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

Ravenaca’s Watch, Patrol:
Arye observed through the sensors that the Starbreaker had passed through the opening allowing the fighter to enter space. This allowed the Operator a clear view of the space around her, as she formed up with her wing mates. She received communication from V but sice she’d recently updated her personal style of loadout she knew it was possible she didn’t know.

Ma’am, my current loadout is
x2 Hyper-Shift Rotary Chaingun set up with Star fire ammo
x6 FiveR Missile Pod
x4 S6-TBOM Rocket Pod System is accompanying the missile pods
x1 S6-Linear Rail Accelerated Tri-Barreled Plasma Cannon

Arye replied and then later she heard the next reply and replied “copy Wing leader!”

Away Team, detached party: Orlan, Taro

Taro looked from the pirate to Orlan before speaking to give the pirate orders. “Put the gun on the ground, and move over here, slowly.” The warrior-diplomat withdrew a set of concealed magnetic cuffs, and readied them.

When the pirate complied, she attached the cuffs to him, and turned toward the door. “Mercenary Snell, I’m going to take the prisoner back to Lt. Mizumitsu, you have some experience with mechanics, correct? If your armor can take it, can you try and figure out what’s going on with that machine?”

She then tapped on the side of her helmet, sending a communique to Sara, “One pirate apprehended, currently investigating what may be the source of the energy readings.”

Away Team: Sara

Some of the pirates grumbled at the mention of them still being charged, but it was clear that they were willing to cooperate, either out of a sense of resignation or self preservation, if the looks they gave the older woman was any indication the conclave wasn’t their only worry in that regard. “Your terms are… well, they’re certainly preferable to a firefight.” The elderly pirate said.

“We’ll cooperate. We’ve been hiding out in this asteroid for a little under two years now, it’s out of the normal lanes so it’s easy to hide traffic to and from, and the installation was already airtight when we found it. We’ve been leeching off of its generator, but we don’t know what caused the spike.” She explained carefully.

The rest of the pirates, meanwhile, were busying themselves with removing guns from holsters and unlimbering rifles from slings and sliding them into a pile on the floor, even the previously defiant Julio. It seemed like the elderly woman was influential.

Ravenaca’s Watch, Patrol: V115, Arye, Mikael

As V115 received the information from her lancemates, the doors on the asteroid finished opening, and metallic objects could be seen beginning to leave it. A quick activation of their frames’ and fighters’ camera magnification functions, and the pilots would be able to see what appeared to be geometric prisms of metal, tapered at one end.

The objects appeared to tumble slightly, before arranging themselves into various patterns. Upon seeing this, V115 would receive a message from Fredricks; “Lance Leader, I’m going to move ahead slightly so that we can get a sensor reading on the unknowns.” As he said this, the pilot began to pull ahead of the rest of the formation.

Away Team: Taro

"Understood ma'am," Orlan responded to Taro, relieved that the confrontation ended without violence. He looked toward the generator and responded to Taro's other question with, "That would be correct. I'll take a look at the generator to see what's causing these power surges."

Orlan felt no fear since his suit insulated him from electricity, so he stepped up to the machine and looked over the controls. He examined each part of the device to determine the cause of the spikes. If there was a console that allowed it, Orlan would use it to try to operate it and run a diagnostic to see if he could troubleshoot the issue. If the room lacked any such console, Orlan would continue to inspect the machine, cautious not to cause any extra damage to an already malfunctioning piece of equipment.

Ravenaca’s Watch, Patrol

As Fredericks moved up and communicated what he was doing, V115 began to send a data stream of her cameras back to the Watch for analysis. There was no telling what these things were going to do until they knew what they were. That lack of information bothered her, missing data was always a pain. Still she wanted to be sure that if things went sideways they'd be able to react quickly and effectively. "Firewalker, Harris-Chui, fan out and make sure that you have a clear sightline on the unknowns." Hopefully whatever was going on with the rock would be resolved soon enough. She didn't like the idea of getting into a shootout with unknown technology.

Ravenaca’s Watch, Patrol

She used her camera to get a look at the thing in front of her, and she’d heard Fredericks move and saw the feed as well. Silently in space, her thrusters flared up, to allow her to move and follow the order she was given by her Wingleader. “Copy that” She replied as she proceeded to fan out, but keep her camera on the unknown in front of her. She placed her digital thumb close to the firing button, ready to fire at the moment’s notice.

Away Team Sara

Mizumitsu Sara kept a neutral professional look on her face as she watched the pirates come to see reason. But internally was smiling to herself that she didn't need to ventilate more idiots in the universe. It went against the teachings of her father. She then motioned for the infantry to start restraining them once they were fully disarmed.

"I see. Being that you have been here for almost 2 years, have you learned anything about its previous inhabitants? Anything unusual that has happened here?" She said before receiving Orlan's message and replying to it in kind.

"Understood, keep me up to date on any new developments."

Mikael

"Beats, begin a deep scan on the objects. I have a really bad feeling about this..." Mikael said internally to his AI companion. He then moved into a more supportive position as he aimed his 155mm Linear Howitzer and rifle towards the objects.

"Roger Chui, commencing scans..."

Away Team, detached party: Orlan

As Orlan approached the machine, arcs of electricity danced across his armor, briefly causing his vision screen to flicker before surge protectors kicked in and redirected the current safely into the ground beneath him. He was able to find a console, though the writing on it was all alien.

However, there was also a screen attached to the console, translating the alien language into Trade. The pirates must have been attempting to control the machine, or at least understand it. As he ran a diagnostic, much of the information that he received was mistranslated gibberish, but what did come through and was able to be understood were the words “[Crystoform-signal detected… installation defenses… activating.]”

Away Team: Sara, Taro

As Taro escorted the prisoner to Sara’s position through the almost labyrinthine alien passageways, the pirate squirmed a little, clearly uncomfortable with the rough handling. “You know,” The android pointed out in a teasing voice, “Fidgiting’s a bad habit, tends to make girls uncomfortable.”

The pirate, taking the hint, became more cooperative.

Meanwhile, back in the room full of pirates, Sara’s fireteam were undertaking the task of cuffing the pirates. “We’ve mostly left the machinery we don’t understand alone,” The pirate leader explained to the Mizumitsu, “Translation efforts never got very far, but from what little we could understand it seemed like this base was guarding against something. It never acted up like this until a few days ago, though, when some of your ships were out in the area placing those target drones of yours.”

Alpha Lance: V115, Arye, Mikael, Fredricks

As Fredricks moved forward, his frame’s sensors were able to get a better read on the strange objects. Information flowed through the lance’s shared data-links; [Substance unknown, chemically similar to Nerimium]. The organic pilot ventured closer, within 1000 kilometers now, and the information kept coming.

“The energy signal’s growing stronger, Lance Leader, but the computers don’t recognize the power signature, these things are powered by something we’ve never seen before!” Fredricks’ computer-synthesized voice was one of excitement, and back on the Ravenaca’s Watch, his pulse quickened within his Anima pod.

Suddenly, the machine began to move, the metal prisms swirling as it zipped towards Fredrick’s machine, impossibly fast. The flowing movement of its floating component prisms seemed almost organic, reminiscent of a sea creature. Once near his machine, its size was apparent, it dwarfed his variable frame, ancient metal flashing occasionally in the dim starlight that reached out this far, and a pair of thin prisms began to reach towards his machine.

Away Team: Generator Room

Orlan was confused for a moment at the strange new language, but grew relieved when he saw words that he could understand. He observed the translations, though he felt his heart rate speed up when he saw the words "installation defenses...activating."

He was not sure if he would be beset upon by turrets or something worse, but he knew that danger was coming and it was time to prepare. With haste, he contacted the rest of the away team warning, "Snell to away team, be advised, working with the generator brought me a message about installation defenses coming online. I don't know what these defenses entail, but you better prepare for a fight."

Orlan turned to any away team troops that accompanied him to the generator room and ordered, "Take up defensive positions. We may come under attack soon."

The weaponry on the power armor was prepared for combat. Orlan anticipated whatever would try to put the hurt on them.

Away Team: Sara

"Understood, I thank you for your cooperation." Sara said with a professionally crafted smile. She then nodded for the infantry to secure the new prisoners, remarking in her internal notes the pirates cooperation after surrendering should be taken into account. She then switched to her internal communication, her lips do not move as she looks around.

"Ravenaca’s Watch-actual, Lt Mizumitsu. We have discovered a facility of alien origin and made contact with a group of pirates hiding within. They have surrendered and require pick up if we are to explore further into the facility. Sending images of the alien script for linguistics analysis. The pirate leader believes the facility is for guarding something and as she says 'Started freaking out by our preparations for the combat trial a few days back."

Alpha Lance: Mikael

Mikael watched as the the visual size of the object matched what his sensors being fed to his mind said. As curious as he was in conducting further analysis and research on it, he sensed the immediate danger Fredricks had put himself in by deciding to get up and personal with his scanning. He initial reaction was to issue out a command to pull back and providing covering fire as it was a combat situation seemingly getting worse. But he wasn't in command, so instead he simply trained his weapons to fire as soon as the order was issued.

Though he was wondering what other secrets it and the facility have not revealed yet.

Arye performs evasive maneuvers.

Installation Exterior - Patrol Lance

V115 watched her mental HUD as her processing of the immediate situation expanded and appointed more internal resources to the task at hand. Performing calculations on firing solutions for her primary weapons she followed her own orders and moved to get a clear line of sight upon the unknowns. However as she did so they accelerated and moved toward the closest foreign object, in this case Fredricks. It was difficult to process their speed as they closed the distance between the rock and her subordinate, but she managed to bark out an order as they began to reach for his frame. "Fredricks pull back now!" she ordered over their lance's internal frequency.

At this distance firing seemed risky, if her calculations were wrong, if Fredericks made an unexpected movement, or any number of other possible variables occurred they might hit their ally in the process of trying to defend him. Not to mention that they hadn't actually been attacked yet, so her hands were metaphorically tied by the ROE. Her mind rapidly sent a digital communication back to the Watch, 'Unknown object with self propulsion sighted and trying to approach our forces, please advise.'

Away Team, detached party: Orlan

As Orlan sent his report, a hidden door opened in the ceiling with the sound of metal-on-metal, and he could see a diamond-shaped metallic object, about the size of his power armor, lower itself down. He could hear similar sounds coming from outside the generator room. The prism seemed to split, apart, metal appendages with no apparent joints folding away from the main body as it began to approach the mercenary.

Away Team: Sara, Taro

Over the comms network, Sara could hear the captain respond to her. “Roger Away Team lead, if you believe that the structure is dangerous please alert us and prepare for extraction, we’ll send the shuttle back for you. Be aware that we’re also dealing with a situation outside of the installation as well, there is an unknown construct in close proximity with the patrol, and its intentions are unknown.”

As she spoke to the captain, the pirates looked over to Sara and the elderly pirate spoke up. “Well, are we going to get a ride out of here for our troubles? How does the Conclave treat those who surrender?”

Alpha Lance: V115, Arye, Mikael, Fredricks

As V115 gave Fredricks the order to pull back, she could see the pilot make an attempt to evade the machine, the human’s sparrowhawk extending its legs to counter his inertia and change direction, but as everyone looked on it was too little and too late.

The prisms that were reaching for his fighter seemed to stretch, becoming more like pointed lances, and one drove through his fighter, entering through the topside and puncturing through to one of the legs, and the other punching straight through the cockpit.

On their magnified optics, the lance could see the glass drift away from the empty cockpit, and back on the Ravenaca’s Watch the pilot’s body jerked in his Anima chamber. It was still unclear as to whether or not the human had transferred out of the Sparrowhawk in time.

“Ravenaca’s Watch Actual to Patrol Lance Actual, what’s going on out there? We’ve just lost Fredricks’ Sparrowhawk!”

Away Team

Orlan peered up at the sound and saw the odd being spawn from it. He had no clue what it was, nor what it was capable of. Attacking it may just prove foolish for Orlan and upon seeing the tentacles emerging from the machination that moved toward him, he decided that he did not want to learn what it was capable of and pulled back. When Orlan exited the generator room, if there was a button that controlled the generator room door he would press it hoping that the door would shut this unknown entity in. He recalled hearing similar noises from outside the room, but he was unsure of where it was. Right now, Orlan figured that the best course of action was to leave the station.

Contact was made to the away team once again, "Snell to the away team, I have encountered diamond-like machinations that I strongly believe are the defenses of this station. I recommend we exit the station as soon as possible."

If he found any soldiers of the away team under threat from these metal beings, then Orlan would prepare to engage despite the foolhardiness of such brashness.

Patrol Lance, Station Exterior

V115 watched in what almost felt like slow motion as the unknown object pierced into her subordinate's frame and disabled it with two solid blows. She hoped that he had disconnected in time but part of her knew that it may have been an unlikely outcome. "Patrol Lance Actual here, the unknown object has attacked and rendered Frederick's frame inoperable. Transmitting combat footage... now. Requesting update to standing orders and permission to engage over."

Patrol Lance, Station Exterior
Arye watched the scene before her as the attack hits. She knew she would have to wait for V’s orders. She thought that what they were facing was clearly hostile, and thought it should be fine to attack, but she’d wait as she knew she should but should she be attacked she will defend herself.

Patrol Lance, Station Exterior

Mikael's unconscious body twitched as it failed to match his desire to facepalm. They just watched the entity commence hostile actions on a squad mate and she is asking for permission to fire. In the meantime, not knowing fully what the properties of the entity's exterior, he started switching the loaded 155mm round from the HE round loaded to an AP variety.

Away Team: Sara
"Diamond constructs have been reported within the station, situation is getting hot here too. Requesting extraction" She said mentally to the Watch after she received Orlan's transmission. If she didn't have to contend with prisoners, she was confident they would be able to explore more thoroughly. But with the surrendered pirates, their lives were her responsibility now.

"Of course. As surrendered suspects, you will be guarded and turned over to our law enforcement for processing and prosecution. For now, your are effectively PoWs." She said before motioning for their weapons to be collected. She had a feeling she was going to need the pirates help fighting off any hostiles if things get worse.

"Let's return to our extraction point." Sara said to both her squad and the pirates. She looked over at their leader, realizing she still had not volunteered her name. "Ms ..."

Away Team: Taro

Taro had remained largely an impartial observer thus far, her purple eyes running thousands of calculations a second each time they detected the slightest flex of a muscle or shift in stance that might indicate a sudden change of heart from the pirates. They seemed to be scared but co-operative so far, something the elegant android was grateful for as she took a few steps to further close the distance between the two parties.

Unneeded bloodshed was just that, unneeded.

"As she said, relinquish your toys and you'll be escorted out of here, I'm not asking you to trust our word as individuals but rather the statutes and laws under which we serve," she stated coldly, shrugging a mostly empty bag off one shoulder and tossing it onto the floor expectantly.

"We've said our part, so, are you willing to play nice?"

Away Team, detached party: Orlan
As Orlan made to escape the room, the generator’s output continued to grow unabated, and the construct pursued him, floating about three feet above the ground, its p-like limbs reaching out and occasionally sending arcs of electricity off into the wall or floors.

Outside of the generator room, he found the worst that he had expected, two NDC soldiers were taking cover behind a corner in the corridor, and another metallic prism construct was approaching as they fired ineffectual potshots at it with their rifles.

Away Team: Sara, Taro
“Affirmative Away Team Lead” EVE6 said over the radio to Sara, “We’re sending the shuttle back, make your way to the landing site with your prisoners, make sure to have your team turn on their helmet-cams so that we can gather data.”

As the infantrymen and the pirates began to move through the halls, the old woman spoke up again. “Maren Carey, but you can call me whatever you want so long as you get us off this rock in one piece.” The elderly pirate matriarch turned to look at Taro, cocking her head for a moment in a way that gave the impression that she was trying very hard to see the gynoid’s face through the polarized visor.

“As I told your commander, we’ll play nice for now so long as you treat us well.” As the pirate spoke, the group rounded a corner, coming face to face with the same kind of construct that Orlan had reported, though the mercenary was nowhere to be seen.

Alpha Lance: V115, Arye, Mikael, Fredricks

The radio response came to V115 almost immediately from CAG Fletcher “Take it out if you can. If you keep any pieces intact we’ll collect them later, but your safety and the safety of your lance is to be your first priority. Retreat to the ship’s point defense bubble if necessary.” As none of the lance had acted yet, the construct retracted its lancelike arms, folding seamlessly back into its nearly perfectly smooth geometric body.

A band of light flashed across their various spacecraft, a bright green highlighting the contours of each pilot’s “body” before the construct seemed to turn in place, and take off at high speed towards a point between the Ravenaca’s Watch and the asteroid it had emerged from. A simple camera zoom at the location would show any curious pilots that the construct was headed towards a shuttle that was on its way to the asteroid.

Away Team

One construct was chasing Orlan and another was assailing two NDC soldiers. The rounds coming out of his allies' weapons seemed to be having little effect on the construct coming after them. This was not the situation that Orlan found to be ideal. He fired off a bolt of electricity at the construct that was on his heels hoping that it would be more effective than the soldiers' weapons. Another thunder bolt was launched at the construct that was coming upon the soldiers.

He was tempted to slam into the construct that was closest to the soldiers with his fists, but he felt that was ill-advised. Orlan yelled to the NDC members, "Forget trying to take it down! We need to rendezvous with the others and get off this station!"

Orlan recalled the route taken upon entering the station and where the team split up despite his protest. He would stick close to the soldiers as they would hopefully make their way to the evacuation point.

Patrol Lance

V115 felt the slightest twinge of irritation at the rules for first contact as she waited what felt like minutes for command to respond. The last thing they needed to do was cause some kind incident that pissed off some kind of an advanced neighboring species, yet this thing had just taken out one of her own and it left a bitter taste in her mouth. Still when they did respond it came with a green light to engage which in a way soothed any irritation she felt. "The ROE have been updated, we are green to engage," she echoed back to her lance over their internal frequency.

It was then that the unknown seemed to stand down and scan each of them. Curious, but if only it had taken that level of restraint for Fredericks. V115 mentally switched off the safety mechanisms on her weapons before watching as the Unknown sped off away from her lance. Where was it going? She zoomed in with her frame's optics as it didn't seem to be heading back to its base within the asteroid. That was when she spotted a shuttle heading for the rock. "Patrol Lance Actual here, the unknown has disengaged and is approaching a shuttle on route to the asteroid. Pursuing now."

Accelerating from her standstill she began to move after the unknown. "Heads up Firewalker, Harris-chui, the unknown is approaching a shuttle. Follow me and if you get a clear shot that doesn't endanger the shuttle take it." Weapons now online she lined up both Diadem Cannons for a shot as she tried to collect data on the unknown including relative speed, maneuverability, and reaction time. Assuming she had a clear line of fire she'd take it.