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  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

RP [Ravenaca's Watch] Rhythm

Whisper

Retired Staff
RP Date
YE 43
RP Location
Sanctum System, Asteroid Belt
"Helllloooo everyone!" called out a cheerful voice on the screen. A busty woman in something that looked like a Mithril crossed with a bikini appeared on the screen. She made a double finger gun pose across a thrust-out hip as she smiled dazzlingly.

"You're tuned into Dusk After Dark, the NDC's one-and-only underground thrill show!"

The camera drew back, revealing a lean, yet muscular man, his deeply cut abs and pecs on full display. He, too, wore something like the NDC's military - this time, a knock-off officer's coat with the sleeves torn off to reveal his arms. Where the woman's hair had been long and brilliantly pink, his was blue with a short, swept forward cut.

"That's right, Amura! For your eyes only, our dear audience, we've secured a connection to the NDC's newest warship - the Ravenaca's Watch! We've got it on good authority that the ship's eclectic mix of crew, new tech, and overall mission should keep us entertained for months to come!"

"Ooo!" said the woman, Amura, leaning towards the camera in a tantalizing way. "How'd we pull off getting access to all that?"

The man grinned, crossing his arms across his chest in a way that let him show off his biceps. "It's ... a secret!"

"Rayyy!" she cried in response, pouting dramatically. "To help me get over this heartache, you're going to have to let me watch!"

'Ray' grinned towards the camera in a confidential sort of way, then winked before turning to Amura. "Well, I think we can arrange that.. Alright, Duskers! Your front row seats for the Watch's first war game starts right now!"

Sanctum System
Space
Your regular dose of mecha music - The Winner, from Gundam 0083


Fighters and frames poured out of the belly of the NDS Ravenaca's Watch as the gravity launch system propelled them out in turn from the hangar, subjecting each pilot to considerable G-forces that their cockpits were, thankfully, designed to dampen.

Dozens of allied craft filled the space around the ship as the launch completed, falling into loose formations. Little guidance had been given around lances or squadrons, and even the specifics of the combat itself seemed to have been kept surprisingly loose.

Until now.

"Hello, ghosts," came a familiar woman's face across the comms. "This is your Captain, EVE6. I'm looking forward to seeing how you all perform in today's combat exercise. Squad assignments and more will be influenced by the data we gather today, so do your best!

I know you've all been informed already, but while this is just an exercise, your opponents will be trying to take you out. There's little risk of dying, but if your frame or fighter are too damaged you may find yourself sitting out of combat for quite a while waiting for repairs.

Oh, and there's one small surprise mixed in among all those drones, but I won't spoil it. Good luck!"

Across the asteroid belt, hundreds of drones activated, firing up their thrusters and testing out their maneuverability. The thin, white streaks looked like a sky full of falling stars. Then, their onboard VIs deciding collectively on the best course of action, they disappeared into the protection of the dense field of rocks.

Larger masses, too, lit up, shields flaring to life and weapons coming online. These were fully functional salvaged ships, armed to the teeth and operated by VIs, as well. They didn't try to hide - instead, they signaled the start of the combat by opening up with a salvo of weapons fire meant to shock and disperse the Watch's frame screen before engaging directly.

And, floating mere inches above one of the larger rocks on the border of the field of operation, was a single red Sparrowhawk in fighter form. The pilot inside brushed some blonde hair away from his silver mask and smiled a cruel smile as he took in the veritable buffet of targets he'd get to play with very soon.
 
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Steiner stomped forward, de-magnetizing his machine's feet as a number of his drones, around twelve in total, began to nudge him forward-their thrusters propelling to a comfortable, if slow, speed. As his machine wasn't designed for space combat, he opted to take a second line approach, letting the more aggressive-or green-pilots go first. When the salvo was fired at them, he powered his EM screen up and hung back near the launch bay-mag-locking to the hull, the Warden's sensors scanning for the inevitable damaged friendly units when it hit.
 
Lounge
While most of the personnel not currently otherwise occupied (and even some who were meant to be working) had gathered around to watch the battle unfold and discuss each minute detail with a small group of their co-workers there was a rather eye-catching woman of some vague Yama-Nep ancestory sitting by herself at a booth, scrolling through a slim datapad with a half-drank flute of expensive-looking champagne sitting beside her.

And of course, after seeing the curves packed into to woman's leather jacket and Mithril suit combination, a particularly amorous security guard walked a few meters from their post to chat her up.

This had been a very one-sided conversation for a few minutes now...

The pale, drop-dead gorgeous woman let out a quiet chuckle, which renewed the security-guard's efforts before a glare from eyes as purple as a nebula cut them off.

"Oh, no, that was not directed towards yourself~" the seated woman began, almond-shaped eyes tightening a little before she continued with a sigh.

"To be honest I forgot you were here, with a tongue as blunt as that I fear you'd have difficulty hitting on me with even the finest blade of clan Ketsurui, so your efforts are probably better spent returning to your post... Trooper Patel~" the snowy woman finished after quickly scanning the stranger's face, the faintest of smirks lighting up her fair features and with that the security guard retreated, fuzzy little tail between their legs.

With that painful interaction out of the way, Taro returned to what she had been doing. Namely scrolling through international news on that datapad as svelte as her waistline while simultaneously processing two video feeds, both what was being broadcasted throughout the ship and what was being bounced through a network node the synthetic woman had set up specifically to spoof her location through.

Well, one of them at least, an Ambassador could never have too many.

With a triumphant little sigh, an entirely unnecessary one that served only to make the gynoid feel better about herself, Ms Emerson put down her datapad and took a dainty sip from her eternally chilled drink. Taking this small break in reading to scan around the room as the video feeds continued being processed in the background for anything she should pay attention to - offering a perfectly executed little wave to one of the more openly political Ambassadors as they walked past her.

The kiddies could have their fun and spectacle flexing their wings in front of the crowds as much as they wanted for all she cared, the woman simply did not want to get dragged into it all unless necessary.
 
Lounge

The growl of his stomach was all it took to convince Orlan to seek out a meal after all. He departed the smaller lounge room and proceeded down the corridor to a more livelier one. No doubt these people would be interested in seeing how these new frames would play out, and he wanted to bear witness to it as well. Orlan spotted a rather gorgeous woman sitting at a booth by herself, though he was more interested in food and walked over to a table where he made himself a ham and cheese sandwich. As Orlan watched the live feed, one of the officers, an Ensign judging from his insignia stepped alongside him and with a prideful smile asked, "Those frames are beauts aren't they?"

Orlan looked around the room, knowing that some of the observers may not be fond of someone speaking their negative opinion about mechs in general. His voice became lower and he told the Ensign, "In the looks department sure, but you're better off using a swarm of starfighters if you want to achieve the same result."

The Ensign's smile fades and he asks, "How so?"

"Smaller profile and faster too. Those frames are just big targets with hundreds of parts waiting to get broken," Orlan responded.

A light-hearted chuckle escaped the Ensign and he walked away from Orlan saying, "I think you're just jealous that you never qualified to be part of the program."

A small smirk formed on Orlan and he muttered, "I never signed up for it."

He then took another bite of his sandwich.
 
Ravenaca's Watch, Exterior

Now in fighter configuration and within the vacuum of space, V115 activated a series of autonomic subroutines within the more machine and rather subconscious part of her mind. These subroutines would assist her by processing targeting data, trajectories, and other important details like heat management in her weapons. With how green it seemed most of the crew was she wasn't really sure if she should be forming up on a particular individual or not and before she could even begin to think about that some others had formed up on her due to the simply fact that she had launched earlier than most. The operator mentally sighed before a familiar voice came over the coms.

A surprise? she thought to herself with a small bit of annoyance, those were never a good thing in her opinion. Neither was this test being used so heavily to judge them. However she had little time to think upon such facts as her targeting data quickly updated when the drones activated and began moving. A mere fraction of a moment after that, the enemy ships began to launch a salvo of weapons fire in their direction. It was slightly unnerving but this wasn't the first time she'd undergone a live fire exercise. So it was that she held her position, knowing that the Watch would respond with counter measures of it own. Though she did do a quick double check to make sure she wasn't blocking the Watch's firing solution.

In the moments before things really kicked off she formed a com chain between her own Banshee and the other frames that had formed up on her. She also noted their call signs and committed them to memory. V115 scanned the battlefield as she waited patiently in those final seconds before combat really began. "Be ready, we're going drone hunting the moment that the Watch opens fire."
 
Ceilia had changed to alt mode, her frame now cruising around the edge of the battle. Her sensors observed the progression of battle in high detail. The data flowed into her and back into the machine like a heart pumping crimson life through a body. It was a high she loved, one that she only got to feel when in a frame, the sheer amount just vast in it's quantity.

Her normal body could never process this kind of information, but being in a system that could, was a wonderful feeling. She simply peeled those extra stores and processes off when switching and leaving them there for next time. It was a strange part of being an AI, one that she had to adjust to althose years ago. But now it was an unshakable part of her being.

All the units of either side were marked one by one in rapid succession on her sensors. She was here to observe, and save if things got out of hand. The data collected would be of great value to the military going forward, especially with how so much changed since the founder's death.

She owed her life to that man, and to her late husband for the reason to let it flourish. So she would do her part to help keep the memory of both moving forward. Outside of her personal life, and her children, there was something greatly of interest to her here too. Somewhere out in that field, was a new child waiting to be discovered by their mother. The prospect made her giddy, a driving force for her work today.
 
Mikael had decided to take an active observer position, lagging behind the rest of the NDC frames a bit. Yamataian spacy power armor strategies were fairly aggressive as if you kill something fast, it doesn't keep handing out weapons fire towards you. But he wasn't here to be a total Yamataian Banner bearer, he was here to learn.

"Releasing Nodal Drones Chui" Beat-415 said to Mikael when the enemy drones began were detected within the asteroid belt. The two drone backs on the shoulder blades of the Ryoko slid open before small drones began to fly out and orbit around the Mecha.

"Ugh... I wish they had sent an infomorph with me. I am going to dive into the TQP-RDD to see if I can figure what this 'surprise' is. You have control. Keep a track of their signatures and predict probable movements. Attack if targeted, but priority is defensive observation for now." Mikael mentally said to his KIES' AI.

"Understood Chui." Beat-415 responded with the slightest of chuckles. Considering the experience with other softer spoken IES AIs, Mikael still was getting use of the personality of Beat-415. He seriously reminded him of a movie's portrayal of a Yakuza enforcer.

Mikael's virtual HUD reduced his camera view of the space around him to a small window before the majority of his view is replaced with empty space. Initiating a level 8 active scan, announcing his already known presence, a virtual representation began to fill as the scan was completed. The TQP-RDD returned to passive once completed.

"Now... let's see what we have here..." Mikael said, largely to himself as he focused on what was moving for tracking purposes and what didn't look like a typical asteroid, still patched into the comms.
 
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Ravenaca's Watch - Cyberspace

As she felt more and more of the frames launched, Gale couldn't help but shiver slightly, each one feeling like a tickling on her tail as they did so. Still, she focused on the job at hand. She didn't bother focusing on the small fighter-sized drones. Her focus was on the larger ships, and the oncoming salvos of fire from the larger ships. Turning on the Ancile once the last of the craft had launched, she began to turn the ship to face the fire, presenting the smallest possible target for the oncoming fire. Adjusting her own aim, she narrowed her eyes, focusing on the first ship. "Engaging hostile ship. First salvo a mixture of Cluster and Fusion. Salvo away." She said, as the first 12 missiles launched from the Watch. Even as they did so, Gale was already already shifting her gaze to focus on the next ship.
 
Ravenaca's Watch, Exterior

Flying in the main thrust with the other frames, Eva 751 felt the rush of data from her Banshee in her mind, everything from the comms bursts between the other frames and the Watch to the minute attitude controls that flashed into action subconsciously to keep the formation tight. It was a thrill for the newly minted ghost, a euphoric connection of pilot to machine in a way that the simulations could never have prepared her for. In another way it was almost like being finally complete.

Eva couldn't stop smiling to herself even as she pushed those thoughts to background processes to fully concentrate on the immediate situation. She had formed up alongside V115, checking her urge to fly out ahead of the pack and to get to grips with the enemy, exercise or no. There'll be plenty of time for that, she assured herself, even as she anxiously checked and rechecked the calculations for a firing solution on the approaching enemy, finger poised on the trigger as she waited for the signal.
 
The asteroid field lit up with hundreds of explosions, white-hot spheres casting blinding light across the battlefield as the Watch's missiles struck. The projectiles and energy blasts hurtling towards the Watch struck the ship's gravity-distorting shield and seemed to slide all the way around the bubble - resuming their journey on the other side like nothing had ever been in their way. The shields, having been made for much greater attacks than those, barely made a dent on the ship's significant energy reserves.

EVE6 nodded appreciatively. Gale could have tried to shoot down the incoming rounds and let the normal shields deal with the rest, but that had been a well-timed response. She looked back to the ship's Navigator, seeing the woman's partially-obscured naked form drifting in the Ghost Chamber at the back of the bridge.

"Not exactly military standard, but if she can deliver results I could care less," thought the captain. She put her focus back on the volumetric display before her. Gale's attack hadn't done much to thin out the number of drones, but it had done a wonderful job of reducing their cover. Many of the large asteroids had been broken apart significantly.

Of course, that brought its own kind of navigational hazards. What had been a fairly wide-open space was now littered with asteroid chunks. Many of them were bouncing off of each other, adding to the confusion. It would be a good opportunity to see how her pilots could maneuver.

---

Not wanting to give up the advantage offered to them, a dozen of the Watch's frames shot forth towards the asteroid field. The drones responded, weaving among the asteroids to ward off any attempts at long-range sniping, and took shots at the incoming frames where they could. Soon, the asteroid belt was a flurry of thruster trails and energy blasts.

In EVE6's periphery, a scoreboard popped up. It wasn't what she'd use to judge the pilot's performances, but a little rivalry never hurt. She reached out, took hold of the volumetric scoreboard, and tossed it into the representation of the battlefield in front of her. Every Ghost out in the field got a non-obtrusive alert allowing them to display it for their own purposes - if they wished. On feeds inside the ship, it appeared at the corner of the feed.

The scores weren't very high so far - the #1 slot was held by a Ghost with only four confirmed kills - but the battle had only been active for a couple of minutes at most.

---

On the battle's edge, the red Sparrowhawk's pilot watched the scene with interest.

"Ho~, looks like they aren't quick to throw themselves to the wolves," he said with a thin smile.

"It seems that way," replied an ambient voice. "I don't have any data on that purple frame with the small drones. A new model?"

The pilot pulled up a display, showing the frame in question in a closer view. "Interesting. Yamataian? Seems like they made a friend."

"The gun design suggests that it may be a long-range model," said the voice, pensively.

Leaning back, the pilot laced his fingers together. "Mm. We'll let them play for a little while before getting involved. Timing matters when it comes to this sort of thing."

The voice replied in a chipper tone, "Of course, Sir Aznoble."
 
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Arye had launched with the other fighters with a sense of exhilaration and glee as she got into position and had waited. Much like V had, Arye too activated her autonomic subroutines which she knew would aid her in battle, especially in the fighter she was Ghosting in. It connected her comms to V’s communications and she smiled as she heard her speak. “Drone hunting sounds like it might be a good time.” She couldn’t help but reply, which came through to V’s comms. “Oh my,” she commented as she watched the drone-enemy activate themselves. The smile faded as she focused on action.

It wouldn’t do to act lazy and sloppy, especially since she knew the higher-ups might be watching. She wanted to give a good impression, and she wanted to be made a Knight too, so she knew that working hard, and impressing the higher-ups will achieve that. As she saw the enemy attack, she felt the urge to fire her weapons, but she heard she needed to wait for the Watch to fire. When it had, she launched herself forward with the others and fired her Swarm rockets from their pods, and her singular Cerberus canon at the enemy missiles.

As she pressed forward, the craft turned in a forward-facing horizontal spin. Whether this helped with the targeting and the attacking would remain to be seen, but she knew that if she was careful, she could dodge using the spin.
 
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Mikael meticulously mapped out the asteroid field in the immediate battlefield, marking anything that more energetic than should be allowed in nature. Not having a clear chain of command beyond the CAG officer, he simply just kept a local copy of his results for the time being.

"Detecting a lone sparrowhawk, doesn't seem to be particularly hiding. Designating as Victor 1" Beat-415 said as a simple voice avatar appeared in a corner of Mikael's vision. "Keep an eye on it, its not displaying proper IFF so likely not a simple observer. Wha..." Mikael said before stopping.

Beyond the immediate battleground, Mikael was detecting a number of occupied asteroids with energy output increasing at a steady rate. Mikael was about to initiate a remote scan when a multitude of asteroids were designed by the RW. Unable to handle the massive increase of data, Mikael lost his concentration and pushed back into "normal" space of the Thought Software. The Ryoko stuttered for a moment as Beat-415, by design of his limiters was forced to hand control back to Mikael. It took a few seconds for Mikael to clear his mind and right the mecha.

He looked around and noticed the scoreboard and instantly became more annoyed. "Well this establishes a few ideas... " he said internally to Beat-415. For once, the AI didn't respond at all beyond a what seemed like a grunt.

"Enough observing. Beat, determine if your tactical network connection is compatible with their systems, establish a sensor link, and share our discoveries with them. The asteroids with increasing power signatures marked as romeo are particularly of interest." Mikael said before he kept a wary eye on the red sparrowhawk as he started opening fire on the drones in the reduced Beam mode and his drones ready to shot down any missiles making their way to him.

Acting as a sniper, he took slow and precise shots of teal light at drones that were trying to maneuver around less experienced frame pilots or overextended pilots trying to add to their scoreboard points. It helped that his tracking was enhanced by his earlier scans, he had a slightly easier chance to predict the drone's movements as they to avoid long-range sniping.
 
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Lounge

Orlan continued to watch the session play out on the monitors. His sandwich continued to decrease in size as he bit off more and more of it until there was none left. He observed the frames and fighters go through the combat simulation. The pilots appeared to be skillful so far, but he waited for something to go wrong as much as he did not want to. Malfunctions such as an engine failure or a weapon locking up were ever present threats, even Orlan's power armor was not immune to the uncaring trickster of systems becoming faulty. He figured that the engineers were competent enough to have made sure that the frames were functional and ready to go.

These pilots getting either hurt or killed was the last thing that Orlan wanted, especially in a live training exercise. He observed one of the frames and imagined himself trying to pilot one and failing miserably on the first go. There was a reason he stayed away from bipedal combat walkers, and the situation would have to be extremely dire for him to need to pilot one. Orlan let out a low scoff, doubting that such an event would ever come to pass during his lifetime.
 
Arye's voice brought a slight smile to V115's face as she patiently waited for the action to begin. Communicating with solely Arye's unit, she replied with "No need to sit around waiting to get picked off right?" However the drones soon powered up and the larger ships launched their salvo of fire at the watch. V115 watched as weapons collided in space with each other and with the various asteroids. At the moment of impact her Banshee's thrusters lit up as they came to life before propelling her in fighter form towards the enemy as the tip of her formation.

While in route the scoreboard appeared upon her HUD, with a slight huff of annoyance she instantly closed it. Now speaking to her formation she simply said, "Don't worry about your individual scores, we're a unit and don't forget that. Watch each other's backs and stay focused." Part of her didn't know if that was the right thing to say, and she wondered if her individual biases were getting in the way. It just sounded like something one of her instructors would have said if she was being honest with herself. Though what she was of sure of is that she was beginning to feel some measure of the weight of responsibility for the other greenhorns that had formed up with her. This was a live fire exercise, and while she was used to participating in those, her leadership experience in them was lacking.

Now approaching the drone's defensive line, the incoming fire was growing thicker forcing V115 to plot out a course through the barrage of pot shots and debris. Her subroutines did most of the heavy lifting by projecting anticipated movement of both hazards, allowing her to better navigate the fray. Part of her wondered if any of her formation were organics and if they could keep up but she quickly pushed such distracting thoughts to the side. As V115's formation zipped around the remnants of one of the asteroids they encountered a grouping of drones. Some had their "backs" turned to them while others were moving straight for them. In her minds eye she squeezed the triggers of her two Diadem cannons. One shot missed, but the other landed and even a glancing blow was enough to split the drone along the beam. Her first kill of the exercise. Of course her formation also managed to snag a few more for themselves.

However now was when things got hard. The rest of the drones that had been hiding behind the asteroid moved to return fire...
 
Steiner had been trailing the main line when the Watch had been hit, his drones unable to keep up with his fellow pilots rapid pace. He had barely gotten clear when he'd run into the impromptu asteroid shower. 'Well this complicates things.' He growled internally as he narrowly avoided being plastered by an asteroid the size of a small car. He thought he saw the glint of metal, but decided now was not the time. Using said asteroids, as means to catch up, either by hitching a ride by grabbing on to one, or a rather interesting game of leap frog-in this case with deadly rocks that could break him apart if he didn't watch it.

Floating up and over another large asteroid using his battlefist to maneuver himself along it, the Sentinel spotted trouble; a wing of drones had decided to use a group of frames just as their leader snapped off a pair of shots that sliced one of them and completely missed the other. They would likely need support-for both repairs and combat. 'Time to earn my keep.' Raising his cannon, his own drones steadying him as he took aim. The heat levels in his machine rose briefly-the Warden's cooling systems struggling to cope in vacuum as he fired, the blue white beam lancing out at the formation of drones...
 
Ravenaca's Watch - Cyberspace

Noting the barrage of 6 cluster missiles and 6 fusions did more than take out the singular targeted ship. There wasn't much of it left, and the asteroids around it had been turned into so much spinning debris to add further complications to the exercise. Still, the overkill had served a purpose. The target ship had not survived the cluster, breaking apart before all the clusters munitions had expended itself on the spot. It still took the remaining submuntions to fully 'kill' the target though. What this told Gale was valuable. Fact number 1) She didn't need to use a lot of munitions to take out the larger targets. Fact number 2) Cluster munitions were enough for most of them, it seemed their hulls and other protections were subpar, likely slapped together in a hurry to be put into place for this exercise. She had more missiles than she needed, but she doubted she'd have the advantage of angles of fire for long.

"First hostile ship removed. Shifting fire to target first cluster of hostile ships. Initiating changeover of currently loaded fusion missiles to cluster missiles in Pod Alpha. Change over ETC 30 seconds. Painting targets 2-13 for cluster munitions." Gale reported to the bridge, even as she felt the missile pod in question open the tube and begin moving the missiles around, putting the fusion warheads back into the magazine for them, while pulling out the cluster warheads. She'd started the process when she'd began speaking, so her estimated time to completion was for how long left at that time. Her 'eyes' were already shifting and lingering on each of her selected victims long enough to build a flight track from the pop point for each missile out of the pod to hit hte targets in question. If any of them survived this salvo, her plan was simple, follow-up with the pair of Cerberus she bore.

"Pod loaded, missiles away." She stated, fighting the urge to sneeze as the pod emptied all 12 tubes popped open and the heat and smoke cleared them as the initial stage launchers did their thing. Soon all twelve missiles tilted and angled themselves for their pre-planned flight paths, and soon rocketed away. "Reloading pod. Mixing Fusion and Cluster missiles. Captain, I expect the target ships will either begin to perform evasive maneuvers or use the asteroid field more effectively after this salvo impacts. Do you wish for me to enter the field and engage at knife range, or remain at distance with missiles?" She asked, not wanting to bring the main gun to bear on this test, not unless a target worthy of it showed up for this test as a surprise.
 
Ravenaca's Watch, Flight Control

Fletcher watched the fight play out on his ARCO-S console, drumming his fingers on the rebinder surface. He was the only organic crew member in the compartment, mostly monitoring and providing oversight for the MI which was giving out automated guidance to the pilots. The captain had been clear that for the purposes of the exercise he was not to provide tactical support to the pilots.

Still, he had reservations about a live-fire trial-by-fire. While it would separate out any chaff from the wheat, it also risked trained pilots dying permanantly. And then there was the involvement of that knight. Opening a private line to the captain, he sent a plaintext message via geist; "Captain, are you sure it's wise to involve Sir Sear in this? He's not exactly known for his restraint."
 
Ravenaca's Watch, Bridge

EVE6 watched the battle unfold, spinning up a dozen subroutines to 'keep an eye' on all of the data streams pouring in. Each subroutine was set to alert her if anything 'interesting' came up that should catch her attention, like a sudden movement in her periphery.

Her first goal was, of course, to give the crew some experience in a 'real' battle situation before throwing them into the fray against something actually dangerous. That seemed to progressing well so far. Some of the Watch's frame compliment had taken light damage in the engagement, but nothing they couldn't repair.

"Mind the missiles," she said absently, responding to one of the data streams. A number of the exercise ships lit up with explosions, disabling or vaporizing them entirely. "With our frames engaged, let's shift to providing fire support only. The leftovers will be good practice for the pilots to learn how to deal with larger ships."

A new datastream came in, gleaned from the pilots' network. Mikael's sensor feed. EVE6 twisted her lips in response as she skimmed through the data.

"That's not right," said the Captain as she turned to look at Gale. "Gale, bring us closer to that large asteroid - ah, I'll designate it as 'Asteroid X-240'. One of the pilot's sensor scans are saying that it has an energy signature. That shouldn't be the case."

Her attention shifted again as Fletcher's text came through. She responded simply, "Your concern is noted, Fletcher. Pre-battle simulations suggested that throwing in someone.. of his sort.. would lead to improved survival rates in future battles. I'm trusting him to be a professional, but I'll keep a close eye on him when he engages."

Space, near the Watch

The battle continued. The drones had begun to retaliate, scoring hits here and there against the Watch's frames. Pilots who were operating on their own seemed to be the highest priority targets for the drone's simple AIs; it didn't take long for the drones to sufficiently overwhelm the various lone wolves and force them to withdraw.

What had been a one-sided slaughter began to quickly turn as the larger drone force switched from loose evasive maneuvers into all-out aggression. The sniper fire from Mikael's M19 Ryoko served its purpose by thinning out the drone numbers and preventing them from gaining too strong of a formation advantage.

Arye's missile and cannon fire succeeded in racking up a number of kills before the drones began to descend on her; if not for V115 and Steiner's assistance the drone swarm would likely have scored a number of hits against her - instead, the small group were somehow holding back the tide of drones trying to swarm them. They were not unscathed, but none of them had taken enough damage to be fully into the yellow.

As the drones peeled off from the withdrawing pilots, that was likely to change.

Ravenaca's Watch, Bridge

EVE6 glanced at the scoreboard while waiting for the ship to navigate into the request position.

Rank​
Pilot​
Kill Count​
...
5Mikael Harris7
...
8Arye5
...
26Steiner3
...
30V1152
...

"It just doesn't feel right," she thought, repeating her concern from before. "This space should be uninhabited - "

She shook her head. Mentally thumbing through the ship's crew, she decided to assemble an away team to investigate. If there were some kind of frontier settlers hiding in the asteroids, the last thing the NDC needed was to blow them up. On the other hand, if it were something more dangerous -

"Well, I didn't have an exercise planned for them.. but seeing as there's an opportunity..."

EVE6 formed a group chat via her Geist, selecting Orlan, Sara, and two more of the 'ambassador group'.

"If you're getting this message, we've got a situation that I need you to look into. Suit up and make your way to a shuttle. There's a possibility you'll run into hostiles, but it's not confirmed yet. We may need a more delicate touch than just the warriors I'll be sending along with you."

Message sent, she gave the orders for a shuttle to be prepped with six geared up infantry to join the ambassador/s and their escort.

Space

Sear Aznoble decided he'd had about enough waiting. The Captain's orders had been pretty straightforward - hang back until the fighting had started in earnest, then go in and mix things up with the new pilots. If necessary, he was to intervene to make sure none of them were actually hurt - by the drones or himself - but he wasn't worried about that.

He announced his entrance into the fray. "Sear Aznoble, Sparrowhawk Custom. Engaging."

The huge thrusters mounted to the top of his Sparrowhawk's fighter form flared up, joined by the conventional thrusters just below them. The red-and-black fighter screamed into the battlefield, weapons immediately lighting up as he announced himself in a more drastic way - by wounding seven of the remaining frames with his opening salvo. Each hit had been aimed with expert precision to disable the frames' combat potential without harming the pilots within. Frame arms, weapons, and shoulders all lost function as fire from dual Torrent cannons struck them.

"Heh," he chuckled. His visored eyes scanned for their next target, selecting the unknown purple frame on the outskirts of the battle. It wouldn't take more than 15 or 20 seconds before he'd closed sufficiently to truly engage with Mikael's M19.
 
Space

"I am a foreigner here and NDC doctrine is different then that of Yamatai." Mikael said after saving one of the more aggressive NDC frame pilots. "There is an universal trait to all military forces, there is no I in team! Remind me to tell your to Giretsu Motto later." Mikael continued on the open net before he shifted his fire towards the swarm going for Arye.

As much as Mikael "3.0.5" would like to further rip into the frame pilot, he wasn't their commander. He was simply an exchange soldier looking to learn frame warfare and what made the NDC function as a military/faction. Plus he remembered his earlier iterations of being a newly trained space infantryman.

He didn't have much time to reflect on his growth as he shot teal bolts of energy towards the drones. "Victor 1 is moving Harris-Chui. The output of its thrusters does not match our records Chui." Beat alerted Mikael as they both witnessed quickiness and accuracy of the omnimous sparrowhawk's attack on the unsuspecting frame pilots.

"Hot damn, they are good. There was an neko sniper in the G/75 that could only dream of pulling that off." Mikael stated as he continued providing long range fire support against the drones. As good as the sparrowhawk pilot was, the drones were the more immediate threat with their numbers. He quickly shifted his fire towards Sear when he noticed a shift in his movement towards him.

Being long range, Mikael instinctively leaned backward and boosted at max power towards the point defense weapon range for the Ravenaca's Watch. But the Ryoko was designed as a support mecha with an emphasis towards carrying heavy weapons instead of speed. The Ryoko was no match in a race with a normal sparrowhawk, let alone for this customized beast of a machine.

Mikael continued to calmly fire shots at Sear, firing instead at the drones when he knew a missed shot would hit a friendly. His nodal drones continued to circle around him in various orbits, ready to shoot down any missiles that would be flung at him. Despite being charged at, he still had a job to do: overwatch.

But he could only delay entering the known effective range of the Sparrowhawk's. Unable to continue his job as Sear seemed determined to duel, Mikael fired a salvo of 20 mini-missiles from his shoulders. Not really expecting the missiles to actually land, it should generate enough of distraction to his foe for him to pull off a switch in combat roles. Mikael reduced the size of his Aether Beam Cannon and stowed it on his left hip.

He then popped an blue convex as he endured the high Gs as he suddenly switched from going backwards to going forwards downwards in order to make sure he didn't become a bloody mess. He tried to present as small of a profile as possible as he actively maneuvered with his other forearm forward to fire reddish-purple bolts of plasma at Sear, aiming at disabling key systems.

The Ryoko's inertial systems could only counter so much.

Lounge

Mizumitsu Sara had been silent the whole time she was watching the stream of the exercise. Not being a combat pilot, she didn't really have a whole lot of interest as the hot heads and fly kiddies zoomed around. Though she started to become a bit more concerned when she saw the drones deciding the swarm the lone wolfs. Even she knew that was a no-no in this kind of combat.

She was about to leave when she got a beep of a incoming message. Grabbing her communicator, she read the message and just grunted a bit. Already wearing her mithril suit, she made her way to the armory to equip herself for the coming mission. Meeting people likely to be already annoyed at you was always a fun challenge to handle.
 
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Ravenaca's Watch Exterior - Space

Just as the nearest drone was about to return fire a slew of covering fire erupted from both those in her own wing who were lagging behind and from far off support. Of course V115 had already been in the process of moving out of the way but the help ensured she didn't get hit at least by that drone. Diving down into a starboard bank before rapidly rolling into an S-shaped turn she cut a path beneath the enemy drones, sustaining minor damage in the process from collisions with asteroid debris. As the lone wolf drones got picked off V115 pulled out of her dive and brought her frame's nose around. With the drones still acting lazy and disorganized she was now behind the cluster that remained in the local area after the initial volleys and was free to open fire as her wing broke formation to pursue their close range targets and mop up the localized cluster. Squeeze... diadem shot, bisected drone. Alternating to the other hand in her mind's eye as she lined up a second shot and marked her fourth kill.

Despite taking down some more drones her methodical approach wasn't cutting it when faced with the raw number of the enemy. It seemed like for every drone she confirmed destroyed two more took its place. Over time this began to wear down on her frame, little collisions here and there combined with glancing or non critical shots from the drones had left her frame showing signs of wear. Taking a quick scan of her visuals told her that many of the lone wolf pilots had been beaten back and the drones were now collapsing upon her local cluster of frames. Speaking over her ragtag wing's com line her directions were clear, "We've got more incoming, I'm tagging you all into two craft teams, stick with your buddy. Use the larger asteroids for cover but call for help if you need it."

After saying as much she quickly created a buddy system using proximity to establish smaller teams. As for herself well it was time to switch tactics. A quick alteration was made to her targeting subroutine as she brought the weapons subsystem of her wing drones online. With her, albeit limited, knowledge of the drones primarily based upon on craft size and the short briefing on them they had been given she calculated that dialing her Wing Drones in to a lower individual power but greater overall volume of shots would prove effective enough. Configuring the SCALEs into eight units on each shoulder she was ready to get down to business, even if said business meant she'd have to get a lot closer to the drones to be within effective range. Weighing the tactical choice within her mind, the math was readily apparent that at worst if she assigned two shots to each drone, she could still fire at sixteen drones per second. Not that she was likely to be within three hundred thousand kilometers of sixteen drones at a time.... well she didn't exactly want to think about that possibility even as her frame's electronics suite picked up more and more incoming drones.

As for her own buddy in the recently assigned buddy system, she looked to Steiner and Arye since her wing had been uneven. Opening up a peer to peer connection with Arye's Starbreaker, V115 spoke quickly yet her voice was rather cold and calm in a way that made her seem eerily more machine like. "Firewalker, how's your missile complement? I could use some back up and I think it's best if we don't leave the mercenary out to dry."

While waiting for Arye's answer, V115 maneuvered around a larger chunk of asteroid to break line of sight with a large collection of drones and as she came around the rock she spotted Steiner, she then attempted to connect herself, Arye, and Steiner together on a coms channel. "Hey Rockhopper (RKHPR)," she said, spontaneously naming him on the spot since she didn't know his name. Though she'd wait a moment to see if he answered, either way she'd continue, "Things are going to get tougher in approximately one minute, what sort of armaments do you have? I'd like to lure the drones into a kill zone."

Of course even the best predictions weren't always correct in battle and soon a small wing of drones broke from their hiding place behind a smaller asteroid and maneuvered in to attack V115. However this time she had counter measures prepared. An array of teal beams was suddenly emitted from her Wing Drones, the energy curving out in dual beams towards each of the six targets only to penetrate their exterior, lancing their inner components. For any that didn't stop moving she fired off another four beams divided among the surviving craft.
 
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RPG-D RPGfix
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