RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 1: Amaya's Gate

[Nyton]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Just as savagely as it had begun the carnage was suddenly over. The second Mishhumachina had been destroyed followed by the third along with the Ryusei bomber. Nyton had tracked Kotori's ejection and was thrilled by sudden upswing the battle had taken.

Unfortunately Nyton was lost in all the telepathic chatter and had no idea what was being said or ordered as he watched the Armor team take defensive postures to guard the corridors from anymore defenders. He did however hear Ichigo argue with Masako while he eased in to a slight hover next to the shuttle on it's port side. He tried to make an assessment of every team member's remaining payload and suit condition while his combat computer remained alert for any sneak attacks. It was slower going than usual though since he could not monitor as many windows and try to be ready for combat at the same time.

"Ichigo, cease arguing with Kurohoshi-Juni and assist Nimura to get her onto the shuttle. Freeman, move in and take a defensive position on the starboard side of the shuttle. Kurohoshi, I suggest you let Freeman and Ichigo swap out with two other members. They're still fresh and can allow them the time to rearm." Nyton said over the Armor comm channel.

Just what are you doing still in your bathrobe? Nyton wondered to himself regarding Kotori, a bit at a loss as to why she had not even put on a flight suit or anything since the bridge.

 

[Tom]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom had braced himself against the entrance to the hanger, shielding himself from the huge display of destruction that transpired mere seconds ago.

The Ryusei was no more, but the Taisa had somehow managed to escape harm. He sighed in relief as he took his position.

"Yukari's going to be so pissed," he muttered. "Guess who's going to have to calm her down after this whole mess is over?"

After overhearing some of the argument, Tom addressed Nyton via private message.

Sir,

Nimura is a superior fighter, probably the best we have. If she is capable of continuing, it may be prudent to have her swap armors with one of us to continue the fight. I am sure Ichigo or I are both willing to do so if necessary.

Your opinion?

-Freeman-Juni

 

[Kokuten]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Yeah heh heh!" Asher chuckled in his maniacal, dark way when he saw something die when he intended it to. He gave Kyou a thumbs up for the coordination in attack, and how successful it had been. Then, as the dust began to settle again, he started to check his weapons until he received knew orders.

"Defensive Perimeter," [Masako] ordered telepathically. "Westwood-hei and Gunshin-hei guard the port corridor.

"Whoopty Doo! Mo' guard duty." Asher groaned twirled his weapon in right hand, while his left just stayed tucked into his chest, since he had poor control over it anyway. "Sheesh, you'd think they'd have mo' t'throw at us, y'know, bein' in there base n'shit." The Malifarian pulled out his plasma rifle, and checked his ammo before turning to Kyou.

"Anything moves, I vote we blow it up, Westwood-Hei."

"Eh? Well, shit, now y'talkin' my language, girlie," Asher said with confidence, copying Kyou's tactic and sending a drone out to scan down the hallway as well. While he did so, he set back into cover and waited for the first sign of movement.

 

[Gallant]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Irresponsible, reckless, disdainful!" Yukari snarled as she hit the fold drive, sending Miharu 1.55 AU from their target.

"That is the last time I trust the Taisa with such equipment!" She added as the ship came out of fold. Miyoko knew to activate the interdiction field, so she did not tell her to do so.

Yukari hit the CFS, drawing on the first unit as told to by Yuzuki. Miharu propelled itself backwards, nose toward the Takumi, matching its speed.

Yuzuki did her best to keep the engines at pace, though in the back of her mind she was cursing her own stupidity in taking manual control. There were so many things that could go wrong, especially since it seemed that the communications she had with the bridge were becomming dangerously one-sided.

When the Shosa punched the speed, Yuzuki caught the load on-time and increased the speed of the CFS assemblies to compensate for the sudden increase, but the narrow window she had been given was jarring. Yuzuki had been waiting on an order, not a harrowing split-second jump in load.

The Heisho bit her lower lip nervously, checking over the temperature and rotational readings again. Was she even going to get orders, from this point out, or was it just going to be the bridge jerking the equipment around remotely - marking up a power output that the CFS would have to match? Without warning?

"Shosa," Yuzuki murmured, "You scare me."

Rin, Eiko.  Report plant conditions.  How are they holding?

 

[Kyoki]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Upon receiving the request for a status update, Rin quickly re-checked over the conditions of the engines just to be absolutely cure she wasn't missing something. As far as she could tell, the assembly seemed to be running fine; perhaps it was a bit warm, but that was to be expected if the engines were being pushed as hard as they were.

Rin quickly formulated a text response.

It's doing fine on my end. A bit warm, but nothing else.

She half expected something to start breaking as soon as that text was sent.

 

[Fred]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Amaya's Gate:

As the Black Knights began rearming themselves one after the other, Kotori motioned to Masako that she was going back down and then jumped off the ceiling, going into a brief somersault before she landed close to the shuttle with a light 'thump' from her bare feet.

"I've come here to assist the Black Knights with my own psionic abilities in order to defend you from Amaya and her followers," Kotori informed them telepathically. "I'll spend most of my time in thermoptic stealth and trail behind you in order to not become a liability."

She eyed Masako's blue-gray M6 Daisy and told her: "I'm aware that you've been experiencing trouble with two Black Mindy aces named Meni and Mani. I understand you must be eager to take them down, but I will have to request that you be careful while doing so, if possible: both of them have double teleportation units that function inside this region of space, and perhaps even beyond the portal. Salvaging them would be a great boon for us later on."

Kotori was about to say more, but suddenly the floor of the gateway station began strongly vibrating. "Nani?"

* * *

@Miharu:

Tremendously high inter-dimensional fatigue readings began emanating from the center of Amaya's Gate. Space inside the ring began to warp and twist into an observable event horizon; a rift in the space-time continuum. The Uriko drones, stationed close around the opening portal, were caught in the wake of the opening aperture and brought under so much inter-dimensional shear that they were all destroyed.

The Gate had been activated. The portal to where the Second Draconian Fleet slept was open.

 

[Kokuten]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Hey, Kyou, I'mma reload my shit real quick." said Asher as he called back his drone and hustled over to the shuttle. He made sure to be quick, just in case their opponents decided to show up again. As he made his way up the ramp, he spotted the ammunition he needed to rearm and started stocking himself with munitions. To conserve what shots he had left, he ejected the magazine from his bazooka, and switched it out with a fresh one. Though, as he placed the half-used piece of ammunition, he felt the shuttle shake along with the rest of the gate.

"Wh..." Asher stopped his rustling for a moment, and quickly gathered up his weapons, then stepped down to the base of the shuttle's ramp, "What tha' fuck wass' that? Wass' goin' on?"

 

[Doshii Jun]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari didn't have to wait for the spikes to read by Miyoko. Miharu told her what they were.

Instead of panic, however, the Shosa's face formed around a harsh, smug smirk even her visor couldn't deflect.

"I see," she said in Yamataian to the zoomed-on shape of the Takumi. "You stink of desperation, just as we do. Unlike us, you do not thrive on the scent."

"Heisho. Inform the Taisa and the Black Knights about the Gate. Tell them their time is limited. Develop a firing solution for a subspace torpedo; we must slow them down, and I believe I know how we can do that."

"Yuzuki-san, analysis!" Yukari transmitted the message straight to Yuzuki's helmet. "Is it possible for Miharu to get more life out of her four units if we switch amongst them in-transit, instead of waiting for one to need reserve coolant?"

 

[Gallant]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yuzuki paused for a moment, examining the readings for a little while before replying,

"Shosa, in order to provide the power you needed, we are now running all four CFS units at the same time. I am regulating their output and speed manually. Although the drives were not designed to take this sort of treatment, we should be able to hold out for a while as long as we share the load between the drives. I estimate another fifteen minutes of good operation minimum."

"We are currently at two hundred percent output. Switching to single-drive operations would place a tremendous amount of strain on that one drive."

 

[Nyton]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Upon Ichigo finishing her assistance of Nimura onto the shuttle Nyton could see Asher making his move to reload. "Ichigo, move in to take Asher's place on the perimeter!" he quickly barked out the order as he continued his security of the shuttle. The last thing they needed was the shuttle being hit and detonating when it was loaded down with ordinance. At that point the message from Tom pinged on his window.

Sir,

Nimura is a superior fighter, probably the best we have. If she is capable of continuing, it may be prudent to have her swap armors with one of us to continue the fight. I am sure Ichigo or I are both willing to do so if necessary.

Your opinion?

-Freeman-Juni

Thinking about it briefly the man made the quick response via thought prompted text message.

Freeman-Juni,

While I do not have any doubts in regards to Nimura's fighting prowess she now bears injuries twice over. Her earlier expedition gave her wounds which she ignored after minimal medical attention. Now she is further injured and is herself accepting to drop out. In my opinion she will do us better if she recuperates in the shuttle. According to AIES her suit's power supply and SPINE interface are out. Can you find some way to plug her suit to a power source aboard the shuttle? If so it could administer some medical attention to her body and possibly help her to recover faster. If absolutely necessary she can change out for Tsuya's Armor at a later time when she is more combat capable.

Do what you can.

Nyton sent off the message before looking up to Masako on the ceiling by Kotori. He opened up a direct comm line to her alone and addressed her directly. "Kurohoshi-Juni, given our current assets we can still push through the remaining defenders however we need to be more aggressive. We cannot remain static in their home territory. Depending on what we encounter we must shift our stance smoothly so as to more effectively defeat it. I suggest we load up at least two members with subspace detonator missiles. They will be partnered up with our bazooka wielders so as to knock down the shields while following up with heavy ordinance on anymore of those Mishhumachina we may encounter. The rest of us would cover them to prevent ambushes like the ones that earlier hampered your efforts. It will be hard to predict what the Nekomachina or anymore of Eve's younglings may throw at us so we will have to be able to focus our firepower accordingly. Just because they look frail outside of Armor doesn't mean they are. The same guideline pretty goes for Amaya given her power level."

Nyton then paused for a second before grinning a bit. "That leaves Meni and Mani for us. If it comes down to a battle with those two I want you to partner up with me while the others cover the area. It's likely they will not be alone so depending on the situation we may not get a chance to go toe to toe. But should the opportunity arise they're all ours. I'm sending out data from the analysis Hinoto gave me concerning their Mindy suits. Apparently they have refined their teleportation units to operate seamlessly within the Rift and have twice the capacity as our own."

Just as he finished saying this Kotori then made her descent from the ceiling to the floor.

"I've come here to assist the Black Knights with my own psionic abilities in order to defend you from Amaya and her followers. I'll spend most of my time in thermoptic stealth and trail behind you in order to not become a liability."

With that announcement Nyton sort of breathed a sigh of relief. After her previous performance on the bridge, he supposed in the Gate she should have ample space to remain hidden. Before he could say anything though there was a shudder as the Gate began to tremble. Telemachus alerted him as it drew data from both AIES and internal WydeSCAN GHX-44H sensor suite.

Sir there is a high amount of unusual activity outside of your position. Initial readings indicate spatial distortion but on a level I cannot fully quantify without a higher level of sensor operation.

Kotori was about to say more, but suddenly the floor of the gateway station began strongly vibrating. "Nani?"

"I think the Gate is starting to activate your highness. We need to get moving, now!" Nyton then announced over his loudspeaker.

 

[CadetNewb]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nao's eyes slowly opened; they felt like they were crusted with sand and sleep. There was something nagging at her, the sprite just couldn't put her finger on what it was though. The patch she struggled to put onto the back of her AMES suit had held, preventing any more air from leaking out. A single unused application of painkillers was in her hand. Nao weakly muttered to herself, "I must have passed out before I got to use it." No. That wasn't it. Something else. The sprite's eyes popped wide in horror.

Rin, Eiko.  Report plant conditions.  How are they holding?

She hurriedly got to her feet and glanced back at the sealed doors, next her display. Nao bit her lip; it was as though some sick god was trying to make her and Miharu suffer! The urge to scream out something along the lines of "YOU BASTARDS! YOU COMPLETE BASTARDS!" made her blood boil. She checked the status display to see if it was actually boiling. Nope. Nao's hand made the gesture to wipe sweat off her brow, but the helmet blocked it.

I must have gotten knocked out. The port CFS unit is running hot Yuzuki, but it's still within tolerable limits.

'Yeah. Hot enough to burn me, but cool enough to still be running fine.' Nao mentally pouted. Speaking of burns, her back, from the base of the neck to top of boots hurt. It really hurt. Nao dropped to her knees again from the fiery sensation, and focused on cutting off the pain receptors long enough to inject the painkillers. The sprite moaned in ecstasy as the solution entered her veins. 'Hey, I don't need to focus on cutting off my pain receptors anymore. Maybe it's not so bad after all and I was being a big fuss!'

Her eyes and hands ran down the form fitting front, almost confirming her optimistic high, however, Nao's common sense had her check the suit and user integrity display.

She felt herself going pale.

 

[Fred]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Miharu:

Yuzuki received a notice from Miharu's AI:

Yuzuki, Nao seems to be experiencing some trouble. Her AMES suit is damaged and she's suffered burns. I suggest pulling her out of her present assignment to have her change for a new suit (if not tended to) while you assign someone else to watching over her CFS unit.

@Amaya's Gate:

Kotori frowned at Nyton's words and took out her beeping communicator to look at Yukari's latest text correspondence. "Miharu confirms it: the portal opened."

The nekovalkyrja Taisa flipped the communicator back shut and returned it to its pocket. "We leave at your discretion, Taii." and she then added for Mara's benefit: "It'd be unwise to get your shuttle out at this point, Mara, so have Yamada-Hei and Sigurd outside to guard it, with your hatch closed when we are gone."

"Hai, Taisa," was the sprite's answer.

With that settled, the colors on Kotori seemed to bleed out into translucence, and then near complete transparency - with the last thing visible from her being her amber-irised eyes, which she closed. That was impressive: most nekovalkyrjas could not go into stealth while wearing clothing.

 

[Aendri]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kyou frowned, mentally running over her own inventory. "Soon as you're done, switch out with me. I need some more missiles and another set of grenades."

 

[Abwehran Commander]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Masako grimaced as she followed the Taisa back down to the deck silently and warily. Though she was contacted by Nyton before she could touch deck.

"Kurohoshi-Juni, given our current assets we can still push through the remaining defenders however we need to be more aggressive. We cannot remain static in their home territory. Depending on what we encounter we must shift our stance smoothly so as to more effectively defeat it. I suggest we load up at least two members with subspace detonator missiles. They will be partnered up with our bazooka wielders so as to knock down the shields while following up with heavy ordinance on anymore of those Mishhumachina we may encounter. The rest of us would cover them to prevent ambushes like the ones that earlier hampered your efforts. It will be hard to predict what the Nekomachina or anymore of Eve's younglings may throw at us so we will have to be able to focus our firepower accordingly. Just because they look frail outside of Armor doesn't mean they are. The same guideline pretty goes for Amaya given her power level."

It made sense over all, though Masako didn't quite believe their enemies would have many more of those monstrosities. But as she began to formulate teams, the Tactical Officer spoke up once more.

"That leaves Meni and Mani for us. If it comes down to a battle with those two I want you to partner up with me while the others cover the area. It's likely they will not be alone so depending on the situation we may not get a chance to go toe to toe. But should the opportunity arise they're all ours. I'm sending out data from the analysis Hinoto gave me concerning their Mindy suits. Apparently they have refined their teleportation units to operate seamlessly within the Rift and have twice the capacity as our own."

Masako couldn't help but allow an almost feral grin cross her features. "Understood, sir," she replied shortly before Kotori sent her own transmission.

"I'm aware that you've been experiencing trouble with two Black Mindy aces named Meni and Mani. I understand you must be eager to take them down, but I will have to request that you be careful while doing so, if possible: both of them have double teleportation units that function inside this region of space, and perhaps even beyond the portal. Salvaging them would be a great boon for us later on."

The Warrant Officer grimaced once more under her helmet at the notion of salvaging. "We will try, Taisa," Masako demured, but wondered if it would really be possible. After all, the two Aces they were up against had years more combat experience than many of the non-Neko soldiers of their group let alone her. Once on the deck, the Warrant Officer moved towards the landing shuttle. But as she was reaching for a second Bazooka to replace her LASR, the gate shook violently. She didn't need to know what exactly was going on to know something bad was happening.

It was then that Masako also realized a slight flaw in Nyton's plan. There were an odd number of individuals in their group considering the Taisa was practically a non-combatant at the moment. Plus, the young Warrant Officer had no clue what Tom and Ichigo were carrying. Mulling over choices, the young Neko decided the best course.

"Nakamura-heisho, pair up with Westwood-hei. If we come up against anything like a Mishhumachina again, you will provide the subspace detonation and he will provide the firepower. Gunshin-hei, you will join Freeman-juni and Ichigo-heisho. The Taii and I will team up together. When we advance, Freeman-juni's team will take point and Nakamura-heisho's team is rear guard. Claymere-taii's group will be in the center so we can aid either group," she stated, hoping she was not overstepping her bounds.

"And Taisa. I would respectfully request that you be in the central group as well. To counter any psychic attacks upon either team," she suggested via and encrypted burst transmission to both Kotori and Nyton. Though she failed to add the more obvious 'as well as protect you' bit of her plan.

 

[Tom]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom nodded at the instructions. "Acknowledged."

He stepped inside the shuttle, where Nimura was, and took a few quick moments to inspect her armor and see if he could restore power to it so that the hemosynthetic materials within could mend her condition.

"Nimura, what's your physical condition? I'm trying to find a way to get your power back on so that the armor can assist you in you physical recovery..."

He was studying the armor now and could see how ugly it looked. Did he have the equipment to juryrig some kind of connection between the sprite's armor and the shuttle's power system?

"Hm... if I can't make something out of this, you can switch out with Tsuya and let her armor handle your wounds as well..."

 

[Aendri]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Hai, heisho." Kyou wasn't sure what exactly had prompted the change-up in teams, but she had no real problem with it. Even though she'd been starting to get along well with Kai and Asher, she still didn't know anyone well enough to say she had real preferences. "Asher, hurry up. "

 

[Kokuten]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"I'm comin', I'm comin', dammit!" Asher said, properly equipping his gear onto his Daisy before making a final check to move out. When he was sure he was ready to continue, he hustled on back, deploying his droid ahead of him so it could take the place of Kyou's. Then, when he reached her, he tapped her shoulder twice to signal he was ready to take her place. At any rate, he would've preferred to stay paired up with a lady like Kyou. Then again, Kai looked like a lady, albeit a tall lady with short, butch hair...

...but, a dude that looks like a lady iss' really mo' an opposite direction froma' actual lady... Asher thought, aiming his rifle down the corridor. Strategically, Masako's decision made sense, Kai could kill shields, and he could kill anything. Though, in his mind, no one should ever discount the morale-boost and buff of a pair of near-by breasts, combined with hips. With those nearby, they served as a quick reminder of what is at stake if they lost this mission: every supple and slender female that lives in Yamatai.

At any rate, he decided to stay concerned with the increasingly tense situation, rather than his personal preference in partners.

 

[Kai]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Hai, Sir." Kai answered, when ordered to pair up with Asher. While the Yamataian had no doubts as to the short man's abilities, he was somewhat concerned about Asher's mental stability. Still, if the two of them managed to work together, there wasn't much that could really stand against them.

"Could somebody please cover my hall so that I may reload?" Kai asked, leaving his drones in the hallway as a warning in case something happened, hoping that one of the other armor pilots would take his place soon enough. As quickly as possible, Kai went through the ammunition they had finding subspace detonating missiles, as well as some MSAP missiles, which fell under the 'killing stuff' category. Satisfied that he had 30 of each, the Yamataian began to stock up on AP and HE rounds for his currently stowed Gauss bazooka.

 

[Aendri]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"About time, lazy. Best of luck." Kyou stood down, trotting her way back over to grab more ammunition. She decided to just reload on what she already had, except for leaving her BSPR behind, since they hadn't evacuated the atmosphere. Yet, at least. She grabbed another Plasma Rifle instead, and made her way over to Kai, tapping him on the shoulder to let him know she could take his spot.

 

[Nyton]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nyton nodded to Kotori as she faded away and then looked to Masako while shaking his head.

"No, it's better if she remains apart from us while in stealth mode. If anything, being closer to us is more dangerous while she's invisible since we will be actively drawing fire as opposed to her hiding a short distance away from us." Nyton comm'd over to Masako.

All the other team members were making their runs for resupply and he noticed the neko still had not yet rearmed herself. "Kurohoshi, go get yourself resupplied. We're moving out in two minutes."

Going over the ammunition and weapons check to ensure their heavy demolition soldier was paired with a subspace missile user Nyton then made a quick broadcast over the Armor team channel. "Everyone finish loading up! Freeman, hurry up in there. We're moving out in two minutes! The enemy is making their move so we need to hurry up and make ours!"

The Nepleslian double checked his LASR/SLAG and shifted the gauss bazooka on his back a little. The extra ammunition he had was still secure in the PHALANX's storage compartments. He figured if he had to he could also lay massive amounts of waste or resupply a heavy demolition soldier. He then mapped out their path according to the data they had already accumulated from earlier incursions. With this he could plot the best angles of fire and cover to let them advance quickly. It was up to them to push through now with no turning back.