RP [Origin] OIF Karakoram; re: Start!

Entertainment Deck

"It's the only one set up as an M5 for now," Nora let destiny know as she got in her pod and closed it up, before turning back to everyone else. "Today we're set up with standard frames and basic loads- 25mm rifle, extra ammo, a chain straight, and missile pods on the legs. that includes Oracle, though her mecha has a few extra bells and whistles being the M5. I've got the 75mm cannon instead of the 25 but other than that we're all the same. It's a basic drill to get everyone ready, got it?" Nora explained, not sure how to respond exactly to Zeke's little compliment when it was time to get down to business- normally she would have joked with the man but the small freespacer wanted to get the simulation done before they arrived at their next destination.

"Everyone, hop in, begin startup procedures, and get ready to fight, I'll be starting the sim as soon as everyone gives me the okay, okay!" and with nothing much ado, the tiny redhead hopped into one of the pods herself, and began to buckle in, the pod closing over her and everything starting up, she went through all the normal start up sequences for a Gekido.

Entertainment Deck

Monica divided her attention between giving the simulation pods a once over and listening to the radioactive redhead explain whatever menial thing they'd be doing, there was almost a look of muted enthusiasm on the ravenette's face up until the moment she was told they'd be using guns - Mo didn't have anything against them so to speak but she would much rather spin a jaw with her fists that stand back and pull a trigger, but whatever, she was probably a better shot than half the people here.

The Minkan rolled her blue eyes and gave a dismissive shake of her head before she climbed into her own pod, wiggling left to right a little to try and get comfortable in the seat before Mo shut the pod and began pouring over the insides - she still remembered how it all worked after Kelly showed her and after a little bit of prodding she managed to fire up the whole thing, hearing components hum to life though it seemed there was nothing more she could do until Nora decided they were ready.

"...the seat's kinda comfy..." Monica mused a little relaxedly under her breath, having no reason to believe anybody would hear her words.

Entertainment Deck

Destiny nodded a little as she heard the explanation and shut her pod. It was a simple matter for her to start up the simulator and get it running as she had spent so much time before even coming to the ship running in the pods. Everything felt familiar and easy as she flipped the few switches, hit a button or two and settled herself down into her seat. She let out a relaxed sigh as she heard the pod hum to life before she began a quick check of the systems to make sure everything was in place but otherwise waited for everything else to start. Should her pod open the simulator early, she would fly around and get used to some of the controls again, almost to help knock off the rust.

"Now this feels good again." She said with a small grin into the nothingness of the simulator, unaware if anyone could hear here just yet or not. She didn't care much even if they could, this is where she could shine for real.

Entertainment Deck

Charles slipped into the pod he was next to, sitting down in the seat and allowing the standard style frame control harness to slip into place. The chest restraint lowered and locked into place as the small young man went through pre-flight checks. Of course, since the Frame was simulated, the test passed without a hitch.

Charles began to run through a pre-flight checklist, based on the manuals he had read. He knew there were automated systems running the checks already, but it would have felt strange to not run them himself.

"Pneumatics, check. Power systems, check. Targeting computer, check. Sensors and Computers, check." He pressed a button, lowering the rest of the upper body harness into place. "Limb control systems, check." He said, as he slid his hands through the sleeves of the harness and checked the buttons and triggers of the yokes. Next were the pedals. All the thruster nozzles responded properly "Propulsion, check.". He activated the shields, discharged them once and then allowed them to recharge to test the automatic recharging. "Shields, check."

Charles was looking around the simulator cockpit for a moment and then realized that not only had he been speaking out loud out of habit, but also that the internal radio was on. "I guess Comms check out, huh?" He remarked sheepishly.

Entertainment Deck

A short Sharlett skipped to in front of her mech that had been assigned to her. She seemed to have more pep in her step than when the group last seen her. A certain glow circling her being.

After a short minute she smiled up at the armor and began to get into her POD. She had expected it to be a tight fit but this just seemed a little much. She did her best to wiggle down into the POD. Her thick hips making it a little more of a challenge as she pushed her butt down and into the seat. The POD sealed around her and the dim lit turned into a flash of lights. The console came to life as she started to do a check.

After a few minutes she finally found the button for the comms. "Lets do this team, lets show what we are made of." She had a slight squeal in her voice. She might of also caused her bot to bump up against Mo's in all the excitement.

Entertainment Deck

Once fired up, Monica's virtual mech almost immediately began displaying the mannerisms of its pilot - having shifted more weight to one hip as it stood there with metal arms crossed over each other, despite having no facial features capable of displaying emotions you could feel the behemoth's sass as the Minkan inside heard her teammates all do their thing.

Wanting to pipe up, Mo keyed herself into the voice channel and was about to sneer at them when Shar's mech decided to bump hips with her, causing the ravenette's own titan to grab the shoulders of the Daur's armoured hulk to stabilize it before deciding to transition into a half-friendly shove away from her own mech.

"Bloody watch yourself there, foxy," Mo shot back before she went back to just waiting around for things to kick off, maybe testing a few of her mech's joints but otherwise just standing around.

Zeke gave a light hearted grin as he lowered into the pod, with an ease that made it clear he done this before. Hours spent in a cockpit had become an all too familiar part of the man's life. Granted Nepleslian mechanised units didn't compare to the more advanced Origin units. His Oban had already allowed him to become very familiar with cockpits of such units. A lot of the controls and toggles were in about the same place, if not improved.

The spikey haired blonde let his hands run through the motions of booting up each system manually. Lights began to light up as system began to come alive. The monitors lit up, opening a digital window to the simulated world outside. He lwered the harness and restraints, securing the before slipping his arms into the movement control assist sleeves. Linking his eyes into the targeting assist system, Zeke watched as the targeting reticule tracked, following where his eyes focused on.

"All ligts green across the board. Rykiel ready for deployment.", He said as he idly flexed mechanised hand and tested joints, before standing ready as he looked to his comrades.

Jennifer mostly rolled her eyes at the folks getting into their simulator pods all eager and shit. She wasn't in any rush herself, though she didn't take forever. Slipping into it, she queued up the boot-up sequence, watching the gauges fill with an eye that was more in tune with what each of them actually meant. Once everything came up green across the board, she launched up the simulation link-up, syncing her to the now running program. The only issue that Jennifer honestly had with this current simulation was that she wasn't using her specifically modified version of the mecha she was piloting, which was more geared towards support and repair work than purely front-line combat like the default.

"Jennifer here, systems online, tac-net synced. All set to start working."

"OOOOOOOKAYYYY!" Nora's excited voice came over the comms once everyone had started up their pods and reported in. "No fighting amongst ourselves, you two," she chided at Mo and Shar, her Gekido wagging a disapproving index finger as it leaned forward with the other hand on the mecha's waist, showing a bit of sass as well. "we'll be getting onto the actual simulation in just a few moments, but first, some ground rules. You're all flying bone stock units, everyone has an M3 except for Oracle who has an M5, your only weapons will be the assault rifle, SMG, Mini-missiles, and a chain straight, unless you opt to swap the rifle for the shotgun like me. Ammo will be reloaded after you've cleared each round, but that doesn't mean you should waste it. Also! we will be in space so there is nowhere to hide. Soooo, good luck and try not to die! you only get one life in this sim and damage to your mech will carry to the next round, so you're really screwing over everyone if you aren't careful."

After Nora had finished her announcement, the greyed out virtual world around them began to dissolve, turning everything around instead into space, starting above them, it trickled down the sides almost as if a sphere was dismantling itself, and soon even the solid invisible 'floor' beneath their simulated mecha was no more, their units gently resting in the void as it materialized, giving them a beautiful view for the moment as they were given a few moments to decide between the rifle and the shotgun.

"Just so you all know, the first wave is on the way, you've got about 30 seconds to decide on things."

Charles switched on his sensors in active mode, so as to have better reach and accuracy. Then he waited a second or two before speaking again, his voice seemed like it wasn't coming from the young man that Mo had been teasing before, such was the difference in tone. "Alright everyone, first thing's first. Could you please switch your sensors on, put them in active mode, and share them so that we can see as far as possible. When anyone first sees the enemy, they need to tell everyone else so that we can all switch to passive sensors. That'll make us harder to spot."

He continued; "When the enemy arrives, we need to stick together. There's no cover in space, so everyone will have to watch everyone else's backs. If we're forced to split up, pairs would be best, so try to find someone to stick with. "

Charles no longer sounded like the meek and apologetic young man from earlier but like a veteran, though his tone was not unkind or rough, just more confident. His instructions and attitude were informed by his experience in space combat in fighters, and Charles figured that many of the tactics there were applicable in this situation as well. Now that he knew he had at least given the less experienced pilots some instructions to go off of, maybe he could relax and even enjoy himself during this simulation.

Sharlett was too excited to try and make any plans. She was going to rush in full force and show everyone just how powerful she was. At least this was what he kept repeating to herself. In truth she was pretty scared and worried that she would mess up royally.

"I got your back Mo. Thanks for the assist."

Mo was testing the heft of the shotgun as Charles said his bit, grumbling internally at the fact there was a clear lack of opportunity to get punching without getting a bit creative first but the Minkan had an idea - that idea was kept to herself though, much like the fact she kinda liked that the twink was speaking with some spine for once, not that she'd tell him.

"Sure, whatever," the Minkan responded simply to both the instructional blonde and the touchy-feely Daur as she set her sensors accordingly, planning to get up close and personal once everything fell into place.

"Just don't get in the way and don't complain when you get in the way, m'kay?" she asked everyone or rather warned everyone in a faintly pissed-off voice, for as long as Mo could remember it was her versus everyone else - and she certainly trusted herself more than she could trust anyone else.

Destiny was off to the side of the group as she looked over her weapons once or twice to double check them and make sure her loadout was all there. Granted this wasn't the kit she had requested, but she understood the necessity of everyone at least getting on the same page. The younger man made some good points about the strategy they were to incorporate, and set her sensors to their maximum range, but was ready to switch them back to passive when needed.

All the while she could faintly sense the blood lust and worry coming off the others, those around her in the pods just faintly. It wasn't tough with the two overeager girls that were in the group but she worried that when it came time to actually fight, they would be a liability. She would protect as many as she could, but could make no promises if they haphazardly went and charged out into the fray with little support around them.

Jennifer didn't follow Charles's instructions. Not because she didn't think them wrong. They were sensible ones. No, for her, she was adjusting her sensor readings to better track system status of her fellow mechs.

That was her role after all. Yes, she could fight and engage hostile forces when needed, but Jennifer's primary role was to monitor the situation and keep the pilots alive, and if possible recover their mechs. Plus, her normal loadout was more akin to what you would expect a construction or repair vehicle to have. She knew that some repairs were always needed in the field after combat. She'd be able to handle any that were minor to severe but not mission critical. IF it hit major systems though, well, she'd just 'tow' them to the ship as best she could.

"Jennifer here, tracking system and pilot status reads from each of you now. May not be my Scrapyard, but I can still provide support." She spoke simply over the comms, while now checking over her equipment. There was no actual cover since they weren't in any field of debris or of asteroids, nor were they near a celestial body to use as 'cover' in some fashion, so it was a matter of waiting and seeing.

Zeke got serious as well, taking the advice of the younger man to heart. He was accustomed to mostly planet side sorties, but he had some experience in space. His sensors were set to active and he moved closer Charles, "Looks like I'm wingman this time, though.....I don't think the others are quite doing the same. You want to split up to pair with one of the others? We can be effective if it's us, but I don't know how well they'll last on their own." He said this over a direct line, not wanting to offend the girls. "Also, may I suggest linking our targeting system for better long distance accuracy?"

Nora grinned. Not only was she with the group, but she was also in charge of everything. Now, that didn't necessarily give her an unfair advantage, all she had done was pre-program some of the routines but then scrambled the rest of it, and given herself control over initial timing. Once she had set each wave in motion, the actions of the AI were beyond her control. Still, it did mean that she was slightly more prepared than everyone else. A button was pressed, and an unseen time began, Nora bringing her frame's shotgun at the ready, before finally announcing to the crew "Alllllllrighty! Get redy guys! First wave will be coming in shortly!"

And she meant it. somewhere in the middle of their sensor range, one, no two, make that four, actually, wait, eight, nevermind, ten enemy units showed up. They were much too far for either side to shoot just yet, but they were close enough that it would only be less than a handful of seconds before they came in range. Sensors pinged eight Oban units and two Ashigaru units, and they split up into teams of five, the Obans forming up in front of the Ashigaru units to act sort of like a meat shield but also to allow all five to be able to fire on their targets at once.

after splitting, the two groups moved concentrically away from one another, dividing everyone's attention while they also began to close in on the merry band of M3's and one M5, beginning to fire as soon as they were within range. Telemetry and sensor data showed they were using the old Hyper rifles, peppering the group with long range fire that was largely ineffective for the moment.

"Incoming!" Destiny called out over the comms as she lifted her rifle and returned fire, taking pot shots at the advancing enemy team to the left as she moved closer to where the larger group of her teammates were. She was fairly comfortable with her suit and her weapons, having spent a good deal of time in the simulators before, but otherwise, she kept things fairly simple until they closed in. She had more weapons then just the rifle, built in weaponry in the M5 Knight's suit, but for now, she would wait with her group and work to whittle down the enemy in numbers, hoping they had the superiority in weaponry against the advancing enemies.

The mention of enemies finally approaching caused Mo to pivot around to face them just in time to see the armoured foes split off into two groups, with the Lorath already beginning to fire upon one grouping - she wanted to do nothing more but get in there to rip and tear but Monica was also smart enough to know that charging the enemies by herself would only end up embarrassing her, like hell the Minkan was going to be the first pilot to fall.

Using whatever the pump action gauss cannon was loaded with she began firing, a quick but controlled volley at the group as the two UV nodes on her head punctuated the kinetic damage with invisible, energised bursts - she grouped up at the front of the others and put that prior sim training to use, but Mo was a brawler first and foremost so she was just waiting for them to get that little bit closer...

Charles' first instinct was to offer detailed advice but he knew better than to do that now. "Move in closer everyone, support those with close range weapons!" was all he said, as his sensors were switched back into passive mode so as to deny the enemy intelligence, even though the AI of a simulation might not follow the same rules as a normal opponent might.

He moved away from the main formation slightly as he circled clockwise in a corkscrew around an enemy formation of two for a brief moment, his maneuvers smooth like those of one not quite accustomed to the ability to maneuver quite the way that armored frames could, as he peppered them with UV laser fire to weaken their shields, followed by a spread of 10 shots from his 25mm gauss cannon to restrict their movements.

For his last attack on the enemy formation, he followed up with three space missiles; which he hoped that the others would remember that they had available. He then moved back to the formation, into its center, putting himself in position to assist anyone who might need it. The whole maneuver had taken all of 3 or 4 seconds. His controls were slightly off. He was still not quite accustomed to controlling a frame.

Most of the time Sharlett was a level headed person. Able to think clearly and act in her best interest. Today however was not going to be this type of day. For whatever reason as the enemy came in closer she was gripped by panic. It however was not a run away panic, but more a blindly fire towards the enemy and hope for the best.

Her gauss cannons thundered away as she moved to a place of cover. Since this was in open space this meant moving behind Charles. As she did this motion it caused her bot to become unstable. Her mind became clear as she remembered reading in the manual to time shots such as to not off balance the bot as it was flying around. This thinking was a little to late to avoid the next mishap. As she worked to steady the bot her trigger finger slipped. A round ripped out of the barrel and split right between the legs of Charles bot.