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RP [Die Screaming] Operation Glass Jaw

Dropship

As Lupin watched the thrashing, screaming enemy sniper's life-essence get sprayed onto the hillside in spurts of hot liquid he simply let out the small bit of air left in his lungs and nodded, before moving on to the more immediate matter of the heavy corpse that was weighing him down. After some squirming and wriggling he got clear enough to push her away with his boot, armoured plates clattering against the rocky divot they'd been wedged in as Lupin took a moment to catch his breath.

Their defensive position hadn't been completely overrun, yet, but he could tell that if they kept losing numbers like this then it wouldn't be too much longer before that eventuality was their reality. With a huff the sniper dragged himself over to the corpse he'd been hiding under and took a knee, fingers wrapping their way around the knife on his chest as the lad paused.

The grip, it felt too familiar, and as all ten inches of the hybrid ka-bar/tanto blade were drawn out he realized why.

It wasn't just any knife. It was his knife, the one his step-father had gifted the young tyke what felt like a lifetime ago.

What did it mean? who had ensured this knife had made its way back to him? Lupin had a lot of questions he needed to choke back down for the time being as he pointed the knife down at the neko's corpse, flipping it around to expose the serrated back-side before he began cutting away at the Neko's wrist, sawing through the protective undersuit and ligaments before the mitten came loose with a wet pop. He didn't waste much time gathering up what looked like a belt of magazines for the particle-rifle and the weapon itself, cold hand still stiffly wrapped around the pistol-grip, as he re-joined the others.

"We need to tighten up our defensive line while we have a chance," he began coldly, his face marred by some dirt that had stuck to the now tacky blood on his face, none of it his own, eyes scanning the hillside opposite them.

"It'll give us the best chance to maintain our numbers until we rejoin with the flank that's trying to take that hill, we keep losing one or two men like we have each time they charge and soon enough they'll overrun us... I reckon we step a few meters back to the ridge closer to the dropship, anyone got a better idea?" he proposed, carefully stepping over the neko that'd been wrapped around William's neck as he inspected his stolen weapon a little more thoroughly, hand wrapped around the dismembered one just in-case his hunch about the weapons being ID-locked was correct.
 
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The Bottom Flank

Tobias moved forward into a position where he could work relatively unobserved, concealed within the main group as it made its way around, finishing off any Nekovalkyria that hadn't had their brains scrambled by lead yet. Given what he'd learned, deactivating his bomb was of no real concern, and he even made sure to set up a spoofing program to make the bomb appear as if it were still active while it was inert.

Bomb deactivated. He sent to Carina, I can do yours and the ones for the tagalongs, it'll be useful to have a group we can trust and this will give us leverage. I'm over by the warden now.

Having finished with the task at hand the operator checked his magazine, swapped it out, and began searching for any weapons he could scavenge from the fallen foes. Soon he had a respectable pile that he planned to provide for the group of the Little Death's surviving marines. As he stopped for a moment and swept the area again, his eyes picked out a heat signature from near Carina and he sent the image in a split second as the Neko thumped on the launcher.

Handle it.
 
Dropship:

William sucked in a lung full of air as the neko was pryed off his neck. "Thanks." He said to Dyna as he grabbed his axe and a shotgun from the ground. When he heard Lupin's suggestion he add. "You're right. Form in tight on the drop ship. Get ready for the next wave!" He ordered.

Flank.

Sebastian smirked as Carina slugged him. He also knew that she wasn't just handing out an idle threat. So when the ID-SOL was given the order to mount the fixed energy weapon. As he got situated on the big gun, he prepared to light up the first group of Nekos that rushed towards the dropship.
 
Carina grunted as she continued to heave Molotra up the hill until Tobias' message came through loud and clear. Disarmed the bomb did he? Her thoughts on the matter lingered for a moment until what he showed her caused the young Sanroma to drop the Molotank unceremoniously to duck and twist herself around. He hadn't needed to tell her to take the Nekovalkyrja out. It was pure instinct at that point. No hesitation. In one smooth motion, one of the hidden knives was in hand and then disappeared. Throwing the blade underhand, Carina put more than a little force behind the throw right toward the catgirl's furry-eared head. And if that didn't finish the little doll off... the ZARC that was now leveled on the pitiful thing would.
 
Dropship

"No problem!" She said running back to her poor abandoned MG. Dyna suddenly felt very naked without her machine gun and she hoped that Quilly had cared enough to defend it. She had no doubt in the Elysian's ability to hold back the horde. The entire time she was preparing to grab her gun and scoop up as much of her ammo as possible before joining the rest of the squad at the ship. She hoped to get back there and drop prone to lay into the Nekos' legs to build a little tripping hazard for their charge.
 
Dropship - Dyna, Quilly, Lupin, William

With the threat of an overwhelming pussy-wave overtaking them the ground-team made a steady beat back to the dropship. Mob mentality and instinct took over as most of the marines huddled inside of the ship and made the best firing line and killbox they could at the sole entrance. With little left outside but a suicide wish Dyna, Quilly, and Lupin were forced to join the herd in their desperate last stand or risk being the first victims.

None of them vocalized that it was equally likely that the cats would find some kind of ordinance to crack the ship and broil them alive as it was for them to just pincussion the thing full of holes and turn the occupants into a macabre mockery of swiss cheese.

"Shit!" One marine spat at nothing and nobody in particular.

"Fuck." Another agreed in a reserved Montone.

"Sit on it, both of ye!" A female marine cursed back.

It wasn't but a moment later that the shooting outside started. Loud popping and the tearing sounds of a heavy energy weapon erupted but little actually physically hit the ship as it continued. Not all was peaceful inside the ship, however, as a lance of energy cut a diagonal line through the top of the ship and straight through the floor; Cutting a self-sealing gash in the ship as it passed through the entire length of the dropship in one quick fluid motion.

Luckily it passed through the front of the ship closest to the approaching cats and farthest from the entrance so did little more than scaring the bodily fluids out of some already on-edge marines and spike the temperature inside the ship by ten degrees. The marines inside the ship were not left unmolested however when a particularly nimble and stealthy neko managed to breach through the previously closed cockpit that had been overlooked and with a sweeping motion unloaded a particle weapon in the tight confines of the ship causing everyone to dive and scatter regardless of the lack of actual cover in the open seating bay.

Surprisingly the one least in danger despite taking the first damage was Quilly; As she found her spot nearest the cockpit door very unlucky as the door hit her directly in the face with all the force a military-grade Neko's boot could manage. The immediate stars exploding in her vision were only topped by the actual pain and a concerning crunching noise and sensation from her nose as she was knocked on her backside by the door.

Overwatch - Tobias, Carina, Molotra, Otto, Sebastian.

Carina's knife did strike its target in a way but not as lethally as initially intended. The blade stuck directly into the side of the wounded cats face and sunk half-deep into her cheek but did little more than causing the cat to thrash with the renewed vigor of a second wind.

It was cut short by the follow-up from her ZARC.

Close enough to Molotra and Carina to inspect the girl was clearly dead; Few managing to survive having half their skull blown away. Coincidentally Carina's knife was undamaged by the salvo and was immediately recoverable. Whichever of them chose to retrieve it from its impromptu flesh-sheath inside the nekos jaw would have quite the struggle ahead of them as the death-bite of the poor cat had sunk so hard on the blade it had separated the space between teeth and embedded slightly in the jawbone.

The only other item noteworthy about the now-dead final cat was its now slack grip on what appeared on closer inspection to be some kind of light anti-tank weapon or launcher. The weapon was little more than a sleek matte-gray tube as long as a mans arm and only slightly larger in circumference. There was little guess as to how the weapon was fired as a simple lever-trigger was already depressed into an armed position and only needed to be pressed after aimed through a simple ladder-style aiming reticle.

While all this was going on Sebastian was able to crouch awkwardly over the heavy particle gun; The weapon elevated and sized for literal girls almost half his height and several times below his size and weight. Awkwardly grasping the weapon he found it to be not too heavy that he couldnt carry it like any normal heavy-weapon if only the power-source attached to it with sturdy looking cables roughly the size of a car-battery could be mounted or offset somehow.

Regardless Sebastian was able to awkwardly slip his pinky-finger; The only of his fingers small enough to fit in the trigger guard and aim it down the line at the still unsuspecting charge. Seeing he was ready, Easy and the others leveled their weapons and unleashed hell on the enemies in the open as immediately bodies dropped or flailed.

Pulling the trigger Sebastian was instantly shown why despite the strength of the Neko the weapon was still on a tripod. The weapon bucked and kicked up instantly and the constant and unbroken beam of energy cut past the cat he had been aiming at; Cutting off one of its legs at the knee, and pulling directly up and away.

Where it cut directly through the front of the ship...

With no time to do more than cringe and now expecting the pull of the weapon, Sebastian was easily able to get it under control; Needing only to draw it down on a target without cutting the ship in half a second time...

There was little else for anyone to do but shoot.
 
Light maiming from a slightly heightened elevation

The world's smallest APC still seemed to be sleep-rolling up the hill as Carina pushed them the rest of the way, neither thanking them or opening fire on the broken neko. Maybe thanking them in the middle of a firefight was unprofessional, but-

A feeling like the twang of piano wire hit the back of Carina's skull. Tobias felt the other end of that sensation, distantly.

The armour-clad hermit crab of Molotra's form was picking up the anti-tank weapon in reality, but there was a distinct feeling that she was now somehow looking directly at the nepleslian cyborg through the back of her helmet-... That and-... almost like, breathing? A tired, raspy presence, leaning towards her?

-"Careful, you two."- It was a mindware connection, but the address seemed to be constantly changing. The communication model was also more complex and animalistic. A rat chewing on the open dataflow, like gnawing on a live wire. -"I can't tell what you are talking about, but the fact that you are having a private conversation is obvious."-

Another data stream was sent simultaneously. Firing solutions, but obvious ones. She was covering all three of their tracks.

"Medic Carina... You put your metal on the inside for some reason..." A ponderous tone, rasping through the heavy mask, whilst they gandered at Sebastian's new toy and tried to make heads or tales of how it worked. "You should use my body as cover."

Their twin gun-arm open fired then, simply hosing the advancing swarm below. Unlikely that she'd hit much at this range, but it hopefully added to the degenerate creature's confusion and desire to get back to cover. The neko weapon she saved for something more specifically deserving.
 
Remember the Alamo

Lupin had been laying down some hate with his newly acquired particle rifle, bracing the sleek thing against part of the rapidly decaying dropship and blowing holes out of anything unfortunate enough to be hit. Unfortunately it was a weapon he was still largely unfamiliar with, so while he did manage to vaporize a few of the oncoming Nekos more rounds than he'd like to admit just ended up blowing manhole-sized craters out of the hillside.

He'd been about to squeeze the trigger to let loose another burst when the rifle let out a sad little electronic chirp, a red indicator of some type lighting up above the trigger, marked by some Yamataian-looking writing he was struggling to read with all the chaos going around. Maybe the barrel was too hot and it'd shut down to go into some cooling cycle, or maybe he finally needed to figure out how to replace that magazine? Lupin didn't have time to find out as a beam of energy threatened to take his head off, the panicked sniper throwing himself down at the last second to avoid an early grave and scrambling back deeper into what was left of the dropship, some additional sweat carving channels through the blood and dust stuck to his face as Lupin sat there for a moment, panting from the shock of yet another close call.

Unfortunately he didn't have the luxury of taking a second to steel his nerves, nor retrieve his pilfered weapon to get it working again, instead an armoured boot kicked in the cockpit door and sent Quilly tumbling into a heap. Each shot from the neko's particle weapon would brighten up the dropship's dim interior, and subsequently Lupin as he launched upright. In one fluid motion the sniper ripped his knife out of its sheath, span it around in his palm, and braced his other hand against the knife's pommel as he exploded towards the intruder. With the momentum of a police-trained Gunnhund Lupin threw himself forwards, teeth gritted as the blade sunk into her neck and a few inches emerged out the other side, bloodied and ever so slightly nicked from having severed the catgirl's neck from the rest of her spine.

The weapon fired once more as the Neko collapsed with a wet gurgle, Lupin falling with her and ripping the blade out only to ice-pick it right back into her neck, again and again and again to make sure she wasn't getting back up, his white-knuckled grip unrelenting even as the young man's hands grew slick with femtomachine-laden blood.
 
Dropship? More like Drop Dead

Quilly was taking stock as the Neko started assaulting the ship. The fighting outside blew through most of her HE rounds, and blasting a few groups of reds into paste consumed all but three of her actual grenades. She was loading up a mag a' plasma when a THUNK against the door next to her grabbed her attention. That hesitation resulted in the door slamming into her brown-skinned face at approximately painful speeds, the birb hitting her butt on the ground as a hand clutched at her smashed-up nose. She didn't get to look for a few seconds, but since she'd not gotten any holes in her chest she had to guess someone managed to cover the breach for her.

Speaking of.

Once the blue-eyed birdie finally have functional perception again, she found out that her savior was a rather menacing-looking sniper holding a wicked blade. Well, holding wasn't the right word, as Lupin was very busy sawing off a catgirl's head at the neck. Violently. VERY violently.

Scared as she was, Quilly figured that whatever was going on with Lupin wasn't gonna get her killed yet, and she's made two too many mistakes today. Rule of three, she'll die if she makes another. Soon as another lithe-framed cat tried the same "break in through the pilot canopy" trick, Quilly tore her in half with three bolts of supercharged gas, and spat to the side.

Not a third mistake.
 
Carina retrieving her knife as Molotra decided to claim her new explosive toy grunted. And frankly, she didn't understand what the 'spacer meant about wearing her metal on the inside. How it may or may not have some relevance to something about the squeaky-voiced roller of violence felt or believed in. But her determined expression soured. That damn voice was now in her head giving warnings and plucking wires. A petulant fit began to erupt as Molotra's real voice tickled her ears.

And by the end of it had evaporated.

"Screw that!" was her answer to the little (if still looking tanky) Freespacer. "We'doin this without'ya bein' a literal shield," her rifle soon clacked in response. Once there was the whine and dull thump from the gun's plasma launcher. But it being in shorter supply kept mostly in reserve.
 
While the firefight, the waves of cats, and subsequent counter-ambushes might have felt like an eternity when the last rifle finally stopped firing only five minutes had passed from the first shot to the last. Smoke had rolled in from fried systems and the dropships now damaged engines mixed in with the kicked up dirt and sand and powder from the ground and finally smoke and other grenades parting the area finally began to clear with an acrid sheen of smoke that had hung lazily above the ground.

All the bodies had stopped moving as one-by-one marines from both the hill and now the dropship moved amongst the dead and put down those thrashing women who all appeared too-young when one came across one without their mask who yet clung to life. They were too dangerous to try to capture, too much of a risk to approach.

Of the marines some thirteen lay dead around the dropship; The neko leaving no survivors first.

There wasnt much actual wargear or spoils to scavenge. Each neko was surprisingly light on ammo and essentials which Easy came to the conclusion meant they were a quick reaction force designed to move light and fast and intercept the dropships. How neko being as strong and fast as they were needing to travel light was anyones guess, but nobody gave a better guess.

All in all there was enough scavenged battery analogs not damaged for a few particle rifles to kit out two marines who had lost their kit and couldn't find their weapons and jumped at the opportunity to take xenotech. The kits of the dead marines was divied up amongst the survivors until everyone was only a little bit lighter off than they started. There was both woefully and luckily no ordinance amongst the cats lest it would have been used on the marines earlier save Molotra's new tubular weapon that after some glaring she was able to keep.

Sebastians awkward energy-beam weapon was still functional and was loaded up amongst a few marines between carrying the weapon, the tripod, and the batteries. If they ran into trouble again it could be a force multiplier that made up for their now 4/5ths of a platoon after just one fight.

And they were expected to last several days at least...

Of the wounded there were only two, luckily. Quilly had dodged having her nose broken, but it certainly felt like it was not-notbroken. The other was a marine who caught a neko's knife through the palm of his hand and with the cats incredible strength had literally pinned his hand into his shoulder. The star-patterned blade making both wounds awkward for Carina to close and needed more than a single dose of medical nanites.

"Cant stay here, we move north towards where we saw the next ship go down." Easy decided, her tone and finality rousing all the convict marines. "We regroup with them and move north towards the outskirts of Mgwalf'r where the Warden should be rallying the rest of the corps."

She didnt mention how the fighting had stopped at some point right before the counter-ambush, or how its just as likely the cats overran the other ship. And didnt give anyone time to broach the subject before she started off and made it clear she expected everyone to follow if they didnt want their heads exploding.

"Shouldn't we bury em?" Rhindol the massive Rhino of a mutant grumbled too loud to keep to himself. Easy paused and looked from him to the nearest corpse of a marine; A plastic tarp draped over the body. "Aint right 'a just leave em."

"Ground here's all rock. And we cant spare to carry them." She gave him a glossy-eyed if annoyed stare before starting off again with a just barely audible "They wont be the last."

The trip north was a rather arduous hike over sharp and craggy terrain and then over too-deep ravines that went to deep only the dark greeted them as they made their way the few kilometers to the next drop site. The sun had began to set which gave the marines concerns about what awaited them in the dark before a much more distant, smaller and slightly more orange sun then rose and basked the land in an only slightly darker twilight that played ominous shadows all across the almost-desert. It was almost two hours until they came to overlook the next ship and what greeted them made many a stomach churn.

Bellow was a wreck of a dropship torn in two where it had cracked against a low and rocky outcrop. Mangled bodies lay splayed in a line where they were flung out of one half that now sat in a burning wreck. The other half was in better shape and there were clear signs some made it out at first. The black char marks and grooves on the ground and rocks, and the bisected and punctured bodies of the few marines who made it out clearly marked their fate when an NMX QRF force had made it and beset upon them. Carefully making their way down when no sign of the neko was seen it became clear that more than a few marines had tried to hunker down and fight from inside the dropship.

The hundreds of holes seared through the hull of the ship and the ones that made it through were clear indicators while the brutal carnage only a neko could display came to others.

"Salvage what you can, three minutes." Was all Easy had to say about the scene. From the dead now everyone was twice-loaded with more ammo, rations, and thankfully; Water. Unfortunately, no comms had yet been established enough to breach the hills and drops, or else nobody was listening.

It was during this time of salvage and comms tinkering that the next attack came. It was not Neko QRF teams this time.

It was worse in a way when a marine seemingly tripped. It garnered little attention until someone noticed he didnt get up.

"Sniper!" Someone cried and marines began hitting the ground looking for cover. When nothing else came a few brave souls staggered onto their knees and looked about. Some movement from the fallen marine got their attention and they cursed.

Penetrating just under the mans armpit and currently digging its way into his chest cavity was a long object of clear biological origin with more than a few tentacles still flapping about looking for purchase.

"Para-" One man began to scream before something hit him in the chest and sent him flying back several feet; The long flailing mass of tentacles penetrating his jugular and thick as his arm a mirror image of the first one.

Pandemonium erupted as dark shapes began moving all around the perimeter of the crash site as Mishu Parasites came out of crevices and from under rocks and began launching themselves into their midst.

"Dont panic, form a-" Easy was drowned out by the mania as Marines paniced and began trying to track their rifles left and right. One marine going so far as to open fire on a flying parasite as it flew by her and catch two other marines in her automatic fire. She flew to the side as if yanked by a rope when a parasite hit her directly in the gut and didnt even leave her enough air in her lungs when it knocked the breath out of her to scream as it went into doing its gruesome work.
 
Knee Deep in the Dying

Tobias discarded his rifle, letting it fall on its sling as he retrieved his combat shotgun from its stowed position and began to back away from the onrushing wave of parasites slowly but carefully. His shots were measured, pellets of twelve-gauge buckshot shredding parasites before they could reach his body and perform their grisly duty. Until a measured response was enacted he would be on his own. Well, except for the crew of the small death.

No time to be secretive around things. He thought, as he dropped to one knee to reload as the shotgun gave a dreadful and hollow Click. "Marines, over here!" He called, hoping his words would reach the ears of those he knew he could trust. "I'm reloading!" As he shouted above the screams, he sent Carina a message, hoping it would also reach the Freespacer. I'm over by the warden, My shotgun's doing the job but I need help.
 
Towards The Dropship

Molotra trundled towards the source of the signal, whilst slinging the anti-tank weapon over their shoulder. The acoustics of the gravel here had a messy, crunchy dampness that was oddly off-putting. Probably easy for the monsters to dig through... But also good for her tracks.

-"Roger, Tobias. I will move to assist you."- A dispassionate response through her own mindware. -"Suggest getting to higher ground, even if it's the dropship roof. Primitive animal-type forms traditionally cannot climb well."- The irony was lost on them.

The man's warning brought two thoughts to mind. The first was that other damn insect-infested planet... It seemed almost quaint now, how that used to give her nightmares... The second was that that request for a flame thrower was feeling doubly justified.

Replaced the magazines on their twin rifles. Two spares left, including one she'd picked up during the previous scrounging session...

Reached near the shattered halves of the dropship, now. Opened fire on the horrific swarm at thirty paces, despite being out of angle to see their intended target.

Hoped to heck that Carina was still behind her, covering her back...
 
In the shit:

William cursed and threw himself behind cover. "Everyone find cover! Then find me that fucking sniper!" The ID-SOL bellowed with his massive lungs. He then began to open fire with his handgun.

Sebastian cursed and also threw himself down. He took his machine gun and began spewing fire towards the enemy horde that was quickly approaching. "That all you got! Bring it on motherfuckers!"
 
Sluglund:

With the little bit of scavenging they'd been allowed to do Lupin managed to get his hands on a two-tone Styrling Special .45 that had stove-piped on it's previous owner's first shot, after a bit of applied persuasion he was able to pry it from the dead marine's dead grip alongside a few extra magazines, not enough but it'd make for a nice compliment to his bolt-action. Much like his previous pistol the owner had stuck the grip-safety down in its depressed position, though instead of a bit of tape they'd used what looked like some kind of cable sleeve that'd been cut up a bit to better fit the grip.

Lupin had little time to further appreciate this as the first marine fell, and more began falling, prompting the crouched lad to quickly clear the jam so that he had some kind of auto-loader in the fight as the shapeless masses of writhing tentacles grew in number. The young sniper made his way over to the remains of the dropship, narrowly side-stepping a fleshy missile and pumping three hollow-points into its slimy body before Lupin threw himself over the mangled wing, hitting the ground next to Tobias with a grunt of discomfort.

"They must've left these here for us, knowing we'd come investigate," Lupin groaned as he got into a low, crouched position behind the twisted wing, looking around his immediate area for any signs of more buried creatures before realizing how pointless that was amidst all the left-over carnage of battle, letting out a defeated little huff as he performed a tidy little retention reload on the recently acquired handgun.

"I doubt there even is a sniper~ we haven't heard any energy weapons discharged yet, they're probably expecting us to be easy pickings... they're clever," was the last thing Lupin had to say before adjusting his grip on the pistol, taking shots at the speedy little bioweapons whenever he saw the opportunity, they needed to get to solid ground but he also knew that trying to reposition would likely not end well.

The parasites had a homefield advantage, one which got the cogs in Lupin's head turning, prompting him to wordlessly disappear into the dropship in an attempt to get to its cockpit

Hoping something, anything, would still be functional enough to turn the tide - even if it was only the flare launchers.
 
They infest marines too, Jimmy

Just as she'd crouched down in preparation to take a breather, the first xeno hit. Then, as Quilly was attempting to get her nose bleed under control, the screams started.

The half-Yamatai birb stood up just slowly enough for a parasite to go flying over her head - had she been a normal size, she'd be dead on contact. Instead, she ducked again, took a rock, and beaned the infectious SOB with a hardy throw as it bumped into the dropship. Between a rock and a hard place, as literally as possible. She saw Lupin making a scramble for the shelter of the dropship - but in its torn up condition, the little parasites would only have the advantage, crawling in from every nick, every tear in the structure. She squinted - two, four, ten... A lot of targets, and it's too chaotic to try to be smart.

A pin dropped onto the ground. Quilly pitched a fastball 'nade directly at the group of Xenos, taking out a dozen parasites as well as a half-infested soldier who'd already gone down, his screams of agony cut off with a blast of heat and light and shrapnel. Repositioning, the quail found herself next to her officer, her HE projectiles splashing multiple Reds at once - small as they were, the saturation of the field was going to work in her favor.

"We're exposed out here, they're gonna keep picking us off like this!"
 
I got Nothin'



Carina watched for a moment as chaos reigned. Before, she had almost voiced her opinion on Rhindol's remark. She too wanted to bury the dead. And the disregard for life was another tally mark against Easy being left alive. But that was for another time. Another place. For now, now parasitic flying, larval tentacle monsters floated about causing havoc. Once or twice she saw a marine go down screaming as they burrowed into them. Whatever she had grabbed from the crash site could wait as one of the creatures bolted toward her at top speed.

Quicker than a snake, quicker than thought, the medic snatched the disgusting little bastard out of the air. The thing squirmed, thrashed, and gnashed its mouth at her. One managed to sink pierce her arm and all she could do was grin evilly, devilishly at it. What should have taken effect did nothing but annoy her as her now enhanced physiology shrugged it off. With a sickening crunch of carapace, the brief struggle was over as hemosynthetic fluid dripped on her hand and wiped it away Carina levered her rifle. Panic was in the air, people had shot others in their blind fear. But a few, members of her crew it seemed to be keeping a cooler head.

Tobias received no response from her in the verbal or in this case communicative sense. But he'd clearly through the contact saw what she had just done. And what had just happened to her. Shrugging off toxins and crunching it in a bare hand. But in response to him, a gush of blue flame erupted from the under barrel of her rifle. The thrum of plasma and gush of heat crisped a few as she steadily moved backward.

When finally she DID respond. But more to Molotra. -'They fuckin' float lil'tank!'- the communique lace with annoyance and just a little thrill of adrenaline-fueled excitement. As if to add to that she let forth another gush of superheated, ionized gas as she backed up further keeping pace and checking her sides and six at regular intervals. When the charge from the plasma cartridge had been spent, the medic let it fall free and another replacing the expended fuel. Molotra had lamented on not having a flamethrower. And now her newest bestest friend had a plasma thrower and used it liberally in short, well-timed bursts.

But she did roar back at William, "Shut'tha fuck up y'daft bastard!" letting a sniper, an enemy sniper know you knew they were out there somewhere? Not a good thing by a mile on a purely practical basis. But they had one of their own. One with special peepers would help. She wasn't in charge. But if Carina had been. The girl wouldn't have ordered a line formed. But a damned circle, one in which all sides could be watched. All sides and able to retreat. Or a square. But that'd be too easy as Easy would probably place herself in the center to cover her own STD-riddled ass.

No. This was a good chance to see the bitch die if possible and solve her problem. And Tobias' and the rest of her crew.

"What's tha'sayin' you Folk use? 'Back'ta Chaptah'One?'" Carina called behind her to Molotra.
 
Parasite ambush

With twilight passed the ambush turned in what felt like seconds from a dim and confusing debacle into full-blown pandemonium as the stress of flying squidlings kept everyone too on their toes to take a single finger off their weapons or take even a modicom of attention from their surroundings to apply light to the field.

At least most of them.

In the near absolute dark that sprang on them broken only by muzzle flashes a flare burst to life in their midst in the hands of the chameleon mutant Rungo. Holding it above his head the battle came into better contrast and while it only threw a short circle of light out that pulsed brighter and darker randomly as it burned he suddenly dropped it and began to weave as he became the object of attention for every tadpole around them suddenly darting at him near the speed of a bullet.

With something to rally on most of the marines formed a semi-circle around the flare with the dropship at their back while a few still live wounded scrambled into the protective circle and made themselves useful throwing flares, flashlights, even a lantern all around them to create a bright killing field for several meters.

At some point, the fighting tapered and simply died off. The defensive line held even then and didnt disperse after it became clear that dark shapes still scampering in the dark and clattering sounds on rocks and debris made it obvious there was still parasites out there just out of sight waiting for opennings. Equally concerning was the number of marines actually holding the line as only some ten bodies held up in the circle while only four remained wounded inside of it.

From some of the shapes still visible just barely in the edge of the scattered lights there were now twice as many bodies as there had been before.

And some of them were moving.

Corpses twitched or writhed as long tadpole shapes buried themselves into corpses and even in one instance a marine still barely alive; Perhaps unconscious, perhaps too wounded to call out, began to thrash and make muffled sounds no living being should ever make as a form began to bury itself through her navel, her one working limb failing to make purchase on the creature as bloody hands slipped off smooth carapace until it was no longer visible. The act took only seconds and before the bullet took the poor girl in the temple and ended her misery only too late to save her such suffering in time.

Nobody took their gaze inwards to see the shot, and none would have admonished the shooter even if they did.

"The flares!" Somebody shouted as the very first flare thrown by Rungo started to fade out and extinguish, more already beginning to look weak and fading.

"Shit what do we do?!" Someone else demanded, the desperate sound of a lighter flipping as someone tried to ignite a spare shirt for at least some kind of fire light with the closest flare too dangerous to venture towards.

"Flares! We need more flares!"

"Burn anything we can, get a fire going!"

"I can't find my light! Has anyone seen my light?!"

"Wheres the sergeant? Fuck, LT what do we do?!"

"Welp, we're boned."

The night was only just beginning, and it became obvious to those few like lupin, carina, and tobias, who could actually see somewhat in the dark that should the dark encroach again and the surviving marines be forced into another fight in the pitch-dark it would spell only one possible conclusion...
 
Dropped Ship

A guttural "fuck~" escaped Lupin's lips as he found where the cockpit should have been, apparently having been sheared off at some point on its way down, prompting the sniper to quickly slam the door shut and scurry back to the sad remains of the penal marines. What he saw froze the eugenics-borne prince's blood and made his jaw drop, beyond the quickly failing flames was a large, writhing mass of parasites as far as the eye could see. A squirming sea that moved over, through and apparently repurposed the corpses of fallen fighters into puppets of twisted meat and armour that slumped ever closer.

It was an unimaginable horror that'd burrow into his greymatter and live with the young man for the rest of his life, as short as it was seeming it might be, maybe it was his ragged state but this seemed like the kind of threat that'd be met with a planet cracker rather than a few dropships full of bodies. No war of attrition would wear down an enemy that used the corpses of your comrades against you~

It took a few blinks for Lupin's senses to return to him and for the young man to realize how slack his jaw had been, with gritted teeth and a very audible gulp he turned back towards the dropship and quickly clambered up one of the twisted wings, empty pistol clattering against the hull as Lupin's hands desperately tried to pry open a panel marked by 'NSMC' and then a series of alphanumeric characters.

All his struggling to open the inch-thick plate had done little more than fuck up his fingertips and slick the surface with his blood, the young sniper whipping his head back around to the surviving soldiers with a wild look of desperation in his retro-reflective eyes as he yelled out, "Quilly! fuck, someone! I need plasma to crack this chaff pod open with!" came Lupin's hoarse voice, waving over anyone he could convince to go along with his desperate attempt to hold out just a little longer.

Letting loose a cloud of burning magnesium seemed like as good a plan as any right now, hopefully anyone still fit enough to fight was close enough to the ship that they wouldn't be caught in its path~
 
Maggot Attack Zone -> Dropship

Took some time for Molotra to realise what Carina's comments actually entailed. These weren't random wild creatures at all. Mishu bioweapons. Training did not cover this. No mindware connection to find more data on them.

Gunfire spat from their right arm in three round bursts. A virulent, coiling worms was shredded.

Another suddenly jutted right into their gorget, embedding into the metal- Slowed to non-lethality, but gaining a purchase that let them coil around her left arm.

Grunting, pulse pounding so hard she felt it in her eyeballs- the tank stifled a scream whilst feeling their fleshy elbow wrenched painfully back-

"Fuck- Tobai-are you- LUP-"

Right arm strained, bending the cumbersome joint so hard it felt like she was going to break the hydraulic lines- She finally got the shiv-attachment into a position where it could jab at the thing's writhing body- slowly, awkwardly sawing through the gap in the carapace at the back of the arrow-shaped thing's head.

Grotesque thing finally broke in two, allowing her to yank the needle out of their neck armour and into the approaching gloom.

Running on pure instinct. Everything felt broken.

Didn't know what direction was what anymore. Had no concept of even trying to save Tobias.

Dark. Her eyes? No, the planet. They did that.

Ran over a lump in the mud that felt suspiciously like a body part. The meat moved by living reflex, but sickeningly twisting in all the wrong ways.

Fired at a blisteringly fast shadow. And again. Thi- Both rifles clicked, empty.

Yelling. Desperate. Somebody clawing at a service panel. Lupin. It was Lupin Kennedy.

Picking up speed as they went from mud to blood-smeared decking, Mototra smashed into the panel at full force. Metal fingers sheared into the new dent, her tracks reversing to give them the traction in winching it away...
 
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