RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 19: Ochiba

YSS Kaiyo II
Power Armor Bay
-
Abart felt conflicted on this mission. While he was mostly an easygoing fello that wasn't quick yo judge, even he couldnt deny the Occupation of Essia, as well as the many things he has witnessed as a Star Army soldier, had left a bad taste 8n his mouth regarding the Kuvexians... Up untill now nothing but terrible things have come from them, causing so much unnecessary struggle and suffering. Yet at the same time, he knew that many kuvexians shared the same fate as those they were fighting, sometimes worse. The select, powerful few contolling and manipulating others.

As such, upon hearing that the next mission was to extract and escort a Kuvvie youngling to a safe place, Abart needed a moment to really process the idea. At first he didnt care fot the idea at all, but seeing the image of the little one, with the fout beady eyes and stubby, underdeveloped facial features, he figured this probably wouldn't be so bad. The power of Moé is undeniable, it seems...

His train of thought was snapped back to reality by Aiko-hime's call to action. It was unusual for the princess herself to directly take part in operations, so the Separa was on his best behaviour. Following the proper etiquette, he responded by straightening up with a snappy salute, making his armorclad fingers ding off his helmet. "Hai! Ketsurui-Chui!" Apart from his honed abilities as a soldier, his peculiar body-heat situation and versatile movement would also be beneficial elements to his stealth performance.

YSS Kaiyō II
Power Armor Bay

The faceplate of the Mindy armor assigned to her distorted the reflection of Hildr's face. She was holding the helmet in her hands as she stood in front of her assigned Mindy, stripped down completely naked in the tradition of Nekovalkyrja power armor pilots. The curve of the helmet made her golden eyes appear huge and deep, like an ocean under the light of a setting sun. She stared at the reflection for a long moment before looking up at the headless armor, her tail twitching behind her before wrapping around her waist as she stepped up and climbed into the suit, with a little grunt of effort as she twisted to squeeze her large rear inside. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before locking the helmet down on her head, opening her eyes once enclosed completely as the armor started its boot-up diagnostics.

Hildr had fit a shock trooper loadout to her Mindy for this mission, with a missile pod on her right shoulder, offensive augmentation pods on her legs, and a Sylph wing pack for maximum maneuverability. She unhooked an Aether submachine gun from a rack, and also attached a pair of guntō aether blades around the waist of her armor. Strike hard and strike fast, she thought, taking up position with the others who would take the left side of the offensive.

Hildr grinned at Alastair's words, nodding toward him before turning back, her feral grin hidden beneath her helmet.

Showtime.

YSS Kaiyō II
Power Armor Bay
Kikios was in her Mindy, armed with a Kalamari manipulator arm system, Aether Beam Saber-Rifle, scalar machine gun, missile pod, and NSB launchers. She decided the Mindy's default teleportation system would be sufficient, she wasn't going to be teleporting an entire tank unless Chlorate came along. She was prepared to break into this research facility with the full force of her loadout. When she heard the order, she nodded her crested (not, she had a helmet on) head and waited for her teleportation module to finish charging. When it was finished, she made the jump and appeared behind the facility.

YSS Kaiyo II
Power Armor Bay

Gravity took a deep breath and reached out to pat her Mindy's breastplate. It was freshly cleaned of the blood of her frien-

Her heart rate spiked, and she sucked in a breath.

Gravity shook herself back to reality and donned the armor. It always felt odd when she did so, since she was rarely called upon to use her Mindy. The last time she had put it on was when-

Will dead, a gaping hole in his abdomen. Blood everywhere as he gasped his final breaths. Aether fire. Explosions. Home in shambles-

stop

stop.

STOP!!

Gravity once more came back to reality and forced a smile on her face. It was more for her benefit, given the helmet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have mostly clear skies with scattered volleys of aether fire. Should you feel the need to get hit, we ask that you please avoid getting blood on the seats!"

Please don't die...

Planet ???
Compound
Research Facility Exterior

Before she felt anything else, Teien Eden felt the crunch of a dirt clod beneath her Mindy's left foot as she was teleported onto the compound. Her visuals showed the large grey bricks of the compound's outer barricade a few feet behind her and the gritty plaster of the research facility's back wall a foot in front of her. Though the ship and crew were running on Yamataian time and it was their early morning, the sun was setting on this planet and an unbounded gilded pink light was cast around. The buoyant plum-colored clouds overhead moved at a drawling pace across a backdrop of azure blue that melded with a blush of pink. The clouds spread about in long arching extensions from the midst of the dome-like sky to the horizon with its falling sun, aglow with its descent towards a part of this planet she would never be to. Eden could spend only a small fraction of a second to look at the sight, but it was an awe-inspiring one. To see such a handsome celestial sphere after being in the limitless confines of space for almost a year moved her. She hoped some of her crew could appreciate the bittersweet beauty of fighting on soil and beneath natural atmosphere like she did.

With more mission-specific visuals coming in, Eden took a step to pivot and was ready to jog along the facility's exterior towards its southern side, but stayed planted a moment to direct those that teleported in, either to the north or south with little rhyme or reason behind having even numbers on either side. The cargo bay doors were located in the center of the building's entrance, so both teams would need to fight or run the same amount of distance.

"Active camo up," Eden prompted either group with the alert and started jogging south. There was another building that was nestled near the southern path while the northern part of the research facility was against a tall brick wall of the compound, meaning both groups shouldn't have any sentient eyes on them, though she wondered if there were automatic defenses and observational equipment that the sensors couldn't pick up.

Eden was relieved to find that there were at least no turrets nor drones on their way as she and some of her team came out from the shadows and were now at the front of the research building.

"Path to entrance is clear, team," Eden told the assault group and scanned the courtyard and as much of the buildings surrounding them as she could. There were a what looked like over-sized supply sheds and possibly one set of barracks, as well as a domed building and a few others with shapes and features that didn't strike the Chusa with obvious purposes. Her attention was drawn to the patrolling guards and other miscellaneous personnel wandering to and from buildings and in the courtyard.

It was apparent to Eden that their actively stealthed Mindy were still seen by those and the Chusa spoke, "We've been spotted, Belmont-chui and infantry, hold the line for everyone else to get in the building." She knew they were spotted because some guards took defensive postures and had pulled their sidearms out of holsters while two others had jumped to and were legging it to the domed building and the building that Eden believed to be barracks. Guards were made obvious by their professional -though unarmored- uniform, a purple and gold trimmed get up complete with flat-topped hats, and their obvious abilities to act out of training instead of instinct. Those that were not guards had begun running almost in circles, at first, then ran towards cover of any sort, whether behind a building, a few oddly round benches, or an ornate fountain in the center of the courtyard. "Civilians are not our targets. Get those guards down. Be the smash to the grab, team."

Eden herself took a position near the open cargo bay door with her back to the wall. She was ready to pounce under the tall, fifteen-foot high doors at a moment's notice as a likely call from the Kuvexians would be to close them, but there was still time to take out a few of the guards, of which there were eight visible to Eden, including those running to sound the alarms and rouse the troops. Stopping them would only delay the inevitable wave of whatever defensive support the compound had, but getting her own people into the research facility meant they would have a place to fortify from- and hopefully mean they had cut off the connection the Kuvexians had to the high end armors. High end armors she did not want to fight against this morning.

Planet ???
Compound
Research Facility Exterior

It was done with a second as Dalida could feel the dirt under her Mindy and drops onto it. Taking a deep breath a few times as she looked up towards a large building and then turning her head to the sun that was raising and slowly nods to herself as she heard that the cameo had to go up. Dalida activates the cameo as her Mindy adepts towards her surroundings and started to jog behind Eden keeping her surrounding in check and notice buildings in the area, but no turrets or drones which made her blink a few times. Was it really that safe or was it perhaps a trap?

Yet when arriving at the area, Eden spoke that the enemy had detected them and she grabbed her gun closely to her side. She took a position and moved in defensive formation nodding towards the order not to hit any civilians. Dalida rolled into the building and aimed outside "Eden-Chui....that's a High-end armor... is it wise to now already fire at them? I don't know if I can work under the heat when finding those prototypes"

Planet ???
Compound
Research Facility Exterior
Kikios turned on her active camo, rendering her invisible, and dashed around the building with Eden, stopping at the door. She was alarmed to hear that they had still been spotted already. She identified the two guards that were running off to sound the alarms. While her main objective was to find out more about these armors, there was a bigger issue at hand. She answered Dalida, explaining "The guards are already trying to sound the alarm. Either we stop them now, or they're going to get reinforcements and the real fight starts sooner." The yellow-haired woman didn't have time to waste, those two guards were already trying to get to the barracks and she couldn't let them get there. None of the guards had armor, but if they alerted the rest of the base they would get someone who did, making those two the most significant threat at the moment. She made sure no one else would be hit and targeted the two guards who were running to sound the alarm, firing a few shots at each with her Beam Saber-Rifle's integrated Phased Pulse Rifle.

YSS Kaiyō II
Bridge
Chlorate beeped and got into her weapons operator station. She mechanically pivoted her head and looked around, glancing at Hoshi a few times. There was nothing to shoot at yet. There probably would be soon, but there was nothing for now. Her machine parts quietly whirred as she awaited a command.

Planet ???
Compound
Research Facility Exterior

By the time Eden has shared they had been spotted, Alastair was moving into a defensive position. The assault drones had already detached and taken the high ground. Mainly the air above the guards and started to lay down suppression fire. "Already on it Eden, just give me a moment for me and the assault team to get this locked down." Alastair sent out commands to the crew to cut off as many of the guards as possible. He directed one of this drones to pick up a stick of Star Army Explosives from him and place it on the back of the guard trying to make it to the barracks. Figured a special delivery of fire and boom might cheer them up.

OCC: "Soldiers of the Empire I beseech you to stand tall. In the face of the enemy to be brave and fight honorably in the name of our glorious empire. When all enemies of the empire are defeated and are but ashes beneath our feet I ask one last thing. When the wars are done, I beseech you to come home, to put down your weapons and live long happy lives. If you attempt all this then even if you fail you shall never die. Not in the eyes of our children or our grandchildren instead you shall be Immortal, BanzaI!" Wulf Soban Senior,Unknown War pre deployment, Historical Archive Yamatai Star Empire

IC:
Wulf Soban
Shuttle

Wulf was standing in the shuttle as he watched the rest fo the team pile in. Standing in the corner he waited as the hum of the shuttle filled the air and he listened as gravity spoke up. Though it was abit dark it was standard pilot chatter. Chuckling along "Hey Gravity i'll try not to repaint the shuttle just do what you do best and keep us flying !". Silently to him self he thought, yes please keep us flying i'd rather not be falling into anti air fire this mission.
As he looked around at the team assembled he wondered what troubles they might face on the surface. As he looked at the quiet people around him he saw Kiyo a few steps away. Moving over to her he gently tapped her on the shoulder. In a personal comm to her "Hey dear don't be worried remember I did my back up". As he paused he added a final piece "A old instructor use to say none of us can die and are immortal, guess that is true for soldiers like us who got clones right?"

Shuttle

Mikael wasn't quiet, more that he was partially thinking over what Eden had said to him about "Compassion". What exactly is it? Does it only come in one form or does it come in many? Mikael certainly hoped she meant more on the latter for if she was implying what he thought she was, Alastair was something Mikael would never be. So his thoughts started to shift more to the likely cause of why she thought what she thought and quickly killed them. He already what he needed to do on that front.

He shifted his focus from inside his mind to those assembled as he looked at Aiko for the no longer than needed to still be considered respectful (not long at all) and then looked at Wulf. He could monitor for personal comm frequencies and break into them, but he wasn't as there was no national security interest in the action. So he just went back into his mind and started going over past intelligence reports regarding the Kuvexians and rumors.

Shuttle

Kiyo looked over to Wulf as he tapped her shoulder, and after she turned to the man she loved, she listened as he spoke, reminding her of the backup he’d gotten, and nodded, she remembered that scare when she learned he hadn’t actually had a back up all this time, and thought that it was good that he now got one. “I remember,” she said, placing her hand on his shoulders”and after this mission, we are going to make sure you update the thing. Oh, and Valkyr agrees” she said, grinning as she could almost hear their little Drake making her usual chirp.

Planet ???
Compound
Research Facility Exterior

Weightlessness.

A rush of it as the teleporter did its work.

Then a sudden feeling of gravity, though Hildr couldn't tell if it was more or less than that of the ship. Didn't matter now, she had a job to do after all. She had dropped in on the south side, and moved quickly, her active camo flaring along the suit as she rushed to the target area. She hunkered down nearby Kikios and Eden, taking aim at the guards.

Behind her helmet mask, Hildr snarled, her eyes focusing on the enemy as she laid down some fire with her submachine gun in support of Alastair and Kikios. It felt a little disappointing to be fighting simple uniformed guards and found a small part of her hoping that they'd make it and call the others. Then she'd see how their fancy prototype armors held up in a fight with her.

Compound

The air of caution and restraint amongst the Kuvexian civilians in the short breath of a moment before gunfire was the calm before the storm of war. When drones began to fly overhead and Kikio's aether shots began, Eden saw the different markers she had set up for the civilians move in aimless chaos while she watched the real targets of assault ceae movement altogether.

A dark ball of eruption rolled over itself to become a fiery orb that evanesced into the painted sky above the now burning and dead body of the guard that had been traveling to the barracks. The member that had been going towards the dome building had simply been shot by Kikios and the combination of explosives from Alastair's drone and aether from the cockatoo-like crew member was absent at their death. The combination had been present at the death of the guard going towards the barracks, though, meaning their warning to their fellow guardsmen was present in the form of the flickering flames of their downed body alone. The other six guards were quickly being picked off by

"That certainly qualifies as a smash," Eden said. The fifteen foot tall entryway she had sidled next to had begun to be blocked by the rolling door being mechanically unraveled from its top. "Team, all in! We have," the Chusa looked at the amount of door that had unwound already, "About five seconds to get in!" She looked towards the interior of the research facility. It looked like this was a storage room that had on its far wall another rolling door like the one that was closing now, except this one was a bit smaller and closed. The decreased width of the rolling door on the opposite side of the storage room meant there was room enough for a humanoid-sized door on the south side of the wall and a control panel on the wall between the regular door and the roll-up metal door.

"Or next entry point," Eden said, locking the crew's HUD to the humanoid sized door, then went on, "Kikios-hei I want you on the panel to see if you can figure much from it." Eden looked to the crew inside with her now that they had piled in with the metal rolling door closed behind them. "We might not have much time to do what we came here to do, let's work fast. Hildr, Dalida, take point on that door and breach us in."

YSS Kaiyō II
Bridge

Hoshi spoke to the shuttle Gravity was operating as she watched the team's movements, "Gravity-heisho, you are clear to depart. Keep the YSS Ōkami clear of close sensor networks and automated defenses, the locations of which have been sent to you and your shuttlecraft."

Beeps and glances caught Hoshi's attention and she looked to the weapons operator. "I would miss your presence on the bridge, Chloey," the Chusa said to the white haired robot girl. "But if you ever wanted to train for a new occupation- one where you were boots on the ground rather than manning weapons on the ship- I would support you in that."

Compound

Alastair moved in to support the team who was making way into the storage locker. As a parting gift Alastair instructed the drones to collar as many of the civilians as possible. He figured this would be a good way to tag them in case they ran into them again and the HUD failed to identify them as civilians. Plus what better way to get back at the Kuvvies than to dish out their own medicine. Each collar proudly displayed, "Property of Yamatai." He let out an evil chuckle as the civilians tried to dodge the drones.

Wulf Soban
YSS Ōkami
Wulf smiled as he talked to Kiyo and felt her rest her hand on his shoulder. Chuckling as she just like before they suited up was reminding him to update every day his backup he replied "No Worries even Valkyr nudges at me and I have to tell her I did the download". Keeping his smile "So how could I forget such a important thing darlin".

As he stood there with Kiyo he wanted to keep the light mood going. Just enough to keep the silence from creeping in before they got planet side. Pondering what to say he remembered a conversation he and Kiyo had before things went abit sideways on the ship during the boarding action. His tone light "So Kiyo my dear remember how I promised to get Valkyr last time well I hope you won't find me greedy to say this".His smile clearly evident "So when we both get back to the ship what will be my prize my angel?"

YSS Ōkami

Kiyo smiled as she learned that even their Valkyr reminds him with a nudge to make sure too. “Valkyr is a good girl,” she nodded her head with her smile, as the feeling of pleasure filled her at how good Valkyr was in reminding their Wulf in making sure to get the backup updated.

Kiyo looked at him as he began speaking, and she realized she hadn’t exactly gotten him anything since he had promised to get Valkyr, and she racked her brain until an idea popped into her mind. “Your prize, I remember, there is something I can give you for a prize, mom always said that it was the most precious gift I could give. “ She nodded her head with a smile on her face. “so to get it, our mission must succeed.

Shuttle

Saya gripped her rifle a little bit as she looked around left and right at those in the shuttle with her. She was sure the mission would be fine, but the spike in the heart rate by Gravity had made the medic stare the neko down behind her faceless helmet. Her hands idly searched her butt pack again, but she had a close eye on the Neko at the helm who made the jokes.

Now isn't the time to question her or bring it up.... Just talk to her after the mission, talk to her after we get home safe...

The normally cheery Neko was considerably quiet as her hand gripped the rifle off and on and she looked to Aiko. "If it is ok with you ma'am, I will focus on the prisoner. I have an AMES suit, and once we secure the prisoner, I will get them inside and teleport out with them. Will it be back to the shuttle here? Or do we want to have a rendezvous location?

Compound

The diminutive Iroma woman was doing her very best to keep up. She'd gone through all the right training and practiced her combat skills when she was supposed to. Yet, at her core, she was a scientist. A researcher. The explosions and gunfire were something she would prefer to read about or watch on a screen. Being this close to the action was not something that she enjoyed. She could tell her eyes were a bit more wild, more crazy than they should. Her heart thrummed in her chest with a dangerous energy. The split second dive under the door had been what really pushed her over.

Calm down, calm down. You need a level head. They need you to have a level head.

She worked on her breathing. When she felt like she had calmed enough, she gave the discrete mental commands that would adjust her body's chemistry - countering the adrenaline rushing through her and lightening the chemical agents behind her fight-or-flight response. Her pulse slowed some and clarity returned to her. Her eyes went back to their usual cool, dispassionate stare.

All was well. This was an expected part of being a Science Officer on a ship like the Kaiyo II - she knew that when she signed up.

Indira pulled up the compound's schematics and updated them with what they'd seen so far with a few thoughts. She looked over the others, pausing on Alistair for a moment to consider his evil chuckling. Indira shrugged - she wasn't a fan of his actions, but as of yet it wasn't her problem. Better to focus on the issues at hand.

"Oh, that's interesting," she muttered, filtering through the local data feeds. "Eden-chui," she began, "it looks like the compound has some sort of tracking system in place to monitor where people are. Maybe it's part of how they keep track of their prisoners, but it seems to include guards and non-combatant personnel. It's hard to say which is which just yet - but I think if I put some time into it I might be able to get it cleaned up. Maybe even hide us from it."

She packaged up the data she had and sent it over to Eden. Indira had labeled the guards they'd already seen. Their own positions were also identified, though it was labeled as a 'last known' position in the system. Plenty of others could be seen moving about, but they were unlabeled - they could be staff, soldiers, prisoners, or anything in between. Breaking the encryption to get the specifics would take more time than isolating out the easily-identified position data.

YSS Okami

"Showtime..." Gravity whispered and gently coasted the shuttle out of the bay, into the yawning black. With the cabin lights off, the only source of illumination was the instrument panel and the reflected light from the planet below.

Gravity exhaled and began to slowly roll the shuttle, so that the planet was now above them, then pulled back on the stick to point their nose straight down.

Time to go. The blue neko reached forward with a deft, practices hand and slammed the throttle forward, sending then screaming forth into danger.

"Kaiyo actual, shuttle away." Gravity announced calmly into the comms. As the atmosphere began to thicken, scorching hot plasma began to form around the hull. The shuttle began to jolt, at war itself with the air around it. It tore into the planet's atmosphere at many times the speed of sound.

Gravity was all focus now. A several small alarms began chirping, and in rapid silence the pilot would reach over to turn them off before making the required adjustments to their flight path. Atmospheric entry was not peaceful. The shuttle lurched and jolted as pockets of air smashed it from all sides, trying their best to tear the little craft to pieces.

An eternity later, Gravity pulled back on the stick and leveled out, reducing the throttle to a healthy combat pace that gave her a good mox of speed and agility for the upcoming evasive maneuvers she would have to pull. She'd planned her route to avoid the worst of the defenses, but not all. But for now, the air was smooth, and the alarms had been silenced.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," the neko called back to her passengers. "In a few moments they'll be shooting at us."

Gravity faced the sky once again and scanned over the defense positions.

"Do your worst." She challenged them quietly.

Compound

Dalida did her best to follow the group into the compound and kept the area around her in check, her prime mission was to keep her fellow team members in this mission save and secondary to get those blueprints that were of value to learn about the enemy. The door gets breached as the team moved forward towards the next area to breach. It was not much longer than Dalida had to keep her head cool and her the next command from her commanding officer.

"We might not have much time to do what we came here to do, let's work fast. Hildr, Dalida, take point on that door and breach us in."

She nodded in her Mindy "Yes ma'am" Dalida said formal and moved towards the door with Hildr to work on the door to breach it. As Dalida secured her side, she checked everything one more time and steps aside "Clear for entree..." Dalida waited for Hildr to the other side so that they could move forward.