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 pinned down at the top of the stairs. They were trapped at 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?"

 

[K0mori]

"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.

Oberto looked back over his shoulder, but couldn't see his comrades for all the flashlights pointed back in his direction. "Acheson!" he called out.

"Bongani's bleeding out, sir!" the Squad 10 medic replied, desperately.

Oberto clapped Caine on the shoulder. "Get down there and help Chou," he ordered with a fierce nod. Doing as he was told, Caine turned and quickly lowered himself down the first few steps until he met up with the Corporal, who was clutching a bloody patch of her chest where the bullet had struck her. Palencia had stepped over his wounded comrades so that he was now near the top of the stairs with Caine.

"I've got you, hombre!" he assured the medic as he pushed forward to provide cover.

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?"

On the south side of the third floor, Mazurek had taken a bullet meant for Kang. While her position might have been a dangerous one, it succeeded in revealing another one of the enemies who had taken to the southwest corner of the structure in order to trap Squad 9 on two sides. She nodded to Mazurek, her teeth clenched and eyes wide with fear. While Krawczyk focused on the east side, Atlas looked west, both of them suppressing the enemy for the moment as they searched for a path to advance.

Outside, a dull rumbling intensified from somewhere within the spaceport. The enemy was beginning to take off and retreat from the planet. Unsurprisingly, they had waited until the exact moment the Kosok units had breached the terminals and were now beginning to fight on the landing pads against the few Honor Guards who stayed behind, covering the retreat. Among those vehicles, however, was a small dropship which was unsuitable for spaceflight. It neared the fuel plant where the Patrol was engaged and hovered there for a moment, before a massive flood light poured out from the bird's belly and left everyone awash in white.

"GET DOWN!" Oberto screamed, and within an instant, bullets from a machine turret began to sweep the northeast stairwell. Caine ducked down over top of Chou and felt a heavy strike against the armor on his back, deflecting somewhere else into the structure. Another bullet caught Palencia in the leg, and he cried out in agony as he fell forward onto his stomach, but he didn't lose his grip on his gun, and soon was firing at the silhouette of a guardsman at the southeast corner who was caught in two overlapping cones of fire himself. Either Palencia or Krawczyk would cut the upyri down as he struggled to find effective cover with his leg already wounded by Mazurek.

Acheson had rolled out of the way from his seated position and pressed himself against the wall, and he was miraculously unhit. Likewise, Hilmarrson had found a safe position on the second floor to deal with his earlier wound and had escaped a quick death. Bongani, however, was struck multiple times by the ship's cannon and had his chest cavity blown open. By that point, he had lost so much blood from his neck wound that he didn't appear to react; he was likely already dead.

The dropship then moved, relocating itself to directly above the structure before descending near the south side of the building. It seemed to hesitate for a moment as the gunner within watched the targets diverge; Krawczyk was running to the right, toward the southeast corner that she and Palencia had cleared, while Atlas moved the opposite direction, taking point ahead of Mazurek and Kang. This second movement eventually drew the gunship's attention, and as the light around Atlas glowed brighter and brighter, the fishman could sense that he was about to be killed.

Instead, blinded by the flood of light, he crashed through a safety rail and fell from the catwalk, landing on top of one of the chemical mixing tanks and denting it just as the machinegun ripped through the building, nearly hitting one of the upyri's own. "Watch your fuckin' fire!" the guardsman yelled, apparently into his comm unit. Unsurprisingly, the dropship stopped shooting immediately, once again moving to a position above the building.

Atlas, now at a unique angle, lined up the scope on his rifle, and squeezed the trigger several times in a row, blowing holes in that same upyri who had gotten lucky just moments before. The south side of the building was now clear, but there were still two guardsmen at the northwest corner of the building, and Darwin inside of his thick concrete walls- or so the Patrol knew. Zetter pushed forward, moving from the northeast corner to the middle of the north side, firing on the enemy position, but hit nothing but air as he hustled toward cover.

The door on his left, the one which led to the control room, was closed shut. He immediately put two and two together: Darwin must have access to the roof, where he alone planned to escape via the dropship.

 

[Infab]

Another round was loaded into the chamber of the anti-vehicular rifle, and the pair of El'uth prepared to line up another shot on the next Upyri that was still standing inside the structure. However, the sound of an aerial unit made them pause. A dropship, closing in on the structure fast. Soon enough, they heard the sound of the ship's machine guns opening up, then just as quickly going quiet again. They needed to act fast.

The rifle's bipod only allowed for the weapon to fire on targets across or down at an angle from the shooter, so they would need to improvise to hit a dropship. Ki'mun looked to Ja'thal, then pointed to the barrel before making a motion with her thumb upwards. The weapon needed to be elevated. Ja'thal got to work, setting his rifle down before moving over and crouching next to the weapon. He lifted the heavy barrel up, resting it on his right shoulder as Ki'mun adjusted to a kneeling position behind him. Ja'thal then stood, raising the barrel's rifle up to a position where they could hit their aerial target. Now they played the waiting game.

Thankfully, they didn't have to wait too long. The dropship soon came into view, and Ki'mun took quick aim at the cockpit. The ship was moving too much to get a solid bead on the pilot, so she would have to guess the shot. Eventually, she settled on it and squeezed the trigger. Another thunderous crack, and both Ja'thal and Ki'mun fell backwards onto their rears from the pressure and recoil.

Across from them, the dropship drifted into the shot. However, they didn't hit the pilot. Instead, the bullet ripped through the cockput and blew a hole through the co-pilot's chest. The round continued through the ship, tearing through the wall at the back of the cockpit and zipping through the dropship's personnel bay before punching through the door that would open for troopers to enter or exit. Behind the ship, the round finally detonated, creating a puff of black smoke and sending shrapnel into the air in random directions. The pilot reacted as expected, shouting a string of curses before moving the dropship back behind the refinery.

Ki'mun cursed herself, as she ejected the spent cartridge from the rifle. The upyri invaders must pay.

--- --- --- ---
​

Adam took the moment to reload the revolver, flicking the cylinder out and dumping the spent rounds with a slap of the ejector rod. He needed to intercept Darwin, wherever the coward was. Going through the door would be asking to get shot, but it might have been the only way to catch up to him while the others were occupied with the two remaining guardsman to the northwest. He grunted in frustration, as he slipped fresh rounds into the empty cylinder. Once they were loaded, he tossed the empty speedloader aside and flicked the revolver closed.

Well, fuck it. I'm a dead man anyway.

He rushed over to the door, fired a point-blank shot into the door's lock, and gave the door a brutal straight kick to knock it inwards. Time for the hunter to become the hunted.

Meanwhile, Sam tended to Chou as best as he could before moving towards Palencia and their wounded leg. Everyone was likely going to need patching up before this was over. If they all didn't get blown to Hell, that is.

 

[joshuadim]

When Kang gave her affirmation, Mazurek nodded and quickly got back up on his feet as the fighting continued to rage. He took a moment to look at his ammo count, which the display showed as now being disconcertingly low. He silently cursed at himself for not using his weapon more efficiently, realizing he would need to not only choose his shots more carefully but also have to scrounge for more materials... if he survived, that is. Peeking out from cover quickly to get a view of the evolving fight, Mazurek decided to make sure he could get a good shot rather than wasting ammo. As a result he shouted out to the others: "MOVING POSITION! COVER ME!"

Mazurek promptly sprinted out of cover, his concentration laser-focused on finding a proper way to flank the enemy however he could find it. The corporal then noticed their Upyri "guest" pushing ahead by bursting through a door, meaning that attention would be further drawn away from him. And so, Mazurek took the opportunity to round a corner on the third floor and advance to find a good flanking shot on the enemy.

 

[Breadman]

"Honor guard are pulling back, Vultures are in pursuit." Saintclaire announced on the radio before looking to her team. "Man inside or not, we have a job to do. Kill every upiry soldier you see."

"What's the plan?" Mordecai adjusted the holos on his wrist.

"Cid is in front, and we're going to support him."

"Loren here." The familiar raspy voice could be heard over their comms "Have a new vantage point."

"Just in time. You see the dropship?"

"Our new friends scared him enough to make him hide behind the refinery." The sniper sounded annoyed at the development "However." A series of shots rang out "I knew where their snipers were."

"If you see an opening, take the shot." The Vulture commander motioned for her team to move. The time to lay low was over. While the upiry were focusing on the kosoks making their push, the human commandos will hit them in the rear. "New objective-Make them bleed."
---
Inside the refinery Boyan hurried behind his squad. Whatever help they were getting was helping them break through at a rapid pace. Enough to make the Honor guard crumble quickly. unfortunately that came with a degree of overconfidence. The staircase proved to be the biggest obstacle as they were being pinned down. That's when the casualties would start to mount. Moving from the bottom of the staircase, he would take shots when he could at the Honor guard in order to force them back into cover.

By the time Boyan reached the the others, Sam was already helping Palencia. Seeing how the medic was busy, he started dragging Chou to safety.