RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 9.0] Trouble in Deep Waters

Sunflower looked at Yoshiro. "Yes, the Lunar Moth is a Tamahagane Corporation starship. A Taishita-Class with a crew of 100 and up to 30 passengers. And we only have a single escape pod of that compliment. These people seem like pirates. But there may be something more sinister to them. We lack sufficient information." She entered some commands into the ABMU, it sealed its forcefields and began the regimen of tests that the medic had programmed.

"Our medical staff is going to have a look at you." Misaki announced as everyone else got to their tasks. It was her way both of giving permission, and informing the survivors at the same time. "An attacker, which could mean they found a species we are unaware of and had them engage in piracy with them, or-well, it is too early to assume anything." Decided the XO, before she pinged the bridge to inform them of the developments, they needed an extra sitrep anyway.

"See to the one that seems carrying a child first, I am told that stress is not good for them." In truth, she was already concerned the other team would run into something new, which had the officer wishing she were in her armor again, but she only manifested this as checking her holster and shifting out of the way towards the group. No contamination. That was a start.

Sunflower went to each of the other survivors. A soft hiss could be heard as she injected each with the nanomachines that her scanner used. She looked at the readings. Overall given all that they had been through, their health was good. She turned to Misaki. "Ma'am, none of the passengers have any sign of infection or other hazards. With your permission, I would like to take them up to medical. I can do a more detailed scan there. And it is the safest place for them should things turn ugly."

From the speakers in the ceiling of the cargo hold came Katae's voice. "The shuttle reports that its under attack. XO, pick crew members for your team and suit up. Deploy when you are ready."

YSS AEON - CARGO HOLD
The PA seemed to snap Tsuruko out of her almost martial reverie. Not that she wasn't paying attention, of course-- the Nekovalkyrja was just making an effort to stay out of the way and quiet, in order to give those milling about the hold a modicum of breathing room while pacing back and forth where needed, herself.

In fact, throughout most of the wait, the announcement was the one thing that caused her the biggest motion - a twist of her head, at least two full degrees. As the Taisa finished broadcasting her orders, Tsuruko's eyes predictably landed on the XO, just barely narrowed.

Throughout the Aeon tactical systems were going from standby to active. Klaxons sounded and palpable charge could be felt in the ship.

Throughout the ships public address system Katae's vice called out. "All hands prepare for micro-fold. We have detected a hostile craft and are engaging."

A moment later there was a lurch and the ship was jumping.

Cargo Hold / Escape Pod

"Squeeeaahh...!" Sheela exclaimed as she lurched/slid a few feet towards the bulkhead from the sudden acceleration, till she grabbed the Pod to stop her from becoming a nuisance by slamming into some other crew. "Squek! A minute would be nice!" To no one particular, but aimed for the bridge.

It was forgotten as things returned to normal. Sheela gotten busy securing the Pod off to one side of Cargohold. She knew from the announcement as they left FTL, it would be chaos of battle and that didn't leave her much time. She doubled checked everything as she worked within the time allowed her.

Misaki did not seem to move very much when the ship shuddered, it was not the first time something like that had happened to her, to put it mildly, "Tsuruko, we're heading out. Swiftpaw if you can manage you're with us." She also pinged Nami and Kahen from the night crew to suit up and be ready to launch. Confirmed, captain. We are on our way.

Power Armor Bay
The XO left the cargo bay and worked her way up to the power armor bay as quickly as possible, already getting ready to enter her power armor on the way,s he loosened parts of her uniform, and when they entered the bay she floated towards where her Mindy was waiting and stripped in the air, holding her uniform under one arm. She had been selecting her loadout on the way, and when she arrived she made sure to affix a barrier shield to the back of the armor. The leader module would not be as advisable with such close support anyway. She attached a countermeasure pod to one hardpoint, then an offensive pod to the other thigh point.

Once the armor was ready, she stowed her uniform at the station, her spare was already packed in the armor as usual. The Mindy sealed around her and she slid the helmet on with it before checking the neck armor. In a fluid moment she swung her beam saber rifle up and gave it one final check as she floated to the flight line, pinging the other suits online the deployment formation she wanted them in down to the suit. "Report in when you are ready." Of course the squad readout would do that anyway, as she linked the oncoming crew and their suits to her unit, but she liked everyone focused before going into combat.

Yoshiro recieved the message from the bridge and went to get to his armor. He waved good bye to Sunflower and headed to his armor in the armor bay. He undressed and put his uniform away and as soon as he did he got into his armor. He placed some Offensive Augmentation pods on his left leg and grabbed a countermeasure augmentation pod to put on the other and placed a NSB launcher on the dorsal hardpoint. He took a LASR with extra ammo and a shoulder mounted gauss cannon. He activated his armor targeting systems and tested it out. When he saw that the systems were green he was ready. "Kurusu-chusa, Tanaka reporting for duty! Ready for orders!" He said and bowed to the chusa quickly before he checked his weapons and made sure that they were loaded.

Sheela was shocked at being asked? Ordered? to tag along. She recovered quickly and rushed to follow Misaki. Once in the Power Armor bay, she moved to her assigned power armor and stripped down to her undercloths. She folded them up and stored them neatly in a locker provided for her. She climbed into her Power armor, going with a standard armament load out, plus her engineering hull breaching kit.

Tsuruko was already moving by the time Misaki finished her sentence, the ship's jolt all but forgotten - just another annoyance she was more than accustomed to, chiefly thanks to her training. The Santô Hei walked to her destination in long, confident strides, a clear danger to any with the misfortune of being in the her path.

The trip to the Armor Bay proved mercifully quiet, which gave Tsuruko the time to think about the most immediate issue: her power armor. She had no real idea about the location of hers - if she even had one. She'd have to rely on at least a suit opening upon her approach. What could go wrong?

She arrived at the Bay already halfway stripped, and quickly working to get rid of the 'halfway' part. Now, to find her own suit. Looking over the available suits of armor, Tsuruko was rather disheartened to discover many of them were M2-3A models, which rendered her nakedness rather moot. On the bright side, one of those same bulky pieces of equipment was kind enough to open upon the removal of its helmet, recognizing the Neko as its operator.

That only left the issue of her loadout. She was looking for something modest, something with at least a modicum of finesse. Not that she found anything of sort, at least in the state of hurry she was in. Finally, Tsuruko settled on a pair of Ke-M2-W2905 cannons, with a Ke-M2-W2905-BPX to match. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, or the most convenient, but she'd be hard-pressed to find someone to bring that up to her face - or in her line of fire, at the very least. With that issue settled, too, she slinked in the armor and, upon activation, spared her core systems a quick once-over.
"Tsuruko, reporting," she announced as she fell in formation with Misaki. The thought of her first engagement had the Santô Hei rather eager, as evidenced by a rather nervous glancing back and forth from her own part.

Shina Kim made her way to from the Power Armor Bay in her armor. She looked out through the atmospheric shield. She looked at the others, then addressed Misaki. "Ready to deploy." Kahen Yani stepped out through the field and into the void of space. Using her suits propulsion she moved away from the gunship to acquire the shuttle that was under attack.

Kim followed after Yani and took up position next to her. It was clear that the hostiles were using an assortment of armor. Some of it was contemporary and available in the sector from other nations.

Launch Bay
"All right. Remember your training and keep faith in your squadmates and we will claim victory. The enemy is mostly using power armors, be prepared to execute extremely quick maneuvers. The shuttle needs our help immediately. Deploy." She ordered, before contacting the bridge.

"Bridge, flight ready. We're launching." The small team of armors bolted from the Aeon and into space once they were past the shield. The woman's suit continued to relay precise formation instructions to the team until they started to approach the combat area, where she started to match targets with their best counter to the suits of her team based on loadout and apparent load out of the enemy.

Space

As they entered the combat area, the Nekovalkryja felt that surge of excitement hit her like some kind of drug, and really she wasn't going to ignore she had made sure to keep the settings in her suit to reward her for feeling how she always had during a fight, she remembered her training under the Ketsurui and maintained an odd sort of balance after the wave washed over her, the efficiency of the myriad of ways to kill their enemies running between the onboard computer and the one sitting between her ears as she lead the team into combat, the formation opening like some ballet only to become a random assortment of positions meant to confuse the enemy but also set as proper crossfire as was possible in space, which meant she had more options.

Space

Once Sheela left the ship and out into the void of space, her thought process shifted to that of a combat pilot. Instead of fighter craft, her suit was the craft in which she would fight with. Another difference was she didn't have missiles. She was amazed at how the Power Armor suit seamed to read her mind and responded to her muscle movements no matter how minute they were. She quickly got used to the Power Armor in flight. The nuances and quirks as she was the last one to fall into formation in her allocated slot within the Formation to meet with those that were attacking the shuttle.

Misaki was the flight leader, Sheela would respond to her lead and instructions in the upcoming battle. She knew of her weakness as she didn't have the SPINE interface like the rest of them had. But she knew ariel 3D combat and teamwork.

Yoshiro launched out of the bay with the rest of the squadron. He launched his NSBs to act as protection for his armor and made sure that his weapon was ready to go as they approached the target. He was ready for whatever may happen and relished the opportunity to fight again to protect his people and his home.

Seeing the flash of Aeon's microfold, the attackers went into a frenzy. Many of them continued to attack the shuttle in an attempt to disable the craft. But others started streaking towards the Aeon crew members. They streaked forward using thruster equipped armor and fired. Hostiles with larger armor fired projectiles that when they closed on the Aeon crew broke up into multiple plasma rounds. The first volley peppered the shields of the away team.

Evasive. Priority targets marked. Engage, full force authorized. Pinged to all of Misaki's fire time as she brought her heavier weapons to lock onto the heaviest suits which appeared to have the ordnance that could threaten the shuttle the most. The XO's computer, as well as the computer within the woman herself, was working quickly to provide each suit with targets as well as the spread of future possible rounds that could come their way, which is when the order to spread out close enough to provide cover but far enough they would have to miss other targets if they used plasma rounds in the same way again.

She sent orders for Sheela to fight one of the armors screening them, where she could support her the best with her deploying drones and extra firepower. The Mindy she used was already screaming fire through space at targets that were not too close to the shuttle. In addition to engaging in full combat, she tried to link in with the shuttle to make all the combatants from the Aeon one effective unit, as well as to get a sitrep.

Tsuruko and Yoshiro were assigned one of the heavier armors, and one of the screening ones between it and them, as part of their target assignments, as well as to specifically watch out for one another, even if, since they had been released, they could all still reasonably work as a team, it was good in the veteran's experience to have the team watch out for the team as well as having a buddy do it.

The night shifters had a similar assignment, more heavily tilted towards the closest armors that peeled to meet the detachment from the gunship.

Yoshiro targeted the nearest heavy armor with his AIES and let off a shot with his LASR. "For the enemies of the empire, death!" Yoshiro said with an evil grin. He knew that he probably didn't damage the armor severly so he watched as he launched his NSBs to keep up his attack. "Tsuruko, you're up. Hit that armor hard and painful."

Sheela acknowledged receiving her target as she maneuvered to avoid the plasma rounds and energy that began to fill the space between the two forces. She used speed and timing to gain the superior position on the enemy she was given to destroy. She fired at the more critical components of the enemy power armor with the weapon most suited for the job, cutting relentlessly through the exhaust port of one of the thrusters to get at the actual source of the suits power generators.

Yoshiro's target was hit some of the external armor sheared off and the enemy spun out of control briefly. Then the operator regained control brought his careening armor to a stop. Once he reoriented, he started closing again and started spraying his weapon at Yoshior and anyone nearby.

Misaki's barrage ended the lives of at last two of the hostiles with her precision firing. Their armor exploding with secondary detonations.

The night shift members concentrated their fire on the targets the XO had painted for them. Coordinating their fire made their attack more effective.

Sheela's method resulted in disabling the hostile she was targeting. She didn't destroy the armor, but it drifted out of control with its systems down.

From the wreckage of the ship that the shuttle was investigating, a barrage of missiles started streaking it split into two groups, one heading for the shuttle and the other towards the away team.

Misaki felt the reward for killing another enemy as two of the suits soundlessly exploded against the pitch. The XO didn't relish in the explosions, she could review them later. There was still the matter of the shuttle. Once the wreckage of the ship turned out to be somewhat active, she launched two salvos of five countermeasure missiles from her missile pods, tracking to attempt to intercept both groups of missiles before they could do too much damage to either.

The officer also added the source of the missile launch to the enemy list by tracing where her sensors detected the launch from. It was where she fired next, hoping she would knock it out and leave part of the ship, but deciding if it broke apart she did not care. A standard order to surrender started to broadcast on open channels from her suit while she laid down more fire, the shape of the Mindy moving erratically through the combat zone as she closed the space between herself and the shuttle.

New targets replaced old ones based on the same threats for the night team with her, and she kept abreast of the other crew as the fighting wore on. As Yoshiro's target tried to paint him, she attempted to fire from another direction, either to give Yoshiro a chance, or to finish him herself and get him clear for his next target.

Watch for active hostiles from the ship. Target is hot.