Futuristic Starpath X: For All Mankind

[joshuadim]

These fuckers are insane. was the thought that ran through Mazurek's mind as he heard the voice over the PA speak ill of his dead. Life was of little value in the Upyri war machine, given what the commander of the Honor Guard voiced, and it made the Corporal all the more disgusted towards them in his first on-the-ground encounter with one of them. He remained in cover, pushing another button on his plasma gun that in turn opened vents to allow for rapid cooling. Mazurek didn't know what the operational limit of such a weapon was in the first place, let alone its capacity, but he wasn't taking any chances if there was a possibility of him losing a hand from overheating. And neither was he willing to be the test dummy in a live combat zone.

Once Darwin finished his taunting, the fighting renewed again and Mazurek poked his head out briefly to get a quickly glance at the layout of the second floor. There were still workers in Upyri hands, which made him grit his teeth. The mission hadn't changed, even with some big-shot asshole calling the shots and throwing fighting words around; the Corporal dashed out of cover, inviting a burst of gunfire that peppered the area near him as he slid towards another pillar. Unfortunately for the soldier that tried to kill Mazurek, he had given away his position and thus left him open to a counterattack.

The corporal leaned out of cover for a moment and fired three plasma bolts in rapid successions, the first two tearing through the Upyri's cover before the third collided with his head. Flesh melted almost instantly from the blast, leaving the soldier gurgling on his own liquifying face as he collapsed onto the ground before dying just as quickly. However, Mazurek's new position left him dangerously extended as gunfire riddled the area around him in an attempt to flush him out of his narrow safety. "Fuck! Krawczyk, give me some help here!" Mazurek shouted loudly as he shifted in place to avoid the edges of the pillar that crumbled from the continuous barrage of enemy fire.

 

[K0mori]

Zetter's movement up the stairs and Caine's decision to follow had inadvertently split the efforts of the Patrol. Oberto, already incensed after the broadcasted execution of a civilian, was ready to confront Darwin immediately, and so was most of Squad 10 after the death of their comrade, McFarlane. Krawczyk hadn't lost sight of her goal, however, and remained steadfastly focused on rescuing the remaining plant workers, as did about half of Squad 9.

Mazurek began the assault, catching the LMG operator with a blast of plasma from his Kosok pistol, which inflicted an absolutely horrific death upon the man before the Corporal came under fire from the other two guardsmen on the floor.

"Fuck! Krawczyk, give me some help here!" Mazurek shouted loudly as he shifted in place to avoid the edges of the pillar that crumbled from the continuous barrage of enemy fire.

The Sergeant sprung into action, letting out a furious scream as she hammered the enemy position with bullets. The two guardsmen ducked behind cover, and she wasn't willing to try to shoot behind the control panels and risk harming the innocents, so most of her rifle rounds would merely impact the concrete and metal of the wall behind them. Right behind, Atlas' heavy footfalls thumped on the walkways, although the fishman held his fire and waited for the proper opportunity.

"Find safety, Krawczyk," he said, placing one hand on her shoulder to alert her of his approach. She ducked out of the way to get behind a pillar, and in the brief gap in the suppressing fire, the upyri reappeared, only to be met with a precision shot to each of their heads. One was only a ricochet of the guardsman's helmet, and Krawczyk finished the job with her pistol. The two hostages scrambled out of cover on their hands and knees, eventually being directed by Mazurek towards the stairway leading them down to safety. The Corporal yelled at them to get through the fence, knowing that allied forces were close by.

Now that the second floor had been cleared of hostiles and civilians, Krawczyk motioned for those who stayed below to regroup on the stairwell in the middle of the southern side of the structure. The rest of the Patrol had already begun to fight its way up the northeastern stairs, but were encountering heavy resistance. Zetter of course led this renewed charge, and took a couple of glancing hits as he pushed up the stairs. Caine and Novy, although under heavy fire, managed to push through with him without taking any bullets, but right behind them, Pvt Bongani took a bullet to the neck and fell backwards into Oberto and Chou.

The third floor was more crowded with pipes and other obstacles than the second. Unbeknownst to Patrol 2, there were no more human workers being held captive by the enemy. All that remained were five elite guardsmen, including Darwin. Despite Novy scoring direct hits on two of these men, their armor took almost all of the impact without even moving them.

Then, frighteningly, all of the lights in the structure went out, leaving nothing but the flashlights' glow on the human's rifles, and the muzzle flashes of the ongoing battle. "That's it, come on up," Krawczyk could hear as she reached the top floor and found herself looking at the concrete wall of the control room. Shining her flashlight up at it, she found a small rectangular opening near the top of the wall, too small to infiltrate through. On the other side, doubtlessly, was the enemy commander.

"We have you surrounded, motherfucker!" the Sargeant called out, grabbing a grenade and pulling the pin.

"Really...? Try it," Darwin warned.

​

Krawczyk didn't hesitate, throwing the grenade up toward the opening in the wall, only for the device to be struck immediately by a bullet from Darwin's pistol. The grenade, having been designed not to arm until several seconds after being thrown as a safety measure against accidental self-fragging, was rendered disarmed by this action as the pieces of the weapon separated and tumbled separately off the walkway and down to the lower floors.

"What the fuck?" Krawczyk said quietly.

Darwin laughed. "I'm coming out to hunt, now, little rabbit."

Outside, the guardsmen amplified their resistance in the dark. Cpl Chou was struck by a bullet and fell wounded back down the stairs, blocking the way for several others and leaving Oberto, Novy, Caine, and Zetter were therefore left pinned down at the top of the stairs in the far northeast of the building while the rest of Patrol 2 struggled to decide whether to follow them up or to take a different set of stairs to the second floor.

 

[Breadman]

"He's pinned down with half his squad now." Mordecai commented as he continued to broadcast his feed to the rest of the Vulture squad.

"Has a knack for doing that." his commander responded with frustration. She was quiet for a few more seconds before speaking again. "Can you extrapolate data from the feed?"

"Like I did for Loren earlier? Yes."

"Can you send it through other channels than ours?"

"It would be simple." The cyborg was wondering what his commander was planning. "Just tell me where to send it."

"Follow my lead." She switched channels from their secure line to their broader forces until narrowing it down to the El'uth channels "This is Sol Vulture Commander Saintclair broadcasting to our allies in the field. Our squad's sniper has been made and is currently unable to give proper cover to the soldiers inside the building, but our technician is able to triangulate enemy positions based off of a camera feed from inside. If we send you the data, can you assist? Over." It was unorthodox, but it had a far better shot at helping evening the odds than the squad just standing there wondering what to do. Mordecai began preparing the data to be send over as soon as their alien allies gave their answer.

 

[Infab]

"This is Sol Vulture Commander Saintclair broadcasting to our allies in the field. Our squad's sniper has been made and is currently unable to give proper cover to the soldiers inside the building, but our technician is able to triangulate enemy positions based off of a camera feed from inside. If we send you the data, can you assist? Over."

It wasn't long before a response came through. "This is Ja'thal, Forward Scout of Clan Xi'Tak. We are able to assist, and wish to deliver swift retribution. Preparing to recieve data on the following encrypted frequency, over." they stated. A string of numbers followed, signifying where to transmit the data.

On the El'uth end, as Ja'thal recieved the data Mordecai began to transmit and put it into a datapad, Ki'mun shifted a bit and slid her sniper rifle aside. "Switching to heavy ordinance." she whispered to her comrade. A moment later, she shifted around to lying on her back as she reached over and pulled a far larger rifle close. It was the anti-vehicular rifle that the pair had brought with them, used to eliminate reinforced positions like bunkers or APCs. Sometimes even light tanks. It would be more than enough to punch through the wall of the structure their foes were currently hiding in. However, it was a single shot bolt action rifle. One foot-and-a-half long cartridge could be placed into the weapon at a time.

She set it up, the butt of the rifle resting in her lap as she leaned forward and pulled the bolt back. From a small satchel next to her, she drew one cartridge. The pointed tip of the large bullet was painted green, with a small ring of grey around the point signifying that it was would pierce the building's wall. The green paint, however, meant that it would detonate once it went through. Upon detonation, the bullet would fragment and send shrapnel at high speed in various directions. Particularly useful for anti-personnel matters. Perhaps that would eliminate a few of the Upyri on the other side.

She slid the cartridge into place, before shoving the bolt back forwards. Then, she sat back and pulled the rifle into her shoulder. The bipod sat between her legs, and her cheek laid on the rest on the stock of the weapon. The scope gave her a clear view of the side of the structure, and soon, Ja'thal was giving her directions on where to aim. She shifted ever so slightly, moving the rifle's barrel to where it needed to be, then said "Ready." as she reached her target. "Three... two... one... Firing."

The rifle made a thunderous crack, the recoil of the shot rocking the El'uth woman and sliding her backwards a few inches on her rear.

--- --- ---
​

Oberto's group heard the shot even inside the building. Whatever the hell it was also briefly scared the hell out of the men under Darwin's command as well, as one of their own suddenly and quite violently exploded into a mess of blood and chunks of flesh. The shot had pierced the concrete, sure. However, it didn't detonate in the room. Instead, it pierced into an upyri soldier's side and detonated inside his chest cavity. The blast ripped him apart, and sent fragments of bone and shrapnel into the area around him. Some bits hit another Upyri soldier nearby, embedding into his arm and parts of his armor. He was fine enough to continue fighting, however. Darwin, sadly, was far enough away in the room to avoid it.

"The El'uth broke out the big gun. Excellent." muttered Adam. The brief shock and pause gave them a moment to act.

"Should we rush them and try to end this? Or pull back and regroup with the others? I can't see shit in here, and Chou needs help." said Sam, looking to Oberto.

 

[joshuadim]

After dealing with the second floor's enemies, Mazurek bounded up the steps with Krawczyk to join the rest of Squad 9 and vented his weapon again. Hot air momentarily blasted against the top edge of his hand before quickly dissipating thanks to the internal cooling, and with a soft whirr it signaled its readiness for action. And just in time as well as the lights were killed by Darwin's hand, leaving them in the literal dark. The Corporal managed to scramble into cover as more gunfire broke out, with shrapnel and bits of concrete peppering him as he tried to orient himself on where to open fire. They were at an inherent disadvantage in this situation, and Mazurek's mind raced as he kept in relative safety of a small barrier that was being chipped away.

A sudden explosion of concrete quickly changed the scenario as the El'uth sniper obliterated one of the Honor Guard into a fine mist with a crack shot. The Corporal didn't have the moment to sing praises as he shot out of cover, using the chaos of the moment to his advantage, and fired at the enemy with a three shot burst. The first went wide, impacting concrete at the far end of the room and melting it on contact. The second hit one of the Honor Guard's legs, forcing him to collapse as he desperately swatted at the straps of his armor before it began to eat into his flesh. He rolled into cover after tossing his leg padding away, barely managing to scuttle out of the way of Mazurek's third shot.

The corporal cursed himself silently for failing to deal with his target and quickly ducked back into cover to vent his weapon again. His current positioning didn't allow for the best angles of attack, which left Mazurek wondering what his next course of action was. He wondered if there was a way to flank the enemy, but his train of thought stopped when he saw how exposed Kang put herself in the heat of the moment. She was firing back with her pistol, but had dangerously positioned herself; Mazurek saw this and quickly dashed over to her, running at quickly as he could before tackling her.

He felt a thud hit his body armor before colliding with the floor, a wave of dull pain radiating from his backside that he ignored for the time being as he helped Kang into cover again. He figured that his armor took the brunt of the impact and that he was fine, and in turn checked up on his compatriot. "You alright?" he asked as enemy fire sailed above them. "Not hit?"