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RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 24] Looking for Trouble (YE 38)

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Rixxicore Colony Vessel


Natsumi frowned. "If the ship has no control room, then how do you people pilot it?" she asked. There had to be some form of control room to pilot the ship from, how else would they be able to steer there ship? Did they manually control from the engine room? Or, another thought popped into her mind, was the ship remotely piloted from an external source?

As she awaited the bug man's reply, she opened a secure wireless channel to her away team. "Everyone, if they continue to deny some form of piloting station for this ship, we should also investigate the possibility that the ship is remotely controlled" she sent to every ones power armors, keeping this thought out of the ears of the bugs.
 
Engineering

Jax heard the ping. A few things happened after that. First, he needed a few seconds to fully process and understand what this message meant. Second, he groaned in frustration when he'd done so. Third, he grumpily stomped out of the room and towards the PA bay, grumbling all the while. He was not excited to meet the Rixxikor again.

PA Bay

The doors to the PA bay hissed open, and Jax headed in. The expression on his face was murderous, to say the least, with his ears pinned back and tail lashing about agitatedly.

"...fsfdfjkrlkjsdkjfkshdg-Frikin' bugs!-sfdajjkjdfkjdikjdkjfrggredgjkdfjerkjljsdf-With their frikin' legs and!-sdfsdjfdkjf..." he snarled under his breath as he slapped on modules similar to his last outing. This time, however, he stared between his assault rifle and a grenade launcher sitting on the racks. Which to take, he wondered? From experience, grenade launchers worked magically against the Rixxikor hoards, and he really did love the feeling you got when a grenade was launched and sailing towards the target.

"Screw it." he mumbled and placed the assault rifle on the weapon mount on his right shoulder. Knowing he was early, he leaned against the wall and waited for the others. He made a mental note to head to the fab bay and fashion himself some ear slots and a tail sleeve to slap on this bucket.
 
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Colony Ship

'Ma'am, these Rixxicor are going to get violent,' he telepathically sent to Natsumi, 'tell them we need to see Ruxxles, he said he was Lord Supreme Royal Commander of Emperors of the Rixxikor Collective. If he's actually important he may be the only way to get leverage on these bugs. Otherwise we'll have a blood bath in here.'
 
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Colony Ship

"Good point, Suites" Natsumi replied telepathically. She then spoke to the Rixxicore once more, "Take us to Ruxxles, we have already communicated with him and he stated he was your leader" she said.
 
Bridge

"Yes ma'am..." Tony blushed and secured her station before getting up and heading out of the bridge. Once the doors shut behind her she grumbled about being replaced and sent away. As she near the PA Bay she hear the grumbling from Jax.

PA BAY

"Stop yo'r grumbling..." She growled at him before pushing past him to find a Daisy. She had read a little about he Yamatain's PA's but hadn't had a chance to try one out. It had been a long time since the little training she had on the Nepleasian ones, they had back in boot. "If it isn't to much of a bother can you help me don this thing?"
 
Colony Ship

Aikiko was getting nervous at seeing more Rixxikor showing up out of the tunnels and corridors leadin off the cesspool of room, armed with weapon that looked like they would malfunction before causing any harm. Yet it took only one well place shot to put her out of commission. She brought her weapon to low ready with the barrel pointing towards the slimmed covered deck, ready to bring up to lay waste to the Rixxikor
 
YSS Eucharis Bridge

Wazu looked up from his data pad, then over to the main view screen, then to his control panel...



Sensors

“Charisma, how accurately can we scan the interior of their ship?

The Kuvexians would likely insist on a clean room for themselves if they are on the ship. If we can get sensor data that detailed we could have the armor team start checking there.

Failing that, an interior map of the ship, could be useful.

Also, if the ship does have a command center, it will either be at the center of the ship, or somewhere on the exterior, likely the room with the largest exterior windows. If you can see rooms matching either of those descriptions, I would like to try and get a closer look at them. Whatever sensor data you can provide to this station would be appreciated.”



Hacking

Wazu also finished up the adjustments to his password dictionary, using his datapad to try and connect to the Rixxikor ship's public network. Just from the amount of pointless traffic leaving their colony ship he figured they must have some sort of public wi-fi that the bugs were using on personal devices. He tried to connect his own datapad to that network, and then began searching for unsecured devices.

Undoubtedly most would have a password,

Some were probably weakly secured, and he'd have his datapad try and access them using the Rixxikor word for 'password' as the password.

The datapad was then set to try and gather any available data from the connected devices, as well as attempt to turn on their cameras and microphones.

With a little bit of luck some Rixxikor would inadvertently give them something useful, and worst case scenario it just looked like some bug was dicking around on their network.



Armor Team

Wazu would then reconfigure his console, requesting Charisma display audio and video feeds from each power armor, hoping to monitor the situation and possibly catch something useful.
 
PA Bay

Jax, hidden safely behind the enclosed helmet of the armor, stuck his tongue out at Tony. Despite all of this time, he still couldn't quite tell if she had authority over him or not, or whether or not she was cool with a more casual work space, so he'd refrained from joking with her thus far. As far as he knew, she was from the bridge, and the people from the bridge gave the orders.

"Yes, ma'am." he replied curtly and strolled over to the Daisy. He handed her the helmet*.

"Put this on, and think something akin to 'open'," he instructed. "The armor will open up and let you climb in. You might want to attach some gear for the trip real quick while we're waiting on Taharial."

Jax jutted a thumb to the gauss cannon on his left shoulder for emphasis.

(*From what I've read, this is my understanding of how power armor works. Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
 
Rixxikor Colony Ship - Lobby

Natsumi frowned. "If the ship has no control room, then how do you people pilot it?" she asked.
Click to expand...
"Uh," the Rixxikor twisted its neck so its head was upside down. "Guess I never really thought about that. Bitch. But I only hatched 3 weeks ago," it answered as it fiddled with its rocket launcher. "Why's you guys here again?"

"Take us to Ruxxles, we have already communicated with him and he stated he was your leader," Natsumi said.
Click to expand...
"Oh, okay," the Rixxikor guard said. Dozens of other armed Rixxikor watched the team suspiciously as the bug-man led Natsumi to the exit of the reception lounge. The hatchway was actually rusting and it made an incredibly loud screech as it was pulled open. "I think someone this way might know him."

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Scanning the interior..." Charisma answered Wazu. The gunship's powerful sensors were able to start building a complete map of the interior of the colony ship, which was quite bizarre. There were strange things like whole sections that were basically made of some sort of food substance and were infested with Rixxikor gnawing on it. Or how several smaller ships that apparently had been physically built into and integrated into the colony ship. The layout of the ship's passageways looked like a folded protein or a pile of tangled pasta noodles that connected at random points. It was like an anthill built by ants on drugs. Hard drugs. There were 653,039 life signs when Wazu started looking but within minutes the number had gone up to 653,102 and continued to slowly increase. The gunship sent the interior maps to the away team as they were charted, giving them the ability to navigate a path to anywhere in the ship.

Apparently the wifi network on the alien colony ship was out of the range of Wazu's tablet, or perhaps obscured by the Eucharis' hull armor.
 
Rixxikor Vessel Interior

Tsuguka loomed intensely over the small creatures, her mind completely focused on defense and counter-attack. Wasn't her place to question the negotiation strategy that Natsumi was taking, but she felt extremely exposed trying to defend against multiple attack vectors at once. Made the whole 'taking point' thing rather awkward, really, considering her priority was to stand there and take the hit rather than risk the Chui getting caught in the line of fire. The fact that the vessel they were currently standing inside was in worse shape than some of the derelicts she had been on didn't exactly help.

Surely, there had to be some way of taking the initiative...

"Those embedded smaller vessels... Is there any way of telling if they still functional?..." Her voice openly speculated over the squad com-link upon the arrival of the new data feed. Leaving specific names and titles out irritated her need to obey protocol, but the soldier simply didn't know who's area of expertise it counted as. "We have insufficient information about this 'Ruxxels' character to make a completely accurate assessment, but it could make sense for him to command from a position like that... Ship falls apart, and all the important staff are already inside of a smaller redundant vessel, like an escape pod..."
 
YSS Eucharis Bridge

Sensors

“Good point, I will see which ship is the most ready to break away from the group.” Wazu replied on the open channel in response to Tsuguka.“Also, it looks like the Rixxikor have an interesting food source, some kind of fungus like thing maybe... it would be like us living inside a hamburger... If you happen to run across some would you mind grabbing a sample?”

He would sort through the information that was available to him, looking for which ships in the Rixxikor group had the least interconnection with the overall ship, if there was one that could easily break away due to how it was integrated into the ship then it would make a good starting point for a search. Of course, if one was setup to receive more supplies and power from the rest of the ship then that too might indicate that it was the command ship rather than a support ship.

Wazu continued to watch the lifesign totals creep upward... he had to reach for his datapad's calculator function in order to work it out.... ~at that rate 63 Rixxikor produced every few minutes by 653,039 individuals, that is 1 new Rixxikor every minutes for each 10,366 Rixxikor, or 172 Rixxikor to produce a new Rixxikor each hour, or 7 to produce a new one each week... which leaves a growth rate of something close to doubling every month. Wazu knew that population growth was dependent on more than just how many creatures one could produce in a set amount of time, at the time he was thinking,

~Well.... we can fix that...~



Hacking

Wazu then turned back to his datapad, and a pop-up message indicating that it couldn't find a network to connect to. Range, shields, or even incompatibility could be a reason for being stopped before the he could even get started... but he decided to try one more thing.

“Charisma, Can you use the power armor team's systems to see if the Rixxikor ship has a public network available to connect to? I would prefer to be discreet about it.”



Video Forensics

“... Also, can you provide me with a copy of the communications with the Rixxikor leader? We can try to match the shape of the room we see it in with the shapes of the rooms we can see on sensors. It should narrow down our search options.” Wazu asked Charisma.
 
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PA BAY

If she would have seen the tongue out she would have first slapped him, then flirtly asked him what he was planning on doing with it. Sure she out ranked him, but she was the stranger here, she was only here because their two nations had started trying o play nice together. "Thanks." She responded taking the helmet and sliding it over her head. There was the briefest moments of claustrophobia before sh was able to scream in her head Open. she might have also just shouted it out load at Jax.

The Daisy slid open awaiting her to climb in. With a bit of trepidation she stepped back into the PA and slid her arms and legs into place. "What now? Think close?" she asked him. But even as she did the suit took her command and sealed her up and fully powered up. "Woah!" she cried out being sealed in the armor.

"Can I have a weapon?"

[spoiler} Naw it was perfect! [/spoiler]
 
PA Bay

"Good question! Gimme a sec..." Jax replied and hailed the away team on the comms.

"Hey, Suites! Howard here! Loading up the armors as we speak. Need anything module-wise? Extra explosives? Missiles? Tentacle arms?"

Then, Jax turned his attention back to Tony. He smiled and bowed, holding out a hand to the numerous weapon racks full of assault rifles, submachine guns, and other fine choices of weaponry.

"Oui, madame," he started in a phony French accent. "Take your pick."
 
Rixxicore Vessel

"That's a possobility" Natsumi replied to Tsuguka's commentary over the squad channel. "Though I can't say I think they have things planned out that well.." she frowned, filing those thoughts away, remembering not to underestimate these bug men. Their leaders might be much more capable than what they had encountered so far.

"Come on, lets go and see the boss" she commanded the team, waiting for one of the infantry to take point before she followed the Rixxicore guard through the rusty portal.
 
Bridge

As Tony departed for the bay, Umeshu found the time to transmit a very heartfelt apology to her favorite engineer as he armed himself:

Gomennasai, Jax-san... I know the thought of seeing the bugs again in such close quarters is unpleasant. They are even more insulting than the last batch, too. But try to use a little restraint. Ganbatte...
Click to expand...

The purple-haired operator then busied herself with coordinating communications chatter back and forth with the Task Force, studying the data coming in from the several Midori class scout ships that were cataloging the star system. Two terrestrial planets registered on the map that was steadily filling in, the second one from the sun definitely able to support life. "Hmm, Nougfran II seems to be an ocean world in the habitable zone ... it's likely the planned destination of this Rixxikor colony ship, Hanako-shosa. However, the third planet from the star does possess some interesting qualities.... preliminary reports from our scouts indicate the presence of some ruins on the surface."

She continued trying to piece together a better picture of the situation and see if the unknown portions of the signals intelligence matched up at all with the telemetry of the planets themselves -- a telltale sign of a Kuvexian vessel hiding somewhere amongst the celestial objects and directing things from the shadows.
 
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YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Wazu's research located what was probably the control center for the ship. A round, open area with a lot of wiring going in and out of it, and it had a chair in the middle with a Rixxikor sitting in it, surrounded by other Rixxikor at control panels. Charisma estimated with 60% certainty that it was the Rixxikor ship's command center. As for the wireless idea, one of the away team members would have to tap in to the network themselves to pass it on to the Eucharis.

"One should hope their operating system is put together better than their ship layout," Hanako commented.

"Most of the embedded ships do not appear to be set up with separation in mind," Charisma said.

"So...the ships are just more of the scrap pile this thing was made out of," Hanako speculated. "Is it a sort of...flying junkyard?"

- - -

Rixxikor Colony Ship - Interior

The team soon found themselves crawling through slimy, twisting tunnels between dark, narrow passageways of cables and hastily-welded metal beams and plating. Even a maze would have been easier to navigate. It was like going through a serious of those plastic tube structures at child recreation center, only the tubes were made of junkyard scrap metal and were covered in vermin droppings. There was even a ball pit, but the balls were clearly eggs. After almost 5 solid minutes of following the skittering guard through the ship, the team emerged in a cargo storage area near the bridge, where Ruxxles emerged from a side door to meet them.
 
YSS Eucharis - Bridge

“A flying junkyard that was able to get between star-systems... I would love to see their FTL drive... That they did not kill themselves along the way is a feat by itself ontop of getting these different systems to all work together, keeping the life support going for so many creatures, food, water, heating distribution...” Wazu tapered off a bit, focusing on the scans of the ship for the time being. “... I wonder how they learn... that one said it was only a few days old, yet it could speak just fine...”
 
Colony Ship, food room

As the team proceeded through the room made of food Candon knew he had a very limited window to plant the communicator. Using his sensors he located the deepest spot in the food room and prepared the device, telepathically setting it to silent and setting a 40 digit password. In a quick fluid motion his hand grabbed the communicator and flung it into the 'floor' like a throwing knife. If he did it right the device would lose its momentum somewhere above the real floor.
"Device has been planted, check for signal," he relayed to the bridge of Eucharis.


Colony Ship, tunnels

Blizzard said:
PA Bay

Jax hailed the away team on the comms.
"Hey, Suites! Howard here! Loading up the armors as we speak. Need anything module-wise? Extra explosives? Missiles? Tentacle arms?"
Click to expand...

Candon froze. Heart, lungs, thoughts, everything that normally moved stopped as Jax question triggered horrific flashbacks.



"NOOO!" he blurted out, "...I-I mean, um, n-no thank you.. just grab an SMG or rifle. Make sure you have a teleporter."
And he continued on through the structure.
 
Colony Ship : Tunnels

Aikiko, as nimble and experienced in dealing with rare and random 'Junkers' that the Free Spacers called ships and flew when she was with the UOCPF, having troubles at times in maneuvering through the slime covered surfaces of the tangles of wires, hoses and what ever else hidden by the 'crap' these Rixxikors left everywhere. It was a nightmare as her choice of weapons became entangled in the free hanging lines.

She used her manipulator arms to clear a path through the mess, being careful not shear or cut anything she wasn't suppose to, making it easier for her to traverse the corridors? Tunnels? Sewage pipes! of the Colony ship.

Her face shield was becoming covered with the dripping slime, making it difficult at best to see through. Forcing her to use the SPINE Interface between herself and the Mindy's optics.

Cargo Storage Area

Aikiko sighed with relief exiting the Sewage Pipes that passed for corridors on this ship, entering the wide open space of the storage area. She floated with her manipulator arms extended to give the best menacing appearance to these Rixxikors. But the way her luck was running and the weird sense of thought of these Rixxikors, she probably looked beautiful to them the way their accumulated slime dripped and plopped off her Mindy to the floor.
 
PA Bay

"Aw! You're no fun!" Jax whined. He let out a defeated sigh and removed the pack of explosives from his dorsal hard point. Once the teleporter was securely in place, He waited by the airlock.

"I don't know where Taharial is, but I'm ready to go!" he called to Tony.
 
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