RP: 5th XF [Finished]003-01 Rescue on Taiie IV (17th Armor Wing)

>ON Kasairyuu Wing, Virtuous Mission continues

The rescue team followed the lead of Roger's directions to Jack and Sayo's last known position. The river that they had found was close to 100 feet wide at portions. It seemed to be flowing along for hundreds of miles, originating in mountains far in the distance. The muddy water blanketed the surface, obscuring the view into the depths. Corro, the Intrepid, and the other armors met up just above the east bank of the river. "Alright team we are going to spread out in this area. Keep a 3-km radius at the most from this point. Roger and the Intrepid are guides for this, we're just the eyes.â€

>ON Kasairyuu Wing, Virtuous Mission continues (A lost cause)

"Akuro this is Cadet Adlich.â€

>ON Kasairyuu Wing, Virtuous Mission (The Fury, The Sorrow, and the End)

The pack of creatures continued their vicious, blood-crazed frenzy with no end in sight. Bishop was caught up in the middle of the swirling maelstrom created. One of the beasts collided with the submerged shuttle and, in its death throe's, knocked the shuttle loose from its crashed position. Tumbling to its side, the shuttle crashed to its side with a tremendous about of pressure. The last words of Nami continued to echo in Tachiko's head. Just below the medical neko, the alpha male of the pack was opening up its maw, the size of a Lion shuttle's loading ramp, and gaining ground on the possible meal.

Tachiko's eyes widened in horror at the final transmission. She was all but too lost in it to notice the huge thing breaking the surface of the water and making a lunge at her. Tachi began to shoot upwards, trying to get out of range of its might leap, but was perilously close to being too late to accelerate out of the way of those rows of teeth.

Roger had been only paying minor attention to the comm over the last couple of minutes as he was furiously planting explosive charges in the near and far soft dirt in an effort to create a second pathway to divert the furious river. He had just planted the last explosive, when the transmissions of the group came screaming over his radio. SHIT! He swore, and in fluid motion, armed himself with his GP-7 and bolted from his current position back to the river. The situation had indeed worsened; it appeared the group was being attacked by the indigenous reptilian species, angered through some recent event.

The armor pilots had plunged into the depths of the river in an attempt to extract the victim from the submerged shuttle, but as he looked, the shuttle was slowly rotating down the riverbed, no longer embedded into the dirt. Double Shit! If the damage to the Trotter was as bad as I think it was, that's going to fill the ENTIRE interior with water and drown the survivor inside.

Suddenly a noise caught his attention, and he snapped his head up, only to see TT desperately attempting to get out of reach of a huge member of the reptile family. With a rapid velocity check, he came to a shocking conclusion. She's not going to make it! With all other options rapidly disappearing, he did the only thing left he could think of. With a wild shout, he sprinted into the river as close as possible to the gigantic beast, shouldered his shotgun, and unleashed shell after shell of 00 buckshot into the scaly being's hide

Bishop looked around him; he was surrounded by these monsters. The ship he was trying to rescue was falling deeper underwater and would crack under pressure if it got any deeper and TT above him about to become lunch to these beasts. He thought for a spilt second before making up his mind. "Corro's not gonna let her die." He decided firmly and shot out of the ring as with the monsters close behind him heading for the ship. Catching up with the quickly falling shuttle he ignited the aether projection blades and began cutting into the ship. "You better be smart enough to hold you damn breathe! H shouted as he forced himself into the hole.

The alpha male's lunge barely missed the retreating medic; its teeth snapping shut within inches of Tachiko's feet. As it reared up for another lunge, Roger's buckshot impacted the beast. While the buckshot failed to penetrate the gnarled hide it did however change the creatures attention. Sure enough, the lumbering beast began to swim towards the young Nepleslian, gradually picking up speed.

Meanwhile, Bishop's attempts at splitting the Trotter's hull apart were met with success. Easily breaking through the out hull he opened up a hole wide enough to fit his armor through. But before he could slip inside the shuttle a massive vice-like grip seized his upper torso. One of the beasts was beginning to crush his him between its jaws. While the pointed teeth did not immediately penetrate the armor's metal skin, the pressure the monster was placing on him would surely crush the suit like a tin can soon.

For a moment, Tachi was just looking up at the sky, unwilling to look down as she tried to get away. The shotgun blasts and subsequent splashing didn't quite register with her right away, but then she looked down and saw the beast heading for a Roger Kard with smoking gun in hand, and she swooped by, strafing the thing with her Type 28Aon heavy.

Yes! It's turning away from TT! I did it! I di... wait.... Uh oh. Seeing the monster of a reptile begin to head toward him, Kard began panicking slightly. Damnit, damnit! He began to back up out of the river as quickly as possible, franticly searching through his explosives satchel to see if any remained. Don't tell me I used them all...

Bishop screamed in pain as the creature clamped down on him at one end and the pressure forced the bulkhead on him at the other. Trying to think properly Bishop tried to fend off the reptile about to bite his upper body off, he reactivated his energy blade and stabbed at the roof of it's mouth from the inside. "Take this you son of a bitch!" He screamed as he felt the teeth clench tight around the armor. He continued stabbing while trying to think of a backup plan. "Just die god damnit!"

The beast continued to follow after engineer, seemingly unfazed by Tachiko's shot, despite the fact the energy bolt opened up a decent sized wound in its side. A deep, guttural roar echoed from the alpha male's mouth as it opened up the huge maw to attempt to swallow Roger as he was fleeing. Roger was being slowed by the jungle's underbrush, but the creature was unhindered thanks in part to its size and power. Reaching into his pack, Roger felt one final satchel charge on the tips of his fingers.

Bishop's quick thinking quickly ended the melee that now engulfed Bishop and the creature. His first stab with the plasma stabbed through bone and muscle and penetrated the creature's brain, killing it instantly. His succeeding stabs removed the dead creature's maw from his armor, freeing up his movement again.

Tachi looked on in panic, pulling the trigger over and over again as she made strafing runs on the creature. She screamed down to Kard as it got too close to him for her to fire safely, and pulled up, looking down aghast. "KARD!"

... One left... Thank god. Dropping the shotgun, Roger withdrew the last charge with one hand and flicked open his detonation controller with the other. As the creature opened up is enormous jaws, which could crush his entire being in a single snap, the engineer could not help but remember an old adage he'd heard from a boxer in his hometown. "Kid, in boxing, there's one particular kind of punch we boxers really worship, and that's the counter-punch. Anybody can clobber another guy until they're black and blue in the face, but it takes something special to lower your guard and strike just as the enemy thinks he's got you. It looked like he would find out. Stopping his retreat path, he now stood his ground, waiting right until the creature was about to strike. Then and only then would it find out why you shouldn't trifle with an angry engineer. "Come and get me, you sunnuva bitch..."

Bishop breathed a little easier now that the beast's corpse had been lifted from him floating down to the bottom. That's when he remembered how fast he was falling. Still being crushed, by the remains of the Trotter. The Neko in there didn't have much time, and the pressure was starting to affect his instruments, not to mention his head which was beginning to feel as though it was splitting in two. "I've got no choices left, now or never!" He told himself as he felt a blood vessel pop and the salty taste of blood on his lips. He ripped the bulkhead apart, knowing he wasn't very far from the survivor, spotted her and made a grab for her, before speeding towards the surface.

The second Roger stopped was all the creature needed, lunging with its mouth wide open. The beast began to swallow Roger whole, the only thing preventing that being his legs braced at the back of the monster's throat. He had narrowly avoided being crushed by the jaws but things were in a hairy situation for the engineer.

Bishop grabbed hold of the survivor's forearm and felt the survivors other arm grab hold of his arm to hang on. As Bishop began to speed towards the surface, he felt a snag for a brief second before it came loose and he continued upward. Behind him Nami held on as best she could, despite a murky trail of red flowing behind her.

Tachiko put out a call over the comm, "SIR! We need assistance back at the crash site! Mayday~" The comm was cut off by the sound of a Type 28 again. Tachiko had flown around, staring into the maw of the thing and firing into its gullet over Kard's shoulder, trying to yank him free and fly off.

Roger saw the blast of energy fly by him into the beast, and turned. "TT! There's a wounded pilot you should be attending to! I'm fine, just got a little ahead of my self. Treat her wounds first!" Roger yelled, still trying to fight off the powerful muscles of the beast. The explosive charge had, miracle upon miracles, gone straight down the gullet of the gigantic maw. But detonation right now meant obliterating himself, which was unsurprisingly, not an appealing idea to him. With all of his might, he attempted to free himself even slightly, but it was of no use. Damnit... I should have realized a counter-punch takes training... I just wish screwing up meant becoming a KO as opposed to becoming a BM...

Suddenly his fingers grasped around a hard cylindrical tool attached to his backpack. The plasma torch! There was no way in hell this thing was rated for a situation like this, but when the chips were down, he really couldn't care less about the manufacturer's recommended usage. It was going to be engineering all the way, or death. Time to find out which.

Bishop was trying to keep his eyes open. He was disoriented and felt as thought near death but he knew two things; that this way was up and that he couldn't afford to stop. Just a little further. He told himself as he reached the surface of the river, not far downstream from the groups position. His helmet breaking through the water as he saw the sun again and laid the survivor on the ground and seeing what was going on he shouted into the comm his voice hoarse but audible. "TT! Let me worry about that, help her!" He shouted.

The blast from Tachiko's Type 28 seemed to aggravate the wounded beast even more as it began to try even harder to swallow it's current prey and move on to the more annoying one. Roger was able to free the plasma torch from his back and was able to ready it. Above the group the sound of a sonic boom sounded overhead as Corro's armor began decelerating towards the two non-powered armor personnel. He landed feet first on the spine of the creature causing it to buckle and wrench open its mouth. "Move it!â€

>ON Kasairyuu Wing, Virtuous Mission (Jungle Search)

The Intrepid swooped in low over the rescue team, setting itself down on a larger section of the river's shore. A few seconds after the Lion shuttle set down, the neko pilot exited the ship from its main door. She saluted Cadet Adlich as he was busy analyzing some of the topographical maps he had been making while the others were working on rescuing the shuttle survivor. Not seeing a response from the Nepleslian, the pilot quietly moved over to Tachiko and began to help her move the wounded NH-17 into the makeshift hospital inside the Intrepid. The group seemed to have a breather to catch their breath and make any necessary adjustments.

Bishop was wiping the vomit from his face. He kept quiet, ashamed of his outburst and weakness. "You've seen death before, your tougher then this come on." He told himself he quelled the terrible feeling in his gut and rejoined the rest of the group to see if he could be of any use before the search party began again.

Roger rubbed the sore spot on his ribs where the large reptile had attempted to crush the very life out of him. "Huh... huh... heh..." he gasped, adrenaline slowly leaving his system. He gave a quick nod towards the Wing Commander. "Thanks for helping me out there, Commander. Guess I owe you one."

Corro remained silent at Roger's comment. He wasn't one to mention "owingâ€

>ON Kasairyuu Wing, Virtuous Mission (The Lost)

Roger's progress with the wall on the Trotter went by quickly. He was exactly right about being a space between the panels. All that was left to do was push the section he cut apart and move into the cockpit. The inky blackness of the cockpit was only lit by the Super Phalanx's headlamp. The pilot chairs were ripped from their floor position but the panels looked untouched. The front consoles were crushed like the nose section of the ship. But there were still no bodies.

Inside the Intrepid Tachiko and the NH-17 pilot continued to tend to Nami. The survivor's wounds had begun to close, but she also had to recover from the shock of the wounds. Nami lay quiet on the stretcher with her eyes lightly closed and breathing slowed.

As Bishop entered the darkness of the cave, his sensors indicated damp moisture clinging to the walls. A massive amount of moss grew at the entrance, half covered by the shadow of the cave. The depression seemed to go down for a few more feet beyond his light's range. The sensors also picked up the audible sound of breathing inside the cave.

Tachiko looked over Nami as she lay there. "Nekos may be well known for their capacity for recovery and regeneration, but this was going to take a long, long time... and that is probably with help from PnuGen." Tachi gave another sigh, pushing something else through the IV to encourage regrowth, and turned to the pilot. "Well, the problem with hemosynthesis, is, you need, well, blood to do it." Another sigh, then she put a comforting hand lightly on Nami's brow, using telepathy to spare her the physical effort of speech, "We're taking you back soon, looking for everyone else. We'll take care of you now."

Good lord... it looks like somebody came in here with a bomb. What the hell happened in here? The chairs had been strewn about the cockpit, one having been forced into a crevice in the ceiling. Roger had to struggle to get around it in the murky water, as the armor easily made him a foot taller and half that wider than usual, but with a bit of effort, he was able to slip past the mess and make his way to the front floor panels. Well how about that... The panels were indeed in unusually good shape for having been involved in a shuttle crash, their pull rings still quite functional. Roger gave a quick yank on the four present, easily removing the steel sheets and exposing the computer. Now he would have to be careful; these things were military hardened, but there was no telling whether the crash had compromised the environmental shield around the electronics.

Though slightly unnerving the sound of breathing was relieving in one way. Well, you are alive then. He said to himself, repeating his message over the Kylie's megaphone. "This is Itto Hei Bishop Kuroi of the fifth expeditionary fleet, please respond." He called out into the darkness, the cave starting to noticeably head downward.

The pilot nodded her head at the medic's statement. She wasn't one to question the expert in this situation. As Tachiko placed her hand on Nami's brow she seemed to recoil for a second, until she heard the voice. TT, is it really that bad? the survivor replied back using telepathy.

Sure enough the computer was there for Roger. The impact cushions seemed to have prevented any harm. The computer, roughly the size of a briefcase, would require careful disconnection from its housing. But it looked as it the shock of the crash had loosened most of the bolts holding the cover in place. The structure of the Trotter seemed fine, it hadn't collapsed on Roger yet.

The response Bishop had hoped for did not come. Instead he was greeted with the sight of 7 people lying on the floor of the cave. They wore the standard Star Army uniforms and the majority seemed to be nekos. However there was a strange patch of moss on each of the bodies. The moss seemed to be a brighter green than the ones Bishop had seen at the entrance. One of the personnel seemed to shift unconsciously and groan. The moss on them moved ever so slightly as the shifted. At Bishop's feet a small patch of the moss seemed to be crawling at his feet.

"Well, You're lucky you aren't a Geshirin, that's all, Nami." Tachi smiled reassuringly down at her, and took a closer look at the... stumps, recording data that would be useful later.

Bingo! Roger opened up the comm channel to Corro. "Commander, I've located the ship's computer; looks like it's in good shape. If we're in luck, maybe we'll know what the hell happened out here before the day's up. I'm going to go ahead and extract it, then I'll meet you topside. Rog out." Lucky for him, Ketsurui Shipyards had standardized most of their parts; removing the computer would only take the use of a socket set and the suit's flashlight. Removing the tools from the case slung over his shoulder, he took a quick look over the whole of the situation. Wait... He had just noticed the loosened bolts on the cover; if the cover came off, the main assembly would be flooded with water, more than likely damaging the data he wanted to retrieve. With a grumble, he began tightening down the cover, while looking for the housing bolts.

As Tachiko inspected the wounds that were once Nami's legs her data record indicated that there was large amounts of mercury oxide in portions of the wounds. The contaminant was concentrated at the wound openings and was most likely from the wounds' exposure to the water of the river.

The housing bolts on the casing were all there, except for one. In the murky darkness of the cockpit, it could be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Of those that were on the casing already, they would require an adequate tightening before the internal assembly and circuits would be watertight. But beyond Roger, through the shattered cockpit viewport several dancing luminous bodies could be see in the murky blackness of the river.

Tachi looked down at her reading, then over at the treatments she had available. Mercury Oxide is usually an ingested poison, like a kid swallowing a battery... She gets out some protein packs and pops them open, applying some topically, as well as pushing some of it through the IV. That should take care of the Mercury... She grimaced as she pulled out a catheter kit... that IV had been running a while now. "Hold on Nami, you're going to feel some pressure..."

This always happens... why can't they just tape an extra bolt onto the side of these things? Everyone knows you're always going to lose one somewhere along the way... As Roger mulled over appropriate steps to take to ensure the computer retained its functionality when he removed it, he caught motion out of the corner of his eye. Having learned his lesson with the giant reptile, he tucked the socket back into its case and clicked on the suit's plasma projector, having decided the EM-9 SIAR's effectiveness underwater might be suspect.

What's wrong? It can't be infected, I mean it's not possible? Nami seemed to protest slightly. Her heart rate began to spike, indicating the tension rising in her. Nami still did not open her eyes, so she did not see the catheter now in Tachiko's hands. There was a quiet beeping sound from the cockpit of the shuttle. The pilot moved to intercept the message and began a quiet conversation with someone. Then she called out from the cabin. "TT we have 7 people coming in unconscious, status unknown! They'll be here in 2 minutes!â€

>ON Kasairyuu Wing, Virtuous Mission (An End in Sight)

The Lion shuttle was quickly rising through the clouds of Taiie IV and into its upper atmosphere. As the shuttle rose at escape velocity the pilot rapidly sent out an emergency signal to the Akuro, warning of the possible contamination of the shuttle and the need for the ships hazardous materials team to be ready. Those crewmembers from the Trotter seemed to be in a more serious shock induced coma. Corro felt himself having a much harder time breathing as he sat on the floor of the Intrepid's cargo bay. Bishop on the other hand, was completely fine, and he had been carrying more of the survivors. "5 minutes to touch down!â€

>ON Kasiaryuu Wing

The spray down of Roger, Bishop, and the Intrepid's pilot took less than 5 minutes. The Haz-Mat teams were exceptionally well trained, as they had to be on exploration mission when who knows what could be found. The armor pilots were guided to spots inside their stalls far from the ceremony podium and the chairs being set up. The armor bay seemed to return to the busy atmosphere that it had possessed just moments before the rescue team returned.

Meanwhile, Tachiko, Corro, and the survivors from the Trotter were quickly taken into the Akuro's main sickbay with the Haz-Mat team. Once inside the sliding doors shut behind them and a clicking sound echoed in the room, letting them know they were locked in. One of the Haz-Mat team members opened up Tachiko's gurney and motioned for her to proceed with what she needed. "The Section 17A Hazardous Materials Response Unit is ready to assist you in any way Santo Hei.â€