Futuristic Starpath X: For All Mankind

[Breadman]

Kumcho had eyed the really big rifle that was near its smaller counterparts. Taking it home with him would be a nice boon to the clan, but alas, the realities of the battlefield made it impossible. He would have to settle for the smaller AMR he had already picked out. He grabbed a few of the coils, just in case he needed to reload the gun, but as nice pieces to trade in after the job was done for some extra credits. Upiry tech would go a long way in securing some financial aid as the plunder is starting to make its way to the gray markets. With that done, the bounty hunter boarded the APC to join the squad.

Inside, he listened to the odd chatters. Someone else was going to be joining them? Why not? Its not like they will be running out of enemy soldiers to shoot. The light show to clear out the office building was a nice distraction. He had to wonder if there were that many officers left to claim a bounty on. Would there still be any left? Or did they just leave the grunts to fend for themselves. Their stop at the school was his cue to get ready to move. As soon as he exited the vehicle, he could feel something was off. For some reason, the ground bothered him. Little dirt mounts, doting the ground in front of them 'Did they bury landmines for us to find?' the thought crossed his head, 'What else did they leave?'

He tinkered with his helmet to see if it would pick up anything and sure enough, the HUD flashed that it was picking up signals. "Didn't burry the mines deep enough. Short-range thermal scan is picking up pings. Either left in a hurry or are in a desperate state. I can see them, but I can't scan for other problems at the same time."

 

[Infab]

...This feels like a trap.

An expression of worry washed across Sam's face, as he listened to Kumcho's comments on the mines. Mines left buried more shallow than normal, lots of open space around the parking lot. However, he didn't say anything. Instead, Adam commented on things.

"Its a battle tactic." stated Adam quietly, "The mines aren't meant to stop us. They're there to just slow us down, so that tactical teams can take us out. There's probably some anti-tank mines mixed in too." His attention then shifted to the area beyond the mines. "...I'm seeing barbed wire and tank traps... My guess is this school was used as a forward outpost. They must have evacuated, falling back to be closer to the main body of upyri troops, and just left the mines here to screw with us."

Adam then looked up towards the surrounding buildings, and pointed out a trio of spots with nice overlook positions. "...I'd stick two sniper teams there and there... and anti-armor there..." he mumbled to himself. He didn't spot any movement in those locations, however. "...I'd suggest taking some of those mines with us. We could use them for traps, or fiddle with them and use them for other purposes."

 

[demytra]

Mazurek listened to Kumcho and then Adam as they spoke on the mines that were littering their way forward. There was no way of telling what else lay ahead, especially considering the Upyri forces remained on the retreat. Their lines were collapsing - who knew what they would pull just to buy a few hours? He remembered when the Upyri fled Terra that they left behind a trail of destruction in their wake, which included booby-trapping corpses of civilians and UFS servicemen alike with live grenades. "...I agree with Adam." Mazurek stated, keeping his gaze forward on the lookout for anything else of suspicion.

"Can use the mines as improvised breaching charges, with a bit of tinkering." he then suggested, following Adam's own suggestion towards using them for their own purposes. "Makes clearing buildings easier, or getting through areas we need to get to."

 

[K0mori]

"Leave them until we've got our man. There's a sidewalk right there," Krawczyk told the others, pointing to a concrete path that was halfway buried under the loose dirt. The pathway led to the side of the building, which had a damaged awning covering it and shielding it from the light. As they neared the building, the sergeant stopped them. "Flashlights on," she warned quietly. "Keep an eye out; if this was an outpost, there could still be hostiles nearby."

The team eventually reached a wall with several shattered floor-length windows, and shined their lights in to find the abandoned front office of the school. Signs of upyri occupation were everywhere, from discarded packets containing disposable items to inoperable equipment with empty batteries. They moved in and quickly swept the room, making sure that the upyri were gone, before attempting to move into the rear offices, only to find a locked door. "Hilmarrson, get that door open," Krawczyk ordered. The private stepped up, pointed his rifle at the door lock and fired before kicking the door in.

The broken lock gave way to the stresses and the door broke free from its position, only for a shotgun blast to hit it from the opposite side. Hilmarrson dropped back, lightly wounded from what litte of the shot managed to clear the gap between the metal door and the frame, and it became clear that the shotgun was a civilian model that was rigged to fire with a rudementary trap. "Fuck!" he yelled, clutching his hip. "Goddamn Micky Mouse shit..."

They pushed through the door, hearing movement from elsewhere in the building. "Someone's here," Krawczyk stated. "Move up!"

 

[Infab]

Sam got straight to it, as soon as Hilmarrson dropped back, putting his medical skills to use. Meanwhile, Adam moved up and took a quick glance at the shotgun. "They didn't even rig it properly. They were scrambling to get out of here, from the looks of things." he muttered, before moving further inside. They needed to find the source of that movement, as well as their own man.

He really wished he still had his helmet at this point. Thermal optics would have been plenty useful here. He decided to try something out as he made his way through the room, and called out to whoever was in the building with them in upyri.

"[Hey! This is 1st Lieutenant Adam Zetter of the 3rd Heavy Weapons Platoon of B Company, 3rd Battalion! We're friendlies!]" he called out, glancing back behind him at the others and holding up a finger over his lips. Maybe they could draw them out, and take them down instead of chasing them around the building.

 

[Breadman]

"Understood, boss." Kumcho nodded as he followed Krawczyk's instructions. As they entered the building, he switched off from tracking mines. He contemplated using night vision, but the flashlights would get in the way. They moved further in the building, and it didn't take long for something to go wrong. He could smell that there was someone still here, and of course they had set up traps. An ill-fitting one for trained military, but beggars can't be choosers, as the humans say.

Adam had a good idea. Lure them out. Kumcho calibrated the thermal tracker of his helmet to pick up the upiry body heat. As Adam trued to reason with the holdouts, he scanned to see what he could pick up. Silently, he pointed to the directions where heat signatures were being picked up, followed by a rough guess of how many it could be by holding his fingers up.

 

[demytra]

Mazurek took point with rifle raised as he pushed ahead on Krawczyk's command, and his mind raced for the possibility of yet another firefight. His breathing steadied as he crouched down and took a defensive stance along a wall. Adam made the obvious stated with regards to the issues plaguing the Upyri forces that had been stationed here, but also took the initiative when it came to trying to lure enemies out. The Corporal remained quiet, weapon trained to the near distance as he awaited for any sort of response from the enemy if they were nearby. His grip tightened on the rifle's grip and his trigger finger itched to squeeze at the first sign of any hostiles; he had some payback in mind for getting shot yesterday.

He also nodded silently to Kumcho as he made it clear where and how many he was picking up with his sensors. And as a result, Mazurek's anticipation for a fight grew even stronger in his mind as he steadied his breathing.

 

[K0mori]

"You see hostiles, you take the shot," Krawczyk whispered, barely loud enough for Mazurek to hear.

A moment later, there was another sound of movement. "[Yeah?]" an excited voice called back. "[I'm Cpl. Niklas Beckert, sir, 1st Rifles, C Company! I'm- I'm wounded, sir. ...Are you my evac?]" a strained voice responded from somewhere up ahead, and likely around a corner. Zetter answered in the affirmative - "[I am now]" - as he moved in closer, inquiring as to how many others were still in the building.

"[Two of my men are standing watch at the northwest corner, but I haven't heard from them since sunrise. They might be dead... or deserted, sir.]"

Zetter then inquired if Beckert had any more traps that he needed to know about, to which Beckert replied that there were claymores placed inside the windows lining the south wall of the building. He then grunted, stammering his way through explaining that they had resorted to improvised weaponry after their unit was shredded the prior night while fighting against a xeno unit. "[Kosoks?]" Zetter asked, just to keep the corporal talking.

"[No sir... or maybe...]" Beckert replied, sounding slightly delerious. "[Not the normal pissant goblins... maybe some of their puppets? They're all ugly as shit, I don't know,]" he said, fighting back the pain. "[...I think my proximity scanner's fucked, sir, you're not reading as friendly.]"

His voice seemed close as he moaned in pain, and Zetter realized that the next door on his right, the final one before the double doors which presumably led into the main student hallways, was the only place left that the corporal could be. As the Patrol came to a stop outside, Krawczyk took out a flashbang, signalling to the others that she would toss it in. After pulling the pin and throwing it, they were treated to the corporal's screaming and profanity, leaning away from the door as a looted UFS light machinegun raked blindly across the door. This continued until the weapon was out of ammo, at which point Mazurek stepped up next to Zetter and fired back into the room, only to realize that the Upyri Corporal had pulled the pin on a frag grenade and was trying to limp to the door.

"Grenade!" he shouted, and Patrol 2 wheeled backwards as the Upyri screamed some sort of final rally cry, going out in a blaze of glory that sent pieces of shrapnel through the walls.

Their ears still ringing from the blasts, Patrol 2 nonetheless heard the sound of men yelling from deeper inside the school. It seemed that Beckert wasn't as alone as he assumed. Out in the yard, amidst the remains of his dropship, Andrada spotted two upyri moving past the windows, heading toward the southwest corner of the building where Patrol 2 was fighting its way in.

 

[ImGhostly]

The scattered sounds of approaching combat perked Andrada's ears and raised him from his resting position in the wrecked dropship. He peeked through a blasted-out viewport at the school, searching visually for any sign of friendlies or the direction of the battle. At this rate, the waiting would kill him before the upyri did. At the report of a LMG, Luka winced. To think that UFS comrades might end up dead to save just one man was an uncomfortable thought - usually Andrada was the one throwing himself into the fire, sometimes literally.

There they were - just two, but there could always be more. The distraction was wiped from his mind as his eyes zeroed in on the pair of upyri fighters hustling towards the skirmish. Andrada held a bead on the pair, pressing the recoil pad into shoulder and holding the foregrip with his right hand as his left shot up and keyed his earpiece once more. "Patrol 2, be advised - I've got eyes on at least two foot mobiles moving southwest on your position. How copy, over?"

Andrada wouldn't wait for a response, not when he had the chance to do something about the threat. He took in a deep breath and fired three short bursts towards the pair of enemy combatants. Under his conditions he wasn't too confident whether or not his shots would land, but at least he might suppress them or make them think twice.

 

[Breadman]

Kumcho ducked as soon as he heard the warning for the grenade, dodging the frag pieces that shot out through the wall. Of course, that was only the start as he heard more voices from where he had picked some signals up just moments ago. They were getting closer and fast. There was no time to get fancy or to handle this with delicate finesse. The bounty hunter used his helm to figure out where the upiry soldiers were coming from. The exact number wasn't clear, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was to take them down.

He trusted his hearing to trace where they were most likely to approach from and he took his shots straight through the walls, hoping to pierce through them and to give the enemy some pause.