T/N to better know the fighting strength of the Malvione team, here's the current situation
Blue Team (Scarab and Banshee)
Blue 1- Alex (Piloting Scarab)
Blue 2- Angelo (left turret)
Blue 3- Miller (right turret)
Blue 4- Chris (on radar)
Blue 5- Lucy- (Rear turret
Blue 6- Simoun (on Banshee)
Red Team (pelican and Banshee)
Passengers
Red 1- Wringe
Red 2- Evan
Red 3- Tina
Red 4- Carl
Red 5- Max
Red 6- Zack
Pilots
Foxtrot 9 (Earl) [Red 7]
Foxtrot 10 (Jed) [Red 8]
Red 9 -Vinn (On Banshee)
Green Team (on land vehicles[1 Gauss hog, 1 Wraith, 1 troop hog)
Green 1- Thomas (Gauss Hog turret)
Green 2- Cammy (Gauss Hog driver)
Green 3- Sid (Wraith Driver)
Green 4- Timothy (Wraith Gunner)
Green 5- Luke (Troop hog Driver)
Green 6 - Stan (Troop Hog passenger)
Green team reinforcements (pelican)
Pilots
Delta 2 (Earl) [Green 7]
Delta 4 (Manuel) [Green 8]
KIA
Delta 3
Delta 10
Foxtrot 4
Foxtrot 13
Foxtrot 16
WIA
Delta 11
Foxtrot 7
Foxtrot 15
/here's the pandora's strength. because I'm lazy and naming them all could cause complications later, I'm speed running this section/
Platoon 1
Leader: Aileen Barnet
Members:
Katelyn Granville
10 other pandora
Accompanying Limiters
Platoons 2-4
12 pandora limiter pairs each
Leaders:
Platoon 2: Chiffon Fairchild
Platoon 3: Arnet McMillan
Platoon 4: Miyabi Kannazuki
Platoon 13
Acting Leader: Roxanne Elipton
Members:
Pandoras:
Satellizer El Bridget
Rana Linchen
Cassie Lockheart
Charles Bonaparte
Valkyries
Christine Evora
Franka Porsche
Ouka Tenjouin
Tiziana Ferrari
Lucy Rernault
Limiters
Kazuya Aoi (Satellizer's partner)
Citroen (Charles' partner)
Kyoichi Minase (Cassie's partner)
Shi-jing Hong (Roxanne's partner)
Novas
8 Type S (currently only the one defeated by the scarab is out of commission... or is it?)
\And now, back to the story...\
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The battlefield
1035 hrs - 35 minutes after the start of the training exercise
/
The ground around the nova was silent after the last traces of the Malvione group had left. While no one was paying attention to the decommissioned nova dummy, it disintegrated into black smoke, which crept slowly towards a concentrated source of life- pandora platoon 1.
/
Blue team
Waypoint Delta
47 minutes after the start of the training exercise
/
The Scarab marched along the battlefield accompanied by a lone banshee. The pair were rushing to relieve a platoon from the Nova however, they were not prepared for what was coming for them.
"Noooo! Stay away!"
"Ma...ma... please..."
"Jesus Christ, what the hell is happening?" uttered Alex, seeing the scene unfold through the monitor. Having sent Simoun to recon for the group, the banshee pilot relayed a feed from his camera to the scarab- a little over a thousand meters away from the scene. Down below, several pandoras were panicking, as if they were in some sort of delusion. Although their own limiters and fellow pandoras tried to stop them, they continued their frenzy, swinging at air.
Alex scrutinized the feed and noticed one pandora swing at an empty area, like the others but suddenly received a serious injury. Meanwhile, the Nova continued to assault the group, leaving the few remaining available pandoras with even bigger problems.
"Blue 1, I'm moving to assist." radioed Simoun. "I'll buy time for Honey Badger to get on site."
"Copy Blue six, hang in there" replied Alex as he commandeered the Scarab to make a beeline for the target. Before getting to far however, Chris (blue 4) cried out.
"Contact 4:00, eighteen hundred meters! Nova dummy headed straight for us!"
Alex grit his teeth. Picking up the radio again he signaled the banshee rider. "Simoun. Hold on a bit longer, we've got company over here."
"Copy that" replied blue 6 as he steered his aircraft in a graceful arc to avoid a beam attack.
'Dammit, so it's a solo flight for now huh?' he thought as he unleashed a barrage of plasma, searing the dummy's left flank. The Type-S responded by shooting out it's appendages, trying to knock the flyer out of the sky.
"Too slow!" snickered Simoun as he dodged the attack and fired his aircraft's heavy weapon, sending an extra large blasma bolt at the type-S, striking it dead center and delivering a slight knock-back to the behemoth. Although seemingly effective, the opponent fired its beam once more, this time clipping the banshee's left wing.
"Nghhhh!" grunted Simoun as he struggled to keep his aircraft from crashing.
'Not enough huh?.. He thought. "Boss, you better hurry, this thing's getting smarter by the second!" said the soldier as the banshee faced the nova once more.
/
Scarab
Waypoint Delta
50 minutes after the start of the training exercise
/
"Alright then, let's dance." muttered Alex as his Scarab went head to head with the Type S. "Burner, firing solution!" he cried out as he maneuvered the bulk of metal to dodge a beam attack at it's side.
"Suppressing Fire! he barked, and in response, Miller and Lucy spun up their plasma turrets and fired. Although largely ineffective, the sustained fire, dotted the enemy's armor with black spots, charred and peeling off.
As the scarab moved to try a pass at the Nova with it's primary weapon, the Nova swung one of its arms at the Scarab's leg, successfully incapacitating it for a brief amount of time.
"Shit we're open to attack!" Shouted Alex "Brace for impact!" and the beam surprisingly clipped the left shoulder of the assault platform. Alex looked at the source and found a stoic Lucy holding up a smoking railgun, having abandoned her turret.
"Good going girl." he said to her. The woman held two fingers up in a peace sign before suddenly being thrown in the air as the type S hit the torso with it's arm.
"Shit!" Shouted Alex, being thrown to the floor. Dazed, he shook his head to orient himself and realized the bridge was one man err woman short. His rear turret sentry was presumably thrown out, having unbuckled her harness to get in a position to fire the railgun.
"Lucy!" He shouted
"Don't worry boss. I got her! shouted Miller. Blue 3 was on the floor with an outstretched arm reaching down below, presumably holding onto their missing comrade.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief before being knocked over once more by the force of another attack.
"Hang in there you two!" Shouted Blue 1 as he grabbed the controls. "Angelo, help them out!" He cried out before yanking on the stick, sending the Scarab into a body slam with the Type-S. The bridge shook heavily as the two bodies collided.
Alex, struggling to keep balance as he wrestled the controls, commanding the scarab to wrestle the nova. managed to force the Nova to back off slightly with a well timed body slam.
Seizing his chance, the Blue leader shouted out. "OI you humongous extraterrestrial tampon! Eat this!" and fired the main cannon at the core at almost point blank range. The plasma, burning straight through the armor, core, armor again and ejecting straight out the back of the Nova. Alex then moved the cannon upward, slowly vaporizing the Nova's head for good measure. In ten seconds, the dummy crashed down to the ground in three pieces: lower torso, left and right 'arms'.
Satisfied they were out of immediate danger, Alex turned to his crew and found them all, hanging onto dear life at the end. Evidently even Chris had to get out of his seat to help Angelo keep Miller and Lucy from plummeting to the ground. Blue 1, not a heartless man, came over to help them all back up to the deck. The crew shared a small bit of laughter before heading off to help Blue 6 against the other type S.
/
Red team
Waypoint Gamma
53 minutes after the start of the training exercise
/
"Red team, reaching LZ in 60 seconds, be prepared. It's getting ugly down there" said Earl, one of the pilots, via the intercom. In the cargo bay, six members of Red team were double checking their weapons. Among them, Wringe, was feeling slightly uneasy as she inspected her weapon. Sighing, her thoughts drifted towards a certain somebody.
"Worried about the commander?" asked a voice. Wringe looked up and identified the owner of the voice as Max, Red 5. Without saying anything, the woman blushed a bit and gave a small nod.
Immediately small and silent snickers came around the cargo bay. Although the girl did try to hide it, it was plain obvious to the Foxtrot team that she harbored more than friendly sentiments towards Thomas, their leader. All of them, except perhaps, for the person in question. The poor girl, they thought, doomed to harbor feelings for a man they believed to be denser than a neutron star.
*Beep! Beep!
"That's the signal. All units, prepare to move out!" said Red one, immediately changing her worried demeanor. Sure enough, the pelican, hovering slightly above the ground, opened it's bay doors and from within it the six members of Red team jumped out. Immediately, they were faced with a scene where several pandoras were panicking. Those who still had their wits were torn between helping their allies and facing an out of control Nova dummy. Face with the severity of the situation. Wringe stood her ground and ordered her detachment.
"Reds 3 through 6, suppression tactics A-3-9. Red 2, you and I will cover them. Reds 7 through 9, provide air support."
Almost before all 8 of her groups' acknowledgement lights blinked green, Red one made her move. Leveling her plasma rifle, the woman fired several three- round bursts before rolling to avoid being hit with the nova dummy's counterattack. Similarly Red 2 fired his own weapon, a needler, laying a line of pink crystal shards across the target's left arm. Moments later the shards detonated, leaving slight cracks throughout the armor.
As if sensing its own damage, the nova centered its attacks on the 2 newcomers forcing the pair to dodge and stop their attack. Meanwhile Red 9 started her attack run. Lining up the banshee's weapons, Vinn fired several bolts of plasma before rolling to avoid a tendril. As she retreated however, she gave her opponent a round from her flyer's heavy weapon- a fuel rod cannon, splattering it in the face. Evidently, damage began to show as cracks and melted pieces of the Nova's armor began to show.
On the ground, Wringe had found herself beside one of the sane pandoras.
"Who's in charge?"asked the Malvione as the banshee bought her time to speak.
"That would be Kannazuki- sempai. She's the blue haired pandora over there." answered the pandora as an explosion rocked the battlefield and sprayed dirt over the two. Wringe nodded and maneuvered her way towards the direction the pandora pointed, dodging attacks and returning her own, and found Kannazuki rather easily. The woman, being covered by her three limiters was trying to help one of her teammates come back to her senses though evidently, it was failing.
/
Miyabi Kannazuki
Waypoint Gamma
60 minutes after the start of training exercises
/
"Hey, Charlotte. Come on! get yourself together!" she said as she shook the other girl.
"Nooo... It's coming..." continued the girl.
"What are you talking about girl?" she asked the trembling girl and as the Limiter Devourer turned and saw a black smoke, she felt fear emanate from the figure and braced herself for what was coming.
"Hey, are you the platoon leader?" said a voice. What popped out of the smoke was instead one of the members of Squad 14.
"Yeah what about it?" she answered. "Nghh... my head..." she added afterwards, as a numbing, fearful sensation remained.
The pandora however shook it off as she tried to attend to her friend.
"Maybe I can help" The armored member of squad 14 butted in. Although Miyabi was skeptical, she nodded and the latter pulled out a syringe. Without warning, she stabbed it into Charlotte and emptied it's contents. Immediately the panicked pandora relaxed and went limp.
"Hey what the hell did you do!" shouted Miyabi
"Don't worry it's just a sedative. She'll live" Replied the other. before the platoon 4 member could retort however, a sudden explosion was heard and immediately the Malvione soldier perked up.
/Wringe/
"Vinn? Vinn! Respond!" she cried out over the comms as the banshee's signal disappeared
"Cough cough... I'm alive.." said a voice from her comms. "I bailed out last minute but my leg's shot... I'm out of the fight." She added, cursing afterwards.
"At any rate. Glad your alive." sighed Wringe. "Red team status report." she called out."Red 9's out of commission, anyone not tied down?"
"This is red three, suppression complete over here. The four of us are good." called out Tina
"Red two. Still alive" radioed Evan.
"Good, Zack get Vinn out of the danger zone. The rest of you cover him." said Wringe. "Still, if we don't take that thing out we're just gonna get picked off one by one."
"This is Red 7-8 Actual. We got this." radioed in the pelican.
"Red 7 Stand down. The pelican isn't equipped for fighting that thing." she retorted.
"That's a negative Sarge." came the reply. "We know the pelican won't do a thing against the target but like we said, we got this. Just keep it off our backs for sixty seconds."
"Fine. But make sure you lot don't die. She grunted back in reply. Signalling her group once more, she called out. "You heard 'em. Once Red 6 and 9 clear the zone, lay down some suppressing fire. Earl you better be right about this." She grunted out as she leveled her weapon once more and, running away from Miyabi's general location, emptied the clip at the Nova.
/Red 7-8 Actual (inside pelican)/
"Earl are you sure about this?" asked Jed
"Yeah I am. I agree it's a stupid idea but Vinn just had to blow away the upper portion of the armor. Even if we did give it to the others down bellow, they'd never be able to hit it given our current options." Replied the pilot as he steadied the controls "Now quit whining and line up your shot. We've only got one chance." he added.
One chance indeed. Earl had his copilot climb into the rear compartment and prepare the railcannon they had in the back. Opening the bay doors, poor Jed was going to have to fire the weapon inside a flying pelican. Although they would be hovering a good distance from the target, there was a reason these kinds of weapons were used only by ground units and full sized ships. And though he had pointed this out to his partner, Earl just brushed it off with the same reasoning that they'd never be able to damage the core from ground level. Left with no choice and at the mercy of a pilot whose sanity should be questioned, Jed raised the weapon and began charging it.
"It's ready!" he shouted over the roar of the wind.
"Take the shot! It's now or never!" replied his crazy partner in tandem. Red 8 did as he was told and squeezed the trigger. Immediately the force of the recoil blew the ship out of control.
"Nghhhh!" grunted the Earl as he struggled to right his craft. He did so but too late. The pelican crashed into the canopy of trees- The force of which blew Jed back into the cockpit, his rear end facing the sky.
"Gah... Earl this is why we don't fire a railgun on a pelican!" he grunted.
"At least we got results. Take a look." Smiled Red 7 as he showed feed from a cracked display. The Type-S was lying on the ground and showing no signs of life. It looked like the pair's actions succeeded.
"Alright. We did good. I'll give you that much. "Muttered Red 8.
"Indeed we did." Replied Red 7. Claping his hands, Earl then turned to his cockpit's controls. "Now then. Next order of business is to get this thing back in the air."
"Are you shitting me?!" uttered Jed, mouth wide open. "We just crashed!"
"Yeah but I started running diagnostics. Should be done right about...now" replied Earl "See? We're still flight worthy. Provided we don't do atmospheric entry/re-entry, we're good to go. Just need to reboot and we should be able to fly again." he added, with a cheerful demeanor.
"Hey Red 7-8 actual. Are you guys okay?" buzzed Wringe's voice from the comms.
"Yeah we're good over here. Give us a few minutes and we'll be back in the air." replied Earl, stepping out to inspect the pelican's hull.
"Sigh... sometimes I wonder why I still hang around you" muttered Jed as he trudged to help Red 7 get the pelican back in order.
/
Green Team
Halfway to Waypoint Echo
62 minutes after the start of training exercises
/
Three vehicles sped across the ground as the group headed to their destination. At it's helm stood Thomas, manning the Gauss hog's turret. Having sent Blue and Red teams to aid platoons 2 and 4 respectively, Green team was moving to support the last unaided platoon. After all, the map data showed that there was one area where two platoons were together. Thomas was confident they could at least hold their own as Platoon 13 was one of the pair. Checking the data again, it turned out Green team would support platoon 1. As Thomas relaxed himself to prevent unnecessary tension that could prevent him from freezing up in the most crucial moments, he suddenly jerked and stopped. after all, platoon 1 had one particular pandora...
"Fffffffuuuuuck...why the hell did I send us there..." he sighed.
"Boss, any problem?" asked Green two, the hog's driver.
"Don't worry bout it Cammy, just thinking bout some stuff. he replied in an attempt to brush it off.
Although the girl didn't seem so convinced, a voice suddenly cried out. "Contact! Rear!"
Immediately Thomas swiveled his turret to face the enemy but was instead blanketed along with the other three vehicles by a cloud of black smoke, whcih passed as quickly as it had appeared and in no time, vanished.
"Green team status." barked Thomas and all 5 of his group's acknowledgement lights blinked green.
"What the hell was that?" said Timothy.
"I don't know. And I sure as hell don't want to find out. " replied Thomas. " And as much as it pains me to say, it headed in the direction of waypoint Echo. Come on boys. Double time"
In response, the two hogs and a Wraith picked up speed and headed straight into the line of fire.
A/N
Hello again. I'm back with an update- and in less than a month no less. Surprisingly even excluding that sitrep at the start, this is the longest chapter I've ever typed out (although it is still pretty damned short) regardless. Hope you enjoyed. As usual feel free to comment/ leave a review if you feel like it. I greatly appreciate your feedback.
And now my reply corner
Kyondakogon: Thanks. It's good to be back and I do plan to stay
Icesquall: True, sometimes I feel like I halfassed the writing in some chapters/ felt some things were lacking. Also, thanks for the tips XD- gave me the idea to type this chapter similarly to Halo ODST.
Telron: thanks. hope you enjoyed this one
Well that's it for now. Hope to be back with the next chapter soon. Ciao
