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

LSDF Akahar, Deck 4, Utilities Team

Pitch stumbled a bit after her landing ending up behind the two, and pointed her sword at them along with Glacier. She did understand what they were saying in Ly'thir and realized they were having trouble, being in a panic form having a weapon pointed at you would do that. So as she moved to help put the fires out on the automata she spoke up in trade much like Glacier. "Who asked you to..molest us?" WEll there was one difference between her and Glacier, she had a bit of a problem with confusing trade words with similar meanings.

LSDF Akahar, Deck 4, Utilities Team

Jiji slowly sat up from where she was and rubbed her back, she was not used to doing such things and as such it had hurt her a little to do so. She groans a bit before looking towards the one talking to her and then without hesitation moved over to Bes'linn and once there, she moved to help her up. She looked through her pack for a moment and pulled out some morphine for the woman and injected it into one of her veins so that it would take effect quicker. She helped the woman up and tapped her communicator and responded to Keib. "Utilities Team...reporting in...we're fine for now..." She shook her head a bit and looked at Bes'linn. "How do you soldiers do it..." She muttered lightly.

LSDF Akahar, Deck 4, Utilities Team
The two Freespacers did not resist or put up any sort of fight, now face to face with a pair of armoured units. They looked up at the one with the stumble and a sword in hand - quietly contemplating if such a mix was terribly safe - and heard the first words that made sense to them. They looked at each other incredulously, but their admittedly archaic and cryptic way of talking was getting in the way of a message. "We were commissioned and promised and-and..."

"Shut up..." Bes'linn growled to the Freespacer as she accepted the morphine and jammed it into the ejection port. "Just a sec..."

The injection that Bes'linn received sent a ripple down her spine, but alleviated the stinging pain of the crude shrapnel she'd been hit by. Her system received the morphine quickly and she inched upwards towards the wall. "Bes'linn reporting in. All's well. We have two of the Freespacers here." She shuffled against the wall next to JiJi and kept a grip on her rifle.

On the other side of the line, Keib was happy to hear people reporting in.

"Alright, spit it out for the captain," Bes'linn replied in Trade, with a microphone on her suit activated and recording, streaming back to the Command and Medical team.

"...and asked by the one called Korro, they they said."

"What, did, they, say?" Bes'linn asked in Trade, heavily accented but still workable. Did they even know that Korro was dead?

"They said in return for safe-ty from the Beast... kill the one called Keib and take the Akahar and..."

"What else?" Bes'linn pressed, peering from around a corner at the Freespacers from her position with JiJi, becoming increasingly impatient with their timbre and stilted language.

"Be One." The Ebon skinned Freespacer said in Ly'thir. One of the few words that they remembered.

Bes'linn snorted derisively and looked back at the wall across from her, fed up with talking to the Freespacers. She started talking back to JiJi in Ly'thir. "Can't get a straight answer out of them." Bes'linn put her head back and looked up at the ceiling. "They're so-" She then fell short of breath when she saw something lurking. "Oh God."

The Beast was there in the ceiling, peering down at them through a vent with predatory eyes, grinning and licking its lips. Bes'linn looked back at her hands, scrambled for her rifle and pointed it at the ceiling - but she was gone. "I saw her! I saw Merril!" Bes'linn explained, standing up and aiming at the grates in the ceiling, but the Beast was gone.

JiJi couldn't see anything when she looked up, though. Could it have been a side effect of injecting a little too much morphine, or stress?

The entrance to the Utilities room was before them. They could get to work at examining the systems that the Freespacers had gotten to, and hopefully reverse some of the damage. The only problem with it is that it was a dead end.

LSDF Akahar, 4th Floor, Command & Medical Team
Keib blinked at what came over the radio to his team, and some of Bes'linn's video feed, playing it back. "Fuck, not good," he swore off radio as he looked over to Gough and Al'ris. "Gough, go reinforce the Utilities team while they diagnose and reverse as much damage as they can."

"Yes Sir," Gough nodded as he started marching towards Utilities on double time. Keib, meanwhile reviewed the rest of the footage, and saw nothing through the vents that Bes'linn was looking at. No eyes, no claws, nothing out of the ordinary.

Keib wondered, but he had to think fast. The threat of Merril was still very real. "Rest of us, we'll move up and meet the Utilities Team at the stairs on the Port side and we sweep for other threats so we can keep heat off of the Utilities team. Otherwise, we draw it to us; we've got more than enough armament to make Merril hurt." Then the Plan C. "Worse to worse, we extract utilities and book it for the Escape pods and leave the bitch here."

"The Bitch?" Aiesu wondered out loud, sucking on her fanged teeth as she heard the name 'Beast' thrown around a few times. "Flattering... you really hate her now, don't you?"

Keib was the first to move out, but the others had to follow him. Al'ris was the first to take his side while Vithr and Aiesu moved up. Keib didn't humour Aiesu though.

Gough, meanwhile, met with JiJi and Bes'linn, nodding to them. "Come on, up you get. We have utilities to investigate."

"What do we do with the Spacers?" Bes'linn asked.

Gough was now left to his individual judgement. "Take them with you. If they do anything funny, kill them. If they play along, leave them behind to be ... One, whatever that means. I'll keep an eye on them while you guys fix shit. Can't be bothered, knock them out."

"Very good." Bes'linn said, standing up and pulling JiJi up with her. "You heard Gough."

Jiji seemed to relax when Bes'linn took over, and began doing what she was good at. She listened to the going on's quietly but then immediately grabbed her rifle when she heard Bes'linn began panicking. She looked around desperately when she had gotten her rifle. She was unable to see anything and closed her eyes a bit and then opened it for a moment, unable to have seen Merril, she looked up at Bes'linn before taking a breath, she wasn't going to call her crazy. "I think we should get to Utilities...If there is something in the vents I might be able to kill it by sealing the vents and super heating them." She says quietly, of course to do that she'd have to survive, and it might be a little uncomfortable for a majority of the people on the ship.

She gets pulled up by Bes'linn, nodding towards Gough, and fixes her rifle checking her Ammo, her cute little wolfy ears twitching a bit as she sighed a bit. "I apologize for having been a hindrance in that fight, I shall do my best to ensure that I am not a hindrance later." With that she heads towards Utilities.

LSDF Akahar, Deck 4, Utilities Team

Seeing Bes'linn quickly take control of the conversation, Pitch put away her searing blade and readied her Silva once more to and started to look around down halls to make sure that nothing was approaching. She could hear the conversation over the communication line and while it was convenient it bothered her, she was pretty sure they were told to stick to laser, but Bes'linn had more experience overall and with the captain than she did, so Pitch figured she knew better than her.

Hearing Bes'linn shout, Pitch quickly came rushing back to investigate what was going on. She did not see any monsters around, just the rest of the team, but she did not let her guard down, staying fully alert now as she looked at every vent she could see, pointing the weapon that way and hoping nothing came out that she would have to shoot at. While she was doing this Gough arrived to reinforce the team which took some of the stress away from Ny'za, who by now was as jumpy as a Neko that was digesting caffeine for the first time without filtering it.

Hearing his suggestion she walked over to the two Freespacers and gave them a look that was trying to be intimidating, but with her glasses and facial features she looked like a librarian that was trying to sternly tell someone to be quiet. After a moment of searching for the words in trade she wanted she spoke up to them. "Play nice and follow us. If you don't we will have to violate you." She made a gesture to her Silva, trying to tell them she would hit them with it, but she was not aware of her poor choice of words to try to describe the act of hitting someone with a gun, and that she had implied something arguably much worse would be done.

LSDF Akahar, Deck 4, Utilities Team

With the situation regarding the Freespacers out of his hands, Glacier sheathed his Searing Blade and checked over his Ek'yra before inspecting his stowed Silva to ensure the microwave weapon hadn't suffered any disabling damage as a result of the brief engagement. As he did so Glacier once again fell into a sentry position ensuring that he could keep watch while the rest of the team went about their assigned tasks.

Hopefully Bright and Bes'linn would manage to finish up their tasks in Utilities allowing them to reunite with the rest of their party and continue their relatively expeditious egress from the Akahar and hopefully into a relatively safe situation. As the present state of things left Glacier with little optimism he was greatly hoping that he would be proven wrong and that the scenario would resolve itself neatly.

LSDF Akahar, 4th Floor, Command & Medical Team

Aran'ya observed the communication from the other team, relieved that no one was reporting in with any serious injuries from the scuffle with the Freespacers. She was also a bit vindicated as it appeared Bes'linn had caught a glimpse of the Beast that was formerly their comrade lurking. And yet, somehow noone could truley catch it on direct video for some reason, making Merril's lingering presence even more terrorizing to the remaining crew unsure of who or what her true target was. If she was anything like the animal bond from her past now, this was very likely all intentional and part of her 'hunt'. The Medic would have to take great pains to not let her get the scent of weakness or fear from them, as it would only embolden the Beast further...

Making sure her medical bag was ready to go in case things deteriorated, the one called Widow nodded quietly in acknowledgement to Keib's orders and moved forward carefully around the scene of the battle with the zombie armor, double checking it once more in passing and with a glance at the hulking Harariel. She idly wondered how this situation was affecting him psychologically, but his shield of unwavering faith and years of battle experience seemed to be holding up well, at least on the outside. She kind of envied that about him at times, as religion for her seemed a sword that had cut both ways in her shorter life.

Aran'ya proceeded apace covering the vulnerable personnel that trailed the Captain as she could, checking every doorway as the team passed it and the Silva's display, too, for hostiles now that she was more familiar with the weapon. Her eyes behind the WIND suit's hood shifted colors now and then as she adapted them easily to the low-light environment, spider-like senses keenly sensitive of changes in the pattern of shadows to indicate a hiding foe about to spring a trap. She knew all these small, easy skirmishes with isolated resistance were building to something bigger, and it likely wouldn't be long before their larger quarry manifested herself when they were at their most vulnerable.

LSDF Akahar, 4th Floor, Utilities Team
The LSDF Akahar's Utilities Management Room was the province of Bes'linn and her engineering staff. Their job, if summoned to Utilities was to inspect the systems of the ship that included atmosphere regulation, air conditioning, heating, waste management and disposal, data system relay and power management. It was a series of rooms adjacent to Engineering, which was completely locked down and safe thanks to Keib and Bes'linn's earlier excursion as Merril busted out.

The Away team could see that Engineering hadn't come to harm at all - so why did the Freespacers break into Utilities? More importantly, what was the damage looking like? The first thing that stood out to them was something that was half built into one of the main data cables. An old computer with a monochrome green display that looked like it belonged in a museum, thrown together by the Pratimas, now attached to the main data connections.

What was it monitoring, injecting or doing, though? The two Freespacers Pitch ordered to follow slowly complied, but they were still bleeding and injured. "JiJi, investigate that terminal, gather whatever you can." She then turned her attention to the two Freespacers, head held high in a sneer. "Anything else I should know about?"

The Freespacers remained quiet for now, wanting to see what JiJi did to their computer. The keys on the analogue keyboard were in glyphs she didn't understand directly, but knew were part of the Trade alphabet.

Gough and Glacier were keeping watch, meanwhile. "So. Glacier," Gough asked as he watched the way down towards Engineering. "How's the party?" He was trying to be jovial as he could, trying to lighten the darkened mood of the quiet soldier. From what Gough had seen of them in passing, they were unusually quiet and reserved.


LSDF Akahar, 4th Floor, Command and Medical Team
Keib and company were able to lurk through the ship as the Captain and Ha'reiel were taking point with Al'ris, leap-frogging each other's movements to ensure that they were always covered. Aran'ya could note that the way Keib was able to move with the more hardened soldiers of the team without a problem was letting slip that there was more to him - which was exactly why Ha'reiel was monitoring him.

"A glimpse of the beast, goddamn, that's bad news." Keib chattered quietly over the radio. "At least we know she's on this floor."

"How do you think she got into the vents?" Al'ris asked.

"Freespacers did it via Utilities is my best guess." He replied. "Maybe not Null Null, but I think Korro won the Pratimas over with something, or they're working for Hakahn. Either possibility or both at once is equally unpleasant."

"Hey Keib," Al'ris asked.
"Mm?" He replied.
"What was that they were talking about with 'Be One'?"
"Hrm. Sounds hokey as fuck to me." Keib shrugged, briefly lapsing into Trade as he pointed his Silva around a corner to make sure Ha'reiel's back was covered while Al'ris was looking ahead. "Like something in a religious science fiction book."

"Let's not get allegorical here..." Vithr sighed as he looked at his patient from under the privacy covers draped over their containment unit, and winced. "Yar'mak's not doing so hot. Still got time, but we need to hurry."

LSDF Akahar, 4th Deck, Command and Medical Team

"Freespacers, they function as a polysentience, they are one in many, many in one." Ha'reiel explained, as he moved with the group, unshaken by the events as they unfolded. It was an expected series of possibilities, things he had well in mind from the very first moment that they began their egress from the Akahar. "They may be extending that to becoming one not only in their polysentience, but also through whatever infection is spreading..." Ha'reiel mused, before coming to the next thought; "Perhaps though, they were being warned of their eventual fate, even if they did comply." He spoke with a somber certainty to that thought.

A contemplative sigh left Ha'reiel, as he weighed the options on hand as they progressed further along their path, which was the point of his contemplation. "I have a concern." Ha'reiel voiced, privately to Keib through their communication link; "Any escape route we take is predictable by our opposition, any evasion attempt we make would be easily foiled due to the fact that this ship is compromised as a whole, even if we kill the infected, the ship would still need to be purged. I think, we have moved past the point of finesse, and may be in the realm of decisive direct action."

Mulling the situation further, before speaking anything he would later regret, Ha'reiel thought on their location within the ship, and the options they had as the situation existed at that time. "We have a threat on the outside that wants in, we have a threat on the inside that wants us and all around us. We can not wage a defensive operation, because the very ground we are trying to hold is untenable. I strongly recommend we hurt our foe, we make this ship an unappealing target, and provide a sufficient distraction to serve as a backdrop for a drastic change in strategy."

"We can enter engineering, and overload the power relays, turning every power conduit in this ship into slag, and scorch the interior of the ship. Wind suits are rated at 1953 kelvin for extended exposures, short term, assuming we move quickly, perhaps we could manage to push the limit, we would need an engineer to chime in on the specifics though. However, the idea remains... we cook everyone and everything in the ship, we blow out the more sensitive systems and anything that the traitor-dog would want if he were to get back on-board. We can then make our escape by breaching the vehicle lift shaft, and ascend to the launch bay, where we could all manage to get out in small craft." Ha'reiel spoke, mulling the concept all the harder. "We would need to have craft on deck though, a pair of Wayfarer would be ideal... what was last on deck before everything went to the way of the damned?"

As the seconds dragged on for the two teams, a new noise trickled into their speaker - one they could say for certain was external. For the Command team, it came from the halls and down the stairs. For the Utilities team, who were so far away, they could only detect the noise from the vents.

Those who had spent any amount of time on a ranch would recognize the sound instantly. A pained noise, something that could only come from a creature in damage and distress. The howl ended as it came - sudden and without warning.

It wasn't long before a new cry replaced it. It was lower, more throaty. Stacatto - choked. If a comparison were to be made, it'd be like the ghosts of the fallen had come back wreak havoc on the living. But, again, it ended after sooner than expected.

The howl returned to violate their earpieces, louder than before. And it broke. And it returned. Like the wind, it chose when to begin and stop with no pattern forged.

Droplets fell on Aran'ya's visor.

LSDF Akahar, 4th Deck, Command and Medical Team

Aran'ya was also a bit somber as she heard Ha'reiel and Keib exchange words over the strange idea of being made One with whatever had been let loose on the Akahar, and what it could really mean. "Maybe that would be an improvement then, at least for the 'Spacers," quipped she sarcastically, although considering the waify Null Null was following them around she decided to bite her tongue a little bit. A quick glance at the containment gurney as Vithr opened the covers to check on Yar'mak reminded her again that it was not something good for their health, and judging by the fact it was speeding up in corrupting his body meant that Merril -- whatever curse or moniker Keib wished to employ this time -- was also drawing nearer to them.

Of course that fact quickly became obvious as the hall soon echoed with animal-like sounds of fear and death, a series of primal howls and throaty gasps that could not be ignored. Was it the Beast scoring a kill, devouring prey, or just trying to intimidate them? The Medic tightened her grip on the Silva rifle in her hand, as the skin of her palms themselves became sweaty and seemed ready to shift into setules unconsciously if she needed to move quickly in unexpected ways.

Widow hadn't taken more than a few more steps forward when she suddenly felt the patter of something moist on the visor of her WIND suit, coming from somewhere above. She brought her left hand up to touch it with a finger reflexively and make out the coloration... was it blood? Saliva, perhaps? "Captain, there is something here..." cautioned the Lmanel to the leader. The next logical thing then occurred in her brain... it had dripped from the vents, the source of their uneasiness. The Medic slowly looked up towards the apparent source, her pessimistic nature expecting the worst...

LSDF Akahar, 4th Floor, Utilities Team

Ny'za was relieved that nothing came out from the vents or shadows to attack them. They had made it to Utilities with only the Freespacers interfering. Now that they were inside, she could relax a little, after all there was one more person to act as a guard with Gough's presence. Since she was not going to handle the strange terminal attached to the cable, and the otehr's were standing guard, she decided she would take care of Pratima's injuries.

Pitch made her way over to what she assumed was a first-aid station, opening it and discovering her assumptions correct she pulled out a first aid kit and moved back over to the female Pratima to begin treating her wounds, the last thing they needed was for her to bleed out and die on them. However it was not long before the calm was broken by a sound that Pitch could recognize, the cry of a beast in distress. The sound was far away and only coming through the vents, but it still struck fear into the pilot, there was only one beast on this ship and that was the former medic that had now undergone some sort of transformation.

LSDF Akahar, Command and Medical Team
The helmet of the armour Aran'ya was wearing slowly focussed on the gunk that'd splattered onto her visor and begun to analyse what it was, looking at the molecular structure from perhaps a little too close for the Medic's comfort. Knowing what it was but still having an unknown in the mix was of no comfort.

Keib was the first to hear Aran'ya's concern and looked up at the ceiling. Drips were still coming from it before stopping, the last of them falling onto the floor around Aran'ya before leaving the echo of the drips in everyone's ear. He stared into the ceiling, looking through the vents and shining a powrful light through it.

He thought he could see something and raised his Silva. "Heads down everyone, Aran'ya, move to one side," he cautioned as he flicked off the safety and aimed through the vent, then started discharging the Silva's microwave into the vent, lengthwise.

Sparks and crackles could be seen from the metal in the vent bulkheads, followed by erratic scampering and a screech that clamoured and clattered throughout the deck, slowly fading into the distance.

Keib realised something. "Oh, stone me. I think she's going for Utilities." Keib realised. "We're going to extract them and get on the next pod out and flood the halls with fire-" he made hasty agreements with Ha'reiel as he pointed towards the Utilities, following the helpful arrows on the wall. "We'll get the pilot to get one of the WINTER-IIs out from the storage on Deck 6 and get out to put extra holes in the ship should it act as well."


LSDF Akahar, Utilities Team
JiJi was on point for dealing with the terminal that'd been hooked up to the Akahar's datacables. Trade was a Lingua Franca for a lot of programming languages, so JiJi learned enough to examine programs written in Trade or Yamatai-Go, and got to work as best as she could to determine what the Freespacers had done.

The Freespacers themselves seemed to be surprised that Ny'za was treating them with first aid, looking after the wounds. They ran out of words to say, and instead watched Ny'za curiously as she bandaged and jellied up those gunshots and cuts. "Hey, you want to press the button with the apple on it for that," the Ebony skinned one called out to JiJi, watching from afar instead of watching Ny'za.

JiJi pressed the button with the apple on it and things started moving. A crude series of diagnostics appeared on the screen, and JiJi saw that they'd somehow programmed a utilities monitoring and modification program. The last logged command on it was to open all of the vents internally, happening half an hour ago.

Other things which were wrong with the ship could be bought under control. Getting the lights back on would've been nice instead of relying on the emergency lights, as well as nerve gas lockdowning anywhere sensitive. JiJi's wolf-like ears fluttered as she considered the possibilities.

Meanwhile, just outside, Gough could hear the scrambling and clamour in the vents. Gough tensed and tapped Glacier on the shoulder, alert and watching. Seemed like the conversation would have to wait until another day - or perhaps the escape pod, whichever came first.

Gough could hear her coming closer, watching the vent that was making the most noise. "Up there," he whispered as he raised his Silva.

The vent lead into the bulkhead and out of the hall, and the way whatever was in there was going, it'd go into the crawlspace beside the utilities room if they didn't fire on it right now.

LSDF Akahar, Deck 4, Utilities Team

Having been struggling to think of a reply to the question of 'How's the party?' that wouldn't have come off as hostile and biting Glacier was rather thankful when it seemed that they were being put in danger. Taking note of where Gough's attention was directed Glacier brought his own Silva up and tracked the sound moving through the vent before working to lead it a little bit. He didn't like the idea of what he had to do, however the safety of those who he was protecting for the moment outweighed the needs of their wayward Medic.

Whispering a quiet apology Glacier discharged the weapon before slowly sweeping it back toward the advancing noise in the vent hoping more so to discourage and push back the advancing form rather than outright kill. Hopefully it would turn them back, hopefully the confrontation wouldn't escalate.

LSDF Akahar, Command and Medical Team

Aran'ya froze for a second as the helmet readout displayed what had just made contact with her suit and her gloved hands -- it was tears and sweat of the Beast herself, and judging by the biochemical composition and excreted hormone levels it indicated she was under high-stress and continuing painful body modifications were likely occurring. The most worrying thing was the unknown substance, for this was very likely a portion of the infectious material that had now made direct contact with her WIND suit. Not good.

Keib didn't have to tell her to move out of the way of his Silva blast as it lit up the vent, for the Medic was already in swift motion to get out from under the droplet spray as quickly as possible, quite fearful of becoming more contaminated. Unlike some of the others, her biochemistry training gave her a very keen idea of just how dangerous it was. "Damnit, biohazard contact," growled Widow as she skittered to the side and gripped at the floor in a motion that was somewhat spiderlike, reaching into her Emergency Responder Kit for an antiseptic wipe or three to try to remove the contaminated fluids from the surface of her visor and other suit surfaces quickly and completely, before dropping it into one of the Lead-lined biohazard bags and sealing it tightly. The tears and sweat could be analyzed further if they survived, but right now she prayed her personal exposure had been within a safe amount -- though from what Aiesu said, there probably was no such thing. At the very least this suit was getting spaced as soon as it was prudent to do so.

Aran'ya made the data she collected available to the rest of the interlinked team as she composed herself, and they could sense her apprehension at what had occurred even as she tried to factually report on it. "That was definitely Merril. This fluid scan shows her body is probably still metamorphosing painfully from the infection and getting more unstable." The woman nodded to the Captain and did not oppose his agreement with the Chaplain to flood the ship with plasma to purge it. At this point it was possible that the former Medic of the Akahar was almost completely un-Lorath in physiology now, and she was still entirely unsure of how to save her (in fact, now Widow was more worried about saving herself after that encounter).

When he mentioned the idea to use a mecha for assistance in the escape, the Lmanel thankfully got distracted a bit and hastily followed the group with more urgency in her steps. "I have a feeling that shrinking violet Ny'za could be a monster in a WINTER-II... or at least, for our sakes, I hope so. Because sometimes to fight a Beast you need to become one." This last line betrayed a little bit of Aran'ya's pessimism about herself... they already lost one medical staffer to the infection, after all. Mars also succumbed to its madness in her bloodlust for Korro and Yar'mak was not much longer to be one of them as his vessels started having more in common with alien circuitry with each passing minute. Was she next?

LSDF Akahar, Utilities Team

Ny'za soon finished with bandaging and treating the Pratimas, she was not well versed in medical knowledge, so it was only basic first aid to prevent death, but she hoped it would be enough. After finishing with the bandaging she readied her Silva, after all sounds were coming from the vents so it was possible the beast could end up slipping past Glacier and Gough outside. No sooner than the readied herself for combat did she hear the sound of metal warping in an unnatural manner, accompanied by sparks. She wasn't sure who did it but she knew that was a sound that would only come from the fighting of the strange monster with these strange weapons.

"They're coming everyone, stay alert.." She spoke, trying the best she could to hide her own nervousness, after all she was combat personnel she couldn't show fear in front of technical staff or they wouldn't feel safe.

LSDF Akahar, Utilities Team
Gough and Glacier were combining their fire - they could see the metal of the bulkhead warping and sparking, almost threatening to melt as their microwave guns penetrated through it. They were unsure of whether what they were hitting was indeed, a hit. There was no visual feedback, just the sound of scrambling, screeching clawing through the vents that didn't sound as though it was stopping - scrambling beyond the sentinel's reaches.

Inside the Utilities room, Bes'linn had raised her own Silva towards the maintenance access hatch in the wall, off to the side, staying low as JiJi continued to unshackle and free the Akahar's systems via utilities. They mashed the key that had a picture of a fruit on it on the keyboard and things were underway. JiJi unwittingly discovered that there was a mail program that was left open as the ship's systems were green again. What she did with the message was her prerogative as Bes'linn watched the Maintenance Hatch start getting hammered open. Thump, thump, thump - she could see the fistmarks deforming the metal and weakening the joints of the hatch as Bes'linn continued to hammer more and more microwave energy into what was behind it.

"She isn't stopping!" Bes'linn growled as she started moving backwards, still hammering more microwave energy through the maintenance hatch - she'd unknowingly been weakening it, and started watching the whole assembly bulge and warp until the entire hatch came flying off and bodychecked Bes'linn, knocking her to the ground with her rifle pinned under the door.

And in the darkness of the Maintenance passage, there was savage, heavy breathing. Bes'linn grabbed her sidearm, a Stalwart Enforcer, and pointed it into the darkness.


LSDF Akahar, Command and Medical Team
Aran'ya's quick wipeaway of the contaminated fluids after analysis had proven to be the sensible course of action. At the very least, it'd buy her more time if it begun to spread.

Keib didn't see her wiping it away, but he heard her input. "Ny'za could definitely do a lot of damage in that thing, without a doubt. She could turn this ship into cheese." He replied. Just like the Mok'ro... Keib's paranoia and analysis were trickling in. One more corner, and Keib was face to face with Gough and Glacier.

The plan was explained as thus, this quickly: "Soldiers, get Ny'za, JiJi and Bes'linn out of there, we'll cover your escape, flash the room and we run!"

There was one problem - the entrance to Utilities was a bottleneck that Gough and Glacier were standing in - they'd have to be quick about it, and with Merril on the prowl nearby - possibly even right under their feet, time was at a premium. JiJi at the back of the room with the computer, Bes'linn with the maintenance hatch pinning her right side down, and Ny'za being the closest to the door. The Freespacers were optional collateral.

Al'ris was available to rush in and help them if they requested, standing behind Keib and aching for action. Keib and Ha'reiel were there to cover and coordinate, and possibly flash the room in Plasma as a parting gift. Layers of strategy and tactics coming together in a light speed sandwich.

JiJi noticed that there was the option to open the entire Utilities Door on her computer, and doing so would open the entire room up, removing the bottleneck. Though, it could hamper the flash-and-run...

This sandwich's layers could have the wrong ingredients if mishandled.

LSDF Akahar, Deck 4, Utilities Team

In motion almost before Keib explained the plan of action, Glacier sent a short message to Gough via the laser com directing them to support Bright and cover the Maintenance passage. For his own task Glacier moved forward to address the issue of the pinning door. With his own strength augmented both by the Wind suit and Gust package he didn't expect it to take long as he crouched to grasp the wayward hatch and began to lift with the intention of clearing it before grabbing and dragging Bes'linn from the room allowing them to continue to watch the Maintenance passage and provide whatever suppressing fire they could.

LSDF Akahar, Utilities Team
Gough sprinted into the room with Glacier and covered them and Ny'za, standing in front of them with the Silva rifle raised and aiming down into the dark maintenance passage. "Come on, go go go!" they yelled to the Utilities team as the door was lifted off of Bes'linn, the head engineer being dragged out of the room by Glacier. Bes'linn's Silva rifle was smashed by the impact of the maintenance hatch, but they still hung onto it.

LSDF Akahar, Utilities

Jiji was hard at work on the computer, she had almost forgotten to pay attention to her surroundings. She looked towards Bes'linn as the woman hammered the hatch with Microwave energy. Her eyes widened a bit and she held out her hand towards Bes'linn. "W-Wait don't that-!" Was all she could get out before the warped and battered hatch exploded forward and into Bes'linn pinning her down. She paused a moment at that, staring at the woman below the door. She would help her, but suddenly the worst sound imaginable hit her cute little wolf like ears. She slowly looked form the door on Bes'linn to the doorway itself. Jiji's heart began to go a million miles an hour, as she heard that savage breathing and growling of the thing that was attempting to kill them.

Her paralysis of fear was broken when she noticed Glacier and Gough moving in to help Bes'linn. She looked back to the computer, nervous, unwilling to die here or let her friends die. She had no clue what the other team was doing, nor did she really care to know. She wanted to somehow protect her team, but how... She looked at the command to open the entire utilities door. She bit her lip a bit as her black wings tittered a bit in fear. She closed her eyes and thought to herself; Please don't let this decision bring harm to my comrades...Wolf Mother watch over us... With that thought passing through her mind she began typing away on the computer and activating the command to open up the utilities door.