2120/Operation Patient Sleep

Operation Patient Sleep
Date of Scene:	28 April 2015
Location:	Earth-115
Synopsis:	The Council want something. And what the Council want, they get. Except this time.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 62, 256, 343, Karian Icefang, Mortimer Balman, 673

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Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    16:45 Location Gizeh, Egypt, somewhere in the desert along a lonely roadway snaking across the vast dunes. A convoy of military vehicles is stopped in the middle, smoke billowing into the air and signs of battle showing in the entire surrounding area. Glassy blast points, spent bullet casings and the bodies of several humans and a few aliens mark a bloody combat.

    The Dropship swoops low, taking visual readings of the site, before touching down a bit further along the road. "Central, this is Big Sky. We're onsite at the coordinates. Looks like the Aliens beat us here. No sign of survivors. Deploying Strike Team to investigate the area and secure any artifacts."

    Bradford watches the display at HQ. "Copy that Big Sky. Keep us posted. Strike 19-Actual, report."

    The leader of the strike team debarks, and lifts a hand to her ear. "I read you Central. I am deploying my team now. Will continue to advise as mission progresses."

Mortimer Balman has posed:
     Just below the surface of the desert, there's Mortimer again. Head occasionally poking up out of the sands, no flames or smoke, before disappearing back under. It appealed to his hindbrain's instincts to burrow quickly under the sands, towards /prey/. 'Swimming' along unseen (actually a misnomer, since he's no Diglett, but he's still going faster than one might think he has any right to be), his ears flick through again, unburrowing himself under the remains of what used to be an escort hummer. "Tanuki reporting in. Confirming no immediate sign of survivors. No sign of hostiles yet.." Sniff sniff sniff. "Stinks like hell down here, Big Sky. I don't like it- feels like there's too few bodies. Recommending you take immediate cover after debarking. Over."

     The stench of death and expended plasma are an annoyance- it's an ugly, distracting smell, but that he can put out. What's making the fur on his neck rise up is the lack of an alien ship that he can immediately see. That raises Questions. Most of them are Problematic. Of course, there could be some kind of fancy alien stealth technology at work. Or they just managed to hide the ship under a dune really fast..

Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
    Once the dropship touches down, Yulia unbuckles her seat restraints, then hops up to do the same for the dusty-purple mobile suit at the back of the bay. She's likely going to be the last one to set foot outside, but that's all right. It means that the others are less likely to be in the way of its big feet.
    The machine rumbles and whrrs once she's settles herself into the cockpit. Stealthy it most certainly is not, but if they're anyone left outside, they probably heard their aircraft landing anyway... Her face falls, then hardens as she gets her first personal (if via camera) look of what remains of the convoy. "They didn't even take their own dead with them..."

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian arrives with the members of the strike team geared up and ready. Bolter was leveled and his good eye scanning as he exits, hell-bent on keeping this team alive. He waited for the rest of the group to arrive, only to smirk as he hears the voice of mort.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
It's not long before Kotone is out of the Sky Ranger, and she's not alone a SHIV has rolled out ahead of he, as ever she's ready give the drone a bit more

"Samsara here, I'm on the grounbd and moving out."

She's already got her cyberbrain running as fas sit it will go as she starts to check for any signals that might give hint to the various mechanicals the aliens use. Also she's sending the drone to check out the trucks first as an advanced scout she's also takes a moment to optically cloak fadins into the shadows for the moment.

Staren has posed:
    Flying alongside the Skyranger is what looks like a slightly bulkier jet fighter. It's like someone took an F-14, added some bulk behind the cockpit, added sleek curves, and coated the whole thing in the kind of reflective armor that tends to show up on worlds with lots of laser weaponry. There are also a half-dozen add-on packs of some sort -- two massive boosters on the top, packs of unclear nature on the side, and two little packs tucked underneath with a missile launcher pack clipped to one. The wing hardpoints each have a pair of missile packs attached.

    Staren actually waves from the cockpit, wearing some sort of flightsuit.

    When it comes in for a landing, Staren lands a little ways ahead of them, his machine transforming -- it transforms in a blur of tiny moving parts, into a 42-foot-tall humanoid machine with a bit of a fuselage shape to its torso, the packs now on behind its shoulders, on the sides of its legs, and on the back of the forearms -- before setting down on the ground and looking around in a surprisingly human motion.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    When Rory steps out of the Sky Ranger, a flotilla of Saucers emerge from behind her and take up positions in the sky. "Seraph checking in! All systems green!"

    Or blue, in Rory's case. Her battlesuit's undergone considerable modifications... at least cosmetically. No longer black, it's instead a shiny pearl-white and sports a stylish, intricate pattern of glowing blue circuitry.

    Of course anyone who knows their Nanotech knows that this armor can change its external appearance in a matter of seconds so this isn't that big of a downfall when stealth's called for.

    "My priorities are survivors if there are any, supporting everyone else, and then worrying about the aliens directly..." She reminds herself.

    "Why would they strike Giza? Didn't the aliens and ancient Egyptian theory get disproven a hundred times?"

    Well, not that matters. Rory begins scanning everywhere. Particularly hiding places...

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Mort's instincts are right on the money. As the team slowly stalk down the road... Hidden Aliens burst out of the dunes to either side, opening fire with plasma pistols and rifles, strafing the group. Actual, Captain Lakshmi Khan or 'Collateral' takes a couple of hits to her Carapace breastplate, knocking her on her back, but not penetrating the defense. "Ghhn. All units, Scatter. Return fire!" she commands, rolling off the road and behind a rock.

    The rest of the team scatter and get behind cover, returning fire with a mix of ballistics and laser weaponry.

    Kotone's and Rory's scanners don't pick anything up, until the aliens surface. Perhaps some kind of camouflage or stealth tech. However, one of the trucks starts emitting a very distinctive energy signature. The same signature that a UFO's power source emits.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    The fire was surprising, and scarred up a bit of his armour. But the Wolf lord locks his eye, tracking the plasma fire and letting fly at it's source. He also sniffs at the air, trying to discern where the xenos may be originating from. "Stay in cover, wait for the right shot and take it. Think back to the range." He tells the soldiers, likely having given a few pointers to the troops.

Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
    "Ambush!" Yulia barks out even as her mobile suit raises its shield arm to deflect the incoming fire. Keen grasp of the obvious here. She moves forward, keeping herself between the incoming fire and their transport to help protect the latter. When a chance presents itself, she'll bring her suit's beam rifle to bear on one of the nests of aliens futher back and snap a shot off at them.
    "Detecting ship energy signature, haro!" her robotic co-pilot warbles in warning.
    "Where? show me!" Yulia demands. With a warble of assent, a triangle pops up on her cockpit display to mark where it is. "What, there? But that's--camoflague?" As good a guess as any.
    Still keeping shield high, the mobile suit turns and begins moving in that direction.

Mortimer Balman has posed:
     If it was going to give his position away, Mortimer would have snorted. Trying to steal his tricks, eh? But the force still seems a bit small to him- there are likely more of them hiding around, unless he's mistaken. But nonetheless, it would pay to help his allies before he goes back to his dirty sneaky badgery tricks, and so he pops up from behind the burning hummer and begins firing off puffballs of flame- they aren't directly targeted at the aliens, but are instead more like small flares, lighting up the surrounding area where the alien plasma fire is coming from so that the rest of his platoon will have better lighting for acquiring targets.

     He'll probably draw some fire, but that's fine- any shots fired at him are shots not fired at the rest of the platoon. Back under the sands, digging as fast as he possibly can with hands coated in icy claws created by his mind, heading for where the aliens are firing from. There's got to be a /ship/ here somewhere. The alternative to there being a ship is one he does not feel like contemplating at the moment.

Staren has posed:
    There is no cover big enough for a 42-foot robot. He may as well make use of it! Mutons and cyberdiscs posed a problem, but... sectoids and thin men? He thinks there should be no problem with that. The Star Hawk jumps forward and tries to stomp one of the first ambush groups with its feet!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is not picking up anything until the aliens just seem to pop up. Are they using stealth of their own she odesn't know but she does have SHIV open up on the nearest alien. She does however pick up the UFO power signature.

"Command? I'm getting an actice UFO power signature from one of the trucks, I don't like this."

She's trying to creep into the truck to see what's going on in there as all the chaos is starting up around her, hopefully her allies and the SHIV will be the distraction she needs.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory's reaction is a bit faster than the Captain. Her overhead sensors tell her IMMEDIATELY that there's critical movement and so she dives and rather clumsily rolls behind cover. Shots still peg her in the leg, vaporizing chunks off her armor. Which is impressive, given its heat tolerance levels.

    "Seraph here. Picking up UFO power signature readings from one of the vehicles here. Not sure why it just powered up right now but I suspect trouble. Investigating!"

    Of course, she's the best choice for such an investigation. if it blows up on her, she can just resleeve from backup!

    Where she can she ducks from one source of cover to the next on her way to the truck.

    And now that she knows that the Aliens are hiding underground she turns on the Sonar-based scanning and begins pinging EVERYWHERE with it.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The Ambush Aliens are easily dealt with. The Sectoids crumple under the weight of fire, and Thin Men explode into toxic clouds that waft away into nothing quickly in the baking desert heat.

    Then the throbbing sound of a UFO's grav-engine comes into hearing... and Yulia's Mobile Suit gets a good strafing as a Scout overflies, lancing it's ship-grade Plasma Cannons at the larger combatants.

    Further out in the desert, a heat-shimmer resolves into a huge vessel cloaked on the ground. It powers up, and unleashes a swarm of fresh aliens. Mutons and Berserkers, Cyberdiscs and Drones, more Thin Men and Sectoids.

    The Truck shudders and shakes violently, before the sealed 'cargo cabin' explodes outwards from something pushing from the inside.

    WHIRRCLANK. A huge, easily 20ft tall mechanical construct steps out from the wreckage, talon-like feet cracking the tarmac as it scans the area with a single beady red optic.

    It emits some kind of vocalization in an alien language the translation effect doesn't touch, and deploys a HUGE cannon from within its chassis, firing across the road towards Yulia as well.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian narrows his eye as he starts to take aim at the distant aliens, until the walker pops up. He curses softly and looks to the soldiers. "Get a rocket on that, but stay in cover. I'll head off the rest of the aliens." He then takes off running. Partly, he was hoping to get the walker to fire at him, but also to do as he said.

Mortimer Balman has posed:
     Mortimer pokes his head up out of the sand to look around, eyes going wide as a ship decloaks mere meters from where his head is. And then is stomped back down by a berserker's foot. *WHUMP* A grunt of pain and Mort burrows deep as he can. "Big Sky, come in, Tanuki. You've got a whole gods damned platoon coming your way hard and fast. Large troop transport less than half a football field from your position. Say again, /large alien force incoming/. Mutons, big flyin' disc-things, and more of the scrawny fuckers too." He pauses for a brief minute, waiting until the sound of footsteps over his head is gone. He's got a headache and a half now. Damn it. "Big Sky I believe they've emptied the craft. Do I try to capture it or circle back to flank them? Please advise. Over."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "I really wish I knew just how they're baffling SONAR." Rory complains as she hits the dirt and skirts behind cover again. Compartments open on her suit's armors, letting loose with MICROMISSILES. They're nowhere the speed and power of her full launcher would manage, powered by just classical rockets instead of SCRAMJETS and railgun launching, but they're just as explosive and guided.

    4 of these finger-sized missiles go zipping for the mechanical monstrosity - but not in time.

    The cannon shots destroy Rory's cover and knock her tumbling back across the ground with one leg sparking and blood seeping from it through a tear in the battlesuit...

    Strangely, this event doesn't trigger a scream or much of a reaction! "Left leg damaged, but still usable. Do we have a reason to stay and fight a ground battle?"

Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
    Ambush nothing, this is a trap. And they all walked right into it.
    Rose initiates evasive maneuvers, otherwise known as getting the heck out of the way, freeing up Yulia to concentrate on returning fire. It's hardly a perfect defense, and one of those stafing volleys leaves a nice smoking scar as it grazes the 'suit's back when it can't quite jink out of the way in time.
    Yulia raises her beam rifle to the sky, firing a short burst at the scout shop as it pulls off. Here on earth, there's no way she can match its speed, and so she doesn't even try.
Motion on the right catches her eye, and the suit turns from firing at the ship towards that...just in time to get blasted by a laser cannon from the aliens' version of their mechanized division. The outer layers of its torso armor flashes away as its meant to do, leaving a jagged ashy circle behind.
    "Fine then," she grumbles as she snaps a quick shot at it, and then begins moving off to the side and away. "Let's see if you'll play follow the leader."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
That moment of horror when you look up at something higher on the foot chain than yourself? That is the look on Kotone's face right now even cloaked. She issues orders to the SHIV to open fire on the huge alien mecha. Rounds chatter from teh SHIV's chain guns trying to seek out a weak point. While Kotone herself is fumbling for an alien grenade which she's going to toss at the thing before she flees as fast as she can, but htis might cause enough disttorions of her cloak to get noticed.

Staren has posed:
    IT'S A TRAP.

    That's okay. Staren has a giant war machine. They can handle this, right?

    Staren's missile launcher releases a salvo. A half-dozen micromissiles (twice the size of Rory's -- different tech bases) attempt to ram into the alien mech, ideally penetrating and then exploding with the power of a grenade. A half-dozen more mini-missiles spread out over the decloaked UFO and airburst, trying to cook it and the aliens it just disgorged withgiant fireballs of plasma.

    "Yulia!" Staren shouts, and his machine turns its head to her and points at the alien mech. "I'll leave the mech to you, I gotta go after their air support!" And then the Star Hawk leaps into the air and transforms, the super F-14-like form taking off after the scout to try and keep it off the others!

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    As Yulia moves, the Sectopod rounds on her, deploying a smaller cannon from underneath its chassis as the large one retracts. It traces pulses of green plasma across the Mobile Suit's path, makes another vocalization before stomping heavily in persuit. Looks like you got its attention Yulia!

    The Scout jinks and rolls fluidly, return fire grazing its armoured fuselage before it does a tight loop and comes back around, strafing the ground with its plasma cannon again. It's only s Small Scout, so the cannon isn't very powerful, but the fact it's a Ship means that anything the ground team have, save for the Mecha, aren't going to do much to it. That is, until Staren takes flight, forcing the Ship to break off and begin evasive maneuvers, firing its plasma cannon back at the Veritech fighter

    Collateral unhooks her rocket launcher, and unleashes a missile at the Sectopod as it turns, scoring a hit to the side as it stomps after Yulia, but the damage looks largely superficial, barely a scratch on the armoured frame. "All Strike Elements. Take up defensive positions around Big Sky! Prepare to repel incoming forces. Laser team, focus fire on those Discs. Checkmate, keep your eyes peeled and pick off any hostiles that you can before they get close. Rogue, I'll need you on support duty. Smoke out and get your triage kit ready... this is going to get rough."

    The troopers shift positions behind rocks as they prepare for the onslaught. Checkmate nestles under the dropship, laying prone with her eye to her scope. The others set up and lay ready, even while things explode around them. "Steady team."

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    "Tanuki... Flank the hostiles, we need to protect Big Sky and the Strike Team... capturing artifacts is a secondary concern right now." states Bradford over the comm. Big Sky is just the transport pilot.

Staren has posed:
    Staren didn't know they could fire /backwards/ The first plasma shot hits his machine, melting some armor, but then he's taking evasive maneuvers, weaving and rolling but still giving chase. He opens fire with the gatling railgun. Let's see how well the alien alloy stands up to slugs going several times the speed of sound? After a moment's consideration, if that didn't do severe damage to the saucer, one of the missile packs under the wings opens and launches, 15 more of the fireball missiles spreading out on trails of smoke, encircling the scout then coming at it from all angles!

Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
    Someone - a couple of someones - listened to her, hooray! "Thanks, Wolf Lord, Staren," Yulia quickly radios over the comm.
    The purple mobile suit makes a zig-zagging run away from the road and the others. Maneuvering a forty meter tall bipedal machine is much easier when you don't have to worry about what (or who!) you might step on. That this isn't in the middle of a city is an added plus, especially when this thing does not stop on a dime in gravity. Still, she can execute a quick pivot and spin to face her Sectopod opponent without warning. As she does so, she jabs one of her console buttons to launch two of her shoulder missiles - the outermost ones from each side - at the thing.

Rebecca Kismarin (343) has posed:
     With the clear afternoon sky and a lack of trees and buildings to obscure it, it's impossible to miss the massive silver shape descending on the battlefield at unsafe speeds. The 'Hand of Iapetus', UniTech rapid insertion and command craft, or just bloody dropship for short, comes barreling out of the blue from on high like some kind of angry god ( ). Two smaller objects fall out of the back of it as it burns through the air, engines and air brake thrusters make the thing a rumbling mass of rapidly slowling metal. It heads straight for the xeno Transport craft.

     The objects? A HERC and what looks to be a gunship. The Giant and Lightning respectively descend at their own paces, the Giant itself slamming into the ground with a -THUD- of metal and a plume of sand flying up into the air as its six barrels traverse upwards towards the Scout. The Lightning grav tank skims at helicopter level over the terrain and does much the same. The report of the Giant's guns is like a peal of thunder as they all fire at once, dual 210mm HEAP-X cannons stealing the show while the 50mm sniper duo and 50mm chainguns krak and clatter at a more rapid pace towards the saucer. The Lightning gives chase in supporting Staren, its nose gun spewing out bolts of green electrically charged ballistic shards and its own missile pods filling the sky with a dozen points of light and trails of smoke.

     And the 'Hand' herself? Coming down hard on the transport, the full weight of the dropship settling on top of the alien hull. The rear cargo bay remains open and a stomping almost as loud as the Giant's guns can be heard, an Apocalypse HERC tromping out and making its way to ground level, positioning itself so the massive spinal cannon and the rest of its armaments are protecting the only opening in the dropship. Good afternoon, gentlemen.

Mortimer Balman has posed:
     Slithering under the sands at Bradford's commands, Mortimer makes all the haste he can to the side so that he can surface in a burst of flames and horrendously loud, animalistic roaring. His plan is to crash into the main charge's flank before it can hit the XCOM platoon, ideally sowing confusion in their ranks so that enemy fire on their position is to some degree reduced. "No fear, no mercy, NO REMORSE!" A length of cruelly barbed and laser-sharpened steel appears in his hand as though by magic, and then he crashes into the thickest part of the alien advance as hard as he can.

     What happens after this is of no consequence, all that matters is that he can sow confusion and reap blood in the enemies ranks, screaming rage and slaughter like some possessed madman with a death wish. Were it not for the adrenaline rush going so high in his brain to be near toxic, he would be moving too fast to keep up with himself, slashing and flaring his mane out and kicking and punching with wild abandon.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Seraph acknowledges. Defending Big Sky!" Although the most Rory can do is sort of shuffle really fast. it's a HIGHLY unusual thing she ends up doing. One would not expect a person to do a three-legged hop, but she does exactly that. She bends over and starts doing this weird gorilla-like gait using her arms and one good leg until she's back under cover closer to big sky. Rather than being burdened by pain, she's just burdened by not being able to walk at high speed on the leg.

    It's kind of surreal to look at. A manuever no human could do.

    But no she's not a Thin Man!

    Eventually she gets up again and starts sending laser bursts from another arm-mounted weapon, a simple emitter. They're not exactly powerful, but she's aiming for EYES.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone has been scrambling back for the skyranger thankfully she was little more than a secondary concern to the aliens this time. She goes to try and giave under the craft, as for her Shiv? Well it's seen very much better days and might just be a write off at this point as it contiunes to scoot about in an attempt to draw fire.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian roars out at the aliens incoming a challenge. "FACE ME, DAMNED XENOS! SMITE ME IF YOU CAN, OR KNOW THE ALLFATHERS WRATH!!" He bellows. He somehow chucks a grenade at the scout, aiming to just get attention. MEanwhile the muton and others would find a Space wolf drawing his sword and aiming to smash them all....painfully.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The scout is getting absolutely pummeled. It jinks, swoops, but eventually, something explodes inside, and the entire craft detonates into an expanding flower of green flame and radiation. Fragments rain down into the sand below, though this craft isn't going to be salvagable!

    Yulia's return fire puts a dent in the giant mechanical monstrosities's armour, but it just bellows out a response, and deploys its main cannon again, baleful red optic locked onto the Mobile Suit as it charges up.

    Karian's charge is met by a Berserker, who parries the blade with its gauntlet... or at least tries to. The Power Sword cuts through the armour, and takes that arm clean off causing the beast to bellow in surprise and pain.

    Checkmate fires off shot after shot, felling sectoids and thinmen by the numbers as they crest the ridge, though one manages to get a shot or two off, peppering her with shrapnel.

    Mortimer's assault causes confusion and breaks the charging line, some Mutons turning on the fire badger with their heavy plasma cannons.

    The rest of the team open up with ballistics and lasers, tracing fire across the Cyberdiscs and any biologicals that crest the ridge and aren't felled by the sniper. Kotone's and Rory's additional fire help stall the flow, stopping it into a drawn-out slugfest. The SHIV, meanwhile, whines and finally comes to a stop as it's track is taken out by a plasma shot, the mini-gun twisted ad ruined... It just topples over and lays there forlornly. It's Status on the SCOPE TacNet reads: :( </3)]

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian grins at the Berserker. "Can I lend you...a hand, alien filth?" He taunts. He moves to kick the muton down to the ground and....tries to stomp it's head with his boot. As for the other mutons firing at Morty, they find bolt pistol barking their way. "YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE, FILTH!" HE roars. Then, he gets a deep laugh going. "Just like old times, eh Salamander?" He shouts, using the name morty is known by amongst the Sons of Russ.

Staren has posed:
    Staren loops away from the explosion. <<Woo! Got this one!>> He wonders if Sectopods look up? His three long-range missiles fire up into the sky in an arc, then come down on the Sectopod. Like the micromissiles but about 30 times the size, these are designed to just slam into something hard, penetrate, and explode.

    Then Staren makes his way back towards the combat site to give his allies time to evacuate.

Rebecca Kismarin (343) has posed:
     For a brick, the 'Hand of Iapetus' flies pretty well. With a creak of metal from where it sits atop the Transport, the Apocalypse trundles back into the rear bay. Soon after, the Lightning swings around and comes to a smooth landing as the much larger vessel lifts off. The Apoc's missile racks aren't full of small or medium missiles, instead each shoulder only holds four massive payloads. Payloads that are soon dumped in part as the dropship pushes upwards. Two missiles, more like barely-propelled mortar shells, literally arc about two meters from the back of the ship and descend towards the xenocraft below. The explosion is huge, the shield dome around the human vessel crackling as flame washes over it and makes the craft wobble.

     The Giant waits patiently, the 'Hand' sweeping over with an elevator lowered for it to step on and evac on. If there are any targets left, the Brontes will suppress fire with its collection of cannons to give the ground crew an easier time with retreat.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
That poor SHIV is having a bad day, however it did it's job very well, very well indeed it draw a lot of fire from the rwest of the team. She's however now getting a suggestions about some rounds Staren gave her. AS she lays in cover she moves to load up the clip of the proto abstracium bullets into the battle rifle. she takes aim with them lookjing up for a shot with the incoming X-eays there's just too many of them but she can start to pick some of them off, and that's what she's going to do making use of tha tac net that Rory's doing a pretty good job of managing.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Return fire catches Rory in an arm - because she uses it to shield her all-important head where the Cyberbrain's housed. The arm dangles down limply, throwing sparks and dripping what seems to be blood both at once.... creepy.

    But compartments on her shoulders open up and propel tiny metal darts - well, really, they're flechettes... definitely effective against GIANT SECTOID HEADS!

Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
    "Oh no you don't!" Not that Yulia really expects the Sectopod attacking her to listen. She pushes the controls under her hands forward and slams both feet down on the pedals, and her mobile suit jerks forward into a dead run. Her thumb jams down on the firing button, and the rifle spits out burst after burst of plasma fire at it.
    Somewhere in the middle of this, micromissiles! Courtesy of Staren!, which certainly is going to throw up a hellish amount of dust and smoke regardless of the outcome. The view from her cockpit now a right mess, she drops the now empty rifle. In the dust plume there's an arc of light as she draws and toggles her beam sword to slash at where she last saw her opponent.

Mortimer Balman has posed:
     If Mort weren't currently in the midst of a frenzied battle, he'd probably find some degree of hilarity in the aliens using plasma cannons.

     At least, against him.

     Ionized plasma's pretty hot stuff! As long as it doesn't dissipate too much mid-flight a bolt of that stuff, you're prolly gonna kill someone with it! Even a Fire-type like Mort is going to feel the heat from that, but that's what his old COs would call /motivation/. Motivation to /burn/. His roars are not mere sound even as fur and flesh are singed and scorched- but not quite charred and flash-melted away as the Mutons would no doubt have hoped- but accompanied by tremendous goats of roiling flames that stick and cling to the flesh like diesel-flame (but without the pleasant smell, sadly). He doesn't remember where his knife is off hand, plunged into the skull of a sectoid some yards away.

     But it's far too noisy for him to hear Karian. Not above the screams of the burning. Fire is one of the worst ways to die, they say, as the heat slowly nips at every single solitary nerve on its way to the bone. The screaming won't last too long though, not with as much fire as Mortimer is simply /dousing/ the area in, sucking away precious atmosphere from the lungs of those closest to him.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    "LOAD UP TEAM! WE ARE LEAVING!" bellows Collateral, backing out of cover while laying down suppressive fire with her LMG, the deep rattle of the gun thumping across the desert. The rest of the XCOM Squad are quick to move, snapshotting off with laser and bullet as they head back into the dropship.

    Mort's gift of fire doesn't bring life to these unfortunate souls, it burns it away until only blackened armour and charred flesh crumple to the ground, atop smooth glass. Karian's boot stomps the Berserker's head in, the helmet buckling and the bellow of rage cut short into a messy, gurgling sigh.

    The dustcloud kicks up around the Sectopod, its optic the only thing visible in the thick cloud, which seems to go wide in surprise... before that beamsaber comes around, slashing through one of its buckled armour plates. The length of the saber slices through internal components, hacking through cognitive clusters, gearing mechanisms... and the green glowing Power Core, which suddenly goes critical and explodes violently. The force would be enough to knock the Mobile Suit backwards, off its feet, and clear the desert air of that dust cloud as it flash-melts the particulates into glass, leaving a charred glass crater with a smoking ruin of two legs wobbling in the middle.

    Rebecca's parting gift gets Big Sky moving. "EVERYONE ABOARD! WE'RE LEAVING!" bellows the pilot over the din of things exploding, as he powers the engines... which is joined by another four pairs of pulse detonation engines. <Valkyrie One to Ground Team. Bringing the rain.> crackles the pilot, as 16 heavy torpedo missiles unlatch from the wing-pylons and streak down into the Transport, slamming into the fuselage and punching through inside. They then detonate, just as the pair from the Apocalypse impact, causing a mini-mushroom cloud to erupt from the ship's location.

Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
     The once purple but now definitely soot-and-black mobile suit takes a very brief and completely uncontrolled flight backwards from the sheer force of the explosion. It doesn't so much land as it tumbles and skids as it rides the shockwave, shedding armor in shards and chunks along the way. The bulk of it finally slides to a halt after ripping a deep gash in the ground not far from the lip of the glassy crater that Yulia had a hand in creating. Its head continues tumbling along a short distance further before finally coming to rest.

Staren has posed:
    Valkyrie One brings down the fire! <<Yea-heah! Nice fireworks!>> Staren cheers, pumping his fist in the cockpit.

    When the sectopod explodes, though, Yulia's mobile suit goes down with it! Staren checks on his sensors whether it looks like her powerplant is still running, and brings the Star Hawk in for a landing nearby -- back in humanoid mode, it looks over the torso and then at the nearby head, scanning for lifesigns.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
She hears the call it's time to go. She takes a moment to download the SHIV's AI and any other data on it. Given she'd not want to leave thing s9intact. Once the files are moved. The thing's systems are empty and she writes over junk data of an image of Kotone sticking her tongue out mockingly. No one's getting those files. With the data aboard she noe scrambles for the dropship trying to leave and get on the Skyranger. Kotone will get in and move to aid any squaddies that need a hand getting aboard.

Mortimer Balman has posed:
     Big Sky, having the benefit of shouting directly into his ear, gets Mortimer's attention. Distance between them (them being him and Karian), too damn far. Enough time to take a breath and Mortimer gets a chance to appraise the situation. Too much heavy firepower from allies to hit the big aliens without causing friendly fire. Too much hostile firepower between them and evac. The giant alien walker has blown up, but there's enough live aliens with enough firepower to threaten the transport. Even if the other Elites kill the remaining aliens, the risk to the Evac and everyone on board is not one he's willing to take.

     "Big Sky pull out ASAP-" He's already running again before he even starts the sentence, throwing his entire body at a Muton soldier to slam-tackle it to the ground. "Get out of here, Karian and I /will not/ make it before Evac is compromised-" cut off by being punched in the face, to which he responds by spitting out teeth and flames into the Muton's unarmored face. "We will draw enemy fire and evac down the road. /Do not wait for us./- goes double fer you, Staren! Bomb our position as-" Shot in the back by a Thin Man. The creature is surprised by how Mortimer's body 'doesn't vaporize' at such close range, and for its pause it catches his knife with its face. '/Bomb our position after lift off. Repeat/."

     'Repeat' in many Marine codes means 'bomb area of last transmission', to note.

     Rising back to his feet and dashing through a cloud of toxins to retrieve his knife- which clouds his vision something fierce, but he managed to hold his breath long enough to keep from getting that shit down his throat- he tries to shake the gunk off his face and starts spewing flames wildly. "C'mon, Icefang, let's give'em a grand showin'! C'MON YOU ALIENS, SHOW US YOUR FURY!"

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian looks over and nods. "Aye! COME, XENOS! FACE YOUR DEATHS WITH SOME DIGNITY!!" He roars out. Space wolves were known for either being extremely brave and extremely reckless. This act totally screamed out both. "Guess we'll be sharing that drink in no time!" He shouts to his old friend, moving to match Mort's move and covering his back with sword, bolter, and zealous fury.

Staren has posed:
    Staren considers trying to pull Yulia from her machine, but he doesn't know where the hatch is! He runs some quick calculations, then nods to himself. He blasts the detached head with some plasma missiles so the aliens can't salvage it, then transforms to hybrid mode, grabs onto the machine somehow, and begins dragging it towards the dropship. He may even be able to fly with it if needed, but not very quickly!

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Into the Skyranger goes Rory. She's staying riskily near the edge, hoping to grab or help anyone that might need it despite all of the explosions!

    "They lead us straight into an ambush..."

Yulia Koslova (256) has posed:
    Yulia's mobile suit is a smoking, sparking mess. Though the sparking part dies down pretty quickly after the last of the built-up energy drains. Its power generator has gone into emergency shutdown - Zeon's engineers have been working on mitigating damge-related containment failure. The good news at least is that the chest/torso section is still fairly intact. The better news is that there are life signs inside!
    Considering how badly it's been broken, finding handholds isn't much of a problem for Staren as he drags it and its occupants to safety.

Rebecca Kismarin (343) has posed:
     The Hand of Iapetus cancels its slow descent, turning around and bearing down on the coordinates provided. Two of the massage cargo elevators are lowering, the Giant-class ballistic HERC on one, the other empty. The engines of the dropship pulse, the wash from the repulsors kicking up sand and dust as they work to keep the ship aloft. The Giant stays on the lift platform and trains its guns on anything hostile, the big cannons having cycled and the pilot's trigger finger itching. On the other platform, there's ample space for Staren to drag Yulia and have room for the Veritech though the fit will be tight.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Big Sky lifts off when told, engines burning hot as they swivel into place and the hulking, lumbering craft jets off away from the explosion site.

    Mort and Karian are given a simple, "Gods Speed." from the pilot, as they fight through the remaining, panic-frenzied aliens.

    Two Cyberdiscs attempt to assault the Hand as it comes in to pick up the fallen mech, transformed to Assault Mode with their cannons primed. They wouldn't last long against the kinetic fusillade that the Giant can lay down, though.

Mortimer Balman has posed:
     Big Sky taking off. Good. That means the enemy will only be able to focus on him and Karian. Despite having a hard time seeing, Mortimer knows full well that the flames he's spewing all over the place make this area a big, fat, fiery target for XCOM's superiority craft to bomb the shit out of this area. The problem of course is how he and Karian will get out of there. All the flames, and subsequent smoke, provide a good bit of cover, which is helpful since the aliens are scattering so that they can get away from the burny furry thing and the angry choppy jumbo human and regroup.

     But that's good, that's what Mortimer /wants/. "Time to leave, old boy. RUN!" He knows they won't be able to /hear/ the bombers coming, but he knows they'll be on the way soon. Any direction works- he picks the one that's /least/ flame-coated, grabs Karian to give him a tug on which way to go, and starts hoofing it like hell. This would be so much easier if he could /see/ clearly. Hell with it, don't need sight to run. Ground's nice and smooth aside from the occasional corpse or chunk of debris. Plenty of open space. But can they outrun the explosions? More importantly, how many of the aliens will realize why they're running and follow suit?

     The world goes... Bright, for a few moments, and Mortimer feels himself suddenly lifted up off of the ground by unseen hands made of concussive force and heat..

Karian Icefang has posed:
    KArian feels the tug on him and turns back to take off with mort. He knew the bombers were coming, but this old wolf wasn't letting a bomb take him or his friend out. So he tore off at top speed, keeping a hand on mort's shoulder, dragging him along.
    The old wolf kept his eye peeled for anywhere they could duck into, except the explosive mix of force and heat send him in the air.
    Twisting, he grabs mort and pulls him close. His intent was to take the impact onto the ground himself and give his friend a softer, if uncomfortable, impact into his armor. "That's the LAST time I let you eat anything that causes gas, Mort..."

Rebecca Kismarin (343) has posed:
     As the twin-disc threat rears up, the Giant's shields flicker and pulse as ripples of energy from the beam weapons crash against them. The four smaller guns fire, the two larger of the set pumping out 50mm armor piercing rounds. The smaller of the set simply unload, two twin-barreled 40mm Devastators burning through their belts as the auxilliary ammunition supplies work to keep them filled. The two big guns punctuate the barrage with one shot each, the twin HEAP-X cannons heard over the dropship's engines.

    As the reloading mechanism clunks and whirrs, the elevators, with HERC on one and precious cargo on the other, start to rise. The thrusters roar and before the lifts are even halfway up, the 'Hand of Iapetus' makes for the sky and away from the smoking desert sands. Technicians are already on standby in the dropship's bay to cut Yulia out if necessary.