After destroying it's target, Viper resumed the Talon's course and climbed to an higher attitude to before circling back to the contested air space above the Archius crew as they fought tooth and nail on the ground.
The Talon cruised high above the aerial dogfights raging below, Viper taking an spit moment to scan over the battlefield and plan out it's next move.
Viper checked the status of the Archius's crewmen, giving an brief look at vitals before closing it's Implant's HUD and closing it's eyes to breath as it drove the Talon back into attitude as it had finished decided it's next move.
The Talon begun flying past the war torn skies and burning debris of both parties into interception course with one of the towering mechanical bipeds halting the SDF's advancing armored fist.
Viper pushed it's reflexes in dogging Crimson interceptors and AA fire coming the surface below as it charged at full speed with the synthetic monster in sights.
The fighter didn't hold anything back as it fired both it's compliment of missiles and lasers towards it's central mass in attempt to prematurely deploy any counter measures and/or to deplete it's immediate shield systems before firing an shot off from the Talon's rail gun into it's lower torso.
---
After the first hour of these unforgiving and all out attacks onto the Crimson Son defenders, the Argos operatives simply retreated to select coke points throughout the complexes to guard their spires, lacing and booby trapping multiple corridors of their positions before abandoning them, every emplacement was trapped as well along with both the corpses and wounded of the enemy and themselves to delay the sudden activation and advance of the Crimson's elite to take back lost ground as the Argos forces begun to falter to the superior elite.
Meanwhile, the star front was much more successful in the Argos's favor but despite the obvious superiority, the Olympian fleet continued to hold back it's full power as their carriers and cruisers gathered for another planetary strike.
[QUOTE=Viper123_SWE;48922428]
Lion then spotted the crimson soldier which had tossed back his grenade, who was currently occupied with a SDF soldier. Lion took aim and counted to five. He fired away, aiming for the Syncs head.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[8]: While the Sync was distracted fighting a SDF, he aimed carefully at the back of the head and released a salvo straight at the back. The man plummeted down to the ground, as he struggled to get up.
[QUOTE=kilerabv;48922509]"You and you, on my mark you target and shoot it's legs out! We're bringing that motherfucker down!" He reloaded the RPG and took aim. "Ready. Fire!"[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[7]: A couple of Boome Marines steadied their large launchers of destruction towards the big mech at the center, pushing the tide backwards. All of them pulled the triggers, launching rockets of enormous size straight at the mech's legs. The War Mechanian reacted but was too late, the multiple of rockets clashed to its legs, the mech supported it weight with the unarmed claws down, stunned.
[QUOTE=Damian0358;48922686]Dwan gave Lion some more cover.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[6]: Dwan gave Lion some cover and suppressed fired, successfully giving cover!
[QUOTE=Sega Saturn;48925011]At the moment Lion turned around to fire at the Sync, Virin launched a mortar at the regular enemy soldiers.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[2]: The Crimson Soldiers were too busy firing at their closest targets afoot, the mortar fired at a steep angle, coming at its way from afar. One of the busy soldiers was too distracted enough to notice the caliber coming at their position. The sane soldier took his chances and ran to a safe zone before the explosion engulfed his comrade. He shook his head and traced back where the projectile came from.
He looked through his scope and switched to single shot, out came a bullet that pierced Virin's shoulder.
[QUOTE=Deathgrunt;48925370]The fighter didn't hold anything back as it fired both it's compliment of missiles and lasers towards it's central mass in attempt to prematurely deploy any counter measures and/or to deplete it's immediate shield systems before firing an shot off from the Talon's rail gun into it's lower torso.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[7]: By the vast amount of missile and lasers pointed to its intended area, the explosions clashed with the structure of the mech while it was stunned. The mech toppled, leaving a massive scorched earth as the single red eye faded away. The two remaining tanks transformed into mechs, still determined to push on the fight.
(kiler has given me control over Varn for the period of his 3-day ban, though I'm just going to ask him what he wants me to post; like the text below.)
Varn and the Boome’s cheered as the mechanical monstrosity of the Sun collapsed and turned into a pile of scrap. Their cheering suddenly stopped as the other two tanks transformed. “Get to cover!” They quickly ran behind an APC to use as cover.
“What now fearless leader?” One of the marines asked Varn with sarcastic tone. Varn didn’t look at him to answer “Now we take down two robots instead of one. I’m willing to bet Mercury’s left nut that the heads are weak spots. We shoot them and they’ll fall.” He peeked behind cover. “How are we on ammo?” The other marine looked through what they still had. “Enough for 2 or maybe 3 more shots each.”
Pippin followed iska's lead, firing at some shots at crimson son soldiers
Iska ducked down behind the APC and scuttled over to Varn.
"We have a plan, yes?" Iska questioned, her annoyed expression linger from earlier. "If not you better make plan". Iska hustled a grenade from one of the boome marines and aimed at an entrenchment that the sons had hastily dug.
Pippin fired over the son's cover to keep them from escaping the grenade. "Shit, I don't know, I suppose it's be too easy to tapp into their comms?"
"Rha-!" Virin buried his head into the crook of his elbow as he toppled over sideways. The mortar shrapnel from before had only lightly wounded his right shoulder thanks to the protective gear he had been wearing, but the retaliatory bullet he had just received had entered through a gap in the armor and buried itself in the bone of his upper left arm. This wasn't a wound he could shrug off.
Yanim had seen the shooter scramble away before the mortar fell, but after he had ducked behind an obstruction she couldn't be sure of his position. By the time she had found him again he had already gotten his shot off on Virin and was prepared to fire again, but at that moment, a salvo of missiles struck the wounded mech and destroyed it. The sheer force of the explosion was enough to throw off the two enemy combatants before anyone could pull a trigger. Seizing on the moment, Yanim quickly got to her feet and grabbed Virin by the back of his jacket, hauling him onto his feet before shoving him in the direction of safety.
The enemy shooter struck Yanim in the hip; the bullet deflected upward off of her armor and struck her in the jaw, leaving a bloody but thankfully shallow gash as the bullet tumbled into the near-distance. As the two crouched behind cover, Yanim untied her scarf from herself and helped Virin to tie it around his badly-damaged shoulder, all the while cursing a storm and wincing at her own lesser wound. "[I can't move it,]" Virin said. "[What are we going to do?]"
"[Can you see the mech?]" Yanim asked as she undid the connections in Virin's body armor.
"[Uh... yeah, I see two, actually.]" He answered. Yanim did a double take, looking over her shoulder.
"Shnka. [Okay... I'm going to talk to Gataska and we'll see what we can do. Lay down and keep the rangefinder pointed at one of those mechs.]"
---
"Gat! How many left?" Neasha demanded urgently.
"Tse! <One!>" she answered, having assumed the question and answered without the need for a translation. Through her gun controls, she watched the enemy fighter avoid her cone of fire, but at last a friendly fighter craft picked up on the hostile and the two more nimble craft rolled away to do battle one-on-one. "Heyeh! No- no left!" she exclaimed.
"Great," Neasha said without a hint of relief. "Crew, we're coming around again. What's going on down there?"
Yanim's voice came through the comm: "Send the next bomb. [Gat, medical bay, now! Virin is wounded.]"
Something came over Gataska as she released the gun controls and hustled out of the bridge. She nearly knocked Rask off his feet when they passed each other in the main tunnel, the latter preparing a more suitable bomb for release. Inside the lab, Gataska answered. "[How wounded?]"
"[Watch the uplink-]"
"Yanim, are you ready?" Rask interrupted as he prepared to push the cargo jack.
"I told you to do it, dammit!" Yanim spat.
"No, don't do it," Neasha cut in, "we aren't over the drop zone yet!"
"Fine, tell me when, Serek!"
"[How wounded?]" Gataska calmly repeated. A video feed appeared onscreen, transmitted from the optical package in Yanim's tail. Yanim used her finger to pull the scarf aside, revealing the damage. Gataska's eyes narrowed as she unflinchingly studied it. "[Alright, calm down and listen,]" she said. "[Virin, your humerus is broken and you're bleeding, but your life isn't in danger. You can keep fighting so long as you keep the wound covered and use a splint. Understand?]"
"[What if we don't have one?]" he replied.
Gataska thought carefully for a moment, tapping her temple with the tips of her fingers. "[Yanim, that blade on your tail... it can get hotter than, say, 160 degrees, correct?]"
"[We're not going to cauterize the wound, are we?]" Yanim asked suddenly.
"[No, that's stupid. Listen-]"
"The bomb's away!" Rask warned.
---
Down on the ground, Yanim did as she was told, retrieving the unused mortar ammunition from Rask's backpack. The mortars were stowed in a large polymer tube the same diameter as the launch tube. After dumping them out into the bag, she used the blade of her tail to cut through the pipe and shorten it before sliding the improvised splint up Virin's arm. It was slightly too big. With an engineer's mindset, Yanim knew what she would need to do to make it fit.
"[This is going to hurt badly,]" Gataska's voice crackled. "[Are you sure you want to keep fighting?]" As Virin heard the medic's question, he couldn't help but confront the bloody scene unfolding all around and realize what he would be leaving Yanim behind to face alone. Even if he didn't know her well, she had just taken a bullet dragging him to safety- she was his comrade nonetheless. He answered to the affirmative.
As the bomb plummeted from high altitude toward the target, Yanim put her hand on the side of the splint and put her weight on it while using the blunt side of the knife to heat the tube to its melting point until it became soft and malleable. Virin cried out in paid and jerked hard as the splint clamped down on his arm, causing Yanim to restrain his right arm with her other hand, and keep the rangefinder centered on the target.
Together, they would attempt to guide the bomb to its target once more.
Lion saw the sync fall and wasted no time, he made a quick sprint towards the soldier and jumped at him. As he took off, he folded out his wristmounted plasma blades.
He aimed for the soldier and attempted to put him down for good.
Varn looked at Iska. His helmet was hiding a slightly anoyed look of his own. "They say that no plan survives contact with the enemy, right? Our plan is to fuck up their plan. Give us cover." Varn turned to the marines. “Alright, on the count of three. One. Two. Three!” The marines jumped out of cover and fired their rockets at the mechs.
---
Dwan continued to be watchful, as he took aim at any Crimson soldier nearby, giving Lion some more cover.
[QUOTE=Damian0358;48926182]Dwan continued to be watchful, as he took aim at any Crimson soldier nearby, giving Lion some more cover.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll Critical Failure[highlight][1][/highlight]: Eventually soldiers hiding behind cover noticed the dwarf, giving cover to his ally. He was the most vulnerable for targeting. A squad formed up while the robot was dealing with a Sync, taking pot shots while Dwan defended himself. He used his howitzer and switched to machine gun. He successfully killed two he spotted a grenade thrown, he pulled out until a bullet clashed with the grenade, exploding in front, he fell and struggled to get up. He felt the shockwave sting his insides, finally looking at his surroundings and attempted to grab one of his guns. But, he looked down seeing a hand on the ground. His hand blown off, a messy scenery. He looked above to see a lone soldier pointing a gun at him. "This is for my comrades!" He declared until someone shot him through the head sideways. He fell down and plummeted.
Dwan was being dragged by several mercs to safety, behind a APC was three people. "Alright alright, let me check him out, hand's blown up."
"Can you stitch it up?!"
"Well in No Man's Land being shot by enemies I don't think that's possible, all I can do is try to ARGH just let me work!"
"Bruta, is that soldier coming back?!"
"From the grave? No. He's dead or she I dunno." Bruta observed Dwan. All three tended to working on saving this guy from bleeding out. "Ject let Elli work, we'll defend this position and make sure these guys aren't gonna ambush us got it?"
"Right."
[QUOTE=liberalllama;48926370]Pippin followed iska's lead, firing at some shots at crimson son soldiers[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[8]: Pippin using his suit was able to lend an advantage. He saw several soldiers gunning for her while he pulled out a few tricks of his own. He shot all of them as they instantly died.
[QUOTE=Radley;48926454]Iska ducked down behind the APC and scuttled over to Varn.
"We have a plan, yes?" Iska questioned, her annoyed expression linger from earlier. "If not you better make plan". Iska hustled a grenade from one of the boome marines and aimed at an entrenchment that the sons had hastily dug.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[5]: Iska unpinned the grenade from her cache as several entrenchments were dug to defend the area from HarkArk. She threw it far away from her spot as the grenade exploded, yet the battle still continued. She gritted her teeth in frustration.
[QUOTE=Sega Saturn;48927896]Together, they would attempt to guide the bomb to its target once more.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[4]: Another bomb was dispatched to the duo of mechs turning the tide, only this time one of the mechs noticed an incoming projectile. He immediately raised its laser arm and fired, its beam piercing through the bomb without even getting close.
[QUOTE=Viper123_SWE;48929409]Lion saw the sync fall and wasted no time, he made a quick sprint towards the soldier and jumped at him. As he took off, he folded out his wristmounted plasma blades.
He aimed for the soldier and attempted to put him down for good.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[4]: The Sync barely had the time to find out one of the enemies was running towards him. He saw Lion jumped out and used all of his Synergy to repel the man 10 feet away. He was exhausted to say the least and not even being the most experienced in the Conduit's gift. He collapsed down to the floor, passing out.
[QUOTE=Damian0358;48930669]Varn looked at Iska. His helmet was hiding a slightly anoyed look of his own. "They say that no plan survives contact with the enemy, right? Our plan is to fuck up their plan. Give us cover." Varn turned to the marines. “Alright, on the count of three. One. Two. Three!” The marines jumped out of cover and fired their rockets at the mechs.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[6]: The Marines reloaded their launchers and fired away, their rockets twirling like ballerinas of death. Their rockets clashed into the chest of the mechs but still kept going regardless. They needed another set of rockets to finish the job.
...
"That's it, we got this! We're almost through, push on Privateers!" A squad leader gestured towards everyone to defeat those mechs and they'll able to set up digging. He turned around and saw a laser vaporize him along with several APCs and tanks.
Dwan was covering Lion, not realizing how vulnerable he really was. In that moment, he had forgotten that combat in caldic worlds wasn't the same as combat in non-caldic ones. He noticed how a squad began pushing in his direction. He switched his howitzer to machine gun mode and started firing, killing off two soldiers, before spotting a grenade. He began pulling out before a bullet hit the grenade.
The shockwave stinged his insides, reminding him of the feeling he gets when he overdoes his caldiur usage. He got knocked back, falling to the ground. He struggled to get up, as he looked around himself. He tried to grab the gun that was knocked out of his right hand before realizing that hand was gone, noticing it near him. He looked at his blown off stump on his forearm, messy looking it was. As he was temporarily stunned by what had happened, he looked up to see a soldier pointing a gun at him, yelling that he was going to avenge his comrades, before being shot in the head and collapsing.
Dwan felt as he was dragged back elsewhere, placed on a surface where he watched as others examined him. He listened as one of the men examining him voiced his opinion on the situation, saying how he believed Dwan's dead. He felt how they were patching him up, as he thought to himself how he could just go back to his pad and use a regenerative incantation to bring him back to health. But he didn't mind it. But as he looked around himself, he couldn't see where they had taken his hand. He decided to remind them that he was in fact awake. "W-where's my hand? W-where have you taken it?!", Dwan asked in a weakened voice.
"Ease up little man, Elli has it right there bandaging it!" Bruta yelled while aiming noticing the front side is taking a ton.
Dwan turned to Elli, watching as the girl bandaged his hand to his arm. "How about my gun? I was holding one in that hand when it got blown off.", Dwan asked.
---
“Ready another shot. We’re gonna bring these bastards down. Iska, Pippin, keep us covered. We’re almost through the barricade.” Varn looked around and noticed Lion getting tossed around. “Mercury, unless you plan to stand around like a sore thumb, how about, you do what Seth told you to do. Go help my captain back on his feet and see if he needs help with anything else.”
“Right. See you over the barricade Varn.” As he sprinted away, Varn looked at the other two. “You boys ready? Third time’s the charm. Again, on three. One. Two. Three!” The Boomes repeated the action from earlier, aiming to bring an end to the mechs.
Iska had reloaded and stood up to lay down som covering fire towrds the sons positions so Varn and the marines could do their thing.
[QUOTE=Damian0358;48932722]Dwan turned to Elli, watching as the girl bandaged his hand to his arm. "How about my gun? I was holding one in that hand when it got blown off.", Dwan asked.
---
“Ready another shot. We’re gonna bring these bastards down. Iska, Pippin, keep us covered. We’re almost through the barricade.” Varn looked around and noticed Lion getting tossed around. “Mercury, unless you plan to stand around like a sore thumb, how about, you do what Seth told you to do. Go help my captain back on his feet and see if he needs help with anything else.”
“Right. See you over the barricade Varn.” As he sprinted away, Varn looked at the other two. “You boys ready? Third time’s the charm. Again, on three. One. Two. Three!” The Boomes repeated the action from earlier, aiming to bring an end to the mechs.[/QUOTE]
Mini Roll[6]: The combined efforts of everyone had led to this moment, the Boome Marines launched a final wave of rockets not to mention bear tanks overcoming the mech's line of defense. A barrage of rockets along with cannon fire tore the mech's apart, toppling down from the expense of firepower. The Crimson Son who were daring enough to take on the convoy were met with extreme force.
[combat over for now]
...
The trio turned to the scenery at the front, noticing their own side has pushed the Son back. A small victory but they knew it wasn't over yet. Elli turned to see Dwan.
"How about my gun? I was holding one in that hand when it got blown off."
Elli was hearing while making sure he wasn't bleeding out. "Bruta! The guy's gun." A heavy thud dropped pass Elli, Bruta and Ject walked over and saw Dwan. "He's alright, right?" Ject asked.
"His hand isn't, but he'll live." Bruta remarked, kneeing down to see Dwan's face. "You got a name?"
...
The unconscious Sync was barely looking above to see a lone Privateer, raising his gun towards him. The Privateer immediately shot him at the right thigh, hearing a muffled noise. The Sync was already exhausted enough but that shot really took a toll. "How's it feel? You like that do you?" The Privateer shot the other thigh before whistling to signal his buddy. A man equipped with a high temperature flame thrower, he raised the gas and tested it out by burning a corpse.
"You like flamethrowers do you? You all do eh." He asked the Sync before walking away. The soldier pulled the trigger, unleashing the fury at the Sync. The Sync was met with a scorched end. The Privateers nodded to each other and simply chuckled before moving on to set up territory.
-snip-
"Names need not apply to me, but you can call me Carlson.", Dwan told Bruta, as he was slightly suspicious of Bruta. The name in tandem with his voice made Dwan wonder if this was the Bruta the crew had encountered weeks ago. He decided not to ask, as it would make the situation quite awkward. He looked over to where the thud was made and saw the gun he was holding. He was glad it made it out OK. He looked back at Bruta. "I get to keep my hand with me, right?", he asked.
"These damn superpowers..." Said Lion to himself as he shook his head and got up for the second time.
"You okay?" Lion looked up to see Boome Marines merc identified as Noble through the HUD extending his hand towards him.
Lion grabbed it and pulled himself up. "Thanks." He looked around and noted that at least this section of the battlefield had begun to calm down as the opposing force had been neutralized.
Lion then turned around to look at the friendly forces and was surprised to see that they were still standing strong.
"Let's not waste any time." He said to himself as he walked up to the remainder of Spectre Unit, currently conversating with some privateer officers and a pair of SDF sergeants.
"Commander." Said Warren while doing a quick salute. "You alright?"
Lion nodded. "I'm a bit bruised up but otherwise fine, you?"
"We're fine, we lost five of our guys though. Privateers and SDF forces in this sector sustained mixed amounts of losses." Replied Warren while gesturing towards the officers.
"Let's get to work then, start working on a defensive perimeter. Prepare the wounded for evac and make sure that everyone else got enough ammunition."
Warren and the others nodded before getting to work. Lion wasted no time either and opened up the command channel. "Saw, this is Lion. We've secured a large area around Fort Blaze. We're digging in and await the cavalry."
He then relayed a signal to admiral Zhaneys before going to find Dwan.
After a few minutes of searching he found Dwan and some mercs next to a APC. He kneeled down next to Dwan. "Dwan, how are you holding up?"
Bruta nodded to Carlson. "So long as you're still fighting, you can keep it." He saw a lone robot appear. "Dwan, how are you holding up?"
Bruta not to mention Elli and Ject heard this inconsistency. Inside they raised their eyebrows. Usually people know each other on a first name basis but this ally called him Dwan. They looked at each other and told not to say anything but acknowledged it.
"Give him some space, the guy must be a wreck by now. Surviving that is a big miracle up close, could have been worse: losing both." Bruta mentioned, placing his Gatling plasma on a crate to replenish ammo.
Lion nodded as the merc informed him of Dwan's situation. "I see."
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Hearing that they would allow him to keep his hand, Dwan wrapped up the blown off side of the hand and placed it into his backpack. As he was about to place his weapon in its usual place, Lion appeared. Hearing Bruta's response to Lion's question, Dwan pounded his left hand to his chest, grunting a little doing so. "Don't worry... I'm as fit as a fiddle. I just need a bit of rest, that's all.", Dwan said in a tired tone. "Don't worry about my right hand. I'll figure something out with two hands tied behind my back.", Dwan said, snickering as he did.
Yanim released Virin's arm when they saw their bomb get intercepted. "They saw it coming, guys," Yanim told her crew. "Change your flight path and drop the next one closer-" She was interrupted by the volley of rockets and shells launched by the Boomes which destroyed the remaining mechs. "Eh... never mind, the targets are destroyed."
"Boss, please get off me," Virin groaned. The plastic splint was now tight enough to hold his upper arm intact. As soon as Yanim obliged he gingerly tried to move it. "[I can use my arm again, thanks for the help, Gataska.]"
"[Don't lift anything or put weight on it, comrade. Stay safe down there.]"
They stood up, regaining their bearings and searching for the next fight, OBVs in hand.
Lion chuckled. "I'm sure you will, in the meantime just stay here and catch your breath for now." Said Lion before walking off.
He got up on a rock and inspected the free forces- as he had began calling them- who were busy setting up external defenses, tending to the wounded and rationing supplies. Everything was eerily calm on the ground, in the skies most Crimson Son ships had been chased off as assaulting forces had been covered by thousands of ships in varying shapes and sizes.
Most of the friendly ships were calmly patrolling the area while others had landed to resupply. Lion knew that soon the skies would be filled with dropships deployed from the SDF fleet, boosting the ground forces even further.
He suspected that Saw would also deploy additional ground forces as the man seemed to have more than one ace up his sleeve.
Lion then went for a walk and helped out wherever he could; handing out spare powercells, supplying the men with inspiring words, preparing critically wounded for their final rest as well as deploying defenses.
After minutes of working he stumbled upon Yanim and a another kanad taking a momentarily break with their OBV's in hand.
At first Lion thought about walking off, however after years of experience he knew that any kind of distraction, such as grudges, could be very dangerous on the battlefield. He approached them, holding his rifle casually in his right hand.
"[Yanim!]" He said in kanad. Before she could answer, he continued. "[I am deeply sorry that things went the way it did, it was never my nor Dwan's intention to make any of you feel betrayed. I hope you remember that I still consider all of you family and as such I'd never hurt or betray the trust of any of you intentionally."
He paused and looked at the sky. "[I promise you that someday I will explain everything, but for now I hope that you can trust my word. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I hope that these words will at least make you realize that we didn't mean any harm.]"
Of all the things which could have happened on Zeruel's surface, an encounter of this type was something Yanim never would have expected. Her goggles were covered in a smoky layer of dust which made it impossible for Lion to see just how disgusted she was with the circumstances.
"[Someday...]" she repeated when he had finished talking, mulling over the concept of a time in which they would meet again on peaceful terms. A fighter crashed in the near-distance with a thunderous explosion. "[I might not live through today,]" she replied distantly. Virin looked on in confusion, keeping his rifle at the ready as he knew that this was Lion- but unwilling to escalate the situation while Yanim was speaking.
"[Whatever truth you claim to have in store, you and Dwan both seem to think that I can do without it for the foreseeable future. That doesn't sound like 'family.' It sounds... patronizing.]"
The Talon cruised among the scared skies above the battlefield, scanning the edges of the sky as fellow SDF Fighters blasted by the Talon in close formation and overtook it, signaling that they were taking over for Viper. Witch ammunition supplies had been exhausted and it's engine systems overheated but still functional.
"This is Talon One, I'm landing at fort blaze for repairs and rearmament." Viper reported on the comms channel used by the SDF and Privateer forces as it the Talon flew towards the forward operating blase.
Viper landed the Talon onto an resupply pad within fort Blaze and had disembarked from the fighter craft after disengaging it's tether, the Gravity was stranded for planet's of it's size but the Sanghvi snugged it off and make it's way towards to Lion as the Privateer Technicians and SDF mechanics begun work on the Talon along many other vessels of varying states of repair and rearmament.
The Planet's barren and hard surface of the planet felt similar to the interior of an asteroid more so than an planet to Viper as it exited the makeshift gates of fort Blaze and into the land that everyone had given so much to take in this costly advance.
The sounds countless injured being rushed back to the medics by their comrades, their twisted seams and cries of agony we're all so familiar sound as the rest of their friends and allies broken bodies we're strung across the burnt out and destroyed wrecks of the armored fighting vehicles that were shattered across the battlefield.
The sight of war, it's bloodshed and it's tolls on it's occupants wasn't anything new and as Viper walked upon it's horrors yet again, it begin to feel more and more distant towards the consequences of it's actions.
Nevertheless, it's servitude towards it's comrade kept it pushing forward. Their well being was the only thing that Viper cared about in this whole operation and determined that they saw the end of it alive.
Eventually, Viper arrived in Lion's general location before seeing and recognized the soft-carbon that he was talking to, Viper was momentarily stunned as it saw Yanim once again in person.
The Sanghvi keep it's distance behind Lion, watching their discussion as it thought of something to say as it noticed Yanim's anger though it's body temperature and body language towards Lion. Viper tried to not attract attention towards itself and simply stood still as it watched the confrontation play out.
---
The first Argos landing sites we're wiped out, their troop corpses deteriorated the networks of concrete tunnels that made up the Crimson Son's array of pillboxes and bunkers. The final Argos soldiers held the last of their ground with their lives and it took much of the Crimson Son's reactionary forces to finally purge them out of their underground defense lines before they could continue their goals of ridding this planet of the other invaders.
"Com-Command..Alpha Seven...Mission..Mission." An Argos operative struggled to speak while his bloody body lied among the ribbons of his comrades before the cold boot of an Crimson elite crushed in his skull in an single step and ended the soldier's life in an instant.
Lion gestured with his hand anxiously. "[Believe me, if I could tell you the whole story right here I'd do it. But I've made a promise which I will not break.]"
He sighed. "[We're not doing this out of spite, it's just that things are bigger than they appear and the truth is not for all ears to hear.]" He glanced at Virin.
Virin met Viper's glance with an intense stare, eye to eye, one soldier to another. What Lion had said struck a nerve. "[My loyalty to her now is just as genuine as hers was to you,]" he said with a very calm, measured demeanor, "[before you gave her reason to doubt you.]" Yanim was surprised by the response, but she didn't interrupt him. He had a point to make. "[My loyalty was genuine to Vorokar, too, before he left me for dead. I owe him nothing now. And she owes you nothing, certainly not [I]faith.[/I] I might be your excuse for the moment, but there's a saying about discretion at the State Naval College; I'm sure Yanim remembers it: 'Discretion among equals and cowardice are the inseparable hallmarks of conflicted loyalty.']"
Yanim remembered the lesson from years prior and was slightly taken by nostalgia. After all the complications brought about by life offworld, such a basic, standard idea as honesty among comrades resonating in another kanad brought her slightly closer to home, and made humans seem all the more alien in the process.
"[In other words,]" Yanim said, brightened from the support she was receiving, "[you and Dwan should stop asking me to believe you. You're the one who should believe in me. After all we went through side by side, you're the one who should believe in me,]" she repeated. "[If you can't do that, then we have nothing to talk about, human.]"
Lion nodded slowly. "[I've always believed in you Yanim. That was never an issue. Despite the past I'd still lay down my life for you. But if trust is what it all comes down to, I'll give you this: when we realized that the bomb was going off no matter what, we legged it into a heavy duty industrial container in which we took cover. We almost didn't make it but we did, we even got knocked out cold for a moment. When we woke up, there was nobody there so we decided to help from the shadows.]"
Lion then sat down on a nearby rock with his rifle resting in his lap. He turned to Virin.
"[From one soldier to another, I want to express my respect towards you for being honest. And despite the outcome today it will feel good knowing that good people are watching Yanim's back.]"
Iska looked out over the battlefield that had now calmed down and lit a cigarette. "Should we look for rest of crew?" she asked Varn as he stood chatting with some boome marines.
--
Yuga stood on the observation deck with her hands behind her back and supervised the unloading process of the Yukaya's mineral cargo with her usual emotionally devoid expression. Nakaya walked up beside her. "So eh, can you say you're pleased with your last trip on this ship?" he asked with a friendly tone. She turned her head slightly to face Nakaya, "450.000 credits for a simple trip is arguably not bad, but I can not say that I am overly pleased however". Yuga lifted a tablet from a nearby desk and begun sliding some numbers around. "Undoubtedly some 75% of this will go to the ITC and will, as time goes by, trickle down into Kenshins pockets once they've convinced enough of the guild that is was their plan". Yuga observed as the tablet started calculating. "The rest will go to this ship and the likes of you will keep believing that you're being payed above average and will not ask any questions".
Nakaya's eye narrowed, "So you're saying we're being used by the ITC and Kenshin?" he asked, leaning slightly with his arms crossed.
Yuga looked up from the tablet with a taunting squint "Of course not, my dear Nakaya. You are in fact receiving quite a generous compensation for a very basic job of piloting a freighter in a relatively harmless part of the galaxy. If you are, by your standards, making good credits on this simple job then why would you change that. Hence the cycle is repeated and you remain loyal to the ITC its UGC lapdog Kenshin".
Yuga put down the tablet and began walking towards the airlock to go outside and watch the spaceport. At the door she looked at Nakaya once again "Call it a psychological bribe, if you will", she remarked and stepped outside.
Nakaya chased after her and walked up beside her and leaned on the railing. He tilted his head slightly backwards to appear bigger than Yuga, which he already was at 172 cm, Yuga being only 168.
"If you've worked all this out, how come you're running off when you say we're making good credits?" he said mockingly.
Yuga didn't even bother to face Nakaya and continued to watch over the port with the same minimalistic expression. "The difference between you and me is that you fail to recognize the potential profits of making your own economic decisions. As is your nature, you're a Mura pilot that's only been taught to obey someone else." she explained with slight hint of mockery.
Nakaya stood up from the railing and crossed his arms again. "You've been telling me about this master plan for some time now, and I think it's time I hear it before you go" he said with angered tone and eyebrows frowned.
Yuga sighed, turning to face him and started explaining. "Look at this cargo, Nakaya" she said while gesturing towards the containers being unloaded. "Had we been independent and sold this to the black market or a non UGC-corporation we could have made bigger profits and we would have gotten to keep it all for ourselves".
Yuga started to slowly walk in a circle around Nakaya as he thought about what she had said. "and the plan?" he asked impatiently. Yuga continued "Kenshin and Tsukuda has lead the ITC into a box, it's now a respectable organization that is bound by rules and needs to maintain a reputation to stand on." she paused slightly". Yuga stopped in front of Nakaya and looked at him "I intend to independently acquire enough credits and power to put House Shuur on its rightful place as Tsukudas favored and then I will, as the Terrans say, force Tsukuda to think outside of the box."
Yuga began walking back into the ship when Nakaya spoke up, "You're hardly gonna earn any respect from the UGC if you become a criminal" he quipped.
Yuga stopped in the doorway and let out a quiet laugh. "The UGC is crumbling as we speak, and besides, if nobody can prove it, has it ever happened?" she finished before entering the ship, leaving Nakaya to himself.
[[url=https://i.gyazo.com/becfc1e455bd8a75af52ca42843c9f4a.png]It's not about favors and trust, it's about profit and assurances[/url]]
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