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

"Affirmative, Charlie Team. Thanks for the help."

Arkase turned to Kiyoshi, "Vas-Hei is now free to move."

"Not exactly excellent news Hakumei-Juni, but given the way things are going, its good enough. We may be survive this day yet. Signal those ships that are not participating in the pincer movement, to prepare to make a tactical withdrawal to these coordinates. Notify the fighter and power armor groups to cover the withdrawing forces." Kiyoshi said to Honoka.

"Oshiro-Hei, instruct your teams to coordinate with the repair teams and assist with any damage control situations. Have them keep an eye out for anything suspicious like unexploded ordinance, and breaching pods." Kiyoshi instructed.

“You'll have to hold me to that.” replied Silic, walking over to his damaged vehicle, glass crunching underneath his boots as he climbed in inset steps to the now open air cabin. Kicking a few more shards of glass out before closing the door, he gave the thumbs up to the team working on the door behind the forklift, before pushing on the accelerator and lining up with the hole in the door. There was a series of squeals as the sides of the forklift scraped the hole, scratching off most of the remaining paint from the previous two crashes.

Upon arriving at the magazine Silic saw several things happening at once, repair teams were working feverishly to try to restore the autoloader to service, while teams of crew members manually off loaded torpedoes from the racks onto carts and then started pushing them down the corridor to the awaiting torpedo tubes.

"Alpha Team, Delta Team, coordinate with the repair teams to help with the torpedoes. Keep an eye out for unexploded ordinance and breaching pods." Arkase ordered on a broad channel to his teams.

The various combat teams replied back to Arkase in the affirmative. They then set about following the latest set of orders. A few minutes later "Charlie Team to command, we found a strange torpedo like device. No warhead, looks like it could have held an occupant. Permission to break from the loading detail and look for the intruder."

On the Flag Bridge Kiyoshi watched the progress of the fleet regroup. Without looking from the display she said, "Hakumei-Juni, once you get through issuing the orders to the fleet, see if you can isolate the enemy command channels, and start jamming them."

"Affirmative, Charlie Team. Permission granted." Arkase said to his team.

"Hai," Honoka replied to the the Taii.

"The damaged vessels that need to withdraw, please withdraw to the coordinates being forwarded now. In addition, power armor and fighter wings are ordered to cover their withdrawal."

With the orders sent, Honoka went about trying to detect and isolate the Misshu's communication channels.

Kiyoshi watched the tactical display and saw the first groups of ships moving towards the designated safe zone. They were some of the more heavily damaged, and as such were the slowest moving. She then took a look at the weapon status display, the torpedo loading was barely making progress. "Flag Bridge to Magazine, What the hell is the hold up down there?"

A few minutes later, "Charlie team to command, we have encountered an intruder. It fired upon us, we returned fire. Its dead. Command, it looks like a Neko except it has Mishhu tentacles protruding out of it. Hold on a moment..." came across the comm line. "Command, one of the team found a canister in a nearby air vent. It was open and they found some sort of a life form crawling in the same vent. We have the remains of it contained. But the canister was large enough to hold dozens...."

From the entrance to the Flag Bridge, an ear piercing shriek of metal was heard. Then on the right side of the door at about waist height, the metal started to glow, first a dull red, and then growing brighter.

Meanwhile the Nekovalkyrja a Santo-Juni who was in charge with the reloading effort in the magazine turned to Silic, "Hey, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Lift that pallet and get it to the starboard loaders now."

"Charlie Team, proceed with caution. Eliminate all contacts with similar symptoms, and all contacts who fire upon you. The lines between friend and foe have just been blurred."

Then, hearing -- and seeing -- the hatch heating up and giving way, Arkase quickly switched channels to address all of the security teams.

"This is Arkase Oshiro-Nitô Hei, of Taisho Shimizu's Staff Protection Detail. The Flag Bridge is under attack. Alpha Team, move immediately to the Flag Bridge. Engage all hostiles. Until further orders, all other security teams will work independently to defend this ship. That is all."

With that, he tossed his headset to the console, and suited up as quickly as he possibly could into his power armor.

Things were about to get rough.

Kiyoshi turned to look at the door, out of reflex she drew her Type 28 Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol and thumbed the switch to heavy mode. How the hell did someone get that close to the Flag Bridge? Must be another sabotuer or traitor. She moved to the opposite side of the tactical console so that she could use it as cover if necessary. She noted Oshiro-Hei's prompt response to the threat and then began suiting up. If we survive this day, that's one Hei who deserves a promotion. she thought.

Across the speakers the following could be heard. "Alpha Team to command, message acknowledged. We are moving to your position as quickly as possible. ETA 3 minutes maybe a little less."

The glowing point turned white and the blinding white tip of a Aether Beam Saber-Rifle blade pierced the door. It then began slowly, and inexcurably began cutting downward. At the rate of the cutting it would take just a little over 2 minutes for them to breach the door.

Silic shook his head to dislodge some of the cobwebs that seemed to have taken residence in his brain over the last few seconds before looking down at the Juni. “Uh, Starboard? Aye ma'am.” he replied, shifting into forward and slowly edging the large forklift around the wide spread munitions and bustling crew towards the indicated load. Silics mind wandered slightly as he began nosing the forklift under the intended load“I beat those guys on the bridge are having a better time than this...”

Suited up, and with the status symbols of the important systems flashing green on his quick diagnostic, Arkase launched his drones and warmed up his spacy-style plasma rifle.

When the door opened, Arkase planned to overwhelm the invaders with fire. Plasma gun on full auto, drones firing, and his shield up to block most of the doorway so enemy fire couldn't strike the majority of command staff. A few steps would bring someone into range of hand-to-hand, and if that happened...

Arkase eyed the tip of the Aether-Saber, then shifted his shield idly. Brute force would be his best bet, and plasma or energy beams at spitting distance wouldn't be fun for anyone.

"For the Empress and Yamatai!" He growled over his external audio.
Give me the strength to defend these people.

(OOC: His plasma gun is the Spacy version.)

The Aether Saber continued its path and was just about to complete the cutting of the door. It stopped just short of cutting the last segment and withdrew. Then presumably the attacker pushed on the door along the severed side, and dozen or so centipede like creatures scurried through the opening. Each was about 15 CM in length with a prominent stinger protruding from the end.

Meanwhile the Nadare and the other warships continued to close on the NMX battleship. The Battleship not wanting to share the same fate as its sister ship began reversing course. Once in range all the combined forces opened fire in a desperate bid for survival.

Arkase fired and slammed his shield at the things, and directed his drones to fire on them.

"Watch out!" He yelled.

Despite trying to kill the centipede things, Arkase still kept an eye on the doorway. They were the real threat.

"Uh, Taisa... th- the Takumi-class that was sent to withdraw has been hit by kamikaze run NMX ships," Honoka reported as she watched with fear at the door being cut open.

Just as th door was fully opened, Honoka sent in commands to start jamming the twelve NMX frequencies she had found as she pulled out her NSP at the same time. The aide started firing on the little, disgusting, crawly centipedes, figuring that whatever was wielding a Aether Saber would just laugh off whatever her NSP could dish out.

"Understood Hakumei-Juni, relay that to the fleet, fighters and power armor to be on the alert for any others." Kiyoshi said.

Between Honoka and Arkase's onslaught the centipedes were soon small piles of goo. As they fired on them the enemy kicked the door down, its weight making a resounding clang. A pair of individuals, one wearing a Kylie stood in the door way. Both of them took a fraction of an instant to survey the bridge before bringing their weapons to aim at Arkase.

"Alpha Team to Flag Bridge, ETA 2 minutes, we ran into a problem with one of the blast shutters." came over the speakers.

Arkase brought his plasma rifle up, and fired. He ordered his drones to pitch in as well, since the centipedes were dead.

There was no more time to think. He would be dead in a few moments, or he would stand in the doorway over two corpses.

When the door opened Kiyoshi saw an opportunity to assist Arkase. Her NSP would be useless against the Kylie, but against the saboteur/traitor without armor, it would be fine. Taking aim she kicked her Type 28 NSP to heavy and fired at the individual. The shot caught the person in the center of the chest and sent the traitor flying backwards. She ducked down just as the Kylie clad warrior fired in her direction. His cannon blasted into the holographic table. A shower of sparks filled the air above her. Well I hope that gives Oshiro-Hei the opportunity he needs.

In a flash Arkase was on the Kylie, smashing his shield into the other Armor's chest. Using his arm's momentum, he leveled his shield-arm so he could fire its pulse weapon. His plasma rifle roared all the while, and his drones dove into the space beyond the Kylie to fire on its back.