RP: YSS Miharu Mission 1 "REAR GUARD", Day 4

Nyton gave her a thumbs up in his Armor. "Same to you, Kurohoshi-Juni. Let's go. We'll launch on your signal, wing leader." he said as he motioned for Saito to follow him to the launch doors.

Masako was slightly taken back by Nyton's comment. Of course, she was the Miharu's Wing Leader. But it was still a fact that made her feel weird, something she would have to get used to. Motioning for Leutre to follow as well, she stepped up to the launch doors. Taking a deep breath, the young warrant officer gritted her teeth as she sent a mental command to Miharu to open the doors.

Slowly, the doors opened to reveal the environment outside their ship. With the derlict of the GSS Shikaku in front of them all, barely a second away from them, Masako swallowed hard as she began to calm down more. "Alright everyone," she spoke to them through their frequency. "We all know what we have to do, lets get to it as fast as we can. Be careful and be safe," she said as she looked towards the ship in front of them. "Launch," she ordered as she activated her gravimetrics and left the safety of their ship.

Nyton's face narrowed as he let his Armor take flight. The familiar rush of being a combat pilot took hold and his senses were on high alert. Once more unto the breach.

Miyoko followed shortly behind Nyton, mentally resolving to avoid having her deficiency in experience slow the others down. As she exited the hangar into the void beyond, she fought back the unique sense of vertigo that only floating in a void could bring. Instead, she focused herself on flexing and stretching, reacclimatizing to the mental interface and, more importantly, making sure that her body was ready if she ended up facing hostilities.

Yukari flashed a small smile as each armor took off in turn. She waited a moment for them to orient themselves before speaking.

"Miharu to Black Knight 01 — reports of debris and obstructions inside the vessel are high. Recommending your squadron use SMGs sted LASRs to reduce overpenetration. Break." Yukari paused before continuing. "Profiles and likenesses of the two known soldiers are being displayed on your HUD."

The bios of Ryszard and Asher in AMES suits appeared on the right side in each of the four armors' HUDs. They quickly shrunk down to the side so they could be brought up later.

"Taii-san will be taking the main hull out to disperse sensory and chibi-MEGAMI probes around the area to compensate for holes in our scanning coverage. Upon break, Miharu will revert to Hoshi. Break." Yukari then continued. "A inverted interphase pulse has been charged on the Hoshi and will fire at the first confirmed signs of stealthed Mishhuvurthyar. Be careful, Black Knights. Over."

He launched himself with a quick burst and smiled. "Ah, weightlessness, how I've missed you. It's good to be free of the restraints of gravity once more!" He spun playfully spun the Daisy around as he practiced maneuvering. But remember the task at hand, he slowed down the Daisy and regrouped with the others. Excitedly he said, "But now we enter the abyss and walk among the dead. To snatch lost souls from the maw of defeat and to ravage the corpse of this fallen beast." Still feeling slightly giddy at the feeling of being back in zero gravity, he laughed to himself. "Well, lets not keep the dead waiting."

"Acknowledged, Miharu," Masako replied over the comm as she looked back at Leutre. "Veressis-Hei, follow my lead and please be wary," she ordered as she seemed to become all business. "We're going to have a change of plans. Since the Miharu is going off to disperse probes, she's leaving the Hoshi behind for us. Because of this, we're going to be storing any salvage from the Shikaku in the Multifunction Bays of the Hoshi. Again, torpedoes are our priority for salvage," she explained to Leutre before looking towards Nyton.

"Claymere-Juni, once you pick up the survivors, I'd suggest you take them to the Hoshi." she said politely. "Maybe we can equip the survivors in power armor so our salvage operations can go by faster and more smoothly just just with Veressis-Hei and myself."

Ryszard took his pistol out of his holster and set it to the standard firing mode. With that he let himself float to the far wall and waited there. As far as he could tell, if anything was infected it would likely come out of the access corridor. Otherwise it'd have to figure out how to open the doors to the various sections that were destroyed and powerless.

"Sounds like a good idea. Once Saito-Hei has medically cleared the survivors we'll have them help us with the salvage operation. We're moving out. See you at the bay." Nyton replied as he holstered his plasma rifle and changed out for the LASR. "Saito-Hei, be careful. We're going directly towards the possible infection. Follow my lead." he radio'd as he began to accelerate.

Nyton scanned the wrecked Yui for an opening that would bring them close to Westwood since he had reported the infected crew member. Once he found the closest secure opening he deployed his drones to scout the entrance while he kept his weapon aimed towards the hole.

Kotori left the bridge with Mizuho quickly following after her. Half a minute after Yukari had been left alone to handle things on the bridge, Mara stepped in.

"Hello, did you miss me?" The friendly sprite asked as she jumped down to Yukari's level. She looked around. "Any station you would like me to handle, Chui?"

"Following your lead, Mas. The extra help is a nice thought, but quite unnecessary. Just stay out of the way and let me work. I'll have any compartment cleared of anything not bolted down to the deck before you can say stroganoff! If only I had remembered to bring my plasma cutter I'd have the bolted down stuff stripped too..."

Leutre had considered throwing away his suit's LASR in exchange for a tool kit and demolition charges, but he was afraid of being scolded. In the past he had performed many looting runs in nothing more than a spacesuit, and was therefore more comfortable in such suits. While it was riskier, carrying weapons and armor could slow down one's work considerably. 'Leave war to the warriors. Next time I'll have to ask Masako about leaving all this superfluous junk behind. After all, I do have Lady Luck watching my ass. He pushed his thoughts aside when he realized he was beginning to lag behind. Quickly catching up to Masako, he decided that it would probably be best to push his regrets aside and concentrate on the task at hand.

"Ah, Mara-san! Welcome back," Yukari smiled sweetly, speaking in Japanese. "Please, handle the tactical station -- I am focused on sensors and communication for now."

"Hai!" Mara settled in and made a review of the ship's current armament. "If you see any rabid giant space squirrels anywhere, I'm ready for them."

Masako only sighed in her helmet as Leutre seemed to forget about rank when out in the void. She let it slide at the moment, considering there were more important things to worry about. Maneuvering to the hulled out belly of the Shikaku, Masako swallowed hard as she saw that the gutted part of the Yui had been close to Engineering, just a few meters shy of turning the Yui into an expanding nova of her own right.

Hissing quietly in her helmet, she flew through an area of what had remained of some ship systems and directly into a corridor. "Veressis-Hei, we're going to be traveling aft towards the torpedo storage bay. We are currently somewhat aft of the cargo hold right now," she began to explain as she oriented herself towards the aft. "Engineering and Torpedoes are that way," she affirmed. "I'll take point, watch our backs," she ordered as she slowly began to thrust her way through the flotsam and corpses floating around them.

After the drones determined there was no danger Nyton advanced into the hull of the destroyed Yui. With the feed from the drone he mapped out and prepared ahead his advance. With his LASR still pointed down the hole he entered into an exposed corridor two decks below and several meters away from Westwood's position. Due to the proximity of the opening there was very little debris as most of it had been sucked out into vacuum. Nyton entered the corridor and after he ensured they were still secure he motioned for Saito to follow in after him.

"I'll take point, Saito-Hei. Stay close and cover the rear." Nyton radio'd to Miyoko.

"I'm right with you." Miyoko's voice lacked some of her normal confidence- the dark corridors of the ship, so recently inhabited by a crew that was now almost entirely dead, held far more personal impact for her than distantly witnessing the death of a star system had. Still, she couldn't entirely put aside the desire to crack open some of the doors and look inside for anything profitable. Perhaps it was a bit ghoulish, but it wasn't like the dead needed their belongings... Only Nyton's proximity, the urgency of her mission, and the assurance that most enlisted, including herself, didn't have anything worth taking kept her from at least taking a peek.

Okay, so the oppressive atmosphere didn't help either. After almost jumping in surprise when a piece of debris softly impacted her armor, Miyoko dialed up the light amplification on her imaging array. The setting gave the corridor a slightly unearthly appearance, but it was better by far than the tunnel of shadows she saw without it.

Nyton did not let the darkness unsettle him but he remained wary. He moved cautiously but with urgent purpose. The survivors could be in greater danger with every second that passed. As the debris became thicker he only slowed down a slight bit. When they reached an access tunnel that led up he held one hand back behind him to signal Miyoko to pause while he secured the passage. Once everything seemed secure he would motion her to follow as he hovered up towards their objective. The drones would have already given him the report on their surroundings but every path they took he would double checked himself until they came closer to the signal of Westwood.

"Westwood-Hei, this Nito-Juni Claymere of the YSS Miharu. We're closing in on your position. Stand by and stay alert for our approach." Nyton radio'd to Westwood via the frequency he had shared with the Miharu.

After some work to restore sensor functions to the main hull (it was delicate equipment, yes, but the damage hadn't been hard to compensate for once the problem had been found), the main hull detached from the Hoshi.

The separation process was fairly smooth and unremarkable (which meant no malfunctions!) as both ships undocked from each other, graviton beams going in-between the two to facilitate the process before the main hull's graviton engines came back online. Kotori had it round slowly around the auxiliary vessel and the derelict Yui before speeding away further inside the asteroid field.

"Move it, Deadman." Leutre pushed the charred corpse aside to clear his vision. After picking clean the ships and even the bodies of pirate raiders, we wasn't at all bothered by the sight of the dead. So long as it wasn't anyone he personally knew, at least.

No, his main concern wasn't the dead, or lootable wealth, strangely enough. It was the living. Not the survivors, he didn't give spent fuel rod about more YSE fodder. They weren't his crew... Weren't his family, so they weren't his concern. His thoughts instead dwelled on the Mishhu. If they understood even basic Yamataian protocol, they would likely know rescue and salvage teams would be sent aboard a fallen ship. And if they were as cunning as they were intelligent, they would take advantage of that. And it was such a fearsome foe that worried him.

Leutre felt his heart beating loudly in his chest. He was always jumpy during salvage runs. You could never tell when a traumatized survivor would pop out of some hatch and open fire with a pistol, or when pirates would be waiting in ambush. But his paranoia was only worsened by the thought of Mishhu lukring about, making him feel especially twitchy. Looking down at his LASR, he carefully removed his hand from the trigger and lowered the rifle. 'Just in case.' He knew he could be some what trigger-happy at times, more so when he was spooked. 'This is why I don't do firearms. The last thing I need is to end up accidentally shooting survivors, again. I really don't want a black mark like that on my service record.'

Asher looked at the mangled body that was the supposed 'third survivor' of the Shikaku. He sighed and, with his feet, shuffled her body off the side of the opening he had been waiting in.

"Rest in peace... er... whoever you were." Asher said performing a short salute.

Sazuka Yukari said:

"Shikaku Hei-sans, copy please. Status?"

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"Asher Westwood, All good." Asher reported shortly and briefly, he wasn't in the better of conversing right now. The main thing for him was to get off this ship, or at least see the rescue crew that was coming for him.

Nyton Claymere said:

"Westwood-Hei, this Nito-Juni Claymere of the YSS Miharu. We're closing in on your position. Stand by and stay alert for our approach." Nyton radio'd to Westwood via the frequency he had shared with the Miharu.

Click to expand...

Asher jumped.

Finally!

"Roger, I'll be waiting in this position and be ready for your approach." Asher said, keeping a keen out for anything closing in.