Caasicam

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

YESSSSSSSSSS

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

All accusations of "showing off" are strictly unfounded, he'd do it if there wasn't a soul around either

@HereComesTheSnow

sure thing kon.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

i'm sure we can fudge stuff a bit for convenience's sake. flight-capable orbitals would also probably stay relatively in airspace anyway, they don't necessarily have to make the trip all the way down to the surface.

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---

Even through the meters of composite armor, alloy structural bracing, and combat-rated inertial compensation systems Volana could feel the impact of the Orbitals making their way towards the launch catapults. A faint vibration that terminated in the back of her jaw. Back, well before she had even considered going through the selection process for pilots, she had seen the massive mechanical warriors with no small amount of trepidation. A basal, primal fear that was born from the sheer insignificance of her own capabilities next to these Orbitals. Now, after experiencing the world through the electronic gaze of her own Orbital for countless hours, the paradigm had shifted. The lines between her sense of self and the machine which she commanded had already begun to become so very tenuous behind conventional controls, so as to become practically nonexistent from within the Aurora's bleeding edge systems.

<<If you want to check compatibility, I'd sooner suggest dinner.>>

<<Better everything work than something get in the way of our full potential, I say. We're dropping into a new world- best make the best impression we can.>>

Volana's eyes widened momentarily, before narrowing to regard the golden sensor array of the silvery-white Orbital from which the transmission had originated from. The channel closed with a click before her brain could fully form a reply of her own, though in hindsight this was probably for her own good.

Her attention returned to readout of systems running down the side of her field of view, as each shifting from grey to blue in confirmation of startup and operational status.

This was it.

Volana took a breath, attempting to fill her body with something other than anticipation. She was less than successful. A single command started the gantry retracting away from around the Aurora, while the clunk of disconnecting bolts followed a dull thud that reverberated through her body confirmed the power umbilical ejecting. In her peripheral she saw the Bedwyr begin to move, and watched the practically knightly machine cross her field of view as Konstantin made his way towards the catapults. The last element on her HUD switched to blue, the Aurora now completely operating under it's own power for the first time in fifteen years.

At that the Aurora-no Volana-took a step forward for the first time once again. A step that was far more steady and assured than the one she had taken after emerging from cryo.

This was where she belonged. Lightyears from the star which she had called home, displaced over a decade, unreachable by any other soul save those which she had taken the journey with, and unlikely to ever see that place she had called home ever again... and there wasn't anywhere else in this cold sea of stars Volana would rather be.

She followed a few heavy paces behind the Bedwyr towards the launch catapults, joining the menagerie of Orbitals from across the solar system. The Starstrike stood poised, it's angular armor bare save for a printed single sigil. Behind it was the no-so-mute pilot's frame, a civilian model modified to near unrecognizability, followed by a distinctive red and black armored Orbital that her IFF identified as being piloted by the younger girl.

Before her Konstantin secured his mech in the launch pad, and beyond him the barrel of the catapult terminated into the deep black.

<<This is Stojanovic. I'm headed out.>>

One moment the heavily armed Bedwyr was there, the next it was accelerating at breakneck speed down the electromagnetic launcher. There was a burst of light at the end of the track from what she assumed were the Bedwyr's thrusters flaring at the last second, followed by Konstantin's IFF tag rising sharply relative to their position.

Show off.

Pulling the supplied heat shield before her, Volana stepped up onto the locking mechanisms.

<<Aurora, full power.>>

She felt her breath catch for a moment.

<<Launching.>>

Volana felt her body press back into the inertial gel as the magnetic accelerators sent the Aurora flying down the length of the ship. The g-forces were welcome, giving way to an almost euphoric, child-like excitement that she couldn't quite bury, nor could she stop the smile that spread across her features.

She had been asleep for so very long. But now...

Now she was alive.

A small burst from the Aurora's ion thrusters set her course towards the pale brown marble which hung above them, even with the added weight from the heat shield and lift boosters her commands felt responsive and crisp.

<<On your six Stojanović, following you in.>>

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

you've been asleep for seventy fifteen years, cap kon.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

volana could've conceivably caught the tail end of that, but as a marine and not a pilot yet.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

---

From her spot in front of the gleaming, armored cranial unit of the Aurora Volana regarded the blank polycarbonate sensor array quietly, slipping off the glove from her right hand. Without the bright illumination from the active scanning it looked more than a bit akin to the dead, empty sockets of an animal skull. For fifteen years it had stayed as such, empty and dead.

Well, not for much longer.

Volana glanced down to her flight suit's forearm, keying in a quick string of commands into the screen there. A faint hiss of hydraulic locks disengaging emanated from the Orbital before her, a sound she half-expected not to have heard given how long it had been since the last time the command was received. A sound that was louder than she had ever heard it before. The lack of conversation from techs to drown it out was a strange shift from the normalcy she had known back home.

There was no ground crew to be seen, no one to send her off. It wasn't a surprise, in fact it was one of the only reasons why she had managed to get the Aurora out into the black this far with her. It may have been her Orbital, but the technology and equipment behind its prototype systems were still buried beneath a mountain of red tape and ink. Or at least, they had been fifteen years ago. The secrecy meant only a select few individuals were actually qualified to even service the machine, and sending those scant few off to another solar system entire had been out of the question for Ishtar. A brain drain the likes of which no government would have been comfortable with, stagnating development at best... and completely killing it at worst.

Of course, it was perfectly acceptable if she went. By all means, they had said. She was the Aurora's pilot, a damn good pilot at that, but at the end of the day she was just that; a pilot. Another could be trained, and probably already had during the time she was frozen, and she would be replaced. A minor hiccup in the eyes of the higher ups.

So here Volana was, plus one Orbital but sans ground crew. A faint thread of thought wondered what they were up to now, the faces that she had gotten to know, ones that felt like she had seen just yesterday. Their robotic simulacrum that Ishtar had provided in their stead were quiet and unseen, probably tucked away in some alcove of the hangar. She just had to trust them to maintain her Orbital.

The armor panels before her fell away, sliding up over themselves like some insectile maw that opened on the Aurora's chest. With a single, practiced motion Volana stepped off the gantry and slid the few meters down the Orbital's sloped iridescent armor to the cockpit opening. The plates moved back into place as she entered, sealing with the sound of magnetic bolts locking into place.

A dull red light was the only illumination within the cockpit proper, not that she needed it given how much was ingrained into muscle memory at this point. Twisting around in the space, Volana took a single step backwards and felt her harness snap into place, a quick barrage of physical clamps clicking into alignment one by one up her back. Another reassuring click as her helmet twisted into place, the readout on her forearm changing from red to yellow as it did so. The Cytherean pilot held up her flesh and blood hand, still nothing but bare skin, before placing her thumb on a readout just to her side.

Volana winced involuntarily as a small prick of pain shot down the digit, though it faded nearly as quickly as it arrived. Being prepared for it never helped.

An instant later and Volana was being pulled backwards into the cockpit proper, the small entryway giving way to a dark, larger space that left her feet dangling. A space that was partially illuminated by a section of screen that had slid into place as she cleared the entrance. The blockish type blinked before her, scrolling through a set of commands.

DNA//VERIFICATION

COMPLETE

DBLBLND//CONFIRMED

DISENGAGE//COUNTERMEASURE

DISENGAGE//IKELOS

STANDDOWN//VISYS:makaria

VISYS:makaria//HANDOFF//AISYS:aurora

COMPLETE

UNSHACKLE//AISYS:aurora

Suddenly the cockpit was illuminate in bright white, and Volana squinted as her eyes took a moment to adjust. The cockpit came into focus proper, a nearly perfectly spherical space that was covered nearly entirely in displays. The white glow from them darkened, and resolved itself into a real time image of hangar around her; albeit one from the vantage point of the Aurora from 22 meters up.

"Jacira, Volana. Activation confirmation," said pilot spoke, watching the rest of the pilots nearby board their own machines through the augmented view provided by the sensors. She put her suit's glove back on, and the readout switched to green, before removing her prosthetic and attaching it to the armature her harness was connected to.

"Privyet Volana," came the acknowledgement over her helmet, the voice smooth, feminine, and distinctly artificial. Volana felt inertial gel close around her boots, as the fluid slowly started to rise to fill the cockpit. The voice continued in her native language, "System startup successful, operational capacity nominal. Reactor idle, output nominal."

"Start prelaunch sequence, confirm external boosters and heat shield integrity," She responded in kind, reaching up to grab onto the control which had not been visible in the darkness before. Or, one of the controls. The second simply interfaced where her prosthetic had been moments before.

"Integrity confirmed; external boosters integrated."

Volana slowly nodded in satisfaction, more to herself than to the AI, and glanced around the hangar. IFF signatures overlaid themselves on the image before her, flicking from yellow to blue as they were identified as friendly. At least she could get data from the shared battlenet well enough, even with all the different sources of information flooding it at the moment. There was of course the matter of well, communicating with all these disparate Orbitals effectively.

"Open a channel too..." Volana turned to look at the Orbital standing at attention to the right of her own, the bright crimson unmistakable, "...the Bedwyr."

A click indicated the comm channel connecting, and Volana returned to English.

<<Oh good, it does work. Sorry, wanted make sure everything was compatible between us. First time connecting to an Earthling Orbital and all.>>

<<Sort of small disappointment. Was expecting something different, you know?>>

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

im assuming cockpit, briefing over comm. mostly cause we were suppose to hit dirtside yesterday.

Advance on Distant Proxima (Mecha RPG)

---

A smile, one born of excited anticipation, crept across her features as Volana paused a moment at the corridor to wait for the PDA-equipped pilot to make his way over. There was a growing sense of... accomplishment, one which had taken root the moment consciousness had rushed back to her mind not even an hour earlier. Regardless of what happened from here on out, she had made it. They had made it. She wasn't the biggest believer in luck, though the pilot still did what she could to keep the feeling from welling up too much from the back of her mind. Later, once things were settled in she would have time for it, now was time for the present.

A slightly less foggy recollection guided her towards the hangar from the mess, some real food having gone a long way to get her body back into gear as it pieced back together the steps of living. Her attention focused on the captain's address which was coming over the intercom, his sentiments echoing her own, before the image of a sandy brown marble hanging suspended against a backdrop of inky blackness filled nearly every screen around. It was hauntingly beautiful, an alien visage that bore a twisted sense of familiarity. Earth was not her home, but she could not help but feel as though they were discovering some sort of cosmic sibling. Another world with patches of green and blue, with white wispy clouds that danced across the surface.

It was exactly as Artemie had described it... and so much more.

"So much for getting there early," Volana smirked, prying her gaze away from the screen with the planet to shoot Fox a grin. "Guess we will have to ask about naming privileges later, yes?"

Fortunately, her memory had held up well so far, and a short lift ride brought them to the hangar proper, the doors opening with a hiss to the cavernous space which offered a welcome sense of familiarity in an otherwise new vessel. Not the least of which was thanks to the massive, stationary forms of the Orbitals which lined the hangar. Her eyes darted from one to the other; a mishmash of colors, designs, and markings that appeared to represent nearly every major power from home; before settling on the iridescent glint from her partner in crime.

A finely engineered mass of weapons and sleek armor, the Orbital's stance even when deactivated likening it in her mind to some enormous bipedal feline. A poised grace that seemed at odds with it's construction as a machine of war built by man. Some Orbitals were built utilitarian, others gave an air of nobility and strength; her own... well it wasn't difficult to determine the purpose behind it.

A new spring in her step, Volana made her way across the gantry towards her Aurora, cycling through her suit's systems with a practiced efficiency as she did.

She could feel the anticipation creep back into her chest.