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

Bridge

Takao responded to the calls, "Ground Team, Eucharis, stand-by for fire support." His hands went to work bringing up the areas being marked and trained the primary battery turrets as well as the anti-armor turrets. As his mind ran the numbers, the Kohosei's veteran hands eased the weapons into their precise and optimal arcs. For the ground team's safety, he was going to ask the Shosho if she wanted him to pull the gloves off if the anti-armor turrets did not create the desired effect.

"Shosho, Eucharis, we are going to open a bombardment with the anti-armor turrets, advise for use of main battery."

Everything was ready, the instruments were set and the conductor only waited for his signal to open the orchestra from Hanako's call.

Metal Dungeon
First Floor?

Freyja glanced at the robots milling about above the hole in the planet's shell. She wanted to see what they were building, yet she knew she had to follow. Reluctantly she slid into the crevice, slowly making her way through. She emerged on the other side, taking a moment examine the corridor. If we didn't have AIES we'd get lost down here, she thought.

It bothered her to leave Candon, Wazu, and Bronzi on their own. She was concerned about Fumiko back on the ship as well. "Are you sure attacking the constructs with the ship is a good idea? We don't know how the facility might react." Freyja asked. So far the Vanguards hadn't seemed to bother with the Eucharis. Did they not consider it a threat? If so, firing on the planet would change that pretty fast.

Machine Planet Interior

On Hanako's orders, Junko abandoned her efforts to widen to the gap before pushing herself onto her knees and squirming through the small hole. She was quite vulnerable in her current position, so she would have to trust Candon and anyone else who was outside of the corridor to cover her blind sides. Once she was in a position where she could move more freely, Junko took the rear guard for the small group that was inside of the metallic planet, as Noriko had already taken point.

Junko utilized her armor's optical tracking systems to check her blind spots as the group progressed through the corridor. Although she had wanted to take point, Junko swallowed the urge to take risks and resolved to scan the group's flanks, in order to observe and contain any unseen threats to Noriko and the rest of the squad.

She could not help but to feel a slight tinge of jealously as Noriko took point. Earlier in the day, she had been explaining the functions of the armaments and utilities of the Mindy to the fresh and snowy Neko. Already, Noriko was proving to be a more competent and disciplined solider than herself. She was willing to admit, the last operation on this planet had not gone well, in part because of the actions of Freyja and herself. Even so, Junko was determined to put the past behind her.

Taking a deep breath, Junko Hasegawa swallowed her pride and set her focus back on the mission.

YSS Eucharis

Natsumi turned in her chair to look at Takao, having just been cut out of the command loop. She had received Mr. Wazu's request, but she had been cut out by the operator, who had taken it upon themselves to authorize employment of the Eucharis' weapons array without approval of the current officer in command of the ship. Why was she even here anymore? Even up here on the ship, she was an unnecessary appendage that the ship and crew did not need to function. Of course Takao was doing exactly what Natsumi would have ordered her to do, just not waiting for her approval or issuance of orders. Preparing the weapons array was the appropriate call, just not being carried out in accordance to the chain of command, as it was supposed to be. It would have been different if Natsumi had ordered weapons free to protect the landing party, for Takao to take the initiative, but she had not, so she was, again, effectively cut out of the command loop without even a word or sign of recognition that the ship's Executive Officer was even there.

The snowy haired neko's mind raced, she wanted to flee from the bridge, find some dark hole to bury herself in and cry. She did not think anyone would even notice at this point. Why was she even here anymore? The ordeal on the previous away mission, the crew's disobedience to her orders, the Shosho's scornful and disappointed remarks when she had asked not to be posted to the second mission and now the junior bridge officer's cutting her out. Her career in the fleet was as good as over. She could not handle a landing party, she had disappointed her Shosho and now could not even maintain control of the ship in orbit.

Taii Yamashiro Natsumi was a failure as an officer, and at this exact moment, she knew it. She felt sick, deep down in the pit of her stomach. The thought that she should resign her commission and get away from everyone here as soon as possible clawed it's way up from the deepest, darkest recesses of her mind. She was not wanted, not needed and a disappointment. She could do nothing but hinder the further operation of the Eucharis from this point on.

Natsumi felt like she was going to throw up, she could feel the bile crawling up the back of her throat and looked down at her pale hands, which were shaking. No. She swallowed and could feel the burn traveling back down to her gut. She couldn't collapse, not now. She couldn't run yet. She had to save what little was left of her career and dignity she had left while she could... But it would be so much easier to just turn over command to Takao and leave the bridge and not have to worry about it all anymore. Sure the Shosho would have her kicked off the ship as soon as she got back, demoted, probably discharged from duty for abandoning her post, but her career was quickly crumbling anyways, wasn't it?

She bit her lip, hard, drawing a bead of coppery hemosynth that soured her tongue and made the bile start to crawl back up again. No she couldn't do that. She had to finish this job, then she could, privately, resign her commission or ask for a transfer off of the Eucharis later.

The Taii pushed herself to her feet, a move that seemed so hard to do, her body resisting the motion every moment as she crossed the small bridge to the operators station and lean over, tapping the control to mute the station's mic pickup.

"Shoi Kohose Hitoshi Takao" she began, her voice seemed small and without much power. "It was inappropriate for you to authorize and prepare use of the ship's weapons array without orders of the current officer in command of the bridge" she said to the man. "Even if it is the same action I was about to order"

Without giving him a chance to respond to the rebuke, she toggled his mic pickup back on and withdrew and dropped heavily into the command chair, trying to retain some semblance of crumbling outward composure as she fought to keep her stomach contents down.

She toggled her own comm channel and spoke into her pickup. "Shosho, weapons ready and targeted to fire on the hostile robots at your command" as she spoke, she double checked the tactical display and could see the landing party withdrawing into the safety of the machine world's interior.

Machine Planet

"It feels like this planet needs a name," Hanako said as she moved forward a little into the planet's maze-like interior spaces. It was dark and quiet and claustrophobic inside, and the away team had to struggle not to bump into each other as they piled in.

"You are cleared to engage until they are no longer interested in the away team," Hanako sent back to Natsumi and Takao. The signal sounded scratchy from the interference of the strange planet.



Ahead of the team there was a narrow corridor that ran some 5 meters to a wall and at the end of the wall was a doorway on the right. There was also a passage to the left which was covered in damaged machinery on the walls.

YSS Eucharis
Bridge

Takao winced as he felt Natsumi's gaze. He knew he'd made the mistake on his part for being too jumpy and anxious in regards to being suddenly involved in the operation at hand. He turned himself slightly to the side, looking at her from the extreme peripheral of his left eye so he could see any sudden changes on his board. He looked up once he noticed that she was walking over to him.

As she spoke, he let his expression stay soft and neutral. As she finished, Takao nodded and spoke a soft yet present, "Understood Taii." As soon as she turned to walk back towards the command chair, his expression fell into a slightly depressed look, evident through the dropping of his shoulders. He stayed like this for a whole ten seconds before stretching up, rolling his shoulders back, and leaning somewhat back in his chair. His hand relaxed above the workings of the console as he gave a quiet sigh.

He heard Hanako's reply run through the communications line, echoing through his head, but instead of replying to her Takao simply turned his head to look at Natsumi, "Main weapons battery online as well as point-defense battery. Will fire on your orders as well as designated surface grid-zones. All weapons ready to fire."

He could see something evident in the XO's eyes, not exactly sure what it was. All he knew was that it wasn't the XO's usual expression from when he first arrived onboard the Eucharis. He also knew that his mistake in judgement and calls were not helping her mood. He made a note to try and see if he could help later on, sensing that it would be the least he could do to make up for his fault.

Machine Planet

In these dark, narrow corridors, Noriko knew that they were all easy targets. However, knowing that the only opponents they faced were either the machines or those abominable roaches was reassuring. Without a word, the Neko kept her weapons at the ready and moved forward - the doorway was closed, but the passage to the left was wide open. Making sure to stay ahead of the Shôshô, her armor flew, drifting through the air as she spun on her axis and brought her LASR to bear, ready to fire.

With luck, the passage on the left was clear, meaning Noriko only had to breach and clear the door to the right

Machine Planet

Watching as the two Neko made their way in their own directions, Masumi held a position behind Tugs and waited for a cue from either her or Hanako about where she was wanted. For now she was willing to also wait and see how the plan that had been formed since Hanako had last spoken went.

She was at the ready for movement from her position or to begin pumping forearm aether into anything that jumped out and said, "Boo!" at Noriko or Junko. For now, though, she waited and was determined to not tell Hanako her ideas for the machine planet.

Hanako's Metal Egg

Bridge

Natsumi leaned forward in the command chair. "Aye, Shosho" she replied to Hanako. Then to Takao, said; "Open fire with secondary batteries. Firing pattern to drive the enemy away from the landing party" she said and watched the marked locations of the enemy on the sensor chart.

Bridge

Mehitabel sat in awkward silence to the rear of the bridge. It was a bit like having your mother not notice you were in the room while arguing with your father, she had decided, which meant that staying quiet and unobserved was the best course of action. There wasn't any question of leaving the bridge in these circumstances. Having an extra body to dispatch at problems for the bridge crew had proved useful too many times in the past.

Ametheliana said:

Machine Planet Interior


Masumi looked behind her and scanned Candon's visual feed for the ability to get down and get down fast. Maybe it didn't look like it would turn out well for him in her eyes for good reason or maybe she was getting overly concerned and worried for no reason at all. The thoughts didn't cross her mind, though, as she focused on the mission vitals.


"Suites-heisho, clear the surface!" She turned back towards Tsuguka, then looked to Hanako and chimed, "Waiting on those scans to compute... Is there electromagnetic interference that we're getting?"


She eyed the feed from Candon, still, though. Her eyes flickered to Tsuguka's on the other side of her HUD while she did. She wasn't about to get tunnel vision during a mission.

Click to expand...

"I'll be fine, don't worry," he responded to Masumi as he sidestepped a volley of plasma bolts. His gauss rifle thumped silently in the vacuum of space as he double tapped the assailant. The uranium slugs penetrated through and through lacking the typical explosion from hypervelocity impacts in an atmosphere, however that did not stop one of the slugs from tearing out the robot's power source.

"Shake it for me, Bronzi. I need you to hit that hole fast and hard for us to get you to punch through. Feed me your Telemetry, I'll break up the ground before you hit."

Bridge

Takao gave a nod, "Understood Taii, commencing firing."

Bringing the secondary battery guns under his control, moving the turrets to face down at the hostile targets below on the planet's surface. Takao gave a final look towards the XO out of the corner of his eye before looking back to his screens.

Through his SPINE, the operator opened up a blaze of fire from the turrets facing the surface. Tuning them to fire in long bursts and on alternative turrets, there were always rounds going out. Even though these units were normally automated, Takao felt the need to guide the fire himself to better force the units below to retreat from the Eucharis' ground teams.

Bronzi kept the speed of the Heirophant stable and steady, and began broadcasting the heading on the secure frequency. "Ight." He responded.

"Do what ya can do, this old heap can bust it open." He said with a grunt over the comms."

"Arite, its about to get choppy." The Gartagen said as he began accelerating towards the entrance point that Candon intended to help them make.

Machine Planet

Without any orders to go one way or the other, Freyja elected to cover the rear. She didn't want to be caught unaware by any Vanguards or Rixxikor. Most of her attention was focused behind her. She slowed down and stopped at the split in the hall. "Staying with the Shosho and covering our rear." The nervous Neko said.

She turned back and sighted her ABSR. Splitting up in here is not going to end well, she thought. Not that anything that happens in this tin can ends well. "Labyrinth seems like a good name for this death trap," Freyja remarked.

Machine Planet Surface

The guns from the Eucharis were having the desired effect. The robots began to take losses and they began to rapidly scatter like a disturbed, panicked mass of ants. In a few moments the edge of the canyon were clear of any robots that could shoot at the away team.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #77

The doorway slid open with a labored hiss. It had been left unlocked. Inside the 3x3 meter room Junko found someone had scrawled "Explosives" on the east wall and piles of dirty electrical cords were laying in the north-west corner of the room. There was a door on the west wall, which looked like it was rusting. This room could be usable as an airlock. It seemed to have air pumped into it when both doors were closed.

"Do not go off on your own," Hanako warned. "Stay in your teams."

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Outside Room #74

Noriko found that that damage to the station had caused the door at the end of the shadowy passageway to become lodged in place. The rest of the armor team was still behind her crammed in the 1-meter-wide passageway they'd broken into from the damage canyon.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Outside Room #74

"This door is damaged. Unable to move," the white haired Neko's sultry voice began. "I may be able to physically force it open, or use more extreme measures such as cutting blade, or explosives," she pointed out. Of course, that was not what she had in mind at all. "Shall I proceed, or will we find an easier route of ingress, Shôshô?" In the end of the day, Noriko was trained, and trained well in Yamataian tactics. Speed, cunning, subterfuge, mobility and the like were all more her preference.

The dirty, unsophisticated use of brute force was to be left to the brutish Nepleslians, and for last resort after all.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Outside Room #74

"Start with the least damaging method," Hanako ordered. She wondered if there was sort of hydraulic jack, like the kind firefighters used to pry open crushed cars, in the Star Army's vast inventory of equipment.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #77/Machine Planet Labyrinth - Outside Room #74

"Orders received, Shôshô.", Junko replied, turning back around and moving towards the position of the rest of the away team. "I found an airlock and some possible explosives."

Her movements graceful and measured, Junko quickly arrived at Noriko's position, where she saw Noriko, Hanako, and the rest of the team just outside of the door. Junko did not think there would be any harm in physically breaking the door down, however, she stayed silent. Hanako had wanted Noriko to attempt the method of least destruction first. After all, during the briefing, mission directives had stated that they not work a path of destruction through the metal planet.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Outside Room #74

"Hai. Cover me," Noriko stoically replied. Setting her weapon aside, the Nekovalkyrja first investigated the edge with her armored hands, looking for anything to grab hold of. Dissatisfied, her volumetric wristblades popped to life instead. Only, they weren't blades. Willing for a tool, the hardlight weapons had turned into pry bars which she sunk into the seams and pulled. Where her power armor would have torn through a civilian sheet metal elevator door like an orange peel, the door of this world groaned and screeched as it was forced aside, bit by bit.

Making sure to stay out of the line of fire, she heaved again, one last time.