RP: Galactic Horizon [HEF] First Expediton - Fresh Coat of Paint

Throwing down the instructions, Andrew raced down to the lockers, grabbing guide wires and a tool bag and began to run towards the air locks.
'How the hell did this happen!?' yelled Andrew, to no one in particular. As people rushed out he followed them, going roof side as quickly as possible.

Signal

Terrins brought up an arm to shield his face from yet another plume of fire and shower of sand that was kicked up by the second rocket's impact, any hope the Minkan had of using the vehicle's sensors to peek at what was coming were shattered along with the redback's chassis - he was about to turn to Dawn as if the construct was a physical person but stopped himself short, hugging the rifle into his shoulder as a question was asked.

"Dawn, do you think you could function as an adequate spotter if I got you into a good position?"

Signal

"I can only use what sensors still work in your helmet sir however in its current condition I can use the functioning sensors to locate shooters after they fire a round, the degree of accuracy will be within 20m of their position due to wind and other interference." Dawn said as his HUD shimmered slightly, several new calculation boxes popping up in the far corners of his vision to avoid obstructing his view. "Based on the impact zones on the Redback, the RPG users are roughly 120m away and may have access to a basic guidance system, I also estimate at least two of them as the angle of the second was slightly different to the first, more than could be explained by the user moving positions." The AI continued.

Signal

Terrins listened intently to the information as it was given to him, guidance systems seemed pretty advanced for a few desert-dwellers to have gotten their hands on but he supposed you could find just about anything in a crashed shuttle so why not some military-grade rockets? Hell it was how he had stumbled across Dink afterall.

"Twenty meters is good enough for me, how long do you need to triangulate once I stick my head out?" the Minkan asked rather calmly as he began reaching into the pack on the lower back of his armour to retrieve that Bubble Blower he stuffed in there earlier, it seemed he might have a use for it after all.

Signal

"The more shots at you they take the more accurate the estimations will be, however I only require a single shot to get within 20m of that specific shooter. Be away that if they fire another rocket at you like this you may not be alive to use the information." Dawn responded, she had already been trying to guess where the initial RPG shots had come from but they had been so sudden that the AI hadn't managed to track their flight paths for longer than 10 meters before the impact.

"This information has an error margin of 50 meters but these are two possible areas the RPG users may be located in." Dawn said showing two large blue circles stretched over the sand in his HUD, each one between the estimated 120m and 180m mark with about 30m between the two areas. What this translated to in the real world was nothing more than standard sand dunes with no signs of enemies anywhere.

Signal

Terrins closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, holding it for a moment before he let the expended oxygen trickle out his nose slowly, "Alright, just be ready to do your thing," he spoke one final time as the Minkan steeled his nerves - putting yourself in the line of fire wasn't exactly a great self-preservation tactic but it was necessary.

He bolted out of cover, flicking a switch on the bubble blower as the security officer was suddenly wreathed in a protective yellow orb of triangular hard-light lattices - the shield grenade was held in one hand while the other gripped onto his rifle, resting it across his other forearm as Terrins waited for the rocket to hit.

Hell, maybe they'd miss this time - there was always that chance.

It was a small chance...

Signal

A tremendous bang rang out across the dunes, right after the high powered round punched a hole right through the shield around Terrins and flew within inches of his chest before smashing out the other side. The glint of a scope along with the smoke from a barrel could barely be seen with Dawn instantly drawing the mans attention to them, estimating the distance to be almost 600m away atop a higher dune.

"Another rocket has just been fired, you have 3 seconds to move." The AI said quickly, bringing up another alert to his left as a plume of smoke could be seen trailing another rocket flying towards him at high speed. The sniper disappeared presumably to reload and switch positions, Dawn had traced the flight path of the rocket and had adjusted one of her prediction areas slightly more to the left, as well as becoming smaller as she pinpointed his location.

URSA INTERIOR

Phreaker got the signal to go topside with Andrew, and he jumped up as the other man jumped up and ran with him. He shot of a request to Dawn for more information as to what was going on.

Dawn, are we under attack, whats going on?

He also used his connection to slave some of the weapons systems to part of his unused computing power. He might need to protect the immediate area as well as checking the dish.

"Dont know, but this is going to get interesting." He was right behind Andrew and answered his general question. "Better work fast though."

URSA Int

Dawn's voice resounded back in Phreakers head, "I have lost contact with Terrins and my own instance which had been accompanying him in the Redback, there was also 2 explosions in the area where the strange signal was detected. It is almost certain that the Redback was destroyed and Terrins has a very low chance of surviving if he is still alive." The AI said calmly as the two roof access hatches were unlocked and unsealed allowing the first ones up to easily push them open and scramble out onto the large space atop the vehicle.

Next the voice of Dusk pushed its way into his head, "Hey kid, unlike my fancy sister over there I got a little more personality, just wanted to let ya know I noticed you tryna take some of the weapons. You take the machine cannon of Turret A and I'll handle the missles as well as the back one." The voice floated away and was replaced by the grinding of the two large gun turrets as they swiveled to face the direction Terrins had gone off in, the URSA's speed dropped to about half its previous and several of the Horizon security had already taken up crouched or prone positions near the side armour panels to scan the dunes with rifles and binoculars.

The uplink which Andrew and Phreaker had been directed to fix was near the rear of the vehicle, it had been retracted during their sand storm journey however the dish and several antennae had been bent and some wires severed, a small piece of debri which looked like a scrap of panel had also become lodged within the dish itself.

Ursa Interior, Bunks.

Apparently unprepared for an attack, The uplifted raccoon was thrown from his rack, Or more accurately launched himself in an instinctual response to the sudden bang and tuff of weapons response and discharge. Even within the massive mobile machine his natural instincts warned him of danger before his mind could even take stock of the situation, Triggering his fight or flight response and coursing adrenaline through his small frame.

"A-are we under attack?" He managed to squeak out towards the rack he last saw Zeke in if not to vocalize the possibility to himself. He knew about the dangers. In fact he had been warned about them and offered hazard pay, not that he accepted more than a basic salary to cover simple expenses. yet the large armaments on the massive vehicle never game him pause as a nepleslian originated creature, It was simply the way of things he never questioned about the universe.

"Oh my." Was the simple response to the answer he came to as he scrambled back down the hatch and into the belly of the Ursa once more and towards where he remembered entering. Even a simple cartographer like him could be expected to play some part in damage control he knew as he found the exit ramp and followed out some of the security personnel without thought, Bounding and waddling back outside assuming there was something there he could help with...

Dawn replied in his head and gave him a update. And then a second voice, a different one sounded. This must be the second AI, this was the first time talking to him.

Got it Phreaker replied to the other one, and slaved just the one cannon.

He arrived at the dish they were sent to look at, and noticed that it was messed up and pretty broken. He looked around for andrew, to see what the engineer made of the situation.

Signal

Terrins was already moving as the shield's yellowed lattices cracked and splintered away from the high-powered round, these certainly were not your average run of the mill bandits with pipe-rifles and molotovs. The security officer hit the sand hard as he tried to get out of the rocket's way before it hit as his scope traced the trail of smoke back to the point of origin, he sat there and waited for the rocket to hit before he would deactivate the shield - assuming it still worked, and fire a 7.62mm kz round at any heads that poked out.

"Just keep calling them out as the see them," the Minkan spoke rather calmly despite the situation, letting out an exhale in anticipation of a target showing.

Looking at the antenna and wires, Andrew began thinking out loud.
'We'll need to replace all these antennas that are bent to ensure that communications are restored properly.' He bent down and inspected the cables that had been severed. 'Looks bad. Phreaker, was it? got anything that might be able to restore some form of temporary communications for us till i can solder some new wires in?'

URSA Roof
Phreaker thought about it for a minute.

"Im going to be stretching my processing a bit, but I may be able to help." He sat down near where the antenna was, and pulled out a small device from his pocket. It had holes where wires could be pushed through. "Rig this up as a bypass, Ill pass the information back through me to the system."

While waiting he made another inquiry of the AI's. DAwn or Dusk...one of you guys, I need you to reroute the communications system through my sensor relay interface. Andrew is rigging up a bypass through me so we can restore communications while he works to fix it.

He waited for the AI's to respond, a little worried. He would be processing sensor data, operating one cannon, and acting as a pass through for the communications net. This would take a lot to do, but he was going to try.

Signal

The shield around Terrins flickered off for a moment before it managed to rebuild itself but in that single moment another shot buried itself in the sand just behind him, narrowly missing his head as the lattice reformed. The impact of the nearby rocket sent plumes of sand flying in all directions with a light breeze spreading their effect all around the man, effectively giving him a smoke screen, although these are double edged swords in solo combat. "The sniper has moved position, by about 20m but the rocket impact has prevented me from locking onto the RPG user." Dawn spoke to Terrins.

URSA - Roof

The few other members of security had spanned out on the roof of the URSA and were keeping an eye out in all directions, especially towards where Terrins had been headed. First to respond to Phreaker was Dawn, "I can arrange this although it is very dangerous and your expected lifetime will most likely decrease as a result of excessive mental strain. However the probability of success is 70%, you will be able to act as the communication router for about 3 minutes before it becomes too dangerous to continue." The first, more feminine AI finished.

URSA Roof

"Andrew, you better get to work. I can only restore communications for about 3 minutes."

He turned his attention back to the AI. The way this mission has started out, my expected lifetime has already decreased. He joked. Do it.

He remembered Dawn had said something about losing contact with a person named Terrins. When you get communication back, I would contact Terrins immediately and use the 3 minutes wisely.

URSA Roof

"Affirmative." Replied Dawn, preparing to run the satellite comms through Phreakers own mind, "Also this mission actually increased your life expectancy at its start, compared to the freelancer lifestyle you had before." It added almost as an afterthought.

"We will not be able to contact officer Terrins, his communication booster was the Redback unit which has been destroyed by some unknown means and his own suit cannot send and receive with such a distance between us, approximately 60km along with the interference of the desert sand and dunes."

Zeke opened one eye as explosions began to happen and as the raccoon dove to the deck. The man gave a sigh before casually hopping off the bunk, and heading to grab his gear. Retrieving his rifles and armor, Zeke headed top side. Seeing the communications having been knocked out, he sighed again.

Hey, you two. Use my armor's comms to boost communications and give some sort of line if you need to. I need a line into the battle data, and if you've got someone ahead to feed me targeting data, it would be appreciated. Names Zeke by the way. He thought to the systems of the Ursa, and sensing the presence of the two AIs as he sent of his comms access codes from his arm terminal. Zeke also opened up a connection into his Geist to connect to the group's network if he was allowed to as he setup his Maverick in sniper mode.

Zeke synched his right eye to the spectrum scope atop his rifle, aiming ahead as he tried to spot their attacker.

After wiring the small transceiver into the antennas, Andrew turned to Phreaker and gave him a thumbs up. Around him he could hear people yelling and screaming and he tried to block them out as he pulled a soldering iron and some wires. As the URSA bumped around he struggled to get the wires where they needed to be and solder them together. 'Hey Phreaker, i'm nearly there, how are you going with contacting Terrins?'

URSA Roof

When Andrew gave the thumbs up, he simply sent two words to the AI's. Do it. He knew he would need all the concentration he had to maintain it all without causing serious damage. So when andrew also asked him about contacting Terrins, he didnt answer in a full sentence.

"Said impossible" referencing the fact that the scout was beyond their communications range.