RP Honeybear don't care

Power Generation

Miko looked towards Zan then back at the Kodian. "Glad Jenny and Gene are ok, can't say that same would be the case for everyone above ground however." Miko then lifted his arm and shown on his wrist screen what was headed there way. "So yeah, have this giant rock to deal with, chasing after bad guys. You know, typical Yam stuff if I am being brutally honest." He put his arm down and looked the Kodian up and down. "So wouldn't happen to know anything about this would you. Also time is short so please do hurry quickly." He once more lifted his arm and pointed to the count down on the screen.

Control Room
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere

Sassa didn’t think of what she might say at a tribunal, nor did the prospect of one cross her computerized mind to begin with. The Infantry Neko thought only of the wounded Ranger at her side and the mission itself, both of which she cared about, perhaps more than a few civilian Kodians who were already doomed to suffer a long, horrific death...

Right?

And yet, the chorus of her Nekovalkyrja blood sang an ever more insistent, demanding melody, which Sassa could no longer ignore. Beneath her helmet’s unreadable mask, sweat beaded across the Infantry Neko’s brow as she weighed what few options were left to her. However, when her senses registered the Ranger opening fire, she could no longer hesitate. The aether plasma cannons on her Molly’s back snapped onto separate targets—the two Kodians closest to Sanda, so as to protect her wounded battle sister—and Sassa willed them to fire in disciplined, yet ruthless fashion, the weapons shifting from one Kodian to another as Sassa aimed them with dedicated sub-processes spun up specifically for the purpose. After two seconds of firing, the Infantry Neko flew forward with dazzling speed via her armor’s Integrated CFS, her aether katana viciously lashing out as she threw wide, slashing cuts towards the zombified Kodians, which were intended to hack off heads and entire torsos, possibly splitting some of her targets in twain. All the while, she unleashed salvos of aetheric fire from the aether plasma gun on her left forearm towards the enthralled workers, her attacks almost as savage and merciless as a berserker Nekovalkyrja of eras past.

She had no intention of stopping, until all of the zombified Kodians inside the control room were left bleeding on the floor, their inert, ursine forms bereft of life and soul.

Fellwalker crew cabin
SMERC
Gashmere

The sky of Gashmere lit up with Aether Fire. On the night side of the planet, the brightness of the discharges turned the sky into day and various animals thinking it was morning, began to awake. On the day side, the crisscrossing lines of fire outshone the sun. After several minutes of sustained fire, it finally stopped.

The intercom in the cabin squawked to life, "This is being broadcast from 7th fleet in orbit."

".... and broadcast it to the system." Admiral Fletcher said, looking to the screens that would show him the General Assembly.

"There are now several asteroids still on course for Gashmere one for each member of this assembly. Each and every one of you must decide for your people if you want Yamatai's help or not. You have sixty seconds from my mark to vote, and there will be no abstentions, not voting is a vote against Yamatai's help. Mark."

"We are part of Yamatai, we fight and bleed alongside each other, and have for years? Is this guy a lunatic?" The pilots could be heard saying.

"As you wish." Fletcher said, lances of white aether fire launching out of the ships of seventh fleet, destroying more asteroids.

"The asteroids still in flight will kill a hundred and eight million Kodians. In light of this irresponsibility, I am immediately disbanding the General Assembly of Gashmere, assuming direct control, and choosing more wisely then they." A second salvo of white lighting flashed out, destroying all but one of the asteroids.

"In deference to those who wish to see their own people die. Let this crater warn you about what could happen if Yamatai did what they wanted. Nothing." Then deep in a part of Gashmere, the asteroid hit with the force of ten megatons, forming a crater almost two kilometers in diameter. It was an impact that would leave a scar on the planet, but wouldn't kill it. He had chosen that one specially because the estimated death toll was zero.

"This, this is a violation of the treaty of Gashmere!" One of the former members of the assembly sputtered.

"No, a violation of the treaty would be something like a Battleship. Oh, wait, you already did that didn't you?"

"THAT FUCKING WASN'T US! WE DIED IN THE THOUSANDS! They are still pulling bodies of Kodians, and Yamatians from the wreckage! Why the hell is he doing this?" The pilots seems almost frantic.

"And killing citizens of Yamatai is an appropriate response to that?" Another Assembly member shouted.

"Ah, so you do want to be part of Yamatai after all. Your vote said otherwise. What a surprise, since you've been acting like enemy combatants. Yamatai to this point has been pleased to allow you to work out your own squabbles without our interference. However, the Anti-Xenoists have declared war on Yamatai, and so it is war we shall give them. You condemned millions of your own people to death citizen, fortunately for them we chose more wisely." Fletcher spoke cooly over the transmission.

"Do you think you can get away with these threats? All of Gashmere will rise against you!" The Kodian assembly member raged.

"I think the people of Gashmere have too long tolerated an ideology that values suicidal independence over the lives of their fellow Kodians. It is a death cult that is a danger to themselves and to all of Gashmere and apparently now to Yamatai as well. We will no longer allow your petty internal squabbles to spill on over to us or to our people." Fletcher responded.

One of the pilots could be heard openly sobbing. "My father was killed at Glimmergold, my uncle and aunt both fought the Mishu, they both bear the scars to this day. And Yet. This is how we are treated. Some kind of second rate worthless trash. How could they do this? Why would they do this? We have proudly stood with them and shed blood alongside them." A moment of silence.

"I...I don't know how most Kodians will react to this. You two back there, as long as you are aboard, we won't let anything happen to you, we would rather die than see our allies harmed....."

@Miko @Zanven Brax

The Elderly Kodian patched Miko and Zanven into the local comms net from his console, allowing them to hear the exchange as well.

Power Generation

Miko was not sure how to feel about all this. He was but a simple chef and fighter, leaving the politics to others. For him when things got political, the innocent die so those in power can have a pissing match. Which he couldn't help but smile knowing this group just picked a fight with the wrong crowd. More so now that the 7th fleet was in orbit. Miko was not sure what kind of power play this was and how Yamatai got pulled into this mess. It seemed like the Kodian were getting a new overlord. One willing to crash land a rock into the side of a planet as a lesson. Granted this seemed like someone Yam would put into power, brutal, effective.

Miko looked down at his hands for a moment. Just what was it they were planning to do here. Be the saviors or the pawns for this war. He did not expect anything good to come of this and hoped the team had done things by the book. Had they done something out of step this could bring them much trouble. He smiled towards the old bear. "Thank you for patching us into this signal. It was, enlightening."

Hallway
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere

77, Sacre, and the Black Wolf squad saw the Kodians first, they seemed to have completely secured the floors above and were sending in at least two full squads of power armored troops to reinforce the TF Piglet Troops. The ran down the hallway and one squad went to Power Generation, while the other angled to the control room. As the control room team rounded the corner, all they saw were the power armored forms of Sassa and Sanda putting down the last of the unarmed, unarmored, and wounded Kodian civilians. After a few moments of shock, the NCO of the Kodian Squad brought his heavy rifle to bear.

"YOU ARE UNDER ARREST! DROP OR POWER DOWN YOUR WEAPONS IMMEDIATELY AND EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!"

Gashmere

A broadcast from a series of satellites in orbit sent out a feed of the control room to anyone who wanted or cared to pic up the video. Two Star Army troopers cutting down the civilians with absolute ruthless precision, just as a Star Army Admiral and his fleet declared martial law, and held a figurative gun to the head of each member of the planetary government.

It was a dark day on Gashmere.

Fellwalker crew cabin
SMERC
Gashmere

Itami

He appreciated the chance that Nara gave him to step back from his offer of sharing a quarter with Nara, however, he did have to agree that it was likely safest for those of TF Piglet to remain near to each other, especially with what was going on at the hands of Admiral Fletcher. Itami expected that there would be quite a bit of blowback from the enforcement of martial law. "Nara, I feel that regardless of how quickly you may heal from this, with what SAoY is pushing, I feel that it might be safest for us to stick close to each other, my friend." Unconsciously, Itami felt for the blade hidden in his boot and the GSP at his hip, being in his TARSA, he had needed to leave his revolver in the connex which had held his armor and weapontry.

Hallway
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere

77

He watched with interest as the two squads who had been working to catch up to them. As they split and went to both rooms, to show he was no threat, both his hands and arms returned to normal, as he then waited to see what was about to happen next. When he heard the group that went in after Sanda and Sassa yell that someone was under arrest, he had to wonder what was going on.

Hallway
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere
Miko gave the indication to the strike team that the room had been cleared. As Miko walked back towards the control room were he heard shouting. He quickly ran towards the noise and seen weapons had been drawn on his team mates. Had he made a mistake and these were just more of the bad guys. It was hard to know since they all looked alike anyways. He lifted his weapon and shouted towards the group. "Easy there boss, I'd hate to get blood all over your pretty power armor. Care to explain the hostilities?"

Miko stood his ground and waited for a reply. During this tense moment, he started to get static feeds that came in over his comms. It was becoming very clear that something bad had just happened and the world just seen it play out in real time. Without a reply back he lowered his weapon and let it drop to his side. It would seem they had lost this battle.

When his kick did nothing he was once again left speechless...he was not weak, and in power armor that was more than just a statement, but when Miko came up and strolled in and spoke calmly as if this was just another day out playing golf Zanven scoffed in his armor before removing his sights from the Kodian The words that were spoken to Zanven were not ignored, but Zanven wished to speak no longer until this was all done so he could fill out his report and move on. "Fuck this..." He said to himself, making sure his mic was not on as he was tired of literally everything he tried to just feel like a drop of rain missing the bucket. He followed orders, he did what Sanda wished...he tried to fight for the honor of the Resurgence, but he just felt like the ass end of a bad joke.

He let do Miko as he wished as he did not want to have any more blunders, soon Miko left and left the two to themselves Zanven did not speak anymore to the Kodian but when they were patched into the comms it seemed the elder Kodian was just a simple worker. Zanven left the room and moved to the control room with his rifle no longer trained or even at the ready. That was when he was caught at the door by a squad in power armor, static filled the comms and then they heard what happened. Zanven looked at the soldiers in power armor before him.

"What, so that's it? Mission failed and you are our evac? Or are just some of us getting the shaft here?" Zanven said in a tone that was not his usual one before he then began to walk forward to go to the remaining members of his team. Whether he was stopped or not remained to be seen...

Hallway
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere

With the Kodian NCO's arrival, Sacre moved her team forward into the control room with him. She looked around at the dead Kodians, slowing putting together a picture of what had happened, assuming that Sassa and Sanda had a good reason for what they did. So it was something of a surprise when the NCO snapped his weapon up and shouted at the pair. "Egg-sucking..." Sacre said, going over how the scene might look to the NCO.

"We won't need that Dunderhead. We are still in an active combat zone, so our focus needs to be on our enemies. Sassa, Sanda, your role here is done. Aten, make copies of everything. Ven, Makoto, escort Sassa and Sanda back up and the four of your station yourselves in a safe secure location until relieved through your chain of command. That means me." Sacre turned to the NCO, "I advise you to give two of your soldiers the same orders. Estrid, go with them and make sure that nothing is destroyed or rights violated." Sacre said, carefully wording her orders to avoid admitting any kind of guilt while still effectively placing the two under arrest by someone who's orders they could legally follow and securing the evidence for later review by someone who probably had entirely too much brass on their shoulders.

Hallway
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere

77

The mercenary would watch as the a member of the squad who entered the control room nod and disappear down the hallway, presumably to go topside and report something.

Control Room

Sanda sliced and stabbed with her straight silver as she moved through the crowd of zombiefied Kodians. She wasn't sure how many she had killed, not more than five. They weren't really putting up a fight. She was less interested in killing them than she was in just keeping them away from herself. Her goal was the master control panel. Finally she was through. The Ranger jumped onto the platform in a single leap and began franticly examining the controls, holstering her revolver. This had always been a fear in the back of her mind. That they would finally reach the control room and have no idea how to stop the asteroids!

"Vamos vamos vamos. ¿Dónde están los malditos controles?" Sanda cursed as she desperately tried to make sense of the controls. Her countdown timer was less than five minuets. No! She couldn't fail now! She wouldn't fail now! Wait! There! Technical data on the various asteroids. This must be it. Sanda skimmed the information trying to figure out exactly how to change the trajectory. "Aaaa!" Sanda cried in frustration. She was a soldier! Not a damn tech!

Sanda hadn't been paying much attention to what was going on in the room. She knew Sassa had her back and would keep her safe while the Ranger tried to work the controls. But when someone suddenly yelled something that Sanda didn't catch she looked up. The rest of the Task force had caught up, along with some Kodian troops. Excellent! Maybe they knew how to work these controls.

"About time! Hurry! I've got the controls pulled up but I'm not a tech. See what you can make of them." Sanda called out as she continued to staring at the controls. When no one moved she looked back up in confusion. "What the hell are you waiting for! We have less than three minuets!" She yelled. Still no one moved. "¿Qué demonios te pasa? Vamas!" Sanda all but screamed. She was starting to shake with anger that no one was moving to stop the asteroid from moving.

The NCO Kodian repeated what he had said. Sanda stood dumbfounded. Not even beginning to fathom what was going on. Her hand slowly started moving towards her revolver. She had no idea what was going on, but she was not about to be arrested. At this moment she didn't trust anyone of anything outside of the few members of her task force that had shown they could be trusted.

One of the monitors against the wall suddenly lit up, showing Fletcher's broadcast and the 7th fleet destroying the asteroids. Before Sanda could process if she was relived or frustrated that they had done all that work for nothing, the broadcast changed to a short clip of when Sanda and Sassa opened fire and began killing the Kodians. From the camera's angle, and how short the clip was, it looked like two Mindy suits just walked into a room and started killing wholesale.

Sanda had had all she could stand at that point. She moved over to the screen and with a scream of frustration punched her hand through the offending device. She turned back towards the Kodians, very tense. She would not submit herself to them. Not to anyone! Her adrenaline was through the roof and the pain in her arm was almost unbearable. She felt more like a wounded animal than a soldier at that moment but she would spill more Kodian blood if they pushed the issue now.

Fortunately, Sacre spoke up and defused the situation. Sort of. Her hands could be seen shaking, even through the power armor. Sanda wasn't sure exactly what was being said through her pain and adrenaline mind but it almost sounded like she was arresting Sanda and Sassa instead of the Kodians. Sanda wasn't going to be arrested by anyone! "No one is detaining me or taking my weapons." Sanda said. Her voice was weak but there was no mistaking the determination. "Since the asteroid is no longer a threat and the facility is secure, I am going topside, by my own will, and seek medical attention. You can question me all you like afterwards." She held her ground, waiting to see if anyone would try to stop her.

Control Room
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere

Time had slowed to a crawl as Sassa slashed, burned, and hacked her way through the zombified Kodians, none who were truly putting up a fight, but continued to advance on the two soldiers nevertheless even as they were cut down in ruthless fashion. The Infantry Neko held them back as the Ranger worked at the main controls, almost falling into a trance as she killed, killed, and killed.

Until there were none left standing.

A deep breath.

Dana said:

"YOU ARE UNDER ARREST! DROP OR POWER DOWN YOUR WEAPONS IMMEDIATELY AND EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!"

Click to expand...

The trance fell away and with it, Sassa’s berserker-like focus. It was over and suddenly, the Infantry Neko registered herself standing in the middle of a group of mutilated Kodian corpses, her Molly covered in equal parts blood and paint as she maintained a low Sora-Mai finishing stance, the blood from her last kill still dripping from her now-unpowered aether katana.

She had done what was necessary, or so she hoped.

Damned if we do, Damned if we Don't

Control Room
SMERC
Gashmere

The Kodian NCO heaved a heavy sigh, audible over the external speakers of his armor. "I get it, you've been through a lot in the last few hours. Let me lay a few things out for you, since you can't seem to understand the bigger picture here. There are thousands of Kodians on the surface that just saw you shoot, impale, or disembowel their wives, husbands, daughters, sons, neighbors. My men, they might be able to hold the crowd for a few minutes. But my men will not wantonly kill unarmed civilians. That, that would be concern number one." The Kodian took a step to interpose himself between Sanda and the door.

He brushed a paw along the crown of his helmet, looking around at the other Star Army soldiers. "Concern number two, that runner that just left, he should be up the elevator shaft by now. He is going to relay my orders to the other Kodians up there, all two platoons, along with the two Fellwalkers. Those orders were fairly simple, anyone not transmitting my command code comes up that shaft, gets HEAT rounds from the 225mm main gun on the Fellwalker in the garage. Followed by enough ordinance to collapse the shaft and leave us all in a mass grave here. I want to bring everyone out of here alive. You two," He pointed to Sanda and Sassa, "You turn over your weapons to your comrades, power down the others. You keep you hand behind your backs, get into the Fellwalker, we move to Fort Nozomi, and turn you over to Star Army Military Police, per standard policy for Star Army folk who break local laws where it will be decided by a joint committee of Star Army and Planetary guard whether charges will be brought or not.

Oh....I forgot to add, you have 90 seconds to decide, then they will assume you are fighting us and collapse the tunnel anyway. Fuck I need a cup of coffee. So what's it gonna be, Dunderheads." The Kodian NCO noticed Zanven pushing through, "By all means, join us. Good talk everybody."

Control Room
SMERC
Gashmere

Estrid stepped forward, forestalling Sacre from doing anything stupid. "You will turn Sanda and Sassa over to the first available Star Army law enforcement personnel, correct?"

Sacre wasn't sure what Estrid had planned, but she decided to back her play.

Hallway
System Material Exploitation and Recovery Center
White Ridge
Gashmere

77

While it seemed that those connected to Yamatai were coming in direct conflict with the Kodians. The Freespacer Merc, was himself busy, he doubted that this was the last they would hear from this fairy, who it seemed had some control over the internal cameras of this facility and had created a live feed, showing Sanda and Sassa slaughtering a good number of Kodian Civilians, who were unarmed.

This was bad publicity for TF Piglet. Of course with this fairy, being busy with all of their plans, it gave 77 an opportunity to locate them. Utilizing his mindware, he began working on locating where these commands were coming from he wasn't about to bring this up until he had a solid location and so far these Kodian Infantry Squads had left him be as he had not had a hand in the wholesale slaughter of the civilians. "Alright, you pesky piece of trash, where are you?" His internal monologue said to itself while he was searching.

Seeing that he was not stopped he sighed and walked into the control room, hearing the conversations he did not like where this was going but he was at least going to be there for his fellow member of the Resurgence. He placed his rifle on his back and walked up to Sanda, he was not doing this out of spite or anger against her, but her attitude was giving the wrong story...they were framed and right now the best course of action would be to find who had control of the facility. They hopefully had someone working on that at the moment. "Sanda...Hand me your weapon...Follow the orders and we can get to the bottom of this" Zanven would say, he was firm in his voice and at the moment he was sick of all this, there was nothing they could do currently.

If Sanda of course did not give the weapon over Zanven would reach out to slap her...he would follow up with the following speech. "Sanda...you are dishonoring the Resurgence and Star Army by continuing this, we were a step behind whoever orchestrated this and we are here to show that we are better than for what happened to us last time we helped down here. Stop fucking around, you are not like Thad with that whole grenade incident. I will stand by your side here, just as I said when we left Resurgence...now hand me your weapons..." He would then hold out his weapon and look to Sassa "You as well, either give me your weapons or turn them over to Miko over there. Let's not drag this out any further..the longer we are here the further away the mastermind behind this gets." However...if they complied then this would all be somewhat moot and they could move on.

Hallway Intersection
SMERC - Soon to be Mass Grave if someone doesn't do something
Gashmere, Land of a Crap ton of War Crimes

77 let his Mindware begin to interface with the local network, well. He attempted to anyways, the radiation that had be mucking up every sensor and transmission was doing unkind things to the wireless link. It wasn't until 77 moved into the generator room that he could get a clean connection. As he began to brow the files the now familiar image of his friend the appeared before not only him but on the monitors in the Control Room and the Generator room.

"OH HAI! Nice place you have here! It took you long enough to get here. I've been waiting 4EVAR!! JKJKLOLMAOROFL. Ive been saving this for you, it has directions to our next meeting. KTHNXBAI!"

The data transfer hit 77 like a loaded APC, an ungodly amount of data piped directly into his digital memory in a few moments he had 1% open memory remaining. He convulsed as the after shocks rocked his body, in the next few moments, he began to see the files were all videos. Then, his external speakers began to play....what sounded like two donkeys coupling. Violently. With overtures of wet thuds.

All the videos were some manner of adult entertainment.

Even with the computers and abilities of the Star Army, he it would take at least ten days to sort through this bullshit.

Hallway Intersection
SMERC - Soon to be Mass Grave if someone doesn't do something
Gashmere, Land of a Crap ton of War Crimes

77

The Freespacer dropped to his knees briefly as the sheer magnitude of the data download took him to his knees. "Enough of this, we still have the AI to stop. I have the coordinates, however it'll take me around 9 days to sift through all of this data." He grumbled to himself, this was going to be annoying. "Even, with the tools I have on my ship."

It was obvious that they didn't have the time to fight. "We don't have time for this, Ranger." Having said his piece the assembled group would watch 77 closing his eyes as he began sifting and deleting the unneeded data. This was going to take awhile and even longer if they didn't finish this soon, he doubted that Gashmere could survive this ordeal if they didn't do their job properly. He sent an encrypted message to Sassa. \\I know that you don't like Mercenaries, but I could use your help. Yamataians have a digital mind, correct?// He wasn't about to trust many people with sifting through this trash can filled with porn.

Control Room

Sanda was suffering from information overload. With all the adrenaline pumping through her body it made it difficult to slow down and process. The excruciating pain in her arm made it worse. She could hear what the Kodian NCO was saying, but it wasn't making any sense to her. She looked around in confusion. Didn't they have an asteroid to stop or something?

No, they were telling her to surrender her weapons. Why would she do that? They were in the middle of a combat zone. Luckily Zanven stepped forward. Zanven was someone she trusted and by focusing on him it allowed her mind to process what was happening. "I can't give up my weapons. It's against my religion." Sanda said quietly, although her voice wasn't as steady as it had been before. Slowly she drew her SiZi plasma revolver and emptied the shells out of it, before handing it butt first to Zanven. That revolver had been a gift to her from her sister and Brother-in-law when she had graduated Ranger school. It was the second most prized possession she owned. "Anything happens to that and I will kill you."

Her Straight Silver blade on the other hand was too precious to give up. It was her engagement gift from her fiancé and Nepleslian tradition said she could never part with it. Sanda would fight, and die, before she gave that up. She sheaved the blade but held onto it with her wounded arm tight against her body like a child would clutch a teddy bear or a blanket. Then she said, "I...I submit. I give my word as a Soldier of Yamatai that I won't resist. Ah!" She gripped her injured arm with her good one and dropped to one knee. As the Adrenaline wore off, the pain was becoming worse. Sanda felt her body going into shock. Through gritted teeth she said, "I don't think I could walk out of her on my own even if I wanted to."