Futuristic Starpath X: For All Mankind

[DG-117]

AUTO-262 gave a simple nod to Mazurek's hand signals and join the file at the rear. Its optics closely scanning the area as it readied its weapon.

 

[SniperComZero]

Aveline took a long, deep breath after silence fell over the street around them. Her stare blanked out towards the trooper who had just about flanked her and-- by some stroke of luck, hadn't managed to pop a couple of rounds into her. God. Maybe she's just a little too on edge to be thinking about this kinda stuff like this. Her hand wrapped around the carry handle, and though it certainly felt lighter with a good half a belt less of lead stuffed into it, that didn't ease the tremor in her hands any. Silver linings at least dictated she was unscratched, so she was comfortable enough taking the stairs up to one of the suite rooms, weapon drawn at her hip, and checking around every corner-- both bedroom and bathroom.

Satisfied enough that there shouldn't be anyone else in there with her, she settled up by the window overlooking their entrance point, bipod dropped to the windowsill, and fiddling with her sights.

 

[bat_hacker]

Atlas rolls to search the building for enemies or items (Likely): 4/2 - Passed.

His heavy suit clunking along the concrete walkway on the exterior of the building, Atlas checked through each of the windows as he passed for anything the squad ought to be concerned with. For the most part, the rooms were empty. However, as he neared the room on the opposite corner of the building, which would presumably have an equally expansive view as the one which the unit was currently occupying, he noticed a large mass under the covers of the bed. Smashing the locked door open, with his shoulder, he entered wordlessly with his pistol drawn, but the lump did not move at his approach.

With his off hand, he pulled the blanket back to find another upyri soldier lying dead, and from appearances, it had been this way for maybe a day. A patch on the upyri's shoulder bore the marking of a corporal. Looking up, Atlas noticed that there was a medical supply kit on a nearby table which had been gone through; while some materials such as bandages and a suture kit had been taken, there was plenty of unused material. He placed the cover back down over the corporal's head and pieced together what had happened: this upyri fireteam had entered the motel, perhaps while separated from its own squad, its leader wounded and dying. A desperate attempt had been made to save his life, and when that failed, the other two men left him here and relocated to the opposite corner.

It didn't bode well. They must have called for support at some point during the preceding day, which could not have come during the bombardment the city received ahead of the human attack. But that bombardment had concluded just before Squad 9's arrival. The enemy could come at any moment, now.

Atlas took the medkit and left the way he had come, heading back toward the sergeant's position.

Atlas plodded his way back up the hallway towards the rest of his party, the boots making dull, rhythmic thumps reverberate through the water in his dive suit. He had been told on a number of occasions that his movement on land lacked subtlety, even with the dampened footcups on the boots and specialized programming to assist with balance and foot placement. Fishmen had, over their history, observed the patterns and movements of Goldloch's landlocked and amphibious creatures. It was a common activity for younglings to imitate these movements underwater and have others guess which animal they were mimicking. Atlas, a little too eager to grow up in his youth, had discarded the game early as contemptable child's play and took quickly to games of chase, hide-and-seek, and mock fighting with the other boys, the activities he believed would most make him a competent warrior. He had long since learned to appreciate the irony in struggling to imitate a human's gait to fight his battles now.

Upon his return he placed the medical kit on a nearby counter to free up his hands and addressed the sergeant and the rest of the fireteam.

"Troop leader, fellow warriors, I have knowledge I wish to share with you. In this dwelling lies an enemy whose light has left him. The body is pallid and stiff, but it is not rotting. It has been resting for no more than a day. He bears the clan mark signifying a war leader of great renown, and a grave attempt was made to save his life. The mending was not performed by the trained hand of a medicine man. They may have signaled for assistance. If that is true, any help would have been waylaid by our falling stars. If they choose to come now, we should be ready."

He gestured to the medical supply kit. "I have also found this. It is not a whole fish but there is still good meat there."

 

[K0mori]

Caine uses a health kit: Health fully restored.

Setting himself up in front of the wall-mounted mirror just above the dresser of the motel room, Caine laid out the supplies inside his kit and examined his head. A rather nasty bruise was forming on a bloody split on his forehead, the sickly coloration disappearing into his hairline near his right temple. The injury, it seemed, had been caused not by the bullet itself, but the impact of his helmet's rim against the side of his head. After some cleaning with alcohol, Caine applied a superglue-like solution to the split in his skin, a bandage, and then snapped an endothermic cooling packet and wrapped it into an elastic band. Wrapping it around his head brought cooling relief to the swelling. After putting his helmet back on, he took out a pill from a paper pouch labeled "concussion treatment" and swallowed it without water.

The medicine, he knew, would help prevent severe brain injury from the impact.

Atlas came trudging into the room, carrying a message as well as additional medical supplies. Krawczyk listened calmly, nodding at the fishman's report. "That sounds about right," she grumbled. "They were bound to take up position against us after the airstrikes were finished either way, but if they lost a CO here, then we don't want linger longer than we have to. So, let's see if we can get this drone up and running. It would give us a major advantage if we're going to cut through their lines, but we'll just pack it up and take it with us if we can't. We can figure it out later if it comes to that."

Kang looked out the window, nervously. "Sarge, how long do you think we have?"

"Hell if I know," Krawczyk replied with a shrug. "I'd say we have exactly as long as it takes Mazurek to report his position. Then we'll move out and catch up. Atlas, good work. Work with Kang to take control of this drone. Champlin can help me watch the streets. Caine, you sit tight and let that pill do its job. How are you feeling, anyway?" she asked as she moved up to one of the windows on the building and began to look down her scope at the street where they had been fighting the marines beforehand. Champlin did the same at the opposite side of the room, on the same side as the door.

Krawczyk rolls to keep watch (Likely): 2/2 - Passed.

Over the next several minutes, Krawczyk watched the street for movement, still wondering if there was a remote control on the body of one of the dead marines. After a while, it was clear that there were no enemies on that side of the building, which gave her some relief.

Champlin rolls to keep watch (Likely): 3/2 - Passed.

Her LMG positioned on the sill of a window along the best line of sight available in the suite, Champlin had a commanding view of the street below. After some time, there was a plume of smoke out of a building roughly a block away, as the sound of combat on the air grew louder. It wasn't long before an enemy armored vehicle rounded the corner, an entire squad of eight upyri following in its footsteps. Her eyes widened as she realized that she wouldn't be able to lay down enough firepower on her foes alone to keep them at bay, especially at this long of a distance.

---
​

Following Mazurek's hand signal, Novy stepped up quietly to the door and gently gripped the handle, pushing it open ever-so-slightly. The sound of movement and tools clanking against work surfaces grew much louder, and from the sound of things there were at least two, maybe three people in the room beyond. Peeking around the edge of the doorframe, Novy could see that several upyri vehicles were parked in the garage bays, and in the dim, improvised light, there were three mechanics at work, dressed in uniform without armor. The first and closest was in a pit below the nearest vehicle, working on the undercaraige, while the other two were milling about on the opposite side of the garage. There was no sign of work being done on robots, but they would need a closer look to be sure of it.

Novy silently communicated "three" using hand signals to warn his comrades of the situation.

He looked back and checked for a safe path for entry. There was an alcove in the wall to his right, with shelving tucked into the space there and another row of storage shelves separating that area from the rest of the garage. It was perfect; not only would it provide visual cover for the trio, but it was probably where most of the spare parts were located anyway. He waited for the closest mechanic to turn his back, and then slipped into the room toward the parts section.

Novy rolls to stealthily enter the garage (Marginal): 5/3 - Passed.

At the same time Novy slipped in, the mechanics on the far side of the shop floor used an impact wrench on the furthest vehicle, filling the room with noise that would easily cover his footsteps.

Mazurek rolls to stealthily enter the garage (Marginal): 2/3 - Failed.

The corporal waited for a similar opportunity, and the moment the drill began to hammer away at the bolts on a vehicle's wheel, he pushed in. Unfortunately, the closest mechanic had turned around in that moment and spotted Mazurek's boots entering the room swiftly, the kind of speed that immediately identified him as an enemy as opposed to a friendly marine. "HEY!" he shouted to the other mechanics as he panic-scrambled to the opposite wall of the pit, looking for cover in case the humans decided to shoot at him. One of the other two mechanics scrambled to a nearby table and snatched up a pistol, while the other sprinted over to a device which looked like a small toolbox from afar, but was apparently some kind of switch- perhaps a distress signal.

Mechanic 2 (Pistol) vs Mazurek, Mazurek at medium distance: 9 DMG

Mazurek: 1HP

The mechanic emptied his entire clip into Mazurek from a distance, striking him not just once, but three times as the corporal tumbled on his way into the room. Straining against the agony of the wounds he had taken, he managed to claw his way over to the safety of cover for the moment, but another hit would surely incapacitate him. AUTO-262, meanwhile, had not entered the room due to the sudden change in the situation. As a result, neither Novy nor AUTO had been spotted by the enemy as of yet, providing them both an opportunity to attack by surprise. However, it seemed as if the mechanics had no desire to stay put, as the nearest was already climbing out of the pit while the other two were pulling the chain to open the far-side garage door.

 

[joshuadim]

The wind was knocked out of Mazurek as he felt pain wrack his body, threatening to send him to unconsciousness from the shock as he scrambled to cover. Blood poured from his wounds as he shouted alout: "FUCKING SHIT! LIGHT THEM THE FUCK UP!" he yelled to both Novy and AUTO through a pained gasp as he, to the best of his ability in his current situation, pulled out his sidearm and peeked out from his cover as he leaned behind against it. Through the pain he squinted an eye and looked down the iron sights for a moment, making sure his trajectory was as best as it could be, before squeezing the trigger several times towards one of the Upyri.

 

[Breadman]

Boyan managed to sneak in quietly enough without much issue, but Mazurek wasn't lucky enough.

FUCKING SHIT! LIGHT THEM THE FUCK UP!

No time for sneaking or stalking. Instead he popped out of cover to take aim and blast the one climbing his way out. Every action gets a reaction.

 

[SniperComZero]

Aveline almost felt a little bored, staring out into potholed concrete and dusty car wrecks. At least no one was... shooting at her... right now? She swore she could hear something. Was it coming down the road, or-- "Ohfuhshi--" She dropped to the ground, pressing her back against the wall, and dragging the weapon along with her. With any luck, it should look like no one was there at all. At least the distance would mask the sound of her hyperventilating. Her tongue dragged across dry lips, turning herself around so that she could peek the ridge of her head out to stare down the road.

"There is a whole armor squad down the road out front." Champlin's voice was a hushed whisper over the radio she held in one unsteady hand, her other gripping to the windowsill like she's going to fall through it. "There's... seven. Eight guys plus one vehicle. Do... do we engage?"

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

From a distance, it was another engagement that went wrong among countless others that defined the landscape of conflict and misery. It saw the whole debacle unfold from multiple angles. The caution of the trooper who walked in perfectly, trained, careful, and how that had meant nothing to a full magazine of pistol bullets. The still living human and his angry shouts, followed by even louder rifle fire from his own weapon and a comrade. The distant rumble of a squad of upyri's and their armored vehicle.

He should not have been able to see them. He did not feel much for either. Humanity had brought this mess upon itself and the worst parts of the now tenuous upyri empire had fallen the worst example of their progenitors. Perhaps they would be better off with both of them dead.

His eyes watched. His biodigital consciousness observed. His pile of rubble and collapsed building blanketed his otherwise large body, yet while he could see only the side of the building where the mayhem unfolded, he did not need a wide field of view for awareness.

It was the drone that sat near the upper windows of the repair shop, an innocuous fist sized spider-fly thing, chitin and cybernetics fused into a compact package. It was his quiet observer, a window of his own into the close quarters carnage transpiring beneath between human and post human.

The drone that hovered behind the smoke of a burnt out crater on a rooftop watched the warmachine and its compliment of eight advancing, drawn to the possibility of bloodshed as natural as vermin to carcass.

It would be better for it to be a collective of carcasses but alas, he had his orders.

His biodigital mind observed through their drone-optics. His own eyes watched the flashes from the windows and cracks in the repair shop.

Through the eyes of the drone peering through the window, he began to scan for targets, attempting to locate as many hostiles as possible.

He would need to make contact... earn their trust. What better way then, to send targeting data for upyri hostiles directly to the combat automaton accompanying them?

After all, a shotgun was the preferred close encounter weapon of humans and by extension their creations, wasn't it?

 

[K0mori]

"There's... seven. Eight guys plus one vehicle. Do... do we engage?"

Krawczyk's head snapped toward the opposite wall, to where Champlin was taking cover. There was a brief hesitation in which the sergeant briefly seemed afraid, but it disappeared a moment later as she took control of the situation. "What kind of vehicle?" she asked quietly. The private confirmed that it was light armor. This meant that the vehicle would be well-suited to fighting in urban areas, but wouldn't hold up well against an airstrike or other explosives. "Hold your fire," Krawczyk instructed.

She knew that half of Squad 9 wasn't going to be enough to take down the enemy without a perfectly-executed ambush. It would be safer to evacuate from the building and move to safety, but that risked worsening their separation from Mazurek, Novy, and AUTO-262. Squad 9 needed support, and so she took out her map and laid it out onto the ground next to Champlin. Squad 10 was roughly two blocks away, on the opposite side of the enemy armor, but they were pushing ahead, unaware that the other half of the Patrol had already encountered the enemy.

Krawczyck activated her comm link. "Oberto, Krawczyck- we've got enemy light armor here, can't engage. Need your support. Over."

A moment later, Oberto replied: "understood, Sarge. Squad 10's headed your way. Mark that armor for us if you can. Over." he said. There was a sound of gunfire in the background. It seemed that Squad 10 was also under fire, but Oberto didn't sound concerned.

"Will do. Can you get through? Over."

"...We'll see. I think so. Over and out."

Krawczyck nodded as the connection closed. She then opened the commlink to Mazurek and Novy, but there was no answer. She would have been alerted if they had been killed suddenly, as every soldier was wearing a mortality sensor, but it still did not bode well that two soldiers and an AUTO unit were facing an unknown enemy.

The sergeant looked to the four others in the room and wiped sweat from her forehead. "Okay, listen up. I'm going to use the rangefinder to mark the enemy's position for Squad 10, but I'm also going to open a channel to CAS and I want Kang on the line," she explained. CAS, or Close-Air-Support, would expect any unit with an embedded translator to speak directly to the Kosoks rather than relying on a relay.

Kang swallowed hard, realizing the gravity of the situation. "Yes ma'am." she replied.

"They're coming toward us, but we can't all engage them from this window, they'll just shell us if we're not careful. So I want Caine and Atlas to come with me. We'll head to the end of the block and cross over," she said, motioning to the opposite corner from the direction of the enemy's approach. The movement would place them on the opposite side of the motel, and after a jog, they'd emerge down the street from the enemy Squad, directly in front of them. "Champlin, you stay here, and don't fire until you hear fighting in the street outside. Hopefully we can get that armor taken out while we've got their attention. Then, you hose them down. They'll be closer by then and you'll have the advantage."

---
​

As Mazurek was dropped by enemy fire and AUTO-262 moved to respond, a strange thing happened. What presented itself as an allied target-marking signal uploaded itself into the drone's memory. The android was instantly aware, not just of the positions of the escaping mechanics who had just departed the garage, but also of the armored squad approaching Krawczyk's position.

 

[Infab]

Sam put away his medical kit, packing his things away as he listened to the sargeant explain their battle plan. Looked like he and Atlas would be tagging along with the sarge. He just hoped everything went quickly and cleanly.

But in war, of course, things never do.

"Understood, Sarge. Ready to head out when you are." soon said Sam, checking the magazine in his rifle. He'd need a fresh one for this. He tucked the half empty mag away in a bag on his waist, before drawing out a fresh one and slipping it into the waiting magazine well. A shove and a tap, and he was ready to go.

 

[bat_hacker]

Atlas had just finished wirelessly connecting his suit's interface with the drone's when the sergeant gave her orders. Not content with leaving the drone behind, he quickly removed his rifle from the magnetic holster on his back and replaced it with the drone. Thankfully, the metal frame stuck just as well as his weapon did, and keeping the drone nearby would allow him to perform his hack more quickly and easily.

Already his suit had performed a few reflection attacks against the drone's encryption and was beginning to stream the information to Atlas in an observable format. Clouds of colored dots swirled in his heads-up display and he knew their numbers instantly. Some were organized into pairs, representing random decryption attempts and the result. A few others represented the sequences that were expected to be found somewhere within the decrypted data. Using this information, Atlas would have to back out the encryption key that would make those sequences appear in the resultant data, provided they existed.

All of this context, of course, was almost completely lost on him. He still remembered the day that the humans introduced him to the concept of a lock and key. It still seemed so funny to him. When Fishmen wanted to protect something valuable, they would hide it in an unmarked location. It was considered outright farcical to taint a good hiding spot with any sign that something important or worthwhile could be stowed there, and yet here in this convoluted human contraption was arguably the most conspicuous sign imaginable. Even worse, the humans had told him that they had faith in the strength of the lock to protect its charge, as if they didn't know the larger the boulder the more tempting it is to dislodge it. The key was the final straw, however. Unlike the proverbial boulder which at least required a certain level of strength to remove, the lock could be undone by anyone so long as they possessed the corresponding "key". This key could take any number of forms--a tiny elaborate blade, a flat and flexible colored-rectangle, a pattern, some specific value, an identifying factor of the individual--but they all had the same thing in common: They were all a direct, targetable weakness of the lock! Humans seemed to grasp the irony, as the key was what they would then try to hide!

Bewilderingly, humans placed the most trust in their value-based locks, which they called "encryption", which had no physical strength at all. The concept leveraged a weakness of the human mind regarding the conceptualization and manipulation of large amounts. They had developed fields of science entirely devoted to overcoming this shortfall of their cognition, but even with their best efforts they had only managed to push the limitation further out. Even with the all of the technology humanity had to offer working in unison, breaking military-grade encryption would take... No, Atlas didn't like to think about it. The human researchers had given his class at the military academy an existential crisis when they were made to visualize the enormity of such a time period. Half of the students transferred away from the decryption program for that alone. Had they stayed, as Atlas had, they would have been relieved to know they were hearing a child describe the fanged kelp-eater. Of course, it made no sense to anyone at first. Encryption had seemed like some sort of shared secret or lie and it was unclear how such a thing could be "broken into" like a physical object. The researchers had made dozens of attempts at explanations and analogies to no avail, but the one that finally stuck was the story of old Cockney slang. Two individuals could have a clandestine conversation in broad view of any eavesdropper by using previously-established substitutions in speech. However, in Cockney slang, each substitution followed a very specific pattern based on a human language concept called rhyming. Whatever it was, once you were aware of the pattern (even if not the strict substitutions), the slang became much easier to decode and the conversation could be understood. This was especially true if you had further clues into the meaning of the conversation, for example if you were aware the two partners were plotting a theft together.

Armed with the results of the reflection attack, Atlas now had the clandestine conversation between his suit and the drone. The origin and prior ownership of the drone would provide his clues, "keywords" as the humans called them, that would let him know when he was on the right track. All that was left was to figure out where the numbers rhymed and his suit would do the rest, and that was simple enough to do even as he prepared his rifle for imminent combat. Atlas offered a salute once he was ready, a strong somatic gesture the humans had taught him. Of all the humans' gestures, it was his favorite.

 

[K0mori]

Mazurek (pistol) vs Upyri Mechanic in close quarters: 9 DMG
Novy (pistol) vs Upyri Mechanic in close quarters: 9 DMG

As the two mechanics on the far side of the shop dipped under the garage door, Mazurek and Novy unloaded on their closest target: the mechanic climbing out of the pit walkway. As he was almost out of the hole, three shots from Mazurek pierced his back, causing him to falter and fall back into the pit, crying out in pain. Novy finished the job a moment later, landing two shots to his neck and the back of his head. AUTO-262, meanwhile, burst into the room at a full robotic sprint, vaulting over the hood of the military vehicle close by before sliding under the door in pursuit of the other enemies.

Mazurek's head dropped to the concrete floor behind him, his helmet sounding a hollow "thunk" as he gasped, again clutching himself in pain. Novy, lowering his pistol, quickly checked over the shelves nearby and found what they had been looking for: a misshapen, water-damaged box labeled "Kit-39." Holstering his weapon, he took the box under his arm and then circled around to lift Mazurek off the floor and get him moving again.

Outside, the Upyri mechanics were in a full, super-human sprint away from the building they had been occupying, but the android chasing them knew their exact position and easily caught up as they reached the end of the block and tried to round it. To the right was the rear of the armored squad which were now closing on Krawczyk's position, but the two of them turned left, unaware of that fact, and believing that reinforcements would be there. The one carrying a pistol suddenly threw it aside in order to run faster; it seemed as though he hadn't been carrying any additional ammunition and had only grabbed the loaded gun in a panic.

AUTO-262 (shotgun) vs Upyri Mechanics in close quarters: 8 DMG, 4 DMG

With a single blast from less than five meters, AUTO-262 took one of the mechanics - the one which had shot Mazurek, down to the ground before stopping and firing two additional shots- one into his friend, and another into the first for good measure. The other mechanic stumbled through a window and into another building just across the road, but AUTO-262 declined to pursue him, instead assessing the situation and deciding that aiding Mazurek and Novy was more important. The robot left the first mechanic badly wounded on the ground as it sprinted back toward the garage and ducked under the door, finding its comrades struggling their way back the way they came.

"Warning: additional hostiles approaching Squad 9 with light armor," it said as it took up position on the opposite side of Mazurek.

The two men realized that their commlink had been going off since the firefight began, but they were too preoccupied and full of adrenaline to even notice it.

---
​

On the other side of the building, the armored squad came to a halt and began to surround the entrances to the garage. It was clear that they had been alerted to an enemy presence inside. Back at the motel room, Krawczyk got on her stomach and crawled to the edge of the outdoor walkway which ran along the side of the building, trying to move too conspicuously before taking out her rangefinder and looking through it between the bars of the hand railing.

Krawczyk rolls to stealthily sight the enemy armor (Marginal): 3/3 - Passed.

Through the lens, the Sergeant watched the light tank swivel its turret around to point at the rear of the auto shop. A few of the marines scanned the surrounding buildings and rooftops for human snipers, but weren't being overly cautious, it seemed, and Krawczyk was able to keep the invisible beam from the device pointed squarely at the enemy vehicle.

Meanwhile, Kang listened to her commlink as CAS opened the line and announced that they were pushing a direct connection. She acknowledged, and then waited anxiously for an alien voice to answer the connection.

"...Vokaki veramat dar nilmika?" came the Kosok reply.

Kang froze for a moment, trying to parse the sentence together. Where... where is... the not-peace. Where is the trouble!

Kang rolls to answer in Kanad (Marginal): 5/3 - Passed.

"Uh, uh... smyet! Bokema-teres kileta-krenakh kamik, bokema ecshi okon akivrishim." Uh, uh... sorry! Upyri small-armor machine (light tank), attack here on place-light (marker).

"...Yakka." Understood.

At the same moment the acknowledgement came through, the tank blasted a hole into the side of the garage. The two soldiers and robot from Squad 9 had already moved into the hallway connecting to what had been the office and waiting room of the garage, back when it was open to the public, and were surprised by the blast despite AUTO-262's warning moments earlier. As the marines cautiously entered the dark and now dust- and smoke-filled room through its new entrance, they came into contact with the bloody corpse of the mechanic in the pit, and glanced directly toward the door where the humans had just limped away. There was even a trail of blood, but the upyri couldn't be sure if it was the enemy's or their own.

Krawczyk sprung to her feet, in full view of the enemy- to their shock. "Caine, Atlas, let's go!" She shouted. The three sprinted out through the doorway as Champlin and Kang hid out of view- the latter looking utterly relieved at having succeeded in her duties. The trio bounded down the stairs, two at a time, while two upyri tried to cut them off at long distance with a snap reaction.

Upyri Marine rolls to intercept flanking humans (Unlikely): 1/4 Failed.
Upyri Marine rolls to intercept flanking humans (Unlikely): 2/4 Failed.

They cleared the stairs and began to run down to the next corner on the street out of view of the armored squad. They would need to round the block as Krawczyk described, but if all went well, they'd have the enemy exactly where they wanted them. She also knew that her brief appearance had bought the separated members of Squad 9 a bit more time. Now if only the air strike could arrive in time...

---​

AUTO-262 turned to face the door, its shotgun primed to blow away the first, and maybe the second enemy to cross the threshold, when there was a much heavier explosion that nearly knocked them all off their feet.

Outside, the light tank had been reduced to a smoldering crater, a column of smoke rising high into the air as every glass window on the block either shook or broke. A hideous-sounding screech sounded in the air as a Kosok starfighter streaked past them overhead at extreme speed, snaking back and forth as it disappeared into the distance, deftly avoiding the tracers of upyri anti-air guns along the way. Somehow, the bullets looked slow.

Down on the ground, two of the marines had been killed by the explosion and the shrapnel it threw here and there, while the others were badly disoriented. Mazurek and Novy, dazed in the dark hallway, listened to the panicked upyri voices just on the other side of the door.

"Shit! Shit! Oh, shit!"

"Sarge, Rulolph is dead...!"

"Get inside, into cover, now!"

 

[joshuadim]

Everything hurt in Mazurek's body as he was hoisted to his feet and helped to limp away by Novy, while accompanied by AUTO-262, to get back to the rest of the team. The Corporal couldn't help but gasp in pain before gritting his teeth to try to reduce his noise, as it would likely draw attention. He didn't want to die on this rock, he couldn't die on this rock... not while there were still Upyri bastards left to kill. He clutched at where he had been hit to try to stem the bleeding, though it was futile as he left a very visible trail... hopefully his pain would have been worth it to complete their objective.

First came the tank blast that tore into the side of the garage, back where they had just been, and brough more Upyri into their AO. This was bad news, closing in on them. And with his current condition, Mazurek knew he wasn't of much help. But a fortunate turn of events came when the Kosok airstrike obliterated the Upyri armor and sent the new arrivals into a confused and outright disoriented state. The ringing in his ears began to abate as Mazurek leaned against the wall before sliding to the floor. He pointed his pistol at the door, making sure his finger was on the trigger for when one of the surviving hostiles pushed through and gritted his teeth. Come on you fuckers... poke your heads out to me.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

This would be inconvenient. Six more to go. Armor and two infantry eliminated. The rest now in the garage. A stroke of good fortune yet losses mount: Rudolph apparently. A name, little more, perhaps to be joined if the panicked upyris in their dash for cover came upon them. Skittering legs against a window, shrouded in the dust and the panic of the bombing, carried the drone as it raced to catch up with their movements, difficult to track through the shockwave of force and the storm of dust and debris kicked up, the smog, the fried electronics, the heat, the smoke.

He felt the rubble that blanketed him tumble away and his neural-link to his drones falter. The grip on his weapon, six fingered and clawed, tightened for a moment. Pehraps an easy execution with the calibre of his weaponry but a risky one - he had to wait. They did not expect his kind here and he had tracked the upyri just fine. Time to recall the second drone - skittering through the air through the aftermath of the bombing... this time heading into the structure itself. Onto its ceiling, a closer set of eyes, scouring the garage - not just through compound eye sight but the smell of Upyri flesh, weapon discharge, electrospectrum vision capability.

An innocuous little critter, simply on its perch on the ceiling, waiting for the little things that might give away its targets.

It should not be hard to connect to the humans' systems - a little nudge in the right direction is what he desired.

 

[Breadman]

Boyan checked on Mazurek after the brief firefight. He was hurt, but alive. He needed a medic and fast. He didn't waste time and grabbed what they came in for. But the enemy had other plans as the heavy armor moved in. He was about to cursed out in every language he knew, when the shriek and explosion snapped him into the situation. The screams clued him in on what happened. Setting aside their prize, he moved behind coverer to prepare an ambush for the survivors.

 

[Infab]

The chaos unfolded in a matter of seconds, and soon Sam found himself being shot at as he chased after Atlas and Krawczyk. Bullets zipped by, forcing a wince from the medic as he tried to keep up. Determined to not get cut down mid-stride.

"ShitshitshitshITSHITSHI--" he rapidly chanted to himself, his chanting only stopping as they neared the corner to round the block. And then it came. The blast that they had been waiting for. The light tank's detonation was quite loud, and drew a "Hell yeah." from Sam as he tried to catch his breath.

Now they just needed to head back and mop up the stragglers. Sam checked behind them, making sure they weren't being followed by anyone, before looking back ahead. Hopefully none of the others that had been separated from the group were injured.

 

[DG-117]

AUTO-262 was momentary dazed from the nearly airstrike, its Gryo System quickly re-orientated itself from the blast and moved its metal hand to wipe off the dust covering its optics while text ran down on its HUD overlay.

Status; Damage Inconsequential. Targets: A05, A07, and V01 Neutralized; Advance Forward and Prepare to Pacify Hostilities.

AUTO-262 quicky looked over its comrades before rushing forward, dashing from cover and cover, getting into position to ambush the surving Upyri Soldiers.

 

[SniperComZero]

Aveline felt fairly confident in her position. Elevated, far enough away that she shouldn't be in all that much danger when she's laying down covering fire. Her finger scratched away at the trigger in anticipation, her cheek firmly pressed to the butt stock. What she hadn't anticipated, however, was the the frightful suddenness of half a light tank vaporizing down the street. It wasn't close enough for shrapnel to embed itself into her, it was close enough for the shockwave-- or, maybe just the shock, to knock her down.

One arm braced against the wall, and the other held in front of her eyes to shield them from the blast. It wasn't the kind of posture she wanted to have, and would've felt much better if she'd already blown a couple of them away. She steeled her gaze towards the half of the squad closer to her, still rather beat up after having a laser guided bomb dropped a degree off from right on top of their heads. Squeezing the trigger, and unleashing a hail of fire onto them. Shock and awe, to keep them pinned down, she'd rationalize. Or, her poor firing discipline, as others might.

 

[bat_hacker]

Atlas was caught mid-stride and stumbled a step or two as the shockwave from the aerial strike's blast swept over the exterior of his suit, causing the water inside to suddenly swirl in a very nauseating fashion. At the same time, the medicine man said something that the translator picked up as "A place of eternal torture and incineration for wicked souls, most assuredly." Even though the translation had the stilted, clumsy flavor of a poorer translation, it still seemed entirely appropriate given what they'd just delivered unto their enemies, so Atlas took it in stride.

While Atlas' gestures and bioluminescent strobing were translated to artificial speech for the humans, human speech was translated back via a small holographic Fishman displayed on Atlas' HUD. It had been more than a little off-putting at first, having a tiny member of your species projected into your vision to tell you what all of your friends were saying, sometimes getting it wrong, sometimes being incredibly uncanny. It reminded Atlas of the idols and effigies humans were often so fond of, small disfigured human bodies that lacked the light of life, serving as only decoration or entertainment for their larger, light-filled counterparts. The humans had given a small trove of them to a clutch of fishman younglings back on Goldloch, who took to them with curiosity and fearlessness, and Atlas had watched them for a time, warily. When one of the girls had gleefully twisted the head off her new companion, Atlas breached the surface in his panic and desperation to alert the nearby medicine men and had to be assisted back to the water. The head, as it turned out, was re-attachable, in what could only be considered the cruelest of pranks and certainly not as humorous as the humans seemed to believe.

As they approached the corner, Atlas noticed the aftermath of a previous bombing run, a large crater in the asphalt of the road, giving the trio both ample cover and a good line of sight to the location of the enemy light armor. He communicated as best as he could while holding his pace and his rifle. "Eyes forward! A footprint. Remnants of a falling star. Let us hide, let us hunt."

 

[K0mori]

​

Inside the garage, Novy lowered Mazurek to the ground at the corner of where the hallway met the waiting room before joining him in cover. AUTO-262, meanwhile, received a further update to the enemy's position as it moved toward the door. This time, however, the human soldiers began to see the interference as well. Their HUD devices, which were typically non-invasive and used for specific situations such as translating text from one human language to another, instead began to show multiple marked targets.

Normally, the targeting mode was used for communicating the position of something large, like a vehicle, to an allied unit and in fact the two men in the hall had briefly seen the crosshairs appear on their HUDs when the Sergeant marked the tank's position outside. Now, however, there were three targets moving around erratically behind the door, inside the building. Somehow, their HUDs were giving them the position of the enemy soldiers. There was no way this information was being given using a laser rangefinder, there had to be someone or something uploading that information. Maybe Atlas had gotten the drone working?

It didn't matter. With this information, Mazurek and Novy would have an advantage... as long as the information wasn't fake. And as they waited for the enemy to approach the door, they silently wondered whether this could be some sort of upyri hack, meant to distract them.

AUTO-262, however, didn't have such reservations, and aggressively pushed through the door to confront the enemy. This was exactly what the android was built to do: take the brunt of the enemy's impact so that the infantry could survive longer. Just before it entered, one of the upyri went jogging out of the garage again to join two that were still dazed and confused. The other three hesitated a moment before committing to clearing the door. Two took up position on either side of the exit while the third reared back in order to kick the door open.

AUTO-262 rolls to ambush the upyri sergeant and his comrades (Marginal): 1/3 - Failed.

The robot crashed through the door, knocking the enemy sergeant down in the process. However, one of the marines beside the door wasn't caught off guard, and quickly bashed AUTO with the butt of his rifle. This did no damage to its metallic frame, but prevented the android from using its shotgun first while it had the chance, and the sergeant, having regained his footing, lifted his pistol and fired three rounds into AUTO from point blank range.

Upyri Sergeant (pistol) vs AUTO-262 at Close Quarters: 9 DMG

The three bullets struck the robot at center mass and the head, causing it to shut down completely and fall forward through the doorway, crashing onto the concrete floor with a heavy clang. Mazurek and Novy, now with a clear shot, unloaded on the enemy sergeant as he stood gawking at the disabled robot.

Mazurek (pistol) vs Upyri Sergeant at Medium Range: 9 DMG
Novy (pistol) vs Upyri Sergeant and Upyri Marine at Medium Range: 6, 3 DMG

Together, the two soldiers fired their pistols at the upyri sergeant, peppering him with shots to the head and body that sliced through him and opened his veins up. He stumbled back even further from the floor and dropped dead. Mazurek, having another bullet at the ready, fired it at the marine which had struck AUTO-262 moments earlier and caught him in the shoulder. While he fell away clutching his arm, the third and final marine entered the doorway with his pistol drawn and fired multiple shots at the two humans.

Upyri Marine (pistol) vs Novy and Mazurek at Medium Range: 6, 3 DMG

Novy: 4HP
Mazurek: 3LP

At first focusing on Novy, the enemy marine fired several rounds into the corner of the hall, catching the human in the shoulder as he tried to duck behind cover. Mazurek did the same, but since he was barely mobile, there was little Novy could do to help him as he wheeled backwards and reached for another weapon, dragging Mazurek across the tile floor toward some chairs which were knocked onto their sides. Before Novy could have his next move ready, the upyri rounded the corner, discharged a final round into Mazurek, and then drew a knife from his vest.

Mazurek passed out from the blood loss, leaving Novy alone and nearly cornered in the lobby. There was just him and his singular foe, now, and for the first time since the fight began it began to dawn on him that the upyri he was facing was significantly taller and stronger than he was.

Out in the street, the two upyri marines that had fired on Krawczyk, Atlas, and Caine were joined by a third who seemed a bit less shaken by the power of the airstrike. Slapping one of them on the shoulder, she directed them to get moving toward cover as they advanced up the street in the direction the Sergeant had run off to. As they ran, the fear and disorder they had displayed moments earlier seemed to wash off of them as their biology, training, and experience set in, and the pounding of their boots against the pavement became almost rhythmic in coordination.

Through the broken window, Champlin could hear them approaching, even before she had gotten a sight picture with her LMG. She had to tell herself that without the tank, at least, she wouldn't be fragged by an enemy shell. Every moment she wasted would be more opportunity for the enemy to organize, but the Sergeant had ordered her not to open fire until there was already a firefight outside. Did the airstrike count? What about when the marines shot at those three who ran up the road? It was nerve-wracking, but nonetheless she waited just a moment longer, until she saw them down the barrel of her gun, weaving from one form of cover to another.

At the same time, Krawczyck, Atlas, and Caine rounded the corner up the road and dropped into the crater that Atlas had spotted, somewhat impressed (and annoyed) that the upyri had so easily recovered from the strike. The Sergeant was adament, however- this was playing right into her hand. "Pick 'em off!" she shouted, shouldering her rifle as Atlas and Caine did the same. Since they had moved away ahead of the upyri approach, they were still at long range, where their rifles would be at their best. However, the upyri were now right under Champlin's nose at medium range- exactly where she would want them.

Champlin held her breath as the shots began to pelt the upyri and the cover they occupied, kicking up little puffs of dust where the bullets landed and marking the scenery with yet more tiny craters. If she was going to prevent them from responding in kind, she needed a steady hand to control her weapon and execute an ambush.

Champlin rolls to ambush the Upyri Marines (Likely): 2/2 - Passed.

Krawczyk (rifle) vs Upyri Marines at Long Distance: 4, 4, 4 DMG
Atlas (rifle) vs Upyri Marines at Long Distance: 4, 4, 4 DMG
Caine (rifle) vs Upyri Marines at Long Distance: 4, 4, 4 DMG
Champlin (LMG) vs Upyri Marines at Medium Range: 5, 5, 5 DMG

The marines briefly came to a halt as they tried to return fire, but only got a few rounds off before Champlin's machine gun ripped into them from the flank. "MG! Get down! Get down!" the upyri corporal cried out as the trio dove to the ground, all the while unaware that Champlin was in an elevated position and shooting down at them. By the time they realized this and tried to pick themselves up off the dirt, they were getting perforated from two directions at once and were mowed down before they could find a more effective position.

"Come on, we have to find the others," Krawczyk urged from the impromptu foxhole, climbing up onto the roadway before turning to grab Caine by the arm. He stepped up the side of the pit and then rolled out onto the pavement. Atlas, being more heavy and sluggish than the other two, was surprisingly strong and was able to lift himself out of the crater without assistance. On their feet once again, the trio began to jog back toward the motel and the garage beyond.

Much further down the road, they began to see the friendly troops of Squad 10 emerging from a pathway between buildings. With their help, Krawczyk knew, they could hold off the upyri even if the enemy sent reinforcements. Luckily, all had gone quiet in the immediate vicinity, and so she hoped that Patrol 2 could link up and proceed directly to the river without further delay. She just hoped that Mazurek and Novy hadn't gone to their deaths, especially for the sake of an android.

 

[Breadman]

Boyan stared down his opponent. The marine was bigger, likely stronger and maybe quicker. Who knew? Damn robot didn't last long enough. So it was up to him. He did still have one advantage. Damn vamp went for the knife. With a grimace, he fired off a shot and reached for his own knife.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

If there was one thing humanity was, it was precariously fragile and inept whether at solving its own problems or creating solutions to them. The current state of the battle was the perfect encapsulation of that. The bipeds in their iconic arrogance and lack of foresight created in their own image a New Human who was not only stronger and tougher but also just as arrogant. It was now busy dominating humanity on it its own colony world and that even with the help of the czrektir, struggled to attain an advantage in firepower or initiative.

Truthfully he did not actually care much for their survival but if his mission were to succeed, there would need to be drastic changes in favor of overall human survival. His drones remained watching as the rubble that covered his body began to slough off. In the space by the side of the garage, there was nobody to really pay attention while their own lives were on the line, nobody to see the creature that crept out of rubble, nobody to hear the bits of falling rock, concrete, and glass being shed, nor notice the now open door as he made his move.

He had smelled them this entire time; the olfactory data from the drones capable of being translated to his own biodigital systems and correlated to the scanned layout of the room. To say nothing of the crosshairs he could see over his own sight, overlaid the visual display of joint cybernetic and biological systems integrated into his very biology, each one moving erratically as he neared.

There was only one of them. An upyri was a bigger and stronger human but a czrektir soldier was better understood as a small tank. It looked the part as well as it rose to its full height, an enormous rectancular rifle jutting and elaborated upon with segmented anatomy and jarring edges, to say nothing of the large barrel staring the post-human dead in his centre of mass.

Such features were reflective of czrektir infantry. It was an enormous thing that was standing in a humanoid fashion but that was better understood as an imitation of such. An enormous, dense body carapaced entirely with prominently broad upper torso dense like a crab's tapering off slightly to its midsection, giving it a torso almost like an inverted triangle if the thinner tips were still laden with hefty armoring and biomass. With two legs and arms of the primary variety, it was human-like yet only insofar as its structure allowed for general bipedal stature. It was everything else where it appeared more akin to some creature normally found scampering from beneath rotten logs or in the flittering light of ill-lit basements.

For it had not just two legs and arms; the ones first noticed were simply its largest limbs. Broad and dense, of overlapping carpace plating and connective soft-mass interlaced with dark metals a slight shade lighter than the beetle-black of its body. They ended in a circular series of clawing digits with dulled hook ends to grip the enormous canon-like rifle and to stand it up on large clawed feet, the plated armor of its individual digits wide almost like fingernails yet functioning like the individual legs of a stands of a heavy weapons platform or a mecha, meant to stabilize its massive frame.

Four more limbs were visible beneath its two arms, coiled almost like hooks and question marks and ending with a surgeon's toolset array of splintering feeler appendages and manipulatory digits, each one twitching and flicking, hungry and impatient. Another two sets of auxiliary arms jutted out from between its primary arms and waist and from the back of its shoulders - almost like jointed earwgs with their semi-flattened form yet lengthened out like a mantis' or centipede bodies, ending in interlocking sets of four mandible-claws.

The face of the creature was not a real face. It was shield-shaped, flattened yet long, borne of the same mish-mash of biocybernetics of its body converging into a singular point of visual focus. Its shape extended downwards plated and night-colored, two dulled ocular domes on the corners of its head, two occupying the flatter topmost space between them, both a dulled yellow. At the end of its head a complex array of mouthparts overlapped as they grinded and cinched. Six mandibles curving knife-like and serrated on their inner cutting edges, surrounded four smaller jointed sickles with bristling hairs leading up to their hook-like tips. An array of feeler and manipulator appendages emerged from beneath, wriggling worm-like and pointing towards the upyri as if tracking his every move. Antennae flicked out of not the top of its head or sides like expected but near its neck, almost framing its skull between four sectioned lines of olfactory sensors.

Its massive rifle zeroed in on the centre of mass, its massive body immediately drawing attention with its limbs making it appear as if it might simply snatch the post-human like a lurking trap-door spider a cricket. It was not close enough for it yet it seemed to grow from its initial half-creeping crouch height of 6''11 to at least 9''2, to say nothing of the way its enormous additional limbs extended outwards.

Zlovrezir Grecyirvick demanded two things: the upyri's attention and its death.

To that end, the bioelectrochemical reactive mechanisms within its autocannon-derived rifle fired, the sound at once shrieking in its piercing report and slamming-pounding dense in the sonic impact of its firing. A burst of huge shells meant to normally kill its own kind flew towards a smaller target, their explosive heads missing but sheer violent impact more than capable of reducing one to abstract colours against the wall.

 

[Infab]

Well, they had survived their first major engagement on the ground. Likely dozens more were to come. But for now, they needed to find the others. Following after Krawczyk, Caine soon spotted Squad 10 ahead. Good. More backup in case there were more Upyri hanging around still. He gave them a wave, before glancing to Krawczyk.

"We really gotta find Mazurek and Novy. Got a nagging feeling that something's wrong." he said, looking about at the other buildings around them. Eyeing doors and windows.

 

[K0mori]

"We really gotta find Mazurek and Novy. Got a nagging feeling that something's wrong." he said, looking about at the other buildings around them. Eyeing doors and windows.

The Sergeant didn't reply to Caine. The fierce look in her eyes and almost panicked sprint told him that she felt the same way. In fact, if Caine had to guess, the Sergeant was running even faster now than she was when they were under enemy fire.

As Krawczyk and her two comrades raced down the street towards the still-smoldering aftermath of the air strike, Squad 10 closed from the opposite side, until they reached the gaping hole in the side of the building. Inside, they heard a gunshot which, while keeping them on guard, at least gave some hope to the Sergeant that Mazurek and Novy hadn't been captured or killed. Without stopping to speak with the other half of the Patrol, Krawczyk leaped through the hole and turned, her heart sinking a bit as she laid eyes on AUTO-262 collapsed on the floor in front of the doorway. Several dead upyri lay about the bloody scene, and before she could take stock of it all, she was caught off-guard by the wounded marine that had stayed behind when his last remaining comrade chased down the two humans in the hall.

Upyri Marine (Pistol) vs Krawczyk at Medium Distance: 9 DMG

Krawczyk: 4 LP

"Oh shi-" the Sergeant managed to blurt out as she caught the man's movement out of the corner of her eye, but by then it was too late. She hadn't waited for her comrades to help her clear the room strategically, and it had cost her. A series of pistol blasts caught her in the chest, which were thankfully blocked by her body armor, but the last round tore her neck open; she dropped to the ground, hemorrhaging. Caine and Atlas entered the building, with the latter using his sidearm to return fire while Caine moved to stabilize Krawczyk.

Atlas (Rifle) vs Upyri Marine at Medium Distance: 9 DMG

Despite hitting most of his shots, Atlas watched almost bewildered at the upyri as he stumbled backwards against the wall, badly wounded, but still in fighting shape. Despite this, he threw up his arms as his weapon was empty and put them in front of his helmeted head as if to shield it, as ineffectual as such a maneuver would be, and doubled over without falling. Caine was likewise amazed that the man had taken so much heat without dying, and nearly finished the man off.

"I can't- I can't-" the upyri begged between labored, wheezing breaths. At the same time, there was a scream that brought them all to a halt for a moment. It didn't sound like either of the humans. Then, an impact far too violent to be small-arms fire happened on the other side of the door. What was going on!?

---
​

Novy (Rifle, Melee) vs Upyri Marine at Close Quarters: 2 DMG, 10 DMG


Moments earlier, on the opposite side of the hallway in the waiting area of the garage, Novy reached for his rifle to fire from the hip at the same time he grabbed his knife handle with his off hand. The upyri jumped at him faster than he expected possible, narrowly avoiding catching a bullet in the gut. Novy jabbed the knife into his foe's side, trying to grapple him at the same time his foe did the same, each one wanting to avoid being sliced open. But the upyri's strength eventually won the exchange, and the next thing Novy knew, the blade of the upyri's knife ripped through his protective clothing and nearly into the meat of his ribcage. The ferocity of the marine's attack showed no sign of fatigue from the human's stab attempts. As Novy began to falter, he wondered how many of his strikes had actually managed to pierce the vamp's body armor.

That was when Grecyirvick arrived- only moments before the upyri was set to not just subdue the human, but kill him outright. Instead, he let out a scream and pulled back, his knife catching on the interior of Novy's battle armor and causing both of them to stumble and fall. The upyri let go of the knife and instead grabbed Novy's still partially-loaded rifle and tried to turn it on the czrektir, who now towered over him from floor to ceiling.

Novy watched the scene play out from the ground, awestruck, as the massive alien lifted his autocannon to level with the retreating upyri.

Grecyirvick (Autocannon) vs Upyri Marine at Medium Distance: 15 DMG

With a single shot, the weapon blew the marine's body armor plates through his body cavities as if he had just dove on a landmine. He was beyond dead- It nearly tore him in half.

 

[Breadman]

"FUCK!" Boyan let out as the giant alien blew the enemy marine apart. His plan was fubar and he was lucky that the enemy was the first to go. From his position he couldn't do anything but raise his hands to indicate surrender and hope that it understood. "I'm not a threat!" He grunted painfully "Whoever and whatever you are, I'm not a threat!" Did it even understand him? No way to know but to hope so "My partner needs urgent medical care." He motioned with his head to where Mazurek layed unconscious. "I'm wounded as well, but I can still carry him."