(( attack on Paradise  cintinues here))

 Lizzy would add to Ranata," Come on get in we have company" Lizzy hovered just enough to turn and open up on the Angels making sure not to shoot Ranata or the Yenti.

  Shadow  sits  on a crate, with a can of Soda. Hack walks over...You have a hole  in your  Armor...

 Aye, Sir, I'm Aware

 he looks   up at the  Halfangel Major  shouting orders,Who patched you...

 I  did..i mean.. i took  all or most of the bits out..Kat  Foamed and Plasted  me.

 Half anything  to do  with  you  calling out that Civi  Doc?

aye, Sir, Everything...

 he  Nodded   and  straightened  out...your group is  going  up  a bit later... get rest...when you get  back you head  Stright for That Major  and  have her, make sure you got the junk out of that hole.

 Aye sir..Already done.

................

 Lyri was beside herself.. she went  to Meari   and Tarja where's the  damn  new Guy... Corby...? he was supposed to  be with you folks, wasn't he?..he's not  here and His  COM say's he's  in side....

In reply to Beachhead. (msg # 3):

Taking advantage of the downtime to grab something to eat & drink. With a burger in one hand and a mug hot cocoa in the other Justin crossed to several crates. Giving the LC a respectful nod, noting the hole in Shadow's armor Justin perched on a mid sized crate and subtly observed the LC, trying to determine the state of Krays injury.

Despite the strong smell of burning in the air and the constant thumping of artillery and the shriek of jet engines, it was nice to feel the breeze on her face as she tried her best to calm down. Sadly this blissful feeling would be short lived, with Lyri asking where the new guy was ”Us? No he’s not with us, I mean he showed interest but he can’t sign on until we return to Hermes…I thought he was with marines?” Tarja replied with an equally horrified look on her face at the news that he might be still in the city. There was a flurry of Finnish expletives before she reverted to English ”get him on comms tell him to stop, we’ll go fetch him…Suit up we’re going back in!” she said to Lyri before shouting for her team to get ready, not looking forward to entering the city whilst an artillery bombardment was underway.

Crouched beneath a pyramid wedge of wall and roof of the tower he'd raised; he peered out from cover, at the adjacent buildings, as 88 shells rained down death and destruction on the enemy city. Deafining explosions and pressure impact buffeted him and the area. If he managed to get oilutbof this alive he'd make sure he'd carry a four hipsacks of C10 rather than the two he'd used up. Still that was a big if. There was a crackle over his coms which was drowned out by the ongoing barrage.

 Lyri  stopped  Tarja...That's  something you won't  do....we already Lost a
 Pilot, and   had two  of our people  who are very god at their  Jobs  sent to the Hermes

   Lyri got on the COMs. Admiral?... she  sighed  trying to get a rein on her  anger, Admiral?  and....is the SM  there

 yes, Master Chief... what do you need?

 I  new fu.... A new recruit,  was left in the city, should be somewhere  By   the LZ  we used   when we landed... I...I thought  he was  with the  AI....people... Corporal Vanska  denies  him being part of the group... the end all is, the dumbass   didn't mount
 up...and  as Command  Its  my fault, for not counting heads,  Since I left the Mechs and AI to count their own

there was  silence.

 Admiral?

 No one is going in.. we keep doing this  we won't have  any people to fight.. The   shelling  will last another 15 Minutes...he'll have hope he's  smarter then he has been...stay ready for a COM though...

 Hack looked   Roy  , some shells  were falling short. most  were in a pattern around the centers of the City.. and the  shells  were  coming from around the clockface.

at that time, Beth sent   Roy a COM...SM...  i am choosing to send   down Sakura to replace   Maygin...It sure as fuck, not the best choice. But I'm hoping  she meets  Karma..

----> Hangar Dec

When the shuttle landed Izzy would quickly jog down the ramp and after quickly scanning the area would head over to where Roy was standing "Sergeant Major, I've been sent to take over as the squad's omni-com operator" she stated in a professional voice, her past experience in the US infantry meaning that she didn't make the rookie mistake of saluting or calling him sir "It will be good to be out in the field again, I feel too much like a duck in a shooting gallery in that tower" she continued with a smile briefly touching her lips before awaiting for him to issue her orders.

”oh-kay…belay that” Tarja slowly replied signalling for her team to stand down, a little surprised that considering they had just sent a squad of marines, a K-9 unit, or whatever the Larg equivalent was, and a mechanised unit to retrieve a single pilot, delaying a bombardment in the process, that they weren’t willing to allow a single squad to retrieve a marine. However orders were orders and not for her to question…or at least not publicly ”let me know if my comms need to malfunction…” she quietly offered before getting back to checking her suit for damage.

Once Lyri had departed she would get on her comms and try and reach Brian ”Corporal Corby, I do not know what you are doing but you either need to get out of city or in serious cover now!”

  Lyri    sighed a bit. her  anger did  not  as she looked to the walls. founts of  dirt and  rubble   flew into  the air at times, at others .

 other times  bright  flashes    started a  small glow that would become bigger  fires ..The  Admiral is  not in the habit  of  us making the same  mistake twice.. we lost the Pilot.. we shouldn't have, but that's their fish bowl we dove into.

 You weren't with us  on E-1. Meari can tell you about it... some dumbassed  Bitch..maybe  even an EDT plant, for all we know, almost got    the  assault teams killed, by refusing to  obey  orders.. we almost lost a few people because of that...

 godsbedamned shuttle  with  everyone   running to it, the ALL  COMs  telling  everyone to get out... and  he what? was distracted  by something shiny?... Its on him now..

 That  kid Miles? he risked his life to  get a venom sac.. Frakas, the Big  Sanri guy,, he   got torn apart... but  we got him back to the Hermes on time.... either one of them is worth 1000 of that whore bitch...

 she  just waved her   hand  in disgust  and  walked over   to a  cook stand   and  poured a coffee,

 meanwhile , QM  folks from the beach head, carried   fresh. boxes of  50 Cal  ammo for the  shuttle   bubble  guns

   moving  though the  camp, Shadow checked on the Pilots.  almost all where  in Good chape, he was waiting for   Niki and Lizzy to get  back  with Ranata.

 once he accounted  for    his  pilots  other then the  3  outstanding , he  made his To the command  tents .

   His eyes  darken when  he saw  izzy. godsbedamned , things  must be rougher on the Hermes  then i thought...  he stopped  at    The Admiral  and Roy.

  what  do you have  for us, Admiral .

  Hack  drank  from a  coffee  pointing to the cook unit. Shadow grabbed one,  tossing in sugar  cubes,

 three   of  the Yenti  entered the  Tent.. Divrot  stood   there  wit a female and another Male.hello once more, Admiral hack... This  is   Caska, she is  my #2... Wendo is  my #3

 You Know  LC Shadow and SM  spencer .  I was  waiting for you to come... before  we start, what do you know  about penitence.

 They are nothing buy slaves for the Angels, brought here over the eyars to work the great machines  below the cities.. every now and them they take one  or two out o live  among the Angels in Paradise.. this keeps the  other mindless fools  working, sometimes to the death..there are many...

 Divrot?  The Angels   fear your people as much as  mine, but they  have  treated  you poorly.. The  city has  another 9 minutes of shelling.. many. many places  are on fire..even a night there will be alot of light. but you have to watch the Shadows..when the shelling
 ends , your people  will  charge into the  city.. take any weapons from the angles you fine. they are yours  to keep.. our   assault  shuttles  will come in behind you and leap frog  your  people to help give  some suppressing  fire

 a  voice  from behind them says... I came  down  in a replacemanet   fighter   in the Jump seat..  They  sent a  Omincom down. You still are missing a rifle man  and tech  person

   Shadow  turned  and   Dusk  hugged him,, he patted her  back.you should have stayed  on the Hermes!

First...i have no ship...2nd.. Catain si has  Admiral  hennings, Captain Morris  and  beth  up there..as well as   Shoey.. 3rd..  they hurt my brother...

 hack Chuckled. Don't see you  winning this one, LC...

 No Sir,    I don't think i ever  won an arguement   with  Lady either.

  Dusk smiled,..you did..you just did not know it.

 Hack have her a gentle hand on her shoulder and she turned to stand  by  Roy.

  so... shelling stops ,.. Yenti enter,  shuttles   provide close supposrt, Fighters  air  support. LC?  If they have  any fighters  left.. they'll bring them out, this might be the last stand...

 when does the   end  come. Admiral hack.

  well  we don't know where The Most High is.. it would  end  with his  capture or death..

 he would be  in huis  city under the palace. everyone looked at him.

 Caska says , in a  rather alluring voice, if you  could past the   ragged   hair  and   moss covered armor. It is said. a  tube from the throne room leads  deep below.. there is  food  and   comfort down there, to last a few years if needs be. That is were he went , when the demons  came, and he made the proclamation  of a lottery for  whom would
 board the ships  for the Empire.

 hack  looked  at the others  and said...then? we got to the Palace  once  we  enter the   city.. send  COM markers  out Divrot, get your people ready.

 Meari was ready to head back into the city to get the newbie but they where ordered back, Meari smacks a barrel and dents it. " Damn I hope he is ok, I hope they will send us in to go get him as soon as the shelling stops." Meari made some repairs to her armor as she walked around in her skin tight undersuit. She also reloaded everything she could. Meari will listen to see if Corporal Corby answers Tarja.

   Lyri  drank her  coffee, and said to meari.Hard to tell whether Croby was/is  a dick  like harry was, and  went off on his own, or  whether he just  got lost. You don't expect  actions like that from a Marine.

 we'll find out after the shellign , whether he made it or not. because we'll be going right back in

Roy shook his head at Lyri's report.  "You may be responsible for not knowing he wasn't with us when the shuttles left, Master Chief, but the only one responsible for him not having the good sense of a common garden locust is him.  Unless you told him to go haring off on his own and ignore recall messages, he did this to himself."  He looked at Hack and shook his head again, this time with an expression of incedulity on his face.

"It's bad enough when our people get shot down behind enemy lines and we have to go in and rescue them, but for someone to go charging into a hot combat zone all alone, with minimal combat experience and nobody watching out for him to come back, at the very least?"  He paused for a moment, before asking Hack, "Can we send someone to the Delta colonies for being suicidally stupid?"

Without waiting for an answer, he asked, "Lyri, which FNG went missing?"

At about that point, Izzy reported in, Roy's expression showing a degree of exasperation that had nothing to do with her.  He gave her a nod in acknowledgement, and then had to split his attention between listening for Lyri's answer and following the conversation with Shadow, and then with the Yenti, mentally taking notes of the planned sequence of events and already creating contingency plans for the inevitable moment when something went sideways.  He gave a smile with some degree of relief when Dusk reported in...it wasn't as though he actually needed the extra rifleman, but she shared at least some of Shade's affinity for tech, in general...and it just didn't feel right going into combat without Shade nearby, but her presence made up for that in some degree.

"Trust a snake to hide in a hole in the ground..." he muttered.  He certainly knew where he wanted Admiral Hack to send them next...

Corby..the  'engineer'.. I am wondering if he didn;'t steal someone's ticket to ge here

-we can send people to the deltas  for a number of reasons... This  isn't like  a few years ago. People we were getting were not  too  far  off  of what we lost..they just needed  'baked' a few more hours.,  the last year or so , we have been getting  people  who no one wants, or   are still in the box  and we have to put them together

 LC.. how  bad   are those  Pilots.

  'bad' is a relative term..  they can   take off and land..wel..most of them... but these didn't even get boxed, they  just took them right off the   conveyor belt and sent them to us.

 a deep sip of his Coffee.Liste  was young and scared.. she should have  had at least another  3-6 weeks of training. she  died scared.. we lost another  one in the air...everyone's takign turns being shot down, but there are a few who seem to  like it..

Hack snorted   a laugh  and   taped  the Hold  in  Shadow's armor.. Shadow winced.there's no time now? but the minute  this  part of the Jumpoff is over. You find  major...

 Ta-LI. Mistress of the Night?   I think her  and  Stefi should be sent in?  We'll tell the Angels  , if they don'[t surrender,  we'll have them heal them...

no one was  laughing..well.. they were, just AT  shadow, not  of what he said...

 She's right behind me...isn't she....

Dusk lost it   as she leaned on Roy laughing.

 Yes.. LC... 'The Mistress of the Night  is behind you... I am surprised  you made such a Judgement.. You have not even seen  my....bedside manner.. I will take care of you when you return....  she moved  off to get a clean apron and start on another   trooper.

 Hack  grinned...Shadow sighed  as he  finished the rest of his  coffee in one gulp...Yeah..well.. maybe i'll get shot  down and  won't have to worry her  tender mercies...

  Go..get your people   ready..got  about  6 Minutes  yet..

Henry made sure that the largs were all fed, watered, and rested ready for whatever came next. Mila too, of course.

 Lizzy got Ranata into her jump seat, closed the canopy then rose up opening up on any Angels near them. Lizzy then blasted out of there heading for the beach head with Nikki joining her.

 They landed and Lizzy checked out her fighter and got ready to go back up.

  The crews  came over to  Lizzy and Nikki..as well as Ranata.go  and get food, we'll  check your machine,  The Cat  needs to go to one of the pool aircraft.... the word  will be given, sometime  after the shelling stops .

 Lizzy smiled and replied," Thanks guys, I will be back in a flash. Ok Ranata glad your ok see you back up there." Lizzy and Nikki then headed for food to get back when it was time to go back up.

 NA-CE got back with Shade and Maygin, she got them to the beachhead where they were patched up even more to go up to see Stefi on the Hermes. NA-CE felt bad about the pilot, and that look of fear in her eyes was haunting her.  She wished she had the chance to try to save her. NA-CE went to the med tent to resupply her med kit and relax for a bit.

 Meari gave Lyri a hard stare when she mentioned Harry, and replied," If he is anything like Harry I will kill him myself, that is one person I would love to gut and slowly watch die. Yes lets hope he made it, then we will go in and get him or what's left of him."

"Any preference on where we're deployed, Admiral?  Lt. Cross was wondering if we'd be going back in...I was pretty sure the answer would be yes."  While Roy's annoyance simmered behind his eyes, he kept it out of his voice and mannerisms when addressing Hack.

It was looking like there wouldn't be a whole lot of city left by the time they went back in, and there would be even less by the time the Yenti led the way.  "I know where I'd like to be sent...but we'll take whatever job you need us for."

  The Shells  finally   some  chugging across the  sky.     Hack sent  out the 'mount up' call.

 Lyri waved  like a farm wife  Hearding chickens... she said to Tarja, I ma  this  assault teaams  shuttle  commander... Corby is on me  for  not  making  a head count , instead  of  dropping   enemies...You how ever,,,if he is still alive.... have to decide  if you want him or not...of  course, , if the  thermite  or concussion, or frag  turned him to jelly?  it won't matter... the old  saying,  Stupid  games, stupid  prizes.

 the   teams mounted up..the  signal was  given... Sam..get me an open channel  ALL COM, pegging the   Angel feeds...
i
 as the Admiral waited  for confirmation, Hack told, Roy,we go in , a minute or  so  after the Yenti... i want them to have thier 'moment'...and ..yes.. we are going to the Palace.

Stepping out of the cloud of smoke he sent a com to the closest APF requesting instructions. Expecting to be told to stay put but hoping they'd toss him a tethered line for him to tie around himself and fly him out line a teabag; after sendingthe com he ducked back into the cover.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:50, Thu 15 June 2023.

Crouched down in front of her armour Tarja would continue to check one of the joints as she answered without looking away from her work ”If Corporal Corby wishes to join our unit then we will take him on and see how he performs…however…we cannot take him on until we return to Hermes” Tarja calmly replied as she jemmied out what appeared to be a stone fleck and threw it away ”…he needs to remain with marines until then, we cannot have tag along, it would be like having someone join marines wearing only underwear” she explained, turning to face her with a smear of grease on her cheek hoping that Lyri would understand that it would be dangerous for both him and her team to try and take him along without a suit and the training to use it ”…assuming of course he survives”

 Sam opened a channel and replied," Already done Sir, you have a open channel on all comms." Sam pegged all the Angel feeds she could.

   Lyri Nodded   as she  watched  the  AI  person work.Understood...,  when  we get back to the hermes, and  he is still alive. We'll see what the SM thinks abiut it.... get  your people  moutned up, its  time to load.

....................

 Thank you Sam....

 This is Admiral Hack of  the Delta  Fleet, and  ESN 351  Hermes.   I really don['t
 care if you  acknowledge  This ..some part of me hopes you don't.... a moment or two  after
 I finish this   COM,  our  people are  coming into Jerl to seize The Most High .... We also have , new allies. The Yenti. As reward  for thier  alliance. we are permitting them to  enter first.

 ANY...Angels  who wish to surrender.. MUST...  come  out into the streets  with  no armor or weapons.. that incudes civis... our  engineers  are goign to have Taped   lines  those who accept surrender. and  they will be  through out , to the closest gate  and assembled   out side the walls... Paradise  is  experiencing  what most of our enemies  have.... you can die   in some glorious attempt  to stop us... or you can surrender and rebuild...  There is also a 5000 cred  bounty on the Most high...and  safe Evac  for whomever   turned him in. Good Luck. and may whatever gods  your  pray to...take you in thier  arms...

 a minute later   horns  Blew across the  beachhead,,,   shuttles and Fighters   rose,  and the  Yenti   charged through the Gates  and  breeches  like a  hungry swarm of ants.

 Meari got up and finished getting her armor on and then said," Ok lets go kick some ass and see if we can find the newbie alive." Meari got the AI group together and then followed Tarja to their shuttle.

    Whatver Admiral Hack thought of the Yenti   entering the city( and  cities  around the world) this wasn't it.  Centuries   of   The Yenti being treated  as  Mistakes even to the point of being 'hunted' if they got to near a  bigger  city..

 The Yenti were  as savage  as   the reputation of their kind has been  stayed over the   centuries/  Angels  who confronted them  would Gun down  two or three  each, but  would be  savage  torn to pieces   by the   unleashed  people of the wilds.

 LT  Cross  from his   Shuttle  said,,,Admiral? should we....

 No , LT Cross... we all have a bit of an Idea of  what the Yenti suffered....and whatever that  idea is....isn't within hailing distance of the truth... Let the Yenti have their vengeance.  I just want the planet...any Angels that survive  and  become good APF citizens  is a bonus.

..............

  Scarlett who was stuck with the OmniCom .The Yenti  have  passed  the area whe    the Marine is...he  is   asking for Pick up...

 Lets go get him... we lost him, we  should  retrieve him!

...........

 Stoly's  shuttle  lead  the  'V' towards   the Place..  the hermes  Aiur wing, such as it was,  flew  above them... attacking   targets on the ground , head  of the   devastating   tidal wave , that was the Yenti.

Lizzy got back to her fighter with Nikki and they launched with what was left of the Hermes flight wing. They lost a lot of people in this battle she would think about at send-off.

 Lizzy hooked up with Fitz and headed towards the city,Ok Nikki let's go and help the wave of Yenti.

Roy gave a satisfied nod when Admiral Hack stated that they were going to the palace.  The fastest way to end this was to have their 'Most High' dragged out into the streets like the depraved criminal he was.  That would shatter any remaining myth about the invulnerability of the Angels, if anyone in the smoldering ruins of Jerl still believed that myth, and it would immediately weed out the zealots...they'd be outraged, highly unlikely to stand by silently.  And it would also signal to those Angels who'd held desperate hope for deliverance that their time had come and they were no longer under the Most High's thumb.

"Yes, sir," he answered with a voice tinged with grim satisfaction.  He readied his kit, boarding when the order was given.

When it was announced that the missing Marine was now in the clear, Roy gave a nod.  "You peel off and pick him up, Lyri...we'll keep pushing to the palace.  Get there when you can, you'll be good backup for us, and it will keep whatever forces the Most High has guarding his bolt-hole from getting a clear count of just how many of us are coming.  If they're tied up in combat when a second and then third shuttle land, they won't have any good idea how many or what kind of forces are coming at them."

Izzy would quietly stand off to one side whilst the Admiral made his announcement to troops and Angels alike. When the time came for them to mount up she would stay close to Roy and follow him onto the shuttle and take a seat, fully intending to stick close to him until she received further instructions from him. Once inside the shuttle she would quietly begin to check over her equipment and the omni-comm unit.

”Roger that master chief…MOUNT UP!” Tarja replied before shouting out to her team resulting in them quickly scrambling to get back into their armour and following her and Meari back to the shuttles at a brisk jog ”If he’s alive we’ll get him” she replied to Meari in regards of recovering Brian, wanting to get their would be recruit back to the assault team so he would have the opportunity to join them if he wanted to.

  The Yenti  swarmed over rubble , they enter buildings   by the dozens. Most  times looting as they went, but    always fighting...

 behind them  were left , very few Civies  with crying children, who suddenly looked  upon ESN troopers  as saviors

 PO Fennes  settled the Shuttle  Down,OK  MC..were down.....

she looked over the mechs  and such  and Nodded to   Tarja...Take  your AI... bring him back...wh have to go find god... lookign at the   wiggling Largs.sorry Folks? the rest of us  wait here,,, then we get to be the surprise. on the Elite  faces when  we hit the palce  after  the SM  and Cross  get there.

 She  stood at the Bottom of the Ram. her to the starboard, Nifty to the Port. Lookign for targets.

Drop ship troops  filed  in..  enginneers  setting up , lime green  tape  on  boards  or  rebar, for the Civies  to make thier  way  to the rear..... some troopers   carried   yOung angels  while thei Moms  or Dad   followed, most times  nursing wounds.

.............

 8 minutes  into the    flight..  what was  left of the  Paace, looked more Like a brokem  hand  reaching to the  sky..  They were ahead of the   Yenti but about   10 or  15 minutes...  Bubble gunners were already  engaging  troops  and    ad hoc AA  guns...

 On the dirt in....3......2.....1... Ramps  are open! stoly shouted.

Watching out for threats he'd managed to avoid both further injury from the shelling and revealing his location.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:02, Thu 15 June 2023.

 NA-CE stayed with the SM and when Izzy showed up she smiled and said," Hello Izzy I didnt expect you down here I thought you worked on the Hanger dec during jump-offs with Sam." NA-CE was ready to get going as they boarded the shuttles and headed into the battle.

 Once the ramp went down Meari went down the ramp, opening up with her 5mm gatling gun and pulse weapon as she then got Brian's location on her hud and said," OK I see him lets go get him." Meari led the way moving fast and watching for any survivors from the Yenti to kill.

"Okay, people, we've got a galactic-class despot to unseat here.  Let's go give him an idea of just what kind of monster Dr. Frankenstein made with the genetic bits and pieces that made it to Earth..."  He was calm...an unpleasant kind of calm, with a glint in his eye that spoke of punishment to be meted out to the Angels defending what was left of their government.

As he led troops down the ramp and used hand gestures to fan them out to get firing positions on the hastily improvised defensive positions the remaining Angel Elite had taken, he said into his comm, "Cross, give us ninety seconds to engage...then I want you to set down on the far side of the palace remains and come flooding in behind them.  Lyri, give me a heads-up when you're moving again...if we're still on the surface, I'll shift west, so Cross is coming in from zero degrees, you'll be hitting them from one hundred twenty degrees, and we'll be pushing from two-forty, more or less...that keeps us out of each others' direct fire arcs as we start moving in.  If we make it inside before you get here, we'll update plans then."

Settling in along the jagged remains of a wall that now looked kind of like a row of shattered teeth, he braced himself before taking a look around the side to assess where the enemy was...he'd decide what he was doing when he had some idea where the enemy was and what they were doing...

  Cross   COMed Back...already done!  The Cats   aere  ready and  so are the Gava...

.............

 Lyri   answers, Already  done. we will lift off  as soon as  we  find the lost sheep.

........

   Hack Looked to Roy...This is where you take over... ask  me  for orders  when you feel you must... but this  ends...today

  Dusk's helmet  and dd shames   face  mask, made her look like  an unholy beats, unless you saw her   eyes. They..it  didn't matter.

 I'm sure they can see... But  COM   Captain SI, let  the Hermes  know were going  in..

fires  burnd. 100's of bodies  burned... This deep int the city, none of them  were  APF....Ensign, COM Beth.. They here  we   what, what ever  Imagery  we can get on that down, especially  the   one in the middle , that is  more or less , intact.

 The fighters  cam in  Hot.. shooting up  within a hlaf mile of the palasce.. Then  Frans  called...Here they come..screens shows  thier  formations  are terrible, they  must be scarping the bottom of the barrel..

 Shadow chuckled...good..we'll be  even.....Did all you  stick jockeys here that?... we have been fighting tThe cream od the crop since we entered  the system.... It doesn't matter one  damn bit, if they  can  live a few thousand years..one  37 MM round can end  things   for anyone...Those Elite bastards  had  never face the enemy before..and  now? most of them are dead....

 all of you fledglings.. listen close..... none of you have fought  anyone  until these last  past hours....  so? It's not  going to  Come  down , to Me....Frans... Hwe  , Foster  or  He-La...or any of us vets.... It will come down to who has the better rookies....I think, that should be more  then enough to start Clipping  wings.....

 Howe?

 we got   top cover, over the Palace.

 Everyone else.... Lets go meet these bastards...  the  rest of the Hermes win  rose  up to the   north west.... as did  most of  Athena's  wing

Taking off with the others of 351 Squadron. Justin's Skeeter in the outer Starboard slot of C Flight. The Hermes Squadron, lead by LC Shadow moved to engage the oncoming Angle Bogies.

"Where do you need the largs?" asked Henry, surrounded by an excited pack, most with at least the front pair of legs in the air, and an excited fur-larg too.

   Hack looked at Henery and  the pair of Largs  and white  fur-larg.each unit  will have to use the Largs  as they need them... I  don't want to over extrand the Largs.. we'll need them  once  we get inside  that  Palace.

 Once we get in there. it will be  seek and destroy... I would Like to take some Angel Elites and  The Most High prisoner... their executions  will be horrible and public...but i could like with their heads on display...

 Lizzy with Nikki on her wing headed for the city and chewed up more, but then more fighters on their screens.

 Lizzy then followed the rest of the Hermes wing to take on the new batch of bottom of the barrel Angel pilots. " Ok lets go Hermes, lets get these bastards." Lizzy and Nikki headed for the incoming enemy fighters.

Izzy would pause in the act of checking her sidearm for the second time to listen to Beth’s message before relaying it to Roy and the Admiral ”Beth says they’re detecting some kind of power surge growing…like in Delta prime?” she said with it clear by the confused look and uncertain tone of voice betraying the fact that she didn’t understand that particular reference, with her hoping that they did.

When NA-CE took a seat near her and said hi, Izzy would offer her a surprisingly cheerful smile for someone sent to join an assault team ”Yeah I do, though not entirely through choice…my skillset kind of lends itself to comms work but I did field training…anyway they needed an omni-comm operator so Beth volunteered me” she said with a shrug that mind of implied that those were the breaks for a junior officer. With an impish smile appearing on her scarred face she would lean in and whisper to NA-CE ”Beth probably thinks she’s punishing me…but I want to be here…at least here I will be holding a rifle and not a keyboard when they shoot at me”
This message was last edited by the player at 18:38, Thu 15 June 2023.

Moving before the ramp had even fully dropped, Tarja would exit the transport and start moving in the direction of Brian’s beacon ”Alpha team moving to recover target, Bravo team cover us” she said as she moved down the rubble strewn street, with the palace looming up ahead like a broken tooth ”Corporal Corby! First Armoured Infantry, we’re here to bring you back in!” she would call through her suit’s speakers, keeping a wary eye out for any Angels that may have avoided the Yenti.

In reply to Tarja Vanska (msg # 46):

When the shelling stopped he was able to hear coms on his headset. Peeking out he spotted a APF shuttle heading in his direction. Standing on its ramp was one of the AI he'd met the day before. Over here. Mind dropping the end of a rope for me to climb he commed.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:41, Fri 16 June 2023.

 Meari and the Bravo Team covered Alpha team as they jumped out of the shuttle as well using their jump jets the land and head towards Brian covering Alpha team. " Already done Tarja, right behind you." Meari then sent on Brians frequency," Corporal we are hear come on out we will get you out of here. Go towards Tarja."

Giving the Sergeant a thumbs up he headed towards Tarja as ordered. Reaching Tarja he smiled nervously. Thumbing at the demolished
Building. :Got a bit busy rigging that little beauty. Missed the recall."

Nikki clapped RaNaTa on the shoulder.  "Glad your okay" she said stepping towards him and Lizzy.  She walked with them when ground crews said they would take care of thier rides.

"Well, shit..." Roy growled under his breath.  That would explain the whole underground bunker notion...

"Admiral, alert the Fleet to expect a Creshian vessel to be launching from the surface.  Stoly!" he barked into his comm.  "We may find ourselves in need of a dust-off from a moving object, I hope you brought your A-game today."

He shook his head.  There were two ways to play this...and he wasn't feeling conservative today.  "Listen up, troops!" he explained into the comm.  "Hermes is reporting an energy surge, similar to something we saw back on Delta Prime...when a subterranean Creshian vessel decided to make a run for it and pretty much levelled the building my squad and I were in...we made it out just in time."  He paused for just a moment, then continued.

"There's two ways to handle this...you either want to be completely clear of the area, so you don't get buried in the upheaval, or you get through the buildings and onto the ship so that you're somewhere solid when they break ground.  We pull back, the Most High escapes, and I'm not liking that plan at all.  So, unless someone's got a stronger Plan B option, we're gonna hit the defensive positions and try to charge through them before they know what hit them, and get into the palace and under it to the ship."

He looked over in Henry's position.  "You wanted to know where we needed the largs, Doc?  Everywhere, as fast as possible, tearing Angels apart.  If we can get in there, we can potentially get their engines shut down before they lift off...and if we can't do that, we can at least be first boots on the boarding action when they try to run through the Fleet.  On your call, Doctor Christie, the largs start taking down the Angel defenders and we'll follow them in as fast as we can move."

"Right, on it..."

Henry gathered the largs and gave them directions, focussing them on the direction the assault needed to move.

"Mila, stay by me. May need you to scout later. The rest of you... go eat. Angels are on the menu!"

 NA-CE smiled and replied," Oh yes, and Beth volunteered you because of your field background I presume."

 " In time you will tell me my Beth might punish you, but it seems like you said did you a favor, maybe you have found your place Izzy, you seem very happy to be here." NA-CE Then got ready as they where about to land.

With Brian breaking cover and moving over to her, Tarja would give him a questioning look in response to his statement before replying through her speakers ”ok…we will work on your comms work when we get back, but now you need to follow…all units back to shuttle!” Tarja cooly replied to Brian, deciding that her many questions would wait, before comming the rest of the team.

Being sure to make sure that Brian was following them this time around, Tarja would lead the AI back to the waiting shuttle, comming  Lyri on a private channel as they went ”This is Bo peep We have lost sheep, returning to shuttle” she replied, delivering the the joke in a perfectly deadpan voice as she did so.

Once the entire team and Brian were on the shuttle Tarja would signal that they were good to go before turning to speak with Brian ”you were very lucky, not even suit will survive direct hit from artillery…next time pay attention to comms” she said in a firm voice though she suspected that compared to others that her reprimand would be mild in comparison ”Master Chief and I had conversation about your future…I said we would take you upon our return to Hermes…if you’re still interested of course?”

  Lyri pounded on the hull, and the Ramps  closed.As fast as you can  to the palace thing

  This is  Fennes... Fiend is  coming in  hard  we should reach the palace in 2...

  walking  through the crowed  cargo section , , stopping  at Croby,while your efforts  are appreciated, You still have to beware of what is going on around you. Ty still have the creases in your  uniform, you can't  expect to  have the enemy give you a pass , because you are  new.

 Turning her  head  to  Tarja,Orria  found  an energy SIG around the palace.. it  rather Big, and  it is  circular. which means its  not  power  for  a transporter  or   even city needs. We are thinking its a Buried   vessel, or  at least one that is housed underground..we are trying to get there before it takes off.....

................

 Hellion here..  all  Hellraisers  are in vectour  for the Main  Spine of the Palace...   The Devil  and  us  should reach it  in  1.... ...

...............

 Cavi COMed...we will be reaching the  Pointy Building in that time...we will be ready..

..........

 Hack   Studied the   map on his Vidboard, He Looked at  the SM.That's  not a transporter.. transporters   have a  solid Block SIG...... City power plants  are more or   least the  same, only smaller and spread out...... This is a  vessel.. it has to be... with the  1/2  mile  radius.. it wil be  at least  as big as the Hermes... it  could be slightly  Bigger or smaller, Depending on the  armor   and  such.... They will have the same  problem getting off that surface as any of  our  ships, Destroyer  size and Up.. Gravity won't want to let them go,, even if they are using  Plasma for a power source, it will take them ,  I dunno?  5-10 Minutes.. That should   gibe our   shuttles  time  to lock on...If it has
 Jump capabilities  it  can't Jump far, especially since we don't know how long its  been down there? Hell? it  might blow itself up?...

  the troopsm ran towards the Builinf  Angels were there, alot of them.. Most wore  the Black of the EDT, or Angel Elite....if there was any differance... Largs   from the shuttles n tore off   into the  enemie..  which, saved alot of assault  troops lives  as the  Angle s tried to shoot at them, as the    ran and slithered  though the  ruins. Angels   dies, with  each tick of the clokc. meanwhile the assault  troops   charged  forward...

  The Mech and  AI   were Just told.Kills stuff  and get as an oe0nign  or  secure a doorway... when the ground starts  shakeing,  we got to be inside  or   in a shuttle.

   Fighters  closed  with the enemy fighters. And once more the  battered Hermes  wing attacked,  There was a difference... the Angels   still out numbered them, but  not  as much as before...and  erratic  flight  meant  that some of the Angels weren't  very good..

 here we go , boys and girls... time  to send  Angels  to hell.... slamming  the throttle fully forward. , he went into  a screw,

  Maddy.... you wing with the LC... Kat and I will set  up as another  pair.. If the   Felrite  can make it back into action you can go back to your wing..don;t let the kill the LC!

even as she  spoke  one of the Hermes   pilots  vanished  in fighter  and scrap metal..

As He ran forwards encouraging the largs to attack any Angel that moved, Her Human turned to Mila and sent her forwards to scout for a viable entrance. His presence in her mind was a comfort as she trotted forwards and began to snout around.

Behind her, she could hear His shotgun also doing damage to any Angel he could see.

B flight was up in the lead, and Madison was right up there at the front with LC Shadow. Her wingman, Ra'Na'Ta' was still grounded and they had lost so many. The rearrangement put her back with her boss, which was just fine with her.

On the order, they engaged the ragtag formation of Harps. These pilots didn't seem as sharp. They were still in big numbers, but not at big as before. Before, she could hardly move without taking some hits, or fire without hitting something. Now they were dogfighting in a bigger sky.

The angels didn't hesitate as the ESN squadrons approached. Two sets of three came in on the leader. That was the LC. Madison moved to distract, firing into their formation and turning her ship into their line of sight. If she hit anything, it wasn't obvious, but some heavy clunks and a shake in her seat and stick made it clear that they hit her.

 Lizzy and Nikki flew towards the Angels, Lizzy flew in and covered Nikki as they both went after bad guys. Lizzy opened fired and made one Angel explode, and evaded any hits herself. " How you doing Fury lets take care of these with haste so we can cover our troops,"

She would offer NA-CE a bit of a non-committal smile when she suggested that perhaps she had found a place in the unit ”Maybe…it’s been a while since I was last in the field, also I’m not exactly the most imposing of people for an assault trooper” knowing that there would be more than a few people she would need to win over first ”…but yeah it’s good to be back in the field” she said flashing the Angel woman a smile.

As they made their approach on the capital, Izzy would learn what they meant by Delta Prime and that their might be a ship buried under the palace ”…or a weapon” Izzy quietly suggested with her hoping that she was wrong on this occasion.

Once they landed Izzy would keep close to Roy as she followed the assault team into the palace, firing upon the black clad Angel’s as she did so with short, methodical bursts of her weapon before ducking into cover once again.

Roy grunted at the various comments on what the power source might be.  "If it looks like what we saw on Delta Prime, it's a ship.  We hadn't even found out about transporters back when we visited Delta Prime, and the only weapons we faced were pretty conventional stock."  He popped up, firing a trio of bursts at a cluster of Angels who had taken a sudden interest in trying to shoot the largs that were tearing up their companions, then ducked back down behind the ruins and moved forward and into the debris field, before popping up again and repeating the effort.

It wasn't quite the standard sniper "shoot and scoot", but the principle still applied...once he finished firing at one spot, he relocated, so next time he popped up, the Angels would have to reacquire him as a target.  Their problem was, they were fighting from fixed positions, so as long as Roy could keep his general sense of direction, he knew more or less where he was looking for targets.

Mentally, he had started counting down the five minutes in the back of his mind as soon as it had been mentioned.  There was no question that the Angels remaining on the surface were disposable, as far as the Most High was concerned, and they probably had no idea what was going to happen to their positions if they managed to repel the APF forces that were attacking.

Karl had expended a lot of ammo in the initial incursion, supporting the ground troops as they tried to rescue the downed pilot.  When they withdrew and the tanks and artillery took over, he took advantage, racing back to the Hermes to replenish his magazines, even though they weren't completely spent yet.

He was inbound again when he heard he report about the energy signature.  Delta Prime was before his time with the Fleet, but he'd heard bits and pieces about it in crew conversations or when people on the ship got started telling old war stories.  Truth be told, he'd been skeptical about it...until the same thing had happened to a mountaintop on Bura.

"They want to get in to a Creshian ship?" he mused aloud, dubiously.  He'd only ever seen the things from a distance, and their ships from the exterior, but it sounded like a terrible place to be stranded.  Still...

"Okay, Ed...let's see what we can do about getting him there faster..."  The first thing was to hit the anti-air emplacements that had been improvised in the wreckage...that would eliminate possible combatant personnel for the ground troops and make things safer for the fighters.  Plus, every time one of them fired, the IR signature practically screamed "SHOOT ME!!!" in dayglow letters.

"Priority one--air defenses.  Anything that's shooting up, knock it down.  Priority two is clusters of Angels around the palace.  Stay well clear of the line of contact...anything within forty meters of our lead elements, leave it alone.  As fast as the largs move, a target in that range could be clear when we fire and swarmed by largs by the time the round lands.  Light 'em up, Ed..."

The howitzer and heavy pulse cannon began raining fire down on the defenses around the palace, with the AI taking its own initiative to further prioritize the possible LZs of the other two shuttles that were incoming.  Gouts of dirt and shattered building materials heaved into the air as rounds impacted, some of the upheaval amplified by collateral damage done to the power cells for the anti-air weapons.

Upon returning to the shuttle Lyri would update them on the situation, with it becoming apparent that some kind of ship was present and that they either had to get inside or get clear before it attempted to take off ”Don’t worry master chief We’ll find a hole…or make one” she replied from where she was stood by Brian.

Upon landing Tarja would move out of the shuttle at a run and head straight towards the nearest doorway, sending a mini missile out ahead of her to clear out any defenders, her gatling gun firing as she went so that she and her team could smash a hole through the defenders and into the palace.

  Billy with Machines   each took a   fighter  down, thought  Billie felt her's  was   Luck as the    pilot   pulled to the starboard  and 'ran into the 37MMs...it was still a  Kill/

 Mikki    got hit  pretty  hard.. but  seet    two    burts of  heavy Pulse    at a  enemy  with a bubble  light on, it  moved,,, and the   aircraft  behind it too the  full burst without any warning

 Shadow , was  flying as  if  Physic   didn't  matter  to him, the   Skeeter  was moe  like a body then an aircraft...Alright  Maddy, Flores  stuck you with  me, so her and Kat  can got  clean up  aircaft... I'm  goign to shoot  at  any aircraft that has  a Leader Bubble on.. you stay close  and   clean off those who are following him, lets  see  what we can do..

 a Red Lighted   Halo    was  blown  apart  , shadow went  through the debris, like a  fighter   delivered  an upper cut,  knowing he   might  take a jab....The White tailed   Skeeter was drawing attention.

 Lizzy saw Nikki get hit hard and another fighter was coming after her, Lizzy banked hard and lined up a shot on the bastard and let the Angel have it. She hit the Angel hard ripping a wing off and the fighter headed for the city to crash.

 Lizzy then com'd Nikki," Hey Fury how are you doing, you need to go get fixed up or can you stay?"

Nikki had already shot one down when her craft was rocked.  Yellows lit up and a few reds,   she quickly vented and adjusted to keep control of her skeeter.  Lizzys voice came in her ear. "Just dinged me a bit" she had another angel literally fly in her sites.  She took the moment to readjust his universal view... for the last time.  she hit her guns and he was gone.  "But you know me...I do my best work when I'm dinged up" she then gave a laugh "lets teach these Angels about falling from grace." her tone got serious.

Madison followed close. The Angels were so focused on the LC that they hardly paid her any attention. But so far all she had been able to do was scatter the Harps.

"Ugh! This \is so frustrating. How am I missing? I did better against their elites"

  Shadow  had a  dark chuckle.anyone can shoot fish in a barrel,  the question is, can you shoot them  , when they are in a lake!

    Weaving through  Aircraft, he totally ignore  some,,  one  pair  sideswiped  each other  as he cut through, No one would get credit for them..but they were just as  dead as a Confirmed kill,

 Eckles   cried out...,,I'm Hit,,, I  Hit!!...

 Frans?

 I'm In a  fight!...

 Mara?

 Got her LC!...

 Take her  back, get anew  ride  and reload, if she Pods  out  , you pick her up, or  be top Cover...

 Alkrweady Done, LC..

 Betty..what ever you do... don't  Pod out   in the city. I don't know how much is going to  be left  if that vessel  breaks through..

 ..I'll ..I'll Try!

 You'll damn well do it!... I can't lose  one of the 1st 24..we lost too many already.


 they aware another  Pair  of  fighters, Both on thier  own, trailing  Black smoke  as they headed for the beach head.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:41, Sat 17 June 2023.

    The   ground was shaking,  it was hard  to tell at first because  of grenades and  such...  some  smaller  rubble fall off of bigger  rubble   as the assault  teams  closed in on the   odd  looking tower...

 Hack  felt the  exilartion but  couldn't enjoy it, because  the Assault teams  could die  here and now...and he had  no idea how the  Fellet would react.

  We have to get inside  that towers,, Make Holes.. find  holes.  try to stay together!... no one  by themselves!!

  the tower  was  eastily  60 feet hit. it  was damaged  a bit at the   top, but the rest  seemed? Dented..

  Will call out in all  COMs,,,do Towers  ....dent?

Mila scampered over to the tower, seeking a way in.

In reply to in the air. (msg # 68):

Justin flanked Waggles as their Skeeters angled towards a cluster of bogies. Locking on to their lead Justin lined it up and squeezed off two bursts when his targetting toned; these pelted the bogie, prompting a half smile as he thought One down 29 to go! Angling to Port, he lined the 25 towards the lead Bogies wing support fighter. Justin quickly glanced in Waggles direction checking how his wingman was doing, before refocusing on the secondary bogie. Rolling his Skeeter to Starboard and getting the bogie in his sights, which lit up and toned. Squeezing off two controlled bursts at the next bogie in his sights.

Grateful for the pointers from Lyri; he gave her a thumbs up. Relieved that there wasn't much of a mess up. CPO Lyri can I restock with blocks of C10?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Wed 21 June 2023.

Noticing, in his peripheral vision, distant clusters of Angels suddenly being tossed in the air by the ground around them heaved into the air by fire from his personal favorite unseen source of fire support, Roy focused on clearing a path straight ahead.  "No, Call, towers don't dent.  Spires on buried spaceships dent pretty well, though, if you hit 'em with a big enough hammer..."  He pushed ahead, doing his shoot and scoot, trusting that Izzy, as a much smaller target, was sticking close and evading any enemy fire, and taking note when the suddenly strangled cries of alarm from Angels indicated that the largs had found another cluster of them.

Delight flooded Henry's mind all of a sudden. Over at the base of the tower, Mila was indicating that she had found something.

"Gather on Mila's position. She's found a way in!" Henry called - aloud and via comms - as he ran over towards where she stood, nose pointing at what he saw was a hatch as he got closer.

Izzy would keep up with Roy the best she could, trying her best to maintain the steady balance between close enough that she was there if he needed her, but far enough away that they didn’t make an attractive target for a grenade. Using her small size to her advantage she would hunker down behind a piece of rubble that many would be unable to shelter behind and take a moment to look up at the tower upon hearing Will’s comment with her reaching a similar conclusion to Roy, silently cursing the fact that she was yet to get her drones anywhere near completion.

As Roy moved off again she would lean around her cover and provide suitable covering fire for him before moving on herself, keeping as low as she could as she dashed the short distance to the next piece of cover ”SM, The doc says he’s found a way in!” she called to Roy before patching  through to Henry on her comms ”Hey Doc, what’s your current location, over?”

There was an horrific crack, followed by a scream as Tarja crushed the Angels wrist with a slight squeeze of her fingers, the knife falling from the black clad angel’s fingers moments before Tarja shot him at point blank with a pulse weapon.

It hadn’t taken her team long to gain access to the palace with them forging a path for Lyri and her marines as they fought from room to room in search of a way into the ship reported to be within. Hearing Henry’s report that he had found a way in, Tarja would use her HUD to locate the doctor and then find the quickest route to him ”I need door here now!” she shouted down her comms as she pointed to the wall that she wanted one of the mechs to smash through, with anyone on the other side in for a big shock!

 The AI as a group made their way towards the Palace the team shot any Angels on the way, Meari saved her 5mm and mainly used pulse and her Udenese paired knives cutting down any Angel in her way. Meari grabbed an Angel by the arm and ripped it off and then blew the Angel's head off with a pulse shot. They made their way into the Palace once inside they split up.



 Meari surprised an Angel by landing beside him then grabbing his head and ripping it off of his head and throwing it at his buddies. The rest of her team moved in from behind and gunned them down before Meari could be attacked. They kept searching for a way in when Mila's report came in. Meari brought up her Hud for the fastest route to Mila and the Doc. They were close really close, Meari scanned the wall in front of her and then using as minimal 5mm as she needed shot a door then tried to break through carefully smashing into it using hers and the suits strength to make a door.

 NA-CE stayed close to the SM and Izzy, one to help protect the coms and have the medic nearby. She shot any Angels she saw with weapons as they headed for the Palace and a way into the ship.

     Morgan  and Kira  started  to  pound  on the   wall...This isn';t a Building.. it  metal, and its   not artwork...  Morgan said into all COMs.

 Kira   Punched  and  Kicked the     wall that  they   targeted.

 Sergi  and   Andruss   beat up another  spot.. Scarlet  said...Beth  gave as  a 10 minute  count  down, to be  inside, or the 9 hells out of here.. 9:30 and counting...


   LT  Cross's  teams  heated towards  Mila  and The  SM's  unit..  Hemlsy didn';t  mess  around, he  Blew  the Hatch...

"Use the HUD on your helmet's visor...it'll show you the positions of everyone in the area," Roy said tersely, shooting at more Angels as he shifted his approach to angle in on Mila's position.  He thought about, and discarded, the idea of pointing out that Henry had been on standard comms and pretty much every ESN trooper and pilot in the area had heard his declaration of Mila's locating an access point.  She's been on relay duty for a few months, it's habit by now...

"Do or die time, people...if you're not on your way to rendezvous with Mila, it's time to clear out.  If you're not outside the affected area when that ship breaks through, you better be on board, or else you're gonna be buried by a few tons of earth and rubble.  No judgment if you decide to clear out at this point, but you damned well better be all in or completely out."  He fired off a few more bursts, depleting that magazine and swapping to a fresh one, before he started moving again.

Nikki quieted most of her alarms when she noticed a flight of Harps intent on going someplace in a hurry.  She was protected by part of a 'building' and easily came in on their six high.  She was within range in moments and opened up with her guns.  The one she hit sputtered, began smoking, then spiraled steeply to a fiery demise.  The pilot tried podding out, but failed and ended up getting sliced in two by his own craft.  Nikki used it as a moment to remember to not pod out in a death spiral.  That Angel panicked. "one more down"

Frustrated with the way she had been missing her targets, Madison streamlined her flying patterns. She felt like maybe she was too worried about getting hit herself to. Defensive flying was smart, but in worrying too much about it, she actually got hit more. The Harps were more focused on Shadow, and she was playing coy.

It was time for a new strategy. Sweeping around with her LC, Madison got two enemy craft in her scope. They were zeroing on in Shadow, but she knew his path. Using that to predict their position, she waited until they were lined up then accelerated into a corkscrew. The first broke apart and spiraled down leaving a smoke trail until it crashed into a building. But the second was hit in the power cell, making it into a bright red ball of fire.

"Yes! Finally. I was starting to feel useless up here."

  Shadow   laughed in the COMs, he was having  fun! Don't You worry Maddy, we all have  those  shot  we miss.... It wouldn't  be  as  Fun, if  it weren't a challenge

 Mara   Came on the COMs... Eck  made it back LC.. I'm landing to reload, while she gets  another   bird, we'll come back together,

  Good  Job Mara....  better hurry though, Maddy's  getting greedy she might not leave you  two anything. .

 Flores   and Kat were taking apart Halos  and Harps

  People   Surged  to the  Hatch Mila had   found..    Hemsly and Ellen went  down..  then   Supe  and   Hodden   followed.  Tucker    right behind  him

 7:34 and counting


 .............

 the  mechs   finally  tore  off a few  sheets  of  plating,,, Segri  said.. we have  Hole  now too... we go in   now, Da?

Tarja would glare at what transpired to be the ships hull and not a wall, meaning that her plan to create a shortcut through the wall in order to reach Henry had hit a bit of a snag. Thankfully before it got time for her to call a hasty retreat the mechs would manage to tear open a hole ”yes, we need to be inside now! So move it comrade” Tarja replied as she and her section quickly entered the breach so they could hold it long enough for the mechs to enter ”This is Corporal Vanska we have made secondary entrance, entering ship now” she said over an open channel so as to not only make others aware of another way in but to let command know that they were inside.

 Lizzy flew with Nikki and Nikki got one, Lizzy turned hard and blasted the wing off another it as well went into a death spiral but the Angel didnt pod out and the ship exploded when it hit a building. Lizzy didnt get hit that time around but she had taken a few hits. She then hooked back up with Mikki to look for her next target.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 15:30, Mon 19 June 2023.

 Once there was a path to the hatch Meari led her group and any others to the hatch and waited to see what was next and if anyone had opened the hatch yet to go in.

Henry, Mila, and any largs in the area streamed in through the hatch once Hemsley had blown it. As he ducked in, Henry turned his head to call "All largs, come here NOW or flee well out of the way! Larry, round them up with one of your bellows, please."

  Larry looked  around  standing on his hind legs  and  let out a  Roar, that was more fearsome, as it   blared out of   his larg head gear.

  troops  streamed  to the   Hatch way  as   Stoly and   Cavi     wavered in the air,  using  their   bubble  guns  to  take  out  snipers in windows, or  chew up  crumbling Rubble. Paradise  had never seen hard ammo, save  the weapons they brought back from earth or  from facing off Largrans.

 NA-CE was with Roy when he went in she was right behind him with Izzy. Coms before med this time. NA-Ce was staying close and was ready to run and help someone out if they needed it.

     Rising Above the    thinning Cloud  of   Angel  aircraft , Shadow studied the   scene, there  with  dozens of   smoke tendrils  rising from the   ground to the sky, where  Pilots  had been  planted  and the  smoke  stalks rose into the air to mark their resting places

 All Hermes  Pilots... rally on me.....

 Eckles and Mara  were on they way back

 Alright  folks, there are  very few  aircraft i can see with  Bubbles on, so Most of those  aircraft  are going to be vets... But remember, we are  the Invaders here... But we are coming   for vengeance,,, Not only have the Angels been taking as many people  as  the other   Empire  races..but they lied to us...since the   very first  human they approached... Those  Angels  down there  are  forming up.. they are  fighting for their  homes.. we are fighting to take  it...

 in what sounded like a barely  restrained snarl..Keep these   three th9ngs in Mind....1... The Most High killed   1000s  of  humans  just to slap our  face.... Shadows  Law  says  we   need 1000  angels  for every human  killed by them....2... Those  fighters that are  coming to us? They can still kill you..one lucky shot is all it takes.... and, 3... This is no longer   Combat, this is  extermination... you stay with your  wingman, other then  that... its   free for all.. kill  them all..  run them into a  Mountain, shoot them down if they try to run, But there  will be  no Angel Aircorps  above our new city!

Justin squeezed off a burst into the bogie he'd lined up. The flash followed by a cloud  of exploding power cells sent pieces of the fighter, and what was an instant ago its Pilot, plummeting to the ground. Acknowledging Krays com Justin flanked Waggles as C Flight formed up on Shadow's Port.

 Lizzy listened to the LC and got fired up, just them sending their own people to the Demons was good enough for her to kill them all. " Lets go make Angels Fall from the sky."

 Lizzy then locked in on what she hoped was a leader, he saw her and opened up. Lizzy got some good damge, but she was still ok, she lined up her 37 mm and she didnt miss she tore off both aluminum wings and the Angel went falling to Paradise like a missile.

Why change what was working. Shadow rendered his orders. Knock every damn angel out of the sky. With Madison's wingman being the most targeted pilot in the sky, she wouldn't even have to break formation. Staying close, she waited for the next attack on her boss. It wasn't a long wait. Once the Harp centered in her scope she accelerated into her corkscrew. She was right on target. The lead craft sputtered and dropped, breaking into pieces as it fell. The pilot was one of the debris, too dead to deploy a parachute.

Once they got inside, Roy set about assessing the situation.  "Supe, round up your heavy team and anyone else you need, get us a perimeter while we get organized here."  He tasked a few others with helping anyone else who got to their entry point with getting inside before the ship lifted off.  "If anyone has a tag or some kind of beacon, plant it at the opening, in case Stoly needs to come retrieve us...we don't want him wasting time trying to find the right hole in the outside of this thing, there could be an awful lot of holes if they make a run past the Fleet."

He gathered the rest around.  "Okay, as I see it, either one of two things has happened...the Most High has either been collaborating with Creshians for a few centuries and has told them it's time to make a run for it, or the Most High fled to the Creshians, who killed him and decided to make a run for it.  Our job now is to confirm which option is reality, and if he's not dead, either bring him back to the Hermes or to make sure that he is well and truly dead."  He scowled slightly and added, "Given that the only place for this thing to go is through the Fleet, we also have a vested interest in making sure that we get control of the ship before our own people blow us all to subatomic particles."

He glanced at Dusk.  "I hope you have your brother's instinct for figuring out ship layouts...we may need it."  He turned to Izzy..."Relay this via Omnicom to Beth, just in case our standard comms aren't getting through...Beth, see if you can scare up any sort of deck plans for this ship, as soon as you can tell what it is, and get us moving in the right direction."

  Hack  watched the largs from the two shuttles   gathered with  Henry and Disna.. Maria  was   ready   standing next to  Hodden , Supe and Tucker.

 Lirg , and Nugest  went to Farkas  and   Vaka.

 This isn't  a creshian  hull, ...  I've never been on a qarl vessel.. but if  its round?.. could it be  a Qarl saucer   he waved  to  Izzy to send..

  Hermes? Get in touch with   Roles... none of this  ships  leave orbit!


  The  Mech-AI  shuttles  grou p  were in....

 ... 1:30 and counting...

"Nice job Fire!" Nikki said as Lizzy clipped its wings.  She spotted her own target.  Nikki pressed in on and opened fire.  A short, but effective burst.  the pilot tried to evade but instead of going left, the angel panicked and moved right... straight into a building.  There was a good sized fireball as debris fell.  "Hey Fire....I made Angel toast!"

Glancing at the blips displayed on his screen Justin focused on a cluster of three bogies. Tapping each on the Skeeter's display Justin highlight the group, then sent a com to Waggles. Waggles lets start with this trio, and go from there.

”Already done sergeant major” Izzy replied as she moved to kneel beside Roy and patch his call through to Beth on the Hermes in an attempt to make up for her rather embarrassing mistake with Henry.



It was a few moments later that the Admiral would make the observation that they may be on a Quarl ship ”Roger that Admiral…Beth, the Admiral thinks we may be on a Quarl ship, can you dig whatever schematics we have for them” she added,  once again cursing the lateness of her project before waiting to see how Roy wanted to proceed.

 Meari and her team got inside with the SM and the others, Meari looked at the hull and the design to see if she could who's ship design it was or was it a new Angel ship. Meari and her group would set up a perimeter and wait for Tarja and her group to join them as they wait to see what happens next.

   Shadow COMed ,Alright Maddy,   There is a red Bubble  trying to get away  with  4 other  aircraft... were'gonna  see if  we can stop them...

 Frans  says,Don't  chase them too far.....

 Flores   quips,You never  take me to nice places!!

      Shadow   made his   dive  shallow...  the  'meeting  point' would be  close to  50 miles away..But....there would be no chance  for the  Enemy to evade..-

 Howe   Tore Up a Yellow Bubble, perhaps a flight leader,, Then He had to leave because of  white Vapor   streaming from his aircraft.. th  sky was  getting clear, as  of  aircaft. But the   plumes of   dead aircaft  rose from the Ground.Mixing  with  smoke of Burning Buildings.

 NO-CA was swearing , some thing the Angel rarely did  as she had to retire from the filed as well.

 The Inside of the ship, ship, shook...     the  ground  around  the    Tower began  to  heave... Yenti  and    angels   alike  ran for the walls , for the Moment, not  caring  who they were running next to. Some   ESN Drop ship  troopers  scooped up  Angel  kids  and ran with the mothers or fathers   to try and reach the Walls, to get away from the  Upheaval...

   Stoly and  the other two Hellraisers   were  outside the circle  and well above the Ground...Stoly here to Assqault teams, we are standign off, m but  ready to  come in if you need Evac.

  though hit  slowly rose  by feet, from far away it looked like inches..  some  Angel troops and a few yenti  was  swallowed up   as , undermined   passages   gave  way and lost  support from , whatever  was rising from the   ground.

 Lizzy replied to Nikki, " Thank you Fury, got beat up a little but that one wont hurt any of us anymore." Lizzy then flew like a madwoman and lined up another shot, she fired the Angel turned but Lizzy blew off it's entire tail section and the Angel and the fighter crashed into the city. " I got another one Fury lets get these bastards."

Paired with Waggles on his Starboard wing the pair manoeuvred their Skeeters towards the oncoming bogies. Justin lined up his kite on the left bogie, getting it in his crosshairs. Squeezing off a tripple round burst, 35mm rounds smacked into the bogie shredding its noes and cockpit, and igniting the harps power cells. Dipping to port Justin's rolled under his wingman to line up on the third identified bogie. Adjusting the Skeeter's angle Justin snapped off two bursts into the bogie, which disappeared in a flash of light and a ball of smoke.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:29, Wed 21 June 2023.

Upon entering the ship Tarja would take a moment to check her surroundings before waving for her team and the mechs to advance deeper into the ship, weapons raised and ready to fire at the first sign of enemy troops ”This is Vanska, we’re advancing deeper into ship, we’ll try and link up with rest of team on route” she said knowing that they couldn’t stay where they were, and that they could do with finding and gaining control of the bridge as soon as possible…or the engine room. Either way three armoured troopers and a couple of mechs should be more than capable of causing sufficient chaos in the corridors of a ship.

"Back into the fight again" she banked in unison with Lizzy.  Around one building and another she found a harp looking for a target..she found it instead.  Looked as if it was going to take aim at Waggles.  It never got the chance as she hit it dead center low.  It began releasing fuels a moment then in second it blew wide, then wider still as the flames began triggering its ammo.  It immediately began falling in pieces to the ground, a flaming wreck.

    Where Tarja's   shuffle  folks were.. Lyri  was  tryi8ng to get a reading. she  called the Omincom  operator over...

she waved to  Tarja  and Kira..Morgan came  too. Alright. We are in trouble.... this is a  circular  Vessel...  Only people  who have   vessels   like saucers  are the
 Qarl. and I don't think  they  are who built this thing... we have  our Popel  here... right here, we see The SM..and with him is the Gods be damned   Admiral of the   most powerful
 fleet  ever   to sail the Black... be a damn bad  thing  for him to  die here...

 Mullins  to   SM,  or Admiral... using the   side of this frisbee  we entered  as  6:00.. we are  about  7:30... we  see you at  about  5:00.. how  do yo9u want us   to  proceed....

0:00

 the     whole   world   shook as the     massive   disc   rose  into the   air... 4 thrusters , Under the   Saucer  jetted out , pure  blue  fire... Killing  100's  of  being   under it not all the  beings  were military


 Outside  the    dis  was  close to  1/4 mile across, and at least  100 feet   High.. the  'towr' The    entered  , was one of two.. the other  was   on the other  side, but  9t  was battered and   hand  bent over

     The end  was Coming for the Runaways.. shadow   slammed  the throttled fowards  and his  Skeeter    shot  head, he   geared  back when he was   on fighter's  length... behind the  Flight leader...

 Harp... 448  i gues that's what it  say, with your  dumbassed  lettering.... This is  LC  Kray Shadow of the 351 Hermes... you gutless bastard, leaving  your people up there  to die.. Say hello to all those   humans you sent to the nine hells over the   last  eon...

 One  37 MM  round,  hit  right behind the  Pilot head  rest.. and the front of the  aircraft was   gone...  the others  peel off in panic ...Kill them Maddy.. they all die...

Maybe the crowded field, rich with targets had spoiled her. Somehow, the third string Angel fighters were doing a decent job of avoiding her fire, but at the same time, they weren't able to lay a glove on her either. But as she fell back into formation, Shadow blasted away the flight leader, causing the rest to peel out into more of a retreat pattern. Shadow ordered their extermination. Her next shot disintegrated her target.

"Already done, sir."

"Ok Nikki lets get these two over here." Lizzy turned and burned toward the two Angels who where going after Madison. If they didnt get both the other would run from Lizzy and Nikki, and at least Madison would be safe.

 Lizzy with Nikki with her, fly at the side of the two Angels," Nikki I got port you take starboard." Lizzy lined up her shot and opened fired all weapons. Lizzy tore the Angel fighter to shreds it broke up and exploded as it headed for the saucer rising out of the ground.

Roy glanced at the entrance they had used, then back at Admiral Hack.  "I don't suppose there's any way I can persuade you to dust off with Stoly?" he asked.  It wasn't that he was uncomfortable with a superior officer being present...but having the Fleet's top brass in harm's way was contrary to his intentions as the Hermes' Security Chief.

While he waited for an answer, he checked in with Lyri.  "Let's try and meet up in the middle, Master Chief.  I'm pretty damned sure the Angels' Most High is aboard, and I want his hide...and if this is a Qarl ship, I want to make damned good and sure it's in no condition to jump once it's clear of the planet."

He looked up and around at the group.  "Supe!  Prep your people to move out...we're going to treat this as a boarding operation and try to deliver a new prize to the Fleet...having a Qarl ship to reverse engineer could teach us a LOT.  And there's still that damned Angel boss running around somewhere that we have to account for.  Keep a team here to hold our exit point, the rest of us prep to move out and see if we can find either their bridge or their engineering section."  If they found engineering first, they could always cut power to the rest of the ship as soon as they cleared atmo, and let it coast safely away from the planet while Delta vessels took up flanking positions.

"So not a problem.  Let's make more Angel toast" she gunned her engines to pull alongside Lizzy.  When Lizzy opened up, so did she.  her 37mm went through her targets cowling and canopy no pod out as the Harp sputtered and died.  It was a smoking cockpit at it was going down hard.  halfway down it then exploded.  "Dang, burnt my toast" she said to Lizzy.

  The Admiral  smiles  a  good natured  Smile...I'll tell you what , Roy... if  we  live through this, I'll take my turn and stay on the Hermes, for  the Next Jump off

 Cross   came  Over,   stood   by the   doors.. The Gava  and the felrites   want their pound of flesh

 Cora  calls out..  Maria as   found   a  corridor  that  seems to lead to a Hub?... Hawkes  found  another one like that to   out  east...
................

 Jax  and   Jumping Lion  come to Lyri and   Tarja...we found  two corridors   close  by, one on each  side of us.. they lead into the Middle of the  ship Jax  said.

Tarja would consider what she’d been told by the scouts before turning to Lyri ”We go right and you left…unless you prefer to follow?” she suggested, though if the marines chose to follow then they would have to post a rearguard in case the Angels tried to attack them from behind.

 Meari and her group went with Tarja as well," Ok what is the plan then, we head for the middle and kick ass along the way?"

He hadn't thought his first deployment would have been such a cluster; stuffing the replacement block of C10 into his hip sack he trailed along with CPO Lyri weapon ready to bring into action if needed.

    As   the  mechs and  AI   started down the  tunnels , there  were  doors  alternately  o   either  side of the   wals  The Middle had  to be the   Hub.. the  bridge, whatever...  the Hub as  about 1/4  mile away.. thus  far, no side of  life


.............

 Horns  blew through the  ship  as Roy and tother others saw the same scene  as the   AI

 Stoly ALL COMed..Its in the air.. Killed alot of Angels  and some Yenti  when it  climbed out of the  dirt..its struggling to rise... we're  close  by.

   Shadow     chased  the tweo  to the Port, leaving the starboard  to Maddy, trusting in her to read it.

     The First angel PODed  out, but  died  anyway  when   Shadow  shot the aircraft  and  the Pod  exploded   as well.. the    other  aircraft   tried to     head   further  North.. but it  died  too

 Lets  Go Maddy.. there alot of  Angels  who are expecting us to kill them, Can't let them down..

 Lizzy and Nikki stayed together and they came up ontp a group of four also trying to get away," Fury we have four leaving the party early lets make sure they get checked out properly." Lizzy then went," I will go after the port two you get the starboard two ok Nikki."

 Lizzy went after her two, she fired on the first and hit it good, it bellowed out black smoke began to spiral and crashed into the Saucer ship lifting off. Lizzy went to fire at the second one and as soon as she pulled the trigger, turbulence from the ship hit her and she just grazed them didnt get a kill shot but it was damaged. Lizzy would see how Nikki did and stayed on this one.

Roy snorted softly at the Admiral's response.  "Frankly, sir, were I in your shoes I'd count myself lucky if Captain Si didn't order my boots nailed to the deck, come next jump off..."

Roy surveyed the situation ahead, as they started to move out, and paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts.  "This thing has been under their city for, probably, thousands of years.  The Qarl can't have been keeping it particularly well-manned...for all that they're allies with the Demons, they've still got that smug self-superiority that every race on that side seems to have and I just don't see them sacrificing their people to sit alert in a ship that was probably never intended to take off...so we're most likely facing Angels, who may or may not have Qarl weapons and probably don't know a whole helluva lot about how to use them.  I think our best bet is to hit them hard and fast...shoot anyone or anything that pops out of a side corridor or hatchway because we know damn well they aren't with us, and crash through to the bridge before they get a chance to get organized.  Any objections to this plan?"

 Admiral hack smiles   at Roy's boot observation .  yeah? She's  not happy, that's a  fact. Maybe  i'll be  lucky and het knocked off?

 Tactics  say that  Middle  Hub   has  everyhtign   important..  I say we    go find  out...

"Port hog" she said over the comm.  By her tone it was easy to note she meant it as a joke.  Port, starboard, or straight up the middle.  It did'nt matter, Nikki noted that it seemed like the Harps were being routed.  Still Nikki lined up her targets and fired.  she barely got the first one but it still wound up crashing.  It was followed up with her taking out the second ones frontal fuselage.  "2 more...if I was not an ace earlier Icould be one now"

It was three down and two to go. The LC took out the leader and split off after the left wing while Madison blew away the first one on the right. The remaining two circled around,  but Madison was better at banking. Her arc cut tighter and she managed catch one of the Harps from above. A hail of 37mm evaporated the cockpit, splitting the fighter as she zipped through the pieces. Maybe it was luck, but the last of the five fell into her scope. It looked like it was trying to get a shot on Shadow. It didn't see her. After a buzz from her cannons, pilot and plane fell from the sky as a collection of parts.

”Begging your pardon sir, but I think it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than death to escape Captain Si’s wrath” Izzy spoke up as she followed Roy, with her weapon raised and aiming down the corridor past Roy’s shoulder with her starting to wonder where the defenders were. surely they know we’re here, right?

”That is plan Meari…assuming we find any asses to kick” Tarja replied as she walked down the eerily quiet corridors, with them yet to encounter a single defender or automated system along the way. Unless the enemy decided to make an appearance Tarja would continue heading towards the central hub where they assumed either engineering or the bridge would be located.

 Meari moved forward with Tarja, she kept a lookout for enemies and moved forward with the group ready for anything.

as the AI  Moved  down, there was  some   noise  behind . the 5th door  on the port side...

...................

    SMs  and Hack   moving  down  with  their  troops and Largs.. Mile    stops  and Dances  by the   4th  door on the  Starboard  side. In Herny's Mind   he  sees shadow's of people    clustered  together.

"Mila says there are several people in here," Henry murmured.

”Fifth on the left…move into position” Tarja quietly intoned, waving her team towards the door from which she had heard the noises coming from behind. Moving to the right hand side Tarja would wait until the others were in position before quietly counting down and then hitting the door release button. Once the door had slid open she lean around the jamb ready to open fire if required to do so.

  what Tarja  saw, was  right out a illustration of  some ancient texts.

    almost all the peple  in  the  romm were females, ranging  in age from Toddlers, to odler  females, and they were, of  every race..and a  few  who were   not 'APF known'

 there were  6   Angel  mails with   angels steel  pulse  friles. and   medium boarding armor...

 the   females  were barley wearing a thing. What  made that  more  horrific, where osme of the  females  where  from acrs  who had  thing  fur or  hair.. Delrites, Hyrians Apefold  and  a few Yenti.. They had  been shaved to the  skin, so as  not to tale  away from the  leather  and  metal  'adornments.'..l al the females looked Cowed  and  broken...

LIGHT FLEX
Roy nodded.  "Larry, Freddie...you're point.  No need to rush, but I'm relying on your senses and instincts.  Move ahead and if you feel like something's wrong, stop.  Keep it slow enough that we can keep up with you."  He turned to Supe.

"You're our cover...stay far enough behind us that you can sing out if someone opens a door behind us, and let 'em have it.  If this is a Qarl ship, they might have plasma weapons and I don't want them getting into the hall to use them...I'd rather risk friendly fire.  Take as many people as you need to keep up a rear guard."

He turned back to Larry, clapping the larg on an armored shoulder.  "C'mon...the boss is watching.  Let's show him how we do this..."  He grinned, and gestured for the larg to start leading the way, turning to Hack and giving a jerk of his head in the same direction to indicate the Admiral should follow along.

"Change of plans, Lyri...we're moving on the hub.  Recommend you do likewise, unless you feel there's another target that needs more attention."  Rifle at his shoulder, he moved forward in a partial crouch that ate up ground at a surprising pace, without bouncing his muzzle around and off target.  He watched the hallway ahead for any sign of enemy troops...and the largs for any sign of them stopping, not entirely certain there wouldn't be a booby trap of some sort.  If they'd been sure it was just an Angel ship, he would have been confident that there wasn't...Angel smugness in their self-proclaimed superiority would entirely preclude the notion of hostile forces making it onto the ship.

He just didn't know if the Qarl shared that same element of hubris, or if their paranoia was strong enough to outweigh their overconfidence.
END FLEX

When Mila started indicating someone was present, Roy gestured for people to halt, and moved over to the door.  "Thank you, Mila..." he said softly, reaching down to ruffle the dog's fur between her ears.

"Deploy in breaching formation, I'll take point.  Admiral, if you'd do the honors of triggering the door so I've got both hands available...?"   He took up station with the door slightly to his right, so he had his weapon ready to track with his field of vision as he moved into the room with the extra armor on his forearm in front of his torso, and dropped into a crouch so his center of mass was lower than would typically be expected...if someone was looking to ambush a human-sized target coming into the room, their shots would go overhead.  Unless they were trying to gut-shoot someone...then I'd take it right in the face...  He shrugged the thought aside.  There was no safe way to enter a room with hostile forces waiting, there were only ways to mitigate the risks.  When the others had formed up behind him, he gave Hack a nod, sweeping the room with his eyes (and the muzzle of his weapon) as the door slid aside.

   The Admiral  put his hand  on the  actuator  moving out of the  way..  when the  door  Opened , then  there were screams and cries...

  at least  20-30  children, of  many races,  wearing little shifts. Three Angel women  with weapons quickly  moved the children back  while  facing  Roy  and the troops

Roy fixed his aim on the center of the three women.  "I will say this one time, and it's not a negotiation.  Weapons down and nobody gets harmed."  Did they literally bring children as a human shield?!! he thought to himself...but the weapon never wavered and he left the other two to be targeted by the people coming in behind him.

  One of the Angel women said...Please...please do not eat the children his  gently  put her rifle   down, but her words  mad the kids scream more.. it  didn't help to have Lirg, Nugest  and   Largs  running about.  The Middle Angel looked at  Roy, she tilted her head... then , she recognized  Hack...

 I am LT  DO-NI...i am  in charge of thise  section of  Tribute...We ask yoiu to not take the children for your self... they are needed for payment.

 Will   snarled,I say we  blow the bitches  head off, right under her  Halo..

"NOT in front of the kids, Will..." Roy said in a dangerous growl that indicated just how little he appreciated the timing.  "Nobody is eating children as long as I have anything to say about it," he declared loudly to the Angels, but more for the benefit of the children.

"And nobody is using children as payment for ANYTHING as long as I have anything to say about it, either.  We'll worry about just who ends up taking care of these children and making sure they live to become happy adults after we finish up the business at hand.  WHERE is the Most High?!"

 The Angels in the   Air  where in a bad  way, there  might have  been to  Harps or Halos  with a Bubble on their  aircaft,  with   80 or  so  aircraft that were   just swirling around Trying  to Hit  Veteran Pilots that  could make their   aircraft   stand on their tails and  Dance

  to ALL COMs...to all angel Pilots   who  are picking up this COM.. You have   one chance.. POD out now, and take your chances on the  Ground.. or stay in your fighter....and  die..and  by all the gods that were ever thought up..i hope you stay..

 To  all  Allied Pilots he  said..Alright Lads and Ladies ...   If they POD 9ut. let them fall.. lets  see if  we can make Angel Fighters  extinct..

 To Maddy..There's  No   wrong Targets here  Maddy... they only  have  2 leaders....

 the was a  Bright plash as a Yellow  Bubble  aircraft   was  Blown apart  by Frans...Shadow clearled his throat......one///leader  left... lets go!

 Billie  and Machins   weaved through the    Angels Kat and Flores  were a  force.. towards the ground,  Ariv and He-la's   flights  were  driving fighters into the   ground , or forcing them into half destroyed  Buildings.

  DO-NI said...He is in the Sepulchre..None may Approach  Unless it is  to bring him his repast...   

 Hack Pointed to the    Hub...and this Holy Place  is down there,,right?

 You will die if you go there, by his holy fire..and His  Arch angles   will smite you...

 Scarlet rolls her  eyes...

 Meari saw the 6 males with armor and guns and then get up close and personal and used her dual fighting knives to take out the male Angels with weapons.

 Lizzy kept after the one she was chasing but he was pretty good, Lizzy then fired again and this time she did enough damage where the Angels craft spouted flames and then was a fiery missile heading to the city. " Splash another one, lets get their Angels asses grounded." Lizzy then saw a lone fighter trying to get a bead on her.

 Lizzy turned hard and got a great shot at the side of the Angels fighter, she fired her 37 mm, and tore the Nova to shreds, the pilot didnt have time to pod out as they fighter just broke apart and then exploded. " Hell yes and LC sir yes lets make Angel fighters extinct."

 NA-CE had her gun pointed at one f the other females, if she did anything to attack them she was going to waste her.

Roy snorted softly.  "Yeah, right...just like how we were going to be smitten from the skies if we approached Paradise..."  He shook his head.

"Okay, Scarlet...pick a team and keep the ladies here quiet and comfy.  Na-Ce, start checking the kids...make sure they're healthy and if they aren't make a note of what needs to be treated so we can show them what genuine care and compassion looks like."  He turned to Henry.

"Your call, Doc," he said in a softer voice.  "I don't want to cut you out of being part of the big takedown, because you've damn well earned it...but these kids could use a calm, even-tempered presence and I think Mila could probably help pick out if there are any in serious need of attention a lot faster than Na-Ce.  If you stay here, I'll leave you in overall charge...but you're welcome to come with us to finish this myth of the Most High and his omnipotence."

 NA-CE replied," Already done SM." NA-CE lowered her weapon got out her med kit and scanner, and began checking the children for their overall health and well being.

The Angel fighters were thinning out. Still she was able to find them using the IFF.  She fired on one and blew off his canopy.  He did pod out and left his craft to eventually begin to bank, then lose lift and crash in the city debris.  The next one she shot his wings and stabilizers of before the last round of the grouping found the fuel tank.  this one was a large explosion, loud and vibrant.  "Running low on targets in this sector.  getting low on ammo as well.  Phoenix... your status?" she was pretty sure Lizzy was low as well.

The field of Angels was thinning rapidly, but that meant some of the defending Harps would have less to lose. It made them more aggressive. One of Madison's big advantages was that she would turn harder and faster than others were willing to endure. But the Angels were losing and seemed more inclined to pull similar stunts.

Having just splashed two enemy fighter, two more came screaming in from her 2:00. Their guns were buzzing hot. To avoid being a statistic herself, Madison cut hard to port. The Gs were severe enough to give her a nose bleed, but she managed to get on their flank with only a few sparks. She wasted no time. Corkscrewing in, she blasted through the first, sending it to the streets below. The second tried to turn, but was caught in her spray. One round punctured the fuel cell, lighting it up into a great ball of fire.

"Two more down, LC! We might be home for dinner at this rate."

  Shadow's   laugh  was  almost Musical, if the heavier voice  could be musical.  The  the last  Bubble   was  after Shadow,   the pulse  rounds  tore   his lef  wing  and took out the Pulse..

  there was laughter...Comon  Clarance.... see if you can catch me...

 I will Kill you  for the Honor of The Most High!!

 The  Angels  was    On  shadow, but   the LC    would   flick   the   wing  or slide    and  let rounds  go  pass, , it was  impressive, unless you were  chasing Him...

 Tell You     what... You   chase  me through that opening... I'll surrender... If  not>>  I'll Kill you when i come back around...lets see   if an angle can fly...

   Agreed!...

 Flores  yelled...WTF shadow!...  I couldn't drive an Hover  car through that...

 then i won't   have to  surrender...besides, I got in  tighter holes then that...

 Frans   giggled,and you didn't even have to get them drunk!

 The arch way was shaped  like a  Spade... the angel tried to  hedge his   bets  and fired  at Shadow.. , Then, Shadow  flicked into  The Screw,,  his   Skeeter went through, with only the  lost of his  WC Bubble

 The  Angel flight leader  was  stunned...but only for a  second   as he  smashed into the top of the arch way..

 dammit!.. I can't kill him now!

 Kay says,I am needing a cold  shower  right now...

  Maddy sees   and   enemy shuttle   trying to  head  to the North Gate. its   flying low.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:27, Fri 23 June 2023.

"LC, I have an enemy shuttle headed for the north gate. I'm moving to intercept it."  Baking hard, Madison lined up on the shuttle and locked in. As she approached, she spun it a kill screw, lighting up with her 37s

Scarlet  says... give  me   Minnet, Maria  and  Vinnie, that should be  enough..

   she  Points  tot he angle  troopers  who look down at Scarlet as   The   red haired  woma    Tells then to   get on their  knees.. the  seem to refuse,  Until  one  screams  after a  sharp snap is heard,   Dusk had  just   destroyed the angels   right knew  with a  kick from the  side.. the other  two  went  down  and   maria helped   Dusk    use  Chain ties.

 Maria   smiled  at Dusk...You hit  pretty good for  an officer  Dusk  smiled       and  went over to the  Danage d  angel  and chained her,

 Minnet stood  by the door with her  Heavy pulse.  while Vinnie and scarlet watched over  NA=CE     worked.

It was funny to Nikki how the Angels vaunted forces just fell apart when the tide turned.  Nikki found one trying to escape the area.  Gunning her skeeter she caught up and literally just buffeted the Harp and the pilot panicked to escape.  He must have been new or novice pilot, he banked too extreme.  He did not take into account of his surroundings.  He ground his wing into a building.  It broke of leaving him going down like a cyclone motion.  there was no pod out.  She panicked him to death.  The last one looked like it was going to line up on Karl or escape, hard to tell.  she came in at a cross his port side.  firing she shot him up good, avoiding hitting Karl.  the Harp was literally one of the last Harps.

In reply to Madison Rae Perry (msg # 146):

Madison's burst hit the shuttle dead to center, sending it crashing to the ground. As the ship came apart, she saw an Angel thrown from the wreckage. She wouldn't have thought anything of it, but his uniform looked distinctive.

"Hey, LC. The this shuttle spit out an Angel in a black uniform. Does that mean anything?"

After dropping the shuttle, she climbed back up to the furball. The angels were running scared. They weren't very good, but somehow they kept evading her. All she had to show for her efforts was a few more holes in her armor.

 Shadow   didn't get to see  it  when it crashesBalck with  Silver  is Angel  Elite.. they are  the  big bastards.Black with  Gold is EDT.. they are wanna be  bad asses..

 everyoe , form up on me.. lets  see   waht we have  left

"No worries, Roy. Mila and I can stay here and get this sorted out."

Henry wasn't sure he wanted to be around when Hack met the Boss Angel. It wouldn't be pretty. He didn't have (many) issues about killing someone in combat but he most certainly did about killing in cold blood, vengeance, that sort of thing.

He stepped forwards.

"OK, everyone. Nobody's going to get eaten, nobody is going to be used for tribute. Youngsters, my colleague Na-Ce here is a medic and will check that you are all well. Then we can get acquainted. If you know where you came from we can find out if your parents are around and reunite you, otherwise we'll find you new families to live with. People who will love you and take care of you, raise you as their own."

He found a seat and Mila came to sit at his feet.

"I'm Doc Henry and this here is Mila. She is a dog and she is very friendly. The scaly critters in armour are largs. They are friendly too provided you all behave."

Weaving the 25 between Harps Justin linedvup on a bogie as it headed for one of B flight Skeeters. Catching it along its flank 35mm rounds tore through the hull punching holes across its length, shattering the bogie.

In reply to fighters. (msg # 150):

Roger that LC. Justin  replied arching his Skeeter towards the others, in the process he brought the 25 behind a bogie that was attempting to play a game of chicken. Lining up on the Harp Justin gave a half grin as his targetting sensor chimed. A slight tap on the trigger sending a burst into the oncoming bogie peppering its cockpit and tearing up the Angle Pilot.

If what she saw in the room shocked her, Tarja recovered quickly as she shouted for the scantily clad women to get down as she stormed into the room. With the chance of collateral damage far too high she would follow Meari’s lead and draw the large machete from her bandolier and move to attack the guards with the heavy blade biting down deeply into them despite the armour they were wearing.

With the rest of her team also storming into the room the guards didn’t stand a chance, and no quarter was offered or given. Flashes of memory briefly erupted to the forefront of her mind, memories of drunken Russian soldiers, torn uniforms and the sound of sobbing. Though thankfully they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.

Once the guards were dead she would put a call through to Roy and the others ”This is Vanska, we have just found room containing female prisoners…they appear to be shaken but unhurt…um…please advise?” she asked clearly uncertain on how to deal with the situation and definitely extremely uncomfortable about it.

Izzy would follow Roy and the others down the corridor and into the room Mila had indicated, her eyes going wide at the sight of the children inside, quietly horrified by the thought of what their intended fate had been ”It’s ok no one here is going to hurt you, we’re here to help” she said to the children, holding out her gloved hand in a calming gesture before shooting Will a look at to go with Roy’s reprimand that’s it scare the poor things! she thought to herself whilst listening to the Admirals instructions ”I can stop with the children if you need me to, I’m about as non-threatening as they get” Izzy quietly offered, giving them the opportunity to replace her with someone more combative if they wished but more than happy to move against the Most High if called to do so ”…also when they say payment, payment to who? This ship isn’t heading for demon space is it?”

  Scarlet Looks  at Izzy and   pulls her to the Side, talking softly,SM  asked  me to stay.. You have to go..as one of the OmniCOMs... and? It would hurt you image  to be seen fighting a bit. If   The Admiral or SM   want you to stay, they'll let you know. Kids  might like it more if you stayed...but we have Largs  walking around, so  one more 'taller' person  isn't going to matter.

 One of the  older   Kids   walked up to Henry, very good looking Angel Though, By   the  laws  of   the APF  and Paradise itself, she was  an 'Adult' ,  Her   hair  had been  cut  to shoulder  leaght,  the shift , like the others, was the Only garment   she had, and  silver Blue eyes  looked at   Henry.. he voice  held a bit of  fearm but he r bearing  was  'forced  bravery:

 My Name  a Ji-Da... are we to be yours?  We... she looked at the wee ones...we have been  trained to submit...The little ones, are emant for darker things...

 Will   was  a mix of  disgusted  and angry... Cora  tried to calm him down..These a re the People   who earth fought wars over?...They aren't any different they the  most base zealots   we ever  had!

 Cross Looked at Coar and jerked his head to the passage..  Cora and Ellen  Got Will out of there.

   Hack looked at   Iizzy..Tell  the hermes to have  some BU's  up in the  air and trail  this relic we are flying in... we  may need to get   prisoners off as quickly as  we can.

............

  As Meari  , Tarja  and   Conrad  finished off the   Angel guards, the   woman were terrified.  There was  no  mistake  of  what these woman were sued for, and the  debased 'shaving' of those who had  thier   natural body  coverings   removed, showed  some shame in thier  eyes , some Huddled together, others   stared     at the armed   machines in front of them.

 Lyri  came  in ,  once more...Giles.... Jumping Lion.. You stay here,, stay by the door incase  we need  cover  fire..

 Nifty says...I can stay if you want. 

  Lyri grabbed him , by the   hook on his Back plate...oh no you don't little horn dog.. we have  Angels to kill, and these ladies  don't need you   to take advantage  of what they are used for,.. They are goign to have to get deprogrammed..

 Nifty  sighed   and     when Lyri  pushed him out the door.

All right... just Like the LC and Dana playign football.. Mechs.. Line  up   and head towards that Hub..AI  behind them, Us  behind the AI... If it has  a weapon, kil it.. let's go!

 Meari nodded at the females and knew they needed to be helped from what they where trained for. " We will not hurt you, we will get you the help you need." Then they where headed out Meari followed the Mechs with Tarja by her side.

 Lizzy flew around, and then she got hit hard by a pair of fighters, she had yellow lights and cursed. " I am hit, but she is holding together, just got a few yellow lights." Lizzy then saw the two on her ass, she hit the brakes, her dampeners and the two Angels flew past her.

 Lizzy opened fired on the first and it broke apart and headed for the ground, she fired at the next one but she didnt get a kill, it was damaged that was all.

 NA-CE checked out the children, most where in pretty good condition, but two seemed to be beat up and abused. NA-CE moved them to the side and began to treat their injuries.

 MA-CE knelt down and said," Hello I am NA-CE Blue Moon Angel I am going to help you both get better ok, I will not hurt you."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:42, Fri 23 June 2023.

"Nobody is going to be 'used' or eaten, or forced against their will ever again. Or they will have to answer to me."

He smiled at the young lady who had approached him.

"Ji-Da, you are your own now. As is everyone else. Let's see if we can find some clothes for those who ought to have fur, they will be happier covered until their fur regrows."

”I know…I just thought I would make the offer in case it would help…I’m more than happy to follow the SM” Izzy quietly responded to Scarlett, not wanting her to think that she was trying to avoid going into combat, or was angling for a “cushy assignment” with her genuinely wanting to help the best she could.

Hearing the Admiral’s voice she would offer Scarlett a quick smile before moving to rejoin Roy and the Admiral ”Already done sir…351 Hermes this is assault team, we’re going to need some BU’s in the air ready to extract us and the prisoners we have recovered which consist of approximately twenty to thirty children and a similar number of women”

 Glaring down at the bodies of the guards that she and the others had butchered, Tarja would look up at the huddle of women and simply state ”It is over” before striding over in her blood stained armour to join the mechs, with it clear that she was more than prepared to rip the arms off anyone that tried to harm or take advantage of the women regardless of whether they were friend or foe.

Nikki pulled up log side Lizzy "Got your wing Fire.  Looking over you damage now.  Looks like they scratched you skin motif.  The bastards" she commed to Lizzy.

   Athena's   air wing  wasn't in much better  shape. they finished  off the   Angels, a few Poded out, some of them even made it to the  ground.

 Shadow frowned that there wasn't any more  angel aircraft to kill...All aircarft , return to you  beach ehads,  rearm, refule. stand  ready.. that  frisbee is laboring..  , but we have to be ready incase some  enemy  fighters  try  to aid it..

 Fighters to the beach ehad.>>>>>>>>

Spending his time cleaning and maintaining his equipment he listened to the com chatter

 Lizzy stayed on Nikki's wing and Lizzy said over coms." Damn they ran out already, I was just getting warmed up. You heard the LC Nikki lets head back and get ready in case something else happens. " Lizzy then headed back for the beachhead looking over the city and the saucer as it tried to take off.

 Lizzy landed, popped her canopy and got out of her fighter, she gave the crew the low down on her lights and the damage she knew about. She then watched Nikki come in.

"Already done, LC" Madison probably didn't have to respond, since she was on Shadow's wing, but she was feeling particularly enthusiastic. The battle for paradise wasn't over, but so far they were kicking ass. It was frightening how good it felt. She tried not to think too hard about the fact that she was an alien invader, instead focusing on the fact that they were taking the fight to a cruel and heartless. Enemy. She felt bad for the civilians, but she reminded herself that they supported their governments atrocities either by action or inaction. This was the price for not standing up to evil.

Though she responded to the order in the affirmative, Madison didn't go right back., She was Shadow's wing and wouldn't land until he did. He had this habit of wanting to be the last one down, which meant she would be the second to last. Eventually, though she touched down at the beach head, leaving the maintenance to her craft to the capable ground crew.

didn't take long for Nikki to be down.  She commed beachhead to get refills on fuel and ammo, for her damage she let them know which lights were critical. by the time her engines shut down she was being repaired and topped of.  Popping her canopy she waved at the others and Lizzy and set about helping get her skeeter prepped.  "Wonder if we get action medal for this melee" she joshed a bit to keep the mood light.

Roy gave a thankful nod as Will was escorted out of the room, and gave Henry a hand-clasp on one shoulder.  "Thanks, Doc...can't think of a better man for the job," he said, before he turned to the rest of the troops, raising a finger in the air and moving it in a circle, gesturing for them to form up.

"The rest of us are heading for the hub, to finish this.  Larry, Freddie, back on point.  We're right behind you. Brisk walk, but if you notice something, let us know before we walk into it or past it."  He returned to the hallway, his weapon dropping to a ready position as he passed through the doorway.  He got Tarja's call, and heard Lyri's answer as far as advice.  He had nothing further to add...without being there, he couldn't really say much one way or another as to whether there were additional measures to be taken, and he wasn't going to undermine the Master Chief by questioning her call on the situation.

"Okay, team...moving!"  He gestured for the largs to lead the way, following only a few feet behind them with his rifle raised to his shoulder and ready to fire at any target that presented itself.  He trusted the rest of the group to sort themselves out and follow behind him, or (for those ordered to stay behind) to take care of the children without subjecting them to further trauma...unless the Angels made trouble.  Seeing the Angels get snuffed out in short order would probably be considered traumatic for kids, although most of his personnel would consider it either cathartic or frustrating, if they weren't the ones pulling the trigger.

   Shadow indeed, landed Last.   he climbed out, shaking his head  at  the  damage. A captin  of the  Ground crews   approached him..LC!..why didn't you return,  the machine  should have been brought in.. sooner

 yeah? well.  we don't have   as many fighters  as we  started out with..  I know my limitations... My people  don't need me up there. But they Need to 'see'  me up there..Now?
 Captain.. the WC of   The  Fleet's Flagship  requests  that you  get that  pile of scrap
 fixed, or paint  the tail of a fresh one for me.

................

 he  Looked  towards the mess  tent, Rain was  starting  , then he saw them about  60, maybe  70  civis, out of those ..a few dozen Kids..

 one of the guards , sorta kick a child back into Line where the  Civis  were standing, getting wet.  Shadow  saw the  tent  assembly's  laying in the grass..LT?... why  aren't the Tents set up for the refugees...

 The LT sneered. They are Prisoners of war....

 No ..those  folks  over there , in uniform are prisoners...I want the tents
 set up  ..5 minutes ago..

 The  angel  child was sniffing, Shadow   looked to Maddy, Go.. tell the Chief Mess Tech  i want a crate of chocolate bars... and i want them now...    Shadow  took off his  flight   jacket , chest armor  and   tunic, then grabbed the LT  By his Bandoleer.

 Let's go , tough guy... no more gravy train for you..You and  I are gona help set up those   Tents...

 Then man wanted to Laugh  until Shadow  grabbed  him and Pushed him towards  the   gear..enginners  ran like lemmings towards the LC  .. and the Tents   were getting  raised.. The LT, for his  part  worked , Shadow  busted his  ass , as the  rain came down harder...

 ..why... why do this for angels....

  Shadow blinked through the  rain  running off his hair,..because  we're  humans....

 Frans   Steele   and Flores   stopped as they watched Shadow  start the   engineers   setting up the Tent, Flores   took Shadow things  placing  out of the way where they could stay  dry.

 Machins shook his  head.. ahh.. gods be damned...  and he    started  in, Helping drive  stakes  as    engineers    got the canopy up
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:55, Sat 24 June 2023.

 Lizzy amd Nikki where headed for the mess tent when they also saw the Angels, when the LC got them putting up the tents Lizzy said," Lets go give the LC a hand for the children."

 Lizzy would head over and eagerly help raise the tents. " Looks like you could use some help LC, where do you need us?"

After landing Justin helped wherever he could doing whatever he could at tasks that to be done. Taking an occasional break to grab something to eat and drink so that he wouldn't be overly fatigued.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Sat 24 June 2023.

 The   LC was  soaked,  T-shirt soaked   he  wish he had a Ball cap  right now..Help get sides  on this damn thing, then   the engineers   can lay the floor  and get a heatign Unti  in here

  The LT  bitched  and Moaned the  whole while, But Shadow was  right next to him.. Flores   went  with  Frans  to  start herding the   Kids  and  adults under the tent..

  The mechs  thumped and Clanked   down the Passage.. the AI  eagerly behind  them and troops behind  them.   Nifty, would stop  now and then, Turn towards   they way they entered, using his scope  to see if there  were any bad  guys  coming from behind.

...............

  charging down their  Tunnel,  Hack  says,Ignore the doors,  if somehtig  comes out with  a weapon shoot it...  But we have to get inside that Hub!

 Hemsly   says...Bloody, blow  a whooe in that  the  side   The LC can flt through, if you need us to!

 Nugest thunped  down the  corridor.. we crush  the  angels, break their  thin legs..

 Lizzy went to work on getting the sides of the tent up with Nikki and help get the tent good for the refugees, " Already done LC." Lizzy got wet as well, but she worked hard to get the tent up as fast as possible.

heavy boots of lead, fills his victims full of dread, run as fast as they can iron man lives again! the singer sang within her headgear as she followed the mechs at a brisk jog. A cold, distant look having entered her eyes upon leaving the room with the women inside with it probably being just as well that the enemy were yet to organise any kind of defence as she was more than prepared to tear them to pieces with her bare hands ”look alive people, there could be enemy behind any of these doors” Tarja warned her team suspecting it would be all too easy to spring an ambush within the tight confines of the corridors…at least that’s what she would have done though the Angels seemed a little slow on the uptake.

When Shadow ordered Madison to fetch the candy for the children, she nodded "Already done, sir." Turning on her heel, she double timed to the mess tent. She knew that the chow line was set up on the left side from the entrance, which meant that the mess operations would all be on the left as well. Instead of going through the front, she ran around to that side and found the service entrance. Looking around, she found an ensign holding a clipboard and directing the mess crew.

"Ensign." She approached from his side. "LC Shadow wants a crate of chocolate bars brought to the Angel holding area for the children there."

"We're kind of busy right now." He said without looking at her. "I'll add it to the list."

"No, Ensign." She sounded more commanding than even she remembered ever sounding. "I'm here conveying a direct order. Chocolate to the kids, now."

"God damn it." He finally looked up at her, drawing back when he saw her face. "Um, yeah. Right away." He smiled, noting her name tag. He waved over one of the techs.

"Take that crate there, and got with Ensign Perry here. Use the cart and drive them both."

The tech nodded and grabbed a hand truck, scooping up the box of chocolates. The Ensign smiled back at Madison. "Already done, Perry. He's at your disposal. Send him back when you're done with him. "

"Thank you," She looked at his name. "Sullivan. I appreciate the urgency."

Riding back with the mess tech, Madison directed him to where the kids were corralled. The LC was nearby putting up tents, but it wasn't hard to understand what he wanted. She had the tech crack open the case, then had the kids form a mess line. She sat on her knees and handed out the candy, reassuring the kids and keeping a bright smile to make them feel more at ease.

  With the tent   being sealed and other  well on its  way, Shadow     walked over to  Maddy and   smiled,well Done. Those Mess Techs  Normally think they are one of the gods...

 The Kicked   kid looked up at the drippign LC, as she  chewed on a bit of  candy nar. , she handed him a  rag from the cleaning  crate, Shadow smiled  and  said,Thank You.

 She  turned to  Maddy, her little mouth still chewing  and  gave her aa  hug, holdign on  for a good  Minute, until a You angel woman  pulled her  away..I am sorry... your  troopers  saved us  from Zealots..I was her neighbor. Her parents...are..gone..neither of us
 have  a home now...

 Once the invasion is done, things will settle down,  but... if you would rather  skip  the   new government and  move on with your Life...How would you like to live on Bura? Its the Most beautiful planet in The Black..and they need  people?

 we only have the Creds  on out chips?...

 Once you get there.. they will fine you a town or Village, from there you can get work if  needed..

 She Looks at Maddy , then at  Shadow..yes.... a whistle  and a point to the Omincom.. Call the Hermes , ask For  LT Robertson...Tell her  we  have a Volunteer  and her ward for Bura.

 The LT  who was dragged  to help was glaring at Shadow  and went to take his post.. A SGT was  forming  up a column to het out the   beachhead to Jerl, to reenforce  the  wave to Yenti  and  Dropship troopers. Shadow waved him over..

 SGT, This  Is  LT.....

 LT  Masters..

 LT  Master.. he is  joining your Column to  Jerl. He showed me how ready he was to face the Vicious  enemy Angels. he points to the   slighlty  dirty  Girl  eating a candy bar.

 The SGT didn't look too happy...beggig your pardon , LC..but you aren't in our chain of  Command..

 I sorta  am?   I am the  WC of the Delta Fleet. not to mentioned the   Hermes..so..i might  have a tiny bit of pull... or? You can COM  Captain Morris  and ask if you want to second guess my orders....

  I'm not an Idiot , LC.... Lets Go LT, welcome to the shooting war..

 if I live through this. i'm going to find you.

 I'll be  waiting, but..just in case? I'm not a 2 foot tall angel child

as the  LY was lead away and the colunm moved out, Shadow thanked Maddy..saw  some old .old old, vids  or WWI? with  soldiers  handing out  candy bars thank you.

 There was one bar left, he broke  it in half and shared it  with Maddy..I think we earned it....a hove r truck was  coming with Hotsoup and bread for the refugees.

Nikki was in complete agreement helping the LC.  She'd camped before and used the big tents to set up.  she didn't ask what was needed she just did it.  "Got ya covered, Shadow!  Time to raise the roof!" between her, Lizzy and a few others, The large tent was up.  Nikki started setting up a few med cubicles so the Docs and med personnel could treat in a bit of privacy.  For the kids she began to sing a gentle, happy tune to help keep them calm. "You are my sunshine...my only sunshine..." she tried getting a few others to help sing it as well.

Madison had never really worked with kids before. The closest she came was when she helped with horseback riding lessons back home. She was a teenager back then and having to deal with children wasn't something she enjoyed. This time was different. Handing out chocolate bars wasn't exactly glamorous, but this time she had so much more empathy. They were scared, and their entire lives were just just wiped out before their eyes. If they were there alone it meant they lost their parents. Maybe their whole families. It was so heartbreaking. If a smile and candy bar could lift their spirits even a little, she was ready to do it all day long.

The LC was pleased. Madison smiled up at him when he came by to tell her she did a good job. "Thank you, sir" But another person was pleased with her too. A little girl jumped forward to give her huge hug. It was so sweet, and for some reason she couldn't understand, it brought her to tears. She was happy to let the girl hang on as long as she wanted, but a woman came and pulled her away. She was the girls neighbor, but was looking after her after her parents were killed. It was so sad, but Shadow promised them a new home on Bura. He issued orders to some nearby officers, then split the last bar with her saying they earned it.

"Ya. We did." She grinned, taking a hungry bite. "So, about that guy in the shuttle. the one in the Black and Silver uniform. Do you think that was significant?"

  Shadow  Nodded...mmm.. he held Up a Finger...Shadow  to Beth.. can you send me   a side  by side  pic on  Angel Elite and Angel EDT uniforms

   he reached  for his  dry bundle of clothes and armor , taking out his Vidboard  and unrolled it.. The  Pics  came Up...

 Popping the last bit of the bar in his mouth , holding the  board   for Maddy..which One... Silver and Black, or  Gold and Black...

  As he waited  he nodded to Niki as she  sang, and offered a fist bump fo lizzy.. machins just  grinned..as he said,Maybe , next invasion, we should start out with candybars...
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:07, Sun 25 June 2023.

 Lizzy smiled at the LC, gave him the fist bump and she headed to get some much needed food. She looked at their work and was happy they made a difference. Lizzy then headed for the mess tent.

"That's the basic gist of the plan, Sir...pretty sure the only ones here are Angels, and they're probably busy trying to secure whatever their 'Most High' brought along to secure himself a cushy new life...not expecting a whole lot of resistance."

And then Hemsly threatened to blow a cavernous breach in the side of the Hub.  "I think it'd be faster to just blow in a hatch or something, wouldn't it?" he asked, with a grin taking the sting off his sarcasm.  "I mean, I'm no demo tech, but isn't it easier to exploit an already weak spot, as opposed to trying to blow a hole through the strongest section?"

  Hemsly Snorted,sure? if  ya  want to do the Boring  way.. betcha  Shade  woulda Like the Idea

 Karson  and   Hemsley  take  2 minutes  to  set the charges... You say  hen!

.....................

 Th AI and  mechs  reached thier  door...  Lyri  stops her  run  and says,can you pop it.. or does it need blown ?

 Meari looks at the door to see the best way to get through it. " Ok guys lets check out the door see what we got here."

Roy gave his own snort in response.  "I LOVE boring.  Never get enough of it..."  He scowled slightly, and added, "Yeah, he probably would love the idea...but I'd still be asking you to blow the hatch..."

They got the charges set...Roy took up standard position just down the passageway from the hatch, with a frag grenade in one hand, holding it up so his entire group could see that he intended to lead with the grenade.  When they indicated they were ready, he gave a nod.

"Blow it..."

Once the Angels' meager last efforts at air cover were chased away from Jerl, Karl brought the Morningstar down lower...at a couple of kilometers overhead, he could add much more precise fire from the autocannon, making close air support that much closer, but the small arms fire from the ground would struggle to reach him...even Angel Steel pulse rifles, with their superior operation, only MIGHT get a shot to that altitude, and it would have no accuracy to speak of at that point.  As the Yenti poured into the city, anywhere that some kind of organized resistance tried to stem the flow found itself being rained on with precision fire from overhead, while the heavy pulse cannon continued whittling away at the improvise air defenses the Angels had scraped together after Jair's bombardment.

He watched the strange ship burst from the ground, and shook his head.  "Happy hunting, guys..." he muttered as the thing clawed for altitude.  There was no guessing just how long it had been down there, and as such, there was no knowing just how operational it actually was...

But the infantry that had gone to it had gone inside, and he was of little use in that situation...he'd have far more impact helping the Yenti mop up what little resistance the Angels could still field.  "Hey, Stoly...you bring my boys back home, okay?" he said, taking a moment between picking out targets on the ground.

   Hemsley  Grins  as he and  Karson  both  hit the  tiggers, , the C-10  Blows a rectangle   and  it  falls  forward..  three  Guards  are there,  one is convulsing  on the ground  from the concussion, the  other two   turns  and  Open . up..Even  as  Roys  part  fires..

In reply to Beachhead. (msg # 181):

Madison looked at the images on the vidboard. "That one. The black and silver one. There were about 8 of them that were thrown from the shuttle."

8!......  he   puled up a map of the city, Recon map from 6:00AM...

 he tried to  figure out where they were, and magnified the Board...show me  where it  went  down, and which  direction it was   coming from...

  While  he  waited, he COMed the Morning star. Karl?  You Up there  yet.. we  may have something for you...

With their section finally reaching a door, Tarja would walk up with Meari and take a moment to examine the door in front of ”Doesn’t look too bad…get Conrad to cut hole then have mechs peel it open like banana?” Tarja suggested, not really wanting to breach with explosives, after all they had already found one room of captives, so the last thing she wanted was to risk blowing a group of prisoners up ”I feel there is smarter way of opening door…when we get back to Hermes we go on recruiting drive, see if we can get someone from tech labs or a comm tech to join” she said with a sigh, with her wanting to broaden the range of skills in the unit ”Conrad! You’re up!” she shouted, with Conrad moving up and attaching the thermic lance to his wrist so he could start cutting open the door.

Having left the children under Scarlett’s care Izzy had followed the others down the corridor ”Am I the only one that finds this a little…unsettling? I mean there’s no one here, no automated defences theres not even an alarm” she stated whilst training her carbine on yet another door just in case someone decided to come through and try and defend the ship for a novel change of pace ”…I mean if this was the Hermes we would have had to fight for every foot of corridor, cut our way through multiple security doors with an alarm sounding the entire time…this is just weird it’s like they don’t care that we’re here!” she said as they arrived at the door.

Taking cover as best she could Izzy would watch as the door was rigged with explosives, followed by Roy giving the order to blow open the door.

 NA-CE quickly treats the children's injuries and tried to calm them down, once she was done and could do all she could for them, she joined the rest of the group at the door just as it explodes.

people with the SM, remember to make the  roll, let me know what you got   for 'wild fire'

 Once the Door was blown, enemy troopers fired blindly, and NA-CE got hit pretty good. She opened fired and when the threat was gone, she moved to the side and began treating her wound herself.

 Meari would cover Conrad as he cut the door lock, she would be behind the Mechs but with a clear shot at covering Conrad if the door opened on it's own. " Everyone be ready when this door is opened kill any Angel with a weapon. Also be mindful there might be more prisoners."

Shielding her eyes from the blast, Izzy would have just enough time to throw herself to the floor before a fusillade of fire came from out of door to sail over her prone body. Raising her carbine she would return fire from a prone position, letting off short methodical bursts through the doorway towards the enemy beyond.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 190):

Looking again at Shadow's vid-board she traced her finger over her path. "There!" She poked the spot. Then moved her finger south over a diffent path. "I first saw it here and it was headed to the north gate"

  Shadow smiled.... Karl?.... sector   ,,,,,232... about  1/4 mile  t o the  south side  of the  saucer's  old position.. there  was Shuttle  shot  down by En Perry, contained  8 EDT officers...  8...That means   an HQ,,,,

 he    mad a motion with his Hand  for  Maddy's  COM...Beth? get  some scans at the   sector232..233 and 234.. we are Looking for Angel Elite HQ.... should be a bunker, itr has to
 be  Under ground....

 why are you using Perry's COM...

 'cause mine is being use to talk to karl...

 Your Vidboard  Broke?

 has the Map on it  and its 'live'

 No  OminiCom within..

FOCUS!!!...

 a few seconds later...Got it..Orria  scrubbed the white noise   ,,, Secor  233.. north east corner,, Half the Bunker  is covered only in Dirt..

 Good Job... Give orria  a Hug for us... handing   Maddy's COM back, he said to Karl on his... Captain... there is what....appears to be a Bunder at  northeast corner of  Sector 233..half of it is covered  by dirt... can you  crack that nut open?  If May be  an Angel elite HQ... I really enjoy  Angel Elite   getting  roasted.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:20, Sun 25 June 2023.

Madison waited until Shadow was done issuing orders, before speaking. "I wonder how many of those secret headquarters there are around the planet. Maybe if the troops can breach it, they gather some intel from their systems"

   Shadow shook his   head as he looked  at the live feed...I don't know. But 8 is a command  team..a frw years  ago,  Cptain Si's   sister  came on board,  hse had  7 members  and her 'Suggested".. I wa supposed  to  be a 'marriage of  convience'.. But her  'Sugested ' tool it rather badly.. Hannah was gone for a while, i had to   do PR  stuff on stations with ehr, I had to  fight the Suggested..    I beat the 9 hells out of him..but  the truth is , I don't think i had a rib that wasn't  broken.. Roy  helped me  walk to the  elevators to Med tech..Not long after, we  found out the Angel Elite  were   apart of EDT...

there was a Gun battle.. Beth got shot  because she followed   someone  else into the fight... Captain Si's  Sister was sent back to her father in her own shuttle.. it was blown up? Some say it  was  rigged? But Lyri checked the  vessel out.. there was a crewman here..Mindreader guy?  he was working with  some pirates..for whatever reason he was trying to catch that shuttle..The Delta Fleet Ruled the  Killed the   'Ambassador'.. we'll never know for  sure, because  the  Skyth were with us at the time, and the  could out Jump the  pirates.. they were destoyed  afte being  warned  2.. It all in the Video Logs

 anyway, that  means a Command station has rto be there.. now? You either Killed all those officers.. or there are still some in the Bunker.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 190):

"Roger than, LC...still out here swatting down bad guys for our new buddies.  Whatcha got for me?"  There was an angry baritone buzz in the background as the Morningstar's autocannon laid down a couple hundred rounds on a building front that had shooters firing back at the Yenti.

"Pickings are getting slim, if you've got something specific, I'm pretty sure they can spare me for a few minutes to go mop it up."

  You should see a part of a  Bunker   in sector 233 northest corner.. if you can't  find it, there   is a crashed Shulled  that  EN Perry brought  down, In sector 232,,just back track the street, it was flying, almost ground level.

"Rat bastard!" Roy growled as rounds pinged off his armor, and one actually caught the edge of an armor section, splitting the pulse so that most of it went harmlessly off the armor and against the bulkhead.  Part of it, however, penetrated, and while it did practically no harm to him whatsoever, it burned.

He returned the favor by tossing the grenade into the room, ducking aside until it went off so that he wouldn't be hit by his own fragmentation shrapnel.  Once he heard it detonate, he came around with his weapon up and fired at anything that wasn't in ESN armor that was in his line of sight.

"On it..."

He was flying pretty slow over the city, and it didn't take long to pivot the Morningstar with its maneuvering thrusters until the sector in question was plainly visible.  "I think..."  He saw something that could have been a bunker, but he wasn't sure...so he backtracked the downed shuttle.

"Firing..."  He selected a high-explosive round, keyed the fuse to set for a half-second after impact so it would have time to penetrate, and let fly.  As the top of the bunker heaved into the air, he poured in fire with the pulse cannon, filling the structure with enough energy to incinerate pretty much anything remotely flammable.

"I think that's got it...I'm waiting for the smoke to clear to I can do an honest damage analysis."

  Roys  Group, it Appeared that  The Admiral and some others   took 'accidental' hits  from the   "spray and pray Angels"

  Hemsly Peaked into the  devastated    entry  chamber and said with a proper  snort,we   Couoda  Blown them up  two, if ye  was  so  finicky!  she  shrug,


 Dusk   had  some  Red=grey  blood   seeming out   at the  thigh.Her  Thigh  guard  and been  hit  rather hard, and fragmented.

 As Roy Looked in, the  Entry door to the Bridge  was ahead

..................................

 with the mechs tearing into the  thier own , entry  Chamber.. 3 Guards   there died  horribly.

 The door In front of them said.."bridge' In Angelese

....................

 Karl  didn't have to wait  for  the  smoke to clear... there  were  gouts of  fire  , popping out  like  small Geysers .. 'tentacles' of  earth   where   dropped  down, revealing  fire   and small , it looked almost like a Lava flow/...

Karl coughed slightly, before he began to report in.  "Well, LC...I'm not sure what they had in there, but whatever it was didn't react well to high explosives and heavy pulse.  If anyone WAS alive in there, they aren't now."  He took a moment to assess the situation.

"Something is continuing to cook off in there, it looks like, because every so often, a burst of flame shoots out of what's left of the building...which is slowly crumbling in on itself...and it looks like it's got...lava?...inside?  No idea what that is, but I'd warn the ground troops to approach with extreme caution.  I've never seen what plasma weapons do in direct contact with the ground when they go off, but I wouldn't be surprised if it looked like this..."

  Shadow  chuckled..From what  Maddy and I are seeing from the Vid  screen.. looks like  tunnels or passage ways?.. Have to ask the SM   about that..there was somethign  at the airfiled... If those sealot humans were  in thode  tunnels, that will have Killed   100's of them..

 NA-CE ran to dusk, her own wounds could wait she was here to save and help others. NA-CE looked at Dusk's wound and patched her up as best she could as fast as she could.

Roy snorted at Hemsly again, in response. "If I just wanted 'em blown up, I would have kept us all off and told the Hermes to shoot the damn thing down from overhead..."

He glanced back at where Na-Ce was treating Dusk.  "You three!" he called out, picking three more troopers from the group.  "Stay here, keep Captain Shadow and Na-Ce covered, and be ready to grab the captain and head for the exit if we yell out."  He put a hand on Na-Ce's shoulder and added, "Don't get so caught up treating the others that you forget to take care of yourself.  Don't skip yourself in triage, if you go down we don't have another medic to take care of them."

He looked up from Na-Ce to Dusk, and grinned slightly and shook his head.  "You had to go and get yourself shot.  Your father's never gonna let me take you kids anywhere if you keep getting hurt when you come along..."  He gave her a wink, and then turned back to the rest of the group.

"Anyone who's hurt enough that it's going to compromise your effectiveness, stay here and get treated...you can help with guard duty and make sure we don't get a nasty surprise from behind.  The rest of us?  Let's end this..."  He started heading for the Bridge entrance.

 The  Bridge  door Looked just like the other one.

   Lirg snorted  , his lips curled back... there are no  cams?... why are not  CAAMs.

...........

 Dusk    Sat By NA-CE,,, Father  will not  be  too angry  I wa shot..he will be More interested  in how  maybe   enemies  i have killed
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:35, Mon 26 June 2023.

Nikki finished getting up 2 other tent before heading to the mess and joining Lizzy.  She also made sure any Refugees got in line before her, especially the kids.  Finally she got a bit and a water then sat with Lizzy.  "That Lt was a bit of a hemorrhoid wasn't he?" she said sitting down.

Picking herself up off of the floor, Izzy would straighten her glasses before hurrying to catch up with Roy as they moved to enter the bridge. Glancing over at him she would frown slightly at the scorch mark on his armour ”I have a first aid kit if you need it” she quietly offered as she advanced into the bridge area with her carbine up and her eyes scanning the area for any sign of threats as they went.

Holding up a hand to signal that he was done; Conrad would quickly move out of the way so that one of the mechs could put its hands into the hole he’d cut and prize apart the doors with a squeal of tortured metal.

It was unclear what the guards beyond had been expecting when they’d seen the flare of the cutting torch but it clearly hadn’t been a squadron of mechs as they were quickly torn apart with Tarja not even needing to fire her weapon ”So which way now?” she asked upon advancing through the opening. There was a sign on the wall written in what she assumed was Angelic or enochian, or whatever the hell angels spoke but she was damned if she could read it and wasn’t about to guess.

  Lyri stepped  up between Kira  and   Tarja, it was  funny  as the  5'9  slim built  woman in  Medium  boarding armor  was flanked  my   a gremlin and AI...

 we know  that has to be the Bridge...   tear down the  doors  or Blow them? anyone inside  wearing  uniform, dies...

...........

The three  Roy pointed to, where   Three of the Iron Guard, they  would  set  up, one  on either side  of the  passage.. Luke in the Middle..No one's gettignpast  us in Either Direction,SM


  Cross stood  with  Supe and Hodden  with Zob on the other  side...we're  ready when you are,

 The Admiral    took off   the should  plate  that was melted, Tossing  it aside.   He Looked grimly  at the Bridge  door.There may be a day, Roy, where i  stand  back  after talking a knick or two...but that day isn't today...

 NA-CE finished patching up Dusk then went to any others they needed attention before they moved on, lastly she headed towards Hack," Admiral do you need medical attention at this time?"

 Meari looked at the door and the team they had, she would then call to Lyri," Do we have a Demo expert to blow this door, or are we ripping it off again. We should see where the other team is and coordinate our attack on the bridge."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:00, Mon 26 June 2023.

 Noting some Pilots  waiting for Him, Shadow waved to the Mess Tent,go!.. get  fueled up , don't know when we'll have to scramble once more..

  Maddy?   I think a drink is in order... You just, unofficially  killed a  few hundred Zealots.. and maybe some  Angel Elite.

 Frans    closed in one them...Kray.. I'm supposed to make sure you  get that  Angel Doctor  to  fix you?

 yeah..I mean.. he looked  at the bloody hole in his   tee shirt..Its seems to  be ...

 Captain Si  told me to get you there, or  I don't get angel Silk for ...where ever the Victory party is..I love you to  Bits, LC.. but you are competing with an Angel silk dress...

 everyone has their  price...

  Damn right !..lets go see the  Ice Maiden..
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:53, Tue 27 June 2023.

 Lizzy got a big meal she was starving, she sat with Nikki and wondered about the ship taking off and what would happen next. " Yeah he was but the LC is our version of preparation H." Lizzy giggled and ate her food as they relaxed waiting on what their next orders will be.

In reply to Beachhead. (msg # 218):

"Unofficially?" She grinned? "There's no award for that. I'm going to have to try harder. But can I get credit for eight of them?" The grin became a chuckle. "But a drink will do in the meantime." Her eyes flicked over to Frans as she marched up. As they spoke about Shadow injury, she noticed the blood. Because he was acting normal, she had assumed the blood was someone else's.

Yeah. Doctor for you. I'll take a rain check on that drink, boss. Let's get you patched up." She looked to Frans. "I can take him, if that's okay"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:29, Mon 26 June 2023.

With Lyri translating the sign for her Tarja would move her hand in an affirmative before being asked by Meari whether they should cut it or use a demo charge to gain access to the bridge ”That depends, is Corporal Corby still with us?” she said in a loud voice that hinted that if he was around then he needed to speak up quickly else they would be cutting the door open again ”Sergeant Major we have reached door to bridge and are preparing to breach, are you in position to do likewise?” she would say through her comms to Roy to see if his team were in a position to do a synchronised breach, not to mention give Brian the opportunity to speak up and show them what he could do and regain some of his reputation in the process.

In reply to saucer (msg # 215):

Hearing the mention of something needing blowing up he moved beside Lyri. Checking the surface he setup some C10 blocks & detonators. Taking cover he glanced at Lyri Right to go on you say so.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 00:26, Tue 27 June 2023.

 Lyri points to the Door...we need that gone.. i don't want the  mechs tearing it  apart, because  some one can take  shot at them,

  The Youn Guns  moved up with   Nifty  peering down   the way they came

In reply to ai (msg # 223):

Already done Master Chief he replied. Checking there weren't any friendly in the blast area. FIRE IN THE HOLE he warned glanced about once more then clicked the charger. The C10 blew throwing the into the space away from the assault team.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:13, Tue 27 June 2023.

Nikki smiled and giggled as well.  Besides fighting at your side, singing, and occasionally doing a crazy stunt, one could count on her to turn an interesting phrase or two.  "Here's to our Prep H!  Let's hope he never has to be used for someone 'impacted' as well." she held up her water bottle.

  Frans  smiled at  Maddy, yeah?  You take  him.. if  me and him get into a  Fight  I don't  want the rest of the wing to see me beat him up.. He'll behave  for you, you're  newer..

 Flores   and Kat  grin as they head off to the  mess tent..

 Thanks carole, Make  me  look bad ....

 Frans  taps her  Cheerleader Pin.. Part of   our  job..Maddy?   just Punch him if he tries to take off, he'll be too embarrassed to run..but if he runs, you're not catching him!

 the Moved to through the med tech  tent.This is totally unnecessary.. I mean.. i feel  fine.. his   eyes  shifted  like he was looking for  an escape.

 Major  TA-LI saw him approach, she left the  table  she was working on, and her  assistant  finished the  closing.

 what a surprise ..i thought you would not  appear... hand your  gear to   ...checking the name,Ensign Perry...take off  your shirt...

  well..i mean...

 we both know that isn't the  first  time  you heard those words..please  be  swift.. i have others to   attend to.

  well..I'll just come back when you're... the Half angel's arm   grabbed his shoulder  and  pushed  him   onto  a table...

  Shadow sighed  , and began  to pull the shirt  up, pits of   shirt were caught in the  homemade plast.. it made him wince but  it was done..

 TA-LI  looked at  Maddy.. Hold this... handing her  a light cube  and touched it ., the blue light glow  made the wound look worse..

 who took the  armor  bits and cloth out of the  wound...

 I did. Kat was  afraid of hurting me... i used    tongs and a bendy  Mirror  thing,  she    helped    clean out   the  dried blood, then  she   foamed and Plased, and  sealed the  edges..

  she looked  up him..you did that yourself, and you balk at me doing it..This is because of the last captain..

 yeah..Look.. major...

 TA-Li...

 Just..finme.. TA-LI..  what do we have to do...

 Three bits in there..scanners  says.. i don't get them out  now.. You  on your way to a med tech vessel where were  can  do a blood change on you, because you be infected.

  This  will hurt,, i can give you a pain killer. we are running low, but you are a Flag Officer and..

   no..  save for  troopers..,, lets  Just get it  done..

  TA-LI gave a nod of Approval,Captain Si said you were a  team player...  I guess that is what she meant....

 Ensign, there  will be blood, but not as much as it was when he first was hit.. if yoiu are ok  with this.. Hold the  Light, i have to  cut the  old plast out, some of it its  already  rooted..... her  Eyes   shifted..You understand..right..

  Shadow   rolled his   eyes   and swore  silently..Aye, Ma'am, Lets get this done...  she reached for  a scalpel  a Tiny  broken light bulb was tattooed on her  wrist.

 she  saw  shadow  saw it and smiled...  he  just nodded  and gave a shrug..

 The wound was  long 1/2  deep..but it was  as big as a softball..,, she  began to cut at the edge '' Shadow  hissed  and   gipped the edge of the table...

 You may  scream if you want, sometimes it helps..I have heard men scream before

 I bet..you..have...  there were troopers  watching, some were in Bad shape..  Shadow  saw them, Giving a weak smile.. they smiled back, and nodded..some watched  as the Blood began to flow from the newly rooted veins and nerves.

 to shadow, if  felt like   days.. it took about  2 Minutes, the hole was clean..to of the bits  came out  with the 'plug' of artificial flesh.. the last bit  was puled out with  Medical .  TA-LI  looked at the others. the   bits of  flesh was dumped into a can for them to see,,they looked at Shadow who was breathing hard, but managed a grin  and shrug,,,

  TA-LI  picked  a  spray   bottle  , the antiseptic burned , of  course,, Shadow's head  went  back, but he refused to   shout.. then the  new foam was  added, and the Plast troweled over..Tell this  'Kat"  she did a good  job with the foam and Plast. if it weren't for the Bits, you would have been in good shape....get rest and  eat..yiou have to feed the foam..

 as he stood, a med tech offered him a new  T-shirt that he   slipped on with another  wince, then added his  tunic,, Grabbing his armor, about that drink?
 The  wounded  men sat up  as they went  by they fist bumped or saluted as they went out  to the mess Tent
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:56, Tue 27 June 2023.

Taking Shadow to the med tent was the easy part. Once Madison got him inside, that was when the difficulty started. TA-LI came right over, and the LC immediately started to complain. Madison really thought he was putting on a show. He knew damn well that wound had to be treated, and she knew that he wasn't one bit afraid of the pain. After some fun but needless bargaining, Shadow removed his shirt. Madison had seen him shirtless, but the last time he didn't have that massive wound in his body. It was ghastly, and TA-LI had to open it up again.

After warning that the procedure would be bloody, TA-LI began. Madison wasn't sure if the warning was for her or Kray or both, but she shrugged it off. She'd seen blood. It didn't bother her. What did grate her teeth was Shadows reaction. He was a tough, stoic man, but throughout the process his teeth were clenched, and the veins on his neck stood out. The pain must have been incredible. He gripped the table, and Madison gripped his arm to comfort him. It only took a couple minutes, but it felt so much longer. Even Madison's muscles were like strained cords, just from watching. It was exhausting for her; the LC had to be wiped.

After putting on a new tshirt, he grabbed his armor and offered to cash in the rain check.

"That sounds lovely." She put one of his arms around her shoulder and helped him "Hopefully, we won't have to scramble tonight."

one thing I gotta  say.Stefi would have   had  more  fun with the pain thing,  That Major seemed to  be honestly sorry it hurt..she smiled too  damn much though

   Frans  COMed Maddy...so? was he a brave little soldier? or did they strap him down

    when they entered the  Tent , he pointed to  the   table  near the  back of the tent where the  heater  were, to dry out his  armor and such..

 getting Line, Shadow got a  burger  and a bowel of soup, along with a  hot coffee,  with the fixings.  when the  sat  down.. he  sighed..

 When Corby triggers the blast, the Door   Blows  in... there are  shouts of   dismay , a heart beat  later  3   Metall  balls flyout    One   has thick smoke  , the  other Two are frags .. The  AI and Mechs up  front, the troops had  little to fear from those...

................

 Roy's  Units  did Like wise

 The  Door   Blew   intowards  na d   weapns  fire  began to   zip out the opening.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 228):

Madison laughed. For whatever reason she found it genuinely funny that a med tech would be a masochist. And somehow, Frans knew they were out.

"Hi Frans. Yeah he was good. I mean, he complained a little and there was a bit of a negotiation, but he soldiered through. Doctors orders were rest and food. Food is first."

In the mess tent, Madison also got a burger with everything they had. She got a large soda and some french fries to go with it and took a bottle of ketchup. Food on tray, they headed to the table in the corner.

"So, I know things are fluid, but a planet is a big thing. It looks like we'll have the capital soon. After that will be moving on to another city?"

    Siping some soup , he said,out of  my Paygrade, But the Admiral  will fill me in.... he is hopign the  taking of Jerl, and the  execution of 'The Most High' will end  any  struggle from normal people.. the  nut balls will have to be cleaned out..  there are some smaller cities that  are untouched except  for that   shelling we  did

 Did you ever get to wear angel silk yet? I can't  remember  if you were  with us for a Ball?  It fun?  sometimes fights?  if we got to a station its sota my job to draw out the jerks, by being a bigger jerk.  I hear  people say , i'm pretty good at it.

Zob gave the others a nod to note he was ready he had his angel steel medium pulse gun at the ready and the very moment the doors blew, he then opened fire full auto putting down encapsulated pulse rounds at a alarming rate aiming for anything that wasn't a friendly trooper.

 Meari goes to her hud to see the bad guys, she opens up with her pulse and gatling 5mm hard ammo. She will also fire a mini missile at the middle one.

At Izzy's offer, Roy gave a shake of his head, looking at her with a grin that had an almost feral edge to it.  There was blood in the water, so to speak, and he could feel it, and treating a trivial injury would just slow him down.  "Minor pulse burn.  What there is of a wound is already cauterized, so I'm in no danger of bleeding or getting infected.  I've hurt myself worse trying to wrestle targets into position for marksmanship practice..."

He gave a nod for Hemsly to rig the next door.  "This is gonna be where the movers and shakers on this tub are...when that hatch opens, they're gonna be backs to the wall with nowhere to run.  For them, at that point, it's not even "fight or die"...they KNOW they're going to die.  The only question in their mind is how bad can they hurt us on their way out.  STAY OUT of the clear lines of fire.  Don't be stingy with the grenades.  And for the love of all that's even still remotely holy, don't be a hero.  They've got nowhere to go...even if they thought the Qarl might be coming to their rescue, the Skith are all over the other end of the system and the Qarl would be flying into a shitstorm of colossal proportions.  We can afford a little patience, let them make the first desperate mistake..."

When he got the call from the other group, he raised a hand so his people would understand he was answering a comm.  "We're right outside the bridge hatch, laying breaching charges now.  Don't wait on us...if we're lucky, we go in at the same time and catch them in crossfire...but if we're not, whoever goes in first draws their fire and the second team gets the jump on them.  So, go when you're ready, and we'll do the same..."

And, sure enough, moments later, Hemsly was blowing the hatch, and panic fire came pouring out in response.  Taking his own advice, Roy pulled a grenade, threw it, and followed it up immediately with another, lobbing them in underhand, the first slightly right of straight ahead, the second slightly left.  He gave himself a moment after the second explosion to assess the volume of fire and whether it had dropped at all...and from where in the bridge area it appeared to originate.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 231):

"Nope." Madison pushed against her lip as she chewed. "I've never worn it. I came after the last ball, but I have to say...." Chew chew swallow. "I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, the fights? I won't be in there doing that. I'd get my pretty little ass kicked. But, I'll have fun watching you guys. I'm not a huge fan of violence, but I grew up in Wyoming. The place is all cowboys and mountain men. Fistfights happened all the time." She squirted some more ketchup on her fries and then munched them one at a time like she was eating carrots.

"And I'll have you know, I've seen you be a jerk. You really are good at it." She licked ketchup off her fingers. "Sorry. I should use a napkin." She cleaned the rest off with a paper napkin. "But that's good, right? You're going to do something, be good at it." She then grinned at him.

"I can't believe how much I've changed since I started on the Hermes. I feel like a completely different person. Do you remember when I first arrived. I was all square and formal. Now I'm shoveling ketchupy fries into my mouth in front of my boss. And I no longer dream about things I plan to do sometime in the future. I live more in the moment, and I'm so much more free spirited. If I went home, no one would recognize me."

   well, nothing  wrong with  eating fries in front of your boss... especially one , you just saw a Half Angel Med tech take apart  and   put back together..  Looking to the future isn't  so bad, as long as you don't have a death grip on it

 Thank  You,  I am trying to get  my  fourth  star as  a high ranking jerk...

 we have a unit on the hermes. It work with the Lights  Out groups...we do alot of wet work and stealing when we   go on shoreleave even if yiu didn't want to Mix  it up with the scum balls, you coukld stikl be a driver. Flores and Frans  drive some time...neither are in the Unit, but they know about it  and help. Think it over, talk  to them, or beth

  The   Units     poured in.. larry and Freddie   when  in  and   screams were heard.   Angels  In Black and Silver   fired  back.. Supe   went   down , Hodden   screamed for a med tech  as she  kept   Firing.. Tucker   put the ammo boxes   down  an tried to  Pull  the much bigger man put of the  door way

 they saw a round   area   with  screens i the roof and  at least   30   enemies

  The mechs and   AI  were  entering the   place, weapons  cutting  down Angels like  dry wheat.

Zob swapped his focus as pulse rounds pinged against his heavy armor from the angel elites and pulled two frag grenade and tossed them towards them before continuing to fire with his angel medium pulse gun giving cover fire for others getting Supe out, "Medic help Supe!" his armor was strong but with so much pulse fire in the air getting nicked was inevitable.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:05, Tue 27 June 2023.

Kira swapped out her pulse hand and went over and gently grabbed Supe and pulled him back with her mech hand out of the doorway quickly to safety before swapping it back and with both hard ammo and pulse weapons focused fire on the rest of the elites.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:09, Tue 27 June 2023.

   Both attacks   could  see, the    circular room, about  50yards across.. it  had   two tiers

 the  lower tier  was   close to the  10 feet away from the  doors.. there were  6 more doors   like the two the Hermes troop unit    breached..

   Freddie and LArry  had  some  Balck  uniforms  on the grounds, , shredding them with their 4 back legs.

 the Upper  circler   had    co9nsuloes   where the blower   circle had     work stations...

 Black Uniform were behind the  consoles  as they  fared   at the  doors  ..
     The mechs  came in at  7:00... Roy was  at  6:00.. at  1:00    a dozen Balck uniforms  tried to get the Most high  to the door there,,

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 236):

"Wait? Did you just offer me a job?" Madison went back to her Cheeseburger. "So, the lights out group, it's like some special unit? It sounds like clandestine ops. That does sound interesting. Exciting too. But like I said, I can't fight my way out of a wet paper bag. Poison, guns, those I can do. ... Wow. This got dark fast." She took a big bite and chewed it slowly as she thought about it.

 well.. if yu are a driver, you'll most likely use a gun..  we try to get pilots   to be drivers   so they can treat the hover vans  Like a    Fighter. I'm not   real god with guns  , that why i use  an SMG, and this Sanri Blaster..my skills  are Balde.. I lost my damn trench knife. this   B=green  Burian blade, was giving to me  by a Village that honored me and Lady..Kase was there to... anyway. they  have a  statue of Lady made  from  , hedge things, looks like a Green Hammer IV

  every time we go to Bura, I visit that Village,, they have a feast. like i was some   high  official  and  all me  and Kase did was kill a bunch of demon   like anyone else..  But they are good people...   anyway.. Hand to hand,  throwing  Baldes, and    in close  with  this?  Until i can find  another trench knife that  feels god.

 Shadow laid the   12 inch  green bladed    combat knife. so she could see the green Burian steel.

 now, when we  do the   Delta Nights. Operations is  in my condo, with the Admiral across the  roof in his... they have a big dinner  and  officials.. e have a party..  a game on the  massive  Vid screen   dancing  on the roof  and in  the living room.. Largs  hand around to keep the  nosey guests a way, while Beth and who ever helps her as out HQ..... you'll see..but.. you can always  just be  a party person to help cover   out comign and going... 

Smoke poured from the grenade, a couple of frags from the Angles blew. When the AI started forward he slipped in behind them. Moving through the breach he spotted a couple of Angles wearing black off to his left. Opening up on the Elite troopers with his Machine Pistols, their bodies spun about then hit the deck twitching for a few seconds before laying still. Following the AI, into the passage, he hugged the wall and fired at Angles defenders who kept fighting.

 NA-CE ran to Supe, and began working immediately judging how bad he is and if she can just patch him up r does he need evac. " I am here cover me, I will get to work."

After watching Brian set the explosives with the look of someone marking an examination, Tarja would move to one side and wait until the door was blown before quickly advancing towards the breach, ignoring the sound of shrapnel ricocheting off of her armour as a pair of grenades went off.

Passing through the smoke and into the bridge Tarja would send a pair of missiles to explode in the upper levels before proceeding to fire upon the black angels before her with her gatling gun.

As her team pushed deeper into the bridge Tarja would notice a group of Angels trying to hustle someone unmistakably important through another door ”Don’t let them escape!” she shouted whilst point towards the most high, with her proceeding to carve her way towards them.

 Meari moved into the room quickly and also opened up with her gatling gun. She also saw the group moving the most Idiot out of the room. Keari looked at her team and said," Ok team Bravo lets get these assholes." Meari used her jump jets to get there fast then shoot at the Angel Elite trying not to kill the most asshole yet, Meari then drew her dual Udenese combat knives and goes to town on these assholes. "Already done Tarja."  Meari will also use a mini missile into the group to make sure they dont get to the door, again trying not to kill the Angel Leader. " Also could someone make sure that door doesnt open."

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 242):

"You're not good with guns?" Madison feigned being shocked. "I was told that you were good at everything. Hmh!" She grinned as she washed down her burger with some soda. She held up the cup "Is this the drink you were talking about?" She popped her eyebrows then sipped through the straw

"When I was home, I had this mustang. That's a car not a horse. I had horses too, but I'm talking about the car. I got it for my sweet sixteen. It was wheeled, but I could crank it up to 227mph. We had some really straight roads and some really winding ones. It was such a rush. I think I was a good driver. I didn't kill myself."

She marveled curiously at the huge knife he laid on the table.

"Wow. A genuine 12 incher. And so many others disappoint." She giggled. It might have been taken as a flirt, but it was really said as an off color joke. It could have been way worse

"So, yeah." She picked up the knife and turned over in her hand a couple times, tapping the edge and point to test it's sharpness. "If I'm terrible at hand to hand, fighting against this would literally be a bloody disaster. I know we covered personal combat in the academy, but that's all I have." She set the knife back down on the table very gingerly, as if it might go off.

"Now, operating out of a party? That I can do. A dangerous party? Even better. I suppose I'd have to limit myself to nursing one glass of wine. Which is fine. I'm not a heavy drinker... usually. Two very specific occasions not withstanding."

"So, is there some kind of on-boarding process for this? A briefing? A hazing ceremony?"

In reply to Nicole Rutledge (msg # 225):

 Lizzy held up her water bottle as well, and giggled. Lizzy ate then said," Ok we should be ready in case we need to help with that flying saucer which looks like it might crash any minute."

  Shadow nods  at the  Blade and returns it to the sheath.QMs  liking form trench knives.. i mean we have   some, but the one i had had the Brass  Knuckles on the guard, and a
 bolt on the   end of the Hilt, I used to like to  scare the bad   guys  buy spinning it
 around  like a Gunslinger.

 Good at everything ? Anyone who says  that is a  liar, even if they say it about me?  I can   shoot   the  window  out of a hover car, while  i'm in my fighter  from  1/2 mile away or more.. .. I have to use  a SMG to gun down people on the  Ground... or ..this?  he puts   his Sanri  Blaster out...This is like a sawed off  shotgun, of the Pulse weapon family..  I can also  rig  crude   devices , but I'm not Hemsly . There
 are other stuff i feel I'm good at, but , that's not for me to say...

  what happens, if you want in? you get a test run, if your   going in the field... The 'distractions'  don't need to try out.. hot chicks  are hot chick, they are universal distractions, you shouldn't have a problem there.

  we had a head case her..got really  bad, almost got  Kat Killed , almost got  Billie  killed..I would have  shot  the  head case down if Kat would have died   because  her  wingman hung her out to dry ..

 so..when we   have these ops.. the rule is, when you're done,  Beth will send you to help someone else... the last Op th head case was on, she  chose to go by herself with  Just Arnie  driving?  Me and My team were headed up the stem to help  Roys
 team..some one had a Piece of   Lady's   fuselage .... but.. the Headcase's  op was a disasters. ..I had to  go back to the lowers....we   cleaned up that mess.. she truned in her Balck card..... he   downed his coffee... and said.Tehy got away with the piece of   Lady.... Her Granmod.. Illit. the  warlord of  Uden.. held me responsible. That had alot to do with her Pulling the Udenese out of this invasion... Dusk stayed, , because Dusk stayed, several undenes   vessels stayed...

 he sighed,anyway, the same  head  cae, after  i buched her out  about almost getting Kat killed?. Smugly said she   asked for a transfer...and that Captan Morris  was   notified... I agreed to the transfer... and sent her to SEC, without her wings.

 Anyway... you never  knowwhat can happen on Ops.. We have Larry because  i ran into him on an op. long story but after he attacked me, I killed his   handlers, who were going to  put him down.. then he saved me..now we got a bunch of Largs

 gettign a Black card  for the Black Hanger is a perk, I teach some of the Hand to hand   down there.. beth  got good at it.. she'll hurt someone  if they get too close..Flores   will kill someone with a smile?..then there is the    after arty  thigns we have  to so after the ops... Be seen on the roof, talk to suits  and dresses.. dance  drink.. then 'excuse ourselves  to go to the Cono..  I let foloks claim a room, .. Sometimes beth  or Flores, or Both will share mind..sometimes they have other palces to  be...

 he winks,Then in the Morning, I make  scambled   eggs, Bacon and Toast,,Coffe  and tea... Roy , and even the Admiral will help... and? the rest of that day is ours to hit the beach on a station..or  do the same or others things on a planet...

 so? You think on it, or talk to the others...not everyone is in.,most like to be distractions
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:32, Tue 27 June 2023.

"Fair enough" Izzy replied to Roy with a nod as he waved off the offer of first aid, agreeing that he was probably right about not needing it before listening as he gave his orders.

Moments later the door would explode and Izzy would dash into the room after him, only pausing long enough to throw a grenade off to her left, before ducking into cover behind some kind of console. From there she would begin to fire off several bursts of fire at the enemy before throwing another grenade at a group clustered behind a bank of control's causing them to scatter in an attempt to escape the grenades blast radius, with many of them being gunned down in the process by the rest of the assault team. It was at this point that Izzy would quickly relocate to another piece of cover before anyone decided to do the same to her.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 249):

The dissertation was dizzying. Madison would have to think about it. There so many ins and outs. So many person implications. But even before all that, it sounded so exciting, and that might trump any other concern.

"So, say I think it through and I come back and want in. Do I come to you? Or Beth? I guess it's really a discussion for after the invasion is complete. Or at least out part in it is done. Will I have to get a tattoo?"

Zob ducked down for a moment took out his Ender and slung the pulse weapon, "Hoke lay down suppressing fire" when he was ready Zob popped back up and with AP rounds equipped took aim and shot straight through the cover of the consoles the angel elite were hiding behind one by one swapping out magazines with the fluid swiftness of a trained killer hoping to create enough of a opening to allow more troops to advance and stop them from getting away.

  Shadow  finished his   soup and started on the burger.first, You must  understand.. In the Delta fleet, Rank is important..everyone has  thier place in the peckign order...BUT... Rank does not  translate into leadership.. The Admiral puts his peices in place.... Roy will  be in charge of  troops operations, even though the Compliment   has Captains  ... I am.... A Lights out  Agent... I am an assassin... i good one...so when the Ops  start.. I am in charge..but when we  break into units to cover  all are marks  at one time so we don't get caught?  Roy has  over all charge of the troops, Including,me

 so?   you can wait until the  Moment  'of' to decide if you want in..if yu do well, they'll let you in more...and yu can move up the line from driver to gun.  If you  are brave enough , yiu might  need to be  Arm Candy to get us into a building and such..

 he stops  as  a Mess tech refills his  coffee  dropping a milk packer and two  sugars,,, My Cover.. and it has been this way since  academy, is i am the 'playboy  pilot", I play football For the  Hermes  and i am the 'less the  correct' LC    I have  had  fights  with  traitorous  Admiral,  killed Sanri  had to hand.  if I'm alive when   we have a Ball, and you get your angel silk,  you'll be part of a pregame production, that will be meant to keep eyes  on me, or   disgust those  and have them  ignore it..which Gives the  Admiral  everything he needs to placate, or step on, some of those who won't be  alive by morning.

 I don't do Tattoos, I have enough scars that the   Foam and plast  couldn't cover... and?  if no one sees the broken Light bulb they can't tell for sure  who...or what i am.. Beth  as a bulb..  a few others...but its more out of wanting to  have one, to  show 'who you are" to others like us...or..if  you like ti... Pride.

From Kray's description, this was starting to sound more like an easy choice. She could start slowly. Not to see if she liked it, but to see if she could handle it. Courage was the key. She was brave in a cockpit. She was brave in a car or on a horse. But what would happen when it's face to face. Dressing up and flirting. Easy. That's what women did anyway. Letting it go further? It's happened. That was enough to start.

"Okay, well..." She set aside her tray. There was some fries left and a bit of burger, but she was full. "You've already revealed to me what has to be very confidential information. I can't not know it. And it sounds like it would be a slow ramp. I can't think of a good reason to say no. Soooo.... Yes. Let's do it."

    Hoke   fired, he  just sprayed  and  Prayed     to give the Big Guns  a Chane  to   hit the   enemy as they

 Zob   and the  HW    people , Minus  Supe  fired.. Hoddens  teeth gritted in  hate , tears  could be seen inside her face mask as  she    should the  Nine hells out of the consoles  to try  and   kill the bastards.

   The  Admiral  moved in as well, he  only had to  shoot, two , already wounded  Elites.. Meari  and the   others  managed to  cut off the escape... and  'The Most High stood  with on  Angel Elite Female. The  woman glared  at the  ESN troopers.  as she  stood  before  The Most  High.. The Most High was elderly..perhaps one of the  1st born?.. he had   his   hair  raised   over his head , the   glitz  in his  hair  mad it look like a Halo..

  Cora  snapped  at   the pair  as  Hungry , angry  ESN/APF  troops closed in Where the  9 Hells  did you  thing you would go? this is a  big metal  dinner plate?  You  would have run passed  us  100 times while we watched and laughed!

 The  General Lowered her  weapon, she  had  been hit  twice...No one will believe the   Most High  has died!

 Don't Fret General.. he held out his  hand  and she   handed her  Angel steel  sidearm to him..I have  learned alot  from the 'elder races'.. I have experimented  with ways to improve things... The Most High, will have a very....fitting...end..

 Cora stepped up and used  Zip  chains on the general.. Hack Motioned for Merai  , since she was  by the  exit door, to secure the Most High.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:19, Thu 29 June 2023.

good?once you get your Black Card,  we can set up Hand to hand in the  Black hanger... if  not. The SM  and Lyri  handle  the same thing on the football field. You'll know when  it time to  be certain.... I can tell you horrible stories of  the EDT,  Angel
 elite, pirates and slavers..... some of them I made  Suffer.. I killed  Lady V's  last Niece

  while she watched from the Vids..because they were about to have a  Loyalty Feast...  he sighs,No one is afraid of Bad  Guys, because they know they  do bad things.. so they fight them... bad guys  aren't afraid of Good guys, because the  real good guys are dumbasses...They fear.. people like me.. a good guy who does bad things, to bad people...and if you every saw a crying stem kid, who doesn't have  anyone they can even cry out to as the knife  cuts in.. you will understand the harshness.

 well.. I think its time to check on aircraft...

Being sure to avoid the heavy weapons fire from her own side Tarja would lead her section round in the opposite direction to Meari so as to cut off any chance of escape for what transpired to be the Most High ”This is Most High? This is leader of Angels?…but he is just old man” Tarja asked, once the Admiral had finished speaking, clearly very disappointed with what she was seeing.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 256):

The Black Card was the thing Madison had to watch for. It would come. Kray said nothing more, and what happened next was out of her hands. He pulled her aside, he made his pitch, he told her what would happen next. The only thing missing was the when. One of them would decide that. Not her.

What Madison could do was focus on her current job. To support the invasion, she needed a healthy, fully loaded fighter craft. The ground crews would make it happen, it was her job to double check and make sure it happened right.

Putting her tray at the tray return, Madison followed her boss to the LZ.The birds were all lined up in pretty rows under an alien sky full of stars. None of the constellations were the same, and not all the lights above were stars, but she was familiar with those skies. They were her hunting grounds until the shooting stopped.

As expected, a quick inspection revealed that her fighter was good to go, inside and out.

"Are we just standing by? I guess you already answered that. So that means another night in the comfort of the cockpit, huh?"

 Meari cleaned her knives on the dead Angel elite and the moved to grab and secure the most high. You try anything Angel Bastard and I will rip off your arm and beat you with got it. Meari was extremely cold and metallic on her voice. Meari then moved the most high closer to the Admiral and waited for further orders. Her grip was impressive with the suit on.

  The Admiral  looked to  Tarja,Earth  was  an infant, The Angels and demons  poured all the worst they had  in0t our planet.. other races  joined  in.. experiamnted, bred and ate our people. What they never forsaw, was the  arrival of humans   in ships of  war, that  could  sail the Black. How  many   billions have died, because of this creature's  myth.. re strain him.. There will be a trail of sorts.. but he is dead right now...

The Most   High Sneered,I do not  fear  death, For I have power  over it!

 Hack looked at him...and  I? Have  no fear of dispemcing it...in very creative ways..

  Hack pointed to Izzy..COM   beth to have her, and Sam, and  Orria  to flood  all  airways , with the Capture of the 'most High.. tell her to use   Gun cam and Helmet cams  from out  attacks, I want Th lalck to see him cowering. Tell   all the  Angels its over..

    Shadow  checked  all the  fighters of his  flight.  he left the other flights  to the flight leaders,  They were all good, even  Steele when he wasn't horn dogging.

   stopping at   Maddy's  fighter yeah?   too  wet on the   ground,  might get stuffy in the  cockpit..

  a voice   was heard  as Candy came around the aircraft..you use a blanket  as a pad  and another to cover.. two people can stay pretty warm

 Shadow's eye brow rose.

 so.. there's an LT from the Athena? ..he had to land here..  um..he sorta stuck, I met him on shore  leave in Bura and..

 Go...have  fun..but if the balloon  goes up, get your self  to your skeeter in record time...

 she  smiled   and took off..

Tarja’s hand would move in a “shrug” as the Admiral gave his explanation before replying ”Maybe…but with all this talk of gods and mighty empires, I guess I was expecting something a little more…impressive” she said moments before the elderly angel made his claim that he didn’t fear death followed by the admiral’s threat eliciting a snort from a Finn who had heard such claims before and still didn’t buy it ”In which case I say we don’t kill him…why risk making a martyr for more Angels to fight and die in his name? Just throw him in a cell and leave him to be forgotten whilst he watches us dismantle everything he has ever built and leave him as foot note in history” Tarja suggested as a truly tiny trooper rushed over to comply with the Admiral’s order and set up a link to the Hermes.

  The Admiral  shook his head  once..Only fools keep thier  enemies  alive , after they served thier purpose... any angels  who rally  around his death, weill be  eliminated  . and  if we cannot.. we wil gift Paradise  Prime to the Skyth as well..

 You are Insane!.. You can't let those slime crawling creature have  the Homeworld!

 don't see what not? They have two planets  already..I think they would gladly take a full set.

 Take these two and Our  wounded to onbe of the shuttles,, call the BU's in and start checkign doors.. we alredy knbow what was in  some  roms.. so..Kill anyone in  Angel Unifrom.. so the prisoners   know  who we are...

 Hack sat down  at the Nav staion   . looking the screens  as he tried  slides  and toggles.. the craft titled  a few times...  shuttered  a few times..  but it began to lower  until   it Bumped  down hard, scatterign a few folks who weren't ready..

 That's  me!.. sorry.... call in the  Drop   ship  folks to clean it out as well..

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 261):

Madison gave Candy that sidelong look. She wasn't sure what her friend was implying until she mentioned the pilot from the Athena. It seemed strange that she had to ask permission to nuzzle with someone, but maybe it was more of a notice that she would be unavailable. She seemed pretty happy when Kray gave her the nod.

"It would have been better to have a barracks tent, but this is an invasion I guess. The locals don't want us here. What now?"

  There was  a look around,any tents like that around here, aren't for us.. The air base    has   half a drop ship with of Marines in.. no one expects   Piltos  to sty on the  ground. But it  could take  15 minute sor more to get from the Hermes to a hot spot...15 minutes is a lifetime to a Marine under fire.

 The Locals  are screwed. evenafter    we win, they'll be  rebuilding for a long time.. Te smart one  should go to Bura  , Astra  or  Aqra .. even the Delta  Colonies... not too bad there if you aren;t a convict

 he looked up at  the saucer , it  looked the size of a dime.The story of what we  do  tomorow is up there.

  I think  I try  sleepign on the  wing, that countout  where the cockpit meets the  wing should give some support, harder then the seat of our rides.., but we'll be sittiginthere tomorrow I wager.

 Meari looked around and said," Sir I need something to restrain him with I cant get anything it is under the suit, anyone got some rope or cable?"

Roy lurched as the Admiral took over the controls.  "Let me guess...while you kept current on the Hammer and other fighter craft, you've never really done large ship piloting?" he commented, with a grim chuckle.  "Not that anyone here would be any better at it..."

He grinned ferociously at Meari's request, and turned to look up at her.  "Just hold him by the upper arm...your suit's probably enhanced enough to crush the bone to paste if he tries anything."  He looked at the Most High, and added, "There's worse things than dying...and we can do most of 'em."

 The Most  high tried to struggle, but his angel strength  would not have helped, even if meari didn t have the suit.

 With an embarrassed smile, The Admiral said to Roy...I think  we would need   Commander Miller here, to have a smooth flight.. the rest of us  are figther  jocks.

 Maria  said,we could have had  Hemsly fly us down!  People laughed.

 get the BU's   ready and Our shuttles

 Neari made sure her grip on the Most High's arm was painful but not damaging. She would release it and say," So not so high and mighty now are you, I can not wait to see what the Admiral has planned for you, I am going to enjoy it."  As she talked she opened her visor so he could see she wasnt human.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 265):

"Wait, so what happens?" Madison had assumed that they were there to conquer, not just to kill and destroy. "If we kill the Most High, then what? Don't we keep this planet?"

"The wing?" Madison chuckled silently, shaking her head. "That does not sound very cozy. I think I like Candy's idea better. But, no one ever said it would be easy. I suppose I should go find some blankets."

  yeah..well.. no one  tells  their friendly Neighborhood  LC alot of details.. but   my study of the Admiral, has us keeping Paradise prime so the APF has  a presence here...The Skyth have the other two. But if  it  is too high of a cost to   Keep it on our own, we give it to the Skyth as 'thanks", and hope the 9 hells  we don;t have to  fight them , in the next war,

 she mentioned  about   going to get Blankets..alright..get rest....

Madison nodded. "Ya. Will do. Do you want me to grab you a blanket or two?"

Madison went and fetched four blankets, dropping off a couple to Kray, then settling down to get a night of shitty sleep.

  when she  returned, he thanked her   for the blankets, an  began to set up on the  wing  area  he mentioned., opening his  compartment, he got the go bag out to use  as Pilot, with the  SMG    tucked into the partial open cockpit.

.............

 around the   field other pilots  where   at, or near their aircraft.

Hearing the Admiral’s voice calling across to her, Izzy would check that the coast was clear before breaking cover and dashing over to where he was standing with the new armoured unit, with them towering over her like steel giants ”Already done Admiral…Beth this is Izzy we have been he most high, repeat, we have the most high…I’m going to patch you through to my armour cams, the Admiral wants it casting out for all to see” Izzy said as she quickly tapped away on her vidboard and patched the cams on her armour and helmet through to Beth.

Izzy would then position herself in front of Meari and the Most High so that Beth could stream the footage, stumbling slightly when the ship lurched to one side with her feeling envious of the armoured troopers that didn’t even seem to notice it ”…also the Admiral requests for the shuttles to come and pick us up” she then said, being sure to keep the most high in shot as she does so.

Tarja would consider the Admirals words for a moment before quietly responding ”existence is pain, and death is a sweet release from that pain” before proceeding to order the armoured infantry into a protective ring around the Most High, considering the discussion over and leaving it up to the Admiral to decide how best to handle the situation.

At Meari’s request for restraints Roy would beat her to the simple solution of holding him off the ground by a few seconds, with her offering him a respectful look, clearly appreciating his pragmatic approach to things as she waited to see where they would be going next.

With the fighting now over and the angel leader captured he put away his Ender and swapped back over to the angel pulse medium machine gun and went to check on the status of Supe, "Hows he doing?" he asked secretly hoping it wasn't as bad as it looked.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:01, Wed 28 June 2023.

 NA-CE was checking out and treating Supe, then replied to Zob, Supe is hurt but he will fully recover at the beachhead he is in no serious danger I just gave him something for the pain. 

 NA-CE then said to the group, and the Admiral, Supe will be fine but I need help moving him and getting him into a shuttle so we can get him to the beachhead,  I can't move him alone.

Nikki ate her burger and fries, talking to Lizzy.  "We should go check our rides in a bit. don't ya?" she took another bite of her burger.

 Lizzy finished her meal and replied, Yes we should soon I have a feeling we might be called soon just a gut feeling

  with  the saucer   coming   down, eerily lit  bu the  Molten groug  that the tunnels  had become....  BU's  were  sent in.. but More had to be called.

nearly  500  people..70% of them human were imprisoned in the  saucer.. what no one saw...yet.. were two rooms..one had  'freezedried   younger people of all races.. and other  was a butcher  shop with  parts   sealed and marked  by ..parts..age.. and race.
.............


 The Most  High and his General where  hauled into  Stoly's   shuttle.. Cavi  shuttle took     Sup ( with Hodden and Tucker) back to the  Beach head.

  Stoly tok the   Most    High  to  the   south end  of the beachead... followed  by the  AI  group's shuttle.

She nodded in agreement.  she had about 2-3 more bite of her burger left and a few fries too.  "Cockpit bed at the least.  Still we did our part knocking them out of the sky" she took another bite "wonder what the Angels on Earth are gonna do though when they hear or see about this though" she thought about them going scorched Earth in response.

Moving with the others from the shuttle he looked for a spot he could see the captured Most High. Spotting the old man; his brow wrinkled in disappointment.

As the shuttle doors opened, Tarja would walk down the ramp to the beachhead with the rest of her team, trying her best to ignore the crowd of people that was gathering around the other shuttle as they tried to catch a glimpse of the Most High.

Once the gun battle was over the AI had escorted both the Most High and the Admiral to the waiting shuttle before moving to board another that would take them and the mechs to the beachhead where they would be able repair and rearm ready for the next engagement before getting some much needed food and rest.

”ok everyone get suits seen to, we may be called on again” she said over her comms upon setting foot on the planet’s surface, with her being a little unsure of the tactical situation and whether or not they would be required to continue fighting now that the Most High had been captured ”So Corporal Corby, what do you think of Armoured Infantry now that you have had chance to see us fight?” she would ask Brian before continuing to speak in her characteristically cool, and heavily accented voice ”…team is going to do some routine maintenance before grabbing food and rest…feel free to come and join us if you like?” she offered before moving off to find somewhere to set up shop.

 when the Shuttles Landed  people stated  running to the south In... 'The Most High' had been captured,, the  Saucer  was   resting  on top of  Jerk,,..theothertwo managed to back  The Black..where   Roles  EMS killed the    engines with the Ion cannons. Drop ships  tropers       boarded  and found the same  horrors  aboard, The Major in charge  sent  every   Black  uniformed   angel , into the Black, with out any discussion.

  Shadow heard the Noise   and   hoped out, wincing  a bit,   but  started off  ata jog towards   the   Hellraisers  to see  'the great'  Most high.

 Supe was taken to the Med tech tent..Hodden was beside herself. the   broad-shouldered   strong  woman   being held by the  smaller Tucker, would be comical , if not  for the reason they were there.

 NA-CE got off the shuttle with Supe, she said to Hodden," He will recover, I will come and give an update when I can ok." NA-CE went into the medical tent to help treat Supe and inform the Major, NA-CE required her assistance.

 Meari had dropped the Most High to Stoly's shuttle and handed him off to Zob to watch over as she joined the AI unit on their shuttle.

 When they landed Meari already had met the most high and he was nothing but a old corrupt monster in her eyes. Meari followed the AI team to their area at the beachhead. Meari got out of her suit and did maintenance and reloading. " Already done Tarja."

 Lizzy saw the assault shuttle come back, and headed out to see how things went, and she heard the Most High was captured, oh she had to meet that asshole for sure.

 Lizzy made her way south to see the almighty Angel Leader. " Nikki lets go check out this Most High asshole."

TA-LI had been alerted that a Hermes  trooper  was coming in.. she cleared a Table.  Supoe  was  set o   Down , seh Nodded  to NA-CE and  motioned with  hande ti get  his toros  Body armor off.

 Ange;s , it seems  were good shots,  $  shots   groups  in the  chest armor  just low and Right  of   Suoe's heart.. Hodden   was  sobbing , Tucker  talking to her   softly as he held her..

 Minney   just arrived  and Looked at Tucker , the at Supe.

   TA-Li looked up at Hodden...It would be useless   for me to ask you  to leave...

 Hodden  shok   her head.. Tucker  said,we're Not  goig anywhere , Ma'am... we went in witrh him, we're staying right here  with him..

   she  cleaned   instruments    with the sanitizer  as NA-CE peeled off the   armor  bits of steel and   polymer  could  be seen i the   wound, though the    pulse  rounds  sealed  the wounds, there was  Blood from the  jagged  bits of  metal that moved and cut.

  TA-LI injected  Supe   with   painKiller..she  pointed to the  magna  grips...use the Magna   grips.. if  the  meal is  cathcing, use a scaple, It will not hurt him anymore then he is now..I will address the Polymer ..work quickly..

  with out another  word , she  begam to  pull  bits of polymer  and  polymer covered  steel from   the  wound.. it was  bigger then   The LC's  wound, and a bit  deeper.

 a smaller   human... less...hearty  human.. would be dead by now... you should all be proud he is  fighting to stay with us, it is so easy to cross over  into the Void.

   The Most High  was lead up a corridor of  ground Crews  and Pilots.  Shadow  reached  the   corridor  The Admiral stopped. Looked at the LC   and  then Most High.

  Most High .. general  SL-UA  Thisis LC   Kray Shadow. He  commnads  my  air wing, as
 SM  Roy Spencer  commands  my ground troops..

 The Most high  Looked at Shadow.You...Look inferior...

 Shadow chuckled...I have a  couple hundred  markers say i'm not...what is to be done with this piece of shit..

 The General tried to attack Shadow, but the  SEC  folks  didn't even pretend to let her.

 Engineers   are setting things up   where we landed.. there wuill be a tribual  we wil include the Yenti...its not goig to be pretty, but it will be satisfying..

 Shadow looked at The Most high..betcha  you're  glad  you got  Humans into the back? I mean.. we now know what you used  huamns for... but  those of us that came out here  and  got armed?.. You had  no damn idea, did you..1000s of years of studt. and no one saw this coming...

 I was living and fighting  1000 years before your ancestors  rubbed two sticks together... I will be alive, well after you  die

 The you better  hope some one  Kill me now..cause  i don't see much of a future for you..

  stepping aside,  , Hack pointed to an anchor   Bolt for  the Tents...secure Him here..  The General  will have    some food  with   me as  we talk about the upcomign event..let the  Most High feel the rain and Mud...as  those refugees  feel, or those who are in the rubble of the  capitol...I want two guards on him...

  The General was led  to the Command  tent  with henry , Hack  , the SM.. Shadow   shok his head,,I had   food with  Ensign  Perry.. I don't want to spoil that by sitting   with an Elite

Henry was setting about seeing to his charges. Best to take them to the Hermes when he could find a transport. Get the checked out properly, fed, clothed, and start in on the process of working out where they could go.

In the meantime he made sure that Mila and the largs were fed and watered.

 NA-CE got Supe's armor off and then used the magna grips to remove pieces and clean out the wound, she had to use a scalpel once to cut a piece out but she worked quickly but accurately. Once she got all the pieces she could see then said,The wound looks clean Major, we got all the pieces..

 looking at the timer  for the  pain killer  she said,Spray it... get the  foam  in right away, he'll be  waking up in a minute... Then we got to get that plast on..He's done  for a couple days...

 ..........

Shadow   saw the crowed   at the ned tech tent.. he saw Hodden  hugging herself, and Tucker Hugging her.. when he got  in there, he  saw Supe... The Major Looked at  him..You don;t need to be  Here  , LC...

 He's  my crewmate... teammate ..

 He's a a NON COM, You are a Flag offcier...

 He's a  Hermite,   I've played  games with him on my side,  i stood  with him  when attacks  came.. Hermite   is more important  that some  chevrons or Brass..

Izzy would ride the shuttle down with the rest of the assault team, quietly sitting near to Roy whilst NA-CE saw to Supe and Zob kept  an eye on the Most High who was still in shot of her body cam, with the footage still streaming to Beth so it could be broadcast out.

Once they were at the beachhead she would shut off the cameras and descend the ramp once the Most High had been escorted away and Supe had been taken to medical, with her not wanting to get in the way of either of them, especially Supe who looked to be in a bad way. Quietly hoping that the heavy gunner would pull through Izzy head towards the flight lines to see if she could find Lizzy.

NA-CE sprayed Supe's wound and NA-CE got the foam in neat and fast. Then she got the plastic in and made it look as good as she could. When she was done she moved backand said,I think it is great the LC cares, LC when I am done here I wish to talk to you for a moment sir.

Lizzy was heading towards the Most High when she saw Izzy in combat gear and a omicron on her back. Lizzy ran up to Izzy and gave her a big hug then said,Hey what are you doing down here on a omicron Izzy ?

Smiling as Lizzy came to meet her, Izzy would enthusiastically return her hug before replying ”Maygin took a hit when the assault teams first hit the city, I was drafted in to fill the role” in way of an explanation for why she was here ”I’ve just got back from assaulting the Most High’s ship…Lizzy…he had kids on there” Izzy quietly said, still horrified by the discovery, with her holding Lizzy just that little bit tighter.

 Lizzy held Izzy tight after Izzy explained why she was here Lizzy replied,Oh cool I hope Maygin is ok, but you look happy is this something you might wNt to keep doing my love.

 Then Izzy told her about the children the Most High had, Oh fuck that bastard I hope the Admiral comes up with something good for that asshole. Lizzy held Izzy a little tighter then let go and said,I was going to go see him now I will pass, so are you staying down on Paradise or you heading back to the Hermes Izzy?

<lightly flexed>
Nikki waved Lizzy on "Nah I'll give him a miss.  An assholes an asshole" to her he may be an enemy opponent, but he didn't rate much.  That would surely piss him off that she did not consider him important to even go stare at.  Besides she thought, she might do something stupid like pull a pistol on him then and there.

   when supe   opened his eyes  he groaned.. He looked at Hodden, Tucker and Minnet  and gave a  small smile.

  look.. I know you guys want somne time off  too? but find another way, then this...  hurts way too much!

 Hodden   breaks from Tucke  and   hugs  Supe's head.

 Shadow was goign to say somehting, but  didn;t want to ruin the Moment. he Nodded ton Tucker  and left the Tent...

 NA-CE, if yiu need to talk to the LC go now..

 NA-CE smiled at Supe's recovery and then replied," Already done Ma'am." NA-CE walked outside and hoped the LC would follow her. She stopped then unstrapped her Angel Steel trench knife and sheath and held it out for the LC. " Sir I heard you bent your trench knife and are using a Burian blade. I would like to exchange my Angel Steel trench knife for the Burian blade sir?"

”I think she is…I mean…nobody has told me she isn’t” Izzy replied in an uncertain voice, hoping that Maygin really was ok before deciding that it was perhaps best she didn’t dwell on it ”…maybe…I mean I prefer being on an assault team rather than behind a desk” she continued with most it coming down to whether Roy thought she was good enough. Sadly it meant that she no longer be working with Sam…but on the other hand it meant she wouldn’t have to work with Beth either…

With the topic moving to the topic of the Most High and the children they had found, Izzy would give a shake of her head as she replied ”you’re not missing anything, he’s just an old man, and to be fair I don’t really care what happens to him…I just hope those children are going to be alright” she said, holding onto Lizzy a little while longer before releasing her hold of her and taking her hand ”I don’t know really, down here I guess…at least until the admiral decides what our next move is, speaking of I don’t suppose they’ve set up a mess tent yet, I haven’t had anything to eat yet!”

 Lizzy replied," Yes I hope so as well, well I am glad you seem to have found something you enjoy and are good at Izzy." Lizzy held Izzy close, and her look changed as she talked about the Most High and the children," Yes I hope the children are ok as well, maybe Bura will take them like the other children?"

 Lizzy's eyes lit up when Izzy said she was staying she thought, " Yes come with me lets get you some food my fierce warrior." Lizzy giggled as they headed for the mess tent.