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RP: The Wayward Out at Sea (Ep.5)

Syaoran

Retired Staff
Sea of Clouds
Two days time from the installation of the first beacon.

It had been two days of travel, in an unknown direction, with almost nothing but the occasional asteroid and dense nebula gasses to keep them company. Travel through the Sea of Clouds was awkward, there was no indication of your heading without star charts, they could only rely on their orientation to the beacon.

Right now, the Anbruch had come to an unexpected stop, and the entire crew was present on the bridge. Infront of them was the display screen that showed the expanse in front of them and it looked relatively normal, not densely populated with gasses like this Cloud Sea usually looked.

Gabi spoke first, unexpectedly this time. "The sensors do show that the particle density is much lower, we would be able to engage FTL drives in this area."

Tanja smiled at that and drummed her fingers a moment. "Okay, that's good. We're going to drop another beacon here and the
enter FTL and see how far we can go. Stefan, Ana, you two head to the hangar and prepare the beacon."

"We have activity roughly 20 kilometers out." Spoke Gabi once more as they typed at the console.

"What kind?"

"Possible Cloud Bugs, but there seems to be a large mass there, it is not an asteroid though."

"Okay, everyone, head to the ships and frames, I want you all to be ready. This time we're going to drop the beacon directly from the ship, but we still might come under fire."
 
Bridge

Ana watched as they came into a new part of the Cloud. She was rather glad that she wasn't the only one to have never seen this phenomenon before. Of course, no matter how long she had been with Tanja and the crew, any space travel was still relatively uncharted territory for her personally.

As Tanja gave the orders for her and Stefan to get the next probe ready, she nodded and headed out. Even with their study of the Cloud Bugs, she was still rather curious about them...but she wouldn't let her curiosity get to her. At least she hoped not. Glancing at Stefan, she was rather surprised by how quickly she was becoming more and more comfortable around him. He knew that she was not as fragile as she sometimes appeared and he did his best to make her push more and more out of herself. Just like Tanja and Quinn.

Cargo Bay

Ana worked with Stefan, readying the probe under his tutelage as they got it ready to push out. She had her suit ready nearby for whenever they had to move the probe out of the ship itself. "These are not all that light, are they?"
 
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Bridge

Two days with nothing to do. Under normal circumstances, Adiel would have gone mad.

Glancing over at Brigid with a knowing little smile, Adiel came to the conclusion that perhaps the last two days hadn't been so bad after all. The doctor was quite... talented.

Turning on his heel, he swaggered towards the hangar. He felt a fire ignite in his blood. Their time shared together had been splendid, but the Elysian had still itched for the chance to take to the void once more. And now, it seemed that there were new challengers to destroy.
 
Nan sat beside his usual computer terminal, the only real difference was the holographic visor acros his eyes and he wasn't typing. His eyes moved around the small screen and the computer registered his thoughts. He was checking the Firewalls as he was apt to do when they stopped for for any sort of action.

A weak system is a hacked system as his mentor used to always say. He also shored up people's browsing history. He didn't spend any time looking at their activity he just cared that there were no active cookies or malware. He wasn't a total Big Brother after all.

Gabi had been the biggest shock to Nan coming back to the Anbruch. Geb and he were close but he also felt that him and Gabi could get there too, after all Gender was such an outdated thing to care about. He took Gabi's confirmation of the activity and decided to check for any computerized signals being emitted. He wasn't the communication expert or anything but as they say, you can't stop the signal Mal.

He raised his hand and absentmindedly said, "Dibs on a mecha ya'll" Though he didn't move from the chair for a few.
 
Bridge

Quinn internally rolled his eyes at Adiel's smirk and swagger. He hadn't been the only one spending some quality time with good company but at least Quinn could be professional when the time called for it. In Quinn's humble opinion the bird brain was still likely to get them all killed more so than Nan's antics, or anything any of their previous companions had ever done, and Quinn included himself in that one. Firing point blank at an enormous extraterrestrial bear was kinda suicidal in hindsight.

Either way he let the Elysian go without a word, turning his attention to Nan and giving his own grin when Nan spoke up about wanting one of the mech's. "I think you can manage that better than I can. I'll take one of the spare fighters, probably more maneuverable anyway." He stretched a little and gave Tanja a nod before heading out and down towards the Cargo Bay. He'd sort of unofficially turned primary medic duties over to Brigid more or less by not moving his butt back into the med bay, so he figured he'd learn how to fly on the go and give himself more useful skills, even if they were self taught.
 
Bridge

As Nana worked over the console and filtered out the noise of the Sea of Clouds, he came across several signals going across the electromagnetic spectrum. Their source was the mass that slowly closed in on them. However, there were at least a dozen different signals fired off back and forward. It was easy to tell there was some kind of communication and it was between multiple parties, but deciphering it would be another story.

"I see you working those fingers Nan, can you tell us anything?" Tanja work as she watched the screen in front of her.

Cargo Bay

Stefan made his way into the cargo bay soon after Ana, he was already in an EV suit, but he did not have the helmet on. He gave Ana a smile when he saw that she was ready to work. They got the probe set up software wise without any trouble.

"It's ready on the inside now, but we can't leave it like this, we'll have to attach that." He turned and pointed to what looked like several rockets, and the pieces of a frame work. "That is the stabilizer system. It's mostly just mounts and thrusters, but with out it, the beacon won't stay in place. With two hands we should get it done quickly."

Stefan did not waste any time and made his way over and picked up some of the piping for the frame work, it looked like they would build a lattice structure around the beacon. The thrusters would then be installed on tracks so they could move around. If Ana had been brushing up on her energy converter knowledge, she'd recognize the thrusters have radiation recycling systems so they can be powered by the ambient energy in space.

"Hard part comes when we need to get it out though."

Hangar

In the hangar the ships that were powered on greeted the pilots with the same run down of operations, in Trade, or the Abwehran tongue if the pilot chose. The modern flight controls were easy to understand and the pre flight check started on its own.

Gabi's voice came over the intercoms for each ship, they were soft spoken but their voice cut through the sounds of the hangar. "The Ion Disruptors would be the best bet here if we encounter more Cloud Bugs."

Again they were direct and to the point, but at least they opened the door when the pilots were ready.
 
Cargo Bay

Ana nodded towards Stefan, "I did look up some schematics on things like this. But even the diagram was a bit...sketchy for me. Just let me know if I mess up something." She worked with him, sometimes in tangent because her smaller hands could get into the lattice work easier than his bigger hands. Plus, some of it was a bit too heavy for her.

When they finished, she chewed on her lip as she studied it. "Hmm...yeah...this will be a bit awkward. But I think Nan may help." She looked down as TB crawled up to it and put one of his "hands" on it as well. Chuckling softly, she added, "And TB."
 
"So yeah, that mass which is actually a bunch of things, is coming towards us, slow though. It is using electromagnetic signals to communicate with each other," Nan said as he continued to look through the stream, connecting his system to theirs. "Cap, I'm gonna try out a new toy to get some info. Just take care of this sweet bod for me kay?"

As if the last part was either a question or statement was not clear. It was, however, noticeable that Nan's body went a little limp but his eyes still stared straight ahead at the holographic visor projected around his eyes. Nan has only toyed with the LNC device until now but seeing a true opportunity to put it to use was just too tempting to pass up. In hindsight he knew he could have explained himself more but then, was that ever really Nan's way?

And so, Nan stepped into the REAL system...
 
Hangar

Ash stepped out into the hangar, clad in her EV suit with the helmet under the crook of one arm. She waved to Ana and Stefan as she made her way to the shuttle. She was looking forward to piloting it this time, getting a feel for the small ship. She purposely walked past Adiel as he was heading towards the fighters.

"Bird-man! Ready to voyage out into the great beyond once again?" She smirked and headed off towards the shuttle to get it ready for take off.
 
REAL Space

For a moment, everything was black but as Nan opened his eyes he could see that a tick fog surrounded him. In front of him was an underwater scooter. It seemed like a weird choice at first, but once he started to move he realized it was like he was underwater. There was no way to tell up and down, or right and left, but in the distance he could see lights, there was something in the direction of the scooter. However Nan knew from at least his research into how the REAL space operates, he had no weapons at the moment, in other words no scripts or programs loaded other than the scooter. He was just connected to this 'network' and would need more if he encountered defenses.
 
Hangar

Adiel tilted his head to the side and popped his neck, replying simply:

"Born ready, goat-woman."

And with that, he climbed into his Sword-breaker and prepared for liftoff.
 
Bridge -> Hangar

Brigid returned Adiel's smile. She was a little sore in some places. Still, it had been a fun couple of days. When they weren't busy she had gotten a little training time in on the frame, and she was confident she could use it for at least basic functions. "Yes, ma'am. I'll pilot one of the frames this time. Bullets didn't seem to do much, maybe the " She said, giving the Captain a Nepleslian salute. "Sorry, old habits," Brigid said, lowering her hand.

She turned to follow Adiel to the hangar but he was too fast. By the time she arrived he was already in the starfighter. She put on her EV Suit and walked over to the frame. It was already equipped with the weapons she had chosen. A plasma SMG held in one hand and a plasma pistol that could also be used as a saber in the other hand. The forearm had a shield attached to it for defense. She hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Judging by what she had heard they were outnumbered and they had no idea what offensive capabilities a swarm of "Bugs" had.

"Take care of Ana! If anything happens I'll protect the shuttle." She called over to Ash.

Then she climbed up the Frame and into the cockpit. She took a few minutes to run through the checklist and refresh her memory of the controls. "Ready for launch." She announced.
 
Hangar -> Space

Quinn was glad his internal eye rolls couldn't physically be noticed by his companions. He settled his big frame into the seat of the fighter and let the ship run through it's tutorial and start up sequence while he got himself settled and familiar with the controls, calling up info as needed. After a moment he fired up the communication systems and took a deep centering breath before he spoke. "Doc, Don't worry about that shuttle. If it gets shot out of the sky we're down a shuttle, if the ship gets shot out of the sky we're all screwed." He stretched, cracked his knuckles and closed his hands around the pair of controls "Besides, they're pushing the beacon out of the ship this time, not the shuttle." Left unsaid that some people hadn't been observant at all of their surroundings or what was going on. He ended that bit of communication before Brigid could reply.

Either way, once everything was reported to be running smoothly, he set about getting the fighter out of the bay and into the depths of space. To him, it was the sky, one that stretched on forever in all directions, and one that couldn't be taken away even if all the land was burned and all the seas were boiled dry. He remained close to the ship, testing the controls and their reactivity and getting a good grip on how the fighter handled, humming a soft tune to himself as he did so.
 
REAL Space


Nan looked around hazily as first. It was a disorienting experience being disconnected from reality in such a way, luckily his digital brain adapted easily. He kne he couldn't go forth without some kind of assistance.


He brought up his options, soon he was dressed in all black including a black trenchcoat and black sunglasses. Under his coat he had an absurd amount of firearms on him and he was holding a duffel bag containing the same. He shook his head, "I look rediculous." The image sloughed away.


He then brought up an image of a tight jumper that was all greyish white and had neon blue lines flowing throughout the suit, including the bulky helmet...and why was he holding a discus? He shook off this image as wel, it was time to get to business.


Hacking had always been a hobby for him. He never did itmaliciously, more to say that he could. He knew that he would be facing an unknown style compared to the normal Yamataian or Nepleslian way of thinking so he had to think equally outside the box.


So, he summoned up a breach program he had used frequently in the past, it coaescing all around him a a swarm of bees. It's function would be to attack head on various firewalls and find the cracks. Next he formed a teched out gauntlet on each hand. His left was defensive in nature, able to quickly form changing firewalls and his right was ofensive. He had always referred to his more brutish hacking scripts as stingers and that is what it did now.

Of course he had to also look good, so there he stood in stylish pants and a zipped up leather coat with vibrant blue stripes. He kept his visor look and ultimately looked like a damn cool super hero. He mounted the scooter and toward the distant lights.
 
Cargo

Within ten minutes the exterior lattice was fully assembled and the beacon was ready.

Stefan smiled and gave Ana a thumbs up "Good work, get your space suit on and get ready. I'll get on the crane and position it.

Space

First to launch were the two Swordbreaker class interceptors, soon followed by the modified Onset shuttle, and lastly the Rüstung class frame. Not a very intimidating force by any means in the Kikyo sector, but it was enough to protect the Anbruch. The Rüstung had even been given an experimental space operation booster to make the flight.

Everyone was able to quickly close in and get eyes on what was ahead. What they saw was not what they expected though. Before them was a ship, easily cruiser class in size, but they did not detect any propulsion or weapons power. There were signs that looked like internal systems, however, but they constantly jumped around and threw off the reading. Whatever was going on though it was clear that this ship was moving in their direction.

Before they could react however something flew from what looked like a torpedo tube on the ship and rocketed past the team.

REAL Space

With the aid of the water scooter, Nan made his way forward quickly. He could soon clearly see his target an endless expanse of honey comb like structures going vertical and horizontal. Nan knew however that everything he saw was just the system interpreting data in a way that he could comprehend. It was all just data and any similarities to persons real or fictional were purely coincidence.

Nan's approach was cut off however, the first line of digital defense showed itself. A school of fish rushed in Nan's direction, he was able to move out of the way quickly, but the school did brush along his shoulder, and he felt a sharp pain. With a quick look down he noticed a piranha gnawing into his arm.

Anbruch

The whole ship rocked suddenly and then alarms began to sound. Something had happened, and it wasn't good.

Things were silent for several minutes, only the alarm to give any indication of what had happened, but then there was a ship wide broadcast from the captain.

"Everyone be alert, Ana, I need you on the lower deck outside the computer room as fast as you can hurry, and bring welding equipment and an EV suit."
 
Real Space

Nan did a double take at the evil fish gnawing on his arm. "Fish, please," He said as he angled his right gauntlet and shot off the fish with a beam shot. He took a moment to see the fish all around his and knew it was an attack not just directed at him, and it wouldn't be the last. He turned back toward the honeycomb structure and mentally sent off his swarm to start looking or cracks while he brough his left gauntlet around.

A spray almost like foam pulsed out of the gauntleted palm created a sort of barrier that he hoped would be a decent start at dettering if not at least slowing more attacks. After a sufficiet barrier was erected he turned his right hand toward the school of fish and began firing trying to thin the heard.

"Wow, a whole new meaning to shooting fish in a barrel! You all are a little too raw for my sushi!"
 
Cargo Bay

Ana had smiled at Stefan when they finished. She nodded and was just about to head to where her suit was when the ship rocked and the alarm sounded. Her eyes widened a bit and she looked to the big man before Tanja made her announcement. She used her comm unit to simply speak to Tanja, "On my way." She then waved to Stefan and ran towards her "shop" in the engineering room to grab what she'd need. TB followed along, as per usual, as she got the welder and then went to get her suit.

She made her way towards the lower deck as requested, not quite sure what she'd find.
 
Space

"The bastard just shot at us!" Adiel snarled, performing a roll to avoid the space-torpedo. Despite his rather violent nature, Adiel knew that his ship could not hope to stand against a ship of such size.

"Ms. Dunst, what do you want us to do? Shall we continue to play pacifist?"
 
Space

Tanja's voice resounded through all the comms of those deployed and she did not sound very happy at all. "Consider it hostile and remove it!"

As she spoke, large shapes emerged from within the ship, they were giant cloud bugs, and they were acting as fighter craft.

REAL Space

The fish were relentless and it only took a few shots before they decided to try and surround Nan, slamming and gnawing against his protective bubble. The question became would the bubble hold out long enough for Nan to finish getting rid of them?

The good news was that because the fish were so focused on him, his swarm managed to get through. The honeycomb wall seemed like an endless expanse, but each honeycomb had a door on it. This was trap firewall, only one way in was right, and the rest led to fake networks or resulted in being booted out of the system. Fortunately, the swarm was perfect for this and spread out to fly through every door.

Anbruch

When Ana arrived at the front of the ship she realized this section was pressure sealed. There must have been a breach of some kind if that was the case.

Once she entered she was met with an unexpected sight of Tanja with her rifle firing into one of the rooms.

The captain noticed Ana and spoke over the comms. "It broke through our shields and then drilled into the hull. I think it might be a boarding vessel of some kind, but we need to seal the breach."
 
Space

Quinn rolled faster, thankfully in the opposite direction, as the shot streaked towards them. The zoom of his mechanical eyes certainly helped in that regard and he recovered quickly, zooming as far in on the ship ahead as he possibly could and studying it.

Calmly he reached out to Adiel, Ash, and Brigid. "I'm fairly certain we don't have near enough firepower to take them on one versus one. I would suggest a conquer and divide, see if Adiel and I can't get them to run into themselves. Brigid has better firepower, so Ash I'd suggest remaining with the Anbruch unless absolutely needed." He wasn't the best tactician, and it'd take a lot of fine motor control and communication, but he did know they couldn't let the cloud bugs get close to the ship.
 
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