ON: Taiie no Iori
At several miles long, the Iori proved quite a trek for the two SAINTs. A shot here, a shot there, but little else held the pair up from reaching their goal. Several decks up, the doors to the sealed floor were open. The walls of this floor weren't like the others -- pristine, glistening metal, polished so well one could see their face. The corridor from the lift shaft was empty and stretched for nearly 40 meters. At the end, the corridor bent to the right. It was quiet. However, once the pair were safely and wholly on the floor, there was a loud click. It was hard to hear where it stopped.
Despite the long search for an alternate route to the Taisho's deck, the Neko showed little in the way of exhaustion. But it was very annoying to have to go out of the way because of the lift blocking the shaft that the other party had gone up. Not that the Neko was sure they had gone that way—after all, there was that lift in the way when she and Umon got back to the spot where the Neko had left the party—but the pair would likely have caught up with the others if they had gone in the same way. Hopefully the others hadn't gotten themselves killed; they could still prove useful.
She stepped out of the lift and heard the click. Stopping momentarily, she listened for the direction, but was unsure and thus ignored it. If there was a threat, she would spot it with her low-light amplification. She looked back to make sure Umon was following and started toward the corner.
Umon continued to stay in a state of alertness, with a bit of anger building up inside. His GP-7 never left the position of alertness as he constantly scanned the areas around him and his partner. As the team exited the lift, he heard a slight click which aroused his mind into suspicion. With a quick movement, his left paw clicked on his light amplication goggles and then he flew by his partner like she was standing still. As soon as Umon rounded the corner, he began to check the ceiling for movement, but seeing none, he flattened his left paw above the ground and ducked down. He did not like this one bit, as he had used a somewhat similar tactic to dispose of a less-prepared opponent during training. Umon hugged the wall and began to move forward slowly, hoping that he was just over-reacting.
There was no other click. The hall once again seemed empty. Once around the bend, the two could see Katsuko's offices about 80 meters away. The door was clear to the inside. Other than drops of water on the fine marble floors, nothing seemed abnormal. Unless, of course, the corpse of Ushiba Matsu was abnormal. If they looked, they could see it beyond the glass doors, lying in a slightly bent heap with a hole in her head.
When Umon rushed ahead, the Neko followed a bit behind. By the time he had crouched, she was leaning against the wall at the corner, GP-15 pointed straight up and head sticking out just enough so that the Neko could perceive that there was no movement down the hall. Nevertheless, she quickly spun around and to the right, letting the large weapon fall to a ready position, and relaxing the gun slightly when she saw nothing but Umon moving along the wall. The situation looked normal, until the Neko saw that there was a body in the room down the corridor. It was too far away to tell what had happened, so the Neko crouched, figuring that there could be hybrids or other enemies.
On second thought, if the unfortunate crewmember had been killed by a hybrid, she wouldn't likely be in one piece if the neko pinned to the wall in the Akuro bay was any indication of normal Neko-Mishhu hybrid behavior. She began to move forward relatively quickly compared to Umon, but awkwardly because she was crouched and still holding the heavy weapon. In lieu of using telepathy and possibly divulging their position to someone who might hear, the Neko waved her left arm forward a bit to encourage Umon to move a bit faster so they could check out the situation and investigate the body in the room.
With the encouragement from his partner, Umon moved down the hall faster, as he now stood almost fully upright and kept the pace with her. His right paw was held securely on the GP-7 as he jogged down the hall, and when he saw the dead body in what looked to be an office, the fur on the back of Umon's neck stood up. As he neared the office, he slowed his pace down considerably and kept his weapon prepared incase there was an funny business about to happen. He then nudged the glass doors open quietly so he could squeeze through the door. Umon looked at the angelic corpse that laid there, a peaceful look upon the face and odd-colored eyes. Umon decided to respect the dead, and then he reached over with his free paw to close her eyelids gently, hoping that sound from earlier was nothing.
"Touching." The voice came over a loudspeaker behind the pair. It was followed by the same click from earlier. A Mindy 1d stood off to the right side of the room, opposite the statue of Chiharu and Irim. It had its aether rifle out, but it was not on. "SAINTs are supposed to be colder, I thought."
Having stepped in after Umon, the Neko surveyed the area quickly, noticing the power armor to the right when the voice began its speech. Reaching around to the pack that housed her newfound grenades and the old grenades for the launcher, she felt around for the sole EMP grenade, which was a bit hard to do considering all the material in the pack and the other two frag grenades, but she eventually was able to discern the EMP grenade by the slight difference in shape as she spoke to hopefully keep the power armor from attacking.
"Cold? Don't worry. He'd tear you apart limb from limb if he felt like it. In fact, so would I. I'd quite enjoy it. If there's a pilot in there, you could step outside and we'll demonstrate. I don't believe your rifle is on, by the way.â€
At several miles long, the Iori proved quite a trek for the two SAINTs. A shot here, a shot there, but little else held the pair up from reaching their goal. Several decks up, the doors to the sealed floor were open. The walls of this floor weren't like the others -- pristine, glistening metal, polished so well one could see their face. The corridor from the lift shaft was empty and stretched for nearly 40 meters. At the end, the corridor bent to the right. It was quiet. However, once the pair were safely and wholly on the floor, there was a loud click. It was hard to hear where it stopped.
Despite the long search for an alternate route to the Taisho's deck, the Neko showed little in the way of exhaustion. But it was very annoying to have to go out of the way because of the lift blocking the shaft that the other party had gone up. Not that the Neko was sure they had gone that way—after all, there was that lift in the way when she and Umon got back to the spot where the Neko had left the party—but the pair would likely have caught up with the others if they had gone in the same way. Hopefully the others hadn't gotten themselves killed; they could still prove useful.
She stepped out of the lift and heard the click. Stopping momentarily, she listened for the direction, but was unsure and thus ignored it. If there was a threat, she would spot it with her low-light amplification. She looked back to make sure Umon was following and started toward the corner.
Umon continued to stay in a state of alertness, with a bit of anger building up inside. His GP-7 never left the position of alertness as he constantly scanned the areas around him and his partner. As the team exited the lift, he heard a slight click which aroused his mind into suspicion. With a quick movement, his left paw clicked on his light amplication goggles and then he flew by his partner like she was standing still. As soon as Umon rounded the corner, he began to check the ceiling for movement, but seeing none, he flattened his left paw above the ground and ducked down. He did not like this one bit, as he had used a somewhat similar tactic to dispose of a less-prepared opponent during training. Umon hugged the wall and began to move forward slowly, hoping that he was just over-reacting.
There was no other click. The hall once again seemed empty. Once around the bend, the two could see Katsuko's offices about 80 meters away. The door was clear to the inside. Other than drops of water on the fine marble floors, nothing seemed abnormal. Unless, of course, the corpse of Ushiba Matsu was abnormal. If they looked, they could see it beyond the glass doors, lying in a slightly bent heap with a hole in her head.
When Umon rushed ahead, the Neko followed a bit behind. By the time he had crouched, she was leaning against the wall at the corner, GP-15 pointed straight up and head sticking out just enough so that the Neko could perceive that there was no movement down the hall. Nevertheless, she quickly spun around and to the right, letting the large weapon fall to a ready position, and relaxing the gun slightly when she saw nothing but Umon moving along the wall. The situation looked normal, until the Neko saw that there was a body in the room down the corridor. It was too far away to tell what had happened, so the Neko crouched, figuring that there could be hybrids or other enemies.
On second thought, if the unfortunate crewmember had been killed by a hybrid, she wouldn't likely be in one piece if the neko pinned to the wall in the Akuro bay was any indication of normal Neko-Mishhu hybrid behavior. She began to move forward relatively quickly compared to Umon, but awkwardly because she was crouched and still holding the heavy weapon. In lieu of using telepathy and possibly divulging their position to someone who might hear, the Neko waved her left arm forward a bit to encourage Umon to move a bit faster so they could check out the situation and investigate the body in the room.
With the encouragement from his partner, Umon moved down the hall faster, as he now stood almost fully upright and kept the pace with her. His right paw was held securely on the GP-7 as he jogged down the hall, and when he saw the dead body in what looked to be an office, the fur on the back of Umon's neck stood up. As he neared the office, he slowed his pace down considerably and kept his weapon prepared incase there was an funny business about to happen. He then nudged the glass doors open quietly so he could squeeze through the door. Umon looked at the angelic corpse that laid there, a peaceful look upon the face and odd-colored eyes. Umon decided to respect the dead, and then he reached over with his free paw to close her eyelids gently, hoping that sound from earlier was nothing.
"Touching." The voice came over a loudspeaker behind the pair. It was followed by the same click from earlier. A Mindy 1d stood off to the right side of the room, opposite the statue of Chiharu and Irim. It had its aether rifle out, but it was not on. "SAINTs are supposed to be colder, I thought."
Having stepped in after Umon, the Neko surveyed the area quickly, noticing the power armor to the right when the voice began its speech. Reaching around to the pack that housed her newfound grenades and the old grenades for the launcher, she felt around for the sole EMP grenade, which was a bit hard to do considering all the material in the pack and the other two frag grenades, but she eventually was able to discern the EMP grenade by the slight difference in shape as she spoke to hopefully keep the power armor from attacking.
"Cold? Don't worry. He'd tear you apart limb from limb if he felt like it. In fact, so would I. I'd quite enjoy it. If there's a pilot in there, you could step outside and we'll demonstrate. I don't believe your rifle is on, by the way.â€
