5tar
Active Member
ON: 3 LY from Halna System - Asteroid Field: "Rogue"
The Pride Wing had made it into the Ayame-class Cruiser's power armor launch bays successfully. The lights were off, and it looked like no one was home. The bay itself seemed void of most, if not all, of its equipment. It was either picked clean by the pirates outside or perhaps the armor was really walking around the ship—empty of any pilot. A few members, such as Chikako, were indisposed in the conflict, so the members of the unit inside the Watcher were given the go-ahead to proceed without all their members.
Sigmund automatically switched to night vision while Kuriko tried to get her bearings. "Creepy..." Kuriko muttered before taking an inventory of those around her. Where is everyone else? Kuriko wondered as she mentally listed everyone that should have been there. Instantly, a fear gripped the Nekovalkyrja. They're alright, get hold of yourself. Kuriko bit her lip, forcing herself to focus on the now. "Let's move out. We need to find the crew, and fast," Kuriko said over the comms.
Masako sighed as she activated her night vision mode and looked around, cautiously letting her rifle lead her way as she proceeded to take a look around the bay, trying to pick up signs of what happened. "On this kind of ship, in an emergency they'd have been taken to the most secure areas. Let's try to get to the bridge first," she suggested as she shifted around, afraid a bit sure but not letting it get to her.
The battle itself continued on with things turning in the Senbu's favor. The fray of the Red Lion's task force mixed with the weaker and outnumbered pirates was an explosive display of combat. The NR-1X-10c, YSS Makka, began firing phased pulse cannon fire on the third of the Vampire patrol craft. The ship's commander kept from using torpedoes and any other ordnance that could cause damage to the Senbu's power-armor squadrons in close proximity to the target. But the ship itself wasn't in the clear; it was still caught in a two-on-one fight with the second of the pirate crafts. Target bravo was moving in a wide vectored turn in an attempt to flank the Makka.
"Bravo is moving in on our ship, Obsidian move in at full speed!" the new leader of the crestfallen wing commanded over communications. The blue and black paneled Mindys picked up speed; they were rapidly closing in on the second pirate craft. "For glorious victory!" she recited over the comms and received the same sentence back from her troops in faithful unison. On the tactical overview of that area of the combat, the squadron seemed to open up with a combined missile volley, then one soon after they gained more distance. The first one got the attention of the bravo target and caused the ship to change its attack posture from the Makka to their unit. The second volley was more precise and seemed to disrupt the patrol craft's shields quite a bit.
Sakaki had holstered her beam saber for now, believing it wouldn't be too useful in close combat and was in favor of keeping her beam saber in her left arm charged and ready. She kept herself calm, ready to react to anything that would come, alive or dead.
Tsukihime itself tuned on the night vision as Sakaki entered the ship. “It would be wise to search the engine room in case if this was a trap,” suggested Sakaki in response to Masako's suggestion. The Neko remembered very well of the exploding death trap that was their practice session with Shizuka-taisa.
"But it looks like we don't have the manpower to do both at the moment," Masako replied, having her capacitor begin recharging as well as her teleport unit while they were passive for the moment. She wanted to have them ready in case this did end up being like that simulation. "I'd suggest charging your teleporter and recharging your capacitor before we go anywhere though, just to be safe."
“Indeed, Masako,” replied Sakaki as she started to charge her leg capacitor. “However, as the ship is dead in the water, a trap would be more fitting would it not? The rescue could end in disaster if the ship was to cease to exist by the time we reach the bridge.”
Masako would take a moment though to send a notification to the Senbu. "Senbu? Kuriko, Sakaki and myself are aboard the Watcher. Can you provide any data to its condition and expected crew numbers? This bay here is completely empty, no armor, weapons, or anything else," she reported in.
"Pride Wing has entered the Watcher, no enemy contacts yet," Ageha reported from her comm station on the bridge. "Hold on, Sakiyurai-hei," she replied to Masako as the newest member of the operations crew brought focus to the relevant information on her display. "There were one-hundred and seventy-six crew members on board the Watcher," she reported back to the NH-29h. "And it looks like around five thousand armor units."
"Damn it! And there's not a single one here. And all the lights are off too!" Masako replied to Ageha. "It looks like the systems are completely off; can you get any information on the ship from there?"
Something inside Kuriko's mind clicked. "Ano... Nav—Nanjo-hei, what kind of armor units were on the Watcher?" Kuriko asked before motioning for the unit to follow her. "Get your teleporters recharged. If it's a trap, teleport outside of the ship ASAP," Kuriko ordered as she moved toward the hangar door. "If we can reach the bridge we might be able to scan the ship for the crew."
"Sensor information indicates that the Watcher is running off of auxiliary power," Ageha reported first to the Pride Wing. "They've got life support, but it looks like that'll run out in twenty minutes at most." The wing's tactical relay technician switched back to the Watcher's cargo list. "It looks like it various assorted armors. Mindys, Daisys, Black Mindys, Mindy Twos, One Hes..." she trailed off as she realized that it sounded like she was rambling. "It looks to be about half the standard compliment for an Ayame-class vessel."
"In that case we should hurry," Masako said, using her own ability to keep anchored when her Mindy registered the lack of gravity in the bay. She would approach the doors to lead into the ship, pulling up a schematic of the ship to find out their position and the fastest route to the bridge. "Let's see here..."
Kuriko also pulled up a schematic of the ship before heading to one of the doors that according to the schematic would eventually lead to a lift. "We should stay together, we don't want to get separated and lose anyone," Kuriko said before opening a comm-link to Ageha again. "Nanjo-Hei, is the ship's IES responsive?" If it is we could save some time maybe.
“Of course Shifuda-heisho,” Sakaki replied as she made her way to the exit door. If the ship is on emergency power, the ships doors will probably not open, Sakaki contemplated as she walked up to a door, then asked, “Shifuda-heisho, should we precede with caution or haste?”
Chikako appeared in visual range of the Pride Wing as her teleport pack instantly closed the distance she had incidentally created by attacking that starfighter. "Shifuda-heisho, what's our danger?" she asked telepathically, falling into formation with the rest of the wing.
"I'm not getting any response from the IES, Shifuda-heisho," Ageha's voice responded over the comm system in the Pride Wing's armors. The young Yamataian girl on the bridge could see them bringing up the Ayame deck plans on her status display, monitoring their systems and vitals. "Shifuda-heisho, Sakiyurai-hei, the Watcher is a modified Ayame for SAINT. The deckplan is a bit different from what you have on board. I have you on deck 28 right now. You'll need to head for deck 6 to get to the main bridge. There's also the command bridge located on deck 5."
The exit to the rest of the ship had a small hardware display attached to the frame of the armored door. It was running on a very low power system which was close circuited to the single door itself, for situations like this. A rotating Star Army logo appeared on the small screen and a keypad jut out from the bottom of the blue glowing screen.
"Hmm... looks like either way, we have to go up," Masako said and watched the door, training her rifle on it if it got opened and something was on the other side.
Kuriko did the only thing she could think of at the moment. "Don't shoot yet, let's save it for a last resort," Kuriko said to Masako before entering her clearance code on the keypad. Instinctively, Kuriko reached out to the IES of the ship without thinking and transmitted verification as well. That was stupid, Kuriko thought after she had done it. If it's hostile it most certainly knows who you are now... if it's even on.
"I'm not going to, Kuriko; I'm covering the door in case it opens and something is on the other side," Masako sighed.
The icon disappeared from the view, and then a console appeared on the screen. It rapidly filled with text scrolling upwards, going through checks against its last update from the Star Army PANTHEON. It paused a moment, the word “searching” blinked a few times as it used it's small computer to dig into its database. Then—a loud “thunk” of metal against metal echoed throughout the carnivorous empty bay. But the door didn't move until another loud slam, at which the door opened wide with a releasing hydraulic to reveal a twisted and damaged Black Mindy. Its head was facing forward, but the body hung limp, where as there was no body inside for it to hold it straight, instead it stood with a forward lean and the normal optic sensors were red instead of the normal blue.
"I don't think that's a normal Mindy," Masako said and took careful aim on the head of the Black Mindy but grumbled, finding her AI's fire control activating to keep her from firing upon the armor recognized an ally model. "Damn it, my fire control isn't letting me fire upon it," she said to the others.
Kuriko jumped backward in surprise before whipping her rifle up at the Black Mindy. Instead of immediately firing, Kuriko stood there waiting for the Mindy to make the first move. "Anou... sumimasen," Kuriko sent telepathically to the armor's AIES silently hoping that the reply would be absolute silence or that the armor would fall down due to lack of support.
In response to Masako's statement, Sakaki quickly drew her katana off her back with her right hand and aimed it's point toward the Black Mindy. She then commanded, “Identify yourself!” She positioned the left hand on the hilt as well, thankfully not having a similar problem as Masako with a solid weapon rather than one connected to her suit.
"Please, don't attack!" a feminine Yamataian-sounding voice called out from the machine. The Mindy took an unstable step forward, then paused again in place. "I'm stuck inside, please help me out of here!" the girl pleaded. The black armor stood still only a few paces from the group. In Kuriko's head, she could hear whimpering, the telepathy from the machine's transmitter seemed to carry a strong sense of fear and acute sadness.
Masako listened and switched spectrum to see into the thermal field of vision to see if there was a humanoid shaped occupant of the Mindy or if it was simply the armor mimicking a voice and psi-patterns. She kept her rifle leveled on the Black Mindy nonetheless as she did.
Kuriko's rifle dropped from the firing position as the Neko ran up to the armor. "Un," Kuriko replied as she tried to find the Black Mindy's seam with her armored hand. She wasn't sure if the girl inside was alright or not, but she obviously wanted out of the armor. "It'll be okay," Kuriko sent to the woman, trying to reassure her as she moved. "Can you tell me what happened? How many people are left? Where is everyone at?" Kuriko was probably breaking a few psychological rules concerning questioning a distressed patient, but more lives than just hers were on the line.
"If you have to shoot, only aim at the limbs and handheld weapons. It's more forgivable than killing a hostage," Chikako messaged the Pride Wing telepathically, eagerly pondering how should would scramble her drones in the event that the armor really forced the occupant against her will. It was ironic that only a few minutes ago, she was the one saying not to treat the enemy any differently, but if things were as she thought, the rules of engagement would have to be tweaked for the sake of averting a massacre.
Kuriko, you idiot... Masako thought and gestured with her rifle. "Kuriko, back off for a moment you're interfering with my view. I've got my visuals set to see heat if there's a real woman in there I'll see the humanoid figure," Masako said to Kuriko telepathically.
Now in response to her commander, Sakaki quickly placed back her sword and moved to assist. If anything, the Hei could do would at least restrain the Mindy, or pull Kuriko out of the way of an attack.
There was a humanoid looking thermal inside the machine filling all the sections, from the head to the toes. Though it was a little colder than the rest of the group, the drop in body temperature could be from anything including the rapid dropping temperature of the derelict ship. The armor didn't seem to move at all as Kuriko searched for a seam. Just as she found it, and went to open it, the machine jaunted forward another step, just out of her reach and now closer to the rest of the group. "I just want to go home, please get me out!" the voice seemed more panicked now, like a normal person.
It could be from a recently killed occupant and Masako didn't lower her weapon, but it didn’t seem hostile. "Freeze," Masako commanded the machine. "If you don't we can't get you out," she said trying to be kind, but grinned internally. If it didn't follow the directive, it was hostile. If it did then it may not be, even in a panic the woman would have to know she'd have to hold still to be released.
"Senbu, I'm having a problem. My fire control is locking me out of my weapons while aiming at the Black Mindy," Masako said back to the ship telepathically.
"Ssssshhhh..." Kuriko sent to the armored figure. "We'll take you home, first we need to get this armor off of you," Kuriko walked up behind the armor, wrapping one arm across its chest to hold it in place while the other searched for the seam. Kuriko's hand slid down to the seam of the power armor and rested on where it began. After waiting a few seconds, Kuriko started to try and open the armor. "What's your name?" Kuriko asked, trying to draw the armors attention away from Masako. "Masako, relax. I think it's okay," Kuriko sent to Masako. "She's scared, if you do that she could have a psychological breakdown and fire on us. We have to calm her down and get her out of the armor," Kuriko sent that last message to rest of the group.
Ageha turned her head around to look at her commanding officer. "Kanno-taii, Pride Wing has encountered a bogey Black Mindy and are requesting permission to disengage fire control."
You're way too trusting, Kuriko, Masako thought and sent a message to Sakaki. "If that thing even makes one hostile move on her, try to strike to disable the armor or for the arms to take out the projectors," she suggested.
Sakaki didn't like the idea of Kuriko getting close to a possible hostile, and kept herself an possible lunging distance in case of disaster. Nodding, she replied, ”Masako, I believe we have this covered well enough, could you check outside in case there are more?”
Masako lowered her rifle a hair so it wasn't aimed squarely at the Mindy’s gut and glanced to Chikako. "Should we move past this and see if there's others further in?" she asked, but didn't take her eye off the Black Mindy.
The blonde haired officer, Akira, sat up straighter in his seat, then with a puzzled look on his face, moved his hand and called up the current situation on his display. "Normally if it was a hostile bogey, it would have opened fire and the FCS would have marked it as a foe. It says they're in direct contact with the armor, could you give me more details on the situation before I allow them to shoot a potential friendly," Akira inquired harshly, the idea of disengaging the fire control and then one of the units killing off a innocent hostage was not something he wanted to be under his command record, or report to the Taisa.
Meanwhile, off in the distance in the Watcher, a very strange sound began growing louder. It sounded like a bunch of feet scurrying through the halls—like a horde of hostiles. The Mindy in the middle of the group twitched then teleported out of sight for a split second and then appeared behind Masako. "Pleasssse, help me, I can't control it!" the voice whined as it slammed one of its armor-piercing spiked gauntlets into Masako's back, puncturing her armor and making a nice wound in her back. Then simultaneously, the sound burst into the room as it began filling with similar units, all of them pleading for help, all in different voices and tones.
Masako jolted and spun around to bash the Mindy with her rifle and growled, the fire control disengaging now that it became hostile. "Damn it, it's a friggin ruse!" she said as she attempted to bat the armor away.
"Senbu, the armors seem to be holding their pilot’s hostage," Masako reported.
"They're requesting a disengage order to disa—," Ageha stopped mid-sentence as she watched her display change, the symbol for the Black Mindy changing from a bogey, turning into a hostile and Masako's unit taking damage. "Kanno-taii, the Black Mindy has attacked Pride Wing and more contacts are approaching down the hall. It looks like... two hundred additional units and growing!" As she read the number her voice raised in panic. The situation had made a quick, grim turn for the "Pride of the Senbu."
Kuriko instinctively tightened her grip around the Black Mindy that she had been holding when her AIES changed the Black Mindy that had attacked Masako from friend to foe. "Masako!" Kuriko screamed over the comms. "What's going on?" Kuriko asked while releasing the armor, drawing her rifle up and turning to put herself into a firing arc of the new “enemies.”
"We should head for the ship's IES core!" Chikako said, scrambling her leg-mounted NSDs and setting them to fire stun blasts at the armor's sensors as she leapt forward to tackle it with the flat of her shield. Since these were comrades who didn't have control over their own actions, she would only attempt a lethal strike out of mercy. "It's the only damn thing that has veto rights over an armor's actions."
Then, as if to make matters worse—the Pride Wing disconnected from communications and disappeared off the map. The room itself filled with a thick cloud of green colored charged particles, like a grimy smog of undeath. The room continued to fill as the Black Mindys rushed at the rest of the group. That one Mindy that attacked Masako was batted a good few feet away after it's assault. The one that Chikako jumped at yelled in fear and pain, screaming for her to stop what she was doing.
Masako blinked and looked over at the Black Mindys and grimly set herself and tilted her rifle up and fired a grenade from her launcher into the group of them. It should do damage to the armor itself and try to put it out of commission. "I think we're being jammed, people," she said.
"Thirteen minutes until life support failure," Ageha reported in to her charges, but the Pride Wing never got the message. The young Yamataian stared in shock as all points of contact, friendly and hostile disappeared. "Sir! Pride Wing and enemy signatures have disappeared!" she announced as she looked over the Black Mindy's feature readout. A state of the art jamming array? "The enemy units are jamming our sensors." And the Pride Wing's sensors as well. She looked around at the other CommOps personnel working around her and asked, "Anyone else close enough to help out?"
Sakaki focused still on the one with Kuriko, quickly dashed up to her commander, and ripped the Black Mindy away and into a nearby wall. “Shifuda-heisho, we could disarm the hostages if we are careful, though it is also risky, she suggested, keeping a perimeter around her commanding officer. She then redrew her katana to raise her combat range. This does not seem good, this gas is not only unknown, but is also disrupting my night vision.
The communications operative to Ageha's right shook her head, not able to respond vocally because at the same time she was giving out course correction orders to the Obsidian wing, who at the moment were heavily engaged with the bravo Vampire and its escort armors. The girl to her left, the Gold Wing's heisho, however, pursed her lips and looked thoughtful for a moment, never once looking up from her screen, then nodded. "I have a team that can pull away from the engagement now that we've got a hold of the situation," she said to Ageha with seriousness. "Getting the clearance now from mission command." While she waited on that, she opened up the information on team 02. It was a mixed unit lead by an Ittô Heisho Nakayama “Mist” Sai, whose executive officer just happened to be Ittô Heisho Saka “Gazer” Hideyoshi, the guy Ageha had talked to just before the battle. "Mist, I have a new objective for your team. Disengage from the enemies and start heading towards the YSS Watcher; I'll fill you in once I get confirmation."
"Thank you Heisho," Ageha replied as she sent the coordinates of Kuriko's wing to the helpful CommOp to her left. "Here's their last known location," she said as she brought up Gold Wing's team 02's location on her display. She was surprised to see Saka-kun's name pop up as one of the pilots, as she had spoken to the man just moments before coming to her duty station on the bridge. All the people I know are gathering in one spot, she thought, unwilling to think about the consequences that might lead to, especially considering the condition they were in. This is what happens when your friends are all power armor pilots.
PAUSE
The Pride Wing had made it into the Ayame-class Cruiser's power armor launch bays successfully. The lights were off, and it looked like no one was home. The bay itself seemed void of most, if not all, of its equipment. It was either picked clean by the pirates outside or perhaps the armor was really walking around the ship—empty of any pilot. A few members, such as Chikako, were indisposed in the conflict, so the members of the unit inside the Watcher were given the go-ahead to proceed without all their members.
Sigmund automatically switched to night vision while Kuriko tried to get her bearings. "Creepy..." Kuriko muttered before taking an inventory of those around her. Where is everyone else? Kuriko wondered as she mentally listed everyone that should have been there. Instantly, a fear gripped the Nekovalkyrja. They're alright, get hold of yourself. Kuriko bit her lip, forcing herself to focus on the now. "Let's move out. We need to find the crew, and fast," Kuriko said over the comms.
Masako sighed as she activated her night vision mode and looked around, cautiously letting her rifle lead her way as she proceeded to take a look around the bay, trying to pick up signs of what happened. "On this kind of ship, in an emergency they'd have been taken to the most secure areas. Let's try to get to the bridge first," she suggested as she shifted around, afraid a bit sure but not letting it get to her.
The battle itself continued on with things turning in the Senbu's favor. The fray of the Red Lion's task force mixed with the weaker and outnumbered pirates was an explosive display of combat. The NR-1X-10c, YSS Makka, began firing phased pulse cannon fire on the third of the Vampire patrol craft. The ship's commander kept from using torpedoes and any other ordnance that could cause damage to the Senbu's power-armor squadrons in close proximity to the target. But the ship itself wasn't in the clear; it was still caught in a two-on-one fight with the second of the pirate crafts. Target bravo was moving in a wide vectored turn in an attempt to flank the Makka.
"Bravo is moving in on our ship, Obsidian move in at full speed!" the new leader of the crestfallen wing commanded over communications. The blue and black paneled Mindys picked up speed; they were rapidly closing in on the second pirate craft. "For glorious victory!" she recited over the comms and received the same sentence back from her troops in faithful unison. On the tactical overview of that area of the combat, the squadron seemed to open up with a combined missile volley, then one soon after they gained more distance. The first one got the attention of the bravo target and caused the ship to change its attack posture from the Makka to their unit. The second volley was more precise and seemed to disrupt the patrol craft's shields quite a bit.
Sakaki had holstered her beam saber for now, believing it wouldn't be too useful in close combat and was in favor of keeping her beam saber in her left arm charged and ready. She kept herself calm, ready to react to anything that would come, alive or dead.
Tsukihime itself tuned on the night vision as Sakaki entered the ship. “It would be wise to search the engine room in case if this was a trap,” suggested Sakaki in response to Masako's suggestion. The Neko remembered very well of the exploding death trap that was their practice session with Shizuka-taisa.
"But it looks like we don't have the manpower to do both at the moment," Masako replied, having her capacitor begin recharging as well as her teleport unit while they were passive for the moment. She wanted to have them ready in case this did end up being like that simulation. "I'd suggest charging your teleporter and recharging your capacitor before we go anywhere though, just to be safe."
“Indeed, Masako,” replied Sakaki as she started to charge her leg capacitor. “However, as the ship is dead in the water, a trap would be more fitting would it not? The rescue could end in disaster if the ship was to cease to exist by the time we reach the bridge.”
Masako would take a moment though to send a notification to the Senbu. "Senbu? Kuriko, Sakaki and myself are aboard the Watcher. Can you provide any data to its condition and expected crew numbers? This bay here is completely empty, no armor, weapons, or anything else," she reported in.
"Pride Wing has entered the Watcher, no enemy contacts yet," Ageha reported from her comm station on the bridge. "Hold on, Sakiyurai-hei," she replied to Masako as the newest member of the operations crew brought focus to the relevant information on her display. "There were one-hundred and seventy-six crew members on board the Watcher," she reported back to the NH-29h. "And it looks like around five thousand armor units."
"Damn it! And there's not a single one here. And all the lights are off too!" Masako replied to Ageha. "It looks like the systems are completely off; can you get any information on the ship from there?"
Something inside Kuriko's mind clicked. "Ano... Nav—Nanjo-hei, what kind of armor units were on the Watcher?" Kuriko asked before motioning for the unit to follow her. "Get your teleporters recharged. If it's a trap, teleport outside of the ship ASAP," Kuriko ordered as she moved toward the hangar door. "If we can reach the bridge we might be able to scan the ship for the crew."
"Sensor information indicates that the Watcher is running off of auxiliary power," Ageha reported first to the Pride Wing. "They've got life support, but it looks like that'll run out in twenty minutes at most." The wing's tactical relay technician switched back to the Watcher's cargo list. "It looks like it various assorted armors. Mindys, Daisys, Black Mindys, Mindy Twos, One Hes..." she trailed off as she realized that it sounded like she was rambling. "It looks to be about half the standard compliment for an Ayame-class vessel."
"In that case we should hurry," Masako said, using her own ability to keep anchored when her Mindy registered the lack of gravity in the bay. She would approach the doors to lead into the ship, pulling up a schematic of the ship to find out their position and the fastest route to the bridge. "Let's see here..."
Kuriko also pulled up a schematic of the ship before heading to one of the doors that according to the schematic would eventually lead to a lift. "We should stay together, we don't want to get separated and lose anyone," Kuriko said before opening a comm-link to Ageha again. "Nanjo-Hei, is the ship's IES responsive?" If it is we could save some time maybe.
“Of course Shifuda-heisho,” Sakaki replied as she made her way to the exit door. If the ship is on emergency power, the ships doors will probably not open, Sakaki contemplated as she walked up to a door, then asked, “Shifuda-heisho, should we precede with caution or haste?”
Chikako appeared in visual range of the Pride Wing as her teleport pack instantly closed the distance she had incidentally created by attacking that starfighter. "Shifuda-heisho, what's our danger?" she asked telepathically, falling into formation with the rest of the wing.
"I'm not getting any response from the IES, Shifuda-heisho," Ageha's voice responded over the comm system in the Pride Wing's armors. The young Yamataian girl on the bridge could see them bringing up the Ayame deck plans on her status display, monitoring their systems and vitals. "Shifuda-heisho, Sakiyurai-hei, the Watcher is a modified Ayame for SAINT. The deckplan is a bit different from what you have on board. I have you on deck 28 right now. You'll need to head for deck 6 to get to the main bridge. There's also the command bridge located on deck 5."
The exit to the rest of the ship had a small hardware display attached to the frame of the armored door. It was running on a very low power system which was close circuited to the single door itself, for situations like this. A rotating Star Army logo appeared on the small screen and a keypad jut out from the bottom of the blue glowing screen.
"Hmm... looks like either way, we have to go up," Masako said and watched the door, training her rifle on it if it got opened and something was on the other side.
Kuriko did the only thing she could think of at the moment. "Don't shoot yet, let's save it for a last resort," Kuriko said to Masako before entering her clearance code on the keypad. Instinctively, Kuriko reached out to the IES of the ship without thinking and transmitted verification as well. That was stupid, Kuriko thought after she had done it. If it's hostile it most certainly knows who you are now... if it's even on.
"I'm not going to, Kuriko; I'm covering the door in case it opens and something is on the other side," Masako sighed.
The icon disappeared from the view, and then a console appeared on the screen. It rapidly filled with text scrolling upwards, going through checks against its last update from the Star Army PANTHEON. It paused a moment, the word “searching” blinked a few times as it used it's small computer to dig into its database. Then—a loud “thunk” of metal against metal echoed throughout the carnivorous empty bay. But the door didn't move until another loud slam, at which the door opened wide with a releasing hydraulic to reveal a twisted and damaged Black Mindy. Its head was facing forward, but the body hung limp, where as there was no body inside for it to hold it straight, instead it stood with a forward lean and the normal optic sensors were red instead of the normal blue.
"I don't think that's a normal Mindy," Masako said and took careful aim on the head of the Black Mindy but grumbled, finding her AI's fire control activating to keep her from firing upon the armor recognized an ally model. "Damn it, my fire control isn't letting me fire upon it," she said to the others.
Kuriko jumped backward in surprise before whipping her rifle up at the Black Mindy. Instead of immediately firing, Kuriko stood there waiting for the Mindy to make the first move. "Anou... sumimasen," Kuriko sent telepathically to the armor's AIES silently hoping that the reply would be absolute silence or that the armor would fall down due to lack of support.
In response to Masako's statement, Sakaki quickly drew her katana off her back with her right hand and aimed it's point toward the Black Mindy. She then commanded, “Identify yourself!” She positioned the left hand on the hilt as well, thankfully not having a similar problem as Masako with a solid weapon rather than one connected to her suit.
"Please, don't attack!" a feminine Yamataian-sounding voice called out from the machine. The Mindy took an unstable step forward, then paused again in place. "I'm stuck inside, please help me out of here!" the girl pleaded. The black armor stood still only a few paces from the group. In Kuriko's head, she could hear whimpering, the telepathy from the machine's transmitter seemed to carry a strong sense of fear and acute sadness.
Masako listened and switched spectrum to see into the thermal field of vision to see if there was a humanoid shaped occupant of the Mindy or if it was simply the armor mimicking a voice and psi-patterns. She kept her rifle leveled on the Black Mindy nonetheless as she did.
Kuriko's rifle dropped from the firing position as the Neko ran up to the armor. "Un," Kuriko replied as she tried to find the Black Mindy's seam with her armored hand. She wasn't sure if the girl inside was alright or not, but she obviously wanted out of the armor. "It'll be okay," Kuriko sent to the woman, trying to reassure her as she moved. "Can you tell me what happened? How many people are left? Where is everyone at?" Kuriko was probably breaking a few psychological rules concerning questioning a distressed patient, but more lives than just hers were on the line.
"If you have to shoot, only aim at the limbs and handheld weapons. It's more forgivable than killing a hostage," Chikako messaged the Pride Wing telepathically, eagerly pondering how should would scramble her drones in the event that the armor really forced the occupant against her will. It was ironic that only a few minutes ago, she was the one saying not to treat the enemy any differently, but if things were as she thought, the rules of engagement would have to be tweaked for the sake of averting a massacre.
Kuriko, you idiot... Masako thought and gestured with her rifle. "Kuriko, back off for a moment you're interfering with my view. I've got my visuals set to see heat if there's a real woman in there I'll see the humanoid figure," Masako said to Kuriko telepathically.
Now in response to her commander, Sakaki quickly placed back her sword and moved to assist. If anything, the Hei could do would at least restrain the Mindy, or pull Kuriko out of the way of an attack.
There was a humanoid looking thermal inside the machine filling all the sections, from the head to the toes. Though it was a little colder than the rest of the group, the drop in body temperature could be from anything including the rapid dropping temperature of the derelict ship. The armor didn't seem to move at all as Kuriko searched for a seam. Just as she found it, and went to open it, the machine jaunted forward another step, just out of her reach and now closer to the rest of the group. "I just want to go home, please get me out!" the voice seemed more panicked now, like a normal person.
It could be from a recently killed occupant and Masako didn't lower her weapon, but it didn’t seem hostile. "Freeze," Masako commanded the machine. "If you don't we can't get you out," she said trying to be kind, but grinned internally. If it didn't follow the directive, it was hostile. If it did then it may not be, even in a panic the woman would have to know she'd have to hold still to be released.
"Senbu, I'm having a problem. My fire control is locking me out of my weapons while aiming at the Black Mindy," Masako said back to the ship telepathically.
"Ssssshhhh..." Kuriko sent to the armored figure. "We'll take you home, first we need to get this armor off of you," Kuriko walked up behind the armor, wrapping one arm across its chest to hold it in place while the other searched for the seam. Kuriko's hand slid down to the seam of the power armor and rested on where it began. After waiting a few seconds, Kuriko started to try and open the armor. "What's your name?" Kuriko asked, trying to draw the armors attention away from Masako. "Masako, relax. I think it's okay," Kuriko sent to Masako. "She's scared, if you do that she could have a psychological breakdown and fire on us. We have to calm her down and get her out of the armor," Kuriko sent that last message to rest of the group.
Ageha turned her head around to look at her commanding officer. "Kanno-taii, Pride Wing has encountered a bogey Black Mindy and are requesting permission to disengage fire control."
You're way too trusting, Kuriko, Masako thought and sent a message to Sakaki. "If that thing even makes one hostile move on her, try to strike to disable the armor or for the arms to take out the projectors," she suggested.
Sakaki didn't like the idea of Kuriko getting close to a possible hostile, and kept herself an possible lunging distance in case of disaster. Nodding, she replied, ”Masako, I believe we have this covered well enough, could you check outside in case there are more?”
Masako lowered her rifle a hair so it wasn't aimed squarely at the Mindy’s gut and glanced to Chikako. "Should we move past this and see if there's others further in?" she asked, but didn't take her eye off the Black Mindy.
The blonde haired officer, Akira, sat up straighter in his seat, then with a puzzled look on his face, moved his hand and called up the current situation on his display. "Normally if it was a hostile bogey, it would have opened fire and the FCS would have marked it as a foe. It says they're in direct contact with the armor, could you give me more details on the situation before I allow them to shoot a potential friendly," Akira inquired harshly, the idea of disengaging the fire control and then one of the units killing off a innocent hostage was not something he wanted to be under his command record, or report to the Taisa.
Meanwhile, off in the distance in the Watcher, a very strange sound began growing louder. It sounded like a bunch of feet scurrying through the halls—like a horde of hostiles. The Mindy in the middle of the group twitched then teleported out of sight for a split second and then appeared behind Masako. "Pleasssse, help me, I can't control it!" the voice whined as it slammed one of its armor-piercing spiked gauntlets into Masako's back, puncturing her armor and making a nice wound in her back. Then simultaneously, the sound burst into the room as it began filling with similar units, all of them pleading for help, all in different voices and tones.
Masako jolted and spun around to bash the Mindy with her rifle and growled, the fire control disengaging now that it became hostile. "Damn it, it's a friggin ruse!" she said as she attempted to bat the armor away.
"Senbu, the armors seem to be holding their pilot’s hostage," Masako reported.
"They're requesting a disengage order to disa—," Ageha stopped mid-sentence as she watched her display change, the symbol for the Black Mindy changing from a bogey, turning into a hostile and Masako's unit taking damage. "Kanno-taii, the Black Mindy has attacked Pride Wing and more contacts are approaching down the hall. It looks like... two hundred additional units and growing!" As she read the number her voice raised in panic. The situation had made a quick, grim turn for the "Pride of the Senbu."
Kuriko instinctively tightened her grip around the Black Mindy that she had been holding when her AIES changed the Black Mindy that had attacked Masako from friend to foe. "Masako!" Kuriko screamed over the comms. "What's going on?" Kuriko asked while releasing the armor, drawing her rifle up and turning to put herself into a firing arc of the new “enemies.”
"We should head for the ship's IES core!" Chikako said, scrambling her leg-mounted NSDs and setting them to fire stun blasts at the armor's sensors as she leapt forward to tackle it with the flat of her shield. Since these were comrades who didn't have control over their own actions, she would only attempt a lethal strike out of mercy. "It's the only damn thing that has veto rights over an armor's actions."
Then, as if to make matters worse—the Pride Wing disconnected from communications and disappeared off the map. The room itself filled with a thick cloud of green colored charged particles, like a grimy smog of undeath. The room continued to fill as the Black Mindys rushed at the rest of the group. That one Mindy that attacked Masako was batted a good few feet away after it's assault. The one that Chikako jumped at yelled in fear and pain, screaming for her to stop what she was doing.
Masako blinked and looked over at the Black Mindys and grimly set herself and tilted her rifle up and fired a grenade from her launcher into the group of them. It should do damage to the armor itself and try to put it out of commission. "I think we're being jammed, people," she said.
"Thirteen minutes until life support failure," Ageha reported in to her charges, but the Pride Wing never got the message. The young Yamataian stared in shock as all points of contact, friendly and hostile disappeared. "Sir! Pride Wing and enemy signatures have disappeared!" she announced as she looked over the Black Mindy's feature readout. A state of the art jamming array? "The enemy units are jamming our sensors." And the Pride Wing's sensors as well. She looked around at the other CommOps personnel working around her and asked, "Anyone else close enough to help out?"
Sakaki focused still on the one with Kuriko, quickly dashed up to her commander, and ripped the Black Mindy away and into a nearby wall. “Shifuda-heisho, we could disarm the hostages if we are careful, though it is also risky, she suggested, keeping a perimeter around her commanding officer. She then redrew her katana to raise her combat range. This does not seem good, this gas is not only unknown, but is also disrupting my night vision.
The communications operative to Ageha's right shook her head, not able to respond vocally because at the same time she was giving out course correction orders to the Obsidian wing, who at the moment were heavily engaged with the bravo Vampire and its escort armors. The girl to her left, the Gold Wing's heisho, however, pursed her lips and looked thoughtful for a moment, never once looking up from her screen, then nodded. "I have a team that can pull away from the engagement now that we've got a hold of the situation," she said to Ageha with seriousness. "Getting the clearance now from mission command." While she waited on that, she opened up the information on team 02. It was a mixed unit lead by an Ittô Heisho Nakayama “Mist” Sai, whose executive officer just happened to be Ittô Heisho Saka “Gazer” Hideyoshi, the guy Ageha had talked to just before the battle. "Mist, I have a new objective for your team. Disengage from the enemies and start heading towards the YSS Watcher; I'll fill you in once I get confirmation."
"Thank you Heisho," Ageha replied as she sent the coordinates of Kuriko's wing to the helpful CommOp to her left. "Here's their last known location," she said as she brought up Gold Wing's team 02's location on her display. She was surprised to see Saka-kun's name pop up as one of the pilots, as she had spoken to the man just moments before coming to her duty station on the bridge. All the people I know are gathering in one spot, she thought, unwilling to think about the consequences that might lead to, especially considering the condition they were in. This is what happens when your friends are all power armor pilots.
PAUSE
