Pressing on

With a series of small pops, the seals on the armor came loose, it's various pieces falling from Joanna's body. She rolled onto her side, dislodging her back plate from where it rested on top of her, kicked her legs free from the rest of her armor, and came to a kneeling position, grabbing her rifle as she did so. Shouldering it, she did a quick scan of the area, checking both for enemies waiting in ambush and that her platoon was clear of their armor and uninjured. Satisfied that the immediate area was clear, and her squad was all alive and mobile, she turned back to her armor and opened a small compartment on it, pulling a load-bearing vest from it. She pulled the vest on, then quickly stripped her spare ammo from her armor, filling the vest to capacity. The rest of the Angels were doing the same, half the platoon covering the other, then trading places.

The vest was a simple thing, very similar to the load-bearing vests of the 20th century. They consisted of a pair of thick, padded shoulder straps, supporting a wide waist belt with pouches for ammo and other items strapped to webbing along it. They were never designed with modesty in mind, as they were normally worn with fatigues underneath, and as such, all Joanna's did was accentuate her nudity, the straps framing her firm breasts and the belt sitting firmly across her hips, leaving her pussy exposed.

Joanna gestured for her squad leaders to rally on her, and moments later the three of them had joined Joanna. She looked at them, and said, "Listen up. We're out comms to the Persephone, and on our own until we can secure some more. In the meantime, we're going to take that missile silo, and see if maybe they've got comms we can use to restore contact. Stay close, keep it tight, and we'll pull through this. We move in five."

Her squad leaders nodded, and two of them took off. The third, Corporal Inez Lopez, stayed behind a moment. "Sergeant, this movement's going to suck. We're half-blind without our suit sensors, and this terrain's going to be a bitch on our feet. Plus, we've lost a huge chunk of our mobility and the protection our armor affords. Maybe we should stay in place, wait for reinforcements and replacement armor, and go from there?"

Joanna considered Inez's position for a moment. She was correct in how limited their situational awareness would be without sensors, and the gently rolling forest normally wouldn't pose a problem, it now posed a significant one all it's own. Glancing down her long legs at her bare feet, Joanna considered just what a toll the sticks and stones they normally ignored in their armor would take on their feet as they moved. While Inez's idea had merit, it did have one fatal flaw, which Joanna pointed out to Inez.

"While I'd normally agree with you, Corporal, there's one issue we can't ignore. How many missiles do they have? I'm willing to bet they've got more, and so long as they have them, they can keep knocking our armor out, or worse, knock shuttles and pods from the sky. Until we neutralize that site, there will be no reinforcements or spare armor. We've got to take it."

Inez's pretty mouth worked for a moment as she considered that, clearly unhappy with the situation and what it demanded, before she turned back to her squad. "We're on it, Sergeant, but there'd better be some damn good R & R at the end of this." As she left, Joanna couldn't help but stare at Inez's beautiful ass, the firm globes jiggling pleasantly as Inez jogged back to her squad. Inez and Joanna had shared a bunk more than a few times, and at that moment, Joanna couldn't help but appreciate her friend's amazing ass.

Shaking her head, she turned back to the mission at hand. Standing, she barked, "Move out, **** formation!", and the Angels rose in unison, fanning out to their assigned positions, pushing into the forest towards where they had seen the missile launch. Their rifles tracked back and forth as they warily watched the forest, alert to the distinct threat of ambush in the confines of the forest. The occasional muttered swearing as bare feet came down on sharp branches was the only sound to accompany them as they worked their way towards the missile site.