RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 11.1] The Torchbearers

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Kiko dashed to the tank as the hatch opened, raising her left arm at exactly the right time for the pile of clothes to fly into the cargo hold. Get in the back of the tank, she commanded the survivors using her telepathy. If they complied quickly enough, she began firing her plasma rifle in bursts at battle buggies. If they started dithering, stumbled, or moved too slowly, she instead picked them up by their waists, carried them in, and set them down.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Alpha Team

Takeyu kept an eye through the drone and watched a distant group of NMX soldiers who were trying to find cover, he moved himself a bit behind and then aimed his bazooka up. Like before, he used the drone and the sensors onboard. "Going to shell the enemy, becareful!" he said through encrypted telepathy, then he aimed his Bazooka skyward, counted, and fired.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

"Oh now that's just F*cking grand! Forget what I said about you earlier, you may be a sadistic big tittied maniac, but you're MY kind of sadistic big tittied maniac!" Michael exclaimed as he backpedaled, attempting to weaken one of the Landing ship's enginges as he lined himself up for a jump, taking off into the air and using his CFS to fly through the hole Helen had made, targetting systems for the built in missiles activating, readying a full spread of aetheric missiles.

"This idea seemed a lot smarter when I was on the ground. I swear to god, if I survive this I'm going to need a drink when we're out of combat." He muttered as he fired off ten of the missiles, following them closely with another salvo of ten, before heading back down, dropping to the ground at a ballistic angle, attempting to land back down next to the Troll tank.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Watching the Elysian do his work for just a moment, Helen noted the destruction wrought by the assault. It was good enough for her to be satisfied as she quickly turned her bike about and went back to pelting the NMX infantry with aether Gatling fire. "Don't forget your assignments!" She scolded over the comm-lines, noting the battle buggies trying to flank the group... she had assigned personnel to handle that very task.

"Taisa, where is the Eucharis? We could use a dust-off, ma'am." Helen asked as she circled around the 'Troll' Tank and peeled off in another direction to continue her defense of the vehicle. "Or at least some support fire."

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Alpha Team

The anti-shield missiles and aether fire rocked the landing ship and got its attention. A hail of fire from at least eight guns on the landing ship's underside showered down on Helen, leaving her Kylie mauled and causing her bike to explode violently. She found herself tumbling in the radioactive snow, with blood leaking out through breaches in her suit to turn it from white to red.

Michael's missiles found their mark though, hitting one of the landing ship's engines, causing it to go into a spiral and crash-land a couple hundred meters away.

With the survivors secured, there was not reason to stick around. "Drive!" she ordered, ready to get out of here. Next she tried to raise the ship. "YSS Eucharis, YSS Eucharis, this is Alpha team Leader. Please send location coordinates for pickup. We are engaged with the enemy."

Takeyu was able to make several kills with the bazooka.

The TASHA managed to finally kill one of the enemy tanks but the other was still firing. Hanako's tank took another hit, blowing off a panel of skirt armor.

Some of the NMX Nekos had made it right into the middle of Alpha team. One of them managed to slug Kiko in the head and was now trying to take her rifle.

Above them in the sky, dozens of escape pods could be seen entering the atmosphere.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Even as Kiko winced from the blow to her head, her free arm snaked between the attacker's arms and struck at her throat with her palm. Without waiting to see how hurt she'd left her opponent, she lept onto the tank and started shooting at nearby NMX infantry.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Alpha Team

With how close the enemy soldiers were, he couldn't afford to keep shelling so he quickly put the Bazooka away and switched to his rifle and started firing on the closest soldier near him.

Crashsite

The sound of the weapons fire caused the slavers to get nervous, some even looked at one another and nodded.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

A pained groan left Helen as she peered up at the sky, laying on her back for just a moment as blood gurgled from between her lips. It took just that moment for her body to shift and patch itself as her Kylie clung to functionality, pumping hemosynth into her body and helping to patch her wounds. With a sharp snap of muscle and PA servo mechanisms, Helen bounded back onto her feet and soon elevated off the ground, breaking into a steady skim over the terrain as she now used her hand which was freed by not needing to drive anymore... with that freed hand, she raised her arm and fired barrages from her Kylie's forearm cannon. She was not about to be taken out in an infantry skirmish, not by a bunch of knock-off Nekovalkryja. On that very topic, she worked to kill those same Nekos, pelting them with aetheric fire, and working to herd them into tight formations to let the blasts of heat from her weapon incinerate them.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Pivoting the tank slightly more in a direction away from the NMX vehicles, Mikael stepped hard on the accelerator when it was soon safe to. He made a concerted effort to do his part in this fight by making the tank's threads and mass as his instrument of death, running over any of the NMX clone infantry he could run over without putting the tank in danger of friendly fire.

Mikael tried his best to move the tank around in a somewhat random manner to make the tank a harder target possibly. But considering he couldn't see the right behind him other then missed shots, he opted to use any available cover and concealment from the enemy vehicles.

"Well this has proven to be excellant driving excerise today." Mikael said to himself out loud, talking to himself.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Eucharis

Sune left the bridge in the hands of Blueberry. He monitored the situation on his Uno Sunglasses. He sent a command to the Armor bay to attach a Teleportation Pod to his Mindy. Eucharis can not be in two places at one time, so we are going to have to deal with the forces below without her. She's needed to pickup Alpha Team. He thought.

As he entered the power armor bay he was already removing his belt and any other exterior items that would impede his armor. "Change in plans Kage-Chusa, Alpha team is under heavy attack. NMX are attacking the tasking force and we lost the Rikei-class. So we are going to have to secure the situation below with just Bravo team while the Eucharis lends fire support to Alpha team and picks them up." he called out to Yaichiro.

He opened his armor and stepped into it. Pulling on his helmet he watched as the onboard systems went through power up and self check.

Sune noticed that Lime and Mango has also suited up and were ready to go.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Manabu, blissfully unaware of just about everything despite the readiness conditions set just prior to his arrival on-board the Eucharis, found a nice spot in his new cabin to set his personal effects (preferring first to square them away properly only after he presented himself on the bridge).

Well, that was the plan, anyway. Mice and men, and all that.

When the voice rang out through the shipwide channel, Manabu stood at attention to listen, head cocked just so. Adorable names - i quite like this ship. ..wait, what? Sure sounded like Kakita Manabu-hei to his ears.

He was already off and running. Great first impression! Better make the most of it. Hurdling through the ship at a speed probably considered reckless at best, he recalled as well as he might his previous journey following Blueberry and luckily divined his path through to the power army bay.

Arriving just in time to see what he assumed was his team ready for departure, he made his way towards a free Mindy 2. Opening her up and slipping inside, he made himself comfortable and secure before starting diagnostics and power-up. And despite not quite knowing anyone by sight, especially inside a power armor, now was as good a time as any for introductions!

"Apologies for the delay, i have no excuse. Santo Hei Kakita Manabu, prepared for duty."

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

YSS Eucharis Armor Bay

"Lime," one Nekovalkyrja introduced herself to Manabu.

"Mango," said the other.

"We're the cooks!" Lime explained.

- - -

Alpha Team

"Head towards the starship wreck Bravo Team went to," Hanako ordered. By now, TASHA had disabled the second NMX tank by blowing off its turret. Dead and injured Nekovalkyrja in their bloodied khaki uniforms were sprawled out around the bunker entrance; the NMX infantry had been mowed down and was no longer a threat. The only NMX forces left at the moment were two Battle Buggies and they weren't following the tank. In fact, they were slowly backing away from the bloody mess.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Armor Bay

Sune turned to Manabu, "I am Jalen Sune-Shoi, the XO for the Eucharis. Sorry there was not time for more casual introductions. We have a group of people near a derelict ship. There is a good chance they are slavers, and they are threatening children. So we are going to stop them on way or another.

Kage-Chusa, and I will teleport from the ship to beyond the derelict. The three of you will come in from this side. That will allow us to put them into a cross fire.

Signal us as soon as you are on the ground and in position." Sune said

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

The Mindy had finished her start-up routines.

Manabu, with a respectful smile that couldn't exactly be seen beneath his helmet bowed his head to each of the warrior-cooks in turn. "The pleasure's mine; glad to meet you under any circumstances." He briefly considered attempting a joke about 'serving up' something or other to their enemy, and promptly chose against it.

"Understood, Sune-Shoi," he responded, with an acknowledging glance and bow to Kage-chusa when mentioned. Manabu didn't particularly care for slavers and even less ones who could harm children. As an aside, he wondered if he'd had the capacity for something like that. He decided that he preferred not to know. "We won't fail."

Having prepared his loadout and taken up his Ke-M4-W2901, Manabu turned to address Lime and Mango. "Ready on your mark," he called, and moved out at their flank.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Yaichiro nodded in acknowledgment to everyone, pondering the current mission...this was far too many enemy ships, too fast to react so quickly. Even the fastest ships would have taken longer than this to respond in this much force. Yaichiro still wasn't sure he agreed fully with Sune's tactics at this point either. The briefing completely lacked an exit strategy.

"Sune-Shoi, after all of this, how will we get the rescued personnel to Eucharis in mid-combat? We won't exactly have steady coordinates to teleport to, and NMX forces won't let us just move the unarmored hostages along the ground. Should we take the shuttle docked to Eucharis and use it in place of the Rikei, or hope Alpha Team cleans up the mess in a timely manner and returns for us in time?"

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Alpha Team

Takeyu was silent, not saying a word, instead he was controlling his last remaining drone and having it follow above them while also keeping an eye out for enemy forces that may move in.

He glanced skyward for a moment, then shook his head and kept on running beside the tank.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Once the tank got moving, Kiko had her Daisy's forearm weapons deploy and fire at the Battle Buggies while her plasma rifle recharged. Once out of range, she switched back to the plasma rifle. Just because they were no longer a threat to Alpha Team didn't mean they wouldn't kill someone else, after all.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

"Yes Taisa." Helen said simply as she skimmed along the ground in reverse as she surveyed the scene of violence in which they were leaving behind. Inwardly, she wondered when the NMX would do the horrific task of actually arming their infantry with light powered armor. Pushing aside her own thoughts, Helen twisted to face back in the direction they were headed.

As they traveled in the direction of the crashed ship, Helen opened a line to Hanako as she eyed the tank for a moment, thinking on what to say to the Princess inside. "Taisa, I have concerns about our engagement plan. From what data was relayed by our orbiting forces, I think that scuffle we just had was the tip of the iceberg. Also... what will be done about those escape pods we saw coming down? I hate to imagine what will happen if the NMX get a hold of them before our forces do."

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Alpha Team

Now clear of the enemy ground forces, the Troll tank raced through the snow, leaving tracks in the ash and ice behind it. The TASHA followed along, hovering meter off the ground and moving in reverse so its aether cannon and turret faces rearward. A head of them, they could see the slaver wreck in the distance...and another NMX landing ship just finishing unloading more ground troops.

They could also see the Eucharis in the sky now, set against a backdrop of falling, burning debris from above. The gunship destroyed the landing ship.

Slaver Crash Site

As he left the ship, Manabu could get a pretty good view of the situation. The Eucharis's tank and tank robot were speeding in, as were a number of NMX buggies and "Ripper" power armors. There was a brown UOCPF STV (monster truck) by the crash site and some people moving around.

Re: [Mission 11] The Torchbearers

Slaver Crash Site

"Ahh come on darn it!" Shouted the slaver in the bay as he punched the shuttles console but the shuttle wouldn't come online. He pulled down the consoles maintenance hatch and looked inside, finding several blown circuits and cables that had been disconnected from their mooring. "Stupid piece of jump," he scowled and stood back up.

As he did so he stared through the partially shattered cockpit and noticed an NMX Ship in the distance and then hightailed it out of the shuttle and to the edge of the bay and peered through his scope to get a better look. "Ahhh... .frags... I'd rather be fighting Yamataians than THEM!" he said when he saw that the ship he had seen before was an NMX Landing craft heading in their general direction. He quickly keyed his headset and sent a message to his boss, before going prone, checking his sniper rifle and getting ready to fire. "If I survive this, it'll be a miracle," he shook his head and peered down the scope.

The slaver boss had stopped his pace, and turned in the direction that the landing craft had been spotted in. He sent out a series of orders, telling his men to find some cover and get ready, "grab a few slaves, we'll use them as shields, leave the rest as decoys," he shouted and knelt down behind a piece of debris.

Blown STV

"Then you can get it working?" Asked the drivers passenger as he kept an eye on the sky.

"Forget it, whatever hit us blew the whole engine to pieces. Unless you have a spare in your pocket, we'll have to run the rest of the way to the crash-site," said the Driver as he punched the side of the vehicle and started running toward the crash site.

"What about the slaves?" said the passenger as he looked over his shoulder.

"Leave them, they aren't worth much anyway"