Lyssa had fallen back at the shock and confusion of the Lightning attack. She noted sadly that several House Citizens that had been defending the exterior now lay dead, slain by
Kranak Vizsla
. They assaulted from the skies also.
She signalled with a comlink for the House Io citizens to take most of their platoons for interior defense. It was to be a brutal slog...
The Platoons stationed on the complex itself sent most of their own to fall back, while two continued firing at the sky in entrenched positions with the deadly radiation blasters they had been provided. A Medical Nuetralizer quickly proved herself more than a common threat by shooting at least 007 from the sky with Sniping shots, the Citizens next to her manning a DLT 20 on full auto, spraying the exterior and hitting multiple Mandalorians even as they were shot at from seemingly all angles. Other House Citizens acquitted themselves well at melee range, rushing to meet attackers that closed in with their purple energy swords, locked in deadly combat with very well trained Mandalorians. Some of those Citizens died, but their ferocity at melee combat, a product of months of constant training from Model 1 Nuetralizers began to win out, an efficient, deadly sword fighting style that kept many others alive against the practiced brutality of their Mandalorian opposition, others shooting outward from interior spaces, even Mandalorians who survived a shot due to extensive shielding or armor started to get very sick, to their horror realizing the bolts were packed with deadly radioactive particles.
Mandalorians begin to meet even more fierce resistance as they breached the interior. House Io citizens didn't hesitate, and neither did the defending Sirens. It was a damn good thing they had arrived at the last minute, for it had allowed them precious time to set up traps. The Generators themselves had been reinforced magically, so if the Mandalorians did find them early they would have a devil of a time actually destroying them, even
with purpose built charges. The Brain Demon Cultists, ever cunning, had also cast spells to hide the booby traps that had been laid before the Mandalorians arrival, shielding them from both visible and electronic detection. The vat grown clones of the Siren Corps proved to be an ever constant threat on the interior, constantly attempting to ambush or pin down Mandalorian squads with constant streams of radiological blaster fire, though the rifles themselves were heavy and difficult to manuever in close quarters all it took was often two or three hits to rip through armor and shields due to the insanely high damage, leaving dead, contaminated Mandalorian corpses where they lay. The ruthless citizens, wearing gear designed to block radiation, had little to fear as they moved over the corpses of their enemy to reinforce certain passages against further attack. A Brain Demon Witch would uncloak occasionally, bisecting unsuspecting Mandalorians in hit and run attacks, trying to make them waste ammo by making them shoot in all directions to try and hit her.
Breaching Mandalorians moving deeper got nasty surprises, as the magically stealthed booby traps went off, often in the form of grenade bouquets or heavy Sonic mines, often followed up by vicious salvos of radiological blaster fire that shredded survivors. But that paled in comparison to Lyssa once she was in the interior.
She came across a group of citizens holding back another group of Mandalorians from advancing deeper into the interior, and her Smart Blaster got whipped out picking up a fallen citizen's Radiation blaster and duel wielding both, unloading in the direction of those who threatened her family and ripping them apart with the help of her targeting programs.
Lyssa handed back the Rifle to one of the Medical Nuetralizers, wishing her little sister good hunting and then proceeded to assume the form of one of the Slain Mandalorians for an ambush...
The Platoon defending the actual generators themselves knew contact was imminent so they signalled the Witches to trigger one of the major magical traps...
At the hiss of unholy words, blood runes hidden throughout the Complex glowed, and bathed the whole facility in a supernaturally imposed near pitch black darkness that defied both thermal imaging and other forms of electronic compensation. None of the Citizens or the ultranauts would be affected, but the Mandalorians were about to have a ton of trouble seeing past a meter on the inside.
One House Io Citizen who had been about to be slain got a brief reprieve as the darkness fell, enough time to grab her energy sword and run her attacker through, ducking blaster fire from one of his comrades suddenly spraying wildly in her general direction, grabbed her shatter pistols and shot her attacker through the visor, grabbing her radiation blaster, bemoaning it's heavy weight and large size, and yet coveting it's unholy potential for massive gibs and damage and began to retreat down passages marked by lots of blood, screaming in the distance. Her own squad had bit it holding off the Mandalorians, and their corpses mingled with theirs. Her name was Cara. She had lost her family to the Bryn'adul at Sev Tok, having been one of the many Anvil Militia Members that had been led into battle by the Model 2's against the hated lobster...
She spotted one of her own dead, surrounded by three equally dead Mandalorians. Jacob. He had fought well. It was a noble end in House Io, to die in battle killing your enemy. She took his energy sword and his single remaining 25mm Radioactive grenade round and advanced down the hall.
Cara jumped back as one of the super burly Ultranaut Motherfethers, jacked like three Lou Ferrignos spot welded together to make some sort of nightmarish Super Lou Ferrigno barrel burst through a wall, violently slamming a female Mandalorian repeatedly against a wall until her brains burst through the helmet, wheeling to attack her until he noticed the armor she wore.
"Friendly..." Cara said simply.
"Huh..." he grunted. "I wasn't sure what to make of your type when you first showed here. Thought your people might be good for soaking up blaster fire, if nothing else. Imagine my surprise when you all didn't fold like a cheap wallet."
"Let's kill Mandalorians..." Cara replied.
"Hmph..." The Ultranaut grunted, hefting his heavy blaster. "Proper attitude, if nothing else. That brick you're lugging around any good?"
"It's put holes in Draelvasir."
"Good for killing giant feths, eh? So the better..." The Ultranaut grunted. "What's this darkness about us? Its all around us, yet I can see clearly..."
"The doing of House Io assets. Your forces and mine can see clearly...but not Mandalorians."
"Turn off the lights, eh? Simplistic. Stupidly simplistic...but not without it's own sort of genius..." The Ultranaut replied, fixing his sinister glowing goggles on her. "Follow my lead...you fall behind, you're on your own..."
Cara nodded and followed him. He made a quick pace closer to sounds of fighting, pausing as he spotted one of the Blonde, Catsuit wearing Medical Nuetralizers engaging three separate Mandalorians at Superhuman speeds with her energy swords, dodging their attacks and quickly slaying the trio. Cara couldn't tell which one it was, as ALL the Medical Nuetralizers looked exactly alike: Curvy blonde women in silver catsuits.
"I thought those HRD's were just Med Droids..." The Ultranaut noted, disturbed by the bio organic Nuetralizer's fluid efficiency at killing...
"Everything my side makes is dangerous..." Cara replied.
The Medical Nuetralizer in question, Dana, spotted them.
"Hail, Citizen!" it exclaimed, paying a slight nod to the Ultranaut as well. "The Mandalorians have breached the compound. We've taken losses, but the Platoons are holding up well for the moment."
"We can't let them establish a foothold..." the burly Ultranaut grunted. "Not anymore than they already have, anyhow."
"We've managed to blunt their assault so far. They came ready to fight, however. It's extremely difficult holding them back." The Nuetralizer replied
"To be expected with Mandalorians. Stubborn bucket wearing bastards...Sith Empire should have genocide'd the lot of them when they had the chance...like bloody cockroaches that don't know when to
drop dead..." The Ultranaut muttered. "Shoot 'em in the groin. It's not only a torture-shot, it's also one of the most vulnerable areas other than the visor...hit the legs if you can too..."
The trio moved together encountering more Mandalorians, now throwing flares to light the supernatural darkness that was thwarting even their imaging technology to shoot at House Io Citizens grouped together with Ultranauts defending a vital chokepoints. Multiple Mandalorians were dead, having been clearly cut down by Citizen Energy Swords, but some Citizens lay dead also... albeit surrounded by Mandalorian corpses.
The Model 1's had indeed put them through considerable training to inflict such damage the first time out. But the Mandalorians were like a tidal wave. For everyone they cut down, four seemed to take their place.
A Citizen grabbed the heavy repeater from a fallen Ultranaut and unloaded with a
brrrrrrr in their direction, backed by the assault Radiation Blasters held by his comrades. He managed to detonate multiple grenades in mid-air due to the volley of fire, cutting down multiple Mandalorians before he took a shatter round to the side. But he had been trained to fight through extreme pain, the Model 1's putting select citizens through SERE training to prepare them.
He drew his own shatter pistols and shot another three, while Cara and the others joined at them, shooting at the advancing squads, which were close to overwhelming this one section.
The Assault Radiation Blaster had a kick but was deadly accurate, and it's power and accuracy contributed greatly to the damage they had managed to inflict on the Mandalorians, those of whom suffered severe Radiation burns as well as heavy blaster damage if they survived the first shot or so, though the sudden flood of concentrated radioactive particles to their system was already starting to do terrible damage.
Dana went full melee, wading into the thick of combat, her protocols having advanced significantly due to fighting such a dangerous set of foes. She began hacking into them, dodging their fire while Cara and the Ultranaut sprayed the area with deadly bursts, cutting down more and buying the combination of Ultranauts and House Citizens fighting side by side time to rally and coordinate their shooting, firing into the thickest groups.
Dana paused as a Mandalorian sprayed her with a flame thrower. Her design had been built to resist all but the most powerful military flame weapons and just flame in general.
"Only animals fear fire..." (You're becoming hysterical: 90 XP) she said, brutally running her attacker through then Yeeting him into another squad with as much force as she could muster. Before hacking away with both her energy swords as much as she could, cutting heads and limbs from bodies.
The Ultranaut relied on precision fire with his heavy rifle, seemingly immovable as he gunned down Mandalorians Cara began mimicking his movements in order to better hit her own targets in such confined spaces, the bright green bolts of her radiation blaster mixing with the flare light of the Mandalorians, creating a hellish cacophony of flashing lights and sound. Cara and the Ultranaut ducked behind a support pillar at the overwhelming return fire from the Mandalorians, Dana surrounded on all sides by melee fighters but still decimating them.
A swarm of other bolts came. A squad of green skinned Siren Corps members had arrived, blasting into the squads also, firing shotguns with incendiary shells into the squads.
Cara followed his advice, shooting Mandalorian's in the groin or face only, rather than try and get through the chest armor, finding they went down a lot faster than they had previously. That chest armor on a Mando was no fething joke. You had to work to cut through it.
Finally, all the Mandalorians in that area went down.
The burly Ultranaut came out from cover and approached his fellow Ultranauts.
"These Mercs been pulling their weight?" he asked.
"Eh, a little sloppy. A little green. That said, they killed more than I ever expected 'em too. Not afraid to get up close and personal, either. They're doing their job. Hell, one of 'em even threw themselves on top of a grenade that was gonna kill me and the boys..." The other Ultranaut answered. "Tough bunch...for non-ultranauts."
Cara sensed that was likely as close to praise as the Ultranauts might deign to give. Better than nothing.
"They're gonna hit even harder next time..." The burly Ultranaut said. "We shall not fail the Empress. Not one step back..."
"Do you have wounded?" Dana asked, multiple cuts and holes on her body, which looked like they were already starting to heal.
"Three of my boys got hit. Two of yours aren't looking so good..." The defending Ultranaut answered.
Dana went over to them immediately, a House Citizen tossing her his med pac. She treated the Ultranauts first as a goodwill gesture, quickly and efficiently removing shrapnel and treating burns, stopping bleeding, holding an exposed hand over each wound and a green, sticky looking enzyme was secreted from her skin, dripping onto the wounds, acting like Bacta and starting to quickly seal up the deep lascerations and cuts. Then she sealed up her own citizens...
"You're a
Med Droid?" one of the Ultranauts asked, having watched her personally massacre over a dozen Mandalorians.
"Sorta..." Dana answered, finishing her healing measures, injecting everyone with pain killers as a final stop gap measure. For the Citizens, their bio restorative underlays would have to do the rest of the work.
Cara turned to the Sirens that went to join them.
"Hold this section at any cost!" she told them.
The Sirens nodded, having been instructed in warfare by The Model 1's also.
One Ultranaut received comm chatter.
"
Kuben Woods
has arrived with the Spartans..."
"Frost, eh...we just might have a chance after all..." the Burly Ultranaut said. "Try and get a transmission to him, inform him of how the situation is on the inside...and tell him not to shoot these House Io Mercs. They're the ones in the Dark blue armor, got a green shield with a Black helm as a service patch. They are
friendly, I repeat,
friendly..."
On the outside, Frost and his troops would see the beneficial shadow spell ritual spreading out, enveloping him as they got ever closer. He and his soldiers, like the Ultranauts and House Citizens on the inside, would be able to see perfectly, but it would affect The Mandalorians, who would be forced to toss flares to see ahead.
Needless to say, this made them potentially easy prey for his troops...
House Citizens defending the perimeter would cover his approach as the darkness inducing ritual spread outward, sniping at Mandalorians that tried to hit the Spartans and Damian.
Meanwhile...
Lyssa rampaged through the facilities corridors, viciously shooting or slicing apart Mandalorians, forming silvery, bladed tendrils from all areas of her body to catch traditional trained warriors of guard, turning them into meat confetti as they were rapidly sliced apart at high speed, The Mandalorians she attacked were fierce and wily, however and always tried to stay out of reach to attack her with flames or explosives, but she would either shoot the grenades, or close the distance and slice apart the explosive users.
Like a true Nuetralizer, she left only carnage in her wake, whole piles of dead Mandalorians that had dared attack her family lying strewn in pieces in her vicious, BFG Division-fueled rampage, filling the House Citizens valiantly defending the complex with courage as much as
Alessandra Io
did, occasionally mimicking slain Mandalorians to get the drop on their friends.
That was why when Kranak Viszla and
Domina Prime
were reported as trying to search out the interior of the complex, she disguised herself as a friendly Mandalorian, quickly approaching his position.
"Hey,
Vod! she called out, opening fire on him and whatever the feth it was that had crashed through the ceiling...
The Witches, meanwhile had not ceased their scheming...
there had been secondary enchantments applied at key chokepoints to buy more time.
Any Mandalorian that fell in these sections would start to rise up, mindless beasts set only on attacking their own former comrades with their bare hands. It was a horrific stopgap measure but it began to hold up at least a few squads from going further, suddenly getting attacked by their own mutilated fallen...
T.E.X.
QEMD-15 Echo
Saul Vandron
Tyr Mereel
Trajan Fett
