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Arye heard the reply to her words and soon they were in the ship. “Drinks are on me V” She replied to her friend before they separated and she was guided to her landing pad. She mentally switched things and saw through cameras the landing gear coming out, allowing her to land which she had done so with a slight thump. The thrusters were soon deactivated, as well as the other parts of her fighter before she forced the system to bring her back.
On exiting the pod she stretched with a big grin on her face. “I got to pilot a Starbreaker! This is totally awesome! so the Cerberus cannon though..” She said and frowned as she went for a walk.
Orlan returned the nod to Sara with a smirk at her fun little quip. He listened to Taro's advice, and he raised his guard when it was time for the away team to move on with their objective. Confidence was within him that he would not feel any prejudice. Such action would only hinder the group after all. Orlan moved with the group, keeping close mostly to the infantrymen. There was no telling what they were thinking, but he felt a strong urge to protect them as he did his fellow team members, Sara and Taro.
The crates of food were a sign that someone was here, further evidenced by the life signs that lit up on his HUD. He had no way of knowing if they were hostile or not, and his eyes scanned the area for any surveillance systems or a public announcement device. The power increase was interesting, but the current habitants Orlan felt were more important. He felt that now was a good time to make a suggestion, "I believe we should stay together as we move through this base. We have little to no clue on who or what is occupying this base. They could be harmless spacefarers or incredibly dangerous monstrosities."
Orlan did not say it out of fear, but rather for the safety of the team. He hoped that they would choose to move as a collective unit, but as far as he was concerned he was the muscle. Sara and Taro were likely far more experienced in this field than Orlan was according to him, so he felt that they should have the final say on what the team should do. It was fine to him if they split up, but he was bothered that it may increase the danger for everyone. Silence was within him now, waiting to see what the others would decide.
I got Demibear’s permission to auto Sara a small amount for the sake of thread progression, and followed his instructions for what Sara would want to do.
Away Team: Sara, Orlan, Taro
“Four to six.” Corporal Lacey said to Sara, “I wouldn’t count on an exact reading through these walls. If they’re hostiles, my fireteam should be able to take them so long as there’s no power armor, but it’d be uncomfortably close to a fair fight.”
Sara nodded to the infantry NCO, thinking for a moment. Glancing towards the direction that the power source was coming from, and then back towards the door behind which the life signs were located.
The first priority in her mind was still to investigate the power surge, but she would also need to investigate the biosigns. "Corporal Lacey, your team is with me. Arms at the low ready as we don't know if they are just ornery hermits or an actual threat." Sara said.
She then looked at Orlan and Taro. "While I respect your opinion, Mercenary Snell, things may be time sensitive. I need you two to carefully scout out what is the source or power and any obvious signs of trouble. If they are not hostile, we can offer to help with it."
Ravenaca’s Watch, Hangar: V115, Arye, Mikael
As Mikael approached the area where the other pilots were gathering, he would see the CAG, Lieutenant Commander Fletcher, emerging from a corridor and waving the pilots down and motioning for them to sit, waiting for everyone to gather.
As Ayre, V115, and Mikael got within earshot, they could hear the older man giving feedback to each pilot, though not very much. “Fredricks, you’ve got good instincts but you got too far ahead of the rest of your lance, stick with your team. Adam-32, your accuracy was good but you won’t always have the luxury of time to wait for a perfect firing solution, sometimes you’ll need to just hope you hit.”
Fletcher glanced towards the other three as they approached. “Ah, here we are. V115, your teamwork was good, but you shouldn’t get too accustomed to always having backup. Firewalker, I know you had a little trouble with your cannon’s accuracy. It all comes down to picking the right tool for the job, we’ll be glad to have that gun when facing off against larger targets.”
He looked finally to the Mikael, “And finally Harris, you’ve got solid skills but you’d be better off working with a team than trying to go it alone. Alright, I think that’s my part done.” Fletcher looked around the group before speaking again.
“For the next part of the debrief, I’d like each of you to group up with one or two other people, and tell another pilot something that you think they did well, and something that you think they could improve on.”
There was a tinge of disappointment when Orlan was informed that the team would be splitting off, but he did not complain. All he did was nod and say to Lacey, "Yes Sara."
His head shifted to Taro and he motioned for her to come along with him. Orlan would lead the way, his armor acting as a bulwark should they come under attack. The HUD of his PA kept track for any life signs that were congregating near or at the source of the power surge. His eyes were also attentive for anything that resembled a trap. The last thing he wanted was for either him or Taro to get knocked out or lose a limb.
Orlan continued to hope that these inhabitants were just plain refugees, but he would not be against duking it out with pirates or any other band of criminals that decided to make this asteroid their home.
As she was walking, V115 spotted the rather informal debrief that was presently ongoing. Giving a slight hustle to her movements she made her way over to the grouping of fellow pilots to listen to Fletcher give his debrief. It reminded her a lot of the compliment sandwiches from her days as a youthful new sentient in VR. In other words, it reminded her of school. Still despite the way it looked to her she did take his words to her synthetic heart. Maybe not quite as he intended, but V115 made a mental note to get some more VR training vs multiple opponents in so as to brush up on her solo versus many tactics. Being a team player was good, but if she couldn't pull her own weight that was a problem.
After finding a place in her schedule to fit this additional training, V115 looked to Arye and Mikael. "Firewalker, Harris-chui, could I borrow you both for this post mission exercise?"
Raveneca's Watch – Hangar
As Arye was spoken to, she stood at attention and listened as he spoke to her. She knew that he was right, of course, the bigger the target the slower they were usually. The Cerberus might not be a good fit for fighter vs fighter fights. She wondered if she could update the Starbreaker though she was concerned that it might upset the creator. She soon thought of switching to an actual mech.
She was distracted from her thoughts by V’s words. “Certainly I wouldn’t mind being borrowed.” She said to her friend with a pleasant and encouraging smile though she agreed with their leader that sometimes backup might not be possible but she thought that V had shown good leadership skills.
Mikael just stared in the position of attention at the CAG's feedback to him. He resisted the urge to reply back the mission profile of the Ryoko and just nods. It was true, though he highly doubted the NDC was going to sideline a pair of their Frames to act as support/wingmen for a Yamataian. He was going to have to come up with a plan on the fly to solve this. And fortunate would have it that the two operators he once met were also here and dragging him into the next phase of the debrief.
"Beats, access our copy of the IFF logs and pull up recorded actions of V115 and Firewalker. Patch me to the records once you filter them out from the rest." Mikael said once he made an encrypted connection to his Ryoko using the ship's networking he had access to. It would be very obvious to the ship's AI that he was linking with his Frame. The unencrypted header even has a comment mentioning it in Trade and Yamataigo.
He walked over towards V115. "Very well, I am waiting for my AI to parse some data so I can give a proper analysis." he said as he waited for the information he desired. The tone he had said it as similar a lot of SAINT operatives filling in analyst roles sometimes take: one of professionalism with a hint of annoyance that they aren't out in the field. But his Giretsu professionalism kicked in and the annoyance disappeared.
"I can tell the two of you were not the first to be knocked out. That demonstrates a level of calmness and excellent situational awareness many often lack. Training helps to develop it, but it can only do so much."
Sara
Sara narrowed her eyes a bit at Orlan speaking her given name instead of her clan name. But it would have to be something to be corrected later as their were higher priorities that needed to be accomplished.
"You have your orders, move out." Sara said as she moved her body in the direction of the bio signs. Her voice then came over Orlan's and Taro's means of listening to radio communications.
"Establishing a private communication channel. Report back anything unusual or even slightly out of place."
V115 put herself at ease once the three were sort of circled up for this next task and though she was at ease her attention was not relaxed. Those mechanical eyes of hers picking up every teensy change in the facial expressions of those around her, she noticed the swift change in Mikael's expression but knew not what the underlying cause was. Still it wasn't something she would point out or ask about, at least not here and now. V115 nodded at his comment, processing the information given and storing it away. Her face never flinching from the cold neutral expression she often wore. Still beneath the placid surface she felt a pulse of emotion, pride really, in being some of the last to return and returning only because she was forced to give the order to fall back.
"Harris-chui, you did well spotting and identifying potential complications which were outside the operation parameters. However while I might rely too much on teamwork I do not believe you ever asked for backup with the unknown unit that engaged you. Don't be afraid to ask us for help, that is the point of the exchange program after all is it not? That is to say, getting us to work together more efficiently," she replied.
Attention now turning to her friend Arye, she said to her, "Firewalker, the vanishing of that mercenary unit right as we were moving to execute a plan could have caused panic, but you kept calm and adapted with me." There was a slight nod as V115 held back the words 'I'm glad to have you watching my back.' "As for something to improve on..." she paused while searching her memory banks for something to say. "We're built the same so I know you have it in you to command your own team, don't be afraid to take command next time. Still, I will always appreciate having someone I can trust on my wing." As she finished saying that, her cold demeanor broke into a small smile before quickly returning to normal.
Arye listened as V spoke to her, as well as when Mikael had. She listened as they both complimented her calmness while under pressure, both expected and unexpected. She focused on what V was saying and she thought about leading a team herself. It felt instinctual for her to join as V’s wingmate. During training, she’d never really excelled as a leader thus she’d focused on being a soldier and following the orders of her leaders.
She didn’t think that she, Arye, was right for commanding a team. Perhaps a command leadership module in her mind was malfunctioning. She didn’t know, but she knew that she felt right being a follower. She didn’t say this out loud but smiled in response to V.
Away Team
"Affirmative," Taro responded to both her companions, rifle's butt pressed firmly into the soft synthetic tissue of her shoulder as the trio stalked forwards cautiously. Behind the polarized material of her visor the tall, shapely woman's purple eyes were darting around, constantly readjusting to take in the entirety of her environment in a way only a very efficient weapon such as herself could.
"I believe it goes without saying that none of us are expecting to simply find squatters here, yes? It seems highly improbable in my opinion," the gynoid noted, flared hips effortlessly sashaying a little with each perfectly paced step Taro's long, shapely legs delivered. Her streamlined armour quietly squeaked and creaked with each little movement, though much like an apex predator Taro's head and weapon remained unnaturally stable, safety off with one gloved finger wrapped around the rifle's hair trigger.
She was ready to lay down a lot of hurt in a moment's notice.
As Sara and the Cpl. Lacey’s infantry team stacked up on the door, one of the soldiers again took out a plasma cutter, and cut the locking mechanism of the ancient door, causing it to slide open. Inside, a few armed individuals turned to look at the door, surprise on their faces.
As pistols and rifles came up to point at the door, Sara would be able to see the emblem of a relatively well known pirate gang on their jackets. “Shit, it’s the Conclave!” One of them spat, as another said “I told you we couldn’t hide here forever, we should have left months ago!”
Away Team, detached party: Orlan, Taro
Meanwhile, as Taro and Orlan made their way over towards the door with the power source, the signature seemed to begin to grow, the readings growing ever larger. As the bulky power armor settled in front of the door, an errant spark of electricity arced from the wall, traveling across Orlan’s armor while another snapped onto Taro’s left arm, causing it to fall limp.
While this wouldn’t affect her ability to fire her weapon, it would cause problems if she tried to fire it too rapidly. Suddenly, the door slid open with a hiss, revealing what looked to be a frightened engineer, though one that was wearing the same uniform as the group in Sara’s room.
As the engineer tried to run from the room, they ran straight into Orlan’s armor, bouncing off and back into the room, where Taro and Orlan could now see what seemed to be some kind of machinery giving off a hum that was growing louder by the moment, and emitting occasional arcs of electricity.
After a moment, the pirate engineer slipped a pistol from his holster and pointed it at Orlan as electricity arced across the room.
Ravenaca’s watch, Bridge: Gale
As the energy signature spiked, Gale could see it through the ship’s sensors at the same time as EVE6 saw it on the main monitor. Biting her artificial thumb for a moment before turning back to the ship’s Ghost Chamber, EVE spoke to Gale.
“Gale, get us closer, about half our current distance, to the Asteroid. If the away team needs to bug out, we need to be close enough to provide support. Warm up our turrets, and be ready to fire in case we run into anything hostile.”
Following that, she sent a message down to the CAG.
Ravenaca’s Watch, Hangar: V115, Arye, Mikael
As the green pilots chattered to each other, fulfilling their part of the exercise, Lt.Com. Fletcher put two fingers to his temple before scanning around the room. Glancing towards the group with the Yamataian exchange pilot, he cleared his throat, an action that seemed to quickly get everyone to quiet down.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid that we won’t have much time for pleasantries. We’re an operational ship now, so I want Alpha and Bravo squadrons on standby in their fighters on Alert 3.” He clapped his hands once, sending pilots into a scurry of motion, before making his way over to the group of three pilots, also gesturing to another pilot.
“Ensign V115, I want you to take up a lance for combat air patrol. I don’t know if the captain is expecting trouble, but she wants eyes out there on the double. You’ll have Harris-Chui, Ensign Firewalker, and Ensign Fredricks under you. I want you all out there as soon as possible, the mechanics are preparing your craft for launch right now.”
The power of the signature increased as they drew closer. Orlan was prepared for a fight. He muttered to Taro, "Personally, I hope it is someone like squatters or refugees we run into. If it isn't, then we'll be ready."
Electricity was flailing from the door, one of which lapped across Orlan's armor. The insulation protected him from any damage he might have suffered. His eyes focused on an open door that held a frightened engineer who ran straight into him and fell over. Inside was the machine responsible for the surge, and the jolts going everywhere made Orlan surmise that it was unsafe to operate in there without any sort of protective gear. Orlan raised one of his arms at the engineer the second he whipped out a weapon.
"Put the gun down sir! You're about to make a huge mistake!" Orlan ordered with a booming voice.
He waited for the resolution. If the engineer pulled the trigger, the bullet would most likely deflect off of his armor and he would counter by delivering a bolt of electricity that would definitely fry the engineer should it hit.
Arye silently acknowledged her orders with a nod of her head ad prepared to follow her wingleader back into the flight. She tried to keep her excitement steady knowing full well she will be back in her Starbreaker and she could kick butt once again.
Ravenaca's Watch Hangar
V115 snapped to attention as the Lt. Commander addressed her group specifically. Mechanical eyes taking in his every movement as he relayed the captain's wishes and assigned the patrol duty to her. A mix of emotions flooded her brain as he did so. Pride mainly, but also a growing sense of responsibility and apprehension. Not one to ask questions she simply snapped off a quick salute before adding, "Aye aye sir, we'll be out there as soon as possible."
Exchanging glances with the others, her eyes settled upon Fredericks for a moment. He was an unknown to her and so she tried to do a rapid access of what files were accessible to her with respects to his service record and performance in the exercise. A pink ring appearing around her irises signified that she was doing as much. So far all she knew was that Fletcher had told Fredericks to stick with the team during his public feedback, and she didn't like lone wolfs. Still there wasn't much time for idle chit chat or the browsing of files while simply just standing around. She'd have to review what she could grab while sitting in her frame waiting for the okay to launch. "Alright everyone you heard the Lt. Commander, head to your machines and get ready to launch."
With that said she turned from the group and quickly headed to her own frame. Fortunately she hadn't taken critical damage in the exercise but she doubted that the mechanical team would have had time to fix much if any of the damage she had received. Hopefully nothing went seriously wrong out there. Climbing back into the cockpit she mentally prepared herself to take control of the unit. Once given the clear by the mechanics crew she used her built in anima system to transfer her consciousness into the frame. While she sat there waiting for flight control to give her the clear for launch, she'd review what she could of Fredericks.
Once given that clear she'd respond with her callsign and launching before moving out into the cold dark void of space once more.
Mikael didn't say much of anything, it was not like he could really say anything anyways. He was an exchange officer and that pretty much meant functionally he was the same as a Santo Hei. Maybe a Santo Heisho. Normal Nekos likely would be complaining at this moment, confident in their superiority, but to Mikael it a refreshing perspective to say the least. His only reservation at the moment is how he was going to adjust the Ryoko.
He engaged his inertial abilities and flew his way carefully, but quickly back to his Mecha. His chief raised an eyebrow in protest to the deployment.
"The aether beam cannon is ready, but we had to remove the aether reactor for repair. So you are stuck with just your Multipurpose Plasmas." he said, floating next to the hatch leading to the piloting pod.
"Very well, attach the 155mm howitzer."
"On it Harris-chui. One last concern, most of the thruster damage was just disrupting the flow of the exhaust. But I wouldn't try to push it to the max just yet."
Mikael nodded before disappearing into the Ryoko, hatch closing behind him. As the yellow mono eye flashed to life, the 155mm is lowered to his left shoulder and ammo loaded into its rear magazine pack.
Sara
As the team cut to gain entry, she kept her weapon at the low ready. She racked her digital mind as to what she would encounter given how ancient the facility seemed to be. The amount of disappointment on her face could be seen when she could clearly see the pirate emblem on their clothing.
She snapped her weapon up and ready to dive into nearby cover. "Well you are here now. We can do this the smart and easy way, put down your weapons and surrender." Sara said, maintaining a professional tone and facial expression.
"Or you can die in vain trying the stupid and hard way. The choice is yours." Sara continued, her face and tone not changing. There was no fear on her face, just straight resolve you would expect from a samurai as she stares into their "souls" before the duel.
As she was saying this, she was speaking to the infantry squad's communication channel. "Get ready for shoot. Try to keep some alive for questioning, we need to know what they know about this place."
The room was dead silent for a moment, before the first pirate to have spoken brought a pistol to bear on Sara. “I’d rather die free than surrender!” However, this bold declaration was followed shortly by another pistol being raised, this time pointing at the head of the pirate who had just declared defiance.
“Shut your mouth Julio, before I shut it for you. We’ve no chance of winning and we all know it. I’m not about to let you sign our death sentences.” The pirate speaking looked to be an elderly woman, her wrinkled skin and white-streaked hair enough to show considerable age for someone living in the Kikyo sector.
“Now then, Ms. Conclave Soldier, how about we talk terms…”
Away Team, detached party: Orlan, Taro
The pirate gave an angry sigh, visible but not audible over the loudening sounds of the machinery in the room. “Well isn’t this goddamn fantastic” he fumed, “First this damn machine and now…”
The pistol lowered, and the pirate looked back towards the machine, which was still emitting occasional electrical arcs. “I’m no idiot, and I’m not looking to get killed. They sent me in here to figure out what was going wrong with the generator, and I’ll leave my gun here if you let me go.”
Ravenaca’s Watch, Patrol: V115, Arye, Mikael
The impromptu lance orbited the Ravenaca’s Watch as it approached the asteroid. It was an interesting sight, with no two craft alike. Fredricks’ Sparrowhawk, V115’s Banshee, Ayre’s Starbreaker and Mikael’s M19 all had matched speed, and assumed a formation.
After about a minute of flight time, V115 would receive a notification from Flight Control, showing a feed from the Watch’s cameras and sensors. As the sensors showed an increase in power output from the asteroid, the Operator would be able to observe rock beginning to crack.
As the exterior of several sections of the asteroid began to tumble away, large doors were revealed, and promptly began to open. “Eyes on some activity, Ensign, tasking you to investigate.” was the plaintext order that came along with the feed.
Sara's face managed to maintain the same expression despite Julio's bold statement. Before she issued the order to fire by shooting right at his head, the one person she somewhat dismissed showed a lot more spirit she thought possible. She tried to connect to the ship's computer, using the shuttle's communications systems to pass an image of the woman. But it was not working.
Mizumitsu Clan Rule Number 1: "Never dismiss an opponent or anyone else based on appearance. The smallest pebble has the greatest effect in the right situation."
"Watch out for any additional movement. Anyone recognize this woman?" Sara silently said to the squad's communication channel.
Sara eased up her stance ever so slightly as a show of some goodwill as she switched frequency to the detached party. "Made contact with pirates, be on the lookout for others."
She then focused mentally back to the present. "My name is Lieutenant Mizumitsu. You'll be detained and handed over to our law enforcement for prosecution for whatever crimes you may or may not have commenced. Those are the terms." she said plainly.
"If you are looking for a potential good word if you haven't done anything egregious, you are in luck. We came here to investigate this location. Cooperate with my questioning and I'll do what I can to lessen your sentences."
She waited for that to sink in for a moment before continuing.
"Judging by the alien language I have seen coming in, I assume you only found this place. Detected a spike in power output and raising. We detected a raising power spike, what is going on?"
She looked around at each of the pirates, gauging and analyzing their responses in their eyes/body language. She then waited for the elderly pirate's response.
Mikael maintained a position to the rear of the formation. "Well this is quickly starting to get out of hand." Mikael remarked as he watched from all around him as he went. He then focused and zoomed on the exposed large doors of the crumbling asteroid.
"Usually you build into an asteroid, but I think the asteroid itself was put on as camo." He continued, talking to no one in particular. He then decided to further investigate with his sensors and switched off his "mic".
"Beats, activating overwatch and diving into the TQR for a moment. You have flight control."
"That course of action is ill advisable Chui. As the last time you did that overwhelmed you. Request for an infomorph operator from the proper channel."
"You sound like my father..." Mikael said in jest.
"You have been in long enough to know an IES is only here to support you. But I think I know what you were after, commencing spectrum and MRD analysis of the doors and asteroid material."
As if going off the record, Beat-415 continues. "You could ask for permission for an Conclave operator to fill in the role. Keeping them isolated to the infomorph partition with permissions is possible."
"Yes, but we are not sure their systems are compatible with ours. Plus I can see SAINT blowing a gasket over the idea. Operative Instincts." Mikael said with a sigh. But it was a good idea worth a try after all...
Once the impromptu lance was formed up and orbiting the Watch on its movement towards the space rock in question, V115 pinged Harris Chui for an information request. Specifically, for presently available armaments and their specifications. She wanted to know what she was working with and how to employ her options correctly. Thinking on it further she decided it might be best to get such information from everyone in the lance since she had no idea how much rearming the deck crew was able to accomplish. "Firewalker, Fredricks, what are your available weapons systems and ammunition counts?" She didn't know if they would be encountering any hostilities but she'd prefer to be armed rather than a really expensive deterrent.
However it was only seconds later that she received the information feed and made visual contact with the asteroid breaking apart in certain sectors. She listened to Harris-chui's nondirected chatter and acknowledged it only with a calm, "Alright we've got orders to investigate, so stay alert people and watch your spacing. We don't know what's quite going on yet so the ROE for now is to return fire only. Until we know what we're dealing with our mission is still reconnaissance and protecting the Watch." Hopefully whatever was going to come out of those openings was not hostile, but if it wasn't she was more than prepared to fight.
Orlan kept his weapon trained on the pirate and informed him, "Drop the gun, though unfortunately I doubt you'll win your freedom that easily."
He listened to the information transmitted by Sara and gave a brief nod of understanding. While Orlan wanted to give the outmatched pirate the chance to do the right thing, he decided that it was ultimately up to Taro and the others that were with him regarding how the man should be dealt with. His words to them were, "I'll keep watch on this fella while the rest of you figure out the next course of action here."
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