The Line in the Stars (IC) [PG/14]

[techmaster-glitch]

En Route to Pirate Base

   "Acknowledged, Lieutenant Whitehaven, coordinates locked. Over and out." Burns forwarded the data to the other Zetas, and they locked in the coordinates too. Burns then switched the comm over to Romulus' channel.
   "Come in Sergenat Romulus, this is Warrant Officer Torson of Zeta Squad on approach to the pirate base. Lieutenant Whitehaven has marked the pirate barracks as our primary target and authorized you to mark further targets. Are there any other opportunity targets or active defences we should be aware of?"

[Lushin]

Sniper position
Romulus started using his scope to start scanning the area for other possible targets.
"Roger"

[Azlan]

Pirate Control tower


Cyndi was just finishing locking down her prisoners, "no one move and you all get out of here alive!"  She scanned the three pirate technicians that were caught unaware as the pirate guards were gunned down.  Two of them wore the same uniforms as the tigress they had captured on the way up and both were generic brown canines.  The third was human and wore a long black leather coat, combat vest and black fatigues, unlike the other two he was armed with a light pistol.

The scanners in the air control center almost literally screamed, Warning!  Unknown aircraft on attack vectors.  Warning!

Moving a bit closer to him she bore down on with her assault rifle to his face and mustering as much intimidation as possible she barked her commands, "slowly pull that pistol and drop it on the ground, now or I'll put you down right here!"

Just at that moment the repeats of the gunfire between Knight and the hidden assailant distracted her for a split second.  With an almost imperceptible flash of movement, the human hit a switch on a rather large and out of place console.

"I said freeze motherfucker!"  She took a much more aggressive stance against him, but relaxed a little as she heard Knight's voice over the comms, "sir if you could head over here... shit!"

With a smooth movement, lightning quick he was nearly nose to nose with Cyndi.  In a moment she noticed the gauge indicators on the back neck of the man's armor, "shit I've got an J-SAM*!  I ohhh...."  Her vocal iteration is quickly cut short as the man jams his pistol into her abdomen and pulls the trigger.

"That's a good doggie, no shhh."

The armor absorbed much of the energy of the light pistol round, but it still penetrated and her mouth hung open in mid word as she felt the bullet tear through her.  There was not enough force remaining for it to pass through though. 

In one fluid movement, he wrenched the gun from her hand, tossed it away, and pushed her to a seated position, "now sit girl."

Turning he retrieved a strange heavy long rifle from behind a console and dispatched the two pirates without a thought as he turned to head out the way Knight and Cyndi had entered.

Her head swimming from the pain in her gut, she found it hard to breathe in all the heavy gear.  The readouts and displays displayed countless bits of information on her condition, however the burning pain and flowing blood was quite obvious to her.  One thought burned itself into her mind as her attacker turned his back, "b... b...bastard!!!"  Drawing her knife she hurled it with as much might as she could muster. 

Amazingly the knife sailed straight and true, striking the unit at the base of his neck.  The man staggered forward, swaying and shaking violently.  With a roar he charged out the door and right into Nitro and Hacker who were bolting up the stairs to lend aid as both Knight's and Cyndi's condition monitors fluctuated dramatically.

Both tried to disarm and grapple the raving lunatic of a man that had born down on them both.  With a hulking scream the man smacked Hacker into the door frame with an audible crunch and hurled him to the railing of the landing.  With sheer luck he managed to grab hold, but found himself dangling precariously above a three story open shaft that lead to the ground floor.  He found that his left arm did not want to function, but also the disquieting hum emanating from a strange metal conduit that ran up the shaft and into the ceiling of the tower.  It was not doing this before.

Nitro was no match for the mad man's strength and he was also tossed like a rag doll, landing hard against the tigress that they had bound earlier.   The maniac leveled his rifle at Nitro, preparing to end his life with a shot in a matter of seconds.  Hacker could barely hang on, his heavy gear much more than his only remaining arm could bear because the power assistance of the suit was offline.

Knight had only seconds to react, if he moved to save Nitro, Hacker would fall to his death, but saving Hacker means the juiced cyborg would unload his weapon into Nitro as there was no cover on that walkway.  What would his decision be?

To make matters worse, the entire ground floor exploded with what appeared to be explosive electrical force as Ben and the entire remaining squads health monitors suddenly flat lined.

*J-SAM: stands for Juiced-Significantly Augmented Motherfucker.  Slang for a special class of mixed cybernetic/bionic enhanced individuals with drug induction units that significantly enhance reaction time, strength, pain resistance and mental resistance at the expense of the health and life span of the user.



Sniper Position


A flurry of activity burst from the barracks as armed soldiers exited the building in significant numbers, searching for targets.

As Romulus and Alex began taking out targets, causing the ground forces to spread out, Cyndi's health monitor, along with Knight's dropped causing immediate alarms to be raised in the tactical HUD system.

Both snipers could see that Harold and RC were pinned down.  That's when all hell broke loose.

The entire bottom floor of the command center blew outward with an electrical-like blast and suddenly Ben, Wall, Jaice and Rino's monitors all flat lined.  Emerging from the dust and debris drifted a dark, navy blue vixen with long white head hair, dressed in tight form fitting dark black and brown shiny leather with a matching black long coat.  Her outfit left her pale, white furred midriff exposed, and did not appear to be practical combat style gear.  Her look almost resembled that of what is called a "Street Mage" in the reasonably popular cyberpunk game all the kits play these days.  To add to the ensemble, her eyes glowed solid gold and lightning crackled over her hand paws.  She levitated off the ground and looked quite agitated, until she saw the Acadian battle robots knocking down the fence line and assaulting the pirates.

Alex attempted to put a bullet through her, but the shot glanced off a barely perceptible wall of electrical energy.  The vixen narrowed her eyes in the sniper's direction and spoke into a head set as she hurled a blast at Romulus and Alex.  The blast dissipated before it got close to either sniper and the reason for such an act was a mystery until Romulus spots a problem.  From the opposite side of the hanger from the wreckage, a delta-winged jump jet made its presence known.  The craft is angled right at the sniper's position and their peril is made quite evident as it opens up with one of its rocket pods firing numerous small missiles in a saturation pattern.

OOC: they are small and explosive; the saturation is not so thick as to cover the whole area by far.

Meanwhile, atop the air control tower, the tallest and oddest sensor dish begins to turn towards the approaching fighters and starts to glow blue.  Those with the appropriate gear see a spike in energy; someone put an anti-orbital particle beam cannon on that tower.



Command Center


Alerts begin to flood command and control as the real time data is updated from the battlefield.  Alexis shakes her head and checks again.  Then in a strange act she whacks the unit, "that can't be right... the system has lost contact with 4 members of the assault team... Knight and Cyndi are showing as injured, both in not good shape.  I show a power spike from that base... the signature of a medium starship weapon!"

Loki gasped, "What is going on there?  Everything was going smoothly?"  Ixiah looked worried, but the gravity of the situation did not truly reach the young foxes.

Saioko uttered a gasping squeak, bringing a hand to her mouth.  The poor girl looked about to break out in tears and rose from her station, turning towards the door.

Mother did not say anything but stared directly at Aaron giving him the look and sending mentally to him, you better do something, she is your exec, for her to rush off to do something impulsive would set a bad example.  We need more information before we can draw conclusions.   

[Lushin]

Sniper position
Romulus gathered up his rifle and quickly got to his feet. He grabbed Alex and basically dragged him back down the path.
"Shit. Shit Shit"
Once Romulus got far enough away he stopped and got on his radio and told the incoming Zetas about the jump jet and about what looked like some type of cannon on top of the tallest air control tower. He also said how it seem like things where quickly going to hell on the ground at the base. It seemed like most of the team was dead or injured. He also mentioned the floating vixen that seemed to have some type of shield. He then looked at Alex and clicked off his radio.
"Change of plans. We split up, you move to the other sniper position and try to take out whatever targets you can. I'll head back to that sniper position and do what I can. It seems most of our teams are killed and I plan to gets some payback. Also be careful I don't need to lose anymore men"
Romulus started heading back to the position he was in after the explosion.

[Lisky]

Pirate Control Tower

Knight was still recovering from the light wounds he'd received when his HUD suddenly showed Cyndi's heart triple, other vital signs started fluctuating massively as her words rang is his head.  He looked over and saw the man, using his rifle to spring himself into action, he launched himself into a run while drawing his pistol.  He aimed his first shot at about where the heart would be on the J-SAM.  He then tried stitching the laser pulses, and the gouges they would inevitably cause in human flesh, up.  Taking his eyes off his target, he holstered the pistol and grasped Hacker's arm, trying to fling him back over the railing.  

He was using his injured arm as if it were untouched, the movements sent waves of agony screaming through his shoulder, but the feline could not, would not, let this cybernetically enhanced mother-fucker down his team... or what was left of it.  The downstairs shuddered under the explosion and it seemed Ben and his fire-team just flat-lined... knight desperately hoped it was an ion-pulse or EMP that just disabled the team... but given the ferocity of the blast, he was already fearing the worst.

[ShadesFox]

Command Center

Aaron was rubbing his forehead.  Perhaps he never stopped from the previous time?  Of all the lousy, rotten things to happen...
"Things are going wrong too quickly.  Naz, take us to the base.  We're going to need to either drop off more people or pick them up.  Either way it will have to be quickly."
When Saioko turned to the door and Mother gave Aaron a warning he tells her, "Saioko, please I need you here.  We have to find out what is going on and get them back."

After Saioko replies ((OOC: the reply I leave to Azlan but either way...)) Aaron turns to a com, and connects to where ever Richard is, "Richard, things have turned ugly on the planet.  I need you ready for combat."
Hopefully unnecessary, but being unnecessarily prepared beat the alternatives.

[techmaster-glitch]

Command Center

  With nothing more than an "Affirmative, Sir.", Nazareth settled into his pilot chair, closed his eyes, and mentally connected himself with Mother. With himself "being" the ship, he lifted Mother off the ground and immediately headed them off towards the pirate base, sending a message to the Zetas as he did so.

En-Route to Pirate Base

  The Zeta's long-range sensor lit up with all kinds of strange readings as Romulus spoke on the comms to Burns. Things had apparently gone very bad for the ground team.
  Nazareth's voice then came through the comms. "Zetas, we are aware the situation at the base has deteriorated, we are en-route ourselves for backup and extraction. Zeta-Two, for now it is your call to continue with the run or not."
  "Roger, Zeta-One. Be advised, by the sound of things there may be a hostile Acadian at the base. Repeat, there may be a hostile alien, like the ones we are traveling with, aiding the pirates, over."
  "...Acknowledged. Will you abort the run?"
  Burns made the decision. "Negative."
  "Acknowledge, Zeta-two. You're on your own until we arrive. Zeta-one, over and out."
  Norton then interjected. "Two minutes to target."
  Burns quickly made a plan based on this new information. "Okay Zetas, here's the plan; we're going to do a backloop maneuver*. The barracks will be our first target, drop one bomb each on it. I'll designate our second target, either that possible-Acadian or the "cannon", if there are no friendlies in range, and only Mack and I will drop a bomb on the second target. Norton, Satch, see if you can nail that jumpjet. Acknowledged, Zetas?"
  "Acknowledged!"
  "Good. We're going in low, over and out."

*Backloop maneuver: method of bombing two separate targets in roughly the same area. Flight group goes in low, drops ordnance on the first target while pulling up and going into a climb. Then, after gaining some altitude, they flip around and go into a dive-bomb on the second target, and then pull out. In this case, Satch and norton will attempt to hi the jumpject when in the divebomb part of the maneuver.

[Azlan]

Sniper Position

OOC: anyone familiar with Syke's Cyantian Chronicles should note that the vixen is very similar to Mercial (bounty hunter vixen).


Alex nods his acknowledgment, "yeah, payback... if you catch that bitch of a vix..." the coyote clenched his hand into a fist, "make her suffer before you take her out, unless I catch her in my sights first."

He ran towards a new spot and began setup.

Romulus returns to his intended position only to find among the blackened earth the navy blue vixen.  She narrowed her golden orbs as energy crackled over her left paw, "you are not of these dirty pirates...?"


Below, the pirates are facing long odds against the Acadian robots, each of which are equipped with their own shielding, making their weapons fire largely ineffective.



Pirate Control Center


The man might be overloaded on drugs, but that condition did not affect his senses.  No man is faster than light, but he twisted away from his previous spot, catching the first shot in the shoulder and avoiding most of the other hasty pulses.

The movement drastically threw off his aim, as the shot went a bit wide, burying itself in the bound tigress's torso instead of Nitro's chest.

Reflexes on hyper due to excessive drug overflow, the J-SAM swung around and fired at Knight.  It was at that moment that the weapon was recognized, the lunatic was wielding a light gauss rifle.  One with a significant cyclic rate as he managed to snap off three shots.  One supersonic shell shredded the railing and the other two were likely inbound for Knight and Hacker.

The cyborg stopped, bringing his weapon under control and preparing to fire again, when multiple blasts lit him up from behind as Nitro took advantage of the creature's rage induced action that had placed its back to him.

The man, bleeding from wounds that should have killed him, jerked around to point his gauss weapon at the snow leopard.  Nitro barred fangs at the human, "what the fuck?  Die already!"

The J-SAM would have fired and killed Nitro, but a second round of deadly pulses tore into his back.  Cyndi, on shaky legs locked at the knees to try and keep herself upright, clutched her wound with one hand and her rifle with the other, emptying the entire clip into the assailant, "play dead, asshole!"

Finally collapsing into a heap of blood and circuitry, the borg lay still.

Cyndi exhaled a held breath and collapsed to her knees, "Nitro, stop gawking and get up here and help Knight... uggh."  The lupine collapsed from the pain, passing into unconsciousness.



Command Center


Saioko froze, trembling.  In her mind she mulled over her thoughts and the feelings she was experiencing.  Things of this level were so new to her and they wanted to carry her off like a lovesick and worry-ridden kitten, control yourself cat, think logically... Eric will be alright, he will be fine... he will be fine... he WON'T be fine!  

In a panic she spun on her heels to face the major, for a second her eyes appeared solid black, or at least he thought they were... perhaps he was seeing things?

"Major, we need to go to that base immediately!"

Over the comms, Richard receives the message and sighs slightly, "ja, okay... I can do that, but I am still not much of a fighter."

Marissa gave a sideways glance to her major, "shall I suit up as well?  My last combat... left its mark on me, but I still know how to shoot a gun."


Meanwhile, Mother lifted into the air, soundlessly darting off towards the base at high speed.  Being far faster than the fighters are able to travel at "sea level", she arrives just after they complete their run.



Airspace above base


ooc: the weapon is in the air control center where Knight and team are.  Bombs would likely kill everyone in tower.


Coming in fast, the Zetas drop their ordance, wiping the barracks structures largely off the map.  Unfortunately a bright beam of blue energy streams at the fighters.  Not accurate against small fighters, there is still a possibility of it hitting.

To make matters worse, the aerofighter chose to charge ahead, in spite of the differences.  The rocket pods belched out as much ordinance as it could muster and its cannons spoke, all aimed for Burns's fighter.

[Lushin]

Sniper position
Romulus raised his rifle until the vixen spoke. He raised an eyebrow at the vixen.
"No I'm not. My crew and I are here to take out the pirates and get someone off this planet. I'm guessing your not a pirate either"
Romulus thought in his mind while looking straight at the vixen. 'I hope your an Acadian'

[ShadesFox]

Command Center

Aaron really didn't want to be seeing things.  It was stressful enough with things going badly, but those eyes... fortunately he forgot such things having more important considerations on his mind.

Aaron nods to Marissa, "I'm hoping it will not be necessary, but at the rate things are going I want all options open."

He turns to Mother and asks, "Can you drop off some more combat drones to the last known location of the assault team?  I need to know what happened down there."

[Lisky]

Pirate Command Center

Most of his shots weren't carefully aimed, and as such, they went well off target... the shots that mattered hit though, and Knight's pistol delivered enough force to prevent Nitro's death.

With Hacker in hand, Knight pulled the SF soldier to the point where he eased the weight off Knight's injured soldier, they were stuck in a kind of stalemate position as the jittery soldier fired the gauss slugs in their area, luckily the J-SAM's drug induced state prevented him from taking any real time to line up the shots.  They streaked by, nicking Knight's leg armor with the gentlest of touches, and clipped a small bit of fur on Hacker's ear.

As the J SAM was finally downed from many a hits from several directions, Cyndi started to look a little weak as she issued a 'suggestion' to Nitro, who grabbed Hacker's other arm, and with knight's help, managed to pull Hacker to safety.  Once there, Knight looked back at the timber wolf and saw her collapsed on the floor.  He ran over and immidiately applied pressure with his good hand on the wound while fishing for his own med-pack with his other hand.

Before he had a chance to do anything else, Nitro took over with the basic first aid, applying a disinfectant and sealant to the wound, and giving the poor girl a mild stimulant and painkiller mixture that should help her fight off the effects of shock.  As knight was busy with the team, he suddenly noticed his fur stand on end, and heard the high-voltage buzzing.  The PBC (particle Beam Cannon) fired from the rooftop, and before he could even say a thing, Hacker was on his feet and trying to shut the system down.  With nothing better to do, knight checked the pirate tigress who had taken a round to the lower abdomen, hoping to make sure she hadn't become another victim of the lunatic's rampage.  As he moved on he added a quick order over his comm, "once everyone's awake, and in some semblance of competence, i'd like it if Nitro could help me, i need to make sure Delta is down, and not just experiencing some type of equipment failure."  

The Snow-leopard played around with his gear's settings, hoping to pick up the hint of a signal from one of the other members who were currently reported as KIA.

[techmaster-glitch]

Pirate Airspace

   "Watch it, Zetas!" Burns warned as the energy beam sizzled past them. After dropping the bombs, they were already beginning their climbs, but somehow the jumpjet was fast enough to get off a salvo of cluster minirockets and cannon shots as Burns went skyward with the other Zetas. The backloop maneuver was specifically to avoid this, and the minirockets were short range and had poor guidance, but even so, Burns felt their sting.
   A few of the cannon shots hit him first, tearing chunks of armor off of his right wing. A moment later, some minirockets detonated behind him, rocking the fighter and chewing away some of his rear armor. An alert told him a thuster was damaged but funtional, and no longer operating at full capacity. Burns cut some power to the rest of his thrusters to compensate, and his ascent slowed.
   To make matters worse, both potential bombing targets had registered friendly presance at or nearby, canceling the idea of bombing them. Burns quickly restrategiezed.
   "Zetas four and five, you stick to your part of the plan, nail that jumpjet on on your way down. Zeta three, you and I are going to strafe that cannon tower. Shift your approach to this path, so we head down off-target, and then pull up towards the tower to hit it horizontally with plasma pulsers only, no railcannons or bombs. Hit only the top, take out that array without hitting any of the structure beneath it. Since I'm going slower, I'll hit it after you, and that may be for the best, that cannon can't track us too well and it definitely isn't agile. After you make your pass, it'l probably try to follow you if it even still works, leaving it wide open for me.
   "Ready, Zetas?"
   "Ready!"
   "Flip around!"
   The three Zetas ahead of Burns reduced the power of their engines, pulling "up" even more, turning upside-down and over, until they faced the ground. The then then headed earthward in a speedy yet controlled decent, with Mack adjusting his flight path to take him away from the other two Zetas. When Burns reach the altitude they were at, he performed the same maneuver, and followed Mack's flight path.

Command Center

   Nazareth brought Mother towards the base, but when her advance sensors picked up the cannon tower, he brought here in as low and cloase as he could, almost sinking below the treeline, while staying out of the tower's line of sight. Mother's sensors also began scanning the base area.
   "Relaying tactical data to display module." Nazareth said, with his eyes still closed. A 3-D map of the pirate base appeared on the hologram display in the center of the room, displaying everything that Mother could pick up.
   "Orders, Major Brown?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Nova is in shock of the sudden turn of events, She scans a quickly a check to ship's sensors trying to see into the tower, she see the fusion power in the basement.  She tries reconnect to comms to the lost team members and get status of all of the assault team members.  

"Knight is still alive, Saioko, until we know otherwise. Sick Bay prepare to receive wounded." Said the catgirl... " Saioko, Help me see through this static, The some team monitors are only coming in intermediately, if at all. Some of them are hurt. I'm trying to isolate their frequencies."  Nova search the comm frequency, RF filters and boost the gain on the receivers.  

"Knight? Romulus? Are you there?"asks Nova over the assault team comms... "All pilots and ground units be on alert, someone is powering up a tank in the motorpool, which is in the base buildings nearest the the airfield.   Sending Sensor data on tank.  Unknown cloaked shuttle is also sighted by Mother's sensors only in a hanger on  Far corner of the airfield. " she continues over the comms.

Nova sends the cloaked shuttle data to PIP on the main view, for Loki, and Mother.  "Is it's cloaking technology familiar to you Mother?"

PBH  

[Lisky]

Pirate Tower

Knight breathed heavily for a moment, trying to keep himself awake as the effects of blood-loss started to creep into his mind.  His comm-link buzzed as nova gave her little update, he responded, "2nd Lieutenant Whitehaven, I am here, and alive... thank you for the heads up Nova."

The feline paused for a few seconds as thoughts swam through his head.  He then added, "Things have gone to hell, we are going to need some medical help for Cyndi, she is not looking the greatest right now... I myself have also been hit, but am stable.  The facility's long range communications are out, so we do not have too much to worry about..."  Knight was over-articulating his words as he had to focus on what he was saying.

He leaned against a wall and decided he'd better join the team before something else happened.  The lightheaded feeling made his movements slow and shaky.  As he walked back into the tower, Nitro was finishing up with Cyndi, and Hacker was trying to shutdown the PBC on the roof.  Before Knight could complain Nitro grabbed him by the good shoulder, and pressed him down into a chair, Nitro smirked at the feline as he said, "just where do you think you're running off to sir?  That hit looks rather nasty, give me a few minutes to patch it up."  He then brought out the medkit again, and began sealing Knight's shoulder.

[Azlan]

Sniper position


If the vixen noticed the thought she made no indication of it as she spoke, "not a pirate no.  We also came to get someone off planet, though we were attempting negotiation.  I half expected treachery, so I imagine I did not react too well when a bunch of armed, aggressive types burst in on my waiting room.  Plus I had one of my friends 'steal one of their jump fighters'.  He's the greatest pilot I've ever met.  Those pirate fighters will be sorry they fought him."  She paused for a second gazing up into the sky, "funny though, I don't remember pirates using... Sabers, those are pretty new with the Confed*."

Romulus gets the impression she has dropped her concentration and guard.

Her eyes widen as the fighter's bombs impact the pirate barracks, "oop... maybe those aren't pirate fighters."  Ignoring Romulus for the second, she tapped a small switch on her RedFang* headset, "Dex, do you see any markings on those fighters?"

"I'm a little busy trying not to get splashed by aerospace assets Ana, I can hold those clunkers off, but I don't think I'll defeat them if their pilots are experienced."  The voice on the other end said, just perceptible to the wolverine.

"That's not what I'm asking!  Those are Confed... or whatever they are calling themselves this century, fighters!  Try not to kill them!"

"Well shit..."  Could be heard from the other end.


On the field of battle, an old MBT rolled out of the motor pool area.  It's side mounted, turret missile pods rotated upward as its surface to air scanning system (on the top of the turrent), rotated slightly.  Attacking this thing from the air seemed like a rough proposition.

The gun roared, traveling between the advancing Acadian bots and impacting the hills behind the base.


*Confed: another short term used by many to refer to the former Confederation of Worlds (CW), a member state of the ISF.
*RedFang: A type of very advanced wireless, highband, restricted frequency radio unit.  The ultimate in Bluetooth technologies, though it is named redfang because I did not want to use Bluetooth as a name and it has no cultural significance like Bluetooth's naming.



Command Center


Marissa gave her best imitation of a military salute and then turned to leave.  The vixen paused and slowly turned back to Aaron.  She threw her arms around him and gave a quick squeeze to him before bounding off towards her gear locker.

The vixen reaches the ready area and enters the section set aside for females.  Changing her current "uniform", Marissa pauses to examine herself in the mirror with a sigh.  Acadian medical techniques were very good, and even if her fur hid the presence of scars, she knew it was there.  I never even considered ending up a pirate, nor getting shot... or anything like this.  Life can be really screwed up sometimes... maybe I'll end up as a ninja next?  At least there is Aaron...  She smiled happily.

"So are you going to stand there and stare at yourself or are you going to suit up?  Not wearing armor is part of the reason you ended up with a hole there in the first place."

Marissa quickly dropped her blouse down and spun to face the offending male interloper.  The smallish wolf leaned casually on the doorframe, his gaze focused on her eyes.

"They didn't exactly give me a lot of gear choices being an unwilling conscripted sort and all.  Now if you do not mind, Richard, I need to get dressed."  She turned back to her locker and selected the same BDU Richard was wearing.  Inside were also two suits of advanced body armor of Acadian design, one a light suit and the other much heavier looking.  There were also a number of weapon options available that she did not recognize: a longer rifle, some type of assault rifle and a few pistols.  They looked much like the alien's weapons then what normal ISF personnel would be equipped with.  She spent the few moments considering her options before pulling out the lighter armor; the long rifle which she assumed was a sniper weapon, and a light pistol.

Respectfully Richard shifted his position to the outside wall next to the entrance between the prep areas; he adjusted the position of the pulse laser rifle and waited.  Within a few moments she exited and gestured for Richard to follow, heading out to the main ramp in the belly of the ship.

"Well now, you certainly get some fancy gear."  Richard said as he eyed the armor and weapons.

"seems so, they feel much more... comfortable in my hands and on my person then the regular stuff."  

Both arrived in the waiting area and took up spots on each side of the ramp.  

"Richard and Marissa in position."  The wolf reported on the comm to the command center.

 
Back in the command center, Mother considered the request to deploy more robots, but she shook her head in a negative answer, "that would not be too wise.  The robots are good for combat reconnaissance and security detail, but they do not have so fine a touch for search and rescue.  It is hard to explain, but in combat mode they might collapse the structure... accidentally."

At Nova's prompting, she examined the data on the cloaked, small craft, "it is rather advanced when compared to your ISF standards, but archaic to Acadians.  The field emissions and the power type output would make me guess it is of TL* design.  This would be consistent with the presence of that vixen who wields energy like it was a plaything."

Saioko on the other hand seemed stressed, "I can see that Eric is still alive, based on that data, but I can't help but worry... I'm just not used to emotions... er, emotional situations.  Major, permission to lead search and rescue operations!"  She turned towards Aaron, trying to appear as calm and determined as she was able.

Cynthia appears in another of her windows in reality, "Nova, this is a Medical Center... Medbay if you must, but I am not operating a 'sick bay'.  This is not a water-going vessel and we Acadians do not base all of our spaceforce traditions from a sea-going navy.  I am standing by however.  I will probably need anyone trained in medical procedures for triage and to assist in care."


*TL: though most ISF have not had contact and they are considered by most to be a legend, this is short for Technocratic League.  They use very advanced technology to simulate magic and enhance odd special abilities that arise from the mysterious training, implanting and conditioning one must undergo to become a technomage.  It was once a mysterious secret society that has only recently emerged as an actual political state.  Before the formation of the League, they were nomadic, but after the last of the Great Galactic Wars (long before the anthros of the ISF achieved space flight or the arrival of the humans) they became more actively interested in the happenings of the galaxy.



Pirate Airspace


The bombs impact the barracks buildings and turn them into mostly flaming wrecks.  Most of the soldiers that were inside had gained access to the field, but those that were using it as cover to engage from were wiped out completely.  

The Zetas pulled into their maneuvers, but the jump jet seemed to anticipate their tactics and had pulled an almost near impossible maneuver that must have exceeded the G capacity of any normal pilot.  He was rushing up to meet them head on.  At the critical moment, he put his fighter on its side, bringing his guns out of alignment with the Sabers and seemed to be heading between them instead of playing aerial chicken.



Pirate Tower


The wounded tigress looked at Knight with pain filled, pleading eyes.  She was still gagged and had her hands and feet bound.  Her lower abdominal wound was bleeding profusely, much more so than Cyndi's injury. Mostly due to a much larger wound, though luckily the feline also had a hard ballistic vest.  But the poor girl could not even attempt any kind of action to help herself.

Hacker cursed fiercely, "fuck!   Oh, wait... shit, got it.  Damn I'm good!"  The ambient energy that was poofing up everyone's fur died down as the hum from the conduit died down considerably.

Knight could not pickup a single trace from the team on the first floor, the tremendous disruption caused by an unshielded particle concentrator conduit played havoc with personal communications that were not received from Mother's transmission systems.

The injections given to Cyndi brought her around and she groaned, trying to curl up into a ball, pulling her tail between her legs,  somehow thinking that it might somehow lessen the horrible pain in her stomach.  Looking down at herself she managed a slight quip, "blood is so... h-hard to get out of white... fur."  

Nitro finished wrapping Knight's shoulder and eyed him critically, "Cyndi is stable, but we need to get her to medical as soon as possible, you too."  He looked down the stairs at the whimpering tigress, "do you want me to help her?  It will take time with a gut wound like that... and we need to get downstairs to check Bravo team, if it's even possible... we have to do something!"    

[Lushin]

Sniper position
Romulus watched the vixen and listened to what she had to say. After she radioed her man in the jump jet Romulus radioed the Zetas.
"Zeta pilots this is Romulus. It seems the Jump Jet is not a threat anymore. Focus all attention on the pirate base. It seems we're not the only non pirates that where here"
Romulus then radioed Mother.
"Aaron it seems we interrupted someone else's rescue mission. Though I don't think we're here for the same reason"
Romulus then turned his full attention to the vixen his rifle still ready to leveled and fired if she tries anything.
"Seems there is no real reason for us to fighting each other. Though it seems you may have killed several of my men back at the base when you exited the building. While I'm still rather pissed at the possibility of losing some of my men I don't know what happened in the building so I can't fully hold you at fault"
Romulus looked down at the base for a second then back at the vixen.
"Well seeing as we have no real reason to be enemies anymore, might as well try to be allies. The name's Romulus, you willing to tell me yours?"

[Lisky]

Control Tower

Knight watched Cyndi slowly come to, and get up.  He was concerned about the pirate girl, but at the same time, his own team took priority.  As the timber-wolf made her little comment, the spotted feline couldn't help but smile, "i know, tell me about it... Glad to see you're doing alright."

As he looked at the tigress he added "she's a prisoner, she needs medical attention, and I don't think letting her die would gain anything... Things are looking pretty good up here for now.  Lets get her stablized, then check things out.  I don't want to be responsible for a completely unnecessary death.  Besides, she might know a little bit more about what's going on."  Knight paused, and removed the gag on the pirate girl.

Knight gave the girl a friendly smile once she could talk again, he asked her in a polite tone, "Do you have any idea what's going on?  Do you actively booby trap areas of your base like that?  is there any chance the rest of my team is alive?"  He tried to act comforting while asking the questions, making sure Nitro had everything under control.  The Lieutenant knew the pirate girl was probably going to be in agonizing pain but there wasn't much he could do.  Kight took a few steps back to Cyndi and asked, "how you holding up? think you could watch Nitro's back while i take Hacker and check on Bravo?"

[ShadesFox]

Command Center

Aaron responded to Richard, "Roger that, I'll let you know when I have instructions for you."

Aaron turns around to address Mother and Saioko, "Unfortunate about the robots.  We are running low on flesh and blood.  Saioko I'm not sure about your request to retrieve them yourself.  You do not seem to mentally be all together right now.  I may go down with you and take Richard and Marissa.  I fear that we are, however, getting over committed and spread thin on our resources."

At this point Romulus' transmission arrives and he replies back on the comm, "Wait, what do you mean, 'interrupted someone else's rescue'?  What did you find out?"

[Azlan]

Sniper Position


Before the vixen can reply, Alex breaks in on the conversation, having bolted back to Romulus's position, "how could you just do something so destructive and reckless without regard for others... you wiped out an entire team."

The fox's expression shifted to a lopsided grin as she looked upon the coyote as if he were victim of inbreeding or mental retardation, "Hello.  Mercenary*.  It's what I doooo."

*Note: she pronounces it mer sen ree

Her eyes half-lidded, and with a mischievous grin across her muzzle, the vixen allowed a moment to pass before she waved off Alex, "really now, I am many things... and a mercenary is what I am... but I am not a murderer or a reckless, collateral damage artist.  If your friends were the rude lot that barged in on me, then they are probably a bit battered up.  The worst they might have is a broken bone or two; I fried their electronics with an EMP and knocked everyone out with a sensory overload.  I don't appreciate being shot."

Now that she mentioned it, there was a gash on her arm that was oozing blood a bit.  Her eyes shifted to a sideways glance toward her arm, following the others' gazes.  She grasped her arm, "my negotiation safety assurance person..."

"What?"  Alex asked.

"My pirate guard tried to outdraw this human fellow that was dressed like you two and got shot.  I moved away from the idiot and the girl that was with the human must have panicked and pulled the trigger as she yelled for me to stop.  I might have overreacted a bit.  I thought maybe they were having some kind of militant shift of power."  

"Huh, maybe... er, shit!  I ran back over here to tell you that that tank has our positions here zeroed in.  We got to move.  You should come with us ma'am."  Alex rifled off.

"Oh and Romulus, the name is Anastasia Tescrae, but call me Ana.  Now let us go join the fight before the tank blows you up.  You really must tell me how you managed to procure battle robots from the Acadian Empire?"



Control Tower


Removing the gag from the tigress resulted in a gasp followed by a rapid fire staccato of pleads, whimpers and groans... a rather indecipherable mess.  

When her incoherence seemed to fade and a bit more lucid mind took over, she did her best to respond, "I don't... ugggh, gods and goddesses, it hurts... <whimper>... I, um... don't know what's going on.  K... Kirk... Farlane... was the only one... who <pant> would know anything... about that.  And you... had to kill <gasp> oh gods... gods... that hurts... <pant> had to kil him.  He was the second officer; I am just the... air controller duty officer and a medic.  Please don't leave me like this... I used to be a medical officer on a corporate transport before they captured me... I am dying... I need help... no one here is going... to... do anything after you... leave..."  She drifted off into a fit of whimpering and whining, though to her credit she forced herself to remain awake.  Nitro moves in on her and begins an assessment.

Meanwhile, Knight turns to Cyndi who is in a land of pain all her own, but she is a bit more quiet about it.  "I... can, but... I feel really dizzy and my mind feels like its full of cold molasses.  I can't lift my rifle, not much strength left, but I got my pistol."  Drawing her sidearm she checks it and then proceeds to put a shot in the head of the cyborg.

"Sorry, just want to be sure.  I..."  She gasps from a sudden pain, doubling over for a moment, "oh... damn... I...I'm not doing too well am I?  I don't want to die... I really don't Knight."  After a moment she shakes off the gloom and tries to smile, "it's okay, I'm just scared... go check out everyone else, I'll still be here, for as long as I can."

As Knight and Hacker head down, Nitro examines the tigress's injury.  He applies significant antiseptic, but the injury cannot be sealed due to large area of tissue damage.  Instead he pauses and produces a large clump of gauze, pressing it to the wound and applying heavy pressure while wrapping it with pressure bandages to hold it in place.  Using a portable monitor he looks her over, applies a shot of painkillers and something for shock, before finishing up with a synthetic blood transfusion shot.  

Even with as gentle of a touch as the snow leopard could muster, the process still illicit a huge string of rapid fire pleads, complaints and animalistic noises generated as a reaction to the pain that can be heard all the way down the stairs.  After the process it sounds as if she calms down quite a bit.  


The wolf, Hacker, tries to rotate his left arm and hisses in pain, "crap, I think I dislocated it.  Hang on..."  With a barely stifled howl of pain, Hacker uses the wall to pop his joint back in the socket, "<pant>shit... okay, let's go... I'll need to have this looked at, but its ok for now. "



Command Center


Saioko was about to object, but stopped herself, "yes sir, that is probably best.  I'm not in the best frame of mind right now.  I've never been in actual combat in anything more than simulations run during the fine tuning of my combat programming... sessions... I ran through the combat programs in simulation as I was doing the programming.  Uh, not the same as real."

Both Loki and Ixiah approached Aaron, gazing up at him with innocent eyes, well Loki less innocent as he has actually suffered combat injury in this form.  It was Ixiah that spoke for the pair, "would you like us to come too?  We are rather mighty psychic warriors... we have been trained well."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"To where the winds of Limbo roars"

Looking at Siaoko with a high eye brow, Nova starts to give her a knowing smirk.  Nova says to "Even those, who are use to feelings, can't handle the emotions when a loved one is in harm's way.  But Eric would not be Eric, if you stop him from going into battle."   She turn back to the scanners

As RF noise fades, and Nova starting getting more information from the assault monitors...."Knight is hurt but functional and Cyndi has a bad wound and needs medical assistance.  Major, the robots seem to have the upper hand against the real pirates... I am not sure If/or when  they'll win or kill them all.  Loki, Mother, Can we get them to clear a path to front the tower?   And Hank is looking in need of medical assistance.  Knight, have you secured the Tower?  Can you meet up with a few reinforcements in front of the tower?." asks Nova 

"Romulus, Knight and the assault team are need of assistance."

"To all pilots, has anyone check that tank in the motor pool, it looks like it is moving out of the airfield toward the tower." reports Nova to all members of the assault teams.

"Ooo, Can I go with psychic warriors?" to Loki.  "We can meet the TL Wizards..."

PBH

[Lushin]

Sniper position
Romulus looked over at Alex as he ran up. He stood and listen to Alex and Ana and smirks abit. He then looked at Ana's wound. He then looked at the base with his scope when Alex mentioned a tank zeroing on their position. He started to move down the trail.
"Moving to the second sniper position is a very good idea. Ana you might want to tell you men where you are if there are many left"
Romulus then radioed Aaron back.
"Well it seems there are some mercenaries here as well. Unclear why they are here. Don't think Ana will tell me why"
Romulus then radioed to Knight.
"Ben and the others should be still alive injured but alive. It seems they where hit with an EMP blast so that's why their signs are dead'
Romulus then looked at Ana with a bit of a grin as they moved to the second position.
"If you stick around long enough I may just tell you about my friends out there"

[Lisky]

Control Tower

Knight knelt down next to Cyndi and squeezed her hand lightly, "you're not going to die, not on my watch..." he paused and looked at the Tigress, "i'll do what i can for you, but i'm going to be honest, we're not in a position to trust you too much... "

The Snow leopard tapped his comm set, and called into Mother's command center, "Lt. Whitehaven here, we've got a heavily wounded pirate, says she was a med officer on a corporate transport... chances are she'll die if we leave her... but it's the Major's call whether to bring her on board or not."

He then thought things over for a moment when he heard Rom's message.  The spotted feline looked around for a second, then said, "alright, seems Bravo is still alive... Hacker, you're with me. Cyndi, if you think you need some help, don't hesitate to call. The team downstairs is MIA still, and we're all making it back to the ship, even if i have to carry you myself... clear?"  Knight let out a gentle smile, and gave the timber-wolf a light pat on the shoulder.

2nd Lieutenant Whitehaven then got up and recovered his pulse-laser rifle.  He headed slowly down the stairs with Hacker.  He moved into position, and began a thorough sweep, searching for Bravo team while keeping a close eye on the team's health monitors.

[techmaster-glitch]

Pirate Airspace

   The jumpjet, amazingly enough, was already rocketing up to meet Satch and Norton as they were on their way down. They prepared to fire, but then the jumpjet did another strange thing: he veered away slightly, breaking his own aim on them and seemed to be heading between them.
   "Oh, no you don't" Satch snarled as he altered his own course to bring the jumpjet back in his sights. He almost had the jupjet locked again, when Romulus' voice crackled over the comms.
   "Zeta pilots this is Romulus. It seems the Jump Jet is not a threat anymore. Focus all attention on the pirate base. It seems we're not the only non pirates that where here."
   "...What?!?" Satch uttered in surprise.
   The jumpjet shot past Satch and Norton.


   Mack pulled up when he got close to the ground, and now sped over the treetops, headed for the tower. Strangly enough, he wasn't getting any energy readings from it anymore. Oh well. Continue with the run.
   The tower came into view, and Mack immediatly started firing his pulsed plasma cannons, aiming for the array on top of the tower as he whizzed past.
   And sailed right over the new bogey, the tank with more missile pods. What was with these guys?
   "Zeta-Two, I hit the tower, and it seems to be offline, but there's a new bogey, a tank with missiles. Think you can get it?"
   Burns himself just reach the ground, and pulled up as well, flying over the trees in the same path Mack took.
   "Roger, I think I can get this guy. I need to lose some more weight, anyway..."
   Mack's computer had sent the data of the tank to Burns', and Burns noticed that at least no friendlies were nearby. Yeah, he was sure he could get this guy.
   Only question way, would it get him? His rear and right wing armor were shot up, another hit there might put his fighter out of commision. In that case, if Burns was going to get hit, he had to make sure it was his front armor that took damage.
   Burns raised his altitude a bit. He was going to come in at the tank on a downward angle, so if the tank managed to get off any shots it'd only impact his front armor, and drop one nice bomb on the thing. Overkill, but it would get the job done.

[ShadesFox]

Command Center

Aaron commented back to Ixiah and Loki, "If you wish to convince me that you are mighty warriors, the innocent eyes are counter productive."

His train of thought was interrupted by Romulus, "Who is... oh never mind I'll ask questions later."

In regard to Knight's message Aaron answered, "Er... sure, bring her aboard."

The last bit of business of Aaron's was if he wanted to bring Ixiah and Loki.  He desperately needs to keep them safe, but they are rather able, he owes them a lot due tot his fact.  "Okay, I'm going down with Ixiah, Loki, Richard and Marissa.  Saioko, if you believe you can handle yourself down there I'm willing to take you too, your discretion.  Nova, I want you to stay here and direct things with Mother.  Mother, I need someplace where I can meet up with you, I intend to rescue the wounded down there and bring them back.  Hopefully that MBT will be off our backs soon.  Barring additional surprises things should be in hand by that point.  If no one has anything to add we should go gear up so that we don't accidentally get shot up."

Edit:
((Tweaked to include a reply to Knight))

[Azlan]

Command Center

Loki took Nova's hand and gazing into her eyes spoke, "you stay here Nova, if you go out there you are going to get hurt again.  I'm sure you will be able to meet a TL Mage later."

Turning back to Ixiah, they both nod to one another and grasp hands as they speak in unison, "we are mighty warriors and we will be fine.  Besides, the universe has injured enough of our comrades; it is unlikely to happen to us.  Now to the important part..."  Both paused for dramatic effect, "outfits!"

Both fox kits separated and began to glow their respective fur colors very brightly, "let's try this one!"  In a flash the glow disappeared and both were outfitted in strange, stylized armor.

Loki extended one of the forearm psi-blades, "do I look like a Zealot Ix?"

The gear dress up lasted a good few minutes before Mother appeared behind both of them, drawing both into a hug.  The act of the hug ended the flurry of dress-up bringing both kits back down from hyper-action mode.

"Practical over looks please, kits.  You have already been hurt once Loki, I do not wish for that to happen again.  With the collars, neither of you will be at your best, so let's be safe okay?"

Both answered in unison, like scolded children, "yes Mother..."  With a shimmer, some type of protective Acadian armor appeared on both of them.

"Okay, green one standing by."

"Blue one ready to go!"

Alexis shook her head, "kits..."

Fascinated by the display of raw power, Saioko almost slipped out of her own rigid discipline and joined them in a fascinating display of psychic power.  She however, remained in control, "alright Aaron, I think I can keep my cool.  Let's go get geared up, getting shot up sounds unpleasant."

Mother considered the field and a spot outside the base near where the Special Forces had first gathered glowed blue with a transparent image of the ship in the spot.  

"I can wait here if that is sufficient."

Mother made a rather safe and quiet landing, deploying security robots to guard her LZ.



Sniper Position

Ana shook her head, "no one else here except me and Dex.  Dex is the pilot up there, so that leaves me alone out here.  Oh target of opportunity!"

One pirate was attempting to scale one of the towers unseen.  If she could get the guns up, it might be a tad more difficult for others.

Ana, however, did not think it was a good idea to allow the raccoon a chance to be a heroine.  With a bolt of blue energy, the vixen hit the pirate square in the back.  The raccoon girl twitched and slipped off the ladder.  She lay motionless on the ground.

Following Romulus's lead, Alex fell in behind, keeping staggered so as not to provide any opportunity to take out both of them at once.  



Control Tower

Cyndi nodded, "after this is over here, I think I'll need a few days off..."

On the ground floor, it looked truly like a bomb had detonated.  It was tough going for Knight and Hacker, the debris made very rough terrain.  The maneuvering made it hard for Knight as the effects of injury made itself known and he had to fight the dizziness off with a spoon, a dull spoon.

Both reached the last known position of Bravo and found the debris to be lighter, but still present.  The team was scattered about the area and looked very dead.  It was not until the slow, rhythmic breathing of their prone teammates was seen that they could say for certain the team was safe.  There were a few other forms gathered about as well, but their conditions were less of a concern than the teams'.  

A manual survey of their vitals shows them to indeed be alive.



Pirate Airspace

Burns began his run on the tank, but the missile pods were already tracking him.  It looked as if they would get the first shot, but that was not to be.

A small delta wing fighter opened up with its dual heavy cannons as it zoomed towards the tank, flying only a few meters off the deck.  The armor of the mainbody and turret of the tank was far stronger than the fighter could damage, but the launchers and radar were not.  The depleted uranium shells tore through the armor of the launchers and the radar unit.

The warheads were inert until fired, so no spectacular explosions could be witnessed.  The way was now clear to perform some seriously fatal harassment.

The fighter flew just barely a few meters above the tank, passing over it, and climbing up steeply.  It passed over Burns, top inverted, and the pilot gave him a thumbs up as he rocketed over him.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Awww You don't let me have any fun..." Says Nova to Loki in a little girl voice...but her eyes soften, as she squeezes his hand and kisses Loki's cheek.   "Take care brave warrior...and come back safe." Loki winks and turns to Ixiah.

"Enough of the mushie stuff!,.... Oh yea more explosions!" says little kitten Mara as she watches Zeta pilots attack with tower and the tank on the main screen.  Nova just watches  Loki go out the door with a sigh.

PBH

[Lushin]

Sniper Position
Romulus walked and spoke to Ana, keeping an eye out for movement.
"So why are you in town? I wouldn't think you come here very often"

[ShadesFox]

Command Center
Aaron nodded at Mother, "Very good.  We'll bring the wounded back here."

Aaron wandered off with Saioko to change into more appropriate gear.  At the locker, Saioko and Aaron were in the area prescribed to their own gender, with Ixiah and Loki outside doing... what ever it is that those cubs do.  As Aaron suited up in some light armor he couldn't help but wonder, 'If there is a blue one, and a green one, is there a blue two and a green two?  Three?  Four?  Aaron was far too amused with the prospect of squadrons of technicolor fox kits.  Aaron grabbed an assault rifle and headed out to find Saioko and the two Acadians waiting. 

"Very good, let's meet up with Richard and Marissa."

Ixiah nodded generously, "Yes lets!"

Aaron was still kind of concerned that the two didn't grasp the full gravity of the situation, but that was of little matter.  Aaron and company reached the waiting area to link up with Richard and Marissa, Richard asks, "Oh?  Came to give us orders personally?  And in spiffy gear."

"Yes, spiffy gear.  We're going to the control tower and picking up bravo team.  Hopefully alive and just with mechanical difficulties.  However, odds are they will need medical attention, so we'll be bringing them back here.  Everyone ready?"

After everyone acknowledges Aaron gets on the comm with Knight, "Knight, this is Aaron.  I'm bringing a bunch of people to pick up bravo team.  We'll be there shortly."

Aaron then hops off to find what ever awaits him.

[Lisky]

Base of the Pirate Tower

Knight went about checking pulses and doing what he could to rouse his teammates.  He kept his rifle slung, as he planned on handing it off to whoever was in the best shape.

As Aaron's voice came through in his comm set, Knight responded with a quick, "yes sir, we've found them, and they're alive... we're trying to wake them, and at the very least we'll prep some makeshift stretchers to move them.  Cyndi needs help more than any of Bravo's members as far as i can tell.  I respectfully request we recover her and extract her first, along with the pirate girl."

Looking over at Hacker, he said in a quick voice, "see anything we could grab to move Cyndi with?"  At the same time, Knight began scanning the wreckage for anything that might be useful as well, perhaps some sections of steel rods to make a stretcher or anything that might help in moving the wounded Timber-wolf.

[Azlan]

Command Center


Mother shakes her head and drifts over to Nova, giving the feline a hug, "oh dear little Nova, you seem sad and perhaps a bit taken by the little master.  You should be careful; he is rather young to understand those things and even if he did, you may be disappointed."

Alexis continued to monitor the situation and feed tactical data to the network.




Sniper Area


Ana continued to fly next to Romulus as he ran, but her ears swiveled back, "I told you I'm here on a rescue mission of my own, and I'm not poking my nose into your business...yipe!"

Ana managed to roll out of the way as bullets whizzed through where she last was.  The vixen was not maintaining her shield anymore.

"bloody bastards put up a sniper of their own somewhere."  The vixen stopped, placing both footpaws on the ground, gesturing downward she ripped the very rock from the mountainside forming it into a shield wall.

Gesturing for Alex and Romulus to join her, she made an inquiry, "if you were an enemy sniper, probably tasked with counter sniping you two, where would you be?"




Battlefield just outside the ship


Saioko was wearing a set of standard issue, armor, very light and advanced.  It was not nearly of Acadian sophistication, but if not for the ISF badging, it would be hard to tell this design belonged to them.  She had a sidearm and a light carbine.  She blushed a bit as she was looked over, "it's my own design, the ship manufactures its own... and I took advantage of that fact earlier on.  It is based off of some high tech designs being worked on at ISIS."

The feline followed behind Aaron, waving slightly to Richard and Marissa.  All those assembled made themselves ready and when the ramp opened, moved efficiently.  Richard and Marissa went first, scanning the area for any hostile activity.  There was a pause as the vixen scanned over area, but it was quickly overcome as she moved on.

Aaron touched solid ground just as the security robots finished off a group of pirates that had rushed over to attack the landing ship.  A digital HUD suddenly appeared in one half of Aaron's viewable area, it was transparent and he could see through it, but it was a slight distraction.  Possibly sensing this, the HUD expanded into his full view, giving him selectable pull up overlays that formed nice neat tabs at the bottom of his vision.  He received data overlays on each person on the field, each downed pirate still read as a living signature, merely stunned.  

Everyone in Aaron's immediate area registered at 100%, except for Marissa who still had minor effects from her mostly healed wound, but she was fairly close to being at full health.  Objective points read on the horizon, as well as the distant red of hostiles and blues of friendlies.  It was like some video game, a fact that did not escape the fox kits.

"Okay so we have our mission objectives, but what are our bonus objectives?"  Asked Ixiah.

Loki shrugged, "I'm sure they will be revealed as we enter certain areas of the map.  Why did you outfit us with a psi-blade and a fusion pistol?  Longer range weapons would be better."

Richard sighed, speaking into the communicators, "hush cubs, this is real... not a game, let us try and be quieter.  Interesting things happen when you are loud; I do not want interesting things happening."
 
Saioko nodded in agreement with Richard and Marissa gave them both a sweet smile, but also a small 'zip it' gesture.  Waiting for Aaron, the assembled group kept alert.




Base of Pirate Tower


With a little effort, the two were able to bring the other team members around.  Ben was the first up, shaking off dust and debris; he had nothing more than a few scratches on him. The lucky dog.  

Jaice tried to stand and collapsed back to a sitting position with a yelp.  The Dalmatian carefully checked his right ankle and found it extremely swollen and rather purplish.

The one known as Wall pulled a heavy piece of equipment off of Rino, the Kodiak examined the downed snow leopard, "she's got a broken rib and a nasty gash on her head... but it's not serious.

Ben took a deep breath and nodded, "damn loco vixen, that sheila could have killed us all... but she didn't.  Oh, crap, you look like hell lieutenant."

Hacker nodded, "he does, but Cyndi needs more help.  She took a round in the gut, we also got a pirate up there that is wounded... same area, a lot worse though.  We need to fashion some stretchers.  The emergency one I had was smashed beyond repair when I was slammed into a doorframe.  RC has got one, but Thorn is pinned down with Auel outside. .."

Ben sighed, "ya, Harold's got one, but as you said he and RC are outside.  Rino's got one, but whatever knocked out our electronics probably fried it as well.  The manual release should still work though."  

Giving Rino's shoulder a squeeze and a smile, which the feline returned, he retrieved the unit from her backpack and unfolded it, "that's one."

A bit of searching finds enough banners and pipes to fashion around five stretchers if the need arises.  Ben looks to Knight to issue his orders.