RP: YSS Soyokaze A New Force (4.0)

The Soyokaze cruised through the system, on the same path it had left FTL on. She didn't seem to have taken any notice of the rouge ships hunting her, other then her weapons coming live.

Deep inside her hangers though, a pair of Gunships were warming up and being brought to drop ready, along with the other drop ships. Misato and her unit would take the gunships in directly to the base, the rest of the Soyokaze's ground forces would drop in the drop ships, with the tanks and what not, and land miles outside the base to give support.

PA BAY

Pacing down the line of her team getting suited, she paused and helped here and there with attaching arms or verifying that a PA component was set right. She did this all before returning and stripping down to her skin and stepping into her own armor. And shiver shot through her, last time she had lost an arm, then died... "Freyja get buttoned up and then stand to so I can inspect you. REST OF YOU GET TO THE GUNSHIPS! YOU KNOW YOUR SEATS!" The gray neko called out before dropping her helmet on and letting her PA come to life. stepping out of her MINDY's bay she grabbed her sub-machine gun, as was her standard load out, and looked up and down the line again.


Station 42

The pare of sailors looked at each other and rolled their eyes at Elaina's panic. Auska got up and opened the standard hatch in the wall, that was well labeled and tossed the civy a AMES suit. Joe pulling his own suit and slipped it on, "Oh hell no... You don't get a gun. Just relax and put on your suit... We are pretty deep in the ship.. and.. I'm sure we will be fine." he said trying to comfort her. "Let's just suit up and keep the ship's moral up with the music."


Sci Lab

Giving Chieko one last sly grin he turned and started to the hatch, "Oh and if you would like to bring your lovely assistants to, I'm sure they could use the training." He winked at her watching her quick precise movements for a moment before walking out and towards the med bay.

Station 42

Elina had the suit on faster than the two YSS Soyokaze crewmen that were with her. "It's okay! I got my own." Pulling out the false bottom of the case, pulled out her own pistol. Quickly loads it with the power cell it comes with it.

Stuffing it into a pocket on the AMES. Feeling a bit more secure. "That's what the Passenger Liner Captain said when the Mish raided the ship. Nuh-huh!" She shook her head violently, sending her hair flopping around.

She began to clean up the mess she had made, just to keep things from flying around ad becoming a problem later.

Jei turned back to his console and seemed to relax. He moved his hands over the console bringing all available turrets to life and turned them to a solution. His solution placed a large amount of the fire to make contact with the gunship about amidships with two forward, almost out of arc, turrets to fire fore and aft respectively. When all turrets were aligned and locked, he opened up with an fore-to-aft salvo in a repeating pattern, making careful manual adjustments that he had been taught through his training.

The Hei's eyes were fixed on a display of the turret placements, his salvos firing with a nice flowing motion, all outbound towards the Plumeria Gunship. In his mind, he was hoping to not make a costly mistake, he needed to make sure all turrets were firing on target and tracking.

Though quick, Jei turned his head slightly to check status of the Power Armor bays, as he would need to manage them as well unless someone else had them queued up on another display.

PA bay

Freyja nodded absently and slid down, getting into the proper position, and letting the armor fold into place around her. The warm, squishy flesh surrounding her, Freyja grabbed the helmet as she stood up, rolling her shoulders and, fidgeting with anxious energy. She wasn't sure she'd ever get used to this.

The white haired neko let her helmet hang at her side as she looked herself over real quick. She was pretty sure that everything was in place, but then again she did put on the teleportation module on a bit hastily. Freyja didn't want to think about what could happen if it wasn't functioning properly... She twisted around as best she could to check the module, just to be safe.

Science Lab

Chieko looked up again to see Blake headed out of the lab. The young woman then huffed at the noise around her and picked up the gifts that had been left behind.

"Mitani, Strand, you better be gluing things down properly this time," she called out, opening a desk drawer in the office compartment.

"Almost done here," Kana called out,

"Your non-standard flasks are all locked down," Isrun mentioned as she continued locking retainer bars into place.

The scientist only shook her head, thinking it a shame to put the flowers into a second drawer; but they would be safest there, "We're due in Medical in five minutes. Get your double checks done and let's get out of here!"

Space!
The Soyokaze's shots sailed off into the darkness after the distant Tin Man, and she made no attempt to dodge or even twist to the side and become a smaller target. Instead, calculations whirled off in the ship's computer and the modified CFS started directing each shell with its tractor capacity tilted at full power for the planet's atmosphere, where aided by gravity the projectiles would be drawn and plunged into the ocean below. Undaunted, the tiny gunship continued to pepper the massive heavy cruiser with almost harmless cannonfire. Almost harmless. Certainly, the heavy cruiser's shields would carry a lot more pain before overloading, but if the heavy cruiser couldn't start scoring hits on the exposed vessel before it; the Tin Man would win the war of attrition.

YSS Tin Man
A crooked smile showed off Lulu's favorite chipped tooth as she slumped back in her chair with a look of haughty indignation. She licked her lips as if tasting meat and let out a devilish cackle.

"Taii," Reported Persimmon, "Their first volley was thrown as planned, but they'll change their solution for sure to compensate."

"Right, Persimmon." Lulu nodded, then flicked a pair of commanding fingers towards Havyd. "Riz, fire thrusters and zip us up to the corner of our orbit. Stay out of Aether range, now, not too hasty-- easy, easy."

YSS Casper, over on the other side of Mevar
Mite jutted her thumb into her mouth, watching intently the landscape burning beneath them. Rocks darted past them faster than her eye could follow them, and when they sailed over the ocean the tiny destroyer was close enough to the water that a fine foamy mist heaved up from the splitting waves beneath. They were far too close, that is to say.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Moaned Mite as her helmswoman plied the controls with absolute glee. Mite's fingers and nails dug into the arms of her chair, her ears folded straight back, and her eyes bulged while she watched with every passing instant her ship come just that much closer to its certain, instant death. "... no, no, no, no, n-- Yes!"

"Fire thrusters! Ascend! Begin the maneuver!"

Jei, face completely expressionless and eyes fixed on the screens, quickly saw the opening volley's weird path. without moving very much of a movement, he reset firing parameters to fire in closer volleys, and aided by the computers began to fire quickly on the now moving gunship. Each volley having a slightly different pathing algorithm to place shots onto the vessel's midships. He questioned the other captain's method of attacking, but sensed something was missing. Shots from the volleys began to pass near the vessel, but most were carried off my the ships gravity well and movement.

Jei was confused on how a vessel could turn shots so...accurately. It was intriguing, but why risk throwing some object towards their own ship if moving so fast? He didn't know, but he saw the computer recognize hits on the opposing vessel. He smiled slightly and continued firing heavy and quick. He once again checked the PA screen swiftly before looking back to aiming, they still were going to stations as far as he knew.

~~~~~
Space
~~~~~
As the Tinman ran, trying to use her CFS and the gravity well of the planet, did well. And almost was successful in staying out of the fire of the Soyokaze's batteries, but a few shots wormed through all of the different effects of the warped space-time, slamming into the rear of the Plumeria Gunship. Ti rocked and was shifted a few degrees out of it's flight path. She shimmered and shook from the three or four blasts to her large supple hind end.

The Casper, on the other hand stayed out of sight still, as she continued her slingshot maneuver and started rising from the surface again, burning out of the atmosphere. Her path was smooth and well flown, even with all of that she was coming out of the atmosphere a few degrees of her true path. Putting her out of her kill shot position.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PA Bay/Assault Ship
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glacing over Freyja's PA she nodded, "MOVE OUT!" She called over both the close comms, and the external speakers of her MINDY. Turning she led her troops directly out of the PA onto the floor of the hanger-bay. "Move your Arses! Alpha team with me in the lead assault ship, Bravo in the second!" She hollered again, as she grabbed Freyja's arm, "You'll be with me in the Alpha ship." She Moved to board and speak to the pilots, while the rest of her team boarded got secured. She had a team of seven, herself made eight. Bravo was lead by a NCO and was built of eight members also.

~~~~~~~~
Studio 42
~~~~~~~~

Joe and Auska stared at Eline, It was Auska the spoke up first. "If you kindly hand that over, civilians aboard don't have rights to weapons..." She held out her hand. Joe on the other hand was standing there with his hand on his holstered weapon. He was never told the civy would have a weapon, and so he was ready if the neko did anything.

~~~~~
Bridge
~~~~~

Herdis was quick on the uptake, almost as if she was able to read her sister's sensor reports of the incoming crafts. She maneuvered the ship, angling it towards the planet so that the ground teams could drop to the surface, while at the same time keeping their own ship from getting hit. Her little hands flew over the controls, too focused to say anything to anyone as she did her job at the helm. Aldis, on the other hand, had to speak up as she looked over the monitors, though for the moment, it was more muttering to herself until she could report. "Alright, team, talk to me. Are we hurt yet? Or are we still in the clear? What's going on?"

Aldis's screen had a image lay out of the ship, the for shielding showed minor flashing of return hits, nothing so far had punctured. The sensors though was showing faint ghosting of a heat bloom building up along the rim of the planet below. It could be a nuclear explosion, or a ship blasting far to quickly through the atmosphere. There was also feed information for the ship's computers showing the rest of the task force's ships destroyed along the far distant edge of the system.

Aldis cursed under her breath and then spoke up, "Herdis, move slightly to-" "-the north. I know. On it." The twins weren't quite sure what was happening on the surface, but if they could get the landing party well enough away from it, but not too far, that would be a good thing! "We're getting a bit of cross fires, but so far nothing major. Shields holding well enough at the moment." Aldis reported to the bridge at large.

The ship was drawing nearer to the planet and the range between it and the Tin man was reducing quickly. "Hei Jei, Please take that Plumeria out of the fight, before she starts to get in close and is able to bring her main weapon to bear...." Seako spoke just loud enough for her voice to reach him. "Also please send word to the Assault teams to drop as soon as they are able."

YSS Tin Man
"Captain!" Persimmon shouted above the din of the damage alarms, "More shots inbound!"

"Taii, our rear left engine nozzle has been struck, manuvering thrusters have been damaged." This was the first report Honda made from his position at the operations console since the beginning of the battle, and Lulu groaned to hear it-- having counted on the battle to go on for at least a little longer before his baritone invaded her ears.

"Best gunners in the galaxy: Star Army." Lulu muttered, then snapped at Havyd. "Riz, fuck the fancy footwork, cut around in an arc. Go for 'em as best you can without running in front of that damn main gun. We'll give that dipshit gunner of theirs something to look at."

Turning back to her displays, Lulu eyed the local map and looked at the suddenly apparent form of the Casper. "Mite, you dumb bitch, you missed your damn mark. I knew you'd chicken out and ascend too soon." A balled fist collided with the arm of her chair and the red-headed captain snarled in anger. The plan would've worked if that damn cat girl had held up her end of it. Lulu snapped off another set of orders and ground her fingers hard against the armrests of the chair with a look of fearsome wolf determination. 'Stick to the plan', she told herself in an attempt to ward off the temptation to fling herself right at them with Aether blazing, 'and make them fight for every little inch'.

"Reconfigure the CFS for normal functions! Advance, move to fire the main gun!"

Space
Things in battle tend to happen all-at-once. Those words were once spoken by a famous tactician, probably as an excuse to explain why he'd failed to secure victory, the sod. In this case, things happened all-at-once to the Soyokaze. The Tin Man shifted from her position of no-longer-viable safety under the pressure of the Soyokaze's superior batteries and shot out at full speed from the edge of her orbit. Her CFS returned to its typical nature to assist the shattered manuvering thrusters at her rear, and the combined effort sent the vessel around at a wide angle bearing as close as possible for the Soyokaze's side. A more vulnerable target presented itself to the heavy cruiser's guns, but this target was face-on, armored side presented, and protected by its CFS.

Before any trigger could be pulled, almost simultaneous with the Tin Man's advance, a tiny destroyer appeared from thin air. Or rather, it seemed that way for how suddenly the YSS Caspar rocketed out from behind planet Mevar at speeds usually reserved for pre-accelerated self-propelled sub-light missiles. In the full throes of a gravitic slingshot maneuver, the Caspar sliced through space right up to the edge of the Soyokaze and fired her main gun-- a powerful Aether Shock Cannon-- right into... The hull plating along the Soyokaze's bottom and the shields in front of it. Whatever spectacular engine-disabling course had been plotted was reduced to a grazing shot, and the captain hadn't even had the decency to use a wide-pattern beam to offset her failure.

YSS Casper
Mite buried her head in her hands and let out a little cry. She'd started her ascent too soon. Her attack had only barely hit the Soyokaze. Utter ruin. Her career, her standing with the other officers, all of it. In her mind's eye, Lulu laughed down at her and bellowed, 'Yer stuck with me now, kid!'

"Please take evasive action, move towards the Soyokaze's rear." Her orders weren't commanding, they weren't even demanding. She was broken the minute her plotted course was displayed before her when they escaped atmosphere. "Try to get in a shot on their engine compartment."

YSS Soyokaze - Bridge

Aldis saw the sensors react to the hit on the side of the ship as well as the approach of the other ship. "Cripes! Herdis!"

"On it!" Herdis had already worked to get out of range of the smaller ship that was coming for their engines. Though the hit missed, it was pretty clear what they were aiming for. The twins worked in tandem with Aldis redirecting some of ship's power towards the shields to protect their engines...but not too much to keep from protecting other parts of the ship.

"Sorry, Ladies and Gents, it appears that they are trying really hard to keep us from sending out the landing party. But don't worry. It'll happen." Aldis had stated that to the waiting away team, though of course those on the bridge would be able to hear her too. It was only because Herdis was needing to focus on out maneuvering the two ships trying to attack them. If their roles were reversed, Herdis would have said something similar.

Station 42

Elina glared at the two. "Either just shoot me or get your butts in gear and secure the equipment. It seams we're in battle against an unknown foe!" She snapped at them as she put the dislodged disks back in the case to be sorted later. "It not likely I am going to shoot any of you as I am out numbered."

She knew that if they pressed the issue, she would give up the energy pistol. But hoping that her bluff would work to divert their focus to something more important than disarming her.

She continued to secure loose item so that if any major hit to the ship wouldn't send them flying to become a hazard.

PA Bay/Assault Ship

Freyja followed Misato as she lead the valiant charge to the hanger bay, taking the breifest of moments to put on her helmet finally and take a look around before - "Eep!" A small sound of surprise found its way out of Freyja's mouth as she was yanked into motion.

Finally aboard alpha team's assault ship, she quickly locked herself in place with the PA tie downs, and mentally prepared herself for what would be her first combat experience. As she was walking herself through her imagined experienced she realized she didn't get a mental backup with medical yet. "Oh that's just lovely..." she muttered upon this realization.

Jei saw the power flux and the first gunship give up on it's maneuver. As he saw it come bow firsts towards the side of the Soyokaze, Jei angled most of the broadside to fire shots at the gunship in very fast battery salvos. His hands moved swiftly over each one of the queues to fire the broadsides in an elegant broadside towards the incoming vessel which looked to be attempting to either ram or close to Aether range. He was going to try to use the battery fire to harass the Plumeria into breaking off.

When the Casper came roaring out of orbit and closing distance, Jei stopped when he saw the Aether Array charge and fire, then had to suppress a slight dirty laugh as it glanced off the shielding and armored hull. Jei turned the remaining section of guns ready to fire at the newcomer and began ranging shots to find a sweet spot. "Should I prime the Aether Array Chusa?" He looked to the PA screen, "and the Landing Party is outbound." Jei continued to Harass the first Plumeria and find a ranging for another salvo setup on the new destroyer.

Medical

It wasn't long before Chieko stopped by the Med Lab with her cronies in tow - though the two Nekos were not sure what they could do to help. "Hasn't felt like any hits so far," the biologist offered, "but we're here, Chui. Is there anything you want set up before the mad rush arrives?"


Cargo Bay

After being woken from her paperwork induced nap, Hotaru had gotten started making sure everything was still secure. She of course had the report in her head that it had been done - but that was at launch. Even in the time taken from then until they arrived around Mevar, the clerk knew some equipment may have been moved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
GM POST
~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~
Space
~~~~~

This Soyokaze rolled and shifted just enough for the blast to tear out her lower shields and would have scorched and damaged the lower parts of the ship. The planet drew near below them as her guns continued to fire at the enemy vessels. The computers aboard the Tin Man and the Casper painted over the images of the Soyokaze with the new damage of her hull. The result of this was the Casper drifting further toward the ship's rear from one side, and the Tin Man bursting forth, from some inaudible and invisible order for the underside where the shields were thin and the ship was vulnerable.

~~~~~~~~~~
YSS Tin Man
~~~~~~~~~~

"Fuck me!" Lulu cried, watching her display read out the damage reports with obvious cheer. "This is amazing! She missed, but she missed right! Riz! Riz, damn you!"

The Elysian at the helm didn't turn around, but raised a hand over his shoulder to indicate understanding. Lulu was tempted to throw a wadded up tissue at him, but such an action would've required a spelunk into the handbag hanging on the back of her chair.

"Riz!" She cried again in the place of a spitball, "Go low, go low, damn it all, they're vulnerable and we haven't fired yet. Hit that engine! And stay away from their main gun, you fucker!"

~~~~~
Bridge
~~~~~

Damage reports started popping up once the lower shields were torn away from the Aether blast. Red lights and loud beeps,screamed for attention. The whole of the lower decks had been "torn away." Most of the crew there were dead and the ones still alive were being evacuated to the Main medical bay. The Soyokaze had reached minimal safe drop position, the assault craft could be launched.

Seako cringed at the damage reports that were appearing on one of her secondary screens. She would have to run the pilot and gunnery crews through a lot of simulated combat training. "Yes do so, I want those ships gone. Also please use the ship's main weapons too..." She looked at the situation display that hovered in the center of the bridge, the volumetric sphere showed both the ships involved and the planet. "Also if we are in range please give word to the ground teams to be dropped, and launch the fighters to escort them and help defend us against those ships out there. And get a few PA units out there too."

She paused and looked at Ise, quietly she spoke. "I hope you are watching and taking notes, I would like to compare them with you after this is done."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Assault-craft/Launch Bay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dropping into her seat and strapping in Misato raised an eyebrow behind her helmet's face, "What is?" she asked Freyja. The assault craft started warming its engines and taxied to the launch position. Close behind it was the second one with the rest of Misato's forces. On the far end of the Launch Bay the Drop craft was loading the tanks and the larger ground forces.

~~~~~~~
Med-Bay
~~~~~~~

Blake grinned when he saw Chieko, and her cronies, "Here you two," he held out black markers to the to assistants, "Run basic triage in the hall way, Jôtô-Hei If you would help assist me in here, get the ones that are vital yet can survive and get them to the tables, my medics and I will work to clear the tables and give you room for the next." He finished up as the sound of the first "casualties" started rolling in.

~~~~~~~~
Station 42
~~~~~~~~

Joe shook his head and stood there holding his hand out. "There are laws and ship regulations on this, I really don't care about your equipment, it can be replaced or repaired." He looked at her sternly not budging a little. Auska on the other hand saw that Jow was handling the Civy so she started gathering up the disks Elina tossed everywhere trying to retrieve said weapon. She was shaking her head and trying not to grumble about the damned civy on the ship.

~~~~~~~~~
Cargo Bay
~~~~~~~~~

The cargo was for the most part all in their places, though some have been moved and left about as the strike wings and other auxiliary craft was readied or refitted as needed. There were cargo containers that were left open by careless or hurried crews, and a few had supplies half-dragged out onto the deck.

Station 42

Elina shook her head no, as she continued on with her work in getting stuff secured. It should've been obvious, even though she was allowed to wear civilian clothes and had no real part in the crew of the ship she was crew.

"I am part of this crew since I'm here. Even if I am a civy. And since you like to refer to regulations. ALL crew will be armed during combat in defense of the ship. That would be a violation of ship laws and regulation for me to give up my gun."

Giving Joe a smile as she finished securing the last of disks and started on the equipment to get it secured.

Medical

"But I'm a physicist, not a... Hey!!" Isrun had been interrupted by Kana's grabbing her icy blue hair and writing a big black 'L' on the Neko's forehead, "What was that for?!"

The pink haired Neko disengaged, holding the uncapped marker as she cackled with glee. "You look better now!" she grinned, "Here, I'll show you." Kana then lead the marked Isrun out to the hall to start working.

"Looks like the party has started in full," Chieko offered, noting the alarms, "Let's see what problems we have." The biologist then started her first checks.

Jei nodded and hit the startup on the Aether array, it's energy draw significant. He then turned to his other duties and hit a mic switch speaking into a hidden microphone, "Ground Team and escort fighters launch...defensive Power Armor units launch." then flicked the switch again. He then began calibrating checks for the Aether array for it's closest target and locked it's signal. in a few seconds, it would be in firing status, he looked calmly to the turret arcs, they still were locked and firing.

"Aether array is primed, target?" He looked to the CO and XO for a definite answer.

Assault-craft/Launch Bay

Freyja looked Misato in the eyes, or visor rather, and said it plainlyn and simply. "Between the interview with the captian, and the lost service pistol incident, I didn't report to medical yet for a scan."

The white haired neko frowned under the helmet, and her frustration clearly shown through her tone. Oddly enough she didn't seem any more nervous about her first combat encounter than she already was. It's just one thing after another with me isn't it? She thought to herself as she mentally prepared for the verbal assault, and whatever else came with it.

Bridge

Nenene's eyes darted about from one volumetric display to another. From ships status readout to sensor displays showing the location and movement of the enemy vessels.

As Jei spoke up, Nenene focused on the battke sensors, "Lock main gun on the Plumeria, fire at will!" she ordered.