@Sigismund @Cavaliere @The Ancient Purple @Crimson Dragoon
The junior officer looked equally confused as the rest of the group when the so-called "Ceran Navy" arrived.
"I've no idea, Lord Knight. Never before have I seen such a ship in my life, nor heard of these "Cerans"."
Some of the crewmen look on with apprehension, clearly finding the ship and its occupants to be untrustworthy despite the words its crew spoke. Others seemed far more curious, but still with a healthy amount of suspicion; with the faint hope that these so-called Cerans aren't foul aliens or worse, heretical fiends as they speak with the tongue of men.
Meanwhile inside the white ship's bridge, the crew looked upon the charred crater with an equal amount of anxiety and uncertainty, especially since their ship's sensors were picking up serious amounts of radiation, telltale signs of a critical reactor failure and one that's very likely to have been deliberate. Hardly a good sign that their unexpected visiors are of the friendly, understanding sort.
But the crew acknowledged there was no time to mull about the obvious. Their attention was needed in the here and now. It wasn't particularly difficult for their ship's state-of-the-art scanners to pick up bio signs in the form of the shipwreck's surviving crew. After a while, a stern-looking brunette, evidently an authority figure given her no-nonsense attitude and commanding presence amongst the rather youthful crewmembers manning the consoles; speaks into her mic, once again sending a radio transmission over the airwaves, with the same voice as earlier.
"I repeat, this is the Ceran navy. We come in peace and are willing to help."
As their intentions are reiterated, the white ship begins to slowly descend towards the survivors' general location to get a better look. Rather than be met with just men, the crew would also be met with four machines, all of which clearly weren't Ryders. Their presence having been masked by the rads and EM interference left behind by the ship's self-destruction. At the unexpected find, there was some surprise and a hint of fear in the bridge, as the mechs were utter unknowns and there was no telling what they or their pilots are capable of, if they even had pilots that is. Once more, it was the stern woman who acts first, and turning towards the raised platform in the middle of the bridge, she makes her statement known.
"Captain, I recommend deploying our Ryder team at once."
The ship's skipper, a white-haired man in the prime of his life, about the same age group as the stern woman, was overlooking the status of the scanners to further assess the situation of the survivors. He was quick to notice that none of them appeared to be contaminated by the radiation lingering at the crash site. Everything was going smoothly so far, but there was one thing he's had to make sure of. Through the internal communication system, he called out to a trio of crewmen to prepare.
"Asaga, Vicious, Chigara, what's your status? Are you all ready to sortie?"
The white-haired captain's question was answered by a twin-tailed redhead with wide, innocent-looking eyes. Her voice perfectly matched her looks; energetic, enthusiastic, and with an indelible child-like peppiness.
"On standby, cap'n!"
"Very good. Ava, if all preparations are complete, then let's start the search and extraction for the survivors."
"Roger that, captain." The stern brunette responded.
"Oh and I don't need to remind you that you should only fire when fired upon, right Asaga?" The White-haired captain stated in a half-joking manner to the redheaded pilot.
"Ugh, Right cap'n. I'm not a kid you know..."
Making a childish pout at being teased, a series of mirthful hisses were then heard over the comms before the three Ryders began preparations for an in-atmosphere sortie. And with that, a trio of mechs deployed out of the sides of the white ship, flying low and slow in what is clearly a search pattern before converging upon the location of the Mercury's crew and the quartet.
Getting a visual at the incoming mechs, the survivors would be first met with the one leading the element: A white and red machine with as much weapons and ordnance mounted upon it as was practically possible, despite looking like it was too heavy to fly let alone move, it was sailing across the arid skies with relative ease. Its wingman was almost as equally over-armed, but going for size and quality over quantity, mounting a battery of large, powerful-looking missiles upon its shoulders, applique armor plating on strategic areas of its frame, and carrying a classic shield-beam rifle combo, with the shield being a mounting point for even more missiles. To both Liam and Daniel, the green machine held a fair resemblance to a Buster Dagger, though with less built-in weaponry. And the last of the trio was a spindly blue machine, seemingly a wimpier version of the red and white leader, having exchanged its weapons for electronic warfare equipment and being very modestly armed with but a beam rifle and a heavy shield.
Getting close enough to establish clear comms with the quartet, the voice that came from the other line was rather unexpected; while it was yet another woman, the speaker was in stark contrast to the previous voice over the airwaves; the woman, rather the girl, had a very soft-spoken and demure voice, hardly the sort of tone any military pilot would use to speak to a bunch of unidentified intruders to what is seemingly their home turf.
"G-Greetings uhm... Aliens? We are the Ceran navy and we have come to help you. Please do not be alarmed."
Did she just call a proud Knight of the Imperium of Man an alien? If it was in any other situation, such an insult, even if spoken in ignorance, would be grounds for a duel...
The junior officer looked equally confused as the rest of the group when the so-called "Ceran Navy" arrived.
"I've no idea, Lord Knight. Never before have I seen such a ship in my life, nor heard of these "Cerans"."
Some of the crewmen look on with apprehension, clearly finding the ship and its occupants to be untrustworthy despite the words its crew spoke. Others seemed far more curious, but still with a healthy amount of suspicion; with the faint hope that these so-called Cerans aren't foul aliens or worse, heretical fiends as they speak with the tongue of men.
Meanwhile inside the white ship's bridge, the crew looked upon the charred crater with an equal amount of anxiety and uncertainty, especially since their ship's sensors were picking up serious amounts of radiation, telltale signs of a critical reactor failure and one that's very likely to have been deliberate. Hardly a good sign that their unexpected visiors are of the friendly, understanding sort.
But the crew acknowledged there was no time to mull about the obvious. Their attention was needed in the here and now. It wasn't particularly difficult for their ship's state-of-the-art scanners to pick up bio signs in the form of the shipwreck's surviving crew. After a while, a stern-looking brunette, evidently an authority figure given her no-nonsense attitude and commanding presence amongst the rather youthful crewmembers manning the consoles; speaks into her mic, once again sending a radio transmission over the airwaves, with the same voice as earlier.
"I repeat, this is the Ceran navy. We come in peace and are willing to help."
As their intentions are reiterated, the white ship begins to slowly descend towards the survivors' general location to get a better look. Rather than be met with just men, the crew would also be met with four machines, all of which clearly weren't Ryders. Their presence having been masked by the rads and EM interference left behind by the ship's self-destruction. At the unexpected find, there was some surprise and a hint of fear in the bridge, as the mechs were utter unknowns and there was no telling what they or their pilots are capable of, if they even had pilots that is. Once more, it was the stern woman who acts first, and turning towards the raised platform in the middle of the bridge, she makes her statement known.
"Captain, I recommend deploying our Ryder team at once."
The ship's skipper, a white-haired man in the prime of his life, about the same age group as the stern woman, was overlooking the status of the scanners to further assess the situation of the survivors. He was quick to notice that none of them appeared to be contaminated by the radiation lingering at the crash site. Everything was going smoothly so far, but there was one thing he's had to make sure of. Through the internal communication system, he called out to a trio of crewmen to prepare.
"Asaga, Vicious, Chigara, what's your status? Are you all ready to sortie?"
The white-haired captain's question was answered by a twin-tailed redhead with wide, innocent-looking eyes. Her voice perfectly matched her looks; energetic, enthusiastic, and with an indelible child-like peppiness.
"On standby, cap'n!"
"Very good. Ava, if all preparations are complete, then let's start the search and extraction for the survivors."
"Roger that, captain." The stern brunette responded.
"Oh and I don't need to remind you that you should only fire when fired upon, right Asaga?" The White-haired captain stated in a half-joking manner to the redheaded pilot.
"Ugh, Right cap'n. I'm not a kid you know..."
Making a childish pout at being teased, a series of mirthful hisses were then heard over the comms before the three Ryders began preparations for an in-atmosphere sortie. And with that, a trio of mechs deployed out of the sides of the white ship, flying low and slow in what is clearly a search pattern before converging upon the location of the Mercury's crew and the quartet.
Getting a visual at the incoming mechs, the survivors would be first met with the one leading the element: A white and red machine with as much weapons and ordnance mounted upon it as was practically possible, despite looking like it was too heavy to fly let alone move, it was sailing across the arid skies with relative ease. Its wingman was almost as equally over-armed, but going for size and quality over quantity, mounting a battery of large, powerful-looking missiles upon its shoulders, applique armor plating on strategic areas of its frame, and carrying a classic shield-beam rifle combo, with the shield being a mounting point for even more missiles. To both Liam and Daniel, the green machine held a fair resemblance to a Buster Dagger, though with less built-in weaponry. And the last of the trio was a spindly blue machine, seemingly a wimpier version of the red and white leader, having exchanged its weapons for electronic warfare equipment and being very modestly armed with but a beam rifle and a heavy shield.
Getting close enough to establish clear comms with the quartet, the voice that came from the other line was rather unexpected; while it was yet another woman, the speaker was in stark contrast to the previous voice over the airwaves; the woman, rather the girl, had a very soft-spoken and demure voice, hardly the sort of tone any military pilot would use to speak to a bunch of unidentified intruders to what is seemingly their home turf.
"G-Greetings uhm... Aliens? We are the Ceran navy and we have come to help you. Please do not be alarmed."
Did she just call a proud Knight of the Imperium of Man an alien? If it was in any other situation, such an insult, even if spoken in ignorance, would be grounds for a duel...
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