Star Army

Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

Note: This is a play-by-post RPG site. If you're looking for the tabletop miniatures wargame "5150: Star Army" instead, see Two Hour Wargames.

  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 October and November 2024 are YE 46.8 in the RP.

RP: UCS Zenpyou [Mission 1] Blackened Wings

Denkou swept his scanners around the pad. "There's no sign of life on the pad anywhere. And nothing at least directly adjacent to it." He leveled his pacifier and walked to the edge of the landing pad. "Should I do a more thorough scan of the area as well, ma'am?"
 
Karasu move cautiously away from the shuttle, I could try examining a few of the tools to see how long they have been exposed to the elements. But, without knowing the local weather patterns, and such, I wouldn't be able to more than give a crude estimate. Best to abandon that train of thought.

"Sub-Lieutenant Hiragi, do we know if the colonists had any emergency bunkers, some place that they would attempt to get to in an emergency. While there are plenty of tools scattered, there are no signs of a struggle, no blood or bodies, so it is reasonable to presume the colonists had enough warning to drop what they were doing and run for shelter."
 
"I don't know. It's possible though." Natsuko responded. "If the pad is secure work on getting into the dome. Find out what you can, hopefully it's not this deserted inside too." Natsuko said, beginning to look around the cabin for an environmental suit that she could wear.
 
"With your permission, I will work on getting us in," the Azorean spoke confidently, feeling assured that he could safely open the lock. Still, best to get the go-ahead, first. He'd also feel more comfortable knowing that his allies were ready and watching his back. With that thought in mind, he waited at the ready, sensors still locked on the door.
 
"Do it. Try not to damage the locking mechanism if you can," Natsuko said as she slid into the environmental suit and donned a helmet. A steady throbbing pain still occupied her chest, but because of her brief stint in med bay, as well as her body she would be able to survive.

"Roken?" Natsuko reached out to the man telepathically. "How are you doing?" Natsuko took one last look around the shuttle before stepping off.

"Alright, let's move." Natsuko looked around the landing pad at the discarded tools and equipment. "Whatever happened it looks like it happened fast. We should probably be quick too."
 
For a moment, Wavrian hesitated. Wait, he thought, how do I plan to get through this door, anyway? I've got no tools of my own, I just use the Zenpyou's onboard equipment!
Then, it hit him. He was on a landing pad with tools scattered all about him! Engineer heaven! With a grin of glee, the Azorean gathered up a collection of equipment and set it down beside the lock, kneeling down. Picking up a powerful cutting torch, he got to work cutting open a section of the wall to get access to the locking mechanism within. From there, he hoped to manually push everything out of the locked position. It was the most he could do without hacking or lock-picking equipment.
 
Karasu seeing Wavrian working on opening the hatch, moved to put herself in a position to cover his back while he worked. She stood behind him, scanning around her, with her weapons ready. "I've got your back Wavrian."
 
Roken remained alert, giving up on picking up anything else other than the chatter from his fellow teammates while Wavrian cut out the section of wall.

I'm alright, a little aches here and there but i can shrug it off, what about you? Roken thought as he waited patiently. “We have access to a map of the colony or something, if this place has an area for civi's to hide safely we should look there first, sir.”
 
Zero was covering the Wav's back too but kept off to the side with the gun aimed through the door for standard clearing procedure. "You know, you could just shoot the lock with the lowest power setting of your gun," He said as if it were obvious. "Or we can look for another way inside," he said and used his AIES to patch into the Zenpyou's database for a structural schematic of the building to see if there was another way in they could use. Skylights, something like that.
 
The engineer paused for a moment, his flabbergasted look hidden within his power armor. His voice, however, carried his utter shock quite nicely. "Shoot it? A beautiful thing like thisss? This is a complexxx mechanism, carefully crafted to meet regulation expectationsss. I am reluctant asss it isss, pulling it free like some brute. Simply breaking it would be unthinkable."

Muttering under his breath in his native tongue, the Azorean turned back to his work and carefully pulled the cut-free panel of wall away. He set it down gingerly beside him, then reached in and cautiously shifted about inside, moving to reset the lock within the door.
 
"I don't think we have a map available. The Zenpyou may have one, but there seems to be some passive interference with our connection to her at the moment. There is probably a mine or something like that around though, most colonies on new worlds tend to do a little mining, if not only to determine if it is equitable or not." Natsuko responded.

"Like yourself, I've been better. I'll be okay though." Natsuko sent back to Roken.

Wavrian's touch payed off and after a few minutes he managed to trigger the mechanism that opened the door. Noisily the door slid open, obviously the parts used in its construction weren't all new, but they still seemed to work. From the outside the peacekeepers could see down an alleyway, which seemed pretty desolated at the moment. Near the end of the alleyway, the Peacekeepers saw what could be the town center.
 
'Natsu-chan, would it be best for a couple of us to stay outside to stand guard, since we did just open up the inside of a, hopefully, inhabited dome to possible further pirate attacks. Also, we want to keep our shuttle intact,' Ai offered as a suggestion to her friend. 'Also... are you sure you really want to be down here? Things could get dangerous and without an armor, and especially in your condition....'

Best just to let Natsuko give order for now. Don't need to complicate things by having both of them give orders.
 
Roken motioned towards the Town Hall. “well could try there, they should have a map to spare.” Roken said as he kept his eyes down the empty corridor. “Should we stop by the town hall first before we go into a detailed search of the colony?”

Before it was too late Roken walked over and gave Wavrian a pat on the back. “Good job on the door.” He returned to his position supporting the others while they planned out there next move.
 
"Good work engineer," Karasu said to Wavrian. She glanced down the passage to the town center, then looked at Roken, "An examination of the town hall would probably be prudent, there should be a data terminal there that we could try accessing to see what happened here, and possibly locate the colony's emergency response protocol."
 
The Azorean smiled meekly, then stood up, feeling invigorated by the kind words. Such politeness was virtually unknown amongst his own kind, making them a special treat that he'd learned to appreciate during his time in training. I am glad that it could be fixed without violence, he thought, standing up and backing against the wall. With the door open, it was time to be an armor pilot, not an engineer. He watched over the landing pad as Karasu and Roken spoke.
 
"Or we could just ask some of the civilians within. It is a colony. Of course I'm hoping that there are still civilians inside to talk to. Once we're inside, I'm sure we could just access their database without having to find a terminal," Ai noted over the comm. A lot of hopes and ifs went into the comment. She figured the colony would have a connection available much like the Zenpyou or practically any other starship, certainly any Yamataian starship, that one could acess.

"Anyway, good job uh...." Ai started, before once again going over the list of the peacekeepers there. She had the AI in the Tenshi just put the names of each person over their armor in the HUD. "Wavrian."
 
Zero nodded to them and proceeded down the hallway, taking point to sweep ahead of them and stepped out into the plaza, in standard procedure. "It seems clear here." he communicated back to Natsuko and continued. "So far, no signs of civilian casualities or activity." He added in and kept his guard up.
 
Natsuko almost smacked herself in the face in response to Ai's comment. Natsuko hadn't fared particularly well in that area of her military tactics class, all of her strategies involved a full scale offensive with nothing left behind. "Ai..." Natsuko paused before continuing, "I want to be here. I'll be okay, I promise. If we get into a firefight I'll duck and hide somewhere or something." Natsuko wasn't completely sure that was exactly what she would do, but she didn't want her friend to be unnecessarily worried about her. "Perhaps we could have the shuttle lift off and have Wavrian re-seal the door?" Natsuko suggested.

--------------

Ai was right about one thing, a similar system was in effect, however the minute the Peacekeepers entered the dome their communications filled with a low level static. The AI in the Peacekeepers power armors popped up a medium level alert.

Alert said:
ALERT: Low level jamming field detected.

The message continued, informing the unit that the field was weak enough that their communications equipment could compensate by increasing the amount of power they used slightly, and therefore operate without issue.

Ai's hunch about an operating system was correct though. Even through the jamming field she still got a very weak signal from the system. From what she received the system seemed like it was a shadow of any system used onboard YSE or even UOC vessels and stations. Unfortunately, it was also evident that the system was only barely able to communicate through the jamming field, and in order to get anything meaningful from it, the field would have to be disabled.
 
Roken was on guard when the jamming began. He took a moment to visually scan the area and the hall half expecting an ambush. Great it couldn't possibly get any worst, Roken thought as he increased the power output of his suit to counter the low level jammer. “We're gonna have to find the source of the jamming device before we can get access to anything in the colony,” Roken said knowing how obvious it was even saying that.

For a moment he did not think about till he looked back at Zero already deep in the plaza area. He's too far up, they could cut him off, Roken thought as he turned to Ai. “We should think of something quick before we get to far into the colony.”
 
Karasu followed behind Roken, and keeping Zero in sight as well. After receiving the message about the jamming field, she adjusted her Tenshi's comm system to compensate.Someone either turned on the jamming or they rigged it to activate when the door opened. That is rather unlikely, no way they could have known we would open the door and not just cut through, which means someone is monitoring our activities that makes things hairier.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top