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

Engineering
Jax received the list and cringed a little. It would probably be a while until he got to have that beer with Umeshu.

None the less, Jax collected the data from the list a created a more stream-lined checklist, with notes that could be added such as required materials and so forth. So far on the list, it looked like most things were going to require more advanced parts that couldn't be found just lying around onboard. Though, the armor racks and life support systems looked feasible in the current situation. He decided to try for the life support. If they were going to be stuck here, he at least wanted to be stuck here with some damn A/C.

Jax let out a small curse as he accidentally dropped his communicator. His tail twitched with bemusement as the device slid forwards along the floor until it thudded against the wall. Oh, yeah, and he might be able to see why the ship was frikin' tilting.

"Thank you, Chusa, I'm heading down to misc. systems and landing gear to try and get our life support back on. Gonna try to get the boat level while I'm at it." he announced, and headed back the way he came, to the cargo lift, which would take him down into the belly of the Eucharis. On his way through the fabrication bay, he stopped at a tool locker to grab some supplies he might need.

Misc. Systems
Jax stepped from the elevator and looked around, hands on his hips, searching for his destination among all of the systems. Fresh air from the outside flowed in, as well as some sunlight from the open gear doors.

"M'kay... where's the life support...?" he grumbled silently.

Shuttle

"Please Don't move!" Tony exclaimed as she started scanning the two crew members that were knocked out. "Please hold still, you might have other injuries that could be aggravated or made worse by your moving about." she waved the scanner down each of the two's bodies, and then pressed the read out button.

Shuttle

Aikiko shivered as the cool air of the shuttle caressed her body when her Mindy grudgingly opened up to reveal badly bruised and battered body, despite the padding, from the pummeling she had received from the explosions and flying debris. Worse of her injuries was around the SPINE connectors as the cyberparts were shredded and frayed badly, with heavily torn tissue and nerve damage that was slowly healing itself at a noticeable rate. It would still needed to be treated for infection and removal of the debris of the connecting ports. A slight hairline fracture on her skull where it had impacted against the one of the many storage units in the PA. Bay.

"Some clothes please? Or you planning to just toss me to the void after you'll had your fun?" Aikiko growled out painfully, eyes blazing with bravado, resignation of a captured prisoner, accepting the help out of the Ruined Power Armor by The Yamataian Soldier. "What's a Neppy doing here amongst these Yammies? She a prisoner to?" Once she spotted Stark.

Higaflan Surface

Natsumi and Umeshu both saw something they probably didn't appreciate. Bugmen. The same bugmen species they had encountered in the Splorfin system...the Rixxikor. There were farmer Rixxikor in the fields and heavily armed Rixxikor soldiers in the trucks heading to check out the ship. There were thousands of them. The planet was dotted with Rixxikor settlements for as far as Umeshu could see as the ship's sensors could sense. And there were more of them being delivered by the alien shuttles.

Misc. Systems
Jax grunted a little as he bent over a machine in order to reach the damaged piece of life support. The blast didn't look too severe; something a few replaced wires and good-ol' "percussion maintenance" would fix.

He reached downwards into the tear in the panel and tore out any wires that weren't fixable, then set to work soldering on replacements. Next, he delicately pulled out a computer chip that had a few parts blown off. Using the soldering gun again, he fused a few pieces back into place, and used very small amounts of tape to fix a few cracks. Once the chip was placed back into position, Jax stood up, popped his back, and groaned.

"Okay... How many holes am I going to fix today?" he wondered aloud, turning to the tool locker he'd rolled down here with him and replacing the soldering gun. Jax then pulled out a welder and mask.

Jax's ears swiveled. Somewhere, far off, he could hear a sort of... rumbling. It didn't sound like a noise the ship made. But, he couldn't quite hear it just yet, so he ignored it and resumed his task of sealing back up the damaged life support module. A minute later, he stood back up and flipped the mask up, inspecting his work. For the most part, the machine looked back to normal, save for a few welding marks. Now the question was: would it work?

*cough*
*fizzle*
*spark*

Jax looked at the module bemusedly. Well, it was trying, at least. But trying and succeeding were two different things, so Jax combed his brain, using his star army training and vast knowledge of intricate starship systems to formulate a solution...

Just kidding! He whacked it with a hammer...! Hard...

Jax then grinned and stepped back, waiting on the machine's response.

Raccoon Shuttle

Mitsuko moved the shuttle above the Lighthouse, continuing to scan the structure for anything out of the ordinary the sensors might pick up. She glanced back from the cockpit at the commotion as the two armored Neko returned to life. They seemed injured and irritated, but at least they were mobile and conscious. She turned back to her controls as the communication from the Medea II came in, tilting her head as she considered it. Replaying the message to Suites before adding him to the conversation, she gave him a moment to catch up before responding.

"Hashimoto-Shoi, this is Murakami. I believe everyone is fine, if a bit worse for wear. However, I'm afraid we only have one, perhaps two functioning Mindys, at best. From your description, it seems like this...attack on the Lighthouse was fairly low tech, and hopefully their computers were not compromised. I will attempt to contact the Lighthouse and judge how safe it would be to dock, but I will let our Intelligence Specialist make the final decision. If all goes well, we will secure the facility and treat our injured with their equipment."

She signed off with assurances that she would contact Hashimoto or the Eucharis itself if she had anything more to report, before attempting to connect with the Lighthouse's computers. Mitsuko tried to take her time and check everything twice as she did her best to make sure the coast was clear, hoping to give the others in the back time to recover and free Candon to consult on the situation.

Shuttle-Telemachus V
Candon set her down on the nearest seat. Her Mindy was down and out which sucked seeing as they were short one PA straight from the beginning.

Samanthia said:

"Some clothes please? Or you planning to just toss me to the void after you'll had your fun?" Aikiko growled out painfully, eyes blazing with bravado, resignation of a captured prisoner, accepting the help out of the Ruined Power Armor by The Yamataian Soldier. "What's a Neppy doing here amongst these Yammies? You a prisoner to?" Once she spotted Stark.

Click to expand...

"As much as I enjoy throwing someone out the airlock, I think we'll keep you around for a little while," he said with a half-hearted smile, " and I'm really not even sure if we have any spare uniform on this ship. None of the survival kits carry uniforms." when she asked about Stark's presence his naturally sarcastic nature kicked into high gear with his icy gray eyes staring straight into Aikiko's soul.
" We have the starship gunnery operator with minimal combat training working with our strike team because two of our cat-cans failed to launch and one just didn't show up. I spent the first two years of my military life defending key military installations. In my honest opinion this has been the worst defense I have ever seen. And I swear, as soon as I see Darkfire..." he trailed off, hating to ruin the surprise, "Stark, see if either of these Mindy's have a CEWEP. Our EOD tech is starting to look cold."

He turned on his heel and strode into the cockpit. Without a word he listened to the recorded message. " don't bother contacting the lighthouse, it will only alert any remaining enemies. I already have a plan, I'll brief us all in the passenger compartment." He returned to the rest of the team.

"Alright, we're making a move on the lighthouse station. I know our team's condition isn't so great right now but we can still get this done, even if there is enemy resistance. As much as I hate the idea we're going to be landing the shuttle there, the station could be rigged to explode. The computer is going to be in lockdown, I'll need to get over to its command console in order to get information. We also need to get our injured people to the Medical Center. So this is what we'll do:
-Aikiko, I want you in the cockpit with the Heisho. You'll be scanning for explosives as we approach.
-Akane, I want you to guard them. Remember, your gauntlets are weaponized and you're packing missiles if all else fails.
-Stark, you're with me. We're the heat. If there is any resistance or anyone who tries to stop us its our task to ensure they die. If I see anyone I want alive I will tag them on the HUD.
Any questions?"

Shuttle Medea II, Skies over Higaflan

As the sensor data came pouring in, Umeshu realized that the industrial and farming activity she was picking up was not human-based after all, but rather what had the looks of an extensive Rixxikor colonization effort of the entire planet underway. Though she had never encountered this alien species before, what information she had learned in the War College suggested that this situation suddenly got a whole lot worse.

Trying to get her thoughts together for a report, she first responded to Murakami. "Acknowledged, Heisho. Please use caution, then. Sensors are picking up confirmed signs of Rixxikor across the planet and multiple transport shuttles in the airspace controlled by them that may be hostile."

The operations officer re-ran the scans one more time to try to get a better handle on the numbers they were facing, and exactly what was bearing down on the muddy landing site, and began streaming the visual data to the Eucharis as she brought the shuttle around for another pass.

"Hashimoto-shoi to Bridge, I have unfortunate news. My reconnaisance indicates an extremely large Rixxikor presence across the entire planet, numbering at least in the multiple thousands. There are farming settlements already established and more arriving via shuttles as we speak. I am streaming the visuals to you now..." She hit a few buttons on the aging display to switch focus to the incoming ground forces, her tone getting a bit more serious. "Most concerning is the fact there are several heavily armed convoys of Rixxikor soldiers rapidly approaching the landing zone and they do not look friendly. Victory-heisho needs to establish the defensive perimeter immediately. I await your orders to engage, Shosho, or continue to observe."

On this line of thought, Umeshu checked exactly what the Fox T4 Combat Aeroshuttle had in the way of armaments. Though its aether guns were designed to fend off starships and power armor, she could probably utilize them in short bursts to strafe the approaching ground forces with a little effort. But then, she also had no idea what anti-air capabilities the often rag-tag Rixxikor had either, and how well her shields would deflect them.

Shuttle

It as weird the way the Yamataian soldier knew her name. But then he could've read it off the trashed power armor. "Try looking in the stowage compartment on the P.A." She shivered in the coolness of the shuttle. She wiggled her toes and fingers, doing a self check. Worse of the pain was in her chest. She adjusted her breathing to account for it.

Once the pain had subsided enough to move. Aikiko got up and moved carefully to the ruined Mindy knelt next to it and shoved it onto the front and accessed the butt pack it carried. Pulling out a uniform still in its shrink-wrap plastic. Basic coveralls without the patches and insignia. Her head pounded with a head ache at sudden movements. But she stoically endured it to get dressed, panties, heavy duty socks., then the coveralls. Once dressed, She paused to rest to let the pain subside again.

She sealed the butt pack and unclipped it from the ruined Mindy. She stood up and wobbled as a dizzy spell over came her. Eyes closed and feet shoulder with apart, letting her equilibrium return. Picking up the butt-pack, now converted into a backpack, moved to the bridge of the shuttle.

~~Maybe this mixed crew wasn't so bad after all. Vagabonds that survived a NMX attacks and form an alliance. Found me drifting in space .~~ She thought as she made herself comfortable in the semi-warm cockpit of the shuttle with a Neko wearing glasses. Looking over the unfamiliar controls and console before her. Muttering, 'scanners..." Reading the tags as she figured things out.

Eucharis

Thing were working less than optionally on the bridge and communications kept going down. As a former starship communications officer, Hanako was skilled at these sort of things so she left Saiga on the bridge and went to the big armored hatch at the top of the main passageway and opened it up. A loud humming noise filled the soft white passageway as the various mechanisms rotated and worked on the inter and then the outer doorways, until they were both fully open. Hanako put on her hat and emerged from the ship carrying a toolkit and a replacement subspace antenna from the cargo bay. She could see endless cornfields and Victory all alone busily digging a fighting position. Slowly she walked along the ship's pockmarked, slightly-angled hull towards the antenna housing, still dressed in her fancy duty uniform with skirt, tights, award ribbons, and shiny black shoes. "Communications are a little spotty," she transmitted through her personal communicator. "Was that you trying to transmit something to the bridge, Hashimoto? ...Ah!" Hanako dropped down she picked up the distinctive ZIP sound of a bullet flying by. "We have some sort of hostile locals," Hanako added as she scampered the rest of the way to the antenna and started working on it in a rush.

At the edges of the nearby cornfields, Rixxikor began to assemble, carrying bazookas and various weapons, Victory heard some of the undisciplined Rixxikor taking shots at Hanako, she took that as a cue to start shooting, opening up with one of the Type 30 machineguns into the fields.

Shuttle Medea II, Skies over Higaflan

Umeshu realized a little bit late that the transmission she sent previously was being lost, as error messages started popping up repeatedly. She wasn't sure if it was the shuttle showing its age or the Eucharis finally losing subspace communications altogether. She however did hear the message Hanako sent out personally, though as the officer was just about to respond she heard the sound of bullets whizzing by awfully close transmitted over the line. The sensors in the shuttle started flashing red at the same time in the landing zone as erratic gunfire had erupted from the Rixxikor forces.

Hashimoto-shoi found herself panicking for a moment at the prospect that the captain herself was under attack, "Hanako-shosho! Are you alright?" Then, trying to control her emotions, "It's Rixxikor, thousands of them. They are surrounding the Eucharis... I'm coming!" The samurai trainee took another deep breath after this, slowing things down. The princess was in danger, and it was her duty to protect her and her ship to the very end. That was all there was in this moment, and all her mind needed to focus on. She must fight.

Umeshu gripped the controls of the Medea II, and went from her wide arc previously into a steep sloping dive heading towards the formation of Rixxikor militia. "Ikuzo!" she yelled out as the aether beam guns began to glow and hum, the Nekovalkyrja unleashing their fury upon the bugmen in a straight line strafing run, trying to scatter the hostile troops before they could concentrate any more firepower on the downed ship. Chunks of muddy turf erupted in a line where she missed and gratifying explosions and acidic gore where she did not. As the guns entered their 15 second cooldown cycle she pulled back up into the sky, hoping to get out of range of a counter attack quickly and prepare to dive again.

Bridge

Just as sensors were starting to report information to Natsumi of whom was on this planet, Hanako left to fix the comms antenna. Natsumi cursed quietly under her breath and started the sensors tallying up how many of the bugs were inbound.

"It's those Rixxikor bugs again" she reported to the XO and frowned with much disdain and sent to Hanako, "Shosho, it's the Rixxikor again, all over the place. Please the ship please, it is not safe out there" she requested of her commanding officer over wireless. She knew it was not her place to give Hanako orders, but it was part of her duties to keep her commanding officer safe.

"I am bringing the anti armor guns online to defend the ship!" Natsumi announced, not waiting for any orders to do so. She also immediately plugged herself back into the SPINE connection with the ship, allowing her greater control over the ships defenses. Sensors told her the bugs were already firing on them, at the ship, at her Shosho. Natsumi returned fire.

The anti armor guns, those that remained after the space battle, went to work, spewing long lines of tracers as Natsumi played them back and forth across the waves of incoming Rixxikor in an attempt to repel them from attacking the Eucharis.

Misc. Systems
The sudden sounded of gunfire and chaos from outside promptly got Jax's attention. The life support still hadn't made a noise, but he would come back to that later. He heard the sounds of bullets hitting the hull outside, and he winced each time. Even more things were just added to his to-do list. This made him a little more than slightly agitated.

"Who's got the balls...?" he grumbled under his breath and walked to one of the rearward landing gear openings. Jax laid down on his stomach at the edge.

"Alright! Who the fuck is putting holes in the fucking ship that I am going to have to fix later?!" he snarled, poking his head through and looking, upside-down, at the chaos outside. He could see a shuttle dive bombing them, and felt the vibrations from the ship's guns, and some other neko whom he did not know blasting away. But at what, he couldn't quite discern at this distance and at this angle. All he knew was that there were a lot of them.

"Uh, hey! You! With the machine gun!" Jax called out to Victory with a puzzled look, still upside down. "What's going on? Do you need help?"

Raccoon Shuttle

Mitsuko made a disgusted face at the mention of the Rixxikor. "Those things..." She grumbled to herself a bit, before quieting down to hear the plan being laid out. Suites definitely knew more about these types of situations, and likely had more experience than his lower rank might indicate. The assignments for the crew members similarly played to their strengths, at least with what they had to work with right now. "That sounds acceptable, Suites-Hei. Report on the situation with the computer and power as soon as you can. Once you've cleared the first two floors, we can follow you in and attempt to use the medical equipment. In case of an emergency, the floor above should be clear to return to the shuttle, at least."

She nodded at Aikiko as the other Neko sat down in the cockpit with her. It took Mitsuko a moment to notice her confusion, though. "...did you never train with the Raccoon? It might be easier to simply use your SPINE connection." Returning to her own task, she kept an eye on the sensors as she attempted to land the shuttle in the Lighthouse's designated area.

Raccoon Shuttle

After being ignored and the patients deciding to go with out treatment or ever a real scan Tony packed the gear back up. Though instead of putting it back into the shuttle she clipped the kit to the back of her belt. she might need it later.

"I can follow a bit behind him and give him cover support. But I didn't don a fancy PA, I'm just in my Suit. But with my rifle I can stay behind your front line and cover you just fine." She gave a mean and almost evil grin at the idea of using her rifle.

Engineering

"that is it now Cherry, well for the time being, the cream will cool your face down and protect the skin while it heals" Taharial smiled at the girl and then looked around "I hear fighting." She looked at cherry "I am going to help as best as I can, so take care Cherry" she left Engineering and ran towards the armour bay.

Armour Bay

Taharial entered the Bay hoping that her armour was useable, as she looked around she found it under some racks and other things she got on her communicator "Chasen-Hei here, I am coming to help deal with the attackers." as she unburied her armour she sighed it looked really damage but could still be useable, she decided to get into it and check out the stats "this may be dangerous, but I need to help the others." She gulped there wasn't that much actually working, she will have to grab a gun and just use that the armour was just some armour at the moment nothing more.

Eucharis Landing Area

The area around the ship was filled with flying debris and smoke as the ship's gun's, Umeshu's shuttle, and Victory's guns delivered a massive barrage of firepower on the Rixxikor positions, inflicting massive casualties and leaving craters full of smoking insectoid husks in their wake. The attacking force was decimated and some fled. Yet, somehow, the vast majority of those that survived stood their ground and just dug down into the earth waiting for the assault to end.

Meanwhile, Hanako zipped back to the hatch and got back inside the ship, with the ship's communication repairs complete. She returned to the bridge. "Saiga, call in some reinforcements. See if we can get those infantry soldiers sent down here."

"Yes, Shosho," Saiga nodded, taking a seat at a station and putting on a headset.

Outside, Victory waved to Jax. "You know how to use this grenade launcher?" she asked between machine gun bursts, gesturing at it with one hand while holding the large tripod-mounted weapon in the other. "Do not let them advance on us or they are going to capture all this equipment."

RACCOON Shuttle

"Not familiar with Yammie ships." Aikiko spoke in her soft manner, trying to be helpful in figuring things out without asking to much questions. "Whot's a spine connection?" If referred to the ports in her lower mid back. She gave a short depreciated snicker. "Those ports are non-functional." She wrinkled her nose in pain as that was one of the major sources of pain. UOCPF didn't use power armor with that type of connections. It relied on telegraphed muscle actions to respond and enhance.

Eucharis Landing Area
Jax's ears perked. Grenade launcher?! Him?! That was so awesome!

"Well, I mean, I've had some instruction... so- SHIT!" he was cut off mid sentence as he felt himself sliding over the edge of the opening. Thinking quickly, he used his tail to manipulate his body as it fell, so that he landed flat on his back instead of his head.

"...ow~..." he exhaled, cringing. He climbed back up to his feet, still rubbing his back. That's about when he remembered that he was still in a war-zone and being shot at, so he double timed it to Victory and ducked behind the fortifications. Once again, just like the space battle, he felt the horrifically exciting rush of adrenaline, but it was a little more subdued this time around.

"As I was saying," he continued while checking the chamber of the grenade launcher. "Yeah, I know how to use this."

Jax peeked himself and the weapon over the barricade at the attackers, whom he still couldn't quite make out. He scanned the area for a moment, and then caught sight of some movement in a crater about seventy five yards out. He aimed the grenade launcher, angling it so as to compensate for the arc of the projectile. Then, time slowed.

Here Jax was, with a gun, aiming it at a group of living souls, with his finger on the trigger. He'd never killed anyone before. What would it be like? What would it look like? He sat, still aiming the gun, almost unwilling to pull the trigger and find out. But then, a bullet whizzed right past his ear. That set off a knee-jerk reaction, and he squeezed the trigger as hard as he could, releasing a four-round burst.

Without even thinking about waiting to see if he'd hit anything, Jax dropped back down, and not a moment too soon, for several bullets knifed through the space where his head had been. He sat with his back against the barricade, feeling almost numb. His ears were pinned back against his head, and his tail twitched uneasily. He released the breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. His mouth was dry; he needed water. Did he even hit anything? Did they die painlessly?

"What exactly are we killing, again?" Jax asked Victory in between swallows in a poor attempt to get rid of his cottonmouth.

Armour Bay

Taharial sighed loudly and stopped realising she should release Sam so he could help the fight, as long as he didn't say anything or made those looks at her she would be happy.

Med Lab

Taharial walked into the med lab in her armour and opened the containment cell with Sam "come on, you are needed the ship is under attack, how is your leg?" she did want to know as if he felt better he could help them protect the Eucharis and if not she would splint his leg then tell him to help as the splint would help a bit.