RP: 4th Fleet [Mission 1] The Battle of South Gate

Arkase nodded. "If you're heading for the Fleet Bridge, I'm going to have to search you before we get there -- and get your sidearm."

The pilot had already fallen in step behind the Engineer, and was ready to wait until they made it just outside of the Bridge before manually searching him.

"Hope it isn't a problem, Silic-Hei, but it comes with the job." Arkase said slowly, making it abundantly clear just who the Pilot following him was. His tone also made it abundantly clear that he didn't care if it was a problem.

Weapons if he has them, and the tools if he has them. He thought, now grinning. Since when was I such a hard-ass?

Silic raised an eyebrow at Arkase and looked down at his mechanical arm, “You’re the armour pilot.” he said, twisting the limb out of its socket and holding it towards the other man socket first “Hand’s a registered weapon.” he explained, smirking slightly. While it was true some prosthetic limbs were classed as lethal weapons, most of those were retired soldiers with high powered augments, not cheap replacement arms.

As for guns, Silic's holster was empty, and there were no concealed weapons in his clothes, he hadn't had any time to make any. While turning up to the recruitment office with an arsenal was accepted and perhaps even expected sometimes in Nepleslia, Sil had figured the Yammatai staff might not take to it so kindly, not to mention the local police forces.

On the Fleet Bridge, Akina glanced aside to her aide, and sighed over the table. The forward scouting group that was swept in via the intel. command wasn't looking good at all. Many of the ships defending the gate had been destroyed, the old refits and their crews were pulling their own weight, to be certain, but she was surprised with the fewer numbers of conversions there were at Nataria, even on percentage. "Prep our systems: I want us able to issue orders to the armour teams directly. There's going to be a lot of them out there, and tell Spirit City to get the production bays that are not occupied ready. I..think I may have something."

Great, do you know what it is yet? The Taisho thought to herself as the fleet sped towards their objective, and the clash of what she knew would be a larger force against mostly refits. I hope those Takumi are ready for this, love.

ETA: 04:32
ETA: 04:00
ETA: 03:56

The Pilot searched Silic for extra weapons, and once satisfied gestured to the door.

"There. Well, go ahead and come in, then." Arkase said to the smart-ass.

He was grinning behind the Helmet -- but why let the Engineer know that? Inside the Fleet Bridge, he gave about as good a bow as he could inside an Daisy to the Taisho.

"Silic Vas - Santo Hei is here to see you as requested, Ma'am." He introduced the Engineer. Arkase hoped the man had the presence of mind to bow.

That said, he stepped aside to stand where he had before his escape to the PA Bay.

"Hai." Honoka got to work, relaying the production prep instructions to Spirit City, while also getting all of the communications and the similiar systems ready for issuing the very very many commands that it would need to handle. This was going to be hectic.

"Orders have been sent and the system is getting ready as we speak."

Silic quickly reattached his arm before the pilot opened the door, caught off guard Silic’s brain managed a quick thought of “Is my hair alright?” before he was turning to bow in greeting to whoever was in the command room, it had taken a few years, a signficant number of slaps, but a younger Sil had finally working out the significance of bowing, if not all its intricacies. Straightening he took his first look at the control room, and the person who had dragged him out of his bolt-hole.

ETA: 02:04
ETA: 01:32
ETA: 01:15


"Welcome aboard, soldier. Take Fleet Resource Vas-hei." The Taisho pointed to one of the stations, nodding to Honoka as she performed her task. Spirit City reported they had taken heavy damage to at least three or more construction bays, but then jamming became too thick before the voice of the operator on the other side cut off. They were flying blind for the last leg.

To the Engineer, she might only be known from news reports: the beauty of the 5th Fleet, the Empress Consort, the Princess Taisho. On the fleet bridge it was a different matter, and something none had seen from the redhead in five years: a chance for vengeance for what had been done at Taiie. Make them pay. You know she would tell you to. Make the nightmares stop for both...of us.

"I'm glad you're keeping ready." The woman noted to Arkase without turning from where the humming table lit her pale skin, and cast a shadow along the sides of her face. In truth, years ago she had run a battle simulation (though the command deck didn't know it) where one of them failed to order any security details to the main bridge, and she had been 'killed' by boarders. He turned out to be a very good choice.

"You're now responsible for anything Engineering, Vas-hei. You stay if I get enough good work out of you. Details on your contract with SASI will be managed later, right now there's war to handle. As I told the others, if we look like we're losing I'm planning on detonating Spirit City, to prevent the Mishhu from claiming a production site and we'll fall back with anything left, if there is. Work hard so that does not happen. We're almost there." A din of orders was reaching the fleet bridge while down below, officers of the Nadare readied her weapons, the massive turrets, and all fifty wings of armour begin their final launch checkouts. There would be no quarter between bitter enemies.

"Of course, Shimizu-Taisho." Arkase said, surprised.

I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. He thought.

"Arigotou." He mumbled to -- what he thought -- was praise. He kept it quiet, just in case that might have been wrong. He bowed a second time, and then moved a bit closer to the wall... Exactly where he had been before going to get the Armour.

Once there, he watched the Fleet-Tac Display. Erring on the side of caution, he decided to contact FREYA.

"FREYA? Can you let me know when someone is about to enter the Fleet Bridge? I'd like to be able to search them before they see Shimizu-Taisho."

"Yes, Oshiro-Hei, I can." FREYA replied.

Happy, he waited for the action to start.

“Uh-hai, Taisho.” replied Silic, slightly unnerved that just on the verge of battle this woman was giving him a job offer, not so much an offer as order. A small part of Silic's mind wondered if there had been something else behind that morning he'd woken up with his communicator in-hand after drinking half a pub when he got out of Fort Ready.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Silic hurried over to the indicated console and practically jumped onto the seat, eager to see what he had to work with. Everything Engineering wasn't exactly the most specific job title he'd ever received, but now didn't seem the best time to discuss responsibilities. Just in case, Silic shrugged off his stations orignal purpose and began pulling information on Spirit City as he went through the Nadare's systems, wondering if improvised demolition fell under Engineering.

A thought occurred to Arkase, who grinned.

"Taisho? Would it be appropriate to promise a drink for everyone in here when we're done with the battle?"

He was referencing movies again, but he finished his thought anyway. "The first round would be on me."

"No, but I don't know if what I drink is in your pay grade, soldier. We'll see." Akina replied. With under thirty seconds left, her mind was on what they would do next. Every indication that her Fleet Aide had now read that the ships heading in were ready to fire, and would pick targets based on apparent importance depending on their range.

"The hatch to the Fleet Bridge is now locked. Access will be restricted until we are victorious, or dead." Freya announced, which made Akina tilt her head curiously towards Arkase a moment, the lift simply wouldn't go that high-or she hoped there would be no need for a while.

He's playing it close.

"We're going to take a beating, make sure our ships are pulling every bit of power from non-battle essential systems into the primaries, Vas-hei. Honoka-hei, hold on deploying the wings from our Takumi. Keep them ready to go. As soon as we're in the system, I want to know where their centralized command is, it will not be easy to locate."

This has to work, has to work...hold on.

Silic took a second to rub his hands together in anticipation, 'My first day and I already get to tweak a battleship, next they'll be asking me to overclock a MEGAMI and revamp an Iori at this rate!' he thought happily, any doubts he'd had before completely forgotten. “Roger that, pulling out wires!” he replied sounding almost excited, focusing on his console as he pulled power from whatever didn't look useful, “Just pray no one wants to use the toilets in the meantime.” he added, more quietly.

Around the ship the lights inside crew quarters, wash rooms, and other places people usually didn't go in the middle of a battle flickered and went out, taps stopped working as pumps were shut down, and any crew members without battery powered alarm clocks would need to have theirs reset as power outlets were cut out. “Alright ladies, prepare to get chilly.” he murmured to himself as he shut down the heaters for good measure. Seeing the Nadare's example, other vessels began mimicking Silics almost insane corner cutting to various degrees of excessiveness depending on the crews manning them, some putting the extra energy into their shields, weapons or coolant lines, others saving it for whatever lay ahead.

"Hai," Honoka replied shortly to the Taisho's order.

"Attention all wings aboard the Takumi-class vessel, please remain on standby. Also be prepared to launch at a moments notice."

She hoped she sent that command right, as well as hoping to be able to get through this battle. It would be some good experience. The aide mentally whined about the pressure of her position, but knew that if she wanted to be an officer, she'd have to get used to it.

Arkase fell quiet, not replying to the Taisho even though a sarcastic phrase beginning with "The Empire writes my check and makes my meals," ran through his head. He wouldn't want to distract the fleet staff, of course.

The Taisho looked serious, the Aide looked nervous, and the Engineer looked like he was giddy with pleasure. What did that make him?

Determined as hell to see the ass of everyone in this room gets through this, He thought.

They would be falling into normal space at any moment, with ships flailing at each other with instruments of death. A sweet symphony of destruction, and the quick dance of battle. More Power Armour than he had ever seen and possibly ever would see in flight would be going toe-to-toe with the enemy. A glorious war beginning with this epic battle.

This will be in the history books. This will be remembered for as long as the Empire lives, and my children -- no, my grand children -- will hear about this. Will hear about me, here beside these great warriors. He gritted his teeth, and braced himself for the coming battle.

'South Gate! South Gate!'
Hold on.

When the Nadare and the other forces of the fleet emerged from hyperspace the display over the holo-table started updating. The overhead lighting dimmed, and along points of the way the ship alert status was displayed.

On the holodisplay first the Star Army vessels were depicted along with a status indicator. Next the NMX forces started to appear as the ship sensors located them and attempted to identify each of them. It did not take long for the situation to be clear to anyone who looked at the image.

The 4SF was outnumbered by the Mishhuvurthyar by more than 3 to 1 in Capital ships. That was including the the forces that were already present in the gate.

Taisa Shin Kiyoshi stepped out of the shadows and approached the holo-table. Her dark green hair was pulled back in a bun, and her dark complextion acentuated her features in the glow from the hologram. I hate arriving to a battle that is already in process, no time to arrange forces for defense. she thought.

She pressed a control on the table, and part of the display enlarged. From several of the NMX warships dozens of small dots appeared, there were so many that it almost looked like a cloud.

"Look alive people, signal the fleet to launch fighters and power armors. Order the fighters to group, investigate and engage that mass of objects in front of the NMX forces. I want our power armor for now to take up positions around our ships to protect them from missiles and fighters. " She said to the crew. "All ships commence engaging the enemy warships. Let's show these bastards what the 4th is made of."

Kiyoshi turned to the engineer, "I see you've been busy shutting down unessential parts of the ship. We'll need that energy soon enough. For the moment see what you can tweak to boost our STL speed. I don't expect you to get the Nadare to maneuver like a Plumeria Gunship, but an extra boost at a critical moment could come in handy."

Hearing the change in who was actually giving the commands caused Honoka to fumble a bit, but she just went along with it. "Hai!"

"Attention fighter wings. You are to investigate and target the massed objects in front of the NMX fleet.

Attention power armor squads. You are to take up position around friendly vessels and provide point defense against missiles and enemy fighters.

Fighters and power armor, you have clearance to launch. Good luck."

She hoped that she wasn't sending however many people to their deaths by relaying that order. Honoka then switched to communication with friendly ships.

"Attention vessels of the Fourth Standard Fleet. You have been ordered to engage the NMX forces. I repeat, blast them to pieces!"

It was a bit evident that the aide was getting, however slowly, more comfortable with her position. But, of course she was still more nervous than anything else.

"Alright. If anyone tries to come through this lift without authorization, they're dead." He said, just loud enough for the Taisa to hear.

With that, he spun on his heel and locked his PA's arm bearing the plasma rifle facing the door of the lift. "Until Victory or death." He murmured, remebering FREYA's words.

Silic turned to regard the intelligence officer, a rather surprised expression on his face, looking her up and down behind his glasses and taking in the black uniform, his good cheer dulling slightly. Judging her as someone of importance Silic complied with the order without comment, “Uh, yeah, non-essential.” he said quietly to himself, turning back to his console, one hand scratching his temple as began he figuring out ways to boost performance.

He taped a few buttons on his console, adjusted percentages on a few graphs and cut power to a few more systems, somewhere on the ship a very angry chef would be wondering why his freezer had stopped working. Taking the extra power generated that was heading to other systems and shunting it into the CFS, before tuning it to focus on propulsion and pushing extra coolant through it for good measure. “There that should increase thrust by...” he paused the think a second “I don't know how much.” he admitted, staring at overclock and overcool warnings from the computer.

Kiyoshi turned to Oshiro, "Arkase-Hei, until we have enemy boarding, I believe your services would be best used at the Safety and Systems Monitoring. I am pretty sure that the Mishhu will send teams to attempt to board the ship. I want you to coordinate the forces repelling any boarders."

Meanwhile telemetry from the fighter group started coming in. The lead fighter showed that the cloud was in fact thousands of NMX battlepods.. The pods were completely uninterested in the approaching fighters and sped past them at at speed of .4C making for the fleet. The fighters also picked up a second group of similar craft moving at a tangent as if to flank the fleet.

"Silic-Hei, I would suggest that you back down your modifications, we can't afford to overload the CFS, the request to see if you could give a a boost of speed is something I want on standby, if we need it. Meanwhile modulate our shields to maximum threshold to the front."