4.1 TSA

4.1 Entrenched?

Rearguard set-up:

RG sits through the siege of the counter-village and RG member makes a homie.

--------Focus on MC limbs, Skunk jumps around attacks, barely avoid deadly scratches, then recovering with the Slyph team.

RG sits in their APC and fires upon the folks of and RG member makes a homie.

---------Bidet charges out, revealing that it was he who pulled Sparkle from the rubble and helped save the day.

RG gets blasted in 3.2 and the people all steel together until rescued.

----------Bidet orders them to stay inside and  Kneecaps agrees. Breacher says we should go out and fight. Kneecaps understands. Skunk says she can slip out (notice covered arms and legs). Kneecaps agrees. The door opens. Bidet goes exactly as the codex (slap shut) decrees.

Finally the village they're at requires a strike team and the folks in RG look to their friends' hesitance and quickly shoot up their hands. RG members bid adieu, a solemn hold on Kneecaps (red-herring.) before they nod.

BAM! spikes and damage. The team spots the area where Hellspawn are practicing.

"Brutes." Bidet says, writing.

"Is that a new enemy type or--"

"Just an observation, Breacher. And that's \*Sergeant Major\* to you."

"Do you have a plan, Sergeant Major?" Kneecaps asks, thumbing closer to the book.

"I think so. Skunk, you have mastered full cloak, yes?"

"Sir, yes sir." -- She demonstrates, the white peaking through the cloak but her otherwise fully invisible.

"Gauntlets off, burgundy. Kneecaps, partial cloak with her."

"Sergeant Major."

"The demons know we're close, but they don't know our strength and don't know that. During the Insurrection war, I was able to route an enemy by engaging infantry too close for combat support with our un-cloakables and roving around with our cloakables. Makes them think they're fighting too big a force and will cause a retreat to spare losses."

"Sounds effective."

"You think a tactic that works on human Innies will work on Demons?"

"Hellspawn is the technical term for these lower dregs. And yes. It's a codex approved strategy."

"And what of the dark zone there?"

Kneecaps nods to Skunk.

"Breacher, I tagged an arbitrator warlord through 3 meters of solid steel with these scanners. If it's dark, it's nothing."

Kneecaps nods to skunk.

"Let's move."

Small scene of hellspawn. Footsteps with nothing there approach. Behind cover, Kneecaps slowly phases into semi-visibility.

(in comm) SK"Kneecaps, c'mon."

The scene continues as charges get placed on a structure. "First charges placed sir."

Rations are charged. "How close do you want us to get?"

"Yeah sir, these are Hellspawn."

Bid "You're literally bending all thermo-visual information around you. Stop the cowardice. Nothing can see you."

"Copy, sir."

"Take your breather before we go. Just in case there's something inside."

AN IMP.

10 eyes. 4 arms. almost 3 dozen claws all-together. Brassy finish to its cakey shell-like armor.

The fight overtakes the soundscape.

The view paces up and through a window then onto the floor, stop. The view, again looking toward the window, moves closer IMP-ward.

ONE OF THE IMPS EYES TURNS.

The window again, a clumsier path. A nigh imperceptible creak.

The imp JUMPS. It stares at the floorboard.

Kneecaps in cloak looks back at the imp, and slowly moves away. The imp tracks until STUMBLE it jumps back, as if reacting to Skunk's cloaked form.

The IMP brandishes its claws and waves them fearfully at the spectres. Its back hand reaches for a THORN PISTOL

The imp SWIPES forward, Its hand jerks as if pushed, cuts appear on its open skin. It vaults. Its arms push back something behind it and it bares its teeth. A maw taking up every milimeter beneath its eye faceplate. It bites and gets a knife to the neck. It gasps and swipes, the table recieves an impact. It stumbles down, body held aloft the exact height off a prone human. Its blood slips out of reality as it impacts an unseeable surface a head's height off the ground. Kneecaps phases into reality as they shoot the imp in the back of the skull.

Skunk lifts herself up, coughing and spurting as she phases back into view. "Bidet?"

"I told you not to--"

"Bidet. It saw us."

"It probably heard you, just be careful."

"No, Bidet it saw us. It stared me down like I was right there."

"With what equipment?"

"None."

"That's impossible."

"Bidet."

"Common as they may seem, even Falcon cloak spotters require cancerous levels of radiation and a peak into subslip to break our cloaks."

"They could have hi-scan."

"Did you miss the unicorn horn sensor package?"

"Bidet, there's no equipment it just saw us."

"..."

"We should call off the op."

"If they can see it's just us, they'll never break."

"Our best sensors can only mark a cloaked object as existing. You just have  penchant for getting sniffed out, Skunk. A held focus keeps the cloak clearer."

"Is he serious?"

"He has a point."

"Enough to bet your life on?"

A ROAR, cheers abound.

"Just get a charge on the artillery guns, we should be good from there."

Skunk looks at the imp's dead body. FWICKS a slat of blood off her mask. She clicks off her comm.

"I'm making a transfer request when we get back, good lord."

The cheers swallow the soundscape as we cut to.

(minor retcon, ALL imps seeing through cloaks is kinda broken so only green ones can)

MATCHCUT:

The arena: Imps and Hellhounds cheer on as a cerberus is tackled and beaten. "RU'KA RU'KA RU'KA RU'KA" They cheer and pat her as she goes in for a feast. they walk into netherwind to do so.

"The artillery is one the other side of that troupe. Walk along the dark zone they're skulking under and breach whatever's letting them down so far."

Skunk sees them entering a netherwind spitting tower and shuts off her comms.

"Wait for them to pass, then charge it. I'm taking out that tower."

"But the Sergeant Major said--"

"And we're still getting that mission done. Just a little extra to remind him what war he's actually in right now."

Skunk crouches along the path and enters the netherwind.

Skunk goes blank on Bidet's wrist monitor. "Skunk? Are you okay?"

Skunk threads through the netherwind. Only a foot infront of her face, tops, is visible. She thumbs around until she gets to a tent. Hellspawn rifles. Bombs. "I see why this is under wraps." Captured tech... CLEARERS. MINES. She pockets them until a skamper. She dodges away quickly. A GREEN IMP checks the bag, sighs, then trudges towards the party house. Entirely WHIFFING Skunk. She looks down, the netherwind flakes pool in her hand. She looks back. WTF....?

She spreads it all over herself and follows.

The imp enters the party mid celebration and awkwardly threads his way to the top. Skunk climbs the netherwinder on the hut and places a captured charge on it.

The forces get interrupted by the imp and he waxes philosophical (untranslated) about the importance of his collection of human trinkets.--Skunk finds the weapons chache again and swipes the human stuff bag--The celebrating hellhound stares him down.--Skunk takes a bag of hellspawn guns too--Grabs the pistol off his holster and shoots an armored mate. The round bounces off. The hellhound smirks. The imp bares its fangs.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.

Kneecaps looks back as it nears the artillery pad. "Kneecaps, let's go."

"But--"

"GO!"

"What are you running from, Kneecaps? Is it what downed Skunk?"

"She's right here."

"No she--"

"Hey Bidet, take a look at your 'dark-spot' I've gotta surprise!"

Bidet looks at a fold in the ridge line with his scope. the barely cloak SKUNK appears with at least a dozen rifles slung around her shoulders and knapsacks of various devices dangling from her arms. KNEECAPS runs right behind her.

"A few new additions to your codex!"

Skunk WAVES as she flips out her detonator. She forms up along the bend in the ridge line.

"Whatsoever do you mean?"

"I already told you where to look."

The imp and hellhound fight A quick set of shots of the eyes then BAM!

The tower tip falls in and the party, squashing it. It topples and lands on the artillery encampment, exploding that, the explosion carries until the arena, blazes and fiery debris from that trigger the ration package and initial charge.

"See skunk, you executed my plan to a tee! Now let's pick off the stragglers and clear the platoon for advance."

"No. Bidet. Don't you see the netherwind? It was blocking a cache and outpost tower. We didn't even need to place the artie charges!"

"Enough showmanship, just cover that ladder. And turn your transponder back on!"

To herself. "Cover the ladder from what?" -- Fling off guns and gear. "I just killed 'em all."

Far away, there's a group of hellspawn in a netherwind coupe covered by a tarp of regular material. They send in their forces. after being alerted by a siren.

Skunk sets up in partial haze form. Kneecaps carries her stuff back behind her. "We may want this. There were a lot."

"Grab some of the netherdust and cover yourself in it, Kneecaps..." "And try to keep it out of the guns. KC does so but spots the similarly NW covered army of chargers

Kneecaps loses cloak in fear and SKunk is like CAPS! YOUR CLOAK! Kneecaps arms and flings mine discs in their way.

"Little ones, a lot of them! We need to go."

"Hey y'all, we got a large group of hostile tags advancing from--"

"FROM THE WIND! WE KNOW!"

"Don't talk to your--"

"Bidet, pull rank one more time and I'm pulling out your teeth."

Breacher chuckles.

"You can pull out your guns, though!"

The !belzebubs! swar around the artie site and ruins of the outpost. The green imp and hellhound walk out and swipe the snapping creatures from them. They take a look at the destruction and point them towards Kneecaps' and Skunk's figures.

They round the corner and, as the stampede gets closer and gunfire begins ripping into them, they both fully cloak.

The bubs scurry around aimlessly.

The view goes towards the post where the first imp death was, climbs through the window and lays down carefully.

Skunk and Kneecaps huddle together, guns, equipment and lives intact.

WIDE FROM ABOVE: The swarm over-takes the area. Part 2 is seeing the dire situation and sayign that they should take out their people before bombarding it, but not being able to extract them and with the arties in repair and under-supplied, they send a team to stave the tide off until they can arrive and hopefully extract their people.