RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 31: Wakusei

[Ametheliana]

19日 6月 YE 46

Floating like a newly forming star suspended in cosmic hydrogen, Hoshi pushed her head into her hands. While in the Type 33 pod, she was gripping her pink knees wearing nothing but the Star Army fanny pack which stowed her SiZi and a hair tie at the nape of her neck. For months she had felt the sensation that the mecha was actually her own body, as the THOUGHT software was meant to do, but she squeezed herself as one last reminder of who she really was before the control interface fully transposed her intentions onto the machine she was within. Her mecha's hands reflexively clasped and unclasped around the long-range rifle it carried as she slowly lost control of her own body and her movement became the mecha's instead. From its shoulders, shielding wings spread out that were meant to both protect the body of the armor and provide a rest for the butt of her gun.

Dotting the space around Hoshi like a stellar nursery, her team's life signs were specks of light and readouts alike. Not all of them were buoyed in pods like Hoshi was. Those without digital brains like the Nepleslians of the group were in Type 32 pods with analog controls, though Molli's had been modified. William's, too, had been a joint project by Nepleslian engineers and Ketsurui Fleet Yards to integrate weapons systems that the ID-SOL would be comfortable with. Its iconic Nepleslian monoeye and green and blue paintjob set it out from the group of mostly silvery periwinkle mecha. The exception was the red and white livery that donned the tallest mecha, that of their trainer and the Kaiyo's first officer. Having used an immersion system in her Kirie since birth, Ketsurui Aiko had been a thoughtful and knowledgable teacher. She had not just taught them the basics, but how to be better than proficient in those months of training.

Recalling the months of training, Hoshi thought back to what she had done and what she would and wouldn't miss about being on the giant Izanagi class, the YSS Battle of Elysia. Days on the YSS Battle of Elysia usually began with paperwork and working with the engineers before she'd take a swim and grab some lunch. In that time they had trained every afternoon, learning at first how to take wavering, shaky steps together before moving on to running, jumping, and even thrusting and flying together. They had punched the air, then swung sabers, then eventually sparred. At first as simple as interfacing with the software and analog controls for some, it had gradually escalated in demand on the trainees. Thankfully, afternoon training sessions ended with a quick shower then dinner at the tiki-themed bar, sushi place, and on special occasions Heaven's Sake. Nightly dinners together had kept the crew of the Kaiyō close, even without the confines of their home. A bit of that home had been with them in the presence of their MEGAMI, Boss, who had grown more comfortable in having her sprite-like body off of her own ship while it was dry-docked on Tami. Sometimes Hoshi had sped off after dinner to spend the night with Nicholas Saiga and even went to Tami at times to see the sunrise and feed the yaks and other animals before racing back and starting the day on the giant city-sized ship once more.

Now, while the mecha lined the edge of the Izanagi's stern hangar bay, Boss was able to speak with each mecha's CIES and their pilots.

"The Elly's captain has cleared us for launch," the familiar MEGAMI said into comms.

"Launching," Hoshi said, tipping her toes down so that feet slipped of the edge of the bay's lip.

Below them was the middle of the planet of Urtullan's only continent. Though an ocean surrounded it, there was still a dry desert below. Amidst the washed out topography was a staticy blue set of circles that looked like bubbles from this distance. They were the pressure force field domes that kept the colony on Urtullan able to breathe. Outside of them the air was caustic and sulfuric and everyone had rebreathers in their butt or seat packs. As they drew closer, the ever-changing sand swept dunes were pockmarked with the most recent of the Mevar core worms' holes and burrows. The sun was setting—when the team knew the hangar to Urtullan's mecha facility would be opened for the behemoth machines to be deployed— and they were aiming for that marked position just on the periphery of the northern-most dome. Today the culmination of their mission was to find and destroy those mecha the people of this planet had built before the NMX forces picked them up and used them against the Kikyo Sector in the war. With only a minute left for their free-fall, Hoshi engaged inertial dampers and thrusters, controlling her descent as her mecha's head looked around, making sure others were able to do so as well.

 

[Nameless]

Never in her wildest imaginations did Sif ever picture herself in control of an experimental mecha, least of all one of its pioneering pilots. Yet there she was, floating within the tank that shifted her sense of self to the machine she had been plugged into time and again in the last few months. It took a lot of getting used to, with the first few test runs being her dealing with the mass, and just how fragile everything else became when you were several times larger and could create craters where you strode. But with Aiko's guidance, she was able to come to grips with the transition from her fleshy body to this metal behemoth.

She had adjusted to the operation of the mecha, perhaps a little slower than the other nekos, but once she got her footing, and a few adjustments to the balance of weight, everything just slipped into place, which was integral as Sif's mecha was built to engage on the vanguard. Nicknamed the "Shield Maiden", her mecha was equipped with a round shield big enough to conceal the mech's torso, and spear with a plasma tip to cut through armor.

Aside from the experimental nature of the mech, in relative terms, the Shield Maiden's loadout and function was simple. At least it was supposed to be. The shield was made to absorb hits and protect whatever was behind it from harm. In the later stages of development, the engineers equipped it with a projection system to draw the enemy's attention once they were engaged. Once activated, a thin overlay would cover the shield, allowing it to project patterns or even messages on its front surface. The spear was given a plasma tip early in development to cut through armor, and a thruster was added for when it was necessary to use it as a projectile. After nearly losing the spear in one instance, a guidance system was added so it could return to the mech, and later it was made so that it could fire lasers from the tip, as an alternative to, as one of the engineers said it "Throwing an expensive piece of equipment for the enemy to use against you."

During training, Sif had offered to be a moving target for multiple reasons. First was to test the sturdiness of the shield, second was learning how to take a hit and still stand firm and not be caught unbalanced, and lastly for her to get used to being under fire, though she kept that to herself. After the last mission, she had done some reflecting, and she was disappointed and ashamed in herself. She had at multiple points became panicked and even froze, which lead her to take some hasty actions that lead to a near fatal injury for Molli. She didn't want to make those kinds of mistakes again, so she had to temper her nerves, even if the crew weren't aiming to kill her on those sessions.

As they descended upon the planet of their previous mission, Sif steeled her nerves and promised to herself that she was going to be better this time around. With the inertia dampeners engaged, Sif was at the ready to engage.

 

[Gunhand4171]

With the development of the suits, William was spread thin. Command had sent a crew from NAM's Terratech to help develop the ID-SOLs mech alongside KFY. If he wasn't training with the rest of the crew, he brainstormed with the NAM and KFY techs or helped to test equipment. Despite being on the massive dreadnought for months, he had not ventured far from the hangar where the suits were being assembled.

Stepping into the hanger, one of the NAM techs ran up to him. "Sir, are you ready?" William smirked before pulling on the helmet of his Disrupter flight suit. As he did, the red monoeye of the helmet came to life and swiveled towards the tech. "Always." He replied as he clambered into the cockpit. The type 32 pod had been enlarged to fit William's 8-foot frame. A jack had been placed in the cockpit, allowing the ID-SOL to directly interface with the mech using his implants. The suit was a hybrid between Nepleslia's typical boxy designs and Yamatai's streamlined designs. This gave the mech's armor a faceted appearance. Its shoulders, upper torso, and legs were bulky, while the arms, waist, and head were slimmer. The suit was painted green with blue accents as another nod to the collaborative effort to design the mech. Next to each arm sat massive rotary cannons, each able to be autonomously controlled by the suit's ACE or linked to William's fire control for more focused fire. On either hip, hardpoints had been fitted to allow for William to bring two swords, both resembling longswords. William's primary weapons were a pair of automatic shotguns, which could be holstered just beneath the swords.

As the captain jacked in, the suit came to life. The head's monoeye came to life, glowing a bright red matching William's flight suit. "Beginning preflight checks." He said to the NAM and KFY techs. "All systems are go on our end." The NAM tech replied. "Same here." William agreed, running through the diagnostics. One of the KFY techs walked up and thumped the hull. "Good hunting, Marine!" He exclaimed in trade. William smiled under his helmet and nodded as the mech closed around the pod. "Berserker, launching!" With that, his mech launched into the black.

 

[Gles]

In the time since her shoulder had recovered from her reckless behavior down on Urtullan, Molli Byrne had thrown herself into training for her new mecha with all of the gusto the crew had come to expect from their pint-sized Nepleslian comrade. Beyond being excited to actually pilot a mecha for the first time, Molli wanted to make up for her mistake, the time she'd spent recovering from it, and the immutable limitations of her body that ensured she'd never operate at the same level of competence as her Nekovalkyrja comrades. Though she had been assured, repeatedly and exhaustingly, that she was more than pulling her weight, Molli couldn't quite bring herself to believe she wasn't a liability. More than once, the Nepleslian was tempted to make the decision to transfer her consciousness to a Neko's digital mind, but Hoshi's insistence to the contrary was the only thing that kept that from happening.

Arriving promptly to the hanger bay in a formfitting space suit, Molli performed a last-minute check of the mecha that had become like a second body to her. Its sleek frame was painted dark blue, with crimson red stripes along the head and arms, and at the name of its "neck" was a white number 72. Thanks to Hoshi's exacting specifications, the mecha was built to accommodate a racer's sensibilities, with smaller, flexible limbs and sharp edges to reduce drag. Thrusters that resembled a Mindy's wings were built onto the back and scaled appropriately, while hardpoints held a massive shotgun and a single katana; both weapons that Molli had favored on her very first mission.

When Molli finally entered her mecha and powered it panoramic window to life, she was struck by a feeling of relief. With a squad on all sides and a suit of armor enveloping her, the Nepleslian finally felt that things were normal again. As great as the Elly had been, it didn't feel like home in the same way the Kaiyo had. The comm unit inside her helmet briefly crackled from an incoming transmission.

"Everything's green, Momo, good luck down there," the friendly female voice of an engineer chimed, addressing Molli by the callsign that had swiftly replaced 'Arro' after the excursion to Hanami. She had no choice but to get used to that, and it was starting to grow on her, anyway.

"Rogin' dodgin'," Molli replied, hands clasped around the handles that directed her mecha after the rest of the squad. Freefalling into the black, her mecha's limbs folded and collapsed tightly against the pod, to the point that it resembled a massive, weaponized airbike. Though her model was smaller than the rest, it was fast, responsive, and controlled like a dream to a former racer. She had to put in more effort than most to keep up with her comrades, but that was a challenge she'd happily rise to.

 

[Megabirb]

Nestled as she was in her mecha in freefall to the planet below, Rio took a moment to reminisce on the past couple of months. While Rio had expected some level of excitement at her first assignment, she had not expected to immediately begin training to pilot an experimental mecha while assisting in it's development. She enjoyed the training, adapting well to the differences between operating the mech and power armor. She had split her time between the assembly hanger working with the technicians assembling her unit and silently enjoying meals with the Kaiyō crew. It was an enjoyable time.

It was also time well spent for Rio, resulting in a mecha suited to her. Built around providing direct fire support, the mecha was given a backpack mounted Aether beam cannon firing over the right shoulder along with heavier armor. The backpack and legs had additional thrusters installed to help offset the increase in weight. The mecha's loadout was rounded out with a mid range ballistic rifle and an upscaled Daisy Wristblade on the right arm.

Then the time for reminiscing was over and it was time to focus. With a minute to go Rio engaged her own thrusters and inertial dampeners, settling into a controlled descent. As she checked her position in the formation she noted that she had drifted away slightly. Catching the movement of Hoshi's head, she gave a quick thumbs up and a nod as she corrected her position.

 

[raz]

From where the YSS Battle of Elysia was parked, the rays of Urtullan's sun had just begun cresting past the planet's atmosphere and into the ship's mammoth hangar bay where the Kaiyō's armor team stood ready to launch in their marvelous mecha. The bright, streaming rays of the system's star flared into the optical sensors on Ketsurui Aiko's new machine—purpose built for this mission by KFY alongside the equipment her comrades piloted today—and subsided save for an instant of brilliant white light before the mecha's lenses adjusted the exposure down to compensate. The creeping sunrise heralded their mission's start while the towering robots launched, each stepping out to dive down through Urtullan's atmosphere as the planet's shadow subsided and bathed them in the star's light.

Aiko's machine, tall and graceful to match its pilot's stature, was encased in red armor plating that swept in artful curves toward points at every one of its joints. Its shoulder cowlings were designed in a winglike fashion as much for aesthetics as they were to serve as vectoring machinery for the thrusters beneath them. Vernier jets powered by aether and plasma were mounted across the titanic suit's entire construction, hidden away beneath the armored skirts and panels that gave it a recognizable humanoid form. A selection of Aiko's robot was a bare silvery-white, only coated with clear polymers to protect it from the elements and enemy signals, particularly at its torso and forearms with a few extra details picked out against the crimson red.

At the mecha's core the princess' Kirie was docked, nestled beneath the machine's skin. Rather than remove the pilot pod from Aiko's Kirie, named Ryuketsu, KFY engineers had incorporated the entire Thought Armor as a control sub-system that could lay folded dormant in the larger mecha's chest and serve as a secondary vehicle of means of escape should the situation call for it.

On its back, Aiko's mecha was fitted with an advanced maneuvering and weapons package consisting of a pair of turbo aether of larger than the motifs designed onto the robot's shoulders, two long cylinders that housed FTL systems and powerful forward thrust, and a rack for a dozen remote weapon system pods nestled at the center. From the front, the pack's wings and bulk flanked the mecha's silhouette and gave it a layered appearance.

Beyond the payload of unmanned gun bits contained in her mecha's backpack, Aiko had chosen to arm her new fighting suit with a small Shock Array derived from the small Azusa-class variant held in its left hand—though this weapon was still substantially huge, being taller than the mech itself, and was limited to a Rapid Pulse function that could not be fired very often. In the robot's right hand, the princess had brought along a gargantuan crimson katana hewn from a single piece of Zesuaium and was many times larger, thicker, and heavier than anything a smaller power armor could carry. Both were technically handheld implements, but doubly possessed their own flight and control systems to make them capable of being used remotely and in concert with the aether weapon pods stored in the mecha's backpack.

"Do not forget our plan," Aiko said over comms as she watched the others go. "Beyond all of our practice, that is our advantage. We will take their monstrosities down and deny the Mishhuvurthyar any future advantage today."

Training everyone over the past few months had been quite the endeavor for Aiko, and some of those moments flashed through her mind when they departed. Though she was a seasoned warrior and had taught at the Star Army Academy more than once, imparting knowledge of using a Thought Armor-style control system was more challenging than she'd expected. The princess had, after all, trained with the Immersion System for her entire life. And so piloting a Kirie or this big mecha was, for Aiko, almost more intuitive than using her own body. Sometimes it'd been easier to connect with Molli or William on how best to manually control their machines with sticks and pedals—likening the experience to driving a manual car or riding a hoverbike, where the tactile connection allows a driver to become part of their machine—than it had been to tell Sif or Hoshi or the newcomer Rio the details of intrinsically becoming part of their machine.

"Ryuketsu Kai, hasshin!" Aiko relayed back to Boss and the YSS Battle of Elysia's flight control when she launched, diving off as the sun's rays bathed her mech in their light to chase the shadow of Urtullan's sphere in line behind her fellow soldiers.

 

[Ametheliana]

Palpably elated to finally be descending upon their target, those donning the colossal armors swept down onto the site just outside of the hangar bay doors. Edging on the sectional panel door was the force field that kept the sulfuric atmosphere of Urtullan out of the colony. As the desert wings swept sand into it, the force field fizzled and crackled and the small orange granules fell to the ground.

Everyone but Rio had been there for the undercover mission on the other side of the large domed bubble and knew what was waiting on the other side, but Hoshi knew to relay the information on this operation early and often to everyone regardless of what they knew.

"At sunset they still deploy the mecha to fight the core worms, unlocking this door to do so. When they begin to open the door, we'll block the door from closing and storm their launch bay. Attached to this section is a newer dome," Hoshi pointed to the near distance where some other concave blue force field intersected with the one they were outside of. "We'll force the fight there as it is in construction and uninhabited currently. Just keep pushing them deeper through the launch bay and engineering with a north east vector. Once we're there—agh!"

Hoshi cut her comms to thrust into the air slightly. As her mecha's feet lit up with the teal stream of aether that made her lift, the ground beneath her mecha's legs had begun to dissolve as if being pulled into a sink hole. She could see the grisly maw of a Melvar core worm opening up, ready to fight her as if she were in one of the Urtullan mecha that engaged it in nightly battle.

"We'll fully disassembly any mecha the Urtullans have built before they can send them to the NMX. Aiko-chusa will command the team from the front if there are any tactical ploys or decisions to be made. From my backline vantage, I will call out targets or positions to be taken up." Hoshi continued, still floating above the planet's invasive species that squirmed and thrashed up at her. She didn't want to fire her weapon on it and raise alarms of those inside the mecha hangar, so waited for someone on her team with a melee weapon to strike at it instead, trusting they would understand as much.

 

[Gles]

The comforting silence of space became a distant memory once they pierced the planet's atmosphere, where the sulfuric winds raged against the artificial domes that allowed sentient life to live and thrive on Urtullan's surface. The folded form of Molli's mecha flipped upright, its limbs straightening out as it shifted from its lithe and aerodynamic bike-like form to that of a humanoid mech. With a sandstorm battering her from all sides, Molli found it strange to imagine how anyone could think of this planet as a good place to build a resort. It was only thanks to Aiko's training that she could pilot in such harsh conditions to begin with.

"Dis-ah-semble. Riiiiight," Molli's voice crackled over their comms, and her spindly-limbed mecha drew the long aether katana from the hardpoint at its back. "Ah'll be sure'n stare atta manual so ah dis-ah-semble it righ'."

The emerging sandworm that feebly squirmed for the mechanical legs of her Taisho caught Molli's attention immediately, as did Hoshi's indifference to it in light of her higher priority of debriefing the team. The teal energy that crackled through Molli's massive katana was the silent answer to Hoshi's unspoken request. Singing through the sand and carving trails of orange sparks from its particles, Molli's mecha darted around the worm with frightening speed it could never hope to match. Within minutes, its body sunk back into the sand, bereft of a head. Molli's mecha whirred from the thumbs up it gave to Hoshi.

 

[Ametheliana]

"Right," Hoshi said with a nod to Molli, then turned her head to look at the hangar door. "Doubly so. Positions!"

Clanging noises thudded over the blasting winds as locks unclasped at the base of the gate and it started lifting. The topmost section of panel folded towards the launch bay, then another. It was about halfway open when it halted and the team could see the mecha, two rather than the one from before, readying to dispatch fifty meters inside. The door began sliding back down when the first visage of the hulking Yamataian and Nepleslian mecha could be seen from inside. Hoshi's orders were clear and didn't need restating: keep the door open and rush the launch bay.

 

[Nameless]

Sif took position at the vanguard, shield parallel to the bay doors, covering all but her mecha's head and feet as its massive form braced for a charge. The spear was pointed forward, ready to thrust into the first enemy mech that came into view. The appearance of the worm was quickly dispatched by Molli though that signaled a reminder that these worms would be an obstacle to look out for.

The exhaust of the Shield Maiden's boosters opened as Sif readied to charge headlong into the fray, its panels and the aether coming together to mimic wings. "Leave the entrance to me," she said, calculating her trajectory. When the doors only opened halfway, the shield maiden took off with a burst of speed, making what would have been a short hop into a single bound towards the door. With a heavy, resounding clang, Sif got her shield on the edge of the door at a 45 degree angle. From her position, she pushed against the door to hold it open and also to make that opening wider for the rest of the crew to join in.

All the while, with the spear's shaft resting at the hip, pinned by her arm for stability, she fired off a burst of lasers, aiming them towards the enemies' mecha arm joints in an attempt to, well, disarm them. As if to hammer home the fact that they weren't here chat, the projectors on her shield spelled out in trade a simple, repeating message. "Surrender Now."

The hanger had a cloud of dust floating around, brought along by her charge. If there were people on the ground, she couldn't see them. Not that they could be a danger with with their small arms fire.

 

[Ametheliana]

Still trying to descend, the door bent at its center. Soon, the door looked like a paper fan made with a single sheet of paper, all jagged edges and bent in extreme angles at each panel's joint. It whined and squeaked, then stopped moving and gave one loud, last whine.

The mecha that they shot at, spiked at the shoulders and bright pink were, unlike the door, unmoving at first. Caught off guard, they allowed Sif to shoot at them as if unprepared for anything but the core worms Molli had made short work of. But they were catching on fast, shooting aether beams out towards Sif and the crew behind her. Her shots had hit, but no arms or limbs fell from the enemy mecha; they were built to withstand that and more.

 

[Gunhand4171]

William touched down, a plume of sand billowing into the sky. "Understood." He replied to Hoshi's orders. He was about to open fire on the worm, but was beaten to the punch by Molli. It was best he didn't use his cannons yet anyway.

As they closed in on the facility, William took up the role as flanker providing firepower where the enemy would least expect it. Following at the edge of the group, he watched on as Sif breached the launch bay doors.

"Slave the cannons to my fire control." He ordered his ACE. Speaking the orders would typically take too long in a battle, however because William's mindware was plugged directly into the suit, his commands to the ACE happened at the speed of thought. In an instant, two additional targeting reticles lined up with his shotguns on the display. Gliding across the sand, he closed in on the launch bay. "I'm coming in, watch your fire." He told the team as he slid inside.

The twin rotary cannons began to spin, before letting lose a torent of fire, followed quickly by the shotguns. Each gun trained on a different limb on the enemy mech. "Aim for the joints, the Torso is too armored!" William called as his guns continued to unleash their salvos.

 

[Megabirb]

Rio's mecha came down on the opposite edge of the formation from William, kicking up her own large plume of sand. The plume kept her from directly witnessing the death of the worm. She cleared the plume in time to see Sif rushing the bay doors.

Seeing William's mecha rush the now jammed open doors, Rio followed his lead. The aether beam cannon on the right shoulder rotated into firing position as her machine surged forward. "Moving into the launch bay." she said over comms as she passed through the door on the other side of Sif.

Taking the opposite side of the bay from William, Rio began targeting the second mecha as soon as she had a clear line of fire. Looking to take the enemy mecha out of the fight as swiftly as possible, Rio fired a heavy beam from her aether cannon at the enemy units legs. A ball of light formed at the muzzle of the cannon before a brilliant teal beam lanced across the launch bay at her target.