RP: New Dusk Conclave [Ravenaca's Watch] Rhythm

Steiner splashed a drone that had tried to outflank them before answering. "Helstrom Plasma Cannon, Battlefist and Type 30s." A couple of his own drones had set out, collecting debris for reclamation while he constructed a few more-these ones with fabricators; and sent them off to try and assist the pilots who's vessels had been disabled. He batted an asteroid aside as he pushed off his perch, narrowly catching another and letting go as he came to rest beside the rest of V115's wing; his smaller drones arresting his momentum, before coming to a stop. "As my machine is primarily geared for terrestrial combat I do not know how much use I will be, though my cannon can disable a small starship if needed."

Space combat was not really his forte...unless...

Sending orders to his machines, they began taking parts from from some of the already destroyed drones. Thrusters were being nano-welded to a surviving power source. He just hoped his idea worked before things got worse.

Ravenaca's Watch Exterior – Space
Back at the pod, Arye’s lips curled upwards into that of a grin as she saw how many target drones she was able to knockdown. She also took note of the returning attack, but thankfully she had help with dealing with that, so she came out unscathed at least physically. She tuned her sensors to her wingmates and she saw V’s ship getting hits causing the Operator to curse out loud.

She listened as V told the small group that she’ll be splitting them into two teams, and it seemed to her that she’d be joining her friend. “I should still have enough for another go!’ She reported to V as she performed a Starbreaker Splitturn that would have been impossible for an organic pilot and shot to her friend’s position to be her wingmate and help her. “Agreed,” she said simply having spotted the Mercenary herself.

She fired her Cerberus cannon as V had, and gave aid in taking out the drones. She also prepared to fire the rest of her missiles, but she wanted to be careful.

Lounge

Orlan continued to watch the mock battle, the drone casualties piling on. He had to admit that the Ryoko sniping the enemies from a distance was a good strategy. The same could not be said for the frames that decided to tackle the enemy head on. Sure, they were battling against simple drones, but if they were actual threats, then the group may think twice about committing to a direct assault as far as Orlan was concerned. He was content to continue watching when he received a message from EVE6.

It was about a concern about possible enemies and a group that he would be a part of was getting deployed to check it out. He joked, "On my way. I hope this isn't a trap to make us a new practice target for your frames."

Orlan headed out of the Lounge and toward the armory.

Armory

The navy blue Thunderwave Power Armor rested on one of the racks. Orlan took it off and placed himself inside it, giving a slight wince as the helmet sealed shut over the back of his head. The light blue HUD activated on his visor. All systems were green and he smiled, grateful to be in his custom-made power armor once more. Now that he was prepared, Orlan traveled down to the hangar bay to locate the shuttle that would take him and his teammates on the away mission.

Ravenacas's Watch - Cyberspace

"Affirm. Switching to Cerberus and Calvary armaments." Gale said, changing weapon focus, as well as adjusting her systems to account for the oncoming heat build-up from the weapons in question, as well as energy draw from the Cerberus' firing.

As the damaged frames began to filter towards the Watch, Gale noted their states and shut down sections of the Ancile shield to allow them to board, pinging their navcomps with the waypoints and paths they'd need. "Recovering damaged frames at this time. Shield adjusted to allow them aboard. Ship will be vulnerable there until recovery is completed. Warning bay of oncoming damaged frames." She said, when EVE6 sent the marker for the asteroid in question.

"Do we finish recovery then proceed to the designated asteroid, or approach and recover those as we're able in the process Ma'am?" Gale asked, fine with either option. One would take longer to get on site, but they'd have all the damaged frames aboard and have their pilots begin debriefing or even cycling to new frames. The other would mean there would be frames in space longer and they wouldn't have as many craft available if needed, but it also meant whatever was causing that ping would have less time to prepare any surprises.

Personally, Gale would rather finish the recovery over rushing ahead. Getting at least a few of the frame pilots cycled around into scout craft would be of help, since they could send the craft ahead to see what was waiting for them. And to find out if they were going to fly into a trap.

Ravenaca's Watch, Bridge: Gale

The fire Gale directed from the light turrets of the Watch was effectively keeping the drones and other threats at bay, allowing the frame pilots that were returning to follow her markers and landing their craft.

"Stay away from the asteroid until we've finished with recovering the damaged frames." EVE6 instructed Gale, "For now we'll wait and see. In the meantime, please continue the support fire." She said, somewhat absently, as her mind raced.

Her first concern was for the safety of her new command, and its crew. The frame pilots weren't currently in any immediate danger, and neither was the Watch, but it didn't hurt to be cautious. Hopefully, the asteroid would not be an issue, but more information still would be good.

With any luck, the away team would be able to shed more light on the situation.

Ravenaca's Watch, Shuttle: Sara, Orlan, Taro

As the away team assembled down on the Watch’s flight deck with a shuttle, the infantry team assigned to protect them seemed to be a bit taken aback by the variety of the group they were to guard.

Orlan’s blue power armor stood out the most, even beyond its bulk. The “Thunderwave”, as the mercenary had called it, had attracted attention all the way from the power armor bays on deck 5 down to where the away team was meeting, on deck 9. One of the infantrymen gave the armor a knock with a gloved fist, “So how much does that hulking thing way, anyhow?” The soldier asked the mercenary with a laugh.

As the two gynoid ambassadors drew near, the infantry gave the two a salute. “Warrant officer, Lieutenant. The pilot says we should be ready to go in a moment, traffic control is clearing us a window.”

The soldier who appeared to be in charge, one Corporal Lacey, according to a popup they’d see on their Geist when looking at her, gestured towards the rear of the shuttle’s troop bay. “If either of you need any gear, you should be able to find it back there.”

The soldiers were armed, and wearing combat armor over their Mithril, but the fireteam didn’t seem to be taking the situation particularly seriously.

Ravenaca's Watch Exterior - Duel: Mikael

The missiles proved little distraction to the pilot in the red Sparrowhawk. As Sear snapped into a high-gee maneuver, a bay door popped open on the frame’s legs. It initially seemed like the burst of mini missiles had hit, the explosions hanging in space like illuminated ornaments on a tree.

And then the aerodynamic form of the machine’s fighter mode pierced the glowing orbs, and though the Yamataian’s computer-assisted rounds came close to hitting several times the Sparrowhawk seemed to dance out of the way each time. Sear flashed past Mikael, defying his attempts to strike true with his wrist mounted weaponry.

Transforming in an instant, the variable frame seemed to hold in place for a split second before plasma raked over the Yamataian’s machine, damaging thrusters and weapons with what seemed at first to be a random spread of fire before snapping back into fighter configuration and speeding away towards the small group of pilots that were holding the line against the drones.

"That one almost got you, Sir Aznoble." The voice inside the Sparrowhawk's cockpit commented.

"I may have gotten a little careless." The Pilot said, with that same thin smile, "Though in my defense, I've been being careful not to bruise their egos too much."

Ravenaca's Watch Exterior - Frame Team: V115, Arye, Steiner

As the pilots grouped up, the drone onslaught resumed. V115’s switch to lighter weaponry helped her more readily hit and damage the drones, though scoring kills was tougher with lower yield weaponry.

Between her Diadem fire and wing-drones, she managed to kill four more as her wingmates helped to box in the incoming drones, as well as score a few of their own.

Meanwhile, the drones seemed more evasive than before, avoiding Arye’s slow firing cannon with relative ease, though one drone at the tailing end of a formation was clipped by one of her shots and destroyed. Her main weaponry was not particularly well suited to the task at hand, but there were other options for the Operator.

The drones seemed to be herding the group of pilots towards some of the larger drone ships, which were between 100 and 200 meters long, each seeming to have been converted from a different class of disused starship.

The drone-ships began to open fire with their point-defense weaponry, not particularly dangerous at the range that the group was at currently, but something to be mindful of if they ventured closer.

Ravenaca's Watch: Shuttle

Orlan turned his head to the inquiring soldier and said with a smile that was concealed by his helmet, "Light enough to allow me to get around with ease, but strong enough to withstand small-arms fire."

When Orlan heard the mention of traffic control, he could not help but chuckle and mutter, "Traffic. Even in space traffic jams are unavoidable. One would think that wouldn't be the case with all of the wide open area that space provides."

He felt that he did not need the extra gear and that the Thunderwave would suit him just fine. Orlan glanced up at the shuttle and flexed his fingers. It was going to be an away mission, and the team would need to watch each other's backs. He would fire off arcs of electricity at the enemy should it come to that, but he was hoping that these people that the ambassadors were going to be communicating with were little more than civilians. In the current situation, the last thing the pilots in the simulation needed was bloodshed according to Orlan.

His eyes stared off at space, jokingly imagining the shuttle being trapped behind a long line of spacefaring vessels as it tried to get to the asteroid.

Ravenacas's Watch - Cyberspace

"Acknowledged. Completing recovery of Frames and providing covering fire." Gale said, accepting the instructions, and continued flicking her fingers at the drones that got to close to the ship, reflecting her aiming and firing the Watch's weapons at those particular targets. She maintained a steady and slow pace for those damaged frames who might have difficulty putting on speed, slowly approaching the asteroid field proper.

"Damaged frame recovery at thirty percent." She said, noting the very high count of frames that were effectively 'out of action' due to battle damage. It certainly seemed like a lot of the new pilots were maybe too eager to get into combat and risked themselves and their frames needlessly in the process. "Already racking those boarded and directing them to maintenance teams." She said, mentally wincing at the damage one frame had taken by not paying attention to it's surroundings and tearing a hole through it thanks to some asteroid debris. She couldn't be sure it was from her earlier missile shots, but if it was, Gale was partially to blame for that particular frame's damage.

Steiner's sensors suddenly spiked as he narrowly avoided being pulverized by an asteroid as he tried to get the gun drone. He turned, and a sudden flash of light enveloped him as some kind of spatial distortion opened up in front of him. All contact was lost with the sentinel as he suddenly vanished without a trace.

OOC: See you all around.

Mikael

As experienced as Mikael was as a space infantry of Yamatai, none of it prepared him for how versatile machines properly adjusted for space truly were. In a blink of an eye, the NDC knight managed to dodge his maneuvering to strike at him and unload plasma shots unto the Yamatai mecha. But thankfully Beat-415 was capable of thinking and capturing the encounter for later analysis. Mikael was going to be spending a lot of time in virtual training with the virtual representation of Sear based on this and any other information he can managed to gather on the foe.

But for the time being, his vision was littered with red warnings in yamataigo about various systems being disabled, destroyed, or on the verge of blowing up. "Coolant dump on run away aether reaction complete. Fusion thrusters destroyed and fusion reactors at 80%. Switching to backup CFS. Sending recommendation on reinforcement of systems to Star Army Research Administration..."

Being declared dead, Mikael limped his mecha back to the N. Watch. Fortunately for him, he had no ego issues. But he was not looking forward to the whining he is likely to hear in the debrief.

Sara

Sara forsake the heavier armor of some of her compatriots, instead relying on stealth and a light black/blue armored suit (with a black jacket) over the mithril suit to deal with any errant round. She wore a short Yamataian blade on her left hip and could be seen carrying a rifle. She returned the salutes, focused on reading mentally what information that was gathered on the location. She narrowed her eyes a bit when it she learned the source of the information.

Sitting down in the shuttle, she looked at the seeming relaxed nature the infantry were taking. She was about to say something about not taking things lightly, but she decided to keep her mouth closed. This would be an excellent opportunity to assess the infantry in their role as ambassador escorts.

Just as V115 was about to maneuver to make herself bait for the drones she noticed that Steiner's IFF vanished. Was he hit? She quickly scanned the local area with her cameras looking for debris or the tail end of a fireball's brilliant explosion. However there was nothing. In her typically cool voice she sent a transmission to Arye, "Firewalker, was Rockhopper hit? He's gone from my sensors and I'm not picking up any new debris." This really threw a wrench in her plans. Not to mention that the sheer number of the drones was becoming a problem as their own forces continued to thin out. Her internal processes continued to tally those marked as 'dead' for the purposes of the war game and one in particular stood out to her. The Yamataian exchange officer, the one who had been battling the unknown bogey was among them. This was bad. She surveyed her surroundings, took in the new data on the drones' behavior and made a few calculations of her own.

As they fought, her and Arye were being driven closer and closer to the simulated enemy ships. Even with their abilities as operators it would probably be suicidal for just the two of them to make a run against those vessels. She'd wait to hear what if anything Arye knew about Steiner before speaking up again. "Change of plans, we're punching through the drones and returning to the Watch's space. Whatever you've got left, use it to clear a path." Executing a high g turn she brought her nose around and focused fire on the drones directly in between her and the route back to the Ravenaca's Watch.

Arye jerked lightly in the pod when she saw Steiner disappear into the light. The Starbreaker also jerked in response, but she swiftly righted herself. “Neither am I, but it’s strange. I saw him disappear into what appeared to be light, not sure if he teleported or got teleported. But the only things here are our side and the drones on our superiors control. “ She replied in response to V115’s question.

Then her leader’s command came through. “Copy that,” she replied and then began firing with her main weapons and her missiles and any other armaments she had on her Starbreaker. She followed V115’s lead as she brought death to bear on the drones.

Ravenaca’s watch, Bridge: Gale

It seemed to EVE6 as though the exercise was beginning to draw to an end. She had observed the performance of the green pilots to a degree where she felt confident in their ability to handle the patrol that the Watch was slated to perform.

Still, she’d have to confer with the CAG and have him do a debrief of the rookies, she was sure that he would find things to correct.

“Thank you, Gale. Please continue to keep us at distance from the asteroid.” The captain said in response to Gale’s status report, before walking a short distance over to the side and sending a message over to Flight Control.

“Lt. Commander Fletcher, please route traffic to give the Away Team priority.”
“Aye Captain.”

Ravenaca's Watch, Shuttle -> Asteroid, Exterior: Sara, Orlan, Taro

As the shuttle’s doors closed, a simulated holographic window popped up to give the away team a view of the flight deck as the shuttle raised itself up and began to fly out of the bay, though its speed was considerably limited while inside the ship.

As the shuttle exited the starship, the away team members could see numerous frames and fighters lowering themselves into their assigned locations, with more damaged ones being attended by repair drones.

As the shuttle passed through the energy barrier separating the flight deck from the vacuum of space, they could then see the pilots who had not yet been granted clearance to land circling the Watch in holding patterns.

The ride over to the asteroid was short, only a minute or so, because of the proximity of the asteroid to the combat zone. It would have been even quicker, but the pilot needed to take care in the congested space of a combat zone, though the drones were avoiding the shuttle.

As the shuttle approached the asteroid, it began to circle it until finding the source of the signature that they had been sent over to investigate. A small installation built into the side of the asteroid that was facing away from the Watch, and from the interior of the Sanctum system, likely why it had not been detected.

While the shuttle was still in flight, it appeared as if the base was brand new, but as the shuttle set down on a flat surface near what appeared to be a door of some kind, pockmarks from micro-impacts belied the age of the construct.

“Helmets on and weapons ready everyone.” Corporal Lacey said as she slid on her combat armor’s sealed helmet, “But don’t assume anything, we’ve got no idea what’s going on here.”

At her instructions, the rest of the infantrymen donned their own helmets and waited for the ambassadors to prepare themselves for EVA.

Space, Frame Team: V115, Arye, Mikael

As the remaining pilots, now sans their mercenary companion, began their return to the starship, a group of some of the remaining drones attempted bar their way. Ayre’s barrage found its mark, though the slow-firing Cerberus cannon missed.

Three drones from the swarm of twelve were taken out by her missiles and chaingun fire, and V115’s light fire similarly was able to take down another three.

The four frame pilots that had gathered around V115 and Ayre offered their own firepower, each managing to take out one or two more drones, and causing the drone formation to collapse.

Following this, the drone swarm offered token resistance to the impromptu formation, and they soon found themselves back at the Watch, in a holding pattern around the ship just behind the unfamiliar Yamataian mecha that had been on the edge of the battle.

Space:

The pilot of the red-painted Sparrowhawk held the Ravenaca’s watch at several light second’s distance. He’d been ready to continue the exercise, but the captain of the ship had asked him to put a hold on the ‘tests’ that he had been giving to various loner pilots.

“What do you think the reason for this could be?” He asked to no one in particular.

“A complication, perhaps.” The slightly-artificial-sounding voice in his cockpit offered.

Ravenaca's Watch: Shuttle

Orlan observed the frames and fighters being tended to by the repair drones. He leaned back in his seat and let out a light, but silent sigh. The pilots out in space awaited their permission to get inside the ship, and Orlan pondered how much money it would cost to repair a single frame. That would have to be further delved into later as the shuttle came upon the target asteroid with a base on it that would require investigating.

Once the shuttle landed, Orlan ran a systems check on the Thunderwave and found to his satisfaction that all systems were green. Fully ready, he joined up with his comrades to enter the station once the time had come. There was no telling what was inside that facility. It could be smugglers, pirates, terrifying alien monstrosities or even just simple civilians and there was a misunderstanding going on. Orlan hoped that the inhabitants were just confused civilians, but if the group was met with the barrels of guns or the globs of acidic bile, then he was prepared to fight.

With other survivors joining V115 and Arye they were able to punch through the drones and return to the Watch's zone of control. Her processes tracked the strange frame that had been battling the Yamataian transfer but seeing as it had backed off she wasn't about to go chasing it. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be an active threat at the moment. For that she was somewhat thankful. In the background she tallied how many of those that had formed up on her in the beginning had 'survived' the mock battle. A part of her was glad as well that any marked as KIA weren't actually dead, but another part of her knew that such things would be the nature of their existence going forward. Still though, her own body and mind had held up to the stress test and this was extremely positive. As one of the first to be produced she had always felt like the weight of her species was upon her shoulders. The demand to not only meet expectations but to exceed them was always present in the back of her mind. So it was that surviving until the last left a small smile of satisfaction upon her synthetic lips.

Still as they sat in their holding pattern she couldn't get too lost in her background thoughts, there was still a possibility of renewed action. Also the shuttle leaving the Watch hadn't escaped her notice even if it wasn't something she was privy to. Something was up, maybe she'd find out later or maybe she wouldn't. For now though she was stuck waiting with the others for clearance to land. Then there'd probably be a debriefing too. Opening up a channel to Arye again, "Well neither of us are dead firewalker," she joked in that deadpan way of hers. "Still, thank you for watching my back and trusting my judgement calls."

Arye watched through the sensors as she took note of ship placement, and as she hadn’t heard the clearance to land on the Watch. Unlike V115, Arye was watching the surrounding area, paying full attention to potential threats than her own thoughts. Though she too had thought about being a part of the first generation of Operators, but her thoughts weren’t anything major other than the fact she lives. She was concerned about the racism she witnessed, but she hoped with time things would be great. Her attention went back to the present as she heard V speaking to her. She could feel herself being amused by the deadpan joke.

“Of course, I’ll always have your back no matter what. Nothing will change that. We’re the first generation of Operators and the thing I want to make sure happen is we have each other’s back no one and nothing will prevent that,” she said with a voice full of confidence and conviction.

Away Team

Mizumitsu Sara leaned to one side of her seat as she contemplated what they were going to encounter.

A new form of life? Highly unlikely.
Militant Freespacers? A little more likely? Don't bring up or let them talk about Yamatai...

The mental exercise continued until she saw the banged up Yamataian mecha waiting for its turn to dock. She knew it was Yamataian due to coloration of the unit as she could not see the hinomaru on the front. She just smirked and shifted a bit. "I guess Yamataians aren't great at everything after all." she said to no one in particular. She then went back into her mind as she war-gamed with herself on possibilities.

When she saw the structure on the other side of the asteroid, she instantly eliminated a number of scenarios and started to narrow down on their approach. "Well there goes my ancient aliens thesis." Sara said as she got up and loaded a round into her weapon.

"Time to present ourselves. Don't try to look so bored now." she continued, this time definitely directed at the infantrymen. She then nodded at Orlan.

Space around the N. Watch

Save for a few IFF and guidance pings, Mikael kept his Ryoko frame was absolutely dead on the EM spectrum. He was technically dead now, so he figured he might as well play the part as Beats-415 maneuvered for final approach into the vessel. Besides, he had absolutely nothing to say to the operators around him focusing instead shifting through captured data of the encounter. He was going to need it to create his virtual training scenarios.

He didn't need his VISAR in order to see the shuttle leave the the ship and determine where it was going based on heading. "Beats, get a hold of the chief. We are going to brainstorm as a team on how we can transition the Ryoko from a Fire Support frame to a more general purpose fighter..."

"On it Chui."

Away Team

Warrant Officer Taro Emerson had largely kept to herself while gearing up, slipping a suit of void-rated combat armour on over the skin-tight suit that did little to hide her pleasant figure. An artificial being such as herself didn't exactly need the constant supply of oxygen, though at a reduced rate the gasses circulating would help keep her internal components cooler and put less strain on her pressurized cooling loop. It also helped to keep a lower profile, prancing between asteroids without a helmet was just idiotic when certain cards could be played close to her matronly chest.

With a curt shake of her head Taro slipped her helmet on and assembled alongside the others, streamlined sickle rifle slung over her hips as the violet-eyed ambassador stood there sternly with her arms crossed, looking down her nose at some of the infantrymen. Not in a necessarily negative or doubtful way, she was simply a cold-hearted bitch to 90% of the people who chanced across her.

"Theorize all you like, though do not let errant thoughts overrule whatever clues might be put before our very eyes down there, keep your minds open," Taro offered in a mostly flat tone, coming from anyone else it might almost sound philosophical, though from the sombre beauty it was clear she was just giving out advice in a rather blunt manner.

With a small frown Taro moved to lock a magazine into her rifle and chamber the first round before shouldering the thing, her armour very slightly modified to better work with a few custom holsters, a two knives framing the swell of her chest and a sub-compact pistol of some variety strapped to one of the synthetic woman's wide hips.

"Leave your own prejudices behind or I'll drag you back to the ship myself, don't see that as a threat, just make sure it doesn't happen."

She was a little abrasive... though none of what she said was inherently incorrect or mean spirited. This sort of attitude and mindset was what made a lot of the people around Taro assume she had a lot more experience and pull than she actually did, in the gynoid's line of work it wasn't like she had anything to gain from correcting their assumptions...

Ravenaca’s watch, Bridge: Gale

As the last of the Watch’s frames, plus the large Starbreaker, filtered into the hangar bay and were set down in on the floor of the hangar in their fighter modes, EVE6 gave a satisfied nod and a glance back towards the ship’s Ghost Chamber.

While the operator-D’s attire while on the job wasn’t exactly regulation, she had more than proven herself. The first live fire engagement was never easy, she knew, and it was easy to become overloaded by information, but Gale had managed the ship’s navigation, weaponry, and frame recovery.

They would need to head back to dock after the exercise was over before they could continue their shakedown, EVE6 knew, and pick up supplies and provisions that they hadn’t carried for this brief outing. There would be some time before the away team got back, and she thought that Gale deserved some time out of the chamber.

“Gale” she sent, “The exercise is winding down, if you’d like to take a break. I’m sure the pilots would love to meet the person who was covering them.”

Away Team: Sara, Orlan, Taro

Lacey and her infantry led the way for the away team, the clanking of everyone’s magnetic boots audible only through the vibrations traveling through their suits as they crossed the landing pad over to the airlock.

The soldiers cleared the doorway to either side as one used a handheld cutter to open the airlock door, the outrushing of air causing the soldier to lean back slightly, before regaining their posture and gesturing for the others to follow.

As the team moved inside, they would begin to see signs of habitation, crates of food stacked in the hall, signs in trade painted onto the ancient metal walls. However, they also saw things that were puzzling, like the b-lettering of an unknown language, paint faded by time, and…

Corporal Lacey gave a gesture to stop at a two way junction; “Biosigns up ahead straight, but I’m getting a power signature to the right.” She looked to the three members of the away team. “We’ll follow your lead.”

Ravenaca’s Watch, Space -> Ravenaca’s Watch, Hangar: V115, Arye, Mikael

As V115 and Ayre’s frame team finally got their turn to dock with the Watch, they would pass through the ship’s Chromatic barrier, seeing many other frames being lowered to the deck with drones and the occasional mechanic waving them in.

As the pilots hovered through the hangar, they passed the rather conspicuous Yamataian frame, which was suspended in a wall-mounted gantry by one of the elevators with technicians swarming over it that, if they used the optics on their craft, they would be able to tell were Yamatains as well.

Ayre was the first to be waved down to her spot, with the Starbreaker’s hangar location located closer to the Chromatic than the locations for the ship’s Sparrowhawks and Banshees. Further down, V115 and the rest of the pilots were waved down.

As all of the pilots landed their crafts, they would be able to see mechanics walking by, giving them a thumbs-up to give a confirmation that the craft was safely landed and that it was clear to transfer back to the bodies that were being kept in anima pods.

Some of the other pilots clearly already had, as evidenced by the growing crowd waving from the side of the hangar which was about a 50/50 mix of Operators, like Ayre and V115, and organics.

Arye's words brought a rare smile to V115's face, or at least it might have if she weren't currently within the frame. Instead she simply got a warm feeling and a sense of pride about her species. "Copy that," she replied.

Sometime later as they began the process of entering the Watch. She predominantly paid attention to the guidance system and the instructions of the deck crew, but she also couldn't help but notice the Yamataians working on an exchange unit. Guess they brought a whole crew along huh? she thought to herself. As they continued deeper she also noticed the gatherings of the pilots whom she presumed had been declared dead or simply too damaged to fight. They had already landed and exited their units, but had gathered to wave to those coming later. A small part of her wondered what they thought of the survivors, but a much larger part wanted to know how her performance was graded by the command staff. While not her first live fire exercise, it was her first shakedown mission and it was under new leaders.

"See you on the deck Firewalker," she said as simple parting words when it came time for their paths to diverge. V115 was guided deeper into the hanger before eventually being given a spot to touch down and the okay to do so. Once landed she waited for the all the clear sign to disengage from the frame and hop back into her body. The transfer back was easy, it came naturally to her and with how many times she had done it in the simulations the process had only felt weird the first time she'd done it for real. After the exit procedures were completed she finally touched down with her own two feet back onto the deck of the Watch. She paused for a moment to inspect the frame she'd used, something about it felt strangely empty. Yet again she couldn't place where the bizarre feeling was coming from.

Clearing her thought processes for a moment, she walked off to go find a spot to sit while she waited for orders on a debriefing or was simply given orders to return to her cabin.

Away Team

Sara, as the ranking officer of the away team, just grinned a bit. The skills of the team read more like a SAINT death squad more than anything else. But they were still expected to perform. As her archaeology subroutines try to make sense of the evidence and artifacts they had witnessed thus far, she developed a list of priorities.

Top on the list: Discover why the power source was peaking. It was what led them to discovering the facility in the first place. But they have no one with any real engineering experience or training. Which leads to the second item on her list: Make contact with some form of intelligence (artificial or organic) and establish enough rapport to figure why the power signals are peaking.

"How many biosigns?" Sara asked, information needed to know how much to split the team. If it is only 1 or 2 signs, herself and Orlan should be sufficient in case they get hostile.


Mikael

With his Ryoko secured to it's assigned gantry, the protective armored cavity protecting the pilot's pod opens forward fully to allow maintenance. Afterward, the pilot pod's hatch opened to allow Mikael to reach forward and pull himself out.

The Chief floated upwards, using his inertia abilities, and bowed to the Chui. "Quite the fight you got yourself into Chui. I almost thought you got him when you closed in." he said, commenting on the live feed of duel he had with Sear.

"I am quite sure that pilot was holding back. If the were serious, I don't think we would be having this conversation right now." Mikael replied back as he looked at the line of starbreakers and sparrowhawks making their way past them. He looked directly at a pair as they made their way past them, likely making their pilots uncomfortable if they were looking in his direction.

"I will forward the data and results with Star Army Research Administration. I am quite certain they will be interested in the results and possibly approve of an opportunity to turn this exchange into something." Mikael said once he looked back at his chief. While he did not need to entirely guard his words against obvious eavesdropping from NDC intelligence, it was a force of habit he had no desire to change.

"I will forward the results of our repairs to you as soon as they are complete." he said before saluting to Mikael.

Mikael returned the salute and proceeded to fly his way towards the common area his fellow pilots would be gathering at.