RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Seven] We're Not In Yamatai Anymore...

Her entry was less than elegant, but at least Aya hadn't been tagged by a spear as she got inside the room. The reprieve was all too short lived, however, as a hobgoblin burst into the room brandishing his spear. "With all due respect, it's pretty hard to concentrate with you yanking on my hair!" whined Aya as her 'passenger' tugged away. She mentally made a note of the fact the window was still open. If it turned out that she couldn't handle the hobgoblin even with the advantage of a confined space, then it would make for a useful escape route. That was assuming, of course, that there wasn't someone outside waiting to skewer her.

Unlike before, Aya watched her opponent warily, looking for an opening and trying to entice him into making an impatient attack with his spear. If such an opening appeared, she tried to slip past the weapon and made a bid for the goblinoid's shield. Assuming she managed to get purchase on the shield, she tried to pull it out of his grasp.

"Tch! You missed the first chance!"

Sif's voice echoing in her head, Aya now found herself facing down the bigger, stronger hobgoblin indoors, the hoplite having passed through the door unopposed. Its head on a swivel, it quickly caught sight of her and turned to face the young woman, only for its spear to strike the furniture within. Not needing the cajoling twice, the blue skinned Neko lunged forward and grasped the shield, instinctively trying to wrest it out of its grip! Though she had the leverage to twist it up to reveal its body, it was strapped fast, refusing to be pilfered. Before Aya could think of what to do next, the hobgoblin's powerful muscles flexed as it tried to shove her away. Feet slipping, sliding across the floor, she barely clung on. Discarding the spear, the hobgoblin started to reach for its belt - a sword!

"NOW!"

Do or die, Aya pushed past the edge of the shield and collided with the hobgoblin's chest, her full weight behind her stabbing short sword. The sharp tip bounced off the brigandine's steel squares, but slipped and bit into leather, cloth then flesh! Stars exploded across Aya's vision as a fist collided with her face, right over her left eye - sent sprawling on the floor, she looked up and immediately understood why. Trying to twist away from her attack, the Neko's weapon landed off center, and embedded only a few inches at best. Seething with quiet rage, the Hobgoblin Hoplite yanked the blade out and tossed it to the ground before drawing its own weapon as it looked down on the Neko.

Meanwhile, as Rin leaped into the air, Dimitri deftly dodged another thrust, the shaft passing in between his two legs.

Right before the sturdy wood leaped up and smacked him hard, blurring his vision with a wave of pain. Yanking the spear back, the edge sliced through fabric and flesh, cutting into his inner thigh and bringing him to his knees. But for Rin, this was perfect. Leaping overhead, flipping over midair, the red skinned Neko deftly drew back her bow and loosed, the arrow arrow cutting through the night's air. With a second howl of pain, the tip punched through armor, piercing the hobgoblin through the right arm and into its armpit. Like Dimitri, he too was forced to his knees. Before Rin could make her next move however, the Hoplite from before was charging, its sling discarded and sword drawn.

As this all happened at once, Yuzuki was met by the Hoplite Sergeant's stern silence.

Seeing her moving so fast, the Sergeant stopped its steady retreat and was forced to turn and keep focus on her instead. With how fast she was, it knew there was no way it could simply strafe and cut her off. And it wasn't stupid either - still too far to strike, she could see its eyes glance away, its head turn slightly for the briefest of moments as though to look over its shoulder before settling back on her. The hobgoblin knew that there were archers to his back, but had little choice on the matter. Before Yuzuki could start her assault however, its beady eyes looked towards the knight.

"HOLD IT!" Motioning with its spear, the Hobgoblin pointed where the Drow was laying beside the fallen rider earlier for Yuzuki's benefit. "OBJECTIVE LOST - CONTRACT TERMINATED!" it bellowed into the night. All at once, the other Hobgoblins facing down the rest of the squad stopped attacking and retreated behind their shields, weapons held at the ready. And more importantly, dull groans could be heard from the distance. It was clear now; the Hoplite Sergeant was shouting for the benefit of the others who had fanned out to cover the rest of the village. From the retreating Kobolds. Who sneaked back in. And then absconded with the Drow. Leaving the squad to fight all the Hobgoblins. All of them. Looking back at Yuzuki, the short but burly humanoid pointed at her with its spear. "You. We have no reason to be here and are fortifying for the night before leaving in the morning. Do we have a truce, or will you be entertaining all my men for the night?" it spoke with utter seriousness.

The squad could hear the murmur of a disappointed crowd in the distance, and a miniature facepalm from atop Aya's head.

Plus, the moans of the knight.

Rin had landed from her leap deftly and nocked another bodkin arrow almost immediately. Seeing the Hobgoblin charging at her with it's sword, she drew back the bow for another shot when the Hoplite Sergeant bellowed out for all of his men to hold their position.

Rin hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. But she was not going to take any chances and her bow remained aimed at the Hobgoblin before her.

Dimitri thought he had won, there was nothing this goblin coudl do, but just before he grabbed hold of the spear, it slipped past his hands and struck him in the last place he wanted. He was too disoriented and pained to avoid the slash , getting his thigh cut and falling to a knee. He thought that that would be it, and things would end there, but Rin made it in time and saved him from certain death. He let out a sigh of relief but quickly got serious again, things had not yet finished, or at least he though so, but quickly all the troops stopped what they were doing. This was unexpected but he wasn't going to drop his guard, he picked up the fallen spear and stayed alert..

Ready to engage in a spirited bout of comparing skill with one's majestic shaft, Yuzuki was startled by the sudden bellow and effective halt to the action as her spear came into contact with her foe's own weapon. Ears folded back against her head Yuzuki paused and blinked before taking a step back, putting some distance between herself, the crested warrior, and incidentally stepping over the knight at her feet. Apparently she had been fighting a mercenary company in this world, one with a freshly terminated contract. Given what she knew of mercenaries it made sense that they would want to avoid bloodshed that they were not being paid for.

A few instants passed and Yuzuki replied, "You will not have any complaint from me, however it was not my choice to engage. As such my allies will likely desire to talk." This was probably true as at least Aya and possibly Sif would want to talk things out.

Maybe.

There was always the chance that Hero-chan might want to bathe in the blood of evil foes anyway.

To this end Yuzuki was quick to send a telepathic message to those in her group. "Our enemy has identified itself as a mercenary company. They have expressed that they do not wish to continue fighting, if you aren't content to merely avoid fighting I suggest that you talk to them."

She avoided saying something like: 'Sif use your genre savvy to help out.' As she felt it might have been a little rude. Instead she returned her full attention to the crested warrior in front of her and inquired pleasantly, "How much do you care about this guy?" To emphasize her query Yuzuki used a foot to gesture at the knight at her feet.

This guy is strong! Aya was genuinely surprised as the burly hobgoblin slowly but surely shoved her across the floor. A voice in the back of her mind warned that if she didn't do something fast, then she was just begging to get pinned in place, ready to be dispatched. Thankfully, fate provided the break she needed. As the hobgoblin dropped his spear to reach for his sword, the blue skinned Nekovalkyrja forced herself past the shield's edge and made for a killing blow. The next few moments were chaotic, her short sword skirting off steel plate to bite shallowly into the hobgoblin's flesh just a split second before the enemy soldier landed a stunning punch. Reeling from the hit, Aya was unable to arrest her descent and she hit the floor with a muffled thump. Pain throbbed hot across her face and back, but she forced herself to look at her opponent. Alas, he was still standing and looked (understandably) displeased with this turn of events. Well, this is it, I guess...

In some ways, what happened next was even more surprising than her day had been so far. Rather than being a mere host of vassals serving under an evil overlord, they were a mercenary unit. And a highly trained one at that, she added to herself. To Yuzuki she said telepathically, "Yeah, I don't fancy getting skewered for nothing." She dared not move in case her own counterpart interpreted it as a hostile gesture, but instead said out loud, "Uh... sorry about that. Truce?" She flashed her best attempt at a winning smile, hoping that the hobgoblin was willing to forgive the wound she had inflicted, or at least that he had been satisfied with giving her a nasty blow to the head.

Shouldering her way through the amassed crowd of spectators a cloaked individual stepped forth spear in hand a new soilder walked down to where Aya had disappeared into a building. Holding the spear pointedly at the hobgoblin's stomach she purred with a smile "you may want to leave the lady alone big guy or you're going to have the mother of all stomach aches".

After delivering her ultimatum Freyja mentally messaged her old squadmate long time no see Aya hope you didnt have too much fun without me. A look of fear suddenly spread across the neko's face as she realised "ugh Sif's not gonna be angry at me for being late right?"

It was a Delsaurian standoff.

As Rin kept her arrow nocked, Dimitri kept the stolen spear at the ready and pointed. Yuzuki and the Hoplite Sergeant bared their spears while Aya laid on the floor, asking for truce while Sif sat on her head, eternally displeased. The moment seemed to drag on forever, as the sound of Hobgoblin Hoplites in the distance became closer and closer. And then someone else entirely burst onto the scene. Seeing the latest Neko suddenly arrive from amongst the commoners, and make such an outlandish statement, the Sergeant of these mercenaries looked from face to face, as though fully realizing what he was looking at for the first time since the fighting had begun. To it, this looked like a whole bunch of pretty faces in all different colors, armed and armored like some sort of royal guard for a particularly perverse noble. It had enough of that already. Glancing at Freya one last time and then looking back to Yuzuki again, the expression didn't look pleased in the slightest.

"Look, if you're not going to take this seriously, we're just going to go. You can keep your knight," its rough voice replied to the Neko. Turning, it shouted to the others, "Gather food and wagon. We depart immediately - Lacedaemonia awaits!"

"Gimmie that spear!" the Hobgoblin before Dimitri snarled. With the surprising, sudden turn of events, it quickly snatched the weapon out of the young man's hands before turning to leave, tossing the polearm into its shield hand so it could yank the injuring arrow out. The one facing Rin was nowhere near as angry, but sounded genuinely sad as it turned to simply walk away.

"I really wanted that ass. Not every day you see one that pretty," it grumbled it itself, the hoplite that had fought Dimitri nodding back in reply. The Hobgoblin facing down Aya however, snorted in amusement as she weakly smiled up at him. Pulling a small bottle out of its waist belt, it pulled the cork out with its teeth and spat it away. Its wounds instantly started fizzing and bubbling away as it downed the contents, the flesh mending right before their eyes. Tossing the bottle to the milky Neko's hands, she could see there was still a single drop's worth left in the vial.

"Right on your back and smiling is where you belong," it turned to leave as well, forgetting its discarded spear.

"Are you waiting for him to come back?" Sif asked Aya. "Get up. Yip yip," the Mini-Neko urged her on, hair in hand like little reins. "And only a little," she replied to Freyja.

Outside, a young woman's voice spoke up, her words tinged with a metallic ring.

"H-hello? I can't see anyone - can someone help me?" the 'knight' cried out for help. The departing Hoplite Sergeant shook its head.

"Hmph. Explains where the keeper went. Not that I want that thing."

The lack of resolution left Yuzuki feeling... Disappointed. Though she couldn't say exactly why. Still a potentially hostile force was moving away, and they had the relative safety of a burning village to look forward to.

Still it seemed that her allies hadn't managed to make a successful diplomatic overture in the moments following the cessation of aggression, and now she was standing over the knight, or keeper, or something. Deciding that Sif could sort out what had apparently been a new discovery of the scattered Fifth Fleet personnel on the planet Yuzuki turned her attention to the closer person of interest. Introductions with friendlies could come later.

For now Yuzuki looked about ensuring that there was no one watching her, or within easy sprinting distance, and crouched down to knock lightly on the breast plate of the fallen figure at her feet.

"Hello. Does anywhere hurt? I can't help you unless you tell me if you can feel any injuries. I don't want to accidentally hurt you more." She had never picked up much by way of medical training, but she knew that it was probably a bad idea to go about moving a potentially injured individual. At least they were talking. Additionally if her cute Nekovalkyrja ears did not betray her they sounded sorta cute. So providing some basic assistance could be beneficial in ways that she knew Kuroneko would approve of.

Rin slowly lowered her bow and returned the arrow to the quiver as the mercenaries turned and left. She cocked an eyebrow, puzzled by the sudden end to the conflict.

"That was...unexpected...to say the least," said Rin. She slipped the bow over her head and left shoulder and made her way over to Dimitri's postion. She extended a hand to help him to his feet.

"Are you alright?"

Aya perked up as she 'heard' the familiar voice. "Freyja! It's good to see you again!" She couldn't help but let her exuberance bleed through her own mental message. Sure, meeting new people was fun, but it was nice to see a familiar face (well, okay, more familiar faces). Her good mood was dampened, however, by the rather unpleasant sight of the hobgoblin's skin bubbling and fizzing as though it were fluid rather than solid, not to mention the hobgoblin's rather lecherous comments. Getting to her feet with the almost empty bottle in hand, Aya wiped the lip of the bottle clean before reluctantly drinking the drip that remained.

Seeing that Yuzuki and Rin had their respective situations in hand, the Nekovalkyrja nevertheless kept an eye (and ear!) out as she joined Freyja. "Thanks for that. So, what kept you so long?"

resting her spear over her shoulder nonchalantly "I had too much fun making money and I lost track of time and had to catch up, my bad but taking idiots money is so easy when they bet against you" walking over Freyja flicked the abandoned spear into her shield hand proffering the weapon to aya "you may want to have one of these for the future then the little shit can eat his words and choke on them" the blue skinned black striped neko was trying to be comforting but wasn't sure it would come out right.

"any way on a better note who're the new nekos? I don't recognise a couple of 'em" gesturing to the new faces with a tilt of her head "whatever 's good to see you again" stepping forward Freyja gave aya a quick hug it was nice see people she could trust again after guarding herself constantly.

Dimitri did not offer much resistance to the spear being taken, he was still trying to wrap his head around what was going on. With Rin's help he managed to stand and groaned, cupping her man parts. "If they had invented ice packs I'd be back in action in a little bit, but this is gonna hurt a while." He stumbled over to collect his gear and then made his way down the ramparts, heading over to the knight who seemed to be calling out for help. He couldn't really run or even walk fast in his condition so he let Yuzuki take charge and he just waited to help any way he could.

"Poco a poco, poco a poco, poco a poco."

She repeated this mantra to herself as the charger underneath her went into a gallop. Little by little, she lowered the lance the same way she heard the foreign master drill into the knights in training. Lower it too much, too soon, or simply try and hold it on target, and they would miss, he often told them. In this moment, she stuck to his words like the word of god, and shattered the Hobgoblins. However, it wasn't enough! The odds were bad, she knew this, but she had to try - else, the village was dead, and they'd get their hands on it! Coming around, drawing the warhammer by her side, she swung from horseback, wood splintering and metal groaning as the horse under her gave out.

As the world spun, she blacked out.

And black, was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. She failed. She was dead. The villagers, she was going to see them soon. And it was in the Drow's hands now, that unfathomably powerf - that thought died the moment her eyes started to come into focus and saw the stars through the slits in the helmet. It was just the starry sky. She was alive! Fumbling, The Keeper tried to sit up, but she was tired and exhausted. Armor was heavy! Even trying to open the visor wasn't any good - the armor was too big for her, and now that her hands had popped out of the gauntlets, there was no way she was going to get it back on! Panic started to set in as her breath grew faster, the air growing hotter and thicker. If the Hobgoblins and that Drow were still nearby...it was over. But, if she just stayed like this, she was dead either way!

"H-hello? I can't see anyone - can someone help me?" she cried out.

In moments, she felt a gentle clunk-clunk against her chest as a woman spoke, her face coming into view. Unable to stop herself, she gasped in complete and utter shock. Through the slits in her visor, the Keeper could see a woman of absolute beauty, her looks only Rivaled by the fey high elves themselves in its perfection. With such complete, unarguable perfection, the person she saw was fit to be a handmaiden to a goddess, or - no!

"G-goddess?" the Keeper asked Yuzuki, her voice trembling. With such supreme grace, her face soft in the gentle light, she had to be a goddess, descended from above! The thought of this completely and utterly terrified her. "Uh, no! No, I don't hurt. I'm completely fine, thank you!" her voice slightly echoed from the interior of the armor. "Yes, I don't need any help whatsoever, so if you please just leave, I will be fine. I-I don't need the Valkyries to bring up into the heavens or anything at all! I am still intact, can feel my toes wiggle in this too-big armor and everything! Everything is fine!" she desperately insisted.

As the others greeted each other, Sif leaped from Aya's head onto Freyja's.

"Introductions are in order for some of us. After. We deal with the so called 'knight'," the Mini-Neko commanded. The Keeper winced at this new, stern voice rising over the voices of those that had to be the Valkyries. "Though. I suppose the cut the boy got needs tending too as well," Sif added, annoyed.

"Wait! I-I'm a healer! If he's mortal, whoever this is, I can keep him from dying! Just don't take me away!" the Keeper almost cried.

The expression Sif then bore on her face was much the same as the Hoplite Sergeant's. One that asked, "Really?"

Rin made her way over to the fallen knight to join the others. She was surprised by the amount of fear the knight spoke with, but then again, Nekovalkryja were not quite the norm on this planet.

"Valkyries?" asked Rin with a cocked eyebrow. She glanced at the others, and then at Sif. "Well, that is true in one sense."

While the urge to take full advantage of the deific status, Yuzuki was also painfully aware that she was tired and that she was in the middle of a still burning village. So instead of inflicting her divinity upon the confused girl, Yuzuki did the responsible thing and started to remove the poor thing's armor keeping mute unless the girl cause any issues with the lengthy process of stripping her of her 'too large' armor. Between the tedious task of removing a knight's armor, being drawn into a fight she'd wanted no part of, and the anti-climactic encounter with the mercenary company, Yuzuki was feeling a little burnt out.

All she wanted was to find someone with a softness, clever hands, and a willingness to let her fall asleep in the lap of luxury. These were not things she was likely to get, instead she would have to content herself with this Keeper/Knight/Waif, and after a moment Yuzuki intoned her exhaustion showing, "I trust you'll all be able to make friends without my intervention?" She really didn't want to have to talk the night away, especially after they'd barely let her sleep to begin with.

Somewhere besides Yamatai, A Village

For what had to have been the thousandth time since making groundfall on this......bizarrely anachronistic planet, the Minkan known as Matokai Masato wondered Why am I here? as he finished bandaging one of the villagers that had been fortunate enough to make it to the (marginal) safety of a house.


It was a valid question, really. After being re-assigned from the YSS Ryūjō, the Santô Hei had been immediately been thrown into an extremely abbreviated training course in order to become an Armorer - and then, to the ever-increasing horror of the aforementioned Hei (who'd been looking forward to the - relative - ease of working a ship's Engineering room) had been assigned to an infantry squad.


Needless to say, throttling whichever desk-bound moron that had performed this transfer was a very high priority of Masato's.


Sighing once more at the lack of any modern technology whatsoever, the technician crept forward towards the one of the house's windows - then froze as the sounds of the brawl outside came to a sudden halt. Oh, frell...... Clutching his recently-purchased spear at the ready (and hoping that he wouldn't have to actually use the thing), the Minkan nudged the tiny building's door open, peaking around the corner - and doing a double-take upon noticing the distinctive cat-ears of a Nekovalkyrja silhouetted in the flickering light provided by the numerous fires the marauders had set. Wait, wh.....oh, thank the Empress...


After exhaling in relief and taking another moment to steady himself (he'd be damned if he screwed up introductions a second time), the Santô Hei addressed the three other NPC-sorry, townspeople currently in the room - "I......think it's safe to go outside, though I'll go and make sure..." - then exited via the place's front (and only) doorway; a half-dozen or so seconds later, Masato could be seen approaching the others; the technician - clad in a few basic garments - had brought his spear with him, though was doing his best to hold it in a non-threatening matter.

"Santô H-gomen'nasai, greetings! Matokai Masato, reporting!"

"Santô Hei Matokai Masato, reporting for duty!"

Click to expand...

The Hei winced at his slip of the tongue. ......And you managed to mess it up again, you baka.

"Oh, right... I was just doing guard work for caravans," said Aya, feeling slightly cheated that she hadn't thought to do something like that. At the very least it would've been much more comfortable (and perhaps better paying) than risking life and limb for very little in return... but at least it gave the sky blue Nekovalkyrja some experience in actually using medieval weaponry. When Freyja offered her a spear, she smiled and shook her head. "No thanks, I'm having a hard enough time learning how to use my sword properly! I'll make sure he regrets it if he tries again in future, though." Freyja's hug was met with an equal squeeze from Aya.

The Neko soon pulled away as Sif immediately got down to business and addressed what needed to be done next - not to mention another unexpected arrival. This time it was a tall Minkan with brown hair streaked through with blond. Another new member of the squad...? As she went over to where the knight (who was also apparently a healer of all things) lay, she couldn't help but smile to herself at Masato's mistake. She didn't respond yet, however; Sif or Kuroneko would likely want to talk to him first, being the immediate superiors of the squad and all. Instead, she said to the knight in her best placating tone, "Calm down. Everything's alright."

Freyja smiled back at Aya hearing another arrival practically announce he was from star army right behind her her smile immediately faded into a wince filled sigh "just stick with the pointy end from behind a shield Aya, cant go wrong with short hard stabs. Captain Sif lets go meet our Knight"

Turning on the spot her billowing dramatically Freyja strode purposefully toward the fallen knight she wondered how she was going to get along with her new comrades. she really hoped she could make more friends.

And now another one's appeared practically announcing that they were stararmy the neko smiled under her helmet and shook her head thinking 'boys always loud proud, and thinking with their genitals'. "Do you want to deal with them now or after the knight Jôtô Heisho" Freyja asked Sif telepathically not breaking her stride

Dimitri was in pain, lots of pain, but he tried to play it off and just look tough, even after Sif mentioned the cut in his leg. He was a already working with being Nepleslian, he did't want to be too much of a bother, after all a wound like this probably wouldn't effect a Neko too much. "If I get some bandages I can wrap it up and I'll be fine." It wasn't gushing blood like crazy at least.

He was a bit surprised to see someone head over though and report in while he knew they had a people scattered across the planet he was surprised at how many they were meeting, maybe Sif had already known, or maybe she just had powers to attract people to her with her big anime eyes. He gave a nod to the man however, he was no longer alone in the hen house.