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

[Kyle]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Releasing his hand-hold on the shuttle; he allowed momentum to carry him forward. As this was happening, he watched the debris in the distance. "Maybe I was wrong," he told himself as the debris seemed to now appear to be moving at the speed as most of the debris in the area.

Originally, he had assumed that there was a weapon's emplacement hidden behind one of the larger chunks - a deadly surprise for anyone foolish enough to get to close.

Now, however, as he saw some of the pieces rotate into view - he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, of course, he was only looking at the pieces he 'could' see, not those that he either couldn't or were shadowed by the warship.

 

[Aendri]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Kumiko too let go, allowing her momentum to carry her. Looks like everything is working so far. She glanced around, checking on the other members of the away squad. So far, everyone is keeping up, good. Looking ahead, she realized a slight glitch in their plan. While this idea would get them there without much power usage, they still had to stop. Preferably not by body slamming the station, since that would probably create a rather obvious sound.

 

[Nashoba]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

So far things are going according to plan. But then getting to the complex was always the easy part. Once inside there were a thousand things that could go wrong. And yet it is up to me to try to anticipate them, and when that fails try to develop a contingency. he thought. All too quickly the AIES notified Sune about his proximity to the target ship yard. There was plenty of activity in the shipyard more than enough to mask the EM signature of the Mindy's propulsion. He could also see the airlock that the space suited workers used to exit the command complex and enter the work area. He sent a message to the team via the laser comm.

Do not use your power armor propulsion until you are inside the work area. The shipyard's operating equipment will mask any emissions from the suits. Worker airlock is on the far side. Slip in singly with the workers, let them cycle the airlock. We will regroup on the inside. Jalen.

As he entered the periphery of the shipyard he instructed the AIES to decrease his rate of closure slowly so that when he approached the airlock he could soft contact on the side of the platform to wait for a group of workers to enter.

It was a tense ninety-seconds as he glided through the shipyard, his HUD providing a countdown and distance to go indication. As he got close to the airlock he adjusted his trajectory to avoid hitting an outbound worker. He held his hands out to stop himself once he arrived. He floated there a few seconds as the first group of four workers entered the large airlock. There was in his opinion enough space left for him to slip in. So he entered being sure to not bump or nudge any of them while they secured their work tools in the lockers and the airlock cycled closed.

Sune remained stationary, and for a moment inadvertently held his breath while the workers changed out of the space suits and opened the inner door. After they left Sune cautiously made his way to the inner door way in peered in to ensure the passage was safe to enter.

 

[Wes]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

The first thing Sune noticed was the fog. The station's interior was filled with it and dripping with slimy mucus and crawling with Mishhuvurthyar insects. A skeleton, frozen in a silent scream, was stuck to the ceiling above the door. Ahead, the walls looked like wart-ridden elephant skin under a thick layer of snot, while the floors were sporadically covered with barnacle-like objects on either side of a wide walkway barely visible through the mist. Rumbles, groaning metal, and muffled screams could be heard from further inside the station.

The workers proceeded deeper into this hellish place without pause, vanishing through a sphincter-like portal on the passageway's wall, leaving Sune all alone.

 

[Kyle]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

The counter on Takyu's HUD started ticking down as he got closer to the shipyard's hull. He kept his eyes on it, now more concerned with getting onto the station than what was really around him.

His momentum slowed and soon he touched the hull with not a sound. He waited patiently as a group of workers entered the airlock. Carefully, he headed inside and onto the far-end, and waited patiently, he made certain not to do anything that could tip them off. His unusual calm self, however, was replaced with a slight hint of nervousness and fear.

When the airlock cycled; he waited until the workers left, then let out a sigh of relief that was stealthed by his helmet, after a few seconds he carefully exited the airlock - and went to regroup with Sune.

 

[Aendri]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Kumiko followed, slipping in after the group following Takeyu. She controlled her motions very tightly, making sure to move steadily rather then in spurts, since spurts of movement draw attention. Once they were inside, Kumiko paused, checking the surroundings against her map for accuracy. That done, she beamed a quick message to the others.

For the sake of simplicity, I'm declaring the top of my map 'North'. Other directions are natural, up down according to gravity. I would suggest that my team take the 'south' route, Jalen-Heisho's the 'north', so if they meet up with Hanako-Taisa they'll still be a reasonably small group.

 

[Nashoba]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune kept himself to the far side of the airlock during the entry of the two other groups of workers. He sent a message to the members of the team regarding the complication.

We will not be able to use stealth systems once we step into the inner area. The corridor is covered in slime, and the passageway is filled with a fog like mist. We will have to resort to another method. I am going to step into the hallway and deactivate my stealth. Going to use intimidation on the group that comes in with Himeya.

That sent he turned off his stealth and stepped into the hallway. He did his best to assume a threatening stance. He turned and faced the airlock to await the next group.

 

[howlam]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Nika’s eyes were everywhere as the shuttle she was clinging on approached the station. This was the first time she was out of the ship, or rather, her first outfield operation, thus feeling very cautious on any sudden blips on her PA’s radar (which was kept at the minimum power to avoid detection).

On seeing Kumiko letting go, the neko followed suit but stopped short at the unnatural sight when she entered the shipyard.

“Ok… this is something right out of a horror movie…” Nika looked up at the skeleton above the team as she continued to follow her leader, taking notice on the message sent by the latter.
With that, the neko nodded to her Nitô Hei leader, and await for further directions.

 

[Nashoba]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune considered all the stories he had heard about the Mishhu to formulate a contingency plan. There was no reason to believe that other parts of the station would be more hygienic than this area. He figured that their interpersonal skills would be just as foul.

He coded a laser message for the team.

Okay, We will for now proceed to our designated target areas without using stealth. The Mishhu have stolen enough equipment from the SAoY and can use it. So if you encounter anyone resort to intimidation, threats, and if necessary knocking them around. Someone asks you what your doing, say you are part of security drill, and that they should move along. Good Luck.

 

[Kyle]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Takeyu stepped into the corridor, and took a look around. He had only heard rumors of the Mishu and how their stations looked from pirate gangs that passed through stations two years before, but he never thought they were true.

"How grotesque..." said Takeyu as he looked at his surroudings, he had to wonder what the place would've smelled like if it wasn't for the PA armor, then again, he didn't want to find out.

When he found the Heisho; he cleared his mind with a deep breath, before giving his team leader a mere nod of his head and brought his weapon up into a guard-like position, in short, the barrel was facing toward the ground while the stock was up toward his face.

 

[Wes]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Deeper into the station, they could briefly make out the silhouette of a large Mishhuvurthyar pass through the fog, followed by two humanoid workers pushing rolling carts. The screams continued to sporadically erupt from the same direction. They would have to pass by the area to get deeper into the station.

Worse still, some of the various tiny insectoids on the floor seemed to stop and take notice of the armored intruders, as if contemplating what to do with them.

- - -

By now Hanako had returned to the Eucharis. After a stop in the decontamination room, Hanako stripped out of her power armor and jumped into an exercise uniform before heading up to the bridge, resolving to find time for a shower once the mission was complete. Sitting down at the Mission Operations station, she pulled up a visual of the airlock where the team had recently entered the central complex. No way to talk to them now without being noticed, she observed. The thought that this was all an elaborate death trap crossed her mind.

 

[Nashoba]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune decided that for the moment he would move forward, and periodically check on what the little bugs were doing. The point at which the two teams would have to split up was beyond the passage that he saw the shadowy figures go down. What is going on down there? Who or what is screaming, and why? Could there be prisoners on the station? If there are, what do we do? Hanako said she was on one of the shipyards. She found a way to communicate with us briefly, but we can not send any message to her.

Striding forward down the corridor he approached the intersection. He turned his head towards the direction of the sound, and peered down the hallway, cycling through his armors various imaging systems.

 

[Kyle]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Takeyu felt the rush in his body, through his veins, he was generally enjoying the sensation and the thrill. Of course, he was hoping for something else but knew better than to say it aloud - leastwise it come true. Basic training never prepares you for the real thing, he thought and glanced about the corridor before turning his attention back to the matter at hand.

He kept one eye on his team-leader, while keeping the other on his general surroundings, he kept his weapon low in an effort to try and not appear threatening, yet up enough to where if the need arrised he could bring it up quickly and cover Sune.

 

[Aendri]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Kumiko didn't respond to the message, deciding that 'radio silence' was more important then acknowledging the message. She moved up with the group, keeping her weapon at hand, but not carrying it, as that might give away that they weren't supposed to be there. Hopefully those damn bugs are just surprised to see us, and they don't realize we're enemy.

 

[Wes]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Down the side hall, the walkway led down into a large pit area which appeared to be some sort of industrial factory, lit mostly with dim red lights but also with white spotlights pointing at major pieces of equipment. Its tile floor was covered in drains, caked blood, and moving liquid.

The equipment was composed of various conveyor belts, tables, handheld saws and butcher blades, and large machines pumping out globs of meat that were being turned into sausage. Along one wall a number of naked prisoners hung upside down from the ceiling with their legs and arms in metal cuffs.

The large Mishhuvurthyar was “seated” on a platform overlooking the pit, watching over a number of Nekovalkyrja workers in blood-soaked coveralls go about their grisly work.

As each set of ten (often screaming) prisoners were wheeled in hanging on the conveyor belt, the workers would slit their throats, allowing the blood to spill over the floor. As they died, their heads were dipped into a slicing machine, severed, and the digestive tract was tied at both ends. Next, the skin was removed and the internal organs were removed and placed in sorting bins. There were piles of hearts, livers, intestines…every so often the bins would be sent off somewhere and new ones would replace them. The red carcasses were then steam-blasted, injected with a thousand needles of salt water, and then violently jerked as they were shocked with electricity. Finally, their hands and feet were severed and they were dropped into a large processor unit that tore the meat from the bones and spat that meat out into the sausage grinder. Spices and peppers slid into the grinder as it worked, and from the grinder emerged an unending tube of meat that was sliced into sausage patties. These patties went onto a metal conveyor belt slowly passing though the pit on the opposite side of the room from the screamers, heading for the oven.

Sune estimated that the kill rate was probably about one person every 2 or three 3 seconds.

As the tiny bugs continued to accumulate around the armor team, the Mishhuvurthyar’s eyes looked into the doorway and directly at Sune’s face.

A Zesuaium armored blast shutter slammed down in front of him.

 

[Nashoba]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune could not believe what he saw, in fact it took him a moment to realize that the blast door had closed in front of him. People.... they are butchering... while they are still alive.... his mind whirled for a moment. Once he cleared his mind, he turned back to the others. and sent a message to them.

We have a situation people. The Mishhu are processing prisoners in a butchering facility. Needless to say this does not sit well with me, as I see it we have the following choices:
a) We can proceed on our mission, and leave the prisoners to a grizzly fate.
b) We can abandon our mission and rescue the prisoners.
c) We can split into two teams, the first team continues on with setting the demolitions charges, while the other team attempts to affect a rescue of the prisoners.

Thoughts?

 

[Kyle]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Takeyu pondered what the Heisho had said, prisoners being processed like meat? the thought gave him shivers.

He thought about the three choices carefully. Abandoning them would feel like failing, but abandoning our mission would result in the fleet having a much harder time dealing with this station. Not to mention, it could very well send a bad mesage if we just left these poor souls to their fate, and that doesn't sit to well with me.

Glancing up at the wall; and thinking a bit more on it, he closed his eyes and then sent off his message to Sune.

While I think these prisoners might welcome a reprieve from their current fate, it would not sit to well with me to just let them die in such a gressly way. If possible, we could try and rescue as many of these prisoners while also setting the explosives, but setting those explosives should remain our objective.

Though, if it was just possible to isolate this section from the rest of the station it would make the job of rescuing and getting them out of here a lot easier...

 

[Nashoba]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Sune was keeping a mental count of how many more prisoners had been processed. The mission remains the same, but we also have a moral obligation to save our citizens. he thought.

He broke the situation down into a puzzle, so he could better grasp the issues. We need transportation, a shuttle or the Eucharis herself. We need a way to notify the ship of that requirement. We have to disable the station, and free as many of the prisoners as possible. He would have to figure out how to send a message to the Eucharis, that would not compromise its safety. Two more have died, damn it.

Listen up, on my authority I'm changing our orders.
Kumiko-Hei take Himeya-Hei with you, you are Bravo team. Get as far from here as you can in 60 seconds. At your discretion you have two options, if you can find away to the power generating center, get in and disable it, blow out the distribution network if you have to. If you can not find a way to the engineering levels, then proceed post haste and set your charges are the two most vital junctions. Do not attempt to return to this location. Once you have completed your objectives, get yourselves out of here and back to the Eucharis.

Nayacesen-Hei, you are with me. You will set the two satchel charges that we have in the these two passages that lead away from here. While I do not expect them to severe this section, the resulting explosion should cause enough damage to cause the blast shutters in those corridors to seal. Those explosions will also hopefully provide confusion to better enable Bravo team to move to either of their objectives. 

Once we set off the charges, we need to either cut through this door or find some way to open it. When we get in we take out all the Squids. We will free what prisoners we can and get them back to the airlock. Hopefully we will have a ride waiting, otherwise we space walk out of here.

He programmed his AIES to transmit a short message.

Kari, tell Hana we ran into some friends.
Want to take them on Liberty, can not wait for her to see a new group named Side Band. 
Tell Hana we will need a ride for our friends.
JaSu

Attached to the message on a sub-band he included a clip of the video of the processing area. Once he had the message composed, he instructed the AIES to compress it into a one second pulse.

After they set off the charges to seal the corridor, he would have the AIES transmit it three times at fifteen second intervals.

 

[Kyle]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

Takeyu nodded and sent off his own message.

Roger that Heisho

He shouldered his weapon and removed the two satchels he had in his bag. Glancing about the corridor, the one thought that came to him was: Now.. where the heck do I plant these things? I can't even make sense of this passage way nor figure out if there are any stress points. I guess I'll have to make an educated guess basing it off where the shutter near Sune is... he sighed mentally.

His brain raced with a few possibilities; the insects that he had noticed while they were going through the corridor might know what he was about to do, so he had to figure out a way to hide the explosives in such a way that those insects might not get to suspicious about, but how?

It was then that he figured it out; or rather, that he saw it. He realized that if he acted like he was inspecting something, he could slip the explosives under all the slime and mucous and then make it appear to be apart of the general enviroment, he hoped that this was enough to trick any of the insects that he had seen before and perhaps hide the explosives just long enough for them to detonate. Though he would also tag each location on his HUD, just in case the remote detonation signal didn't work.

He made certain to hide the primer under one of his palms, hidden behind two fingers, the first satchel that he had he hid close to his chest. He would keep an eye on the insects and wait until he figured they weren't paying much attention, or were paying more attention to Bravo.

Hope this works... he thought and started getting to work, he glanced about and started acting like he was merely curious about the mucous, where in reality he was disguising the satchel charge and putting it in place.

 

[Wes]

Re: [Mission 9.1] Tip Of The Spear

As Takeyu bent down to place the charge, the corridor flashed light lighting and a loud CRACK filled the air as a pink-white aether bolt slammed into his armor's backpack area. Looking down the hall he could see a squad of Ripper power armors firing their forearm cannons as they closed in. His armor told him it was at 50% and smoking. He needed to get to cover, but there wasn't much around.