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RP: YSS Artemis [YSS Artemis O1M0] Let the Rivalry Begin

Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

Sacre shook her head, "That's ape for brains thinking there. There a dozen possible reasons why we might not want to completely destroy your enemy. One of the most important ones is if it takes your eye off the ball. Killing your enemy is a means to an end, not an end in it's self. We're professional soldiers, doing a job, not warriors seeking personal glory of killing our enemies. In our case, the objective is keeping the field communications kit safe above destroying the Ranger team. If we completely destroy the ranger team, but loose the kit, we lose the mission. All of them live, but the kit is safe, that is a win for us." Sacre shifted slightly in her tree. "That said, I won't be disappointed if we can do both."
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - Lower Armory

Eric hated everything so far and was silently pacing in the Armory. With no go for green it thankfully it gave him time to think and ponder how the best method for attack was. Moving over to the armory to look at inventory stock he started pondering what he could do. Not having a infantry background he tried running through things he heard both at EW school as well as anything back at Sarp. Speaking outloud to no one "The Shoulder-Fired Launcher Type 30 Nodal cloud?". Double checking the description he then went through other missile types and also saw Plasma rounds.

Still trying to find a few other things that might help he started going through the mindy inventory . Seeing both the MFMA and the ARMA missiles he started to form a plan. Grabbing two bags he put them down near the slam section. Loading the Slam with nodal cloud missiles he started humming. Grabing some plasma missiles he got a full reload to put in the bag. Lastly he started grabbing the mindy counter mission missiles to load in the other bag.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber
Maradia, camoflauged while wrapped around the top of a tree near Sanssinia, looked down on the area with her robotic eyes. She had fortunately chosen a tree strong enough to support her heavy weight, which was even heavier than that of a normal Separa'Shan because of the implants that were added to her. She wasn't afraid of the height, she was already able to fly with her gravity manipulation system- an unusual feature for a Separa to have, even a modified one. With her cybernetic mouth hidden under her armor's helmet, she asked "Should we split them apart once they get near? They're already at a disadvantage because they have no armor, dividing them up would render them practically helpless." The long Pythus patiently waited in her tree for something to happen, hoping their plan with the barricades would be enough to hold the Rangers off. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she presumed they could be coming from any direction.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

Sacre shook her head, even though the motion was invisible to others. "That's not my plan for our squad, the three of us, myself, you, and Iomai, are going to help repel the initial assault from here in the trees, hopefully causing confusion. It also means the defenders don't have to open up to let us out. The other five are going to stick close to the defense point and defend it while we play Venator and try to flank and flush them towards the 'weakness' in our defense and force them to use it. Then we'll be the lid to prevent them from escaping. This will put the Mindy's mobility advantage into our favor." Sacre explained to her squad.
 
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LOWER ARMORY
Lucas did one last check on his own gear, having a type 41 with a SLAG, an optic sight, and folding stock. Having given a preset to CALLISTO to have his vest loaded with magazines and extra grenades, he checked his buttpack to make sure he had his backup pistol and knife stowed inside. Even before becoming a ranger, long before even becoming a preacher, learned the valuable lesson of always having a backup. Also having a plan C-G never hurt either, but that was a lesson that went hand in hand, and could wait another day. Slinging the rifle, the chalk white iroma slipped on the modified helmet as he gave a short prayer, the seals locking with a click as it ended.

"Eric, it may be fair, but that doesn't mean we can't make the most of the situation handed. They have an objective to defend, we don't, so we can count on them sticking relatively close to their objective. Meanwhile, we can use our ability to be more mobile to our advantage. I want us to divide into teams, four groups of 6, and two scouts. When we enter the AO, we'll skirt around the outside of the area and spread the groups around, that way when it's time to move in, we'll hit them from four different directions. The scouts will move to designated positions, and approach their perimeter from the north, and south. The scouts will observe and relay back all data on the enemy forces, and whatever defenses they have setup.", the SNCO began to inform, pointing to team leaders as he did.

Pausing to make sure everything was understood, and clearly heard. Once he was sure it had, he continued on, "We are not rushing in, patience will be our ally and our weapon hopefully. We are not coming to them until we're good and ready. We are rangers, we plan, we observe, we pick apart, and not rush in blind. Now I want volunteers for the scouts, you'll have the riskier job. I also want a count of everyone carrying a grenade launcher, or other launcher of any kind. We can use them to soften their defense before we hit them, and likely will need to counter any surveillance network they've erected in the last hour. Keep your eyes sharp for the heavies, they have two very large power armors, both heavily armed and armored. With all that said, any questions, suggestions, grievances, or general whining before deployment?"


VR CHAMBER

Setsuya
The Neko looked about as their preparations were finished up, giving an approving nod as she surveyed her troops' hard work. "Good work on the defenses, keep your eyes up though, they're bound to be coming now. Let's hope they don't keep us waiting too long, otherwise, we might actually need to worry a little. Bjorn, you're our medic, hang back towards the objective and provide medical assistance as needed. Menelik, I want you to provide fire support with your heavier weaponry, so be prepared to leg it. Jericho, do your sneak routine, but i want that armor near the opening. Sanssinia, and Maradia, keep me posted on any movement you see, limit comms to point to point if you can. Everyone else hunker in and keep to your assigned cover, all comms are point to point from here on out."

Seeing positive confirmations from her units coming, hunkered down herself, bracing the shield against the log stack they had erected, her weapon rested on it to provide more stable aiming. The stock of the PAAR-40 braced against the shoulder, she kept an eye through the sight, occasionally glancing around every so often however. Hopefully the sensor net would do its job, but one could never be too sure.


Jericho
The clone gave a double click to the comm toggle to confirm that he had received his orders. Dismounting from the Zytone, he set the 8ft heavy to remote control and had it lumber into place before activating its ECS camouflage, waiting for any potential prey to fall into their set trap. Meanwhile, he moved to the treeline like Sacre and Maradia, under the cover of his suit's own ECS. Finding a tree a decent ways in, but still in line of sight to use laser based point to point comms, he settled into the tree top before going dark. Lowering his power levels to the absolute minimum, and trusting his ECS to hide him both optically and from light wavelength based sensors, as well as thermal imaging. Jericho waited, sitting still in his watchers nest of sort, keeping low-profile as needed, but slowly scanning with the sensors built into his helmet. His vision passed over the surrounding area, switching between his various detection settings make sure no leaf was not run through a multi-spectrum scan.
 
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Lower Armory

Masaharu mentally raised an eyebrow a bit at the mention that they were more mobile then power armor. They were certainly not dependent on tech and thus have endurance and surprise but mobility? He then raised his hand up to volunteer. "No whining, I know this is more an exercise for the infantry. I think only one of them has been to the jungle and can start to think like a Teisatsu. They need a first-hand demonstration of unconventional warfare. I can scout ahead and relay information. It gives me a chance to mentally exercise CAS 9-lines."

Masaharu can be seen not carrying a grenade launcher on his rifle, he finds the center of gravity annoying. "And speaking of that other graduate, I think IDing and taking him out should be a mid-tier priority." Masaharu said before he starts listing common deficiencies and weaknesses of the power armor known to him. The others likely knew already, but he figured he would state them before regardless. Daisies were great for stand up combat, but they are slow antiques compared to other designs.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - Lower Armory

Elenor looked over at Lucas, and nodded. "I can do scout duty. Prefer keeping my distance to begin with." She said, volunteering to be one of the two scouts. As everyone else began to shuffle into teams, Elenor took a slow breath, calming herself. And once everyone was sorted out, well, it was time to insert. They had already lost about 5 minutes of the exercise waiting on all of this to be sorted out. Of course, no one had any actual ammo carried, not even spare magazines. This included explosives or any other expendable munitions. Those would be generated once they entered the VR chamber. No point wasting resources this soon merely for a training exercise.

Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

As things began to unfold with the Infantry, it was primarily a waiting game. Most of those present shuffled around and keep watching, their armor giving them good visibility even with the simulated sun being gone, and all they had was darkness. But it wasn't like the blackness wasn't a enemy to them. Modern gear made it easy to operate in such environments. The lack of moonlight didn't help though, since it did reduce how much the systems could amplify the visuals, but hte starlight was enough to make it feel like a heavily overcast day with a faint fog in the distance for visibility. Enough that they had the whole firing 'range' around the camp visible, but not much else beyond that. And with the thermals still high, using those to try and see was basically akin to looking at a matte painting of a few select colors, all of which were in the range that people would barely be noticeable in it.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - Lower Armory

Eric grabbing the launcher he started to form a list. "Callisto I need these rounds for a slam launcher and these missiles from a mindy suit in a bag for when the mission starts". In it was 4 rounds of the nodal cloud rounds, 4 rounds of plasma, 10 mini missiles of arma, 10 mini missiles of MFMA each requested to be set to a remote trigger. As he put in the form he listened to Lucas's orders and it wasn't a bad plan. As he waited for the confirmation that it was going through he looked to Lucas.

"Alright well ranger don't fight fair we do have to remind them of that and I got a idea that will help". Showing over the inventory he just requested to be added when he entered. "Nodal cloud to screw with the sensor net, MFMA and ARMA missiles to screw with optics and help the net". At the end he gave a smile that spook of evil intent " If I can't cheat, then i'll help make them blind, I'll rob there toys and in the end I'll make them frustrated and hateful till we end them".
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

Klaus stood near the objective, having been chosen to guard it. Seeing has he did his best work in close quarters, it made sense. The area was too open for his liking. Lots of places for Rangers to pop out of. Still, he wasn't worried. That isn't to say he underestimated the enemy. He trusts Setsuya and the rest of the Infantry. He trusts the plan. And he trusts himself. Klaus walked around the objective, taking in the environment. He had his nodes out like everyone else, all of them feeding him information, but he still favoured his eyes. The sensor net wasn't perfect after all. He began thinking of the opposition.

'Elenor. She'd be sneaky, but in CQC I can take her. Lucas, the CO and boyfriend, I'm not so sure. Preacher he might be but he moves way too much like Grandpa to not be deadly. There's this other guy. A graduate from the SAIC too. Had the flower and everything. Everything I was taught, he's got it. The rest I really don't know.'

A grin grew on his face. This is was gonna be fun.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

"Y'all heard tha lady!" Menelk said over the comm line for his fireteam- his fireteam, his responsibility, his command- HUD of his armor picking out their DAISY's in the coming gloom of simulated night. Acting as fire support and a reserve wasn't exactly the thing he'd choose to do in this situation, but ya can't say no to your orders. At least, not without a good reason.

"Pull back from thuh outer defenses eend git ina triangle position- Kenji, tayuk thuh north apex" He pointed with his right arm, towards the north, letting the Minkan Nito Hei, George Kenji, know where he wanted him.

"Kol!" He referred to the other Nito Hei of his fireteam, the white haired Elysian named Bath Kol. "Ya've gawt thuh eastern point, ah'll git thuh west. Ifin' we git into contact, try t' fire for area awf effect." He thought for a moment, his slayer making a quick loping gait towards his position.

"Be ready for maah signal for us ta rally awn one awf our positions an advahns ifin' it comes ta it, though!"
 
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Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber
The black-tailed robo-snake observed her surroundings from the top of the tree she was wrapped around. She didn't see any rangers yet, it seemed this might take a while. What she did see was that, well, she couldn't. Her electronic eyes weren't used to such pitch black darkness like this, they had even better vision than organic eyes but that wasn't enough here, and her visor's thermals were no good. Rubbing her helmet's temple with her power armor-covered claw, she felt uneasy about the low visibility- especially considering it was the rangers they were fighting, who could easily exploit such a factor. "Any advice, Joto Hei Sanssinia?" the Cypara'Shan asked, pausing before she questioned "When do you think they'll come?"
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

"Sometime within the next hour." Sacre said, which was a less then useful assessment. "That said, it's been several minutes, they should have entered the field by now. Our perimeter drones are our first line of defense. It's likely that they are going to be picked up by the sensors the drones carry. That's why Aten's on our team. He's really good at processing all of the data that every suit and drone is generating, not to mention his own advanced passive noises in the simulated environment so he can filter them out and focus on the important ones." Sacre explained.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber - Exterior and Interior

The Rangers formed up, getting ready to enter. They'd lost fifteen valuable minutes on top of the hour they spent getting ready, but they finally were. As the four hatches opened, and the teams filtered in, the change in the environment was complete as it was sudden, but they knew to be ready for it. The two on scouting duties quickly broke off, moving to get as close as they could to the target without revealing their presence. A challenge made all the harder by the fire circle made by the Infantry to give them clear lines of fire upon anyone approaching.

Elenor gave a small huff, before easing herself up into a tree. It wasn't as fast as it could be, but she also didn't want to expose herself by scrambling up in a hurry. Settling onto a stable branch, she looked through what foliage she could, but the lack of lighting was as much her enemy as it was the infantry's. Meaning she had to reach into the ruck on her back, and getting out her binos. It was rigged for various visual spectrum's, and tried to view into the cleared ground, to try and get a read on the OPFOR. Infrared was useless in this heat. And light amplification was useless with how little ambient light there was. Meaning she was going to have to risk her herself by turning on a ultraviolet light to give her a better sight for night vision, but it would basically paint her to anyone looking her way at that exact moment.

And someone was indeed looking in her direction at just that time. "Hey, Heisho... I just got a UVL kick on in the jungles. Looks like the Rangers finally arrived..." One of the Infantry reported, sending a ping to Setsuya while he synced his helmet's video feed to the rest of the team. Then shortly afterwards it turned off. "And it's off. Must not have liked what they saw."

It was enough to see now. And she didn't like what she was seeing. Keying her comms to a point-to-point-only mode after turning off her UVL, she sent a signal to Lucas. "Gulf-Lima-Echo-India to Juliet-Alpha-Charlie-Kilo, OPFOR has prepared DFP's and a fire circle. They've a couple of roamers moving between DFP's. I can't see any opening on this side to slip in. Had to kick on a UVL to eye all that. High likelihood of being revealed doing so. Gulf-Lima-Echo-India out." Elenor reported, hoping the other scout had better luck than herself.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

Considering the amount of time the already advantaged heavy infantry were given because their head NCO took forever to assign and kind of make a plan, Masaharu began his scouting. Not having God's View, he split off towards the other flank slowly by floating prone a foot from the ground and propelling forward with his enhanced inertia manipulation abilities. A high tech high crawl of sorts.

While his primary mission is to find the infantry, first he wanted to locate the drones and sensors the infantry would very obviously use. The high heat worked to his advantage if he stayed with high vegetation soaking in the ambient virtual temperate. Active sensors he would be able to perceive with signal interception equipment. Knowing what they are and where they are would allow him to come up with strategies to defeat them. Fly phase of his training all over again.

He dedicated a portion of his mind to tracking the location of his fellow Rangers and their actions.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

Sacre considered the light for a moment from her postion, camoflauged in a tree, even as Aten painted a digital target in AIES and likely zone around the area where whoever had shone the light would go. "Black Wolves, if they do something like that in our area, feel free to shoot back with something explosive. Be creative in giving them something to think about."
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber - Interior

One part of this exercise, and the reason that Menelik was here at all, was to get both sides accustumed to the capabilities of the newer Nepleslian PA like his own Slayer. One of those capabilities was, thanks to its larger size, a very respectable amount of firepower that the Corporal held himself back from unleashing.

It was very tempting to want to do that, though. So tempting, in fact, that he hadn't even spent more than a fraction of a second between hearing the report of UV light and snapping out his response. That response came in the form of two minimissiles from each leg pod, and four more from the shoulder pod for a total of eight. Four of these were the smaller Darts, meant to send out a small EMP to disable sensors and shields. The other four, however, were of the larger Bolts: antimatter warheads with quite the punch. It actually took him longer to inform Setsuya of just what he was doing than it did to make the decision to fire.

None of the missiles were aimed or locked onto anything, just set to bracket the area the UV light had come from and keep the Rangers on their toes. But there was the morale and intimidation factor to take into account. Intimidation that would be only added to as the glowing, baleful Monoeye of the Slayer went to full, scanning across four bands: visual, subspace, gravity, and the EM spectrum.

Sure, it made him a target, but the Rangers already knew where he was anyway. Just now, he'd have a better chance of seeing where they were too.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber - Interior

Eric entered the vr chamber and found the items he requested where placed. Quickly gathering his gear he was going to set his plan into motion while the scouts did there business. Moving along both quickly and quietly he moved away from the unit and began to set up the loose missiles. Being unable to use a remote detonator due to the effects the missiles would have on it, he instead had a timer in place. Three minutes should do to finish up the set up for it

As he set the last of the missiles he heard the roar of explosions and wondered if any one got hit. Thinking it didn't matter like most of the operation he still went about the last of his business. Switching the Comm on his helmet to a open channel he then pulled it off. Locking the button in place before putting it on a fallen tree he fell back. Though this left the ranger with out basic comms it didn't matter for him since they where set to die. With that in mind he pulled up the slam launcher with its plasma rounds. Reading it for maybe a assault or all this prep would be useless didn't matter. Heck as he thought about it they could just spam missiles where he was and it would be over in a instance and all the effort wasted. Chuckling to him self and alone away he waited to see what might happen.
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

It had taken all of her training to keep herself from yelling at the others that they needed to get moving. It was bad enough that the enemy had plenty of time to setup and prepare. Worse that they were better equipped. Even worse that the Rangers were expected to attack. Every bit of her training told her that this whole setup was a bad idea and delaying it was not helping.

But, she wasn't the type to let all of that get her down. She'd kept her bold smile on while she waited, friendly despite her gritted teeth. As things had gotten organized, the tension that had been building in her shifted into anticipation. She could feel the fine fur on her tail begin to stand up in response.

When they'd stepped into the jungle, she felt more at home than she had on the ship. Her whole life had been training in areas like this up until she'd signed on with the Artemis after all.

As orders were provided, she formed up with her fire team. She was eager to participate in the plan; more eager to see how Rangers in the field dealt with PAs. Given the frequency that they were likely to come across them, she knew that there had to be a number of tricks prepared to bypass their sensors and keep them alive long enough to complete the mission. Her instructors had noticed her hero complex early on; their guidance on attacking PA while unarmored was simply 'Don't.'
 
RANGERS
Lucas let his mind focus, the fatherly air disappearing for one calm and collected, even as detonations sounded. There was only a slight flinch as he registered where they had come from, but a reaction that would remained unseen in these darkened conditions. Keying his point to point, he had already prepared short fire text orders he could select and fire on the one way comm line. With attached note to pass it along to those who needed it. Sure it was a tad slower, but it meant no sound from using his voice, and being on laser based point to point, that it could not be intercepted.

>>All units spread out along edge as planned. Squads signal with code blue when in position.<<
>>Scout 2: encountered hostile action<<
>>move to alert yellow<<
blue: in position, ready for next phase
green: moving to position/changing position
yellow: hostile action detected, remain aware for further enemy movement
red: hostile action encountered/engaging enemy
black: (automated) SNCO eliminated, command moves to next squad/fireteam leader
purple: operation failure imminent


INFANTRY
"Menelik, conserve your ammo, for all we know. You wasted ammo on a decoy, save it for when we encounter hostile action please. Do not doubt this is anything else, but a siege. The rangers aren't idiots who will face us head on. If I know Lucas, he's got something planned, so dig in and prepare for a coordinated tactic against us. Most likely, that was only a scout, and not likely the only one.", Setsuya relayed to the corporal before switching it to open comms after the first two sentences, "Expect ordinance of some sort, it's their only viable option. What matters, is how they plan to deploy it in this case."

Switching the comm line to channel B which only the designated watch point officers could hear, she gave another minimal order, "All watchers, report any other sightings of UVL emissions. Mark a route based on the sighting's locations, and prepare a sniper for giving our peepers a few more........less messy reaction shots on my order."

With a sigh, the neko switched the comm off before giving a glance behind the helmet's faceplate in the direction of Klaus. Using a point to point, she messaged him directly, "Klaus, you mentioned you share training with one of the rangers correct? Got any intel on this guy we could use in our defense? I know I'm barraging with questions, but is there a possibility he's acting as a scout for the rangers currently, and if so, what actions is he likely to take?"
 
Ghost Star Fortress [NK-X1-02] Docking Bay One
Nataria
YSS Artemis

Deck 6 - VR Chamber

Eric was waiting, the tension was there and here he was waiting with his launcher. His computer disabled for the operation and his helmet in use for his ambush he had no idea of the situation with the rest of the unit. The missiles had been deployed and he could only hope for maybe a kill. As such he stayed still and waited.
 
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