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Iammelon
Iammelon
Posts : 607
Join date : 2018-07-26
Age : 24
Location : The Unknown Negative First Circle Of Hell (New Jersey)

An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon] - Page 2 Empty Re: An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon]

Fri Feb 04, 2022 3:45 am
Maltoi had to smile at Mithra's quick move to his communicator to note the information, "Seems somebody is getting ideas, eh? Well if you can make use of that little nugget of info, all the better! Not really my sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it can't be useful to make a wide schism."

In any case, it was good to know the dropships would fit. Made it easier than having to use just one to ferry up both groups of marines. Maltoi then nodded at the question, "Of course, but tell them to keep the engines hot. We're departing as soon as possible after all. Once the dropships are in, we're going. Come on, into the dropships! They're right here after all, and we're going to the same place." With that, he offered Mithra a ride on one of the two dropships, and got them both in along with the marines.

These dropships were generally simple transports. Their role was simply to get small groups of troops into the positions they needed to be. So they lacked a great deal of weaponry, and were not the toughest things. But they were fast, and could carry more than one might expect. The Marines were aboard, but also crates of ammo, weapons, and explosives. All that one might need for a quick and loud operation that these Marines were clearly used to. Plus, they had nice seats. There were seats of various sizes, and Maltoi found a section that were clearly suited to Taurus and other large species, so it could handle an Eliksni as well.

As Maltoi sat down in the seat, across from him one of the Marines spoke up. Based on their distinctive helmet, the Marine was clearly a Cuthian. He leaned in a bit and spoke up, "Hey bossman, good to see you survived. Got ready as fast as I could, and I'm glad we're hitting back as fast as we can. Which of course does mean one thing... We're getting in a ship called the Fireball, right?" There was silence in the dropship as it seemed everyone was anticipating what was about to come, "So, you could say we're striking... while the iron is hot." This was responded to by booing from some of the other Marines, making the Cuthian do a visible shrug and speak again, "Oh, and I thought that would be sure-fire hit!"

The Cuthian was then punched in the arm by the Marine next to him, a Taurus. And judging by the armor shape, a female one. She spoke to the Cuthian, who was rubbing his arm as the armor did not stop the pain, "Refrain from any additional fire puns. Things are heated as is... Oh damn you, it's spreading." The Cuthian snickered, as did a number of the other Marines in the ship.

Maltoi meanwhile was just smiling, and then he spoke to Mithra, "The Cuthian is Sergeant Thrain. He's a tech expert. And despite the puns, he has no magical talent to speak of, so no pundramancy. The one sitting next to him is Lieutenant Jaliana. She's a breaching expert and demolitionist, and the one who typically watches Thrain's sorry back while he's working. So she's dealt with many a pun, you'll have to forgive the lass if she ain't fond of hearing them anymore. They've been with me since we came here! Most of the troops here have been, actually. The other dropship had some of the new recruits into the Marine Corps. But these folks are the ones who I've worked along for quite a while. Ain't that right folks?" He received a response in the form of a coordinated stomp by all the other Marines, followed by a simultaneous "Yes sir!"

The Taurus smirked at that, "See? They're good scrappers too. That's one reason I got confidence. My boys here and your folks in the Fireball, we'll make quite the force. Should be quite enough to take Apex by surprise and give them a good kick! Plus, good time to test the new weapons. This is the first time the co-developed weapons will be used in a real operation." He gestured to the shock dagger at Thrain's side, "They've been trained to use them. But using a weapon in a training simulation can never be the same as using it for real. That's where you develop trust in a good weapon, or learn the worst flaws of a bad weapon. Let's hope for the former. If this shakes out well, means we're on the right path to creating new arms for Baxtra. Our own weapons."

As he was talking, the dropships had taken off, and were headed into orbit. They intended to land themselves aboard the Fireball, so the operation could get started. Given their speed, they wouldn't take long to get there.

There was enough time however for Mithra to be asked a question. And it would be the Lieutenant, Jaliana, who leaned forward to ask it, "Baron Mithra, right? Heard about you, adoptive nephew of our new Commander here. I got promoted at the same time he did, been his second for a while. So how do you think this whole thing is going to go down? The Commander is confident, that I can see, but what's your view? Haven't gotten much time to work alongside you Eliksni in a real operation, so forgive me if I'm curious as to how you operate."

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Lost_Psion
Lost_Psion
Posts : 283
Join date : 2019-08-03
Age : 27
Location : home

An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon] - Page 2 Empty Re: An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon]

Mon Feb 14, 2022 4:49 am
Maltoi was right on the money that his nephew was already scheming. But he could sort out these plans on the way. Now that the Fireball was in orbit he would tap out a quick message on his device to make sure they don’t get comfy up there. “As if I would allow these pirate bastards time to get ready for us, uncle.” After that he got onto the same Dropship as Maltoi and Mithra being pleasantly surprised that they had good seating.

While they were waiting he was now being introduced to Maltoi’s crew. Though the sudden anticipation caused by one Cuthian Marine and then drop of a pun that made everyone groan and boo and even seeing one of his squad give him a light punch only made him smirk and chuckle under his mask. He could tell that they were all veterans that clearly worked well together. Now he was being introduced to those same vets by Maltoi.

Mithra nodded to each of the introduced marines, listing their specialties and already thinking of how best he could have them help up against the pirates… Already he had an idea of assaulting the pirate ship and asking the Cuthian to get whatever he can from the ship’s computer. If not, then the Female Taurus could help to scuttle the ship to send a message to the rest of Apex that they won’t be leaving if they keep digging in. “Nice to meet you Seargant Thrain, Lieutenant Jaliana. I hope we get along like a house on fire.” He did apologise for the pun right after, not wanting to get on the demolition experts bad side.

“So all of them are from the original marine ranks huh.” He says as he smiles to their roaring answer to his uncle's question. He didn’t mind this kind of loud comradery, he was from Clan Graphis after all so rowdy and loyal was home to him. “I feel safer already to be with some pro’s.” Mithra couldn’t agree more that between his marines and the hand picked crew of the Fireball, Apex was good as toast. That and they get to test out the fun new toys for this. “What lovely target practice those Pirate’s will make for our new gear.”

Once the dropship started to climb into orbit, the sprawling construction efforts came along now showing across the surface. With the distant HSS Fireball coming into view in the distance. Mithra looked over to the demolitions expert, he did have enough time to answer her question so he figured why not. “That’s correct Lieutenant, I wonder what you’ve heard about me now. Hopefully nothing embarrassing.” Learning that Jaliana wanted a fresh perspective on this mission did get him thinking. He didn’t mind her curiosity, in fact he was happy to be the one to answer her questions. “There is nothing to forgive Lieutenant, if you still feel the same then perhaps you can tell me about some things about Taurus culture I haven’t already been told.”

Mithra relaxed into the seat, taking off his mask to smile at the Taurus across from him without a hint of worry present on his face. Nothing but confidence behind all four of his eyes. “In all honesty? My Uncle is right to be confident. Apex knows and understands how you folks operated before you came here, they knew your weapons, they knew your tactics and they knew your allies. And now? They have entered our home. They kicked the Etherpede nest, and they’re going to be torn to shreds.”

“These pirates might be good at destructive boarding actions and venting hulls… Unfortunately for them, we’ve been pirates and scavengers for generations. Emergency hull replacements and crippling demolition are just some of the skills  we’ve developed in space combat. And boarding an enemy vessel from a vacuum isn’t new to us.” Mithra seemed very sure of these traits, likely because of his previous campaigns against marauding slavers and other bandit groups alike before they arrived in this galaxy, and ever since. Apex was different from what they handled in the past… But they were another enemy they needed to handle. “I know it won’t be easy, Apex won’t make it easy. And they have a backer who’s confident enough to strike at your new home. They certainly don’t lack guts… Which is why watching them scatter will be all the sweeter.”

Soon enough they would dock with the Fireball, they might have enough time for one more question if anyone had one for Mithra. Otherwise they would be greeted by the ship's captain once they got off the dropships.

The Captain was a small Eliksni woman, human sized at 5’6ft with all four of her arms missing along with a scar along her neck. Her scales had a sort of waxy looking texture to them while they were a dark black colour. Her eyes were a vibrant green. She stood at attention and saluted the towering Baron with absolute respect. “Baron Mithra! We are ready to go at any time.”

Mithra motioned for her to be at ease, placing his rebreather back on. “Everyone. I would like to introduce my most trusted agent. Captain Frisken of Clan Deylus. She is a demon in close combat, even better than I, and fiercely devoted to protecting the lives under her command. She was an easy pick to captain this new vessel for this mission.”

Frisken gave a soft smile beneath her rebreather and bowed to her Baron. "You're too kind my Baron. I do what a captain must for her crew, nothing more or less. Now then, shall we go to the bridge? I can have some of the crew come down to help settle the gear into our ships armoury for safe storage while we get underway."

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Iammelon
Iammelon
Posts : 607
Join date : 2018-07-26
Age : 24
Location : The Unknown Negative First Circle Of Hell (New Jersey)

An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon] - Page 2 Empty Re: An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon]

Sat Apr 02, 2022 3:35 am
Mithra's pun got a small look of disapproval from Lieutenant Jaliana, but Seargant Thrain gave a quick thumbs up at the continuing pun chain. Still it seemed Jaliana let it slide, unlike how it was with Thrain. Likely because the Cuthian made puns far too often for the female Taurus's patience. Maltoi for his part smiled, clapping his hands together, "This will indeed be a great test run on live targets for the new gear! A time for you boys and girls to learn how to use your new toys on some pirate scum, eh?" He spoke out to the whole shuttle, getting another coordinated stomp in response and then a simultaneous "Yes sir!" from the marines.

With that demonstration done, Jaliana focused her attention on Mithra. She smirked at him, "On Taurus culture, eh? Well unlike the Commander here, who comes from the rural worlds, I am from Minos proper. From the city of Cyroa, to be specific. So my idea of Taurus culture will be a bit different than your uncle's here, but I'd willing to show you a few things when you have the time. Be warned, that means I got a bit more Zantine in me, and we got rather specific views on what sharing our culture with others means, if you get that drift." She gave a wink and then laughed, "Haha, but I won't get on that now. But feel free to shoot me any questions you come up with. For a quick idea though, I am from Minos, and we have a rather martial culture over there. The planet is named after our greatest species hero, the first one to unite our kind before we went into the stars. He's famous for breaking the bonds of slavery, and forging the metal from his chains into a mighty battleaxe, with which he conquered the planet. So, it's customary for every Minosian Taurus to follow in the footsteps of Minos, and when we are teenagers we melt down some ceremonial chains into metal, and forge something out of them. It doesn't have to be axe, I actually made a small statue! It wasn't very good, I was 16 and never an artist, but I was pretty proud of it. It's at my house back on Baxtra. The Commander never did that." She looked over at him playfully.

Maltoi simply chuckled and shook his head, "No, no, never did. Too busy on the fields to engage in your cityfolk capitalworlder ways. Never seen the statue though, Lieutenant! You'll have to let me see it when we get back."

Jaliana nodded to him, "We'll do that, Commander." With that, she turned back to Mithra to hear his assessment, and she nodded, "I see, so your people do have some rather relevant experience in this matter. I've done a few vacuum breaches before, a coupe in training and two real operation ones, so I can contribute to any ether based breach if we take that angle. But it is good to hear you have skills in this regard. Likely going to need them. Still, you are right that Apex will make this as hard as they can. The backer is what worries me most. I'm used to Apex, all of us here are, but I despise unknowns. I like knowing all I can. And in that regard, if you could just take one more question, it's about your houses. I know a little about them, but I am curious about yours in particular. What's it like? To be part of, I mean. I understand it's not quite like a conventional family or guild."

With that question put out, and a little time left to answer it, they arrived in the fireball. Most of the Baxtran Marines filed out of the dropship to organize themselves into their squads and unload their equipment from the dropships into the hanger. Maltoi would come out with Mithra, while Jaliana and Thrain got out and accompanied them.

Maltoi gave the captain a friendly wave while Jaliana and Thrain gave quick salutes of respect. The Taurus Commander smiled at hearing Captain Frisken's credentials, "Glad to have you with us, Captain! Your skills should serve us well in this mission, and hopefully that fiery nature of yours can defend my marines as well as you guard your own! And your offer is appreciated, though my marines will help in moving their gear as well. I don't want them getting lazy and relying on the hanger crew for moving their equipment too often, a little hard work keeps you humble. But let's get moving to the bridge. While we don't quite know what we are up against, I'd like to see what we have to utilize with this fancy ship of yours." Maltoi was quite jovial, but his final words betrayed a serious tone. He was confident but he was clearly interested in knowing exactly what they had when the time came to face Apex.

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Lost_Psion
Lost_Psion
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An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon] - Page 2 Empty Re: An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon]

Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:39 am
Mithra was aware of some of Zantine ‘customs’. He was flattered and touched that the good Lieutenant would be so kind, and bold, to think of sharing with him. The Baron just gave a soft smile beneath his rebreather as the Taurus woman gave him a wink and said that they couldn’t really get on that now. “Oh really now…? I guess I’ll just have to blow those pirates up faster when we get there.” He teased the Lieutenant back, he certainly wasn’t opposed to some fun in his off time. Seeing as the Commonwealth Military didn’t have any issues with officers engaging in fraternisation as long as it does not harm their career. In fact if it improves their effectiveness they said officers are often paired together for assignments if their respective fields work. Which is how his mother and father got together, his father was a Journeyman and his mother worked as his handler, feeding him intel when he was leading away missions.

“There is plenty about Taurus culture I would like to know. Though it seems I already had one answer seeing as you mention this Rite of passage of yours to follow in the footsteps of your ancient hero. Forging something as he did his weapon… I find that fascinating. We possess something similar but not so grandiose I’m ashamed to admit. Once we come of age we must prove that we can provide for our House and clan, we make something from the scrap that is available to us. Be it a Shank, a component for ether purifiers, water chips, a prosthetic for an injured family member. It must be something that will help the family in some way.” He says as he recalls his own Rite of Proving rather fondly in that nostalgia clouding over all the past anxiety and dread that occured in the moment back then. “If I recall… I made a cultivator pod for some home farming. Nothing huge, just enough to comfortably feed maybe two households.. Which is about twelve mouths, maybe fifteen.”

With a small amount of time left, Mithra did get thinking on the Lieutenant's question. He could at least give her a surface level view of it from what he could explain. “Well, we may need to save the real explanation till after the mission. But I can give you an idea of what it’s like. Though it is hard to try and get across something that you only know as home… I suppose to start, no one House is the same. You will find similar Houses, but never a 1 to 1 copy.”

Mithra gave it a small amount of thought, trying to put the general idea into words. “Calling it a guild sounds too impersonal. In full honesty, you were closer with the idea of family. Once you join a House you become part of a family, you now contribute to the embodiment of a promise… So for House Starlight, our promise is to create a better home, a world where all Eliksni may live with a sky over their head. Where they no longer need to resort to crime to eat or sleep… But back to Houses in a loose general sense. You are a family, yet a clear hierarchy exists. Each part of that hierarchy is cared for.”

Soon enough the transports would touch down in the hangar, which the Baron gave a soft smile as he sighed. “Aah, I suppose I will have to save the rest until we finish these pirates. Something to look forward to.”

Fritz gave a soft bow to the Taurus commander “You honour me, your guys are in good hands with me Commander, the worst they’ll have to deal with is the pirate delusions of beating us!”

Once everyone was introduced to Captain Fitz, Mithra agreed with his uncle that they needed to start getting under way, and would speak up as he took the lead of the group. “A wonderful idea uncle. Captain, how about you lead us to the bridge before we get underway.”

The diminutive captain nods along to her Baron’s order, giving a soft bow before starting to lead the group out of the hangar and into one of the main corridors that runs the length of the ship that bustled with plenty of Eliksni that were running around attending to their various duties.

As they left the hangar, the hangar crews came in to help the marines coming off the transports move their gear to the Armoury. “Of course my Baron. Now then! Since the good Commander mentioned utilising this ship, I shall run through the ship's specs while we go!” She says in a bubbly and cheerful tone. “With the Fireball being a frigate, this ship only has 3 decks. Separated into Main, Command and Maintenance.”

“The Main deck houses two hangars, the armoury, Med-bay, the barracks, the mess hall and the secondary armaments suite. Those control the aft cannons with P-Caster batteries, shield hard points and various countermeasures.” As she talks they do pass by an intersection that split off into a Y section of sorts, down one way they could see a large hangar door like the one they came from along with the barracks door.

“The Maintenance deck has the engineers tunnel entrances, the tunnels run the full internals of the ship. It also has the Forge, which allows us to limitedly make components that we can use to repair the ship. The escape pods. And lastly it houses the various cores, shields, warp, engines, and weapons. Multiple cores allows us to make sure that we lower the risk of overexerting any of them with overdraws if we come under fire.” Fritz and the group continued down the corridor as they came to the secondary armaments suite, with row after row of command consoles with busy Eliksni and humans working away at the displays to make sure everything was ready.

Maltoi and his men would notice that the layout of the room was purposefully done so that the room could become a holdout location at any point. With roof mounted turrets just above the entrance door, and a second set next to an elevator. The large black metal doors slide open, allowing them inside so they can go up to the command deck.

“And now the command deck. Home to the bridge, the primary armaments suite that handled the Siege cannons along with the main gun and forward weapons, Captain’s quarters, and communications.” Once the lift opens, they appear in the secondary barracks. Once again the room set up was made to be more of an adapted security checkpoint instead of solely a barracks. “It will prove difficult to take control of the ship, with the single shaft promoting their best way of accessing the rest of the ship, anyone that boards us will be caught in multiple checkpoints and security turrets, even in the maintenance tubes they’ll run into security fields and turrets that they would need to turn off via three of the reactors at different points in the maintenance area, or through a two factor authentication from the bridge and any one of the armament suites.”

The group finally set foot on the bridge, the room itself was a large circle design with crescent moon stations in three tiers, the captain’s chair was up a small slope in the middle of the room so they could watch over all those below her station. The room itself was in a central point of the ship with no windows, using an image projection of the outside on a long wall panel above them that showed multiple perspectives and readouts. Fritz broke away from the group to take her seat in the captain's seat. Though she continued to speak. “And that my dear Commander and Baron, is the basic rundown of my baby.” With that she got to her consoles, making sure the ship was ready to depart once Mithra gave the order.

“Hmm, tell them about the siege cannons. You mentioned Fritz.” Spoke up Mithra, a slight smile on his face.

Fritz seemed pretty keen to talk about it now that the baron reminded her. “Oooo!” She started to press a few buttons on her personal console, bringing up the specs for a new weapon that was unique to the Fireball. The specs show a large quad barrel Plasma gun that seems to revolve around a central barrel that fires a continuous laser beam. “The Spitfire! A Siege gun designed to be a real pain to ships who want a drawn out engagement. These babies are meant to strip shields and then strip the armour of light vessels with concentrated plasma. On carriers this kind of weapon could really damage hangars and stop figher deployments."

"As you can tell, these guns are the main reason we have 4 independant reactors. They draw so much power in a short engagement, but this frigate is meant for Skirmish tactics. To hit targets hard and then run at a moments notice." Said Mithra, looking back to his uncle and whoever else accompanied him.
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An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon] - Page 2 Empty Re: An Eastern Jewel [Richard/Iammelon]

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