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

Engineering...
Three...

Frikin'...

Hours...

Jackson sat, in almost the same position, for three hours of his life that he would never get back. Now, a more energetic punk-rock song blared from his communicator. His feet were still propped up on the console, with an arm draped over the back of his chair, while his tail hung lazily off the side, occasionally swishing this way and that out of sheer boredom.

"I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my home..."

His FAR had reported nothing the entire time, which, granted, he shouldn't be too surprised about. The ship had been in operation for a mere three hours. There's no way it'd be having problems so early. But come on! Nothing?! Not even a light bulb needed changing?! He could've checked up on his Mindy! He could've made some progress on one of his writing projects! Oh lord, anything but sitting here, collecting dust, in this hot, loud, piece of sh-!

"Welcome to paradise!"

"That's enough out of you!" he snapped and slammed his fist down upon the device, silencing it. He stowed it back onto his belt, then crossed his arms and glared at the wall. His ears were flattened backwards dangerously, and his tail swished even more aggressively.

"If you would like to know, we're here." chided woman with olive skin, emerald eyes, silky black, shoulder-length hair, wearing a lilac toga in the fashion of some ancient, mythical place called "Grease". She sat above, on one of the catwalks, legs and bare feet dangling over the edge. A moment later, she disappeared back into the FAR.

"So? Knowing my luck, they'll just keep me on the ship while everyone else goes and does all the cool stuff..." Jax pouted like a child. A long sigh could be heard coming from the robot as it continued its assigned duties.

Bridge

The trip to Higaflan seemed to go very quick, and Umeshu spent a large part of it finishing up some very technical reading of the remaining Lorath sensor manuals. Every now and again she would glance to the right at Natsumi as she piloted the ship with a great confidence that only a veteran could. Hopefully the two would learn to work well as a team and become good friends, despite getting off on the wrong foot before... perhaps she could even help make college a smoother experience for the Kohosei with some tips later on.

Once in system, Hashimoto-shoi was quick to respond to Hanako's orders, surprised that she took her previous words into such great consideration. "Hai, Shosho. Forward sensor cluster array online." The young officer hoped that between the various instruments they would at least get a visual image or electromagnetic resonance pattern returned of what they were to expect, before switching to a more active omnidirectional sweep.

Bridge

"Blip! Blip!" Umeshu's control panel chirped, as the planets of the system came into view, accompanied by two bracketed dots on the display that read [UNKNOWN] in yellow, meaning the computer considered them to be "neutral" threats. Apparently something was showing up on the aether sensors. The unknown contacts were too close to the planet to get a mass reading on. The Bisen Lighthouse also appeared, with a green bracket on it. It was still in orbit where it was expected to be.

"Mishhuvurthyar leftovers?" Hanako speculated. "Elevate to readiness level 2. Move us closer, quietly, so we can get a visual."

P.A Bay

Aikiko nodded to Candon. "Good point. I'd like to go over them with you. It's nice to see someone prepped and experienced to work with." Turning her attention back to her Mindy and accessories, stowing them for later use.

Thee hours later... Infirmary

Aikiko finally gotten her shipboard issue Daisy ready. With time to spare, she made her way to the Ship board infirmary. She entered and looked around. "Hello?" After seeing no one in the general area of the infirmary. "I'm here for the standard procedure of getting a physical done."

Then the ships lighting panel that showed the Condition Status turned to level 2. "Damn," She muttered turning to leave the Infirmary to head back to the Power Bay.

Med Lab ~Three hours later~

Taharial called from the examination room "I am in here! come over the physical will be in here, would you like privacy while you get ready miss?" She walked out the examination room and smiled "oh hey Aikiko, come in people" she saw the Condition Status and looked around "we will do yours after the threat has cleared Aikiko."

Med Lab

Aikiko gave a soft chuckle, "Then a updated back up then?" Moving deeper into the med bay. "I'm sure that we got time for that?" She looked around the room and area that she could see. her eye constantly moving to take in her surroundings. But always returning to Taharial.

Med Lab

"Back up is good" Taharial smiled "what are you looking for, it is back here" she shows the area where the backups were kept "please step this way Aikiko then you can go on your way." She watched the soldier unsure of what the girl was doing, she wanted to talk to Akane because they needed to discuss things.

Bridge

From his station on the bridge, First Officer Saiga monitored the events unfolding and began his work managing the situation should it continue to escalate.

“Akiashiro-hei, check in when your group is prepared to sortie,” he sent to the ship’s infantry leader. “We’ve picked up two unidentified signals in space near the lighthouse so far. More information will be available momentarily.”

With one quick motion Saiga rolled a volumetric dial over to a different channel, this time addressing the technician on duty in Engineering.

“Howard-hei, report,” he ordered, even though he could see that all systems showed that they were running green. Saiga noticed on his earlier review of Jackson’s file that he was a freshly trained soldier, so this was mostly a formality to get the Santô Hei used to being in contact with the bridge. Even though the Eucharis was a small ship with a small engineering crew, their importance during combat was only heightened by the department’s lack of numbers.

Engineering

Jax fumbled around with the latches to his protective suit as he tried to slip it on. It was actually a grand feat, with him wrapping his tail tightly around his waist like a belt so he could fit inside. He couldn't help it; his hands were shaking. The adrenaline rushed through him at the thought of combat.

Once he was sealed in, he heard Saiga speaking through his communicator.

"She's running smoothly, sir," he replied. "Coolant flow and power output are optimal. Generator temperature is in the green."

he leaned forward towards the screens, reading the data straight from the console.

Bridge

Facing backwards to the ship's travel Stark brought up the sensor data, Using it to build firing solutions, in case the Shosho wanted to fire on the unknown. She also looked around to see if there anything else floating out there that could be targeted and shot at.

PA Bay
After a brief physical check up and mental backup Candon had returned to his armor to begin a very thorough inspection all its system, studying each individual slug as he loaded them into his rail cannon and back extention by hand. Although some may have criticized him for his hyper awareness today it had paid off as he had found that the filters in his air scrubber had not been installed correctly, each one was still shrink wrapped from being shipped and would have suffocated him in minutes. Although most would have fixed and forgotten the minor installation mishap it had driven Candon into a minor state of paranoia.

How could they have missed that? Who installed the filters? Why did I get the botched scrubber? Could the others have screwed up filters?… WHY HAVEN'T I WARNED THEM?!!
"Hey, everyone check your air scrubbers!" he called to the others, his voice stressing the questionable part, "if they are anything like mine were it'll make your trip very short."

Bridge

Suddenly, the unknown contacts began to race for the edge of the star system.

"Unknown vessels," Shosho Hanako immediately started, "This is the Star Army of Yamatai ship YSS Eucharis, NG-X1-408, we require that you identify yourself. あなた自身を特定する. Charisma, resend message on all EM and subspace frequencies and on repeat every 20 seconds for the next three minutes."

"Sending message," the ship's computer softly replied.

"Bring us to about 1 million kilometers from them," the Shosho ordered Natsumi. "I would at least like to look at them. Perhaps we can get some images for Suites-Hei to analyze."

Bridge

Umeshu was relieved the Bisen lighthouse seemed safe and still in orbit, although when the additional energy signatures came in identifying the two contacts simply as unknown she began to follow the same line of thought as the captain did. Though if they were Mishhuvurthyar the system would have been more likely to find matches, so there was the chance they were dealing with something else entirely here.

Hanako could see the young Shoi was continuing to monitor the situation and collect raw visual data through whatever means was available for later analysis. She also was not completely ignoring the lighthouse either, seeing if its AIES and its orbital radar arrays were putting out the expected signals or if there was reason to suspect something may have been tampered with.

Bridge

Natsumi had been maneuvering the Eucharis in as nonthreatening and casual a manner as she was able since they had entered the system, especially with the appearance of unknown targets on the scanners. Their ship was already aggressive enough, no need to promote it further. The Shosho's order to bring them closer quietly had confirmed her thought on the matter.

"Yes, ma'sm, bringing us to one million kilometers from the unidentified vessels" she repeated the order as she executed it, goosing the Eucharis' engines a little to get just that extra little bit of speed she wanted. As she did this, with there being the possibility of impending combat, someone had done things to the Lighthouse station after all, she dropped herself into the welcoming flood of information and direct link to the ship's computer that was the SPINE connection. If they were about to enter a fight, she wanted every advantage she had, instantaneous thought based reflexes and responses from the direct link was one she always liked to have.

"Coming into range" she announced, her voice slightly detached sounding now as she was fully immersed in the SPINE connection. The flood of information and the sensation of feeling the ship fly through space and respond to her thoughts directly was more and more comforting every time she linked with the system.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko had finished double-checking everything Victory had taken on board, ensuring everything was properly cataloged. Making certain everything in the Bay was secured, while she was at it. She'd found a certain item they'd received some time ago, but had apparently never officially assigned to the crew. With nothing more pressing to currently handle, Murakami decided to deliver the Type 36 Coveralls to the crew herself, leaving a shrinkwrapped bundle inside of each cabin.

As the new Readiness Condition was announced, she returned to her Cargo Bay, carefully stuffing herself into one of the AMES stowed there. Things were always unpredictable aboard the Eucharis, so it was always good to be prepared. She might be called to assist on a certain part of the ship, or sent out with the others. Or there might be another malfunction that left people sucked into space. Mitsuko didn't think it would hurt to be extra careful.

PA Bay
With his rail cannon extention fully loaded he placed it onto his armor station's loading mechanisms and backed himself into the rig for it to be mounted. The process was quick and painless.

Seeing as he may need to lead the team should Akiashiro be absent he decided to step things up. He knew what was in his squad members dossiers, now he needed to get familiar with them.
"Listen up! At any moment we could be mobilized and at this point we don't even know each other," he opened the conversation in a 'drill sergeant' style, "I'm Candon Suites, I was born shortly after the first Elysian War broke out and specialized in security, mostly guarding VIPs on space stations. I retired from the military at the end of the first year of the first Mishhuvurthyar War where I was a commando of sorts, I did it all in that year and took up sniping. After that I began working on various space stations as security until I landed a job with Origin as a Security Officer on one of their research stations. I enforced company policies and ran the sniper when things got crazy."

He paused as he felt the minor shift in the ship that was unmistakably acceleration. "It feels like we're speeding up. You know what that means. Akane, Darkfire, do either of you specialize in certain areas of combat I should know about?"
As he asked this he went to Aikiko's Mindy and removed it's helmet. He left the helmet there with the unit opened up for her to just drop in as soon as she arrived.

Infirmary

Aikiko nodded to Taharial and went to the designated section to have her latest back up done. She was fidgety as time was passing with each second speeding away as the Eucharis closed on the star system.

Her mind raced threw many scenarios and the possibility of being placed in command. She had so far refrained from giving orders in the Power Armor Bay to those that had shown up to prep their battle armor.

"Want me have someone to check out your battle armor?" Aikiko spoke to Taharial while sitting in 'The Chair'. "So you can have a bit more time ta be better prepped?"

Bridge

Umeshu found that the Bisen seemed to be in overall good shape, but that someone had smeared some sort of black goop all over the interior cameras.

"It looks like they're cruiser-sized," Hanako murmured as she tried to make out one of the other ships. "Definitely a warsh...incoming!"

"We are under attack," Charisma announced, at the same time. The brackets around the enemy blips went red, although they still read "[UNKNOWN]" next to them. One of the ships continued to race for the system's edge while the other went straight for Eucharis. Whatever it was, it was large, fast, and covered in even more turrets than Eucharis was.

The ship rocked as long range guns glanced off the ship's shield bubble. At this point the enemy started jamming communications frequencies.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Hanako ordered Natsumi.

"Incoming fighters," Charisma alerted, as more dots showed up on the tactical view. "Six total."

"They are very bold," Hanako grumbled, "We will need to secure the area before we can dock with the lighthouse. Return fire and see if we can get this ship to leave. Deploy our armor team and see if they can help with the fighters." She looked at the damage the enemy was doing to their shields. "This is going to get rough when we close," she warned.

Med Lab

Taharial dealt with her patient's back while she thought what will happen and what was going on to put them on alert. She snapped back to reality and smiled at Aikiko "thank you, I would love that, my suit hasn't been checked till it was made in our last mission" she looked at the soldier and gulped "I am not really a fan of fighting, I like fixing holes not causing them in people."

She smiled slightly and chuckled "but I guess everyone has to do things that scare them or that they hate, it makes us better and stronger for doing them2 she looked at aikiko and checked the backup "the backup is done Aikiko, you're free to go and check on the armours."

Taharial looked at Akiko "you better go now, it seems they will need you" she was referring to the rocking "you should run, and please be careful."

Aikiko nodded and dashed out of the Medical Bay, that would make a seasoned veteran cringed the way she was thown about. But her experience of being on a warship under fire, she went with the flow and soon disappeared down the corridor towards the P.A. Bay without injury.

P.A. Bay

Entering the P.A. Bay, she gave orders for everyone to suit up with what ever they had been prepping for battle. She stripped naked, giving a smile at seeing her Mindy already opened up. She tossed her bundled up clothing into her Mindy's Slot and slammed the door closed as she dove for her waiting Mindy.

Apparently the 'Powers that Be' that were in charge and in command entrusted her with leadership of the Infantry Squad. She reported back up to the bridge with abridge report. "Teams suiting up. And prepping for contact. 'Poloyze for the delay. Getting back up done when message came. Nito-Akiashiro and team awaiting farther instructions."

She spoke as she settled in her waiting Mindy and felt the connection making contact with her nero-systems becoming one with her Mindy. It closed around her quickly and soon the helmet was secured.

She quickly set forth to the squad what Candon proposed to her as for formations as such. As she was unprepared for such role as a leader of a squad going into battle. She was usually second string that came in afterwards to defuse explosive ordinance from captured ships, vehicles and buildings.

She let training take over for the most part as she went to each of the suited up soldiers when she was ready. Beginning a quickie of combat checks on the assembled squad. Making sure everyone had what they needed for the upcoming encounter.

When she had gotten to Candon to give him his pre-combat checks and on private communication channel to him. "Thanks for the help. You get to see if your ideas work as planned." She gave him a pat on his Armored shoulder as she moved on. "You're second in command. Don't hesitate contact me if you see any way we can succeed. Final Decision is mine whether we execute the idea or not."

It was felt like that Eucharis was the one that was going to be boarded, not the other way around.. She knew about boarding actions. "Everyone grab a secondary weapon that is shorter in length for close quarter combat! We may be the ones that get boarded by the enemy! Cando? (sounding like Can Do) Select and assign battle buddies. Major areas that have priority to be protected is the Bridge, MEGAMI and infirmary at all cost!." As she came to a stop before the assembled squad of Infantry.