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

Bridge

Natsumi leaned back in her chair, watching the knformation on her screen as she waited for orders to take the Eucharis back into the air. There was little to do at the moment. Ramiro was monitoring the sensors and guns in case anyone came up on them while they were landed. If that happened Natsumi was ready to take them up. For now though, all was quiet.

Misato had been monitoring the shuttle's comm's to keep her mind off of the flight. when the Shôshô asked Mitsuko if they needed any thing else Misato piped up to the pilot, "See if the Shôshô would send down some Hot Coco for...." She didn't get a chance to finish the statement when something hit the side of the shuttle. She quickly took stock of where they were and how close the target zone was. "Murakami I'm taking the infantry out the back door, keep going to the landing zone. We'll find out what hit you guys." Turning to the others, "Well guy do you want to live forever?" She moved to the rear hatch. Misato wasn't going let the others go before her, she was going to set the example. Opening up the hatch she looked out and then stepped out into the open air.

Shuttle

"What the?" Tomomi said to herself, obviously heard on the shuttle's internal comms. Up until now, Tomomi had kept the sensors on passive to minimize their detection. Tomomi begun a more intensive passive scan, only switching to active if being stealthy was a moot point. She also checked on the shuttle's status and the type of damage sustained.

T7 Shuttle - Ether

Mitsuko was glad for the distraction of Hanako's message while they were flying. Taking stock of supplies was always a good way to pass some time. It wasn't long before she replied with a text message to the captain.

Sugesstions :
Fresh food for the initial settling in period.
Spare uniforms or other spare clothing in addition to the cold weather outfits.
Weapons. We should be able to spare a few of each type, and still have more than enough for all Eucharis crew members.

These maybe be unnecessary, if our destination is also stocked with supplies for the forces it creates.

Shosho, I would also suggest deploying more of our available CRDMs, if this is meant to be a defensible and self-sustaining base for some length of time. They could certainly get by with what is there now, but every additional unit would improve the quality of their stay here, which directly impacts their effectiveness.

Click to expand...

Murakami only had a few minutes of peace after sending her reply, before something loudly bounced off their shuttle. She let out a very undignified yelp of surprise. "Oh...oh my." She tried to keep it together, dipping the shuttle lower as Misato spoke up of her intention to exit the shuttle a bit earlier than expected. Mitsuko refrained from making any other sudden movements while the others disembarked, waiting to see what Misato and Tomomi found before taking any action besides continuing toward their destination.

Ether - Target Site

As the shuttle door opened, five Ripper power armors burst forth from the snow and began hammering it with bursts of aether fire, causing it to jostle from the impacts. A lot of the fire hit the starboard engine, causing numerous failure warnings to go off in the cockpit and sending the shuttling into a slow but difficult-to-stop clockwise downward spin as small pieces of the shuttle rained down on the snow below. As the shuttle spun, its windshields came into view and some of the Rippers shot at it, making a few huge spiderweb cracks in it with smoking, molten holes at the center of each. Murakami found herself covered in transparent Durandium flakes, barely missed by one of the shots that singed her seat headrest.

Tomomi's sensor scan revealed there was not only a squad of Rippers in the snow, but two more squads approaching and several Flayer tankettes. There weren't any significant sensor emissions, so it looked like the were detected visually by the Rippers.

As the three armored soldiers emerged from the shuttle, they were momentarily shielded by it.

Shuttle

Tomomi let out a barrage of curses when she realized what was going on. She switched over to active sensors and tried to gather as much information on the NMX forces. But she wasn't looking long before she was cursing to herself as she looked away as the windshield was shot up.

She looked over to see if Mitsuko was alright before she activated the shuttle's emergency beacon. She then tried to send as much recent data from the sensors to both the Armor team and the Eucharis.

"Yamatai T7 shuttle *static* friendly forces. *static* contact with NMX ripper squad with two additional squa *static* kettes are converging *static* assistance." Tomomi broadcasting on an open communication frequency. She kept repeating it as many times as she could while the shuttle made its descent downwards.

T7 Shuttle - Ether

Mitsuko did her best to control the shuttles descent, as it was peppered with enemy fire. She wasn't having much luck, though. She let out a soft whine as she gave up and went into the spiral, concentrating on setting the shuttle down as safely as possible. It wasn't going to take flight again anytime soon, but perhaps its bulk could buy them some time. She could hear Tomomi radioing for help, most of her concentration taken up by the shuttle. Murakami let out a squeak as their windshield was filled with holes, cringing down into her chair...feeling a bit sick as she spotted smoke drifting away from the seat's headrest.

Once they hit the ground, she scrambled out of her seat to get away from the target that clear windshield made. Mitsuko hit the deck, taking cover while gathering her thoughts. She glanced at Tomomi, wondering if she had any bright ideas in this situation.

"...well, at least we didn't waste any time naming this shuttle."

Ether

At first Bors wasn't too worried about the object that pinged off the shuttle The armor should hold he thought, thinking back to his first mission with the Eucharis crew, Not like their bringing in space fighters or anything.. As he opened his mouth to say something to Tomomi about living forever, his concentration was broken by the five rippers popping out of the snow. Before he could say 'close the door' he found himself spinning and eventually on Terra Frma once again.

"Well I guess, missions changed a bit." Bors said as he unbuckled himself from his seat, "A burning shuttle isn't exactly the best way to sneak behind enemy lines."

Grabbing his rifle and doing a systems scan to make sure everything was functioning correctly, Bors stepped outside to join his fellow infantry comrades.

"Quite a mess we've gotten ourselves into eh?" he said jokingly, "To bad the Eucharis isn't still in space or else we could just call in some fire support and be out of this mess." Leveling his rifle towards where they came from, searching for any approaching rippers, he spoke up again in a more serious tone, "So, speaking of getting out of here, anyone have any good ideas? Cause the way i see it we only have two options. One stay here and fight and see how long we can last, or two, try and see if we can move to a safer place for extraction. Then again I'm just an old Nepleslian, what do I know about tactical plans."

Bors laughed to himself as he continued to look for targets, interested in what the others could come up with.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

On one of Helen's volumetric windows which hovered about her, a brilliant red flash cried out for the intelligence operative's attention, through a combination of Gartagen sensor data and the IES of the shuttle, Helen was keenly aware of the situation, and the fact that their 'stealth' mission was already rendered moot, just as every 'stealth' mission before it. "Ramiro, bring our weapon pods online. Deploy nine of the pods, place them at an elevation suitable to achieve over-horizon LOS with our shuttle, or at the very least, manage an angle which would place no more than one hundred meters of solid material between the pod and the shuttle's location. Use Gartagen sensor data and the sensor data from the IES systems which our team has. Use the data to lock onto those hostiles and give our shuttle some cover fire with the pods." Helen ordered, as she crossed her arms beneath her bust and scowled before she opened an encrypted communication line.

"YSS Eucharis to shuttle and team. Identify hostiles and provide targeting information for supporting fire." Helen communicated over the encrypted line, before she switched to another encrypted channel, the one which was in use with the Gartagen forces. "This is Chusa Klein of the YSS Eucharis to Gartagen forces in orbit above the area of coordinates XX.XX lat XX.XX long. Request orbit-to-ground fire support to cover Yamataian shuttle asset in the area. Target data available via sensor-link which has been established. Request usage of XRASER system, in favor of reducing possibility of fratricide. Please respond and indicate availability, time until weapon discharge if available, and beam trajectories."

With those orders given, Helen glanced to Hanako, curious to see if she may have stepped on any toes, though, she knew that Hanako would make it clear if she had. "Shosho, ma'am, how should we handle this encounter since we have lost the element of surprise? I suspect it will not be long before the enemy discovers our location and moves against the Eucharis itself."

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"I did not want to place any burden on the Gartagens and I do not appreciate you calling them in without asking me," Hanako told Helen. "But since we are stuck unloading and they are in orbit, it is an appropriate option. I think that because the armor team lacked a clear leader so no one took charge and developed a plan, leading to the shuttle going to the enemy position instead of landing a safe distance away. We can still continue with the operation, if the infantry takes advantage of the surprise if they act speedily and use their armors' stealth systems," Hanako commented to Helen. "I do not believe the Eucharis is in any significant danger."

The Shosho looked to her bridge crew. "I need us airborne as soon as possible. Ramiro, Natsumi: go to the cargo bay and help get the base set up. Have Takeyu help too. Blueberry can watch engineering."

YSS Eucharis

"I apologize, Shosho." Helen spoke, performing a short bow, one suitable to the situation they were in. "I will take over operations." With that, Helen stepped beside the operations console, and waited for Ramiro to depart, so she could handle getting things in order to lift off, and, to coordinate the operation with the armor team while offering what assistance the Eucharis could offer. "Ma'am..." Helen started, as she waited to take over Ramiro's station; "If the armor team is unable to re-establish control over their portion of the operation, what course of action should be taken to salvage this operation?"

Bridge

Ramiro glanced behind him as he heard Helen getting scolded. He hadn't known Hanako to openly chastize her officers in front of the enlisted before, and the situation was starting to get awkward with him in the room. He was thankful when he was ordered to the cargo bay.

Ramiro nodded to Hanako as he closed down his station. "Aye Ma'am," he stated quickly as he left the bridge.

Shuttle

Tomomi made an audible "oof" noise when the shuttle met the ground. She quickly followed after Mitsuko, but then doubled back to the the shuttle's supplies. She grabbed a science scanner and one of the Type-31C medical kits. "Why couldn't they put a backpack survival kit in here as well.." Tomomi thought to herself. She then turned over towards Mitsuko and moved quickly to her when she spoke.

"I am not in a joking mood.." Tomomi said in reply to Mitsuko's comment about the shuttle as she stood next to her. She was going to say something else before Helen's transmission came over her helmet's internal speakers. Though broken up with static, she understood enough of it to pass the message along.

"Suzume-Hei this is Kurita-Hei, Chusa Klein is requesting we identify the hostile forces and provide what I am guessing is targeting information for support fire. Your team is in a much better position to provide her with that information." Tomomi chimed over the encrypted radio frequency. "Murakami and I are going to try and find better concealment or cover at the least then this sitting target of a shuttle."

Tomomi then looked over at Mitsuko before looking around for a better place for concealment/rally point. "You want to live forever?" Tomomi asked, repeating what Misato said earlier.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Once Ramiro was out of his seat, Helen took over as she plugged herself into the ship, and went about coordinating data with the Gartagens, while also monitoring the team from the Eucharis. Using the weapon pods deployed from the ship, Helen went about instructing the weapon pods to deliver a barrage of suppressive fire in the area of the enemy signal contacts. She hoped that the effort would be enough to pin down the NMX so the Gartagen space forces could draw a bead on the targets, or at the very least, allow for the shuttle to make a break for it.

T7 Shuttle Crash Site - Ether

"Yes!" She wondered why people kept asking that. Wasn't the answer obvious? "If it's really an option, then yes!" Mitsuko stayed low as she moved toward the exit with Tomomi. She didn't know how far from the ship they could get before being spotted, but it was a rather obvious target. Once the crew in armor got the Rippers' attention, they could make a break for it.

In Snow bank a little was off rear of shuttle:

Misato hit the ground and dropped to a pron position. She activated her camouflage system. Her sensors had picked up at least 3 rippers nearby and to large blips of what could only be more coming at her and the shuttle. She quickly programed her weapons system to fire at the closest ripper with the gauss gun as soon as she stood and started moving.

demibear said:

"Suzume-Hei this is Kurita-Hei, Chusa Klein is requesting we identify the hostile forces and provide what I am guessing is targeting information for support fire. Your team is in a much better position to provide her with that information."

Click to expand...

"Yes Kurita, why not..." Misato stood and ran a ways toward the shuttle laying down burst of fire form her sub-machine gun and her gauss rifle. She quickly drafted up a message to Klein filling in the target info for the three rippers she was shooting at, and the positions of the two large groups. She also ask for idea on how to help "Paint" the targets for air support. "...OK here send this packet to Chusa Klein and relay any response to me. Stay put in the shuttle, We'll work up a plan to get you two out of there." As she dove behind a snowdrift she tried to take stock of the big picture.

"Riko we need to put some suppressive fire down on those rippers, so that Darksky can make a break to the base with the pilots. What do you think?" Smeg it Suzume, what have you gotten yourself into here. Don't feth this up.

T7 Shuttle Crash Site - Ether

"Sounds like a plan to me, could always cause a diversion as well." Bors said rather calmly from his own snowbank as he waited for the rippers to get into better range. "Once their clear, we could always call in a strike on the shuttle and make a break for it as well Hopefully that will take a few squids with it if their close enough and cause enough of a distraction for us to move somewhat unnoticed."

As Bors worked out the small details in his mind on this makeshift plan a thought struck him. Opening up a secure frequency he radioed Mitsuko and Tomomi, "You guys don't have any weapons on you do you? Would hate for you to be sitting ducks."

As he waited for a response Bors couldn't help but think to himself I hate last stands, you can never prepare for them, so hopefully this isn't one of them.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

There was certainly a degree of ease which was provided by Armor Integrated Electronics System units. they made communication and coordination on the battle-field something that was certainly easy, and thanks to the system, Helen was able to readily coordinate as Misato conducted her scan.

"Helen to operation team, incoming support fire from the Eucharis. Keep clear." Came an encrypted transmission which would sound through the team's receivers, before the weapon pods of the Eucharis lit up with aetheric energy, aimed at straight angles right at the marked targets. With some help of the weapon pods being airborne, favorable angles were produced, though, the horizon also proved to be an issue, as Helen directed the weapons to simply cleave through soil and rock to reach their marks. That just left the Gartagens to hopefully deliver on their end to neutralize targets which she would be unable to hit with the ship's weapons.

A response was given on the military frequency. Only this time it was not the voice of a young communications officer. But the gruff and tired voice of a ship's commander who answered.

It was a rather curt "Conduz copys request for support."

It would be then that the Eucharis' scanners would see a Prosecutor battle ship had broken away from the main fleet and was moving into a position above Ether.

As requested the Conduz began firing several bursts from its XRASER light XRASER batteries at the planet on the coordinates requested.

"This is Battleship Conduz, orbital support complete. Do you require aerial support? We can fill the sky with several Gimio in twenty micros."

Away Team

Between all the ship guns being used, the NMX power armors were taken down and the armor team found itself alone in the middle of a number of smoking craters.

The entrance to the facility was hidden in a nearby cave. They could see the opening in a rocky outcropping ahead.