RP: SFS Chapter One: Alistair's Remorse

When all was said and done, the big body and the dogbrickwithlegsrobot (Otherwise known as Bricklet) left with the away team, with the latter having been disconnected from Phase's intenal network to be fully autonomous. After all, the enemy mentioned in the briefing had a potent hacker, it paid to take precautions. Besides, it was a great opportunity to see just how intelligent their pet was.

"What do you think of the likelihood that something will go terribly wrong?" They asked Killroyal from behind, "And. . . we just found, of all things, an Elf. I was not aware that they were still around."

~~~

Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, the inverted monoeye of Phase stared at the three captives. Mostly the bottled one.

"Ah, if we are considering letting them out, can we let out the Evil Machine into an airlock? I would much a~pre~ci~ate it, since they are so horrible," the large machine said. It pointed to the neko, making grabby motions with one hand while the lower pair affixed one of the weapons they picked up to it. "There is no point in letting something like that live to erase another species, you know."

Eir had spent a moment making sure the room with all of its exotic prizes was clear before taking the whole scene in. She had never actually seen a Neko face to face. She had heard stories, seen pictures, and been trained how to fight them. She had even made disparaging remarks about them with her fellow Marines, but it was odd seeing one in front of her. The doctor had decided to join them at that point. Eir shook her head slightly and had to mark her as a potential battlefield liability, but she would speak with the Commandant about that later and just deal with it for now.

It was then that the Marines and ‘Spacers seemed to think that it was their job to save these beings in the petting zoo. The fact they where face to face with a real troll and an equally real elf was wondrous. She doubted this was something she would ever see again in her life, but she refused to let it distract her from the matter at hand. They had a mission – and a dangerous one. It seemed that their IPG attachment agreed with her, which caused Eir to sour a bit on it, but there was no use denying good strategy.

Eir watched Alistair as he broke almost every protocol in the book by approaching the two exotic life forms and introducing himself, then further informing them that he would need access to the panel behind them. Eir made a mental point to have a talk with the young Marine about that later, but it did give her an idea of how they could continue their mission and still keep the hostages safe. A way to fix all the problems at once.

“She’s right,” Eir said after Linda had given her input. “They are actually safer here, behind bars, than running across the ship with us getting into potential firefights. We also need access to that panel, so we are going to do both. Cloudheart, Beep, cover Thorn. Thorn, we are going to get you to carefully open the cage and let the troll out and transfer him to another one of the cages for his own safety.” She paused for a second, the mono eye of her armor focusing on said troll. “Blink in a way we don’t like and it won’t go well for you. Co-operate and we will get you through this safe and fine.”

Eir once more focused on the squad as a whole. “Once you have access to the console, work on securing what you can of the ship's systems and finding out what happened here and how they brought down the other Marines. Beep will cover you as was the original plan, and the rest of us push and take the bridge. We are on the clock people; let’s do this quick. Oh, and no one touch the cat. What we don’t need is a Neko running around complicating things more than they already are. No, we are not going to space it either. The last thing I want is for this to become some sort of international incident; it’s up to someone with a higher pay grade then ours to decide what to do with the thing. It stays where it is and gets to keep sleeping.” Turning to Linda she added, “Would like to see you join us for that last bit.” She had no way of ordering the IPG agent around, but she would appreciate her firepower and presence in anything that was going to come on their way, and at the bridge.

Eir herself decided to play sentry, moving to stand near the door frame that would take them to the bridge. She lined herself up with it so that anyone coming down the corridor would only see the giant plate that was her shield and the deep, unforgiving depths of the barrel of her weapon. The exchange should only take a few moments; then they would be pressing on.

Halcyone stopped in her tracks when Eli held up his fist, this non verbal command she knew at least and the armored Freespacer waited calmly for further instructions, her glowing eyes sweeping the area, looking for anything of interest.

When Eli's voice rang in her ear, Halcyone nodded. "HALON system, control junction, got it" she replied over the radio and took a few steps over to one of the walls. She shouldered her rifle and traced a finger from her artificial hand long some of the seams in the metal plating that made up this particular segment of wall, finding what she was looking for, her index finger split open and extended out a flathead screwdriver, which she wedged into the appropriate slot and engaged the drivers motor in reverse, unscrewing one screw, then another and another until a two foot by two foot wall plate was loose and she was able to carefully and quietly slip it free and set it on the deck.

"Be just a moment" she reported as she got her bearings on the electrical system she had been presented with. Once she got an idea of what she had to work with, Halcyone stripped back some of the data cable shielding, then pulled out some cable leads from her wrist and clipped them onto the now exposed cables. "Accessing local emergency systems" she trailed off as she looked for the right sector block and proper trigger for the engineering HALON fire suppression system.

In the cargo bay, Cloudheart nodded at Eir and made a quiet little sound before raising her gun to low ready again and flowing over to where Alistair stood in front of the troll's cage. She gave a brief, frightful glance at the Neko, but didn't say anything like her countryfolk had.

"Well, you don't want to let me out?" Asked the elf, looking downright disappointed. "C'mon, just let me get ahold of my sword and my bow and I'll flush those idiots down the drain."

He indicated a table across from their cells where the prisoners' effects rested. His effects in particular were set atop his neatly folded clothes. There was an actual, literal sword of strange shape almost like a scimitar in traditional elven styling. Next to that, the 'bow' was entirely figurative. It was a rifle, a Styrling Longbow to be precise and ironic at the same time. The elf slid his arm as far as he could out of the cell and wobbled it towards them as if he'd be able to summon the objects, moaning to Alistair. "C'mon, handsome, let me outta here. I know you wanna. I promise I'll totally suck your dick later."

High compliments for someone the elf couldn't even see.

Meanwhile, back in the ship, Black propped a cigar between his lips as he surveyed the various helmet-cams laid out before him. He puffed out a little sigh and leaned over to Phase with a hand raised to the screens. "I'm not worried something will go horribly wrong. That can be relied upon. As for your 'evil machine'..."

"Kids." Black's voice rang over the airwaves in the helmets of everyone on the battlefield. "I don't give a shit about any namby-pamby prisonery feel-good bullshit. If you have a resource, you make use of it, gods-be-damned, or you're wasting your fucking time. Let that naked bitch out of her hole and point her at the fucking bad guys, Yamatai be fucked."

Back in the cargo bay, Cloudheart actually yelped at the order and almost tore her helmet off with a quick, quiet yet distressed, "No! Don't let it out!"

-----

"Hey, alright, buddy, we're both bein' cool here." Said the first prisoner as he dropped to his knees with his hand behind his head. He'd apparently been through this before. His friend, on the other hand, was simply stunned. The other sailor sat stock still with wide eyes fixed on the power-armored marine in front of him. His lip quivered and twitched, his arms hanging limp at his side; but he didn't move.

Not too far away, Halcyone's expert splicing brought her straight to where she wanted to be. She'd even bypassed the ship's network and was connected to the direct manual line to every emergency system which was triggered usually but slamming down a switch in the engine bay. Origin's vessels were built for private citizens, and safety was more of a concern than network security, so these sorts of things were blessings in the event of a hostile boarding action when one needed to unleash a sudden cloud of aluminum and sodium bicarbonate into a group of unsuspecting engineers rushing to and fro to figure out just what had managed to create such a powerful EMP blast earlier and just what was fried and what wasn't.

"I appreciate yeh cooperation, mon." Eli said, the suit growling like a mechanical predator. "And like I said, yeh keep yeh life. But yeh 'preciate I can't leave yeh to wander round deh ship, mon, seh yea."

Laying the HPAR on the ground, he hauled the compliant sailor to his feet, grabbing his companion by the shirt as well. He brought both his hands together, sending the two sailors careening into each other, both of their heads clonking against the other with an oddly muted thwack, knocking them cold.

Eli dropped the comatose forms of the two sailors back to the deck, picking his HPAR back up. He craned his neck, a curious gesture in a suit of power armor, as if listening for something - he smiled behind his armor's faceplate as his efforts were rewarded with the telltale ringing of a halon discharge.

"Halcyone, girl!" Eli laughed, "Good job, seh very yea! Yeh cracked dem ship wide open. Yeh did good, but let's go kill dem engines finally, yea?"

With that, Eli began the journey to the engine decks again, gingerly stepping over the prone forms of the unconscious Red sailors.

Eir heard the order and could not believe it. It was a rare time that the woman was ever slowed down by actions taken around her, but these few spoken words had done just that. What she did not do, though, was leave her position standing guard

“I am sorry, Commandant, I do not copy. Please repeat your last orders. We are to release the unknown Nekovalkyrja and arm it?” Eir did her best to sound neutral on the matter, but a bit of disbelief made its way into her voice. The only visible evidence of this was a slight shift of her shoulder as she needlessly re-adjusted her door breaker.

She did not even know where to begin to process the things about this order that she did not care for. She did know a lot better than to say such things aloud, though, and waited for confirmation. Sometimes, no matter how you felt about them, orders would be orders. She did promise herself one way or another she would take it up with the commandant in private later.

Release the Neko. Beep didn't like it, but the order was here, it was queer, and he had to get used to it. Plodding over towards the hymosynth tube the hulking war machine bent itself over so that it could look at the control panel. Gingerly it extended one of its massive arms towards the glowing buttons and pressed a series of them. No action. Again the machine punched in a series of buttons to no avail.

"More than one way to skin a cat." It said somewhat to itself in a low baritone before readjusting itself so that it was starring at the Yamataian creature in the tank. Winding its arm back it thrust it forward so that it smashed though the glass but not enough to hit the creature.

"The tank is open... Beep"

For a moment Linda was surprised at what she heard over the radio from Killroyal, but it should not have surprised her, not after reading over his file before. The line silent as Eir spoke to the commanding officer, but it was obvious the Corporal was not happy about this situation. Then to only make things worse she witnessed one of the freespacers punch a hole in the containment pod. Things were getting out of hand and they would only get worse when a war model neko was let loose onto the world.

She was assigned to this team for observation purposes so she decided to keep out of the chain of command, but at the rate things were going they were going to be in danger at this rate. "All personnel back away from the neko and lower your weapons, we don't know what kind of condition she was put to sleep in she might be ready for a fight. Only after we have the neko moving where we want do we free the troll and elf, assuming she doesn't try to kill them. We keep them in front and head for the bridge." Her tone was direct and flat, obviously getting serious.

Watching the whole Kitty in the tube problem, Dom let out a gasp when she watched the large warbot smash the tube open. Then when the order to pull back was given... "I can not." Dom said pulling a medical scanner out. "I'm a Doctor, She is obviously needing help now.." Dom in her colorfully painted PA stepped forward and started scanning and prepping her self for any procedure she would need to do to help the Neko. Even Yam-tube wasn't helping with this issue.

With the HALON gas pumped into the engine room and the staff there handled by Eli, Halcyone disconnected herself from the makeshift interface she had made and walked into the engineering space. She looked all about, eyes taking in the new space, the heart of the ship as the gas dissipated.

"You're welcome" she replied to Eli and then moved to the master control board, glowing eyes searching the panel from behind the heavily tinted faceplate of her helmet. "Take engines offline, one moment" she replied to the next order and traced her fingers along the series of buttons and switches that commanded the ships drives and power systems. She found the emergency engine cutoff, protected under a locked flip cover to prevent the switch from being accidentally flipped. The gearhead casually pried the cover off, exerting minimal extra strength from her artificial hand, then toggled the kill switch.

As Alistair waited for the Troll or Elf to respond, he was cut off by both Eir and Linda. To say he was pissed was an understatement. He grew more and more angry. Alistair was almost emitting heat as he stood, silent, being overridden. As he finally decided to open his mouth he was cut off by Black.

Alistair was shocked at the Commandant's orders. He then heard Eir resentment, and could tell that she was pissed. 'If they would have just let Beep and I take care of this we wouldn't be wasting so much damn time.' He thought as he brought his weapon to low ready. He heard the Elf and ignored him. He had a lot more pressing things to deal with. Like the fact the Beep just busted the tank wide open. Alistair was about to throw obscenities at the big Freespacer, but then sighed. "Beep, next time please ask before busting something like that open. I could have opened much easier and not have hurt her in the process." He said not unmoving as everyone back up and freaked the hell out.

He noticed Cloudheart's uneasiness, and could understand why. After what they did to the Freespacers, most would be scared. Alistair still didn't care. You don't blame one soldier for the actions of their superiors. Even if they were built for killing docent mean they are heartless, mindless killing machines. He placed a hand on Cloudheart's shoulder, not saying anything. It was his way to try and give some comfort to her.

"Damn, yeh can do it from dere?" Eli said, pausing in his advance. "Handy havin' you 'round, girl. Finish up, and meet back up wit me. I'm gonna make sure the engine decks are tot'lly safe, seh yea."

Eli continued in his advance, leaving the freespacer as she worked, in case the crew decided to mount an offensive against them, but no such thing seemed to be happening. If the engine crewmembers were doing anything, it was probably choking and coughing a fit, provided they managed to escape the HALON discharge. While not lethal per se, anyone exposed to the length of the fire extinguishing system's gentle caress while inside the space certainly wouldn't be feeling so great.

"Dis deh engine room assault team." Eli said, hailing the bridge party. "Halcyone jess hotwired the engines and disabled dem. Gonna make a sweep of deh engine decks, make sure no one in dere capable or willing to resist, den we gonna meet back up with you guys. Engine room team out."

Eli thought for a moment.

"Also we got two of deh enemy knocked out in..." Eli rattled off the nearest bulkhead marker to him. "Dey ain't dead, jess sleepin'."

Anyone who managed to escape was probably not worried about armed intruders, like the two of them. All in all, it didn't seem like a bad plan. He trudged to the engine decks and attempted to open the door - no luck. The auto-doors had shut themselves from the HALON discharge. He shrugged, an odd gesture in the titanic suit, and shot the entry pad with the HPAR rifle, a single, titanic bang reverberating through the hallways as the entry keypad was turned into molten metal slag. Eli set his HPAR down, and, now that the electronic locks of the door had been disengaged, he pried the engine room doors open, white fumes spilling from the opening as the Hostile's servo musculature wedged the doors further and further open.

Eventually, he had a suitable opening. He grabbed his HPAR, and slipped (inasmuch as you could in a suit so big) into the space, and began to check for signs of resistance or points of interest.

"If I have a resource, make use of it? Very pragmatic thinking. I have learned something useful today~" the smaller Phase remarked.

Meanwhile, the larger's form focused in on the now-punctured stasis cell.

"Do those not need rebooting before opening the canister?" they asked, shifting from leg to leg calmly. "Re~gard~less~, if the Evil Machine turns on us,"

Their tone switched to the bassy tones that they had used only once during their time with the Nepleslians thus far.
"I will lose no metaphorical sleep over eviscerating their body."

And then, as if they hadn't just made a threat of gruesome violence, Phase switched back to their not-a-Yamataian-pornstar voice.

"In the meantime, I will see to releasing the endangered sapient."

A hand-swap later and one hand had a vicious looking grabber claw - not unlike two pairs of jaws of life strapped together. Phase set to slicing the cage containing the elf open. Bricklet seemed not to care, instead opting to stand silently at the back of the crowd.

It was absolute chaos the moment Beep blasted through the shell of the hemosynth tube. Gel-like liquid oozed and belched onto the floor with deep 'thworp's and pieces of the glassy crust of the tube crackled and fell from the weight of the liquid against their previous damage. They strained, and the Neko inside fell slowly, but remained standing with her eyes closed as if frozen in space.

In the meantime, there was no end to the shouting and carousing. Amidst cries for people to get back and snarls of protest from Cloudheart, or Domicile's eagerness to step close to the eater of worlds, it seemed Phase was the only one who conducted herself calmly. Thonmir the elf smiled brightly in lieu of her assistance and dashed out of the tube with alarming speed for his clothing and equipment with a mischevious smile.

"No, no!" Cloudheart stamped her feet and threw Alistair's arm from around her, then uselessly shoved the power-armored marine before breaking off into the nearest corridor at a high jog. "Get your hands away from me, you insane little boy!"

On top of it, amidst the noise and fury, the entire ship shook and her lights flickered in a pulse as the engines were shut down and the power system recalibrated its distribution to make up for the sudden lack of draw.

Then, she awakened.

Bright blue eyes cracked open behind the wreckage of the transparent metal tube. Beneath a flowing field of golden hair pressed tight against alabaster skin by moisture, a chest heaved for what seemed the first time in eons. The Nekovalkyrja in the hemosynth tank pressed a hand against the tube and swept it open slowly with a serene expression, slowly stepping into the cold air of the hangar with her toes pressing softly against the tile slowly before her heels. As she emerged from the ancient hemosynth tube, knife-shaped ears twitched and those deep blue eyes focused on those arrayed before her. There was a look of calm calculation upon her strong features, and she introduced herself.

"I am Joto-Heisho Ilsa Skjoldsvulf." Her voice cracked, throat still clearing out the fluid she'd been submerged in. "I serve the Grand Star Army by the will of Emperor Uesu."

Suddenly, Ilsa seemed to catch on and looked around herself once more with renewed vigour. "You are not my captors? No, you don't look of their ilk..." Smiling softly, Ilsa walked with her bare feet patting the smooth floor and laid a hand over a trunk resting on a table that'd been set next to her hemosynth tank. Despite her nudity, she strode shamelessly through the cold air. "Be that the case, I shall find my captors presently-- for tread they heavily upon Helvegen; the path to the underworld."

Within the case were impliments of an army decades out of use. Looking down at the bodysuit, cloak, plasma pistol, and beefy war axe contained within, Ilsa began the work of braiding her soaking mane.

-----

When Eli shoved into the engine room behind Halcyone, he found unconsolable chaos awaiting him. The gas release, having coincided with the power fluctuation, had left a mist hanging in the air and fusion technicians were stumbling around in fits of hacking and coughing. They couldn't see Eli or Halcyone at all, didn't even seem to register the door opening. One even leaned against him for support unknowingly for just a moment before collapsing onto the floor in a hacking heap. Just touching the edge of his sight, for only the slightest moment,Eli caught sight of a pair of eyes watching him from behind the visor of a breath mask. They didn't bear down on him agressively or flinch in fear. They simply returned his gaze for just a moment's hair before turning away and fading into the fog.

-----

Thaddeus Elway's voice crackled over every channel.

"I am in the elevator shaft. Thermal recon indicates thirteen men one deck above the insertion team, they appear to be gathering weapons and preparing for combat. There is one individual on the same deck as the insertion team, interacting with something on the wall. Miss Cloudheart is in a parralel corridor from him, but their paths will not intersect. Finally, there are twenty six men in the deck below the insertion team, boarding shuttles. Some are in powered armor, but they seem intent on leaving. Elway, out."

Standing in front of the Neko Dom sighed. "Look stop. I need to examine you, make sure there isn't anything wrong. You need to put down your weapons and relax, we have teams sweeping the ship now." As she spoke she scanned the Neko with her medical gizmo.

Linda tensed in anger as she surveyed the situation, the freespacers were entirely lacking in discipline, and a proper chain of command was almost nonexistent. She wanted to just leave the majority of this 'team' there and let them fend for themselves, but there were so many diplomatic issues with leaving the freespacers, not to mention what Killroyal might do. She let out a heavy sigh, venting her anger along with it, refocusing her mind on work. With the elf out of captivity along with the neko Linda readied her rifle and focused on the elf, if he made any suspicious movements she was ready to shoot him.

She spoke up now using her external speakers as opposed to the com system now. "Okay this is not going to work. Since you all don't seem too educated I will enlighten you. Private Smith is your squad leader as of now. Freespacers and Marines, you follow her orders, unless I say otherwise. Commandant Black's instructions are for me and Smith to sort out. I will leave behind those who can not follow instructions, we're in hostile territory there is no time to be goofing off." She then pointed to the elf and the neko. "Our orders are to let you do your thing and get your revenge on the ships crew, but that does not mean you can get in the way of our objectives either. Leave some alive for interrogation and if you attack us we will attack back."

After she spoke her attention went to her comm system. "Affirmative Elway, I will retrieve Cloudheart." She then looked at Eir "Get them moving and make sure they don't wander off after the elf and cat." With that she headed out of the room to try and track Cloudheart down, using her sensors to try and pick up heat signature since she was organic.

As Cloudheart shoved him back, Alistair was first stunned, then guilty of the mess he brought about. He should have made sure no one else was in the room when he started trying to speak with everyone. The the Elf flew out of his cage, and Alistair brought his shotgun from low ready, to firing position. THEN, the Neko got up and everyone flipped there shit. Alistair might have single handedly fucked all this up, because he felt like he had to help.

Linda had finally had enough, and laid down the law. "Yes, ma'am" He responded. Looking back towards the rest of them. "Though it is not my place to speak," He said talking to everyone "but you all need to get moving. Beep and I can handle this. The Commandant gave us our orders, now we need to hurry up before the combatants from the upper and lower levels get here." He said turning his back to them and taking off his helmet. The then took a wire from his Datajockey and plugged it into his eye. "Readying my hacking protocols." He said as he prepared himself for the cyber war that was about to be waged.

"Okay" Halcyone replied to Eli as she set about fixing things so no one but herself would be able to reactivate the engines. She glanced in the direction of the hatch as Eli opened it, seeing the cloud of HALON gas billowing out of the space beyond and heard the crew on the other side caughing.

Halcyone finished up her work, unshouldered her rifle and followed along into the cloud.

Eir pulled away from the corridor as she saw Beep raise up to smash the pod open, her wide eyes hidden behind the intimidating monoeye of her suit, and before she could get a word out the deed was done and all hell had broken loose. Within moments the Doc had approached the potentially dangerous bioweapon, asking if it needed help, and Alister failing to act as camp counselor to Cloudheart and watching her run well away from the team. To top it all off the damn bridge still was not secure. All did not seem lost, though, as Eli came through the com telling them that the engine was disabled. It made getting to the bridge all the more important or the engine room team might find itself swamped by the enemy.

Linda’s meltdown seemed to cut through the confusion like a knife. As the sudden and magical ability to listen was bestowed on the squad, Eir spoke. “No change in plans, everyone. We are still here to get a job done. Phase, you’re with me. We still need to take the bridge and time is ticking. Beep, keep watch over Thorn. Thorn, if you manage to get enough control, see if you can’t slide some doors closed to keep these combatants locked down. Let the ones that are escaping go.”

“Corporal, once you get Cloudheart, if you would join us at the bridge, that would be appreciated. Doc, keep an eye on the Cat. If you’re not willing to get in the thick of it, knowing where that thing is on the loose would be useful.” Orders given and time running short, Eir once more turned down the corridor with her shield and weapon raised and started to make her way forward. She was determined that she would not let the other team down.

"My friend, stick to the Mindtwister, would you~?" Phase directed Bricklet. The machine bobbed slightly and took off down the hall after the psychologist.

"Right, Eir Nygaard-Smith, lead the way!" they said, raising their Money Shot. Background callibrations had been running this whole time based on just the gun's pointing direction alone, so the Type Four had hoped that actually shooting the gun would not have too much variance.

Phase released their two personal drones from their body, both still carrying around their respective scalar grenades from the previous mission and followed Eir.