RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 27, Part 3] Expanding Horizons II (YE 39)

back seat

"Someone probably got a lesson in why you do not build superweapons." Wazu said, pulling off another strip of take and sticking the half-disassembled training grenade to the side wall of the Hierophant before reaching for one of his spare datapads, snapping off the back panel and digging out a connector cable.

"You are probably used to thinking of combat in terms of tactics and strategy. But when you are running at this scale you also need someone working on other metrics. A good army may be able to win a battle, but a great army is one that can generate and maintain a higher sorte rate than its opponent. You are inevitably going to have some number of your ships needing to be serviced, crews needing shore leave, ect. A certain number of ships are going to be in transit at any given time, which means only a small number of your ships are available at any one time to actually do something.

I suspect that once this facility was mission-killed by... whatever did that, its owners abandoned it. After all it is likely easier to build a new one than try to restore this one to service.

Or perhaps the conflict in which this was used had a short-enough time frame that there was no time to repair this facility.

I also get the impression that the creatures working on salvaging this are not the original owners. And due to the lack of Kuvexian ships it does not seem like this facility is of importance to them.

That could mean the Kuvexians don't know about the facility, which since the rixx are here I find unlikely, or that the Kuvexians don't care about the facility.

That in turn implies that the Kuvexians have already taken everything of value to them, and only the raw materials are of interest.

Of course, if the Kuvexians did build this then there are a few more things to consider. Either they learned their lesson after its defeat the first time and stopped wasting resources on massive projects... or they have enough of these in their inventory that they don't need to fully recover this one....

...Which reminds me, we should try and find whatever generates shields for this facility and investigate their strength. It does not seem like the Kuvexians are any more advanced than anyone else, but still, if this was used to house a shield powerful enough to shrug off our current weapon inventory then that could be a game changer."

Wazu looked up from his project, getting a skew'd view of the shuttle's hatch from the cameras on the exterior of the oddly packed mechanical suit,

"... are we going to fit inside of there?"

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Sura's tail flicked as the curt voice of Hanako hit her. THe fame. The legend. Even Gartagens knew who Hanako was. The Union Navy nearly fought a war for her when they fight encountered Yamatai. Here Sura was. She had moved forward and soon approached Hanako. She resolved to make it quick. "Captian Hanako. As a thanks for allowing us on your ship, I have been instructed to give you these gifts...it is a bit of a tradition for my people."

She gulped as she spoke. "It may not seem important but." Balancing one hand under the box she opened the circular container. In it was freshly made cheese cake sampler. Chocolate, straw berry, plain, and chocolate chip along with with a small tasting spoon next to the slices. "Cheese cake is always important...so I am told....." Sura rested the top of the cheese cake's container on the wooden box. If Hanako dismissed her she'd scurry off.

Shuttle

Bronzi listened to Wazu. The man was right. Bronzi could not find any flaw in his logic. This was often the case when the pair converse. "Ya, but I reckon they'd be fixin on usin this machine...fear wins more wars den armies eva did."

Back Seat

"Close to 90% of people will act against their own better judgement when instructed to by someone they view as an authority figure. Similarly any species that has been able to make it to the stars understands that fact, and has employed similar mental conditioning techniques to counteract such things like fear and conscience.

I find it best to not deal in intangibles."

Shuttle

"I've never seen cheesecake." Junko commented, after a moment of confusion. Was that a compliment? It was phrased positively, but again she had no frame of reference. Not knowing was probably more frustrating than the possibility of a hidden put down.

Her head tilted at the mention of sleeping under Jax. She knew the cabins were bunk-style, but then she couldn't get out of her head the idea Freyja liked to top. And then... did Tsuguka challenge Freyja over Jax? Were they fighting over him?

Making sense of this was like trying to hit a moving target on a rollercoaster. On the one hand, an hour ago, hadn't she been resigned to writing herself out of Freyja's life? All this should just be reinforcement of that position. Freyja had plenty of good things going for her and didn't need an old ex to go and ruin it all over again.

Other hand, she was hopelessly stuck on Freyja and that kiss had been perfect.

But then, why was she so jealous? More accurately, what right did she have to be jealous when she'd essentially walked out on her? Junko knew, factually, that Nekos were by majority open to the idea of... sharing. Did Freyja believe in that kind of sharing?

Did Junko, herself, believe in that?

"I didn't stop fighting, ma'am. Just reassigned to a temporary task force. They defaulted to throwing me back to my old post when it was over." Junko clarified. Did that sound too cold? Couldn't tell.

Victory piping up couldn't have come at a better time. She disengaged from the conversation, readying her weapons. Other side of that airlock could be full of ready and eager hostiles. She'd have to be ready for anything.

Driver Seat


Bronzi grumbled. As wazu spoke of percentages and instincts. Bronzi made his hand into a gun and had his finger aimed at wazu's face.

"Don't matter when it's pointed at ya planet and threatenin to take what it wants. "

"Something ain't right about dis."

"Ain't nobody gonna leave a big old gun or whatever it is layin around unless...somethin encouraged em to."

Bronzi pulled the hand away.

The Shuttle Telemachus

It was unfortunate their entry point hadn't been a voided shuttle bay or some open deck that'd been half-exposed in cross section by whatever destruction had ripped apart this station. Indeed, the fact that Hanako and her bridge crew had identified this docking port as a point of primary interest made the big mech curled up in the middle of the Telemachus V even more of a burden than it already was. The thing would either have to stay here or find another way to join the away team, and only one of those options was realistic.

Wazu wasn't aboard the Eucharis because of his personality, nor did he tag along on missions because of his combat prowess. He was here because of his scientific expertise, and was carried by the too-big-for-a-docking-port Gartagen machine today.

"Recommend we detail a soldier or two to accompany the Heirophant," Saiga said over comms, though he was loathe to suggest splitting up the team before their adventure had even begun. "Wazu-san and his new bodyguard could come on foot through the airlock, but the safest bet is allowing them to exit our rear hatch and proceed over the structure's surface until we find an entryway big enough for their robot—or make one. Overwatch from both shuttles and the Eucharis should keep them safe until that happens."

The decision would ultimately fall to Natsumi, or more likely Tsuguka if the Taii was one to trust in her NCOs to make the call. Saiga was trying to stick to providing advice instead of issuing orders himself for now.

Cargo Transport Convoy

Taharial smiled as the convoy she was traveling with was getting closer to where the Eucharis was, she was very nervous to be back but breathed deeply as she saw her old home from before the Assignment. She shook her head and as she grinned hoping she still knew the crew, she hadn't been able to check the new crew list yet and just wanted to be on board again to see her friends.

The driver chuckles as he looks over at the soldier wearing medical colours, he was interested when he got hailed by the Minori-Class Hospital Ship, he didn't think that it was to escort a person back to her original ship but the pay was good so why shouldn't he do this for her. He laughs as he thinks of the money he made taking this girl on his route.

When the ship got closer, the driver got up to the Docking Airlock and hailed the Eucharis "Hello Eucharis, I have a special delivery here for you, an Elysian Nitô Hei calling herself Taharial Chasan, could we please have access to your airlock?"

Through the Chute and onto the Eucharis

Taharial rushed quickly down to the airlock after grabbing her stuff from her locker and bunk, not wanting to be that much of a burden on the crew of the ship, she helped them work and on her spare time stayed to herself. She thanked the crew for their hospitality and then headed through the airlock and down the zero-grav chute.

She made her way down the chute and onto the Eucharis, she sorted her uniform making sure everything looked perfect, sorting out her hair and wings as well, then added some lipstick to make herself look like she did before she left. While heading towards the Bridge she put her stuff in an empty cabin bed then heads up.

Eucharis Bridge

Taharial waits at the door, until it fully slides open then she smiles seeing some familiar faces but also some new, she gulps and walks on "Nitô Hei Chasan, reporting back to the Eucharis, what is my first assignment, I am ready to get back in, friendly interaction can happen when we have some downtime." She wanted to rush up to the people she knew and give them a hug, but after the assignment, she was forced to follow the rules a lot more on that ship when it came to how to act in front of superiors and thought that Hanako would be happy to hear the more polite and mature Taharial to the loudmouth.

Back Seat

"You are thinking it is a trap?" Wazu asked, looking up from his project for the moment, the datapad now working on overwriting the image settings for the training grenade using its new direct connection.

"It would seem to be a poor trap. It is using a lot of assets to draw us in. There also seems to be no method of it luring us here, or any assurance that a valuable ship would be sent to investigate it once it was discovered. They would have gotten very lucky to leave this out here and have us find it. The number of discarded ships and objects left behind so far also implies they have more ability to build more than they do to repair what they have. So far this all seems in line with what we have previously experienced."

Wazu would pause for a moment again.

"However a good trap would not have noticeable tells that it is a trap. Perhaps they managed to determine what the fleet's search pattern was and then prepared something?

If so, why not just ambush the ship now instead of letting us go down to the surface?... there could be a response time factor, or perhaps they are looking to entangle the Eucharis by placing the ground team so that the Eucharis can not retreat without abandoning us? If I were them in this situation I think I would be trying to recover an intact teleporter from one of the Mindy armors. Isolate the ground team, and then overwhelm them while they can not receive support from their mothership.

If we are attacked in force here and in space, then we just need to hold out until Yamatai can defeat their starships. Then we can destroy any-sized ground force from orbit.

If they can drive off the fleet... well, then we have bigger problems. Self-destruct of the Mindy teleporters and other gear might be advised. We should probably let them take us as prisoners though. We would both be ST'd back into new bodies for our duties with the Eucharis and these versions of us could try to extract information from them while imprisoned."

Front seat

Bronzi let out a low growl at Wazu'e conclusion. Again he was right in his thinking. But reguardless it was too late. "Only one way ta find out."

Bronzi switched to the main frequency after hearing Saiga. "A surface team is a solid move. We can figure it out and keep the pace. That away if one team gets dead the other can still complete the mission. " Bronzi said calmly. It was against SAoY tactical norms, but this situation was unusual and allowed for unusual ideas.

"Unless you wanna leg it" Bronzi said to Wazu.

Back Seat

"If you can't fit through there, then lets take the surface route. It'll be a good opportunity to investigate one of the damaged robots on the surface."

Front seat

Bronzi nodded. Having left the radio open for all to hear Wazu. " We can go it solo. Find a good link up point and figger out what happened outside."

"Chusa-San why don't you come ta protect." Bronzi's said to Saiga.

The Shuttle Telemachus

"If that's what Yamashiro-taii orders, then that will be my duty," the SAINT commando replied in an unenthusiastic way that sounded very routine, almost like he'd said the same kind of thing a thousand times before. It was probably closer to ten thousand, but that was beside the point.

Saiga wanted to see the newly-formed SOFT team in action and be able to evaluate their ability to work together from first-hand experience, and accompanying the Heirophant could separate him from the others indefinitely. Even so, there was merit to the idea that he watch over Wazu and the Gart instead of someone else—better they all worked together on their first sortie than be split up. Plus, a fire team's commander wouldn't always join them in the field like he was today.

"I am prepared for whatever task the Empire asks of me," Saiga tacked on, his tone equally routine. "I trust you all are as well," he added, more energetically now that he was addressing everyone. "Make sure your AIES are initialized for combat and your weapons are charged, this is our last moment to prepare."

Shuttle

"You're like a nice strong coffee, Pan-Hei..." An odd tone, like reading a proverb. Probably just impressed that they managed to construct a metaphor. "That includes mentally. I like that."

Then, an immediate abrupt change, with even the woman's posture reverting back to a neutral, blank slate. The friendship program had been closed on a dime.

"Saiga-Chusa, in what capacity are we engaging in this mission primarily?" The pocket guns on her Mindy's shoulders had been ready since they were stuck on. A grenade launcher was too messy at this range, and thus remained in her lap quite intentionally. "That is to say, if this mission is not particularly secret... Why are we bothering with a clean docking procedure, rather than just making a bigger hole? Why not just treat this as smash and grab?..."

It might have seemed like a heavy-handed option, but seeing as they were currently dealing with schrodinger's hornet's nest, the Heisho would have preferred to piss the enemy off whilst they still had covering fire from the Eucharis. There were certainly positives to not pissing off the locals, but she still felt like the brute force option at least needed to be considered seriously.

"I mean no disrespect, sir... I'm just not sure about taking chances, this far from home."

Logically, Tsuguka had always figured her own skin color was blood flavor. Like, as in an intentional design feature threw in by some lab tech somewhere. That would make sense for a creature created to think things like this.

Shuttle

"We're docking here because this is where Hanako-shosho ordered us to go, and I assume Victory-san is following her last orders per direction from our bridge crew," Saiga said while he tapped a palm on the bottom of his Aether/Scalar SMG's magazine to make sure it was fixed in place one last time. "If you have any suggestions for Yamashiro-taii as to how we should proceed differently in the current situation, I doubt she would discard your tactical advice without thorough consideration. You are the heisho in charge of our combat element, Tsuguka-san.

"So if your thoughts extend beyond questions and concerns, out with it," he urged, his voice sounding very blunt but not in a way that indicated he felt the oni Neko's words had been imprudent. "Victory-heisho's going to open that airlock any moment now unless she receives a new directive."

Shuttle

"I wouldn't go over your head, Chusa. Level of aggression is your authority." Tsuguka replied, cleanly. She hadn't really thought about how differently this would work without Candon in command on the ground. But they were already at the docking port now, and it was too late for an in-depth discussion like this. "Just trying to keep my girls alive, sir. We are ready for entry."

Standing up and bracing a hand on the ceiling, the Heisho just shook the ammo belt for her grenade launcher free, and arced it towards the hatch. An arc of the helmet suggested Junko and Freyja did the same.

Shuttle

Thump! Clack, clack, clack. Hiss! The shuttle's dorsal docking port, which was circular and a little less than two meters in diameter, opened up above the the away team to reveal a slightly larger docking port on a vertical surface of the ancient structure. Through the portal in the ceiling they could see an emergency release system that would probably open the door. There was Rixxikor feces smeared on it already.

Bridge

In low orbit over the metallic planetoid, Hanako was surprised by the untimely arrival of a medical ship whose commander was apparently neither afraid of risks nor interfering with an admiral's mission without asking, as well as the random cheesecake delivery.

"Thank you,' Hanako told Sura. "Taharial, as soon as the shuttle Golden Apple lands, take it and autopilot down to the team on the surface and join them."

Shuttle

Candon had situated himself next to Masumi as he boarded the shuttle. Absent as he might seem he was fully focused on the streams of data from Eucharis sensors. The undefended installation seemed highly suspicious to him but he couldn't say why.

"Does this not seem odd to you?" he telepathically asked Masumi, who had access to all the same data he did, I have a bad feeling that they want us here.

Rixxicor poop on the door. That made sense.

"I got this," he said audibly to the squad, "shields up, I'll put twenty on this door being a trap."
There was no need to put someone in danger of an exploding door. With shields up he took a position under the shuttle's dorsal hatch. Using his left graviton projector he formed a gravitic shield barrier over the hatch.
"Opening it up," he announced as he began manipulating what appeared to be the release for the door. He was hopeful that they wouldn't have to cut into the door, for fear it was indeed unsafe.

Should it open Candon would task three of Masumi's drones to scout the interior.

Front Seat

Bronzi winced at Candon's bravado. He didn't want to shame him, yet at the same time this was Bronzi's area of expertise, and pride could come after the mission was a success.

"With respect, If dats a trap walking right into it ain't tha best idea. Plus, they'd have us ya know .... trapped in this shuttle. Pinned down where tha speed and agility of yer suits ain't gonna be useful...same fer us. Which one well aimed explosive charge and the shuttle goes down with us in it."

"Maybe a scan of tha area beyond dat breech first. Wazu? Can tha sensors see what's behind that breech ?"

Bridge

Sura smiled and bowed and was very nearly knocked over by the rushing bird woman. She took it in silence.

"Captian Hanako, I can give the second gift later at a better time."

Sura then turned to leave, having delivered the cheese cake to the Captian. She still clutched the fine wood case with its silver hinges and Latches.

Bridge

Taharial Saluted and nodded to her captain "I will be down there as soon as possible Ma'am." She looked around at the others and waved bye to them as she headed off, not wanting to overstay after being handed a mission to do. "I will do what I can to make sure all the crew come back.... I am not sure when the last backup was done so, the top priority is making sure no one dies for me."

She left the Bridge and made her way towards the shuttle bay quickly, she wanted to see her friends who were on the mission and of course, she wanted to make sure they were all okay and well.

Power Armour Bay -> Shuttle Bay

Taharial thought it would be a good idea to grab her power armour first, the custom Elysian one she bought so she was safe on away missions. She sighs as she looked over the suit, she would have to thank whoever kept the dust off as she suited up to be shipped off. When she was ready she headed down towards the Shuttle Bay, putting on the comms channels so she could hear what she was walking into, she gulped as she smiled hearing some familiar voices and guessed that she should let them know to expect her soon.

"Hello away team, guess who will be coming with you, just need to wait for the shuttle Golden Apple and then I will be joining you all down planet side." She made sure she had what she needed, a couple of medical kits, her weapons and then checked the systems of her suit as she paced the Shuttle Bay and was nervous but excited.

Back Seat
"I will take that bet," Wazu said, thinking it did not make sense to place a trap here with the goal of wiping out the party. After all if they wanted to take them all out they could have placed the trap on the exterior where the shuttle docked.

He would then turn his attention to Bronzi, "The sensors we have can kinda see through the door, but all of the electronics, shields, and material makes it a bit murky. They aren't really made for the precise, small, stuff."