RP: YSS Ryūjō YSS Ryūjō - Mission 1 - Fury

[Kyle]

Aurigaesha Star System, outskirts

Space tore apart in a teal colour as the YSS Ryujo and its escorts burst forth from fold-space; the squadron was just outside of the Aurigaesha star system, the system they were assigned to investigate. The ships escorts, all Plumeria's, moved ahead of the much larger vessel and took up a position to ensure that if anything was to meet them, they'd have to go through the plumeria's first.

"Recon squad is to deploy at once," Takeyu announced, he was more than a little aggitated. The intel he'd been given before the earlier briefing was actually rather incorrect in several details, it hadn't been a few years since the system had been colonized, but rather no more than a year or two. With this new information, he'd sent a revised version of it to the ships crew and those going on the mission.

"They are to do a quick recon of the system, look for anything of interest, and then return. I don't want them to loiter to long," the captain said, his gaze looking straight toward the viewscreen. "Also, would like an update on the progress of decoding those transmissions and images please."

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko sat at the Mission Operations and Communications station on the bridge, slowly working on the transmissions with Noa.

"Working on it, sir." She called out behind her. She had only just finished downloading and decompressing the transmission files into a usable format.

"So what do you think, Noa?" Yaeko pulled up some notes that had come attached to the files. "It seems that they've already run the transmission through the standard filters, decoders, and what-not. Nothing you wouldn't expect from a standard communications team." Just to be sure she started the MEGAMI running the file through language and pattern filters to see if the transmission was just a re-arranged version of another language.

 

[Samanthia]

Aurigaesha star system::

Launch from the Ryujo was standard. Errowyn, once clear of the ship, engaged cloak on the Teisatu and dove into the system, hoping that her wingman, Dragon-2 was able to track her and stay on her wing.

Using telepathy to link up with her partner. ~~ "Dragon 2. Hellcat. Gather the Intel. I'll focus on keeping us safe. You better jump back to the ship when I tell you to." ~~

Heading to the targeted planet for recon. She kept alert for any anomaly that signified threat. She used physical visual to scan the area, looking for distortions of cloaked ships or obstacles that would prove a hazard. She turned on the intelligence gathering equipment on to record and help identify threats to Dragon 2 and herself. Zipping past the Plumaria's, heading deeper into the system.

 

[Nightowl]

After a few practice runs as the Ryujo transited from system to system to its present location, Dragon flight had managed to settle into a semi-smooth working routine. While far from the smooth performance professional recon squadrons could turn out, it wasn't that bad an effort for what was essentially an ad hoc flight.

As Kakeru pulled up low astern of Errowyn, he let her trailblaze the route while he worked on the take from the passive sensors.

The Aurigaesha system's primary was an old star, a red dwarf in the twilight years of its lifespan, emitting a sullen red light as if it was unhappy that somehow the universe had passed it by. Four attendant plants twirled in a stately dance around the sun, young maids waiting upon an elderly dowager. And like women, some of these maids hid secrets.

"Hellcat, Dragon 2. I got a fix on the colony on Planet 1, but there's something else. I'm getting faint metallic readings from the spectrograph from Planet 2 and what might possibly be neutrino signatures, or it could be backscatter from the sun, we're too far out to say for certain. We need to get in closer before I can be sure. Do you want to take a look or do a recce of the colony first?"

 

[Samanthia]

Errowyn accessed the information she had received from Kakeru, quickly. "Dragon 2, Hellcat. Check out the planet 2 first. I would like to do a threat assessment. Come in at a polar vector. We'll do polar to polar fly by." Then giving him her flight path. "Stay high up in stratosphere close to space incase we need to make a break for it. Farther communication by telepathy."

Diverting the flight onto the new heading, Errowyn felt nervous, but thankful she came off sounding confident as a leader should. It was making her itchy in a good way as she scanned for hostile present, for whomever took out the Probe had in-system advantage. She wanted her first flight as leader to be successful with everyone returning to the Ryujo in good health.

 

[paladinrpg]

Noa was sitting crosslegged on the console next to Yaeko, seemingly in a trance for a moment. But it was quite obvious what was going on, as lines of raw digital bits and bytes were scrolling across the orange tinted display of her mini visor as the IT specialist analyzed and re analyzed the quantum computer code that made up the transmission. Every once in while her face would light up at an apparent breakthrough, only to drop back into a mildly frustrated frown before she went at it again. "Mou chotto... The filters aren't any use because there's a completely unknown, multi-string encryption technique employed in this communication. I'm really impressed with whoever has this level of security! It could take years to break it with brute force methods like what MEGAMI use."

"I think I'm onto something though," declared Noa, as she adjusted the speed of the scroll and highlighted one portion in green. "I've managed to isolate one of the data streams that was corrupted pretty badly, but when I put it back together to restore the integrity it seemed like it also partially broke the encryption in some way. Sooo... Seeing my chance, I've been hitting that thing with as many cycles as I can to decode the partial cypher, and I should have it in approximately 3...2...1... Yatta!"

As soon as she said those words, a readout and audio playback appeared on the volumetric display before Yaeko at the bridge workstation, as Noa streamed the new data through the filters the communications officer had already setup. The following message resulted, garbled in many spots:

"** ** Colonel ** operations ** **. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** been ** ** ** ** ** ** fleet ** ** system ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** security ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Please ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** territory, ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** possibility ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** cities ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** complete, ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** survived, ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** twelve ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

** ** ** **"

 

[Nightowl]

Kakeru could not help but frown at his sensor display. There was a lot of debris on Planet 2, a bit too much for comfort.

"Hellcat, Dragon 2. Confirmed positive on ship wreckage. I'm reading Star Army hull composition as well as SMX but most of the rest simply read as "unknown". Confirm positive on the neutrino emissions too, but... nothing really strong, it's more like leftover radiation of shut down reactors and engines. I don't like this, there really is a lot of wreckage on the planet. We should recommend the Ryujo keep her distance until we can find out more. And keep our fingers on the fold booster, too."

Needless to say, the ship graveyard was spooking him badly.

 

[Samanthia]

Planet 2

"Dragon 2, Hellcat. hold your altitude and stay somewhat above me. I'm gonna do a low fly-by over the debris and transmit the data to you. I'm getting the same readings on the debris." Errowyns heart rate sped up as the adrenalin kick into her system, hyping up her alertness and reactions. She was the fighter and Kakeru was the brains and needed to escape if everything went to crap.

She made adjustments so that the collected data would transmitted to Kakeru. She did a barrel roll as her weapons and munition came hot while facing the stars, followed by the continuation of the roll into a sharp angle of dive towards the planet.

She leveled at 1 kilometer altitude as she sped over the debri, at a high rate of speed. Letting the Teisatu AI scan and process the info gathered and transmit it to Dragon 2 as she kept an eye out for any threat. She definitely miss the faster Kawarime '5'...

 

[Syaoran]

Deck 6 Halls

Ume was wondering the halls doing a light patrol as she did. She was on standby in case anything occurred and they needed to send out troops. Thankfully the initial patrol was fine so it was doubtful that any problems would happen from within but it was better to be safe than to be sorry. She was a bit eager though, after the system was checked out she would likely be going down on surface to investigate and there was the possibility of all sorts of things on the surface that she was excited about.

 

[Whitehart]

Nobuharu walked along the halls in a steady calm pace with his hands resting easily on the service pistols adorning each hip.. The ash grey, white haired Yamataian nodded pleasantly every so often as he passed the few crewmen he has met. A serene smile played on his lips for all those around him.

Since berth he had taken the time to find a bed, learn the layout of the ship and of course find the power armor bay. He had spent some time in flight, loading and unloading, changing and changing back various armaments on the mk2 Daisy assigned to him. It was a little overwhelming but he persevered in his typically, sometimes frustratingly calm manner.

Every evening he spent in meditation/prayer which drew quite the varied looks, from disgust to acceptance.

Things were considerably different once you left original training. His life previously was routine and laid back. Training was intense and active and now, now it was waiting. Luckily, Nobuharu had patience in spades.

 

[Gabriel]

"Hmm..." Yaeko trailed off as she listened to the transmission. Her face scrunched up with a look of confusion and concern. "There really isn't enough here to make much out. But there is this one thing." Yaeko opened up the playback interface and scrolled the audio back to the beginning.

"** ** Colonel ** operations ** **.

"This isn't a Yamataian transmission." She opened up the textually dictated version and pointed to the screen. "At least it wasn't sent to Yamataians. We don't have colonels. It could be a Nepleslian transmission, I don't think it could be Elysian, not NMX..." She trailed off again.

"Nao, is this playback in the transmission language? Or did you have the MEGAMI translate it? Because we can probably use that to clue in some extra information."

 

[Samanthia]

Planet 2

Errowyn zipped along at optimum speed to gather good data and scans of the debris of the ships that littered the ground. She had the scanners focus on the unknown ships she flew over. But also getting good pictures of the downed Yamataian ships.

Few seconds later, the data, scans and pictures were transmitted to Kakeru's Teisatu. Other than a bunch of dead ships of known origins and unknown origins. Errowyn grimaced at the destruction of so many ships.

Working the controls of her Teisatu, she speed up and gained altitude to rejoin Dragon 2. She kept her weapons hot.

"Dragon 2, Hellcat. Lets head to the planet that has the colony," Errowyn transmitted to Kakeru as she rejoined him in high orbit.

 

[Nightowl]

"Roger that, rejoining formation." Kakeru replied as he pulled back in behind Errowyn. The ship graveyard run was quite anti-climactic for all the amount of death and destruction the loss of so many ships implied.

Compressing the data from Errowyn's flyby into a transmission packet, he aligned a tight beam transmission laser to the position of the Ryujo and sent the info back in a burst transmission. A compressed signal may lose a bit of resolution from the video, but at least they would have something to work with before the flight returned with the original copies in the mission recorders.

Up ahead of the flight, he could already see the beautiful blue marble of a planet with a lot of liquid water growing larger from his cockpit. After the nerve-wracking suspense of the ship graveyard, this flyby should be a lot more relaxing.

 

[Nashoba]

Bridge

Anjin was at her station. As soon as the starship had dropped out of FTL she began entering commands to configure the sensor array to astronavigation. While the systems were firing up and collecting the sensor data she needed, she also setup a command to also look for energy emissions. It was daring of the commander to have deployed craft without a scan, but she was going to do her best to make sure when he wanted data, it was ready and waiting.

 

[Samanthia]

With experience and skill in operation of the Teisatu, a variant of the Kawarime. Errowyn kept a sharp eye out both on the ships tactical scannors and visually eyed the space around her. She caused her Teisatu to slide back and forth in a rocking motion as she flew towards the big blue marble of a planet that held life. Her teisatu still kept ahead with ease maintaining speed to stay ahead of Kakeru's Teisatu.

She aimed for the polar ice caps for entry into the atmosphere. As most defensive satellites were more station in orbit around the equator of the planet.

 

[Silverson]

Bridge

Sayuri stepped through the threshold between the corridors of the Ryūjō and its main bridge the same moment the ship appeared in their target solar system. On the top floor above, she could hear Chusa Takeyu and the other upper-floor bridge crew talking.

"Recon squad is to deploy at once," Takeyu announced. Then, he continued to speak to others of the bridge.

Here, down below, it was a little quieter. Takeyu's voice or the voices of the operators above would carry, but no one down here would speak much unless it was important. Especially not in the Pilot's Pit, at the front of the bridge. As she walked, Sayuri's amber-orange eyes fixated on the Pit. She shook ever so slightly, for just a fraction of a moment, out of sheer excitement. The anxiety of her first mission, the stress of coming to a new post, and her own internal anxiety over so many little things that had built up since she left training was released in that half-second where entire body shook.

Then, Sayuri was as rock-solid as she tried to make herself seem. The Neko, in the four seconds and four steps it took to go from the door to the Pit, pulled from her pocket a pair of chopsticks and put up her braid into a slightly more professional-looking bun. Then without a noise she clambered down into the seat and strapped herself in. SPINE synced up, giving her control of the ship. It hadn't needed her until just now. The MEGAMI or the other bridge crew had done whatever needed to be done to get them into Aurigaesha. It was now up to the pilot -- Sayuri -- to get them back out in one piece.

She eased into controlling the ship. She didn't even stir a hair when she confirmed again the course the captain had ordered for the ship.

"Sasami," Sayuri sent. "I have control of the helm."

Sayuri then mentally settled back, waiting for her next order.

 

[paladinrpg]

Bridge

"Nao, is this playback in the transmission language? Or did you have the MEGAMI translate it? Because we can probably use that to clue in some extra information."

Noa replied quickly to Yeako's query from her place on the console. "No language filter was applied, the transmission appears to be in relatively standard Trade... some kind of... status report by the format." She then started tapping her chin with a tiny finger as more database queries went out wirelessly over the PANTHEON network and the results displayed across her visor were noticeably all blank. No results found. "My searches of all known major DATA nations ranking structures turns up no matches for 'Colonel'. You think it's a new threat?"

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko let out a concerned sigh as she leaned thoughtfully back in her chair. "I don't know. You're right that it's not a part of any recognized rank structure. And based on the limited vocabulary available it is obvious that something cause loss of life. You don't say survived unless there were people that didn't. Territory definitely suggests that some sort of nation-state recognizes, whether in whole or in part, that this area is sovereign space. And it appears that this territory has, or had, cities on it. Lastly, whatever this civilization is, they either have a fleet, or were responding to the appearance of a hostile fleet."

Yaeko looked over at Nao before saying, "Sound about right? Without any additional data retrieval we won't get much beyond that."

 

[paladinrpg]

The mini-Nekovalkyrja nodded a few times as she dangled her skirt and booted feet over the edge of the workstation. "Yes, I think that's a good set of guesses, Munkata-shoi! Buuuut... have you also thought that this could be a sub-ordinate's report back to their commander about the results of an attack that was conducted on our fleet and our colony?" This last line was spoken with mixed emotions: half excitement and half paranoia at some threatening alien menace.

 

[SmokeEmpress]

Armory

Sebastian had been working diligently in the armory, repairing what needed to be during the times that the crew would go out on test runs between jumps to their current location. She didn't really spend much time in the assigned cabin, only going there when she needed to rest. Her roommate was one of the pilots that was going on the recon mission, so they really never had a chance to talk much. Sebastian kind of liked it that way. Their schedule was such that it was rare if they were in the room at the same time.

When she first started working, she had drawn stares from the other Armorers. Not because of her dark skin, but because she could move more things with one arm than they could with two. Soon enough, though, the stares became less and less as they assigned her some of the more heavy lifting tasks, which she was not opposed to taking. She would ask for help, if she knew that her arm was wearing out or if the load was a bit too much for her. There were times when she'd even get to work on the ammunition for various crafts, but her main job was always working on the armor. She had to ensure it was ready for anything.