Bucky figures out Frosty's idea quickly enough and runs through some math on the requirements for it. "Why does Frosty want this thing though? He's already got radar, why doesn't he just upgrade that? It'd be faster and more accurate than some weird sonar system."
"Because I cannot listen to the blips on my radar."
Frosty was leaning on the doorway to the engine bay, looking at Bucky. He had his drawing in his hand.
"I know it sounds very impractical, but it has it's use. For example, if there are two enemies on the ground with bad intentions talking about their plan to kill us all, I would be able to hear what they are saying to eachother. If you really do think it's impractical and have a better idea, then I really wouldn't mind if you decide not to create this device. You and Valkyrie are the tech experts on this ship, so you two know better about this sort of thing than I do. I just thought this would be a useful thing to have."
Outside the Muramasa, Yanim, Rask, and Neasha prepared to leave their home ship behind for what would likely be the final time. Neasha had set aside a moment to contact the base's service team so that the trio could borrow a truck.
"I'm gonna miss the ol' shitheap," Rask commented. "Got us through some rough times, didn't it? How're ya holdin' up, Neasha?"
"I'll live," Neasha replied, tersely. "The carrier better not be as empty inside as you made it out to be."
"Oh, come on. We've done right by you, haven't we, serek?" Rask badgered. "You were living in a tin can when we met you, keh."
"It was mine and I was comfortable." Yanim cast a skeptical glance in Neasha's direction, causing the latter to add hastily, "well, the money made things worth it."
A set of messages arrived. Yanim used her implant to quickly disseminate the information- Argos was preparing to assist the crew on Voyak (a mild surprise, as no doubt, Yuga would have wanted the opposite. Yanim concluded that the bootlicker ayr must have been confronted by the crew over the decision.) Yuga was now requesting permission to depart, to which Yanim replied-
"From now on, the vessel is under your command. Depart on your own volition."
Neasha blinked back tears as she wondered whether the crew would take good care of the ship. Owen was a good pilot, and Vakarus, a good gunner. They had a strong engineering team backing them up, too. Still, not every new hire had turned out to be a good prospect for the company. Mattheus and Waldo, too inexperienced with this sort of business to be of any help, would be brought along to the carrier for additional training. They soon appeared with their luggage in hand, summoned on short notice and without a chance to say goodbye to the crew they had barely acquainted themselves with.
---
[video=youtube;_Dz9Z9rkY4A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dz9Z9rkY4A[/video]
Checkered explained the situation to Captain Shuur in a matter of minutes. The Muramasa crew wouldn't be communicating with the sanghvi directly- instead, they would be in touch with numerous "agents," some of which were YsCom and Argos employees, while others were freelancers and contractors associated with the anti-UGC factions of the border states. In other words, the crew would be anonymous on Voyak, the last link in a chain of dirty money. It was a position that the Boss and her lieutenants had been in during their previous mission on Voyak in April of 2384.
"The job," Checkered explained, "is to sabotage the air-to-orbit missile defense systems which are designed to intercept relativistic projectiles- kinetic weapons employed by the sanghvi to soften up resistance by cratering military installations. Black Fleet presence on the planet is currently small, but is growing rapidly. You can expect to encounter resistance mainly from UGC peacekeepers, should you expose yourselves, but the kanads will not be far behind. You won't be the only team contracted to accomplish this task, but you will be alone in the assault on your particular target- the Dyatiq Range Missile Base in the southern hemisphere.
"We have assigned you this target because of its proximity to the technological artifact we are employing you to retrieve. We will be referring to that object as 'Archive I' from here on. It is a rectangular object roughly the size of a footlocker, weighing just over 80 kilograms. It is believed to be held within the Yovek UGC airbase, fifteen kilometers from Dyatiq. How you choose to go about accomplishing these tasks is up to you."
[B][Mission Start]
Current Objectives:
* Gain entry to Dyatiq
* Destroy or disable at least half of the missiles
* Assault Yovek Airbase
* Recover Archive I
* Escape Voyak[/B]
((Woo let's blow shit up!))
((Time to make bombs.))
[quote]The following is an excerpt from the documentary 'The Looming Tower: The Children of God's Reign of Terror.' published March 4, 2023.[/quote]
"...Now y'see, my grandpa was a biker, and so was my dad, so I've been to a lot of hog gatherings and I've seen these bikers try to make their bikes look real scary and menacing. Some dude had flames come out of his exhaust and had skulls all over, some guy had spikes and bullet decals on his, and one guy made his handlebars look like some lady spreading her legs. Everyone was trying to make their bike look really intimidating and all that, but I just kinda tilted my head. Let me tell you what I think is the scariest bike in the world. Picture this: a dinky looking dirt bike covered in sand and dust with two of those fucking Artisynth freaks on it. I guarantee you the hogs would run for cover if they ever saw that shit, let me tell you why. During their little jihad of terror which almost destroyed this state, there was a division of them that used to do these lightning fast strikes on convoys and assassinations on people who had the misfortune of catching their attention. They'd ride in on their dirt bikes, shoot up everything, and then high tail it out of there. And it usually took them a couple of minutes if it was a convoy, and a couple of seconds if it was an assassination. I remember I was with this old man who always took his hat off and placed it on his chest whenever he saw one of them ride past. I thought he was doing it out of respect for them, but it turns out he did it because he knew someone was going to die that day."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[quote]November 30, 1995.[/quote]
"Tell me, Moloch. Have you ever driven a motorcycle before?"
"Yes, Chemosh. I have."
"Have you ridden one on the cliffs and canyons on our land?"
"Yes."
"Then I trust you to be my driver for this attack. Are you comfortable with this?"
"Indeed I am, friend."
"Very good. We ride in five."
[quote]Later that day...[/quote]
Several trucks full of soldiers were driving through a canyon out in the desert. They were being deployed to quell the violence and chaos the Artisynth were spreading during their revolt. The Artisynth were pushing west to free the rest of their kind whom were still imprisoned in various laboratories throughout the land. The soldiers knew they were in Artisynth territory, and had prepared in advance by sending a team to inspect the canyon cliff tops to ensure there was not a trap set for them. Everything appeared to be clear, the cliffs were free of any Artisynth activity, and the road was clear as well, no mines or traps. They missed a spot, however. When the trucks drove through a narrow pass, the canyon walls looked fine when you were driving inside it, but if you were coming through the other way, they were dotted with man-sized holes. This was when the trap was sprung. As if they came right out of the passage walls, dirt bikes flew right out of the holes with their engines roaring and their passenger's guns blazing. They encircled the trucks and the trucks' tires were the first to go. Now that they were immobilized, they began speed circles around them, shooting at the passenger compartments. The soldiers fought back as hard as they could, even taking down some of the Artisynth, but the bikes were ultimately too fast for them.
When the dust settled and the fighting stopped, Moloch parked his bike and Chemosh disembarked. They began to scalp the corpses of the soldiers. [url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51361672/CoGBikers.jpg]The trophies were plentiful this time.[/url]
As soon as Yug had gotten the message she opened the ships comms.
"All personnel, this is Captain Shuur. Our employer will be relaying further orders from a spectator position in our company's new HQ. This means I will be the highest authority on this vessel and during the operation. Further more I have received the details regarding the mission. Would Mr Jackson and First Mate Caine make themselves present on the bridge. Combat teams, ready your arsenals. We will be arriving at Voyak in roughly 22.5 hours. I want everything to be in order when we arrive."
She was still displeased that the crew had decided to side with the Sanghvi. At least most of their opponents would be UGC troops, lackeys of the Collective. This meant that Ayr troopers would not be anywhere near these encounters.
She had also worked out a plan to achieve a percentage of the objectives.
Maddox sprung to action after Yuga's announcement, prepping all personal firearms of the crewmembers.
When finished, he continued to work on the R-DO variations.
Owen finally arrived at the bridge following Yuga's announcement. After his loss at video games, he received several messages regarding the Jackson Company's state of management that demanded his attention for a while.
"I'm here and ready, and about me being gone for a while, I had some, let's say, 'family business' that needed to be attended to. Sounds like we got another op groundside, huh?"
Yuga was sat in the captains chair, working on the details of her plan.
"We have recieved quite the workload for this contract, however it appears we will not be working alone as the contract has been give to other freelance crews as well."
She used the console to open the galsctic map with the plotted route from Mars to Voyak on the holotable so Owne could inspect it. "The route I have plotted takes us on a slight detour, allowing for us to hopefully navigate to Voyak by travelling in the border corridor between the Collective and the Empire. This should help us reach our destination without being detect or harrased by border patrols, giving us the element of surprise should we need it. I require you at the helm not only to steer the vessel but to take control should we require manual manouvers if we encounter complications."
She turned towards Vakarus who was sat at the gunnery console, "I shall also require your presence on the bridge to man the ships armaments in case we need them en-route or when we reach our destination."
Vakarus nodded. "Understood Yuga'atvan."
[i]Johannes glances up at the intercom message, and then takes leave of Hariim.[/i][b] "I need to see Maddox and get my suit's armor upgraded before we arrive. Let me know as soon as the new computer is ready to be installed ok? Geluk, vriend."[/b]
[i]Johannes leaves the bridge, and jogs down to the armory. He turns the corner into the room and scans for Maddox.[/i][b] "Wapenhandelaar! Are you here?"[/b]
Taylor pauses, as she hears her name requested. "Go on ahead to the Armory, Jag, and check with Alex on the way. Start setting up some training programs, and I'll join you after the briefing with the captain." she said, before spinning around and walking back to the bridge. As soon as she stepped onto the bridge, she saluted and returned to her parade rest stance. "First Mate Caine reporting, ma'am." she said, standing near Yuga.
Maddox looked up. "Yeah? Did Hariim scan you yet?"
[b]"I think so. He's working on a computer upgrade for my suit now. I have the plans for my suit and all the specs in its existing computer if you need those to fabricate upgrades."[/b][i] Johannes walks up and sets his helmet down on the counter (? computer desk? IDK how the room is set up)[/i][b] "What were you thinking as far as upgrading it goes? Shielding or more armor?"[/b]
Yuga didn't even look in Taylors direction, "At ease."
She gestured towards the map of Voyak, where their objectives and locations were marked.
She explained the whole premise behind the operation to Taylor.
"As you can see have quite the task to undertake. I have deviced a skeletal plan for this operation however."
She zoomed in on the map and focused on a small complex on the outskirts of Dyatiq.
"This is a depot for military vehicles. I suggest you [i]borrow[/i] an APC from here and start heading in towards the Dyatiq."
She handed Taylor a white armband, adorned by a black circle with a upside down Y inside of it.
"I'll need you to produce one for every member of the away team. This is the symbol for the so called Sympathizers, a group that volunteers to help UGC peacekeepingforces on foreign worlds. By wearing these and acting like a volunteer military unit you should be able to avoid direct suspicion while also being able to carry guns. Try to find out how many AOPN systems there are and go to them, claiming you are there to check the systems. Under this guise you should be able to install remote controlled explosives. When they are all in place you detonate them and start heading straight for Yovek airbase.
During this stage we must assume that we have been discovered, and depending on the bases defenses you will execute a frontal assault with the APC, disabling the AA placements so that the Muramasa can provide air support. Well inside you should be able to find Archive I."
Yuga inspected the lay-out of the airbase before turning back to Taylor, "I would advise you try to acquire information as to where on the base it is being held before commencing with the operation and also scout out the airbases defenses."
"Questions?"
[editline]7th June 2016[/editline]
((Gonna have to call it a night at this hour since I've got morning shift tomorrow and I'd rather not drive a 17 ton truck while being sleep deprived.))
((Snoberry the armory houses a gunrange, a couple of tables next to it, a wall lined with weapon racks, a secondary wall for the machines Maddox use and at the center of room there's a group of tables in a H-shape.))
Maddox nodded. "Sounds good, I need you to send me the schematics ASAP. As for your upgrades I was going to focus on a balance between shielding and armor, both are as equally important."
He tinkered with one of the R-DO mines while looking at Johannes. "If all goes well your upgrades will be done by the time we reach Voyak."
[QUOTE]"Questions?[/QUOTE]
"What are our orders should things go south prior to the detonation of the explosives?" asked Taylor, as she shifted to a more comfortable stance and looked over the armband. It looked a lot like those old 'Peace' armbands. Ironic, since they most certainly weren't going to be peaceful.
[QUOTE=Viper123_SWE;50467683]((Snoberry the armory houses a gunrange, a couple of tables next to it, a wall lined with weapon racks, a secondary wall for the machines Maddox use and at the center of room there's a group of tables in a H-shape.))
Maddox nodded. "Sounds good, I need you to send me the schematics ASAP. As for your upgrades I was going to focus on a balance between shielding and armor, both are as equally important."
He tinkered with one of the R-DO mines while looking at Johannes. "If all goes well your upgrades will be done by the time we reach Voyak."[/QUOTE]
[i]Johannes pats his helmet that he has sitting on the desk.[/i][b] "Got a data pad and uplink cable? I can get you the schematics right now if you have something for me to download them on to off my helmet."[/b][i] He looks at the R-DO mine Maddox is working on and furrows his brow.[/i][b] "What is that? Some sort of spider drone?"[/b]
Meanwhile in Porter's cabin, a bag hangs from the ceiling, repeatedly being punched at by Porter. A double-jab, knee kick, roundhouse, uppercut, back ha- and there goes the punching bag... again.
"... oh yeah I forgot I need to use the Military-grade..." he reminds himself as he picks up the punching bag and hangs it back onto the ceiling.
A knock on the door, followed by the door opening, followed by Amelia walking in with her hands behind her back, followed by, "You gunna go on this mission?"
"I'll ask what my objective is in a bit, just trying to get back into things after I became a literal pincushion." he replies as he does another jab, "You gunna come along?" he follows up.
"Nah... I'll sit this one out. I've had my fair share of," she looks up towards the ceilings, raising her hand and starts counting of the things she's seen as a terrible sight, " death, getting shot at, decapitations, watching people murdering innocents, people thinking that murdering innocents is a good thing." she stops, then looks back at Porter, lowering her hand, "I'll just read some articles about science and watch some old movies, maybe some video games, or..." she whispers under her breath, "maybe a bit of anime,"
"What was that last one?" Porter asks over his shoulder, punching the punching bag again.
"Oh nothin', just me blabbering again." she writes off.
"Welp, I'll leave you alone, see ya." Amelia waves him off, closing the door behind her.
After a few more minutes of punches, Porter relaxes his muscles and cybernetics. Due to the need to relax, he sits down and raises his left arm, a hologram that only he can see expands in front of him, (( Imagine dead space )), he types on his left arm, which is now a keyboard, and sends a message to Taylor, the first mate.
[quote]So I just heard the announcement. Any ideas as to where I could be placed in this mission? Also, Amelia is skipping out on this one. She's a little tired of all the stuff happening. You get the idea.
- Porter[/quote]
Bucky shrugs, and replies to Frosty: "There are better ways of listening in on people at a distance. I can rig something up for you that'll read local vibrations in the air in a targeted area using a couple of smartly networked sensors and processors. It'd work pretty nicely and it'd be pretty lightweight. I can even rig it up using some of the spare components we have in storage right now. C'mon." And with that, she leads the way to Frosty's fighter where she begins her work.
----------------------------------------------------------
Hariim picks up his shipments before the Muramasa departs Mars and immediately gets to work putting together the new computer system for Johannes. The actual putting-together of the hardware is the easy part; programming it to work with hardware [I]many[/I] generations behind it is the hard part. He gives it his best shot, and spends the time working in his quarters.
Valkyrie follows behind Bucky and Frosty, bringing her calibration tool with her as she walked. She thought about the modifications she'd have to make to Cerberus to get it ready for open combat. Probably make it so it deployed its gun a bit faster, beef up its armor a bit, automate it so it wouldn't need direct control via remote. That way, they could just tell it what to do and it'd do it.
She also wondered if she'd have to go with the ground team. Would be better than just waiting here on the ship. They might need something fixed or destroyed out in the field.
((Some quick notes: I saw Radley's post back there mentioning travel time. For the sake of allowing background events to progress, the time skip between now and the arrival at Voyak should be three days, as mentioned by Red in his conversation with Rask and Yanim. That means that the crew should arrive on January 18th. If anyone wants anything to occur en route to the destination, send a PM informing me and Radley so that we can play it out. Otherwise, I expect Radley to take us to warp, and for me to post when I'm properly ready to introduce the crew to Voyak.))
The truck arrived at the landing platform where the Aurikha awaited its new owners. While a few spare hands from Argos loaded the miscellaneous small crates onto the arms of the ship's service drones, word came down that Red was on the ship's bridge. Taking this as a sign that he still had something to tell her, Yanim decided to meet him there while her lieutenants settled in.
Taking the elevator to the upper deck, she walked alone through the empty hall to the front of the ship, the air filled with the click-clacking of her boots. It reminded her of times spent in the engineering and cargo bays of other ships, the Archius especially, where there was space to move around and times where she actually felt alone. Even when the Muramasa had only five crew, she still felt the walls around her and the presence of company all throughout the ship. It would be a while before the carrier would feel anything like that. Was it a positive change? She mulled the thought over before remembering that Alex was leaving with the rest of the crew. She'd miss his cooking.
The door opened smoothly into the bridge and she smiled, greeted by dozens of consoles which were original to the ship's design- built by her kin and made for someone of her stature to command. Only the pilot's console had been modified, as Neasha required the instrumentation and displays to work in English. Red turned around from the panoptic windows as she entered.
"Everything is in motion, now," she declared.
[QUOTE=Snoberry Tea;50467806][i]Johannes pats his helmet that he has sitting on the desk.[/i][b] "Got a data pad and uplink cable? I can get you the schematics right now if you have something for me to download them on to off my helmet."[/b][i] He looks at the R-DO mine Maddox is working on and furrows his brow.[/i][b] "What is that? Some sort of spider drone?"[/b][/QUOTE]
Maddox hooked up a cable to Johannes's helmet and started downloading the schematics. As the schematics were downloaded Maddox altered his previous armor concepts to fit Johannes's armor systems.
He grunted when Johannes pointed at one of the R-DO mines. "Indeed, spidermine. Not supposed to be out on the market yet somehow Amy managed to get ahold of the blueprint. I did some modifications to it and if it comes down to it we'll have a strong perimeter during defensive operations."
-----
The SNV Redstar slowly cruised through space. Zhanyes stroked his chin as he observed the void and its contents laid out infront of him, visible only through the bridge window. A lone planet, one of many unnamed and uninhabitated worlds, was visible. Its dark and rocky surface created a huge contrast next to the bright sun of the system.
However, the planet and the sun was not Zhaney's main focus. Ahead of the ship was a SDF listening array, one out of thousands of unmanned sensor posts created to alert the SDF and its neighbouring worlds of any suspicious movements caused by hostile militaries, fanatics or pirates.
This one in particular was damaged and several metal tendrils had burrowed deep into its hull, twisting it like it was made out of paper.
Zhaneys got up and walked up to the window. He glanced at Zhu. "Scan it."
Zhu nodded and was about to start the scan when one of the tendrils tore off a large chunk of the metallic sensor post. Then another. Soon there were large visible cracks appearing accross the hull, a solar array was shattered into pieces as its frame started to bend.
Zhaneys looked at the bridge crew. "All stations, stand by."
The sensor post suddenly exploded into a million pieces and a large menacing ship became visible.
Zhu widened his eyes. "Kaxan pirates!"
Lord Admiral Zhaneys wasted no time and rushed back to his seat. He slammed a button on the armrest, patching him through the entire ship.
"Attention all personnel! We have Kaxan pirates inbound, they will try to board us. All personnel are to enter battlestations immeadiately! This is not a drill!"
As Zhaneys spoke to the entire ship Zhu put the Redstar in red mode, activating all weapon systems.
As the ship prepared for battle, Zhaneys observed the Kaxan Tick-class cruiser approaching.
Designed after the Honax tick native to the kaxan homeworld of Kaxani, the ship had a slim bow but a wide stern.
A small insectoid face with six eyes, multiple mandibles and sharp metal teeth decorated the very front of the bow. It served no tactical use but was used to demoralize crews instead; Kaxan raiders were infamous in the southern quadrants of the Milky Way and had left many captains sleepless while traversing more isolated systems.
Underneath the front of the ship were several dozens of holes which housed the many tendrils used to assault unfortunate ships in close range, smaller tendrils were used to tear up the hull and disrupt enemy systems like opening random airlocks, sealing off bulkheads while also haywiring onboard defenses.
Most military ships were too armored for the smaller tendrils, especially vessels belonging to the many naval forces close to Kaxani who were already familiar with the pirates.
Sadly, the Kaxan often targeted civilian ships who stood no chance of surviving a close-range assault.
Next to the smaller tendrils were larger ones which contained small cargo pods inside. When burrowed into a target, these pods would ferry Kaxan raiders between their own vessel and their prey as a makeshift elevator.
Zhaneys shook his head. The Redstar would most likely be able to hold off the raiders, he knew however that the Kaxan would not surrender.
On the world of Kaxani, the Honax tick would linger in the murky swamp water and attach itself to the leg of its prey. Its tendrils would burrow into the the very bone. Without the proper equipment and training it was almost impossible to survive and many unlucky victims often chose to cut off their own legs rather than to bleed out and die in the swamp.
"We're within weapons range." Said the weapons officer. Zhaneys nodded. "Open fire, concentrate your shots to the center of the bow. I want to see that armor get blown up. Load one MAC round."
He turned to Zhu. "Ready the TIGERs."
[I]Johannes nods and leans in to get a closer look, careful not to touch it just in case.[/I][b] "Say, would it be possible to add some sort of jump booster to the legs or boots of my suit?"[/b]
After thinking for a while Maddox nodded. "It would. Although I'd have to slim down your armor to balance the whole thing. Unless you want to give a new meaning to the phrase "face-first into hell"."
[I]Johannes looks up and makes eye contact with Maddox, grinning like a man possessed.[/I][b] Let's redefine it together. After all, I earned my commission by being launched at other vessels in glorified drill pods. Shock Troops from Hell they called us. Hard to defend your ship when there's suddenly pissed off marines literally tearing through your Hull."[/b][I] Johannes chuckles, still grinning.[/I][b] "Not a day goes by that I don't miss it. The adrenaline, the rush, the thrill."[/b]
(( By the way, I hope you guys didn't mind me adding a "Non-Muramasa Crew" section to the character page. ))
[QUOTE=F T;50473501](( By the way, I hope you guys didn't mind me adding a "Non-Muramasa Crew" section to the character page. ))[/QUOTE]
[Quite a lot of the TVTropes page needs updating.]
Jag spent the few days during the warp jump within in the medical bay.
Hestia slowly set out to carefully mend the widening crack laid upon on the Sanghvi's head.
Both remained silent to one another while Hestia operated on Jag's outer shell throughout the travel.
Occasionally, she would copy her findings and sending them to Amelia's email account on the Muramasa's network.
Believing that the curious Biologist would find value in gathering rare, first hand medical knowledge of the elusive and exotic Sanghvi.
Maybe it was due to the fact that Jag's reputation within the Elysium was no more bloody then the many lives the Sanghvi had ended within the Combine.
Maybe it was due to the fact that Sanghvi within the Mantle having a fairly negative view upon synthetic life with Jag being no different.
Maybe it was due to the fact that Jag wasn't in talking mood, for just 72 hours.
Nevertheless, Hestia finished up within her earliest estimates that she had set out before the surgery.
Through, Jag suddenly arose from it's still position on the floor and walked out of the medical bay without even saying a 'thank you'.
The now, once more, fully recovered Sanghvi begin heading towards the armory after listing to the debriefing through it's implant.
Jag look forward towards seeing UGC peacekeeping forces again.
The spoils from the great raid of the west was truly spectacular.
[B]---[/B]
Red turn to look over his shoulder while Yanim entered the bridge of the Aurikha.
Grinning under his armored after seeing his long time business partners, tilting his head towards the right before turning to face Yanim.
After an sharp turn, the masked Argos operative snapped his legs together with his arms firmly behind his back, his head facing forwards to Yanim.
Red then quickly rises his arm in salute.
[Dama.] Red mutters in a light, sarcastic tone before putting his hand down.
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