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

"Arite. If not a trap, ya gotta switch to a neko body for a month" Bronzi snorted over the radio. "If it is candon does."

Shuttle

"Natsumi-Taii. If I'm reading the intel right, the computer should still be active. Should we make that a priority target?" Junko asked. It was her command, so the big decisions were hers to call. If so, this would make her second Eucharis mission also about recovering a computer from an artificial orbiting construct. If the third mission had an orbital with a computer as a critical target, she'd have to start getting paranoid.

Junko was in position as the airlock opened and revealed its defaced other side. Made a mental note of its... state, and slid into pointman position. Rifle aimed at the opening, where the most likely position for a target should be. No hesitation, just instinct and well trained discipline.

"Point ready."

Shuttle

Freyja hurried out of her seat and stood behind Junko, leaving room for her to retreat if necessary. Above she could see the door beyond smeared with Rixxikor feces. She readied her ABSR and aimed up at the open hatch. A cramped shuttle wasn't the last place she wanted to be engaging Rixxixor, but it was close. Not that she had before. She did, however, spend many hours running simulations against Rixxikor.

The chance to fight them for real was both exhilarating and terrifying. She hated the disgusting creatures more than the squids. At least they didn't spray their excretions all over the place and act like a bunch of morons. Such abominations barely count as sentient, she thought. A smirk came to her lips, though none could see it.

"I'm ready to exterminate Rixx. If you need me to make an entrance just give the order, Heisho." Freyja answered, eagerness obvious in her voice. I've been ready for months, she thought bitterly. At least Fumiko won't be in any danger, unless... No, I won't let anything make it to the ship. It's up to us to protect everyone back there.

Shuttle Bay

"Oh, hey Taharial! Good to see you again!" Jax's voice floated from the lift as he strolled in with a tool kit and neko-child in tow. His smile flickered, for just an instant, at seeing the old medic.

'Ah, dammit. Tsuguka's probably gonna get back with her. Oh well. Not like that was going anywhere to begin with...' Jax lamented silently. He was a little... disappointed, to say the least, but he wasn't exactly fuming about it. The two had really hit it off, and... it seemed best. Tsuguka could be happy again. Same with Freyja...

...

...

Where the hell was Umeshu?!

Junko had come back!

Taharial had come back!

WHEN THE FUCK WAS HIS GOLDEN MOMENT?!

"Just real quick, before you take the Apple, I'm gonna check to see if it's still got its weapons installed. Tsuguka wanted me to give y'all some extra firepower."

As he waited, he managed to successfully push down his bitter anger at the powers-that-be.

Shuttle

Masumi bit her pink lip as her even pinker eyebrows pushed towards one another as Candon asked her if it seemed odd. Being on a mission at all was odd to her. Having only ever lived through one —barely— she wondered how many he had under his belt and if she would ever have near as many.

"My bits are yours," Masumi told Candon telepathically.

Shuttle Bay

Taharial heard the familiar voice of Jax and rushed to him giving him a small hug, remembering not to squeeze hard as she was in the armour "I have missed you Jax, is Tsuguka still part of the crew, I have missed her." She looked down and sighs "I understand if she has moved on but after that whole ordeal I want to see my familiar crew again, especially after seeing people die and forgetting their loved ones as they didn't back up since before then."

She smiled and looked at him "Um so more firepower, oh yeah, this is great" she said this sarcastically as after seeing all that fighting she had kinda had enough but knew they needed it. "So you still got Umeshu or has that shipped sailed.... Sorry, I missed you guys and all, sorry I got too personal."

Shuttle

Explosions filled the shuttle as several rockets flew through the just-opened hatch, mangling the interior floor and seats and breaking the seal with the docking port as they slammed against the bottom of the shuttle. A violent rush of air went towards the shuttle's ceiling as the rapid decompression ensured. Through the door, they could briefly see the interior airlock was filled a dozens of dead Rixxikor bodies tumbling out into space between and an aggressive four-legged combat robot of unknown type, with energy cannons for arms. The lights flickered inside of the wounded shuttle and then went out just as Victory was able to re-establish a good seal with the other airlock. A shower of orange plasma beams followed the initial assault, showering the top of the shuttle and leaving glowing orange rings around the holes through the shuttle's body.

"Eucharis, this is Telemachus, we are under attack by unknown hostiles!" Victory announced over the radio.

Shuttle

Hanako certainly hadn't been mistaken when she said this was one of the station's "docking ports of interest." At least they now knew how the dead robots littering the surface of this station would react if they came across a working one. This one obviously was—at least insofar as its targeting and weapons systems.

"Let's kick up that 'level of aggression' you were talking about, Heisho!" Saiga barked as little orange streaks of sunlight rained down from the ceiling. There was no more time to discuss splitting up the team or plans of attack now. "Focus your fire and take that thing down!"

The blast from their assailant's rockets had jarred him, but did not break his SAINTly resolve. After heaving himself off of the floor to kneel, Saiga raised his shield and shouldered his Aether/Scalar SMG. He pointed it up toward where the plasma beams had punctured the Telemachus, aiming past its perforated hull with his Mindy's targeting systems, and then fired a burst at the metal beast that was attacking them as he stood.

"Victory-heisho, the rear compartment is already depressurized," the SAINT chusa shot off to their pilot. "Get the shuttle decoupled and away from here—sticking around only keeps you in unnecessary danger. Everyone else, get in through that breach or out the back gate! We'll have more room to maneuver once the Telemachus is clear!"

In no position to make a frontal assault himself, Saiga pushed off from the deck and leapt out the shuttle's back door, first making sure to open it if Victory hadn't already fulfilled his earlier request to do so. He hoped nobody had been wounded yet, but could commit more attention to the thought once their enemy had been neutralized.

"Let's move!"

Shuttle

In hindsight, Tan Ann Pan was glad she hadn't decided to take point, or aim through the docking hatch. Though her suit was mostly equipped with defensive systems, her reasoning--that the medic shouldn't be the first one to fall--had still encouraged her to stay out of the way, rather than put them where they'd be of most use. In any case, most of those defenses weren't going to be of use when the missiles could hit the floor under her, anyway, which had also became clear in hindsight. Standing off to the side had been a truly excellent idea, not that she'd known in advance.

Rather than pat herself on the back for it, or consider the choices the others had made, though, the enemy seemed much more worthy of her attention. It seemed possible they thought the Rixx were landing again and weren't a real enemy, but with the firepower they were unloading, it didn't seem to matter.

She took a moment to aim and lock on using sensors data fed from the visor of others, who'd unfortunately been in a better position to see where fire was coming, and were unfortunately no longer in as stable a platform to return fire. Then, she thrust her hand out and gestured, to communicate her intent to her armour, and launched a flight of five missiles from her shoulder pod; sending them diving into the breach where the rockets had just gone off, to fly up through the docking collar and strike the combat robot together. Then, and only then, did she activate her energy cloak and what countermeasures she could use in such an enclosed space, just in case more fire still came her way.

Shuttle

Tsuguka's immediate, unthinking reaction was actually protect the Gartagen mecha, jumping in front of it and angling her shield for maximum protection. They were the only object that couldn't teleport out, apart from Victory in the cockpit. Least she could do was give them a chance to gain momentum, before something bigger decided to punch a hole in them...

"Please decouple, Heisho! Don't wait for the seal!" The red neko barked briskly, as a rocket skidded off her protective plating. Even if the ship wasn't now full of holes, nobody else really needed the air anyway. "Hierophant, please begin rolling!"

Whilst talking, she leaped upwards through the hatch herself, mindful of the sudden streak of Pan's missiles past her right shoulder. The volley was immediately supplemented by single fragmentation round from the barrel of her own weapon, hoping to batter the enemy into submission as quickly as possible. Full automatic would have been preferred, but with them all in such a tight space like this...

Boots were on the station now. Just needed to buy a few more seconds for everyone else to get out of their transport, at least...

The heirophant shuddered, having taken a hit. The armor held. Bronzi huffed and engaged the roll. "Moving it forward gun, thanks fer tha shield." Bronzi said to Tsuguka. He had to pride her instincts, the girl was no fool and had been listening to what was being said. But now wasn't the time to stay still.

They were too wide to fit into the breach, however he could exit the shuttle and activate the grav boots of the heirophant and move around the super structure.

"Arite, ere we go." Bronzi said activating Wazu's new shield and rolling out of the shuttle. As they made it out the mech hand grabbed Natsumi and pulled her in.

"Just like ya said, let the yammies handle it, imma keep us out here so we can take a look around." Bronzi said to wazu.

Shuttle

Junko was already rushing in as the missiles passed. One of the plasma beams hit her as she tucked in, nicking the armor along her right arm and taking the point off the pauldron. She kept moving, firing her TAPS for a burst of acceleration. Didn't stop, knowing everyone else were sitting ducks unless this bot died immediately.

Junko closed the distance as fast as she could, firing her gauss to hammer the bots armor. Thumbed the switch on her ASBR, lighting the bayonet. She'd duck by its legs and leap onto its back, stabbing with ferocious abandon. Always moving and always stabbing, trying to find something critical and carve it out of its guts.

Shuttle -> Space

Freyja barely had time to react to the volley. Without even thinking she moved toward Junko to try and pull her back. The rockets hit before she reached her, and she was thrown out the back of the shuttle. She stopped herself from spinning, reorienting herself to face the shuttle.

A huge grin was on her face, which confused her, but she didn't stop to think about it. "This is Yuuki-hei. I was thrown from the shuttle. No damage. I'll escort the big guy, might have to make a new entrance for him." She said, floating towards the Hierophant. Her ABSR at the ready, she landed on the hull behind Bronzi and Wazu.

"Let's hurry up and get in there. Try to keep up, old men." Freyja said playfully, dashing towards the nearest entrance.

Shuttle

Masumi's arm lifted to take aim at those energy cannon arms, but she realized at the last minute that there was too much interference. Too many bodies littered the space between where she was next to the cockpit of the craft and the explosion, which was at the docking hatch.

Her secondary reaction was to rush forward and squeeze past the heirophant in order to get to Candon's side.

"Are you hurt?" Masumi asked while she was trying to get to him. Then, when she had, she wrapped her arms around his chest and thrusted out of the shuttle with him.

Her third reaction was to speak to the commanding officer, "Taii! Engage hostile?"

Space

In the darkness of space Candon's armor floated like a lifeless ragdoll in Masumi's arms. The graviton shield had done it's job blunting the blows but his alignment with the hatch prior to the decompression had lined him up to be ejected right into the ceiling, the reason why the face of his helmet was now missing paint.

It had happened so fast he really had no idea where he was. Masumi would feel the severing of the telepathic link as Candon was swarmed with rockets and launched into the ceiling, hitting his head hard enough to cause whiplash.

He really hadn't expected the hatch to open so quickly. Had he been smart he'd have used his LSP to preform a more invasive search to try peering through the closed door. Now he knew as he started to regain control of his sensory equipment. Better late than never, he began seeking the war robot as his target using the leader support pack while broadcasting its location to the team. It was all he could do at that time.

Although his words seemed to be unavailable his appreciation toward Masumi flowed telepathically once again as he reestablished their link.

Shuttle

"Wai- !" Natsumi began to command Candon to stop as he opened the airlock on his own authority, not waiting for orders from Natsumi, the Executive Officer and away team commander, or the other senior officer, Saiga, or any word that the coast was properly clear. She was cut off as the world exploded an instant later as rockets flew into the small space of the shuttlecraft interior, exploding and filling the space with flame and wreckage, which showered all about, followed by a spray of plasma beams, slicing through the hull. Natsumi, close to the lock when it came apart, was slammed back by a glancing blow from a detonating rocket, then a dark mass blocked her view of the incoming fire and protecting her from a beam what would have sliced through her Mindy.

She was wrenched over, pinned in the gauntleted talons of the Heirophant as it hauled her out of the sudden explosion of flames and plasma beams the interior of the shuttle had become. Her head spun almost as much as the world spun around her, then came to a jarring halt. She was clear of the shuttle, which spun away, bleeding atmosphere from at least a dozen wounds. She heard Saiga's command to withdraw and the scattered snippets from the others. It was hard to collect the sudden jumble together and organize it in her head into something coherent. She shook her head and checked her tactical heads up display and gritted her teeth as she heard the incoming stream of orders from Saiga.

"BELAY THAT ORDER TO CHARGE IN!" Natsumi's voice, harsh and strained, cut over the away team comm channel. She hauled herself up on top of the Heirophant, getting herself a better look at the airlock, a choke point that anyone trying to enter through would be easily and quickly cut down by the enemy. "That airlock is a choke point, anyone charging in is going to die. Tsuguka, Junko, get the hell out of there, teleport out!" she hissed next. "Pull back to either side of the airlock for cover" she was speaking fast now. "Victory, get clear as soon as everyone is off that shuttle!"

The took note of where the Heirophant was placed "Mr. Bronzi, lay down suppressing fire into that airlock as long as none of our people are in the line of fire!" she commanded next, preparing her own rifle to assist in the suppressing fire. "Freyja, cover behind this monster's limbs and aid in the cover fire, I want whatever is in there pinned down long enough for us to get in their and properly deal with it!"

"Everyone else, stack up well clear of the airlock" she was saying as she glanced down at the Heirophant she now clung to. "Mr. Bronzi, what is the most powerful weaponry you have on this monstrosity?"

Bronzi having released Natsumi responded "tha fists, but we also got some anti armor missle pods installed, Taii-sama."

The Heirophant stepped back. "Open it up wazu, let's see if tha new toys work."

Bronzi issued voice command. "Medi bot, check tha xo." Natsumi would soon feel the clicking of a small dog sized medical robot administering some basic aid. "Should keep you good till the medic can make their way over hea.

Sapce

"Missiles powerful enough to blast through that airlock hull and shred whatever is inside?" She asked, making note to thank the Gartagen later for pulling her out of the firestorm and for making sure she was not badly wounded. She was very aware that most likely her next sight after the explosions was the inside of a hemosynth tube if he had not pulled her clear.

"If yes, Mr. Bronzi, I want a full barrage of missiles into that airlock as soon as Tsuguka and Junko are clear"

"Ay Taii-Sara, one missile barrage coming up." Bronzi said scouting Natsumi back up. His next move was to activate the shield of the Heirophant and await wazu to try out his new toys. He then began back peddling several meters.

"Ya heard yer co, back it up. " Bronzi said to freyja.

Station Surface

Star Army fire teams were trained to be some of the most brutal killers in the Kikyo Sector. They were direct, surgical, and efficient. Junko's act had been commendable. Alongside her sergeant Tsuguka's support and Pan-hei's precursor missile attack, the course of battle had made Saiga-chusa confident the threat would be eliminated forthwith.

Precision was exactly what a SOFT team specialized in, and a precise resolution to the current situation seemed to be unfolding without incident or delay—no doubt as a result of the team's three months of training. And even though Junko had been absent for most of that training, her experiences elsewhere had given her whatever practice she needed to perform her duties in an exemplary way. As Saiga watched her savage close-combat attack on the hostile machine on his AIES sensors, he felt pride in her bravery and confidence in her skill. Even his counterparts at Star Army Command, where Star Army Special Operations was based, would have been impressed by the initiative SOFT 408 had shown in its first contact with an enemy.

That's why Saiga cringed in his armor as they were ordered to pull back so the Gartagen mech could slam its rudimentary barrage of missiles into an enemy that Pan-hei, Toyoe-heisho, and Hasegawa-hei had likely already felled. A Heirophant factually had less powerful armaments and defensive capabilities than any of their Mindy 4s, so Natsumi's order was lost upon him. The mech was proving to be far more trouble than it was worth. Indeed, they wouldn't even have been confined in the Raccoon-class shuttle had it not been for the need to transport their allied tag-along in some way.

Saiga lay against the station's hull beside the shuttle and the airlock it would soon depart, itching to countermand the team's retreat, but held his tongue. He'd learned—having served as an infantry commander since YE 31—that this shit was what got Neko killed. But even so, he respected the chain of command above all else.

At least they were Neko with ST backups, willing to die for the Empire without question or hesitation.