RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 17.3] Peoples of the North

Ether System

"Gartagen forces, this is the YSS Eucharis. We are passing through and would like to check up on you. Please give an an update on what has occurred on Ether since we were last here and if you require any assistance," Hanako transmitted as the gunship lurked in the edges of the Ether star system.

Next, Hanako got on the intercom: "We will be conducting a possible infantry mission to Ether. Ittô Hei Murakami and Nitô Hei Kurita Tomomi, please report to the shuttle bay."

"Ramiro, scan the Ether system for hostiles." Hanako asked. "Natsumi, Helen, what intelligence do you have on the Occhestans?"

Engineering

Takeyu walked casually around the ships reactor, looking at it from top to bottom while listening to diagnostic and simulations result being given by Charisma and Cherry.

He was nodding at the results, following his arms over his chest and staring blankly at the reactor. "So, if we were to push the reactor for two full minutes, we'd get an additioanl thirty percent out of it, which would mean the reactor would be running at roughly one hundred and thirty percent. Still, not like we'd need to given the reactor provides us the power we need, but you never know when we'd need a sudden boost.."

The Chief Engineer turned toward his station when he heard Hanako's voice and then back toward the reactor. He rubbed his chin for a moment, massaging his tiny mustache, before looking at Cherry. "Ok, Heisho, Charisma, take the results of the simulation and now perform another on the ships main weapons array. I wanna know if the boost in power can potentially increase the arrays rate of fire," he partially knew the answer, the array was very specifically designed.

Best get ready to go as well, in case the Shosha decides to send someone to accompany our infantry.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

There was a pleased feeling which Helen had upon being asked to carry out her primary duty, even though all she had to deliver was bad news. "Occhestians in proper are not to be confused with the New Tur'lista which are Occhestians which were loyal to the Matriarchy. If I recall properly, Shosho, you were there for the split which took place between the Occhestians and the Matriarchy, so some of this may be old hat, but it is still vital to present the whole picture." Helen started, as her synthetic mind worked quickly on just how to word her continued speech without offending the Shosho, it was a little difficult for the woman which took pleasure in speaking bluntly, without softening her point with tact.

"Shosho, I'm sure you know the superficial reasons behind the split. However, the internal politics were a bit more complex. While the Tur'lista cover-up regarding your actions with the Lorath queen were a flashpoint, it merely was an excuse." Helen explained. "Matriarchy information indicates that the Occhestians prepared for their move from nearly the very moment that their representative aboard their first exploration ship returned home dead after then-Taisa Rufus Sydney executed him prior to holding Lor at gunpoint." On the matter of the conquest, there was something of a smile on the corner of Helen's lips... it was a memory of old times, nostalgic ways which were ingrained into her.

"After the royals met with Emperor Uesu, while the ink was still drying upon the Matriarchy's agreement to be part of the Empire, the Occhestians began to buy out large quantities of ships, equipment, and weapons under the guise of the purchases being intended for reverse engineering for the benefit of the Matriarchy as a whole. Many of those purchases were carried out by the leader of the Occhestians, 'Truth'." Helen explained, she felt it was becoming a bit of a history lesson, but, the reason why she was going on was going to become apparent, eventually.

"Truth went about silently organizing his revolt, building mobile space-worthy colony structures, amassing a small armada of ships purchased from the Empire, and ships built by Occhestian assets funded by the Matriarchy. When the split took place, the Occhestians took enough with them to essentially put together an interstellar power, right out of the gate. Truth's intent, was to build a Republic which would have the exclusive purpose of functioning separate of the Matriarchy, and the Empire, which were one in the same at that time... mostly though, the intent was to escape Yamataian rule." Helen's history lesson was just getting to the juicy part... but also the murky part.

Helen continued, as she began to explain current events "I was beginning the extraction phase of my mission in Lorath space when the Matriarchy encountered the Occhestians. First sign of the Occhestians even surviving their escape came in the form of an assassin which took a shot at the Lorath queen. An expedition was sent north in a response, which uncovered the presence of the Occhestian settlements which we are aware of. Though, that was about all that was made available to the United Outer Colonies which trickled through to the Empire as common intelligence."

"Even under cover, the information about what happened after that was sketchy, and it was intentionally meant to be kept quiet by the Matriarchy. I do not have all the information, but, the Matriarchy discovered two distinctive Occhestian groups, a group of Matriarchy sympathetic Occhestians which had come into power in the Occhestian Republic, and a group of extremists which were heavily opposed to resuming contact with the Matriarchy, and were responsible for the attempted assassination of the Lorath queen. Last that I heard, Shosho, the Matriarchy sent out a task force to the area and established peaceful relations with the Occhestian Republic. Though, not a word about the extremists before I departed Matriarchy space." Helen concluded her history lesson with what she was aware of, before moving onto the next point of interest.

"As for equipment, from what I am aware of, the Occhestians were last seen using knock-offs of our ships, along with their own designs. Their weapons are mostly meson based. There is no reason to assume that they have not continued to refine their designs much as the Matriarchy has over the years. Also, they do have a tradition of functioning using covert methods and advanced tactics. That is an overview of what I know about the Occhestians at this time, Shosho." Helen concluded, as she felt like she may have given something of a long-winded report, but, it was relevant to the situation.

Bridge

"Aye ma'am," Ramiro quickly responded, having already been on the bridge. Taking a seat at Sune's old station, the Science and Sensors station, he began pulling up some of the controls before his expression saddened. He glanced back at the main Starship Operations station, his favorite seat in the known universe, his station, then over at the Systems and Safety station where Nika used to sit during combat and control the weapons, Nika's station. Then he looked back at the station in front of him, Sune's station, not Ramiro's.

He took a moment to gather his thoughts before he bottled them up and initiated the scans of the system.

"Scanning ma'am."

The Eucharis would get a prompt response from the Ether invasion fleet which was orbiting the world.

"We see you Eucharis, as usual you have a go to conduct your activities as needed. Please be advised the zone delta is still hot. If your require any assistance during your mission we are willing and able to a provide the required assets requested."

General scans of the star system would detect nearly 300 Gartagen star ships conducting operations in the system. Over 100 of the ships were support craft ferrying in fresh troops and supplies.

Scans of planet's surface would show that union had made progress. Though the battle was far from won. The NMX had been driven out of their primary habitat on the planet, but where according to the scans conducting a brutal counter offensive.

The NMX leader was broad casting openly. He was desperate, but clearly had no intentions of surrendering. The Gartagen Fleet Marshal in charge of this operation was in no rush, and appeared content to tire the NMX out rather then destroy them out right. While slow, this tactic was saving lives, and in the face of superior technology this was one of the tactics that was holding proof.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Cutting the microphone, Hanako looked to Helen. "I cannot think of anything we need from them nor a specific operation, unless we want to try again to capture another NMX Neko production center. Can you think of anything we should ask for?"

"Thank you," Hanako told the unidentified Gartagen. "Is there anything we can do to assist you? Also, could you tell us if your military has seen any Occhestian starships?"

Cutting the microphone again, Hanako asked Helen, "Do we have coordinates for those Occhestian colonies?"

Hanako noticed Ramiro was sitting at a different station than usual. "Letting your subordinate in the pilot seat today?" she asked him. "Natsumi, have you landed one of these gunships before?"

"The NMX are launching a counter offensive on the planet, I would state the plan we are about to implement, but it may compromise troopers fighting on the planet. " Came a response to the question about the update.

"This is Sub-commander Heshian by the way." The female voice said. "As far as Occhestian ships? Not in this area."

The female then paused then resumed speaking. "A few months ago, prior to being stationed here, I detected some artificial emissions consistent with communications coming from a group of stars to the galactic west of Union space. I informed my superiors of the signals. It was determined that the signals were not an active threat, and were to be left alone unless other wise directly contacted. I figure that region of space is your best place to start looking."


"If you end up heading to that region of space, I will alert the Union of your ship entering the region. If you need a port, or some reinforcements just contact the Union Navy and they wiull back you up."

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

As Helen was spoken to by Hanako, the intelligence operative brought up a volumetric display of the Ether system. She quickly evaluated the situation, before she spoke to the Shosho. "Ma'am, the Gartagens seem to have the situation in hand, but only because of precise deployment strategy. Asking them to reallocate any assets may create an opening for the NMX to take advantage of. Though, the only thing I can think of doing here which may be of use would be to provide a few precision bursts from our shipboard weapons to bombard the NMX planetary assets to make things a bit easier on the Gartagen ground forces, while using our advanced targetting capabilities to safely bombard without causing collateral damage or fratricide. However, ma'am, I have not been informed about our current intent in this system, what is our objective?"

"As for the other subject, Shosho, I regret to say that I was unable to obtain coordinates for the Occhestian settlements. That information was protected beyond the clearance I had available to me. In fact, the Matriarchy was rather tight lipped to the point where they even kept that data away from the United Outer Colonies." Helen explained, as she looked a bit troubled by the matter.

YSS Eucharis

"We will be conducting a possible infantry mission to Ether. Ittô Hei Murakami and Nitô Hei Kurita Tomomi, please report to the shuttle bay."

Tomomi slightly squinted her eyes when the message finished. Finishing up some routine inspections on Charisma's hardware, she placed the tools she was using back into her toolkit. She returned the kit to her cabin before she walked down to the shuttle bay.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko had moved to the cargo bay once they were underway, simply checking in on things. They had taken on so much new cargo, even after abandoning some of the less useful items along with the derelict they'd towed back to the starport. She had been doing her best to keep an eye on things, mostly trying to keep everything organized. Who knew when they'd need something specific in all these boxes? It was good to be prepared.

Of course, she wasn't at all prepared for the announcement she heard. Head tilted to the side as she listened, Murakami's face went a bit paler than usual as she heard her name mentioned so soon after the word 'infantry'. She gulped, but hurried to report as ordered. At least the short trip to the shuttle bay didn't give her too long to worry.

Power Armor Bay

The call to the trio of infantry came hot on the heels of his move. Jonathan had just had enough time to get his bags and other belongings basically situated when he received the order to prep from the Captain.

Stepping into the Power Armor Bay, Jonathan inhaled with a small smile. Power Armor had a certain tang about it, something almost infinitesimal that hovered right on the edges of his senses. He knew it was there, and yet it defied description. Locating his Mindy wasn't difficult: it was the only one mounting an Aetheric cannon over the right shoulder. In the absence of further instructions, he left his PA in his standard configuration. After all, Hanako had specifically stated EVA, the environment to which the new infantryman was suited.

Stripping down, Jonathan tucked his uniform away and clambered up into his Mindy. Power-up didn't take long, so while he waited for the others and further directions, he ran through his systems, checking and rechecking everything, just to make sure it was all in the green.

Bridge

Natsumi glanced back at Hanako as she asked Natsumi if she had landed a gunship before. The young Neko nodded, "Many times in simulations and two practical landings shortly before graduating" she replied, smiling "It would be my honor to pilot the Eucharis to land, Shosho."

Her red eyes flicked to see the expression on Ramiro's face and wondered if he was uncomfortable with her piloting the ship.

Shuttle Bay

Tomomi waved at Mitsuko as she came into the shuttle bay.

"What do toy think this is all about" Tomomi asked as she started to walk around the bay.

YSS Eucharis - Shuttle Bay

"Mitsuko, you will be the pilot" Hanako's voice came over the intercom. "Tomomi, you will operate the sensors on the shuttle. In this mission see if you can find any remaining Nekovalkyrja cloning centers and then infiltrate them with a 4-or-5 man squad and replace the NMX mental data with Star Army neko data so it will pump out allies."

The shuttle looked in fairly good shape. It was a slightly used T7 that didn't have a name yet. The side was painted "NG-X1-408-12."

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"In the meantime," Hanako continued, "we will land the ship and establish a small base for our private legion, and then continue towards Lorath territory. Ramiro, conduct scans of the surface. Natsumi, take us down into the upper atmosphere."

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

A puzzled frown crossed Helen's features as she evaluated the situation from her perspective. Sure, it was certainly not her place to argue with a Shosho, but, the situation did seem a bit 'off' and it did fall in her lap to say something, since she was next in the chain of command. "Shosho, I have concerns about this deployment. We do not know what operations the Gartagen forces have planned. We may be inserting personnel into locations where we may actually be getting in the way, or, may be inserted into a position which may result in fratricide. Furthermore, Shosho, the Plumeria-Class is not exactly intended as a landing ship, and we may be placing the ship into a distinctive disadvantage since the design of this ship is optimized for space operations and bombardments." Helen felt a twinge of unease after speaking what had to be said, however, it was her job as an intelligence officer to deliver the facts.

The Gartagen communication officer spoke again. "I have spoken with my superiors. They send their apologies that they can not speak to you directly, they hope you will understand they are conducting operations at the moment. That did say that the soldiers on the planet have the situation well in hand and do not wish to burden you for assistance. "

Shuttle Bay

Mitsuko gave a sharp little bow as she spotted Tomomi, before returning the wave with a worried smile. "I don't know. I thought we were just going to visit the-" She was cut off as she heard her name again over the intercom, giving a little squeak as she straightened up. "Oh...the pilot." Well, this made a bit more sense, now. "I suppose we should get the shuttle ready..."

She glanced at Tomomi before moving to the 'new' shuttle, examining the exterior before attempting to enter. Once inside, Murakami would take a moment to look around before settling in. She hoped she'd have enough time to familiarize herself with the shuttle before the others arrived.

Power Armor Bay

As Bors put on his power armor he took the time to fine tune some kinks he had found in the previous mission. Glad I didn't get shot at searching that ship or I wouldn't of found these he thought as he adjusted some of the systems in his helmet to proper levels. Satisfied with the revisions he began to put on his armor, clicking everything into place with a practiced precision, before placing his helmet underneath his arm before grabbing an Atromos Particle Beam Rifle. Before leaving the armory he glanced at the set of Autocanons and shook his head, If it wasn't stealth based and quickly left the armory.

Bridge

"Yes Shosho, taking us into the upper atmosphere." Natsumi replied, her fingers dancing over her controls.

She watched her screen, keeping track of the Eucharis' altitude angle of approach and hull temperature as she began deorbiting the gunship. There was little buffeting and vibration as air friction built up on the hull.

Making some adjustments on the entry vector, Natsumi brought them down steadily into the atmosphere. Once at the appropriate altitude she leveled the Eucharis off.

"Atmospheric entry complete, ready to set down on your command" she reported to Hanako.

Power Armor Bay

Misato woke up with a start when the announcement came in about and operation. she was almost fully standing before she realized that she was in the Armor Bay, she must have drank a lot last night and wondered in here. She shrugged it off and slowly donned her armor. She couldn't remember much from the night before, last she could clearly make out she was at the restaurant drinking Mead and eating steak. As she retrieved her weapon she looked it over, she had never fixed or polished the outside of the casing, it has been on every live operation she had. She felt tied to it like it was a part of her soul.

Looking up she watched the others come in and gear up. she sat and patiently waited for every one to be ready and for a sit-rep on the operation.