RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 2]: Brotherhood and Sisterly Love

"Aside from the usual 'don't die' stuff?" Harrison joked mildly. "Well, I've got a protocol loaded to my FIRE for the zero-gee crossing from the Acadia to the Emden, so either you can download that or practice a few landings and compile the programming yourself." The merc looked at Phaedra briefly. "Other than that, stay close to either Chief Vel Steyr or Chief Rui, and if you can't find either of them, get to me as quick as you can.

"Another thing: That HOSTILE is loaded with an HPAR. Basically a bog-standard gauss rifle jumped up on all kinds of steroids. With a fire rate of seven rounds per second and a seven hundred round magazine, don't be afraid to use it for suppression fire, but be careful with ammunition. Use the DARTs, or BOLTs, or whatever you have on there, they're pretty effective against armored opponents although against infantry you may as well being throwing stones for all the accuracy you'll get out of them." He placed a steady hand on Phaedra's armor's shoulder and looked her straight in the monoeye. "Good luck out there. Just keep your head low and give 'em hell if you see someone that isn't dressed in the same tin cans as us. Watch for traps, and don't take any bullshit from anyone. Got it?"

Anselm had performed his landing practice with little fuss or bluster and parked his Aggressor, clambering out as Chief Ran's people came in. Anselm recognized several familiar faces among the bunch, but declined to greet any as the marine gave his full attention to his armor. When he was finished with his work, the Albino grabbed a small tin a white paint and a brush to give the Aggressor a name fitting such an impressive weapon.

"I name you, Njord, and your blade, Sindri."

Anselm had read of ancient warriors naming their weapons, he liked the idea, it made a bond of kinship between him and his armor, making it more than just a machine, it became a friend, comrade, and guardian. It was entirely superstitious, but Anselm enjoyed it.

After chuckling to himself about Harrisson's faceplant, Trey started up the Hostile's engines and boosted out of the bay for landing practice. The Marine waited his turn, then, as if he were lining up a shot, he did a number of minute calculations with the help of his armor's computer, coming up quickly with a program that would autopilot the armor in, and could adjust automatically for speed and course, allowing Trey freedom to use his weapons while the program did its thing.

The first try was a little rougher than expected, a Hostile not having the same flight characteristics as a beam of Positrons, and, were it not for the PPP, the former tech sentry would have skidded into the wall. As it was, he simply ground to a halt as the PPP tugged against the bay plating, while a few bolts and screws flew at him. The sniper then sat and made adjustments, such as speed and more reverse thrust upon the landing, before going out and trying again. The second landing proved to be smooth and graceful, so Trey logged the program into his Hostile's memory, before going out and trying again, this time from another angle.

Lilly, in the meantime, had abandoned her hopes of finding a suitable bunk. Everyone else had rushed into the bay so quickly, she felt somewhat abashed that she wasn't very eager for the mission. Considering her skill-set, she'd been placed in the Power Armor squad. At least she didn't have to get all the infantry gear, but now her performance in the mission hinged on her proper selection of a PA load-out, which was NOT her forte. Despite all the equipment training basic had put her through, she still had no idea what to use for this mission.

Well, first thing was first. She had to find herself an armor. Glancing around, she noticed that the units which had been performing best were the AIRs and Hostiles. During training, Lilly had taken a liking to the good maneuverability of the AIR, so she decided to go with one of those. A cursory view of the the armor racks revealed an abundance of them in the hangar, but something in a neglected corner caught her eye. "Beautiful..." she murmured to herself. She approached a pair of gorgeously built AIRs. They were noticeably different from the AIR2, but definitely not a series 1. She took up the diagnostic data pad for one, looking at its specs. "AIR2-Lancer Variant. Pff, what? Not recommended for enclosed spaces? This is, what, 2 feet long than a regular type 2? Honestly. Shut up, it's beautiful. I'm taking it." Perhaps not her best first choice for a mission load-out, but oh well. This thing looked amazing.

Slapping on its release button, Lilly brought the armor down to rest on the hangar floor, with lots of loud metallic noises, grinding gears of the big swinging mechanical arms, and lots of sparks. She activated the unit, and deftly hopped up and into it. She was immediately prodded by an internal catheter, which hadn't been installed in most of the training units she'd used. Her eyes went kind of buggy for a moment before the suit retracted it and began adjusting to her body size. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in existence, for sure. Especially with the lead sheet rammed against her ass. Regardless, she'd already picked the armor, and nothing could change her mind.

Keeping the cockpit open for the comfort of the open air, Lilly glanced down at the HUD display, looking over the standard configuration. As the name of the unit implied, its primary weapon was a large lance. That sounded interesting enough. It was worth a try, considering how terrible her aim was with a gun.

Now that she had her unit picked out, it was time to figure out a load-out for it. She.... could use some help on that one. Looking around, she tried for a familiar face. Most people in the hangar were either in their armor or engineers she obviously didn't know. She noticed someone she at least recognized: a heavily muscled, white-haired, pale man whom Harrison seemed to be friends with. She wasn't completely sure what his name was. What was everyone calling him... Handsome? No... that's just asking for me to make myself look foolish. She approached the man, who was staring intently at his Aggressor with some kind of bizarre fascination. Pushing herself up slightly so her entire torso was sticking out of her unit, she rested her hands on the featureless head of the AIR2. "Hey, um..." she squinted down at his nameplate, "...uh, Wyatt? I'm Lilly, I don't think we've really met."

Talbain had sat out the initial rush of marines going through their landing exercises in order to scrounge up some extra equipment. Of the things he went looking for all he found were the observation drones to send with the team and an extra AMP ammo cylinder for himself. Loading them into the storage mount he got ready to perform his practice landings when he saw Anselm painting on his Aggressor. Apparently whatever he was writing was starting to draw a crowd so he went over to have a look for himself. Talbain cracked his armor open after moving up to the crowd to talk face to face.
""Hey. I came to see what the party is about." was all the offer of a greeting he had for Lilly and the Albino "You must be feeling pretty confident Anselm, taking time to write on your armor before a mission." Reading the writing on the wall of an armor Talbain tilted his head slightly and shrugged his shoulders, "What does it mean anyways?"

Anselm looked at his two spectators, slightly confused until he snapped out of his personal world and processed their questions.

"Oh- yes, Private Third Class, Anselm Wyatt, Armor Specialist- you were on the station, right?" he threw Lilly a casual salute, not paying much attention to her rank.

He turned to Talbain, a small grin on his face as he looked up at his comrade "You again- we might just become actual wingmen if this keeps up." He gestured to the roughly-painted white lettering on his Aggressor's breast and VBCS Short Sword.

"I named them, something I read about in an old history text on ancient warrior cultures; the names are from the same language as my own. 'Njord' means strong or vigourous, and the blade is 'Sindri'; small or trivial, it can also be interpreted as... sparkling, I think," he rubbed the back of his head in mild embarrassment and continued to explain his choice of names.

"Njord is self-explanatory, but I named the blade Sindri because I made some effort to get it in case we'd had to fight hand-to-hand, and I didn't want to be using the standard Chain-Knife if things got heavy, but I haven't had to use it yet. So, as of right now, it's a trivial piece of gear, but I expect it to make a difference when I finally need it."

"And yeah, I just finished checking everything over, so I'm pretty confident I'll be at my best during the assault." The marine crossed his arms to make sure Talbain heard his words in bright yellow print, the Albino looked over to Lilly, sure her eyes must have been glazed over during his etymology lesson.

"Did you need something, miss Lilly?" he'd tacked on the 'miss' in an effort to show her as much respect as possible without being overly formal, but he guessed it might draw odd looks from both Lilly and Talbain.

Henry checked out his new weapons and armour, making subtle alterations to them. They didn't change the weapon structurally, it was mostly little things like sight adjustments on his Styrling Dart, or getting the straps on his armour right. The actions gave Henry a small boost of confidence.

Henry seemed to be a bit lonely as he searched for other people going in without armour. However, it did seem to be the second time he'd been paired up with Ran Rui in a squad.
Henry made the last few adjustments to his weapons, stowed his spare magazines for easy access, got his technology ready to use, took off his glasses, and put away his notepad. He stood near Ran, ready to move.
"Awaiting your call..." Henry said to Ran with a half smile.

When Anselm commented on the station, Lilly blushed in slight embarrassment. "Oh, Golding? Eheh... yes. Though I'm afraid all I was useful for was giving Mister Trey some catching practice." With his armor open, Lilly had the opportunity to recognize Talbain from shore leave, as well. She gave him a friendly smile in greeting.

Lilly listened to Anselm's explanation with interest, though her eyes were, in fact, totally glazed over. She was still pondering the concept of naming things when Anselm addressed her directly. She blinked herself halfway back to reality, her eyes getting caught halfway in between. "Hmm? Need something?" She sat there for a moment, looking upward in thought, before remembering why she'd approached him. She physically looked at Anselm, a bit sheepishly. "Oh! Yes, actually, I could really use some help. I've picked this AIR2 Lancer, but I have no idea what to equip it with. You look like you know what you're doing. I could really use some help..." Her expression was vaguely reminiscent of a begging puppy, possibly because of the big, dark eyes.

Anselm looked at the girl hanging out of the Lancer, grabbing the diagnostics pad hanging off his Aggressor and pulled up the Lancer's specs, giving them a once-over before speaking "Well, it doesn't look like it has any options, you're pretty much stuck with what you've got unless you can find someone who's good at jury-rigging."

The marine scratched his head, unsure if he should be giving any advice to the girl, "As to your choice of machine... I'm sure the Master Chief would have better words than I do, personally I tend to select for longer range engagement and heavy firepower; what you've got is a high-mobility, close-quarters skirmish unit, and those DARTs are more for ECM than anything else; it's all equipment I'm only familiar with on a theoretical level."

A tech walked up pushing a portable loading arm carrying an HPAR, Anselm pointed at his armor and said "on the back, left side" and the tech nodded and proceded to attach the rifle to the Aggressor's backpack.

Lilly raised a confused eyebrow. "Err... ECM? If there's not much changes I can make to the weapons, I could still use a hand with the ammunition. Mister Fian said he didn't want us obliterating the ship, so I'm not quite sure which type of shells to use in the Mass Driver. The EMP ones sound useful, I suppose. And why exactly did you outfit your unit with that big chainsword if you're equipping it for long range?" Lilly was content to let Anselm do all the thinking on this one. She was better at asking questions than answering them...

Anselm chuckled "for the same reason the Lancer is equipped with a railgun even though it's inteded for hand-to-hand, in case you find yourself out of your element," he said, pointing at the sword and HPAR, "It's always good to have a few backups in place for when the plans fall apart."

The marine scanned over the datapad in his hands again "As for your loadout, you probably want a mix of Blue, White, and maybe Red munitions, see if you can find a tech to fit a shot selector to your driver so you don't have to manually load shells when you want a specific one."

He sighed, looking up at her machine "I suppose if you're going to sit back and shoot you'll want to replace your White and Red shells for Black rounds. But if you'll be landing in the Emden you're going want some Red shells in case we get involved with infantry. Anything heavy and shielded you're gonna want to hit it with a Blue from one barrel and either a White or Black from the second a moment later, that should knock the shields down and then drop the second, more powerful round straight onto its plating."

"If you don't take Red shells with you, those pulse lasers are gonna come in handy against any soft targets that come your way, but you'll be engageing each target individually instead of with one easy blast."

"Your best tactic with a Lancer is something along the lines of using your Mass Driver to close with your target, deploying the Darts to provide yourself with electronic cover during the advance or any time you aren't in melee, and ripping them up with your KF Lance."

"Okay that's a wrap!" the Master Chief Fian Vel Steyr shouted over the roaring din of the hangar's superheavy Nerimium sliding doors closing in preparation for the CDD jump. Random pieces of metal broken off from the rough landings littered the bay, making various rattling sounds. "Fix up your suits if you have to, rest up, and report back here at 0900 hours tomorrow for the operation."

A slow humming noise gradually intensified, cumulating in a boom as the S1 Hray was sufficiently far away from Golding Station to execute the jump away from prying eyes.

The next 'day'...

Although rested and refreshed, exiting right into the Event Horizon Field set up by the NSS Alder nauseated many a marine accustomed to regular FTL travel. The effects of both Hray's electronics systems working overtime to mask the exit into realspace were still felt an hour later as they grouped themselves into their assigned squads. Bravo had already transferred over to the venerable Alder, it was not sure if Chief Adrian Decane's instructions to bring air fresheners were to be taken seriously.

Chief Rico Sanroma was late, with a very tiny lipstick mark to the side of his forehead. This set the tongues of Delta gathered in one corner of the bay wagging, ideally this was as much action that squad will get as they were served with the dull and thankless task of babysitting the Acadia.

Master Chief Fian Vel Steyr managed to find a few empty FIRE1 weapon cases that could be carried in both hands. They were large enough to hold six, maybe eight, infantry-type weapons. He laid them out for Chief Ran Rui's Gamma squad to see as soon as they were finished in the armory.

His own squad were in various stages of preparation. Some were still tweaking their suits, some were just getting in them, and some were making laps around the bay. The MC was in his new AIR-R 'Storm', the techies fixed it up the night before. He noticed another M1 that wasn't a vanilla AIR2, someone in the squad selected an AIR2 'Lancer'. He wondered briefly who could have the skill and/or guts to pilot that high speed suit before the ship's X-SAVTECH sounded off an automated reminder.

Operation commencing in T-Minus 30 minutes.

Fian straightened up inside his suit and called out his squad to assemble. "Epsilon Squad, FALL IN!"

Lilly tensed up in her slightly jury-rigged 'cockpit.' It was expanded for someone a good deal wider than her, and her bed sheets had been shoved against the back as a cushion. After this mission, she was definitely going to see about getting something comfortable put into it. Other members of the squad beginning to move, Lilly took position in the front row, right under Fian's nose-- er, sensors? She stood at attention, wondering what would be in store for her on her first real mission...

Trey's Hostile thundered into line, getting ready for the mission. He gripped his LBR, checking again the canisters on his arm. The HPAR and other standard weapons were all stowed on racks, ready for use if he ran out of LBR ammunition. He stood at attention when called, and waited for Fian's next orders.

Harrison stamped into line behind Trey, directing himself carefully. The bulky PAL had been removed for maneuverability during this mission, which left him a lot lighter, and he had tried a few more landings during the intermission. Now he was carrying a Type 02 Chaingun, in combination with his wrist chainguns and the chainsword. He was practically gliding with the reduced weight of the armor sans-PAL.

Phaedra stood next to the weapon cases that had been laid out in the hangar. She wiped the sweat from her brow, relieved to be out of the HOSTILE for the time being. She had test-launched the armor and practiced a landing without incident, but she decided to download the autopilot Harrison offered just in case.

Phaedra fingered her GSAR anxiously and waited for the rest of Squad Gamma to assemble.

Anselm stomped up to his comrades, the HPAR had added just enough weight to unbalanced the armor, so it moved with slightly less agility than expected. Hmm, I accounted for the weight distribution, maybe I just need to get used to the adjustments. The marine shifted his shoulders in minor agitation, the aggressor mimicking his shrug. Anselm unhooked the AOP from the Aggressor's backpack, he checked the rounds in the chamber, blue, white, blue, white, blue, white, check. Three more drums of the same were on his belt, accompanied by two loaded with six red shells; the HPAR on his back and chainsword on his belt substituted the removal of his LSP for the extra ammunition capacity.

Viktor slid his VOID into position right next to Anselm, LPA in hand. He rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen up. He always got that burst of energy right before a mission, and was doing his best to keep his cool. Thankfully he was in a Power Armor so no one could see the irrepressible grin he had plastered on his face. Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Plodding up to the group in his Aggressor Talbain took his place. Having woken up early to go through all the pre-combat checks again to avoid any malfunctions during the mission.
Taking a moment to look at the setups everyone was using again he called into the comms channel. "Anyone know if there were any last minute updates to the mission?"

"Anyone know if there were any last minute updates to the mission?"

Click to expand...

"Yeah, we have just confirmed that the Red-Hill is hostile. Both ships are on the verge of linking up." The hangar doors started grinding open again. The purplish glow of the Wazu Nebula flooded the decks, while they were still in Nep space, the nebula itself is firmly in Mishu territory. Space dust was whizzing by the airlock shields, creating small streaks of shooting stars. The HUD of the marines circled a small empty space in the background, labeling it 'Alder'. "The company it is registered to is just a front, and we've pinned a few recent attacks in this sector to it."

"Being a needless complication, the transport will be Aether-beamed by the NSS Alder at operation start." Fian made a waving motion with his hand, indicating how easy it is to reduce anything to base-elements with Yamataian technology. "But what I really, really, want to say is..."

"...Save the heroics for a mission we can't afford to fail, okay?" The pair of booms for creating the magnetic catapult field started extending into space. Yellow warning lights illuminated the runway. "Launch every two seconds, two at a time. Viktor you're with me." Fian motioned over the marine in the VOID. The Master Chief stepped on a specially reinforced pad, triggered his magnetic boots and started warming up his thrusters.