RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 14.2] The Battle of Yamatai

Shielding himself from the explosion, Takeyu knelt down and used his foreshield for a few seconds before taking it offline. He glanced at the remains of the two pods and then over at Valencia. "Best we get onto the shore, no doubt more pods will be inbound and right now we are sitting ducks," he cautioned as he jumped from the top of the Eucharis onto the beach and took aim at the buggy.

Once he was sighted, he fired a series of missiles from his shoulder pod then unleashed two drones from his other shoulder to provide overwatch. He sent another drone to check the remains of the shuttle, although he realized he should've done that before jumping over to the ship.

Hanako was able to recover after several seconds. "We cannot leave the ship here without destroying its computer; however our computer is priceless. I am going to call in the Vesper to tow Eucharis to somewhere where she can be repaired...Kyoto or Uesureyan Fields. In the meantime, we need to keep her safe. After she is picked up, we can assist the local forces however we can," Hanako explained over the radio.

Takeyu's drones could see the T7 shuttle was a total loss, and that some of the sprite nekos had died in it, including Victory and both cooks.

For the time being, the area seemed clear of enemies other than the buggy and a few NMX stragglers in the nearby woods. The buggy was still shooting at Nathaniel even as Reika's shots did some damage to it, blowing out rear tire and damaging the side armor.

Just then, Takeyu's missiles rained down on the buggy, turning it into a burning wreck.

The Ripper Nathaniel had shot at backed away into the wood while firing its aether cannons at him.

"Understood Shosho, we shall defend the ship." Helen replied, as she moved so Hanako would not be in the range of her CFS, as she lifted her Kylie out of the water. Once above the water, Helen ascended until she was able to get a clear field of vision of the horizon in all directions, though, she did take the time to look into the sky above, placing an AIES provided overlay on her vision, to see just what the situation was beyond the blue skies overhead.

Hakujou watched the still injured soldier leave the shuttle, frowning all the way. "Damn children never want to live to adulthood." She muttered as she collected her medical kit and parked herself in the shuttle, after a few seconds, she sent a telepathic message to Hanako.

"Shosho-sama, I know you have your reasons to tell Akemi what she should do; But, you should have let me finish treating her injuries before she ran off. She probably won't be too helpful."

Akemi continued to close in on and attack the Ripper while cautiously taking evasive maneuvers in case it suddenly decided to target her. She hoped it would go down soon so she wouldn't end up much farther away from the others than she already was when it was eliminated.

Takeyu held his ground on the beach, using his drones to pinpoint any further enemy activity while sending any new details to his fellow squadmates. His kept his missiles ready incase any of the NMX that were still in the woods decided to poke their heads out.

When he saw the Ripper appear on his displays he locked it, he fired a series of missiles after it.

Sune flew towards where Takeyu was and surveyed the area. Using the Ripper's firing to give him a target his fired the last of his gauss rounds at the mecha. The expended cannon swung back over his shoulder and stored itself.

"Shôshô, beach is mostly secured. Suggest we group here and then sweep forward as a group so that we can concentrate our fire power are needed.

Ramiro took a large leap from where he was standing and landed down on the beach, firing at whatever targets he could find. After loosing a few shots he jogged over and positioned himself near Sune. "I've got your back," he told his friend before crouching down into a more stable position.

When Nathaniel noticed the fire coming from the buggy he already knew it was to late to avoid it. As an automatic response he moved his left arm towards the chest to protect the vital organs and other important systems. As soon as the bullets hit he noticed that the armor wasn’t going to hold and quickly made several evasive maneuvers. The damage appeared to be superficial to him. However, several shots managed to penetrate far enough into the armor to burn his arm in several places. The computer also registered the left arm as out of action in terms of combat abilities.

Nathaniel continued to use evasive maneuvers, and checked the status of the missiles he fired earlier. None of the missiles were at the target location yet, which meant that the NMX on the ground where most likely not aware of them, or did not have any defensive measures against them.

“Whoa!” Nathaniel was a bit shocked when the Ripped decided to open fire upon him. He quickly ascended, and put some distance between him and the NMX group. With the buggy it would have been easier if he managed to get close but with the ripper it would be suicide to move in close with the Hikael in the sorry state it was in right now.

He suddenly noticed shots impacting on the rear of the buggy. He didn’t hesitate and took advantage of the situation by aiming the rifle in his right hand. He then fired a single well aimed shot at the buggy, keeping in mind the direction of the buggy, as well as the time it took for the shot to reach it. He also fired another wave of five missiles. But every single one was now going after the lone ripper. "Payback bitch..." He said when he saw the missiles flying down towards their targets.

The Ripper was destroyed by Akemi and Nathaniel before it could make it to the woods, leaving no visible threats left in the area. As the dusk fell around them, cool drops of rain began to fall with quickly increasing frequency.

Shôshô Hanako hovered over to the beach, passing by Ramiro, and cautiously inspected the NMX landing ship, which was still burning as the fire expanded throughout the ship. It did not look like anything left inside could have survived. "Haku, get some more HS blood from the ship so Koga-Hei can keep healing quickly," she ordered over their secure group channel. "Everyone move to the beach."

With the situation handled, Helen moved with Hanako and the others to the beach, where she went about the process of examining the NMX wreckage, as well as whatever else was left behind, it was part of her job after all. After a quick look around, Helen peered into the stormy skies, before looking to Hanako. "Shosho, do you think we should expect to be picked up soon, or should we begin to improvise shelter?"

In response to Hanako's words, Akemi quickly spun around and zipped back to the shuttle and Hakujou. Reaching the medic, she did whatever was necessary for her to treat her. She felt pleased having just got her first ever kill on her first day of deployment. Sure she had to share it with someone else, but at least it was something. She was also glad she didn't have to stay cooped up in the shuttle.

Once the skirmish had ended, Reika briefly stopped by the burning wreckage of the shuttle on her way to the gathering upon the beach. It didn't feel right to the Neko just to leave their fallen comrades there but with the wreck still aflame and the Star Army still fighting throughout the solar system and across the planet, the group had little choice in the matter.

The operative hoped there would be a chance to recover the bodies and give them a fitting burial later on. There was no telling exactly when or if they might be able to restore the sprites to life -- it would be largely dependent on getting the Eucharis' main computer to safety and whether the Battle for Yamatai ended in a Star Army victory.

"Okay people, take a moment and do a system and weapon check. It is quiet for the moment, but that could change. I want four volunteers to stand sentry 25 meters out from this point, while the Shôshô decides what we are going to do next." Sune said taking a moment to reload his SLAG from the rounds in his butt back.

He then checked his LASR and slung it over his shoulder.

"I wish to be one of the four to stand guard Taii," said Akemi as soon as Sune was finished speaking.

Takeyu glanced about the area, taking in the beach and the forest line and keeping an eye out for enemies. "I'll also go on watch," he said as he took a few steps forward and then planted his boot in the soft beach sand.

While he stood there, he placed his weapon to the side and gave it a quick inspection, then ran a diagnostic on the internal components to make sure everything was actually running right. When the system came back all clear, he flashed a smile, hidden by his helmet, and raised his head to keep an eye out.

“ This is Nathaniel, I’ll volunteer for the advance guard. My unit has sustained some damage on the left arm, rendering both the blade and the projector weapon inoperable. I also have some burns on my left arm due to the armor failing, but nothing serious. Rest of the unit appears to be fine. Ammo is fully stocked, minus the missiles I fired.”

He had set in the descend when the order was given to group up and had the Hikael drop towards the ground using gravity as its only propulsion. He let the Hikaels propulsion take over when he was just a few centimeters above ground, causing sand and other small items to fly up.

Is this the unit’s limit? He thought to himself while standing on the sand, thinking back to the fights against the NMX. More and more it became clear to him that the Hikael wasn’t as high spec as the other units on the battlefield. It was far from that, it was more a liability then an advantage. Small skirmish battles aren’t going to be pretty with this unit… certainly not in large outdoor locations. He shook his head at the idea of relying on only the missiles and the rifle for defense. Blades are useless in this terrain and the projector isn’t useable in the atmosphere. Guess I’m a sitting duck here in the atmosphere. Now lets tell the enemy that and they might show pity. He smirked at the thought of that. NMX showing mercy? Heh, what’s next? Me ending up with a harem?

"Nathaniel," said Hanako, "Get Doctor Haku to treat you. Helen, the Vesper should be here in a few minutes."

It was now dark and the rain was coming down hard and the tide was coming in, waves sliding up the flat beach to kiss the dead Nekovalkyrja with their heads in the sand.

Hanako walked around the beach, stopping to collect enemy hats before they were swept into the ocean, as well as a large white conch shell, stuffing them into her butt pack.

In the darkness, the lights of a starship came into view over the sinking Eucharis. It was the YSS Vesper. The sister ship took hold with its gravimetric beams and the disappeared into the distance carrying the wounded gunship.

"I am open to suggestions. We could try to commandeer another ship and get back into the space battle or we could take the shuttles to somewhere with ground combat. Alternatively we could camp out for the night and have the shuttles conduct rescue operations of escape pods," Hanako polled the crew.

Ramiro thought for a bit as he watched the ship get pulled away. "Although I'm not sure how easy it would be to pull it off, you know that my place is in the stars Shosho, not on land." As Ramiro said this he knelt down and looked around the beach, remembering how much he didn't like rain.

Akemi decided to stay quiet, believing that her thoughts were inconsequential when compared to those of her superiors.