"Rider Kelley, sir! We are holding them here! All men accounted for!" Kelley nodded, still behind cover. He turned to see Morain arriving. "Not all. Riders Arcadia and Miribo are pinned in a room ahead. Corporal, stay here, hold the line. I'll give you some cover. Move up. Eight enemies forward. They're setting a charge." Kelley caught the stun-club, shield projector and turned back to the Corporal. "Get a medical team ready to start treating the injured here. The other riders might be injured as well so it'll be better to be safe than sorry." Activating the shield projector, he rolled out of cover and began sprinting at the enemy. Several of them turned and was about to fire on Kelley when Morain sprayed them with her rifle, taking one of them out and sending the rest scattering into cover. Kelley shot straight at the charge, smashing the club into it and disabling the detonator. He turned just as a bullet hit the spot on the shield right in front of his head. He stumbled backwards, but this put him closer to the rebels on the other side. They raised the butt of their rifles and used them to try a bash the rider's head through his shield. But Kelley had already ducked under their blows and swept their legs out from underneath them. He took a quick strike at each of the fallen with the stun-mace, taking them both out before chucking it directly at the head of the next rebel, hitting the target and knocking him out as well. The fourth rebel barely had time to turn when Kelley took him to the ground and pounded his face in. He turned and it was over. The other three were laying on the ground with Morain (and by extension, Veronica) standing over them, her rifle high in the air.
< @WanderingJester > "Loren, get that door open! I'll cover you!" She took position just past Kyras' door, Aiming down the hall and picking off Splinter forces as they appeared.
She safely pulled out of cover and returned fire before popping back in, "Che..." Agalia relayed the message as Freya blinked, "You know Ki-kun shouldn't be the helmsmen. Is he some super secret agent? Cause I haven't heard of a Helmsman who isn't at the helm as much as him." Agalia giggled, "You can interrogate him about that after the battle. For now we have to get past these two jokers." Freya nodded and looked for anything she could use as a distraction.
"Loren, get that door open! I'll cover you!" Shots followed Morain's words as Kelley quickly ran to the command console. He tapped several buttons on it, but the screen flashed red, revealing that the emergency security lockdown was still in place. He tapped several more buttons, but same thing happened. The Rider slammed his fist against the screen, nothing. Finally he went and picked up his stun-mace. Swinging it, Kelley smashed the console apart, and the doors hissed open. He was stunned. "Wow, I can't believe that worked." He muttered to himself before yelling at the Corporal from before. "Secure that room and get a medical team down here now! I'm going to support the Lieutenant!" Activating his shields again, Kelley launched down the hallway towards the enemies with his weapon, bullets bouncing off his shield as he closed with his helpless opponents. Soon, many a bones and teeth were broken in that hallway.
< @WanderingJester > Kelley, somewhat winded from all the combat, saw three heavily-armored Soliers barreling down the hall towards him, one with a heavy machine gun, two with huge, hard-light swords. One was put down immediately by Morain, her custom rifle blowing right through his head. As the remaining swordsman pinned him, the machinegunner firing down the hall, keeping the Medical team from approaching. At the same time, something began to interfere with Veronica, her processing was becoming sluggish, and the shield began to fail. "Veronica? Is somthing AGH!" the shield failed at that moment, and Morain was hit by a torrent of bullets, her armor getting ripped apart as well as the flesh underneath. She fell to the ground, an ever-expanding pool of blood beneath her. < @Andraina > Nothing made itself immediately apparent, rifle shots pinging against her cover. It abruptly stopped, though, with two pained grunts. When Freya looked, she would see Killian standing over her assailants, blood dripping off his katana. He looked at Freya, and smiled "There you are. Oracle told me you needed to get to the hangar? To Agalia, he said in data-speak {No need for a helmsman in an immobile ship, yes? Besides, if I must I can make crude adjustments from wherever I am.} His voice made it clear it was a good-natured jest. Oracle chimed in {I thought what you said was funny, so I told him.}
As the soldiers came and the hardlight sword clashed with his stun-mace, Kelley looked over. Morain looked back at him and waved for him to fight the swordsman while shooting at the machine gunner. Suddenly he heard Morain's voice. "Veronica? Is somthing AGH! He looked over and saw her body fall to the ground, and suddenly a shade of red filmed over his eyes. Kelley front kicked the swordsman, harder than he ever thought possible, sending the man smashing against one of the walls. The rider closed with the machinegunner, and before the man could turn, smashed his weapon down on the firing gun, destroying it completely before breaking through the visor in the man's helmet with his knee. Kelley ripped off his own shield and tossed it on her, waved the medical squad over to Morain and speared the slowly rising swordsman's midsection with his shoulder, before grabbing the sides of the swordsman's head and snapping his neck. Kelley yelled at the medical team, who still haven't reached Morain yet (but honestly there wasn't a comparison between his reactions at the moment to theirs). "GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE AND HELP HER NOW!" With a bit of a calmer voice, he force out loud, "Veronica, you okay?" No response.
Seeing as Killian didn't have an extra blade, why wasn't she an officer? Freya grabbed one of the solider's rifles and ensured it was in Condition one and grabbed some extra ammo, "Of course I could be a distraction too. Thank you Sir. We're surrounded I hear so I gotta go put some holes into the enemy FRAMEs, what's it look like over at the hanger? Are the Engineers alright?"
< @Andraina > Killian pulled out a second Katana Hilt. He handed it to her with a shy smile. "Never got a chance to give this to you before." The blade, when deployed, was ice-blue, as opposed to his which was Sunburst-Red. More seriously, he began to walk down the hallway. "As far as I can tell, the engineers are all fine. No-one's gone into the hanger, they're just keeping us out. I have a squad of Troopers on standby, ready to attack the line. Just needed a reason... and now you're here. You ready, Freyu?" < @WanderingJester > The medics, startled, ran over to Morain while a few went in to gather Kyras and Yalei, both of whom had since passed out. Morain lay on the ground, her body shivering and shuddering from shock and blood loss. "L-l-l-l-l....V-v-v-v-v-v..." She couldn't even get one word out, but tried to get up, craning her neck to try to see... somthing. But her eyes had glazed over, and she passed out in short order. < @Xanxas > Kyras heard bullets and screaming outside the door. But he couldn't... stay... awake... He soon awoke in the med-bay, in a bed next to Yalei, who was still passed out, hooked up to oxygen and an I.V.
"She's going into shock, we need to get her to critical care now." The medics swarmed around Morain, suddenly Veronica appeared, a bit distorted but starting to restore her stable shape. "Mr. Kelley, we need to get to the hanger, command..." Her voice faded as she saw Morain. "SIS!" The SOUL rushed over, crying her eyes out, but there wasn't much she could do until the medics got her to the infirmary, which they were moving her to now. Kelley just stood there for a moment, stunned. Why had he felt that angry? Dereso was just another soldier, and soldiers die right? She was expendable, just him him, so why was he so upset right now? He didn't know the answers to those questions right now. What he did know was that he needed to get to holding bay 03, and he needs to get there now. With that he said softly to Veronica, "Veronica, we have to get to the FRAME." Veronica lifted her head out from her hands, and with great determination nodded, before disappearing into the system to head there first. Her voice came over Kelley's comms. "For sis." With that Kelley sprinted down the hallway towards his new FRAME, not remembering that he had not fully even gotten used to the piloting system yet.
< @WanderingJester ; @Andraina > In his mad rush to the hanger, Kelley came across a large group of UTC forces, standing, ready for battle, but waiting for somthing. One noticed him, and waved for him to stop. "Rider Kelley! We are waiting to assault the hangar with Lieutenant Fero." At this moment, Killian and Freya arrived, and Killian began barking orders: "We are going to get these Riders to their FRAMEs! Blockers, up front! Riflemen! Stay behind the blockers, Fire when you have an opening! Kelley, Unison!... Do what you do best."
