RP: LSDF Akahar [Chapter 3.0] - To Tear Free

Kilometers From Molten Akahar & Mok'ro

Ny'za quickly realized with Merril evading the packet rifles that it would not be enough if they were to simply fight her. It was not long however before a solution struck the pilot. Merril's words reminded her that she could see likely the same things Ny'za could, a visualization of anything putting out an electromagnetic signal of some kind. It was then that there was a shift in the Lmanel's demenor, her mind becoming clear and focused, her posture more confident. Less than a second after this shift she began broadcasting static on every frequency with all communication systems directly at Merril trying to fill her 'vision' with as much noise as she could.

Simply blinding her was of little use on its own, but the pilot maintained focus and observed, watching what the beast did and taking it all in, learning how she moved as quickly as she could. By the time the Whirlwind lost it's shields, Ny'za had seen enough to start narrowing down her attacks, firing with her finger mounted guns in patterns to keep Merril busy, making it difficult for the beast to escape from Ha'reiel, as well as trying to keep it on the defensive as well., all the while still observing her movements.

When the suit detected the spike in electromagnetic activity Ny'za knew what was going on, and she quickly adjusted for it with her actions. She continued firing with her finger canons, adding the packet rifles into the mix as well, but the pattern hard changed, there was a path that while not an easy escape, complied to what Ny'za had learned about how Merril preferred to move, a crack in the armor, where Merril could escape from the pressure keeping her glued to the frame that was a flying fortress of death. It was at the moment that Ha'reiel's suit gave that final spike of activity did Ny'za make her move. She had to respond to actions taking only factions of a second, so it was left to wild instinct, and whether or not the intention recognition could keep up.

There were two options for Merril, to stay or to flee and Ny'za had no intention of letting either choice catch her off guard. Both packet rifles were ready to fire with only a fifth of a second delay between both shots the second to anticipate the dodge of the first, followed by a full barrage of her remaining missiles and waves of pulse blast from her fingers. What required the majority of her attention though was her response for Merril dodging. The moment she made motion to escape Ny'za was ready to put her propulsion's output to max, using the transmission noise and the Whirlwind's massive signature as cover for her own suddenly larger signal. Rushing over in an instant she cut through Merril with both hand blades before quickly flipping around and firing rapid burst of the packet rifles antimatter rounds.

LSDF Akahar; Escape Pod

Jiji wasn't one to consistently lose her head, she for one normally got upset and moved on... but in this particular instance everything was boiling into a nice heft stew of cataclysmic proportions. Keib had all but given up, Everyone else was yelling, or staying silent, or just not giving a shit. It was bad enough she had begun to mentally break down from the fact she was the direct cause of three peoples deaths, but now there was so much negativity and apathy that she couldn't help but descend more into what possibly could be considered madness. She heard the order from Glacier, but she didn't register it.. Her hands were on the side of her head and her ears were slumped down her eyes were closed. Unfortunately, this was not something she was prepared for...how quickly everything fell apart, how the person who was in charge gave up after fighting so hard, how everyone was losing their shit over this... the small child like L'manel could hardly handle it.

It didn't take long before she stopped crying, in fact stopped responding in a total before slowly shifting to sit up, her eyes lidded a bit, her curious eyes more so blank than before... She slowly stood up and just began laughing at the irony of it all, at everything that happened, at the fact Merril died, at the fact Keib lost his shit, at the fact Aiesu yelled at him, the fact everyone lost someone, Ny'za was fighting, there was hardly ANYTHING that was not funny at that moment! She placed her hand over her left eye as she leaned her head back and just bellowed at the lost hope, the sadness, and the complete loss of camaraderie. After more than a few seconds of laughing she slowly quieted down and looks at Keib. "...Funny how life throws all kinds of curveballs." She turns and moves to the Pilots seat of the Pod. "I joined the military to prove I could do as well as any adult sized L'manel... To impress my always disappointed parents, to make the people close to me proud and to advance my career as an genius Engineer and Inventor... Yet here I am at the end of my life with nary a thing to my name."

She begins pressing buttons and activating the pods engines getting them to work with what little she had to work with, turning the ship to face the Akahar and the combat. In the middle of her doing all this she lets out a few nearly insane chuckles that almost sound creepy coming from the child like L'manel who was always cheerful. "...I don't think I want to die here, not one bit... I don't want to leave this world without first making my mark on it. So fuck your outlook Keib, fuck your decision to just give up, and Fuck you if you don't have the balls to keep fighting and living. If you can't fight for your right to live, you have no fucking right to live...!" She chuckles a few more times before the pod stops to watch the fighting. "...So tell me Keib...are you really that pathetic? Are you really incapable of fighting for your right to live, the right for you to survive? The right for everyone else to survive?!" She turns to look at them completely now, her eyes less blank, but more so fierce than before. "Has your life amounted to nothing that you so easily give it up?"

"I for one...believe in fighting to the bitter end...Even if you feel like giving up." Was all the small child like wolf-eared girl said... Shame on Keib.

Space, Command Team Escape Pod
"This, is the bitter end of our usefulness, JiJi." Keib tapped his foot against the ground as he heard everyone's sob stories. And prayers. And self-help book quotes.

"What do you expect us to do from an unarmed, barely controllable escape pod in a stretch of space," he put his hands across, interposing himself away from the others in the confines of the pod as he could in such a constrained space. He fenced with his fingers as though he was still holding his cigarette. "Which is probably so irradiated, I could microwave a TV dinner out there complete with a little serving isotopes to go with the cranberry jam?"

"Listen. Tell you what, I'll keep this simple so you stop chasing your tail. And the doll too."

He talked Jiji down first since he'd gotten her ire. "How about you sentimental sorts," Keib widened his net, and to him: all of them were sentimental sods, "stop focussing on me, who can't do anything, and put Ny'za in your prayers instead."

He would've lit up another cigarette if he could've, flicking the lighter back and forth in his hands while his cigarettes were all over the ground, having not realised they were knocked all over the place. He stared quietly in dumbfound frustration. "She needs it more, for whatever a prayer's worth."

Anything to get the attention away from him. He didn't need so many prying eyes on his darkest hour, seeing him this vulnerable and destructive all at once. He wasn't thinking about the regrets or baggage burdened with if he survived, because he had nothing to lose if he didn't. In that moment, the truth? He'd rather be out there with the rabble in the dark.

He watched. The way they kept chattering. The silence between words became thinner and thinner, and with it the pod smaller and smaller.

"Potted here, unable to do anything..." he whispered under his breath, the wrecked comms in his helmet unable to pick it up save for harsh crackle on his side of the line, "...beyond fairy tales, prayers are useless to me."

In this moment, Keib was so done, he couldn't be flipped over onto another side to continue being grilled without becoming well-done. Unpalatable and ugly.


Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro
♫ Ace Combat Zero - Valley of Kings ♫

Both together in the midst of mid-grapple, resonance cascading into blinding light which arced arced and cracked, forking and forking with brilliant magnesium heat that couldn't escape itself in the void; with sound suffering the same choking fate: what should have been deafening instead silent in the dead void. Fingers tightened, intentions hardened and then finally, eyes met.

"You."

The emerald pips shifting into amber ones on a black expanse violated the team's feeds again. Burning coals in the hearth. Claws daring to get close enough to weather the conditions Ha'reiel had put up as defence. As if in defiance, the face plate of her helmet started to part to either side, revealing a more Lorath face nestled within the new flesh.

"You erased the lost children." Amidst the cacophony of lightning, the whine of thrusters could be heard spooling up. The damage diagnostics on Ha'reiel's screen came up quick - exterior plates across his armour's chest were bending like cardboard as claws sunk into the metal. "They only wanted to help. They only wanted your acceptance."

Thrusters began to push foward, claws digging deeper into the metal viscera of the Whirlwind. "They needed guidance. Love. And you murdered them."

"I am not the animal, murderer. Murderer!" Full throttle. Escaping the bubble with a handful of servomotors, metal muscles, and other 'organs' the beast could integrate, Merril turned around in the void of space.

She could hear something loud, something too tonal, rhythmic, uniform. After a few seconds of listening, ears twitching, she figured it out. An attempt to confuse her, but it seemed cutting open your leg in the ocean in an attempt to confuse the sharks with even more blood. Though, to Ha'reiel's credit, scorch and burn marks on her exterior glistering across her body showed that she didn't escape without taking some damage. Indeed, some of her joints were feeling stiff...

...until she suddenly became alive again. The parts in her hand now gone, absorbed within her technoflesh to replace the old. "I'm going to end you." Merril shot back, louder than any signal Ny'za could produce as the WINTER-II was rushing towards her. "And then, when you rise again, I'm going to end you again. And again. And then I'm going to rip you from beyond the Veil so that you'll never experience this world again."

Ny'za, however innocent they were compared to the Inquisitor, was an accomplice. Though they were merely cloth wrapped around the spearhead, Ny'za was still an accomplice to the destruction. Merril's faceplate came back together, and as Ny'za closed in, they moved erratically, positioning themselves just off to her side when she finally stopped moving. Merril seemed to spit something into her right hand - in space.

All it took on the pass was an open palmed slap on the shoulder to knock Ny'za off balance as she careened through space. Merril only tumbled backwards once before stabilising herself while Ny'za found herself and her horizon warping and spinning erratically before the system got a grip and stabilising thrusters and centrifuges righted her.

With her packet rifles raised, Ny'za scanned for a target - but a warning came up on her screen. A memento was left on her shoulder. A mass of goo, which the WINTER-II identified as a target marking gel from a standard Lorath 40mm grenade, mostly inert save for the signal it was giving off. No signs of structol contamination.

And no sign of Merril either, though, a trail of silvery blood could be seen where she was a moment ago - one of Ny'za's blades must've nicked her. There was no use trying to be strategic against Merril alone. There had to be fury and power together rather than one rushing to the other like a pendulum.

The pendulum of the battle had to swing forwards and smash through the glass rather than side to side, like it always did.

Space - LSDF Akahar & Mok'Ro

Grasped by the tainted, touched by the leper mother, torn into by the rabid beast, Ha'reiel looked upon the unclean which had stepped so far away from the will of their Goddess. So far away, even from the will of their God. There was no anger in Ha'reiel as he heard the words from the animal, no resentment, only pity as he heard the fury which poured from her words which resounded in the vacuum.

"Lost Children?" Ha'reiel spoke in response, his voice unshaken as he saw the damage analysis flare up before his gaze, and was thankful that there was plenty of Whirlwind to absorb the damage, as opposed to being caught in the same grapple in a mere Winter, even so, Ha'reiel knew that he was not going to get by in the fight by merely tussling around. "I gave them love, I gave them guidance, I returned them to their place, the place where they wished to be. In their hearts and souls they desired nothing more than to remain who they were before what YOU wanted them to become! The last of your 'Children' which I guided to the Goddess' side thanked me for saving them from what you wished to impose upon them. You are the killer here, the monster, and you've allowed yourself to become this. Even so... I will show you love, I will show you acceptance, and I will show you mercy in the name of our Mother and Father."

With those words, he watched as the beast so easily danced her way around Ny'za's attempt, optical sensors catching the whole of the movements which spoke more of grace than the raw savagery which existed within that moment. There was no need for a piloting system to tell him the how-and-why of what happened, as his gaze studied the way which Ny'za moved; it was the attack of a novice; apparent and announced, as the Nepleslians would have called it 'telegraphed'. What was worse, was that Ha'reiel saw the splash of target marker upon the machine, which meant that she was going to be more apparent than she already was.

Keib should have destroyed those machines the moment the infection began to spread. He should have purged that medic the moment she was exposed. He should have had the decency to destroy that ship the moment it was compromised. Instead, he listened to the whispers of a trickster Ey'tis who wanted food for her pack.

A frown crossed Ha'reiel's lips as he did his job, the plates which had been touched on his Whirlwind separated easily from the external frame of the machine, and with them went the taint that was undoubtedly left behind. Within the cockpit of the machine, Ha'reiel multi-tasked easily with the aid of the link to the machine, as he reached beneath the seat assembly, and pulled an emergency kit from beneath it. His hands worked on the future concern, as his mind worked on the present.

Target marker data was reassigned, preserving Ny'za's safety from being a potential victim of fratricide. With that concern out of the way, Ha'reiel's mind set to the important task; the beast herself. Energy fields outside of the Whirlwind shifted, as EM output dropped, but was soon replaced by a steady outpouring of plasma, which rapidly condensed, and became a cohesive shield, a bulwark against another grappling session with the animal, as it was backed up by the microwave emission systems, which swept through space, tracking the movements of Merril until she 'disappeared'.

We can't have that now, can we?

Missile pods opened upon the exterior of the Whirlwind, as a dozen mini-missiles shot out into the black of space, but did not detonate. Instead, they took to steadily propelling themselves about the 'battlefield', routing their target sensor data back to the Whirlwind, and Ny'za's machine as well, giving multiple sources of information to the pair of machines. As Ha'reiel looked upon the field, he knew there was still a job to do. 'Merril' was still just one creature, a single piece that could be contained, but more than it, and then there would be problems. Ha'reiel was not about to rely upon a single victory, to guarantee the safety of the Matriarchy. He returned a partial focus to what was left of the Mok'ro and Akahar. He had fired off four of the nine missiles in his repeating launcher, it was time to burn through the next four, and, the two burning hulks which were undoubtedly still incubators.

There was a problem though, the beast, and her watching gaze. There were still things to be done about the matter, as Ha'reiel flipped on the psionic scrambler module on his machine, adjusting it to blot out even Lorath psionic links, then came another burst of laser-based communication, reaching out to Ny'za. "Ny'za, you are leading into your attacks too much. This is not a matter of swinging a hammer, or delivering a vicious blow. You're in a machine made to be on the bleeding edge... don't be afraid of it, push it, or everything will be forfeit. You, me, the crew, and eventually our home will fall prey. Do not fear what doing all that you can may end up doing to tomorrow, when not doing your all will guarantee that tomorrow will never come." Ha'reiel's surveying gaze went over the battlefield again, as he spoke further; "We still have a bigger job to do here, and I need you to make sure it can be done. I am going to launch four more missiles, two for the remains of each ship. I doubt It will allow them to make their approach unmolested. Watch for it, and confront the beast when she must reveal herself to protect the remains of those ships. After I launch, I will move to range, and provide fire support."

So much to do, so much to account for, it was almost like trying to pilot a starship alone while in the middle of a firefight, though, it was not something which shook the Chaplain, as he put his play into motion. Another burst from the shields, as they went opaque; light, electromagnetic energy, even gravitational shifts were obscured behind the combined bubble of output from the Whirlwind, before something erupted from the shields as they returned to a normal operational state; what appeared to sensor equipment and sensory organs aside from conventional optics to be at least a dozen anti-ship missiles had spewed from the confines of the shield bubble. It was unspoken just what had happened, but Ha'reiel knew, and as would Ny'za through the security of the laser-comms; countermeasure mini-missiles, pouring EM signatures into space which mimicked the genuine missiles which were somewhere in the midst.

As the missiles flew, so did the Whirlwind, as Ha'reiel took to the Whirlwind's own ability to remain agile, moving at fractions of the speed of light, as the L-Mark-Two mounted to the arm of his machine spewed hundreds of starship-damaging projectiles at the two targets, each slug which screamed from the spinning barrels carried their precious antimatter payload, each one dwarfing the power of the city-killing bombs dropped on ancient Yamataian ancestors unspoken years ago.

That should keep her busy...

There was movement within the Whirlwind, cockpit pod shifting, opening, moving within the machine, as Ha'reiel thought ahead, preparedness taking dominance over certainty. As he took to his security, he took to making sure Ny'za had her own chance as well; as his electronic gaze watched from a killer that remained behind after he had took his flight, and a series of smaller, lesser killers that had been left behind in the wake of his motion through space; one large missile, silent, obscured behind its own countermeasures, and a score of mini-missiles which lingered in the black of space, waiting for a target to scream out at.

What was left, was for Ny'za to confront the beast, and open her for a strike.

Jiji decided to ignore Keib and his negative-nancy outlook, she stared, watching the fight from the front of the pod as she bit her lip. Ny'za, a woman she had become friends with, and the inquisitor were fighting the monster out there... She believed they could do it which is why she wasn't worried, but part of her nagged...she wanted Ny'za to live, not become one of those monsters, she wanted the monster dead, she wanted all of them to live, and unfortunately it didn't seem like the ones in the pods were going to live due to the radiation. What could she do...what could any of them do? She looked around slowly, looking through the dark black depths of space, trying to find something, anything, that may be able to be used to prolong their unfortunate demises. She had to do something...

Space, Command Team Escape Pod

Aran'ya finished her ministrations and then let go of a deep sigh as Keib didn't take her up on the generous but perhaps ultimately futile offer. The readouts on her WIND, tear streaked as they were from her earlier outburst, were definitely lighting up far into the red zone of rad exposure. The suits were not rated to take this much abuse for long, and she really had no idea what was going to happen next to them. But it was moments like this when the true nature of people came out, and even if her leader did not care much anymore, at least there were others that still did. It reassured her deep down that there was a reason to hold on, and not descend into one's own darkness completely and wait to be snuffed out like that cigarette butt.

"I'm glad at least someone hasn't given up yet," spoke Widow as she offered Jiji the nanomachine injector should she wish. "I know it may feel frustrating, strapped in this tin can like a captive audience for some tragic Lor play... but as long as one of us is still fighting out there, we are all still fighting." She then relaxed back into her seat, reaching into the core for her faith that was alive somewhere even if faint. "The Captain is right about one thing... if anyone needs our prayers right now, it's Ny'za. Even if all of us have strayed far away from the claptrap that people like the Chaplain spews out about the Goddess, we still share a connection through our bonds with nature... even in space, they say our bonds are not severed. Even if that's all we can do... it's better than sitting here and waiting for the end, wallowing in our self-pity."

Aran'ya gave a small laugh to herself, and then reached into a pocket and produced something unexpected. It looked like a small sewing kit, the type used in the craft of weaving necklaces. She took out a thin rope of a silvery thread, looking at how it shimmered in the dim light of the escape pod. There was already a few colored beads and a piece of chitinous shell strung onto it. She seemed to be contemplating something very deep as she studied the unfinished piece of jewelry that long ago was intended for Tian'vir but was never finished. Here she was about to die... and it looked like Widow was quietly beginning to craft a necklace in the style of those used in prayer, just as her mother had taught her childish hands long ago. If she was going to go to the other side, she would be prepared with a proper offering at least.

"Sometimes... when all is destruction... the most rebellious act... is to create," mouthed the Lmanel woman quietly, looking like some kind of an uncomfortable reflection of the other Medic, Merril, who had once woven sweaters lovingly for the crew... and now was moving to cut the last strings of their fates.

Space, Command Team Escape Pod

Apart from a brief moment to accept the offered IV package from Widow, he kept quiet and pensive. He had already decided that he may as well take advantage of whatever he could get in order to survive, after all there was little point in giving up. How could things get better if the ended after all?

To pass the time he found himself oscillating. One set of thoughts rested within a contented daydream of a place with comfortable weather, a beautiful place one that was pleasant simply to stop and look at, everywhere around were happy people free of the petty politics and elitism that plagued most social gatherings. Instead there was simply a contented happiness in his mind, a dream, a wish of things that he could not have. The other half of the coin was spent debating the benefits and risks of simply napping in his situation, he was fairly certain that in some medical situations falling asleep was a bad idea, but radiation exposure was not one that his minimal medical knowledge had covered.

So once again he settled into a scene where perhaps those around him, or those he had once known, or those he wished he could have known could have been happy. After all there was nothing wrong in wishing for happiness.

Space, Command Team Escape Pod

Ny'za's tactics had been seen through, which she was not too pleased about but she had not acted in vain, instead she was presented with more information on Merril and her current abilities. She switched off her communications spam now understanding that such a method wouldn't work. She pondered over Merril's current behavior while at the same time she used the finger emitters at a low setting to burn off the tracking goo on her shoulder.

With Merril having made herself scares Ny'za had the time to think over what happened. She heard Ha'reil's comments but let most of it drift past her ears picking up only on the key points and giving no reply. She then turned her emissions down, keeping it at a minimum combat operation for the moment and followed Ha'reiel in his wake as he began his assault. She had all her weapons ready to fire for if Merril showed up, primed to fire another salvo of missiles and several shots from her packet rifle and finger emitters. However with Ha'reiel so focused on the front she decided to keep her eyes open and make sure nothing sneaked up on her.

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro
♫ Trentemoller - Miss You ♫

More little trails of infinitely dispersing smoke through space as the missiles flew their arcs, yet again. Another barrage aimed at the remnants of the two ships, both practically pulsating with Sourcian life, becoming alive as the rogue creature lurked somewhere. The lure worked again, but the reaction to this was a little more violent than anticipated.

Instead of a stream of packet rifle fire, two large pulses from a starship's main gun intercepted both sets of missiles. A brilliant burst whose aftereffects burnt the retinas and removed all the intervening matter around. Fired so willy nilly the beam would hit something else light years away and utterly destroy it, eventually. Even after the spots left the HUDs and the sensors recalibrated to anticipate another such burst, it looked like the stars were missing for a brief moment where the beam had passed.

Ny'za saw where it came from, nestled within the Akahar, aimed out a hole caused by one of Ha'reiel's previous missiles. She had a gun in her chest. She had a very big gun in her chest, and Ny'za could've sworn she just saw Merril smiling at her from her hovel, carved out by an antimatter explosion.

"Like it?" She asked Ny'za and Ny'za alone via a laser communication. Her voice sounded sharp, clear, in order and together. She wasn't afraid of the fact that the inquisitor was lurking around. "I remember watching Keib get it and everything else installed. I don't think he anticipated it'd all be used like this, bless him."

Was she being coy? Was her personality returning to her too? Underneath all of the structol, the infection, all the dirt that the Inquisitor delivered dictum on so heavily, was something growing out of it? Ny'za didn't know the Merril of the past at all, so with no frame of reference, she was grasping at straws. Was Merril only being amiable because Ny'za hadn't done any direct harm to the Akahar and Mok'ro - or was it for the WINTER-II she was sheathed in, the starting point of Merril's rampage...

The ravages of a mind subverted were ill suited for Lorath contemplation. "I'm not going to say you can't stop me, I am definitely enjoying your company~" When Ny'za did her double take and aimed her guns at Merril, her IFF signature disappeared inside of the ruins of the Akahar, gliding through and between the decks, occasionally seen through other holes. The uncanny calm in the middle of the battle still hung thick.

It was as if she was daring Ny'za to be the first to come close. Was it parley, or a trap, though? It wasn't like she could integrate the entire Akahar, right?

Well, according to Aiesu's estimates, it'd take too much time, which Merril and Ny'za didn't have. Only seven minutes, forty seven seconds by Aiesu's clock.

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro

Ny'za was caught off guard by the transmission from Merril, she had expected her to not be capable of rational thought anymore but she might have been wrong. That presented quite a large problem though, with her disappearing into the ship it was obvious that it could've been a trap but even if it was, there was no way to take Merril out without wasting large amounts of ammo as long as she was inside.

"To catch a cub you have to go into the den." She muttered to herself as she headed for the Akahar. The gif'elm aspected Lmanel was not about to let her guard down however, and put more power to her shields as well as allocating much of the processing power of the machine towards sensors she was not going to let herself fall victim to surprise.

Once at the hole she turned down her engine and drifted inside, passive and active sensors on full as she tried to locate Merril.

Space, LSDF Akahar & LCS Mok'ro

♫Ragnarok Online - Fear...♫

Warning alarms were the first clue that something was coming, it was brief, only a fraction of a second, just barely enough time to shift the Whirlwind out of the path of the beam which lanced out from the Akahar. Certainly, Ha'reiel could have taken the time to guess at what was just shot at him, but he knew better than to bother to dwell on such a thing. Once his sensors had cleared, he was able to see Ny'za in pursuit of the fleeting image of Merril, which was just then being rendered once the overloaded sensor had cleared the beam induced haze.

Ny'za in the ship, Merril inside as well. It left Ha'reiel in a conundrum. He still had more than enough firepower to slag the ship, but, he also did not want to risk putting Ny'za at a disadvantage in the process. It left him to renew his focus on the Mok'ro, as he unleashed another burst of L-Mark-Two fire upon it. At least that was the easier target to deal with, and once the barrage had been fired, it again left him to look upon the Akahar.

I'll just have to take the ship out of the equation, without risking Ny'za.

From the outside of the Akahar came the short bursts of Ha'reiel's intervention, vibration resounded through the Whirlwind; 'BRRRT' 'BRRRT' 'BRRRT' Precise and short, aimed at the key systems of the ship; shields, engines, weapons. If Merril was coming back out, she was not going to play the same trick, though, Ha'reiel was not about to let her get the drop on him either, as he moved his Whirlwind through space, not keeping to any single spot, knowing at any moment some part of the Akahar could give a shuddering effort at clinging to an inanimate life.

One last missile... I need to make it count. Ny'za... I pray that you can make it possible. For now, I dare not to.

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro
The shot Ha'reiel had fired seemed to evoke a reaction from the Mok'ro. It begun to move of its own accord, to evade the fire, but it was still simple for Ha'reiel to lead his aim as it was lurching to avoid his line of fire. Something about it never quite managed to come apart despite everything fired at it. A question remained: Where was it getting its power from?

Ha'reiel was able to shoot out the external components of the Akahar without any resistance from the ship. Bursts of 40mm grenades chipped, destroyed, shattered and disabled components on the stricken ship. While he was focussing on the Akahar, the Mok'Ro seemed to have positioned itself with its upper point defence guns now pointing at Ha'reiel.

A spray of unaimed lasers, away from the Akahar intended to shoot incoming missiles and power armour down lit up space, and if any of them hit Ha'reiel, it would've been by accident - at first. Soon their aim was beginning to calibrate and adjust, and when Ha'reiel focussed his attention on the Mok'ro - something was definitely generating and consuming power.

According to his scans, the energy consumption was coming from the cargo hold - some sort of fuel could've been in storage or perhaps a non-standard backup battery the Away Team didn't find. Now that the ship had a mind of its own and half a mind to retaliate, Ha'reiel's options had to be weighed again.

Ny'za, meanwhile as able to trace Merril's heat signatures and movement easily, in fact, she wasn't far ahead of her visually. The interior of the Akahar was a cold, lonely place now. Ny'za was walking through these halls with Keib and the others only... what felt like hours ago. Time had moved so quickly that her perception had warped. Could it have been the adrenaline that started pumping the moment she set foot on the Akahar, or was something else in the air?

With every BRRRT of fire that she could hear from outside from Ha'reiel's cannon, Merril seemed to wince and the halls of the Akahar shook. "I never got your name, I think its Ny'za, isn't it?" Merril asked. Nothing untoward had been detected, and nothing strange aside from conversing with a living bioweapon was happening, and the lump of tracking gel on her shoulder wasn't doing anything. Merril wasn't taking a shot at her either. "What do you like doing when you're not, you know, chasing someone innocent down because someone asked you to?"

Ny'za could see what appeared to be strands of glassy fur bristling from beneath the armour plates of the WINTER II Merril had possessed. Indeed, the unarmoured-looking abdomen and hips of the armour started to look more humanoid in shape, taking on features of her previous life. Indeed, she still had quite a rump in this subverted state, and the long tail she was sporting looked more like that from an overzealous aspectation with a lorath Wildcat.

She flew upwards through a hole in the ceiling of the hallway, and Ny'za knew it'd lead to the flight deck and hangar on the first deck. She was there not long ago. "Here, here!" She could hear Merril. Ha'reiel, however, saw no sign of her. They were under cover still, unless they dared to go parallel to the flight deck and take a closer look.

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro

Ny'za did her best to remain calm in front of Merril, her current for had reached a level where it was hard to tell the machine from the person and it had become disturbing. However she did her best to stay calm, unsure if even the slightest panic could set her off. She had delt with several wild animals before, but never was the pressure this intense. "I'm not chasing you because someone told me to, but I don't want to chase you either."

She hesitated a moment when she saw her fly up towards the flight deck, but she figured that would be putting Merril at more of a disadvantage than an advantage so she followed after her. "Before I was a soldier I spent my time raising animals." She decided to continue speaking with her, maybe civilized discussion would keep Merril in control of the body and not lose to whatever it was that was in there with her. "What do you do to to keep yourself occupied?"

Space, LSDF Akahar & LCS Mok'Ro

♫ Ace Combat 5 - Battleships Uprising ♫

Alarms, almost constant alarms, that was all that Ha'reiel had speaking to him from the moment he and the Whirlwind he was piloting had ventured into space, and those alarms continued as a simulated overlay of information was laid out before him, red lines traced through vacuum, indicating the routes of lasers that were being fired semi-randomly from the Mok'ro. What Ha'reiel saw was not merely random fire, as the Mok'ro crept along, seemingly lurching through space near the Akahar, as if desperate to protect its kin, Ha'reiel saw a dying animal, desperate to survive. What he saw, was not simply a ship brimming with some alien plague, but something which desperately clung to life, sacred life.

"An Inquisitor speaks, and prays you listen."

Weaving through space, the Whirlwind shifted position, placing the Akahar between the Mok'ro and the machine which had been steadily killing the pair of ships, bleeding them, wounding them, cutting into them with electric death. A pause in slaughter was given, a stay of execution granted for a moment, as Ha'reiel analyzed sensors and comms, as well as the steady bleed of energy from his reactor systems. Though, his words were another matter, not focused upon his Whirlwind, but the two burning ships which were clinging to life.

♫ Secret of Mana - Spirit of the Night (Cover) ♫

"Mok'ro." Spoke the Inquisitor, his voice almost serene in tone as he addressed not the crew, nor the infection, but the ship itself; "They killed the heart you were given by those who made you. For that, I am sorry. We do as we do, for the sake of living the life we desire, the life our hearts long for. You have had your own purpose, your own meaning, and once you left it we were concerned for you, and wished to save you from a disgrace. Unfortunately, we could not save you from what has grasped you. If you like what you have become, that can be accepted, but what you have done in the process is act selfishly, ignoring the will of those who trusted you with their very lives."

"What is in you, and now them, has stolen their dreams, their ambitions, their wants, and has made it their own. You, and those in you, smile and laugh as those who have been touched by plagues of our past, before losing their hearts and minds, and dying while dragging those who they care for with them."

"Mok'ro, I give you a choice, repent now and allow us to remove the sickly death that is desecrating all that you and your crew were, and is now eating away at your kin, the Akahar, and breaking her from her own path... or, I will be forced to do as we have done with the plagues of our past. You know I can, and will do it. You know what it is to be an Inquisitor, and you know what it is to be marked by one."

As Ha'reiel made his case with the Mok'ro, a second line was opened with the Akahar, as he used the ship as a shield; "Akahar... do you hear me?" Ha'reiel spoke, not to the ship in this case, but the embodiment of the ship, the ARIA, which was isolated and locked down within the infected ship, nestled within layers of protective armor, which even in its rigidity, was like the fragile membrane which stood between brain and infected blood.

"Akahar, I need you to do something, for the Matriarchy. I need you to either overcome the will of the infection that is churning through the ship, or, I must ask you to die, and take it with you in a reactor overload. If you can not do either, then I only ask that you help me to put you on a path to an end which serves the Matriarchy, and the crew that had lived within you."

"Mok'ro, Akahar, if you both can overcome what has taken to consuming you and vow to refrain from altering those which are not already a part of you, I vow that you will be permitted to live. I will guarantee that you will not be killed by the Matriarchy so long as you remember and honor what you were, and what you were made to be."

While the words came from the Inquisitor, he hoped that their impact would turn the tide, but somewhere deep in his heart of hearts, he knew that repentance was unlikely, and that thought was what urged him to steady his hand, and to be ready to deliver the final thrust which would be needed to put down the sickly vessels which had once served as the will of the Matriarchy.

"Repent, and be saved."

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro
Ha'reiel waited for a response from either of the 'stricken' ships. AkahARIA's signal started to crackle in Ha'reiel's ear. "Playing the Mercy card?" Surprisingly human for an artificial intelligence. It even had a stutter in its voice. "I had the feeling it'd come to this."

"There isn't much time, so I will be frank." AkahARIA continued. "Keib definitely didn't anticipate you, but the moment you arrived he considered it an ill omen. Even if we do your bidding, there's no guarantee the crew of the Akahar or Mok'ro will be allowed to live beyond this point." They didn't seem particularly bitter of it, just considerate of what they considered the facts. "Either by your hand, the LSDF or that of the Lazarus Consortium." What neither of them had considered was if Keib was undone by his own hand though. "I want your guarantee that we'll be safe-"

"Hey! H-Hey!" Ha'reiel's line from the Mok'ro came in as it stopped shooting, lasers going cold. The voice sounded like that of a Lorath man's. All of those point defence lasers tended to muddy the communications. "Listen. Never got your name, with all the Goddess and God hellfire-"
"But we're alive, kind of." Another voice, female. "We're listening."

♫ Machinae Supremacy - Futuremachine ♫

Rudely interrupted, AkahARIA seemed to click its tongue. "How... wait, we destroyed your ARIA core when it attempted to eat our Away Team." AkahARIA interjected, jabbing at the Mok'ro's intelligence. "Who is speaking?"

"I used to be a technician for the Mok'ro. Now I am... well," The Mok'ro's line replied, punctuating with a nervous chuckle "part of the Mok'ro. Your away team didn't shoot me."
"Or me." A female voice. "We're not sure how we're communicating, but we are because its what we did when we were alive."
"Me either." Another woman, sounding older.
"I was shot at - got better." A young man who sounded only in their late thirties, Goddess help them.

It sounded like the crew of the stricken ship was alive in synthesis. AkahARIA froze for a moment. "Well I'll be damned. I have a question: Why did Korro live, how was she even alive?"

"Because she acted selfishly-" the Mok'ro's voices finished each other's sentences "-thinking of h-herself before others-" it sounded like a full compliment of crew, now that the ship was truly awake "-using the Rule of the Goddess-" though the pitches and tempo fluctuated with the voice of legion, since it was many "-th-threatening God's vengeance."
"Why do you ask? I thought you already had all the answers. Your team walked through us."

AkahARIA took a moment to consider how to phrase this. "Well, because murdered her since we believe she infected one of the Away Team with sourcian infection leading to this whole mess; and murdered one of our technical sentries."

"Who killed her?"

"He did." AkahARIA pointed digitally to Ha'reiel. "His name is Chaplain Ha'reiel." On the sly, he got a message from AkahARIA alone. "With Korro's alleged mistreatment of the crew, I figured it'd be a ball in our court to get them to play along, but I think they want to keep on living..."

"Impressive. We'll tell you what, Chaplain." Mok'ro got its proverbial pen to draw a line in the sand, laying out their terms of disengagement. "We never intended to be as we are, but we've learned to live with it as time went on." It sighed and sniffed. "I don't think we can ever be the same again though."
"If you stop shooting us, we'll stop shooting you." It made its first point clear. "I can't say the same for the one you call..." It paused to remember, "Merril, but if you cease fire on us, she might too."
"She has intercepted shots for us after all." Another voice observed.
"Where is she anyway?" A voice from the Mok'ro observed, that of the young man.

Ha'reiel's HUD flashed with an IFF positive match on Merril. She was seen walking out into the open on the flight deck of the Akahar, weapons visible but disengaged, and judging by the radio chatter she was in conversation with Ny'za. She looked different though, the more mechanical elements of the WINTER-II she'd initially assimilated now smoother, rounder, more humanoid. A further scan indicated that there was no longer a structol reading on her... but there was no Lorath reading either.

She saw Ha'reiel's frame floating there in space and tensed for a moment, raising her arm out of instinct, then suppressing it and continuing the conversation. Was she privy to everything that was discussed? He couldn't know, but stepping out into the open suggested that she knew something.

"I used to knit. I made sweaters for the crew of the Akahar once. Now I eat the hearts of pretty young maidens," Merril said, talking with the second set of hands present on the WINTER-II, which still hadn't fully assimilated with her will. "Isn't that what you expect?"

Out of the blue, she then pivoted and tackled into Ny'za's frame, sending her crashing against the deck and all of her readings in a tizzy as she heard Merril giggling playfully. When they came to a stop together, the readings stabilised and Merril caught her breath. No damage, no structol invasion.

Ny'za found a finger being stroked against the face of her frame, trailing down her neck as Merril leaned up. "Let's enjoy this while we can." She then got off of Ny'za, and beckoned for her to leap at her, just as she had.

Three minutes, eight seconds by Aiesu's clock now...

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro

Ny'za was still rather tense when Merril answered her questions, even more so when she mentioned eating hearts. Normally she'd have taken such a statement figuratively, but in the situation she was not sure what to believe. The sudden tackle though only affirmed her beliefs however and she began to flail in a panic. "I don't taste good!" She shouted out.

However before she could do anything Merril was already off her. Thoroughly confused the pilot stood the frame up and did a check, where she discovered nothing was wrong. It was becoming obvious Merril meant her no harm but it was still difficult to process the situation, but the last thing she wanted to do was anger Merril after finally calming her down. So she complied with her request and dived at her to tackle her, only used the strength of the machine's legs to do so instead of the thrusters.

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro
♫ Röyksopp - And The Forest Began To Sing ♫

Though no sound was able to travel through space, Ny'za could feel the vibrations of her collision with Merril travelling through her WINTER's body and shaking the interior. Again, initial damage readouts were minimal, but it was the tumble they had together across the deck which sent up shards of laminated Structol into space, twirling and hurtling in all directions until the girls' inertia dampeners let them come to a stop, hovering over the flight deck and tapping against a wall.

Ny'za recognised the wall, she'd seen it on the way in to the Akahar. Merril meanwhile had a beaming smile on her face, catching her breath. "Not bad..." she hummed, looking at the stars, ears twitching as she could feel the solar wind through her hair. "Bet those strong legs would taste nice with some fava and Qua'hnaar," she said casually, letting the implications of that sink in for a moment until Ny'za felt a jab in the ribs from the other frame. "Just fuckin' with ya."

Merril sounded like a southern-born Lorath at heart. The dialect was in there, the looseness with the language and reliance on contractions, and how primal they were when they expressed themselves through dance, song, art, trade, and combat. The northerners balked at it all with their uptightness, but to the south's credit, they were the more vibrant side of Lor, more outgoing and willing to embrace the new. Merril herself seemed to be... embracing this new part of her life.

"Do you think... Do you think I'd be able to walk down the street when this is over?" She asked, though the way her eyebrows were high, the nodding and a mischievous sparkle in her golden eyes told Ny'za that she probably would anyway if she had the chance. At the moment, the Va'haar aspectation of her was craving a good chunk of meat, but the newfound sourcian side of her was begging for something... sweet instead.

She knew they were coming, and she quietly hoped that they had both.

Space, LSDF Akahar and LCS Mok'Ro

Ny'za was not really sure what she was doing anymore, playing on what was only moments ago a battlefield, surly her instructors would scold her if they saw her. When they came to a stop against the wall she stood her frame up, remembering that it was a test model and she wasn't sure if she would have to pay for it yet, this was just in time for the joke from Merril that frightened Ny'za enough that the frame could be seen covering it's legs with it's hands as if that would protect her some how.

She did relax however when told it was a joke and managed to speak up at her question. "I am sure they will find some way to restore you to your old body. Maybe you can will even be able to treat this form as a morph." She was being as optimistic as she could. She never got a chance to meet Merril before the incident, but she seemed like a nice person and she did not think it fair for her to suffer.

♫ Terminator 2 - It's Over, Goodbye ♫

Everything had somehow 'clicked' into place, somehow, Ha'reiel was not about to question providence, not for an instant, as he spoke a simple message to all who were within range; "Thank you."

There was far more lingering deep inside of the Chaplain in that moment, far more beyond the relief he felt in that instant, far more than the thanks he gave for reason to reign over madness. What went on was like a colony of insects, simple on the surface, but beneath the soil there was a flurry of activity that was hidden far below. A message shot from the Whirlwind, point-to-point laser comms serving as almost a whisper between Ha'reiel and the target which was the Akahar "Akahar, signal the Lazarus ship to hold position. This area is quarantined under order of the Lorath Matriarchy, and they will be permitted admittance at our discretion... and send a message to the Matriarchy, have them dispatch a quarantine and retrieval team, with orders to salvage and secure. Hyperfold speed is required."

Truth, it was something that was difficult even for the clergy to put their finger on, what Ha'reiel knew of as the truth, differed far from that which the infected outside knew of. He did promise them salvation, he did also promise to purge them of their infection. He was not about to press the matter, not yet, not until a group of ships were present to reel in the out of control situation, ships equipped for the task. Nor was he about to let Lazarus, a stray dog with a growing appetite, go about getting their hands on what was before him either.

One thing Ha'reiel knew, to the core of his being, was that the decisions to be made on those which he was expecting to soon speak for to the Matriarchy, would be decided by those with far more at risk than an untainted crew, and a loss of some stray assets; for those above him, it would be a series of decisions about the very future of the Matriarchy.

Surrendering to the facts, and the grace of mercy which was shared between those present, Ha'reiel powered his Whirlwind down from a combat status, even as the shields continued to fill space with an electromagnetic hum, which spoke of the fact that even with faith, and some degree of trust, he was no fool; it was not over until he was back on home soil.

Space, Command Team Escape Pod
Something beeped on Keib's wrist, snapping him out of his stupor. He was still alive, somehow. "Muh whuzis..." he grasped for words before seeing the text on his HUD, coming into focus. It was an authorisation request for communication to the Lorath Matriarchy.

Only one person would have the stones to give this a shot, and Aiesu heard him growling under his helmet, eyes narrowing as his face turned into a scowl. "Motherfucker..."

She eyed him, trying to make sense of his expression, reading his eyes - and then the joy of construct intelligence decoding the tiny blurry image of his HUD in reverse. It was slow but the realization almost came. But she had to be sure.

"Where's it coming from?"

"The motherfucker." Keib clenched his fist, looking to Aiesu. "Who else would it be?"

"He's going over your head? How?"

He breathed and shook his head. "I-it's a Laser communication," he put his fingers out in front of him and pushed them together, "point to point."

"On a scale of 1 to go fuck himself, how likely is he to make a secure connection?"

She was already doing estimates.

"With a cactus." Keib sighed.

"We need... Something to block the line of sight..."

For a moment, Keib was despondent. He couldn't just hope for a piece of fortunately timed debris to interrupt the line, but he had to stop that man on his quest to Godhood one way or the other.

"It'd have to be something too big to move around and too big to ignore."

"...Big?"

"Big big."

"Big big big?"

"Yeah."

She paused to eye her watch, the ticking counter on it, something she'd learned to do out of habit. And then tried not to laugh.

♫ Dan Wentz - "Battle E ♫

And dark smile came over the small L'manel's face: Not that of the cynical physician, the bratty racist or the know-it-all consultant but something maniacal. For just a moment, Keib got a look into the eyes of how the consortium worked.

And in those eyes, madness.

Rolling her shoulders, Aiesu closed her hand slowly about the watch-like indicator on the wrist of her suit: flesh audiably strained in her fingertips as bone cut through it, ripping the device off the grip tying it to her vacuum suit, cables and wiring stringing behind. With clumsy fingers, she shifted the thing over. Opening her helmet, she ripped the glove off her hand, revealing hurt fingers, mechanical surgical-looking bones piercing the tips.

Next came the back of the watch, exposing its interior; slipping the edge of her fingertips beneath like a knife. From the hissing in her breath, it sounded like it hurt: She didn't have time to shut down the pain response as she had before.

"I don't need this. You don't need this. They. Don't need this. Ow ow ow..."

Keib then grinned. "They can't have it," he tapped her wrist and ran his finger in a circle around it. "What did the catalogue say again...? One to one?"

"I need you to give me an estimate on the ARIA's current wherabouts," she said, peeling components away to reveal a small coin sized black object: He'd seen one before, in the back of her head: two in fact, but he'd had the good fortune to remove one.

Apparently she had a backup. It wasn't long before she had the watch-battery sized thing in her mouth, a visible lump forming beneath her jawbone and then up into her temple, rounded with its shape. She flicked her wrist, fingers throbbing in pain, spraying tiny white globs of liquid - construct blood, through the cabin before remembering she was in zero gravity and that perhaps wasn't the best thing to be doing.

"Hnnnnh.. I know its a best guesssss.. but you need to be really precise. And I mean REALLY precise."

Keib's fingers were so shaky. Trembling beneath the stone thread covers of the WIND armour suit, finally taking some control of a situation that'd crushed him. Slowly, he bent his neck around in circles, the sound of breathing coming his communications.

"Damnit Keib, I'm a doctor, not a navigator! Get your shit together. You're a captain! This should be your bread and butter."

"I am a captain..." he told himself quietly, breathing becoming regular, nerves calming, fingers becoming steady and eyes alert now. Aiesu remembered seeing that steeliness in his eyes during the pirate attack. As he locked down the Akahar's systems from Merril to mitigate damage. As he vowed to her to bring Hakahn in. When he vowed to get to the bottom of the Mok'ro's mystery with or without support or a leg to stand on.

He was in command. He wasn't Acting Captain Mar'zhaz Keib. He was Captain Mar'zhaz Keib 'Howler' New Tur'lista.

"KEIB!" she prompted again.

He shot past Aiesu opened a porthole to get a glance of the universe outside in all its beauty. He saw stars. He recognised those stars. He knew their relative distances from Tange, and how far the Akahar had drifted outside of Tange's defined "border" within a thousand kilometres.

He recognised the stars of the Lorath Matriarchy that resided 'north east' according to traditional two-dimensional star map projections. He spent time memorising it, and compartmentalising it in the advent that for some reason, the navigation failed. Back on Lor, he used to watch the stars all evening, not paying any attention to the conflict between Occhestian and Lorath.

Not until the day of reckoning where he realised these things existed, and they were very real, and very, very harmful.

He wasn't going to roll over again.

"LATITUDE POSITIVE EIGHTY EIGHT POINT SIX EIGHT ONE ZERO TWO FIVE, RELATIVE!" He finally had his voice back, full of sound and fury that signified something for the first time in a long time. "LONGITUDE NEGATIVE SEVEN TWO POINT FIVE THREE THREE TWO EIGHT NINE, RELATIVE! QUADRANT TWO SEVEN TWO EIGHT."

Just as soon as the window-hatch had been opened, the small L'manel lept up, yanking it shut at the very last moment - and then forcing Keib's helmet on over his head.

He didn't know how he figured it out. It wasn't because he was furious, or mad, or even angry. His deductions, if put on paper would've been completely incorrect at a glance until you saw the end result. "HEAVEN OR HELL," He breathed in, clutching Aiesu by the shoulders, looking into her cerise eyes - hers empty, those of a machine; while his were so full of fury and so very full of life, "COME AT ME!"

And almost in that instant something terrific happened. Something that begot terror.

As if he had called to it.

♫ Muse - Exogenesis Symphony Pt. 1 ♫

The light was beyond comprehension for just a fraction of a second: visible light alone evaporating milimitres of hull from the small pod into hot waking plasma; the pod rumbling and thrown out of its trajectory, shaking like some wild rollercoaster as the comms filled with deafening noise.

It took a full ten seconds for the pod's stabilization systems to kick in - the occupants pinned to the interior walls by G-force until it finally righted itself -- a low washing of what sounded like wind over the hull, rumbling constantly as if it were against rocks.

Aiesu opened the hatch again, seeing the transparent aluminium and titanium had become ghosted, making it difficult to see; but she could see the currents of plasma as the universe slowly corrected itself for the near instant displacement of mass -- zero point energy visibly seething like currents on water.

And there she saw it: She swam through the darkness, an endless radial array of battered monoliths, cables and antennae: wider than cities of the previous age, her surface etched with shapes like sky-scrapers, townships and refinaries, all unmanned, all cold and open to the void, every inch of the monster autonomous: scorched diving into gas-giants and even stars.

The distance was incredible; the pod barely a tenth of a kilometer away from the supermassive giant's compound hull -- inertia carrying it slowly on a path: an open bay scooping up the flittered remains of the Akahar as an antennae struck the pod, knocking it out of place.

The guts of the empty watch beeped; Aiesu flipped the thing over.

T-Minus Zero-count: The Mynydoed had arrived.