Lito had been in the Resistance's temporary base attempting to direct their movements through the ongoing battle through the city. With Lasminee's fortress surrounded and reporting two tanks in the vicinity Lito knew he wouldn't be able to keep giving orders and would have to step out onto the front lines himself. After giving control of the Resistance forces back to the "Leader" of the resistance Lito quickly mobilized with a squad of Resistance Elite making sure to take along a few toys that he had picked up to deal with those heavily armored pests.

With his Squad loaded up into an APC Lito placed himself on top of the APC inside his own battle suit. While approaching the Stronghold a report came through of 6 enemy Armored Suits making their way to the resistance forces. Knowing that their current forces wouldn't be able to hold them off telling his men to move faster Lito was ready to join the battle. Just as his targets came into sight Lito knoticed he had gotten into range of the Crimson Legion's comms system. "I hope you fellas weren't expecting to hog all the action for yourselves." he announced as he started to take aim at his targets. Raising his arm Lito took aim before firing a round from his rail gun. The shot struck one of the enemy Armored units center mass punching strait through the suit slumping it over for a moment before it exploded.

The Resistance APC nearly got knocked off course from the force of Lito's shot but it quickly pulled over Lito jumped off of the apc readying his auto cannon. "Alright boys show them what you got." he commented as the APC's back opened up and a group of Resistance troops poured out from it. Two of the troops ran out equipped with a pair of rocket launchers quickly taking aim and unleashing two shots at another of the armored troops. The trooper dodged one of the rockets sending the shot flying into a nearby building, but was stuck by the second damaging the suits systems and before it could react it was lit up as Lito unloaded into the suit with his auto cannon. It didn't take long for the suits systems to fail under the fire and again the pilot slumped down dead in his suit. The remaining four Armored troops quickly retreated into cover. "Time to turn the tide boys, light them up!" Lito yelled out in an attempt to rally the Resistance forces that had been under fire from the armored suits giving them the ability to reorganize and continue fighting.

Gerad listened to the comms as Cyne and Ducaliea made their way in and began to sow their brand of havoc amongst the enemies in the second line. While they did that, and the rest of them waited with the Resistance for the right time to move, he busied himself with some more repairs to the Chimera.
-
As the power armoured thugs moved in, he was moving out. ”KRAK ‘EM LADS!” He hollered to the nearby Resistance fighters. ”ANY ‘OW TAGS ME BUYS TH’ DRINKS!” Despite their nervousness about the on coming fight, quite a few of the fighters laughed. Saving his dwindling PRP shots for the tank, he flashed laser fire at the thugs from behind his Barrier, sweeping the beam in arcs to try and tag them. Like the last batch they’d fought, these power armoured enemies where faster on their feet that one would normally expect, and the armour was tough enough to take glancing blows from his VLA.

Before he could really start to go to work, a voice cut into the company comms just as a mass driver punched a slug straight through one of the attackers. This seemed to be the signal for the Resistance, because as soon as that happened, they poured forwards unloading on the incoming hostiles. A second suit went down under autocannon fire from the power armoured Resistance leader after an anti-armour crew had gotten a good hit in themselves. Another suit juked madly to avoid the fire from the Resistance push and brought himself right into a perfect shot for Gerad.

The target window was only moments, but that was enough; the VLA struck a flex joint in the armour’s torso, and in moments burned through causing an overload while at the same time disabling the computers. Instead of the plasma flair from the overload venting outwards, the damage made it vent into the armour. In less than two full seconds, the target was nothing more than a vaguely humanoid shaped pile of slag; this was all a moot point to the pilot however as the penetrating VLA beam had bisected his heart and killed him before the armour had even blown up.

Sergey more so stood at the door of his APC and he sighed as he held his shield, two of the fighters behind him had his large Railgun. "So, nice day isn't it?" He asked in his time waiting. Then he heard a few pings off the front, and the APC start to slow down a bit and then stopped. The door lowered as he entered the street taking his railgun and he heaved his large shield up in front of him placing it on his thick metal boot as he started to move it forward. His pace steady as he advanced slowly a small group of men standing behind him.

He turned his head to his ally on his side, Lito, "Friend, let us take the line like they tried to do, no?" he asked as he placed his rifle down on a small bit and just blindly fired hitting a wall somewhere in front of him, placing another bolt in there for when his next shot was available. He continued to press forward until he was at the line with the remain fighters from the armored troop charge, a soldier or two from behind them pulling what was left of the wounded behind the heavily armored man.

He more or less set himself up for being shot at, as he was used to, feeling his shield getting battered from the front as he held on until his job was done. The armored men in front of him slowly moved back as the first APC's occupants and rider had given them a nice barrage. "Now, keep them from my flank comrades." he said to those around him, "and pat me on the back once you are all finished with that you are needing to do, and we will get the hurt away from here."

Ducaelia giggled with a sadistic glee. Her lights flared to there normal green as she ripped a man's throat out effortlessly. She danced around, claws flashing, covering her sturdy frame in gore. On the last of the group around her she had took his helmet off and currently held his tongue. He was sputtering out curses, but they fell on deaf ears. "Oh? Bot's got your tongue? Let me help you with that~". And she flared her claws, severing his tongue in two. He screamed in agony, holding at his jaw. "ja' crady wich!" Ducaelia just shot him with her stingers to silence him. "That is no way to talk to a lady~!"
She turned to see Cyne. She leaned on the wall next to her and pulled out her disruptor. She started closing down what local systems she could, to further their progress of shutting it all down. "You done yet, bucko~? You never want to keep a lady waiting~. Tongueless learned that the hard way~!" She laughed with murderous joy.

Cyne pulled the trigger of his handgun, echoing a loud discharge that sounded throughout the facility.

It was only moments ago where gunshots and screams were the sounds that made up local ambiance. Now, it was quiet, and bodies were littered all over the place. Beneath Cyne was the warden he had cornered prior though admittedly the man was little consequence. Despite being shot up by Pathfinder, the warden could still move around although barely. In a way, Cyne simply offed him as mercy kill. Had he left the man as he, the warden would likely had bled out. That, and it was probably quicker and safer to leave no witnesses, regardless if the complex was secured.

As Cyne cleaned his HF blade, he noted Ducaelia already at work in tampering with the building's security systems. Although much of it wouldn't been secured within the tower structure itself, compromising what they could from where they were was nevertheless productive in their endeavors. As he looked on, he had then realized that he himself was now being observed as Ducaelia called him out.

"I'm all through here. Sorry, couldn't help admiring your work," Cyne replied before eyeing the elevator, "well, let’s head up. Once comms are down, we'll have a good spot upstairs."

The ride up the elevator didn't take long. If anything, it took a mere minute. Plenty of time to change gear and briefly attend to other interests. Once they reached their floor, the elevator's doors retracted and brought in the outside air, polluted by smoke and the chemicals of weapon's fire. As it turned out, the defenders had set up a communications nest on one of the towers' balconies, overlooking the battlefield. It was there that several spotters positioned themselves in as they coordinated with their troops below and relayed messages to other units. Unbeknownst to them, they would be getting unwelcomed company.

The moment the elevator doors opened, one of the nearby guards turned around with a quizzical look, almost as though they were not expecting anyone to on their floor. As they turned, the y found the barrel of Cyne's shotgun leveled to their face and just a few feet apart, "'ello!" Cyne greeted in a mocking manner before pulling the trigger.

At that moment, the guard's head exploded into a chunky nebula of crimson. Punched by the momentum of the tearing slug, the guard's headless body was thrown forward, smearing a trail of red in its wake. Cyne stepped out and gauged his surroundings. The floor which was exposed to the outside was a simple corridor that lead to their target. Pathfinder, at Cyne's command, zoomed ahead unnoticed and engaged the spotting team. No one in their group had time to defensively respond to the drone attack as each was cut down one by one. It almost seemed too easy that this floor of all places was the least defended. He didn't know whether the occupants were either idiots or they genuinely believed that their makeshift fortress was impenetrable. Regardless of the circumstances, they were about to be taught the error of their ways.

Both Cyne and Ducaelia made their way to the nest unopposed. Upon arrival, Cyne took to the ledge of the balcony and set his rifle laid his rifle out, its bipods gripping to the surface as he established his firing position. Dropping to a knee, Cyne glanced at Ducaelia, "the sooner we cut communications down, the sooner we can party."

Turning back to his devices, Cyne tapped his comms, "Spyglass to Shade. We've seized the enemy's communication equipment and are in position. We'll have these guy's net down soon. Begin op on Ducaelia's signal."

---

Silas grinned upon hearing the familiar voice speaking through comms, "'about time you showed yourself, Lito. And here I was beginning to think you up an' bailed."

Hearing Lito's eventually reply, Silas leaped forwards and shadowed the armored trooper's whom were quickly thrown into the defensive posture with half their number having been gunned down; two eliminated by Lito's own powered armor and another ripped apart by Gerad's weaponry. The remainder of the assault squad backpedaled, boosting away from the now reinforced line. Seeing as though that the defenses were much organized than was previously believed, the enemy's suits were pulling out though not before laying down covering fire for themselves as they retreated. Despite their barrage, Silas noticed that their armed response was being negated by someone wielding a heavily modified riot shield. The suits' heavy machine gun fire simply glanced off its sturdy exterior why anything behind it was kept well protected. The individual manning the shield was clearing not a resistance fighter and Silas was quick to note that the man had regarded Lito as they dismounted from the APC. While now wasn't the time, he would certainly ask Lito about that man. That is if he survived his impending maneuver.

Catching one of the armored troopers out of position and too late to pull out, Silas, enhanced by his Shade's Skin, had pounced the stranded the stranded man. The suit, noticing Silas's charge jetted away in an attempt to put as much difference between him and Silas. But Silas was faster and closed the distance with ease with his plasma knife drawn. Grabbing hold of the trooper's right arm, Silas's augmented strength reeled them in before thrusting the knife though the suit's torso section until he connected with something soft on the other side. The suit's armored limbs spasmed briefly before the bulkier form keeled over; it's pilot clearly deceased within.

With another over their number down, the remaining and surviving suits opted into full retreating and madly leaped away, even into incoming fire if necessary. Silas at first thought about pursing but he was quick to remind himself of the plan he had laid out. Simply fighting off the powered armor squad was enough to ensure their operation remained intact. Without anything else to shoot or stab, Silas boosted back to his defensive line.

Upon return and offsetting the Shade's Skin, Silas approached Lito and the newcomer, "Nice to see you again. Whose you're buddy here?"

As the attack bored in, Resistance reinforcements arrived to drive them back. Two heavily armed and armoured figures were at the head of the push back, one of them with a familiar voice cut into Legion comms. ”Oi Beakie,” Gerad called out as a hostile went down. ”Was wonderin’ when you’d stop slackin’ an’ join us.” The other heavy armour seemed to be taking a page from the Militia, with the heaviest armour you’ve got, let your enemy dash themselves against you. Like Lito’s new suit, his armour seemed rather…basic…by Garundin standards, but he was willing to admit that might just be his own biases talking.

In short order the Apocalypse troopers realized the odds where leaning against them and decided to fall back to their perimeter having lost several suits, and their pilots for no real gain. Gerad took a few more potshots at the fleeing enemies before pulling back to his own lines, making a move towards Lito and his friend as he did. ” ’Avin’ a nice vacation?” He asked, with an amused snort, as he came up beside Silas. Looking up at the two ‘newcomers’, he studied their armour though his own sensors. Bah! Guess it s’all right f’r alien tech, but I could take ‘em…

Lito opened up on the retreating enemies taking down one more of the heavy suits as they ran. It was then that Silas approached the militia group. "hey there Boss Man, brought some back up for your little op." he said while flipping up the face guard on his armor. "This boy here his name is Sergey you can call him Tank. Thought we could give him a job. He makes a nice distraction although he has something against killing people himself" Lito gave a little explanation before turning to Tank, "This here is the Boss he'll be giving the orders from here on." Lito then gave a little grin at Gerad. "Ohh its been wonderful spent some time at the beach got a nice little tan on my feathers been such a great time." He says before turning his attention back to Silas. "Alright Boss man what's the plan then?"

Sergey soon retreated back to his allies position, his head still forward as another loud bang came from the large weapon in his right arm and another hole was place just above the enemy lines.

"They will not try that again, their armored warriors are not much and their other forces may pull back soon to regroup or counter us again." he said looking at the two, "we must find something to do we will not hold the line, your units are not well with ammo and the logistics here is..." he looked at the wartorn roads, "undesired. We can hold, but if they bring more suits then we may be at a stand for some time." he said as he peered down the street at the retreating armored men.

Ducaelia walked to Cyne once comms were through. It seems i got a lot more to deal with. She had heard the arrivals, and her own map showed a strong new energy signature. She had to finish this contract.
She gestured to Cyne to come on, and she started towards the enemy operations.

"The plan," Silas began as he looked up at Lito, elevated by his own battle suit and regarded Sergey's opinion into the matter as well, "is to await Cyne and Ducaelia's signal. They're hitting the enemy's surveillance and communications now. Once that it out of picture, the defenders around the towers won't be able to coordinate."

Silas stepped away briefly and looked over battle in motion. The resistance was still holding the encirclement, but just barely. He was growing impatient but also worried. He didn't doubt the skill of his infiltrators but he had his reservations about the freedom fighters around him. Many were not former military and were doing what they can to not only survive, but to carry out his demanding strategy. He then turned back to Lito.

"Once that occurs, we'll have a portion of the resistance's encirclement briefly intensify fire on the Defender's position and then fall back at the same time the return fire comes. With other groups intentionally collapsing the line and if all goes according to plan, the Lasminee's thugs will take the bait and hopefully overstretch their support. That's when we and everyone else launches an all-out assault on the tower fortifications. Sven will join us in a Chrimera we captured awhile go. With from Cyne and Ducaelia causing havoc behind enemy lines, we can anticipate weakened resistance from the enemy."

Just then, a stray screamed by from what direction, Silas couldn't ascertain. The projectiles whined all the way until tearing a chuck of concrete from the collapsed exterior of a nearby building. Silas looked back from where the bulled could have originated from but no others came. Cleary, it was a harmless stray with no one as it's indented victim. Hardly a close call but an encounter that never the less elevated Silas's concerns with the mission.

"Though at the moment, there isn't much to do than taking flak..."

It was then he got Cyne's comm message.

---

Cyne maintained over watch as Ducaelia went to work compromising the enemy's comm setup. Thus far, no patrols came and their occupied floor to check with the now deceased spotter team below his feet. The thought nagged at him though as it failed to meet any of expectations of what how a military force would behave with such an asset exposed as it is. He however had to remind himself constantly that Lasminee's goons weren't professionals, simply killers and weirdos with guns. And apparently backed by powered suits and tanks whom likely looked down upon them as well. But as long as the defenders were oblivious, that's all that mattered to him.

With his rifle now established on the edge of the balcony, he scanned the surrounding's below him and Ducaelia. Trenches, makeshift barricades mixed in with legit designs provided by Deval and many gun emplaces made of the fortifications that protected the towers from any infantry opposition. Of course, armored troopers and a couple of tanks bolstered the already sturdy defenses but if everything went as it should, they would become less of a problem. Cyne trained his sights on several machine gunners but held his fire. He knew better than to spook his prey and instead he simply counted the heads he would need to make roll. If the turret emplacements were unmanned, he would then shift focus on the suit's afterwards, reducing the enemy's mobility considerably if he could manage it.

During his moment of focus, it was then Ducaelia had reported all clear. Now was the time to proceed with the op...

---

Several minutes after Cyne's transmission, Ducaelia's soon followed, verifying that the enemy defending the towers had unknowingly become deft. It was now time proceed with the operation. With a simple gesture from Silas, several of the commanding officers nodded and hurryingly went their separate ways.

It only took a few moment later when things really heated up. As planned a quadrant of the resistance's encirclement went active and fully engaged the one of the tower's defended flanks. Gunfire sharply intensified and echoed into the smoke-filled night. One could possibly mistake the loud rattling as a fireworks display, just without the colorful and fiery displays though would illuminate the darkness overhead. While it was faint, Silas could then make out heavier weapons now discharging, resonating closely. The resistance now had the defender's undivided attention. Perfect.

As planned, Silas dialed a command into his comm device and continued to watch the action unfold. Per his strategy, the resistance fighter's quickly broke away from their fake assault committed into a full retreat. Like a series of falling dominos, other quadrants within the encirclement also peeled off, ensuring their movements were apparent to the defender's as he had requested. Silas almost felt bad for having them do that. Almost. But now was not the times fro emotional thoughts of regret, now was the time for praying and hoping that Lasminee's thugs took the bait.

The shooting quickly died down just at it had started moments ago and eventually there was silences. Silas gulped; he didn't like drawn out circumstances of inactivity. And then, cheers and roars echoed from the towers, from the defenders now climbing out of their trenches and emerging from their barricades as they charged across the field. They were taking the bait and perusing the fleeing rebels. Silas watch as dozens of thugs leapt out, hooting and hollering and guns blazing away. Silas admitted he didn't intend to get them riled up like that but still, it served his goals regardless. Trailing behind the hyped thugs were, oddly enough, the armored troops and a Chimera. It wasn't initially evident by Silas surmised that the more professional of the defending - now attacking - unit were apprehensive about charging after the rebels, perhaps as they knew something was amiss but could do little as their hooligan comrades gave chase.

With practically more than have the defenders removed from play and unable to communicate with those still entrenched, it was now time to lay siege to the towers.

Silas swung around and rallied his team and opened up a channel with Sven whom was already firing up his Chimera. Silas could already here shouting and whistle cries as the rebels were preparing to make the big push. This has to quick. Any inch of ground denied from the rebels, and in association, Silas's ragtag team, would give time for the Lasminee's assaulting thugs to learn of their error and quickly return.

"Alright, here's what we're doing," Silas started, clearly sounding rushed, "Sven, get your heap out of cover, I want you to advance but ensure you vector aligns with ours. Your priority target is the Lasminee's own Chimera stationed at the base of the tower. Keep it fixated on you. Gerad, Lito, and Sergey; you're with me. Sven is going to get all of attention and not just by the tank over there. More of those armored troops will undoubtedly attempt to swarm him and the remaining point defenses on our Chimera will not be enough to hold them off. Ducaelia and Cyne; do what you can to take as many guns off as you can. The more the merrier, please."

"I don't know If I should be ecstatic and absolutely terrified," Sven nervously chimed in, apparently overcome by excitement with the prospect of going up against another armored vehicle.

"Keep your ego in check, rust bucket, and focus on the mission." Silas retorted.

"H-hey!"

"And your mouth. We're grouping with you now. Lets go fellas!"

---

It was on now. Just as a large half of Lasminee's thugs recklessly gave chase to Silas' feint, a large swath of regrouped rebels suddenly made a power play against the tower fortifications. Cyne could here the thugs below panicking and desperately trying to call back the unit that had left them. But it was to no avail. Ducaelia's handiwork had isolated them and they were on their own. Clumsy bodies scrambled and shouted at one another has they braced to their defenses, unknown to them that there were two killers close by waiting to strike.

Cyne leveled is rifle and took aim but before he could pick off an unsuspecting machine gunner, the elevator they took to get here made a pinging sound and its doors swung open, revealing a large squad of thugs. It was likely the smarter of the bunch whom were quick to realize that they couldn't communicate to anyone. Cyne grimaced as the thugs stormed the communications center, forcing him to temporarily abandon his rifle and charged to meet the interlopers, shotgun in hand.

"Contact!" yelled Cyne, alerting Ducaelia to the new threat before them.

@Dealdric

The squad of ten hooligans made their moves quickly and rushed in guns blazing away. While four focused their attention on Cyne, the other six made a beeline toward Ducaelia. As part of their vanguard, two of the attackers were larger and broader than their compatriots. They were clearly more armored but it was not mechanically assisted by the power armor troops. Both of them wore some kind of bucklers in their left hands but in their right, they wielded large one-handed axes. The bladed section of each weapon actually bore rotating teeth as if they were meant to bite and saw though flesh and material alike. As the two charging brutes made their way to Ducaelia, the four other thugs behind them provided covering fire.

---

As Silas expected, the defenders' response was aggressive and desperate. Silas already donned his Shade's Skin and rode on the hull of Sven's advancing Chimera tank. Defensive fire from the tower fortifications leapt out but dispersed easily against the tank's barriers. Soon enough however, the power armor troopers were back and in greater numbers.

"Remember, keep these guys off of Sven!" Silas reminded his team.

In total, Silas could make out two dozen troopers screaming in, looking to overwhelm Sven's chimera and everyone covering it.

@Arthanus
Seeing Lito's battle armor as the greater obstacle, seven suits broke from the main body and vectored into an attack run. The group assumed an arrowhead formation and charged forward. The first three in the formation opened up with heavy machine guns. Slugs filled the air and roared in Lito's direction. The accumulated fire was inaccurate given their hasty movements but the impacts would certainly add up. The other four in the formation stayed back but it was evident that they were charging their suits' plasma projectors, as indicated by the glowing purplish hues emanated by each platform.

@Athol
Five of the total oncoming suits shifted their focus to the Gerad and vectored in. They approached hard and fast machine guns firing away. However, the pilots appeared appraised by the Garudin's defenses and his lethal weaponry. The troopers opted to disperse and time each others attacks. One suit would close in on Gerad while the other followed suit from another trooper attacking from another flank. The other would emulate the same pattern and attempt to break away the moment they caught the Garudin taking aim at any of them.

@Jamesyco
A duo of armored troopers set their sights on Sergey and the fighters around him as they rushed in. Assuming him to be the weaker of the guard element that covered Sven, the engaged him with a casual mind set. One of the suits peeled off and took a wide approach around Sergey's flank while the other made a more aggressive charge toward him. Like the other, their guns also firing wildly. Given the velocity of the trooper's assault, it appeared the suit's pilot attempted to run Sergey down in a solid ram attack, seemingly to challenge the durability of Sergey's shield.

@ShiningSector
Ducaelia laughed before pressing a button on her tool. A ear-piercing sound eminated from the comms of the horseman's men. She activated her cloak while speaking in a cocky manner. "Come and get it boys~!" and she was gone. Using the chaos of her hacking, she sprinted around the brutes and mowed down the gunner thugs quickly with her ion stingers. Her cloak ended, and the brutish thugs had turn their comms completely off. One even ripped it off him.
Ducaelia, in her usual manner, got in a sultry stance. "Oh, did that hurt? Does the baby need a kissy on their booboo?" The thugs rushed at her, angered at the underhand tatics and insults. Ducaelia activated her shield before they were upon her, and flanked around them. She played defense till the symbol she saw lit up like a traffic light. She produced a smily face icon on her shield, confusing them before deactivating the shield entirely. And she jumped back and waved as her cloak activated.
The two thugs were beyond angry. "Come out ya' sack of bolts! Fight us!" And that was the last thing he said as claws pierced his jugular before ripping sideways, not beheading him, but definitely killing him. The other one swung wildly aroumd his comrade's copse, but to no avail. Ducaelia's cloak ended and she was behind him, arms raised to fire. "Say hi to your god for me!" The thug turned, and when he saw her fully, she unloaded a charge worth of shots. She looked at him befotr walking away to another objective.

While Silas updated Lito about the plan, Gerad made a few minor repairs to his gear. As he was doing so, movement off to his left caught his attention. A resistance fighter had what appeared to be an APC lascannon retrofitted to work as an emplaced heavy weapon; only he had the casing open and was cursing at the obviously non-functional weapon. ”Hoy squshie,” He rumbled as he made his way over. ”Lemme ‘ave a look.” The gunner looked up in surprise when Gerad first spoke, then shrugged at his offer. “Sure, go for it…honestly I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m doing; I was a goddamn lawyer before all this shit started.”

Gerad chuckled as he went to work using his secondary hands and the plethora of tools build into their gauntlets to start working. The weapon had been badly abused, and whomever had done the conversion had done a rush job. He replaced a few chunks of wiring and removed a fistful of unneeded components, using them as spare parts for various repairs, before cycling the cannon through a few test cycles to make sure it was good to go. ”All riky-tik.” He said as he closed it up. The gunner thanked him profusely before calling for assistance from the rest of the gun crew to move it into a firing position.


He growled in annoyance as five power armours singled him out. With his Barrier and Shields up he took a defensive stance and let his enemies circle him as they rained fire on him. While he could move with surprising speed, he also knew they were far more agile than he was and anyways while their weapons were depleting his shields, to fully collapse them would take more time and ammunition than they’d want to expend. THat said, he wasn’t just doing nothing; as targets presented themselves, he took shots with his VLA, and was grateful their tactics precluded them using and heavy missile attacks.

Lasers blasts scored armour and charred scenery as Gerad smiled behind his faceplate. Bit by bit he was pushing them towards his own ends; the more he stayed still and only took shots at the same kinds of opening that presented themselves, the more predictable they became. THERE! He thought, in their firing runs three of the armours passed close-by one another as the circled around behind him. He watched on sensors as they did it a second, and then a third time. On the fourth his PRP, which up to this moment has still been stowed away, sprang to life and unleashed a fiery blast of plasma at almost point blank. Instead of trying to hit any of the armours, he targeted a patch of ground right in the midst of them as they passed one another.

Momentum carried one suit right into the shock-front of a plasma blast that was meant to kill heavy armoured vehicles; he was dead before he’d had time to realize what was happening. The second one brushed the same shock-front, coming crashing to the ground with much of the left side burned away. The poor soul inside unfortunately survived the blast and even though his suit lost all power, his screams could still be heard over the cacophony. The third suit caught just enough of the blast to overload it’s systems and go into emergency shutdown, trapping it’s pilot.

Suddenly five on one was two on one and the survivors were shaken badly. One was so fixated on what had happened that he lost control and slammed into a waist high chunk of rubble and came to a jarring halt; before Gerad could even think about engaging him, heavy fire from the Resistance lines swamped the power armour and shredded it before the pilot could recover. The last one tried to retreat, but in a blind panic they just ran straight for their own lines. Gerad used his VLA on ‘beam’ to bore a hole right through him.

Sergey stared forward at the man charging him, and he watched the man on his flank. He turned his body and felt something go through his leg. If he hadn't had turned he wouldn't have one however. And thankfully his allies should have made it to their lines as the target wasn't them for the most part. But he slowly let the shield go, letting it stand there without him for a moment as he took a step backwards out from behind the shield as a man ran into it.

It was something like out of football practice where a linebacker hit a mannequin and tackled it. But with an armored man and a shield.
With Sergey using his large rifle as a hammer to smash down upon the mans head to try and knock him out, after all it is an armored suit, so a little trauma to the back of the head shouldn't hurt that much right. He then took the opportunity to grab the mans far wrist and pull it around to his back only to use the man as cover since he was on top of his shield. If his friend couldn't penetrate his shield then it shouldn't this mans armor in theory. His other hand went to hold the other mans closer wrist down.

"So friend...if you can hear me, how good is this armor I would say I'd but it, but I don't know if it is better than what I wear... it seems bulky and hard to wield. Or did you just plan to throw yourself at me like that?" he asked as he sat there behind him getting shot at from his new 'friend's' friend until someone else could deal with the flanking man until he either got close

Lito was prepared for the oncoming fire instantly deploying his arm mounted ballistics shield to absorb some fire while giving him some time to line up a shot with his rail gun. With a few minor adjustments Lito fired off the round, ripping through the shoulder of the lead unit taking the entire arm off the suit and right into one of the plasma projectors. The resulting explosion of shrapnel and plasma took out two of the Battle suits and knocked the rest away from the explosion. Lito didn't waste a breath retracting the shield and pulling up his gun to unload a barrage of shells into the scattered suits. He was able to tear through the one armed suit and another lead suit before they reorganized and started to return fire. Outgunned Lito deployed his shield again and made his way to cover. Once in cover the fire didn't let up. Lito began to think how to proceed, the enemy was closing in and he didn't have many options. After a quick servery of his surroundings Lito knew what he was going to do. He quickly dodged into an abandoned building forcing the enemy troops to follow him.

It was dark in the building, but that would work in Lito's favor. After getting a fair bit into the building Lito turned the suit and waited. Another rail gun Round tore through the first suit to enter the dark building and the other two opened fire into the blackness hoping to hit Lito. But this proved useless as Lito had quickly moved after taking his shot. Lights flicked on and the suits began to search the structure splitting up in the process. After a bit of searching one of the suits cot a glimpse of Lito's armor Shield deployed in the back of the building. But before he could call it out Lito ignited his HF blade driving it through the back of the suit killing the pilot instantly. By the time the final suit realized it was alone it was to late Lito had returned to his own suit and readied his weapon unloading a lethal barrage of fire at the lone light source in the building tearing the suit to shreds.

After the whole ordeal Lito exited the building rejoining the main fight. "That's Seven suits down. Looks like this old bird still has it." He boasted over the comms before making his way back to the tank hopping on so he could focus on unloading on whatever poor sod got in his firing arc

As the main body of the response team vectored in on Ducaelia, a smaller portion broke off and came to deal with Cyne. Knowing this, Cyne leaped forward, scrambling for the nearest archway as a hail of fire enveloped him. Due in part of his keen judgement and timing, he avoided much of projectiles that screamed over head. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, Cyne quickly peered out from his narrow cover, only a few times, wary of the lethal threat glaring back at him. Seeing him isolated the four thugs cautiously advanced forwards while keeping his sights trained on their prey's position. Little did they know however, was that they were being watched. Fed with the visual and targeting data from Pathfinder, Cyne brought his shotgun around cover and made the few necessary positioning correction until he had an accurate shot lined up. The thugs saw this but with such a small profile to take aim at, their responsive weapon discharges would either fall low, too high, and off to either side.

Cyne squeezed the trigger of his weapon, resulting and a loud report. The slug flew true and struck the closest of the thugs in their unarmored abdomen. The heavy impact slammed him back0first into the floor, but not before painting the surfaces in blood and gore. His comrades looked in shock as they overserved their ally's stomach torn open. Cyne fired again and one once more succeeded in another impact. While not succumbing to a gruesome end, the shotgun slug Cyne had discharged defragmented at it's programmed ranges and pelted the thug from head to toe. The trauma of multiple shrapnel impacts was then death of him. The other two finally assumed cover, know fully appraised of their foe's deadly accuracy, unaware of what loomed over them.

Cyne brainstormed his next plan of attack about eliminating the other thugs. He knew they were in cover and would fire upon anything that came into their killzone, the corridor where two of their number had died in. Cyne knew better than to charge them and fall to his same strategy. He momentarily gave the idea of cloaking and approaching a thought but ultimately, he concluded to allow Pathfinder two more kills to its name. With swipe of a quick communique, Pathfinder materialized from the shadows and appeared before the tow thugs. Hearing, the drone's engine, one of them looked to the rear but was too late to signal their partner about the danger before them. Pathfinder opened up with sub-machine gun fire, riddling the two thugs until the collapsed into bloody heaps.

Cyne emerged from cover now that he was no longer under any direct threat. As he looked to Ducaelia, he found that she had dealt with her problems as well. Six thugs laid dead on the floor, nearly shot to bloody pieces. For now, the balcony remained theirs. Cyne quickly withdrew back to his rifle and took it into his grasps. The fighting had only lasted a few minutes but that was certainly enough time for anything to have gone wrong for Silas's advance. He and Pathfinder scanned the battlefield, designating friend and foe alike. Apparently, a large group of powered armor troops had engaged them. Luckily, the troopers were being whittled down and were losing the advantage. Still, there was the matter of the fortifications to deal with. It was then Cyne spotted the Sven's Chimera and Silas being swarmed by half of the powered armor brigade. Cyne redirected the sights of his rifle and took aim.

---

Silas braced himself as the main element armored troopers made their attack. While the majority had broken off and engaged his squad members, he and Sven were now left with the task of fending off the others. There were perhaps ten in total if had the numbers figured correctly, all them were circling the Chimera while a few began strafe the wounded and lumbering machine. Sven had initiated the tank's defensive barriers which had intercepted much of the assaulting machine gun and lance fire. But amount of barriers available to them had were halved during their initial engagement of the vehicle before it had been repurposed for their needs. As a result, the armor had absorbed the damage the barriers couldn't. But Silas knew that the tank couldn't keep up such punishment for long, especially since they still had a defending tank to compete against.

One of the suits made a daring maneuver, boosting past the Chimera's barriers and mounted atop it while had plasma lance was aimed at the roof; the weakest of the tank's armored plating. Silas grimaced and scrambled to intercepted. Augmented by his Shade's Skin and boost-assisted, Silas was on the lone suit in no time. Just before the trooper could bore into the tank, Silas slammed into the powered armor full force, throwing it off balance. The suit's plasma projector discharged just it became off target, causing the beam to go off course. As luck would have it, a nearby suit still encircling the lone tank was caught unaware of the mishap and was neatly bisected by the lance. The downed suit fell into two blood-spouting pieces. The trooper Silas had tagged desperately tried to push Silas off of him but after a sharp scraping sound resonated from the chest section of his carapace, he instantly went limb. Silas stood up and yanked out his plasma knife he had embedded and twisted into the trooper's chest plate. Two suits were down and only eight remained. With one fifth of their number down, the powered armor squad had shifted their aggressive behavior to a more cautious stance, only moving against the Chimeras when they saw an opening.

Silas looked at his surroundings and gauged how the battle was progressing. Lito and Gerad had reduced the number of suits that were attacking them. Sergey on the other hand had one in his grasps but another sit was flanking him. Silas didn't know if Sergey was aware of the flanker and proceeded to alert him of the incoming danger. Suddenly, the trooper careened off its attack vectors and eventually crashed into earth, hard. Dirt and debris flew in all directions as a result. Silas gaped in confusion, trying to piece together what had happened. Sure enough, three trooper that chose that moment to attack, met similar fates. Although this time, Silas knew what was going on. The lead trooper of the trooper of the trio violently jerked as projectile moving at hypervelocity speeds struck it's chest whilst sparks ignited from the impact. The trooper was very quickly thrusted into ground. The two flanking trooper's peeled off but they too were hit and collapsed.

Based on the behavior projectiles and how hard and quick they struck, Silas quickly concluded that Cyne was now providing overwatch.

Five of the suits were now lest and their movements were now erratic. With incoming fire from an unseen location bearing down upon them, the troopers had no choice but to take evasive maneuvers. However, by committing into such movements, the troopers had temporarily given up their assault on the Sven's Chimera and swerved around the tank like annoying flies. But even with their best efforts in avoiding being hit by Cyne's magnetic accelerated high-power rifle, they ended up falling under fire by Silas and the Chimera's static defenses. One trooper hastily brought their suit up along side the Chimera, though briefly. Still, they were there long enough and in range of Silas's hand cannon. Death's Grasp discharged three times, sending three high-caliber rounds slamming into the trooper. The shots penetrated, resulting in the suit crashing down. Another suit peeled away but stuck to its path for too long, and fell beneath a torrent of fire from the Chimera's auto guns. Finally, one of the troopers, perhaps getting desperate as their situation deteriorated, had jumped on top of the tank and engaged, only to find the long barrel of the Chimera's main cannon, swerving into the scene from no where, smacking the suit right in the head. Silas's couldn't tell if this had been a lethal blow to the pilot or had simply knocked them out. Regardless, the suit had gone limp as it was thrown off the tank with no visible effort to correct itself.

At least, only two troopers remained and seeing as their efforts to destroy the Chimera had gone horribly wrong, the survivors had decided to abandon their attack and made a beeline back to the tower fortifications at the fasted speeds they could muster up. Unfortunately, their path was predictable and Sven was able to calculate a firing solution just before they could reach their defensive line. The Chimera's plasma cannon turned and positioned just a few meters in front of the retreating suits. Within seconds, the cannon was fully charged and gave its explosive report. The round screamed in, reaching the troopers within lest than a second and then detonated only a few feet ahead of them. While not a direct hit, the explosion radius was lethal enough to warp the armor of the troopers while the concussive wave was powerful enough to violently manipulate the atoms of the pilots. Such trauma had killed both of them immediately.

With a whole brigade now vanquished, there was very little the towers' defenders stopping Silas's advance, save for their own Chimera which was now committing itself to the battle.

Silas brought new orders into the comms, "Greats work guys but we're not done yet. We still need to capture the enemy's fort and there plenty of heavy guns and a tank standing in our way. Lito and Gerad, you're with Sven. Sven, while you take on the enemy Chimera head on-

"I really don't like this idea." Sven interrupted.

"Cram it. While you engage that tank, Lito and Gerad, I want to provide support and flank it. Much of its defensive barriers will be primarily focused up front. I've no doubt it will try to intercept incoming fire from our Chimera's main gun. Sven, you'll do the same thing too. Once you guys are in position, hit it with everything you got."

Silas then turned his attention to the fortifications before him. Heavy machine gun fire had already begun to open up. While the oncoming fire was inaccurate, any direct contact with anyone under armored would be prove fatal, "Cyne, I want you to take out any emplacements you see. That will make things easier when we finally assault their tranches. Ducaelia and Sergey, you'll join me in the assault after Cyne has removed the gun emplacements. Let's get the job done quickly, I don't doubt that the enemy's attacking element will be back here soon. We don't want them to find our pant down. Let's go!"

---

"Acknowledged," Cyne replied and took aim.

Cyne spotted a machine gunner beneath him laying suppressive fire upon the rebels and Silas's team. With one trigger pull, the machine gunner disappeared into a haze of dirt and blood; no doubt that the accelerated round had crushed the poor man to death. In the span of a minute, the emplacements fell one by one, each of the gunners dying in the same fashion as the rest. The defending troops that observed this were quick to duck their heads and bodies into cover, unsure of where the heavy fire was coming from. Because of this, this took many of their guns out of the fight and made it that much easier for Silas and his group on the ground and make their move.

Cyne eyed Ducaelia as he continued his suppressive fire, "go join the others downstairs. I have everything here covered."

---

@Jamesyco@Dealdric

Silas was genuinely surprised how quickly Cyne responded. About a minute or so, the all emplacements were silenced. Getting his head back into the game, he rallied Sergey and Ducaelia to him, along with the rest of the rebels in the assault. With many of the defenders freighted by their defenses being picked apart, their approach was hardly challenged and took no longer than a minute before he and the rest of his group were now upon the defenders. As he jumped in firing, Silas was able to estimate their being fifty thugs defending the place. However, the were spread thin within the tranches and the fortifications and were evidently unable to direct their fire as a horde of resistance fighters assault their positions. It was now close quarters chaos.

---

@Arthanus@Athol

Sven maintained his Chimera's attack vector but he genuinely couldn't consider it a charge. Gerad had did an excellent job it patching up the bruised tank and enhancing some of its features too. Still, it performance was still reduced and many of its countermeasures were wither disabled or partially working. But what truly mattered to him was the functionality of the tank's defensive barriers. This became quickly apparent as the enemy Chimera, about a hundred meters away was now attacking him. Missiles fired by the enemy tank screamed into the air, only to then arc down into a deadly dive toward Sven's Chimera. Thankfully, the remaining autoguns perceived the threat and fired wildly into the air. The incoming missiles were downed one by one by point defense fire but the main threat was revealed by the every so familiar glow of the enemy's tanks plasma cannon which had reached the height of its charging cycle. Sven quickly directed all barriers forward and braced for impact.

As Sven had foreseen, the impact was heavy and violent, shaking the entire tank. The shaking was so bad in fact that he could make out the hull creaking as if revealing the true wounds they had caused to the vehicle when they first fought it. Alarms blared and multiple hull punctures were pointed out to him on the tank's tactical HUD. Even more alarming was that the barriers had been instantaneously drained from having to repel such a destructive blow. But it didn't matter; this was probably a one-way trip for this tank any how. All he had to do was to continue his advance and return fire.

Sven didn't waste any time has he prepared his Chimera's main gun. Seconds past as the plasma cannon was charged. Within that moment, he immediately returned fire. The shot flew like lightning and struck the enemy Chimera, though as Silas had protected, its defensive took the brunt of the blast. But like Sven's own Chimera, the barriers had been depleted too though not has harshly as they were flickering weakly as the projectiles attempted to recharge and rebuild. It was now Lito and Gerad's chance to attack.

Tank

Sergey, after pushing the armored shell of his shield, and watching the other guy get dealt with in some form or fashion lead the way in front running past Silas as it is the duty of all of those named Sergey. His shield up as shells pinged and stuck to its front, with a small indent from where a shoulder pad had hit underneath the visor panel. His shield and shotgun filled with beanbag slugs being his main weapon. And after two dropped to being hit by the small pouches fired from his shotgun, his shotgun then became a hot club of the ornate variety.

The first man to come upon the club was this somewhat smaller man who had turned the corner of the trench at the wrong time, spooking the large man into batting the man on the side of the cheek and dropping him, listening to the man crying below him from a probable broken jaw or at least nose, he took a sigh of relief before taking the mans weapon.

"Pick up another and I will do it again, stay down and surrender to the next who come by." he said like a scolding father before tossing the gun back towards the rebels and pushing past the man to find the next man to bludgeon with his makeshift nightstick.

Gerad gave Silas a curt acknowledgement before joining Lito in the push forward. ”C’mon beakie,” He rumbled. ”Lets show ‘em ‘umans how it be done.” As Sven pushed forward and engaged a power-armoured counter, he moved along the Chimera’s flank, pouring VLA fire into anyone who looked like they might try their luck.

Small arms fire bounced and sizzled off of his shields as he pushed onwards, while Sven and the Chimera drew most of the attention. ”Suck mud!” He barked over comms to Lito as the enemy tank came into view. The two of them may have been extremely well armoured compared to most of their opponents but a heavy weapon like that could really ruin the day; fortunately however, it was a tad distracted by Sven.

During the opening missile barrage, Gerad added his VLA to Sven’s point defence fire, tagging a couple of missiles, before hastily taking cover as his sensors alerted him to a spike in power from the hostile tank’s main gun. Bunkering up behind a shattered bit of rubble that was only just big enough for him to crouch behind, his armour alerts howled in his ears as the blast wave from the hit on Sven washed over him. A few local failures in his shield caused a few fluctuations, but nothing critical; though with the cumulative damage so far on this mission he was planning on doing a full tear down once this job wrapped up.

Moments later, Sven returned the favour and Gerad pushed out of cover. ”C’mon old one, lets get’m ‘fore he c’n do tha’ again!” He shouted to Lito. VLA fire raked the Chimera’s hull, the compromised shield doing little to turn the lasers aside. Armour scored and melted, and a shield emitter sparked and died as he hit it. In short order, Gerad slagged another emitter and two point-defence guns, creating a rather large hole in the tank’s defences.

Seeing the opening he triggered his PRP and sent a plasma packet screaming through it, slamming into the side of the enemy vehicle. The blast melted and buckled the tank's armour but did not penetrate, however the massive point-blank electromagnetic wave that accompanied the plasma hit stripped what was left of it's defences away, leaving the warmachine naked to any attack.