RP: 4th Fleet [Mission 0] Nebula Diving

A single tone bled into all the suits followed by a message: Calibration complete!

The Taisho had made a few shots, using different weapons to get her feel for the new armour. She spun around and drifted back to lead everyone into the nebula. More beacons were activating somewhere inside the gas. "Now...these will give readings you should expect to see during the games, we'll be inviting teams from any nation to compete, provided they don't show up with a war fleet to watch." Most were set to Yamataian frequencies, the others of various nations.

"That's...very good, Mishima-hei. Honoka-san, remain close."

"We're going to proceed in, and simulate a nebular round of elimination. Remember to watch your instruments closely, and switch to nebula for visual." Changing spectrum was important inside, even if sensors were less than accurate. In that light, Spirit City was focusing most non-essential sensor sweeps on their area just in case something went wrong.

"I am pushing our sensor suites into an active linked network. We'll bounce the beacon resting outside, and stay in contact with fleet." The Taisho was a bit pensive about the region, but knew if they wanted to not be embarrassed practice was required.

The purple-red gas swallowed the armour team, bathing them in the life of stars. Once they were twenty seconds inside, readings of enemies painted their instruments. "By the way, if one of these kills you proceed out of the nebula to the marker, and remain for the next practice round. They will shoot to 'kill' in a simulated manner."

"Hai, Taisho." He said, switching to nebula vision and drifting back to where he began within the formation as it entered the Nebula.
As soon as contacts appeared in front of him, he took aim, locked, and 'fired' a short burst at it.
He made a small pushes with his thrusters, to avoid being a stationary target, but kept close to the others.
Hopefully we won't get shot up too badly. I don't think I could stand waiting at a marker. He mused, and suddenly a thought occured to him.
"Taisho, is there a formation we should assume? Or are we allowed independent movement?" He asked.

"Hai hai."

Honoka did as instructed, sticking even closer to the Taisho, well, as comfortably close as one can get when you're flying around in armored suits. At high speeds. At high speeds with limited vision. She didn't want to be crashing into anyone, especially not the Taisho while still in space. Back on board would be a different issue.

Even as the 'enemies' showed up on the scanners, Honoka still didn't react to it. She wanted to make sure she can at least see what she would be firing at, her distinct lack of PA experience telling her not to blind fire. Though, would blind firing be good? The aide second guessed herself. Better yet, just follow Shimizu-Taisho's lead, that way she hopefully wouldn't look like a complete and utter failure.

Jessica quickly followed the others into the nebula, and quickly shifted her PA's targeting system into Nebula mode, and while she attempted to maintain a reasonable proximity to the Taisho and the others, the Engineer knew that in space, room to manouver was vital.

Locking a target in her sights, the tall Neko brought her weapons systems to open up a short and focused salvo from the handheld weapon. With a curse, the Engineer dove, just barely missing a salvo from another target to her left.

~~*~~

"Oooh... pretty..." Having apparently forgotten she was in the middle of a simulated firefight, and simply hovered in mid-space, Setsuko was quite simply looking around in the nebula, her mind dazzled by the beauty of it.

Only when a target somehow managed to end up square in her sights, and uncomfortably close, did the medic actually remember she was supposed to destroy the things. She quickly brought her weapon up, and without even engaging her targeting systems, opened up a torrent of "fire" on the poor target in front of her.

Several pods showed kill signals then went back to friendly status after being hit. They quickly did as they were programmed, and went back to the galactic east relatively and paused near the beacon site. One that still pinged as an active target (simulating a Lorath WINTER) began drifting away from the simulated fighting, deeper west, juking strangely in any direction on the way. Akina tested the new firing arc and speed of the H1 while the small staff showed off their skill.

"Wait for the break-oh, this is a good time. Break break break." She let signal slip into the squad on her command to engage and ran the overlays to try and lead them into creating a crossfire of enemies in a sort of cloud inside the cloud.

In the middle of the chaotic exercise, a priority signal bounced the beacon. "Remain in the fight. Moving out a bit to receive."

YSS Nadare said:

C-hhuHJ3*78...

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The Taisho took Honoka closer to the edge of the gas, into a pocket of space and tried again.

YSS Nadare said:

Princess Tai-...

Spir-...-recieved a message about an In-...-ol relations conference. Clan off-...-already making plans for you. The training exercise is continuing, but on a shortened schedule.

Click to expand...

Akina noticed their transmission signal increasing in clarity, glad for the system they set up. "Copy. We'll finish this one and return. Start bringing in the wings, staggered." The coloured MINDY shot back around and returned to the fray. "I think we have plans to make, Honoka." The Princess commented in a private line. "There's a new IRC out of nowhere."

At the command to break formation, Jessica did just that, soaring up above her current position while drifting slightly to galactic east and fired upon whatever hostile targets she could find, the system scanning for transmissions the targets would be sending from various different frequencies.

~~~*~~~

Mishima however, merely drifted out of formation to the galactic west, chasing after the WINTER signal, her weapons systems firing madly in the rough direction of the target as she moved, completely heedless of her own safety or anything else than the target before her.

Shrugging, his question unanswered, Arkase had continued firing.
He broke when the command came, and looked around at how few targets remained. He smiled, conciece of how few he had personally taken out. Then a thought occured to him. Maybe he could spark a conversation.
"So, next round, anyone want a little bit of competition?" If no one else would start talking, then he would.

"Uh, hai Shimizu-Taisho." Fun, more planning. Correction, much much more stressful and important planning. Honoka guessed that this was a just a little bit more important than payback. Onto the backburner the plot goes, a new pot of relations set to fill in the now freed up spot.

As she followed behind the Taisho, and returned to the combat training zone, Honoka was finally able to spot a target. Taking a chance Honoka fired, the volley completely missing. Grumbling, she fired again, this time scoring hits.

The targets were slowly beginning to dwindle. Akina held back, that way it wouldn't upset her condition. She already worried showing up to the conference bloated like a Mish' pod was stuck to her frame, but she still hit her targets, and used the heavy beam cannons to better effect on the times the enemy armours randomly synced together. That was less of an option.

There was one causality, however. A small pocket that Arkase had successfully eliminated let two through. Damage indicators and alerts blared in his head, but silenced quickly. The gas could make things strange sometimes, and targeting of an individual armour worse.

Where is Mishima going? Where is that target going? The Taisho thought to herself, in fact it led the wayward scientist far, far away from the rest of the fighting. The sensors spread out, but with sheer luck and some help from the targeting system, it finally acknowledged a kill.

Return to rendezvous site!

"I'm afraid we're cutting this short, soldier. We have to go back."

Back at Spirit City, the science officers were receiving a strange feed of data...

Obviously, when the rendevouz order came, Jessica ceased her fire instantly, and hurriedly returned to the rendevouz site, heading out of the nebula. The Engineer's Kylie was operating better than Jessica had expected, and was actually quite pleased with her preformance in the nebula.

~~*~~

Mishima Setsuko however, never recieved the rendevouz orders, due to interference in the nebula, and quite obliviously chased wayward the target, drifting further and further out of formation, her weapons and targeting systems all trying to destroy the irritating thing.

Arkase sighed when the rendezvous order came, ceased fire as a contact winked off the program's reading, and immediately followed the others.

He'd have quoted some line, or imitated a voice once more if he thought anyone would pay attention to him. Maybe when they were back on the ship, he could try to imitate...

Honoka quickly followed the others back to the gathering site. It seemed as though it was going to be a long day at this rate, what with the sudden and big news. Also, the hangover STILL hadn't gone away, so it wasn't helping.

As she looked around at the others, she counted heads. Someone was still missing. "Eh...? Where is Mishima-hei?"

Arkase heard the question, and ceased his grinning. There was someone missing?

"I don't know the name, but now that I look, we are missing someone." He said, counting and matching figures as well. He hoped he wouldn't be the one to search, - if there was someone sent to search - he had seen too many movies.

But why would anyone break off from the group in the first place?

"We're missing Mishima-hei. Let's go." Akina set a formation guide, then plunged forward into it, and the nebula. "Mishima-Mishima! Return to the outer beacon!" Akina called to her armour, her signal was starting to become obscured heavily in the gas. She hit a strange, thick pocket.

The target that the one-tracked woman was chasing down started to short, the original flaw inside began a slow cascading series of problems for the electronics, and it shorted into inertia, all erratic movements stopped while it glided at the speed it held to. It blipped from the engineer's scans as a power armour, and shifted to debris.

A message broke to the small squad

Taisho,

A Nozomi has been dispatched to assist, and probe some strange telemetry we're getting. Spirit City is still trying to sift through it.

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"That sounds ominous. Let's get her out fast. Mishima-hei? Turn back."

As the target broke down and shifted into "debris" status, Mishima halted and eyed the inactive object, wondering if one of her stray "bullets" had struck it. In the end the medic decided that was exactly what had happened, and turned back towards the rest of the group.

"You had us worried. Pay better attention to communications in combat. If you stay singular you die." Coming to a halt amid a swirl of nebular gas, the armour team waited until Mishima took up position to the back right of the Taisho. She apparently didn't trust her at the rear spot, and worried about her flying off again. Once everyone had joined up, there was a small Nozomi waiting for them.

A small exchange between the captain had them setting down on the deck inside the port landing bay. Akina popped her helmet off to address everyone. "We had to cut that short, but something that or even more confusing you can expect to be part of the games. There's a new International Relations Conference being held on Pisces station, and we're going. Remember you represent the Bard Cluster, the Fourth, and the Empire all in one while you're there and conduct yourselves accordingly. Security: You'll be in standard uniforms, no armours are allowed but I expect sidearms within regulations to be well checked."

"I can't have any armed escorts in the negotiation area with me. My last remaining aide will have to plan around the effective blackout during negotiations." She sent the woman a quick list of ships, "Have them prepare in formation with the Nadare. We're going to shore up security a bit. Besides, I want them to see how beautiful she looks. We will dock using my personal yacht, and assist zero fleet with the small escort. Well, small for us." She smiled, as they approached the Akuro the Nozomi spun around, and a wave of snow could be seen against the hull before they were swallowed up.

"Remember this is a chance for you to meet a lot of different races you have not, and to buy their trinkets from the market. I'm wiring a five thousand bonus to each of you and expect it spent if you even have a free moment. As soon as we disembark and we're in formation, the Nadare will disembark for Pisces. If someone recognises your Fleet Insignia and tries to arrange a meeting, file it with Honoka and we'll evaluate the importance. Turn no one down. If you spot a man matching this description..." She sent them details on her son, Motoyoshi Tio, "...you will contact me, or if I cannot be reached Honoka immediately."

Honoka, if there are any homeless Intel. officers there I want you to bring it to my attention also.

The scout set down, sending a vibration under their feet. "Dis-...missed!" The officer barked, feeling heavy on her feet. She lifted out of the small ship and went to transfer her MINDY to her Yacht, taking up another part of the bay.

((Okay make your last posts, but either way we'll have a continuation for you all at Pisces station within a few hours! Be social, and get involved! Continued: Here! ))