RP: YSS Ryūjō YSS Ryūjō - Mission 1.1 - Fury in Doubt

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

Far above the humid musk and blood stench of the forest, Kakeru kept a sky watch on the route the ground squad was supposed to take with the recon Teisatsu's impressive sensor array.While it was bad manners to monitor another unit's frequencies, the sheer boredom of flying in circles off Errowyn's wing had him listening in on the ground contingent simply for the sake of something to do. While nothing was happening there either, at least it was someone else's nothing, which made it a lot more interesting. Keeping an eye on his wing lead's antics, which told him that she was at least as bored as he was, he left monitoring the near space environment to her while he looked for anything that might indicate hostiles in the vicinity of the landing party.

A sudden burst of comm traffic caught him by surprise.
"We need a medic over here, now!"
Immediately perking up, he scanned the area around the landing party with greater attention. Still nothing, but the call for a medic suggested that someone was hit bad, especially since the phrasing implied that it was not the injured party calling for the medic.

"Joto, we got some comm activity from the ground team, sounds like someone was hit bad. I don't spot any hostiles from up here though." While it was technically none of their business, Kakeru laser-commed Errowyn to fill her in on the scuttlebutt. He knew that as bored as they were, any news was big news.

Planet's Surface - Far right of formation, 100m form Riot

Ume froze a moment when she heard the call for a medic but it was only a moment before she pressed herself against a tree and then lowered her body to a crouch trying to make her profile as small as possible. She then examined her HUD and noticed the lack of signal for Kongo. Everything had black but she didn't hear an explosion or anything of the like. She figured it was either a trap or a sniper since it wasn't appearing on sensors. She focused on her optical sensors and examined her surroundings and even took the time to use zoom to look into the distance for snipers. "What kind of attack was it?" She sent her message to the rest Lady rather than Riot which was likely in panic at the moment and didn't have the time to take idle calls while handling injured.

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

Errowyn sent back to clicks on her transmit to acknowledge Kakeru's message. Then on tight beam laser, replied back, "Keep me informed." She wondered what she had missed. All of her scanned data had been sent to Ryujo. She wanted to do another low level pass but there was ground troops there and didn't want to give away their position. She added the ground troops frequency to the others she had to listen in also.

She missed her fighter and was willing to sacrifice the more powerful scanners that the craft she was flying currently, for the more powerful weapons it carried.

Planet's Surface

Amatsukaze-hei was stealthily darting around the marred landscape in her mechanized Sylph at the left of Lady's spread pattern, seemingly the only one who was actually having an enjoyable time of things despite all the unknowns at play on Aurigaesha. Of course, she was still quite alert for danger and lending AIES processing power to the battlegroup to determine what the faint readings coming in were. However, just as it seemed they had gotten a bead on what kind of threat was lurking, it reacted to their probes violently. The only sign any attack at all had been delivered was the plume of dirt that shot up around where Riot was positioned and the sudden panicked call over the communications for a medic that stopped Noa dead in her tracks. That was her gig, and by the sounds of it there could already be a fatality somewhere from an unknown attack...

"Uh oh... medical request received. I'm on it, Kumiko-shoi!" she replied energetically to the team leader, and carefully abandoned her forward scouting progress to retread a path that tried to avoid as many of the trace power sources still appearing on passive scans as she could while making her way over to the downed Kongo armor's position. It was showing black status on several systems readouts streamed into her brain through the Mini-SPINE interface, and time was of the essence to get a better idea what had occurred.

Noa soon reached her target with a little gravimetric thruster boost from her hips, sliding into place by the prone power armor and immediately visually scanning the area with one of her integrated phased pulse projectors ready to make sure there were no threats. About the only thing she could find was the pebbles and dirt from where something had came out of the ground scattered about the area, though, and the fact that the veteran's armor itself was completely mangled on one side like a flattened can of fish. "I've reached Kongo-hei safely. Looks like something blasted from below in her immediate proximity." She began transmitting visual data to the team network as she went on: "Ehh... seems the armor's entire left side was crushed up like a bad can of field rations! Probably a gravity-type weapon discharge. It just missed her head, thankfully, but she is definitely out of action with loss of an arm at least. Checking status now," the mecha suited mini-Neko reported dutifully, before leaning down to assess the condition of her patient and the location of the armor's emergency diagnostic port, as the free hand was already rummaging into her medical kit for the PMS-1M scanner to connect it with.

Aurigaesha I, Surface

Masato sighed as he reflected on the past hour while advancing cautiously along with the rest of Riot, his sense of nervousness having since been replaced with that of boredom, due to the lack of immediate threats. This, to put it mildly, has not been one of my better days. I mean, not only was I late to my first-ever assignment. Nor was I content with embarrassing myself in front of the entire bridge crew. Oh, no. I, Matokai Masato, have screwed up badly enough to get myself drafted into the ground team - where absolutely none of my expertise is relevant, seeing as how I'm trained as an engineer, not as some gun-toting warrior!

The Minkan let out another sigh (plus a few curses) as he stumbled over an exposed tree root and ended up faceplanting into the ground. Damn it...could this get any worse?



Fate's answer, delivered in the form of an explosion - the detonation of the mine targeted by Sigrid's active scan - was that yes, things could indeed get worse. Much, much worse.



OHSHITOHSH-! Time seemed to slow to a crawl as fear-triggered adrenaline cascaded through Masato's veins and the Engineer's baser fight-or-flight instincts (yet to be subdued by the experience earned from battle) took ove, directing Masato to (literally!) dive for cover behind the nearest object available - in this case, the trunk of a relatively ancient tree.

With the requirements set forth by the aforementioned survival instincts satisfied, control was finally released to his military training - thus causing the frightened Masato to peek out and frantically scan ahead for any nearby hostiles. Finding none, he slumped downwards, resting against the tree - exhausted and breathing raggedly as the panic-fueled adrenaline left him feeling drained and very tired.

Holy...frak...berries...what...in...the...name...of...the...Empress...was...that?

Ryujo

The space around the Ryujo's group was rather cluttered right now, shuttles flew to and from the supply ships, escorts moved rather lazily several kilometers away from the group - serving as a buffer in the event that anything came close.. and something 'did' come close.

"Sir?" the Ryujo's sensor operator spoke up as their console sent off an alert. "There's an unknown object approuching at the furthest defense line, it is not responding to hails from our escorts."

Takeyu straightened up in his chair, and rubbed his chin. "Bring the battle group to yellow alert, inform our fighter's on patrol to intercept at once!"

Aurigaesha, Orbit.

At the same time that the Ryujo had company, so to did the two fighters in orbit of the planet. An object appeared suddenly from the opposite side of the planet, too far away to get actual details off it, but close enough that it would appear on the fighters sensors - and it was headed *straight* for them.

Aurigaesha, Orbit.

Errowyn perked up at 'seeing' the object. She immediately alerted Kakeru. "Heads up. we've got company. Bearing dead ahead and approaching at high velocity." She was calm and cool as her adrenaline began to seep into her system, chasing away the lethargic feeling that had come over her from the boring recon flight, since the brief encounter with the two missiles she had.

With mere thought, through her spine connection, armed her craft then getting back several - no system available- She scowled as if she had forgotten she wasn't in her fighter, but a recon craft.

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

"Heads up. we've got company. Bearing dead ahead and approaching at high velocity."
Kakeru glanced up from his sweep of the ground team's location upon hearing Errowyn's warning. Spotting the icon indicating an unknown boogie sweeping in at high speed on the flight radar, his brow furrowed with worry. Such high speeds tend to be associated with high powered war machines and he was not sure the lightly armed, slow footed recon craft was a match for the unknown, even at 2 to 1 odds and the incoming showed an unnerving ability to home in on even their supposedly "stealthy" fighters.

"I see him Hellcat, what do we do? Split up and hyper back? We're supposed to be recon." Knowing his wing lead's temperment, he suspected that she would be all for sinking her teeth into this unknown, hence his reminder that 1) they were there to do recon, not aerospace superiority and 2) the craft they were using were underarmed and slow recon fighters.

Aurigaesha I, approaching orbit
The battered shuttle Sein had been placed on looked like it wouldn't have been out of place in a scrapyard somewhere. I'm sure many people would love to have powerful parents - or parent in this case - but right now he hated it. He'd always hated it. One would think that being the head of the Iemochi family, Seinosuke's father would be a busy man. At least too busy to be laying out plans for his disinherited son to be shipped away forever and never seen again. Sein giggled a little bit, causing several of the crew around him to glance over with judging eyes. He didn't care. Their Captain had obviously been given some 'incentive' to make the journey as rough as possible for the Science Officer - the quarters assigned to the to-be soldier was a hastily tidied store room with a mattress thrown on the floor. The crew seemed to not give it a second thought, obviously the Captain had done this a couple times before.

The reason for the burst of laughter was that his father had inadvertently done Sein a favour. Being transferred to an exploration vessel, he would be out of his father's reach and able to make a name for himself. Perhaps if he distinguished himself enough, he would finally be free. Perhaps that was just wishful thinking.

Perched on a seat to the back of the 'bridge' (more of a cockpit), Sein heard a scuffle of movement at the helm followed by the sharp screech of an intercom turning on. "Attention all crew.. We are approaching the current location of the YSS Ryūjō to allow our guest to disembark. Stow all loose objects, we're entering orbit." He laced the word 'guest' with so much venom it was practically dripping. In response, Sein pulled an over-happy face and waved "That's me!". The entire bridge fell silent in a moment, all eyes turning to him before returning to gaze down at various displays.

Finally, the Captain - a burly rough looking bloke - opened up a communications channel hailing the light destroyer with a gruff tone. "Ryūjō, this is the transport craft Katsimu, servicing the delivery of your new Science Officer. Requesting permission to dock."

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

Errowyn, Hellcat, hated to run from anything. But in recon crat and with a pilot that was good when there was no pressure, But Kakeru wasn't even combat trained to fight a craft.

"Dragon, Return to Ryujo at all speed, I'll follow. Go!" She commanded.

Kaheru was more of an asset than she was. She was replaceable, Plus someone had to take measure of the inbound bogey. Quickly plotting out an intercept course that would be to her advantage if she had to run.

Ryujo

"Permission granted, please tell your charge to report directly to the captain upon arrival."

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

The craft continued on its course, moving toward the group of fighters, although its course now showed it to be parelle to their own - it would pass them with roughly two hundred meters to spare. There was a burst of sensor activity from the craft, whatever it was, it was randomly scanning the area as if it was 'looking' for something.

Ryujo - Armory

Sebastian had been keeping herself busy as she awaited orders for the next team to get brought together for the ongoing battle that the others were a part of. Since she was hired on to work on the armor systems themselves, she went through the routines of ensuring that everything was in working order as well as making sure that the inventory for spare parts was up-to-date...not that there was really any need for her to do so. It was just something to occupy her time.

When she wasn't in the armory, she would be in the gym working out. She would take off her left arm to ensure that the robotics wouldn't allow her to cheat as she worked out her right arm, but only during those times. Otherwise, she'd have both arms to help with the rest of her body. As part of her workout, she would bring in her Bo to go through the maneuvers that she had learned to defend herself with. Sometimes she'd even be in armor, testing to see if she was able to use the same movements or not. She would modify as needed, but that was all part of the whole process.

For now, though, she was in the Armory once more. She had decided to tweak her own armor some, for she needed to accommodate for the Bo in a specialized harness. She wouldn't use it as a first line defense, but like a knife, it'd be a handy thing to have when out of ammo or in hand-to-hand combat.

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

"Roger that Hellcat, initiating escape protocol 23."

Pitching his fighter at an angle that would take him on a dogleg course back to the Ryujo, Kakeru released his last remaining decoy to mimic a fighter directly reversing its course on maximum thrust while he broke off from the original line of flight. With luck, what the unknown would see is a "stealth" ship dropping its sneaking around act and hitting full thrust to get away. As a bonus, he set the decoy's speed to that of a full powered Kawarine. No point making it a short chase if you wanted a distraction, and the further the possible hostile was away from them when it finds out that it was a decoy, the better their chances of slipping away entirely.

Ryujo - Medbay

Breyja yawned, the small blue skinned woman was falling asleep at her job as she just stared at the list of items. the long, long list of medbay items for the thousandth time trying to memorize where everything was, what they all did and when and where they would be needed. Her eyes drooped and then snapped awake as she stood up and stretched, then began casting around her workstation for something, anything to keep her awake. They weren't kidding when they said any part of a job in the military was ten percent action, ninety percent watching the paint dry. Burying her face in her hands she yawned again for the hundredth time and sighed, she wasn't privy to the goings on outside the medbay at the moment. She knew there was trouble downside, but beyond that? Not a thing.

Ryujo airspace - En route to contact

"Fighter escort, you have new orders. Unknown signature detected, intercept immediately, updating your HUD with new objective." The radio chirped into Henry's ear. His mouth curled up into something of a satisfied smirk, noting the new marker on his HUD. "Understood, Asset 1-2 moving to intercept." He acknowledged. He manipulated the stick that was firmly in his grasp, maneuvering the fighter to point it's front at his new objective. Taking his left hand off of the stick, he would gently push the throttle forward, gradually increasing his speed to "Full." "Flank speed can wait, can't be wasting that before a possible engagement." Holliday figured, returning his free hand to the stick, his gaze occasionally switching to his instruments briefly before returning to stare at the ever-approaching objective marker.

Ryujo airspace
As the acknowledgement came over the radio, the Captain snorted and looked over his left shoulder aggressively at his 'charge' and snorted. The message was clear - the man didn't give a rats gluteus maximus about his 'charge'. In fact judging by his manner Sein concluded the Capt. was probably demoted from sort of ship's officer to his current unfortunate position.

Whatever the case, the shuttle began to drop speed and it became clear that something was happening in the vicinity of the destroyer - fighters were executing all sorts of maneuvers and it seemed there was a signature being detected on long range radio.

The pilot looked nervously over at his superior (though not morally) as they entered the Ryujo's immediate airspace. "Uh, sir? Should we assist? We are armed" to the too-quick response of "Nonsense! We have to deliver the package and get out of their way!"

Hmm.. Heightened voice, phasodilation and anxiousness. Seems like the reason for any inquiries would have been along the lines of cowardness, bullying and exploitatation.

As the craft finally slipped into one of the many well-maintained shuttle bays, Sein began to rise and grabbed his assorted luggage. Throwing his trusty lab coat over his shoulder nonchalantly as he left the cockpit, the scientist couldn't help but give a parting remark - "I'm sure you'll get back to your rightful place with that attitude, Cap. Keep it up!"

Gracefully stepping from the shuttle's exit and onto the Ryujo with a small thunk, a feeling of elation swept over Sein. He was finally out of reach! No more trickery or deception. His life was his own aboard this vessel. One purposeful step after another he made his way through the newly-built ship towards the bridge - the SO assumed that'd be where the Captain was. It seemed they were in a firefight so it wasn't too big a jump to make.

Abruptly, he stopped and tried to recall some information - he had been assigned Room 20 on Deck 3. There was no point facing the Captain when he still had his suitcase and equipment.. Delving into the stockpile of data inside his head, Sein managed to retrieve the layout of the Urufu-class destroyer and hence set upon making his way to the designated space.

(OOC Sorry about this, but I'll be at CERN in Switzerland for a couple of days so I'm leaving him idling for a bit. Apologies.)

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

Errowyn ran passive scans on the bogy, getting good readings as she kepted her recon craft between Kajeru and the bogy. She watched to see the response of the bogy to Kakeru's last Decoy, before making the run herself to leave the area and return to the Ryujo.

Aurigaesha I, Planet's Surface

Kumiko kept her head up and watching all around their small group, but couldn't spot any signs of incoming fire, advancing troops, or anything else that indicated this was anything but a defensive weapon of some sort. That didn't mean there wasn't some sort of attack, just that it wasn't something she could see coming, and considering they hadn't exactly seen whatever hit Kongo before it did it's damage, the fact she couldn't see it coming was bare comfort at best. "Ryujo, this is Endoh-Shoi. We've got at least one mission casualty so far, possibly in need of an ST as soon as there's a chance. There is definitely a hostile presence on the planet, though it looks like we may have just been hitting a defensive perimeter of some sort." She paused, marshaling her thoughts before continuing. "We're going to need more people with boots down here. If they don't know we're here yet, it doesn't look like it matters. Send another full squad to augment what we have already, and a second platoon separate from that. We may need the firepower." She looked around at her group, and opened a channel to all of them. "For now, everybody hold positions. We're going to try and get some more bodies down here on the double, so don't take any chances. Amatsukaze, if Kongo-Heisho is out of action, then get back out to the frontline for now, we don't have the bodies to spare for someone who is already gone." She paused again. "And while we're waiting, somebody try and figure out what that was, and where it came from, so we don't have to deal with it again."

High orbit, Aurigaesha I

For a few moments the probe seemed to ignore the decoy, then suddenly; it would come to an abrupt stop and spin on its axis. It seemed to stand still for awhile before it began to move away from the fighters, and follow the decoy signature.

Ryujo

Takeyu sighed as he listened to the transmission from the away team, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And here I was hoping this would be a cake walk...." he muttered and sent out the orders for an additional squad and a 2nd platoon to join the current away team. "I want medics on those teams as well."

A sudden message went out across the ship, alerting the crew to a new development and for all infantry to be ready for deployment. In the infirmary, a soldier ran in and stared toward Breyja. "Hey! Your needed on the away team, grab your medical gear and suit up!"

Outside of the Ryujo

The object continued to approuch the fleet and for a moment kept on course toward the Ryujo, before it changed slightly and began to head toward Henry's fighter, at this point a sensor burst could be detected from the object.

Aurigaesha I, outbound to outer system

Kakeru breathed a sigh of relief as the unknown hared off after the speeding decoy. With alien tech, there was no certainty that the decoy would have worked, but for now, it seems like their stealth was holding and the decoy was living up to its name. Hellcat would have gotten good passive scans of the unknown and it was high time that they got the hell out of here. Suppressing a pang at the ground team that would be left without overhead cover, he kept his fighter skuttling along on CFD drive away from the decoy and its pursuer before planning for a home run back towards the Ryujo. In 10 minutes time or if closely approached, someone was going to be very unhappy as the decoy slagged itself to prevent capture of its signature mimicking database. Before that, Kakeru planned to be as far away as possible when that happened. With a pang of concern for his wing lead, she may have been rude and abrupt but he did not really wish her dead, he hoped that she was on the way back to the Ryujo as well, he began a dog leg course that would lead him back to the Ryujo while avoiding the area where the decoy and unknown would be playing tag.