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RP: YSS Goban Episode 01: Communiqué

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"Few as possible; we might have to look at it." Kyosuke had rebounded to the bridge, leaving his other crew behind to monitor the radio.
 
Lucas grinned as he sprinted to the shuttle bay (gulping back a slight dizziness as he went down the grav shaft) and rounded another corner. It had been a while since he was able to pilot power armor, and now he was able to try out a new Kylie. He grinned wider as he reached the shuttle bay and began to suit up. As he did so, his mind began to slip back to their mission. Why would SAINT or whomever go through this much trouble to get a message across to someone? Wouldn't they at least have a back-up plan instead of destroying the ship? Lucas cocked his head to the side, and hit a comm panel on the bulkhead.

"Shoi, how far along is Custodian 2's self-analysis?" he asked as he finished putting on his flight suit.
 
"Too long! Hurry up!" Kyosuke was looking at a counter in the upper lefthand corner of his console screen.

"06:30," it read.
 
Inside the shuttle, Galar heard the order and a thrill of excitemint flew through him. Finally, he was going to get some field experience, however small it was. He readied his hands over the cannon controls as he saw the DOC reach the area where it now rested in zero-g. There! The time is almost here! he thought.
Suddenly, he jolted with tension; the Goban had started to pull away from the DOC. He took aim on the door -- and squeezed the trigger ...

(EDIT: Watch your grammar. I had to fix five errors here.)
 
The aether bolts lept from the shuttle's twin guns, thudding into the DOC's hull ... and seemed to put a small dent in it.

DOCs were much better armored than the ships that transported them.
 
By this time, Lucas was in his suit and launching from the shuttle bay. He saw the bolts collide into the DOC on his HUD screen. Damn...those things are tough He thought as he keyed his comm.

"Kylie 01 deployed." he said as he doubled back and "boosted" towards the DOC. He engaged the aether blade in his right arm as he grabbed on the hull with his left. Lucas swung around and punched the dent with an aether-coated right jab.

(Spaces between paragraphs.)
 
A bit of the hull disappeared into shallow scratches under Lucas' slashing. But for the most part, the Zesuaium resisted.

"Focus, Hanley! Like you're cutting something!" Kyosuke was tempted to use his one turret and blast the fucking thing, but that wasn't going to save the message.
 
Galar aimed the aether cannons to fire a second shot, then realized that his shots might hit his comrade. He keyed the radio frequency he was using.

"shoi, requesting permission to fire a second shot!"
 
Lucas winced slightly as the shout of his CO rang in his ear, but then shrugged it off as panic and followed the idea. He intensified and narrowed the beam of aether into the panel of armor that seperated him from the bot inside.
 
The beam slowly sunk into the armor plate of the DOC. No air exited the container from the tiny hole he'd put in it -- it had been depressurized.

"Whatever your name is in the shuttle, hold off for now. Let the armor do its work." Kyosuke was worried now; they needed to get going within the next 20 minutes.
 
Lucas grinned as the hole opened up. Sweat began to bead on his forehead as he activated the magnetics on his boots and engaged his left-hand aether blade. The hole was getting wider as the two focused beams evaporated the Zesuaium armor.

"What's my time Shoi?" he said as he drilled on.
 
The clock read 5:03.

"Not fast enough, dammit! Cut through that thing!" Kyosuke switched his screen to produce a image panel in front of Nicholas. "Heicho, what's going on down there?"
 
As the situation continued to escalate, Nick sat in the wardroom, leaning his head on his left hand. Despite the adrenaline rush he sat virtually motionless, deep in concentration. Attempting to destroy the DOC really didn't seem like the best idea to him based off of what the Custodian had said just minutes before, the young Heicho felt that another solution had to be found, and quick, if they were to complete their current mission.

"I really hope this works," he mumbled as he activated that communicator, motioning for the others still in the room to be silent. Inwardly, he was quite sure of this coming success, but still took a deep breath before he spoke. Failure would mean a step that much closer to death, after all. "Custodian 01, you are under orders from Shimada-Chusa to protect the cargo aboard this vessel, correct?â€
 
The hole was a little larger than a basketball, and growing quickly. Lucas now had a visual on the bot, and it's sight gave him more confidence.

"Ann!" he called as he continued to "saw" through the plating, "Can you bring up the schematics of Custodian 01 to my HUD? I'm going to try and detach the bomb with my drones." He said as the white-hot armor slowly creeped away.
 
It took a bit of time before the computer responded. "Negative. The Custodians will take any form of attack as confirmation of a compromise of their mission. You will have one shot to destroy them both."

She added a counter to the armor's HUD. 3:30 remaining.

Kyosuke, meanwhile, grunted. "Nice try Heicho ... almost had'em." He rubbed his head. He couldn't, for the life of him, think what could be done.
 
"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Lucas swore under his breath after he cut the com. This "message" had better be damn important. He thought as he continued to pry his way in the compartment. He thought for a moment about the custodians. How could he stop the damn count down and retrieve the information? Those damn custodians are the ones controlling those bombs. If only they were just normal data chips, then...Lucas's eyes lit up as he reopened the com.

"Okay, so I can't shoot them with remotes, and utterly destroying them is out. Shoi...or Ann...where would be the best place to sever the AI from the rest of the hardware. Or at least, a quick cut?" he asked. I'll make them fucking large, expensive data chips. he thought with a grin as the opening was just about large enough for him to fit. Just need a few more seconds. Then he could get inside and slash both bots with one fell swoop. Hell, the Kylies are fast enough.
 
The hole was almost made in the armor. Time was still running out fast, though.

Lucas' AIES brought up the schmatic of a Custodian android. In essence, there was no good place to cut it -- the android was cleverly constructed, creating failsafes here, there and just about anywhere major on the body. An attack of any sort would automatically trigger the self-destruct mechanism.

"Focus on talking with them," Ann said inside his AIES. "Present yourself as a neutral party."
 
"We've been trying that, Ann!" Lucas snarled before he could catch himself. He'd already had three of his own ideas flushed away as quickly as he presented them. It was, needless to say, getting on his nerves. He sighed and responded to his outburst. "I apologize Ann-Shoi. What would you suggest I say? We haven't come up with anything else." Lucas said in a calmer tone.

The hatch was finally large enough by that time, and Lucas leaped through it and finally got a glimpse at those damned bots.
 
What Lucas found was not at all what was expected.

The two androids were humans. At least, human looking. The specifications of a Custodian sprung up onto Lucas' HUD, and AIES quickly identified them as Assistant-class androids. They stood toward the back, surrounded by various cargo boxes of foodstuffs.

Both turned at once to Lucas. They had a blank look on their faces.

And then they promptly blew up.

...

A minute later, after not a small amount of shouting, Lucas' sensors were able to readjust themselves from the flash of light. The atmosphere was long gone inside the container, but the cargo boxes were secured and sealed anyway. The explosion had been enough to send Lucas back into the door he'd cut through. But other than that, he'd taken no damage at all.

"Hanley-Hei!" Kyosuke shouted.
 
Lucas's eyes widened as he saw the humanoid figures. "What the fu-" was all he got out before his readings blared from an energy spike in the custodians. Lucas paled as he saw the inevitable. He started to turn, but the force of the explosion, even without atmosphere, knocked him ass-over-tea kettle right out of the opening he came through moments before. He briefly shouted as his momentum took him into a harsh backspin. He traveled about 1.5 km before his AIES steadied him and brought him to a stand-still.

Lucas had already passed out from the g-forces by then.
 
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