RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear (Battle of Sbuhfaba)

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

The Bridge was unusually quiet, broken at the occasions from the sudden tapping of the consoles, followed by the soft chimes as displays closed and reopened.

With Blackberry taking charge in sensors and comms, Nika had more 'free time' in browsing the systems as well as running battle simulations with Charisma.

"That last round's simulation wasn't so bad... everyone got out in one piece... , but we need to factor in some more uncertainty... let's try delaying the returning squads' time..."

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune proceeded to take his share of the explosives and carefully load them into the butt pack on his armor. "Endoh-Hei, if you would please upload your proposed paths to the team that way everyone will have them in the event we get separated. Miyazawa-Hei, thank you for bringing that extra medical kit. Everyone take your portion of the explosives, and make your way to the exit. Active camouflage on and laser communications only from this point forward."

He walked over and picked up the extra medical kit and placed it in his pack as well. He walked over to the hatch. Looking out at what lay before them, and then back at his crew mates. Well, at least no one was shot before we got off the ship this time. he thought.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Blackberry looked over to Nika, her face showing a bit of confusion.

"Say," she said over the constant low hum of electronics and environmental systems. "Were you not assigned to the infiltration team? I am positive I heard your name called."

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Takeyu pocketed the explosives, checked his weapons, and walked toward where Sune was, during that time he engaged active camo and double checked to see if he was on laser comm, which he was. Into the breach, he took in a deep breath, steeled his nerves and awaited the excitement, or challenges, that lay before them.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

NMX Shipyard –Computer Room

Hanako waited silent and mostly still outside the round, vault-like armored door that lead into the shipyard’s , careful not to bump into the various insect-like creatures occasionally skittering down the slimy corridor. Although the shipyard was not as disgusting as some of the other SMX-made structures she’d been on, it still had their distinctive organic feel through much of the complex. By contrast, the newer NMX sections seemed very clean, much like the pristine halls of Yamataian starships. Perhaps it was because they were all recently-built, or because the NMX was a much more humanlike enemy.

As she’d hoped, a pair of humanoid NMX information technology specialists came up to the door, carrying laptop and tool bags. She took note of the way the NMX soldiers dressed. Their uniforms were a dull yellow button with loose knee-length crimson skirts, Star-Army-style black pistol belts, and Star Army issue calf-length black boots. They were also obviously Nekovalkyrja, with the familiar ear shape and 4-fingered hands. NH-29 models, Hanako thought. They were likely born in the captured cloning facility at Nataria.

After one of the techs entered a code, a mechanical arm appeared from the side, latched on to the door’s center, and the armored door slowly rolled to the right in the manner of a massive gear. She stealthily followed them inside. Once the door closed, she raised her wrist-mounted stun cannon at them, and fired. They collapsed like ragdolls, landing in awkward positions. She stripped them of their weapons. Nekovalkyrja were slender; she stuffed both of them in a single storage locker, observing that their helplessness was somehow kind of sexy.

She took her helmet off and temporarily set it aside while she got to work on the large computer. With physical access like this, it wouldn’t be difficult to breach its security. She cut the power, then connected it again. The system began to boot. She told it to boot from a disk. When prompted, she slid one into a slot. The computer then continued to boot up, loading a modified Kessaku OS instead of the NMX one, followed by loading the shipyard’s computer in an emulator/interceptor module. She now had complete control. Down in the shipyard, construction resumed normally. Now she just needed a way to signal her team…

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Wes said:

Blackberry looked over to Nika, her face showing a bit of confusion.

"Say," she said over the constant low hum of electronics and environmental systems. "Were you not assigned to the infiltration team? I am positive I heard your name called."

Click to expand...

Nika made a double check on the list and her face went entirely red on realising her mistake.

"On my way!" The neko got off her seat and rushed toward the power armour bay where everyone in the list had gathered. There, she found the PA under her name.

"Sorry for being late Jalen-Heisho." Nika replied as she prepared herself to suit up.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune nodded to Nika, "Glad you could make the dance Himeya-Hei. Suit up quickly and grab your gear, we already divided the explosives so you will not have to carry any of them. Charisma knows the load out and extra weaponry. Active camouflage and laser comm only. Since Kumiko-Hei has provided us two paths through the facility, we will split into two groups. Nayacesen-Hei you are with me. Himeya, Kumiko and Miyazawa is the other group. Everyone who is ready outside with me. "

With that Sune activated the camouflage system, and stepped out through the force field. His mind flashed back to the last time he was in a Mindy in space back in the Elysia Novus, Here is hoping that this mission goes better than that one. he thought.

He let his momentum carry him away from the ship and then brought himself to a stop about 25 meters outside the door. From here he could observe the comings and goings of the shuttles.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Kumiko followed Sune out of the ship, stopping right beside him, taking note of the entrances that were receiving the most traffic. That could indicate a trend, areas they might want to avoid and the like. "Jalen-Heisho, should I take command of the second team?"

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

"Yes sir," he said as he pushed off the hull and drifted through space; it was an odd feeling, free-floating in space without the weight of your body keeping you down. He was used to free-spacing, as it was quite common amongst miners, though he also knew about the risks that came with it.

Normally; miners wore typical suits that provided only a small fraction of protection to the outside elements. It was one of the reasons why space mining, at least out on the rim, was considered a dangerous job with a life expectancy of only six months. You made it past that, you were considered lucky.

As he drifted to a stop near Sune; he looked around and studied their surrounding.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Above the away team was the hull of the damaged NMX warship. Its sheer size obscuring everything above them. Its mottled brown and orange hull illuminated by the sun that was the heart of the Sbuhfaba system. From this range it was apparent that the ship had been involved in a fairly massive exchange. Across the hull in the areas that were open to space small twinkling flashes of light could be seen. The lights in fact the cutting torches of the repair teams working to cut away damaged and bent structures. A piece of an Elysian Lilaea-class Gunship could be seen protruding from one of the damaged areas.

A stream of personnel shuttles and other small craft could be seen flying to and from the wounded ship. Moving with a regularity that gave the appearance of insects foraging and returning to their nest. In fact the craft were transporting workers and material between the hulk and the command complex of the shipyard. Following the path of the craft the away team could see the complex. Their objective lay beyond a collection of NMX Light Shipyards. Each of which looked like an arachnid preying upon an insect. Or in the case of those that were empty to pounce upon anything that got to close.

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Sune took note of the Elysian wreckage, I wonder if this was one of the ships that attacked Veritas, or for that matter the Eucharis at Elysia Novus. he thought. Turning his attention to the traffic above them, it was easy for him to determine which type of craft would take them to the central hub of the shipyard complex.

Beyond the complex Sune looked briefly at the star, after the experiences of his last three missions on the Eucharis he learned to start thinking of contingencies. If things go badly for the fleet. We need a backup plan. The sun is basically a massive fusion reactor. If it were to go nova it would lay waste to everything in the system. So is there a way to trigger the star to explode. The only weapon in our arsenal that might be capable would be the main array. Fired directly at the sun releasing all the potential energy, it would supercharge the sun. But would it be enough to make it explode, or would it take multiple hits. And what of the morale implications; destroying a star meant destroying the entire system with every living thing in, and eventually consequences for nearby star systems. Its my job to think of suggestions for the Taisa, fortunately its her job to decide whether or not to implement them. he thought. "Where is Hanako, is she okay?" he said to himself. "The most frustrating thing about this mission is the limitation of communications. We are limited to secure line of sight. So we have no way of contacting her. Or each other once we split up on the facility."

He queued up a message and sent it via laser to the team.

We need to move to a better intercept position, proceed to these coordinates. They will put us in position to hitch a ride on a shuttle. I will hold back here for a minute or two to inform the others. Jalen.

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Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Takeyu merely nodded and gave Sune a thumbs up, then made his way toward the given coordinates, all the while he kept his eye on anything that could potentially pose a threat - which pretty much meant everything in the area.

One of his eyes was on the warship, though the workers inside would almost entirely not notice them against the blackness of space, he was more worried about the possibliity of a shuttle deciding to take a more, roung-about course, to return to the shipyard, a course that would have it running right into them before they were even ready.

"Trust is key," he told himself as he came up to the coordinates.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Kumiko was still observing, thinking about the many, many ways this mission could go to hell, and the possibilities that were also there. When she got the message, she sent a simple affirmative response back, and made her way to the coordinates listed. I wonder if the station's main computers would have an uplink to any of the ship's systems? If so, I might be able to hack into them on the station, give us control. It could help us in the battle, even if the ships I could get aren't in top shape. She pondered as she went, using normal movement only, since there was no guarantee the Misshu couldn't detect the use of their teleportation units.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

From the new vantage point Kumiko and Takeyu could see into the cockpits of the craft flying beneath them. The craft appeared to be operated remotely. The logical conclusion rationale being that the workers were most likely slaves, and the NMX did not want to give them opportunity to escape.

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Sune seeing Nika and Konoka emerge from the Eucharis he sent them the same instructions. Without waiting for a reply, he activated his suit propulsion and moved to where the rest of the away team waited. Once he arrived he looked around.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

The Eucharis had its holographic camouflage active; they could not see the ship once they'd jumped away from it.

The shuttles seemed to be going back and forth from one of the H-shaped shipyard complexes that formed a curved line with the larger command station in the center of the concave side of the line. The ship they were now standing on was apparently being salvaged; they could see the shuttles were towing valuable systems back from the heavily-damaged hulk so that it could be recycled. The systems were heading to the shipyard, where they were being placed on newer ships to speed up the construction process.

If they wanted a ride to the nearby shipyard, they would be able to grab a shuttle or a salvaged system and ride it over. There did not seem to be any shuttles heading for the command module, though.

- - -

Hanako used the her Mindy's encryption with NMX shipyard computer's communciations systems to sent out a short encrypted message for the Eucharis' MEGAMI to notice. This message was relayed to the armor team via laser. She kept it very short in order to avoid notice.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

The PA's OS booted up smoothly...

"System checked... Armour ok... Weapons ok... Actuators working... camouflage ok... laser comms checked... "

Nika never liked the way how the PA hugged around her body, but it was designed to give its wearer maximum movement as if it was her own skin.

Once finalising her equipments, especially the explosives, the neko switched on her camouflage and followed the rest of the team, noting that Kumiko was her team leader.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune after observing the flight pattern realized that their objective was not reachable by one of the shuttles. So he adjusted the plan, then sent instructions to the team.

Spotting the next shuttle, Sune pointed toward it and gave the go hand gesture. Calculating his approach he pushed away from the hulk to intercept the shuttle.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Kumiko nodded, already having been calculating flight paths and intercept courses for the shuttles. She picked out a different shuttle from the one Sune chose, and pushed out for it. In theory, the less people per shuttle the less likely they would be detected, so...

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Takeyu watched the approuching shuttle that Sune had gone after, he made a few quick calculation and then launched himself toward it, he made a few refinements to his approuch. He wanted to make certain he latched onto the shuttle, and not slam into it and risk giving away their positions.

He checked his suits HUD, or Head's Up Display, and kept an eye on everything that floated nearby. Something nagged at the edge of his memories, something that he couldn't quite put into words yet, just that he felt that something was off about some of the debris that he had noticed floating around. With that in mind, he kept one eye on the debris and another on the shuttle.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

With the team leaders moving off to infiltrate the base via latching to passing shuttles, Nika followed Kumiko's lead, latching on as the shuttle flew right above her.

"This was a slight change of mode of transport..." The neko thought as the shuttle the team latched on made its way towards the shipyard.

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Hanging onto the shuttle as it flew towards it destination was relatively simple. The systems of the power armor made it an easy task. He glanced over his shoulder to check the status of the away team. They were riding two separate shuttles, but proceeding well. As the shuttle Sune was tagging along with closed upon the forward shipyard, Sune pushed away ever so slightly so as to keep clear of the shuttle but knock himself off course. Simple physics was now at work. Traveling at the speed of the shuttle all he had to do was let inertia take him forward.