RP: 188604 [Star Wasp] 8:The Briefing Before

[Zack]

Everyone,

Mission briefing in the palace at 10AM local time.

That means everyone. You too Ronin.

- Uso

It had been a little more than a week since the events at The Freehold Factory. Repairs had been made where possible, but Uso was eager to get started.

"Alright everyone," Uso said, standing infront of the auditorium seating in the Palace, a large display table behind her showing the ad-hoc fleet of ships behind her. "This is the last briefing before we start our mission to remove the NMX from the I'ee homeworld, which we are now calling Operation: Bright Venom

"We don't expect a whole lot from the NMX. Their biggest asset is having a large number of compotent ship captains, however they rarely display advanced tactics. They also shouldn't know where this planet is, so we don't expect an NMX counter-attack to manifest.

That means, we're focusing on the I'ee system, and the I'ee system only."

Uso would wait a moment, letting the point accentuate itself.

"Thanks to the Necromancer's recon mission we have a good idea of what NMX ships await us and how they are positioned. We expect there to be three carriers, 18 escort ships, and a large number of battle pods. Two of these carriers are inside of the star-system while the third is in deep space waiting to pounce on incoming craft.

We will be using the drone ship White Rabbit to draw the NMX fleet to the edge of the star system. We expect they will pursue with the intent to capture just like before with the Necromancer.

Between the Combat drones that we've built here, the Hound-Squadron ships, and the Spacers, we've got enough fire power to destroy their exterior group outright when it shows up using a leapfrog attack.

Our drones and missiles will then move to engage the rest of the NMX force, while everyone else focuses on destroying battle pods.

We do expect to lose 70-90% of our ships in the initial engagement. Everyone should expect that they will have to abandon ship at some point. That means get your ST backups made, and be sure you're wearing a space suit at all times."

Uso would then bring up a picture of one of the NMX carriers.

"We also have a secondary goal of grabbing cargo from the first NMX carrier we come across. We're looking for something specific in that cargo, but frankly there is no one I can expect anyone to search through their cargo while under fire. Our best bet is to have the mecha-team go in, grab anything they can get their hands on, and toss it out the front of the ship for collection later. I would prefer the Pumpkin Eater and the Necromancer to assist with this."

Uso then returned the image back to the full view of the star system.

"So to recap:

Step 1: The white rabbit will draw the NMX craft to the edge of the star system

Step 2: The White Rabbit will pass targeting information along to our fleet. Everyone will pre-position and then FTL to the target sector. When they arrive they will immediately fire their weapons from close range to destroy the enemy perimeter fleet.

Step 3: The Pumpkin Eater and its missiles will join our combat drones in the attack on the remaining enemy ships that are still inside the system.

Step 4: Everyone else will start raiding the first carrier we hit. The mecha team will go in and literally tear the ship apart along with Vier's junker drones.


Anyone who doesn't have a ship, fighter, or mecha, I want in a power armor. The NMX love to send commando units onto enemy ships and we should expect some shananagins.

So are there any questions so far?"

 

[Edto Xar'Sivaree]

Zahen had shown up to the briefing because she was told too on her Datapad. Listening, she was a little confused as to what her role would be. This was a combat mission, ad combat wasn't a part of the deal with Uso and the Vekimen. Uso had touched on some of it, but regardless this was 100% a combat mission. Still, she waited until Uso was done speaking before lifting her hand a little.

"I have a question. Why are the Vekimen needed here? Combat hasn't been made a part of our contract. Could I please get a little more detail on what my specific role will be, as you have at least touched on what everyone else will be doing?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm not trying to be difficult, I just don't see how we can help"

 

[Legix]

Ronin had showed up, since he'd actually been requested for once. That, however, had come with the man grumpily sitting and listening in to all of this. Getting to lead a team was certainly not his forte, but to be the one likely to lead other mecha pilots against the NMX remnants was more than fun enough. Shooting squids was one of the things the Yamatai ex-soldier lived to do, between all of his mecha-repairing and recent expo into making power armor. The suit that he'd been working on, of course, had been locked up in some 'totally secure' barn out near the pits at Tyben. Not that it could work thanks to the locals and their lack of understanding on even trying to power up the suit. If they did at this point, it was quite likely to blow up anyway. Or leak radiation.

"I don't guess you've picked out some other leader for this mecha team, have you? Between all your greenhorn pilots and their more modern suits, I'm pretty much just support for whatever this team is made of, in terms of firepower."

A puff of smoke left his nostrils, the man looking to the star system for a moment before sighing.

"Stupid squid-rapists never learn... I bet they'll just run straight at us trying to overwhelm us with raw firepower... it'll be a nice massacre, but I'll have to likely clean the Tengu afterward..."

 

[LittleWasp]

Of the I'ee, a small crowd of Ee'ith were gathered in the hall along with Gut-Stripe, who stood with Sammy at her side. "What will our role be in this conflict?" Gut-Stripe spoke up, raising the volume of her artificial voice to talk over others if necessary. "I am sick of this dusty planet, Uso." Sammy wiggled nervously beside Gut-Stripe, evidently unhappy at the prospect of fighting, despite the necessity.

 

[Alex Hart]

Alex was hoping that this mission went better than the last one. He still pitched from the radiation treatment. When he heard Ronin's question he was puzzled. The older man surely had more expirence. He thought for a moment on whether all the time he spent in the simulators could really be called combat expirence, and decided that it couldn't.

He decided to ask Ronin a question.

"Why would anyone else lead it. I'm fairly sure that of all of us you have the most expirence. And besides, raw firepower isn't everything."

 

[Legix]

While being at the table with bugs was something he'd not remotely got used to thanks to his time apart, the question posed his way had led the man to look at the kid who he'd saved. He'd heard of all the wrecking of his machine that had happened, but the fact he was alive meant he wasn't worthless. The Yamataian in Ronin found worth in someone who could at least survive against the NMX and Uso's shenanigans.

"Because I wasn't exactly a leader back during my military days. The most leading I do most days is when I'm practicing my shooting."

 

[Ace]

The Idiot
Ace had been leaning up against the back wall with his arms crossed not really listening to much of the conversation or briefing itself. All he really heard was that they would be attempting to retake the I'ee's home from the NMX. "What should I be doing? Should I be on board one of the ships to help repel boarders or are we going to be aggressive and do the boarding ourselves?"

The Newcomer
Spacecase had been sitting towards the front listening intently to the briefing and every one else. "Will I be assigned a group for my ship I could ram one of the other ships and tie it up for a bit or I could engage the enemy with the PA units. Also another option is that I do have a space on the ship that can be used as a sick bay so we could treat any wounded or prisoners we recover. I can arm anyone that we receive pretty fast my ship holds an expansive armory, I like to think of myself as a bit of a collector when it comes to weapons."

 

[Ametheliana]

The Palace

There was a lot to take in and when it came down to it, she wanted to be sure that what had happened last time with Ace shooting out of the bay of the ship and Akemi leaving with all of the guns didn't happen, again. She couldn't blame the little pussy cat for wanting to be a part of the action, but it had put Aashi in an awkward position that she wished to avoid in the future.

Aashi stated plainly after the Vekimen, I'ee, mech-heads, and others had spoken, "I would like to have nobody aboard my ship but 46 and myself for this mission. I'm sure we can handle ourselves if we come under attack."

 

[Dumont]

Arccos bides her time:

Perhaps for the first time in a few weeks, the original flavor Arccos had appeared for a meeting in person. The Sheriff sat in her usual position in the burnt-out and ruined palace. Motionlessly lounging about as her eyes flitted about, moving from face to face in the crowd as she watched the whole meeting. She wasn't a great strategist, so she had nothing to really add to this just yet. More she wanted to know what the others were bringing to the table before putting her own cards down.

Hexagon Help:

Two other additions to the meeting came in the form of the elusive Van Banning's security representatives. Daniels, a calm seeming rail-thin man in his late 40's with salt and pepper hair, wearing an outfit which could best be described as tactical business casual; escorted by Ash, an athletic sort wearing a full suit of styrling muur armor, dirty blonde hair tucked under an old nepleslian military beret, half their face twisted into a permanent smile by an incomplete glasgow smile.

They just entered without any fanfare. Daniels held a briefcase, Ash held the sling of a styrling ripshot which was slung lazily over their shoulder. Seemed that they were more there for protection against locals moreso than anything else. How this meeting came to their attention was unknown, but they obviously had something to say even if they were simply waiting their turn.

 

[Amaryllis]

Akemi immediately flew over to Ash and leaned his head and shoulder against her while purring. "I haven't seen you in a while. I hope you've been doing well." As the space kitten spoke he rubbed the side of his face up and down on her gently and wrapped two slender arms around hers. "Who's this guy?"

The Neko was really glad he was getting to meet someone new and see his super nice drinking pal again. He really didn't have anything to say before Ash arrived besides wanting to ask about loot from the Mishhu ships. Hopefully his extreme presumptuousness would amuse Daniels and Uso's people without resulting in a good whack from the brawny bodyguard. If she got to grab his package he figured one of her chiseled arms was fair game.

 

[Dumont]

Keep your mind on the job, Akemi:

Akemi's greeting just earned him the experience of Ash pressing a finger to his lips, twisting the good side of their mouth to let out an off-kilter sounding 'Ssshhhh'. They didn't seem annoyed or anything, Daniels actually smiled and shook his head just a little bit. They seemed amused, but not in a position to talk. Busy. Here for business.

"He's Daniels, head of security at the tower." Ash explained, hunching down a little to whisper in Akemi's ear so as to not disturb the meeting proper. Judiciously they elected to speak at a volume just loud enough to be heard by the keen hearing of a Nekovalkyrja (such as Uso) at distance. Maybe the exact kind of move expected to be played by a high-rent bodyguard for socialite types.

"Not really a social visit, sorry." Ash said, adjusting the arm plating on their suit so as not to be intrusive, "Ms. Van Banning sent us to have Daniels give his suggestion on how to use the tower's security fleet and armor squadron in the upcoming battle. You should probably be paying attention too, battle is won in preparations like this."

 

[Amaryllis]

"Oh I'll pay plenty of attention," Akemi said quietly, still clinging on. "With you around it'll make listening to anything boring much easier. Man, you guys even have a fleet. That's cool." The raven haired chatterbox then fixed his bright red eyes on the svelte man beside them. "Nice to meet you Daniels. I'd totally shake your hand if I wasn't busy," he whispered softly.

 

[Gunhand4171]

As everyone spoke, Cyrus dressed in his usual duster and smoking a cigar, and Raphael dressed in his fatigues, and Werner flanking Raphael in his black trenchcoat. walked in on the briefing. "Sorry for the intrusion, had to make sure our boy were ready for space combat." Cyrus said letting out the smoke. "Alpha company will accompany our space forces, as they have been trained to fight in zero gravity." Cyrus stated for everyone.

Raphael spoke next. "I have coordinated all space assets and the fleet is assembled in orbit. My analysts and operators will also be operating out of the Necromancer." He reported before Ulysses spoke.

"The Necromancer is ready for battle. The ship has made full repairs, added several more shuttles, as well as a new contingent of hoplite fighters that have been loaded with drone interfaces. The Necromancer carries 30 of our new drone fighters. Hound flight has been brought back up to full strength. In short the Necromancer is ready for whatever the NMX can throw at her." He added. Werner found his way over to sit next to Aashi, while Cyrus and Raphael flanked Uso on either side.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Spacer Support Squad

"As part of our agreement, I have modified six of the remaining deathcrawler auto-tanks to accept commands from your yammie software." Lyco laid it out boldly, stern voice making up for their diminutive stature. "They can magnetize to any hull, and act as capable point defense and anti-power armor units. Well, as long as that hull is not Zesuaium. Just tell me where you want them."

They somehow managed to make it all look professional, like they were seated with their arms crossed behind their back, but it was really a necessity over the fact they were still wearing those handcuffs. If you looked really closely, you could also see the slight twitch of nerves, wondering why somebody had decided to let a pair of giant wasps into the meeting room. They were practically the same size as her.

"Doctor and engineer, is." Truffleclub had a new arm, but was still looking uneasy. They were hunched near Arccos, through the two of them seemed to have spoken very little during the Codebreaker's rather startling series of automata puppeteering experiments as of late. Still, protecting their friend was still an important concept to the machine. "The fixing them hurt, and, the fixing them craft. If I am helping, then this is what Cloudee is do, is."

 

[Perilous Siege]

The Rookie

Seated near the back of the revamped auditorium that the empress had seen fit to turn into her own briefing room, the latest addition to Uso's personal squad of mecha pilots had a fairly good view of the action going on around. There was an eclectic collection of figures stuffed into the room with him, from Iromakuanhe pirate queens to Elysian spymasters and even a Freespacer officers of the law almost all of them vying for the attention of the planet's most powerful woman. Some were familiar faces like Aashi, Arccos, Alex, Ace and Akemi, while people like the M1 Frame Runner or the commander or the Vekimen also stood out. Others he didn't have much of a frame of reference for, considering how little time he had to get acquainted with everyone, but he was aware from Aashi that the captain of the necromancer was a reliable chap named Werner, and he could gather that the two who had just walked in were likely connected to Ragnarok.

As for the bug people, he could only imagine that they were representatives of the system they would be reinforcing given the descriptions he had heard. The leader of the insectoid congregation certainly seemed ready to get out of there and scuttle some Mishhuvurthyar ships, all though the visible distress that the wasp beside her displayed did a little to damper the effect. Of course, the most suprising person to see in the room was someone that Jason definitely did recognize. It was hard to miss Daniels, especially when he was accompanied by some visibly scarred professional muscle. While he wasn't about to strike up a conversation with the man in the midle of a briefing for his first real battle, he gave the man a nod of acknowledgement when he thought he glanced over in his direction before focusing back on the planning going on. From what he'd seen of the hexagons securiy forces and heard about ti's resources, If Uso managaed to get a good deal going with them he'd definitely be a bit more at ease.

The kind of losses they were expecting with the forces they were about to send out didn't exactly leave a lot of margin for error. The fact that they probably didn't have to worry about the NMX splinter fleet making a counterattack if they failed wasn't much relief when it almost certainly meant losing most of their military assets for nothing. The squids had brought the greatest military forces of the kikyo sector to their knees not to many years ago in one of the most climatic wars since the legendary rebellion against the black claw, and even in their shattered state they were a force to be rockoned with. Then again....the alliance of the Ee'ith was quite the prize, Uso had had her shit together more then most, and had a talent for gathering followers as competent as she was. If their was a type of peson these sots of hail mary plays tended to work out for, it was her.

Luckily for him, he had learned his own part in the battle along witht he rest of the mecha team from Vier shortly after Uso had bought him, and had spent a considerable amount of time simulating various different ways the smash and grab mission could go. The drones and his missile compliment weren't going to make as much difference as he'd like in the relatively confines of a carrier, but you weren't going to find much tougher armor or shields then on his Seraphim that weren't part of the starship, while the gauss cannon was MADE for the sort of close quarters fights he was probably going to get up to. Might even be a chance for him or the rest of the team to actually make use of those plasma swords. "If either want to borrow some of my spare gauss weaponery and clips, feel free. Might be a bit more up to date than what your using."

Noticing the hesitancy that Ronin showed towards leadership despite his 'brothers' attempts tp push him into it, Jason spoke up. "Having someone is better then nothing, and I wouldn't worry about it too much since Vier will be giving us pretty specific orders to make sure this plan goes off pefectly."

 

[Zack]

Palace

Uso would address the Vekimen first,

"You're our Vekimen Liaison. You are here to Liaise. If you don't know what we're doing, you've got no way of helping your people work with our people. In this case your mission is to stand near me and absorb information. You'll know what to do when the time comes."

Uso would then turn her attention to the I'ee.

"I know you are eager to help, and you've been really good to us here... so I'm not going to ask you to participate in the upcoming fight if you don't want to. Your ships won't be adding much in terms of firepower so for the most part you would just be acting as additional targets to absorb weapons fire from our combat ships."

Uso looked at Gut-Stripe, and then at Sammy... They were adorable. She knew what she should do, send the I'ee JTE in first, let them die while the combat drones picked off the NMX ships. She could still tell them their sacrifice was required, and she was reasonably certain they'd do it.

Uso sighed a bit,

"But there may be a way we can better utilize your ships. They put out a lot of breaking radiation when you exit FTL. We can have our fleet pass along the location of the first NMX carrier when it arrives and then you can jump near it. The collective wave of radiation from your task force is certainly enough to bring down the ship's shields and free up some of our forces for the rest of the fight.

However, once you've done that, I want you to leave again as soon as possible. You can contribute the most with your FTL runs on enemy ships. If you stick around you're just going to get blown up."

Uso would then turn her attention to the Free-Spacers

"Tank-Girl. I know your interactions with us have been a bit not standard, but I promise you will be fairly compensated for the use of your tanks once all of this settles down. We should have a talk after this is all over so that I can find out what we can do to help each other.

That being said, I would like to assign your tanks to the Tanks-a lot. It is a combat drone that doesn't quite have any guns on it yet so we will be filling it with all of the spare tanks and junkers we can get a hold of. I would like to ask that every spare Fingle's Revenge that we have be made available to Vier specifically for this."

The Mecha-pilots were next;

"Jason will be your flight lead for the Mecha team.

Jason, that means you are the one responsible for making sure that our Mecha team and the supporting Junker drones are successfully able to tear open the NMX carrier and get the good bits inside.

Alex, Ronin, Follow Jason's lead but don't be mindless drones. If I needed Jason to have more firepower we'd just send drones to do it. You are here because this is a complex task that qill require a personal touch and some improvisation."

And finally, everyone else...

"Everyone who is left. I want you all to understand we don't have a professional military here. We are coordinating a lot of moving pieces that don't all fit together. Our resident space-expert is going to have her hands full which means she doesn't have anything left-over to micromanage all of you.

I can say with confidence that the larger NMX ships will be destroyed. However, this leaves an unknown number of torpedoes, battle-pods, shuttles, and other craft in the combat area.

Werner and the Necromancer will be responsible for everything else. We expect the initial combat operation will last less than a minute."

"50 Seconds," Vier corrected.

"... after which," Uso continued, "we'll have to make a decision to abandon the operation or stay and fight. The Necromancer will need to play it by ear and shift around. Anyone else with a ship: We're not expecting some high-level strategy from you. Stay near the Necromancer, assist it with whatever it is doing. If you have a ship with weapons stay near the Necromancer. If you've got a power armor stay on board a ship near the Necromancer, or the Necromancer itself. If any of you power armor guys want to volunteer to help the Mecha team then go right ahead."

And to the new comers:

"That said, I expect the two of you have an offer in mind?" Uso asked, her attention turned toward Van-Banning's people.

 

[LittleWasp]

Gut-Stripe listened to Uso's suggestions, idly combing her claws over an antenna. "That suggestion would be sound," she began. "Were it not for the fact that our utility craft would be the only ship able to weaponise its drives so. The Ee'ith treasury vessel will not participate in combat, and besides it and the utility craft, we have no FTL capable ships." Sammy and the other Ee'ith had begun wandering amongst the others, apparently losing interest in the topic of fighting. Sammy himself approached Arccos, waving to her with a smile projected on his mask. "Hello, Miss!" he squeaked.

"However," Gut-Stripe continued. "We do have our long-range corvette, Uso. We could provide fire support, as limited as it might be, with it from afar. Besides that, my only suggestion would be to contact the Thi-Thi fleet for reinforcements, but I doubt that they would be able to reach us in time."

 

[Ametheliana]

The Palace

Aashi was excited to see that an I'ee had wandered close to her.

"Hey there," she whispered to them, having realized she was lumped in with all the others and that her request would likely be noted. "How are you, little one?"

 

[LittleWasp]

Overdue Hugs

"Hello, Miss!" the I'ee replied in a female voice, a smile appearing on her LED mask as she tottered over to stand in front of Aashi. "I am well, Miss. It is good to hear that Miss Uso will be getting rid of the things near our home." She paused a moment, the smile briefly flickering to a frown. "I'm worried that someone might get hurt, though..."

 

[Ametheliana]

The Palace

Aashi watched the I'ee totter towards her with bated breath, hoping the cute thing wouldn't fall to the ground. She put her arms out in case she did, ready to stabilize her.

When the cheery LED face changed to one that was more upset than happy, Aashi murmured quietly to the I'ee, "No, no. Nobody will get hurt. We'll make sure the NMX around your planet are going to be the only ones to suffer during this mission!"