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

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko was bounced around violently until she found a place to wedge herself in more securely. The Eucharis had never been shook so violently while she was aboard. It was frightening. Thankfully everything had been well secured and was staying firmly in place. For the moment. She kept an eye on the stacks, and Victory in here with her, but otherwise felt like she was almost helpless. She wasn't needed to run the ship, and she wasn't an engineer to help with repairs. For now, she would just try to get through this, listen for any orders that came their way, and expect to be very busy as soon as the fighting died down.

Zero-G Passageway

Umeshu mouthed a quick "Hai" to Nicholas before quickly departing the bridge proper into the shaft that connected the decks. She moved to don an AMES protective suit from a nearby storage panel, suiting up while she tumbled slowly downwards. The smell of smoke was defnitely drifting in the air from somewhere below, and thinning too from loss of atmospheric pressure in the compartments above.

While she struggled a moment to get her long, dark purple hair bobbed up to fit inside of the helmet, the Neko then spotted Jax heading from the wardrom to the fabrication bay. "Jackson-hei? Are you alright?" she called out to him and signaled, trying to get his attention. The sight of the Shoi coming from the bridge area towards him was likely a welcome sight for his frazzled nerves.

Bridge

Natsumi growled several curses she had learned from her former roomie, Bors, as she flew the Eucharis hard to avoid enemy fire, taking several bad hits. Her poor beautiful ship was wounded, she could feel the sluggishness due to the damaged engines. Damage reports streamed into her mind through the SPINE connection, she cataloged them and filed them away for now, she needed to concentrate on preventing further damage to the ship!

The order to return fire had come, and she had, if the shots had scored or not she did not note though as the ship took more hits, an antimatter explosion had crippled a bank of engines. She could not believe they were being overwhelmed like this, not in all her time serving aboard the Eucharis had they faced this fierce an enemy. True she had missed the war by months, but still. She gritted her teeth and dodged and juked and maneuvered the Eucharis with every ounce of her skill and training.

Hanako's order to fire the main battery at full power on the targeted enemy vessel cut through to her and she responded, engaging lock, aligning the main aether shock cannon on target with a few nudges from the reaction control thrusters. Then, as the targeting reticule flickered green she fired.

"Burn you sonofa-!" she hissed, the aether shock cannon, was set to focused full power beam intended to burn through the enemies shields and cut it in half if she could.

Eucharis Exterior

Suites could see the ship rapidly turn and the brightly glowing prongs that comprised the gunship's dagger-like nose explosively erupted in an epic display of firepower, slamming into the attacking cruiser and clipping one of the enemy fighters, which exploded. Suddenly the enemy ship began to seemingly reel from the impact, and parts of it were burning as evidenced by the appearance of glowing orange. It started to back off, and the enemy fighters followed. The one he shot managed to get away thanks to its shields, leaving another swarm of mini-missiles as a parting gift.

Bridge

"Enemy shields are down," Charisma announced as soon as the pinkish glow of the main cannon started to fade. At this point the hostile cruiser started turning away, trying to position itself so that its remaining shield systems would be facing the Eucharis. It was now also heading for the edge of the system and its hits on the Eucharis grew less accurate as it rapidly increased the distance between them.

"Face our port side towards the enemy ship and see if you can get shields up on that side," Hanako ordered. "Start moving us towards the lighthouse and into orbit."

Hanako grabbed her phone. "Victory or Mitsuko, prep a shuttle to visit the Bisen lighthouse."

Armor Bay

Suites' efforts had taken out about half of the missiles before they hit, but the remaining missiles slammed into the armor bay, blowing up in a huge, violent fireball that filled the armor bay.

Wardroom
Jackson glanced over his shoulder. The look in his eyes resembled that of a scared kitten.

"U-Umeshu-S-Shoi," Jackson panted. Whether he should have bowed or saluted, or at least address her in a more formal manner completely skipped his mind. he turned around to face her. "What are you doing here?"

To be sure, he was very glad to see another living soul, but a bridge officer? He really wished that that other woman was still somehow alive. The ship was falling apart more and more as the seconds rolled by, and he needed a hand.

He stopped, took a deep breath, and spoke more clearly.

"Sorry Shoi- I'm fine, thanks," he said. "Are you hear to help? The redhead down in engineering, well.. she-" he stopped again. No need for another panic attack. "Point is, I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. There's a fire in the fabrication bay, and I don't think the fire suppression system is going to be enough to take it out. We cant go in via passage way- engineering is right across and it looked like it got hit pretty hard. It'd be safer to take the cargo lift."

Bridge

Natsumi wanted to persue the retreating enemy and finish it off. With its shields failing one more direct blast from the main gun would do the trick. But Hanako's ordered her to orbit the lighthouse. She turned the Eucharis about, heading back to the lighthouse.

As she settled the damaged warship into parking orbit, Natsumi let out a long breath she had not realized she'd been holding and sank into her chair, letting the stress bleed out of her as she focused her attention on assesing the damage to the ship and keeping an eye on the sensors.

"We're in orbit" she said finally as the Eucharis settled into position.

P.A. Bay

Even the Mindy, Aikiko took the brunt of the exploding racks and sent flying, not in the direction she intended but into one of the more stronger bulkheads of the ship. The impact left her dazed and rattled. With the team already deployed and engaging the fighters that were attacking the Eucharis.

When Aikiko got her act together, and was exiting the P.A. Bay right into the salvo of mini-missiles heading right at her.....

Then whiteness surrounded her, leaving her feeling weightless and free. As the white faded, Aikiko slowly spun around and looked at the totally ruined P.A. Bay as everything began to faded into blackness....

Wardroom

The Shoi could see his nervousness suddenly being confronted by an officer, though her body language spoke nothing of being condescending. "I apologize for our first meeting being like this, but I could not help but overhear you on the comms. Considering the damage we have sustained to the nearby sections, I took it upon myself to assist you directly." She then gave a brief warm smile and spoke reassuringly as he drew in a breath. "You aren't alone down here. We are all a team, this ship, and the Star Army, too. There is a lot to do, but with a good plan..."

She finally got her helmet on securely and listened to what Jackson had to report about the situation. Her brow furrowed when he spoke of the 'redhead' in engineering. "You mean to say Cherry-heisho is injured?" she voiced with some concern, thinking of how the computer indicated there was also damage incurred to the fusion reactor, and she could have been right at the heart of the blast. Piecing it all together, Umeshu's voice hardened a bit into something more resembling a commanding officer now. "Jackson-hei, I agree going straight to the fab bay through the Zero-G right now is dangerous. Since we are both in our suits, lets make a circuit through the damaged wardroom and galley into the cargo lift area. We will assess the hull breach located here as we go and see if it is repairable with simple Molecule Tape patch from the Damage Control Station -- or another solution you might have in mind. We will then head below decks via the lift to begin fire fighting actions in the fabrication bay and clear a safe way through it. That will lead us directly to the engineering section to assess the situation there and the appropriate response." The purple skinned Neko seemed to be able to give orders in a confident way, yet was calm and direct in her requests and that radiated out to Jax as well giving him a confidence boost, too. Or, at least she hoped so.

"Charisma," spoke Hashimoto-shoi to the MEGAMI through communicator, "Please clear the Fabrication Bay of all non-protected personnel and begin isolating from life-support, and activate the overhead FOAM dispersal jets at your discretion until we arrive. Also, status report on engineering and current condition of Cherry-heisho..."

Halls
"Ow..." Sam didn't feel so good. Did he break something? Well, at least he had an excuse to go see that pretty angel in the Med Lab. Surely, even Mitsuko couldn't complain if he went there while he was injured. He got up and limped down the hall. If anyone saw him, he wanted them to think he hurt himself. Just in case anyone reported seeing him.

Med Lab
Sam limped into the Med Lab. "Hey, Babe. You in here?" He was feeling a little horny. He wondered if his injuries were bad enough for her to remove his clothing again?

Med lab

Taharial looked up at the limping man 'him again' she thought, she made a forced smile as she spoke "hello there, what is the problem?" she was playing with a scalpel spinning it loosely in her hand. She wanted to know if there were others she needed to help but sighed and looked at Sam "get on a table then" she wasn't happy about this as she pulled up the guy's trouser leg and tests the bone in multiple places "where does it hurt?"

Wardroom
Jackson's eyes lit up a little, and a small grin crossed his face. The confidence booster had worked. An experienced officer taking over and coming up with a plan of action; a port in the storm. Most of the fear from before had melted away, giving him a new energy.

"Aye aye, cap'n, let's get to work." He replied and gave a quick salute.

"Lemme see... Damage control station is... here." Jax muttered and jogged to the sliding panel. He opened it up and removed two tape dispensers and a hull patch kit. Of course he knew that nothing in here would bring the hull back to full structural integrity, but he would worry about that later when they were in a safe- or relatively safe- place.

Walking back, Jax handed Umeshu a tape dispenser, carrying the patch kit under his arm. He had definitely changed since she had come in. The fact that they were now in orbit of the lighthouse, and that the attacks had ceased in their intensity, was also another big factor for this metamorphosis. He'd survived his very first, high-octane, epic space-battle with the Star Army, and on the Eucharis, no less! It was so freaking cool! Just like the movies!

"Let's hurry up and take a look at the hole. Time's a-wastin', ma'am." he said and headed for the hull breach. He hadn't actually seen it yet, so he had no earthly idea of its size or shape.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko heard orders coming in, listening carefully. The ship was rocked by one last explosion, which seemed unsettlingly close, but at least her precious Cargo Bay seemed to escape relatively unscathed. "Oh...seems that's done. Whatever that was." She shook her head, stepping out into the main area, waving to the other Neko. "I'll handle the shuttle, Victory. Check things here, then make sure Lime amd Mango are okay, and see what supplies will be needed for repairs." Hopefully whoever had attacked them had been destroyed or driven off for good, and they'd be free to limp home once they'd concluded the investigation that had brought them here in the first place.

She moved to the door, before considering all of the damage they'd likely taken. Especially the explosion that had felt so near. A quick consultation with Charisma confirmed her fears. Simply going up and heading through the Medical Center and PA Bay wasn't going to work. Murakami sighed to herself, before heading to the ceiling, planning to use the maintenance tunnel to bypass the damaged PA Bay and pop up from the floor of the Shuttle Bay. It would only be a few minutes, hopefully, before she had the Telemachus warmed up and ready to go.

"Murakami to the Bridge: who should I be expecting to transport? If the Power Armor Bay is damaged, shall we have whoever you dispatched meet me outside the ship?" There was a short pause, as she considered what the explosion and battle meant for the infantry. "...are all members of the team accounted for?"

Cargo Bay

Victory paced around for a moment, noting there was no major damage. She started to go find the cooks but they found her first.

"What are you standing around for, Victory?" Mango yelled as she and Lime rode the cargo lift down from above, dressed in AMES gear. They went to the cargo bay's forward damage control locker and got some FOAM hoses and fire extinguishers.

"Mitsuko had me sitting in here watching boxes during the battle," Victory explained.

Mango threw her free arm up in the air and grimaced. "What??"

"I know, I know," Victory sighed.

The two Nekos cracked open the door of the fabrication bay, releasing a large cloud of smoke into the cargo bay, and then proceeded into it with their firefighting gear and repair tools.

Engineering

Cherry called up to the bridge intercom using a partially melted phone. Her voice sounded distant and muted. "Bridge, engineering. The main space is in shambles and we've got a major problem with the power systems room. When we fired the main cannon it got all messed up in there and it's pretty intense. I'm going to have to shut down the main cannon so its systems don't explode as violently. It's not like you could've fired it again anyway. Anyway, our capacitor banks are going to be down and most power systems will be too. You may want to disconnect the anti-gravity system from the mains and put it on an aux source so we don't fall on this planet too hard."

Bridge

"I think that if the other ship was a combat vessel it would have joined the cruiser in attacking us," Hanako hypothesized.

Then Cherry interrupted with her call, and Hanako frowned as she heard the ship was going to basically be adrift and with most of its defenses offline.

"Do what you can to keep things stable," Hanako replied. "Blackberry, Bridge, what is your location?"

"This is Blackberry. I am in the maintenance tunnel looking out at the starboard pylon. The whole back half of the wing is blown out and the maintenance tunnel is open to space. The whole wing was energized with electricity but I just cut the power. I am not sure about the starboard turbo aether plasma engine but the CFS shield looks like Xiulurian cheese."

"Thanks for the update," Hanako replied, "I need you to go down to deck six and sequencially get the antigravity systems connected to portable aether generators from DC lockers. The ship is going to have to make a landing on the planet due to a power loss and I want it to be the soft kind."

"Murakami, it will be the power armor team," Hanako replied. She turned to Saiga, "See what infantry forces you can scrounge up."

Starboard Maintenance Tunnel

"Wilco," Blackberry responded, shimmying her way backward and back into the ship. She saw Mitsuko was on her way to the ship's aft. "Good morning," Blackberry greeted her as the squeezed past each other.

Space, PA Bay door

Suites had never been in space when a weapon like the Aether Shock Array was fired. The light was almost blinding even though he wasn't looking at the blast. As the fighter launched another bout of mini missiles it broke off engagement leaving him with a choice, pursue the fighter or stop the missiles. Fortunately he was ready for the missiles this time and made the obvious choice to save his comrades who'd failed to launch.

Forcing his right arm to work one more time he brought all weapons and drones onto the swarm of missiles, even kicking with his right leg to fling some countermeasures at them. It was times like this that targeting computers proved to be able to save lives as well as they took them. Once clear he looked back to where the first fighter still careened toward the planet and had the computer track its descent. With any luck he'll be interrogating a pilot by the end of the day.

Dropping the SMG onto his back he reentered the moving ship's ruined armor bay in search of his teammates. "Candon Suites to bridge," he radioed, " we're going to need medevac in the PA Bay, I think Aikiko and Miyako didn't launch. Also, Darkfire was not at his post, I have no idea where he is. We also have a disabled fighter heading towards the nearby planet, I'm sending his trajectory to you now."

He nearly missed it but as he was finishing his report he caught sight of Aikiko's digital camouflage under a support beam. With his only good arm he immediately set to cutting through the fallen piece, pulling her out as soon as it bent far enough and bringing her to a clear spot by the opening of the bay. With no gravity the task was easier in with no air pressure he wasn't going to count on the lift door opening anytime soon.

Using one of the falling former hangers from the storage rack he secured for armor so as to keep her from floating away while the ship was in motion and proceeded to search for Miyako.

Med Lab

Aw, his angel was waiting for him. She even had a special smile for him and him alone. It made Sam feel all tingly inside to think she spent her days waiting here just so she could see him again. "P-pretty much all over. I think..." Should he offer to remove his clothes or wait until she requests it? "It was quite the explosion, knocked me right into a wall. Maybe I broke something?" She'll just have to take off his clothes and see, now won't she? She couldn't exactly find broken bones with his clothes still on.

Med lab

Taharial sighed loudly and went to the counter she was at when he came in and grabbed her medical scanner, she walked back to the guy and started to glided it over the guy's body happier not to be touching him. After the scan she checked to see what had happened in the guy's body and sighed "some cracks and large bruises around ribs and back, hmmm well it seems you have chipped a rib actually, your knee has considerable damage but nothing that time won't heal."

Wardroom

Umeshu voiced a polite "Arigatou" to Jax, holding the CASTER in her right hand while she led the two into the wardroom proper. She could see that with the sounds of the intense battle largely behind them, and her reassurance, he was in much better spirits now and ready to get to work. Once they were inside, it was readily apparent where the problem lied... right over their heads in the ceiling rested a cannonball-size hole where the structure had been punctured that was slowly sucking the breathable air out of the room (and threatening other valuables as well). The ex-samurai found herself saying a small prayer, though, as the barrage had just narrowly missed destroying a treasured picture of Ketsurui Yui and Ketsurui Hanako.

The table beneath it was not so fortunate, though, as the wood from Hanako's World was slightly charred and littered with small pieces of metal shrapnel embedded into it, while the place settings and platinum tableware were scattered about the room like stardust. "Watch your step," said Umeshu to Jax, as she cleared the table of some of the debris with her free arm and hopped on top of it. She seemed to be able to reach the damaged section with the the dispenser from here. "Please install the patch kit and I will follow your lead to seal the edges around it tightly. That should be good enough to restore the seal, until we can get it properly mended."

"Mmhmm..." Jax murmured and climbed up with her, heading her advice and shoving away some debris with his foot. From the kit he removed a circular patch, 18" in diameter. With fluidity that came through many hours of practice, albeit still a little shaky from the adrenaline rush, Jax peeled the protective tape from the "beta" piece and slapped it over the hole, pushing it firmly to prevent it from moving. The center caved in a little from the vacuum effect, but it would hold. Next, he pulled out the "alpha" piece- the patch itself- and pressed the two adhesives together.

"Uh, so..." he trailed off, pressing the patch against the ceiling, holding his arms above his head across from Umeshu, to allow the adhesive to bond before she applied tape. It would take a minute, so he decided to fill the silence with a bit of small-talk. "How's your day been?"

He chuckled a little. Not the best he could've come up with, but his brain was a little scrambled at the moment. By the time Umeshu responded, the tape would be ready to be applied.

Bridge

Frowning she couldn't have done more to protect the ship, Tony leaned back in her chair and sighed. As she sat there the notice popped up that the weapons systems were shutting down. Frowning even more she sat there thinking things through.

"Ma'am I could put on an AMES suit and take my rifle to the upper hull and cover the ship until the weapons come back on-line, or if the away team is short I could help them there..." Tony turned to look back at the XO and the Captain.

Med Lab

Sam was confused. What the hell was that machine? What the fuck was she doing? Wasn't she supposed to take his clothes off and inspect his injuries with her gentle hands?

When the angel told him what was wrong with him, Sam got even more confused. How did she know what was wrong without even looking at his wounds? The girl must have psychic powers or something. "T-that bad, huh?" He grinned. "I guess you and I are spending lots of time together." A fucked up knee should at least confine him to the Med Lab for a month if not longer. That should give him lots of time to check out her ass.