.
"Look, Alexey was it? The most we're going to get is an extremely hot evac at this point. When it gets here, you need to promise me that you'll make sure you and the rest of the forward team are on it. When it comes, and it will, I'll draw their fire and try and buy you guys as much time as I can. Can you do that for me?"
When Eris teases him about his 'sloppy' work he retorts by saying "Well I learned most of what I know from you." He would say that in a joking way. He'd turn and exit with Eris "We'd better hurry up and get down there, those new guys sound like they're about to shit their pants due to the angry untrained mob."
Alexey sighs, wondering how the Exusians portray a typical Auroran.
"You've got a bloody machine gun, they have semi-automatic rifles, mostly used for hunting. Hell, some of them have handguns. While the mob isn't dangerous when they're shooting at us, we're going to have a bad time if they get into this building."
And as soon as the Auroran said anything about getting into the building, the mob had started to assault the building. Alexey aims at the entrance and shoots two irregular fighters trying to heroically run in guns blazing.
"Under attack!" he reports to the two Streloks (see what I did there?), as if the gunfire wasn't a good enough information. He takes out a grenade and puts it on the ground, just in case he will have to use heavier arguments.
In low atmosphere, a great ball of fire suddenly conflagrates and begins to head toward the ground. What was once a ship is now a screaming metal death trap. Flames and stardust flake off as the great projectile plummets toward cold, hard earth.
A small earthquake is felt as the central mass that became a burning column of steel makes contact with the very spot it had bombarded.
One of the flaming crumbs lands a few short miles away from what Styx can see.
((sorry for not posting, been busy D:)) Cerberus aims towards the door with Alexy and begins burst firing at the door. He hopes the civilians will just get the message and leave, but he knows that probably won't happen. He is suddenly suprised by some of his sensors going back on and transmitting a feed of an auroran cruiser plummeting towards the planet. He activates the quadrotors to begin firing at the door as he hits the deck. "Brace for impact!" he yells as the feed shows the cruiser making contact with the surface.