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RP: YSS Celia Mission 3C: [Space] Grace Under Fire

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Renko nodded to Isuzu before snapping a crisp salute. "Ma'am! Yes, Ma'am!"

Turning she followed the Shosa to the lifts. Anyone who had seen enough crisp recruits could see the eagerness underneath all the military proper. Ren was obviously, to the trained eye, almost hyper to be on her first mission on a real live starship.
 
Joey listened hard to Tangozulu as the two groups were briefed, not daring to lose a single detail. Apparently, they were going to be infiltrating two ships and eliminating hostiles on either ship while securing the hostages they had taken. Once the teams were assigned, Joey drew his attention to the officer next to Tangozulu, presumably Lu-Taii, who warned attacking targets with deadly force. Making note of Lu's impressive foresight, Joey raised a question of his own once he had finished speaking.

"What kind of ship will our team be storming, sir? If we know that in advance, it'll be that much easier to sabotage their electrical systems."
 
Returning the nod, Isuzu silently stepped in line behind Sasaki-Shosa and Renko, her own bearing calm and subdued by comparison. Having spent most of her life in the company of other young Nekos, Isuzu took her colleague’s eagerness in stride, but she did begin to form her own assessment of the red-haired Yamataian. Hmm... Nepleslian, maybe?

The Fifth XF preferred Nekovalkyrja, so when you saw a Yamataian wearing a Fifth XF insignia, it wasn't hard to guess what they were before. Lately, though, quite a few soldiers from out-system had come through the Hotaru, and it had become a sort of game among the tech sentries to guess what the 'foreign' Yamataians had been.

As they proceeded to the armory, Isuzu observed how the other Santo Hei carried herself. Isuzu knew 'the walk' wasn't the best indicator of species; her friends sometimes joked that Isuzu herself must have been a turtle in her last life, by the way she moved. Still, posture and mannerism were informative in other ways.

Definitely planet-born, Isuzu mused; that was easy to tell. The redhead didn't have the graceful, almost dancing stride of a Neko, either, and though Geshrin was still a possibility, and the way Renko's first instinct was to salute her superiors rather than bow hinted at Nepleslian heritage.

She might be a combat specialist, though, the small Neko observed, pursing her lips pensively. Saluting was easier than bowing in power armor. Still... probably Nepleslian, Isuzu decided. It was a bit early in the game to make a final guess, but since she didn't have anybody else to play with, it didn't really matter.
 
Avaldamon agreed completely with the idea of incapacitating anyone who got in their line of fire. Hysterical passengers could be very bad under the current circumstances. An instant alert to the presence of outsiders on the ship.

As to the type of enemy ship, in Avaldamon's mind, this was a hard question. If the ship was stolen, then it would be pretty easy to reroute and disable scanners given the crew's experience. But given the fact that it was a pirate ship it could likely be a misch masch of parts and a near alien OS. On top of this, it would be even more difficult because they had to keep a low profile which prevented them from patching Celia through to do the hacking herself.

A question came to mind on how they were to keep the incapacitated pirates from stabbing them in the back.
"Another thing sir, do we have any manacles to keep the stunned pirates from raising alerts?"
 
Liam rubbed his helmet. “That's a good question. We don't. I guess we just got to disable their communications system quickly.”

Sixthree's communicator beeped again. He glanced at it. “We'll figure it out when we get to that situation. All right, grunts! Let's get ready to move out! Celia, please seal off the launch bay and begin de-pressurization. Everyone, make sure that your armor is fully sealed! Check for leaks!”

After going through the lift system again, Sakai led Renko and Isuzu to the power armor armory on Deck 25. Most of the equipment left behind by the first away team had been stored away, so the armory looked to be pretty empty and clean. The only evidence that another away team had been preparing here earlier were the empty weapon slots on some of the weapon racks.

Sakai looked at her data pad and frowned. “Hmm. It looks like Liam took the last Daisy armor. How do you two feel about piloting Mindies?”
 
For a moment, Isuzu wasn't quite sure how to answer. Generally she preferred the Mindy over the Daisy, but that was because she was short. The M2 was designed primarily with Nekovalkyrja pilots in mind, but the M6 had been made to accomodate other species as well, so while she could wear a Mindy comfortably, the Daisy was just a tiny bit too large for her.

From a tactical standpoint, however, it was hard to give an opinion without knowing exactly what they'd be doing. The sensors on Isuzu's shuttle had detected two non-Star Army ships in the vicinity, sitting in the center of a slowly spreading debris field. This gave her a hint about the 'salvage' portion of their mission, but evidence suggested that the debris wasn't the product of a simple accident, and that hostilities were still ongoing.

And if we might be getting into a fight in space, why would you choose a Daisy over a Mindy? Isuzu wondered. Deciding to wait for her partner to speak first, Isuzu tilted her head slightly and peered at Sasaki-Shosa, as if to say, 'I'm fine with it, but why do you ask?'
 
Renko's eye twitched and she fought down a grin at the idea of operating a Mindy for the first time outside of training. Snapping a crisp salute she announced, "Shosa, whatever you deem fit for use! Shosa!"

Knowing full well what the situation looked like, and the fact that she may be called in for fire support, made Ren a bit jittery. Never having fired on a real live person before, or been fired on was something that had been bugging her since she first decided to join up. Resolutely she shoved that to the back of her mind and focused on the opportunity to be allowed to spacewalk and the eagerness that welled up within her to do so.

"Shosa, what kinds of accessory's are we going to need? Shosa!"
 
Orie nodded, readying herself to leave the ship. She was glad that any fighting they'd be encountering would be closed-quarters, at least--most of her training was in indoor situations, although it had focused on defending rather than attacking. Still, only the bulk of the Mindy concealed the fact that she was quivering nervously, already running a mantra through her head: Don't get killed... don't get killed... don't get killed... Logically, the pirates probably didn't have anything onboard that could even dent her durandium armor, but the neko wasn't exactly collected enough to think logically at the moment.
 
Sakai nodded. “No objections, then? Good. Please go put on your bodysuits,” she ordered, pointing at the dressing rooms the other tech sentries had used earlier. “We can discuss weapon and equipment load-outs when you come back.”

Meanwhile, the launch bay began to de-pressurize. Ventilation ports hissed as the Celia reclaimed the air that was currently in the room.

Sixthree and the Nishizaki twins casually walked around their teammates, checking for telltale signs of leaks.

The Lamias checked their weapons one last time. It appeared that they had been issued Type 28 SMGs as well, although there was no way to tell their arm-mounted scalar pulse cannons were operational or not.

Liam was busy fidgeting on his jamming device. For someone about to walk into a firefight with only a pistol, he seemed to be rather calm.
 
Sketching a quick bow of acknowledgment, Isuzu hustled over to the changing rooms. Body suits? Isuzu wondered absently, moving down the row until she found a room containing a small, stretchy garment that looked like it would fit her.

Shucking her uniform efficiently, she set her belongings in the corner pulled on the body suit with a expression of mild chagrin. She'd done all of her training runs in the nude, but apparently they did it differently here.

Maybe they use them because the Third fleet had so many aliens, Isuzu mused, though given how little it left to the imagination, that explanation seemed a bit dubious. Retrieving her service pistol and knife from her clothes, Isuzu exited the changing room and strode over to Sasaki-Shosa to stand at attention.
 
Snapping another crisp salute Ren turned and followed her partner for this mission into the changing rooms. She stripped out of her uniform efficiently, leaving it neatly folded off to the side before climbing into a bodysuit. Once in the body suit Ren retrieved her service pistol and combat knife.

"I really wish i could take my good knives. Their quite good for a multitude of tasks...," Ren muttered.

Turning she marched out to stand next to Isuzu and stood at attention as well.

"Shosa, ready! Shosa!" Snapping off a quick salute, Ren stared at a point six feet in front of her nose.
 
By the time Renko and Isuzu had returned, the Sprite Nekos had pulled out two more Mindy armors using the hover pads.

“You two will be piloting Mindy M2-2As on balanced configurations,” Sakai intoned, and gestured in the armors' general direction. “You won't be carrying any hand-held weapons, as I want your hands free for this mission, but your shoulder-mounted weapons should be operational. You probably won't need them, as we don't expect any hostiles out there at the salvage site. There will be, however, power armors from our sister ships out there, so please don't get trigger-happy on me. Let's see here... ah yes, there is a roll of duct tape on one of the hover pads, if you want to tape on any extra weapons. Now, please get into the suits. I'll brief you on your mission parameters when you're ready.”

As the last bit of air were sucked out of the launch bay, the launch bay covers were rolled back, revealing the brilliant star-scape of space.

Sixthree thumbed his communicator. “We're ready to move out, Taisho.”

“And not a moment too soon, Tangozulu-Heisho,” Aurore's voice answered. “I'm launching now from the main shuttle bay. Get behind me, as quick as you can. Branard out.”

“All right, ya grunts! The Taisho's shuttle should be right above us! Just follow me and stay in close formation! Minimize engine thrusts! And remember, maintain radio silence until further notice! Let's move out!” And with those words, Sixthree took off on a running start before leaping out of the ship. The Lamias were close behind him.
 
"Shosa, Requesting additional equipment for salvage purposes! Assuming, as I was told were on a salvage op, the Ke-M2-W2704 Nodal Support Bit Launcher of the Hornets Nest configuration would allow for better scouting and the ability to get into smaller spaces to determine if it's worth attempting to retrieve anything from said spaces. Shosa!"

After her speech Ren moved to the farthest of the two Mindy's and removed the helmet. After the suit opened up she stepped back into it allowing the suction to settle her in on its own until she was all in and it closed over her. Settling in with a brief wiggle Ren picked up the helmet and pulled it onto her head, immediately running a system check.

As soon as she finished the check and confirmed the suit was green she stepped off the hover pad and picked up her service pistol and combat knife. Moving to the changing room she deposited them just inside the door before turning and marching back to the Shosa with a salute.
 
Meanwhile, Isuzu was busy taping her survival knife to the left thigh of her Mindy; a knife was often useful to have close at hand. Then, after a moment of thought, Isuzu bound the roll of duct tape to her Mindy's right thigh. Tape was also useful to have around; she'd just have to remember to return it later. Her pistol went into the armor's shoulder compartment.

Sliding into the fleshy folds of the Mindy's interior, Isuzu initiated a standard, pre-launch diagnostic as the armor sealed around her. Everything seemed to check out, so she turned her attention to her empty right shoulder mount. Since they weren't expected to engage in hostilities, she probably didn't need to equip anything special, but...

If Renko gets her request, she'll be sacrificing her P3000. That meant emergency evac would become Isuzu's responsibility. Holding her helmet under her arm, Isuzu walked over to stand before her commander. "Requesting one G3000 unit, Shosa," she intoned crisply.
 
With Branard’s assistance Kiyoko prepared the Lion-class shuttle for departure; auto-piloted or not, the pilot in her wouldn’t let her sit by and leave everything up to automated systems. A few minutes later and everything had checked out as nominal, the shuttle was ready to be launched at the push of a button. Signalling to the Taisho that everything was set, she waited for the other elements of the boarding to fall into place and for Branard to launch them on their way.

The first officer didn’t have to wait long, and soon they were sliding out of the bay and out into the darkness of space, the shuttle aiming itself at the distant point of the spaceships that was their destination.
 
((My apologies for my recent inactivity.))

"Yessir!!"

With that single word spoken, Joey shut down his radio and followed Tangozulu out of the hangar bay, imitating him by backing up a few feet and making a sprinting jump out of the hangar bay. Using the upward force from his jump to boost his approach, he slowly drew up to the other power armors following close behind Aurore's personal transport, using only the lightest touches on his armor's engine to move slowly and carefully with the rest of the group as they approached their destination.
 
Orie launched herself after the shuttle, flinging herself into space with a short high-powered activation of her sublight engines and then coasting on her inertia. She activated her camouflage for good measure, and then there was little else to do but sit and wait for the journey to be over.

I wonder if by 'radio silence' he meant all transmissions, or just radio radio? I don't think pirates can intercept laser or telepathic communications. But I can't ask him about it without using a transmission! It seemed she was stuck with her own thoughts for the duration of the trip... which was not a good situation for her to be in when she was nervous. All that pent up energy had to go somewhere, and with her inable to talk to anybody or move much, her outlets were limited. It left plenty of time for her mind to vividly imagine ways in which she could meet a gruesome death in the upcoming battle, most of them excessively unlikely and violent.
 
Sakai shrugged. “Sure. It's not like I'm paying the maintenance fees on them. I don't think you'll need them though.” She jotted down the requests on her data pad:

Requested Hardpoint Configurations:

Santô Hei Hibiki Renko
DORSAL: Ke-M2-W2704 Nodal Support Bit Launcher
LEFT SHOULDER: Ke-M2-W2905 Shoulder-Fired 50mm Gauss Cannon
RIGHT SHOULDER: empty
LOWER LEGS: Ke-M2-W2907 Countermeasure Augmentation Pods

Santô Hei Kuroaki Isuzu
DORSAL: Ke-M2-P3000 Teleportation Unit
LEFT SHOULDER: Ke-M2-W2905 Shoulder-Fired 50mm Gauss Cannon
RIGHT SHOULDER: Ke-M2-G3000 Shoulder Capacitor
LOWER LEGS: Ke-M2-W2907 Countermeasure Augmentation Pods
Click to expand...

“I'll have the Sprites install them right now. In the mean time, let's go over the mission objectives: We have a hostage situation out there, but that's not your concern. Your job is to investigate the wrecks of two ships nearby. I have marked them on your maps so that you don't get lost and wander near the bad guys. The Taisho is interested in knowing how those ships ended up in their current states, their affiliations, their exact ship models, the makeup of their crews, et cetera. Use your on-board camera to take pictures of anything you find interesting. Don't touch any of the bodies that you'll surely find, but do take pictures of them and scan them with your sensors. Think you can handle that?”

https://wiki.stararmy.com/lib/exe/fetch. ... ion3c1.png

The Sprite Nekos had returned, carrying the NSB launcher and the capacitor. They quickly installed the modules onto Renko and Isuzu's armors. The components were designed to be modular, and appeared easy to install and remove, with the right tools and know-how.

After a tense but uneventful and woefully short trip through space, the first away team had managed to sneak into the pirate ship's vicinity by hiding behind the engine trail of the shuttle. As the shuttle slid into an open shuttle bay portal, the away team soundlessly drifted onto the pirate ship's hull.

Sixthree turned to look at Liam, who looked down at his gadget, then signaled okay.

“It works?” asked Sixthree.

“Yeah,” replied Liam over the radio. “We're on a pseudo-random rotating frequency. The ECM box is jamming everything else. The Taisho should be able to explain it away as radiation from all the wrecked ships out there... That still leaves their wire-based communications systems though.”

“Let's figure out how to get inside the ships first,” replied Sixthree. “Kaori, Kaede, Leet, Woot, take three of the Lamias and sneak inside the captured merchant ship. Disable their comm system and then report back to me. The rest of you, find me an airlock!”

“What about going through the shuttle bay?” Liam asked. “It's still open.”

Sixthree shook his head. “It's definitely guarded. We don't want to get into a firefight right next to the Taisho.”

Meanwhile, Zug was peering out the portholes of the shuttle. Aurore stared at the instrument panels. “Hang on. We got to wait until the shuttle bay re-pressurizes first.”

Almost as if on cue, the shuttle bay doors began to close.
 
Even as Ren brought up the data map and checked where they were going she ran a check on the new parts to make sure they'd work when needed..

"Shosa!"

Snapping a crisp salute as she spoke. Ren decided to wait for further orders rather than begin in her eagerness to be on her first true space walk.

Sometimes this military thing can be such a drag.... All this formality and crap.
 
"Understood, Shosa." Securing her helmet once the Sprites had finished their work, the small Neko began charging the capacitor and quickly created a power-use profile to minimize the downtime of her TP unit. "What are the communication, safety and return protocols for this mission?" Isuzu asked calmly, perusing the map that had been downloaded to her armor.
 
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