[IC] Solar System Defense [A Mecha/Sci-Fi Roleplay] (Full)

[Lmpkio]

"Sir." Revan tells Ceres as the probe heads back, "Mission successful. The probe is heading back to the ship." "Good work." responds Ceres, "But I do have a feeling that we've done this too quickly. Zoom in on the ship, just to make sure that we didn't set them off." "Affirmative." Revan answers as a dead silence is heard for a few minutes. "Sir…" finally says the Sidewinder pilot, "I am monitoring the Xeon lll's calculated speed and it appears that it is slowing down… quite substantially. It might have just realized our presence." "Crap…" hisses Ceres with clenched fists, "We were too quick to react. I should've reminded you to move the probe to another location away from for a period of time so that the restart will not look suspicious." Another few minutes passed by… "Sir." Revan responds again, this time with more urgency, "My scanners detect two manned mechs coming out of the ship. I believe they are trying to find us." Ceres growls with eyes buldging out with fear. "Well SHIT!" he then says angrily and then quickly calms down, "Pilots! Activate Emergancy Shutdown Protocol! Shut the power down in your ships and remain still! Long-distance scanners should only detect power-active ships if my memory serves me right." He then turns to Revan exclusively. "Revan, how much longer will your mech's cloaking last for?" "Only half an hour more," he replied. "Remain cloaked and get behind an asteroid!" orders the captain, "Remember, the keenest of eyes can still see the distortion of the cloaking device, so keep as far away from them as possible!" "Will do." replies the second-man as he quickly begins heading back towards the closest asteroid around. Ceres then communicates with the rest of the crew. "Emergancy Shutdown Protocal… ACTIVATE!" Soon, one by one, the mechs power down, looking like lifeless metal husks in space. Hopefully they should be able to avoid getting detected and save the mission from utteral disaster.

[SgtEasy]

When the alarms started ringing like there was no tomorrow, Daniel jumped over the table behind him and the table after that, bowling over some chairs in the meanwhile. He sprinted full speed towards the hangar and ran to his mech. He set his Chainsword in it's case and started climbing up the mech. He clambered into the cockpit and closed the hatch. He heard a chime and the hatch closing, the metal door letting out a low mechanical whir. He set himself up in the mech and put his headphones on, setting his music player to "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Blood pumping, his mech let out a roar of appreciation, seemingly approving of his song of choice. "Imperator ready for kicking shit up!" He heard the sound of approval and controlled his mech to stomp near the docking bay and let his rocket boots take him outside. Disappointed that he couldn't play his music straight from his mech, he shouted into his comms. while letting his sensors do their job. "Marsha! If you can hear any of their comms. then send me the frequency. I have software to blast music into their frequency and make their ears bleed!" He readied his weapons, waiting to blast the enemies of his clients.

[IceHeart]

The spider-like bot continued its observations, suddenly it noticed the Mechas being launched out of the XEON III. The mobile suits ranged in size, weaponry, stats, and so on making them seem like a motley crew however their variety allowed them to adapt to various circumstances. It telescoped each vehicle as it exited the craft, taking note of as many details as possible, all the information quickly made its way to a hidden computer inside the asteroid that started to make various simulations at an incredible speed. The data very quickly narrowed down the possibilities to a very simple conclusion; the ship was responding to its probe's jacking by going into alert status, the various suits trying to locate the enemy positions so they could probably defend the craft. [Indigenous Of This Solar System Possess Advanced Weapons Technology. Currently Threat Level Low. Recommending Scouting Action To Determine Lifeform's Capabilities. Engaging AI I.R.I.S. (Initial Response Information System), AI Online.] Inside Asteroid XTS - 1537 the artificial intelligence fired up its processes for the first time in nearly a century, the ancient processes quickly booted up into near perfect form despite how long it had been. ~I.R.I.S. is now online, starting up initial systems checks. All systems within operational parameters, commencing observational procedures. I.R.I.S. system downloading into IRIS Scout Unit 1. Download complete. IRIS 1 preparing for launch. The I.R.I.S. AI had downloaded its systems into what appeared to be a mecha unit, hidden in the XTS - 1537 Asteroid. The suit powered up with a violet light and exited the asteroid by means of a secret docking door that was designed to blend in perfectly with the rocky exterior. The entrance was opposite of the XEON III and the asteroid itself was not one temporarily inhabited by the pirate corporation and so this bit of intrigue went undetected by both sides. The Mecha extrapolated the locations of the XEON III and its Mecha with the spider-bot's input. The craft flew around the asteroid until it could see the XEON III and the Mecha, what the AI had not found out yet was the location of the highly probably pirate force lurking around the field. Completely disregarding any attempt to hide, the Mecha was in plain sight for all to see. ~Commencing observational procedures, recording lifeforms' reactions.~ Marsha - Drill Beetle Meanwhile Marsha was having no luck locating the pirates in the area, there was simply nothing for her vehicle to sense. She decided to respond to Daniel's banther "If I could, I just might do that to see if any of them jump out of hiding in surprise from broken ear drums. They are trying really hard to keep from being seen, as long as we do not know their locations they'll be able to get the jump on us." Marsha considered her options but as her Mecha was fairly slow and heavily armored, the best thing should could do was stay near the ship, ready to intercept the nearest pirate when they jumped the XEON III, someone else would have to be the scout or else they could just sit tight and hope the pirates missed their timing. Then something appeared on her scanners, a Mecha. She quickly turned her suit toward the boogy but instead of coming in to attack it just stopped outside of range. She quickly brought up a visual on the Mecha from one of her consoles, it was of a design she had never seen before and it seemed to just stare back at her. "We've got an unknown at point 3765." Was it a pirate trying to lure some of them off? It was impossible to know at this point but she was not about to break formation to engage it. IRIS 1

[Warbozz]

Reb was barely half way to hangars when red lights flared and the alarm went off. Immediately he started trotting towards his mech as fast as possible, gulping down yesterdays sandwiches along the way. Due to his short stature it wasnt long till he heard the running steps of much faster pilots behind him. "Oh come on! Even with headstart you guys make me look like late responder!" Reb doubled his troubled running and arrived at hangars more or less the same time as others. Short jump trough non-gravity he was at his mechs chest and clambered in to cockpit, anticipating to return finishing maintenance he had left sub systems running, that would give him bit of a headway. Systems checked green and he gave the OK to hangar crew. Mark-005- began sliding into one of each mechas private airlocks that prevented all crew getting spaced during quick launch. "Reb Manning and Heat Jack ready to launch! Lets give em hell boys and girl!" He knew they had no confirmed enemy contacts yet but Reb was a sucker for extra motivation trough comms, probably the only thing in common with him and the earthborn Daniel "Noize." He inhaled deeply of his mechas air supply as he entered space, he knew he couldnt really smell space but the feeling of entering ones natural habitat was very real for him. "Im setting defensive parameter around portside engines." Xeon III had state of the art engines, efficient, powerful and well armored so most of the time they could be left undefended without second thought. But Reb had much more experience of pirate thinking than he would ever tell anyone else, engines were the first to go, armored or not. Reb and Mark-005- took hold of Xeon III´s side to eliminate his own drift that was quite a large factor when firing in space. He could almost feel his gun heating up to near dangerous levels, ever ready to shower anything that moved with plasma projectiles. "Come out wherever you are. I can smell you." Well of course he couldnt but that was the feeling in his neck. Thats when his comms rang the message from ms Wells: "We´ve got an unknown at point 3765" "WHAT?!" Reb almost surprised himself with his own yell, his custom scanner quickly picked up on the announced unknown and all of his previous assumptions about the situation flew out the window. He announced to his team over the comms: "Careful with this one guys, I dont think thats an pirate..."

[Apollosarcher]

Jame's, Firefly had picked faint traces of comms activity but there was no way to if it was pirates, they weren't talking so they were idiots. He rotated himself past Wells just she identified the unknown Mecha, he was fast so he turned his after burned on nice and slow, easing himself forward. "I'll go check it out, might be a custom like mine, field test gone bad. I'll move in and try to hail them, you guys stay back and watch if I get hit stay with the ship, it's the priority." He moved in closer trying every frequency, he spoke calmly trying to get them to respond. "Hello, I'm James Rockefeller with the Xeon III, please acknowledge and tell us your intentions." He repeated the mantra over and over as he floated closer to it, weapon safeties off, he didn't like this, he didn't like this at all.

[Lmpkio]

As Raven stealthily makes his way towards the nearest asteroid, his scanners picked up yet another mecha in the area. After looking around for a minute, he finally sees the other mysterious mecha in the distance. It appears that it isn't part of the Xeon lll and has a humanoid shape, a form in which he has never seen before. "What the hell are you...?" Revan mutters under his breathe as he takes a closer look at it. He wants to tell the captain about it, but his ship's power, along with the rest, was in shutdown mode. The only way to let him know of the unknown Mecha's existence was to find and alert him personally. He quickly approaches the main asteroid invisibly, with only 20 more minutes of cloaking remaining...

[IceHeart]

XEON III - COMMAND CENTER Captain Herald studied the unknown Mecha, a visual put up on a side screen for a closer look. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. "Are there any matches in the database?" He decided to ask though he had a feeling there would be nothing close enough to be a match. "Databanks show negative sir. Craft is of unknown design and origin." "Well now, this is certainly a sight. Let's see what its going to do." IRIS 1 ~Solar system species attempting communication, analyzing transmissions. Running linguistics program, language recognized. Translating. Species attempting first contact, more data is required.~ As the I.R.I.S. AI processed the information the Mecha started to spew what could only be described as a cloud from its shoulder turrets. A purple mist funneled out and started to spread rapidly through space, the 'mist' was full of tiny little nano-machines, equipped to latch onto anything they touched and to send the data back to the IRIS 1. The cloud expanded rapidly in all directions, getting thinner the further out it went but it didn't take many nano-machines to get a good amount of information. Any machines touched by the nanites were quickly tagged by the IRIS one, meaning the machine could know their position at all times, hidden or not. ~Considering responding to primitive species...communication not advisable. Will continue analyzing lifeforms.~ The IRIS 1 started to move through his scanning cloud as the information started to pour in from the millions of nano-machines attaching themselves to various surfaces. Marsha Wells "What in deep space is that machine trying to do? Things are not starting to look to good." Marsha was thankful that her machine was on the side away from the IRIS 1 so she was not in danger of coming into contact, whatever that mecha had just spewed into space around it. Things had taken a turn for the weird.

[Apollosarcher]

James had floated close to the object, right up until it release the strange cloud. He was proponent of the idea of alien life, maybe this was Mech from an alien civilization he didn't know if the cloud was a weapon or a communications device but he didn't move, however he readied the after burners for a sudden jump if the strange purplish cloud. He decided he should reinforce the message, switching over to lie comms rather one message on repeat he hailed it once more. "Hello, this is James Rockefeller of the Xeon III. I am hailing you to warn of possible pirate activity in the area as such we ask that you respond, we must clear this sector encase of a hostile presence, if you do not respond to hails we must assume you mean us harm. I have no interest in fighting you, so please respond." As he spoke he engaged his Mech hacking systems, if it wouldn't talk he would see if Firefly could make it squeal.

[SgtEasy]

David looked on, mentally slapping his face for James's actions. He looked at the strange moving cloud forming in front of his eyes. The native from New York didn't trust the mech and he also had to focus on the pirates. He did another sensor to make sure they weren't going to be blindsided by the pirates. He readied his main gun and loaded the first round into the cannon. He rocketed next to James and nodded his head to him. Noize looked at the mech and said into the comms. "Hello, unknown mech please disarm yourselves and contact us through your communications. I agree with my compatriot and that you should clear the area for there is illegal activity that we suspect is happening around this area. If you do not move or communicate, we will assume the worst and that you are connected. Please respond or we will enact hostilities upon you" David awaited his response.

[Warbozz]

Reb was nervous as all hell now. While working for "Roses of Pluto" he had fair share of pirate tactics and strategies, ranging far and wide from full on assault to sneaking into ships dressed as space nuns of the holy order of Jupiter. No one had ever just sent an single mecha to silently stare an ship and release a- what was that anyway? Was it gas? In space? If its purpose was to have them on the edge of their seats it was working wonders! Reb commed Marsha and the others again: "Lets just light it up and be done with it! No pilot I have ever known is that dense to communication attempts except if they are planning something VERY nasty!

[IceHeart]

As the could expanded nano-bots quickly attached themselves to various Mecha and started to transmit data over to the IRIS I. Before long a few of the bots had managed to make their way over to the pirates, revealing their presence to the alien Mecha. ~Primitive lifeforms weapons technology advanced enough to pose a threat. Communications suggest hostilities shall begin shortly. Attempted hacking on this unit, Firewall engaged. Commencing preemptive strike.~ The artificial intelligence had made its choice, it was time to put down the lifeforms before they had a chance to do even minor damage to their important facilities. Before the IRIS one could engage however, honor demanded that it broadcast its intentions before engaging hostilities. To accomplish this task it broadcast a signal to all vessels in the area, the artificial voice was barely distinguishable from a human voice and based on a female template. "Inhabitants of the Sol System, your interference shall not be tolerated. This Initial Response Information System orders total extermination." The IRIS I then opened fire upon the FireFly which was attempting to hack its systems from afar. Laser cannons opened up first from its shoulder turrets as the IRIS I quickly retreated back toward its 'home' asteroid, which was now suddenly alive with activity. The asteroid seemed to just melt away as many machines seemed to just dig out of the rock, as the defense systems were activated. The robots were obviously a mass production type, shaped somewhat like horseshoe crabs the rather flat machines jumped out into space, splitting into two groups, one toward the XEON III and the rest toward the most likely location of the pirate fleet. The crab bots were equipped with powerful pincers for close combat and were equipped with linear pulse canons, meaning they could only shoot straight ahead making it possible to outmaneuver them; however there were a fair amount of them to contend with. Quickly the pilots of the XEON III took defensive positions and started to engage the alien machines. Cannons, lasers, and rockets started the fill the minor asteroid field as battle was joined.

[Lmpkio]

As the Sidewinder flies towards the hidden pirate strike force, Raven can then see the hostility from the unknown mech upon the unsuspecting Xeon lll crew. Soon enough, he managed to reach the asteroid and attempts to make close proximity contact with Ceres. Once he was in close range, he establishes contact, taking out his cloaking ability in the process. "Ceres." he speaks, "Ceres do you copy?" A faint red pulse can then be seen from the Shockwave's eye. "Raven..." he answered, "What did you see?" "An unknown mecha has recently made contact with the Xeon lll crew," Raven then explains, "It has recently launched hostilities against them." Ceres then chuckles with glee. "Just the tactical advantage we need..." he says with an evil grin, "The pesky mecha crew is now concentrated on the newcomer. They would never suspect our attack until it would be too late!" Soon the Shockwave's power had been rebooted and was now fully online. "Corporatists!" he then shouts into the comn, alerting all the mecha units, "The time has come! Start up your engines and get ready to attack! The crew is distracted by an unknown mech and utterly obvious to our presence. Now is the time to strike!" As soon as he finishes, the mecha units began to light up, one by one, until all were fully operational. Then like a swarm of bees coming out of their hive, they begin a surprise attack on the main ship, their lasers firing like mad! The battle has only just begun!

[SgtEasy]

"Shit! This has gone down the piss hole! Defensive positions!" Daniel finished shouting into the communications and fired his cannon onto the massive swarm. Firing round after round into the endless tide, death coming to the ones who were in the way. He fired the shoulder mounted machine gun and the under slung gun under his cannon as it cooled off. A loud screeching noise was heard and Daniel looked at his heads up display. His boosters were dying. He continued firing with all of his guns and started thinking for a way to benefit from it. 'That's it!' Daniel talked into his communications "I have an idea, cover me." He put one big boost into the thrusters, deactivated his weapons and flew off into the swarm. He kept boosting until he was at the start of the swarm. His armour was being chipped at, Imperator wasn't going to survive much longer. At the start of the swarm, he deactivated his boosters and used his momentum to keep moving forward. He activated his weapons and started his Chainsword up. "IT'S TIME FOR SOME NOISE!!" He sliced through the ocean of machines, his heads up display flashing huge amounts of red warnings. Already, his right leg was failing and his left was starting to as well. He was shooting and killing dozens but it was like a man trying to kill thousands of bees. It was almost pointless. "I gave a bloody distraction! Now give me results!" He shouted to his compatriots.

[Warbozz]

Heat Jack was still clinging to Xeon III with one hand, and with the other dealt destruction to anyone entering its optimal range. Inside the cockpit Reb Mannings face was set on concentrated frown with beads of sweat forming upon his forehead. He had counted twenty takedowns so far. Those crablike unknowns were easy targets depending on numbers and rush tactics. Rebs plasma rifle cut trough them like warm knife trough butter. Pirates that had appeared mere moments after the assault were considerably tougher with advanced mechas and armaments. It almost made no sense to him as most pirate factions troughout known space mostly used crappy salvage mechas and ancient military surplus. A sense of relief washed over him when he saw one of those crab thingies collide with a pirate mecha obliterating them both. They were victims too it seemed, of this newly released madness. Reb tried several known pirate radio channels at once, not caring if resulting noise sounded like two sea elephants making out. "Wake up you fancy pants! Can´t we duke this out like men after these vermin have been dealt with??!!"

[Apollosarcher]

James was excited and terrified, he fired his boosters and dodged the shots, as they grazed the side of his Mecha, punching though the shield. "I'm going after that thing, I can keep it, it's weapon cut like a hot knife through butter so I'll keep it away from you all and the ship... No offense but I think I'm the fastest here." He shot after it drawing his rifle he blew holes in the crabs. Still to bad about this, he had always wanted to meet new and fascinating Alien cultures instead he got to kill them. He couldn't keep pace with it but he could stay close enough to follow and deal with the crab things as he neared the Asteroid he saw more Mech's heading towards them... Corporatist, just like his family. He decided to enact his brand of diplomacy and charisma. "Listen up, your attacking James Rockefeller of the Rockefeller family, not sure exactly what company your from but you might want to help us kill the Alien tech. We sell this it's worth triple anything else you could have mined here, or we can all die. Even if you win, my family would never let you live this down. Now you can be smart or you can be dead."

[Lmpkio]

As the pirates race towards the Xeon lll several of the Corporatist's ships were victims of the swarm of nanobots that manage to snatch the slower ones near the back. Ceres did in fact expect that, but manages to keep going, trying to get away from the battlefield as possible. Suddenly, he hears a radio message frequency coming from the mech Heat Jack. "Fool..." he says to him silently in his head, "I got a bigger and better catch to deal with." He ignores the frequency and continues racing while blasting at nanobots that managed to get close. Then another radio message frequency was detected, this one being from James Rockefeller. Ceres was indeed surprised when he heard that he was in the battlefield. The Rockefeller Corporation was indeed famous and extremely wealthy, even more so then his pirate corporation. Hearing him here was the last thing he suspected. Yet he growls and also ignores that message. "Rockefeller..." he says to himself with teeth gritting brightly, "I'll deal with you later myself... Right after I take down your ship!" The mecha strike force continues to approach the ship, only making a swift right turn towards the rear of the ship. The engines were indeed close. Once the Corporatists take out the engines, the Xeon lll will be helpless as they will storm the ship and show no mercy to the crew on board, plundering any valuable credits they can get their hands on. Then their flagship will arrive and finish it off, destroying the one obstacle that stands in their way for unspeakable wealth.

[IceHeart]

Things were getting crazy as attacks came in from several sides. Marsha's twin gatling guns ripped through the approaching robots like tissue paper, they had numbers but they were obviously not designed to last. They would eventually run out but the pirates were trying to take advantage of the situation, even as the alien forces attacked them as well. One of the crab bots slipped through her barrage and tried to speed past her but her mecha grabbed a 'leg' and hurled the robot into a stream of fire and watched it get ripped apart. Being previously an industrial type machine her vehicle was very strong, capable of overpowering most, if she could get a grip on them at least. "These things are just fodder, the real threat right now are the pirates." Marsha watched as the main pirate force started to make a turn toward the rear of the XEON III. I'm moving to intercept." Marsha moved toward the back of the ship and started to fire at the approaching pirates, one of them got caught by surprise and spun off from the group, too damaged to continue. She needed to reduce their numbers as much as possible so up her unit's wings went to reveal her flak canons, which slowly turned toward the front and started firing their rounds. The shells exploded into the pirate fleet, spreading destruction wherever they exploded. XEON III The captain sat down in a chair, his fingers laced together in thought as he figured out what to do. The XEON III was in a precarious positions, being hammered on at least two sides from two different forces, the bright side was that the unknown force was attacking the pirates as well, at the moment they were in the worst position though. There was also that unknown Mecha that had retreated for the moment, he wished to get his hands on it but that would have to wait, saving the lives on the XEON III was his top priority. He jerked his head up when a thought came to him, they were outnumbered so there was really only one thing to do, escape. Of course this was not exactly the most simple of tasks; however, there was one extra resource they could use in this fight, it was a gamble but in a way it would provide them protection, from the pirates at least. "Helm, plot a course as close to the unknown's hidden base as possible, we're going to shoot right through their forces to outside this small asteroid field." "You want use to go through that!" The helmsman protested pointing toward the swarm of crab-like bots still in view, at least they were noticeably fewer in number than when the fight first began. "Full speed ahead, ram right through them, those robots are somewhat fragile so we should be able to crush them on our way out. Also any of them that fly past us will head right toward our pirate pursuers, adding an extra layer of defense. If those pirates manage to take out our engines while we're still here we'll be sitting ducks. It's either use, them or the unknowns that win today, and I'm gonna make sure we live to tell the tail!" With that the large expeditionary ship turned toward the unknown base asteroid and picked up speed to move through the alien defense grid. IRIS I The IRIS I was being pursed though the AI was not particularly bothered by this revelation. The humanoid Mecha had already retreated near its base and turned to face its pursuer with laser canons an pulse shots. The IRIS I was accurate and deadly but its function was more for information gathering purposes than combat, as most of its functions kept sifting through the vast amounts of information poured through its processors every nanosecond. Then something curious happened, the solar vessel had turned toward its forces and had started to plow through the sector at ramming speed. Most vessels would try to run away from enemy forces, not toward them. The IRIS I AI was having a hard time figuring out the next course of action. Many of the swarm bots that attempted to latch onto the XEON III bounced off and shattered on impact as the largest vessel in the immediate vicinity streaked through on a seemingly suicidal run.