RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 27, Part 4] The Sleeping Giant (YE 39)

Power Armor Bay

Masumi looked around and then added to the conversation, "When you've spoken more about the recent critiques, it would be nice to have our roles clearly defined and assigned as a group, but only if there is time!"

PA Bay

"Chain of command hasn't changed. In this specific situation, the priority you should assign to given orders would go Shosho Hanako, Chusa Saiga, Shoi Takumi, Itto Heisho Suites, and finally mine." Tsuguka informed blankly. They were standing so rigidly at ease with their hands behind their back that it might as well have been formal. Wasn't entirely sure if Masumi's question was actually aimed at them or not, but thought it was best to lay out things as cleanly as possible. "Check your cranial receiver, I'm sending you all a grouping list."

SOFT 408 Expanded Command Structure

• Command Squad; The Shosho, Chusa Nicholas Saiga, Shoi Higashi Takumi, Santo Hei Tan Ann Pan (Medic).
• Close Support Squad; Nito Heisho Tsuguka, Nito Heisho Jackson Howard, Nito Hei Masumi Oshiro.
• Grenadiers; Nito Hei Junko Hasegawa, Santo Hei Yukimura Noriko, Yonto Hei Freyja Yuuki.
• Auxiliary Support (Independently Acting); Mister Bronzi & Mister Wazu.
• Auxiliary Recon (Independently Acting); Itto Heisho Candon Suites.

Click to expand...

"No shuttle support this time. Close formation until we reach the wreck once more, during which our allies will simultaneously drop supply crates to distract the Rixxikor. New orders will then be issued depending on the situation on the surface." A quick correlation of the facts. Finally, she turned to the captain once more, standing as if they were preparing to fire their rifle in the air like a starting gun, letting loose the dogs... Well, cats of war."Is this all to your approval, Ma'am?"

Power Armor Bay

"It sounds alright to me," Hanako agreed. She carefully arranged her hair and then slowly slid on her helmet, which sealed with a quiet hissing. A deep, powerful electric buzzing sound came from her teleportation system as she rapidly built up charges in the capacitors.

She set coordinates for a damaged section of the machine planet where they could be deeper into its interior, and transferred the coordinates to the rest of the away team.

YSS Eucharis - Cargo Bay

"One palette of sticker sheets," Nitô Hei Nam Sohyun announced as she went through an inventory of the supplies that the YSS Tomoyo was transferring to the Eucharis. "One color laser photo printer," she announced.

"Victory nodded, "Ah, those are for warning labels. The engineering department says they keep getting burned off in battle."

Sohyun smiled and nodded as if she knew. I guess that could happen, she figured. Scary.

Cherry arrived and moved the printer to the fabrication room, along with several 500-page boxes of sticker sheets. With most of the crew away on a mission, this would be the perfect opportunity.

Meanwhile, Victory and Sohyun finished their inventory and began loading the old food supplies into the back of a shuttle from the Tomoyo, which was awkwardly positioned at the end of the cargo bay on the ramp.

Power Armor Bay

"Yes, dear." Junko dryly responded to Freyja.

The lilt did sound funny in her voice, but that was more endearing than anything. If they weren't about to drop into a combat zone, she'd have been tempted to head-boop her shoulder or something. Maybe, just maybe, she could make this work out. As distant as it seemed, maybe she could have a future that wasn't soaked in blood.

She took a second to double check the coordinates with the map of the expected drop zone. Double checked her gear was in order. Made sure she was transmitting telemetry to the command staff. If she went ahead and scouted, she needed people to see what she was scouting.

Junko waited for someone to declare the mission ready to begin.

Power Armor Bay

"Grenadier. Understood," Noriko's sultry tones replied to Tsuguka.

Behind the faceless helmet of her Mindy, the snowy haired Neko looked plain-faced and placid, but behind even her own face, she was annoyed. Powering down her modules and detaching the extra capacitors, the young woman changed her loadout knowing full well what being a grenadier meant. They were priority targets, and needed protection from their teammates.

It was just that in this instance, their performance and ability to work as a team seemed to be less than optimal. Nonetheless, she had no choice but to trust them now. As she loaded both legs with mini-missile pods, as well as one of her shoulder hard points, she lost the bulk of her survivability and mobility. Still, Noriko was going to keep one shoulder aether cannon for some offensive flexibility, however, the saber rifle had to be swapped for a LASR with SLAG.

"Tsuguka-heisho?" she began, loading her fanny pack with extra HE-I rounds. "Are you able to give me your current assessment of the machines? I wish to know whether they rely on direct or indirect fire weapons, and how much damage they can sustain in particular." She was keeping some medical hemosynth in the pack however.

YSS Eucharis, PA Bay

Candon nodded. "I suppose if I'm recon I ought to get a head start. Shôshô," he said, ending with a quick salute to Hanako. As little as a brief nod would send him on his way, should there be no objections.

PA Bay

"Monocoque... As in, it's a shell with the parts hanging inside." The red soldier had a very serious expression showing through their visor... Actually, a little too serious. Sleek, predatory eyes seemed to have flared to life. The left hand was twiddling fingers something feirce, as if randomly jostling the bells on an invisible wind chime. "Melee weapons seemed to be effective. Direct explosive force should also work."

"Damage they can take otherwise... Quite substantial." Focus shifted rapidly. The untested neko's misty white hair. That little mole off to the side of their otherwise fey complexion. A sort of combat instinct had awoken in Tsuguka, investigating the finest details in over drive. "Offensive ability... Powerful, but not particularly accurate. Direct fire, at least from what we have seen..."

A pat on Noriko's shoulder later, and they began charging their own teleporter. No point in overspecializing their weapons on masse, really, though she lacked the empathy to judge why the shorter woman was changing hers. None of them had any way of knowing what else was down there.

Power Armor Bay

Masumi closed her jaw in her helmeted head and listened intently as Tsuguka relayed information to the team. She started to feel at ease with the idea of going down there again.

She was a little surprised to be feeling that. The implication that she had at one time not felt comfortable with it seeped into her consciousness . Not able to relinquish control over her thoughts, she pushed away wondering if she had not been comfortable down on the metal orb.

She observed the coordinates being set into her equipment and looked around, double checking to make sure everyone was suited and ready to go. She then stood with her feet square and looked down at the ground below her before teleporting to the damaged part of the planet Hanako had set the coordinates for seconds earlier. She looked to where the Admiral had been standing as she came out of the teleport before looking anywhere else. She was ready to engage turbo aether plasma engines if there was nothing solid to stand on when they got to their teleportation location.

Power Armor Bay

Freyja was pleased that Hanako didn't see anything wrong with her suggestions. She focused her attention on Tsuguka, listening to her clarify things more. The away team was going to be bigger than ever and include people that had never fought or trained together.

That meant more chances for someone to screw up. It won't be me this time, she told herself. Being completely humiliated in front of everyone had been enough to guarantee that. No punishment could equal her shame, especially now that she had Fumiko to set an example for. Thankfully the crew had taken it easy on her, mostly just getting her to do their chores.

She went over the list Tsuguka sent. It seemed pretty straightforward. Working closely with Junko-chan was a bonus, although she wasn't too sure about Noriko-hei. At least they could be sure that one wouldn't disobey any orders. She was nearly identical to Tsuguka-heisho in personality.

With the rookie choosing to swap weapons she considered doing the same. Instead of foregoing the ABSR, she swapped out her Armor Service Pistol on her waist hard point for a LASR-SLAG and removed her General Equipment Pack, swapping it with an NSB launcher.

She spent a few seconds making sure everything was operating correctly, reviewed the coordinates, then started charging her teleporter. "See you on the other side," Freyja said, quoting an old song she was fond of. She teleported to the designated location, disappearing in between blinks and reappearing inside the metal catacombs.

Power Armor Bay

"Understood, Tsuguka-heisho."

Her weapons checked and ready, modules properly powered up, and fully clad in her armor, Noriko was just another faceless trooper waiting for the order to storm the facility. It all boiled down to command now, and the specifics of how they were going to do this. It didn't matter if they were going to take another shuttle, or simply teleport from where they stood. The young Neko felt like there was nothing more for her to say or do at this point until ordered otherwise. It was all hurry up and wait after all.

Such was life in the Star Army.

Machine Planet

Hanako's Mindy appeared in a flash somewhere in a deep crater on the surface on the machine planet, surrounded by mangled, melted, a twisted metal and machinery. She briefly looked up to see the tiny Eucharis above her with its green and red navigation lights defining its width and its blinking running lights pointing it out against a backdrop of stars. A mist of air briefly came out of her pack as the air inside escaped into the vacuum of space. She gently spun around until she was head-down and began drifting deeper into the megastructure, going slowly to give the teams time to reassemble.

"That means it is time to get going," Wazu said, watching the others blink out with their teleporters.

"BRONZI! SUIT UP!"

Wazu would head over to the Hierophant. They didn't quite have time to refill all of the ammo on the upper turret, but that was a secondary concern for the time being. Between the missiles, EMP, explosives, and just being able to punch things Wazu figured they should be fine.

He'd press a few buttons on his datapad, and then sweep his hand upwards, the floating flashlights behind him mimicing the hand motion as he jumped, the swarm forming a small bar under him that helped lift him up towards the top hatch of the mech, leaving him to fall into the top as best he could. The rest was just prep-work, getting his voidwalker pressure suit on, clipping his datapads into place on the stands that Sura had setup, and taping one of the datapads to one of the flashlights, sending it back out the top to wait on the Eucharis just in case he needed something there.

Bronzi sighed. "Suiting up" he said as he moved to the Heirophant. He climbed on in and secured him self in his harness. Slapping his helmet on, the Suit came to life.

He'd help Wazu in, and when he was secure they'd head out the Air lock to meet up with the team on the 'Metal death machine" below.

PA Bay -> Metal Planet

"Okay. Let's go." A fairly predictable order, Tsuguka wafting her free hand a little before immediately sparking away in a ball of energized particles. Hardly like they were going to let Hanako remain alone down there for any expanse of time...

The familiar buzz of teleportation, just a split second without a body or a world, but then dumped back into one like a stray jigsaw piece. The red one mentally equated it to opening a door and stepping outside, but the truth was there could never really be any countermeasures against the sensation of suddenly being in a completely foreign, alien place. A soldier's autopilot shunted into being, forcing their senses to get over it.

Broken metal, everywhere... Actually, once over the initial shock of disorientation, it wasn't actually that bad.

A funny feeling, finding comfort in such a scene of destruction, but at least until they encountered a body, it felt a bit like taking shelter in the woods, or the long grass. Much better than that sort of combat-agoraphobia you got in open space, when it felt like danger could stab out from any direction from the big black.

"Grenadiers. Please take point. Beware of sensors or traps." Work-Tsuguka sounded off, catching up to the Shosho and raising their shield. Eyes gazed at Freyja whilst they gave the order, though that might have just been because they were the only two soldiers on the ground so far. They were going to be the only thing in a way of surprise attacks until the rest of the command squad got here. "Please report any indication of recent activity, Rixxikor-related or otherwise."

PA Bay >>> Metal Planetoid

Maybe next time they'd let her fly out in the open. Ah well.

Junko locked in the coordinates and activated her teleport module. That brief flicker, that moment between here and there seemed more pronounced this time. Might have been in her head, might have been the distances. Typically just used it for short repositioning, still within eyeball range.

Safeties came off as Junko raised her weapon to eye level. Maneuvered to the front of their rough formation, making an arrow point with her and the other "grenadiers". Noriko one side, Freyja the other with her forming the tip of the metaphorical spear. Kept her eyes and ear on a swivel, fully expecting something to come at them already.

PA Bay >>> Machine Planet

Seeing Hanako Shôshô wordlessly take the lead, Noriko immediately sprung into action.

Bringing her weapon up and at the ready, pointed at a wall, the Mindy clad Neko followed, vanishing from the power armor bay with a small concussive boom, only to reappear in the middle of a ravaged wasteland. Connected to her suit, the three-sixty datafeed started streaming in immediately as she found Hanako. Keeping her weapon at the ready, the Neko casually closed into a defensive position as the others began to arrive.

"Understood, taking point," Noriko replied over comms. Sticking to her passive sensors, she did just that, flying ahead of the more valuable Shôshô. Mapping out every inch she could, the snowy Neko stayed on guard. The large, cavernous gap itself was a good enough start, but they needed to find something that would give them more proper access into the interior. Some sort of airlock, shattered hallway to enter or other perhaps. But most importantly, she kept an eye out for hostiles.

Power Armor Bay

Realizing that everyone was going to be teleporting soon, Jax deftly reached out a hand and gripped Tsuguka's shoulder plates in order to hitch a ride.

God, he hated teleportation. It always felt like his tail was being shoved straight up his-

"Agh! Crap!" he grunted as he was suddenly BWAMPHED! (yes, "bwamphed" was a word.) onto the surface of the strange planet. Like that, he reminded himself, teleportation felt exactly like that! Jackson sighed and pulled his rifle off his shoulder, on the lookout for any "Vanguards". Yes, he was calling them Vanguards. The name would stick, dammit!

"No signs of any vanguards." said the engineer to Tsuguka. "Next time, can we discover a planet of kittens or something? With, like, beer-volcanoes?"

Machine Planet

Masumi had appeared just a few inches off of the ground of the metal planet and adjusted her position so that her head instead of feet was close to the twisted and churned steely orb. She began picking her trajectory to get closest to Tsuguka and was soon formed up directly behind her and was soon drifting inside of the huge machine.

Machine Planet

Freyja winked into existence not far from the Shosho. She felt the familiar disorientation pass as her senses returned. A few seconds later Tsuguka was nearby issuing orders. She met the Heisho's gaze, bowing her head slightly in deference. The message she intended to convey was "you don't have to worry about me this time", but she was unsure whether or not Tsuguka understood.

She sprang into action, taking a position in the front of the formation until Junko arrived followed by Noriko. Her intention had been to take point herself, and if it hadn't been Junko she would have protested. It was pointless to say something to her, she knew exactly how stubborn her lover could be.

Her eyes scanned for any visible signs of an entrance that lead deeper into the planet-sized station. She monitored her AIES closely for any changes in their surroundings. Like Junko, she fully expected to come under fire soon, either from Rixxikor or the ancient guardians of the metal tomb.

Bridge

Takao took a liberty, bringing up a status report on the ground team up on his console in front of him. He kept the guns on standby in the case that the ground team would need a backup or fallback plan should they get attacked. The Kohosei's hands moved with grace as he moved his personal view of the area of operations as well as local space, looking for any signs of anything.

He may not be a ground-pounder, but that never excused him from slacking off while sitting in his chair high up above the fray.