(( for when we    start fighting ))

   at first, there was nothing... The shells  and Pulse  rounds   gettign well past the figthers that lead  the  Shuttles  down... as the   clouds broke,  the impacts could be scene massive  craters, broken buildings  , fire and smoke every where..

 LC Shadow here, hermes  shuttle group... there is a Lake, 1 mile back  to the  5:00 of the city. ..Land there.. Captain Nilsson?.. to the North are  4   buildign that seem not   to have been hit?... bring them  down, or knock the  damn tops off.... the work your way back to the lake... but that time the  troops  should  be sorted out  and ready to Move... ...

 Frans? You have charge of Top cover... don't let anyhting go up after the ships

 Got it  LC.... Good hunting...

  The rest of us... start  lookign for  troops, armor  or  implements, we need them shut  down  for when  the  Drop ships come..

 So saying , Shadow  shot  forwards.. it  didn't  take long to see  troops huddles   in  broken houses,  or movign across the   roads   as the last of the shells  hit...none of them expected    the  fighters yet..

 Shadow didn't waste  hard ammo on the troops,  the  Pulse  guns   flashed  tearing   up a  squad of Roussians  and they started  to  scatter  and point up..  Flores  Took out   a HW in a shattered   part of a  Building..and the  ground war  was on...

  Stoly  sent  a message for the shuttle  to  park in a trefoil witht he ramps  facing the Lake.. The Bubble guns giving them   a full field  of  fire...as thier   air cover  swoped towards the  city., the ramps came  down  and    Stoly shouted... 100 yards a way..  troops!

 the  shuttle  shook as  his  nose  cannon   fired.. and top Bubble s sent  50 cal's   down range into the trees, cutting  down  trees and surprised   Roussians that  thought the shuttles  were just trop carriers.

  The general looked  at the screens, he  only seemed  half interested  as   they only showed  more  vapor trails  from shells  comign in...

 The COM  Tech pointed at the screen suddenly..LOOK!/// some of  those  projectiles   as    curving upward!

 The General watched, his  eyes  grew big.....those  are   Aircraft!!!.. the Invasion   has begun!..send out the Fighters  and  the   bomb shuttles!

  all around the world.. Mountain  doors   opened  and  scores of aircraft  took to the  air, for thier Last   fight... with them,  dozens of  small shuttle packed  with explosives   or   wired powered cells.

 Frans  called out.....here they come..Shuttles   and   2 seaters first, knock down fighters when you need too!

     The ESN   aircraft, with practiced  pression  had   split.. Top  Covers looking  for  aircraft... others   protecting the  the shuttles  and chewing up what targets they could  find.

   as the  Rousssians  took to the   air.. the  skies  began to get darker, with the amount of  aircraft, and   smoke from dying aircraft.


...........

 Shadow   saw   a pair of    shuttles  with a pair of  fighters    to thier  3:00...Kat.. you and Harry   knock doen those shuttles... if you have time, take out the fighters.

 Da, it is already being done.... she    rolled  out   to the  3:00   sighting in  on the pack of  aircraft.


Raven and Redwater  flew as a pair, with no flight, but stayed close to   Howe  and his  flight..

  they peeled off  after   another pack of   aircraft that  came from a  Tunnel.. one   shuttles, when  translated  said," Goss fine foods"

 Howe COMed  all COMs,they are using  Civie  shuttles!!... be carfeful..they either have  troops  for bordering..or  are kamikazes

  Mac! take  the   batch on our  9:00 comign out  of that warehouse...

 got it LC.. Lets  go  Morrisson!...

 That left  Shadow  and Flores  goig into the City...Captain Nilsson.. on your way to those   towers.. drop somthing on  any warehouse you see!

---> Hangar Dec

Following the rest of the flight into the planets atmosphere, the cluster of fighters looking like shooting stars as they made their entry, Harry would head towards the ground forces and fire few bursts from her heavy pulse weapons in their general direction, with her not really aiming for anything in particular meaning that if she did hit anything then it was more out of luck than judgement.

With the arrival of enemy aircraft she would mimic Kat's roll and line herself up on the nearest of the two shuttles. With her crosshairs aiming just in front of it's nose she would gently squeeze the trigger sending a burst of 37mm rounds towards it, before arcing round to move against the other one, this time aiming for it's engines. All the while she would keep an eye on the fighters lest they decided to try and get in her way.

<===Hangar dec

Nikki lined up with the rest of her flight. Lizzy was nearby.  She moved into position to protect the shuttle. "Here we go"

  harry  and Kat  came in from the  formation's   2:00... Harry's   rounds  Hit  the  First  Shuttle,  it  Blew  to  Bits   as soon as the first  round hit and exploded, the resulting  blossom  of  fire  took  out a Fighter..


 Kat  said, That is not  good thing..da?  she   friend into    the fighter that was in her  way, and it  blew apart  as one should think an aircraft would,  she     fired  at the  second  Shuttle, But  veered off  after    the fighter  when   Harry's rounds  streamed in..

...........

 Fitz   said, alright  folks... to the   10:00 of the  Shuttle landing   area there are troops  and  armor... lets  see about whittling them down before they decide  to  greet our troopers...

    his flight  peeled off  slightly  to  begin shooting     at the copse of trees  where the Roussians were hiding..

.........

 Mac  and Billie  closed in on thier  formation...I'll take the fighters on this side..you take the  shuttles, and we'll  finish the last two fighters together....

 a second or so later the  First  fighter   fragmented   under Machin's guns

  the troops  started to pour out,  the side  shuttles    troopers   setting up with ready weapons looking to the east and west.

  Stoly's shuttle  was in the Middle, with  those troops formign up  behind it  waiting  for the SM's  orders...  2 largs each   waited with thumping tails to be   told  what to do,,,

 about them  Foster and Howe  circled   lookign form  ground  tagets, while Shadow and  Fitz' groups were  attacking   fighters  and ground troops in the area... High abover them the rest of The Hermes wing, fired on  enemy fighters that were  sent to stop them.

 a bit  to the  east, a Shuttle from one of the othert  ships  broke apart send   a score of troopers  to the  Roussian  soil from 1/2 mile in the air.

 On  either  side of the  Lake   other shuttles  Landed  and  Beacons  beacons  began to  flash, as the   sky started to  dark  again...but this time, from transport bases  ready to loose thier drop ships
 Supe  put  his  helmet on, despite the air  thatw as god...Helmets were good.

---->>>> From Hanger Deck

 Lizzy Stayed with her shuttle shooting down anything as her and Nikki escorted their shuttle down and then pulled up and she heard Fitz's orders. Lizzy replied to Nikki," Ok Fury lets go chew up some armor and troops." Lizzy would then head to 10:00 of the shuttle area and unleashed her 37mm cannons or any troops and armor she sees, staying with Nikki.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:54, Mon 11 Jan 2021.

The Morningstar peeled out of the formation a couple of kilometers above the surface, sweeping into a broad circle that kept most of the target city in its arc of fire, and easily within a few seconds' adjustment for the large artillery guns.  "Already done, LC," he responded to the instructions about hitting the four building.  Seconds later, a huge gout of earth, masonry, and fire erupted into the air at the base of one building.

"Keep at it, Ed," Ka4l instructed the AI, while he scanned the images in his targetting arrays, looking for the mentioned warehouses...

He thought he'd spotted a likely candidate when the call went out about the fighters.  "Keep the minigun and cannon warmed up, Ed, and watch for anyone sniffing after us."  The odds were low, or course...Beth's beacon-voodoo made him invisible to scanners, so they'd only pick him up visually...and with the angle and speed they were headed, that didn't seem likely.

But it was always when you acted like it couldn't possibly happen that an engine flamed out or a wing buckled, so he wasn't taking any chances.

The Morningstar circled, raining down explosive artillery shells at the base of the towers and heavy pulse rounds at the top, until the towers began to crumble and collapse into each other.
This message was last updated by the player at 22:21, Mon 11 Jan 2021.

"Fire and Fury, coming at you...oooh!. look they make pretty fireworks" as she was taking out and targets intent on getting to the shuttle they protected.

she played some attack music and commed Beth to have it go everywhere "want to play this for our side?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rinh0p_JcS8

"oh wow...that was a bigger bang than I was anticipating" Harry responded in stunned voice as she narrowly avoided the ball of fire that had resulted from her firing upon the enemy shuttle, causing her to wonder what exactly they were carrying seeing as she'd barely touched it. With this in mind Harry would be a little more cautious as she fired on the second one with her being sure to veer off quickly to avoid the resulting blast "Watch the shuttles boys and girls they go off with one hell of a bang" she called down her comms as she moved to link back up with Kat; scanning the area for any further shuttles.

Melia rode down, calmly. It was just another drop. Another opportunity to kill some demon allies. With touch down she racked a round popped her safety off and spilled out with the others heading for the nearest cover until the ground situation could be assessed.

"Alright, I want a shoot-and-scoot advance.  Sort each shuttle into four teams, Team One moves while Team Two covers.  When One gets to cover, they sit overwatch while Two catches up and goes past them.  Rinse and repeat.  You encounter any resistance, you call for fire support, that's why we have planes in the air.  Houses marked with ESN colors are supposed to be safe havens for civvies and kids, but it wouldn't be the first time these rat-bastards have flown false surrender colors, so if ANYONE shoots out of one, burn the place down.  We are not here to dick around with some asshole who thinks he can use civvies as shields."  He shook his head, his expression indicating just how little use he had for anyone who tried that.

"IF someone has surrendered, send 'em back here.  I want efficiency, but save the brutality for people who are actually fighting.  We're after the military and anyone working with them, and the road will get paved over a lot easier if we don't have ALL the survivors talking about what assholes WE are.  Do what you've gotta do, but be quick and clean about it."  He gave a nod, then turned to the crew of his shuttle and walked quickly down the line, counting off one through four over and over again.

"One and Two, advance on this line!  Three and Four, take that angle!  Sweep and clear!  Move out!"

    the shuttle  50's  stopped   firing  as the  fighters  chewed  up the  trees  , a few gouts of flames   rose  as  an piece of armor  blew  up.

 At Roy's call the troops  broke  from the   cover,  Left  right   and up the  middle..only the top  bubbles  could fire    until the   Shuttle  crews  and   thier  larges  Got   100 or  so yards  away... the   MGs  stops  and  began to  look  for  flanking   Roussians, but  none  cold be scene.

    Larry and Freddie  charged    a  head, leaping   almost  10 feet in the   air  as they  Pulled  roussian from    a tree limb, with   Growls from the largs  and screams  of the hapless    Roussians.   the   shuttle  teams  reached the trees, which  would give them  about  300 yards of  cover , before they  had to make the run at the city. in front of the city  were gaping craters.  broken walls from building  that must have flown 100's of  yards to land where they  had... scores of Bodies   were also scattered about, not all of them in uniform..but..That's the way it goes...

  The  could see  Hermes  fighters   twisting  through the air, one   group  barely 200  feet in the   air... and the other  Group half a  Mile  as they  knocked  down  shuttles . The White Tail  fin with  the 19, splitting   two buildings     as it  blew out   the back  wall of   the building facing the  Shuttle  teams,  a heavy artillery piece, and what was left of   its  Gun crew, , adding to the  debris ...

  Supe called  out... ..LISTEN!!!  I never get tired of that sound....!

 Looking  towards the lake.. the  sky was getting overcast...but  not  by Clouds.... instead of the high pitched  scream of the Mantis  and Hunter  fighters... there  was a Hollow, loud    scream, getting louder  all the Time.. the  drop ships  were comign down.. it was time  to  enter the city,

 .. I say!!..All you Shuttle Chaps.  Be god  fellows  and Put  up smoke  where you entred,,, save  us a bit of time, eh?..  we  can enter   there and spread out, while you have  your  Jolly time  clearing Buildings?  Cummings  Out...

  with that, the   Teams   leap frogged to the   debris that the  Caps  ships had thoughtfully  supplied.

 as the  reached  the    edge of the   city, building  were burning or  smoking, the  early moring  sun adding its own od light through the purplish sky..  Supe  reached a  door that had  ESN paint  on it.. there was  crying inside... he opened the door, 9  roussian kids  were  there,  some of them crying. and two  female adults.. One   tried to hold a  pulse  rifle up at him..he slapped her hard, and  took the Puls e rifle..

 DON'T!... you want to get them all killed!.... you're safe from us, unless you have a weapon..then everyone in the building..everyone....now?.. just  sit  still until the  Med techs and   support come, and they'll evac you..and  don't  pick up another weapon!

  Supe carried the Roussian Pulse rifle out with him and  such the   door... Tucker looked at him..Kids.. a cpuple women..keep moving..

  three  roussians   ran out  from   a half blown  wall a few yards  down the street.. they fired   Roussian hand  guns, Az-_el  took a round  in her Tight... two Felrites  came leaping over the  wall   and   killed the   roussians before they had  a chance to see death coming.  rounds    were zippign all over the  place and fighters  added thier own noise.  other shuttle teams from  sister ships  were  movign through the   city columns  of Blue  smoke  went up  to  tell the  drop ship  troops  where to  enter.. and  just barely heard of the battle field Din, was the squeal of  stells wheels on  treads.. the  armor was coming

 Lyri , from   on , what was left  of a second Floor , sheltered  behind some  bricks.. she looked through her  Scope...SM   !.. brown building  with the flag... One , Two... her  rifle  fired...Alright..Just two  troopers  moved into that Building... 300 yards  down range to the  2:00... One of them was a red hat.. i just capped a Yellow  hat

    Harry  Lit up the  second  shuttle   which  blew  big as well... and there  wasn't  any more  aircraft close, unless you climbed a good  800 feet.

  ..this is good, now we go back and  help the troopers...

   She veered   back towards  the  city were ground  tr0ops   were    running about, and the  drop ship troopers looked like some one kicked an ant hill.

  Nikki  and Lizzy managed to   torch thier  formation..  But a call from He-La   came...EXTRA FIGHTERS!!!... we cannot stop them all..

 a wave of   fighters, most likely from the Mountains were comign hard...no shuttles or two seaters.. they were coming to  clean out the invaders.

 Machins  and Billie   just finished the last of thier  formation   as they turned to head back to the city...LC..You hear?

 yeah..not our problem yet... when they reach here, i'll see how many of us we can spare.. right now?.. our  4  flights  stay here.. Fran's  4  flights  stay there..

 then he added,..but if it gets too bad, we'll have to go up... it wouldn't take a  genius  to figure out that one  fighter  could  kill alot of  troopers  if they put thier  mind to it.

 Frans Broke in,.. we'll call you up if  we need it LC...

 Meari got out of the shuttle and took up position, she stayed with her group and headed out as ordered, she had her bow ready and shotgun at her side, and of course her melee weapons if they wanted to get up close and personal. Meari would shoot any enemies she sees with weapons. She keeps her eyes open as they head into what is left of the city.

 Lizzy stayed with Nikki and they chewed up formations of troops and Lizzy looked for any armor. Lizzy would also look for shuttles and blow them up safely with Nikki's help if they could, no shuttles could get to the ships they had to stop them. Lizzy told her girlfriend she would keep then safe. " Ok Fury lets torch these bastards."

With the second shuttle exploding in an equally spectacular fashion as the first one did, it was clear what the Roussian’s had been intending to do with them. However with the only other enemy aircraft flying at a much higher altitude Harry would find herself being lumbered with performing ground attacks once again ”oh...goody” Harry responded in a dry voice, casting a single longing look up at the enemy aircraft overhead before following Kat down. Ignoring the infantry entirely she would instead focus on targeting armoured vehicles and the weapons emplacements that had survived the initial bombardment with her pulse weapons, not wanting to waste her limited hard ammo on ground targets.

 Kat used her  pulse  guns  to chew up most of a  squad of  Roussians   tryign to move to head off the Hermes  troops.

Lynch!.... while we fly, shoot the  enemy troops!..that is what we are here for....

  Flores    zipped past  , not far  away , taking out  a team of roussians  that were tryign to  pull a HW  gun back to some cover...

  Shadow rose  and  Circled,   Mann was  streaming  Balck vapor.. Chatty stayed  with Him  as  she would  dip down and  chew  up  troops that tried to  retreat  to  the next rubble.

 Harry?... if you are having a problem doing you job..go home  and report to  Captain Morris...

 above them,  Frans  and  the flights under her command  veered off to meet the enemy fighters comign in to attack the ground  troops...Hermes!... we  broke off from the aircraft  headed to the fleet , we have to  cut off the approaching fighters ,that threaten the ground  troops..

 Hack answered,Thank you LT.. we will deal with them , with the aircraft left   up here by other ships... Portect the ground  folks...

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

 Karls  first  warehouse,  shattered, and  fell in there were  small explosions  and  troops  ran out  to escape the fires.

  the  2nd  one  the Morning star hit, Blew up, into  a steady effect of   fireballs, until the  area  was  reduced  to  rubble and  fire, 3 blacks in radius..,,   one thing of  note as the debris   flew throught he air.. where   bits and pieces of  shuttles.

Karl chuckled heavily.  "Well, THAT was gratifying...track where those troops run to, Ed, and target that next."  He continued scanning, looking for indicators of anti-air weapons or troop build-ups.

Roy grimaced.  "For future reference...red hats are officers, yellow hats are medics.  If you've gotta choose one, choose the officer.  Medics are less likely to be shooting back at us, and DEFINITELY less likely to organize any action against us."

He scanned quickly, locating the building.  "Okay, Team Two, cover that building.  Anyone pokes so much as an antenna out, light it up.  Team One, move up with me."  Giving everyone a few seconds to form up, he hustled forward, crouched low and trying to use rubble and plants to obscure the enemy line of sight on the advance toward the building.

 Moving  forward  and Firing,   the COMS  came in over  ALL COMs,  showing complete distain for  any enemy that might  be listening.

   ..This  is  Col Wolfgang  Bitts...  Scot  tanks  are  starting to  circle the   city...  Panzers  are setting up one  half mile in front of the beach head.. we will begin a  rolling barrage in  10 minutes  starting  , just south of  the  City center to the northern  edge....when the barrage  is  ended    we will give you the   ok to proceed..

  Lyri  sorta snorted into the COMs,..I'd like to say i'm sorry, but i'm not.. Wrong place, wrong time , carrying a weapon... I'll try to be  more....selective.

 the  mechs  moved up  with thier  stick   firing at   windows  and  troops  when they  had a target...  rounds  dinged of the mech's armor, but thus  far, the enemy couldn't  show itself  enough for  concentrated  fire

    Brooks  had a grenade  Launcher and  would  Pop a few rounds  towards areas  fire   was coming from.

 a few blocks  away a wall was blown out  as Athena assault troops    moved  from the Cover..  screams  could be heard over COMs  and through the air.. a trooper   moved towards his  fallen  Buddies  and was  gunned down. A med tech  ran  up the street her  helmet and bag clearly  marks , and was  turned to paste by a Heavy Pulse gun  salvo.

 Cora  and  Lippen  where  out on that  edge   , moved towards the   wounded   troopers.. the HW  fired on them , tearing into the bricks  and stone  they stopped

 Cora  got on the COMs,SM?... me and Lippen are  about  20 yards  away from the Athena troopers?.. we see at least  4   dead.. but  there  are at least  3 trapped in the   rubble.. they are  hurt, we can see along   of blood?.. we can't  get across the  Street.. there is   at elast one Heavy Pulse  in the yellow building right at the intersection.. we can't get a shot, and  we can't move... as  near as  we can  tell its  on the  third   floor, the top  floor is caved  in?.. i think that helps  them?

 even  as she    talked  the  Panzer '88s' chugged over head  to impact  a half mile away..the rolling barrage  had started..CE-VA  with Magin   stopped    by Roy...

 .. i am getting  good  footage!...I think i might  have  killed my   Roussian counter  part as he  tried to move to another building...

 Magin   shook her head,..it think it was a COM Tech.... SM?  Admiral  Hack  sent   COMs to  commanders on the low  channel?.. he said, expect to be bivouac at the beach head tonight .. The   drop ship  troopers  are  goign to clear out  the  areas   we have  taken, and  funnel  civies  back to a Holding area  to be sent to  one of those  transports
 that  Admiral  Henning's  Girl friend has..

Jug and the rest of the gava worked as a unit.  Comprising one wave of the tide flooding and taking out the enemy.  Jug knew it was an ugly task, but knew that at this time it was the only way.  war meant people died, even innocent ones.  She kept thinking of the children on the ark being attacked, and also not given a choice.  She would fight even harder.

 Meari was with Ellen about 40 yards from Cora and Lippen, Meari hits her Coms," Cora , this is Meari, Ellen and I are close heading to you now, figured I could help." Meari signaled to Ellen for then to head to Cora and Lippen and help the trapped Athena Troopers. Meari and Ellen would try and get a bead on the heavy pulse across the street and take out the gunner or the weapon itself with a special Pulse Arrow.

 Frans  COMed,Kray?.. these are all fighters.. they aren't  comign to  dog fight, they want to   cut  down troops

 dammit.. al right...  Tope  cover  Got meet them... ground support.. stay  low, as soon as the first  fighter  slips passed them, pop up... NONE..get to those troops... they won't stand a chance in open  field ...

 Roy!.. we're Gonna have to knock down a swarm of  fighters here... be careful of your momvement s until we get back..

   Shadow and  Flores , waiting to  pounce  as soon  as the  overflow  slipped pas    Frans  and her group.

 Kat   moved to hover over  some  trees,  ....the Pancer   barrage  was  almost  done..another  3 minutes or  so, while 100's of thousands  for ESN troopers charged towards the city..

 the assault groups   fought   with the   troops  that were  at the front egde of the city... both trying to hold thier ground...

  Roy could see  some Largans    slipping trough  Rubble  with  heavy Pulse guns They  wore  largran armor, but  Roussian uniforms.

In reply to Roy Spencer (msg # 14):

Melia advanced with the teams providing cover as necessary, but conserving her ammo. It'd matter more inside, and away from the fire of the shuttles.

She joined the stick moving simultaneous with Roy. As a Medic she stayed close to the center of her formation relying on her own formidable marksman skills to pop off single rounds when enemies presented themselves.

In reply to fighters (msg # 16):

The shuttles from the Burian Fleet had set down in their designated area setting up their own perimeter and assault point into the city. Over head a few flights of the Burian wing flew overwatch. The rest split into two halves were divided between defending the fleet from shuttle and fighter attacks and fighting in the atmosphere.  Sarah and her staff had learned the hard way about fire ships and the like and weren't taking chances. It gave them less support for their ground troops but the Burian Troopers and Commandos were well trained and eager spilling into the city moving in their squads and teams. The commandos were like wraiths moving into the area. Barely bothering to set positions they were already moving from cover point to cover point flowing along seeking out enemies.

Roy nodded at the comm from Cora.  "Do what you can, but don't get reckless.  If you can't get the guy clean, triangulate with the Morningstar and let Nilsson drop the rest of the building on him.  If you can get him quick and quiet, do it and move in there...turn their own gun on them if you can, if you can't, take all the power cells and use them as IEDs."

Shadow's call came through next.  "Copy that, LC!  All ground troops, we're going to have company calling pretty shortly...keep your heads down and try to stay out of sight until the flyboys have chewed them up.  If they're dumb enough to come in low and slow searching for us and you have a clean shot, go ahead and pop 'em, but most of you don't have the firepower to bring down a fighter unless you land a miracle shot.  When in doubt, stay put.  If you start taking fire, move out perpendicular to the attack angle and try and find cover ASAP."  Cutting his transmission, he muttered, "Shoulda brought the damned Barrett along..."  He never felt comfortable under fire from strafing fighters...but he felt a helluva lot less uncomfortable when he had a viable option for firing back.

He looked around, checking the positions of his people.  "Eyes up and scanning, make sure they aren't coming in on us from surprise angles!  And watch for their troops to try and rush us under fighter cover!"

    The clash of the  top cover  with the  incoming  comign  , counter attacks. was   a vicious  furball,  Roussians died  before they  could fire..
 Hugo Kruass   took our   two, before he  was   Hit, Losing  a  Wing,  He Pivoted  his   aircraft and hit the POD.. it  fired  Him  towards  the  Hermes    troops  area..  bouncing  around  and   finally stop  in some  rubble, he popped out   and  punched open his  compartment, grabbing his   bag  and weapon.. the whole thing  might have taken him  5   seconds   as he  rand    south wards towards   where he could  see, the sea of troops   runnign towards the city.. The  Pod  vanished   when two  artillery Rounds  hit it...

 HUGO!

 I'm good  LC...  got  knocked  down, but alive,, i can see some of our guys...

keep your head  down, they have  shooters all over the damn place..

 Just as predicted, some  30 fighters  slipped  around Frans and her  group...Alright?.. Lets Go  folks....

  Shadow  climbed  up  Under the  Fighters  They didn't have a chance. thinking they  had a free   run at the troops.. then thier Bellies  started to get  ripped out..

  Harry and Kat  each took a pair  down, Shadow  and  Flores  got  3 between the two of them,, Lizzy and  Nikki  got   2  each , and Billie and Machins one  as they hit the tail end  of the fighter group . Howe  and Foster's   people shredded the other side of  the

 formations.. Raven and   Red Water    pounced  on the last  two...  Bits of  fighters  and pilots  Bodies  rined   down over  a Half mile diameter  and the    ambsuhing   fighters  started to head to help Frans  group... to be fair, there wasn't much to Help with ' Shadow Screws' and  taked   the  heart out the Middle of the formation...

.. even with the   sounds  for   tanks ,  and  roars of aircraft...  the  Mighty cheer from the advancing  Drop ship troopers  who were wondering how many of them were going to  die  before reaching the  City..... They ran fasters in thier ehavy and medium armor,  pumped up and  ready to deal out some damage

Karl scowled...too many people, too well dug in...  "Ed, give me an IR overlay on the visual display..."  If there were large clusters of Roussians in buildings, they should, theoretically, be putting off enough body heat to change the IR signature of the space.  Some of the results, he knew he could ignore...if they had ESN colors, he noted them and then moved on.  And all the while, motion-tracking filters were running...if anything larger than a chihuahua went running through his sensors, it would get instantly highlighted...

 Hugo ran   down the  streets    ducking around    rubble and  burning Hover  cars.    he  could see the    Gava  tearing up  some  Roussian troopers  and   bee-lined for them, stopping every now and they as shooters  tried to stop him.

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

 Cora     COMed...   MoringStar..this is Cpl  Cora  Aspen... we got  a heavy weapons  nest  that  has  us pinned  down and we cannot  reach  trapped  troopers.... I have a
Tag.. I'm  gonna throw it  at the Building.. it used to be  4   floors.. top  floor
  is laying on the  3rd.. its almost like a pill box!..SM  says you can make it go away... Throwing Tag ...now...

 she  clicked the   button that normally wouldn't  come on intil it  was attacked to metal, and  heaved  it.. her throw  was   answered  by   two sprays  of     Heavy Pulse..Dammit.. they Have  two there!!

 Karl  could see the Tag  Blinking, just like  if someone tagged a POD or salvage  a long , tube shaped   creature  was slinging towards the trapped   troopers.. Ellen Pointed ...what the fuck is that!

 it  ehad  snapped  around to see the  four  woman   and  flashed   Long needle like teeth

.........

  Roy was   watching his   troops  as they came out  from  cover.. Minnet called out, I can't Find Shade!

 hemsly   was   exasperated as he pointed to a brick  Building  where  alot  for   weapons  fired  had   stalled thie r advance....'e Bloody    beeped  an bunch an' took one of me   C-10 bags.. wouldn't   listen an"

    The Little  Guy    could be  seen   crawling slowly towards  the building if  anyone saw him, they didn't care....

 Lyri    could be heard  saying.gods be damned... who gave him that  pack!

  didn't ye bloody 'aer..he took the bleedin' thing..theres  30  pounds of C-10 In there...

 Karson shook his head,..better Pull back!

 the little  guy  reached   the   wall.. hemsly was yelling,NOOO..ye'll blow   the whole bleedin' section up!

   Shade  just looked up  while he fussed  with the   trigger and  fuse... he was a good  100 yards  away from the nearest  Hermes trooper..  then he  stood  up  and heaved  the   Bundle through the  window  and  Ran  as   fast  as his  legs  could carry him..  he   pressed   the   Tigger, diving over  a mound of   dirt   that used to be someone's house  ... the roar  of the explosions    split the hosue open like a rise  blossom. bricks   woods, metal and  , what looked  like  50  Roussians  flew high   and far..

 DOWN!!! GET BLOODY DOWN!- hemsly    dove for the  nearest wall  covering his helmet and Pulling in his legs.... because.. that  wood, bricks, metal and bodies , had to come down...

"Got it..." Karl said, as the tag lit up on his screen.  Before he could say anything, crosshairs had snapped to the tag and the howitzer spat a round...

It took a few moments to reach the ground...time in which the alert was sounded about the...whatever-it-was...down on the ground.  "Shit...Ed, that's inside danger-close for the big guns...we've gotta go down..."  As he pulled the stick, rolling the shuttle into an inverted dive, he instructed, "Precision fire, minigun..."

He was still a good kilometer and a half above the ground when the growl of the minigun sounded, a bestial roar over a buzzsaw whine, and seconds later, the ground around the thing was chewed up with hundreds of .50cal rounds in an inhumanly tight grouping.  It was impossible to know for sure when he stopped firing, because a massive explosion tore open a building and Karl rolled out to his left to avoid the rising fireball and to bring his big guns back on target.  "Aspen, please tell me I got that thing...whatever it is!"

If she heard the comments about her not firing upon the infantry she certainly didn’t comment with her instead following Kat and moving into position for the ambush on the approaching fighters. Hovering a short distance away from Kat and feeling like a sitting duck as she did so Harry would wait until the enemy were in position before surging out and firing her cannons into the exposed under bellies of the enemy fighters. With the fight over in all of a few moments Harry would return to hunting armoured vehicles, firing a couple of pot shots at the infantry as she passed but not really paying them much attention with her deciding to focus on killing things the marines couldn’t.

 Lizzy flew with Nikki hitting the enemy troops, chewing up troops, vehicles, armor anything Lizzy could hit would help the ground troops. Then they peeled off and went after a large formation of fighters. " Lets kick the child killers ass, here comes Fire and Fury." Lizzy came in with the rest of the flight and her and Nikki where flying great together. Lizzy got two and Nikki did too, after the first hit, Lizzy would then line up on more to knock down the bastard fighters before they reached their troops and her friends.

In reply to ground (msg # 32):

Melia poked her head out from behind the wall she was using for cover, peeking around the corner trying to identify what the hell the thing that was that Ellen was pointing out. Either way she readied a grenade to throw at it. Most unidentified creatures and enemy vehicles found grenades unpalatable making them a preferred option when close enough to use. Still she had to see where it was to throw the grenade accurately.

In reply to ground (msg # 32):

 Meari fired her Pulse arrow at the Pulse Nest, as Cora called for help from above. Meari charged towards the hurt Athenian troopers knowing she had too move before the nest opened up on her again. She heard one blast get close to her and then the rain of a 50 cal minigun could be heard as the nest vanished. Meari saw the tube creature and opened up on it with her Shotgun not stopping till it was dead or gone.

 Meari kept running and got to the Athenian Troopers to see what she could do to help them, medically and physically freeing them.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:13, Wed 13 Jan 2021.

When the debris stopped raining down, Roy gave a wave of his arm.  "Move in, before they readjust to cover!"  He rushed forward to where Shade was, dropping down beside him as the rest of the group was waved forward.

He did a quick check to make sure Shade hadn't been hit, as he said, "There are about a dozen reasons you shouldn't have done that, but I'll keep it simple.  YOU are the fuckin' AMBASSADOR of your homeworld.  You get killed, we lose momentum while they find someone else and get them up to speed to work with the Board.  I get it, you're pissed about Dusk and Lillit being injured...but you've gotta keep your damned head on your shoulders!  Try a stunt like that again and I'm assigning you PERMANENTLY to Admiral Hack's honor guard.  Got it?!"  Regardless of whether or not he found any injuries, his tone didn't waver...he was angry, and it wasn't just because of the reckless solo action.

"Let's hope like hell we don't need to blow anything else open...or if we do, that Karson's still carrying enough to do it.  We have fire support for a reason..."

"Kick butt...don't care about names!" she retorted Lizzy as she pulled up near Lizzy spraying bullets and ammo as needed at the enemy.  "Hey Fire...what we should do is find their main control tower facility and take it out....make all these fighters near sighted to blind.  what do you think?" she thought trying to figure out where their control point was as she flew and weaved.

  The Creature   was  torn up  by  the Morningstar's shift in the  minigun,,, it   layed  that  makign a high pitched  whining  sound ,  until  Meari  finished it off with shotgun blasts...

 Cora  Peeked out  around the    broken wall, Yeah.. nest is  Gone, Lots  of  fire in what's left of the rubble.... you didn't have to blow up the   together end of the  block though..but , we'll take it!

 running over to the rubble, Ellen and  Cora   keep watch while meari looks   at the  3 Athena  troopers who are alive,  Rubble has them   trapped,  one has  a Roussain  hard ammo  round in his  back.

 Damn Snake-Cat?.... I hope Largs  can Handle them!

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

 Shade  Bleeped    , his eyes  a bit  grey as he pointed to all the  Roussians  scattered around.. including  one  about  10 feet away.. he pointed to his own collar and Pointed to the   dead Roussians.

 Hemlsy   stood  near them with his weapon  ready as he adjusted the visor on his head gear....That was a Damn fine  explosion..but yer gonna cost me a stripe  or two!... i mean..i lost them  'afore  an' always get 'em back...but at least its  MY  fault i lost them..eh?

  Shade  kept pointing at the dead  Roussian  and bleeping.

 The  air was clear except  for circling   fighters  that were   dipping  down , now and then to fire  at some target  , or gun down moving troops.

 Hemsly looks at  Roy  and then back to  Shade.

   In the Air  Shadow issued  more orders,All wing Commanders   in Atmo, break your   groups  down to flights,... circle  an  area  100 miles  around your  ship's shuttle  landings...... eliminate  any  vehicles  you see... and  Troops..... keep an eye out  for  another   flood of  aircraft.   there has to be more  then  what we knocked  down

 Captain Trayner  here , LC  of the  Lissa....We have had to  destroy 100,000  or more between the    work in The Black and Down here..

 ..You might be right  Captain? I didn't have   time to Count...but look at our numbers, and  we  are limited to what we carry in our vessels... so?  stay sharp

after he  finished with the over  all he addressed his  flight, Stay with your wingman, and look around, anything   that is military, that you can kill, saves  a few lives on our side...

 from his spot in the air, he could  see the  drop ship troopers   reach the  edge of the City, they added fresh Smoke for those  following   behind.

  He chuckled a bit as he  watched the figures  from  some 800 feet in the air.. Massive bodies  of   Sanri and  Apefolks, ,  the  crab-spider like   naragran ... Tall Nivar and what Udenses  where in the dealt  fleet, and  the  swarms of  little gava..all mixed  around  'normal-sized' humans  and angels.

 on the other side of the planet, the  battle in the 'night' was vicious.. Udenese  pounded the   cities and bases, and anythign that looked  like industry.   the  Hyrains  Joined them, and  when it  came time to  drop the troopers, the Roussains were in for a tough  fight.

 Meari stabilized the ones she could and then went to uncovering and slowly removing them for better care and transport. She will say," Just stay calm I will get you out try not to move in case you are injured." Meari carefully removed the severely injured one and did what she could for the trooper.

 Lizzy opened up at troops, armor, anything military, as Nikki and her flew. Lizzy responded, "Hell yes lets find and blow it the fuck up." Lizzy then hit enemy troops with Nikki she also looked for what could be a Control tower or Comms tower.

Roy shook his head.  "Yeah, I get it, you killed a lot of Roussians...maybe even some important ones.  But Hemsly only had one satchel of charges and now they're all gone.  Nilsson could have dropped a couple of shells on it and pulverized what was left with pulse fire and hardly changed the weight of his bird.  It's poor use of resources."

Satisfied that Shade hadn't taken any hits that penetrated uis armor, Roy gestured to the Roussian Shade was pointing out.  "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me, so show me what was so damned critical that it couldn't wait three seconds for an airstrike..."

  Shade  looked  frustrated  as he has  ever been... He  grabs  Roy's   arm in a  relatively iron grip and  Pulls him  towards  the  Smoldering ruins that  used to he  a  4  story building, Not a Block away from where  karl torched another  Building..


 After   assured  Roy was  following him, he let go  and   readied his SMG,  as they   crawled over the smoking wall  and   walked to  the thick smoke  with Shade   rapidly  Bleeping , whirling and grinding. They came to , what was  roughly, the Middle of the  Building.

 The trip through the  ruins  was like walking through a blown up  Offcie , papers and computers    scattered  everywhere, there were  as many dead in uniform as there were in  Civie  clothing, though the Civie's were  all dressed  alike with thigh high   skirts  or    trim slacks , males with  , what used to be, white shirts  and females in blouses..

 The  Little Udenese  let his   SMG swing from the  sling  as he   grabbed  a  doors  that was near the Middle, where, alot of the building   still seemed,  to be  intact.. The  scream of the Metal  door  as it  came off the  the  weakened hinges revealed   the top of  an elevator..

 Hemsly looks at the   compartment, and looks up...what the bloody  'ell would ye have a  elevator  fer a  4  story buildin', and the thin' dunna  go the whole  way to the top!

 Shade Looked at Hemsly and Blinks, and   tilts his head,  the , making sure Hemsly wasn't makign  fun of him.. Shade pointed downwards.

 around the    elevator  were , Roussian versions of  C-10, all wired  except.. there was no one alive to   hit the   trigger that lay  a few feet away from a Red Hat trooper.

In reply to Meari (msg # 37):

Melia moved in with Roy, stopping by Meari with the downed Athena troopers. What've we got here? She asked as Roy gave Shade a tongue lashing and then further lectured him on utilization of resources. From an anger perspective she got it, with one rare exception so far. When she was near demons she either found herself blind in terror, or in a homicidal rage that made the old berserkers of earth appear sane. Still she agreed with Roy, but it wasn't time to belabor that.  "I know it's not typically a big deal, but one of these days we've either gotta figure out a better way to understand Shade than charades, or Shadow and Orria's gonna have to play a running game of telephone for these battles. Orria's too young to come down yet, and Shadow's a better asset for these missions in the air. One of these times the communication barrier's gonna get us or the Ambassador killed, and I'm not nearly a good enough medic to put the pieces back together if he gets blown up with 30lbs of C-10." she calls out as she begins to assess the wounds of survivors.

Roy nodded, as he grasped what Shade was trying to communicate.  "Good work...but I still mean what I said about not doing that again.  You've got comms access, get your dad or Orria to translate if you can't tell us.  This is still something the Morningstar could have done without hanging your hide out to get torched in the blast."

He keyed his comm.  "Admiral, looks like we've come across an elevator leading down into a bunker.  If we can get some of the dropship troops to take up the surface advance for us, I'm ready to take my team down..."

While waiting for a response, he turned to Hemsly.  "See what you can do about neutralizing these charges...we're damned lucky they didn't go off in the blast, there'd have been nothing left to find here, but I don't want to take any chances on a lucky mortar shot detonating them on us..."

 Shade started to Bleep and whirls, then  heard  melia's  words, and   just stopped.. he Looked  down  and  stepped away from the  Charges  so  Hemsly  could  work on them.

 Brooks..Karson, Come over  ta where the  big explosion was.. we have  some Roussian  plastik 'ere and  we might be able  ta  re-sue it..and  we need ta  make it not  blow us up..

 from two differant  Directions   Brooks  and  Karson  came  running,  Jumping or  crawlign over   dusty  battered walls.

 what the bleedin'  'ell!... how much  C-10 didja use... Brooks   stammered.

 Hemsly  Just Motioned for them to  start on the   bricks of  plastik.....30 pounds...

 ..Damn  , Man... that  could take the bow of  The Hermes...  Hemsly Just shrugged...

 Hemsly worked, but didn't look up as he said... ya Know?.... This  fella  'ere  where the trigger is?... if he woulda set that off.. this  lift  would have beens  shattered an'   the whole middle of the building  would    have filled up the  Hole, we'd a never  found it. least ways , not  until the colonists started  cleanin' up...

 Shade  sat  on  a broken hair that had no legs but  sat on  a mound of bricks. he  drank a sip of  water before  putting his canteen back.


 Maygin  jogged over with her COMs...Admiral sent  out low channel calls... The fighters     and us  are supposed to  pull back to the  lake  near sundown... The drop ship troopers  are setting up  defenses  as  far as the shuttle teams have pushed  through?... I caught a verian  COM signal.. it  came from near here.., but it  went out  right  away... the  COM signal was  trying to  reach someone one the surface..but then it went  dead.. I sent word   for other COMteachs  to  see if they hard  any other..they hadn't picked up any?

 Supe  and  Hodden    Gunned  down  a pair of Roussians  and   the Snake-cats..

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 Med techs from the  drops ships  reached melia and  meari  as the   slipped the  wounded onto  litters to be taken back.... already , long lines  of  Roussian kids  with a smattering of  females or  older Roussians,, were headed to the rear area... there  were  crude  stakes in the   ground  with  rope, that the roussians  had to follow  towards the Lake.. and  roussian outside the  ropes  would be considered dangerous  and deal with that way


 a few  troopers   stood on either side, telling  the roussians  to keep moving..some of the kids were  crying, others  were scared.. the  females  , even more scared as they looked at the armored enemies  who head   weapons and  wore  armor.

 Off to the West, the Niavrains  troops  with  their massive Stud Largs  and , its  'lackey largs"  were   in fights  with some   combat troops  and the snake cats

"Near sundown, huh?"  He looked at the sun, and shrugged.  "In the absence of any other directives in the meantime, I'm guessing that means we can check out this hole.  I'm also guessing, based on past experience, that Larry and Freddie aren't gonna be terribly willing to go down there..."

He straightened, looking around the area as he keyed his comms again.  "Spade Teams One and Two, we've found a lift shaft down, looks to be some kind of bunker.  Volunteers to go in and check it out, form up on me.  Anyone who doesn't go holds this position and helps with escorting the non-combatant Roussians out of the area.  We're going in ten..."

He looked around.  "I'm guessing with the building gone, the elevator car's not safe to ride down.  We need to clear it out...either lift it clear or drop it to the bottom of the shaft...and then rig descent lines to drop down to the bottom to check it out.  Anyone got any brilliant suggestions?"

   As they were In the  Air, Frans  and  Shadow   Got  COms on the low channel...

    Ok  Folks?  we got COMs  from  The Admiral... near sundown, the assault teams are heading back to the  beach head for chow and rest... we're to land a  an area marked for  The Hermes, , most likely near the shuttles..... we'll get rearmed and fresh power cell... birds  that are  too chewed up will go home.... we'll be sleeping  near  our  fighters tonight, we'll eat  witht eh assault  troopers ..Until them, keep on the look out  for   troops  and those  , Snake Cat things..

 The capitol city looked more  like a waste land.. very few large  building  still stood, and they were getting Buzzed fighters from other  ships...

 Soon the  Udenese  and Hyrians would be  fighting in the day light..some other  cities  were having 'round the clock' fighting..but the capitol was special... they would just  have  firefights  witht eh drop ship troopers, and  when morning  came, it would be time  to see  where  elevators  went..

 Meari nodded at Melia when she joined to help her out. Meari was good but Melia was a med tech. Meari helped get the three wounded Athenian troopers on stretchers and the med techs took them away. Two should make it, the one shot in the back she did her best, she hoped they would pull through. Meari nodded at Melia and said," Thank you for your help I hope they all make it."

 Meari then checked to see if Cora, Lippen  or Ellen where injured. Then she saw Shade and the SM talking and Shade pulling him. Meari will head over and go to Shade with his head down. She says," Are you ok cousin, I know not being able to talk to people must suck, I am truly sorry. If you go slow I can get a few words, maybe I should work harder and then we can talk on the ground."

 When Roy asked for volunteers to join in going down the elevator, Meari moved over and replied," I would like to join SM, if we tied a rope and where able to loop it over something still sturdy myself and a few others could try to pull the car out of the shaft?" Meari will survey the area to see if her plan could work.

    Karson looked at the  elevator car, then   tried to peer through the  opening as it was  canted  a bit..well? we know   three things,  1... no one's using this car to go up...2.. you can use it to go down..but only once, and you won't like  when it stops..and 3?... it has to be a long way down there..

 Shade started to bleep, but then stopped suddenly  and went back to sitting down.

 Maygin  Turned to  Roy,Admiral is coming down  in a  Heimdall shuttle  along with  8 of thier  troopers and a few  from  The Hermes, as well as  a pair of Power Armor troopers... They want to be here when  we go in?..

 brooks   stacked  another  Brick of Roussian C-10  witht he others..he  loked up at Roy,..all us folks that been trained, we   drop down on ropes..but we're gonna need  more  ropes  then  we got  right now?

 Shade  Bleeped some more and  folks  turned to look at him  and he started  to  whirl and..then..stopped again..more or less defeated.

Roy made an educated guess at what Shade was bleeping about.  "Yes, you're going in with us.  You found it, even if it was a damn-fool way to get in there.  But no hauling off on your own, got it?!"

He looked at the elevator and what was left of the building.  "Even if we had enough people to lift it out of the shaft by sheer muscle power, there's nothing overhead secure enough to attach lift ropes to.  We'd end up pulling it sideways, lodged in the shaft, and just burn a lot of muscle for nothing."  He sighed, muttering, "Well, shit..."

Another, larger sigh, and he said, "Okay.  Admiral's declared he wants to be here when we go down, which means there's no sense killing ourselves trying to get it out today.  Maybe tomorrow, we can get the mechs over here to lift it out, or can secure a line to one of the shuttles and let them lift it out.  For now, we set a watch on it...make sure nobody sneaks in to destroy the shaft and nobody sneaks out through it, since we're not really sure what's under the damned elevator.  We'll rotate who's on guard, the rest of us fall back to the bivouac at the beachhead.  Hemsly, you and the boys round up that Roussian explosive...the tech boys should be absolutely giddy with new explosives to analyze.  Let's round it up, people..."

Melia stood and headed over to Shade. "Let's come Orria for now. Shes your aide and even if we're playing telephone it's better for you and us. As a team we've gotta work together, after this mission we'll see about working something out. "

 Meari paid close attention to Shade and tried to get as much as she could from his bleeps and whirls. Meari tried to pick up any words she could to help Shade communicate. Then Meari thought of something Maygin was Verian maybe she could understand Shade better, some Verians could understand Shade she knew that.

A bit away the Gava and Jug were involved with their own group of Roussians.  In what looked to he a park or zoo as far as Jug could tell.  There were a lot of dead animals and debris, and down half burned trees about.  Some of the structures were still standing, but in pieces.  Jug stood protected by part of one column, Goji and Liig by another.  Quickly Goji was up the column and all 3 were firing on a group straight on and from above. Jug and Liig firing and when the Roussians would pop up, Goji began popping them off.  Bog and Dose used part of what looked like an animal cage and a collapsed tree for cover firing at a pair  along some steps nearby.  Uvuvu lead the rest to circle around to get a drop on them.

Harry continued patrolling the area, diving down to take out any vehicles she sighted or to fire a few pot shots at the larger groups of enemy infantry when she saw them, though they seemed have learned that being in large groups in the open was bad for their health. Upon being informed that they would be slumming it tonight with the ground pounders she would quietly sigh at the thought of what would probably be a long uncomfortable night before continuing her patrol.

When she was finally given the order to return she would follow the rest of the flight and land in the designated area.

  With the   Drop ship  troopers   comign in, They began to et up barriers. Either  using   Rubble or  have  some Hover  trucks  bring in portable  walls  to set up... The  'line  was ste up in an irregular  fashion, depending how deeply the assault troops   drove in....

 With  the Elevator shaft being set up a goo 100 yards behind the  wall, and  a few extra  troopers set up to watch it, as the Hermes  folks   moved back towards the designated area.

  Shade marched  witht eh others, his SMG  in his   hands, and the Visor up on his headgear.  Cora , Ellen and Lippen talked with Meari about  the 'Snake Cat', and  how  nasty it looked ( and smelled).

   Larry  padded along   near  Shade  and Roy..freddie on the other side of the column. From thier Vantage  point  , they could see several 'rope roads' that  batched of Roussian kids  and  some female, or older Roussians  walked... Drop ship troopers  standing  watch. repeating, over and over, 'do not leave the rope lines'

  Maygin   hung up her  OminCOM and said, The Admiral just left  The Hermes, he is bringing two Power armor troopers  , and some replacements.

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

 in the  air,  Shadow  hit ALL COMS...  all WCs...make a few more passes over the city,  before heading back to  you designated  area... check your  aircraft, send the ones  home, who are fight  worthy..those with minor  damage  can be  foxed  at the beach head.

 Captain Nilsson... make a pass or  two over the city.. take out   as many buildings that look like a warehouse as you are able...

 Hermes   wing.. one more pass, then we head for chow  and rearm...

.......

 while the troops  walked, and flyers  felw, and  Drop ship troops  made thier  way to   fortify  the foothold in the  city, The  Drop ships  troops  would   wave    weapons or helmets  as   the  aircraft flew over as way of 'thanks'//

 Just how bad it would have been  might never be known,  but the City and south part of the plain  between the city and the lake is now, littered with  Roussian  fighters.. most, just  bits of wreckage  in a crater, others   bent and twisted  as they tried to land,  Pilots hanging out of the  Pods. or mashed  against the  windscreen

  The Assault  teams waving at  drop ship  folks  as they  scuffed  across the Ground, Lyri waved to a  SGt and called out to him...HEY!... when you go in there, watch for the Cat-snake things.. they are sliding all over the rubble.. I think they let the loose to hut  down troopers!

 Thanks  MC!.. we'll pass that on1

 Damn Nivar has  flying snakes... Roussa has  Snake Cats?.....why can't they..like..flyign bunnies or something?

  Larry snorted .. as they approached the  rear area.  hasty signs were scrawled  with   a Ships name  and an Arrow, the   troops truned towards  the   area the shuttles  moved back too... the smell of   stew  and soup in the air, as well as the smell of  hot bread.. Coffee  and tea drifted on the wind.

  a Heimdall shuttle  was Landing  near the hermes shuttles

 Meari smiled at walked with Cora, Ellen and Lippen, Meari wasnt bothered by the cat as much as the others, she replied," Oh on Uden we have some crazy creatures as well, but I do have to admit those 'Snake Cat' things smell awful, if the Roussians eat them no wonder they follow the Empire." Meari walked with them but still kept her eyes and senses peeled for a rogue Roussian trooper or something. Meari saw the children they where saving, she thought if the Roussians didnt attack the kids they might not be here kicking their asses. She liked working with Ellen, Cora and Lippen they where really good at their jobs.

Looking about for more targets Nikki finally called to Lizzy "I'm about tapped out..You?  How about we get some chow and a refill on ammo?" she suggested.  She still glanced about for any opportune targets.

Jug and the other Gava were returning to the beachhead area "You mean these creatures?" the Gava had 3  bodies , well 2 as one seemed to be in 2 pieces. "We had a fire fight over there, lot of these creatures dead already.  We think maybe it was ..zoo?  but all dead things there just what Roussians eat lots of...maybe it was a food stall"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:12, Fri 15 Jan 2021.

 Lizzy was flying with Nikki and they kicked some ass hitting the ground troops and armor. Lizzy unloaded her 37mm guns and emptied her belts chewing up the last of the troops they could see. Then the LC came over the radio and told them to head towards their landing sites.

 Then after Nikki spoke Lizzy replied," Yes I am out of hard ammo just used the last of it, plus the LC just called us in, and I am starving. Lets go Fury, we did good today Nikki, great flying." Lizzy then headed with Nikki over their troops, she would wave her wings at the Hermes ground troops as she came in for a landing in their designated area.

In reply to ground (msg # 58):

Melia  grabbed her coms, "Beth, we need Orria to keep a channel open to Shade. The way things go on these missions we need someone to help us understand what he's saying so we can better work as a team. You can relay to me, the SGT MAJ, or the entire team, whatever is best but we need a bit of help on this."

Orria came over the line, "I can help, I'm Shade's aide, can I come down there?"

Melia was quick to respond, "I'd say Yeoman, you're not rated for surface combat yet. Until you're properly trained you need to remain with the rear echelon. Of course should leadership supersede my thoughts I'll allow it so long as all reasonable precautions available are taken."


Over the comms came a slightly disappointed, "Yes PO."

Then her voice perked up, "Shade talk to me, let me help. I'm stuck up here on the ship. Maybe I can help you, we're just monitoring traffic right now."

Melia sighed there had to be a better way, either a sign language or even a small keyed gauntlet with 10-15 pre-programmed statements like "DANGER" and the direction, or TRAP or whatever. It wasn't Shade's fault entirely either. As a team they'd not done enough to ensure the understood him and always just assumed that since nothing bad had happened things were good. They'd been lucky this time. The amount of explosives had been insane for the job, and the risk too. As the tip of the spear they were better than this.  She continued moving with the group. "I'm in to go down SGT MAJ."

From the ground, the only indicator that Karl was still in the air for most was a steady rumble of artillery shells detonating on the ground.  The exceptionally sharp-eyed might make out a glint of reflected light off the Morningstar, or the muzzle flash of the howitzer.

Given the pattern that the Roussians had displayed, of setting up dense pockets of resistance in medium-sized or large buildings, Karl decided there was no sense leaving any of them standing, until he ran out of ammo, at least.  Unlike the fighters, he couldn't re-arm on the beach...the equipment to swap out the magazines for his plane was all on the Hermes.  And while it was possible to swap them out manually, a magazine with twenty rounds for a 120mm howitzer was ridiculously heavy.

When he'd finally fired off everything except the ion shells, he gave a satisfied nod.  "Morningstar is RTB for re-arm...I'll keep her on standby up there, just in case.  Happy hunting down there!"  He throttled up into a boosted climb that took him out of the atmosphere and back to the Hermes.

  landing  as the  sun was goign  down, Shadow loked at His COM... 12   hours  in the  air for  the invasion .

 the   Thermo Johns  were working hard  as  Pilots  lined   , waste  getting sizzled into ash.

    Shadow  got his   weapon out of the compartment, but left the backpack and such in side.  The Hermes   troops  were entering the  area.  form the North,  as  Admiral Roles and Admiral Hack  came from the Lake's edge ... followed  by troopers, including the  Power armor pair..

   Shadow kept his   armor on, incase of  snipers, but he  carried his helmet. Shade  made a slow  jog towards  him   and gave him a  quick hug, then began  to  spout  some  much Noise , Shadow had to get him to slow  down.

 as  Shade   bleeped  , whirled , grinded  and grated , Shadow Looked  around  for  Roy to see what the 9 hells was going on..

 Pilots  where   checkign over their  Aircraft,  some   aircraft Techs  from the support  ships  were   inputting  everything the pilots  noted, including  ammo and frsh power cells , the old one  would be  sent to recharge.

 Cora     Ran towards   The Admiral,Excuse me  Admiral  Hack, sir?.. Did  SGT Call  come down...

 Roles   chuckled  and Hack looked at him, and then back to Cora  with ellen not  to far behind.. Sorry CPL Grant?... SGT Shoemaker  wasn't  letting anyone  leave  who was nicked up.. they  can fight alot better on the hanger  dec, then they could down here...but its  better to let them heal... there  are two more planets in this system...They may not be  purebred  Roussians.. but they belong to the system.

 Cora  was disappointed  by  saluted,..Thank you Admiral  Hack, sir. For letting me know...

 Carry on, Cpl..get food  and rest.. gonna be  another hard day tomorrow.

  She Nodded  and    got  back in line  with  the Hermes  troops as they headed     for the  rear area to get food  and  rest.

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

  Shade  sent  a Bleep or two to orria...-but she  could tell he was bummed out.

 Beth Looked at Orria.....Right, Grab a fresh Vidboard  and   show me how much you have learned   about  dedicated  COM paths...

  As Orria   went to the crate to get a fresh board,  Beth Called out to   Izzy....Ensign Sakura....yes...or no... is your head clear enough  to  handle  Combat COM traffic.

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

   The   Roussian civies  were in three large  areas..they were well away from the Military  and the  Support folks   used  large  Tents  as   awnings,  to  cover the   areas as best the  could  with the  tents  staying opened towards the   city.

 They wouldn't be  crowed , but they  would be secured  by the   rope   'fence  ' around the  Containment areas.... Nivarian Largs  patrolled   outside those  areas... and the  support folks, and Military  folks made sure the  Roussians  knew what would happen if someone , broke and ran.

After gently landing her fighter upon the war torn surface of the planet Harry would turn off her engines before removing her gauntlets and helmet and leaving them on the dashboard as she got out. She would take a moment to stretch her complaining muscles, her body clearly not appreciating spending so long in the cockpit before then walking around her fighter and giving it a visual inspection. Once again she would find nothing but superficial damage, a few scratches here and there, despite the overly thorough checks she’d made causing her to feel no small measure of disdain for an enemy that hadn’t been able to even hit her in her current state.

With her fighter requiring only fresh power cells and a handful of 37mm rounds to replace those fired at the shuttles, Harry would retrieve her machine pistol and loop it over her shoulder before  giving her surroundings a forlorn look as she took a seat on the end of her wing and stared out across the countryside...or at least what little of it remained.

Mila stuck close to Her Human, who himself was tagging along behind the Admiral and his party.

The place smelled awful. A smell of fear and death that made her want to hide away, curl up somewhere safe. The Admiral had been right, she ought to be playing in clean fields... but life did not always deal up what it should.

Zob took the opportunity to speak with Hack, "Excuse me one moment Admiral i was wondering when we finish our mission that you could help me and Melia do our bonding ceremony here?" it was kind of a tall order but he figured it was worth asking.

 LaDiv was zip tied  and walking  with   Hawkes   behind him.

 Admiral Roles  looked at them,why is he here..

 ..Shoey said, he creeped him out... he figures  he would be good   for   checking for   Mines and stuff...

..........

Admiral Hack  smiled slightly  at Zob.....here?  on Roussa?.... I mean?.. we can?  but why the 9 hells  would you want to do it on Roussa?

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

  Frans  , Eckles  and Mara  walked  towards the    'road' that would take them to the  rear area where the eats, drinks  and  bathrooms were....Lets go Harry.  You have to eat and drink.. you want to sleep with your fighter,  you can do that after... its been 12  hours  since  we jumped off... That's an order.

.........

 Brivet  and Chatty  Smith were  walking  with Raven and   Red Water, they were  laughing  as the   replayed  the   surprised  'ambush; of   fighters who thought they were  going to cut  down thousands  of  troopers.

.....

 Shadow  was  ahead of  most of the other   pilots   walking with Shade and Roy as he asked for a rundown of what happened  with Shade.

larry   padded along  next to them, Shade  having  an arm on the Larg's shoulder.

Nikki landed where she was directed too.  After a check and shutting down she eventually popped the hatch to climb out.  she pulled her rifle out and small pack incase of trouble.  before getting something to eat she began reloading her fighter and taking care of its needs first and securing it.  It was almost another hour before she'd get some food in her.

Zob nodded, "Aye Admiral right here on the smouldering rubble of Roussa, as for why well tomorrow is never guaranteed and we rather go together as a couple then miss our opportunity cause one of us didn't survive"

 The Admiral looked at Zob,well.. we have  Down  time now?..., or you can wait until   we  finish things off...hopefully.. tomorrow

  we can get  Beth to  send   down  papers on a Vidboard  and you can   sign them over COMs, then get your real sheets, when   Captain Morris   has the  time   to  print them out and put his seal on. Either way?.. you two make the call...

Zob nodded, "Ill let you know in a few minutes sir" he then walked on over to where Melia was checking her gear, "Hey the admiral wants to know if you wanna do the ceremony now or tomorrow its your call I'm fine either way"

Kira remained in her mech for the time being as she held watch duty on the perimeter of the camp with a few of the others soldiers.

Roy snorted softly before starting to explain.  "He inherited all your common sense.  We were coming up on a building that had a bunch of Roussians dug in...something about it caught his attention.  Rather than trying to let us know it was an important target so we could have Nilsson hit it with some artillery, he grabbed thirty pounds of C10 off Hemsly's shoulder, ran up to the building, and threw the satchel in.  Now, I'd have been mad enough if Hemsly had done it...hell, I'd have been mad if Jax had done it, he's not even a specialist...but Shade's an ambassador.  We lose him and it impacts the whole war until Uden selects another ambassador and the Board gets that ambassador up to speed."  He shook his head.

"That's without considering that the stunt basically eliminated one demo specialist...turned Hemsly into just another rifleman.  Turns out, the building was covering the top end of an elevator shaft that drops down to what's probably some kind of bunker...but that's not an acceptable risk-reward margin.  I told him if he does it again, I'm assigning him to Hack's bodyguard detail and taking him off the assault teams.  I'd be more forgiving about it if he wasn't the ambassador...but he's gotta be smarter about stuff like that.  And we HAVE to come up with a way for him to communicate better...even if it's just a vidboard he types messages on.  I know he sees stuff the rest of us don't...he's done it repeatedly.  But it's one thing when we're on the roof of an EDT facility and about to breach...it's another when we're in the middle of a firefight and lives can be saved by quick, clear communication.  I've seen him use a vidboard...he can type as fast as I can talk."

Staring out at Roussian countryside Harry tried to imagine what it must of looked like before it had been shelled into oblivion and coming up short. She hadn’t spent a lot of time out in the country with Harry having always been more of a city girl and so was kind of struggling to fill in the blanks so to speak.

Hearing the sound of Frans’ voice Harry would briefly turn her attention away from the scenery as she replied in a subdued voice ”I’m not hungry” shaking her head ever so slightly as she does so. She would then turn her attention back to the bleak and desolate countryside in front of her, with it perfectly reflecting her current mood.

 Lizzy landed her mantis, then powered down, checked for any seeable problems with her flight controls. She took off her helmet and gloves, and opened her canopy. She got out put her helmet on the seat and begin a detailed inspection of her fighter. She didnt see any real damage, mostly but nicks and scrapes. Once Lizzy talked to the grounds crew and checked her belts, she would find the road the the ground troops and food. She waved to Nikki and said," See you at the camp." Lizzy wasnt sure of what she should carry but she said fuck it and got her Thompson and it's extra drum out of her compartment and took it with her.

 Lizzy was catching up to the others when Frans gave Harry an order to go eat, Lizzy headed to Harry and said," Welcome back Harry, yes come on lets go get something to eat, Nikki will be along in a bit." Lizzy walked up to Harry smiling and giving Harry the look she wasnt taking no for an answer.

 frans  gave a hard look at harry, ECkles  just loked at Mara  who shrugged.

 I didn't  ask if you were Hungry, I told you its   time to eat and drink....last think you need  is   to be slower  on the  uptake because your  hungry or dehydrated .. laoding your  body is  as  important  as loading  your fighter..   if I don't see you at the mess  area in 5.. I'll  Telling  Shadow the  Asssault teams  just got another rifleman... at least if you pass  out and fall, you won't take  your fighter  with it...

 Eckles    gave  Harry a  Shrug and jerked her  ehad towards  the  Mess area.. mara  just  walked  away  after  waving to  Lizzy.

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

  Shadow  frowned,  Shade didn't even look  up at him,..he  said there was a verian  signal coming from the building..something about blowing it up..the  Demo tech had  answered, ' he needed 5 more minutes... Hemsly  couldn't understand  what he was  saying... and..well?.. he  improvised?

 Hemsly  cleared his throat.....he  did  alot of beepin' and pullin'? we were   underfire  at the time, but  it wouldna  mattered? I dunna  know what 'e  was sayin'... If  that  configuration   would have  went off...and its  as good  as our  stuff.. that hole woulda been paved over  with debris, an'  like a giant Frag, woulda spread  the whole way around.... Concussion and   bricks and such...we'd never known...

 Shade  whirled a bit.

 The LC  made a face   and added,..he said  they..um..screwed up.. they have  some verians    in there?  down there?... and they used   a Verians COM channel.... all verians  can hear that channel..not..Udenses or Calimate?.. but Verians.. I imgine Lady would have picked it up too... Maybe Dusk?... Lilit?..

 Maygin  spoke up.....i got the   notcie there was a verian signal..but  it didn't come through our  Omincom as  translated... We should Have LT Morrow  and  Her tech  folks, and Verian  COM  channels into our OminCOMs.

 Shadow  put us hand on   Shade's  helmet and  gave him a playful shake.....hey understand  who's in charge on ground OPS... but...in his  words.. ' he doesn't want any one to die, because he can't talk..'

 After i get some fod, I'll see what the QMs  have in the way of Demo gear... I'm sure they didn't come down empty handed.

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


 Morgan COMed  Kira  and   Andre..Hey?.. we  got  almost  half a Million drop ship  troopers out there... bring your mechs in for  ream and power cells, and get some food!

With a look on Lizzy’s face that said she wouldn’t be backing down in a hurry and Frans threatening to take her wings off of her, Harry would sigh wearily, wishing that people would just leave her alone ”Fine...I’ll go” she quietly replied with her then reluctantly sliding off the end of her wing and slowly walking towards the mess area with all the enthusiasm of someone heading to their own execution.

 Lizzy smiled she had hoped Harry would get the hint she wasnt backing down, Lizzy was going to be a good friend to Harry whether she wanted it or not. Lizzy smiled and replied," Great come on Harry, I am fucking starving." Lizzy waved and smiled at Mara, no matter what they would always be connected by the Neutron.

 Lizzy let the others get ahead a bit and then added," Glad you came back but Harry from what I saw and heard you did really good up there." Lizzy smiled as she walked with Harry to the troop camp.

Kira comed back, "Will be there shortly" she then moved her mech over to the designated area and shut down opening the canopy and hoping out, "Its been a interesting day so far" she said making her way over to get some food.

In reply to ground (msg # 65):

Melia was reloading her mags back at the CP waiting to go down the tunnel. "Now's good, give me a second to finish this mag though, and I'm gonna grab 2 people to be witnesses if you want to grab two that's good enough for me" She said with a bit of thought. She finished the mag and clipped it into an empty place on her belt spotting Harry and Lizzy headed to the mess area.

Jogging over she calls out, "Hey grab your chow and come on over. Zob and I decided to make it official right here and now. Nothing says romantic like a bombed out crater and I want you two to be my witnesses. We'll do a party later, and you both have to attend I insist." She says with a devilish grin.

In reply to ground (msg # 65):

Hawkeye stepped off the shuttle, grimacing. Battlefields always smelled of death, a not unfamiliar smell to her as a surgeon still it was one she never wanted to truly get used to. She heads over to the battlefield medlab that had been established, how are things looking over here? I can assist yall or move with the forward teams which ever is more needed."

In reply to Melia Kristensen (msg # 82):

Zob grinned as he looked around quickly to spot out two witnesses so he decided to op for Shadow and Supe to be witnesses for him, "Hey Shadow,Supe um would you be so kind as to act as witnesses for me we are making it official right here and now" he also let the Admiral know of the decision.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:51, Sat 16 Jan 2021.

With Lizzy joining her as she reluctantly made her way to the mess area Harry would give a single unenthusiastic shrug to Lizzy's comment that she was starving with her having zero appetite herself and only going because she was being forced to. Her second comment however would get more of a reaction from the miserable blonde pilot as she gave her friend a derisive look "please, it was fucking ground attack...any talentless idiot can do that, besides which the Roussians are fucking pathetic, Haley could have put up more of a challenge" Harry sneered, clearly unimpressed with the enemy and her role in today's operation.

It was as they were nearing the queue of pilots waiting to be served that they would be intercepted by Melia who announced that she was tying the knot on Roussia of all places and wanted them to act as witnesses "I dunno Melia...I think you'd be better off finding someone else, I'm not exactly the life and soul of the party" Harry quietly replied with her not exactly wanting to be reminded of her failed relationship by attending an impromptu wedding "...besides isn't Orria still on the Hermes?"

Melia shrugged. "I don't need the life and soul of the party. I need my friend to come bear witness for the record here and now. Also this is just the official nonsense. We're gonna do something reception party like later and I have an idea that will do Orria justice, and I want you to come to that also, I'm not asking for you it's purely selfish. I'm asking for me, because I want you there. Come on, 'sides it'll keep people off your butt for about 10 minutes. Who's gonna interrupt the Admiral officiating a wedding to give you grief?" She asked already working on shepherding the two women through the chow line and towards where the Admiral, Zob and the others were gathering.

     Shadow chuckled,well... sure!...  he looked to Shade, Comon' you can watch  and then we'll get  eats...

 Shade and Larry   followed  along   wit Supe... hodden  followed  and stood   a bit away with Shade  and  Larry.

 Supe Grinned  and  said...wow? didn't  think Zob and  Melia  would be casualties!

  The Admiral  Looked at him.. and  Supe   went to attention. until the Admiral winked  and Supe got a bit of  a smile back.

  The Admiral COMed   Beth, ..Beth...Make sure Orria  sees this....

 Lizzy almost exploded and said," Of course I will bare witness Melia, oh come on Harry you have too, please." Lizzy was so excited, " Yes this is just the official stuff Harry we will have on amazing party after." Lizzy then gave Melia a big hug, as happy tears rolled down Lizzy's face.

Nikki did the final button up on her mantis as Lizzy lit off in search of food and drink.  A few minutes later she did the same shouldering her rifle.   finally she caught up and looked over at Harry.  She gave her a friendly shoulder bump, but didn't say anything.  A tired smile told her that she was letting her know all was okay.  From the chatter it sounded like Zob and Melia were getting married....now!  in a low voice she spoke "There better be cake here" in a bit louder voice she spoke "hey Lizzy.....what am I blind?  I can do a bridal march"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:09, Sat 16 Jan 2021.

Billie landed in the appointed spot, climbing out to check her bird over and then reload the belts. She offered Machins an appreciative smile when he past before going back to her task. It was a bit therapeutic, helping calm any nerves that she did have. When it was all said and done, Billie got up and headed to the mess to grab something to eat.

  Shade  Bleeped  and whirled    as he  appeared on her Vid Board... then  he  Held the  Vid Board  Up  and  she could see Admiral hack and Roles  standing a bit behind him.

 Shadow  and Supe stood behind  and to one side of Zob. an odd  scene in armor  and   weapons   shouldered, with Helmets in thier left hands.

 Shade   Moved   a  Bit  closer  as he  sighted in  on where  The Admirals, Zob and Melia  would be.

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

 the mess  area was  loud as  troops let off  steam from  12  hours of  pent up nerves and of Course, fighting  for thier lives

 Pilots  and   troopers   mingled, or sat apart, but everyone  made shifting glances to see if anyone was missing.  The   folks from The Hermes , along witht he  8 Heimdall trooper s  sat  and   eat and drank as well.

 Med Techs  and thier support folks were  placing  bags  onto the heimdall shuttle to go back up to the Hermes

 Hugo Krauss  was bummed out, he a  Callin Motts would be ridign up to the hermes  since thier  aircraft  was shot out from under them.. Farow anf Corbin would take thie rplaces.... and the two Heimdall pilots  would   fly with Raven and Red Water.

 Fe-Op one of the green  angels  died

 The troopers    welcomed   their hermes folks and the  8  Heimdall troopers  as they filled them in on how they day went and what they found

Off to the side the Gava and Jug sniffed the bits of carcasses they had.  Roussians ate them, so they figured they would try 'cat-snake' meat.  It was already dead.  They also had stew that was given out too.

  while people  ate, talked  and relaxed. The   QM  folks worked ahrd to keep the food   coming and  drinks  cold ( or Hot).

  Those who looked out over the    darkness, would see   muzzle flashes  as   some where..some one   found  a Roussian , or perhaps  some creature. In the city, the  walls  were set.. random  search lights  swept  the  area in front of the  walls... again.. weapons  would fire... and  quiet  would  settle in again, until the  next  attempt to get in or out of the  city.

 Screeching  wheels of  treaded  as Scot   tanks    moved around the   perimeter.. Panzers  had  moved up closer to the  city.. they would be entering  to  add another  gauntleted fist to the  final attack.

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

 CE-VA caught wind of the  'wedding'  and   scurried over to   have some  film of   the Battlefield  Binding..

...........

  The  Largs ate well, fresh   cuttings and  the  trash cans were set up for    food in some, and trash in the others.

 Nivarains   Largs  were  eating cooked   Snake Cat and  some kind of scaled bear..but the humans  wouldn't touch it.

Jug offered some of their 'snake-cat' meat with Nivarians to help interspecies workabilities.

Roy sighed and rolled his eyes at the explanation, but decided it wasn't the time to argue the issue.  In the morning, when they went back out again, he would just have to make it painfully clear that he wanted the most e pediment option...which wasn't leveling a building with hand-thrown explosives when they had an aerial artillery platform that could have dropped three shells on the building in less time than it took to run the charges from their lines to the target.

He'd give Orria a special assignment when they got back aboard the Hermes with Roussa in their wake...she understood enough ov Shade's unique language that she should be able to program a rudimentary translation vocabulator of some sort that would eliminate these kinds of situations.  He began heading to get food...word spread quickly about the marriage taking place, but as he hadn't been invited, he didn't feel like he needed to be there.  He didn't have a lot of experience with such things, but his understanding was that only those who were invited should be at the actual ceremony.  He also wondered, with a touch of skepticism, at the thought of getting married in the ashes and rubble of a world on the verge of being conquered...it didn't seem, to him, to be a particularly auspicious one.  But he wasn't a Demon, and he wasn't...whatever hybrid Melia had been turned into.

He pondered on that as he got a bowl and a drink and sat down by himself, running through the day and analyzing what had worked, what hadn't, and how to deal with the issues that had cropped up.

Watching the largs, Henry wondered if he'd find any cat-snake briss left for him to examine. Still, he supposed that there would be plenty more.

He fed Mila from the supplies he carried, though. He wasn't sure if she'd be interested in such exotica.

Harry would hesitate for a little while longer before caving in and reluctantly agreeing to act as one of Melia's witnesses "Ok, I'll do it but I warn you I'm liable to be lousy company" she said noting that she was already being ushered away from the servery and off to wherever the service was going to be held. Meanwhile Lizzy, true to form, was already in tears and excitedly gushing over Melia, providing more than enough emotion for all of them.

As Nikki joined them she would give the other woman a tired look that said that she didn't want to be here let alone going to a wedding that was liable to set her off again. On the other hand Melia did have a valid point in that it would get her away from everyone else for a short while at least. In fact, with any luck she might be able to slink away after the service and avoid having to spend any time with the other pilots and ground pounders entirely.

    standing  in a  crater made  by an ESN  Hard  ammo shell. Admiral Hack  took a page from  Shade's book and Had  Rolls hold a vidboard that Had   Captain Si's  face on it.. she was smiling a bit, one might  say sadly, one might say wistfully.

 Shade  Held the   Vid  Board  on   Melia's  side, a few other  people gather, further back to watch as the  ate of drank.

 CE-VA was moving  slowly to get a view of the Bride  and Groom. Hemlsy  Brough a pair of Bottles over  as well as   some  field cups  for the toast after. Roles looked at him with a raised  eyebrow.

 well Sir,  seems  Brooksie  found this  buildin' that had  spirits  fer sale... so we took some..well..we took a bunch.. sendin' them up ta the Rec dec...and a couple bottles fer our own use and such..but  we got these..mostly clear?..looks  like  Champaign

 Hack  Chuckled..wait until its  all said  an done, you can  get  the  cups ready...

 there  were Hyrians in the air, Black figthers  with  ESN color tails of Blue and white. that flew over the     cities for night cover,,, Hyrains havign a bit better  night vison then most, save for the Felrites.

 when everyone is ready... we will begin, so you folks can get food, drink and rest.

 Lizzy smiled and happily stood by Malia's side, she smiled at Harry, and gave Nikki a big hug as she joined them. Lizzy was always a sucker for weddings, she was so happy for Zob and Melia. They where both good friends and she cared deeply about both of them. Lizzy stood and waited with her tears of joy and bubbliness really showing now.

Mila sat beside Her Human, gently wagging her tail as she watched the proceedings. She wondered if Her Human was going to do such a ritual with his mate? Hopefully in somewhat sweeter-smelling surroundings.

 Meari ate with the ground troops, after she ate and got a drink, she headed over to Shade, the LC, the Admiral and the others, they where doing a human ceremony of mating. She headed over to watch and try to understand the ceremony, she smiled, nodded and gave Shade a thumbs up. She will try and feel what Shade is saying let the beeps, swirls and clicks sink in, doent listen to them feel them.

 Meari would ask Shade quietly," Cousin have you heard anything about cousin Dusk and Granmod Lilit?"

In reply to Melia Kristensen (msg # 86):

Melia snorted, "I'll take lousy company over no company if that's all I can get, come on. Besides I need someone to keep Lizzy in tissues or we're liable to flood the beach head." she said in reply to Harry likewise noting the tears already making an appearance on Lizzy's face. As she half ushered/half dragged Lizzy and Harry along they passed Roy headed in the opposite direction. "Not gonna come to the ceremony SGT MAJ? It's okay if your busy but you better be at the party we have later" She called out.

Once it place she waited for Zob to be ready and for things to begin, with a big silly giddy grin on her face.

Zob got both Shadow and Supe together before getting into position across from Melia it didn't show on the surface but he was a tad bit nervous even still through it all a smile broke through his hardened exterior as he waited to begin.

"I'll call the QM and get him to send down a crate" Harry replied to Melia in a dry voice, with the barest hint of a smile making an appearance before disappearing just as quickly as it had appeared.

Following Melia down into the rubble strewn crater where the ceremony was going to be held, causing her to once again question the choice of venue, Harry would take her position next to a teary eyed Lizzy fully aware of the fact that their moods were the polar opposite of one another which no doubt made for a peculiar sight, and one that would no doubt be caught on camera. With her quietly hoping that she wouldn't be required to anything other than stand there, Harry would quietly wait of the ceremony to begin.

   As the poeple took thier Places,  Shade  and  Roles holding Vidboards,  and those  gathered on the outside  of the  Camera views .

  The Admiral called  for attention. I would be Lying if i  said  I have done this before. The Manuel  says  , there should be  no battlefield  marriages, ebcause it  is  mostly done under stress, not knowing  what the out come of the battle would be. But... I  think this is differant, perhaps a bond forged in fire, hardened by the hammer of  the war.... We will bear witness to  these two as  they make thier pledges, and i inact  my powers  as  Fleet Admiral of the ESN/APF..

  Melia, you will speak first.. Then SGT  Zobaich...

 he nods to them

Nikki gave a smirk and glanced at the Admiral "Unless they wanna go splitting hairs.  This ain't no battlefield, it's a fortified beachhead" she then winked at the Admiral.  "It's all a matter of perspective"

 At the mess area, some folks   got up to mender over  and  wtch  for a distance at they ate and drank.

 from the  back some of the SEC Ladies  called out.." Go Zob!..Go Melia!"

 Cora  sent  a COM  text to  Will telling him , she and Ellen were ok.  they were  eatign and joined in on some of the cheers.

    Eckles  watched  and said, whadda think about Shadow and supe..think they'll ever   hook up for good?

 frans  sighed,..Shadow had his  chance, and now she  is married  with a kid on Earth, working for    Lights Out...

 Mara  pointed   to  near  the   crater where Hodden stood.Hodden seems to have a grip on Supe?

 brivet  said  around a mouth full of Stew..what about Flores  and beth? They get alot closer to Shadow   then anyone else?

 Flores  smirked,..no one is landing him... he has  to jump in the boat.

 brivet  wiggled her  spoon at her,..so he's on the market?

 Kat  giggled,..Da he's is  on the market..but you have to have enough creds!

 Machins  sits  down by  Billie  and says..why worry about Shadow  when you got  Hunks  like me and Higgins here!

 Higgins almost choked on his  stew.

 Raven, sitting with Red Water says....Give it up Machins...  you're on the wrong boat to try and be  top dog..

 Fitz  sat  against a  water  drum..its not a bad thing, you know?... Guys like us, we   can  try to  scoop up the frustrated Ladies  ..its like  picking  cherries...

 The  Heimdall troopers  sat Roy and  asked    quietly,your people always  talk bad about your  officers?

Billie snickered as she swallowed the bite of food in her mouth and looked at Machins. "Cuz that's the way you win a girl over? I might be really new to dating and such...but I don't think a girl wants to hear about how hot you are...from your own lips." She smirked as she nudged him.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 05:11, Sun 17 Jan 2021.

..isn't that what the LC does?... machins looked  around.

 Foster  smiled,I can't speak for everyone here..but  when he  says 'how great he is"..its normally to someone  who's about to get thier ass kicked...and..well.. he goes out  and Does it?

 the iron  Guard  Nodded thier ehads to this...

 Flores looked  hard at Machins...I haven't ever  heard him  say somethign like that to ladies...

 Lyri pointed to frans and her   people,ask Frans... he never  needed to  'hunt' for a   someone to take to the balls and  such  at the academy.....

 Maria grins,..he goes  by the  saying...if you have to tell someone you're good...you're not...

 Steele  was  quiet as he ate,  casting glances over at raven and Red Water.

 Lona  lake  points to Billie..look at her.. she  hook up with Armie?.. I didn't even know he liked girls!...he never  talks to anyone  'cept the LC or SM  when they were on the OB dec!

Billie blushed deeply when she was pointed out about Arnie. "I mean we actually have quite a bit in common...and well yeah..." She stammered a bit clearly embarrassed but taking it all in stride, her smile not leaving her lips.

 Lizzy giggled and smiled as Melia made the comment she needed someone to keep her in tissues. Lizzy was so happy she couldnt help but cry, and when Harry said she would call for a whole crate, Lizzy giggled again and replied, " That might not be enough Harry, I am just so happy, on a battlefield after killing child killers they get married. It is so beautiful, and romantic in a special way." Lizzy really began to cry now, the excitement and the emotion was getting to Lizzy.

 Oh shit she realized Izzy, she opened her comms and sent Izzy a message," I am safe my love, fighter is fine, I am fine, Melia and Zob and getting married right now on the planet, I am recording it. Love you Izzy." Lizzy then used her Coms to record the ceremony.

"After party is gonna be a big slash" she whispered to Harry next to her. "There gonna plaster this on the Rec Dec.  If it makes you uncomfortable we can paint your aircraft and mine....keep busy.  just let me know" stil in a low voice for her to here only.

  People  walked  around the Mess  area, as well as  stood  a  distance  away to watch the   'wedding'.

  Largs , except  for Larry were lazying by the   larg food  area, they had thier   'suits off'

  Maygin sat by  a  thermo  pod to keep warm as the   sun went  down.. the  night  sky was  differant now.. no city lights , but the stars  were  blocked  by  massive bodies of Cap ships. on the  far side of the lake, the  drop ship shuttles   sat, Lots of light there  as  tankers  rotated back to re-arm , and  troops there   were getting hot  food, and would  soon  swap out  with those on 'the wall'.

   giggles and laughter   as pilots  and   troops  let off some nervous energy.

As a highly emotional and tearful Lizzy spoke about how romantic she thought it all was Harry would give her a despairing look ”you’re weird” she said thinking that a battlefield had to be one of the most unromantic places to have a wedding and that was coming from her.

Hearing Nikki’s whispered comment Harry would give her an appreciative look ”yeah...that sounds good...think I’m going to be spending a lot of time painting that fighter...assuming of course that I don’t get shot down in it” she replied in a bleak whisper, with it clear that it wouldn’t just be this particular party she was planning on skipping, in fact the less time she spent around other people the better.

Roy paused in eating and looked up at the trooper with the question.  "I haven't heard anything disrespectful.  Some blunt truth and some gossip, but nothing disrespectful.  Anyone disrespected one of our officers and they'd get dogpile by a dozen people before I even got to my feet..."

He snorted softly as he scooped up more stew, catching the drippings off the spoon on a hunk of bread in his other hand.  "But they do tend to be blunt in their analysis, yes."  He scooped the stew into his mouth.

In reply to bonding (msg # 105):

Melia froze, for a few moments. She'd not thought about it enough to have realized she'd have to have something to say. "Ummm" she stammered for a moment, realizing all eyes were on her. But she turned to Zob her eyes shining with excitement, and happiness, and perhaps a touch of mist. It was easier to address Zob that she could do. "I umm never thought for a minute you'd be the one I fell for. In all this universe and beyond, I was sure. From the bottom of my heart it'd be me and Orria against the world, we'll until she grew up at least." She said with a slight giggle. "If someone would have told me that you were in my future in a meaningful way, I would have thought they'd lost it, and recommended they get a battery of mental health serums shot into their butts by Stefi, and I'd tell her to use the big needles like she saves for Shadow. But proving this universe is crazy in it's own fucked up way, here we are. I feel safe around you. I can be calm, and let down my shields, I can love myself in ways I never thought possible. It's amazing, and a little scary being infront of people saying things like this, being vulnerable. But with you with me, I can do that. I don't have to be that crazy fucked up bitch all the time, I can live again. Thank you...I love you as much as I love Orria and killing Empire scum... well maybe a bit more than killing the scum... She glances towards the Admiral, "Um I think that's it, I'm not really sure what all to do." She whispers so only Zob and those standing close in can hear.

  The Admiral give  Melia  a nod    and a  smile with    closed   eyes , before  turning to Zob.

 ..That's Fine,  Melia. No one is expecting The Bard's  prose here... as he looks to Zob,..SGT..your turn...

  Fitz   chuckled  at  Roy's  words,nothing has been said, that  the LC wouldn't say himself..

  Cora  , Ellen and there  friends  were sitting  watching the wedding from  a distance. speaking  softly and  smiling or  Giggling.

 Jax wondered over  with his   bowl of stew , with  Jumping Lion close  behind. The Sat  by Roy and jax  said,

 I heard they found a couple  more elevators... what do you think we'll be  doing...

 Jumping Lion  says..I think we  should  drop big bombs  down there.. and Bury them forver

..........

 Machins  eats  as he listens and shrugs. Turning to  Billie  he says,..so?  This Armie guy? why doesn't he  ever  come down on  Jump offs?..he..like a clerk?

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

Zob smiled warmly as he looked upon her, "I remember my first days when the Hermes assault teams found me aboard the captured prison vessel and brought me back i had thought i just exchanged one prison for another. Never in the thousands of years being in the black did i ever think i would find salvation and a reason to live again... you saved my life in more ways then you could ever imagine" for the first time ever a small tear fell from his eye landing in the dirt at his feet, "I love both you and Orria with all my heart and with you both by my side the black shall never overtake us no matter the odds" he then glanced at the Admiral and gave him the nod to continue before turning his full attention back on Melia a huge smile on his face.

Kira was sitting off in the distance watching the ceremony take place, "Its amazing how love can blossom on the battle field like this" she nudged Morgan and gave him a wink.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:39, Mon 18 Jan 2021.

  Morgan took a spoon full of stew  from the  mess  cup,..Yeah?.. I've  seen  alot of  people fall in Battle...never seen them  join on the battlefield...gotta  be  one of the few times in Human history, at least..

 Andre  just ate  and Listened.

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

   Hack nodded  when  Zob  was done, he  flicked  through  pages on his  Vidborad, and   shook his head. There  are  at least  20 differant  words  for this from all over the APF..none of them  fit... but i'll use  my own...

  he waved   Brooks and Hemsly forwards and they handed out   the  wine or what ever the 9 hells it was to every one in the   crater.

  The Admiral took a mess tin with some of the wine. we had a few people who looked like they may  bond, thinks never worked out for them. You made it to that stage...that is  no small feat, considering all the Jump offs  and  ops  we have been in... I congratulate you. I hope  the Best for you..and this starts  a bright  spot in your life. And  you continue to
 fight  for each other as you do  for  your  shipmates, and  those who need such as as...

 he raises his   tin,..With the Power invested in me  by the ESN  and APF, i announce that Meilia Kristensen  and  SGT  Zobiach  are not   Bonded as mates  and  will be recognized  as  such in the   records of the ESN  and APF..  he then  waite dfor  everyone  and drank the  toast to the new  Couple..

 The Admiral handed the  Tin  to Hemsly  as he stepped forward  and Offered his hand  to Zob and gave a  small hug to  Melia,..let me  be the first to offer   my congregations  after the Bonding is official.. I'll have Shade  send the   vids up, Captain Morris  will have your  papers and Disc   waiting  for  you when we get back.

    other  came  up to over   hand shakes  and   hugs.. Shadow smiled  at Melia.....Long way from that day on the OB  dec, when you pushed that trigger...isn't it.. he wnked  and Gave Zob another  Cuff on the shoudler  as he made his way towards.

 As he Passed Izzy, Harry and the others, he said in a flat voice..make  sure you eat and drink Lynch, or you going up with Hugo , we'll keep your bird here  for a spare...

 finding his way to the    food, he got a  stew  and a coupel rolls and a soda..

 Shade  was   rattling off noises  to Orria  to make sure  she  got  all the information and  vid feeds to  Captain Morris.

Kira took this opportunity to go and offer her congratulations, "Congratulations to the both you on your bonding, i want you two to have this on behalf of my father may it serve you well as it served him" She then handed the .500 Smith and Wesson handgun over to Melia.

 Lizzy smiled at Harry and said," Well it is romantic if you look at who is getting hitched , but it just tells me anyone can find love even me, and even you Harry." Lizzy listened to Melia, then Zob spoke and her tears where rolling, when the Admiral made it official, Lizzy yelled congratulations, then drank the drink in a toast.

 Once Melia was free Lizzy held her tight and said," Congratulations Melia, that was amazing and I am so happy for you two and you both are very close friends." Tears where rolling heavily as she was so happy for her friends.

"Arnie is the bartender on the Observation dec...though he bartended at the party at the condos on Everest so I imagine that he helps out with those types of things." Of course she wasn't going to bring up him helping in the Delta Nights because that wasn't her place to say such a thing.

Nikki watched and clapped with the others celebrating.   As Shadow went by she heard his comment, she understood what was going on better, but still it was raw on Harry she thought.  "well.... you should eat.  It can't hurt you"  When it was thinning out Nikki gave Zob a handshake and Melia a hug.  "party on the Rec Dec?" she asked them
This message was last edited by the player at 04:37, Mon 18 Jan 2021.

Roy looked over at Jumping Lion.  "Never happen.  We have no idea how extensive their complex is...if these are all interconnected to a single bunker or if they're individual bunkers...hell, we don't even know for sure that they're bunkers."  He snorted softly.

"Even if we knew, we still wouldn't do it that way.  The way the Roussians have hidden behind everyone else and manipulated them?  That kind of theory is either cultural, or it runs from the top of their military and political apparatus down.  Either way, that means the ones responsible haven't been out here, fighting us...they're hiding somewhere, and down there is the most likely prospect.  We want to make sure the Roussians never become the same thorn in our side, we have to go all the way to the top and crush it there.  We let them live, they'll rebuild everything we've torn down.  We let them die in their holes, stories will be spun about them either getting away, or about their 'desperate last stand' and they become heroes.  We dig 'em out and let them beg and plead for the whole galaxy to see?"

He set his bowl down and made a symbolic move of rinsing his hands clean.  "Anyone who would have followed or emulated them sees the failure.  Their infamy ends with them."

He picked up the bowl, and scooped up some more stew.  "Besides, it's their fault the Admiral and Captain Si will never have kids.  There's a whole lot of us that want to see and know that they paid the price for that.  No way in hell we aren't just dropping bombs down there and calling it good."

  Shadow  was nodding   at  Roy's words. Machins  was listening to Billie  and   everyone esle who was talking about  things  Like that.

 Machins   Turns  and looks,..lots  of  folks   can't have kids  no more..mostly because they're Dead..... and we're gonna  send troops into the bowels of the  planet because   a couple officers had  some bad  Luck..

 Shadow  Chuckled   , and  had a  wry smile on his    Face  as he handed his  tin  to  a confused Jax.. then he  Got up,  still chewing on   a mouth  Full of Roll and Punched  Machins in the face,  knocking him off the crate, and  dumping his stew...

 he  reached  down  and   Grabbed   the stunned pilot....look..Mac?  This isn't new York... You have to stop  talking like the big dude on your block..'casue..your not... Now get some more stew,,  , we don't know how long we're going to be in the air... Food..drink..rest...and don't fuck me off  again..

  he sat down and took the   Tin back from jax,..Thank you , jax...  as he finished  chewing the  roll..and Machins  refilled his  Tin.

  Looking at Roy   , Shadow's  spoon, might have  jammed into his  stew a wee bit  too hard,  when i was little...  Me and  My brother  had a  bike..had to share it.. i never used it much? I could run faster then i could peddle... Any way... this  poor   kid  down the block from us.. didn't have anything?  so  we  taught him to ride it.. it was junk..right?..but the kid  would try..fall off, hit cars, bounce off  garbage cans... But he kept getting on that Bike... he  would call out to me  and Roles...' Hey Look!"  and he  would ride it  until he hits  something or  fall off...

 Roles   was dipping   stew... Tikkie..his name was..some kind of  African name...

 Shadow nodded a few times  with some vigor....yeah..yeah..Tikkie... any way, this rich  kid  and his  buddies  come  zipping  out  street, and the one kid is making  fun of him, when he  hits  a light post.... The Rich  Kid  Kicks this  brand  new  Bike   and  tells Tikkie... you want this  piece of crap.. you can have it.... and  why the heck  do you keep riding that  beat up bike...

 Roles  smiles and Looked at Roy,..and Tikkie  just said, " if i  don't keep trying..i'll never  get  to ride..

 Shadow  smiled a  fond  smile... the rich  kick  ran after his friends, left  the   bike there...Me , Roles and Tikki took it into our basement.. we  tore it
 apart, and used parts from the two bikes   and   Tikkie  had a  new  bike...

 Roles  grins   as  he  eats some stew..... turns out  the  old bike  made  him tougher... kid   could    out  bike  anyone   he  came across... racing  bikes... mountain bikes... we used to take him to these races across town, and   bet on him, and give him 2/3s of the money to take home

 Jax  and  JL looked at each other   and then at Shadow...

 ..The rich kid, was a baby?... shooting his mouth off to some poor  kid who couldn't buy the shoelaces in his  sneakers.....anytime the Going  got tough.. the rich  kid  would  quit and throw  away the things  he had....

 Roles pointed  at him with his roll. Tikkie worked his ass off, to get what he wanted...and when he got it? he didn't   quit...... Tikie   road  in the  Tour de France... some one  sponored him..... The rich kid?... became a loser.. I think we had to cap him on the docks  for being a  Pusher.

 Machins  frowned.....I remember Tikkie..little bastard  cost be  100 creds once...

  Shadow  ruffled  Jax  head,we need more Tikkies.. and less  Rich kids...

 there was a  clearing of   a throat. Shadow looked at at the Admiral who was getting a Tin of stew handed to him...what just happened to   Machins?

 Machins?..Oh?.. I punched Machins , Admiral.

 hack  looked at machins.. Machisn tried to give a sheepish  grin, but his mouth hurt. Should  I ask way?

  ahh?  No Sir.. i don't think that would be a good idea...

 Roles   chuckled  as he ate.

 ..try not to punch out too many more people tonight..shall we? he sat  down behind  Roy and Shadow.

 Aye , Sir...no promises , sir.

Billie visibly flinched when Shadow punched Machins, wincing from the sound of his fist connecting with Machin's jaw. "I swear...y'all need to learn a better way to resolve your conflict..." she said as she downed her drink.

  Shadow   smiled  a Billie.. I did  alot of things  in school and at the acadmey... but i was never any good  at debate...

 Eckels  nods.....true  story... had to go to the Mast for punching out an instructor...

 Hack chuckled... Nil and I were there.. we were gettign ready to  take two flights out  for war games... we  checked in on Shadow and roles..... the instuctor  had Kray on the stage.. and, as  'witty ' as Shadow can be, this  instructor had years of   debate on the world  stage.... he was talking about  the spread of half truths  and  lies.. and everytime Shadow  said something, he turned it  around, lots of people laughed..

 frans  Raised her hand...me!! I laughed!!

 Flores  frowned.....i didn't..but i did in the end...

 Hack  chuckled...so?  we have  a  embarrassed and  angry  Pilot on stage, who also serves  as a  dark ops  trooper/// and this instructor  keeps  pouring it   on, Until he  walks up to Shadow and Says..." well LT?.. how  would  you  stop that spread of those lies...."

 Roles chuckled,Shadow punched him so hard, he had to go to Med tech  to get 7  teeth re-grown...

 ..That's when i laughed. flores grinned.

 Shadow  shrugged..to be  fair?.. i think the first rule of  stopping misinformation, is to  destroy its  source ...

 Shade  had  reached  them  and Bleeped.

 sure?  You could punch people out? But i rather have  you  wait to see  how badly  they need punched...

 some more bleeps

 ..yes.. then you punch them out..

 Shade  gave a thumps   up and  began to gobble his stew.

Nikki led Harry to the meal line "Ain't chicken and biscuits....but it's fuel" she said and gestured to a near by quiet spot.  Going over and sitting she waited for Harry or who ever wanted to join them as she then began eating some of the stew, her weapon next to her.

Roy looked over at the Heimdall's trooper that had first asked about the conversation,  when Shadow clocked Machins.  "Now, see, that's what happens when someone disrespects a Hermes officer.  Although, to be fair, you could say something similar about Private Jax, here, and the LC would knock your teeth in, too. But respect is earned on the Hermes, not granted.  And if you don't have any respect for others, they're not gonna give it back."  He glanced over at Machins.

"There's some, even on the Hermes, who have trouble grasping that concept."

He fell silent as Hack came over to inquire about Machins,  and listened to Shadow's story.  He had no such tales from his years growing up...hadn't even really had friends to speak of until he joined the Corps.  He continued listening through the story about Shadow, with his own take-away being that he was yet again thankful that he hadn't gone the Academy route.

Henry raised the mess cup someone had handed him.

"Melissa and Zob. May the blessings of your gods rest upon your heads for all time."

Huh, he'd need to sort something out for Val, now. Preferably in somewhat more civilised circumstances. But soon. Now these two had set the ball rolling, she would be expecting it. Especially now she had his ring.

Shooting Lizzy a dark look that seemed to straddle the line between angry and hurt, Harry would reply in a strained whisper as she struggled to keep her emotions in check ”yeah well, people like me don’t get to be happy” she replied before turning away and rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand.

She would endure the ceremony the best she could, forcing a rather weak smile onto her face as she did so, with her just about managing to control her emotions. When the wine was handed out she would wave off the cup with her instead speaking the words in a faint voice before turning to leave. Though sadly she was unable to quietly disappear as she had hoped to; with Shadow echoing Frans’ earlier threat and Nikki gently steering her back into the queue where she would rather reluctantly accept a portion of the stew ”Dumplings...biscuits are what you dunk in your tea” she absently replied as she followed Nikki to an out of the way corner and sat down with tears already beginning to slowly roll down her cheeks. She would manage to eat two spoonfuls of the stew which she didn’t even taste before proceeding to simply move it around her mess tin with her spoon.

Billie laughed at Shadow's admission and shook her head as she listened. "I mean I suppose that is one way to stop misinformation. And honestly, a lot of the instructors at the Academy that I dealt with were assholes so...he probably deserved it on some level."

   The Heimdall Troopers shifted a bit uneasy as they loked  at Shadow who just finished talkign to The Admiral.

 Three things they noticed, One, The SM didn't  pass up the chance to use  this as a teaching Moment... the second  was The LC  didn't waste  any time in letting the Captain ( a Captain!) now he was not  happy with his words about The Admiral, and third, The LC never  mentioned  what that Captain said to the Admiral. Though they were pretty sure the other Admiral  knew what was said.

  Machins   rubbed his  jaw as he  began to eat in earnest ,Ok..Shadow? You have to tell me, how the  9 hells you got  on The Hermes...got to be  the gods  be damned   WC.. and they parlayed that all into the WC of the gods be damned Fleet... I think you set a record  for goig to The Mast!...most people  are  dishonorably  Discharged after the  first  few! And you got  demoted.. a bunch!

   Shadow  shrugged  and   gave a closed mouth chewing smile and  wink to the Heimdall LT who was in charge of  his stick. Then  Answered  Machins,I found out long time ago, if you're really good  at something, you get alot of lee way.... I never had  trouble with my grades in School, and when me or Roles  did have trouble, beth   tutored us... whether you think so or not, she might be the smartest person in the  damned fleet..... but? I was a Jock..Roles was a jock, and   you go out there and get your name in the papers  and your school gets  attention from alumni  and they start throwing money at the school... you can get away with alot of stuff...

 Roles  chuckled,..we didn't  pick to go to the academy... the acdamy picked us..also..there might have been a little thing about  that or jail since the east river   had a few  'good fellows' floating in it

 Shadow smiled,I did everything the academy asked.. and  I pushed  damn hard, and the tail end of my freshman year, i started to see who were the  'skaters' who had  big creds behind them, and those who had to work thier asses off....

 Roles  gave a  shake of his head,..and the  Instructors  and Officers who tried to get  Lady Cadets  to  sleep thier  way up the  ladder..wel.. we seen stuff like that in school... to make a joke..it 'didn't fly with us".

 Frans  spoke up.....My father..who was a congressman at the time,  got Shadow  demoted twice....I wasn't the best  Classmate  back then... Me, Eckles, Mara  and a few who are dead now...we  rode  our cradits  and Daddy's  names  the  whole way through... and?
 we could  fly a Hammer..but...

 Hack  spoke up...to make it short and clear?  The Hermes...The Fleet  and this war has made it possible  for Earth to escape. Or should have at elast, what Paradise had become.... You'll never see  an officer  of mine , take advantage of  another  Crew member, and if there is one, they don't stay officers long...I need my people to fight the fight... to  be crewmates, and kill as many Empire bastards  as they can...and , if  it takes  some ass kicking to get that down... its alright by me..

.....
 Shade listen to the  chatting, he  offered  Mila  a roll  that was  dipped  in gravy.

"Go ahead and weep.  Do your body good to release some of that emotion" she'd been depressed before and this would help her later and having her cry was not something she was gonna be able to stop once it got going.  So Nikki would talk just a bit louder then the noises Harry was making "Those are what we call in my home 'cookies and crackers'.  I'm talking biscuits.  Buttermilk, butter, flour, soft and puffy, slightly tan on top bread" she handed her a bottle of water and whispered "Drink a bit and splash some on your face.  It will help cover your weeping and hiccups..that, you don't want in a dog fight" and she continued at a voice as before.  "Harry...I know you are sad and feel  ..'broken', but you are not.  I want you to do something....just one thing right now. when you get done.  It's not going to seem like a lot, or maybe too much.  Think you can do it?  not gonna force you too, but in can help you" she would wait Harrys response before telling her what it was she wanted Harry to do.

Snickering, Billie patted Machins on the shoulder. "Jealousy is an ugly thing...let it go. If you ask me...the way you show someone up is through deed. Big talk is just that...talk. Actions are where you will shine." She stood up to get a refill.

In reply to bonding (msg # 117):

A couple fat happy tears rolled down Melia's cheeks as Zob spoke and the Hack made it official.  She didn't wait for Zob, when it was done she jumped grabbing him and giving him a big deep kiss arms wrapped around his shoulders and neck, before releasing him to accept the hug from the  Admiral.

"Thanks Lizzy," Melia replied, having missed Lizzy's earlier comment to Harry. "Harry thank you for standing with me. It means a lot to me, believe me any party that we have later will have plenty of drinks you can enjoy. I mean I barely drink and don't really enjoy alcohol so there's gonna be stuff for you to enjoy. I'll let you get some food now. Sorry if I'm keeping you." She says trying to be placate her friend who looks more upset than happy.

Roy looked over at Machins as all the explanations wound down.  "In simpler terms, Admiral Hack runs a meritocracy that doesn't depend on rank.  Those of us that shipped out originally?  Hand-picked because of our service records...and, likely, some other details that never make it to personnel records but still made us very useful for fighting the Empire.  First year or two of replacements?  Largely the same thing, with a few exceptions that got foisted off on us by brass above Hack but below the board.  Fleet got too big to hand-pick replacements, Ge-Fi interdicted Earth, and we had to start taking what we could get from Fuji or Everest or Etna, with a few others added here or there along the way.  But everyone in charge of anything on the Hermes earned it, the hard way.  Nobody got a free ride or a discount pass."

His voice became a little harder, with an edge of anger coloring it, along with a tone that indicated he was trying to explain an elusive concept to a moron.  "He's the WC because he fought and bled and suffered for it and saved a helluva lot of lives along the way...and every time I hear some diaper-wearing crybaby bawl about it, I recognize someone who just doesn't have the guts, balls, and heart to earn the job.  I was there when he got promoted...he didn't ask for it.  Didn't even want it.  Only reason he stuck with it is because it puts him in a position to make the rest of you better at killing Demons and Largrans and everyone else looking to huddle under the Demon flag.  The fact that we have to keep explaining that to you explains why a captain isn't even a flight leader on the Hermes.  Our flight leaders get it...they're here to kill the enemy and protect the Fleet, not bask in glory and use their prestige to get laid."

For the most part she would manage to keep it down to a sniffle with her feeling quietly thankful that she hadn’t been crying when Melia had come to see her. It wasn’t her fault, she was just happy and understandably so and Harry just found it too painful seeing someone getting everything that she had so badly wanted to have.

Taking the bottle of water from Nikki she would do as she was instructed and take a sip from the bottle before splashing some onto her face, though she would give Nikki a look that said she wouldn’t dream of dunking what she called a cracker into her tea. It was then that Nikki would pretty accurately sum up how she was currently feeling before going on to ask her to do something for her, something that she said would help her. Despite the sceptical look she gave her Harry figured she had nothing to lose at this point ”I can try...what do you want me to do?” she asked in a subdued voice as she continued to stir her stew around her mess tin.

 Lizzy smiled at Melia and hugged her tight, and then went to Zob and hugged him and said," Congrats Zob, I am so happy for the two of you." Lizzy was still crying happy tears as she hugged Zob. She did see Nikki take Harry and was talking to her, that was awesome Lizzy thought. She was so happy for the lovely couple. She had recorded the entire ceremony, then she checked to see if Izzy had sent a reply yet.

Zob embraced Melia as she jumped into his arms giving her a little twirl before setting her down then accepting the gift from Kira and offering her thanks, "Thank you all..." he was caught off guard by Lizzy's sudden hug to which he just chuckled, "Thanks for being here for us"

 Meari congratulated Zob and Melia and then made sure all her gear was good and she was ready to go on the next jump off. Meari headed over to the others, she smiled and nodded at LC Shadow, she then took a seat with everyone sitting close to Machins.

 Lizzy smiled at Zob and said," Well the Hermes is my family now, and I will always be there for you guys, you are my good friends." Lizzy then smiled and was still starving as she headed over and got a full bowl of stew and then sat with the others, she would give Nikki somne time alone with harry and then Lizzy would try and help Harry, she had to let her know that her life was what she made of it, but Lizzy hoped Harry would listen. Lizzy would listen to the conversations but she was busy eating.

 As Melia and  Zob  where  nearing the   mess  area, Admiral Hack  met them  and pulled them a bit  away from the  crowd.

   Admiral Hennings  is  gettign information about other shafts, we do not know if there is underground cities..or  if they just have  Bunkers  and such..... One  we get a  could on those when know of, we will discuss what we are goign to   do....

 He looks away for a Moment, then looks back at them...if you wish? I will send you up to The Hermes... you'll be out of the fight, at elast through tomorrow.. give you a day to  be 'married', before you have to come back and start fighting again... It is up to you both.... Just let me know, and i will make it happen.

 quickly adding,...if you want to talk about it alone, I'll go back over   to the others. but you need to let me know with in the hour, because the shuttle is talking the dead and wounded up.

...............
 Shadow finishes  his  stew, grabs an extra  soda and says,I'm goign to go over  to my fighter  and bed  down, any one need me..COM  me or  come on over and wake me up

 Shade    finishes  his food  as well and  follows  after him, giving  waves to the troopers.

.........

 Machins  points  at Shadow, and Flore s says...mac?.. just?..shut up....right?

  Machins  sighs  and goes back to finishing his  stew.

Nikki gave her a small smile "You got to take everything one step at a time, but you will get better.  All I want for you to do is eat your food.  Nothing big or large.  I know you don't feel like eating, but your body needs it.  It's just one step" she laid a hand on her shoulder "Don't worry about anything or anyone else.  Please" she said calmly.  No simpering begging or angry ordering her, she just asked her to do it, and to do it for herself.

In reply to eating (msg # 145):

Zob listened to Hacks words then shook his head, "We are Hermes elite our place is here on the battlefield, we have our wholes lives ahead of us to enjoy being married we can celebrate proper once we are done conquering this shit hole of a planet" at the same time a escape from battle wasn't truly a bad thing either the decision would ultimately fall in her hands.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Tue 19 Jan 2021.

 Lizzy was getting her second bowl of stew, when her comms went off and it was Izzy. Lizzy was so excited and a little surprised she was working with Beth. Lizzy sent back," Your working with Beth? Yes I have the whole ceremony recorded, I was going to ask you if you could add some things to it and I would send it to Melia and Zob as a wedding present. Oh yes I will tell her , see you soon my love, kick ass. Just be you my love and do your best. Love Lizzy...XOXOXOXOXO"

 Lizzy then ate her next bowl of stew and headed back over to Melia to tell her Izzy was so happy for her wedding.

   The Admiral smiled  and gave them both a nod.....right?.. But you have an Hour to think about it... Just let me know. Once that shuttle leaves , we'll only have   our assault  craft left, and they aren't leaving with out our people.

 he  went back towards  the  mess  area, retook his  set on a crate behind Roy.. there are 15 shafts , so far...all in major  cities.. we know three things for sure.... none of those shafts  can be  sued to get back out  without some  kind of repairs  or jury rigging..... 2,,,there has to be  bolt hole or sally ports.. 3...when we go  down there  we're  taking largs... and  we are goign to  hit everyone  we  find there  hard...I want any on  higher then a Captain, or higher then a gods be damned Burgermiester captured.. and there is going to be   harvesting of them , for the whole Black to see...Then?  we'll talk with the other  two planets to see if they wish to Join the   APF  as allies....or...as colonies

 The Admiral had a look on his  face, in the flicker fire, that looked  like he swallowed a 5 month old egg...The Sanri said we should offer  a surrender package  to the troops who are  still dug in around the  planet... I had to agree,,,, so... it will be short and sweet...  I'll make   the announcement  right before   the push into the city starts.. they have  15 minutes  to    come out, drop thier   armor and weapons into the   pile  and  follow the  MPs  to a holding... 15 minutes  1 second..too bad..everyone dies..gods be damned.. why you would want to let  them live is beyond me...

  Flores    asked,Admiral.. the  big wigs you capture... you'll..what? execute them?

 Hack nodded... he  oepned up his Vidboard, and talked  around a mouth full of roll,

 APF punishment   for prisoners  in wartime... Slavery....death.... aiding Slavers.. death...aiding the   enemy..death...espionage ..death... Pirates... death...attacking Civie  vesesl..death..Child export/import..death... With a shrug he handed the Vid board to see the  ..very long..list of  death  penalties  for  Empire  assests  and thier  allies.

 ..those leaders?.... They aren't taking that from me...it in the logs.. its damn well gonna   happen, if i have to beat each one to death , by myself with a stick.

 a few folks got  quiet..  and hack went back to eating..Roles   just gave a  shrug..I don't think you have to worry about doing it all yourelf...
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:10, Tue 19 Jan 2021.

Roy shrugged.  "Wait on the ultimatum until we drag their leaders out of their bolt-holes.  That'll sort the fanatics from the good soldiers.  Good soldiers might try and hold out if they think there's a chance their command structure's intact...if they know there's no longer orders coming, they'll fold and come in.  The fanatics, if there are any, are gonna stay dug in regardless."

He shrugged.  "It'll save us some time and munitions...and anyone coming in at that point might just be willing to point out where the zealots are, so we can get rid of them even faster.  They've already seen us showing more regard for the well-being of their civvies than any of their leaders did."

With her being given the deceptively simply instructions of taking things one step at a time, starting with her eating her stew, Harry would quietly sigh before reluctantly nodding her head with her knowing deep down that Nikki was right and that it was in her best interest to do so ”It just keeps happening...every time I think I’ve finally met someone who understands me, really understands, and then it all just falls apart...even my wing just upped and left without saying a single word...I guess there really isn’t anyone out there for me” she quietly sniffed as she lifted a spoonful of stew to her mouth. She would force herself to eat a little more; chewing and swallowing in a mechanical manner that made it clear that she wasn’t even tasting what she eating, before dropping her spoon into the half full mess tin and signaling that she wasn’t able or perhaps willing to manage any more ”as soon as we’re done here I’m transferring to another flight...I can’t work with him anymore, also I want a proper wing, I’m so tired of being treated like a babysitter” Harry quietly spoke so that only Nikki would hear her, hoping that she would understand that she wanted to it keep her intended transfer quiet for the time being.

  The Admiral   finished up his  food and told the  people  around him...we're up at 6 AM... drop ship troopers  are  goign   to be moving  from the wall arounf  8:00.. fighters in the  air  but  7:00... assault teams reacy  to enter the shaft at 7... get your rest...

 Hack Moves off towards the QMs  to check on gear and  supplies.

 Pilots   take the  cue  and finish thier   food , taking the Tins over to the mess cart. then heading off to sleep by thier fighters.

 ...........

 Cora , Ellen Scarlet and  Maria  where doing the  'selfie' thing,  callign  out.  "GOODNIGHT WILL , SEE YOU AT THE PARTY!

 Will answered back and the girls  laughed  as they  headed over to thier  shuttles  to sleep  either in or out of the shuttle.

 .............

 every now and them  the sounds of the Largs from the Nivarian camp , some  miles  away could be  heard, along with screams of Roussians, or  some creature... The night wasn't being any kinder to the Roussians  then  the day...

Kira after giving her congratulations headed back to join her squad, "You did good today Andre glad to have you as part of this team" she gave him a pat on the shoulder before moving off to sit with Morgan, "Gonna be a long day ahead of us tomorrow lets get some rest"

In reply to eating (msg # 145):

Melia chuckled a bit at the Admiral's suggestion, "Admiral I'd almost be insulted if I were under the impression that you actually think we'd take that offer. What better way to celebrate our union than by clearing out a nest of Hel's allies.

I appreciate it, but our place is here with the rest of the team. We'll get plenty of down time to celebrate once this is all done." She says with a smile echoing Zob's statement.

"Let's grab a bite quick and get ready for the this next bit. Tunnel fighting is always an adventure." She says to Zob heading for the chow line.

Zob chuckled as he moved off with her to the chow line, "I fully expect them to fight like a trapped animal backed into a corner... its gonna be a very bloody day tomorrow" he then got himself a bowl of stew and looked around for a place to sit down and eat.

"Sweetie... in this whole wide universe...there is never a perfect match.  That's why there are divorces and murders and fighting.  Wish it was otherwise, but it's not" she moved a water drop off her brow that was bugging her as it wouldn't fall "Best you can hope for is someone your heart and mind agree on it one that treats you like you are their end all be all and makes your heart grow lighter every time you see them" she flicked it into a puddle.  "Hoping mine is Mitch, but for all I know its a 7 year old boy on the Asian steppes back on Earth herding goats and smells like yak butter." she shrugged.  "I know it's hard Harry.  Watched my brother go through the same thing and it's depression nearly killed him.  Your heart is hurting so much right now it's hurting your mind and body.  His got bad, real bad.  I don't want you going his route.  shutting people out and shutting down.  My Papaw got him going again with one piece of advice 'one step at a time'.  Small but hard steps, one foot in front of the other.  Even if it is getting up and making your bed." she took a swig of water "looks like we get some sack time be fore the next run.  Get some sleep, I'm gonna get some too"  she put an arm around Harry and to let her use an arm as a pillow.  What she slept on didn't matter to her she grew up sleeping on straw in the barn, or on one of her sisters, hell even in the damn bathtub till one of brothers turned on cold water as a joke. "Just close your eyes.  be asleep before you know it. she got a bit comfy and rested til she would fall asleep.

"I thought I had that...guess I should be grateful I didn't do something stupid like getting his name tattooed on my arm" Harry quietly sniffed, her hand briefly moving to touch a spot on her arm in an unconscious manner. And although she didn't say as much aloud it would be all to clear to Nikki that the word "again" had very nearly been added at the end of that sentence.

As she listened to Nikki speaking about her brother and how he'd suffered from depression and her desire for Harry to avoid going down the same path, Harry decided that perhaps the old adage about learning who your true friends were was perhaps true after all. Not that Harry had had many friends to begin with. At the mention of them getting some sleep Harry would grimace slightly before quietly saying "I don't sleep too well these days" feeling a little too embarrassed to say that she'd always struggled to sleep in a bed on her own ever since she was a kid. However with Nikki gently putting an arm around her she would do as she was asked and lay down. It wasn't the first time she'd slept rough...though it might be the first time she'd done it stone cold sober.

 Lizzy put her tin away, and then went to Melia and said," Izzy and Orria got to see the wedding on the Hermes, Izzy says congratulations, and she cant wait to go to the party." Lizzy smiled and then decided to get some rest. Lizzy saw Harry and Nikki talking, she smiled and waved at them as they where getting some sleep. Lizzy went to her fighter, double checked it and then found a comfortable spot and got some rest with her Thompson in her hands.

 Meari hung with Cora , Ellen and their group, when they sent a live transmission to Will she should behind them, she smiled at waved at Will. Meari went with them and found a good spot against her shuttle, she had all her weapons ready and reloaded all her weapons. She was ready for some sleep, she wished she heard more about Dusk and Lilit, she just sent good thoughts to them and then went too sleep.

Next Morning...Invasion of Roussa))))

  when  the crew started to  hit the sack, it was  close  to Midnight.... 5:30 Am   Shadow had  all  the Pilot's COMs   go off,, He  was  walking through the   flight   lines  and  nudging those with his  boot   as he made his way to the Mess area...GET UP!!!.. WASH UP !!! EAT AND DRINK.. Crews will have your  birds   ready  a 7:00  to be checked.. Lets go.. another Day of Egg Plant Cassarole !

 Machins  sat up, he tossed the light  blanket to was given  in the  slowly growing pile the other  Pilots who had been through this before.

  Flores was  up  fixing  coffee  already a towel  around her next from  washing up at the lake.

 Handing a  Tin to Shadow, he pointed to the pots  and Told the Chief of the QM crew to make sure there was tea as well, and they scrambled .. The  look in Shadow's eyes  brooked no  hesitation.

Walking up from the Lake , Admiral   Hack had  a towel as well  as he buttoned his tunic.. he gave a  smile  to Shadow...when  did you get up...

 5;00.. i wanted to make sure  my  bird was loaded  , before  we have pregame...

   Flores Handed  The Admiral a Cup of coffee and he nodded his thanks....you'er going to be hunting to day... there has to be more fighters, I would assume they saved  some for  the second  day..I think they know there  won't be a third day..

 Frans   and a few others  were jogging  towards  the  Lake to was up  so they could egg and such before  they had  to  worry about thier  birds.

  Roles  came around the  Corner as he  was buckling a  light boarding armor chest plate on......gods  i forgot  what a pain it was in the field...You look a bit  on Edge
 LC...

 I hate the Roussains... I mean?   Nivarians  chased me all over their damn moon, and   here they are fighting with us.. Hyrians   are here fighting with us.. other  Empire scum  are fighting us?.. but the Roussains?   They didn't have the  guts to fight on  either side.. stabbing   from the  back when no one's lookign  and  taking the creds for
 'a job well done'

 How is you're  fighter wing?...

  three died.. brought in two pool pilots... two PODed out, they are up on the Hermes now... we have the two heimdall pilots, they'll fly with Red Water and Raven...there might be one or two i have to send   home, we'll keep thier fighters here for extra  if i do..

 ..your people..you make the Call..

 Hemsly was sitting  by a  heat POD with  Shade,,  they were eating and drinking  while  Hemsly was  showing him something   with  C-10. that he  was resupplied with from the QMs.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:14, Wed 20 Jan 2021.

Billie groaned when Shadow passed by and nudged her. She sat up, having not slept too well since she had to sleep in her goggles and let out a sigh, as if trying to deny that morning had come…but finally accepting it for what it was. Reaching into her pack, Billie took out her contacts and looked over to Machins. “Hey Machins...can you help me really quick? It’s gonna sound weird but…the light is blinding for me and I need to put these in…can you hold this blanket up a bit over me so I can do it?” It sounded even weird coming out of her mouth but there was really no other way to accommplish it.

  Machins  nodded,sure..what are wingmen for!... he holds the  Blanket over her head, smiling sheepishly as some of the pilots  walking  by , giving him odd looks..

 damn Shadow.. we ha d  another  half hour to sleep!

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

  Maygin  looked around and Found Henry.....Doctor Christie?... beth sent  world  from the   Hermes.. the  Roussian med tech tried to ...take advantage  of  your assistant?.. the trooper   tried to stop him . but was over powered  , and the Larg Named  Tess  saved  her  from...worse things... he was goign to bring her to the planet.. but ...somehow.. the  Little larg ate him?..those are beth's  words   Doctor..

...........

 Lizzy woke up early, went to the lake and washed up and was already dressed when Shadow walked by her and her fighter. Lizzy smiled and saw Flores making coffee she found a cup and headed for Flores to get some coffee, and then get some breakfast. She looked around for Harry and Nikki as well.

It was a rough sleep, but it was sleep.  She stretched a bit and nudged Harry.  She heard 'coffee and breakfast', that sounded good to her.  before getting up she rinsed out her mess kit with a bit of water from her bottle.  "Feeling a bit better there Harry?" she asked as she got up and checked herself over making sure all her gear was there and no bizarre Roussian creature decided it wanted to share her body heat over night.  Luckily all she found was a small piece of debris trying to find itself into her right boot...it didn't make it.  "Lets get some breakfast....do us both good"

It was tough to say whether Roy actually slept or not...it was almost more like a meditative resting state that looked like sleep, but any sound out of the ordinary was met with eyes open and alert--and once it was discovered to be no threat, he almost immediately dropped back into that same state.

When others began to rouse for the morning, he opened his eyes and sat up as though he'd been awake all night...only without any hint of the tiredness that should be present after a sleepless night.  Two and a half decades of life in combat had taught him how to rest without dropping into a deep slumber, and how to get by for days on that kind of semi-conscious cat-napping during the down times.  He promptly got to the business of starting his day, including a significant breakfast...experience had taught him that a lack of sleep could be offset, in some measure, by consuming more food for his body to burn.

All the while, his gaze was in the direction of the nearest known shaft down, a grimly thoughtful expression on his face.

   The Admiral had a tin full of . what looked like Oatmeal he had   two  thick pieces of bread  and Coffee.

 Shadow had  creamed  'beef' on thick toast  and   coffee.. as did Shade.

 Hack sat  down  he had a chuckle.I  challenged  the  Engineers  to build  me  something that   could get troops  down thsoe  shafts..damned if they didn't  do it..  every Shaft that we have  troops  around  is going to use the  set up...

 They have  dec plates  welded  two  four posts  with another dec plat on top.. they are  goign to be  cabled to  the  wheels of  two panzer tanks.. those tanks  we  be  pill boxes for the rest of the tour here.... the  tanks    go in revers  and the  elevator  goes  down... they go forwards  the  wheels  bring us up... they can get  8  human troopers  in

 they also  rigged  another dec plate  Just above the  doors at the Bottom?...the Doors have a bit of C-10 on them... they'll blow the  doors, the dec plate  falls, and then our  car comes  down as soon  as the first group  gets a foot hold, the car will be  sent up.. the tanks  can   bring us   down  in one minute.. and up in 1:30...

  Shadow  nods.....and we  fly around and Log flight time...

   aye..but you'll be hunting  where they come out of.... I doubt seriously, if they are just going to wait, to die?.. we may have  cut our escape routes? who knows...but  we're  gonna make   1800s  England  proud  today... Rat catchers... that's what we'll be doing..

 Meari woke up early, she got up cleaned up and got a very large breakfast. Meari stayed with Cora , Ellen and their group. She smiled as she ate and drank. Today was going to be a fun day of hunting and killing Meari thought, she was ready to enact more justice for Skiffle and the others. Meari will ask around if she can find out any information on the Athenian troopers they helped, and if she could get any word on Captain Dusk and Warlord Lilit.

Harry would slowly sit up in response to Nikki’s prodding, and rub her eyes. She supposed that she must have fallen asleep at some point during the night but it sure as hell didn’t feel like she had ”Not really” Harry said in response to Nikki’s question feeling just as miserable and broken as she had last night. At the mention of them getting some breakfast Harry would grimace a little with her still having no real appetite but would reluctantly nod her head and follow Nikki towards the queue.

 Lizzy saw Nikki and Harry get in line for breakfast.  In her happy bubbly tone Lizzy and said,Good morning Harry, Nikki today is a great day, you guys get some food then come join me Lizzy smiled and headed for a nearby seat to begin to eat and wait for Nikki and Harry.

Billie quickly removed the goggles and replaced them with the contacts and once it was done, she immerged from beneath the blanket. "Thanks," she smiled as she pulled her hair back into a messy bun. "How did you sleep?" she asked as she began to walk towards the breakfast line.

In reply to Zobaich (msg # 155):

Melia grinned and grimaced a little, "Yeah it will be bloody, but good. It'll be good to remove their taint from this planet and add to the list of examples for Hel and it's allies why they are on the wrong side of history." Food eaten and other business handled, she placed a call to Orria, "Hey sweetie, did Shade make sure you could see?"

"Yes, Mom but I wanted to be there." Replied Orria a little disappointed, but also a bit more tired at the moment.

"I know sweetie, but I have an idea for something for you when we have the party. I think you'll like it. Okay?"

She could hear Orria's shrug over the comms, "Are you doing okay up there? I know you want to be here, but you've got an important job helping Beth and Shade. Do you need anything?

I'm okay there was some stuff happened with the yellow hat that Dr. Christie had, the Eggplant tried to take Ms Val hostage and do bad stuff to her and escape. Thor an Gregor got him. I think Ms Val is okay now. I don't know. I was working on stuff when it happened. Mom, is it okay if I sleep in the SEC office so I can be closer?"

Melia looked a bit surprised, "Oh that's no good, I'm glad that Thor and Gregor managed to get him, and yes that should be fine. Ms Beth should be able to help you with anything you need. I love you, sweetie."

"I love you too mom, I'm sleepy."

Melia smiled softly, "Sweet Dream Orria." She says signing off.

She looked around as people were bedding down, she debated finding Henry to let him know, but thought better of it. It was better to find out through the official channels, or Val herself. She didn't want to risk causing trouble or additional stress if the situation had been resolved. "Wanna sleep in the shuttles or on the ground? She asks Zob. Grabbing a sleeping gear.

---Next Morning---

Melia woke up to the commotion of Shadow rousing the pilots, rubbing sleep out of her eyes she emerged from the bag. She'd grown accustomed to sleeping in a comfortable bed, and could feel the pressure spots and the tightness caused by the hard surface underneath her. Still her messed up body had its benefits, she didn't feel pain the same way as others did so it was a relatively easy process to stretch out and loosen up. Her ankle for what it was worth was nearly 100%.

She filled a small bowl with water using it to wash her face. She didn't see the need to trek to the lake for a wash up when a simple whore's bath would do for the present. Besides she'd slept mostly in her armor and had little intentions of actually removing it in the case some daring counter attack happened in the grim early hours.

She heads over to one of the QM shuttles to see about adjusting her load out a bit stocking up on some more ammo, and derma foam for the tunnel fighting.  Passing the chow lines, she grabs a couple of plates loaded up with eggs, bacon and the like with some toast on the side for her and Zob, and heads over to where he was located, hopefully with two steaming cups of coffee.

Having come down from the Hermes at the end of the day relatively well rested Hawkeye found that she slept marginally okay. It wasn't even close to resembling 1 star accommodations but by invasion standards it was about as good as it got. She grabbed a cup of coffee and a plate of something marginally edible having sat on a warmer already about an hour longer than necessary before heading over towards Roy. Tunnel fighting meant casualties, a lot of casualties. "Hey Roy, I've got all my gear and am available to provide medical support where ever you prefer once y'all head down." She carried her sanri, and while adept with it she was someone who despite plenty of experience never truly looked comfortable with a fire arm.

    Shade sat  just a bit away from Roy and The  two Admirals, close enough to talk and listen, but  not too close.  he watched Hemsley and Shade  eating while  Hemsley  gave  Shade a  course on how to make 'biskets'.

 The Admiral Talked  with Roy, Now?  once  we get down there and enter the  blown doors..  I would say, we take the  first  one or  two rooms  we come to , for a beachhead  down there, and  we can  feed  troops  in as we  move... I'll let that  for you to Call? No one is every going to mistake me  for a drop ship trooper.. But  i'll be there    as we  move in those tunnels..

 McCloud , Az-El, LT Hirr  and  a few others listen  in..Hack waved  Jug over as well..MCloud  said, in a straight out, cut and dried  question...do we  hafta be bringin'  the  wee bastards oot? Canna  we just  cut 'em down where  we  find  'em?

 we could? the bottom line is  this.. I want as many as we  can execute. on camera, for The Black to see....but...if it comes down  to  us loosing a trooper or gunning them down in thier hole...we gun them down in the Hole...no one dies, just because i what the Fleet to make a media splash.

 there was a  sound of equipment  jostling  and a  rather  dusty  SGT appeared..Admiral Hack..Sir? SGT. Houla,   Captain  Ulthou's copliments?... The  3rd Nigerian Mountian divison has  found a  side  Tunnel 20 miles north of here.. its..wide , Admiral..Like a
 tunnel.. but , no road in or out.. we  think its   a  hanger Exit... we have three
 panzers  about  100 yards  in?  Troops  are  set  outside.. Mountaineers  are  crawlign up the slopes looking  for  Gun Impalcements and such, but there's alot of  smoke  comign from
 areas that were hammered.

 ..Thank You  SGT Houla, Please   Have some  Food and  a Cooffee or whatever you would like before you head back...

 Aye  Sir, Thank you sir... he took off his  hemet and pack, getting in the end of the line.

 ..Shadow?

 Aye Sir, Hermes  will Buzz the  Mountain to the  North... see what happens..

Sarah had ensured her people got plenty of rest and time to recover using the shuttles or their command post beachhead secure area. She woke up early, and began reviewing plans and positions, and chatting with SGM MacDoona. After some time, she calls over to the Delta fleet ground HQ, "Admiral Hack, this Commodore McKeon. What do you have in mind for the Burian troops?" Looking over map screens, and the like.

    Maygin handed   Admiral Hack  the OmionCOM..Admiral, Commadore  McKeon..

 Taking the  OminCOM, he Listened to  Sarah....... Sarah?.. if you have a shaft in your area,  Engineers  should have inplace, or nearly in place, a Jury rigged  sysetm for entering the shafts... Drop ship troopers  are going to be  attacking the inner  part of the  city... assault troopers should  do the tunnel runs, with drop ship troopers coming in to   add punch once you have made  Contact... handle your sector as you see  fit?... there's a good  chance that is  goign to become the 'Burian sector: when this is all done.

 Sam was with Sarah all day as they where with the Burian troops, it was the closet Sam had ever been to real combat, she was usually on a ship or working comms and computers for battles. It felt good to get down and kill some of the bastards who tried to kill their new children. Sam might have been inexperienced in combat, but she made up for it in will and drive to pay the Roussians back for everything they have done to Bura, the APF and the Admiral  and Captain Si.

 Sam sent the Comms to the Delta Fleet ground HQ. Sam walked with Sarah wearing light boarding armor, carrying a pulse rifle, she had her sidearm, and knife. Sam had her helmet off for now but she was at least dressed for combat. Sam waited for the response from Delta HQ and checked to make sure everything was good with their forces and their ships.

In reply to Melia Kristensen (msg # 171):

Zob was used to sleeping rough so despite the night he slept rather well, after a mid morning stretch he was greeted with breakfast, "Thank you ill have to bring you breakfast when we get back on the ship" he then cleared the area for her to sit down next to him.

Understood Admiral, I'll be moving in with the assault teams on the tunnel. We'll be relaying our information back through the CP here." Sarah replies addressing her staff on the surface.

"Mac, Robinson on me." She calls out. Addressing the map display.

Once they assembled, she pointed to the shaft marked on the map, "I assume you've already got a plan Mac?

"Aye, I've been doing some thinking on it an went down ta see the engineers work. I'm thinkin a team of one heavy, one demo, four commandos, myself and a medic can clear the first room and establish a beachhead. From the time we breach and exit the lift we have ta hold the beach head for at least two and a half minutes, maybe less if they can bring up the platform faster ifn it's empty. Next chalk, should have another four commandos, 1 heavy, a medic, demo, and a trooper." He paused looking at her, knowing she was likely to have input.

He wasn't wrong, "I want myself and Robinson on the second chalk going down. Drop the trooper, and a commando. Then plus up the following chalks with personnel as you see fit."

MacDoona nodded, "And any prisoners we take, ifn we have any?" he asked.

Sarah nodded, "If any survive see that their brought up to the surface. We can lump them in with whatever Hack has planned for his. I don't want or expect many to survive. Officers would be nice, or those that promise us information. Though I don't forsee, many of them being of enough use to save. Regardless we will be minimizing risk to our troops and not taking on excessive numbers of prisoners."

She looked at Sam, "Any thoughts LT?"

 Sam listened intently, she had been scared her first real time in combat. She literally fought through it and stayed by Sarah's side. Sam he vidboard handy as well, as she followed Sarah and Mac to the map. Sam listened to the plans and then said," Well that sounds great to me, once I get down i will try to find a place to hack in and see what I can find out or destroy Ma'am. As far as prisoners Ma'am I dont think we should take any of these bastards that tried to kill the kids alive, jst my thoughts ma'am."

Nikki grabbed water, and hot water for tea (giving a private thanks that Morris loved tea as well), then grabbed some oatmeal with some brown sugar and toast.  taking a bite as she moved down the line.  Taking it out after a bit she spoke to Harry "Still ain't a biscuit" she smiled a bit.  When Lizzy came in and spoke Nikki nodded "No problem" and gestured to a spot for them all to sit at quietly.

Roy nodded an acknowledgment to Hawkeye as Admiral Hack began discussing options.  When it was finally his turn to respond, he gave another nod.  "We can only get eight at a time down there, using that improvised lift system.  Depending on how much trouble we're running into, we're gonna need to run down at least two or three loads of troops to have any real prayer of expanding beyond a beachhead. Eight can take a room...might be able to hold it, even, but not knowing whether we're at the end of a hall, or even have only a single exit, it's impossible to expect those eight to do anything more than just hunker down and hold off a counter-attack."

He looked thoughtful for a moment.  "So, initial assault team, two loads of backup, then we can bring down some medical personnel and have them set up behind as we move out.  Better take Melia down in the first load..."  He glanced over at Hawkeye and grinned.  "Nothing personal, Doc, but in those kinds of quarters, we need someone proficient with something a little more selective than a Sanri blaster."  He chuckled a little, and added, "It's also just practicality...Medics are easier to replace than surgeons.  If things go smoothly, you come down with the third load...if not, then the fourth.  Hopefully, you get down there and there's nothing for you to do, but I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one."

Jug has her Gava up, readied, fed, armored and at the gestured staging area quickly.  She listened to what was wanted and needed.  "Gava behappy go in shafts and tunnels.  We use to them"

  Shadow Got Up, reached  for  Shade to give a   waggled of his head, and then, for the heck of it, did the same to jax..

  OK  6:10.. Time  I  double checked on   my pilots  and  got them ready for thier birds. Good Luck  down there  Guys... Roy, Admiral's...

 Roles Gave  Shadow a Fist Bump.  he went through the  area to  tell the pilots  to finish eating. and  get ready to take off.

 took a bout  5 Minutes  Until he reached   Nikki and   Harry... his voice  was stern..and maybe a bit  Cold.I'd Ask  you if you ate anyhting...but then i wouldn't believe you, so i would have to ask Nikki..that  means Nikki would have to  lie to me, which means  she wouldn't be flying either...

 his  teeth were on edge  as he looked at Harry......enough of the  'poor baby' crap... you're  either  a pilot..or you're not...best make up your mind..'cause a 6:50.. that Nice Med tech over there talking to Cora and Ellen, is gonna  stick you with a needle and  scan the blood  sample... and I will ask her if there is  enough fuel in your  blood to fly a Mantis.... if she says no.. then you'll be going home, and we'll keep your bird here for a  spare...

 ..I'm  Done... and because i'm done..lots  of people are going to be done... you swaggered in here with the 'street punk' thing going on? and  it didn't work.... you have to own what you have done... your BFs...your  drinking and   your leaving    pilots  in the furball to die... it  starts...NOW.... so?  you wanna  fly.. you eat, and we'll see what the Med tech  says  a 6:55...

  CPL Oiem !.. i want you by  Lynch's fighter at 6:50!...have  your  blood draw scanner ready!

 ..Already done  LC!

  Then he pointed to a QM clerk and   asked  for foe  a bottle of  water to be issued to each pilot to have in the cockpit with them..the clerk took off like  a larg was after him, The  the LC strode  away..

 Kat  was near by and she  said to  Nikki and Harry.....Flores  calls it  'Game Face '... it  is very nice to see him  like that..it means his  is ready to kill... we will need that today..

 Hack  seemed to start rushing to finish his meal..... The LC is  right... 7:00, everyone who has  a Shaft  and the  ' Delta Fleet Lifts" are  going to be  dropping  down.. we need to be  at the shafts to get the  first group down  after the door  blows...

 Ce-Va   stopped over  between  Roy  and Admiral hack.....i get to go down too..right?

 They heard   Shadow talkign sternly to harry, but  couldn't make out much, Until he called for a Med tech to be at  harry's fighter before  fighter Jump off.

 Machins   gave a low whistle.....he seems to  be getting  more angry by the second..

 Flores  shakes her  head  and  shrugs as she finished  the last of her  food. we had this problem before... guy fell aprat..nerves..whatever...he didn't step up when he was needed and it end up costing a few people thier lives.... right now?.. its happening  again..Shadow  takes it personally , when  he  sticks his neck out   and  it was for nothing...but? It will all be taken care of , one way or the other..

 Frans  nodded  I've been here since we  cast off from Earth... we weren't any where near friends... but he knew i'd   fly my ass off....I like to  think we're  friends now...and for some reason, that means alot to me..

 Eckles grinned at Billie,... they  used to say he was a lose cannon on dec?... he's more like a rolling  Plasma bomb... but you prove you have what it takes, and you  are Hermes... you'll never  have to look far for back up.

 Machins  rubbed his jaw.....you know , we used to have  encounter groups at the Academy...

There was giggling...Yeah? he  went to the Mast for ..ending the  groups  'viability'

 Mara  smiled...Yeah?  the shrink was ok though...got out of med tech in 2 weeks  i think?

 so? why wasn't he drummed out...

 ..a two week 'field class' to South Africa, .. just so happened    a group of high ranking   anti-Angels  had an accident......about a month Later... St  Petersburg... so..yeah?.. he was pretty much untouchable

 Machins looked around and asked,..and Hack made it all happen?

 the  other pilots loked at each other , but  an amused voice  said.....yes... hack made it all happen..

 machins   turned  around  and wanted to say somehting  but  no words came out.

 At ease, captain? Just realize this... I  had the best of what i needed on this  my boat for  the first two years we were out here... i lost a few of those..either to   transfers to areas of greater need..or flat out  death...instead of wondering 'why'....start performing like a Hermite... prove you're part of the   family..you don't have to love everyone on the boat..but you damn well better  fight beside them..because if you can't.. there are close to 100 other ships in the fleet you could end up on... I won't make the Call.. The LC  will make the Call  after   a talk with Captain Morris... so if you want to stay a pilot on the Hermes?..don't  cross either of them..good  luck out there... make sure you all come back...

 the  Admiral  started to walk  towards  the  City where the ' Hermes shaft ' is

Nikki understood the hardline approach Shadow was giving, whether it would help Harry or not...was up to Harry.  "Another reason for you to eat." she said calmly, as she ate her oatmeal.

Roy shrugged.  "Don't see why not.  But you're coming down with the doc.  I need shooters down there, not cameras 4ecording them.  And if I give you a spot, it's one less guy with a gun focused on killing 5he enemy 8nstead of reporting a story.  Once we've got a position secured, you can join in."

Henry made sure that Mila and the largs were all cared for, then fed himself. He also checked what Mila and he were needed for.

He then tried to raise Val on the comm, but she wasn't answering. Maybe she wasn't awake yet... but he wanted to tell her about Melissa and Zobaich, reiterate his love, and suggest that they too tie the knot. Just not in the middle of a battlefield. Although from what Maygin had said, she'd been busy finding her own battlefield.

Hell and damnation! Doing the right thing had got a whole lot harder. But each individual had to answer for their own actions.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:51, Thu 21 Jan 2021.

Billie patted Machins' shoulder as she finished her bite of food. "Instead of trying to figure out how to out-do Shadow...worry about what you can do and just focus on doing that. Actions speak louder than words." She offered him a patient smile.

  A Hermes SEC trooper led the  2  Heimdall  Pilots to  the area the fighters  were   parked.. the   ground crew the QM  provided  finishing up with  hard ammo belts  and  making sure  the power cells  were  fresh.

 ...LC!.. this  fellows, they  wish to talk to You...

  Shadow    stopped and Turned, he looked   at the helmets   and realized   thier were Heimdall Pilots...Thank you, Maria..carry on, you  folks will be moving out as well...

 already  done, LC... she  took off  on a jog to where the  SM and Admiral   were walking off towards.

 Shadow looked at the  two Pilots.....You came down  with that shuttle, that brought the Admiral and some of your troopers... Sorry to hear about  the  heimdall's hanger Dec, but at least the Eggplants  didn't get it....what can i do for you?

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

 CE-VA nodded   ,I can shoot  SM... i'm  just not a Marksman...but the main thing here is gettign some footage once  we   enter the tunnels.. I am goign to feed it back to beth for her to send to the  media Vessels... should be about a 10 minute delay?... that way the   Roussians   can't be sure where our people are, if they have some one watching

...........

 Machins  sighs...... should  stayed  on the Tyr at least  people   looked up to me there..

 Lona Lake  giggle.....or was it your Rank?... On The hermes.. rank only counts towards your  pay grade... everything esle?..  well..you heard the SM...

 She moved off with Brivet and Chatty Smith..Chatty living up to hger name  as she  expounded on the  way they would keep the skies  clear.

Nic was looking around mostly while being guided towards Shadow with Lou. He gave a quick salute, helmet tucked under his arm. "Was a rather spectacular display of fireworks, true. We...," he gestured to Lou, "... well at least I would like to transfer to here. Not sure about what Ensign Harris wishes." He eyed Lou with a grin before returning his attention to Shadow. "Would that be a possibility?"

In reply to Samantha Robertson (msg # 179):

"While I share your sentiment, I'm also not going to line up mass executions especially while still in a hot zone. Any that we get that don't end up dead can go to the surface and be tried and summarily executed under the guise of due process." Sarah explains. She looks at the clock, and the traffic coming across the boards that showed a glimpse of the rest of the troops. It's just after 0600 right now, based on the activity levels the Delta crew will be crossing their LD around or shortly after the 0700 mark. Mac let's be ready to send our first team at 0700 and we'll monitor the Delta fleet and try and match them." She says addressing the timing.

"WC Mayhew, I want your birds hot by 0645, and in the air moving no later than 0655. If we drop our first chalk at 7, I want air coverage already on station. Let's break here and get moving." Her orders were responded to with "Already Done" from both her officers.

Once the staff had departed she set to work adjusting the boards, syncing her personal vidboard that she'd carry. "Sam, ensure you have an omnicom with you that's rated for subsurface work. I don't want to lose contact with the fleet while we work in the tunnels."

In reply to Zobaich (msg # 177):

Melia grins, "breakfast in bed would be nice, but not necessary. Besides I can think of better ways to repay me." she says with a wink and a chuckle digging in to her meal. She looked about noting that all the experienced folk had slept in or had gotten up well and early enough to be in their kit in advance of the meal. There were a few newbies lounging with straps loosened and the like. She sighed. They'd learn quick enough when suddenly the enemy attacked the CP, or they took their first contact of the day and were running with a loose armor plate. Still to each their own, there wasn't guidance or policy on it so it mattered little to her. Besides experience was perhaps one of the best teachers out there.

In reply to planning (msg # 173):

Hawkeye nods in agreement with Roy's assessment, "I agree Melia is the better choice for the front team. I can shoot this cannon, but I'm not a front line fighter. More like an aide station surgeon on the front lines. I can wait until you are ready for me to come down." She says expressing her agreement further.

  Shadow looked them over  as the  subject was brought up, of transfer.well.. You guys aren't from Everest, so that gives  you alot more leeway...

 he pointed to a woman who  had long, jet balck  hair was  was fixing it into a braid to go under her  head gear.. a fellow , who was obviously a Earth, Native American   stood  next to her , holding her head gear and his..

 ..That Woman?.. LT  Raven... She  the WC  for the EMS  Harvester..she was the Mercs  ship that traveled  with us  since  we let Earth..Her CO is  that  Admiral walking  with Admiral Hack?.. They saved our ship, by  almost destroying  thiers....

 Raven an Red Water  are  waiting for The Harvester  to be  rebuilt, more or less..she is in the  forbiting Docks of Bura  right now.... You'll fly with  them,  Raven  will be the Flight leader.... Go out there and do good, , when we go home,  you take your fighters  to the Hermes and Land, and   we'll talk to  Captain Morris... if you get accepted  you'll get your Hermes Fin Numbers and  that will be  your new home. Any questons?

Roy gave Ce-Va a tolerant grin.  "My priority is establishing any sort of secure perimeter down there, not rushing out as fast as possible.  You should have plenty of time to get footage.  If you come down on the third load, you'll only miss about five minutes of action.  And, like I told the Doc, we have to use our resources carefully.  I mean, you may not be the only reporter on the Hermes...but you're the only one who goes looking for stories on her down time, and you're the only one down here.  So let us get secure down there, then you can come down and follow along when we start clearing the rest of the complex."

Harry would wait until Lizzy had left and was out of earshot before quietly saying "She's annoyingly chirpy for this time in the morning" to Nikki, as she gave the brat pans of food at the head of the queue an unenthusiastic glance. She didn't really feel like eating anything but figured she ought at least make the attempt if only to keep Nikki happy.

It wasn't long after that, that she would have to suffer yet another angry tirade and barrage of threats from Shadow that left her visibly deflated with what little "get up and go" she'd had now well and truly gone "great...and now he's going to take away the one thing I'm actually good at away from me...I may as well go and shoot myself now" Harry quietly said once he'd left, not really paying any attention to anything Flores and Kat said about him having a game face.

After collecting some scrambled eggs and a cup of tea, she would follow Nikki over to where Lizzy was sitting and start mechanically eating her breakfast, not really caring what it tasted like with her eating it simply because she'd been told to do so.

     about  20 minutes later,Pilots  sat on the wings, on the ground..younger ones   sat eagerly in their cockpits.

  Shadow waited  by  Harry's  aircraft with  a somewhat concerned  Olien .Ease up trooper... not every one can  go down that hole at the same time... they be  plenty of Egg Plants  to fry before this day is over...

 aye Sir... the Med tech said  as he   shifted his   Pulse rifle  and   took a glance at the troops ehaded to the  elevator  Shaft

  Kay  leaned on  the  wing of Harry's  fighter  waiting  to see if she had a wingman or not.

...........

  The Admiral Tied  Karl into a COM to the Armor...  I want scout tanks  moving around the cities and  aroudn the beachheads... i do not want any of the civies  we  have   collected, to be 'broken out"..they leave  the  containment area..i don't  who they are... they lose  any  of the compassion we have given them...

 I want the Panzers to  shell  1 mile or  deeper into the cities.. this  will give the Drop ship troopers one  mile  to reclaim... when you start getting COMs  from Drop ship officers to stop shelling...you stop.

 Captain Nilsson....  you job is to shell what shafts  we do not have  people  in.. that means , any shafts that are painted, more then one  mile  into the city.... your  job is to make sure the shafts  do not work, or  are  caved in....if they are connected  , we'll force them to our shafts.. if they are not  conncected..it will be one hellva  tomb.

 ..the assault  teams  will be  entering the  shafts  about an hour ahead of the   dropship troopers  advance  and the  shelling...keep you eyes open for enemy aircraft..that is all...

Nic nodded, giving Lou a glance briefly then turned his attention to the woman that was pointed out. The words caught his attention and he returned to Shadow and gave a quick salute. "Thank you sir. We can only hope we do well enough to get a new home," he added with a faint grin. "No questions, sir. We'll go harass Lt Raven now."

There was humor in his tone as he turned to leave, walking up to Lt. Raven and waiting till he had her attention. "Ma'am, Lt. Vasilaskos, call sign 'Spartan'. We've been assigned to your squadron to 'do good'."

 Meari finished up and got all her gear ready and stayed with Roy, she so wanted to go down with the first group she wanted to kill those bastards so bad, they made Skiffle cry she knows they did she can feel it in her bones and they will pay for that.

 Meari nodded to Ce-Va, but she did not smile Meari had her game face on and her eyes where dark grey, it was killing time. She stayed with Roy, she didnt say a word, she hold told him yesterday she wanted to go down and she hoped he would send her in the first two waves at least.

"You can do this Harry.  If he is grounding you it won't be for some 'just not eating', it would be because he thinks you might pass out from the atmospheric and g-forces on your body from not eating."  She finished her oatmeal and tea "And...no suicide talk.  We both have lost enough friends and comrades to cry over.  I'd not like to do so over you being gone.  Remember....one step, one thing at a time.  That will get you going forward"

  Raven Turned to them as she worked on her hair,Alright?... This   guy is Red Water..he  is assigned to The Hermes, but he's  my wing doe as long as i am here.. you  two flew together  so that will make it  a good pairing

 ...sorry to  hear about your ship, but  at least she's in one piece.. they are still putting The harvester  together  at Bura. when she was finished  she took her ehad  gear from  Red Water.

 Three things to make your life   simpler..and longer on The hermes..1... don't be a dick... Shadow  or Spencer will step  on you like a bug....2..when you're in the air,  you do your  job.. if your top cover..   you clear the skies... if your ground support, you save troopers.

 she loked around to see how near anyone was,..the third  thing?.. there is a Little guy  runnign around her, spends  his  Time  with  SEC and   goes on dark OPs..he sorta looks  like a human- robot half breed?... That's Shadow's  Kid?.. if you screw with  the kid..his name is Shade.... If Shade don't tear you Up, Shadow will.. and if Shadow doesn't, there is a long list of pilots and  SEC troopers that will...Just... be warned..

In reply to Melia Kristensen (msg # 192):

Zob chuckled a bit as he made short work of his breakfast, after which he went about fastening his armor as well as the rest of the gear before turning back to Melia, "Someday's i feel like a tank with this armor on... not that I'm complaining"

 Lizzy smiled at Harry as they ate, and then went with Harry towards their fighters when it was time. She sent a quick message to Izzy on text comms," Good morning my love heading out love you see you soon." Lizzy looked at Harry and said," Hey you will kick ass and you will come back ok Harry, come it is a beautfiul day to kill child killers now lets get too it ladies." She smiles at Harry and quietly says," You need to find your trueself Harry none of us can, only you. Now lets kick ass and come back home."

“Actions my friend...actions...you can gain more clout by actions not by petty words...now come on...let’s get ready...” Billie stood up and took care of her dishes before heading over to her fighter. Many seemed to not like Machins because of his more…frat boy type mentality but in all truths, Billie didn’t really care. It didn’t bother her but then again, she just approached it much like she did with everything else...indifference. He was a great wingman so she couldn’t really complain.

"You'd be the only one" Harry mumbled after being admonished for suggesting she may as well shoot herself "Besides the arsehole is siding with his pal and has it in for me...the sooner I can get the hell out of his flight the better" she continued in a slightly louder voice before forcing herself to eat another forkful of scrambled eggs.

Once she had finished eating the last of her breakfast, she would drop off the empty mess tin and cup at the servery before slowly heading towards the makeshift flight lines. Casting Lizzy a weary look in response to her relentlessly cheery optimism, with her wondering what Lizzy was on and whether she could get some, Harry would give a single bark of humourless laughter "Nobody wants to find her and she doesn't want to be found, and as for coming home...I don't think I have one of those anymore" she said in a subdued voice before veering off towards her fighter.

Finding Shadow waiting for her with a med tech by her fighter she would give the pair a single dark look before removing her gauntlet and bracer and awkwardly rolling up the left sleeve of her envirosuit "Let's get this over with"

In reply to Sarah McKeon (msg # 191):

 Sam nodded and replied," Yes Ma'am they all will pay for what they have done I know this Ma'am , this is for the children."  Sarah got all her times set up and Sam was sending messages to everyone who needed to know.

 Sam then replied, " Yes Ma'am I will make sure I have everything I need to keep us in contact with the fleet Ma'am." Once she had a moment Sam would make sure all her equipment, vidboard, omnicom, and her personnel Comms where are ready and able to work underground, if they where not she would get ones that where quickly.

  The Med tech got the  tube, shot the needle in and  sent the scanner.  When the scanner was  done... she  loked at it and Handed it to Shadow.

  .. Mount up....Listen to  Kat...try to be a pilot... he  Handed the  scanner back to the  med tech. The med  tech tried to say  anything, But Shadow was already yelling for people to mount up.

  He sheepishly looked  at Kat, harry and Nikki, Shrugged  and   jogged off to  catch up to the line, that included the Hermes  Largs

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

 Raven heard  Shadow   yelling,..let's go.. when he gets like this, you don't  want to be  on the  wrong   end of  his trench knife.

 Red Water Smiles,..White Shadow is a Hard man.. but  cuts  like  true  steel, there is no false metal in him...

 Harris looked at  Nick, he  shrugged and   jogged to his fighter.

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

 Machins  settled into his cockpit, he  pounded on the side of his aircraft to get  Billie's attention,.. this is like  hunting  for  stem Rats...... they  shake the  refuse  piles  and they'll run out... all we  gotta  do is exterminate them.... any time you see  some  Roussians in a  group...COM it out, shoot them up..and get back to  whatever  we are going to do,  he gave her a thumbs up   and pressed the  button to close and seal his cockpit.

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

     It was Just  about  7:00AM.. The Admiral Hit  the COMS.. Time to clean the sewers...  every one  up  and in!

 Roles talked  Hack out of  going  down in the first batch... But couldn't talk himn out of the 2nd batch.

 of the 15 known shafts in the  city...8 of them were inside the  line... explosions the  Fleet engineers  rigged  worked  as plans.. , not only Blowing the  doors, but  causing the  shield's  to fall , allowing  the   'Delta Lifts' to have a  smooth landing...

 the panzer  wheels    rolled  as the lift went  down....

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

Across the city  explosions  hammered  , 1 mile  way and further.. with  troops   on the  far side of the  city telling the guns  where  to drop shells,( and not over shoot!)

  Karl  could see  the shafts   being 'painted"  by snipers with Lazar trackers.. giving him good  areas to rain down on the  inner Shafts.


 .................

 Th Aircraft  begin  to rise  straight up... Raven followed  Shadow's B-flight.. while the  flights  took thier postions, Frans  taking  half the   flights into the top cover, and  Shadow leading the  react  on the outside  of the  city , only about 500  feet above the  ground...

 All ground support?..... we are widening out   search to the North... Athena's fighters   will  widen to the South  to Portect the  beachhead and the civie  prisoners...pay close  attention to that Mountain to the North.. there's a big tunnel there.. we have some  heavy tanks parked there..but ... something's going to come out of there...

In reply to Sarah McKeon (msg # 191):

Sarah watched set back from the edge of their shaft. MacDoona and the rest of his chalk stood already on the platform ready to drop at 0650. There was a bit of tension in the air, but everyone was ready.

At 0655 she heard the sound of LT Mayhew's flight taking to the air, followed by the rest of the Burian wing pushing for the skies, eager to establish their presence.

Then at 0700 came the Admiral's orders, Sarah didn't say anything instead she nodded to MacDoona who gave the signal and the Burian troops began their descent below the surface. It seemed on the surface everyone collectively held their breath as the makeshift elevator moved farther and farther down.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 194):

Melia glanced over at Shadow talking to the two pilots that had been left without a ship during the initial battle, "Looks like we're getting some talent from the stranded folk." She said nodding in the direction of Shadow, and the others.

I'm not complaining, either besides you look good as a tank. She says with a grin, "Come on it looks like it's almost time. I'm sure we're likely to be included in the first few groups going down." She says heading in the direction of the assembled team joining whatever chalk she was assigned.

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 194):

Hawkeye smiled at the reporter, "Come-on there'll be plenty of death for you to film by the time we get there. Not sure we've met formally, Hawkeye Price. I'm a surgeon on the Hermes. Have you ever seen the large intestine's before. Stay close and I'm sure you'll get a chance." She says starting to banter at the reporter in a distracting, charismatic, and fun manner intended to divert her from further pressing Roy.

"You'll do fine Harry, you will" Nikki then clapped her on the shoulder and walked with her to see the med tech  "You may be angry at Shadow and a few others right now.  Try and take it out on the real enemy...the Roussians who tried to kill innocent kids" she held a hand out to Harry and a soft rather crooked smile that was casually hers.  After shaking she'd head to her own bird and prep up for todays scheduled ass whooping.

In reply to JUMP OFF (msg # 207):

Nic shrugged a little. "We will see," he said in response than slipped the helmet over his head, straps dangling. "Let us know where in formation you wish us to be, ma'am." Then he tilted his head slight and grinned. "I TAN I EPI TAS(With it or on it)," he said. On the side of his helmet it bore a picture of a round circle in red with a yellow roman numeral 5 outlined in gold. The man turned and followed Harris to his own fighter, giving it a pat before he climbed aboard, checking the systems, only firing the bird up after checking to make sure everyone was clear.

"Roger that," Billie chuckled, taking the instructions and mulling them over in her mind as she climbed into her own bird. With some very minor adjustments, she closed her cockpit and prepared.

 Lizzy gave Harry a hug and said," Well I want too see the real Harry , now lets go kick some ass." Lizzy then grabbed her helmet and headed for her bird.

 She did her normal pre-flight walkaround , she then got into her cockpit and fired up her fighter and then took off with E-Flight. She flew up followed Fitz her Flight leader and then waited for Nikki to join her wing. " Fitz we doing ground or top cover?"

   TheFighters  went  into the  air Flying over the City. the top  cover   peeling up like an upside down  water fall...

  Shadow said  into his COMs....as  we make   our  way out,  strafe  any builing  that has more then two floors...use Pulse   weapons only, save the hard  Ammo for now...

 So saying he put his nose   down , firing  at  a pair of   ravaged   buildings.. The rest of B-  Flight  Followed  , along  with Raven and her,.mix and match flight

  Fitz  came on the COMs...LC  there's  some troops  running...

 if you can pick them off, do it, otherwise that 88s  will get them... we're Just passing through..The Mountain is where we will be  doing our work today.

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

  Up with teh Top Cover, Frans  could see other   ship's flights   circling over their  cities, it would be the same   all over the world... Roussa  was  paying  the Piper. for the  Dance they did for the Empire.

 Sam stays by Sarah's side after she has everything set, and she has a small tool kit with her ass well. She wasnt scared she knew Sarah wouldnt put her in a situation she couldnt handle, so Sam handled it and got ready go and kept her coms at the ready and monitoring.

 Sam sends Beth a private coded Comm text message.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:17, Fri 22 Jan 2021.

Roy led the group up to the shaft.  "Okay, first team!  Me, Zob, Melia, Meari, Supe, Tucker, Hodden, and Shade!" he barked out.  "Master Chief, you lead the second team, take who you want.  Third team is the Admiral's...should be mostly combat troops, plus Ce-Va...if the situation is secure enough, Hawkeye will come down with third team, if not then with fourth team.  Let's get this done!"  He stepped onto the improvised lift, giving the engineers the high sign when his team was assembled and ready to descend.

Jug and the gava squad stood at the ready.  Anyone on Hermes they would fight beside and for.

Karl was awake and ready well before the Admiral's call.  "Already done, Admiral" he replied, taking the Morningstar into a wide circle over the city.

"Okay, Ed...you heard the Admiral.  As they highlight shaft openings for us, I want HE dropped into each...adjust angle and trajectory as necessary to drop shells down into each shaft...maximum possible penetration, let's do what we can to avoid simple surface detonations."

As snipers began highlighting shaft entrances, the Morningstar's howitzer spat high-explosive rounds, the plane rocking left or right to either fire rounds close to straight down or to loft them into the air so they could arch up and drop into a vertical fall to the ground, the AI calculating firing angles and relative plane position to achieve penetrating blasts that were detonating well below the surface, if not dropping clear to the bottom of the shafts that were targeted.

 Meari smiled and made sure she was good to go she nodded at Roy, took her position on the lift and got ready to head down.

With Shadow storming off as soon as she was cleared to fly, Harry would give the med tech a look that hinted rather heavily that he needed to find somewhere else to be before turning her attention back to her friends. Giving Nikki an unconvinced look she would shake her friends hand before finding herself being enveloped in one of Lizzy’s rather pleasant hugs ”Hate to break it to you, but I don’t think she exists anymore” she quietly replied before breaking off the hug and heading for her fighter.

After performing a few quick pre-flight checks, Harry would ascend with the rest of B flight and follow them towards the mountains, firing a couple of quick pulse bursts into the taller buildings she passed, though considering most looked ready to fall down she wasn’t expecting anyone to actually be inside any of them. It would be a foolish person indeed to think hiding on the upper floors of a derelict building this close to enemy lines was a good idea.

Nic eased his fighter into formation behind Raven and found a spot. "Affirmative," he answered to the strafing run. A few quick pulses later a string of two story or taller buildings collapsed behind him after he sent the beams into them. His gaze continued to move, finding any buildings but keeping an eye on the sky in case enemy wings made an appearance. He was entirely focused on what he was being ordered to do.

      when the first Lift reached the bottom, Roy and the    teams  spread out as the  walked   through the  Jagged  doors, smoke   was waist high, slowly drifting towards the shaft  as if it sought to escape.

  two Roussians  and  a knocked about   Heavy pulse gun  lay about  5 yards  from the  doors, they  bodies  shredded by the Roussians steel. Voice   were heard coming from  around  a bend that  turned to the  north after  traveling  west for  about 100 yards.. two doors  could be seen  one  50 yards  down on the left..another  75  yards  down on the right.  the lift was already on the way up.

  weapons were up,  Supe   pushed  Hoke to the side of  the   passage..don't walk down the middle!

 Shade Bleeped  and whirled...Roy's COM lit up.

  with Frans  and Half the Hermes   wing  flying top  Cover over  the  Hermes area of Operation. Shadow's group Flew towards the Moutnain.

  Flores got on the COMs,doesn't look like we  pounded that mountain too much?

 no?  don't know why?  must not be any big towns   or  such there..its been hit a  few times.... the  Tankers  have  the   Tunnel thing  staked out on the other side... everyone look.. keep an eye out  from troops and armor... lots of trees down there. but the roads  are open here and there.

 Foster  came on the COMs,..got aircraft comign from the far east?.... Lots of them, hard to tell what they are..

 well...that was  quick?  Everyone. get ready.. stay on course  for the Mountain. keep an eye on the   aircraft..

 Switching over to ALL COMS,Attention  ESN/APF  ... LC  Shadow,  ESN 351 Hermes... we are about  200 miles  south of the Mountain that sits  about the Capotol  city... we have a large  formation of  aircraft..unknown right now, coming from the east... everyone check your perimeters ..this might be thier 'last gasp' attack in the air...DO NOT..recognize surrender lights..if they want to surrender. tell them....once... to POD out.. if they don't , shoot them down...if Shuttles  have  surrender lights   Tell them  to head east and  sit  down int eh first clearing they see...you tell them  ONCE.... then you torch them..i don't care who they say they have on board...our people come before thier people..Shadow out...

Roy keyed his comm, leaving it active.  "Go ahead" he muttered quietly, trying to keep his voice low enough to not advertise their position to those down the hall.

With his weapon up and ready to fire, he eased forward, left shoulder almost brushing the tunnel wall as he moved, nearly silently.

Nikki got her mantis airborne and formed up on Fitzsimmons and the rest of E flight.  "Well...that didn't take long" noting the large mass of fighters incoming and the Shadows comm.  "Well we know coming from under is a weak spot and the ground debris can help keep us hidden a bit and harder to spot.  So..Fire...eat your post toasties this morning?" she gave a snorted laugh.

 Meari got silent as well and got against the wall as well she had her heavy pulse rifle in her hands, with her shotgun nearby if hard ammo worked better. She stayed quiet and moved along the wall, keeping all her senses peeled and ready. Meari was ready to kill but she was stupid, to rush down she would most likely die, she had to keep her emotions in check and go into kill mode. Meari seemed all business like, very cold and calculated as she followed Roy and the others carefully down the tunnel.

 Lizzy heard the Comms and saw the fighters coming, she stayed with Fitz and Nikki, " No it did not Nikki." Lizzy listened to Nikki, smiled then responded," Oh yes Fury, lets stay low and come up under them they wont know what hit them." As they go Lizzy will use her heavy pulse to take out any large standing buildings, armor, or troops she sees as they head for the mountain.

 Well passed the city, below  there  could be seen plumes of   mud,grass or  dust  as   Stuart  scout  tanks   patrolled  arounf the Cities edge... Blips   would appear in the  trees  of fields  where   ESN/APF  troops were setting up, expecting to meet opposition from either the Mountains. or fleeing  troops from the city.

  Shadow   watched  the screens  , of to the  east the  tiny dots  that were the  enemy aircraft winked in and out through the haze, smoke  and clouds.

 Right, Folks?... we have about  3 minutes until we  reach the Mountain... we have no troops on the Mountain... you see armor or  troops.. shoot them...

  he sighed,,..the aircraft  are coming towards us is a Mix..shuttles  and fighters... i will give them another Two Minutes  before I hail them..make sure your guns are ready... if you have to POD out , you head South of the Mountain, or west of the Mountain...

At the announcement, Nic lifted his head and looked towards the east. "Rodger LC, Spartan has a visual." He didn't do anything yet but confirm and continued to level buildings with his pulse laser. Nic was waiting for Raven to turn their squadron towards the incoming ships, grip tightening on the stick in anticipation of the fight even as he tugged the straps to make sure he was belted in securely. This was something he was looking forwards to. Once the squadron turned towards the incoming fighters he would warn them to POD out or die.

 Overall....

  Shadow  group  was closing In on the Mountain. a few of the  fighters send  Pulse   round  into trees of Gullies where they saw Movement..Shadow  started  taking his   group Higher to escape  any AA guns.

....

 Frans and her groups  circled over the City, they  watched the east as well, in case  they Roussians  tried to sllip aircraft through, like the last time.

....

 In the tunnels, the  Send  group unleads   ans entered, but stopped inside  the   door  as they saw  the  front of the 1st rgoup waiting.

the  lift was comign  down with the third  group.

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

 Over  all COMs  Col Cummings   sent out a directive.....All aircraft  above all Cities... please take your craft to  1500 feet.... the  panzer 88s will begin to  fire  in  30 seconds....

in  5......4......3.....2.....1...TalleyHo!

........

 Panzers fired rocking  back on thier   treads, screaming shells  chugging  across the   sky to Land  Near, where Karl  was pounding  shafts. And Assault  shuttle from  Delta #2   The Hydra    hovers  20000 feet in the air  over   the area  of The Hermes Beachhead, directing    the  **s  for   distance  and  direction,,and when  they found the range, firing for effect.

 with  shells  pounding the inner   city a mile away of More... the roar of   troopers  echoed of the  blasted landscape.. heavy and medium armored  troopers charged  forward   with  weapons  ready to greet any Roussians  who tried to stop them

 Some  troopers fell further to the  west... the  observation shuttle  Contacted  Karl to point out the Building  that was , more or less, the bottom part of a house with  the  roof  falled on in a 'tent -like ' fashion.. a pair  of  Veavy Pulse guns were taking  a toll...

In reply to Nicole Rutledge (msg # 211):

Melia found a place on the lift taking a knee. Until it was time to descend. Once at the bottom she moved forward with the group scanning carefully, as she scrolled the tunnel finding a side using the wall for some cover.

---

Roy's comm lights up and he hears Orria's voice softly in response to his acknowledgment "Verians behind left side door."

"We go down first, we be smaller,  Let you bring the bigger guns to party" she  smiled, showing her dark toothed grin.  Shed the first down on the fifth hole.  weapons and lights at the ready.

Maintaining her position within the formation Harry would head towards the mountains as instructed. If there were hostile ground forces within the trees below she didn't see any, not that she was actually looking for any, with her instead focussing on the approaching aircraft as she quietly awaited the signal to move in for the kill and do what she was best at. Not that the Roussian air force had proven to be much of a challenge so far, but she would take shooting them down over ground attack any day.

Nikki Flew above the requested 1500 ft. ceiling.  She began humming her tune that Lizzy knew of being she was in the zone to kick ass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKFpaCMRWgU

     As they Neared the peak of the Mountain, Shadow said,..trun sharp to the east   break Into flights, No one  fires  until i give the words... Flores.. trail  me by a few..

 He    shot foreward from the  group with Flores dutifully behind aby about  50 yards.

 the Flights   spread out..  Flight leaders  makign sure  everyone knew who thier wing was...

 Ahoy, Roussian  aircaft.... This is  LC Shadow of the   ESN 351 Hermes... you  will  all   dive   down  and   land in the clearing   1 mile to the  south west of this   Mountain... you will  disembark your  aircraft  and lay on the  ground Until  APF  troops  collect you.... any  who do not  follow these orders  will be shot  down.

 Captain  Goli of the Roussian home defesne foghter Corps... we are escorting   children to surrender to the APF  as you have collected many thus  far...

 Indeed.. start making your diving  turns  as i have instructed... the  kids will be safe,  and you'll be  some of the few  Roussian pilots still alive at the end of the day...

 they  Kept coming forward...All calm left Shadow's  voice...he opened  ALL COMs... We are  about to engage  a group of fighters  and shuttles  ehaded towards the Capitol, they say they are escorting children to the  Holding areas.... Thus far they have refused  my orders to land in  a  clearing , 1 mile to the north east of the city...

  Coming through the All COMs, Admiral Hennings spoke...Roussian  Aiorcraft... The LC has  authoriztion  to eliminte  any enemy aircraft.. if you have children in the shuttles, Land them at the  mark given you... any  deaths  will be on your heads..if   you do not  follow the  instuctions..... LC Shadow?.. you are free to make the Call..Admiral hennings ..out..

 Alright Captain Egg Plant.. I have  no real cause to  blow up shuttles  with kids in.... but i will your race and the  Empire , has far too long , hide behind kids and civies... I might be Pulling   the Trigger....but it will be you who killed them..

 the Aircraft  were eating up  Miles.. two shuttles  broke  for the   ground towards the  Clearigng Shadow  had   mentioned...there was no other notices, or  COM...Shadow   said  , simply.... Right then....

 heading   for  the   two lead  planes   and the Shuttle  in-between them, he pushed his thrusters  Hard, and went into  The Shadow screw..

 all that could be heard from Roussian leader was..NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

 The   shuttled   two pulse bursts from the   wings  as Shadow spun in, but the  37 MMs   went   right into the nose...

 The explosions was Massive.. enough  to crippled   the two Flight leaders..But Flores  made sure one of them  didn't  suffer too long.

 Raven said...The Shuttles   are bombs..again!

 Kat   called into the COMs...Attack!....

  the  massive  cloud  of Roussian aircraft.   moved forward to attack.. the shuttles   began to  split  up..

 Frans  COMed in...we're on the way..

 Takign a page out of Shadow's Book.  more figthers   rose  from the  ground  some  tearing through the netting  that covered them...


meanwhile the two  shuttles  were landing in the clearing...

 ......................

  the   fighters   Comign in were a but differant... they seemed   a bit  heavier.. with only two pulse  guns on the wing tips.  bit had   4 hard ammo   weapons  2  on each side of the nose of the fighters..

  as the   fought, Sahdow  and flores   went in and out of the  formation, using  Pulse to hit them.. But saving 37 MM for kills shots..

 they    broke out the back  , banked  around to come inn from behind the   cloud  even as it  grew into a full blown furball

  can't count!!!.. must be anothe r  50 or 70  fighters coming  up from the ground!

 Red Water   said to Harris  and  Nick...Welcome...to the tip of the spear!

  the  hard ammo  started to hit the  ESN fighters... even as  Roussins  Blew Up    or  spiraled down in flames..  every where they Looked   aircraft  was   zipping around, muzzle flashes  winking at them  as they tried to   jockey for a  good postions.. then   the  rounds started  to  come up from under them.

Nic had followed the rest of the squadron as they reached the ordered height and turned towards the incomming shuttles. He grinned, blue eyes flashing as Shadow sent a few to their graves. To see the carpet of fighers rising up had that grin turn fierce. "Molon Labe! Come and get them."

He banked, jerking the stick to the right and jinking past some phaser fire and the heavy ammo, pulling the trigger in 5 second spurts then following with a single hard round to make a point, conserving as he flew through. Pulling the stick back to the left, he tilted his right wing up as he targeted one of the ships still rising, strafing from nose to tail with both pulse and hard ammo.

And once he was out of the clusterfuck, he pulled the stick back, pushed the nose of his fighter up and hit the burners, flipping his ship upside down as he pulled out of the turn and rolling level and angling down, carpeting the enemy with phaser fire. "Tip of the spear indeed. More than enough for everyone. Take your pick."

she commed Shadow and with a smirk on her lips "Now can we have fun smacking these pedo-eggplants?"

  Burian  sector..

   The Bruians   walked through the  blown doors  as well, thier  tunnel went  straight for  some 200 yards  to the   west, and bent   sharp to the North.. there  were  4 doors, 2 on each side of the  of the tunnels..roughty 40 yards   apart.

 As  Howes    flight   dipped  down to meet the upcoming  fighters.. Mara  gets on the COMs...

 alright..My turn!...

 her music  coms  through the   backround COMs..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq27qg4Ot2M

   the music  played  as the   ships clashed  and turned, each trying to either  get one another'  Tail,  and maybe  knock one of  someone esle's  Tail.

 Brivet came on the COMs... Losky!.. Bank Left,  the  swing back  and  get to one on me!!

 KaT Never   questioned, she banked  and Brivet Lit up  an enemy fighter and   zipper   right past   Kat.. when the  fighter   that was chasing  Brivet past Kat,,  Kat swung back and Knocked it out of the air..

 as   it hapens far  too often, one of the heavy  Roussian  fighters  came very close to Harry, the   wing  tip  cuttign   across harry's   cowling  senting  a  bit of the  cover  twisting  off  and  exposing the    lefy sid eof her   cannons... Gia  was  on that figthers   tail ,  firing  after  it    as they  Both  dove   down to the mountain side.

 to Harry's relief, the  weapon still worked  as  she   shattered    a  fighte  chasing Waggles  as he    did a Loop to  try to get away.

 three Clou7ds  of  Metal joined together  above the Moutnain , Flashing of light  that meant then end  for some one.. others  fell in twisting  fire  and smoke...perhaps  a chance to save thier Lives


 Nic   and Harris   torched     a fighter  each to be sure..  the massive furball

 Lizzy headed with Fitz and Nikki and went into the incoming fighters, she would target and fire at as many as she can, but also keep Nikki and Fitz safe and look for other pilots who needed any assistance.  " Lets kick these Empire scum's asses Fury, time for them to burn."

Nic was in his element now, hyper focused on the dogfight around him. Holding the trigger down he strafed another fighter with his phasers and to add insult to injury he sent a hard round into it. A fireball of steel and flames had him banking around it, narrowly missing one of his own as he jinked the ship sideways between them and the explosion. "One down," he said, voice thickened with his native accent.

Pulling back, he came around to start firing on another of the Roussian fighters, this time sending a few well placed hard rounds into it as he lead the target. That fighter started to break apart, loosing altitude quickly. He barely glanced back as it too disintegrated into a fiery ball of twisted metal. "Hey LC? Are you sure these are fighters? They seem to be throw themselves upon my spear."

There was so many targets he just shifted his fighter into another of their fighter's paths like a game of chicken. Then he pulled up before it could fire and looped up and around, targeting another fighter and piercing the ship's outer shell with phaser and hard ammo. It too followed its brethren into a fireball which Nic had no time to count as he turned towards yet another target. Business first, celebration later. Nic never flew in a straight line, that was asking to get shot.

Nikki lined up and fired on a Roussian fighter with her pulse guns "Well...they ain't payin' us to garden" she retorted back to Lizzy.  she kept an eye on her flight leader and wingmates.

Roy paused a moment at the comm message, then nodded, and turned to grin darkly at Shade.  "You open the door, I'll toss in a grenade, and then we'll take care of anyone left standing after that."  His voice was just barely a whisper, relying on the comms inside their helmets to convey the words, to make sure the Verians wouldn't hear the plan.  He realized he should really have included Larry in this first group...Larry, by himself, would be about as effective in a room against four Verians as any grenade, without the collateral damage.  He fished out a grenade, cradling it in his hand, and looked down at Shade, giving a slow nod to indicate he was ready...

Jug began descending into the hole.  Reaching bottom she stepped off the hoist  and crouching looked about.

A miserable Henry stuck close to Admiral Hack, Mila at his side.

 Lizzy flew with Nikki and they stayed tight, Lizzy opened up with her heavy pulse at first then unloaded her 37mm rounds into the first fighter, it exploded in a beautiful explosion. Lizzy smiled as another Empire scum died, she stayed with Nikki and she hit another target and it exploded as Lizzy veered away and then saw a fighter getting a bead on Nikki. Lizzy turned hard and got the bastard in her sights and fired all guns, she hit the Roussian fighter it didnt explode but it was flying well she would let Nikki or someone else take it out Nikki and Fitz where ok her job there was done.

 Lizzy then made sure Nikki was ok and looked for the next child killers to take out. Lizzy was flying aggressive but not too aggressive, enough to kill the bad guys but keep an eye on other pilots , her flight mates and Nikki. " How you doing over there Fury."

With the Roussian aircraft refusing to surrender and the dogfight starting in earnest, Harry would accelerate into combat the moment the signal was given. Twisting and turning at breakneck speeds, she would fire off quick bursts whenever she got an opening, forgoing her pulse weapons entirely in favour of her 37mm cannon whose rounds tore through the enemy's armour like a hot knife through butter.

This was what she was made to do. Her aircraft gracefully dancing in amongst the growing furball like it was some kind of deadly ballet with her as the prima ballerina. All of her problems; her doubts, worries and fears, no longer existed here just the elegant simplicity of the dogfight where the colour of the aircraft in front of her dictated whether it lived or died.

She was vaguely aware of the fact that Kat was no longer with her; the Russian pilot having broken formation after Brivet had shouted something to her, not that Harry was overly concerned. Truth be told she was more concerned about the gaping hole in the side of her Mantis and the exposed workings of her gun with her shouting a long and very angry tirade of profanities down her comms when it had happened. Her guns however were still working, which was a relief, with her promptly proving the point by firing a burst into the underbelly of a passing Roussian before side slipping away in search of another target.

  Shade gives  roy a  thumbs up.  His SMG   held  with his right hnad on the   trigger, his left   hand , grabs the    latch, like he saw Shadow  do a few times. slowly  truning..but..it  won't move.

 Shade  tries to 'push it up"..but it won't  Move.. his  eyes get Red  and He  nods to   Roy. holding up all three of his fingers... first on goes   down,,, the  the second  as he  grans the  Latch again, the he Nods   as  he rips the     Latch from the   door   and Kicks  it   in  Dropping to his   Knees as Roy throws the grenade.

 The resulting  explosions  caused   some . metallic -like screams  as the Little guy opened up on the wounded that were   studden  or    trying to get  up on legs that were no longer there... three  quick  Bursts,, Shade  went into the  room.. he shot one  round into the  head a  a female verian who had an Omincom  on her back.

 he held up a thumbs up....

   Tucker    gave a low whistle and pointed to the other Door.

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

 the  LArgs  were now   sitting  at the mouth of the tore  doors..thumping thier tails wildly. Hawkes    made sure his Grenade Launcher  was  ready as he  said to Herny.....you ok  Doc?..i know you don't like shoting folks too much, but..hey?  this  has gotta be done?

 The lift stayed  down for now with the   felrites and Gava  on.. LT Hirr said in the COMs.. we are being here  now, with the Little ones.. we are ready!

  the    furball was in full bloom now. A war  with in a war, Aircraft from Both  sides  went  down some  pods   ejected.. one unlucky  Roussian PODed out, only   to  be shot up  by one of his comrades  as they  tried to hit   an ESN  fighter., the pod  and pilot  exploded.

 Things were not  all rosy for the Hermes group..Gia  came on the COMs... I am Going  down!!!

 Shadow  could be heard to swear....POD  out to the   south east!.. remember your gear..and you damn well better have a T-Rope!

 Gia  had  toreched the    fighter she  chased,  but AA guns    took her  portside wing,     se   tried to    cut the power  and  just use  maneuver thrusters  to 'aim' her POD out.. the  ejection came   as she went southward..

 ..BETH...get a  CAM   on where Gia  goes  down..let me know where..

 Already done LC!

 Howe had  dropped lower , his weapons Opening up on the AA guns that now revealed themselves..he  took  Out  two  of them before he was  Hit...LC!..  My tiails been hit... I...i have to   head back...

 GO!.....  stay to the  south and East, Land at the beach head if you are able...

 everyone!  watch if you go low, or  outside the furball...AA guns are active  on the Mountain side..  even as he talked  , he and Flores    split  , dove and came under     a pair of shuttles., the   explosions, again. more Violent then they should be...

LC  Shadow to all WCs.... if you are facing enemy aircraft..shoot  down the  shuttles... they are packed with  explosives.....if you happen to hit one that has people in?.. that's too damn bad for them...our people come first!

 Meari covered Shade as he went into the room after the grenade went off, she nodded when Shade gave a thumbs up, she turned and aimed her shotgun at the door and nodded she was ready for someone to open the door and see who was inside if anyone.

 Lizzy would target shuttles and AA guns, she would go after fighters as well, but right now no shuttle could get to their troops, and those AA guns where a bitch, but now they knew where they where. " Nikki keep the fighters off me going in too hit AA guns and shuttles, lets kick ass Fire and Fury..."

On the first pass through the pulse rounds chewed up her targets. She watched others disappear in orange-red and grey colors, raining sparks and debris on the way down.  The one she had focused on was no different.  He was a fascinating fireworks display.  She flew up a bit to avoid part of his cowling assembly that flew at her.  Banking slightly she hit his wing.  His wing was hit along with his tail fin.  Spinning out the forces started tearing it apart as it was on fire, the pilot couldn't pod out.  A few seconds later his aircraft exploded.  As she leveled off she gave Lizzy a wing waggle of an okay.  She put on thrusters and moved forward.  Then to her surprise a Roussian flew directly into her path.  Immediately she opened up.  He was moving a tad fast she missed most of him, but did get his tail and nearly sheared it off.  Instead of climbing his direction moved down, leaking fuel and hydraulic fluids.  In a few moments he began his corkscrew spin to impact on Roussian soil, then lit up like a roman candle.  She came over Lizzy to form a scissor maneuver as Lizzy opened up on a few ground targets "Thinking...I need to get a sonic cannon for atmosphere battles.  Ha!"

Henry gave a wan smile.

"I'm OK, thank you. Worried about Val, just don't want to turn this into a revenge trip. It's a military action, that's all."

He racked the shotgun ready.

Billie did her best to stay near Machins, her bird twisting and dodging when needed while calling out positions to Machins. Relying on his calls and using her own intuition, Billie pressed the trigger to her pulse weapon when an enemy was in her crosshairs, hoping to bring down as many as she could. Two had exploded in midair, giving Billie that sense of satisfaction while a third went down in an out of control spiral. "You doing okay Machins?"

  Hawkes  smiled  and  Gave  Henry a whack on the back.....the  whole war is revenge , Doc?.... we're  goign after the bad   guys  for  treating   people bad... they  are coming after us  because  we killed a bunch of them....it won't  end   until Hel is cracked like a dropped  watermelon...but these guys here?... those kids?... what Happened to Captain Si...ain't no one  who  has served  Under the Admiral  isn't a bit vengeful right now!

 Rubbing Mila's head, Hawkes adds,..  I herd one of the    Offcier saay this once.... it was  not  'do unto other as you would have them do until you".... its..' do unto others...first!"

Mila rubbed against the hand and wagged her tail. She felt Her Human's sadness and hoped above hope that he would be happy again soon.

  In the  air,  Kat was  swearing a  stream of threats  and such.....where is  my damned   wing man!....  No wonder people die out here!

  The feltites  were    zipping in and out of the  cloud,  lookign  like   humming bird around  an Hydrangea.

 One of ther Felrites Vanished  in a flash of AA  fire.

....

 Gia's   Pod  hit the  trees  and  Bounced   a few hundred yards  towards  the  south until  it came to a Stop.

  frans.. take over, I'm going  down to check on Gia.... as he  banked  away, the 37 MM opened up, Blowing the  tail section off  a Roussians  figther.. Flores  Brloke off  to  circle  and  keep  company away.

Hermes Fighters/// this is Captain Missk of thr Nivarian  drop troopers..  we are  circling the  clerign where the two  shuttles  came  down... we are  2 miles from you  Pilot's POD..there are... i repeat..there  are   enemy  troops with those   Briss  with them.. Our Largs  are Hunting them now...

 As show    flicked  let  and right, up and down  to keep the AAs  from getting a track on him.. he saw   Gia   get out...she  opened the compartment   gettign her backpack , weapon and T-rope out...

 ..Shadow..i do not  think  I can do this....2 miles....

 ..sure you can.. that's what the tunnel runs are for... heck, you only have to run 2 miles..less? really, since  troopers  are comign for you.... Look,, I'm Droppign  down. I'll hover, you use that  T-rope on my skids  and I get you to the troopers.

   even as he spoke He looked up and saw an enemy fighter Vanish in fire  while Steele and His   will zipped   by , both waggled thier  wings  and went back to the  Furball.
..........

  Machins watched his  screens,I'm doing good...you're doing good, hard to stay with a wingman when you aren't  sure... selfish folks just fly off and hope they can laugh about it  on the red  dec...now..lets kills some more... if  we  dive  down, and you see AA guns, try to torch them

With the fighter behind her turning into a ball of flame as a result of the cannon rounds she’d stitched across its belly, Harry had then side slipped behind a second with her guns quickly turning it into a shower of burning confetti. It was as she rolled hard to port to avoid a friendly fighter coming the opposite direction with her using the momentum to dive upon a shuttle that was trying to escape the carnage that Kat would finally decide to speak up and question where she was ”Where am I!? Where the fuck are you! You fucked off without saying anything! How the fuck am I supposed to cover you if you won’t tell me what you’re doing!” Harry shouted back as she poured cannon fire into the roof of the shuttle causing it to violently explode with her pulling up just in the nick of time.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:36, Sat 23 Jan 2021.

  Kat  snapped back..I am the Lead!..you are supposed to  follow me!...where did you learn to fly!.. the venom in the   russians  voice was  easy to here.

  Frans  snapped,enough!.. Lynch,  fine a wing man..any wing man if its too  damn hard for you  to  follow your lead.... Kat... settle  down, this is how we lose  people, when thier  wings go missing!

 Shadow said over the COMs,..for fuck's sake!, we'll have a talk about this when  we're  done.. right  now, knock down bad  guys  and try to take out  some of those guns.

 Gia  was  runnign through the towards the Trees, Tha's when Shadow saw them.. the  long  , tube  shaped  cat-things.. he  took a steeper   dive. firing   behind the  cats, chew up a  few, and  at least One Handler,  the LC flattened out  as he tried to  stay about the  trees  and fins  Gia

One more went down with a second one going up in a ball of flame. “Roger that Machins,” Billie responded, making it a point to keep up with him while trying to be aware of everything around them.

 Lizzy was flying her ass off, banking, swerving, dodging her way through the furball. Lizzy stayed with Nikki, Lizzy saw two fighters with two shuttles, she sent to Nikki," Nikki lets get these child killers, take the shuttle and fighter to the left I got the ones on the right." Lizzy then timed her attack, she knew the shuttle was most likely full of explosives. So she came from below with Nikki, came up the fighter blew it out of the sky in a fireball, Lizzy then locked in on the shuttle, she fired then banked hard expecting a larger explosion from the shuttle. She then checked on how Nikki did.

Nikki kept humming as she targeted another pair.  One 'protecting' a shuttle... or so he thought and forgot about protecting himself, the other the shuttle.  The shuttle a rather easy target she turned into a ball of debris very quickly.  Flying through a bit of the smokey cloud that was left of him she banked left and came from high upon another one.  He was a bit smarter as he weaved a bit trying to imitate Fire and Furys scissors maneuver.  She got off several shots at him riddling his craft.  She didn't seem to want to go down easy.  Nikki charged him pulling so close and at the critical juncture pulled up having her after burners intending to cook him in the cockpit.  Instead of banking he moved down hoping to avoid her.  down and into the tree line.  A smile on Nikkis lips as she hoped he begin hitting the trees as she climbed, banking a bit to make sure he'd go down and not come back up.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Sat 23 Jan 2021.

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot I'm supposed to read your fucking mind! Where I learned to fly they taught me how to use a fucking comms unit!" Harry snapped back, her reply punctuated by the sound of her cannons bringing down yet another Roussian fighter. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately depending on your point of view, Frans stepped in before anything else could be said by either of them. It was as she was quietly ignoring the instruction to find another wing, though if asked she would simply say she couldn't find one in the heat of battle, that Harry would use her thrusters to flip her fighter end over end just as an enemy fighter was coming towards her, with it over shooting her position just as her guns came to bear upon it's canopy. Pumping a single shot into the metaglass she would smile as she saw the splash of dark blood upon the glass before powering off to find another target.

  As  Nick    swept in on  the next target, his weapons stitching across the   machine, drawing  dark smoke , which  meant  the  aircraft could catch fire  soon... the   light  smoke would mean feeds  to the power  cells  which  would mean the  aircraft could blow up, form a  ruptured power  cell.

  Frans's voice  came over the  COMs ..NIC!..New guy!  you're trailing  white Vapor.. get your  aircraft back to the beach ehad, or   POD out!..look at your  screens.. see white the power Cell  light is!

   Shadow  was   skimming the  tree tops small arms  fire was  tinging off the metal.. he could see ESN  Blue   comign through the trees  but they were  about a mile away from   Gia  who did a reasonable Job at runnign through the  trees.

 ..Gia!.... to  your  right  is a  small clearing I   have hover  down...
 get your T-rope.. and   Loop my  skids.. I  only have to fly you about a Mile to get to the
 incoming troopers.

  Gai Just waved.. and veered  slightly .. two Larg largs, about  twice the sizer of Larry    crashed through the tress to   the north of Gia... they met a pack of  Snake  Cats  and began to tear into each other, completely forgetting   about  and  2 legged  enemies.

 the fighter  came  down   Gia    used the  T-rope   , pulling herself  up and  warpping  her legs around the  skid.....Go LC!

  Shadow swerved  and    rose,  to get some taller trees   between him and the North, before  seeing the   shuttles of the troopers......Captain Miisk.  I am droppign my pilot off, pl3ease get her back to the hermes beach head, in case we get another fighter.also,, north west of yoru heading , two of your Stud  Largs are  fighting a pack of
 those  snake cats... i killed a few, but  never saw these until they attacked the largs,,

 ..Thank You   LC Shadow.. we  will be ready..your  Pilot  will be sent back shortly..

 the    fighter   lowered   down, Gia    slipped off and to the ground, waving her T-Rope  as  Shadow  Banked  away to rejoin the fight..Flores  a few   hundred feet in the air, peppering the roussians that were  headed towards the Niavrian troopers

Hearing Kat on the comms and Lynch's come back had him swearing into the comms himself. "Yinete tis poutanas, mou eprikse ta arhidia," he growled. He looked around for Lynch's fighter while firing on another fighter protecting one of the shuttles. "Lynch, you should be named Trelós." That distraction cost him even as he peppered the fighter trailing dark smoke, he was hit by another.

"This is Spartan, I've been hit." He checked his display. "Aye aye, Spartan is returning. Power cells have been compromised." And he swore up a storm at having to leave the fight. Pulling back on the stick, he angled up above the fight after burning his thrusters for a few seconds and then headed back, hoping the power lasted till he hit the beachhead and hoped he didn't physically hit it too. And hoping one of the other fighters didn't strafe him.

(All hell had broken loose, you make my head hurt[loose interpretation but correct meaning]/crazy)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:26, Sun 24 Jan 2021.

In reply to Melia Kristensen (msg # 232):

Sarah and Sam joined the Burian team with the second chalk, they'd secured the hallway with a heavy on one end facing the doors. Anyone that came out was going to come out into an absolutely deadly funnel of fire. Once the third and fourth team arrived and the lift was rising for a 5th team did MacDoona break out the teams.

Ma'am, you and the LT with me. We'll run a heavy, a medic, a demo, and two commandos with us." He said pointing to assembled personnel  dividing them up creating 4 teams each with 2 commando, a medic, a heavy trooper, a demo tech, a senior NCO or officer as squad leader, and two troopers. The 5th group to return would reinforce groups as needed. The teams pressed up to each door moving quickly and quietly. Stacking up 4 per side, the demo tech placing their biscuits in strategic places around the door with enough C10 to blow the doors into whatever was behind them. He looked at Sarah who nodded her assent and then with everyone in place he held up 4 fingers counting down as everyone turned towards the walls to avoid being hit with debris.

The demotech followed his cadence down to one and all four set off their C10 as his fist closed and 4 simultaneous explosions ripped the doors off blowing fragments into whatever lay behind as, the trooper pushed into the breach in a classic but still effected CQB clearing maneuver.

In reply to Melia Kristensen (msg # 232):

Melia, turned and sat back carbine at the ready as Shade and Roy cleared the first room, Once the firing stopped she moved up to check both for injuries.

In reply to Melia Kristensen (msg # 232):

Hawkeye joined the assembling personnel with the fourth group. "Hey boss I can set up an aide station here if we can get a handful of guardians down here, along with one of the medic lockers from the shuttles, to keep us covered incase anyone breaks through and to help move wounded back to here. Or I can go with a team your pick." She calls out on the comms so both Hack and Roy can hear and weigh in on what their perceived medical needs are.

  The  troops at the  head are waiting o the  2nd  door... they can feel the  impact of the 88 hitting the  ground over a mile away..

 Cora  asked   softly,..why didn't they use   artillery?..i mean..sheesh..

 ..they got hammered  for  almost a day... if they had  any  artillery or  armor, they  had to protect them..now?   they have to try to get them back in the battle  with the air full of our  people an' ground covered with our people...ain't a good  time ta be an eggplant

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

 The Burains..once the doors where blown, the troopers  went in, there were brief  bursts... until  , four times the  word  'clear' was heard.

  Shadow     banked   Hard. , he  pinged   Flores  and she   peeled away from the trees, leaving  some of the  forest   on fire  from pulse weapons hitting   Roussians  and their  elongated cats.

 ..Lynch, Gods be damned... you best  fight your way through that mess and  find Kat... this is  the third  time you broke  off... your sister  did  that  too many times, and look where she ended up! She  dog chow now. the voice  hissed into ALL COMs with as much anger  as   any one had heard him direct at a Hermes  Pilot.

 doesn't matter   how many  enemies  you kill, if you kill  your  crewmates by not being there!

 then he had to stop  as he and Flores   jetted   straight up into the  furball.. Shadow checked his  screens...

 Vasilakos...  if you can get to the beach head.. you'll be fine.. those lights get dark ornage.,.well..remember the  rule for POD outs..

 then he swore again.....alright Lynch..lets see if you can do somehting right... Howe  and Vasilakos are heading to the beach head.. there  are two shuttles that slipped  past...go..by yourself.. see if you can take them out...

 Flores  torched  a  Fighter  that was   coming in on Lona Lake.... He-La  and her Green Angels chased a  pair of  shuttles to the   ground , tearing them up about  half a mile away from teh city, lighting up  the  plain  on that side of the  forest.

"Aye, aye sir. She's handling like a drunken whore after having a train run on her," Nic responded with, keeping an eye on the display for the power supply. Such colorful language. With Howe returning to, hopefully he could make it back into safe territory before things went critical.

"Get Larry and Freddie up here...take that other room whenever you're ready.  Let's keep moving, we don't want everyone bottle-necked here."  He gave Shade a clap on the shoulder and jerked his head to indicate it was time to resume 5he advance.  They'd worry about what was in the room after 5hey cleared the complex.

"Do what you need to do, Doc...we're still in good shape but it's only a matter of time before we have casualties that need help.  We don't need a full hospital, but I'll leave it to your discretion to set up what you think you'll need."

 Sam fought back her fear with her strong willpower, and followed Sarah and stayed with Mac and listened to everything he said. Sam held the pulse rifle and covered and did what she was told to do. She was waiting to find something she might be able to hack into and decode.

She would receive a few glancing shots from the enemy as she continued to dance and weave through the high speed maelstrom of fighters but would otherwise fail to meet any real resistance from the enemy which considering she was currently having a raging argument with multiple members of the Hermes fighter wing, one of whom possibly insulting her in a language she didn't understand, was a small miracle in itself. With Shadow threatening to have words with her again, Harry would grind her teeth in frustration before replying in a frosty voice "No, she's dead because I killed her...I killed my own gods be damned sister in order to save a fucking rook!" a rook you fucking assigned me to look after because you don't want to lose any of your fucking cheerleaders! she silently added along with the thought that if Kat couldn't survive in a furball on her own after all this time then she didn't deserve to.

Fighting back the urge to turn off her comms entirely she would receive an order to take out a pair of shuttles that had slipped the net with Harry coldly saying "Already done" as she turned off her engines. The Mantis would plummet like a stone straight past the Roussians swirling around her with her waiting until she'd cleared the furball before turning them back on and aggressively accelerating after the shuttles. Figuring that they were no doubt packed full of explosives once again she would quickly plot an attack vector that would bring her into the side of the portside shuttle. Gently squeezing the trigger she would send a burst of cannon fire into it's side with the aim of killing two birds with one stone...well...explosion.

There was a fairly violent jolt to Nikkis aircraft.  Every light and alarm seemed to make noise at once.  It about sent Nikki into sensory overload.  "I'm hit!" She fought to get some control and figure out the extent of the damage.  From the Mantis' behavior her tail was severely shot up "Dammit!  Limited control here!."  She began a bizarre, but safe turn to make to a safe area.  She could see the leaking fluids leaving a vapor trail.  "Okay Fire....Got a problem, Girl.  Leaking and leaving a trail.  My controls are sluggish at best.  Good news probably gonna have Roussian fighters and be easy pickings.  If I have to gonna pod out and hump it to safety"  She made sure the things she needed were with her including the gun cam.  She for an area of safety to the side of the beachhead they had,, then turn in just in case.  She'd baby the mantis as far as she could.

In reply to Roy Spencer (msg # 273):

Zob took a quick glance around the area before getting the call to continue on he kept the 60cal ready, in his hands it may as well be a standard issue service rifle, "Right behind you"

 Larry and Freddie   slipped throught eh  troops like scale  covered water, to    get up  By Roy.

 Shade  took the dead Verian's OminCOM and Looked for  someone to take it, since he had  his back  pack  that had   Mags  and  med tech kid and such in.

 with in seconds  the  other  door was  Kicked   in, as  some  rifle  fired   was  quick...Hodden came back out of the  room...Two Egg Plants... looks like they were  watchign the troops  on a  VID CAM , doesn't matter  any more...

 Lyri called for his  stick to  form Up... Disna  and   Puskie   send two largs  with each stick

  as they began to Move   forwards  the Cats  and Gava  came out.. LT Hirr COMed.....we wish to be 'killing people  soon..yes?

 The Admiral  waited    with Ce-va  and the  third  stick.. He'd Let Roy handle  the  calls..Magin was  feeding him reports of the   air battle  and progress  on the  troops.

 Lizzy was going low and hitting and blowing up two AA guns she spotted, she also sent Beth the locations of a few more she saw. Then she heard Nikki's Call, she was about to respond, when Lizzy got hit hard by a AA gun, it took one of her wings.

 Lizzy calmed down and relaxed, this was one thing her father drilled into her when shit happens relax and calmly do what you where trained to do, you panic you die. Lizzy then said over ALL COMMS: " Mayday this is Lizzy AA gun got my wing, trying to head South East where Gia went towards and find friendlies. Will pod out before I crash." Lizzy does everything she can too keep her Mantis in the air and get as close to friendlies, she will keep her Comms open as she waits for any possible extra orders before she has to pod out and watch her new Mantis crash.

 Pilotsd  were takign hits   now... the enemy was thinning out but   The hermes  Wing  was  getting battered...

   Frans COMed.....Shadow!....

  I heard!...I SEE!  he    kicked his rudder  and  veered towards  the  spiraled  aircraft that was Lizzy's...

 Kat... Form up B  flight  and  Keep knocking down.. aircraft..Flores... Help me out..Frans.. don't let these bastard get past us... there aren't that Many left!


 Haerris  was  circling Over ehad  as Nic   limped his way back.... One   Roussian   fired on the  Guy..whether he was worried  about watching  Nick, of if he didn't notcie the Aircarft come out of the   smoke , fire  and explosions   with  the Mountain seemingly beginning to catch fire... But    Harris's  Mantis   blew apart....


 Captain  Miisk here... I have send  troopers   towards  the  falling  fighters, I see you coming in.. we will try to protect the Pilot  if they make it out... the Mountain has
 many troops  and   Briss  coming out of it...

 Thank you Missk!...  switching over to all COMs...Captain  Nilsson?...  I don't know what you are carring...but  we need heavy   fire on the foot  of the Mountain.. to at elast Mid way up?...start  about 1/2 mile  at the base and  work your way  up..they hid thier AA Guns, and  troops  are comign out with those  Cat things..


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

 Harry could see Howe  and  Nic  as they   were tryign to get back to the beach head..COMs of other figthers  getting into  trouble...she even got to see one of the rare sights.  that  only a few pilots have seen through the ages of war. An 88mm  shell was  about  100 yards in front of her..it looked. for all the world, like it just stopped, the nose  went  down  and  it continued it   path to destruction.

 Her   target came into sight... she  fired.. the shuttle was Indeed loaded with  HE it  blew apart like some massive  Frag...  and had the desired  effect  of  Blowing in the  side of its  companion   shuttle... The One the  Blew up  fell to the city in burning , smoking fragment... the other   Shuttle    Flipped  over, and Dozens of Little bodies    fell out  as the  shuttle   aguered into the   city, blowing  up  a few dozen Roussian troopers  were were  firing  upo ( hopelessly) at the Mantis.

 Lizzy was concentrating too hard to try and aim her spiraling Mantis out of the combat zone as much as she could and when she was in the right direction to safely pod out towards friendlies she would pod out of her Mantis and hang on for dear life as her pod headed for it's landing. Lizzy would send her coordinates to the good guys as she pods out.

 Lizzy then hit all Comms and said," Lizzy here podding out hope I do this right or it will hurt like hell, will look for our troops when I land Lizzy out." Lizzy waited for the hard crash that was coming.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as she watched the shell flying towards her with her thinking that this is it, her ticket is about to be punched only for shell to drop off at the last second and fall beneath her ”shitty death that was close!” Harry shouted in very obvious relief with her taking a moment to steady her nerves before squeezing the trigger.

Just as she hoped it would, the shuttle exploded in a dazzling display of pyrotechnics that tore open the other shuttle in the process. What she hadn’t expected was to see the tumbling bodies. Whether they were soldiers or refugees she didn’t know but it was far too late to do anything about it now, besides they were the ones stupid enough to fly that close to a bomb ship.

With the Hermes wing taking a beating Harry would turn her fighter around, speaking to Howe as she went ”Do you boys need me to cover you or have you got this?” she asked more than happy to cover them if they needed it, but if not she would head back into the furball and continue the dance of death.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:31, Sun 24 Jan 2021.

Billie let out a sigh of relief, her skills keeping her alive along with not being hit though that might have been more luck if anything. Scanning the area, Billie swore under her breath. "Machins! Three fighters baring down on Flores!" She called out as she turned, heading towards the fighters. Without hesitation, Billie squeezed the trigger, firing off a barrage of pulse rounds at the lead enemy fighter.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Sun 24 Jan 2021.

  Howe COMed   Harry.....not sure about the New Guy?..  But i should be OK.. I'm trying not to use too much power, so the Cell doesn't crack.. Go back out and Kill more  eggplants...

,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 Machins COMed...ON IT!  he  dove  down as well, his weapons   firing, as  much to distract  as it was to hit...  he severed  the starboard  wing of the starboard   fighter..   It  Flipped over in its    dive  and  would go down  out of   control, this   close to the trees,,, well...

   Billie  Torched  the  Port side    fighter,  turning the nose into a fireball at swept  back over the  aircraft, making it look like  a comet.

  Flores, turned  and   dove as a hard  round  hit  her  fuselage  just behind the pilot,,,  Shadow flattened out   as he saw   Lizzy's  Pod  Bounce  through  the trees...

 Not  far  away, Art Moore was   Rolling  in a relative direction to the City

 Shadow  swore  as he saw the  aircraft going down...

"We got your back Flores!" Billie said as she manuevered her bird to take out the third fighter.

Nic cursed in fluent Greek as he pulled up to hit the previous height mark of 1500 feet. He was trying to nurse his Mantis home and keeping a eye on how much power he throttled vs the yellow warning lights. Above he saw another Mantis get hit and his hand gripped tighter on the stick. "Command two fighters heading towards the beachead, both damaged. Unsure if the powercell was hit on the other. Mine's damaged." He looked for the tell-tail white smoke from the other fighter briefly before checking his own instrument panel to keep on eye on how the cell was doing. He didn't want to redline it and have it go critical.

Nikki heard Lizzys call out.  Immediately she banked to see her podding out "On my way Fire!  We'll try a t-rope and if I can catch you I get you out.  If not I'll pod close by"  She said on all comm so others knew her plan.  It was going to take a bit with a wonky craft, but she did not want to leave her wing alone in the battle either way.  She'd also free up good fighters to knock out the Roussian air support.

 Meari gave cover when they went into the other room, she smiled when the Largs came up, she felt a lot safer with them around. Meari would move and shadow Roy as they moved forward. She was ready for anything and was in full combat mode.

”Roger that Howe, see you boys on the other side” she called back to them figuring that the new boy would speak up if he wanted her to cover his trip home. Turning her fighter back towards the furball Harry would accelerate back into combat, looking to keep the enemy away from Nikki and Lizzy, both of whom had sustained serious damage in the battle.

 Lizzy braced herself as she hit the ground hard, bounced a few times then came to a stop. Lizzy felt that, it knocked her around, she was sore as hell, Lizzy knew she was most likely in enemy territory she had to move.  Lizzy grabbed her gun disc, and sent on all Comms," I landed, I am ok Nikki if you cant get here safely head to the beachhead. Going to head to the closet allied forces. Ok leaving pod now Lizzy out."

 Lizzy popped the hatch and then climbed out of her pod with her sidearm drawn looking for any bad guys to shoot. She will quickly get to her compartment, get her backpack ( 3 water bottles, rations, with med kit, duraplast and durafoam.), her Thompson, and extra drum, and her gun cam which she puts into the backpack. She also grabbed her T-rope in case Nikki made it. Lizzy then checked her position and looked for where she had to go and what was around her.

"On it, LC!"  Karl rolled the Morningstar off the diminishing supply of highlighted shafts, swinging into a circle that kept the mountain at its center, setting his distance kilometers above and outside the fighter engagement.  He'd have to rely on hope that none of his shells connected with friendly fighters on their way to the target...it would be an incredible shot, and one in a million if he was actually trying to hit anything in the air...but the fact that he was shooting past them to the ground made him concerned that it would somehow become more likely.

"Ed, I need IR and radar overlays...I'm sure they're concealing their entrances.  See if you can pick up variations in density off the mountainside, or body heat signatures, highlight anything that comes up."  Almost instantaneously, the targeting array shifted, the visual of the mountainside being superimposed with red clusters moving down 5he mountain, along with yellow cross-hatched markers indicating possible egress points.

"Gotcha..."  He immediately started setting targets, shells raining down on the ground troops descending the mountain.  The shot pattern was intended to first stop, and then disorient the formations, with the first shell dropping in the front ranks, followed by one at the back of the formation and one in the center..."Frag rounds, aerial burst for the troops...save the HE rounds for the entrances..."

The plane's AI, as an extra measure, adjusting the trajectory of the shells so all three detonated almost simultaneously, and across the mountainside, clusters of explosions rained hot metal fragments in a deadly hail throughout the Roussian formations.