RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 4.0] - A Quest into the Dark

Eun-Kyung suppressed a smile at the haphazard bowing and moving going on, particularly among the newer crew. She'd have to remind everyone to review the ship's operating procedures. For now, though, she slid smoothly into place in what would be, hypothetically, the formation of the full ship's company. In position, she snapped to attention and awaited the Taisa's address. Any bows would be saved for a formal report from the ship's company as a single body.

Katae stepped forward until she was positioned along the center of where the crew had lined up.

The black haired Taisa took a moment to look at the crew.
"Good Morning. We have received new orders from 1XF Headquarters. Our siste ship the Eucharis recently visited the Jiyuu system. They discovered the source of the communications black out, also from what could be seen there UOC seems to be losing ground to the NMX." she paused for a moment.

"Due to the nature of our mission, our SSS Liaison Gustav-San will be staying behind.

Our primary mission is to proceed to Mayer Station on Siren 2. We are going there because that is a primary installation for the Peacekeepers and Headquarters wants us to find out what their status is. We will attempt to make contact, and depending on their status, offer what assistance we can.

Our secondary objective is to determine the status of the mining installations operated by the United Outer Colonies and Motoyoshi Fleet Yards in the Siren system. If they have been taken by the enemy, we are to deprive the enemy of those facilities.

During the repairs we have been resupplied, some of our older equipment has been replaced and have been packaged for shipment to the Planetary Operations.

We have two new Yusou Type 33 Grav-APCs, and I personally purchased four W3300-AGLs, and four Na-W3301 ‘Scout’ Cannons to augment our armory supplies. They are in the crates against the wall. Oshiro-Santô Juni familiarize yourself and the other Infantry members with them and get them stowed in the armory.

If you have not made a mental backup, or updated your backup recently do so immediately. All Nekovalkyjra can update their existing backups from any SPINE equipped station so they do not need to go to medical.

When we depart the Squadron will be on Condition 2.

Are there any questions? Senior staff first." she said.

No more training and all, this is for real... Yoshiro thought to himself. I need to follow orders and help out my fellow soldiers, and complete the mission. Yoshiro fidgeted a bit, nervous as all get out. Considering that this was going to be his first mission he hoped that people would understand.

"Are we expecting heavy combat?" Arkase asked.

Even before the question was answered, he had sent off a request to Eternity for information on the new equipment. The Grav-APC's were an immediate attention grabber. They came armed and equipped with an innate agility in the field. The armor was welcomed, and he made a note to try and get someone with a little piloting experience to take the helm of one. The AGL's would also be useful if they had to hold a position, or create an ambush.

Then the Scout Cannons. They would especially be useful, and he made another note to assign one each to himself, Kyoka, and Kame. The extra could be stored with the AGL's he'd inevitably bring along inside the APC.

The planning made him think of the new crew. Three fresh bodies for the grinder. A Nekovalkyrja named Arai, and two Yamataians Tanaka and Saito. That brought his team to Six unless Trowa and the XO joined once more...

Would the newbies be ready?

Katae took a moment to consider her response.

"To be brutally honest, I would say that it extremely likely. The Eucharis' report showed since of NMX and UOC forces fighting for control of Jiyuu. This is why I requested the extra equipment. To increase our chances of success. But we won't truly know until we get there. But that is why I put Josea off the ship. We are not to take SSS into planned combat."

"Well, ma'am, since we are sailing blind into this, what expectation do we have of support?" asked Eun-Kyung. "I mean beyond the squadron. Are we going to be rendezvousing with other units? Or is there at least on-call Fleet support should it be required?"

Katae looked at her XO, "I wish I could say we have a large group of ships coming to back us up. But the 1SF and 1XF are currently committed to meeting the Eucharis at Ether in a battle against the NMX. I have put in a request for the 2XF who are responsible for this system to see if they can spare some ships to assist. I have not heard back from them yet. For the moment we have to consider the real possibility that it will just be the 7th Squadron. But I have not give up. If for some reason the 2XF can not help us, the 4SF is along our way. We might have some luck with them. I will keep you all apprised of the status of backup as I become aware of it."

Saki listened to other and frowned. This mission won't be easy but she was ready. She was thinking if she will end up driving one of the transporters. She had vehicle training after all. She would have to make herself familiar with this one though. She let Eternity showed her those APCs and weapons in discussions. Those were some nice things.

Saki bowed to get a little attention. It seemed to her that seniors spoke their mind already. She quickly digged what she could about Mayer station from Eternity. Big dome one harsh planet. That surely will be tricky mission.

"Madam if I may. Mayer station is not small. If there will be a lot of survivors and we will have to evacuate them how will we fit them in one Plumeria gunship?" She asked hoping her question was not too much.

Katae listened to the question she had been hoping to not hear.
"If Mayer Station is in the same state that Jiyuu was, there may not be that many survivors. But we'll take as many as we can. Each ship can if necessary carry up to 100 people. I know its not a lot, but every person we save is a victory. But we also have to be careful. Some of these people could be infected, and we don't need to have a running battle inside with NMX infected personnel."


Across the cargo bay speakers, Eternity's voice chimed in, "Incoming Transmission, Taisa, it is from Shinja Rika-Taisho of the Fourth Standard Fleet."

"On speakers unless its restricted." Katae replied.

"To: Ise-Taisa, Commander YSS Aeon
The Fourth Standard is willing to assist on this mission, as it will help serve with another mission we are working on. Task Force 4SX-TF-O01 and Gunship Squadrons 4S-G02, 4S-G03 will rendezvous with you just outside the Siren system. We are also dispatching one of our Minori-Class Hospital Ship to help with casualties. Lastly the YSS Aichi a Hummingbird-class, will assist with evacuation. We're clearing everything out of her to maximize the number of personnel she can carry."

Signed,
Shinja-Taisho

Katae smiled, sent a brief message to Eternity. "Eternity, please reply to the Taisho's message with my thanks and regards."

"Okay personnel, you heard the news our brothers and sisters in the Bard Cluster and going to assist us. Get to your duty stations. As of this moment we are condition two. We launch in twenty minutes. Dismissed." she said and turned and left the bridge.

Saki paniced for a second. It was good that they will have support on the mission but she still did not have her duty station assigned. But it did not seem like godo idead to bother captain with that. She remembered captain telling her during her interview that Nitto Hei Oshiro Arkase is in command of infantry. It will be him who will tell her what to do then.

She quickly asked Enternity to direcet her to Oshiro. It was one of the higher rankers speaking with Captain earlier. Saki walked to him and bowed. He must have been promoted since interview since Eternity marked him as Santô Juni now. "Sir! Arai Saki reporting for duty," she just said. It was all needed to say. As a head of infantry he must have know that he did not assigned her any position yet.

Yoshiro followed Saki out to report to his duty station. He looked around, obviously awestruck by the ship and its size. He found Saki talking to someone who was higher ranked and figured that he should report to this person. He walked over to where Saki was and reported to the Nito Heisho after Saki was done talking to him. "Tanaka-Hei reporting for duty as ordered!" He said and bowed to Oshiro.

In the absence of orders, Taka decided to do what he'd previously tried to do before being shooed off the ship by Eternity. But first, he had a question for the captain so he hurried off to catch her.

He caught her on the bridge. "Taisa, I didn't speak up during the briefing since this was a matter of inventory rather than assignments. But what sorts of explosives do you want that I should have ready for the upcoming mission? I can have all standard breaching charges and demolition packages ready but is there anything non-standard that you want me to whip up? Smoke bombs, cluster munitions, distraction bombs?"

Arkase had barely taken a step toward the exit when the newbies mobbed him with their bows and introductions. "Right. You're the new additions I was informed of. Head over to the Armoury and pick out a Mindy PA for yourselves. Each of you is to take an... Hell, one moment..."

To All Away Team Members said:

You will outfit yourselves with the following...

• - One Mindy PA
  -- Dorsal Hardpoint: Barrier Shield Module
  -- Shoulder Hardpoints: ONE 50mm Gauss Cannon and ONE Missile Pod
  -- Leg Hardpoints: The Leg Capacitors
  -- Handheld: ONE Aether Beam-Saber Rifle
  - You will REMOVE from the Butt Pack of your Armor your Sleeping Bags, and your rations (excepting the Emergency Pills)
  - In its place you will hold one Type 31 First-Aid Kit. You may obtain these at the Medibay where you will be getting your Mental Back-Ups.

Click to expand...

He also forwarded the message to the Taisa and XO, so they could be informed.

"Alright, now, everyone get to it and meet me in the Armoury before I find some rope to drag you behind the ship with. It's called Keel-Hauling."

Kame had snuck in last, still feeling the slight mild hangover from last night. An hour before the order, she had quickly dress, washed up, and reported to her station, then to her station where she sat moping about the loss of Kim-san.

She had then snuck in back and stayed mostly quiet during the briefing. Kame had no immediate questions, as she knew, most likely, what her mission would be helping Usagi-hei protect the ship unless the XO or another officer requested engineers, who were not that useful in firefights. She had only a vague recollection of what happened last night. She could only vaguely remember something about relaxation time of hydrogen and certain luscious lips. As she shook the thought away, she played a little more attention to the Taisa speech, but soon found she reminisced that the search, recon, and rescue mission reminded her of the late Kim-san.
She could swear that one pilot looks just like Kim-san--until a light bulb of realization lite up as Taisa said the word, "Our secondary objective .... determine the status of the mining installations... in Siren System"

Kame sat there at attention for a few moments her eye in pure shock. She struggled to keep her reaction just the small tear of joy and smile that slide down her eye as the Taisa said the word, "mental backup". It took all her might and discipline not to move until their leader said the word, "dismissed." She then slowly came behind the new Kim-Heisho and glomped her from behind whispering a mantra, "I-am-so-glad-your-a-live-I-thought-I-never-see-you-and-it-was-all-my-fault-and-should-have-checked-better-and-..." before realizing the awkwardness of how long she hugged and the fact they were now on mission. She then bowed an apology of "Sorry-Heisho".

Saki stood in order and confirmed her orders. "Hai!" She said and was about to walk away towards the armoury when suddenly came up on her mind. "Sir?" she said as she turned around. "If I may. Aren't we supposed to also enter the station? Shouldn't few of use take Daisies? Also was it already decided who will drive the APCs?" She said. She then quickly got a look of mild panic on her face. "I do not try to oppose you sir I am just curious. I was always thought that Daisy was better PA for combat inside and on planetside." She quickly added. Insubordination on first time she meets her immediate superior would not be best start of her carrier.

Since Yoshiro did not have any questions for the Nito Heisho he headed down to the armory to find his Mindy. After several wrong turns he called on Eternity to help guide him. He found his way to the armory with no issues after that and went to talk to whoever was in charge. "Excuse me, but who is in charge of the armory? I was told by the person in charge of the infantry to get a Mindy power armor." Yoshiro said out loud hoping someone would hear him. He had memorized what he needed to be armed with he needed to a have someone in charge help him out.

Katae turned to Taka. "I'm no expert in demolitions, but I would say that you should anticipate needing shaped charges to blast doors, as well as the demo satchels.

We will have a better idea of what we need when we get into the system. But other than explosives for getting through obstacles, I suspect we won't need non-standard items. However, if you have any ideas, I suggest you talk with Oshiro-Juni."

She then turned and made her way back to the bridge. As she entered Eternity put all the data currently available on the main screen, with the projected flight path of the Seventh Squadron, and the forces from the 4SF. At least we will have backup. Its obvious that the 1XF is over-committed so I'll take what I can get. Although I am curious what the other task is that the Taisho hinted at.

Katae sat down at her station, and initiated the preflight sequence. With Trowa on Leave of Absence, she would be handling the flight, with Eun-Kyung assisting from her station when combat happened.

In the meantime, Arkase had led his small group to the Armory where they would begin preparing. To Yoshiro's question, he merely said "They're all over there. Get what you need from the racks, Hei." But Saki's required a little more explanation.

"I understand your reasoning Hei, but you're wrong about needing to equip Daisys for two reasons..." He made sure to raise his voice now, so everyone could hear and further questions could be put to rest, "...First, we don't have any aboard the Aeon, and you'll soon be hard pressed to find any on any Plumeria-Class Gunship because Daisys are being tasked to the planetary units." He now lowered his voice, so Saki could only hear. "Second, because I told you to grab a Mindy. You can question me when you've earned the right to do so."

"And as to the APC, I was hoping that Kame-Hei could pilot it. We'll man the guns as necessary. I have a list of things that need to be loaded into the vehicle before departure as well; I'll wait until you're done gearing up."

Everything so said, Arkase moved on to gear up himself. But instead of the Barrier Shield Module, he took the Leader Support Pack and the Leg NSB's. They would be essential in his role as coordinator for his team.

Saki's ears went back as she was scolded. Looking like cat expecting a slap. "I-I am sorry sir," she replied to Arkase and bowed. Did she went overboad though? She was pretty sure she did not. She just asked a thing she was curious about. Also this was her first time on Plumeria? How should she know that there are no Daisies on board? Also why there are no Daisies? Plumeria has APCs but no Daises? That made little sense to her.

"With all respect sir," Saki said then with all the courage she mustered. "I did not question you. I simply asked a question or is it wrong for rookie to ask experienced soldier a question?" Her eyes looked right into Arkases with small spark of defiance. She was thinking if it was worth making her leader get angry on her right aways, but by her own reasoning she did nothing wrong. She won't step back just cause he is arrogant person.

Takamori bowed and exited the bridge quickly, heading towards the Armoury. He found Saki, Scarface and Oshiro-juni arguing over something and decided to keep out of it.

He made his way to the storage units containing the explosives. He felt like a child looking through birthday presents. There were plenty of grenades, which was good. Useful things against infantry and vehicles. Problem is that you had to be there to throw it in most cases. And none of them made any sort of spectacular explosion like larger explosive packages. There was a certain virtue to be had in the large blunt force trauma, even if only to scare the enemies.

So what about explosives, what was on the menu? Plenty of the usual things there too, plastic explosives, detcord, shaped charges. All useful blunt force explosives but nothing terribly imaginative.

No directional anti-personnel units, no impact charges to be thrown from a power armour, no cluster bombs... As much as he wanted to begin making those, Takamori realized he had to get permission from the infantry leader, who seemed to be the fellow yelling at Saki.

What joy... He walked slowly up to them and stood quietly behind Scarface-kun. Best to let the storm abate before drawing the fellow's attention.