RP: YSS Goban Episode 01: Communiqué

The minor first aid and Luca's own healing abilities were slowly kicking in, though a Yamataian body was not going to keep up for very long. Luca's body had forced his unconscious state so it could focus on closing the wounds.

As Jason scrambled aside, the two grenade shots zipped over his head and into the Custodian's cover.

Now Jason was hurled away by the force of the two shots. More splinters flew everywhere; the Custodian received several of them, but it did not appear permanently damaged, and it was not thrown off guard by the explosions. Undaunted, it leapt from its cover and near Jason, who had his knife out, ready to stab the hell out of the robot's leg.

But what Lucas saw next put an end to any further attack.

As the Custodian opened its mouth, the old man stepped up behind it. The Custodian, who must have noticed this, considering it could see through the skin on its head, did nothing.

Instead, it looked directly at Lucas as the old man stepped behind it. And just as the robot's Keel fired, Lucas, Jason and the Heicho could swear they saw a grin on the old man's face.

A brief moment of extreme vertigo washed over the crew of the Goban. Then, darkness.

Galar realized he was dreaming. He was on some sort of space station above a green planet barely visable from the window. He started walking in a direction that an avid walker would take to find the longest route around the circular station. He came to a doorway, one that required a verification of identity before it would open. The door slid open without any promting and standing there was --

Galar gasped, sat up and eyes widening with pain, sank back down to the floor. With a dim realization he thought, I still have no idea where I am... I dont think I'm sleeping, I mean, that pain was more than a simple pinch! I'm definately awake. He turned his head, saw luca sprawled out on the ground about 10 meters away. There was a lot of blood. Galar started crawling towards him as quickly as his pained body would let him. As he reached Luca's prone form, he rasped, "You okay buddy? You still owe me that drink!"

He started without a reply to bandage Luca's wounds. Out of the corner of his eyes, Galar could see the other prone forms of his comrades all over the room. None of them seemed to be dead; Luca seemed to be in the worst condition of all of them.

((OOC note: ironic isnt it, I have a friend waiting for orders, wants to be transferred to this ship, and is a medic!))

The old man, Neko and Custodian were gone. All that remained was the heavily scared man behind where Lucas was.

Luca could still feel what had happened behind him, including the arm bandage that Lucas had administrated as well as the grenade-rounds going off at the Custodian, however he couldn't hear anything. Luca was already blacked out before the Custodian let loose it's Keel.

To him, all was silent for a few minutes untill he could feel movement in the ground, then he felt being picked up and placed somewhere. The hands who picked him up felt soft to the touch, very soft.

Who is... this? Luca pondered as he was heaved towards an unknown location, Who would help us?

This carried state happened for quite a time-span then Luca was placed down somewhere and sprawled out. Fortunately, his hearing came back shortly afterwards and he heard footsteps and hatches closing. He still couldn't move because his body was still in bad shape, but it had stablised to prevent any further damage.

Somebody cares for us after all...

Luca decided to rest for a several minutes before he heard the frenzied sounds of Galar's wakeup and his callout.

Galar? Is that... Luca thought when he realised: Everyone's okay!

Luca began to feel his strength return, he could move his fingers and toes, he was slipping back into conciousness. He could open his eyes and see as well.
He looked at Galar begin to wrap a bandage on his shrapaneled right arm.
Luca opened one eye, peeked at Galar and swung his uninjured left arm up at Galar's bandage-wrapping hands, giving them a tight grip.

"Is that all you have to say after I got pumped full of lead and iron!?" Luca commented to Galar after his comment on drink, Luca couldn't move around too much though, "I'm okay, the bleeding's stopped at last, but I can't take any hard activity or it'll open up again."
This must have given the poor bugger a heart attack. Luca reflected as he chuckled softly to himself.

Galar laughed, happy that Luca was awake. He looked around seeing that most of his comrades were now getting up, then he set Luca down and walked over to Lucas, who was having trouble getting up on account of his ribs and the custodian's blasts had taken a lot out of him as it had everyone. He said, more to himself than anyone else, "I feel like a medic!" altough Lucas turned to him as he said so. Galar helped Lucas up to his feet.

Kyosuke seemed to be okay; as Galar watched, he got up and started rubbing his head and mouthing some unidentifiable curse-words.

Lucas jerked awake from the terror of seeing his dead brothers. That was the second time that damn custodian knocked him out. He felt a tickle on his forehead where he appearantly hit it as he fell unconcious. Wiping the blood away, Lucas glanced around the now quiet cargo room. He found that either everyone was alright, or at least stablizing, and there was no more custodian or old man. And the neko in the tank was gone too. All that was left was the unconcious man that Lucas had shot with a stun blast to the face. He sighed and groaned as he slowly brought himself to his feet, despite his ribs.

"Well...since everyone seems to be in one piece," Hanley-Hei said as he paused a moment to cough and grimaced as his ribs exploded with pain. "I motion that we get the fuck out of here twenty minutes ago, and take that dirt bag with us. You know, before anything else decides to try and blow us away." He said while he crossed the room help Galar get Luca out of there, all the while wondering where their own damn nekos were.

Jason dreamed of his former days of life at the academy. Always near the top, always being the best he was. His dream violently snapped forward to the gun fight that had taken place not long ago. where he was useless unable to do anything to help his comrades. Being saved from the custodian by Luca and now who he remembered being shot thinking that he was dead. silently Jason awoke from his dream feeling like shit. Hearing nothing but friendly voices he got up slowly and walked over to Galar and Luca.

"Remind me to buy you a drink Luca, for saving my life." he turned slightly as he heard Lucas voice about leaving. "As much as I agree with it i say nay. I say we go back to the ship, get us heavy ordnance, and find those things and blow them to hell and back...sir."

Kyosuke had managed -- barely -- to climb to his feet. He held onto his SMG and shined its light over at the others, as the lights were still out. "Fuck that," he said simply. "I'm not taking shit anywhere, except you bastards. I'll tell you what, though, I've definitely had enough of CustodHOLY WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"

The light of his SMG had just fully shone on the man.

The scars, which Lucas hadn't really examined yet, weren't the kind received from fighting. They were surgical somehow, and very finely done. And the ears ...

"The fucking ears. What in the hell is with his ears? There are Neko ears grafted to his fucking head!" Kyosuke bent down and looked closer, and indeed, there were many patches of skin on the man's face that didn't match.

" ... Alright, Hanley-Hei, maybe you're right. SAINT might want to examine this asshole. Vanatosk, Pavone, haul him up. Travkai, Heicho, you're point and rear." He tried to contact the ship, but there was nothing on the other end. "Goddamn comm -- Hanley, try getting the ship with your comm. Let's get out of here."

Luca was feeling much better although there was some shrapanel still inside him, he made his way up slowly and managed to stand up although his wounds had gotten the better of him beforehand.

"Good to see you're okay, Shoi, I was getting worr--" Luca told his commander before he turned to what he was focused on, "WHAT IN THE TWELVE FLYING FUCKS ARE THOSE ON HIS HEAD?!"
Luca almost fell over as he pointed to the unknown man's head and with a gape:
"...what...are...those... ...on...his...head...?"
Luca tried to keep a cool head and follow his Shoi's orders, he gave him a nod and walked over towards the freakishly eared man's body.

He must be a fanboy of something or other... Luca thought as he swallowed a huge lump in his throat.

"Galar, I'll take the head, you take his legs." Luca said as he made a forced smile as he moved towards the man's head and began to heave his body from under the arms.

"This day just keeps getting more and more fucked up." Lucas sighed as he pressed his comm again. Still no luck.
"All I'm getting is static Skip, and our confectionary-named nekos aren't answering either." He said with a sigh and looked at his "prize" stun.

Lucas sniffed in distain. "Who would, in their right mind, go cutting themselves up like that?" he whispered as he ran his hand through his own azure hair. Suddenly the thought of the creature's wicked smile flashed through Hanley's mind as he remembered blasting the fucker in the face.

"May I make a suggestion as to tying his limbs before we go hauling him around? In case he wakes up?" Lucas said as he withdrew his guns and ammo. He put the ammo in his cargo pockets and slid the 10mm into the waist of his slacks. He then took off his belt and offered it to Luca to use as a binding strap.

Kyosuke looked at the man, then at Lucas, then at the man again. "Pavone, put him down a second, would you?"

Luca did so.

Drawing his NSP and setting it to stun, he put two more light stun shots into the deformed man's body. He then holstered his pistol.

"That'll do until we get to the Goban. Hurry up folks."

"Huh..." Lucas snorted as the two stun shots hit the man. "Nevermind then." He said as he put his belt and effects back in place. He decided it'd be best to just follow behind Luca and Galar until they reached the ship, and let the Heicho bring up the rear.

Ah, the ship. I'll finally get to rest after this nightmare of... he checked his chrono, ...the past 25 hours. Yes, sweet dreams and all.
Lucas thought as he grinned and followed everyone.

"Commander may I use your gun? that custodian kinda destroyed my gun using its Hex gun. " Jason said as he stood over the man Lucas had taken down. Taking notice of his neko ears and everyone's remarks about his appearance he would just let out a sigh. "I say we wake his ass up and get him to talk about what exactly is going on."

Kyosuke heard the complaint as everyone was trudging back down the long, dark hall toward the ship. "Good point, Travkai." He handed Jason his pistol, preferring the SMG anyway. "But he's not going to wake up for hours."

After they'd finally reached the door they'd started at, Kyosuke opened the door and snorted. The lights were out in the bay, and the Goban's navigation lights weren't on.

"Fuckin' ... " He shone the light up to where he thought the antigravity corridor started on the ship.

Nothing. He rose the light higher. Nothing still. He started poking his light here and there, anywhere he was sure the Goban was supposed to be.

Zero. The Goban was gone.

Galar dropped the man's legs as he stared agape at where the Goban should have been. "Hey, Kyosuke-shoi," he said, "do you know the concept of murphy's law?"

Jason's mouth just dropped open as reality hit him. their ship...HIS SHIP was gone. "You have to be dry fucking me?!?!" Jason just looked at the empty bay. "I swear if i ever find that custodian, girl and the old man I'm going to stick my foot so far up their ass they will never recover from it.!!!!" Jason just clenched his left fist and slammed it into the ground as hard as he could. "Commander permission to find a communication array and start sending SOS signals?" he said with anger in his voice.

Luca was quick to agree with Jason, he hadn't even gotten a chance to explore the ship, let alone open his suitcase after he left home.

A tinge rage built up inside Luca as he recalled the events and reached a conclusion. The old man and his Custodian along with the Neko have stolen the ship. That small tinge began to grow rapidly... After hearing Jason's interjection, he told him,
"Hey Jason, that's a good idea, do you think we've already thought of that!?" Luca snarled as the anger began to bottle up.
Jason and Lucas could swear seeing Luca grinding his teeth and growling in an inhuman tone accompanied with a vein popping out of his forehead and his fists clenched white. Luca then took a huge breath and began to shout:
"DAAAAMMMNNIIIIIIIIT!!!!" came the wrath of Luca's voice, people swear they could have heard it from a mile off. He must have startled most of his crew as well. Luca was even left wheezing after his roar. He turned to Kyosuke and asked:
"Kyosuke-Shoi, Do I have orders to kill that old man and his Custodian?"

Luca almost collapsed because of this outcry, he felt drained. But it felt good to let off some steam, but not like this.
"Sorry 'bout what I said to ya, Jason. You don't need to get me a drink."

"You have orders to shut up and let me think." Kyosuke already had his flask in hand. There was only a few drops left; he frowned and looked at his chronograph.

"We don't have time to figure out the how or why. We're going to assume the worst and figure the Neko and old man stole our fucking ship." It was hard to think clearly, yet the answer was obvious. "We also don't have time to call for help. We need to find one, quickly."

Kyosuke ran to the edge of the bay and looked down. Immediately below, though hard to see beyond the lip, was a second bay. Its lights were on. "We need to go down somehow." It was easily a 60-meter drop.

"Huh. Well I'll be dipped in shit." Luas muttered as he came to the same conclusion that the others had. "If and when I get back home, I'd better be getting a promotion." He grumbled loudly.

The Goban was gone. His suitcase was gone. Everything that had been issued to him was gone. Lucas blinked and checked his back pocket to gratefully find his cash card.
Whew, close one. he thought as he put it back and pondered over his lost playing cards. They weren't particularly valuable to him, but the deck was a good one, and it was hard to get a good deck these days. He sighed again as he dragged himself over to a cargo container and sat upon it.

"And I was just starting to like that Toffee chick too." He muttered. Then something clicked in his brain. It shouldn't have happened. The Goban should have rejected the notion of being captured outright! There were at least five fully-trained, self-aware Nekovalkyrja sprites onboard. An old man, a broken bot, and an unconcious girl couldn't, couldn't have taken over a fully functional (minus main weapons of course) Star Army vessel armed with live war-people. Not unless that was their own mission as well.

"Uhm..Shoi. I don't think we're going to be late for anything." Lucas said quietly, but so everyone could hear. "Maker help us, I don't even think we're supposed to be alive." Lucas then proceeded to explain his reasons behind the missing starship and sighed as he reached his last point. "In fact Shoi, I don't believe that even calling for help would be a good idea, lest they turn around and blow us away. Well, at least not yet."

" ... Wait a minute."

Kyosuke thought for a second ... the ship couldn't have been stolen because the Nekos would fight back. Of course they would. It made sense. After all, how could they steal a ship full of Nekos? The NH-29 model wasn't so crappy to have an entire squad get killed by a beat-up Custodian. And Ann would've seen --

Something that Ann had said. About the NH-X ... the man. What he knew about them. He knew what it was. How would he have known?

"Oh fucking shit." Kyosuke turned and looked back at the man. "Shit. Shit shit ... SHIT!" He shown his light onto him, but looked closer, at the man's mouth. Yes. Yes, it had to be the same -- the same mouth as the old man.

Kyosuke looked down at himself with his light. He looked for a cut, any blood at all -- and found it on his leg.

The Neko had taken his DNA.

"NO!" He shouted. "THE OLD MAN! HE WAS THE FUCKING TWIN!" Kyosuke pointed at the comatose man in their possession. "This is the guy we were supposed to meet, and that fucking Neko ... FUCK!"