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RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 10.2] The Search

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Yaiba reached her vantage point and checked the Scout ship. It was still hovering just as annoyingly as it was earlier. She was about to move when she noticed something. One of the few non-lethal life forms she'd come across tried to land on the scout ship, and fell through it. What the hell, an Oumu can't fall though a ship.... but it can fall through a volumetric display... so whoever is up there is not in a scout ship. she thought.

She listened carefully for anything that sounded out of place below her. But no unusual sound came to her. She picked up her communicator and cautiously flipped it open. It was one of the few original pieces of equipment she still had. She contemplated the implications of transmitting.

She loaded a short text message to transmit. It seemed the best way to transmit and limit the chances of triangulation. It consisted of two entries; NG-X1-411 and her serial number. and would repeat three times.

She pulled her bow off her shoulder and set it next to her on the branch.

If its an NMX trick it just means I may get another chance to kill a few. she thought as she sent the transmit command.
 
Takeyu let out a small yelp as he lost his balance and was thrown onto the ground; his saw flying out of his hand and the cord landing casually on the ground. He struggled to remove the creature, half tempted to use his pistol but thought otherwise.

As he struggled, he tried going for his knife but couldn't reach it, instead he placed his hand around its neck area and began to squeeze, and the other hand on its paws to pry it off and to throw the creature away.
 
The armored creature's claws and neck plates were sharp and touching them cost Takeyu...but the creature leapt off of him, returning to the tree he'd tried to cut into. Its shiny eyes stared at his bloody face, waiting to see if he'd approach the tree again. The technician's hands and face were now covered with several cuts and red sticky blood.
 
Takeyu watched the animal closely, he reached for his ear before picking himself up off the ground slowly, not wanting to appear anymore of a threat to the creature than he already was.

He ignored the pain and retrieved his saw and cord with bloodied hands, wincing slightly at the pain of just closing his hand around the tool.

You win, he muttered and backed away before turning back toward the camp.
 
Setting aside a few finished woven panels of branches, Helen stood upright and looked about, taking inventory of her surroundings after hearing the scuffle from Takeyu and the little armored beast. She soon approached him and let out a sigh. "Don't tell me you could not handle a task as simple as the one I gave you... clean yourself up and take up the branch weaving task. I'll handle the lumber." Helen spoke as she went the way that Takeyu had come from as she held her tomahawk in hand.

Helen soon approached the tree that housed the little problem which Takeyu had encountered, seeing the gleaming eyes of the creature in it, she then picked another tree and pulled her wire-saw from her pack. She went to work on it, cutting through it half-way before she grabbed firmly onto the trunk of the somewhat thin tree. With a firm jerk, she snapped the tree loose and guided it downward with a small feat of her body's capability. She then went to work on cutting the trunk into sections suitable for a shelter to be made.
 
Takeyu watched the Taii leave, Well, I 'was' going to just clean up and then head back out, he sighed and for a moment wondered if the Taii had problems with lower ranking soldiers.

With a shrug of his shoulders, he walked over to his pack and cleaned off his wounds and washed his face down. When he was done he picked up his saw and for a brief moment he had to admit that he was out of his element, groundside work wasn't something he was accustomed to, considering he lived almost all of his life in space and rarely went planetside. With a shake of his head, he put the saw and cord away and sealed up the pack.

Though his hand was still throbbing with pain, he ignored it and went to work on weaving the branches together for the shelter.
 
Yaiba looked up at the ship. There was no change in its behavior. But then she had not really expected any. After all they were disguised she did not expect them to drop cloak or start broadcasting.

She heard the sound of a tree falling. Wind isn't strong enough to be felling trees... someone is in the woods. Time to see who. she thought.

She took note of the direction, and then returned to the ground. It did not take her long to return to the shelter. She slipped in, "We have people in the woods. Let's go see who they are."

She grabbed her Type 30 Battle Rifle, checked the clip and headed out. Ixta and Dilka fell in behind her with practiced ease. They fanned out and started making their way. Yaiba would lead them to the general area, and they would split up.

As they were going her communicator signaled an incoming message. She read it and sent a reply.


- - -

Meanwhile the following message was beamed down to the search team.

 
A few bitter words escaped Helen's lips at the weather advisory, though, she was pleased at the notion of a survivor being found, that was when she paused in her piling of lumber for a shelter, and went about changing plans a little. It was a slightly rude idea, but she figured that her group could impose upon the survivor for possible shelter... after all... they had more time to dig in, instead of the recklessly short time which her team had been left.

With half-a-plan in motion, Helen called together the two landing team members that were accounted for, and again dispensed directions. "Alright, we have confirmation of at least one survivor. We've also received an advisory about the weather... at this point, we're going to need to meet up with the survivor and see if they have a safer shelter against the storm. If we are unable to meet with the survivor, we're going to find the nearest hole on higher ground, and we're going to hide in it."

On that note, after giving instructions to her fellow personnel, Helen prepared for any further directions from the Eucharis or any sign of the survivor's approach. She sent up a tight beam message to the Eucharis at that point though, requesting that directions be given to the survivor to the landing party's location. Attached to that short message was a status report as well.


Report From Taii Helen Klein said:
Three of four personnel landed safely, missing the Shoi, attempted to dig in for shelter, terrain unsuitable in light of weather advisory and local pre-existing conditions. Requesting direction to nearest stable and elevated terrain.
Click to expand...
 
Nika cringed as the large vehicle hit the ground, bouncing a few times. She started up the STV on battery power and then began blasting the taiko drum music into the forests using the improvised speaker system.

- - -

As Yaiba approached the site of the felled tree, she saw a dead-looking Star Army soldier nearby; the body was impaled on a tree branch with a boneshredder vine plant picking at it from below. The carnivorous plant had already taken a hand from the corpse. The victim appeared to be a Geshrin who had fallen from the sky without a parachute.
 
After peering up in the sky, and seeing a falling STV, Helen let out a small chuckle before she gave a gesture to her fellow landing crew members to follow her. "Looks like our ride is here..." Then the music started "Follow the drums." With that, Helen started off in the direction of the STV.
 
Takeyu looked at what he had accomplished and sighed partly before brushing away the foliage he had covering his pack and putting it on and following Helen.

As he walked, he glanced down at his hand and flexed it before putting it down beside his pistol. He wanted to make certain it was within his reach in the event NMX came by, or perhaps any wild life.

Glancing occasionally over his shoulder; he kept a watchful eye for trouble.
 
Yaiba paused to consider the plight of the fallen soldier. Something must have happened on the ship for her to fallen out. After all a Geshrin would not think be able to fly so they would jump out.

"There is nothing we can do for her," She said looking at Ixta. She pulled out her phone and took an image of the fallen soldiers face. "At least we can show this to the others for identification."

Yaiba then heard drums in the distance. The sounded familiar. "Looks like the Star Army personnel found a way to signal without the Mishhu being able to intercept. Let's get there quickly." She said altering the groups path.
 
Mountain

The storm was moving in fast. A crack of thunder that happened synchronized with a drum beat acted as a signal to the clouds to begin releasing their payload. Large droplets of water began to hit the tree leaves with loud smacks, adding their own chorus to the loud drums and Neko shouts coming from the STV's speakers.

The image of the STV sat there with little crosshairs on it through the viewfinder of an olive-skinned, black-haired Nekovalkyrja wearing a khaki uniform and a shaggy ghillie cloak. "At clearing at the bottom of the mountain there is an STV. 1500 meters. It's Star Army blue."

"Got it," her sister said, one eye hidden by the scope of a large, shrouded olive drab rifle. She zoomed in on the driver's head. "She's stopped to blast music. Maybe she's a transferred Nepleslian."

"Star Army uniform?" the spotter Neko asked.

"Star Army uniform," the sniper confirmed. "Orange panels."

"Light her up."

"Engaging target."

Clearing

A sharp whizzing noise sliced through the air and Nika's head popped in a spray of red that was instantly coating the STV's interior and windshield. A moment later, a loud crack, easily mistakable for thunder, echoed through the forest below.
 
As the sound of thunder rumbled and the winds blew, Helen came to a sharp stop as her eyes narrowed. There was something off about the sound of thunder that she had heard as she put the sound through her Kessaku OS, referencing her memories of thunder claps and weapons fire... and drawing a conclusion as she held up her hand for the other two crew members to stop, then she lowered her hand down with an open palm as she knelt low to the ground.

"I think I heard weapons fire... stay low." Helen said at a whisper as she eased herself through the brush until she got a line of sight on the clearing, seeing the splash of red which coated the STV's windows. "Do not go out there, do not stand up, and only move as the foliage does. Keep your eyes open for anything that does not belong." She instructed as she peered off into the distance, using the control she had over her hemosynthetic body to alter the structure of one of her eyes to make her vision all the clearer and sharper as her skin seemed to become transparent to the other two crew members, until she faded from sight completely.

Where are you? Helen thought as she did not risk stepping out, for the sheer possibility that the gunner who got the STV driver had a sensor device on their weapon that could spot her. For the moment, she simply looked about with her sharpened gaze... though, she did also look at the splatter of blood, to see if there was any way to tell which way the shot came from... though, she knew that the shot could not have come from the front of the STV, or behind, since the window of the vehicle was not shattered from a round that either had to pass through it to get to the driver's head, or from a round that would have passed through the driver's head.
 
Yaiba lead her team towards the source of the drums. When she got close enough to recognize the spot, with the lightning and all, she recalled the last time she was here. The exploding vehicles and the artillery. But the most painful memory, was the sniper hit she took. This was a place Yaiba really did not want to return to. It was too open for her like, located on one of the roads. The roads that she and her friends avoided because they were monitored so heavily. She did not like the way the STV was sitting there.

"Ixta, I am going up to get a better view. Hold here and look for any sign of the Searchers." she said as she looked for a suitable tree. Once she found one that she liked and was clear of any boneshredder vines, she ascended silent as a ghost keeping the tree between her and the road. Once she was up in the bottom of the canopy she came around keeping low to the large branch. From there she looked around for anything that looked amiss, and for any sign of the search team.
 
As Helen peered about, she caught sight of something amiss... though, what she spotted most certainly was not a sniper... after all, there was no rifle. Thinking on how she could inform the survivor about the presence of her and the others without the sniper spotting her was a problem, but soon she had an idea. She waited for a moment before she pursed her lips and let out a series of sharp whistles before stopping and changing position by a few meters while remaining concealed.

I hope this person is not as dumb as that neko in the STV Helen mused as she brought her hologram-concealed LASR Mk II to her shoulder and began to peer through the scope at the mountains in the distance, and the tops of the treeline, ready to provide cover fire if the survivor did something rash... such as attempting to move too quickly, or if the sniper did something rash, such as taking a few potshots at the STV or the survivor. As she looked through the scope with one eye, she held up an un-gloved hand which she used to watch everything around her through her own skin while keeping that very flesh concealed behind her camouflage producing abilities.
 
Takeyu took cover behind some dense foliage, he was crouched down and his left hand now gripped his pistol tensely. Wide open area, yea.... bad spot to be in, but who the heck was in the STV? he thought but didn't bother to look around, he knew Helen had a better chance of spotting any enemies out there. He didn't need her to tell him what was possibly out there, he could figure that out on his own, which was why he kept a low profile and didn't move from his position.

While awaiting orders, he glanced around the area behind them, making certain nothing was sneaking up behind them.
 
Yaiba did not like what she saw from her vantage point. There was a lot of blood covering the STV. "Damn it, a sniper. There is no way it could be the same one again, could it?" she murmured to herself.

She turned her head when she heard whistling. Keeping herself low on the branch, she replied with her own whistle, the first five bars of the Yamatai Anthem.

On the ground below Dilka was making his way cautiously through the woods, trying to see who or what was making the shrill whistle.

The black-haired Nekovalkyrja spotter spotted Dilka, "We have movement along the edge of the clearing. Looks like it could be one of the natives with that dark skin. You want me to light him up for you?" she said to her sister.
 
"I will handle the shooting," the sniper reminded her overenthusiastic sister. "They will be pinned down by fear for a while. Let's slide back behind cover and you can get on the horn to base and let them know we have a hostile group in the forest here. They should be able to send a gunship and some Rippers."

"Understood," the spotter neko replied, slowly moving behind a nearby bush-covered rock. When she was behind cover she radioed the base...
 
There was a certain unfair nature Helen had to admit... an unfair nature in regard to the shell which her 'soul' was housed. There was more to her sight than what she had on her body as she 'listened' to the drones which still drifted about overhead... and through one of the drones she 'heard' the buzz of electronic chatter. That gave her a direction, and with that she peered through the optics of the other drone. She looked in that direction herself, and as she thought of the angle of the blood that splattered the STV, and the lack of bullet damage to the windows... she came to the conclusion of where her target was... through all of that, she heard the whistle from the survivor, and smiled.

With her LASR in semi-automatic, and a coating of metal soon oozing about her shoulder in which the butt of the rifle sat upon, Helen pulled the trigger of her LASR in a burst of fire which corresponded to the next few bars of the Yamataian anthem, which then gave way to another dozen shots. Granted, the shots were not at the full power of the weapon, but they tore through the space between Helen and the point which she strongly assumed was the target... or at least was the source of the electronic transmissions. Topping off the flurry with a few sprays of burst fire from her weapon in the direction of the suspected target, Helen then quickly ducked back into the bush and changed position. As she ran from a possible targeting based on her firing angle, she kept watch through the circling drones for any returned fire... and, even with all of that cold calculation and professionalism, she hissed a curse as her body ached from the recoil of the rifle.
 
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