RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 12.2] Interception

"Understood, Tachihara-hei, good work. We'll take it from there." Yaichiro responded to the soldier, resuming his use of proper surnames and ranks which was characteristic of him. He'd then send a report to the bridge.

"Bridge, main power re-routed through multiple auxiluries, damage logged. Coolant re-routed. CFS re-routed to what capacity I can manage from here along with Nayacesen-Heisho's efforts. Antimatter Containment touchy, but restored. I recommend using the Railgun if possible to fire until the supply of antimatter is exhausted on that side of the ship just in case -- the firing mechanism looks alright. If I may, I also recommend very comprehensive scans of the ship's exterior hull and interior. We've gotten enough holes to warrant sweeping the ship for boarders-in-hiding in case those Ghost Mishhu managed to get someone aboard." Yaichiro then kept on working, trying to find anything else that he could manage from his station. Condition Levels tended to keep him from actually doing the footwork due to the need to keep someone in Engineering most of the time.

Bridge

"Good job, technicians. Ramiro, find some NMX targets and unload all our anti-matter on them before the containment gets hit again. Then, we will break combat here and head to the Etherian surface and deploy power armor forces. Sune and Helen, see if you can arrange an armor team."

Bridge

Sune turned his attention back to his station, and started initiating surface scans of the planet. He had two objectives, one locating hostile forces, and two finding a suitable landing site where the wounded Gunship could put down safely.

"Taisa, I am showing a strong NMX presence on the planet. Looks like they re-purposed some of the original structures.

I have located a box canyon that we can put the Eucharis down in and effect repairs. It is about forty miles from the nearest conflict, but the mountains can be used to keep us out of site. Then an assault team could be sent to investigate and render aid as appropriate.

Transferring vector and coordinates to Helm station."

Ramiro sighed with relief, and took their moment of luck to stretch after his series of stressful and frantic attempts to save the ship. "Look like the Taisho got here just in time."

Once his orders had come through he chose the nearest enemy ship and began unloading the anti-matter at the ship, along with a shot from the main cannon. He then finished by launching the two anti-starship torpedoes that the Eucharis stocks. "I don't think we'll be needing these down there."

Ramiro then pointed the ship towards the planet surface and boosted power to the engines, figuring they should get out before that enemy ship decided to shoot back. "Bringing her down Taisa. I'll head towards the Chui's suggested landing spot until you confirm or order otherwise. Sune, can you let me know if any wandering NMX decide to travel near our land site? We don't want them telling the rest of the squiddies where we decided to park."

Sune looked over at his friend, "The approach vectors I provided to the designated landing site will keep us out of sight of the forces on the ground. We will use the EWS to mask our presence once we have entered the atmosphere and slowed enough to not create a thermal wake. Since we will not be trying anything elaborate they should suffice. As for in our orbital insertion, we can use the EWS there as well, but once we enter the atmosphere we will create a thermal trail, which is why our trajectory has us entering the upper atmosphere on the opposite side of the planet from the conflict down there."

Armundo, feeling a bit lost and confused, made his way down the hallway, following her loosely. When she paused to inspect a damaged conduit, he continued down the hallway to see if there were any other blown circuits or fires he could put out. His shoulder throbbed painfully, especially when he moved it . He could not lift his arm above a certain level without intense pain shooting down his body.

His body suddenly left the ground as the gravity control to that area was cut off. He found himself floating freely about the passage way, heading in the general direction that he had been going before. He noticed hazy smoke filtering down the passage way, so he went on ahead to see if there was a fire in the passageway. He had a extinguisher in hand, just in case he encountered that very problem. " Tachihara-san, I'm heading down the passageway to see where the haze is coming from ." he said, calling down the hallway. He floated serenely down the passage and noticed some glowing embers on the floor. The carpet was smoldering, but that was not the main cause of the smoke. He was certain that the ship had been hit directly in a few places and that there would be fires. He wondered how close they were to one of those areas

He blasted the smoldering carpet with a quick blast, making sure it was put out before continuing down the hallway, waving his hand to clear some of the smoke so he could see. He was not feeling any heat yet, so maybe there was not a significant fire ahead. Maybe the smoldering carpet had been the main source of this haze. He noticed that a few of the lights had broken, littering the floor with glass. There were dislodged wires hanging from the ceiling and the plastic grid that covered them was melted from coming in contact with the electricity. The plastic had then dripped on the cushions in some areas and caused them to melt. They were fortunate that the passageway had not caught on fire it seemed.

He picked up communicator, watching random sparks fly from the humming dislodged wires "Bridge, this is Soichiro-Hei. We have shattered lights and live wires hanging from the ceiling. They've already melted a big portion of the ceiling grid and several of the cushions are melting. It seems that the farther I head down this passage the worse the damage is ." he said. He looked behind him to see if Reika was finished with what she was doing before he continued down the passageway to see if there was any more damage. He was not sure if he could do anything about these wires for the time being. He was not even sure if he could touch them safely at this point. There should've been a circuit breaker switch farther down anyway.

The ship began to rattle as it began its descent into the frigid atmosphere of Ether. The lack of shields and the lacerations on the ship's hull were making this descent especially rough, such that it was a challenge to even stand. Ramiro would have to land by sensors...but it would have to be their radar only since they didn't want to be obvious to NMX sensors.

Hanako removed her helmet and watched the screen looking at the flashes of lightning in the dark snow clouds completely covering the surface, broken only by the occasional jagged mountaintop.

Back at the space battle site, the NMX ships were leaving the area quickly. They knew they would not win with their one fleet against two Star Army fleets so they wisely chose to retreat, as did Ether's local garrison of NMX starships. The NMX planetary forces that Gartagens had attacked were now cut off without reinforcements. That gave the aliens a chance!

Now it was up to the Eucharis crew to help ensure everything went right.

Takeyu let out a sigh of relief as he monitored the containment fields backup system, after he brought it online he moved back into the area and planted himself beside the main system and kept an eye on its progress via his ICP.

"Power levels stable, containment field is at a hundred percent....." he muttered as he read off the various statistical values. "Good," he then picked up his ICP.

He moved back into the conduits and headed toward the armory, stopping by a hatch and gently easing it open. Taking a few quick glances down the hallway, he pulled himself out of the conduit and closed the hatch. Though it took him a few moments due to the rattling of the deck, he had to brace himself with a single hand on the wall while still carryign the kit.

The floor was covered in ceiling tiles, above he saw exposed, dangling wires. Each wire appeared to be intact, none were sparking except a few that he ran into a little down the corridor. He dropped his kit and performed a patchwork job on the four wires he saw that needed some work, when he done he picked his kit back up and began to walk down the corridor. His destination was another CFS system area, but he wanted to make certain everything around the outside of the armory was secured and working.

YSS Eucharis, Armor Bay

Nito Hei Michael Papadopoulos bit back a rising feeling of un-manly fear as he remembered his last combat deployment as part of the Eucharis' away team, that disastrous outing that had nearly led to even larger disaster. Still blaming himself for the incident, Michael had "hidden in his shell" so to speak, refusing contact with the outside world unless it was absolutely necessary. In the past few months, the elysian was beginning to regain his confidence and spirit, so even if he did fear another disaster, it didn't show on his face.

Finishing the armor's system diagnostics, Michael locked its seals and fully initialized the control system. Making a fist with his right hand, he grinned as he felt the power of his armor, its eight "eyes" flashing as their active sensors scanned the bay.

Michael Papadopoulos was back in his element! Cower in terror and flee in fright, NMX, your doom has arrived!

Reika met up with Armundo and shortly thereafter the ship began to shake with the friction of an atmospheric entry -- much more so than was typical without the benefit of protection from the CFS. To maintain herself standing, the young Neko gripped one of the rungs lining the walls to keep herself steady whilst the ship vibrated heavily in its burning descent towards Ether. Her very bones seemed to want to shake themselves right out of her skin and she gritted her teeth to keep from accidentally biting her tongue due to sudden jerks or shifts of angle.

Yaichiro was forced to endure shaking and shuddering as the Eucharis shuddered and rocked, while trying to micromanage carious things in flight. Broken coolant lines and lack of CFS shielding meant redirecting and carefully controlling various aspects of the system to minimize further damage. He didn't envy Ramiro's task of piloting the ship through the atmosphere without CFS, and with holes in the hull complicating Eucharis' aerodynamic properties, but what he was doing to make sure the ship held together in entry was just as difficult.

Ramiro did his best to land the ship safely. His goal was not to get anyone hurt, not damaging the ship was a secondary goal to him. Flicking his eyes back and forth between the radar and the cameras pointing in front of and below the ship, he gripped the controls with all of his might, trying to keep the ship stable. After several minutes of battling his way to the surface, he saw the landing spot in front of the ship.

"Taisa, I see the landing spot, bringing her in now." He carefully steered the ship forward and lowered the landing gears. As the ship moved forward he could see a narrow gap between two mountains. "Hold on, things might get bumpy!" Ramiro tried his best to fit the ship into the gap, but his failure was acknowledged with a loud screech on the port side.

"Uh-oh. Uhm, well there might be some structural damage to the engine, but it seems to be working just fine...for now." As the ship moved above the landing spot and hovered for a moment Ramiro slowly began to lower the ship. As the landing gears touched the ground he slowly began to lower to power to the engines, putting more weight on the landing gears. Suddenly, there was a crack, followed by the sound of metal sliding against rock.. The ship lurched and rotated several degrees to the side before coming to a halt.

Ramiro had braced himself against the wall the moment the ship had begun to shift. He looked around, slowly removed his hands from the wall, and slouched back in his chair with a sigh of relief.

"We're here!"

Sitting at an angle few degrees toward the starboard side, the battered gunship smoked and steamed lightly as it rested in the canyon with its landing gear in the ice and gusts of snow moving over the burned and mutilated upper hull. The teal glow of its big aether engines slowly faded and their dull rumble was replaced by howling winds. In the distance brief breaks in the snow revealed a quickly dissipating nuclear mushroom cloud along with flashes of explosions in the sky.

Hanako unbuckled her seat harness and then went to her room to change, emerging in her field uniform before getting on the intercom.

"All available personnel report to the cargo bay in field gear or armor for away mission."

It didn't take Michael long to pop over to the cargo bay. Already in his armor, the Elysian stood off to the side, fully kitted out and ready to join the fighting on the planet.

Takeyu felt his stomach settle and the feel of the air told him they were on the ground. He had heard the scrapping of metal against something external to the ship and had let out a disgruntled sigh at the sound, knowing it meant more repair work later on down the line. "Hope nothing was damaged," he muttered as he stood up, with the shaking having subsided he was able to get back on his feet and continued his inspection of the damaged areas.

This brought him to one of the conduits that ran through the portside of the ship near the power armor bay; he could hear a dripping sound from somewhere in the conduit and eased him in and began to crawl on the ground.

He found the source of the dripping, a coolant pipe which had a crack that spider webbed its way toward a seal. He examined it carefully and tapped his chin before putting his kit down and taking out a CASTER dispenser.

Getting onto his back he ran a long line of the tape along the bottom of the pipe, moving the molecular tape along the track with two fingers and running the tape toward the end. He then cut it and repeated this process a few more times before the pipe was sealed. Takeyu then watched and waited, to see if there was anymore dripping or leaking and found nothing more.

"Good," he muttered approvingly to himself before putting the dispenser back into the kit and leaving the conduit.

When he heard the message, his first thought was to jump right in - combat was something he enjoyed even though he had a healthy respect for it.

He made his way to the power armor bay, to see if there was any power armor he could use.

When ordered to put together an armor team, Helen made her way out of her AMES suit, and then moved from the bridge to the armor bay. As she strode through the corridor she thought on the situation. Helen's thoughts left her feeling uncomfortable with the situation as she strode into the armor bay, and went about preparing her Kylie.

It was a rather questionable matter to throw the limited combat resources of the Eucharis into a ground conflict, one which they had no idea about the extent of which the NMX had committed themselves. More so, anyone could see that there was some sign that the NMX had more interest in the situation than a mere land-grab, that became truly apparent in regard to the number of NMX present in the area, as well as their tactics displayed when confronting the Eucharis. Above all else though... why did the Gartagens push into the area, what misguided foolishness led them to such a wretched planet? Above all of that, what interest would the NMX have in a former NDI outpost?

Helen frowned at the matter, as she finished slipping into her Kylie, and settling her helmet into place before opening a communication line to Hanako.

Helen To Hanako said:

"Taisa, as an intelligence officer, I am obligated to voice my misgivings about this deployment. Judging by NMX activity in the region, NMX tactics during our last encounter, and the history of this system, it would be far more sensible to bombard the planet from orbit and move along quickly. I doubt that the NMX would have committed ships this far out unless they have a greater interest in this area of space."

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With her statement completed, Helen made her way out of the armor bay. "Armored personnel, move to the cargo bay and meet with the unarmored personnel which will be deploying from there. Move to the cargo bay ramp along the outside of the ship. While moving, keep eyes to the top of the canyon." Helen ordered as she stepped out of the armor bay, and along the battered hull of the ship.

Ramiro slowly stood up, careful not to move too much, as if just his movement could tip the ship over. Once he was convinced that the ship wasn't going anywhere he stood up straight. "Ma'am, if we're going to be heading out, might it be a good idea to pull out the Tankette and the Troll for anyone that doesn't have an armor? And, on that note, the Kuma could provide minor aerial support for the ground team. The spread of the aether beam could do some heavy initial damage to any armors we encounter, plus it could come in handy if we discover that they have aerial support of any small shuttles." Ramiro stood straight, hoping he wasn't coming off too forward. Ever since he had gotten back from the fort he just didn't seem to be as casual with the Taisa as he used to be.

Michael didn't enjoy this waiting. They had a mission to do, and sitting around waiting for the entire crew to get assembled in the hangar bay didn't sit well with the Elysian. He was a soldier dammit, Infantry, and just about infantryman on the ship. But the Taisa, in her infinite wisdom, had seen fit to let everyone who didn't want to sit around and help repair the ship come along on what should have been HIS task, taking away HIS glory. And, as if to spit in the face of all reason or logic, had put that harpy "Klein", in charge of the mission. So In addition to leaving the ship unguarded and heavily damaged, she was putting a bloodthirsty loony in command of the away team.

Lamierina Pesante, Michael's heavily armed and armored power armor, cradled its eight-eyed face with its free-left hand, mimicking the elysian's movements. Sending a message to the Taisa, he promptly decided that he felt more interested in not dying than following orders.

Helen To Hanako said:

"Hellloooo Taisa Ketsurui-Hime~ This is Nito-Hei Papadopoulos, and I must state that I consider the idea of deploying anyone who wants to come to the away team, as well as placing Klein-Shosa in charge of it, as both incredibly foolish, at least not without precautions. For one, this ship is incredibly damaged, and allowing most of the crew to head out and prance around in the snow and get in the way of dedicated infantrymen is just going to hurt it more. Personally, I think that we should leave most of the crew who don't have a background in infantry back to handle repairs, while leaving, say, most of the command staff behind to oversee things. Meanwhile, Someone should probably stay ahead of the main force of the away team, to scout things out so that we don't run into a trap. And, well, thats just about it.

P.S: I know that my suggestions are going to get disregarded, so I've gone ahead to go ahead on my own. I work better by myself anyway.

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Moving towards the rear of the cargo bay, he nonchalantly opened the door and walked out, trudging 50 meters away from the Eucharis and scanning the area before taking off into the air. Using his armor's sensor suite, he surveyed the surrounding area, keeping a close eye to see if he was being watched or not.

Takeyu stepped into the power armor bay; his eyes falling upon the armor he had used some time ago. The leg limbs were missing and it brought back a flash of memory on why he had decided to lose his legs, he smiled briefly at the memory and then casually walked over to an armor still on the rack and got in.

The armor melded itself around his body, he waited until it was done before grabbing the helmet off the rack and sliding it over his head. The HUD came online, displaying his vital signs, suit integrity and system statuses.

Everything checked out, all green. He liked that, it meant he didn't have to worry about running a diagnostic on the suit.

He grabbed the rifle from the weapons rack, then checked it over real quick, before holding it with both hands and stepping out into the cargohold. Running a quick check on the teleportation unit in the process, he kept the unit at fifty percent and had a few ideas in mind for it provided the Taisa approved.

"Aye ma'am," responded Takeyu to Helens orders as he entered the bay and carefully descended the ramp with his rifle raised, ready to shot. "Deploying drones," as he said this the shoulder armor seperated and two tiny drones popped out and zoomed off into the distance. "I'll have those drones scan the tops of the canyon for hostiles, they'll relay the positions of any enemies they find to our HUDs," he said back to the squad.

His eyes caught site of Micheal and he wondered if perhaps the Taisa had sent him off to do some scouting.

Upon hearing the Taisa's announcement over the ships intercom Reika complied with the Eucharis' captain's instructions and made for the power armor bay. As a trained SAINT operative specializing in field work such as scouting, infiltration and other planetary operations, upon Ether she would have greater opportunity for contributing with her own particular skills, rather than being relegated to helping in odd jobs around the ship for which she was not very well suited.

Power Armor Bay

Upon working her way through the bowels of the Eucharis and arriving at the power armor bay, Reika stripped off the AMES she wore and then located the rack where her assigned armor was stored. The green Daisy was a M6-1C stealth and sensor variant -- a model suited to her skills as an intelligence operative-- which had been delivered to the Eucharis by the same shuttle that had brought her aboard. The suit of armor was particularly distinctive as most of the other Mindy armors in the bay were Star Army blue.

Whilst the Daisy was not as formidable in a traditional firefight as some Mindy variants, its stealth systems and radar capabilities were far more advanced than those typically found in power armor. Additionally, Reika's Daisy was accompanied by a LASR Mk II sniper rifle -- depending on circumstances or instructions when they departed the ship, Reika would likely be able to engage the enemy at long-distances and thus reduce her own exposure to personal danger.

Climbing into the suit, the armor activated and began to conform to the contours of her body. The Heads-up Display flickered in front of her face, displaying sensor feeds, system diagnostic results and other pertinent information. The armor moving itself in response to her nerve impulses stepped of the rack and towards the closest weapons rack where she picked up the waiting sniper rifle. She moved to join the other waiting crew-members that were already suited up and waiting to deploy.