ON: The You-know-what
Space was a interesting place to be. Sometimes chaotic, often times... peaceful. Mainly because there was nothing there. A big place, after all. However, things happen. Chance.
"Launch power armors... Scramble the fighter. All other crew prepare for standby." The female voice of Yuriko suddenly declared over the ship.
Koharu swiveled in her chair on the bridge, looking over the distress signal they had just received. "Should be an interesting change of pace, to not be fighting SMX for once." She pulled up a volumetric screen with the proper coordinates to the last known of the vessel sending out the distress signal.
Kerr heard the orders over the ship's intercom and hurried himself toward the multifunction bay that held his Ryusei II. He stripped out of his uniform and climbed into the hemosynthetic cockpit. After a few moments, he had the fighter's systems up and running and he launched from the Asamoya.
Degan had been relaxing in his room, looking over the technical specs of the Mindy power armor when a familiar voice came from the ships PA. The call made him tremble a little, whether in anticipation or fear he could not tell. All her could feel was the adrenaline pumping in his system when one chooses to fight instead of flee. Dropping the specs he hurried out of room, taking off his shirt as he ran through the halls to the power armor bay. Stripping down quick and jumping into his new suit, the Mindy, he powered up. "This is Degan to bridge, whats our target?" His breath welled up in his chest as he awaited his orders.
"This is bridge, we have an unknown number of aggressors attacking a civilian freighter. I'm not reading any SMX in the area, so it might be pirates but I wouldn't hedge any bets yet," Koharu replied rather calmly over the comm channel to all of the fighters as she went over the data. "The SMX have snuck up on us before. We'll be having ya'll investigate the incident, neutralize any threats and administer any aide to the civilian crew."
The young Yamataian was next, as he was just now making it into the armor bay. Sumaru nodded a hello to Degan as he rushed by to his Mindy. As he wiggled out of his clothes Sumaru with his hands busily affixed his lucky pink hair clips to his bangs, to keep them from his eyes, then got suited up. "Hasegawa Sumaru; reporting. Sorry for the delay command." He finally got to announce once his pink paneled suit was powered up.
Cherry looked over to Sumaru for a moment before shrugging lightly to herself and applying her helmet to her armor, ready to go. And so she did, out into space.
The situation was fairly clear. A
Geshrinari Light Freighter was sitting, engines powered down and looking dead out of the water, not to far from the Asamoya with several blast marks and other signs of battle. All of its weapons appeared to be destroyed. The only contact other then the freighter was detectable attempting to hide on the other side of the freighter.
"Alright, so all we know is that we gotta keep the civvies alive, huh?" Kerr replied to the bridge. "Oughtta be easy enough. Alrighty Shoi, I'm gonna get to the freighter and blow up anything that gets in the way."
"Affirmative, Kerr. Keep a clear head, I can't tell what the contact is packing. Try to coordinate with the Power Armor pilots, they'll probably want to play a little bit too," The crimson eyed bridge officer replied, sounding amused despite the seriousness of the situation. "Try not to let him blow up the civs too badly, over."
"Roger that." Degan watched as his PA fully initialized , his HUD was active and his weapons hot. Degan had chosen the balanced Mindy load out. He was a warrior of balance, yin and yang, sames and opposites interacting to create one being that is so contradictory he still makes sense, which is a contradiction in and of itself. No time for thoughts like that though, now was time to swoop in, holding the sword of justice. "Launching." The inky black of the infinite void rushed toward his tinted faceplate as the suit adjusted itself to the environment. "Kerr, you got the big guns. I'll cover your six so no one startles you and makes you accidentily fire off into the civvies."
"Alright, Shoki Wing gather up. Keep the formation tight, and keep a keen eye on your surroundings, if you pick up anything be sure to alert the rest of us. There might be more than meets the eye going on here." Sumaru said as he floated to the bay doors the Mindy’s feet just skimming over the surface, standing on the line waiting for the rest of the present wing to gather up. Sighing a little as he watched Degan head out before the rest of them, the young Joto Hei was reminded of someone else. "Degan, slow down and group up on my wing. Got it?" Sumaru ordered as he then launched his own armor as well as any of the sprite manned suits that usually were launched, if they too were ordered to prepare that is.
"I'll try to keep the fireworks to a minimum but if I don't have anything to shoot at," Kerr replied to Koharu and Degan while he closed in on the freighter. "There's got to be at least one relatively large enemy out here so let me know if y'all spot it so I can take it out. Then, I'll help y'all clean up the small fry.
"Well I'll try next time but if I waited for you any longer the enemies might have waited so long they would kill themselves out of boredom, and we can't have that, sir." Degan said too Sumaru
Whatever the contact was, Koharu didn't seem to warrant it enough of a threat to deploy more sprites or PA other than the four of them. She did however put the rest of the ship at general quarters just in case that she did in fact have to send out more support for the small Armor Wing.
Cherry didn't respond to Sumaru but did appear to follow his order, moving her armor near his from the rear.
Meanwhile! Another contact would appear on sensors, although it was moving away quickly. A Ge-T1 shuttle on the flee path from the now identified 'hidden' vessel that used the freighter as cover: A Vampire-Class Patrol craft. Nothing for the Asamoya. Or Mindies, for that matter. And based on the early read out... It seemed to have had much better days. But its weapons were hot and ready.
"Kerr, I think I found your large enemy. Hes in pursuit of a shuttle. Do you see him?" Degan's hands twitched over his control as a burst of adrenaline shot through his system, his finger tips remembering training and real battles past as they anticipated the eventual move into combat mode.
"Well in my personal experience, enemies that kill themselves means less work for us. That also means fewer repairs for Datenshi, and unless you have a death wish I think you better keep that armor as untouched as possible." Sumaru commented back, amusingly as the pilot himself has had his fair share of the Armorer’s wrath. However his attention was taken by the craft now coming into view. "Looks like there's our target," Sumaru noted, "Kerr catch up to it, see if you can take it down before it gets that shuttle. Or at least grab it's attention and bring it back towards us."
"I'm on it," Kerr stated as he veered off of his current course and began a hasty run on the Vampire-class ship. While he closed in on the target, he armed his anti-shield rockets and fired them when he was in range. "Rockets away. I bet losing his shields is gonna piss him off so watch yourselves."
"Shoki wing, start charging forearm weapons. We'll hit it with a heavy blast." Sumaru ordered as he boosted off towards the vampire shuttle, making sure to keep a bit of distance from the damaged Freighter incase of stray fire.
"But think about how much we will be saving him on his electricity bill! He should be happy!" Degan heard the voice of Sumaru ordering them to charge their forearm weapons. As Degan complied he narrowed his eyes, scanning the vampire class ship for weaknesses.
The shuttle was making good speed away. Meanwhile, though, the Vampire gave the Power armors a greeting. A positron cannon was fired toward the power armors, although not the Asamoya. Meanwhile the gun turrets, with there being only eleven, targeted Kerr and began to fire upon him.
"Break!" Sumaru shouted as he quickly barrel-rolled to the left to move his armor out of the projectile's path. His forearm weapons were now at half charge, beginning to light up with the bright white aether. His frost blue eyes locked on to his target as the pilot sped up and moved to get into a position to broad side the vessel's bridge.
Kerr turned up the speed on his Ryusei's gravimetric engines and began to circle around for another run on the ship all while dodging the Vampire's turret fire. "Can y'all do something about these turrets?! I need a few of them gone so I can get another clean run."
"Saito, would you be so kind as to go out and have some fun with the boys?" Koharu chimed to the Samurai over the comm. "It'd hurt them less if another big strong man gave them a hand."
Degan rolled to side as he charged his forearm weapon. "Where do I target Sumaru?"
Saito had been monitoring the battle from the Wardroom, standing on the observation deck; where he'd been since they got to the stellar nursery to look at the nebula and the unique spatial phenomena. "Hmm?" He blinked, hearing Koharu's request come over the comm. "They aren't having that much trouble." He responded but smirked. "Sure, I'll go give them a hand." Saito said and turned to head for the primary armor bay of the Asamoya.
Cherry moved crisply in the opposite direction from Sumaru before continuing forward toward the now enemy tagged vessel, preparing to fire weapons at it. Its not like they were out of range.
Mean while, the guns continued to barrage at Kerr's general area. But they weren't bad shots. The Vampire-class vessel kept close to the freighter, using it as a hostage from the
YSS Asamoya. How cheap.
"Yo-kai," Sumaru responded to Kerr's request, "Shoki Wing, target those turrets." Sumaru shifted his positioning and twisted his armor sideways in a 180 degree side flip so he could shift his firing line. Sumaru quickly went over the displayed statistics his AIES was showing him. "All units make sure not to get to close to the underside of those wings; those cannons will leave you dead in the water." He warned, making sure himself not to get caught up on the underside, as he took this chance to make a concentrated shot of two fully charged blasts on the Vampire's Medium Positron Cannon.
"Shit!" Kerr cursed as a few of the blasts from the Vampire's turrets was deflected by his Ryusei's shield moduals. He spun the fighter around and started to fly the fighter toward the Vampire. "Hurry up and drop those turrets. I'm making a run on it with aether missiles now."
"Koharu, what info do we have on the enemy?" Saito would come over the comm system to the XO. He'd made it to the armor bay in a hurry and was selecting the configuration for a Mindy, but didn't want to go out there unprepared.
"It appears to be a single Vampire class ship with positron Cannons and hiding behind that freighter, Saito," Koharu replied quickly. "Kerr is requesting assistance in removing the enemy turrets."
"Shoki Wing, be advised if you are equipped with teleportation modules, it might be a good idea to utilize them," the executive officer suggested. "You are a smaller target than the Ryusei."
Degan targeted the turrets with his forearm weapon, his energy beam just about already to fire at full strength. Aiming the reticule with his eyes Degan sighted the turrets, trying to line up his shot so that he could take out multiple turrets with a single strike. "FIRING!" The beam shot out as he angled his gun and swept laterally in an attempt to destroy as many turrets as possible.
"Then I'll use the Dragonfly configuration, the extra speed should held help." Saito responded and selected the Mindy he wished to use, a standard general purpose one. In a few minutes, the samurai was prepared and ready to go and shot out of the armor bay to join the battle. Enjoying the feeling of enhanced speed it took but a moment to process how fast things were going. "I'm gone Koharu, hopefully this shouldn't take too long." He said over the communications. In his hand he held a positron rifle with the other free to use the forearm pods for defense or attack. Saito would go over the freighter to attack from around it, taking a shot with the powerful rifle at a turret that hadn't yet detected him.
Cherry meanwhile disappeared from Sumaru's vicinity. She then reappeared under the Vampire-class vessel and with a burst of speed moved upwards, firing her gauss cannon at a random turret while just in general firing her saber-rifle in pulse mode on the hull.
The Vampire-class vessel's turrets moved to the various armors. Six turrets took aim at the armors, picking random targets and firing almost helplessly at them, the position cannon firing again in a attempt to hold off the armor. The two remaining turrets of the eight in total continued to fire at the fighter piloted by Kerr.
With only two of the Vampire's turrets firing at him, Kerr could evade the incoming fire easier and what he couldn't avoid was defended against by his shield modules. Four light aether missiles left his missile pod and raced toward the enemy scout ship. "Missiles away. Get back and watch the fireworks, people!"
"Wow Sumaru, making friends, I see?" Degan was about to teleport and move in close with his aether sword but a transmission broke through., "Missiles away. Get back and watch the fireworks, people!" It was Kerr, and it would be wise to do as he said. On the fly Degan switched the teleportation point to be farther away, yet still in range of his gauss cannon and forearm beam. Who knew what they were carrying as cargo. If they were running guns or heavily armed it could envelop anything close in a small super nova as the ship would both blow up and compress, the fire having no oxygen to feed on.
Sumaru quickly boosted backwards, lifting his forearms and igniting the extra shielding as he braced for the missiles to connect and the potential shrapnel. His normal setup included the sylph wing pack, so naturally he used the shielding from there as well to brace for impact, which was a norm for the pilot as he usually never went into battle with a teleportation device.
Saito came out from where he was concealed to open fire on the ship with the rifle he had on hand. "Sorry for being late you guys." The silver haired Neko said to the other armor pilots.
"Don't worry, we're used to it Saito." Degan said, a grin on his face as his ship moved out of teleportation mode.
Cherry blinked a little to herself and moved backwards and away from the Vampire-class vessel, she being right by it. However, she instead bumped into the freighter. On purpose. Applying full movement ability she pushed it away.
The Vampire-class, meanwhile... Took a heavy hit to say the least. The bridge area, where the missiles hit, suddenly shone with the white aethery stuff... And then there was a hole. It wasn't a pretty hole, a ragged thing that took out the position cannon and a good clump of the turrets. For those that were looking closely, they could see a now skeleton like charred corpse begin to float out from the area not a hole into the now-hole area. The ship was still.
Aether does a lot on non-military armored vessels.
"Oh shut up newbie." Saito replied to Degan. When the hole got blown into the vampire, he floated for a moment, looking down at it. Inside the helmet he closed his eyes and offered a short prayer for those who just died. "Should we explore the ship and see what we can gain from this?" he asked.
Kerr whistled at his handiwork as he flew past the destroyed ship. "That was beautiful! Doesn't look like I left a whole lot more than scrap. Well, I think that's all for me. Hey Shoi, I'm headin' back to the Asamoya since it don't look like I got anything left to shoot at."
"Wait until we get the go ahead from the Asamoya," Sumaru said as he slowly moved out to the disabled vampire, "there might be a self-destruct mechanism on board. Can you give it a quick scan first Shoi?" Sumaru waited for the go ahead as he assessed the hull of the ship himself, checking over his HUD for any signs of escaping shuttles. "Cherry, how does that Freighter look?" Sumaru asked, concerned for the ship they came to help.
"Nice one. I think we know who's on firework duty for our ext celebration." Degan said, the chemicals in his blood subsiding and becoming much weaker, however he was still at a higher level of alert then usual.
"Tch, this was a waste of time." Saito sighed to himself and ran his sensors over the vampire to check for any motion or lifeforms. "hmm.>"
In actuality... The missiles appeared to have gotten everyone. Save for the shuttle, naturally, but that was long gone now. No, there was no life forms on board the Vampire-class vessel, but the beat up freighter had people aboard still. Many running frequently about seemily.
"Kerr, do a quick patrol of the area. Hasegawa, from my scans, the ship does not have a self-destruct mechanism but be advised that they might make one if they are really desperate. But boys, give the wreckage of the Vampire a once over to make sure it's clear of survivors that might be hidden by something inside of the ruddy thing. I would like one of the three PAs to board the civilian ship and appraise the situation there. I'm not sure if they were boarded or not," Koharu ordered thoughtfully as she looked over the data on her screens.
Kerr sighed a little when he was ordered to patrol. It was a bit dull, especially considering that he had just blown up a hostile ship. "Okay, patrolling the area," responded the pilot as he began to fly his fighter in an easy loop around civilian freighter.
"Thanks." Sumaru responded to Koharu. "Alright, Cherry do you think you think you can go and check over the Freighter?" Sumaru asked as he started to float towards the opening Kerr created for them. "Saito, Degan, that's out go-ahead. Let's go check it out." The young Pilot deployed his NSDs and set them so they could keep him from being caught flat footed from behind and checking corners for him. His left arm was left to pulse mode and his right one came alive in a blaze of white aether blade.
Saito sighed a bit. "My armor's a little too bulky at the moment to board the vampire." he said to Koharu. "This wing pack makes me a little too large, I'll cover the entrance in case someone tries to sneak up behind them."
"Roger that Sumaru, approaching." Degan moved his Mindy at a steady pace towards the disabled ship. "Hey, at least I don't have to worry about how I would get in if they locked it." Degan said, pointing to the hole made by Kerr's missiles. Inside Degan set his filters to ow light as he stood in a ruined corridor of the enemy vessel.
Cherry responded with a quick, "Hai." and proceeded over to a bulk head on the top. She then sat there for a moment, her armor's head visibly tilted. She asked MEGAMI on the Asamoya exactly how to get into the vessel, however she was instead linked through to Kessah. Cherry leaned over a little and fiddled with something before leaning upwards again. Not to longer after the hatch opened and she drifted inside, hatch closing again.
"Roger that, just figure out something that works. Clean up is never fun," Koharu replied again. She was pleased that their equipment hadn't suffered too much in the engagement. The notion of fighting regular bad guys rather than tentacle monsters was a rather soothing one, she was better prepared to fight enemies that had actual logical motivations than destroying everything.
"Degan, you’re on point." Sumaru said, falling in behind the new pilot. "Saito, do you mind watching my pack for me?" Sumaru said sweetly as he left his own Sylph wing pack behind, free floating in the spot where he was before. Sumaru was not about to let Degan go in on his own. The young pilot was also adapt at watching the rear, after having to learn the harsh lesson of being caught off guard.
Degan moved cautiously through the ruined vessel. When ships are this structurally weak it is better to move slowly then tromp around like you are trying to get mud off your boots. The low light filter displayed the environment is a pale red light, the color meaning to preserve Degans night vision.
"I don't mind. You can have it guard the entrance along with mine." Saito said as his wing pack broke off and formed into 4 pods that hovered where he was, he fed them orders to stay there and cooperate with Sumaru's to act as point-defense. He entered the Vampire and caught up with the group, keeping alert. "Stay alert."
The interior of the ship, for what wasn't burnt by aether, was some what... grim. Well, grim as in the fact that the blast knocked out the power as well. The once active ship was now... not. The doors were still operational, though. Back up power, probably. But it was easy to navigate because of it. The only thing that would engage the two as they looked would be a rush of air on opening the doors. Otherwise they found some weapons here and there... But... Really, a normal civilian ship.
"Ok, the ship appears to be clear. Orders?" Degan said to Sumaru.
"Don't be so hasty." Saito said and continued to clear the ship. "It's empty...this could be an ambush." he said.
"Let's check out the cargo hold, once that's clear we'll go back out the way we came in. Nice and slow, alright guys?" Sumaru said as they probably were almost there. Though not for a moment did he drop his guard, Sumaru’s NSDs were actively floating about his armor at all sides.
Cherry's voice came up suddenly, a neutral tone to it. Although it sounded forced. "... Cherry here. A few wounded... Anooooo... Three wounded. Damage to the ship itself... Apparently the Vampire was bandits or something..."
"Cherry, how badly wounded? And can their ship move on its own power? If they in need of medical assistance, please try to stabilize them and let me know so I can shuttle the Doc over there." Koharu inquired again. "Affirmative, Saito, running scan now. Kerr might see them first, though."
He'd send a message to Koharu; "Koharu, scan for escape pods could you? We might get lucky and catch one."
There was a pause from Cherry for a moment, "... I have no means of stabilizing them... But their wounds don't seem to be to major. Two are unconscious, though... The worst appears to be a broken and slightly burnt leg that is bleeding a little from the
little girl." The only change in tone was the added emphasis. "... Thats not to say they won't bleed out or something."
"I haven't spotted any yet but I'll keep my eyes peeled," Kerr chimed in. "Wouldn't escape pods have individual distress signals if they were launched. We would have picked them up by now."
"Unless they disabled their homing beacons, but you are correct, Kerr. Come on back to us then." Koharu replied as she maneuvered the
Asamoya into a position to dock with the freighter. "Cherry, I'm commencing a docking protocol, have the ship accept it." She frowned as she alerted her doctor. "Doc, we have a young civilian suffering from some severe injuries. I'd like you and one of the girls to stabilize them and assess their medical status to see if we need to ferry them home."
The docking port extended out from the
Asamoya and fit onto the top of freighter, at the bulkhead. Secured, the bulkhead's first door opened, accepting guests.
Akeno came back to Koharu as he was prepared for any injuries to the crew in the event of it during the fighting. "I'm ready for her here, bring her to the main medical bay." He said as he pulled on his white coat.
"Roger that, Shoi," Kerr spoke as he redirected his fighter and flew back to the Asamoya.
"Cherry, could you splint that leg and have their crew still capable of walking carry their wounded to the Doc?" The executive officer ordered in that polite tone of voice. "If they don't have anything, use your rifle and secure it with scraps of cloth, someone's shirt or pants' leg, something."
Degan nodded his head in agreement and moved towards what his schematic said was the cargo hold. He had his setting set to aether sword for close up work. If something was there he could always dodge and fire off his shoulder mounter gauss cannon.
There was a quick, "Hai" from Cherry once again. About a minute later two men emerged from the vessel via hatch and almost fell over with the sudden gravity change. One was holding onto the other, who had a badly cut arm. With Cherry's instruction he questioned the Medical bay's location out loud, and to his slight surprise the arrow appeared and he followed. A Neko woman carried a bandaged via shirt (Her shirt, no less. Yes, meaning she was about with her bra.) woman who had a stomach wound and some slight burning, but unconscious, followed the two men from behind. "We are going to need a stretcher or something for the girl..." Save for the Neko, the crew seemed to be Geshrin or Nepleslian.
Sumaru followed in behind, his only set of eyes watched his readouts and surroundings. He felt his body begin to tense up like a spring, just waiting to let loose on the first thing to pop out.
Akeno would get to work on the patients as they showed up, working on them in first-come-first-serve until they could get the girl there. Most of the damage wasn't serious, but it didn't matter and he'd quickly diagnose the issue and began treatment.
The cargo hold had a evil creature ready to attack! More air! Well, in actuality the cargo bay held some more weapons, even what seemed to be a beat up... arm... of a Mindy. Well, it was more of a husk as all the was inside was burned away as it's protocol mandated. But... it was empty of life.
Saito blinked a bit and cautiously entered the cargo hold to examine the Mindy arm, to try and figure out the story. "I don't like the look of this, it looks like it was force to self-destruct." he said.
"As the laws go, our technology was not going to fall into enemy hands. I just hope the pilot had been rescued from that suit first." Sumaru said with a sad sigh, avoiding thinking about the more probable situation. "Well if that's it, we should make out way out. Let's go." Sumaru then turned around and floated to the door, taking point and staying alert.
Degan followed behind, not saying a word. For once he did not have some sarcastic comment to shoot out like a cannon, no irony to point out. At any time that missing pilot could be him.
The child of six was carted up finally on a borrowed stretcher and set in the medical bay. The carriers were the sprites of the
Asamoya for the curious. Cherry meanwhile exited the freighter, walking toward the PA bay to desuit.
Yuriko looked over to Koharu, paused, then spoke lightly. "Get Nana and Kessah to help fix up the freighter... We'll be going back with it in tow now. Exploration can wait... Are you okay with taking command over that for now?"
Akeno turned to the little girl and began to examine her wounds. "Let's see." he said as he got to work as he finished with the first guy to show up. "I'm sorry you got hurt sweetie, but I'll make sure the hurt goes away ok?" the doctor said, offering the little girl a gentle smile.
It would be notable, though, that unconscious six year olds were the silent type.
"Sure, Yuriko. I can handle that," Koharu nodded as she sent out the orders to the ship's techies. "Nana, Kessie, I need you gals to suit up to fix up this civie ship attached to the
Asamoya." She switched comm channels to her Armor Wing, "Shoki Wing, this is bridge, give me a status report."
Kessah responded to Koharu with a non-sarcastic "Yaaaay~." in reply to Koharu, although she did as ordered. Quickly. Minus the suiting up, though. No, she just got her kit and was followed by Nana to the ship. The non-self repairing beautiful ship.
Akeno turned to the little girl and began to examine her wounds. "Let's see." he said as he got to work as he finished with the first guy to show up. "These look pretty bad, what happened to her?" He mused as he worked to fully reset the broken bone and deal with the issue of the partial fracture. "She got thrown around pretty badly.." He said and asked one of the sprites to bring up the girl's medical information.
"Its all clear, the only thing notable is they recovered a bit of Mindy that had destroyed its insides already. We’re currently on our way out." Sumaru responded to Koharu as they passed through the opening and back out into space, Sumaru as he passed by was quick to snatch up his Sylph pack and re-equip as he headed towards the Asamoya.
Saito would follow Sumaru's example and gathered his wing pack back to his armor before heading back toward the ship. "Hmm.."
"See you boys when you get back, we have the civilians aboard at the moment. Be sure to double check your equipment when you come in and keep an eye on them. They'll be with us until we can get back to port," Koharu sent to the Armor Wing pilots. "Once you've finished your checks, get some food and some rest."
Oh and END'd