RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 27, Part 4] The Sleeping Giant (YE 39)

[Rizzo]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Outside Room #74

"Acknowledged, Tsu-Heisho. Returning to Hanako-Shôshô," Candon replied to Tsuguka as he began heading her way with Masumi. After a single stride he stopped and looked back, "team, where are Bronzi and Wazu? Did they make it through?"

Seeing the cramped conditions in the hallway Candon was a moment away from calling his people on 188604 to rush armor to him for the civilians in the Hirophant. His personal Na-T4B could pick up and deliver the needed equipment in just minutes.

 

[Wes]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Outside Room #74
3日 4月 YE 39 - 0800 hours YamaTime

"It would please me if this would go more quickly. Takumi, I want you to get some scans of the...lifeform up there. Grenadier team, I want you to proceed beyond the room, and explore more of this labyrinth," she replied to Junko over the team channel. "Close Support Squad, I want you to explore to the left," Hanako told Tsuguka, waving her flashlight at the passage.

Meanwhile Hanako entered into room #74 with Takumi, who began taking samples and using his science scanner. Looking at the winding little passageway to the South, she noted "there could be alternate ways around the doors."

Room #32

Junko didn't find any recording devices, but she did find a removable access panel on the floor that had been thoroughly hidden by a layer of the thick spores and fungus substrate.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

"Sighted a removable access panel on the floor.", Junko said, outlining the location of the panel with a distinctive bright red square and transmitting the location information to the rest of the away team.

As much as she wanted to simply slice through the door with her plasma blades, Junko decided to follow the example that Noriko had set earlier. Her volumetrics taking the shape of crow bars, Junko hinged the bars at the seams of the door. Besides, Hanako had ordered a precedent for starting with the "least damaging method".

"Cover me, Yukimura-Hei.", Junko ordered. Lowering herself to the ground, Junko took a deep breath pulled upward, primarily utilizing her lower body strength to push vertically.

 

[CadetNewb]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

"Hai."

Clutching her rifle in hand, Noriko made sure to keep a safe distance from the other woman, yet still remain within textbook supporting range. Though she doubted that it was anything particularly dangerous, it was better safe than sorry. This was not the Mishhuvurhtyar after all, so the snowy haired Neko was quite certain a tentacle wasn't going to shoot up and into Junko anytime soon. Even then, Noriko also made sure to keep her aim well placed, and pick the best firing angle possible given the situation. She'd have to contend with possible friendly fire, though if things were particularly bad, she hoped she wouldn't have to use a grenade. Naturally, Noriko didn't have any compunction against that idea.

The black humor of this potential turn of events didn't even cross her mind though.

 

[ArsenicJohn]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

Freyja was a little disappointed that Junko didn't ask her to cover her. She decided to make herself useful and check out that panel Junko spotted. "I'm going to investigate the panel. It may lead to a maintenance tunnel." The Neko said. She turned around and floated over to the panel.

Bending down, she hesitated for a few seconds. "Opening the panel. Be ready to haul ass if something happens." She said calmly. With a quick motion, she pulled off the panel and hurried to get her ABSR ready for a potential ambush.

 

[Wes]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

Freyja found that inside the hidden compartment there was a large storage case, similar to a foot locker. It was smooth and black on the outside with glowing purple lines set into it. Basically some sort of advanced treasure chest. There was a sophisticated latch and/or lock on the front of it.

Meanwhile Junko wasn't having a lot of success with the formidable door. It was clearly made out of some thick ultra-dense material and it was also stuck from warping caused by ancient battle damage. Even with an aether blade it would probably take several minutes to cut through it.

 

[CadetNewb]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

"That was anticlimactic." The words, flat and to the point, sounded faintly disappointed. Glancing at the box, the new girl's Mindy looked over to Hanako. "Shôshô, do you wish for us to leave it, open, or bring it along once we move out?" she asked. The crawl through the interior was slow, as expected, but she didn't expect to possibly lug along a random box. Part of her wanted to know what was inside right away, while another wanted to let someone else open it and watch behind cover. Yet another part of Noriko had to admit that if it was something that killed them all, whoever planted it likely deserved the kills.

Who in Hell had the foresight and patience to wait this long?

 

[Zack]

Heirophant

Back towards the entrance to the area, Wazu was busy dismounting from the robot, having aimed the top hatch somewhat forward so he could climb out. The group of hover-flashlights forming together to create a small bed to hold his stuff.

"We are back at the entrance," Wazu responded, "The armor is stuck, and we will likely need a teleport out of here once we are finished."

 

[Rizzo]

"Copy that, Mr. Wazu," Candon confirmed, "Oshiro and I are heading to Shôshô. Regroup with with us."

Room #74

"What happened in there?" Candon asked Hanako as he took sight of the demolished mushrooms(?) in the next room.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

"This...isn't...working...", Junko said between breathes as she gave the door one more heave. Seeing that her efforts were fruitless, Junko stepped back and retracted her volumetrics. Although Junko wanted to simply muscle and tear her way through the door with an aether blade, she remembered that she had previously affirmed her commitment to following Hanako's example. Weighing her options, Junko wondered to herself whether she should employ more destructive measures to penetrate the door, or if she could find any lock systems or access panels that she could disengage.

Junko stepped back and quickly scanned the door via her AIES sensors. Seeing that a large chest had been found inside of the access panel, Junko decided to investigate that as well.

"If we open the box, maybe we can find a key or access code of some sort that will get us through the door.", Junko suggested, looking towards the rest of the away team.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32 -> Corridor to Room #77

Tsuguka breathed in deeply, before turning to face the Shosho and shaking the alien gore from their recently utilized fire axe. Being ordered to reverse direction and move back to the rear of the team didn't sit well with the red Neko, not after they had just been caught in a trap... That, and now that she had seen blood, it was particularly in her nature to see what that meant through to the conclusion.

"Acknowledged." It was a simple and brisk response, regardless. Their uneasy heels backtracked through the murky tunnel from which they had came, marching mechanically until they met up with Jax once more. The transponder said that Masumi and Suites had met up, so she drew them a virtual arrow in order to let them follow her, too.

A rusted mess of green-black shattered panels, crunching and bowing at her feet. Not really anything special at this point... Actually kind of like a Halloween haunted house, considering some of the rather more messed up situations she'd been in.

...

Was it bad that she actually longed for something more, after all that had happened?... Or, perhaps, it was just easier to think about slicing your enemies up when they were quite clearly more evil. She couldn't really hate faceless shrieking mushrooms. She wasn't even really sure she could hate blue and gold space capitalists.

Now, scouting. Covered in ordinance that was supposed to support the rest of the team, pointing in utterly the wrong direction. Seems that Hanako had disapproved of her plan before it had even seen action.

Another door. Tsuguka closed her eyes, relying on the infra-red sensors in her Mindy to detect if it had any power going to it. Or, indeed, if there was any power going to a trap.

Volumetrics; She was a mushroom now, too.

The looming mushroom shrugged, boredly waved a (possibly physiologically inaccurate) tendril that told Jax to wait back around the corner, and then simply clunked on the door idly with her sheild.

Was this thing even supposed to be sentient? At least if they didn't understand the concept of trick or treat, they couldn't get angry about her being four months out of season...

 

[Wes]

Room #77

The door to the West in the small room was stuck, but it looked pretty simple in design. The door had power, it just was jammed due to warping of the rails it moved on. It didn't appear to be trapped and it looked like Tsuguka wouldn't have much trouble with it, and she didn't. After some groping at the edges of the door, she was able to get it to unseal with a hiss and her arm strength was enough to get to slide open to reveal a well-lit 5-meter long corridor with an open archway on the right and a turn to the left (South) at the end of it.

Room #74

"Indiscriminate violence in response to being startled," the Shosho summarized for Candon. "We should keep exploring and gathering information. Noriko found a box in the next room...go help her open it. We are not going to carry it without knowing what we are carrying."

While the others were busy, Hanako started working on the other West exit of the room, using the photonic projector to create a sort of expanding wedge on the stuck door. It opened to reveal a dark, twisting corridor that was coated in black mold. "At least this area has atmosphere...although I would not want to breathe it. It could be a way around the heavy door."

 

[CadetNewb]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

Stuck with a locked alien box, and an order to open it instead of staying on point, the Neko's faceless helmet simply stared at said box in silence before slowly turning to look at Candon. In truth, this somehow annoyed her, but the young woman couldn't quite put a finger on just why. Here she was, standing there with a container she couldn't open, and it just grated on her nerves.

"Can you open this for me?" she plainly asked, pointing at the culprit box for him to see.

 

[Rizzo]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #74
"Yes, ma'am," Candon confirmed the order as he made his way to Noriko.


Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

"Can you open this for me?" she plainly asked, pointing at the culprit box for him to see.

"Yeah, I got this," he confirmed again as his sword dropped from the splitting Saya on his back and floated to the chest, an energy field wrapping over the blade. With a quick scan from his support pack he mapped out where to cut. Kokū Ken sliced the ridge of the lid using only the tip of the blade as the force field disintegrated any hardware attaching the lid to the chest. Pushing the lid aside with his armored boot he applied his graviton projectors to form a barrier between the chest and the open atmosphere.

 

[CadetNewb]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

"Wait," Noriko's typical bedroom voice began, a little incredulous. "That's all? No fancy lock-picking, decoder ring thing, or something like that?" the new Neko couldn't help but ask. Putting a hand on her hip, she added, "I could have done that." To her, it now looked like she and Junko had fussed over nothing when just anybody could have sliced it open.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

Since her previous scans around the door had not registered any results, Junko decided to rip and tear her way through the door. Junko activated her two plasma blades with a distinctively satisfying hiss and began to work a hole into the thick door, muscles straining with pleasure as she burned the blades through the solid material. It would not do for her to be standing idle while others were productive. Besides, she preferred overt destruction much more than subtlety or patience.

 

[CadetNewb]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

With a grumble, the Mindy clad Neko quickly turned the moment she heard the sound of flying sparks and molten metal. Bringing her weapons to bear, she made to cover Junko. If there was something hostile on the other side, Noriko knew she'd have to put it down fast. Assuming that Junko didn't dive in blades first at least. A Neko could hope, she told herself.

 

[ArsenicJohn]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

Freyja relaxed her posture and watched as Candon cut open the box. She was thinking along the same line as Noriko. Surely any one of them could have done that. Part of her had hoped for an ambush. At least then she would have something to do. She walked over to back Junko up. If she were anyone else Freyja would have offered to help, but she knew it was better to stay out of Junko's way when she got like this.

 

[Wes]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

And just like that, Candon was gone. Improperly opening the box had triggered something, and he and the box vanished in a flash of light.

Meanwhile Junko's efforts were effective but very slow to penetrate the tough blast door.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #25

Candon could see that the inside of the box was filled with crystalline data-storage modules. After a brief flash, looking up would reveal he was now in an entirely different room, which was three by five meters. A tile mosaic of a Kuvexian goddess of ice covered the floor, and a rusted armored spacesuit of an unknown design lay in the north side of the room. To the West there was an open archway leading to a passageway out of the room. In the center of the south wall there was a simple upward-sliding metal door that was closed. There was a small window in the doorway and it was fogged up and covered in ichor and it vaguely looked like there were figures on the other side of it.

 

[Rizzo]

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #32

As the flash cleared Kokū Ken was left without its owner and clattered to the floor as it lost connection with Candon. The sword would never admit just how lonely it was just laying there, bricked without an owner.


Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #25

Candon's stomach turned as he popped into a completely different location, a certain amount of fear gripping his chest. Both himself and his suit had no idea where he was.

"Eucharis Away Team, this is Suites Heishô, can you hear me?" He radioed.. silence. Taking in his surroundings he started a new map for the mapping software he was using to track his position.

He inspected the armored spacesuit, now corroded beyond recognition. Poor guy must've suffocated. Candon knew he'd be next if he stayed put.

Catching sight of the mosaic of a goddess he only suspected a religious significance, though it was nothing of note for him as his peripheral caught sight of what seemed like people through the window. Cloaking, he drew his SMG as he tucked up next to the east side of the door. He needed more information before entering. Using his LSP he began a low intensity scan to get an idea of what he'd seen whole he covered the hallway to the west.