RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 26] Flaming Arrows (YE 38)

[Wes]

Deep Space
Mid-YE 38

Somewhere in the gloomy, endless reaches of space, a secluded space station floated among a backdrop of distant twinkling stars. At first glance, it might look like it was designed for entertainment more than military operations, with its chrome gold body and its orange and multi-colored accents, but on a closer look, it was covered in weapon placements and surrounded by warships watching over it.

In a shimmer of light, a bulky-looking cargo starship appeared, and began making its way towards the station, carrying food and other supplies for the Kuvexian Navy. As it did, a small black starship silently watched and a lone Nekovalkyrja in a black paneled uniform sent the signal Hanako was waiting for.


YSS Eucharis - Armor Bay

"Operation is a go," the intercom shouted. "Prepare for automated deployment." The away team could hear their teleportation modules spinning up in sync.


Deep Space

As the freighter approached the station, it transmitted the clearance codes and the station opened up the shields. As it closed in on the station, a flash of teal light appeared and another ship appeared almost immediately behind it. It was the Eucharis! Its blade-like aether shock array immediately began spewing white-pink energy, blowing a hole through the freighter from back to front and then hitting the station.


Kuvexian Station - Bridge

"What the hell is that? Where did that come from??" one of the aliens shouted. "Get the shields up and open fire on the enemy ship!"

"Shields are coming back up now, sir!" an alien bridge officer replied, with sweat running down his tense face. "Done! Returning fire!"

"Good," the leader said.

"Sir, there's another problem..."


Kuvexian Station - Near the computer core

A slight mist rose as a steam spilled off group of Mindy 4 power armors that had just appeared a moment earlier.

"Oh shit," a Kuvexian engineer said, looking at the Eucharis away team and dropping his hot beverage in disbelief. "RUN!"

 

[Rattenkind]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Sigurd sat at the science station tensed to the max. The moment the Eucharis dropped back into normal space his displays began blossoming with all kinds of sensor readings which he shoved aside for the moment. His first priority was to make sure the away team wasn't running into any unpleasent suprises. And they should arive right about... now.

New readings came in and Sigurd filtered them with some quick vocal commands. Sure, telepathic commands via a SPINE would have been quicker but only just for Sigurd had speant most of the time of the preceding briefing he didn't participate himself programming CHARISMA to accept a series of very short vocal commands to improve his performance significantly. He'd thought about those command quite extensively on the prospect of being on a combat mission once again and there was still much to be improved on but still... it was a start. Just because he, as a mere human, was "handicapped" didn't mean he couldn't use his mind to work around certain issues.

"Away team, science speaking", he radioed the boarding party. "Got good sensor reading. Two autoturrets mounted at the roof of the hallway just in front of the computer core's entrance, but nothing to heavy. Flagging them on your HUDs now. No other signs of opposition so far. Science out."

Of course there isn't, Sigurd thought. Usually invaders are kind enough to knock on the door first instead of dropping dead center into the heart of the station.

Then he turned his attention towards the readings he dismissed before and the sight wasn't quite as pleasant.

Sigurd then reported to Hanako: "Shôshô, I read 32 heavy mass drivers and at least a hundred quad-laser-PDS just at the side of the station facing us. Furthermore I have a half squadron of heavy cruisers and a full destroyer squadron all withing engagement range. The latter can't, however, fire without risking to hit the station. Still, we can't stay here for long." He fully knew that the last statement wasn't exactly his to make but since at the moment the Eucharis was actually inside the point defense laser's engagement range, which a starship in combat usually was not, he was a bit encouraged to emphasize the point. The mass drivers, however, shouldn't be that much of a problem since they were to slow to actually lock on a targed of Eucharis's size and speed that close to the station.

Well, since there already know we're here, he thought there no point being subtle about it. With that in mind he fired an overpowered active sensor sweep after which he would know every micro scratch on the station's hull on a first name basis and that would, at least for a few seconds, blind the enemy's sensors enough to let the Eucharis disappear in a fog of static. That was a one timer though if he wouldn't want to severely damaged Eucharis's sensor systems.

 

[HotelKilo]

YSS Eucharis

Mehitabel had never felt more superfluous then when the Eucharis dropped in behind the freighter. Regulations weren't exactly clear on where the ship's clerk should be at Condition 2 other then 'out of the way'. So she was at the rear of the bridge, avoiding the on duty shift with her wings folded tight and eyes locked forward to take in the sights. Ultimately, anything that needed extra hands would fall to her, the clerk had decided, with the rest of the crew at their duty stations.

Waiting in place was its own torment practically; watching the freighter gutted and hull cracking on the struck station had a captivating way about, hearing the flow of information from Sigurd-hei. Her gloves fingers crossed with a squeak from her new suit... The teams would be aboard now.

 

[Ametheliana]

Kuvexian Station
Near the Computer Core

For a brief instant Masumi's AIES diplay seemed to glow brighter than she had become accustomed to in the hangar bay aboard the Eucharis, only because her eyes had widened as she took in the sight within the station. Her service rifle was off her armor and in her hand and trained on the Kuvexian she heard before his cup could hit the ground.

It was apparent that there was only one thing to do and she turned to Candon Suites slightly, to look at him before she asked over comms if he agreed with what she thought. But that was the thing, she realized in the instant before she turned her face back to the Kuvexians before her; he had brought her here to think and not to ask first, think later. Instead it was to think first and act sooner.

The infrared data being streamed back to her made it all too easy. LASR MK. 1 in hand, she stepped forward and bullets flew from it fast, shooting down the Kuvexian that had alerted his comrades in arms. The other masses of orangey red colors that her infrared showed back to her were easy targets to hit among the cooler temperatures of their surroundings. When those that she could see were all downed, five bodies on the ground total, she spotted a sixth through a doorway, just barely apparent to her, standing at the back of a cubicle-like room, but wholly within her range.

With hesitation, she let her trigger finger straighten.

Not thinking this time, she spoke quickly, "Suites-heisho, orders?"

 

[Dumont]

Shiho has ideas on the way to the Computer Core:

Waiting for the mission was generally one of the worst things, Shiho had learned by now. You could do nothing but worry about what might be coming, you were presumably already prepared... It was all sorts of nervous tension. And so, Shiho had learned to cope as she waited. Usually by just prattling on to distract herself, and hopefully some of the other infantry. Standing there, watching the synch of the automated teleport rise, encased in a suit of power armor that somehow seemed even more bulky on her than before; Missile pod mounted in place, automatic grenade launcher in hand with ammo belt dangling off connected to its case at the small of her back. She looked positively titanic.

"So I had an idea to make it rich... And I don't want anyone stealing it, because I already got Belle to do the paperwork last night." Shiho stood in the bay and talked about the future with the other infantry cats. She also lied about having filed patent papers in the process. "So we're all wearing power armor, with full face plates that you can't open in space. And that causes some problems, as you well know. So I'm going to make a little thing you can mount on the inside of your visor, which lets you just turn a little to the side when you need to scratch your nose and scratch that sucker out. And then I'm going to start selling them for--"

Pop!

Alien station, with steam rolling across her view just behind the timer on the mission. Must have been humid in here maybe? Weird guys with big ears running about and gunshots. Brilliance, ingenuity and anything constructive would have to wait: There was knife work to do. Something about turrets in the hall outside as well...

Instead of talking now there was a crackle of Shiho's shield being projected, and the tamping of metal feet on the space station floors as Shiho took position by the door. Of course, she was also the one most likely to cause massive collateral damage... So she looked to Tsuguka for some sort of leaderly guidance type of thing. Or possibly just permission to smash everything around them.

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, PA Bay

Candon was ready to go, CQC normally favored his SMG but today he was just feeling like leaving it home. With a full squad and drone PAs he wouldn't need more firepower than he carried on his back. He'd leave his hands free for capturing enemy personnel so he would have friends to play with later. The holographic skull reappeared on his helmet as he once more left his body to live as armor.

Kuvexian Station, Computer Room

Candon flashed into existance in the computer room hallway, just a little bit outside his intended destination.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Away team, science speaking", he radioed the boarding party. "Got good sensor reading. Two autoturrets mounted at the roof of the hallway just in front of the computer core's entrance, but nothing too heavy. Flagging them on your HUDs now. No other signs of opposition so far. Science out."

"Yeah, no kidding," he muttered as he found himself standing almost perfectly between the two.
A loud voice began shouting over the hallway speakers. He didn't understand the language but the point was clear. Putting his hand up he made no sudden movements. A bright flash and thunder erupted through the hall, now filled with smoke and fire retardant.

Candon remained in the destroyed hall, an Aether Beam saber-rifle in each hand had been drawn from the mounts on his back. Powering them back up as aether blades he sliced through the door to the computer room to rejoin his team.

"What did I miss," he asked as he placed the space guns on his back mounts. The sight of dead engineers was a little sad, he would have wanted them alive. "Let's locate the main computer and get the drones organized, take any personnel hostage. Tsu-Hei do your thing, we need power cut and general mayhem. Roll out!"

 

[Blizzard]

YSS Eucharis - Crew Lounge

For the first time in recent memory, Jax actually felt confident that the ship wouldn't nearly get destroyed... again.

Perhaps it was the other twenty-or-so ships they had as backup, perhaps it was wishful thinking. You get the picture.

Regardless, he sat hunched on his favorite sofa in the crew lounge, suited up in an AMES, and holding his communicator with a live feed of damage reports. Hopefully, this time, he wouldn't get sucked under an opening blast door like an idiot.

 

[Ametheliana]

Kuvexian Station
Near Computer Core

Nodding to Suites, she looked to the drone next to her and communicated with it to charge for teleportation. 15 seconds later the two of them were up close and personal with the scrambling technician. It had a weapon in hand and had it aimed at her head. Rapid words came out of its tight blue lips and she listened, trying to pick apart what she knew from other languages and what she didn't know of the Kuvexians'. She raised her eyebrows at the creature, surprised by just how little she knew about it. Then, she watched as the Kuvexian's eyes narrowed and it took its first shot at her. She nearly laughed as she simply moved her head to the side. She ducked for the next shot and when she popped back up, she grabbed the shoulders and looked into its blank black eyes, narrowed in anger, and promptly pushed him down, into her spiked knee as she raised it up and into the belly of the Kuvexian.

"Ooohf~" the Kuvexian exhaled as it fell to its knees. Hands groping at its pained belly, it coughed and gagged, then looked up at her, eyes widened by the shock.

"I'm Masumi," she said in his double ears as she bent down, "and this is goodnight."

She straightened her body slightly as she held her LASR with both hands above her right shoulder, then brought it down swiftly to land on the side of the Kuvexian skull. Their eyes promptly closed and head hung down, slumped onto its chest.

"Now, to get out this," she said, removing the science scanner and placing it in her hands to begin the array of scans and imaging processes that was required to make sure this Kuvexian was more an asset than a compromise to the mission. She attached the red scalar scanner that utilized the UNSAFE package. It sweeped the creature with a wide array of systems, including a quantum computer that analyzes the data from the scalar field generator, so powerful that it employed SONAR, x-ray, RADAR, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and many more that all happened fast enough for her to get the information from it all. After that scan was complete and no red flags popped up, she attached the golden emission scanner and completed a wide array of similar scans, for things like femtomechanical devices and all subatomic particles. The last scan to be done was a chemical scan and she was done.

"You know what to do," she told the other Mindy with her. The Mindy drone picked up the Kuvexian and held it in its arms, pressed against the power armor's chest. Its head leaned against the Mindy drone's shoulder and he looked restful, at peace, now.

"Good, prepare to teleport," she said to the drone, then over comms said, "Suites-heisho, I have the technician. I don't have visual of you. Confirm location?"

[Edit: Science scan added, paragraph 5, 3rd from last]

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Kuvexian Station

As the group of cobalt-hued space knights rapidly sizzled into existence, one of the central figures, bearing a large shield and a grenade launcher, simply seemed to stride right outwards to get a better look at the internal layout. It was a particularly mechanical display, without tension or untempered fury, the Joto Hei taking a moment to gather data on their surroundings before making a judgement call. If they even registered Masumi's heavy handed capture of a Kuvexian prisoner, it was not within the allotted time frame to respond.

"Okay, this is how we are going to do this." A stern, decisive tone. "Junko-Hei, Astridr-Hei, use your gauss weapons to knock out as many doors as possible. Bulkheads, reactor casings, weapons lockers... If it looks like something that would cause a containment breach, put holes in it. Keep moving, and don't get pinned down."

"Shiho-Hei, you will suppress enemy personnel movements in support of the first two. If you encounter heavy resistance, retreat back to my location, and we will counter-attack as a pair."

"Yuuki-Hei and myself will find and cut power lines using our blades. We will be using your audio-visual feeds to aid this."

"That is all. Execute the mission, for the safety of our homeland."

Plasma blade retrieved from the storage hardpoint of the reinforced shield, Tsuguka immediately switched to infra-red vision mode, and searched for the tell-tale parallel lines of hidden power contacts within the walls. Alien as the systems were, some physical laws always stayed the same.

Her daisy-sword slipped through the unarmored metal like a knife through butter. One connection down. Dozens, if not hundreds, to go...

 

[Gunsight1]

Bridge

Natsumi held onto the edge of her console as the Eucharis blasted dropped out of FTL and blasted through the freighter with her aether shock array. The wreckage of the freighter curled away from the fading ball of flame and expanding gas an instant before the heavy gunship slashed through.

Then the assault team was away, teleported to the station. The mission was in full swing. As Sigurd ran his scans of the station, Natsumi began working up taegetting solutions on the station defensive emplacements and the warships scattered around that science scans had picked up, ready to lock in on them when Hanako decided which ones to go for.

 

[Mad_Stylus]

"Acknowledged." Was the first thing Junko said since the tense build up to the mission. The Gauss cannons on her shoulders folded out and down into firing positions. They thundered immediately, finding a few good candidates right away. Said cannons were meant to punch through armored war machines, and would find little sport in the interior architecture.

Junk formed up right with Astridr. Kept her SMG trained on the doorway, ready for anything to come out. Thumb just waiting on the switch for the aether bayonet. She took a few steps ahead of the other neko, scanning the area.

She tried to call up some of the pre-op intel. A rough layout of this level for navigational purposes. This would be much easier if she could keep track of where everything was, she figured.

 

[Wes]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

A deluge of aether beams began flooding out from the station and covered the Eucharis with bright explosions, slamming into the small gunship's shield bubble so hard that it caused the entire ship to shudder in protest. Additional weapons from the various guardian warships around the station put Hanako and the remaining crew firmly in the worst sort of crossfire, which meant they couldn't stay long.

"Maximum shields! Natsumi, FTL out of their weapons range," Hanako ordered, gripping her armrests tightly as the ship rocked and jostled, with sparks flying dramatically from a control panel behind her that was near Mehitabel.

Meanwhile, Sigurd lost contact with the away team as the enemy station's shields and jamming systems came to full power, blocking communications and sensors from the Eucharis.

YSS Eucharis - Crew Lounge

Jax's communicator began to light up with damage reports. There was some sort of network connectivity failure in the rear of the ship, a hull breach in the starboard side of the ship near where the pylon met the ship's main body, and main power was knocked out on most of deck 3. Additionally the CFS projector arrays were complaining a lot about being overloaded and overheating, probably due to the sheer quantity of damage they were having to soak up.

Kuvexian Station - Near the computer core

The station's middle section was circular in shape which meant the area around the computer core was surrounded by curved passageways. Most of these were at least big enough to drive large trucks through, although there were a few smaller passages here and there that went to smaller rooms or equipment. The interiors were pretty sleek and shiny, with a sort of rubberized flooring with little spikes on it. Kind of a black artificial turf.

Tsuguka was able to find power lines to cut, but there seemed to be an essentially unlimited supply of them. The more the team trashed the area, the more difficult it was to make sense of the layout of the station's systems.

A window nearby gave a view of a massive, multi-story computer complex. From within it, a bunch of chrome gold power armors were starting to emerge as an initial wave of defense. They looked every bit as sophisticated as Mindy armors. Junko had the first ones in her sight as they emerged with orange-hued energy shields sparkling in the air. Meanwhile her intel said that there should be places to interface with the computers pretty much everywhere in this area, but SAINT wasn't sure where the actual memory modules were. The team would have to get inside to find them.

A flash bang was followed by a cloud of nanoparticles in the air, forming some sort of hostile sensor fog. Two of the other armors spotted Suites and lunged at him, swinging the Kuvexian equivalent of an aether saber.

 

[Mad_Stylus]

Junko opened fire immediately, having been waiting for precisely that kind of thing.

Well, maybe not Kuvexian power armor necessarily. Someone capable of standing up to boarders, sure. Guards in heavy armor, geared to deal with saboteurs or something. Any case, fight or flight was a thing, and Junko chose fight.

She squeezed a burst from her SMG and the Gauss cannons roared to life. She picked the one she could get the first shot on and just hammered it. Then she broke for the nearest wall, still firing, using the curvature of the thing to her advantage. Even without convenient alcoves or bulkheads for cover, she could just tuck around the corner for some safety.

 

[Gunsight1]

Eucharis - Bridge


The ship shook from the impact of enemy weapons fire, hard. Natsumi had to brace herself against her control panel to keep her face from becoming better acquainted with it. The snowy haired executive officer was manning the ops station, piloting and fighting the ship. Her fingers danced over her controls as she threw the heavy gunship into a series of erratic, sharp evasive maneuvers, hoping to evade some of the enemy fire. But they were in the thick of it, there was too much being thrown at the Eucharis to avoid it all, shot's got through, the ship was taking a beating once more. Natsumi could feel the hit's through how hard the ship jolted, through the alerts that flooded in through her SPINE link with the computer.

"Aye, diverting all available power to the shields and getting us clear!" Natsumi responded to Hanako's order to withdraw from weapons range. She dumped everything she could from the reserves, secondary and non battle critical systems into the ship's protective energy barrier, then plugged in a quick escape jump that would carry them safely clear of both the station's guns and those of the enemy fleet, but not far enough where they could not jump back in to support the assault team.

The navi-computer pinged back with a solid course and Natsumi spun the Eucharis about in a wide, tail sliding turn, kicking the aether thrusters to maximum power to burn away from the station, then engaged the CCD. With a flash of brilliant enveloping light, the Eucharis flashed out, cutting across space to deposit herself safely away from the battle zone.

 

[ArsenicJohn]

Kuvexian Station, Hallway

Freyja listened to Tsuguka's orders closely. The nervousness she had felt melted away. She had been waiting for this moment since the Hanami festival. Back in combat, back where she was created to be. This was home, not the Eucharis or any other ship. Not Yamatai or Nataria. She was afraid, of course, but not for herself. Her fears were for the rest of the squad. Not that she wanted to die, but she didn't think she could bear to lose another squad.

The thought of losing Junko before she could tell her how she was starting to feel was most prominent. So much so that she even considered objecting to Tsuguka's orders so she could stay with Junko. "Shiho-san, watch over Junko-hei for me. I have something to say to her when this is over." She said telepathically as she followed Tsuguka's lead, ABSR held forward in saber mode. Her shoulder-mounted pulse cannon slid into position just in case.

"Following your lead Tsuguka-hei," Freyja replied calmly. Her vision switched to infrared. She focused on severing any power conduits on the opposite wall from Tsuguka. After slicing through a few of them, she was beginning to feel like this was pretty pointless. "Tsuuka-hei, couldn't we just find the station's reactor and destroy it? We can't cut every wire onboard, that would take too long." She suggested.

 

[Blizzard]

YSS Eucharis - Crew Lounge

There was something to be said about that very first violent rocking of the ship when one entered combat. It was like a starting gun that signified "get off your ass and get moving or you're all going to die".

The usual to-do list appeared on his display. Honestly, it didn't appear too severe. What's more; his FAR alerted him that they were jumping clear of the station. Double-win! He felt relieved that his comment about the Eucharis' combat capabilities had been heeded. This respite would give the techies time to slap on band-aids in preparation for the next go-round.

Jax felt his lips curve slightly. He stood and cracked his fingers. "Showtime!"

He hailed his partners in crime on the comms.

"Cherry, Becker, time to go to work! Power's out on level three, and it looks like there's a hull breach. That's our Medical Bay, PA Bay, and Rec-Room with automated massage-chairs. Trust me, it's important! I'll move to patch the hole. Becker, I want you to head to Power Systems and divert power from level one. That's our wardroom and galley, so it's not a priority. As for the armory, we can still use the entrance on level two.

Cherry, you man the main console and give us updates. Once I'm done with the hull patch, I'll move to fix the network issue. CHARISMA's gotta have full access. On three, break!"

As for the CFS arrays, they were just going to have to suck it up. Best thing that could be done was avoid getting hit for a few minutes while they cooled down.

And with that, he took off, towards the cargo lift.

YSS Eucharis - Recreation Area

Having made a quick pit-stop by the front rooms of the armory to grab some hull patches, Jax waited nervously by the doors of the cargo lift as it made its descent to level three.

The happy little "ding!" of the elevator would've made the situation funny, if he weren't having horrifying flashbacks from their last battle. Stupid blast doors! Stupid physics!

"Alright, Jacky-Boy, you got this! You go- OH MY GOD!"

The doors opened, and Jax was sucked violently into the Recreation Area. However, it wasn't as bad as the last time. He'd specifically chosen the elevator because it held less atmosphere than the Zero-G. He, along with an automated massage unit, went careening for the gaping hole in the ship's exterior. With a fluid motion perfected through a few short minutes of mental practice, Jax tethered himself to the bulkhead with his goo-gun.

The breach was quickly patched once he'd oriented himself. With that task completed, he flew himself back to the cargo lift, following the schematics of the ship to find the source of the error.

YSS Eucharis - PA Bay

And that's how he found himself standing at a console in the Power Armor Bay, going through the thrilling process of troubleshooting.

"Howard to Bridge," He drawled into his communicator whilst leaning against the bulkhead. "Thanks to you our damage in minor. Power should be restored to level three shortly. Still working on the network error. Hopefully, it stays boring."

 

[Rizzo]

Kuvexian Station, Computer Room

Candon's blood ran cold as he lost connection to Eucharis. He'd been jammed plenty of times to know the feeling. Communication with the armor team would be on a line-of-sight basis, so he was definitely on his own. Four drones sprang from his dorsal mounted bit launcher, each tasked to find the team and report his location, with Oshiro being the closest member she'd probably be reached first.

Candon moved on. He knew they're would be something to stop his progress eventually, thus he walked with calm, confident steps as if he were walking to his car. With defiance in every ounce of his blood he left his saber-rifles on their back mounts leaving both hands free to-

Kuvexian Station - Near the computer core

A flash bang was followed by a cloud of nanoparticles in the air, forming some sort of hostile sensor fog. Two of the other armors spotted Suites and lunged at him, swinging the Kuvexian equivalent of an aether saber.

He pointed his left fist at the flashbang grenade and fired a pulse of scalar. It hit like a 20mm cannon but changed nothing as it exploded. Fortunately he'd learned to depend on the eyes of his armor which quickly refreshed the picture in front of him, though picture wasn't everything. His sensors were now detecting every particlein the air, so blindness had found it's form.

The sight of two shining knights in armor was too hard to overlook. He continued his stride, holding his left hand by his hip.
As the blades came crashing down on him in unison he responded his right hand reached for his left as if drawing a sword from it's saya. Kokū Ken was instantly in his grip as he accelerated hard, passing between them in a blur as the strong of his zesuaium blade impacted the torso of the left soldier.
Sparks flew as the forcefield covered monomolecular edge passed over his opponent's conformal shields leaving only a deep scratch in his golden paint.
'Hmm.. now I know,' he ramped up the forcefield power.
The undamaged armor made a quick 180 degree turn and lunged into a stab. The agent sidestepped the vicious beam of aether and made two quick cuts. At 60% output Kokū Ken passed through the enemy's exposed elbow joint with minimal effort. The second only grazed his thigh, as Candon had not given that cut his full attention.

He drew the Model 38 from his right holster with his left hand, cross draw style, and fired a heavy round into the face of the guard whom he'd previously tested his sword on. Whatever attack he'd been preparing was forgotten as a heavy bolt of plasma was accelerated into his helmet, leaving him on his back, shields crackling. With no scanning abilities Candon wouldn't offer the fallen foe a chance to get back up.

Bringing the sword's forcefield to 100% output he drove it into the guard's breastplate, centered with his species heart. Returning the sword and gun to its place he claimed the Aether sabers of the now heartless duelist and his disarmed companion. Igniting his left blade for long enough to pass by the one-armed Kuvexian dragging the condensed beam across it's spine.

Suites continued his stroll.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Kuvexian Station, Hallway

Tsuguka made an inconvenienced grunt as communications with the Eucharis suddenly cut out, a situation that was not particularly improved by the team's somewhat confused reactions. Perhaps it was her own fault for being too specific on such or short notice, or perhaps the team disapproved of not being given a specific target... Didn't really matter. They were in deep now, and their actions had only succeeded in waking the whole swamp of alligators. They had to make the best of it, and stay on their toes.

"We probably don't have that kind of firepower, Yuuki-Hei. Keep in mind just how outnumbered we are." The robust neko remarked simply. Her armor was now glimmering with infra-red communication beams, in order to get around the ECM. "Our main priority is to draw fire from the intelligence squad."

Some kind of glimmering explosion at the far end of the room. Candon dealt with two enemies in one swift melee action, but it was still a bad portent.

"Suites-Heisho. Get in the system and find my team some power systems to shoot at, please." The red neko sounded on the verge of swearing, through that did seem to be the accepted form of communication between those two. "Otherwise this operation is going to turn into a joke real fast."

"TEAM." A small jolt forward, to make sure that everybody was in laser-com range. "The plan is changed! Assault the enemy and hit those enemy power armor with everything you've got! Split up, use your teleporters, use your volumetric systems, and DO NOT get pinned down! GO!"

Clasping her grenade launcher to her chest, shield perched alongside, Tsuguka shot clean through the window on full automatic, a hail of fragmentation grenade rounds saturating the center of the enemy formation. The shrapnel wasn't likely to do much more than maim in such sporadic arcs, but as long as it warped their shields and drew their fire, it would make them perfect targets for the gauss rifles of the Eucharis' own sharpshooters.

They could hit her back, Tsuguka didn't care. That, too, was something the team could exploit.

The red lynx's heart had barely even begun to pound.

 

[HotelKilo]

Eucharis Bridge

Belle didn't hesitate at all. When the console nearest her threw sparks as the breaker overloaded, she was on her feet in a moment. Yamashiro-taii, Sigurd-hei, and the Admiral all had their own duties to attend to, while it seemed too small a job for Howard-hei. Her eyes searched out the nearest portable fire suppression canister. She pulled it from the mount and hopped the remaining distance. Aiming the nozzle, she swept the smouldering compartment with a quick jet of fire retardant that seemed to do the job.

 

[Rattenkind]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

How predictable Sigurd thought when the enemy's jammers blinded his sensors. And, unfortunately, unavoidable.
"Enemy's jamming is up", he reported. "I lost connection with the strike team and sensor readings of the station, ma'am."

Then he began refining the garbage he got from the station to get at least some information about it's status. He was, unfortunately, no EW specialist, though, so all he could relay to the main screen were some rough estimates about the stations status and current defense capabilities. He didn't state his intel's accuracy with more than 15 percent though.

Sigurd just intended to work on some means of communication with the strike team when his screen began to flicker in a very annoying manner.
What the hell? he though in a flash of anger. How fortunate that I'm not epileptic.
Then he heard the sound of the fire extinguisher Mehitabel was wielding and he was fairly certain to have found the source of his annoyance.

"Calidius-hei, I have a loose connection here. Could you see if among those burnt cables is a slightly damaged black and green colored one and patch it up with something conductive? It should be low voltage but I can't speak for the other ones, so please be careful."