UPSTAIRS
"Captain, I'm picking up a high energy reaction!" The Sensors Officer yelled. Even with Monoeyes, spotting a stealthed S1 was difficult unless the ship voluntarily gives itself away, in this case by charging its Aether Shock Cannon. The main screen zoomed for a visual.
"Maker, its the NSS Alder!" Captain Peters nearly jumped out of his seat. It was the NSS Acadia's partner vessel during the operation to retake the NSS Emden. The ship was presumed destroyed when the Mishhus lauched their surprise invasion. The presumption was not entirely wrong, as the Alder on the screen looked like a zombie of a ship with severe battle damage and tacked-on Misshu components to keep it afloat. "Charge the Aether Cannon!"
"But sir, the Alder started charging first. Shouldn't we take evasive actions?" The Nav officer piqued.
"The Alder isn't aiming at us. It's trying to finish off the Senate." The Captain stood on his feet, he had served on the ancient NSS Alder as a trainee, it was both sad and blasphemous that such a venerable ship was now used to strike against the heart of the Empire. "Besides, it wont get a chance to if we fire now." Peters then swung his hand forward with a vengeance, centring his pointer finger on the opposing S1. "FIRE!"
As it was an express command by the Captain, the Acadia's SAVTECH overrode all prohibitions and safeties to produce a lance of all-annihilating Aether on demand. Normally the cannon hatch and stealth sheath forward of the Aether Cannon would only begin to open at half charge to dissipate excess energy being built up inside the ship, this was the stage the Alder was at when it was detected.
At 1/4ths of full charge when the Captain ordered the attack, the hydraulics used to retract both hatch and sheath were barely even warmed up. As a result both of these were annihilated. The thin beam that the Acadia produced crossed a thousand kilometers in a heartbeat to strike against the side of the Alder, pushing it over the damage threshold accumulated from the Wazu Nebula encounter and breeching the containment field in its cannon holding a near full charge, causing it to disgorge all the Aether into itself. One bright flash of light later it was safe to say for sure that the NSS Alder no longer existed in this universe.
Peters breathed a silent prayer for the ship and its crew before returning his thoughts to the planet and its people. "Take us down, helmsman."
DOWNSTAIRS
The MC could barely feel the Aether Cannon going off under his feet nor the destruction of two small pieces of the Acadia, but he could feel the slow shudder of the ship entering the atmosphere and the thought of the unthinkable gnawing at the back of his head. He quickly grabbed a versatile IPG Model 01 Assault Rifle, a 12mm RPB Pistol (He was not a fool to believe that the ESG he was issued with was good for anything other than hunting vermin), three concussion grenades, MUUR body armor and plenty of ammo. This done he clambered aboard the shuttle containing Ran's squad.
The only people left standing on the deck were the four greenhorns in their PAs and the NAM Representatives. Due to the relative newness of the Representative program, the supervisor of the latter was not one himself, but rather an egghead from the Company's PA division. He was cowering near a stack of boxes in fear. With youthful initiative and ingenuity however, the fifteen or so mostly female Reps had procured a number of disposable thrusters for rocket-assisted takeoff and short-vertical landings. These had their own one-shot power supply and were consequently attached to the waist of each of the greenhorn's PAs by the fours.
A tall, blue haired Rep moved to the front and side of the Catapult to issue instructions while her compatriots made sure the rockets were properly attached and programmed. A detonator like device was pressed into the hands of each of the PA pilots. "Remember." She began, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Trigger the rockets at the 100 meter mark. Because your suits are out, we'll tell you when that is so keep your comm channels open." Lucas Vanguard may be forgiven if he wasn't paying attention because his oh-so-cute Representative was busy writing down her NAM.net number on the back of his suit. "Call me!" She whispered, before having to obey the orders of her new self-appointed leader. "Start the warm up sequence on the rest of the reactors now even if they aren't attached yet! The Company will pay for your anti-rad meds!"
With a groan the ship's hangar doors opened for the first time since jumping. The curvature of the Planet Nepleslia could be seen in the horizon. Above that line were the lights of numerous stars and ships in orbit, below that line were equally numerous lights of the enormous city that covered the whole of the planet. All this was tinted the greenish hue of the hangar's force field, streaked with red lines of superheated gas from the re-entry.
Fian poked his head out of the shuttle doors to yell at the recruits... Again. "The security forces can't hold on much longer, you guys are going down first. Godspeed!"
"Trajectory set, the Nepleslian Senate." The blue haired Rep intoned before triggering the magnetic fields that would propel the Power Armors out of the bay in speeds exceeding 160 KM/h "LAUNCH!"
Three seconds later the greenhorns were dangling their toes over the stratosphere of the planet, it was a long way down... fifty kilometers to be exact.
