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

by the door in the cave

Misato leveled her rifle and aimed her gauss weapon at the door, "Guys when this door opens throw everything you got threw it. I don't want anything left but goo and scrap." Misato smiled behind her helmet, that was the type of work she could handle. Tightening her grip she leaned a little bit forward and readied herself for the on coming rush.

The light on the control panel went to green when the card key was inserted into the slot, and when Bors pulled the lever, the sound of heavy hydraulics and machinery filled the air. The massive blast door began to open, allowing fluorescent light and heated, room-temperature air to escape into the dark, smoky cave. They could see the door was over a meter thick, Ahead was the stark white interior of a massive airlock chamber in the form of a long corridor with a vehicle lane in the middle and a raised catwalk on one side. Along the corners of the ceiling were occasional windows looking down. At the opposite end of the corridor was another giant door, and three Rippers, which began to saturate the corridor with aether fire from their arm cannons. Another two Rippers were just inside the door, and when it got open enough, they started rolling rusty barrels of liquid explosives out into the cave.

Bridge

Compared to the surface, the Eucharis bridge was quiet and uneventful. Natsumi sat quietly at her station, awaiting either an order or something to happen. She checked over the ships monitors, checking on the status of systems, all of which read green.

Then a indicator lit up on her screen, catching her attention. She quickly selected the indicator and pulled up the information that was incoming.

"Shosho, the sensor information from Dawn Station has been recieved and downloaded into our computer" she announced.

Ether - Surface

"Busted engine," was the first thing that Takeyu said as he walked by one of the engine pylons and glanced into it, noting the damage on the front and backside of it.

When he stepped around the shuttle toward the back, that's when he noticed Mitsuko and glanced into the shuttle to notice that some of its compartments had been ransacked.

Ether - Shuttle

Mitsuko blinked as she heard someone speaking. "Hello?" She didn't have much time to wonder about the noise before Takeyu stepped into view. She let out a yelp of surprise and jerked back a step, before recognizing the familiar shape of that armor. "Oh, goodness..." She was relieved, relaxing a bit. "...nobody warned me you were coming."

Soon enough, Murakami realized what he was looking at. "...I don't know who got in here. We were only in that cave for a few minutes." She had some suspicions, considering their location, but nothing worth bringing up right now.

Cave Door / Hell (your call)

Misato started pouring as much fire at the two rippers that were by the door as she could. She had to stop them from rolling the barrels at them. She had her gauss rifle fireing at one and her Sub-Machine gun firing on the other. "knock the closers one down first, before the screw us guys!!"

Cave

As Misato fired on the rippers, Bors focused his attention on the barrels of exploding liquid, trying to make them explode before they got to close. as he shot at the barrels with his rifle, he fired a salvo of rockets and fired his Gauss Cannon at the closest set of rippers, before sending down a grenade for good measure.

Ether - Shuttle

Takeyu let out an annoyed sigh and placed a hand on his hip, glancing into the shuttle and noting that it had been looted. "So whomever I spoke with decided it wasn't important enough to inform you that a soldier, a Taii no less, was going to be landing nearby to help fix the shuttle," the Taii was beside himself. This was an error he wouldn't have made, of course, leaving the shuttle behind even for a few minutes was also something he wouldn't do either.

"A suggestion for the future," he told the -hei as he deployed his last drone which moved to hover beside him. "Always use your drones," he told Mitsuko as he deployed one from his shoulder hanger and watched it fly out in front, it turned toward him as if noticing him for the first time and then zipped into the shuttle. "They aren't just there for your protection, but they are also useful for recon and also for monitoring a point."

Altough, he wasn't at all impressed and it annoyed him that Mitsuko hadn't been told of him coming, but what annoyed him more was that the shuttle was a very important asset to the team and even knowing that fact whoever was actually leading the away team didn't seem to consider that fact.

"Two things, who is leading the away team and...." he looked into the shuttle as he set his bag down on the ground. "What was stolen?" he asked.

Ether - Shuttle

Mitsuko straightened up as Takeyu spoke. Even though her AMES was warding off the chill, she still shivered. "Oh...Sir...I think Misato-Hei is in charge. I sent a message to the Shosho, asking for help with extraction, but received no response. But...from what I saw and your arrival, Taii, I'm assuming the Shosho sent her response to Misato-Hei instead. Since she's leading the infantry."

She seemed a bit embarrassed. "...er...well, Tomomi-Hei and myself weren't ordered to bring our armor like the other three, Taii. We were supposed to stay on the shuttle." She glanced back at the cave, smoke still billowing out of the entrance. "...Misato-Hei wanted us both to follow them into the installation. I was watching their backs and noticed signs of a disturbance at the shuttle. I took a step outside for a closer look...just in time to escape that explosion."

Mitsuko moved toward the cockpit again. "Sir, they took all five survival kits. They're...fairly large. Normally I would assign two handlers to each, especially if they needed to be moved quickly." If there was one thing she understood, it was cargo and transporting it. "...mmm, I'm no expert, but...I didn't notice a trail of snowy footprints in here, Taii. Or anything ripped apart to fit something larger. So I'm currently assuming there are at least ten NMX Neko somewhere nearby. With our supplies."

She sighed. "...at least they left my uniform..."

Ether - Shuttle

Poor leadership skills, thought Takeyu with an annoyed grunt as he looked into the shuttles and noted that they were missing their survival gear, a critical mistake that no leader should ever make - at least in his eyes.

"Who ordered you not to bring armor?" he asked while swinging his own survival bag off his bag and setting it down on the ground, then he retrieved his buttpack and placed it down as well and opened it up to reveal a repair kit that he would use to repair the shuttles engines and other systems.

He was real tempted to take over command of this away team, a leader who not only didn't report his arrival, but also left their shuttle unattended was a recipe for disaster.

While he waited for her to respond to him, he looked up at the sky and ordered one of his patroling drones to start casing the area for those who had looted the shuttle. He then sent his other drone, the one which was in the shuttle, outward into the sky to take the place of the one he had just sent out.

Though hearing the news of an explosion caused him to glance toward the cave, he stared for a moment before switching comm.'s to an encrypted channel.

"Nayacesen to Away team, what was that explosion just now?" he requested. While he waited for their response, he sent the drone that was hovering over the cave entrance into the cave to check and see what was going on. He wasn't exactly very confidant in Misato's leadership right now given the soldier had screwed up twice, once in not reporting his arrival and second in not leaving a guard at the shuttle.

Ether - Cave

As he had been ordered to the rear of the formation, Jonathan felt his shield was misplaced, especially for the world of hurt that was coming their way. Misato had nothing but the built in defenses and armor of her suit, while Jonathan and Bors both had extra hunks of metal to help blunt explosions and deflect/absorb incoming damage. As it was, orders were orders: follow them now, analyze what happened later and learn from your mistakes.


Launching all 6 of his drones, he set 2 to cover the cave entrance while the other 4 were sent towards the upper limit of the opening portal. With their rear covered, he turned himself around, shield towards the rippers and barrels, crouching down and hunkering behind his defensive slab. With Bors and Misato in front of him, Jonathan's fields of fire were more limited, and so he declined to add to the already considerable weight of fire with his own weapons. Something else took priority: those barrels.

Thinking fast, he extended 4 of his Kalamari's manipulator arms, weaving them forward to stop the explosive barrels as far from the trio of infantry as possible, or at least slow their roll enough so that their inevitable detonation would have a smaller damage footprint on the Star Army team.

Bridge

"Proceed the next star system," Hanako ordered.

Cave

Misato had a hard time hitting the Rippers, who were staying around the other side of the doors. As she shot aether at the one across from her, it fired its own aether back, creating a crossfire of bright yellow pulses ripping through the air back and forth. Without time to aim, the Ripper only got a glancing blow on her shoulder that sent sparks flying, while her shots hit its arm.

Then Bors' shot hit the first barrel, detonating it near the doorway. The large quantity of explosive created a massive explosion that instantly knocked everyone against the walls and sent rocks tumbling from the ceiling. It was painful and disorienting and their armors' sensors went blank for a moment and came back fuzzy. All the oxygen in the area was burned off and the room was filled with smoke and shrapnel. It was lucky the team members without armor had left the cave. Another one of the barrels was crushed by the impact of the blast and sprayed its contents all over the place, but they didn't detonate just yet.

Due to the blast, the Rippers were having trouble targeting the battered armor team and were spraying randomly and rolling a couple more barrels into the cave area. At the end of the airlock tunnel, the remaining three Rippers began to advance.

Ether - Cave

Picking himself up - again - Jonathan once more planted the shield firmly between himself and the incoming fire. His next course of action was to send his 4 drones inside the airlock to provide targeting telemetry for the team. "Bors, Misato: NSD's active, seeking targets. I suggest you do the same."

With that done, Jonathan activated his Gauss Rifle and brought his right forearm weapon out of safety. As rippers were presented to him through the sight of his drones, Jonathan took careful shots with his gauss, sending lethal hyper-sonic slugs as accurately as the smoke and the drones sight would allow - his shots were limited, so he saved them for especially clear shots, ones what would promise the most accurate, and damaging, placements. The right firearm weapon he switched back and forth between pulsed and charged beams, raking his targets with rapid fire SMG-like pellets of energy, and lobbing a pulse beam in now and again when a fairly solid target presented itself. The pulse beam he could afford to spam more than the gauss slugs.

The drones themselves, while seeking out the rippers and barrels, would also take pot-shots as the situation allowed. He kept them mobile and elevated. Their priority in this engagement was to provide line of sight first, and inflict damage second.

The missile pod he kept stowed away for use in a later engagement. There were only 15 left out of the 20, and while the inside face of his shield had a reload cylinder for the gauss rifle, he had no such reserves of missiles.

His manipulator arms were retracted to stowage positions, as their use was fairly academic now.

Jonathan mentally set a targeting priority for himself and his drones: Barrels as they were presented, close rippers, far rippers.

Ether - Shuttle

Mitsuko had to pause to consider how to respond. "...well, Taii, we were ordered to report to the shuttle. Once there, we were told to prepare to launch. The infantry arrived shortly after. So, um...we didn't really have the time or opportunity, given the time constraints and the order the...orders came in, Taii."

She swayed a bit, letting out a muffled squeak as the ground rumbled from a second explosion. "Oh dear."

Cave

A sting of slurs flew out of Bors's mouth as his visors screen blanked when he hit the ground. If i didn't need it to breathe it would be off without a second thought! he screamed inside his head before the visors screen came back online. Slamming himself into one of the fallen ceiling rocks and took a quick glace around it to see the status of the enemy. A small smile appeared on his face when he saw the rippers in disarray, shooting blindly mostly likely due to their sensors not being online yet.

"Johnny with me, I got a plan." he said as he made a break for the catwalk that overlooked the tunnel,"If we can distract the rippers for long enough Misato can teleport in behind them and make a nice mess of things. That is of course if Miss. Misato doesn't mind"

Cave / Hell

Misato shook her head as she picked herself off the ground. As her system kicked back up she heard Bors's plan. "That sounds good, let me send a quick message to Nayacesen." She quickly radioed to him "Yes Sir that was us. we ran into 5 rippers and they are trying to roll explosives at us in barrels, We have come up with a plan that should work, Bors and Darksky are going to move to a cat walk above the rippers position and start raining cover fire upon them. I will then proceed to teleport behind the furthest set of ripper, and attack them from behind. until they are terminated. We are about to intact the plan, but we could use some back up if you would like to join us."

Misato thought as she spoke and saw Darkskys drones, it hit her all of the sudden that she forgot about hers completely. setting her drones to hit heavy and fast to distract the rippers form Bors and Darksky's movements. "You guys go as soon as you reach halve way I'll teleport, brace yourselves for it."

Ether Surface - Shuttle

Takeyu listened to the plan, and sighed. Suicide, he thought as he set his tool-kit down and opened it up. "Mitsuko-hei," he started saying while pulling out some of the repair tools. "You should have a basic understanding of how to repair the shuttle, repair some of the outside damage including replacing the shuttles panels. I'll hit the engines myself once I return, I need to assist Misato-hei, can't have anyone dying on this mission," he then pulled his sidearm from its hoster and handed it grip first to Mitsuko.

"Few things first, keep an eye on the shuttle, I have drones in the air but because you lack armor you won't be able to tap into their feeds. Becuase of that, I'm setteing my drones so that if one picks up the presence of enemies, the other will fly down and pretty much tap you on the head to get your attention."

"If it does that, radio me to let me know and I'll teleport back to assist you. I have the coordinates for the shuttle and a location just a little bit away from it so that I don't end up harming you or the shuttle from the teleportation wash," he then stood back up and looked toward the cave.

"Misato-hei, I need teleportation coordinates, preferably a little bit away from you so I don't end up damaging your suit upon reappearance."

He then unholstered his rifle and checked the grenade launcher attachment. He then looked at his Mindy's systems and picked out the stealth system. "Time to fool the Rippers into thinking there is more than one Mindy about to show up..." he grinned as he waited for the coordinates from Misato and then walked away from the shuttle so that when he did teleport, he wouldn't end up injuring Mitsuko.

"Once we done with this base," Mitsuko would hear Takeyu say as he walked away. "We should go after those raiders who stole those kits," he said more as an open thought but it was what he planned to do, he didn't know when the Eucharis would return and with the shuttle damaged.

He did double check and found that he actually had one more drone left. Ya know, I think I might have an idea on how to improve these little suckers, he said as the drone deployed from its hanger and moved up toward him where he gently tapped it on the front, before going back into it's hanger.

Ether - Shuttle

Mitsuko recovered from the shock of the second explosion, straightening up again as she was addressed. Her eyes widened a bit at the task she was given. "...um...very basic. I never had any real engineering or maintenance training. But, I'll do what I can." She nodded, beginning to work on recalling every bit of relevant information she'd ever absorbed. Murakami took the offered weapon, although she couldn't avoid giving him an odd look. She patted her own sidearm, safely in its holster outside her AMES, with her free hand. "We're still under orders to carry these even when safely aboard the Eucharis. No way I would forget to bring it along now."

She glanced over at the latest emission of smoke from the cave. "...it probably wouldn't be much help to you, in there." Mitsuko bobbed a quick bow. "Thank you, Taii." She squatted down to examine the tools she'd been left, comparing them to what little she knew about the work she needed to do. "...maybe Tomomi will realize how dangerous it is in there with no armor and return to the shuttle as well. She has to know more about this than me..." She nodded at the rest of her orders. "Aye, Sir."

Murakami kept her spare weapon ready in one hand, using the other to sort through the tools. Once Takeyu left to join the others, she began to rapidly lose the composure she'd held together in front of the officer. She was alone with only a pair of pistols to defend herself against the dozen or so enemies she had imagined, not even counting whatever had everyone else tied up. Even worse, she was most likely about to botch the repair job she'd been assigned. First she crashed the shuttle she'd been assigned to pilot, and now this.

In addition to pulling up as much information about shuttle repairs as she could remember, Mitsuko began creating a list of possible reasons she might be demoted after this mission. Always the optimist...

Ether Surface

With the cave focusing the blast wave of the second explosion. Tomomi flew out of mouth into a nearby snow drift. A slew of curses came out of her just below the needed volume for the microphone to pick up. She looked around and proceeded back to the shuttle since everyone seemed to forget she was still there. She bowed to Takeyu once she arrived as he left.

She eyed the repair kit and then Mitsuko "Assuming we get to play handyman?" Tomomi said with a slightly upbeat voice.

Kyle said:

"Misato-hei, I need teleportation coordinates, preferably a little bit away from you so I don't end up damaging your suit upon reappearance."

Click to expand...

"Yes Sir, as follows:" she quickly calculated with the mindy's computer system where 20' would be up the tunnel mouth from the door "xxxx.xxxx:xxxx:xxxx.xx" She really didn't feel good about this plan but she was stumped for any other ideas. 'Welp this is one for the records, If I survived I'm going to bring artillery next operation' she thought optimistically.