RP: YSS Ryūjō Mission 2 - Ambush at Home

Simulation Room, Lower Level

Fyodor groaned as he saw the chaos that he had walked into. “And if we skip safety?” he asked the ship, pulling his Kodian sized NSP and shooting at the fake Nepleslian power armor, trying, probably in vain, to keep an eye out for the ripple of a cloak. “Just point me at the projectors and we’ll fix them after we aren’t boarded.”

“Ryujo crew to me,” he bellowed, putting a paw out to stop the infantry behind him. “Grab any wounded and gather here until the simulation ends. Don’t want any more friendly fire.” Will this work? he thought. Probably not. But at least I tried.

Zero-G Passageway
Entrance to Deck 4

Tomiko was starting to panic. Something was very wrong here, and she was no good at fighting. She could probably overpower someone in a brawl if necessary, but if someone was on the ship they had likely bested people far more capable than she was.

She floated towards the intercom and pushed the button awkwardly. "Tomiko Hinata, Medic, please open the door! Kohosei Zion is asystole, if I don't get him to the med bay he'll be dead!" She exclaimed. Please, someone be there.. She thought, chewing on her lip nervously.

Hangar Bay #2

Soon after Fyodor left, the intercom crackled to life in the bay with the voice of the ship's MEGAMI. "Nitô Hei Sebastian Wells, please suspend your current task and find a way to safe;y cut power to the ship's simulation bay. You may borrow whatever you need to accomplish this task."

Deck 5, Passage to Deck 4

After a moment, Tomiko heard the voice of one of the bridge crew, though the brief reply was not encouraging. "Please wait..." After what seemed like an eternity with no further response--something like fifteen seconds, in fact--the passageway was suddenly unsealed, leaving Tomiko free to open the doors and hurry on.

It was strange, though; she felt a definite presence as something swooped past her when she stepped into the Zero-Gravity Passage, but she could see nothing. The voice was still chattering to the empty corridor, though Tomiko had to hurry on. "...be advised, the ship has been boarded. Thus far they've been kept to the lower levels, and away from engineering..."

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

"I am sorry, I cannot tell you how to damage the ship. A technician is on the way," the MEGAMI replied to Fyodor. His unreal opponent flickered and appeared to be on his back foot, but Fyodor clearly needed some fire support. A training grenade that Fyodor belatedly traced back to an Azorean soldier provided an opening, in case he wanted to rush into the sim to disable the Nepleslian... but that would be silly.

In his investigation, though, he'd also spotted a crate containing dozens of the grenades, still mostly undisturbed. The volumetric explosions were harmless, but surely they'd create visible shadows for anyone using active camouflage...

Fyodor's instruction hadn't been heeded by any of the infantry he'd come in with, though aside from the Azorean, there was one wounded Neko trying to crawl toward him out the simulator behind and opposite who didn't seem nearly attention-grabbing enough to be an illusion. Neither of them seemed to be part of the squad.

Hanger 5

She looked around the area and spotted her NSP being held by a Technician. She moved over to the Tech and retrieved her weapon from them. She gave a smile and a soft "thanks for the assistance". She turned and walked back to downed intruder. It looked really weird with a mixture of being cloaked and uncloaked. "Give me a spaceship battle any day." She looked upon the Infantry that was with her. "You guys did good." She wondered how the rest of the ship was fairing in this madness.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

Sure, you can’t tell me, Fyodor thought, taking in the chaos that swirled around him. As the training grenade rolled by him and he saw a crate of them sitting to the side, a rather silly thought came to him. Having used them throughout his training, he knew that they didn’t do much to ‘real’ soldiers then disorient them with volumetrics. To sim-soldiers though…

“Grab some grenades,” the Kodian bellowed, running and picking up a pair of grenades, tiny in his paws, and showed the rest of the crew what he was thinking. Using a claw to pull one of the faux-explosives’ strings, he kept it in his hand as he advanced into the room, letting the grenade go off in his hand as he headed towards the crawling Neko. The worst part is the waiting.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

If Fyodor had been uncertain, the grenade blasted that all away. Well within the kill radius, the Neko was only bewildered by the explosion, although the burns on her body were quite real. If they weren't caused by three standard shots from an NSP that struck her from the front, Fyodor couldn't guess. This soldier didn't seem quick of mind, though--despite the grenade, she seemed unsure whether Fyodor was real.

The Azorean, meanwhile, was excited to be given an order, grabbing grenades in both hands, trying to operate them with her mouth, then putting both in one hand and rushing off to shout about them to the squad that arrived along with the Kodian. "The training grenades will tell you what's real or not!" Maybe that one was Heisho material. Something unseen moved behind her as she ran out of cover, though...

Fyodor saw the distortion cross between him and the others. The wounded soldier was still looking at him.

Shuttle Bay #5

"I'll be the judge of that," muttered the Geshrin Heisho in response to the praise. He seemed to remember something, held up a hand, and ran back out into the corridor. "I'll be right back." Sandr sagged dejectedly, if only because it wasn't Star Army policy to do anything fun with defeated opponents. She and the Neko were still watching the intruder, with their broken arms and failing camouflage. It looked humanoid, over six feet and less than seven, and relatively spindly under that stealth armour.

They still carried a utility belt with more than half of its gadgets remaining, most of them as incomprehensible as the sidearm had been. Some might have been explosives, others perhaps dispensed cable or adhesives, or may have been used to cut, drill, and otherwise manipulate as a technician's toolkit. They didn't seem to have any long arms or melee weapons, or obvious explosives for that matter.

Shuttle Bay #5

Unsure what to do next, Errowyn looked around. "Can we use a scanner to determine how to get this suit off this intruder? And check for explosives?" Her mind beginning to think ahead other than immediate survival and subduing the intruder.

She was curious, yet alert with the after effect of the combat high of adrenaline slowly fading away, leaving behind the aches and pain of physical combat. She felt the rush the healing tingle in her burned hand and the beginnings of hunger pangs to replenish nutrients and material to help with the healing process.

One of the nearby Techs brought a scanner over to her, working the controls to upload data to compare when scanning for the requested information. It seamed that the captured intruder had become the center of focus. Soon the tech had the scanner uploaded and began to scan the intruder.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

Well, Fyodor thought as he saw the grenades effect, or non-existent effect since it didn’t do a thing to the Neko, Good to know I wasn’t chasing a hologram. Being more secure on that front, he looked back at the rest of the squad with a measure of satisfaction.

This crumbled when the Kodian saw the distortion cross between him and his crewmates. Dang it all, he thought as he pulled the cord of the other grenade and threw it back the way he had come, unfortunately putting it on a direct course for the Azorean’s head. “Intruder!” he yelled, taking a step back, towards the wounded soldier behind him, and aiming his oversized NSP to be ready to shoot whatever was causing that shimmer.

Zero-G Passageway

The medic moved into the zero-g corridor. She thought she felt something slip past her. Tomiko glanced back worriedly without stopping. Nothing there. Must be my imagination, she reassured herself. She floated on down the corridor towards Deck 4, going as fast as possible. Zion had to get to a life support system before his brain started to die. She hoped there wouldn't be any more obstructions.

Entrance to Deck 4

Tomiko had to stop to buzz the intercom, but there was no need to wait for a response. The door opened a second later. As she stepped into the passage, though, she saw that there was an infantry team waiting just behind where the blast doors would shut off the corridor. Four of the five of them moved out, the two in front kneeling to form ranks with the two behind. In unison, they aimed their NSPs, all firing bursts toward her at once...

Tomiko barely had time to start moving, burdened by Lucas as she was, before a dozen bolts passed over her shoulders and alongside her legs. Some of them hit something. The fifth member of the squad, a phod on the left, threw something--metallic, non-descript, smaller than a grenade--that zipped past Tomiko's face and shouted "Run!" as two more shots passed from Tomiko's left. The others were moving out of the way, pressing their backs against the wall of the corridor.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

Fyodor's grenade struck the Azorean squarely in the back of the head, and she staggered, dropping one of the grenades she was holding, reached down behind her to pick it up without turning around--a remarkable demonstration of flexibility--and stood up again just as two bolts of golden light passed over her head.

She gave the grenade a quick examination, and then tossed it off to the side a bare second before it detonated, before springing forward to pick up the one she'd dropped with an awkward gait. Fyodor saw the glow of more shots being fired as the grenade he'd thrown went off at the corner, but from inside this room he had a poor angle of view, and couldn't see any allies or enemies aside from volumetric displays.

Shuttle Bay #5

Sandr, the Neko, and the nearby technicians didn't seem to have a ready answer for Errowyn. The Neko was the only one who seemed to accept she should even be asked the question. "Eh... Science team?" Ittô Hei or no, she'd probably never been in a situation that called for one before, and wasn't sure what one was. They waited and watched the intruder while Errowyn obtained a scanning device.

Fortunately, the intruder remained inert and did not explode as a response to being scanned. The scanner was being foiled, for the most part, but some things were easily apparent. The intruder was cold. Literally. The heat they were emitting suggested an internal temperature well below zero. Most of the suit seemed to be made of superconducting materials, and they were still carrying an extremely potent charge--enough to do the same thing to the body that had happened to their sidearm if the current was broken, presumably.

There was plenty more to geek out about regarding this technology, surely, but Errowyn didn't have much context for it, personally. It seemed likely the intruder wasn't carrying anything edible, which would have been more interesting to their present investigators than some strange, alien gadgetry.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

Why is it that I can only throw well when I don’t mean to? Fyodor thought, grumbling as he put his pistol away, then bent down and scooped up the wounded Neko in his off-paw. “Besides the obvious,” he asked his passenger, as he primed his remaining grenade, having reset since its previous use and started running to the door he had come through, “You doing alright?”

Passing through the threshold, the Kodian threw the grenade at the origin of the golden shots were coming from. He then put the soldier down by the wall and stood between her and where he thought the intruder was, pulling his NSP out of its holster again and joined his crewmates in blind firing.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

If it had been a good throw, it might have been lethal. It was probably for the best that it was a little off. By the time Fyodor crossed the threshold to the sim area he was currently in, the partition between it and the next had three new holes in it from some of the NSP shots being fired into the next room by more infantry than he could count, considering at least a third of them were fake and were shooting at each other.

After tossing his grenade where he thought the intruder had been last, one errant shot came Fyodor's way from a soldier not associated with the squad he'd seen come in, but they went back behind cover and their attention shifted away from him just as fast. Fyodor readied his NSP, but even firing blind, he wasn't sure where to aim. The squad he'd moved in with was raggedly coordinated, and ignoring the Azorean who tried to encourage them to use the training grenades. The other infantry were either illusions or leaderless.

There was no more sign of the intruder. No news didn't seem like good news in this case. If they'd been shot, where was the body? The only silver lining was that they apparently hadn't disabled any more of the defenders... or at least not those that were outside the sim rooms.

Fyodor's passenger answered him with a simple "No," and seemed to be restraining the impulse to return fire at the Minkan who'd shot at her and Fyodor most recently with considerable difficulty.

Hanger 5

Errowyn did a quick read through, picking out the important data. She couldn't make heads or tails out of it. Yet it was safe as long as none messed with it. "Get a Science Team down here ASAP. Even if you have go fetch them yourself." She spoke in her soft authoritarian manner to the Tech. She was happy at least there was no threat of explosives.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

You better hope you get injured, Fyodor thought, glaring at the soldier who had nearly hit him, Or I’ll make you wish you had.

“Yeah,” he said, scooping up the Neko again, “I’d be pretty surprised if you were actually.” He then broke for the Azorean and the box of training grenades, taking a few zig zags to keep from being shot.

“Listen to your superiors and start throwing those grenades already,” the Kodian bellowed as he ran. “If you don’t I’ll be assuming your illusions and will be firing at you.” Let’s just hope I don’t get hit before I can carry out that threat.

Shuttle Bay #5

The technician nodded to Errowyn, but they both continued to work on her fighter while the infantry continued to watch the intruder, as seconds and even minutes passed. Nothing of note seemed to be happening here.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

To their credit, the Bavarian Fire Drill didn't seem to work on the infantry team, even if everyone present save for the intruder might have preferred it did. Not one of them went for the grenades at the urging of a squadless Santô Hei and a SAINT Operative.

Fortunately, the team leader--one of those Minkans who'd taken 'catgirl' to the extreme of being covered in fur from head to toe with no obvious human features aside from limb configuration, upright posture, and opposable thumbs--still didn't have quite as much stubbornness as a typical house cat.

After sparing a glance for the grenades, herself, she ducked down behind cover said to her dwindling squad a few seconds later, "Reveal its position with the training grenades! They have no risk of friendly fire." The squad seemed to have the intruder cornered in one room, but if they could climb and run across the ceiling, how long would that last?

They were still being shot at, all from one side but from many angles, and their return fire had been so far unsuccessful. If not for the reinforcements, the squad would almost be down to half strength. The shooter who'd aimed at Fyodor disappeared into the sim rooms on the far side of the bay, while the grenades bounced across the virtual terrain of grass and dirt under a violet sky to no effect.

The Azorean, hanging back close to Fyodor now, pointed frenetically upward, apparently at a Star Army vessel that was providing support fire against the advance of equally unreal power-armoured invaders. Fyodor understood that the grenades had at least driven the infiltrator to stand on the 'sky', though he still hadn't seen an outline.

Hanger 5

After a few moments of watching the motionless intruder. Errowyn looked thoughtful. "Lets get this trash secured so that you guys can go help others that need it." She kicked the armored body at her feet, hard to see if it was playing possum.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

You better run away, Fyodor thought, as he dropped next to the box of grenades, relieved that neither he or the Neko hadn’t been shot. Where’s my HELGA armor when I need it?

“Here,” he said, grabbing a paw full of grenades and dropping them in the injured soldier’s lap, “Might as well join the fun.” Rising and moving to the side to give her a better field of fire, he picked up a couple of simulated explosives for himself. Turning to pick his target, he stopped when the Azorean pointed at the ceiling. Ahh. Makes sense.

The Kodian nodded as he activated the grenades, held them as he counted down the seconds, then throwing them at the last second, trying to get them to explode underneath the illusory ship.

Shuttle Bay #5

The others in the hangar bay had few ideas for how to secure the intruder, and, in fact, all of them came from the technicians, not from the remaining infantry. Perhaps they could be tied up with some wires or cables, or the technicians could use fire containment foam... or hull sealant, though that would also have the effect of binding them to the floor. Errowyn was free to try any of these, though Sandr and the Neko were still both waiting for their squad leader to return and were reluctant to get involved.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

The wounded Neko grimaced and shook her head slightly when offered the grenades, and instead steadied her NSP in both hands, as much as she could, with her injuries. When Fyodor's well-timed grenades exploded, they revealed nothing of the hidden intruder's location--but when one of bounced off of something unseen, that was enough of a hint in itself.

The Neko fired a quick burst, and clipped something with one shot. It dropped to the floor, where it was highlighted by one of the Azorean's grenades, from which point on it apparently abandoned any notion of stealth, in favour of firing as many shots as it could at the defenders, both those aware of it and those who didn't know what to look for.

Fyodor didn't realize it until after it went off, but a cloaked grenade had also been thrown into the squad ahead of him. By then, the Azorean had been scrambling beneath his legs, pulling herself along by one arm after one of the glittering yellow-white energy bolts clipped the other without inflicting any visible injury.

The explosion that followed was hardly seen or felt, except by its effects. All the remaining members of the squad who had entered with Fyodor fell instantly, a last two stray NSP shots striking the ceiling. The lights in the corridor went out, and the last few training grenades bounced and did nothing. Fyodor had a brief moment to decide whether to drop or shield himself, or the Neko he was carrying before the counterstrike had fully unfolded...

Hanger 5

Errowyn gave a soft snicker at the sealant part. "Sounds like a winner. Lets use the hull sealant." As a Tech took off to get the hull sealant, she turned to look at the two Infantry that was with her. "Go ahead and rejoin your squad or where ever your needed."

She quickly checked out her service pistol to make sure it was still working and put in a fresh power pack to the weapon. She shook her head as she really preferred to do her combat within the confines of an aerospace fighter in space.

Deck 4

The medic yelped, nearly dropping her patient. She didn't waste any time thinking about what was happening here. Just before the object flew past her, the snow white Neko realized they weren't shooting at her. Her training kicked in and she obeyed the order to run without hesitation. She ran towards the Medical Center as fast as she could while carrying a person.