RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 23.1] A Distant Threat (YE 37)

[Reynolds]

Raccoon Shuttle

Mitsuko frowned at Aikiko's response, even as she tried to concentrate on safely landing the shuttle. The other Neko wasn't making much sense. She definitely needed proper medical attention if she was going to be of any use. Maybe they'd get lucky and her own body's healing would catch up soon. Murakami had suffered from her own skull-rattling injury some time back, but things had sorted themselves out within a few hours, without much help from the ship's medic.

 

[Samanthia]

Raccoon Shuttle

Aikiko gotten the shuttle scanners working through some rapid trails and errors as she fiddled with the console's control before her. She ran intensive sweeps of the designated landing area of the space station for any explosive compounds that would be detrimental to the shuttle and those aboard it.

 

[Rizzo]

Shuttle-Telemachus V
As the "briefing" ended Candon removed his SMG and tossed it to Akane. "Heads up," he called before throwing the heavy gun, "take good care of it, it's new." A gun that fits power armor like a submachine gun is like a light machine gun to standard infantry. Seeing as any fighting would be CQC for him he knew the additional mass would only slow him down.


Lighthouse Station - Level 6
The ramp opened just enough for Candon to slip out and was closed just as quickly. No time was wasted as his 6 drones launched and spread out over the room. The red emergency lights were the only thing illuminating the bay, the yellow and black painted area of the floor was marred by four half meter long scuff marks, and the bay doors were blown open by weapons fire. The pilot was in a hurry to either leave or land. Either way, the computer was in emergency mode, the facility was locked down and the answers could be found on floor three.
Nothing dangerous here, time to move on.
"Clear," he cued for the shuttle to open back up as he moved toward the hatch in the floor on the starboard side of the shuttle. The metal hatch bore a crude hole, obviously from a plasma cutter, over the locking mechanisms. Rather than opening it fully he cracked it open only slightly and tasked his drones to scout the next room...

 

[Gunsight1]

Bridge

Natsumi scanned the incroching bugs, continuing to sweep their ranks with the anti-armor guns. She saw that a good many of them were digging into the ground to escape the gunfire. "They're hunkering down, Shosho" the snowy haired neko reported to her captain.

 

[paladinrpg]

Shuttle Medea II, Over Landing Site

The strafing attacks seemed to be working, and combined with the firepower of the Eucharis and the gun emplacements it gave Hanako enough time to complete the repair and get back into the safety of the ship's protective armor. Once she saw that the Shosho was okay, Umeshu's battle haze weakened as she allowed a feeling of relief enter her mind for a moment, and she took took a breather to assess just where things stood.

Thankfully she had sustained no damage as the Rixxikor seemed to be digging in and enduring the assault, rather than firing back at the air support. Communications static also seemed to be improving with the new antenna, though were still far from ideal. But overall, it appeared to be a stalemate for the moment, until either side could mount a strong counter attack across the divide. She wasn't sure how long until Star Army infantry reinforcements could be brought in, and hopefully Saiga or Blackberry had made contact with the Rikugun by now. What Umeshu did know for certain, was that unlike the beleaguered the crew of the Eucharis, the bugmen had more fresh troops inbound in a matter of minutes, not hours. They would overrun their position if something wasn't done about it soon.

In that vein of thinking, Hashimoto-shoi opened up a channel to the captain: "Hashimoto-shoi to Hanako-shosho, Are you uninjured? I'm currently moving to cutoff the Rixxikor reinforcements en route to buy enough time for the Rikugun to arrive." After dutifully reporting in, Umeshu leveled off the Fox T4 and then twirled downwards away from the front line Instead, she began trying to focus her aether firing runs to cripple or destroy the land vehicles that were transporting more Rixxikor and supplies to the growing battleground. If she could do that, at least it would give them precious moments to hold out for the cavalry to drop in and bail them out of this predicament.

As the purple-haired Neko once more charged into air-to-ground action, she sent a quick personal communication to Jackson-hei as well, who she could pick out as now firing a grenade launcher from the base camp. Figuring he was probably getting a bit of shell shock again being thrown into combat directly, he might need another motivational push to bring the best out of him. "Jax-san, you're fighting too? Be careful, these are the Rixxikor bugmen. If you can hold them off long enough to get our reinforcements, now that is two drinks that I owe you, ne?"

 

[Wes]

Bisen Lighthouse, Higaflan Orbit

The lighthouse seemed to be in near-pristine condition but abandoned. Riko's drone could see several science labs. Overall the place appeared to have been looted, with equipment that was too big to steal dumped on the floor. There were no signs of anything alive in the first compartment where the ladder ended. The door to the main shaft refused to open for the drone.

Higaflan Airspace

"I am fine here," Hanako responded to Hashimoto from the ship, her voice now coming in clearly. "Go ahead with your plan."

From the air, she could see that Rixxikor forces were converging on the area where the ship had landed, using basic-looking wheeled trucks and carrying a lot of missile launchers.

Higaflan: Landing Area

Victory continued laying down suppressive fire with her powerful machine gun, filling the air around Jax and her with a thick scent of gunsmoke and burnt lubricant oil. The Rixxikor were pinned down and it made them easier to land grenades on. He could feel the heat radiating off the hot barrel even from several feet away. The aliens seemed to have little regard for their safety as they continued to return fire, sending several anti-armor missiles flying into the dirt near Victory or over head head and slamming into the side of the ship.A

 

[Blizzard]

Eucharis Landing Area
Jax listened to Umeshu with half of his attention. He smiled a little.

"Sounds good, Umes- Wait, did you say... bugs...?!" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He stood again, eyes stinging a bit from the smoke. He squinted out at the attackers, and lo and behold, they were, in fact, bug-men. His eye twitched manically. He hated bugs. He'd always been scared to death of roaches. And now, those things were about to come into his house?! AND GET THEIR STINKY, GROSS, BUG CLAWS ALL OVER IT?!

This time, Jax didn't hesitate to raise the grenade launcher and fire into a cluster.

"Nope!" he shouted as he pulled the trigger. His ears were pinned flat, and he had a new, almost crazy look in his eyes.

"Nope!" he fired again. He didn't even mind the rockets and bullets. They were not going to reach this ship!

"Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope...!"

 

[Reynolds]

Lighthouse, Shuttle

Mitsuko sighed in relief as they landed safely. "Thank goodness..." She opened the rear door and left it open for Stark to follow Suites, leaving Akane to guard the opening. As Candon scouted ahead, she attempted to link the displays in the Raccoon to his suit, so they could see what he and his drones found. "Help me keep an eye on them, Aikiashiro-Hei. Depending on what they encounter, we might have to prepare to depart rather suddenly."

 

[Samanthia]

Lighthouse, Shuttle

Aikiko nodded in agreement with Mitsuko as she couldn't find any traces of explosive compounds strong enough to render the shuttle inoperative nor breach the integrity of the hull. "We're secure," Her soft voice tinged with pain from what she was feeling. "Not hi, Petty Officer 2nd Class Aikiko Akiashiro." Keeping her tone respectful and watching her set of consoles. "Ain't you guys a bit far from your mother ship? Or is this your new base of operations?" Hoping at least they was Free Spacers, not pirates.

It a frustrating that she couldn't remember the time before her blackout. She would have to access the power armor's data banks to get refreshed on her past. From the glimpse of it. She had her doubts.

 

[Samael]

Med Lab
Sam was on the floor, pretending he was dying in a futile attempt to make the angel feel guilty for locking him up in an evil cell. "Water. Need water." It's been so long since he held a sweet damsel in his arms, he so desperately wanted to get his hands on one again. If only the sweet thing would remove her armor...

 

[Yoshi]

Shuttle Raccoon/ Light house

Heading out and following Suites, Tony had her rifle up to her shoulder, safety switched off, she scanned the area as they moved forward. First sight of a target she was ready to fire. As they left the shuttle she fell further back allowing her to give more ranged support, and stayed out of Suites way.

Once they reached a good spot Tony knelt and propped her rifle up. The scope kept aimed ahead of her teammate.

 

[Gunsight1]

Eucharis Bridge

Natsumi kept up sweeping the area with the anti armor guns, mowing down bugs, they must have been stacked by the hundreds now in a circle of death around the Eucharis. How coukd they just keep coming? Just how many of these things were there?

Her sensors, along with the data feeding in from the shuttles, especially Hashimoto's tipped off the incoming armed vehicles. Natsumi frowned and focused her scanners in on them.

"We're a sitting duck down here" Natsumi said and walked her anti armor gunfire across the nearest enemy vehicle. "Opening fire with anti starship guns" she announced as she opebed up with the ships four dual heavy anti starship batteries, adding their devistating firepower to the already blazing anti armor guns.

"Shosho, if we could take off I believe a few blasts from the positron cannons will wipe out most of the bugs" she suggested, reffering to the Eucharis' pair of KE-S3-W2901 positron accellerator cannons. At least one of them was still functional for sure and they could dish out massive damage, especially against ground targets. She would just want some range first.

 

[paladinrpg]

Shuttle Medea II, Higaflan Airspace

Umeshu could see that the rookie had gotten stimulated by her broadcast, and started firing much more rapidly at the enemy. While this was a good thing for the ship, she did hope he didn't get too cocky. They still had a long way to go just to get out of this predicament with the ship intact, as the missiles of the Rixxikor hordes began to impact the ship's hull, chipping away at its damaged armor. Hopefully what she was about to do next with the captain's blessing would be able to have a significant impact on the pace of the battle.

Instead of strafing the ground up close for area effect, Umeshu maintained a healthier distance with the enemy vehicles that were her intended target. The aether guns had a very long reach after all, and they soon began pumping out pulses of light in successive bursts, as she tried to guide their paths with the precision of a adept kyūdōka to strike at several of the missile launching trucks with intent to destroy or disable. She continued this until the gunports ran hot and entered their cooldown once more, checking the scanners to see how much damage had been done to the enemy cavalry.

She did not pull up immediately and pause this time though, rather the purple haired Neko then swooped down to lower altitude and engaged the countermeasures systems aboard the Fox T4, dispensing chaff and flares to not only protect herself from anti-air missiles but also to create a distracting screen to foil the low-tech projectile's guidance systems and break their target locks on the Eucharis. It was not much, but just one more way to frustrate and stymie the Rixxikor offensive until aid arrived.

 

[BloodyScarlet]

Med Lab

Taharial looked at the man "Fine, I will get you something to drink, then you are needed to help hold of some attackers" she went to one of the sinks for cleaning up before and after surgeries and got one of the medical cups and walked back to Sam and pulled him up and making drink the water. She sighed "Now lets go fight" she grinned "If you do, I may have something for you if you actually work."

 

[Samael]

Med Lab

Help hold some of the attackers? Would it be too much to hope the attackers were a bunch of nudist Amazons just begging to be held? Probably... Last time was a bunch of ugly, trigger-finger insects.

When the angel helped him up and gave him water, Sam let her do most of the work cause he kinda enjoyed being manhandled by a woman. It was almost as if she was having her way with him.

Sam's eyes lit up when his wingly mentioned having something for him if he actually worked. Maybe she'd take off her armor and give him a little something something the next time they're alone? He quickly walked toward the door, then stopped. "Um, wasn't my Daisy blown to pieces during our last mission?" He didn't recall ever being assigned a new armor.

 

[Wes]

Bridge

"Never use anti-matter in the atmosphere," Hanako told Natsumi. "It will explode on contact with the air inside and in front of your cannons, remember?"

A little image of Blackberry appeared at the bottom of the main view screen. "Shosho, I have made contact with friendly forces and we should have YSS Vesper dropping friendly troops off soon, followed by repair supplies delivered by the YSS Aurora. Taii Akita of the Aurora is requesting the Eucharis' technicians and supply personnel come up with a list of replacement parts and supplies the Eucharis needs to get fixed up sufficiently to return to space."

Eucharis Landing Area

By now the planetary defenders around the Eucharis were in shambles. The earth was torn up and blackened and the nearby cornfields were ablaze, filling the sky with light gray smoke. Thousands of Rixxikor soldiers lay dead in a semi-circle around the ship. The shots coming at the ship and at Victory and Jax ceased and an eerie quiet fell over the hazy battlefield.

The green-haired supply neko turned to Jax, removing her hands from the smoking machine gun. "I am out of targets. Do you see any more?"

In the distance, the Rixxikor reinforcements never came, as Umeshu's precise fire had melted the trucks headed towards the landing site, blocking the road.

 

[Blizzard]

Eucharis Landing Area

Jax cackled maniacally.

"Run bitches! Run!" he shouted out at whatever few bugs were left, grinning ear to ear. For a few moments, he stood, holding his grenade launcher, breathing heavily. He swallowed a few times, and you could see a noticeable calm wash over him. That was about when he remembered that Victory was with him, and that he probably looked like he belonged in a psychiatric ward. He gave her a sheepish grin, ears drooped in embarrassment.

"I... Uh... Don't like bugs... hehe..." he muttered. "Nope, looks like we're in the clear- hold up, one of them's trying to be a tough guy." he said, shooting once more off into the distance to take out a straggler that had refused to follow the retreat. There was a muffled explosion, and Jax smirked in success.

"We's good!"

"Say, when's dinner? Any clue what we're having?"

The adrenaline was finally starting to wear off, and Jax was feeling its effects. He was shaky as hell, thirsty, hungry, his muscles were sore, and he could feel several small, non-critical cuts, bruises, and burns all over him. The fur on his ears and tail was scruffy and unkempt, as was the hair on top of his head. Also, he would've opted to sleep on a cactus if he could.

 

[Reynolds]

Lighthouse, Shuttle

Mitsuko frowned, starting to put the pieces together. "I suppose you must have suffered some sort of head injury." She knew what that was like, even if here's had only left her disoriented and nauseous, not amnesic. With a few more pokes at the shuttle's controls, the display nearest the copilot's seat began displaying her personnel file. "Nito Hei Aikiashiro Aikiko, you've been assigned to the Eucharis by the Star Army of Yamatai for almost a year." She kept one eye on the feed from Candon's drones and the other on the Neko sitting next to her. "I can send you more information via telepathy, if you'd like? I think the worst is past, so just relax and watch the monitors with me, please. Hopefully the medical facilities here can help you recover. Otherwise I'm sure your latest backup can be used to bridge the gap in your memories."

 

[Rizzo]

Lighthouse Station - Level 5
The drones began a thorough search of the level before Candon dropped down the hatch to the 5th floor. He kept his gauntlets primed and ready for action, though he was confident that is anyone sporting anything less than the finest military grade power armor wouldn't stand ten seconds against him, not in such tight spaces. The power was on but the only illumination came from the emergency lights and the controls for the automated systems were all locked.
Supplies are scattered all over the floor, someone was either looking for something in the wrong place or they were scavenging. But anyone sporting a ship like theirs should be able to keep basic medical supplies in stock. No marks on the wall means no gun fighting or resistance, not here anyway...
The situation was beginning to seriously disturb him as he continued. At this point the only thing he was certain of was that the lockdown had to be ended to get the medical stuff working though he kept getting the feeling that he was walking into a trap.

"Heisho…" he addressed Murakami, his voice wavering slightly before he regained control of his nerves, "check the station's orbit, if we're losing altitude even slightly I want the team out of here ASAP. Don't even wait for me, I can fly. I have a really bad feeling about this..."

He entered his override code into the door to the lift which promptly opened and ordered the lift itself to go to the bottom. In the case that anyone or thing was hidden at the bottom of the shaft, beneath the moving platform he knew the sensors would detect it and stop the elevator. Before entering the shaft he reassigned his drones to scout floor 4 while he planned to proceed directly to floor 3 to end the past lockdown and copy the computer.
"Stark, floor 5 is clear. I've unlocked the lift doors. I want you to clear floor 4 while I proceed to 3. My drones are tasked to assist you."
He stepped into the shaft, falling slowly to the door in front of level 3.

Lighthouse Station - Level 3
His active camouflage was fully active as the door to floor 3 slid open. He took cover on the the right side of the doorway incase it turned out to be the trap he was expecting. Should the way be safe he'd slip in quietly and access the AIES to end the lockdown.

 

[Samanthia]

Raccoon Shuttle // Lighthouse

Aikiko looked at the screen that Mitsuka had brought up. Seeing bits and pieces of her Dossier. She looked thoughtful. Then looked at the badly dented and scorched Mindy on the shuttle deck. She knew that some powerful explosions took place with her within the concussive radius. She just nodded slowly, letting this be as is. She definitely needed medical attention the way her ribs hurt when she took a too deep of breath. The SPINE ports area hurt badly.

"Yes Ma'am," Aikiko spoke respectfully to Mitsuka, "May I have the honor of knowing your name, please."

She turned her attention to the screens as Candon's voice came over the speakers. She watched the Drones split up to this person called Stark, the Neppy. She nodded to show she was listening to Mitsuka as she watched the vid feed from the Drones, eyes moving to catch the slightest nuances that the Drones would consider non-threatening but was a threat.