((OOC: JP between Ame (GM NPCs- Rei, Eden, Hoshi, Aurinda), @SirSkully (Wyatt Fujiwara), @raz (Ketsurui Aiko), @Gunhand4171 (William), @SageShooter (Fujiwara Saya, Fujiwara Tsubame), @SchererSoban (Wulf Soban), @Charaa (Kiyo), @Blizzard (Gravity), @Noodlewerfer (Chlorate, Kikios Leka), @Whisper (Indira Valkar) that was very fun to write. Title roughly translates into Kami/God-like or divine work. Thank you all!))
20日 4月 YE 42
Forward Base 1B
POM 2
The briefing format of being one in the thousands might never get boring for Eden, though she was looking in on this one from the metaphorical pews of the expanded POM Qonset Hut her crew was in. They were lined up in neat rows, hard to spot amongst the masses of brightly colored hair of the rikugun and the more somber tones of the Eihei legionnaires heads, but they were there alright. Half listening to the briefing from Shôshô Uzume she had read over already, Eden was watching her only SAINT crewmember as he stood next to his captain, Taiyou Hoshi.
Wyatt would be leading the ship's ground team into the operation today and Eden scrutinized him with an openness she wouldn't feel comfortable doing to him face to face. But from afar, she thought on his personal investments in bringing home the lost crewmen this briefing centered on and how he had died during the last mega assault, though the mission had been a success. The Star Army of Yamatai had begun staging a foothold within the system's bounds that had been overtaken.
Eden knew what passion could do to a warrior. The fight to overtake a system's defenses while your wife was MIA was not the same fight as rescuing your wife. Her confidence in him, as well as the samurai under similar circumstances behind him, was enough to warm the worry in her belly. After all, she hadn't been absent from a Kaiyō mission since she was back on Yamatai. She was a little anxious to be out of the action, but she had a feeling Wyatt's leadership would be paramount to a victory on this day.
Shôshô Uzume had shown the footage gained from intelligence analysts on the base of Aiko and William's last fight, which the Kuvexians had broadcasted within their space and their base had intercepted. The pure carnage of the Ketsurui clan member bathed in the purple blood of the enemy and killing more with nothing but a crude weapon and her militarized body filled the qonset hut with the cheers and uproar of a thousand Nekovalkyrja. The Shôshô had waited for quiet only to assure victory in a way that roused the SAoY crowd further. Spirits were high by the time all was said and done and crew members were filtering out of the outpost, towards the docking port.
The place in which the crew was being held was a mid-sized station. Its sole purpose was an entertainment hub with a gladiatorial colosseum in its center while vendors and ship bays surrounded it. As the Kaiyō's team had infiltrated Kuvexian-made stations before, they would be the team to advance into the enemy territory. The specifics weren't told to everyone, but Wyatt had been briefed by Hoshi already on such.
There was a small window of opportunity for pairs or groups of three to get slip in to the each port as it opened for guest's ships. Each bay was open to space once the force field dropped, letting the ship in. Because the team could stealth within their Mindy, but would have to stay near the generators of each ship so that their heat signature was not detected. Next they would stealth further into the base, finding the control room in order to do two things, shut down the security protocols as well as detach a part of the station that would give SAoY legionnaires access to the colosseum grounds, in which a larger assault would take place. Tanks and rikugun forces would be present while offshoot forces would begin accessing prisoner cells below the colosseum in the likely case that the missing SAoY members were not fully present on the battle field.
Even through the thick beard that had sprouted up on Wyatt's face since his recent revival it'd be easy to see the man's jaw clench a few times, the muscles beneath his tanned features contracting and relaxing each time, a thoughtful huff cresting his lips. Given his personal investment in the mission and the fact he'd recently crawled out of a hemosynth tank, Wyatt personally did not see himself in a good position to lead the team this time. But as he'd been doing since birth, the coppery half-elf would continue to roll with the punches being given.
"Come, team, I shall brief you more in-depth while we suit up," the tall man clad in his crisp black-paneled uniform spoke, very blunt and to the point as he began descending the few steps that lead up to the barely elevated podium, offering Eden a simple nod to try and better mask the faint frown creasing his eyebrows.
Nearby Star System
Kuvexian Residence
"Ready to go?" asked the Kuvexian father cheerily, looking toward the young one Saya held before looking up to her. Today was the day of Tsubame's fight. The family Saya was now living and working for were going to travel to the gladiatorial station to see the debut of Saya's daughter in the arena.
Saya could say or do little in terms of response past a simple nod. She had been crying nonstop since she had heard the news her daughter was to fight in the pits and only recently had her tears dried up, though her face was still an absolute mess. She was silent and distant as she waited to follow along.
Death Pit Station
It took a little under an hour to travel for Saya and the family to travel to the station. The motions of checking in through a docking bay, checking baggage, and entering the arena stadium to find their booth was both torturous for Saya and monotonous for the family she was care-taking for. The misplaced kindness was beginning to become apparent as they saw the toll it was taking on Saya to be here, so once seated the husband and wife talked amongst themselves more actively than Saya had ever seen, trying to ignore the attitude of extreme despair coming from the Yamataian nursemaid.
Saya for her part cared little for the lack of interaction. Her ears twitched as she noticed the increased speech in the speech in the two... But she was so far gone in her own little world that as the two Kuvexians spoke to one another, Saya spoke to one another, Saya simply curled in on herself. In her seat, she drew her knees to her chest and dug her heels in a little as she just waited.
Kaiyō II
Power Armor Bay
Seeing as his suit had been all but ionized in the previous mission a freshly fabricated replacement had been hung in its place, dark blue helmet's angular features looking almost disapproving as Wyatt ran diagnostics on it pre-mission, waiting for the entire team to assemble.
"Firstly I must get something out of the way," he started, deep voice reverberating through the occupied, armored room.
"If any of you have reservations about me leading the team for this mission due to my recent death and revival then I ask you to keep those to yourselves, I have been fully cleared and given the go-ahead for this endeavor," the man continued, taking a few steps back from his own suit to stand in a more central location, arms locked behind the half-elf's back.
"With that cleared we may proceed. We will be going in ahead of the others to open the way for them so listen closely, as the bigger mission is largely dependent on us doing our jobs. Each time a guest ship docks with the facility there is a brief window dependent on the ship's size where the shields at that location drop to allow entrance, only two or three of us can exploit this at any one time and you must stick close to generators or other larger heat signatures to better mask what your suit gives off," Mr. Fujiwara continued to explain, giving the team a moment to better absorb that information before continuing.
"Once inside we will take control of the station's security protocols and detach a large section to allow entrance for the Rikugun forces, then we move to free the~" he froze up for a second, it simply looked like Wyatt was reconsidering his words for a moment but anyone in the know could guess what was going through his mind.
"~free the prisoners, covertly if possible, any further questions?" he finished, adam's apple bouncing up and down his neck as the man swallowed thickly.
Wulf listened to Wyatt's briefing. Though he had reservations about Wyatt leading the mission not because of his death but due to the nature of the rescue. Though he could understand he worried about the mission being compromised due to Wyatt's personal attachment to one of them, even made worse by the fact she was also pregnant with their child. He hoped that even with this Wyatt might keep focus but Wulf guessed he would have to wait and see.
The other thing that bugged him was scarcity of information and need to know information. It seemed the brass was keeping a tight lip about information but he worried it was more lack of reconnaissance. He knew with how far they were from the front lines the issue of information but it seemed despite the goals they were going in blind.
He mentally signed at this and was hoping that this wouldn't result in the team being wiped out or worse. Raising a hand "Sir do we have intel on any blueprints or even the whereabouts of the control center?". Also adding "Also do we have any secondary objectives in regards to the leadership who captured a member of the Ketsurui Clan, I'm sure they would love to make a example of them."
Wyatt cleared his throat and offered a few small nods of his head before answering, "Long-range sensors have given us a rather thorough idea of the station's layout based on temperature readings, multispectral analysis and all the usual scans though we can only estimate at the specific function of any given room. That being said we are fairly confident that the control room has been narrowed down to here," Wyatt spoke, pointing to a volumetric screen that flickered to life behind him, the black-clad man tracing a circle around part of the station with his finger.
"Boss should have sent it all to your suit by now, as for captors? we haven't received any intel that might lead us to believe the captors might be on the station, only thing we've managed to nail down is that there's a warden overseeing the captives," he continued, frowning thoughtfully for a short moment before adding one final statement to his answer.
"Other secondary objectives... well, as Eden might say, put the fear of Yui into the OpFor. Does that cover everything?"
Wulf nodded Briefly "Fireteam assignments, then sold on the operation". Before adding briefly "Always up for showing the enemy fear of us Sir".
The Sarah Rei was donning had been pulled stockpile of samurai-centric armors that Legion 777 boasted. Like Wyatt, her armor had been destroyed alongside her past body in the last mission. Quietly, she felt her way around the outside of the Sarah while she listened to the back and forth of question and answer. Her only question lay in their victory. Having helplessly seen Ketsurui Aiko and William fall into the hands of the enemy, Rei had failed in the protection of her ward and lost most of the self-respect she held for herself as a yojimbo. The recent success of the last mission and her role in such was likely the only thing that tipped the balance of hope in her mind enough to believe victory in emancipating her ward and student now.
Kiyo remained silent as she observed the briefing, as a sense of... Excitement filled her this as it, they were going to save their friends. She’ll soon be able to talk, and hug Saya, and meet her daughter, while also giving birth to her own daughter, and seeing their daughters become friends. A small smile in thought occurred, though, because of the context of the surrounding conversation, her smile may be assumed for the make fear of us bit.
“I understand and have no questions, go in, destroy Kuvexians while making sure we rescue our comrades, and then head back, so we can party,” She said in response before going back into her thoughts.
Perhaps it was because of her pregnancy hormones, because of her anger, that she hadn’t been able to stop her comrades from getting kidnapped. Kiyo was feeling raw with emotion. She knew, of course, that there were others, Wyatt, and Rei, who’d be feeling the same way as her, and equal to her too. “Pickles and chocolate when we return,” she said to herself, but with how close she was to Wulf, he’d heard her say this, and she’d been eating those foods a lot more.
Her thoughts went to her load-out, and her Silverlight, another smile at the memory of having maintained them well, and her weapons were especially ready to destroy Kuvexians.
"Fireteam assignments would have been given, were we planning on splitting up the crew for anything other than our initial entry," Wyatt retorted, bearded jaw clenched slightly as he gave ample opportunity for any others to raise their concerns or confusion.
"If that is all then get suited up, we should be arriving shortly."
Bridge
Standing in front of the captain's chair, the pink-skinned Nekovalkryja captain had been listening for the rest of the crew's ready checks to come in. Though they would all be on standby several light years from the station, knowing the back up was prepared was important. Blowing the lid off the station with a ten man crew would be the easy part if they had to take the place by force alone.
"Asuka," Hoshi asked, "how do we look?"
The sensor operator double checked her readings and nodded, "Several ships are in the space lane towards the station at STL speeds currently. We'll have to high tail it to be able to buddy up next to them to mask our own signatures."
"Gravity," Hoshi asked, "think you can handle that?"
The pilot looked over her shoulder at her captain and simply gave her a little smirk that didn't reach her eyes. She wouldn't be truly happy until they had William, Saya, her youngling, and... yes, okay, Aiko, back on board.
"We're moving." She announced and turned back to her controls. The ship surged forward into the black. Once up to speed, she engaged the FTL and slipped into the traffic with the same ease as a morning commuter. She found a nice little freighter about double the size of the Kaiyō, and slipped up right beneath them, keeping only twenty meters between the top of the ship and the bottom of theirs.
Satisfied with her job, Gravity took a moment to reach over and gently pat the top of Chlorate's head. It was good luck to pat small robot children... or something.
Chlorate beeped when she was patted.
Hoshi couldn't help but let a small chuckle slip through her lips as she watched on.
"Good work," the captain switched over to PA bay comms, "Armor team, ETA three minutes until you're ready to deploy."
Despite being beneath the sleek, dark armored plates of his tarsa, Wyatt felt naked. A combination of vulnerability coming from his missing family and the lack of the familiar revolver-filled holster slung to his hip.
Pushing all that aside though Wyatt moved to check his PAAR-40 one last time, pulling back the rifle's charging handle just enough to see the rear of the currently chambered round before letting it slide forwards and into battery.
"Last chance to run diagnostics if you need to," his voice rumbled over the team's comms, the armored half-elf moving into position.
Kiyo was just putting on her helmet when she’d heard Wyatt’s voice in her comms. “Kiyo-Hei ready to roll, everything checks out” She reported as her hand went to her Silverlight’s hilt. She could see her Aether Katana was fully charged, and she knew everything in her load-out was as well.
Rei took a place behind Fujiwara-heisho near the armor bay's door, showing she was ready to stealthily depart on his mark by her positioning.
Wulf was ready in his suit. His load never changed, his weaponry always the same unless ordered. Tactical Rifle and his forearm shield readied. At his waist was two xiphos and to back them up was an assortment of SOSM Missiles for misdirection. Wulf enjoyed the simplicity of it and felt right as rain.
Though he did have a feeling at the back of his mind. Kiyo though had been having strange cravings and desires. A weird assortment that he might have had to in the middle of the night rush and gather. Though he found it out of place and unsure what it might mean he had to put it in the back of his mind.
Like the old Wolf mother would say come on soldiers there is killing to be done. Testing his comms to the unit "Wulf-Hei ready for combat drop".
The Kaiyō's diminutive scientist approached the bay doors with the others and fought the same nervousness that always haunted her. Combat would never suit her, she knew. The statistics of gun fight survival came to her too easily, as did the images that her vivid imagination could cook up.
But, as always, she donned the suit and checked her weapons with the rest of them. She knew what she'd been signing up for when she had joined the Star Army. She looked up, mentally issuing the commands that would cause her symbionts to chemically steel her nerves. Something like detached calm began to seep through her mind. Shutting down so many of her fight or flight responses was a dangerous gamble, but it let her stomach what had to be done.
One thing that was different was the purpose of this mission. While there was lots of talk about saving all the prisoners, Indira only really cared about one or two. The ship's medic, Saya, had given her plenty of hell during their time together, but she'd saved the Iroma from more than one rough spot. Somewhere inside Indira's monotone demeanor was a fondness for the other woman.
The scientist gripped her weapon a little tighter. "Indira Vaikar. Ready."
Kikios stood in her armor behind the bay doors and thought about what the team was about to do. Though she wasn't directly responsible for her crewmates getting captured, the Kuvexians had made it personal. The cockatoo was familiar with the concept of those who were close to her going missing, and she wasn't prepared to let it happen again. She wasn't certain what she would encounter once she entered the station, but she stepped forward with her Mindy and said "Kikios Leka, ready."
20日 4月 YE 42
Forward Base 1B
POM 2
The briefing format of being one in the thousands might never get boring for Eden, though she was looking in on this one from the metaphorical pews of the expanded POM Qonset Hut her crew was in. They were lined up in neat rows, hard to spot amongst the masses of brightly colored hair of the rikugun and the more somber tones of the Eihei legionnaires heads, but they were there alright. Half listening to the briefing from Shôshô Uzume she had read over already, Eden was watching her only SAINT crewmember as he stood next to his captain, Taiyou Hoshi.
Wyatt would be leading the ship's ground team into the operation today and Eden scrutinized him with an openness she wouldn't feel comfortable doing to him face to face. But from afar, she thought on his personal investments in bringing home the lost crewmen this briefing centered on and how he had died during the last mega assault, though the mission had been a success. The Star Army of Yamatai had begun staging a foothold within the system's bounds that had been overtaken.
Eden knew what passion could do to a warrior. The fight to overtake a system's defenses while your wife was MIA was not the same fight as rescuing your wife. Her confidence in him, as well as the samurai under similar circumstances behind him, was enough to warm the worry in her belly. After all, she hadn't been absent from a Kaiyō mission since she was back on Yamatai. She was a little anxious to be out of the action, but she had a feeling Wyatt's leadership would be paramount to a victory on this day.
Shôshô Uzume had shown the footage gained from intelligence analysts on the base of Aiko and William's last fight, which the Kuvexians had broadcasted within their space and their base had intercepted. The pure carnage of the Ketsurui clan member bathed in the purple blood of the enemy and killing more with nothing but a crude weapon and her militarized body filled the qonset hut with the cheers and uproar of a thousand Nekovalkyrja. The Shôshô had waited for quiet only to assure victory in a way that roused the SAoY crowd further. Spirits were high by the time all was said and done and crew members were filtering out of the outpost, towards the docking port.
The place in which the crew was being held was a mid-sized station. Its sole purpose was an entertainment hub with a gladiatorial colosseum in its center while vendors and ship bays surrounded it. As the Kaiyō's team had infiltrated Kuvexian-made stations before, they would be the team to advance into the enemy territory. The specifics weren't told to everyone, but Wyatt had been briefed by Hoshi already on such.
There was a small window of opportunity for pairs or groups of three to get slip in to the each port as it opened for guest's ships. Each bay was open to space once the force field dropped, letting the ship in. Because the team could stealth within their Mindy, but would have to stay near the generators of each ship so that their heat signature was not detected. Next they would stealth further into the base, finding the control room in order to do two things, shut down the security protocols as well as detach a part of the station that would give SAoY legionnaires access to the colosseum grounds, in which a larger assault would take place. Tanks and rikugun forces would be present while offshoot forces would begin accessing prisoner cells below the colosseum in the likely case that the missing SAoY members were not fully present on the battle field.
Even through the thick beard that had sprouted up on Wyatt's face since his recent revival it'd be easy to see the man's jaw clench a few times, the muscles beneath his tanned features contracting and relaxing each time, a thoughtful huff cresting his lips. Given his personal investment in the mission and the fact he'd recently crawled out of a hemosynth tank, Wyatt personally did not see himself in a good position to lead the team this time. But as he'd been doing since birth, the coppery half-elf would continue to roll with the punches being given.
"Come, team, I shall brief you more in-depth while we suit up," the tall man clad in his crisp black-paneled uniform spoke, very blunt and to the point as he began descending the few steps that lead up to the barely elevated podium, offering Eden a simple nod to try and better mask the faint frown creasing his eyebrows.
Nearby Star System
Kuvexian Residence
"Ready to go?" asked the Kuvexian father cheerily, looking toward the young one Saya held before looking up to her. Today was the day of Tsubame's fight. The family Saya was now living and working for were going to travel to the gladiatorial station to see the debut of Saya's daughter in the arena.
Saya could say or do little in terms of response past a simple nod. She had been crying nonstop since she had heard the news her daughter was to fight in the pits and only recently had her tears dried up, though her face was still an absolute mess. She was silent and distant as she waited to follow along.
Death Pit Station
It took a little under an hour to travel for Saya and the family to travel to the station. The motions of checking in through a docking bay, checking baggage, and entering the arena stadium to find their booth was both torturous for Saya and monotonous for the family she was care-taking for. The misplaced kindness was beginning to become apparent as they saw the toll it was taking on Saya to be here, so once seated the husband and wife talked amongst themselves more actively than Saya had ever seen, trying to ignore the attitude of extreme despair coming from the Yamataian nursemaid.
Saya for her part cared little for the lack of interaction. Her ears twitched as she noticed the increased speech in the speech in the two... But she was so far gone in her own little world that as the two Kuvexians spoke to one another, Saya spoke to one another, Saya simply curled in on herself. In her seat, she drew her knees to her chest and dug her heels in a little as she just waited.
Kaiyō II
Power Armor Bay
Seeing as his suit had been all but ionized in the previous mission a freshly fabricated replacement had been hung in its place, dark blue helmet's angular features looking almost disapproving as Wyatt ran diagnostics on it pre-mission, waiting for the entire team to assemble.
"Firstly I must get something out of the way," he started, deep voice reverberating through the occupied, armored room.
"If any of you have reservations about me leading the team for this mission due to my recent death and revival then I ask you to keep those to yourselves, I have been fully cleared and given the go-ahead for this endeavor," the man continued, taking a few steps back from his own suit to stand in a more central location, arms locked behind the half-elf's back.
"With that cleared we may proceed. We will be going in ahead of the others to open the way for them so listen closely, as the bigger mission is largely dependent on us doing our jobs. Each time a guest ship docks with the facility there is a brief window dependent on the ship's size where the shields at that location drop to allow entrance, only two or three of us can exploit this at any one time and you must stick close to generators or other larger heat signatures to better mask what your suit gives off," Mr. Fujiwara continued to explain, giving the team a moment to better absorb that information before continuing.
"Once inside we will take control of the station's security protocols and detach a large section to allow entrance for the Rikugun forces, then we move to free the~" he froze up for a second, it simply looked like Wyatt was reconsidering his words for a moment but anyone in the know could guess what was going through his mind.
"~free the prisoners, covertly if possible, any further questions?" he finished, adam's apple bouncing up and down his neck as the man swallowed thickly.
Wulf listened to Wyatt's briefing. Though he had reservations about Wyatt leading the mission not because of his death but due to the nature of the rescue. Though he could understand he worried about the mission being compromised due to Wyatt's personal attachment to one of them, even made worse by the fact she was also pregnant with their child. He hoped that even with this Wyatt might keep focus but Wulf guessed he would have to wait and see.
The other thing that bugged him was scarcity of information and need to know information. It seemed the brass was keeping a tight lip about information but he worried it was more lack of reconnaissance. He knew with how far they were from the front lines the issue of information but it seemed despite the goals they were going in blind.
He mentally signed at this and was hoping that this wouldn't result in the team being wiped out or worse. Raising a hand "Sir do we have intel on any blueprints or even the whereabouts of the control center?". Also adding "Also do we have any secondary objectives in regards to the leadership who captured a member of the Ketsurui Clan, I'm sure they would love to make a example of them."
Wyatt cleared his throat and offered a few small nods of his head before answering, "Long-range sensors have given us a rather thorough idea of the station's layout based on temperature readings, multispectral analysis and all the usual scans though we can only estimate at the specific function of any given room. That being said we are fairly confident that the control room has been narrowed down to here," Wyatt spoke, pointing to a volumetric screen that flickered to life behind him, the black-clad man tracing a circle around part of the station with his finger.
"Boss should have sent it all to your suit by now, as for captors? we haven't received any intel that might lead us to believe the captors might be on the station, only thing we've managed to nail down is that there's a warden overseeing the captives," he continued, frowning thoughtfully for a short moment before adding one final statement to his answer.
"Other secondary objectives... well, as Eden might say, put the fear of Yui into the OpFor. Does that cover everything?"
Wulf nodded Briefly "Fireteam assignments, then sold on the operation". Before adding briefly "Always up for showing the enemy fear of us Sir".
The Sarah Rei was donning had been pulled stockpile of samurai-centric armors that Legion 777 boasted. Like Wyatt, her armor had been destroyed alongside her past body in the last mission. Quietly, she felt her way around the outside of the Sarah while she listened to the back and forth of question and answer. Her only question lay in their victory. Having helplessly seen Ketsurui Aiko and William fall into the hands of the enemy, Rei had failed in the protection of her ward and lost most of the self-respect she held for herself as a yojimbo. The recent success of the last mission and her role in such was likely the only thing that tipped the balance of hope in her mind enough to believe victory in emancipating her ward and student now.
Kiyo remained silent as she observed the briefing, as a sense of... Excitement filled her this as it, they were going to save their friends. She’ll soon be able to talk, and hug Saya, and meet her daughter, while also giving birth to her own daughter, and seeing their daughters become friends. A small smile in thought occurred, though, because of the context of the surrounding conversation, her smile may be assumed for the make fear of us bit.
“I understand and have no questions, go in, destroy Kuvexians while making sure we rescue our comrades, and then head back, so we can party,” She said in response before going back into her thoughts.
Perhaps it was because of her pregnancy hormones, because of her anger, that she hadn’t been able to stop her comrades from getting kidnapped. Kiyo was feeling raw with emotion. She knew, of course, that there were others, Wyatt, and Rei, who’d be feeling the same way as her, and equal to her too. “Pickles and chocolate when we return,” she said to herself, but with how close she was to Wulf, he’d heard her say this, and she’d been eating those foods a lot more.
Her thoughts went to her load-out, and her Silverlight, another smile at the memory of having maintained them well, and her weapons were especially ready to destroy Kuvexians.
"Fireteam assignments would have been given, were we planning on splitting up the crew for anything other than our initial entry," Wyatt retorted, bearded jaw clenched slightly as he gave ample opportunity for any others to raise their concerns or confusion.
"If that is all then get suited up, we should be arriving shortly."
Bridge
Standing in front of the captain's chair, the pink-skinned Nekovalkryja captain had been listening for the rest of the crew's ready checks to come in. Though they would all be on standby several light years from the station, knowing the back up was prepared was important. Blowing the lid off the station with a ten man crew would be the easy part if they had to take the place by force alone.
"Asuka," Hoshi asked, "how do we look?"
The sensor operator double checked her readings and nodded, "Several ships are in the space lane towards the station at STL speeds currently. We'll have to high tail it to be able to buddy up next to them to mask our own signatures."
"Gravity," Hoshi asked, "think you can handle that?"
The pilot looked over her shoulder at her captain and simply gave her a little smirk that didn't reach her eyes. She wouldn't be truly happy until they had William, Saya, her youngling, and... yes, okay, Aiko, back on board.
"We're moving." She announced and turned back to her controls. The ship surged forward into the black. Once up to speed, she engaged the FTL and slipped into the traffic with the same ease as a morning commuter. She found a nice little freighter about double the size of the Kaiyō, and slipped up right beneath them, keeping only twenty meters between the top of the ship and the bottom of theirs.
Satisfied with her job, Gravity took a moment to reach over and gently pat the top of Chlorate's head. It was good luck to pat small robot children... or something.
Chlorate beeped when she was patted.
Hoshi couldn't help but let a small chuckle slip through her lips as she watched on.
"Good work," the captain switched over to PA bay comms, "Armor team, ETA three minutes until you're ready to deploy."
Despite being beneath the sleek, dark armored plates of his tarsa, Wyatt felt naked. A combination of vulnerability coming from his missing family and the lack of the familiar revolver-filled holster slung to his hip.
Pushing all that aside though Wyatt moved to check his PAAR-40 one last time, pulling back the rifle's charging handle just enough to see the rear of the currently chambered round before letting it slide forwards and into battery.
"Last chance to run diagnostics if you need to," his voice rumbled over the team's comms, the armored half-elf moving into position.
Kiyo was just putting on her helmet when she’d heard Wyatt’s voice in her comms. “Kiyo-Hei ready to roll, everything checks out” She reported as her hand went to her Silverlight’s hilt. She could see her Aether Katana was fully charged, and she knew everything in her load-out was as well.
Rei took a place behind Fujiwara-heisho near the armor bay's door, showing she was ready to stealthily depart on his mark by her positioning.
Wulf was ready in his suit. His load never changed, his weaponry always the same unless ordered. Tactical Rifle and his forearm shield readied. At his waist was two xiphos and to back them up was an assortment of SOSM Missiles for misdirection. Wulf enjoyed the simplicity of it and felt right as rain.
Though he did have a feeling at the back of his mind. Kiyo though had been having strange cravings and desires. A weird assortment that he might have had to in the middle of the night rush and gather. Though he found it out of place and unsure what it might mean he had to put it in the back of his mind.
Like the old Wolf mother would say come on soldiers there is killing to be done. Testing his comms to the unit "Wulf-Hei ready for combat drop".
The Kaiyō's diminutive scientist approached the bay doors with the others and fought the same nervousness that always haunted her. Combat would never suit her, she knew. The statistics of gun fight survival came to her too easily, as did the images that her vivid imagination could cook up.
But, as always, she donned the suit and checked her weapons with the rest of them. She knew what she'd been signing up for when she had joined the Star Army. She looked up, mentally issuing the commands that would cause her symbionts to chemically steel her nerves. Something like detached calm began to seep through her mind. Shutting down so many of her fight or flight responses was a dangerous gamble, but it let her stomach what had to be done.
One thing that was different was the purpose of this mission. While there was lots of talk about saving all the prisoners, Indira only really cared about one or two. The ship's medic, Saya, had given her plenty of hell during their time together, but she'd saved the Iroma from more than one rough spot. Somewhere inside Indira's monotone demeanor was a fondness for the other woman.
The scientist gripped her weapon a little tighter. "Indira Vaikar. Ready."
Kikios stood in her armor behind the bay doors and thought about what the team was about to do. Though she wasn't directly responsible for her crewmates getting captured, the Kuvexians had made it personal. The cockatoo was familiar with the concept of those who were close to her going missing, and she wasn't prepared to let it happen again. She wasn't certain what she would encounter once she entered the station, but she stepped forward with her Mindy and said "Kikios Leka, ready."
