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

"I'm afraid I can't really give you any good pointers for the moment - I can do maintenance work on the Mindy but that's the ceiling of my proficiency with electronics - wait, stand by." The silence that followed only made more acute the discomfort of being into the dark, cramped passage. The gridded floor's gaps were large enough to press uncomfortably against Mizuho's knees and dug a latticework of squares into the flesh of her palms.

"Miharu suggests that the initial problem stemmed not from damage to the arrays themselves, but rather the connections linking them to the MEGAMI," Kotori finally supplied. "You should see a bunch of wiring going into a T-intersection, not too far off, with the lower part headed under the flooring. I bet the problem would be there, since we can't access the sensors in the first place, rather than have difficulties with them."

Mizuho waited in rather miserable silence, teeth pulling away at her lower lip to distract from the ferocious discomfort the latticed floor offered. Kotori's eventual answer came as a breath of fresh hope.

This ellicited a furrowed brow from the disgraced tactician. Issues with the connections didn't strike her as something that just happened, even with the sort of beating Miharu had taken. The thought of intruding lifeforms again crossed her mind, but so too did the thought of sabotage, perhaps from the base itself. Gods knew how much access SAINT actually had to the Miharu.

"Thank you, Kotori..." She set to locating that point, the T-intersection (even Mizuho wasnt incompetent enough technologically to miss such a thing), and turned her attention to inspecting it, hoping to find some simple issue like a cut wire or a disconnected circuit. Something simple that she could fix, and certainly NOT something like a horrible corrosive goo in a mess of tangled, exploding wires from hell.

Not that wishes ever had any bearing on reality.

As Yukari bowed slightly to Mara and left the bridge, her stomach sank to her toes. Power armor. She was not very comfortable in power armor.

Entering the portside armory, Yukari gazed upon all of the weapons. Everything still seemed in place, meaning her armor had not been prepared. It was all ... very sterile. She liked it little, and with a gulp she went aft from the armory and into the power armor bay. The shiny, smooth black floor made her twinge; it felt silly to be here. She was not a good pilot this way.

It was cold, too, or it felt cold. She approached the blue-grey armor that hung on one of the racks. It was much fancier looking than the other armors. Sleeker, meaner, more deadly. Everything it was supposed to be. From the eyeless helmet to the sharp curves and heeled boots ... a killer. It was a killer machine.

Stop, she thought. They could be in danger. Yukari took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She started with her pistol belt, clicking the decocker and making the pistol safe. Her datapad softly touched down ontop of the holster. Slowly came her overwear uniform, her boots, her stretchsuit, the sports bra she had and then her panties. Standing before the Mindy II, utterly naked, felt worse than being clothed. Chiharu help me.

Steeling herself again, she undid each red strap and took the armor from the rack. CIES informed her the proper teleportation module was already attached. Yukari nodded as the armor opened itself up and she floated herself into it, not looking down at the wrinkly flesh, shivering as its wetness clutched at her. The armor closed, encasing her in its Durandium/Yarvex shell. It immediately became a little warmer ... but no less settling.

She turned and took the helmet. "Chiharu help me," she said quietly, stuffing the helmet onto her head. The armor responded immediately, giving her no time to fear the complete black she had thrust herself into. The helmet locked into place and brought the HUD alive. Yukari could see again; SPINE took care of the rest, flooding her mind with instructional data about how to operate the armor.

" ... Aiyaa." Yukari blinked at all of the information she had been given, but she at least knew how to move without crashing. She stepped back into the armory, metal boots clicking on the floor of the armor bay. Inside, the weapons took on a slightly less sinister meaning ... but she still didn't know what to take.

"You are limited on time," the AIES told her. "This armor can store extra LASR Mk.I magazines easily; there are still some left."

Yukari looked at the various weapons in front of her, but she needed to only look for a moment to find a LASR Mk.I. She wanted to take a Mk.II, but she knew it was impractical. Two magazines quickly slipped into her left thigh slots, and with the teleportation module already charged, she felt ready to go. After all ... I have the forearm weapons. They will bridge any expanses the LASR cannot.

Keeping the weapon in her hands, Yukari stepped back out of the armory and then into the multi-function bay. She found Asher and Ryszard there in their Daisy armors. She did not know what to say, so she looked down and waited for Mara to help her with the teleportation coordinates.

Kotori, please be well. I make a poor knight.

Mizuho only had to move forward a bit further to distinguish the desired cables from the rest of the jumble. Fortunately, the problem was relatively easy to notice: the mess of tough male/female connections that sprang from where the cabling went perpendicular had all been forcefully disconnected.

The connectors were a lot like phoneplugs: those things didn't just undo themselves because the ship had shaken a bit. Mizuho was definitely looking at sabotage.

The other thing that had become obvious was the scent of blood in the area. It wasn't fresh, but Mizuho still picked it up. Some looking about revealed that a large patch of the gridded floor coming next to the undone wiring still bore gristle and dried blood - most had probably drained through the gridding, but it was still a rather large patch of the crawlway which had been sullied so, as if something bloodied had tried to drag itself through.

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The AIES of Yukari's Mindy received the coordinates for the jump: the sprite had arranged the 9 AU leap to end up about 200 000 kilometers behind the Miharu. It was the safest distance they could manage considering it was a very long jump inside an asteroid field with the Miharu's CFS bubble perhaps being active.

The teleportation and forearm battery reserves began charging, requiring 112 more seconds to come to full charge. The AIES cautioned her about several things: the teleportation module took a full minute to charge on its own, requiring that no high-energy functions (CFS speed, weapon energy feed) were done in the meantime or it would slow the process; that teleporting inside the closed confines of a ship could subject nearby individuals to be exposed to a shockwave which could cause mild harm to living beings; that it was inadvisable to have the CFS active inside the confines of a ship since anything coming around 1.5 meters away would have their nerves flash-fried by dangerous scalar emissions; likewise, the Miharu could have a scalar field up, requiring that her own CFS bubble be up and active to protect herself; the Miharu's CFS bubble was up she would have no way of teleporting through, she would have to breach through somehow - the anti-wormhole mini-missiles she had in her leg modules should prove up to that task.

The AIES took appraisal of the LASR Yukari had added to her arsenal and counted the total ammunition for the unit: active and reserves. It was the weapon the least likely to cause major collateral damage within the yarvex-sheathed insides of the Miharu, while it could probably still mow through an unshielded organics or exposed systems.

Nyton soon arrived at the bridge and gave it a quick scan. "Alright you should be clear to go to the medlab. It may be overly cautious but we need to be sure that substance isn't evidence of a threat."

He then moved over to the consoles and tried to adjust himself while still inside the Daisy. "Yukari Chui, I've reached the bridge. You should be clear to teleport out whenever you're ready. Be careful if there is anything over there. It could be brain bugs or parasites. But who is to say the Mishhu haven't engineered a new hybrid that's capable of being launched in a torpedo and forms into a full grown version. Or worse."

Mara stood up with a reluctant "Hai," and headed out of the bridge. Nyton heard her mutter a "I hope I won't have to get my hair cut," before the doors slid back to a close behind her.

Rys nodded his head and as ordered mounted up in the power armor while he snipped back to Westwood, "I may not be as at home in power armor as you but let's see you manually pilot a Yui through an asteroid field during combat and not ram into every rock in the way." he smirked slightly as he pulled the armor closed.

It powers up and he takes a couple test steps before he nodded and communicated with the leader of the rescue team, "This is Nishimura-Hei, I am suited up and ready in power armor."

Yukari resisted the urge to groan in queasiness from Nyton's hypothesizing. "I will be careful," she said. She gave one last glance to the two new soldiers trading barbs, then let the armor float up from the deck.

"Exiting bay 02 ... " The armor slid along the black floor and then out the front of the bay. Space and asteroids immediately greeted her, and she gulped. "Teleportation module still charging ... I am clearing the general area of the Hoshi."

The armor flew away, clutching the LASR. She got a much more intimate picture of the damage to the Shikaku; it did not help her mood any.

I have no designation, she thought, trying to focus on something else. Her eyes wandered to Tsuyosa. "Anou ... Claymere-Juni? Could you give me a designation?"

Your hair is the least of my worries. Nyton thought with a bit of a sigh. He enjoyed sprites with personalities but she was being too easy going about this.

"This is Nishimura-Hei, I am suited up and ready in power armor."

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"I read you Nishimura-Hei. You are both clear to launch. I'm sending you the heading to rendezvous with Kurohoshi-Juni's team. Follow it carefully guys. I'd hate to have rescued you two just to send you back in there to get killed." Nyton replied. With the data based from Kurohoshi's AIES data he coordinated their path and sent the data to their suits.

"Anou ... Claymere-Juni? Could you give me a designation?"

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Nyton looked over at Yukari's signal on the radar. "Chui you have been designated as Black Rook 01. Good luck." he replied.

One of these days I'll have to see if I can adjust one of those Mindys for my personal use. I miss the functionality of my old PHALANX. Nyton mused as he kept a watch over the bridge. He dispatched his drones to maintain a patrol around the bridge and keep any unseen corner covered. I'll be damned before I let the SMX take over any ship I'm assigned to.

Mizuho swore under her breath as she took note of this. Ah, not that it greatly surprised her, but dear lord this wasn't a pretty thing to behold. Sure, she had had a sneaking suspicion that this was sabotage, but one wants those suspicions to amount to nothing, not to amount to congealing blood and forcibly disconnected wiring.

She set to reconnecting the awry chords. "Kotori. We have here a rather clearly deliberate sabotage. I'm setting it right, nothing difficult about reconnecting male/female ends. But this wasn't just caused by the damage to the ship. They had to be pulled apart deliberately. There's blood here... perhaps a couple hours old."

She finished her task of reconnecting. "If you don't need me elsewhere, I'm going to see if our guest is still onboard. Looks like something bleeding dragged its way through here..."

"Acknowledged," Yukari said mechanically, taking a slow breath in and letting it out just as slowly. The unit took another minute to charge.

"Black Rook 01 to Hoshi -- engaging teleportation."

--

Before Yukari had time to think, she was there. Her AIES gave her a zoomed vision of the Miharu. She had not seen the damage so close before.

"Shimatta ... ka ... " The front of the Miharu was blackened, paint stripped away by the torpedo blast she had failed to dodge. It made the ship look harsher, ruining the glittering lines she recalled the hull having before when she had seen it at Scorpio Base. Several Zesuaium plates had been blown clear off of the hull, but shining Yamataium was exposed instead of ugly rents or scars. The Miharu's defensive profile, it seemed, was very sturdy indeed.

Some of the hits had penetrated the first layer of Yamataium, however, but they lead to more Yamataium, which was helping the first layer grow back. It was an amazing process, but with the Zesuaium gone, the Miharu was substantially weaker. She shook her head as her eyes traced the edges of each hole.

Nevermind the damage to the wings. One section had been slashed through cleanly, exposing its internals. The Yamataium had not yet grown back over it yet. The same went for the rollbar, which was exposed in one place from a particularly harsh blast. Weapon pods were wasted because of that shot; she should have dodged it. The insides were not something she needed to see ... she clutched her rifle tighter. It was like seeing a person's bones; they seemed almost private, and the fact they were exposed was shameful. I must apologize to Miharu as soon as I am able. I am partially responsible for the pain she suffered.

Yukari silently wished to be inside of Hrist instead of the armor as she hurled herself forward. Dodging asteroids and rocks was not as easy as it would have been in the larger but more comfortable fighter, but she managed well enough, and was on top of the Miharu within a couple minutes. The CFS in front of her made things slightly difficult, but she had the munitions she needed. Locking on the approximate area where the CFS ended, she armed two missiles from her right leg pod. "Black Rook 01, firing subspace collapsers."

Two projectiles blasted from her leg, zipping traillessly forward until they slammed into the CFS of the Miharu. Yukari leaned forward and punched her throttle all the way to get inside the bubble; once in, she breathed a little. That was the easy portion ...

What was going to be harder, however, was getting inside the ship. Yukari, in the emptiness of space, had to think about that.

Back in the monitor room, Kotori frowned. Mara had just been there - whatever happened had to have had happened in the last couple of minutes. The blood being hours old gave her pause - if not blood, it could be hemosynthetic fluids; those decayed a lot faster.

A quick checkup revealed no tubing in that area, so this wasn't just some sort of leak. The two had to be related. She booted the sensors back up, intent on making a scan of the area... but it'd take a couple of minutes to get started.

Kotori regretted Mizuho wasn't a genuine Star Army soldier: she'd be armed if it was so - right now, all Mizuho had was her bare fists. NH-17S or not, a gun was generally better than bare fists.

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"I'd rather you come back and get a weapon from the weapon's locker first." Kotori answered Mizuho, though perhaps her recommendation would end up falling on deaf ears. It was no sooner Mizuho completed the reconnections of the wiring and turned to look further inside the crawlspace that she found the intruder.

The thing was hovering a scant three meters away - way too close for comfort. How it had gotten there without her sensing its presence was alarming enough, but it was the countenance of the creature which was most arresting. Four luminous eyes (no doubt capable of low light vision like hers) shone in the dark, two pairs grouped into eyesockets on each sides of the black carapaced body which was wedged-shaped: smoothly rounded in the front and widening in the back where it split into two long and pointed cartilagenous ears.

About a dozen tentacles escaped down from one of the fleshy openings on the lower left side of the mishhuvurthyar's exoskeleton, with all but a couple of tentacles trailing behind - the two other tentacles rested against the griding below the alien's underbelly. The other side of the thing showed the shortened stumps of its other tentacles, severed near the base and shining with lymphatic fluids.

"Mizuho." Her name had a heady quality to it as the Ghost Mishhuvurthyar used its mental prowess to worm itself in her mind and delude her into thinking he was one for which she cared greatly about.

"Mizuho, help us..." It begged. The tone it inspired was pitiable, desperate, needy.

"Kotori, there's a Mishhu... wounded..."

Her report trailed off as it spoke to her. It was so... so helpless, innocent. A weight on her mind, she could not bear to kill it. A weight... a weight... she knew that bloody weight... but it was so helpless. Pleading her, begging for help. She did not know this creature, she insisted to herself. It was the enemy... and it was helpless, it only wanted to live, it was as much a victim of the war as she...

"...don't... don't move." She warned the Mishhu, a bit weakly. "I will... break you... if you move..."

The effort to speak those words, to threaten something so helpless and victimized, was intense. But... some part of her did not trust it. And some part of her wanted badly to trust it.

"...I will help... help you. But..." Her words were a bit stronger now. "...you have to let me speak to Kotori." She was, she knew, capable of killing a wounded Mishhu. She didn't want to, she badly didn't want to. But she couldn't take... couldn't take the enemy at face value. "...do we have an agreement..?"

"Mizuho, you have to get out of that crawlway-" Kotori's sending was a touch frantic, but the words were quickly drowned out by the Mishhuvurthyar's.

"YOU CANNOT TRUST HER," the creature hissed in her mind. Mizuho felt a phantom sensation of something picking at her mind, something leafing through the recent pages of the book she called 'memory'. "YOU HAVE SEEN HOW EASILY SHE DEALS DEATH. ONLY TWO YEARS OLD, YET SUCH A CAPABLE MURDERER."

The mishhu's tentacles shifted around. More came to the front. Even though half of its tentacles were missing, it still had a lot more limbs than Mizuho had - it didn't look all that helpless anymore. It was also growing harder and harder for Mizuho to think coherently; the ghost mishhuvurthyar was bringing up mental images of Kotori and giving each of them a loathsome, hateful quality.

"YOU KNOW HOW SHE USES YOU EVEN THOUGH SHE PLANS TO DISCARD YOU IN THE END." It continued as it plucked more thoughts from her mind as if they were ripe fruit right there for the taking. "SHE IS JUST LIKE THOSE WHOM PUT YOUR CREW TO DEATH. THEY DID NOT LISTEN AND SHE DOES NOT LISTEN. YOU KNOW. IF YOU DO NOT END HER, SHE WILL END YOU AS SHE ENDED THEM." The pressure of the imposed thoughts and impressions were almost unbearable - the Mishhuvurthyar was starting to make giving in a seductive thing; it was the illusory promise that if Mizuho gave in, her conscience wouldn't weight her so. It was a way of atoning, a way of finally lashing out at everything that was wrong with the Star Army and making it count.

Miyoko finished suiting back up in her uniform, glad to be out of the power armor. The more inconvenient it was for somebody to order her into a fight, the better- beside which, there were mysterious goos to analyze! Now this was the kind of thing she'd been hoping for when she requested reassignment to science and medical. Okay, perhaps something a bit more glamorous than cutting goo out of somebody's hair and analyzing it, but it was certainly a start.

Snapping her personalized collar back on with a smooth click, she crossed the short distance to the medical laboratory and took a seat on the operating table to await Mara.

Mara walked in the medlab just a dozen seconds after Miyoko had. The latter hadn't really had the time to get acquainted with the smaller facilities... but everything was relatively similar... except there were less beds and smaller compartments and only a single hemosynthetic tank in which a fully-grown nekovalkyrja floated, long white hair billowing about her body like a nimbus.

The sandy-haired sprite waved. "I'm here. What do I do?"

"I'm going to take a small sample of the stuff in your hair, and then you can go to the decontamination room and rinse the rest of it out. After that, though, I'd like to give you to return here, just in case it turns out to be poisonous or corrosive." Miyoko crossed over to one of the cabinets lining the walls, pulled on a pair of sterile gloves, and retrieved a sample dish and a scalpel before crossing back to the sprite. "Now, hold still and I'll try to cut a wad of this gunk out without messing up your hair too badly."

Mara smiled at the other's careful consideration and turned to docilely exposed the hairlocks in question. "Thanks. Do you think something like that could really be corrosive or poisonous?" The sprite figured that nekos were supposed to resist to diseases and poisons... but on the other hand, injected neural-toxins from the mishhu still incapacitated them.

Being cautious about it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"Until I know for sure what it is, better safe than sorry. If it were poisonous, you'd probably have noticed something by now." The scientist dipped the tip of the scalpel into the wad of goo, teasing out a blob of it and wiping it in the container. "Besides, as tough as this junk is, I may need to give you something specifically to dissolve it if you can't rinse it out... unless you'd prefer me to just shave you bald. That's another solution."

After withdrawing several more blobs of the stuff, she leaned over to address Mara face-to-face. "All done. I'll try to have some idea of what this stuff is by the time you get back. For now, just try keeping it out of your eyes and mouth if you manage to rinse it out."

Nishimura Ryszard said:

"I may not be as at home in power armor as you but let's see you manually pilot a Yui through an asteroid field during combat and not ram into every rock in the way." he smirked slightly as he pulled the armor closed.

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"Eh, your a bridge body, you guys are more at home behind a console anyway." Asher said casually, rifle still waiting at the ready.

Nyton Claymere said:

"I read you Nishimura-Hei. You are both clear to launch. I'm sending you the heading to rendezvous with Kurohoshi-Juni's team. Follow it carefully guys. I'd hate to have rescued you two just to send you back in there to get killed." Nyton replied. With the data based from Kurohoshi's AIES data he coordinated their path and sent the data to their suits

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Asher took a look at the path set for them, it was similar to the one he took before to reach the torpedo room. He tapped his helmet and then turned to Ryszard.

"Well, you heard him, let's go frolick among the torpedoes and wreckage." Asher said, activating the rear thrusters to get a jumpoff and then, putting on a strong speed, went off towards the Shikaku.

"Hey Rys, try not smash into the Shikaku when you attempt a landing!" Asher chuckled over the channel to Rys.