RP: 5th XF [Hotaru] Necromancy

[Cannonball]

Light streamed past her face – on, off, on, off as the lift descended from the bridge. Eriko stared blankly at the wall in front of her. She wasn' tired or exhausted; she was painfully awake, and vividly aware of what had happened over the past hour. It had hurt her. Deeply. And there were only a few thing she could think of doing that might possibly put her mind at rest.

Lost in thought, habit took her first to the medbay. Amidst the stark, white walls and the bustle of doctor and injured alike she seated herself almost casually and updated her ST backup. “Over here…” “Out of the way…” “He’s done, get him out of the tank…” “Get me some blood!” So loud. Compared to the urgency of all around, the vice-admiral seemed possessed of a strange, focused calm that almost betrayed a purpose that went beyond her current actions. She inserted a drive into the ST machine and set it to download before pushing her way through the crowd. The storage cabinets opened to her touch and the neko quickly pulled what she needed from the alcove before retrieving the drive and leaving the bay.

Eriko mused to herself as she returned to her room. Really, if anything this was a horrible security flaw. Their systems were impossible to crack; no unauthorised personnel could do anything without due process. But if you were authorised some things were just a little too easy. Normally, that wasn’t a problem, but if today was any indication then there was something obviously wrong. Somewhere, somewhen the Fifth had succumbed to the same problems that plagued the other fleets….greed, pride, fear. Her lips suddenly dry, she licked them.

She smelt a rat and something told her this tunnel went further than she knew.

The door to her quarters closed silently behind her. She stared for a moment at her cosy apartment; the leaves on her bonsai rushed imperceptibly in the breeze of the air-circulation. A beanbag sat in one corner of the room by the window – book still open on the floor and turned to chapter 3, page 57…the first kiss. It was her room, all clean and almost impersonal but it had some touches here and there. It always felt so peaceful, so comfortable onboard the Hotaru. More than any other ship she knew…

Eriko stripped out of her dress uniform and into the bathroom: checked her teeth, splashed water over her face, looked into her own eyes. The vice-admiral cocked her head to one side and watched the green pigment turn to blue; her brown hair turn to blonde. A quick makeover. Eriko went out and got dressed: spacesuit underneath, trench coat on top, belt around the waist and boots on the feet. She clipped her dagger to the belt, stowed her sword and passed the drive from hand to hand before stuffing it in a pocket.

Grabbing her pistol, Eri slung the bag she’d gotten in medical over her shoulder and left.

---

The shosho stepped out and into the Hotaru’s construction bay; floating across its massive berth. Around her ships materialised out of nothingness. She streaked over the steel-grey hulk of a Irim, its armour still half finished and its insides nothing but empty space; she ran her fingers along its frame, almost stroking it before jumping across the gap to the next ship.

Eriko pulled the Sakura-class’s door open. Shadows danced at her feet, the shine behind her from the bay wreathing the vice-admiral in a halo of light as she stepped inside. The door was pulled shut, the light retreated, and Eriko’s face slid slowly into darkness…winking out as the portal locked with a heavy clang. It was half finished, of course, but it would do. After all, it had a completed medical bay. No power. But it was finished, and that’s all that really mattered…

Portable aether unit to the hemosynth-tank...insert the drive and prepare…for…the…upload. Ok, ready. Eriko stood and looked up. After what had happened, this was something of an evil path to tread. Nonetheless, she gave her order. “Hotaru, from this point on, nothing has happened in this ship. As far as you’re concerned, I’m inspecting the vessels due for completion….but if Katsuko asks, tell her the truth for me.”

She flicked the switch and tossed a SPINE locking unit into the tank. The room was bathed in a flickering green radiance; bubbles rising from the depths as flesh and bone began to form anew. Eriko watched, wide-eyed and emotionless…her face ghoulish in the glow as the ST data began to raise a familiar figure from the dead.

“…hello, Miho.”

 

[Cannonball]

Miho blinked her blue eyes locked onto Eriko, she looked around the tank being a dead give away as to the fact she died. But how? She couldn't find out either, reaching out for PANTHEON she found nothing. She tried to move but could do so barely, it was dark --this was no medical facility she knew of. "What..." she stammered, "What happened?"

Eriko’s answer was vicious and almost wild, but her form was perfect. All 56kg of pure synthetic muscle smashed into Miho’s face. Miho’s head ricocheted off the tank; a swift kick took her legs from under her before Eriko flung her from the tank; left her sprawled across the ground. “You lost – failed, Miho. You didn’t kill Misato and you sure as BLOODY WELL didn’t kill us!”

Miho said nothing immediately, a smile upon her lips as she was flung from the tank. Her black and red hair dripped hemosynthetic fluid onto the floor, her chest heaved the fluid trickling down her breasts. The blows she recieved merely made the smile wider, the pain subdued beneath the power she felt. "Awww.....Oh dear, What ever will we do? Sadly, I am the least of your worries darling. But really, if mopping the floor with me makes you feel better then please do not let me interupt. Tell me how is the view from the Taisho's ass?"

“Oh, I won’t. This makes me feel much, much better.” Eriko brought her boot down, hard, into Miho’s chest. As hard as she could. The ship rang out in protest; the sound barely concealing the fury in Eriko’s every word. “Better than the view the Mishhu are getting of yours and far more pleasant I promise you that much. But seriously, before I hold you out and airlock and watch you die before bringing you back to start all over again, tell me why? What can those parasites possibly promise you that you didn’t already have? Apart from a belly full of eggs anyway.”

The crunch the boot made when it came down on her chest was ugly to say the least, trickles of pink dripped from the torn flesh around the impact. Miho's gaze never broke from Eriko's she said forcefully, "A better life than you could ever reach..."

“Aye, lovely life you’ve got down there; tied up, watching your own blood ooze from under the heel of my foot. I’d say this is a fantastic position you’ve bought for yourself with the lives of our comerades! I know you can’t check, I made sure of that, but we got them you know? All your little traitors – rounded up after our little spat with the Mishhu. Slaughtered them and handed your precious turncoats over to SAINT simply because we could.” Eriko stepped off, leaving Miho to cough and splutter; went over to her bag and pulled out a small case filled with wicked looking needles and viscous fluids.

"Jiyuu....living up to its name. Freedom my ass." Miho blinked, "All of them eh? I am sure you rounded each and everyone of them up." Following Eriko with her eyes, "So then I take it Tonsho is dead? You probably killed my daughter yourself...I bet it made you feel good, just as your family and the Tange have done since Taiie--kill our future hopes and dreams."
“Nah, I decided to take you instead. More fun that way.” There was a slight glitter in Eriko’s eyes as she filled one of the needles; nothing much you understand – a little helper in all things unpleasant. “Still…well, no, I’m almost beyond caring at this point, but I really can’t see why you think anything will be any different under a bunch of murderous, genocidal jellyfish. I mean, you could’ve told someone – tried to do something – instead attempting to doom the handful of people we rescued from Taiie. The handful we saved from this sunkillers if you still remember!? Killing our hopes and dreams…don’t make me laugh. You just tried to tear them up and spit on them. To be honest, it sickens me to think I once called you a friend.”

"Perhaps its time for us to both admit....there are higher powers in the universe now. Your sun is setting Yamatai." She hissed at Eriko. "You’re a husk, not a friend!"

“Better a husk than a corpse. Or at least you’ll probably wish you were a corpse by the time I’m done. You and I both know how terribly good we are at this sort of torture. Ironic really – this isn’t how most of us neko think. It takes a human to be truly horrible, but for the moment I’ll settle for being a bit of an imitation...” Eriko jabbed the needle straight into Miho’s neck; a sickening ‘thunk’ as it dumped its contents into her system. “…If you start to feel like putty in my hands, that’s perfectly natural at this point by the way.”

Miho's lips tugged tight as she could do nothing but take it. She fell quiet, taking her eyes off Eriko. She just wanted to find a way out of there, she struggled inside of herself--screaming within her mind.

“Oh? Where’s your self-righteous wit gone now, Miho? Eriko almost snarled, tossing the injector to one side and propping Miho up against the wall where she could look properly into her eyes. “Anyway, as I was saying – is there anything in particular you’d like to tell me about your dealings with the devil and your maniacal plots before I hack your brain? In fact, now would be a fantastic time to tell me you were just brainwashed so I could feel guilty and say I was sorry, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case here, hmm?”

"I did it all on my own free will..." Miho spit in Eriko's face, the only thing she could muster being propped up against the wall like a doll. "I don't want your apology, I want you do to do what is right and let me walk out of here so I can go someplace far away from supression and totalitarian rule."

At that point all Eriko could do was slap Miho. “Someplace far away!? Where do you think that’ll be when the Mishhu overrun everything and make you, me and everyone we’ve ever cared about into living breeders! They’re worse than us. And even if you don’t think they’re worse, then you’ve got to admit they’re the same! Under them isn’t going to be any better…why can’t you understand that? Why did you go and sell yourself to them?”

"Because...I could not make a life for myself or my family here." Miho recovered from the slap, "Maybe being taken over is not so bad, least then we would have some purpose--other than to carry a gun and fight in the name of nothing!"

“I…I don’t want to believe you think that way. Not the Miho I used to know!” Eriko chocked back a sob, tears starting to run down her face. “I’ve lost too many people to sit here and listen to you talk this way. You did good – we’ve done good. I know things are messed up, and it’s bad, Miho…it’s really bad. But this isn’t going to make it better and you know that…!” Eriko went for Miho and hugged her tight; crying into her shoulder. The stress from the battle and the anger in her heart unwinding in an instant. “…or at least you did know that. I just don’t know anymore.”

Misho said quietly, the drug loosening her lips; "I was just looking....for another answer. The life we knew is over Eriko, it is time to admit that we can never win. Jiyuu will be like Taiie soon, a nebula alone in the night...forgotten by even Yui." Miho could feel the pressure against her, she finished what she had to say, "Let me go...Let me go and you could live free--you could be of great use and power to us."

Eriko violently shook her head. “Chigau! It’s not over. Never will be! I don’t care if we’re forgotten by Yui – we’ve still got Kat, and Saito-chan and everyone else. They’ll all die if we don’t do anything. Everyone will die, and it’ll be all our fault for giving up. For surrendering too soon! Didn’t they teach us never to do that? To not back down no matter what?...” She sobbed. “That’s why we’re loosing you know; we just keep giving up and loosing ground. Gotta take it back. Keep going like we used to…! Make it better.”

Miho whispered, "Your going to die..." she smiled again, watching as Eriko sobbed. "I wonder, will they kill you, your daughter, or Katsuko first?" “…” Eriko sniffed. “Not while I still draw breath.” And with that she jammed a double dose of Agony straight into Miho’s spine, whispering all the while: “I’m sorry, Miho. I’m so, so sorry. I’m sorry for everything that you think we did and everything I didn’t do to help you. And I’m so sorry for doing this. All of it.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and activated the SPINE locking unit; let it push and probe into her brain. Hacking it with everything she had, peeling away its defences layer by layer until she could get what she needed to know. “Now tell me what I want…”

Miho's screams resounded through the empty corridors of the unfinished ship, her body twitched and tears came from her own eyes. The SPINE device began to extract information but very little of anything useful. Miho had controlled the upper level backup process for the Bakufu, aside from the wealth of technical information they planned to share there was little to nothing, other than the one tidbit that she had already mentioned; Tonsho was deeply involved.

”Hotaru, confirm Tonsho’s status. Is she among the prisoners or dead?” Eriko stood up and wiped her eyes; letting Miho writhe and suffer. A voice at the back of her mind stroked her thoughts mockingly. What she was doing went beyond justice; Eriko was enjoying this and she knew it. She bit at her lip, suppressed a creeping grin. “Keep going! Tell me more…where were you planning to go? And…” she hesitated for a moment. “…how did this all begin?”

Hotaru answered, Hanabusa Tonsho is not present within my scanning range or the range of any of my subordinate systems. Miho's smile began to fade, she answered "With the Mishhu...." Miho hissed "When it became obvious that the only way to get anywhere is to kiss your, or Misato's ass”

Eriko merely watched passively as the locking unit stripped everything it could from Miho warped little mind. Stripped absolutely everything: from her first days in the Fifth to the last happy moment of her life. With brute force if necessary…Eriko was more than capable of watching Miho slowly forget who she was until almost nothing remained. “Hiss all you want; I gave you your chance and I meant it. Every word I said, I meant. Don’t worry though – if you want, I can still deliver whatever’s left of you when I’m done to your new masters. I’m sure they’d love another toy to add to their collection. Especially one that used to be as proud and noble as you were.”

Miho became silent, the SPINE device did its job but all it found was nothing beyond what it had found in the begining. Miho had tampered with the backups, planting only the information that would want to be known. A full backup of her existed, but not here and not within the reach of the wandering eyes of PANTHEON. Miho looked at Eriko, her eyes barely able to open now... "It is not I that shall be delivered, but you."

“Tch…we’ll see. I’m done here. Maybe I’ll play with your daughter later; maybe I’ll play with you some more. But for now I’m done.” Eriko drew her pistol in a single fluid motion and pressed the barrel against Miho’s head. “I know we’ll meet again, as much as it pains me to realise that but oh well. Goodbye, Miho.” A single click of the trigger and the shadows ran in terror. The gloom returning instantly after the single, brilliant flash. “Hotaru, upload what we received and compile a report for Katsuko. And as for her…” Eriko spat on Miho’s corpse as she holstered his weapon. “…use the corpse to help build this ship. The YSS Inquisitor.”

She turned and left; with only the bitter taste of a half-victory to savour, and more new questions than she’d gotten answers for. Tonsho was involved up to her neck, Miho would be back somewhen and, at the bottom of it all, was a trigger; a root cause. Yes…the rabbit hole went further than this. Much further. Eriko was sure of it.