RP: YSS Resurgence Mission 15: The Pathfinders (YE 46.5)

Passageway

"It was but I think it was a hard fought victory. Those Xynar are tough though and they earned my respect. As far as winning goes, we did it as a team." Yoshiro responded. "As for being scared...I really was. Fighting battles isn't easy but like you said, we won. Sanda was really good leading the fight."

He waited a few minutes before he spoke to Beryl. "Say, Beryl? Would you mind if I took you out to dinner at our next shore leave? I would love to get to know you better if you want to." He said blushing.

Concordia Station
YE 46.5

The Resurgence had returned to Concordia Station to meet again with Concordia Sector Operations. A few of the crew went over in a shuttle to meet with the Xiulurian elf SAINT liaison Lemeli Sylvan, who had given them the mission to explore the wormholes the last time they were there. Aoba sent Mineko and Euikoshi to deliver the report and anyone else who wanted to join them was encouraged to do so, so Poppy tagged along as well. The station was in increasingly good shape, as its ancient systems were restored and the Yamataian forces got increasing cooperation with the AI at its core, who the Resurgence crew had saved from the Mishhuvurthyar.

In the conference room, all the Resurgence crew who had wanted to come attend were able to grab a seat and discuss their findings and what came next.

"As you'll find in the report," Euikoshi was saying, "Near Wormhole 1 we found a planetary system with a habitable world and on this planet there was an ancient research facility under the surface ruins that was over a million years old and yet still operational. It was maintained and defended by guardian robots and it had containment cells for...entities that had come out of some of the portals. We called the the dimensional aberrations, and they were from a dimension the systems referred to as the dark aether. The base was built by a civilization we are calling the "Aetherian Progenitors" and it was referred to by its guardian robots as the Nexus of Val'hara at Atramentum, the Origin of Darkness."

Yayoi was silent as usual as she took her chosen seat. Her hands remained on her pants as she listened to Euikoshi's debriefing. She remembered the mission well, but she still remained silent as she listened. Dark Aether, i wonder how different it would be from normal aether. does it have mutagen abilities? She didnt know

"How different are the Aetherian Progenitors from previously known entities that hail from aetheric regions?" Mineko asked. Murmuring, she added, "Intentions seem to align."

"We do not know from where the Aetherian Progenitors originate," Euikoshi told Mineko. "The base's systems that I was able to interact with mainly seemed focused on the dimensional research and the related portals, not really any cultural information or history."

"Well, just aetheric origins in general," Mineko queried.

Cheilith sat fairly quietly, watching the rest of the crew.

"Besides the Dimensional Aberrations, there is only one other entity I know of that may have had origins in the aether..." Euikoshi. "There are some within the SARA community that believe the Umbral, the overlords of the Mishhuvurthyar, commonly referred to as the Dark Ones, somehow originated from the aether, given their unusual interest in it and their objections to Yamatai's use of the aether. It's unclear if the entities we saw have any relation, but they apparently entered this universe over a million years earlier than the Umbral."

"I should have added 'purportedly' hails, but point remains. If they share that similarity, where do they end and where do they stop. Knowing—or at the least, theorizing—could help us in more ways than one." Mineko said.

Poppy chimed in, "Our working theory is that the Aetherian Progenitors kept opening portals to new dimensions, maybe other universes, for research purposes, until they found these Aberrations and they were a problem. They attempted to contain them in the research base. We don't know what happened after that. But we did find a faction called the Xynar Dominion which was sending military forces to secure the ancient artifacts for themselves and which may have released some of the ancient entities into the wild...which, by the way, didn't end well for them."

"I agree," Euikoshi nodded to Mineko. "I feel like right now we don't have enough pieces of this puzzle to really put it together, but maybe the other wormholes will give us more of the story."

Yayoi shifted a little in her seat as she attempted to think about the Aberrations the team fought. She didn't remember if they captured any, but did remember the statue-machines.

"And that's what makes what the future holds so interesting," Mineko said, words coming faster than she could speak. "Opportunity to learn. I'm especially intrigued that these dimensional aberrations weren't what the Celestial Concord were running from. We've seen the Xynar, know what they can do and why the Concordians feared them. But we don't know what's coming through those portals or their intentions, do we."

"They're bad news," Poppy said, "I've never seen something that could just bust through aether before just by touching it. Anything they put their hands on gets turned into glitter."

Yayoi nodded "considering we use Aether, they could be considered a threat. especially if they can do that to matter too." Yayoi commented verbally.

"The Concordians said they were on the run from some sort of machine faction that wanted to remove organic life. I'm not sure what the connection is between the Aetherian Progenitors' old base and Concordian Station, but they both had dimensional portals in them, and they both had robot guadians that come out of the walls, and those guardians look fairly similar and both use plasma weapons, and both bases were run by an AI that speak a similar language, so logic suggestions that Concordia Station may have been built by the Aetherian Progenitors. If they have a base on one side of the wormhole and a station on the other side, it's possible that the entire wormhole network the Mishhuvurthyar were using to spread through the galaxy was originally made by them. What do you think, Mineko?" Euikoshi speculated.

"If that hypothesis is correct, it's in our vested intest to find out if the Mishhuvurthyar knew that. If they are being aided by the Aetherians or if they are simply using a tool they stumbled upon. Our lives would be very different depending on that answer," Mineko said with a slow ruminating cadence that differed from the last time she spoke. "Our lives and our deaths, for that matter."

"It's unclear whether or not the Aetherian Progenitors survived into the current era," Euikoshi shrugged. "All we've found is their million-year-old ruins, bases, and space stations, all under siege by various other groups like the Rixxikor and Xynar, and with only robot defenders, no people."

"Even if they survived, the Misshu aren't known to be the best of neighbors." Cheilith observed.

"What they can't conquer or corrupt, the Mishhu destroy," Poppy nodded to Cheilith. "It's their way."

"You ever wonder why that is?" Cheilith asked.

"What I'm wondering," Lemeli Sylvan asked, "...is why the Xynar Dominion is so hostile to us without ever really even trying to identify us. They must have a lot of confidence to just attack other nations without asking questions."

"There are a lot of places where it doesn't matter why you are there or who you are, if you're not Star Army, you get shot." Cheilith offered.

"Maybe they're more talkative when there isn't ancient technology at stake," Euikoshi suggested. "I think they just wanted it for themselves."

Hayden raised his hand, "Hey, uh, where's that stuff the robot told me fit in?"

Yayoi nodded with Cheilith's words indeed it was true, especially true with the Kuvexians. She clutched and unclutched a fist in silent anger as she thought of their crimes, before she turned her focus.

Euikoshi looked at Hayden. "The robots called the world the origin of darkness, I think they meant it was a cursed place because it's where the dimensional aberrations were introduced from this 'dark aether' dimension into our own, which may have led to the downfall of their civilization. Perhaps if we keep exploring the wormhole network we'll be able to find messages they left behind that could tell us more about their history and how it happened. But for now, it's unclear."

"I guess that sounds about right. Roboman didn't seem like he was very happy to talk about that part." Hayden mused, "For like, what a giant killer statue can be happy, or whatever."

"Please ask Captain Aoba to assist SAINT in gathering additional intelligence by investigating the other wormholes around Concordia Station," Lemeli told the Resurgence crew.

"We will, of course," Mineko said to the other Intelligence Officer. "Thank you for your assistance in doing so, as well. There is a lot to learn in this Sector and a lot of ways to make use of those findings."

Yayoi leaned back in her seat as she thought about Lemeli's request to investigate the other worm holes. She knew most were to random regions in the Kagami Galaxy, but she had to admit, going through a dimensional portal was intriguing. She sighed a little audibly "a certain medic trainee, would not be pleased if I don't ask.. but is there plans to investigate the portals we've discovered?' she asked. Yayoi knew most would know whom she meant by medical trainee.

"Yes, but we need to proceed with caution to avoid releasing more problems into the universe," Lemeli said. "After the First Fleet had to take decisive action to keep the planet from falling to the Xynar, it's likely the Star Army will set up a permanent base there and move SARA teams into the ancient facility for the long-term. Once that happens, we will probably need volunteers to explore some of the portals and the dimensions beyond them."

Yayoi nodded her head silently in agreement. She didn't like the idea of releasing new problems, though if these were only problems to the likes of Kuvexian, or better the Rixxikor that would be amazing.

"No doubt the Mishhu are happy to know we're now fighting a war on two fronts," Mineko stated, a little sadly.

"As we explore the galaxy to find the Mishhu, running into new threats is just part of the process," Lemeli replied. "They would have been out there regardless, so it's better that We Know instead of remaining in the dark about them," she stated flatly, referencing the SAINT motto.

"And now we know," Mineko nodded somberly, agreeing but still reflecting on the tough road ahead.

Poppy placed a reassuring hand on Mineko's shoulder. "The Star Army is built to do the hard stuff, and so is Resurgence. We're small but we always make a difference for the better," she smiled.

"New intel just came in from our scout probe," Euikoshi told Mineko. "It's, uh...on fire. Turns out the second wormhole is really close to a sun, maybe due to some sort of stellar drift or gravity interactions. We should be prepared to get a little roasted when we get there. Before it melted, we got a single image from it showing the silhouette of a space station similar to Concordia Station. Looking at it, it looks like it may fall into the sun soon so we should probably learn as much as we can before that happens."

"If the planet is going to fall into the sun, shouldn't we get heat resistant gear for the away teams?" Yoshiro asked. He had been listening to the briefing and was a bit concerned.

Yayoi widened her eyes, she'd never heard of such a thing happen before but then a wormhole being close to the sun was new for her.

"We should talk to Beryl and see if she can procure any sort of heat-resistant gear," Poppy thought out loud.

"Agreed, and heat resistant metal would be good too," Yayoi said.

Euikoshi and Poppy stood and politely made their goodbyes to Concordia Sector Operations' SAINT Liasion. Together with the rest of the Resurgence crew, they headed back to their gunship to get ready for the next mission.

= = =
OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Yoshiro, AND YUUKI, Ame, Soban

YSS Resurgence – Wormhole Transit to Unknown Space

The YSS Resurgence surged forward as it neared the second wormhole, the sleek, war-weathered hull cutting through the void like a blade. The stars ahead began to warp and twist, dragged into a spiraling maw of darkness and light, the wormhole entrance shimmering with energy. This was one of the eight mysterious anomalies, and it felt different—more volatile, more dangerous.

"All hands, prepare for wormhole entry," Captain Aoba’s voice came over the ship's intercom. "Brace for turbulence and unknown conditions on the other side."

In the bridge, screens lit up with flashing symbols and shifting readouts as the ship's sensors struggled to grasp the sheer power of the cosmic phenomenon ahead. The space around the wormhole swirled, shimmering like a liquid horizon, twisting in on itself with pulses of strange, rhythmic energy.

In the wardroom, the crew felt the ship shudder under the strain. Drinks rattled in their cups, trays vibrated on tables, and the soft hum of the ship’s engines took on a more ominous tone as the Resurgence drew closer to the anomaly.

"Here we go again," Poppy muttered, gripping the edge of the table.

Euikoshi, standing at a console on the bridge, was furiously checking readouts from the ship’s systems. "This wormhole’s readings are off the charts compared to the last one. It’s destabilizing faster—there’s no telling what we’ll find on the other side!"

The ship began to rattle violently as it breached the event horizon of the wormhole, the stars outside bending and distorting into long streams of light as they were pulled through the swirling vortex. A sudden lurch threw some of the crew off-balance as the ship was yanked deeper into the unknown, the gravitational forces slamming into the hull like a hammer on steel.

"Hang on, everyone!" Gabriela shouted over the comms, gripping her station as the lights flickered ominously.

"Brace for emergence!" Kalena's voice cut in over the intercom. "Exit in T-minus 10 seconds. Prepare for immediate response!"

The countdown rang in everyone’s ears as the ship barreled toward the exit point. At the bridge, Captain Aoba gripped the armrest of his chair, his eyes locked on the swirling chaos outside. "Weapons at the ready. We don’t know what’s waiting for us."

The ship punched through the other side of the wormhole with a deafening crack, as if reality itself had just split open. The crew found themselves thrown forward as the Resurgence emerged into a vast, alien expanse—an entirely new sector of space.

But there was no time to take in the view.

The YSS Resurgence tore free from the wormhole with a jolt that sent a shudder through its entire hull. The stars beyond the ship snapped back into focus, but the view ahead was anything but ordinary.

They had emerged in the proximity of a massive, dying star—a crimson giant, its surface bubbling and flaring with volatile bursts of fiery plasma. The searing heat and radiation of the star pressed against the Resurgence's shields like a furnace door thrown open. The proximity alarms rang out across the ship as the star’s gravitational pull tried to drag them closer into its lethal embrace.

But that wasn't what commanded their attention.

Suspended in the star's orbit, not far from the Resurgence, was a massive alien space station. The structure was gargantuan, its surface glowing faintly with intricate, geometric patterns. A labyrinth of shimmering metal, it looked ancient and advanced all at once—a relic of the Aetherian Progenitors, unmistakable in its architecture. Its vast rings and towers were slowly twisting, as though the station were trying to keep itself stable despite the overwhelming forces pulling it toward the star.

But it was clear—the station was doomed.

"All hands, report!" Captain Aoba barked, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the massive station. "What are we looking at, Euikoshi?"

Euikoshi, pale but composed, quickly scanned the ship's sensors. Her fingers danced over the controls as she gathered data. "It's an Aetherian Progenitor station, no doubt," she replied, her voice tense. "It's still operational, but barely. The gravitational forces from the star are tearing it apart—the station's losing altitude and getting pulled closer to the star's corona. Estimated time before it's consumed by the star: less than three hours."

"See if we can put together an away team of volunteers to get over there and tell them to use any sort of heat protection they can," Aoba ordered. "I want you to get anything you can off that station's ancient computers before the knowledge is lost forever."

Yuri looked out the windows of the ship's lounge, and blinked at the giant red star. "even red stars can be giant, huh?' she asked herself.

Shuttle Bay

In the ship's shuttle bay, Beryl was ready with her Ke-T7 transport shuttle Beryls of Fun, and fired up its systems as the team of volunteers began to assemble.

Sanda had already suited up in her Mindy before the ship had exited the wormhole and was ready to go. She was going lighter on weapons, only taking her side arms and sword, Arc. This was a grab and go mission so they needed to be quick.

Yayoi had the last of her Mindy's armor strapped on, the snaps loud and audible in her ears.

Cassie showed, dragging a transparent Zesuaium shield.

"The new model 1B Mindy armors like yours include a Norian-derived 'Kegsta' heat absorber module," their armorer Miriam Norita explained as they gathered to get in the shuttle. It should help you last longer, but if you need to get out of there, I've included two 'Froggy' teleporter pads to allow a return to the ship to cool down, which will be activated and connected to the ship whenever you set them down on a flat surface," she explained. "Try not to spend more than a couple minutes in the severe heat. The best thing you can do is use the station as a shield, and whatever you do, don't stand in direct sunlight on the outside."

"Thanks Norita." Sanda said. Then radioed Euikoshi. "Any suggestions of where we should start looking?"

A small hiss let the resurgences resident elysian that her armor had finished assembling and was ready for action. Chiheisen Takahashi stood up and joined the rest of the away team near the Beryls of Fun, listening into the mission briefing as quietly as always. The Elysian had been quieter than usual for the past couple of weeks, evidently still reeling a bit from past events.

"The station looks like it as a vaguely similar layout to Concordia station," Euikoshi told Sanda and the team. "So I've got a estimated position of the computer systems overlaid on this preliminary station map. Scans are still ongoing. Hey, there is one other factor..."

Pidole already knew what that was from her experience on Concordia station. "Let me guess...if the ancient AI is still active, it could try to possess us like the one on Concordia did?" She looked at her beetle with a very concerned expression on her face.

Sanda nodded to Chiheisen as she listend to Euikoshi's suggestions. She was glad to see the bird was volunteering again for the away team. Sanda and Chiheisen had both been captured and tortured by Mishhu. The Nepleslian Ranger had recovered quicker, but the Nito Hei had needed more time.

"If it's alive, it could be in a state of desperation," Cassie speculated. "I mean, it's about to get roasted, right? Er, not alive, but running. Operational. You know what I mean."

Yayoi nodded "agreed, alive or not we should be careful, especially with how close the station is to the star, we may have gravity issues to deal with as well as other anomalies." Yayoi commented to the team.

"Anyway we can potentially contact the Stations AI and let it know we're here to assisst? I mean we should know something about communcation with it from the Concordian station, right?" Sanda asked.

As the shuttle bay's doors opened it looked like someone was putting a giant flamethrower against the Resurgence's hull, with thousand-kilometer winds of solid fire rushing by the doorway. There was an extremely loud crackling from the air containment forcefields and a burning and ozone smell filled the shuttle bay.

"Anyone have a Marshmellow?" Cassie asked, before getting inside the shuttle to get out of the bright fiery light now cast across the shuttle bay.

"Im.... afraid that marshmellow would be reduced to ashes if you tried" Chiheisen deadpanned a little as her head slowly turned to look towards Cassie. She followed the rest of the team into the Ke-T7.

As the away team was preoccupied boarding the shuttle, they would recieve a little "Ganbatte!" from Kokoro Hayashi via their Mindy's communiations system.

"only food item i have is what is standard, which is nothing" Yayoi commented towards Cassie, as she followed the others into the shuttle. She took note of Kokoro's message, though it was distracting and unneeded to see, but it was apreciated.

"Whoosh," Cassie rolled eye eyes, trying to find some decent way to store her big shield in the shuttle's interior. "I don't suppose you'll need the ration's flameless heater," she told Yayoi

Yayoi eyed Cassie, for a second she's just like Yuri. Yayoi thought as she chose not to comment and instead sat.

As the away team boarded the Beryls of Fun, the shuttle hummed to life, its sleek frame vibrating slightly under the strain of the heat and gravitational forces outside. Beryl, seated at the pilot's controls, ran through pre-flight checks with swift, practiced efficiency. Her eyes darted between the readouts, her fingers moving across the control panels as she made adjustments to compensate for the rapidly changing conditions outside.

"Zanven, you ready for this?" Beryl asked, glancing over at the co-pilot seat where Zanven Brax sat. The Nepleslian pilot had a confident grin on his face, but even he couldn’t hide the tension as he scanned the roiling star ahead of them.

"Born ready," Zanven replied, his voice calm but determined. "Let’s just hope the shuttle holds up long enough to make it through."

The shuttle bay doors opened, revealing the hellscape outside. The fiery light from the dying star flooded the bay, casting long, sharp shadows as the forcefield crackled against the intense heat. The flames from the star roared past like a wall of molten fire, and the winds from the stellar storm battered the Resurgence, causing the hull to groan under the strain.

"Alright, we’ve got a narrow window," Beryl said, gripping the flight stick as she eyed the navigation charts. "The shadow side of the station is just barely out of the star’s direct radiation, but those gravitational eddies are going to toss us around like a toy if we’re not careful. Zanven, keep an eye on those thruster controls. We’ll need to punch through at the right moment."

Zanven’s hands hovered over the controls, his brow furrowing as he monitored the ship’s trajectory. "Got it. If we get too close to the star, we’re toast. Literally."

The shuttle’s engines roared to life, and the Beryls of Fun shot out of the shuttle bay, plunging into the swirling inferno of space. The moment they left the protective shields of the Resurgence, the shuttle was rocked by the violent forces of the star’s gravity and the intense heat surrounding them.

"Steady...steady..." Beryl muttered, her hands tightening on the controls as she fought to keep the shuttle on course. The screens flickered with red warnings, heat levels rising as the star's energy buffeted the shuttle.

Zanven’s eyes darted between the readouts and the view outside. "Heat levels spiking! We’re getting pulled in—diverting power to lateral thrusters!"

The shuttle groaned as it resisted the gravitational pull of the massive red star. The star’s surface boiled and churned, sending arcs of plasma spewing into space. The shuttle dipped and swayed as it fought against the pull, the temperature gauges edging into dangerous territory.

Beryl gritted her teeth. "Hold on... I see the station. Almost there..."

Ahead, the looming silhouette of the Aetherian Progenitor space station came into view. The massive structure was awe-inspiring, even in its decaying state. Its vast rings and towering spires shimmered faintly with the remnants of alien technology, pulsing with ancient energy. The station’s surface was a patchwork of twisting geometric patterns, glowing faintly in the dim light of the star. The rings around the station were slowly turning, though they seemed sluggish, as if struggling to maintain their once-perfect orbit.

The station was in its death throes, slowly but surely being dragged into the star’s fiery grasp. Sections of the outer hull were cracked and buckled, and plumes of debris floated freely around it, caught in the star’s gravity well. Flames licked at the edges of the station where the heat had begun to warp the metal, and the faint glow of forcefields flickered sporadically as the station’s systems fought to hold back the inevitable.

"There! The shadow side!" Zanven pointed, his hand moving quickly to adjust the shuttle’s trajectory. "We’ve got an opening!"

The Beryls of Fun angled toward the station, dipping into the relative safety of the shadow cast by the station itself. The star's rays were blocked by the bulk of the ancient structure, giving the shuttle some relief from the punishing heat and radiation.

Beryl let out a breath. "Nice work. Let’s find a place to set this bird down."

The shuttle skimmed across the surface of the station, passing over massive spires and intricate lattices of alien architecture. The station was enormous, its surface a maze of conduits, towers, and mechanical arms. The designs were impossibly complex, clearly the work of a civilization far more advanced than anything they had encountered before.

"Looks like there’s an auxiliary hangar bay up ahead," Beryl noted, her eyes scanning the station’s schematics that Euikoshi had provided. "We’ll set down there. I just hope it hasn’t collapsed."

The shuttle banked gently and descended toward the hangar, its landing gear deploying as it touched down with a slight thud inside the massive, dark bay. The walls of the hangar flickered with ancient lights, casting eerie shadows over the shuttle.

"We made it," Zanven said, exhaling in relief.

Beryl powered down the engines and turned to the team. "Alright, team, this is it. The station's in bad shape, and we don’t have much time before it’s pulled into the star. Let’s move fast, get the data we need, and get out of here before we’re roasted alive."

The away team gathered their gear and prepared to disembark, the weight of the mission settling on them as they looked out at the vast, crumbling station. The mysteries of the Aetherian Progenitors awaited them, but so did the dangers of a dying star.

Their time was running out.

When the shuttle hatch opened, Beryl stumbled out of the shuttle, feeling sick. Pidole rushed over and tried to comfort her. "It's alright, steady breaths."

Sanda stepped onto the station a little unsteady. Even with her suits extra heat sheilding, it felt warm. The ground felt uneaven as well. The Ranger wasn't sure it the station integraty was already degrading, or if it was the gravitaional forces of the star on the station. Whichever it was, it would make travel that much more hazardest.

"Lets get moving." Sanda said as she grabbed one of the teleportations and attached it to her back. She got her barings then headed out and a quick pace leading deeper into the station.

"Hai.." Chiheisen nodded almost imperceptibly as she stepped off of the ship, armed with her side weapon in hand instead of her LATR, which sat strapped to the back of her Mindy.

"hai" Yayoi said as she made her way out of the shuttle, her mind barely even registering the heat, though taking note ot the temperature. Her mind immediately went to Yuri, who's at times curious mind had given Yayoi a headache sometimes when Yuri had been little. Now she figured she'd ask just how much can a Mindy Power Armor take in the heat of the sun.

The shuttle bay of the ancient Aetherian Progenitor space station was a vast, cavernous chamber, larger than any modern hangar the team had seen before. The ceiling stretched impossibly high above, fading into shadow, while the walls were lined with intricate geometric patterns that pulsed faintly with dim blue light. The patterns seemed alive, as though the very walls of the station were breathing with ancient energy.

Despite the immense size of the bay, it was eerily quiet. The sound of the shuttle's engines echoed off the cold, metallic surfaces, but otherwise, there was only the faint hum of the station's failing systems. Crates and containers, long abandoned, were scattered across the floor, some of them overturned and covered in a thick layer of dust. A few alien ships, sleek and angular in design, sat in various states of disrepair, their hulls darkened by time and heat.

Above, suspended from the ceiling, massive mechanical arms hung like dormant sentinels, their joints creaking as they swayed slightly in the station's failing gravity. The bay's central control tower, a towering structure of glass and metal, loomed over the hangar floor, its windows cracked and flickering with sporadic energy surges. The control consoles inside blinked with faded lights, struggling to remain operational.

The floor of the shuttle bay was an uneven patchwork of metal grates and smooth, metallic tiles. The heat from the nearby star had warped some sections, causing the ground to buckle slightly, while other parts were scorched black, evidence of the intense radiation that had already begun to penetrate the station’s defenses.

Euikoshi got her bearings and stood, then used her AIES computer to overlay an augmented-reality pathway towards the computer systems onto the team's HUDs that they could all follow.

Cassie raised her plasma rifle and began advancing across the bay following the trail markers towards a large interior exit door. She could feel the station vibrating under them from the immense stresses of the sun, feeling similar to constant Earthquake. It was enough that it was slowly shaking Beryl's shuttle around the bay, moving a few centimeters at a time like a phone on vibrate left on an angled desk.

= = =
OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Cowboy, Yoshiro, AND YUUKI,, Lizalopod

He followed Cassie to make sure she didn't get in trouble. "Cassie, what are you doing?" Yoshiro asked.

"I'm closing on the objective," Cassie answered. "You want to stay here and get melted? Let's move out!" she said, carrying her large LAMIA shield. Euikoshi and Pidole followed, each with one of the two teleporter pads on their backs.

"You got a point., where's the objective?" Yoshiro asked Cassie.

"Supposedly this way!" Cassie said.

The passageways leading deeper into the station were narrow and winding, more like arteries than hallways, with walls covered in the same intricate, glowing patterns. The lights were dim, casting the corridors in a faint, eerie glow that flickered with each fluctuation in the station's power. Some sections of the walls had been breached, allowing the searing light from the nearby star to spill through in dangerous bursts that shot out scorching flames or superheated gasses.

The further the team ventured, the more the heat became apparent. The walls seemed to shimmer, as if they were struggling to contain the intense energy pressing in from outside. Occasionally, they passed by strange, alien machinery embedded into the walls—devices that pulsed faintly with energy, their purpose long forgotten. Some of these machines emitted strange, mechanical sounds, like distant whispers in an unknown language.

Yoshiro followed Cassie so he could help her if she needed it."

"Watch it!" Sanda exclaimed as a section of wall disapeared sending in a beam of intensly bright hot light. "How much farther?" She asked Euikoshi.

"Whoa!!" Yoshiro said..getting nervous and stopped and then tried to go around the beam of light.

Chiheisen remained on edge as she followed along, her pistol gripped in hand just in case. She shyed away from the lightshow, not wanting to end up like a crispy chicken wing.

Yayoi stopped as she saw the searing hot light, her sensors gave her a reading, and she knew that she'd had to be careful, as the light could deplete her shields, before her armor.

As the team ventured deeper into the shuttle bay, past the ancient, sleek ships and scattered debris, something else caught their attention—a massive, dormant figure slumped against the far wall. It was unmistakably one of the station’s ancient guardian constructs, but unlike the ones they had encountered before, this one lay still, its once gleaming armor blackened and cracked from the intense heat of the nearby star.

"hey i see one of those giant guardian constructs" Yayoi called out to her team, before she got her Mindy's systems to scan the construct, wanting to see its status.

"Yeah, and something else," Cassie said, pointing to some dead people. Around the construct's feet lay the remains of Xynar soldiers, their charred and mangled bodies a testament to the last stand this guardian had made before it had fallen. The corses weren't recent, and what bits of alien flesh were exposed resembled beef jerky. "These guys really have a thing for progenitor facilities, don't they?" Cassie rubbed her chin.

"Aw not these jokers again." Sanda said as she turned over the body of one with her toe in discust.

Yayoi grimaced as she saw the Xynar but her focus was on the fallen guardian as her scans did its work.

"From the previous.. wormhole?" Chiheisen peered towards one of the dead Xynar, examining them- as this was her first time encountering them. She had, of course, read the reports. "These seem... aged."

"Maybe this was the first group to fight these guys, and those from the last mission were the second group?' Yayoi thought out loud to her team as she observed.

Sanda shrugged. There really wasn't time to be standing around speculating about it. She looked at their mission timer that was diminishing at an infuriating rate. "We need to keep moving."

"It seemed the Xynary have been surfing the wormholes for a while now trying to find what they can find," Euikoshi guessed.

Euikoshi thought for a moment, examining a small console embedded in the construct’s chest. "It's risky, but I might be able to access its memory banks—if they're still intact. The power systems are fried, though. We’d need to be careful not to overload anything and lose whatever’s left. Do you guys want to go ahead and locate the core while I work on this?"

"If you think it's worth the time then do it. Hayden can remain with you while we move ahead." Sanda nodded to Euikoshi/

= = =
OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Cowboy, Yoshiro, AND YUUKI, Lizalopod ★☆★☆★

The YSS Resurgence’s away team had barely caught their breath as they disembarked from the shuttle into the ancient Aetherian Progenitor station. The oppressive heat, even with their heat absorbers working overtime, was an ever-present reminder of the dying star's relentless pull. Every surface around them hummed with ancient energy, but much of it was failing. The walls buckled slightly, groaning under the stress of the gravitational forces from the fiery giant outside. Time was their enemy now, and they could feel the station’s slow descent, pulling them toward an inevitable fiery end.

As the team pressed forward, the passageways became narrower, twisting like the arteries of some long-forgotten beast. The walls flickered with dim, sporadic light as the station’s power ebbed and flowed. Glowing symbols blinked along their HUDs as Euikoshi’s overlay directed them towards the station’s core. Their objective was clear—reach the core, extract whatever data they could from the Progenitors' systems, and escape before the star consumed them all. But even as they moved deeper, the vibrations underfoot intensified, and strange sounds echoed through the corridors—mechanical groans and faint whispers of a forgotten language. Something was still active here, something more than just the decaying remnants of an ancient civilization.

Euikoshi checked the temperature sensor she had strapped to her Mindy's forearm. The interior of the station in the corridors was rising rapidly. She looked at the team as they went on without her, and they quickly became lost in a blur of heat waves. It was like they were all cooking in a big oven. As the team proceeded, the ruptures began to get worse, with more passageways being cut off by explosions of steam and hot gasses, or worse, pinholes of sunlight that were like heat lasers.

Yoshiro checked the the status of the armor he was wearing. The temperature was rising slowly but steadily. He checked on the location of the objective, marking it on the navcom.

As Yoshiro proceded,he found the way ahead towards the core had failing gravity systems, so the way up was either "wrong" or nonexistent. There were drops of molten material floating through the air, coming out of an air vent that was now closely resembling a cookout grill.

"Everybody assume I'm best friends with giant killer robot statues now, know everything about talking to them," Hayden ruminated as he walked along with Euikoshi, eyes darting to his temperature readout on his hud more than probably strictly necessary. "Well, Green Machine, you just tell Hayden what you need."

"Hayden, I am just glad you are able to talk to them. You have a great talent with that." Yoshiro said.


While Euikoshi continued to try to extract data from the ancient robot, Pidole began tracing the wiring and power systems of the ancient station. "I believe if we take a detour here, we may be able to buy some time by restoring some of the malfuctioning life support to move the heat out of the route to the core," she offered. "What do you think?" she asked the away team leader.

"You're the genius, Professor." Hayden moved to stand off to Euikoshi's side, ready to follow her lead. Looking back at Yoshiro, he waited a perfect comedic beat. "I just got roborizz."

Yayoi walked with her away team, her Mindy's sensors noting the heat temperature, and a time limit to when they are requred to get to safety. In addition to other mundane tats that only someone with a stick up her butt would find important. Her attention went to Euikoshi "sounds like an idea worth trying.

"How long will it take you to fix it?" Sanda asked Pidole. She could feel the sweat starting to bead on her fore head which wasn't a good sign.

"I don't know, but it's better than cooking?" Pidole told Sanda. "These systems are ancient and alien, but they still run on logical engineering...I think I should be able to figure them out."

Sanda grunted. "Not if we spend all of our time trying to fix something and that may or not work and are unable to compleate our mission." She looked around at the heat waves rising in the hall way. "You've got five minets to try to get things fixed, then we have to just suck it up and keep going."

Chiheisen let out a tiny huff from inside her Mindy as its internal temperature began to rise, not to dangerous levels, but at the very least, stuffy ones. She glanced towards Pidole, then towards one of the detour in question. "If we have enough time to-"

Suddenly a swarm of drones darted out from the passageway ahead and began to shoot at Chiheisen and Sanda! From the dark green metallic exterior and teal lights, they were readily identified as Xynar in origin. Sparks flew as the shots impacted on and around them.

Chiheisen's eyes widened as her HUD alerted her of incoming fire, shifting to attempt to avoid being hit. She returned fire with her sidearm, which she still had in hand. The Elysian deployed her NSBs to also return fire.

Yoshiro started shooting the drones with aether.smg. "Sanda you got hostile contacts firing at you!"

"shit!" Yayoi commented, as the drones suddenly appeared and started attacking members of the away team. Immediately she moved forward, activating her weapons, her Aetheric Pulse Cannon Chief among them and fired at the drones.

The drones made small targets and were difficult to hit as they bobbed and weaved between shots. It was taking more effort than normal to tag them with their weapons.

Sanda was already irritable do to the extream heat. Now she was downright pissed off. "No shit, Sherlock!" Sanda yelled at Yoshiro. She drew her Plasma revolver and her sword, Arc, in one fluid motion. "Ustedes bastardos eligieron el momento equivocado para meterse conmigo." and went on the attack.

Sanda sliced through one of the drones and its halves clattered to the ground, leaving two left.

Cassie heard gunshots. "Guys?" she asked, looking back at Euikoshi with concern. "Hey, are you ready to move yet, Euikoshi? The rest of the team may be trouble." She didn't like being around the corner and missing a battle.

Chiheisen grunted as she opted to swap to her main rifle. She began to track one of the two remaining drones, attempting to lead her shots to clip it out of the sky. It was a small target, but the Elysian didnt spend countless hours practicing her aim in the vr room for nothing!

Somehow Chiehisen still managed to miss! At least this time. These drones were freakin' speedy. An alarm sounded as the drone shot back, hitting her in the visor and causing some damage to her sensors and communications antennae.

"I get the feeling that someone or something doesn't want us here." Yoshiro said with concern. "I think they may have sabotaged the station." Yoshiro aimed at the drones and fired.

Yayoi managed to get the next kill, blowing a drone up with her aetheric pulse cannon. The final drone seemed to make a kamikaze run for Yoshiro! It blew up in front of him, sending him flying like a ragdoll into the nearby section of damaged wall, which exploded into flames and pushed him away, spewing hot gasses.

Yayoi almost smiled as she managed to blow up a drone, but she had to acknowledge that it was hard to target them, so she pondered using her hidden blades but

The Elysian grunted as she stumbled back a little from the hit, her HUD flickering with warning symbols. She tried to send her NSBs after the remaining drone before it could hit Yoshiro, before noticing her own little bits werent responding to her commands. It was a bit more evident to her as she realised the extent of the damage to her armor, letting out a curse under her helmet that went unheard.

Standing watch over Euikoshi, Hayden was more concerned with drones coming her way than anywehre else. He knew to stay in his lane and watch his own arc, and that arc covered the science officer's hoop. "Got the AC fixed yet, Prof?" He took a well aimed shot at a target of opportunity, but was mainly using his bulk as a shield for her and firing only at ones coming her way.

As Euikoshi worked on the dormant guardian construct, she managed to bypass several security locks in its memory banks, her fingers flying over the controls of her portable interface device. The construct’s systems had suffered extensive damage from the heat, but some of its data remained intact. After several minutes of careful work, she uncovered a fragmented but critical piece of information.

"The guardian’s last memory log is from right before it fell," Euikoshi reported, her voice tense with concentration. "It was in the middle of repelling a Xynar attack... but there’s more. There’s a specific command, an emergency protocol initiated by the station’s AI. It looks like the station was preparing for some sort of massive data transfer—a failsafe meant to preserve vital information before the station was destroyed."

She paused, eyes narrowing as she deciphered the ancient symbols. "If I’m reading this correctly, the core isn’t just a control center. It’s a vault. All the knowledge and technological advancements of the Aetherian Progenitors are stored there, waiting to be transferred somewhere safe. But the process was interrupted... which means the data could still be here, if we can complete the transfer. But we need to act fast—the core’s systems are critically unstable."

"Let's get back with the rest of the team," Cassie encouraged Euikoshi, who nodded. Cassie gave Hayden a pat on the shoulder as she passed, briskly jogging to close on the other Resurgence members.

When the team reunited, Pidole immediately asked for someone to cover her as she worked in the secondary control room to restore life support and ove the heat out of their way.

Hayden's focus shifted on turning into the rear guard after the pat, and once the others were moving he fell in behind, auto-tracking whoever was closest, so his armor could hover backwards while he fired back for cover.

To everyone else, and the resurgence, Chiheisen's comm link would show up as disconnected. Granted, she was alive still, considering she was standing with the group.

"Chiheisen's comms got disconnected, Sanda can you find her?" Yoshiro asked.

Sanda checked on Chiheisen's suit. In these extream conditions, there was almost no margin for error. Everyone's suits needed to be 100% functional to survive these conditions. Chriheisen's suit didn't look too bad, but if her comms were down that could mean other things were wrong as well. "Chiheisen, you and Yoshiro need to head back to the Res and make sure your suits are at 100%."

The station shook violently as it continued to buckle under the extreme stress of being pulled into the nearby star.

"Oh fu..." Yoshiro said as he fell down due to stress the sun was putting on the station. "Roger that, Sanda. "

"Hmm, anyone else see that heat warning?" Cassie said, looking at the blinking yellow indicator on her Mindy's HUD.

Sanda removed the teleporter she'd been carrying. "Anyone who's suit is not at 100% get back to the Res now! Have Norita swap out your suits and get your sorry asses back here!"

Chiheisen didnt really seem to respond, facing towards the hallway with her LATR, flicking through her suits systems... Her communicatons array was damaged, she couldnt really hear Sanda's orders.

Seeing Chiheisen not responding, Sanda moved in front of her and used her hands to sign what she wanted the Bird to do. Go...to ship... get fixed up... get back here.

The Elysian blinked as she saw Sanda, before nodding and providing the heisho with a quick salute.

Sanda smiled under her helmet and gave the bird a thumbs up.

The bird quickly made her way towards the now active teleportation pad, motioning for the damaged Mindy of Yoshiro to follow before teleporting away.

"yes, we need to hurry, quadrupal time!" Yayoi commented out loud, not at all liking what her sensors were showing.

Pidole looked around then pointed at Cassie and Hayden and then led the way to secondary control room off the side of one of the passageways.

The secondary control room was a shadowy, compact chamber, filled with rows of ancient, hexagonal consoles that glowed faintly with blue and purple hues. The walls were adorned with intricate geometric patterns, pulsing faintly as if the station itself were still alive, though clearly weakening. A massive, cracked viewport dominated one wall, offering a view of the star’s molten surface as it slowly pulled the station closer to its doom. The air was thick with the faint smell of ozone, and the temperature was noticeably hotter, with waves of heat radiating from malfunctioning systems. The room’s primary control pedestal stood in the center, a column of translucent material that hummed softly, flickering with erratic streams of alien symbols and ancient data that scrolled across its surface, waiting to be accessed.

Pidole immediately went to work, selecting the corridors that led to the core from a large map. She also stored the map layout in her AIES and relayed the intel to the team. The team was now able to see a better map along with markers showing where the damage was too severe to cross. This would speed up their way to the core. For the selected path, Pidole transferred all available life support to those places, pushing the heat to abandoned sections, which brought the temperatures down to near normal in the passageways in front of the away team.

Yet...Pidole looked up, then back over her shoulder at Cassie. "I'm not the only one logged into the system," she said. "Someone else is taking control over parts of the station."

"I feel like I'm in that old book about the dude wandering around Hell making witty observations. Uh, it was called, uh..." He was looking around for hostiles as he covered Euikoshi and Pidole.

He leaned over towards Pidole, without taking his eyes off the corridors and approach points. "So it's like.. BUT THE CALL WAS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE?"

Yoshiro used the transporter to get back to the Resurgence to check his armor rearm himself.

Once Yoshiro and Chichi had left for the Res, Sanda picked back up the Teleporter and attached it to her back. "Then we need to get moving. Stay alert." Sanda took the point, her revolver heaed up and her sword ready to strike at the first thing that moved.

"Roger," Pidole said, heading back to Sanda. Cassie tapped Hayden on the shoulder again and they followed. The way to the core was no longer superheated, but the station was still on the way to destruction..

As they reached the entrance to the station's system core, they encountered a strange sight: A mechanical entity made partially out of guardian robot parts, pieces of the station's systems, and a cloud of dark aetheric energy was blocking the way. As soon as it saw them its hands began to glow with a hot pink aether similar to the main cannon of a Plumeria-class gunship.

"You seein' this?" Cassie sideeyed Hayden.

"oh, great, Yui's ...."Yayoi exclaimed, unfortunately they didnt have Yoshiro to talk to it so she tried. "we mean you no harm, do not attack us please" She attempted to try.

The entity spoke in a strange and disjointed voice, sounding unstable. "Intruders... unauthorized... presence... detected." it said. There was a burst of cracling static from it, before it continued, "This station... is not for you... you must leave... or be... consumed... by the star's embrace."

"our intentions are to safe you, and your technology, we've met others of your kind, and are their allies" Yayoi tried, wanting to test its sentience, but she knew they didnt have much time.

"No... no passage... only destruction... I am the last defense... I will not fail. The knowledge... must not... fall into... the wrong hands." The entity's energy flickered, and the glow from its aetheric power surged. "Your interference... is a threat."

"What are your directives?" Euikoshi asked, hoping to determine its orders.

The entity stared at them with a shadowy face that was half robot, half ghost. "The core... holds... everything. You will not... have it. I protect... I preserve... until the end. The Progenitors... foresaw this... contingency. All must be transferred... safeguarded... to the next... generation."

Sanda had her revolver helded just low enough to not be pointing directly at the robot. "We are here to safeguard your data. For the next generation. If you don't let us help you, all your data will be lost. Then what will be there for the next generation?"

"Time... is running out... this station... is doomed. I will not... surrender the core. I will... end... you... first." the entity said.

"then come with us, allow us to take the core, and come with, see our intentions help us to safe guard the data everything?" Yayoi asked the entity "we do not want to cause the Aether progenitors's history its technology to be lost." She said.

Euikoshi's fingers moved swiftly over her datapad, pulling up the files from the ancient research facility they had previously encountered. The data she accessed was a mix of symbols, codes, and protocols that the team had unearthed in their past mission. She had hoped that there would be something—anything—that could be used to identify the team as allies or emissaries of the Progenitors. The hacker AI, still active from their work on Acuna, processed the data, cross-referencing it with the entity’s fragmented directives.

"Hey, I only speak giant robot. Don't look at me." Despite the tension of the situation, there was room for a Hayden crack at any time. "But yeah, what she said. Just like, come on with us. How you even know we the wrong hands?"

Listening to yayoi, The entity’s form shimmered, the pink glow of aetheric energy pulsing in erratic waves. It hesitated, as though processing Yayoi's words. For a brief moment, the energy around its hands dimmed.

The entity’s head twitched, its fractured voice carrying a strange undertone of desperation. “I… must safeguard… the knowledge. I… cannot fail… The transfer… must be completed.”

"Man, what you safeguarding falling into a star? They have a different definition of safe where you from? Come one with us and get out of here too." Hayden backed up Yayoi

Meanwhile, the entity’s voice crackled with a low, ominous hum. “You cannot… deceive me. I am… the last defense… against failure. No external force… may access… the core.”

Euikoshi’s eyes widened as a notification popped up on her screen. She’d found something—a Progenitor access protocol buried deep in the data. It wasn’t perfect, but it might be enough to fool the entity’s systems. She quickly loaded the access key into the team's systems, syncing it with their suits.

“Wait!” Euikoshi called out. “We have authorization. Look.” She projected the ancient Progenitor symbol from her datapad, the blue holographic emblem shimmering in the heated air.

The entity paused, its pink aetheric energy flickering. The symbol hovered in the air between them. It stared at it for what felt like an eternity before it finally spoke.

“Access... recognized… temporary clearance… granted… proceed with caution... but beware... failure will not be tolerated.”

The way forward to the core was clear—for now.

Sanda received a message from the Res. Norita had refit Chichi and Yoshiro and they were ready to come back and join the fight. Sanda took the teleporter off her back and gave it some space, allowing her team to come back.

Out popped the Elysian, now in a hastily repaired Mindy. Her communications were back operational, swapping the antenna was likely an easy fix. Chiheisen saluted Sanda, rifle in her other hand. "Apologies, heisho."

Station Core

As the team entered, they were greeted by an overwhelming sense of scale. The room stretched up and out in all directions, almost too large to comprehend, its walls curving upward into infinity. Ancient, glowing conduits snaked across the surfaces, pulsing with energy in vibrant blues, purples, and greens. The energy seemed to pulse rhythmically, as if the very lifeblood of the station flowed through this space.

At the center of the room was the core itself: a massive crystalline structure suspended in midair, rotating slowly. It was encased in a lattice of translucent metallic vines that crackled with arcs of energy. The core pulsed with the same otherworldly light as the conduits, but brighter, more intense. Patterns of swirling light danced across its surface, shifting and rearranging like complex alien code. Inside the crystal, faint shapes and figures appeared to move—records, knowledge, history, and the very essence of the Aetherian Progenitors, all encoded and stored within.

The chamber’s atmosphere was thick with ancient energy. Strange, floating glyphs hovered in the air around the core, each one connected to another by thin strands of shimmering light. They shifted and morphed, constantly rearranging themselves into different constellations of information. The walls surrounding the core were adorned with massive, ancient control panels, their surfaces dotted with unrecognizable symbols and holographic displays. Despite the passage of time, everything here seemed alive, preserved by the ancient technology but teetering on the edge of collapse.

The temperature in the room was noticeably higher, the core’s energy output adding to the heat from the dying star outside. The ground beneath their feet was uneven, with sections warped and cracked by the immense pressures and gravitational forces exerted on the station.

This was the heart of the Progenitor’s technological knowledge, and the weight of its significance was almost palpable. The core held secrets that could change the universe, if only they could retrieve them before the station was consumed by the star. But the constant hum and occasional tremor reminded the team: time was running out.

Even though the entrance had been blocked by a giant killer robot, Sanda still scanned the area for any contacts. The Xynar had a nasty habit of showing up where they had no right to be.

As the away team stepped deeper into the core chamber, they noticed a disturbing sight: scattered around the periphery of the room were the remains of Xynar soldiers. Their armor was charred and twisted from the heat, some crumpled against the walls as if they had been thrown there with immense force. Several had died clutching strange, alien devices, likely tools they had been using to attempt their own extraction of the core’s data.

But the most unsettling part was that not all the Xynar were dead.

Among the wreckage of the fallen soldiers, several Xynar operatives were still active. They were working feverishly at makeshift control terminals, their gauntleted hands moving rapidly across glowing alien consoles. Their armor flickered with the faint light of their camouflaging systems, making them difficult to spot at first, but their movements betrayed them.

The Xynar had somehow bypassed the Progenitor entity guarding the core, likely through advanced stealth systems or brute force, and now they were desperately attempting to siphon off the core's knowledge for themselves. They had managed to rig several energy conduits, attaching strange, spider-like devices that appeared to be extracting data directly from the core. Whatever information they had already gathered would be extremely valuable—likely some of the most advanced knowledge in the universe.

The Xynar had noticed the Resurgence team, and one of them barked something in their harsh, guttural language. The operatives immediately went on high alert, drawing their weapons and turning their attention away from the core to face the new threat. The tension in the air crackled as both sides realized that the knowledge of the Progenitors was now a battleground, and only one side could claim it.

Sanda hostered his revolver. It was too chancy that a stray shot might damage something irreplaceable. She instead drew her Straight Silver knife and held in a reverse grip with Arc in her other hand. She shook loose her shoulders and poped her neck from side to side. It was time to see just how tough these Xynar were.

Hayden didn't wait on them to draw. When he noticed there were Xynar, he started taking well-aimed shots, immediately. This wasn't going to be a chat, this time.

Once Hayden began to shoot, Chiheisen also quickly took notice of the Xynar remnants. She began to lay down careful fire, making sure to prioritize not missing and hitting something important.

"If we make them visible maybe the guardian robots will shoot them," Science Officer Euikoshi suggested to the team."

"Sounds like a Science Genius type job, Professor." Hayden cracked as he continued advancing while firing aimed shots.

Euikoshi nodded to Hayden, but she looked at Pidole. "Can you get some smoke or steam going in here to outline the stealth Xynar?"

"Does a Delsaurian shit in the desert?" Pidole laughed, and rushed towards one of the station's air ducts.

Yayoi couldn't help but think of Yuri knowing she'd likely asked if they would. "careful that we don't damage the core.' she commented as she readied her hidden blades.

"Good point," Cassie agreed with Yayoi. They didn't want to go back to Yamatai empty-handed.

= = =
OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Cowboy, Yoshiro, AND YUUKI, Lizalopod ★☆★☆★

The oppressive heat of the Progenitor station continued to climb as the dying star outside raged with increasing intensity. The away team stood amidst the carnage of the core chamber, the flickering light from the crystalline structure casting eerie shadows across the room. The Xynar operatives had been spotted, their stealth systems failing as they frantically tried to siphon knowledge from the core, rigging alien devices to extract the ancient data.

As shots rang out, the hum of the Progenitor technology in the core grew louder, more erratic. The ground trembled underfoot, a reminder of the station’s imminent collapse. Time was running out. The team could feel the weight of their mission pressing down on them—extracting the Progenitor knowledge could change the course of history, but they weren’t the only ones who knew this. Both the Xynar and the station itself were formidable obstacles, and the heat from the nearby star was becoming unbearable. Every second mattered now.

"Solar activity is increasing," Euikoshi warned the team. "That means flares. It's bad," she added. The station was starting to break up around them.

As a mist of smoke filled the room, the outlines of both friend and foe became easier to spot. The Xynar special forces teams were desperately making a last ditch effort to transfer the data off the station.

"What exactly do we need?" Asked Sanda. "Like do you just want us to grab that crystal-thingy or do we need to hook up to it and download stuff?"

"Our teleporters aren't big enough to get it, it's bigger than a house," Pidole pointed out. We need to get it to make its big final transmission, I think. I did have one idea, but it's questionable..." she offered.

"We're running out of time." Sanda reminded them. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast. The rest of us will keep the Xynar off of you."

"Well, remember when I needed an aether reactor for the YSS Wakaba?" Pidole asked. "We went to the Mishhuvurthyar ship and stole theirs...what if we let the Xynar get the data so it's not lost...then we simply take it from them somewhere else of our choosing...somewhere that's not about to fall into the sun."

Yoshiro , after getting repaired and rearmed he teleported back to help Sanda. "Need some help Sanda? Where do you need me to go."

Sanda was about to charge into the Xynar but Pidole's suggestion stopped her in her tracks. She almost fell over she stopped so fast. "That's.... crazy. Is there even a Xynar ship out there?" Sanda couldn't remember if there was, they had jumped onto the station so fast she hadn't checked to see if the Resurgence had picked up any other ships.

Yayoi blinked "like a ninja huh?" she asked for a moment it reminded her of a nekovalkyrja she'd seen training almost non stop."I agree with Sanda, though if they have stealth tech, their ship may as well." Yayoi said, as she pondered their next move.

"....We may be able to shadow them out of here. Ensure we dont lose them. I do not think they are aware that we can detect them- even in their stealth..." Chiheisen grunted as she kept her gun pointed the way of the Xynar. Her suit was beginning to get pretty uncomfortable as the temperatures rose.

"Good idea, Chiheisen," Euikoshi said. "Last time we managed to keep the Resurgence completely hidden from the Xynar. It's entirely possible we could tail them without them knowing."

"Please," the Xynar commander pleaded with the team from the controls of the ancient computer, "This is millions of years of history, you can't just let it be lost forever! Let us work together to save it!"

Just then the ancient entity busted in and starting bashing Xynar and any away team member if could get close to with its aether fists!

Cracks began to open in the floors with walls of flames spewing from them.

"This is Beryl, I have to leave!" the shuttle transmitted. She sounded like it was urgent.

Sanda cursed. Too many things happening at once. "Go Beryl! We've got the teleporters. Get to safety!" To the rest of the team she said, "It's crazy but I think Red has the best idea. But lets not let them know that. Try to act like we still want the data but let them escape with it." She looked over at Yayoi and said, "Blade, see if you can sneak over and attach a tracker to one of their suits or equipment. Then we can track it."

Yoshiro was trying to figure out what he needed to help and was confused about what he was supposed to do.

Yayoi nodded, and carefully used stealth to sneak towards one of the Xynar, but stopped when one spoke.

"Entering the final sequence," one of the Xynar scientists said. It was up to them team if they would heed the Xynar's commander and let him finish and save the Progenitors' secrets or stop him and keep the possibly dangerous ancient knowledge out of enemy hands.

"Sir, our escape shuttle was destroyed..." a Xynar said, his tone grim.

"It's been an honor," the Xynar commander told the scientist, knowing they were all about to die in the unstoppable sunfire. "Transmit the data! For the dominion!"

"Can we intercept the signal??? Resurgence!?!" Chiheisen asked over comms as she transmitted the conversation the Xynar were having back towards the ship, assuming they could listen. She grunted and looked back towards Sanda. "Dont think we have enough time for that!!!"

Temperatures skyrocketed as the ancient station began the final stages of its immolation.

"It is done," the Xynar scientist said as everyone started to catch on fire. Just then, the ancient guardian robot crushed him out of spite.

Sanda yelled as her suit's systems started frying. "Abort! Get back to the Res! NOW!" She took off the teleporter from her back and fired it up. Waving people to get through it.

Yoshiro decided that being on fire was not an option and stepped on the teleporter. As fast as he could he teleports himself away.

Chiheisen grunted out as she booked it for the teleporter after Yoshiro, feeling the inside of the suit begin to burn up. She dissapeared through it, back to the resurgence.

Yayoi was about to grab one of the Xynar as a prisoner, however, the alien caught on fire, and got to experience what Anakin Skywalker had as she turned and ran as fast as she could, using her mindy thrusters to get herself to the teleport pad.

Sanda was right behind Yayoi as they stepped through the teleporter.

Cassie deployed her teleporter pad. After a brief struggle to stabilize it on a semi-flat surface, it came to life. Pidole and Euikoshi hopped in, then Cassie. As they left the giant crystal began to crack and break up, and the room filled with an ocean of orange fire as it came apart at the seams.

Back on the YSS Resurgence, the bridge crew could only watch in horror as the station disintegrated against the background of swirling solar flares and superheated corona gasses.

"Captain Aoba, we picked up a huge data burst just before the station was destroyed. It appears to have been aimed at a Xynar ship hiding behind a nearby planet," Kalena said.

"See if we can get close to it once the team is aboard," Aoba ordered. "Quietly."

Teleporter Ops

The team members stumbled off the teleporter pads covered in soot and visibly smoking.

As soon as she hit the entered the Res Sanda fell to the floor, her Mindy suit smoking with heat damage and ringing with overheating alarms. Her suit was so overheated that she couldn't get out of it. It had locked up and would have been too hot to touch even if she could get out.

Yoshiro looked like a whimsically burnt Saturday morning cartoon character but he was okay otherwise.

Chiheisen stumbled out with a groan- eyes wide as her HUD blared warnings... As if she hadnt noticed her suit was on fire...

Julix the chef was there with firehose and began to hose the team with a blast of water from it, in spite of the shrieking objections from engineering team members who were worried about the fancy new teleporter getting water in it.

"JULIX WE JUST GOT THAT!!! DONT BREAK IT BAKA!!!" Kokoro screeched angrily from behind the chef, the Nekovalkrja acting more like a dog with how much she was barking out.

Yoshiro decided to go see Beryl and headed to the shuttle bay. After getting out of the armor and getting out of the teleporter room, he went to his quarters first.

With some help, Sanda managed to get out of her Mindy. Her normally tan skin looked sunburnt and was even pealing in some places. She moved away from the still steaming armor and leaned up against the bulkhead. It felt refreshingly cold after the heat of the station. That had not gone as planned, but at least everyone had gotten out alive. She closed her eyes, releaved.

Yayoi watched the steam waf from her armor as it was sprayed, before she pushed her way out of her Mindy. She looked at her armor, with a frown on her face. "I am going to need a replacement" she muttered to herself before looking at the others of the away team.

Chiheisen had gotten out of her own, now fried Mindy, letting out a slightly relieved sigh now that she was no longer frying in it. She winced as she rubbed her still warm skin, which like Sanda, was pretty red. Her wings also seemed a bit burnt in some areas, making for some odd black splots along her usually royal blue feathers.

"Norita's got a lot of work to do fixing these armors," Pidole said, making sure her beetle made it okay in its protective shoulder pod. Bidole gave her a little wing flap as an OK sign through the dark layer of smoke on the pod's window.

"HYEHYEHYEHYE!! At least you're all fine!" Kokoro grinned as she walked up next to Chiheisen, before slamming a hand down on the taller Elysians shoulder. Chi grit her teeth, her purple eyes staring daggers at the neko.

"The hand......." The birb almost growled at Kokoro.

"What? Ya couldn't stand the heat???" The blue haired neko joked.

"I don't think we could have stayed much longer than that," Pidole said. "At least we had a way out, unlike those Xynar."

"Speak for y'all's self. I was fine because I can't get any hotter than this already." Hayden's hair was steaming a visible cloud above his head after removing his helmet.

Yayoi just shook her head ruefully

"Maybe you need a cold shower," Cassie chuckled.

Sanda suddenly opened her eyes and asked, "Did we get a lock on that data transfer?"

"Good question," Yayoi said, as she turned towards the ship's comms. "Captain, did we managed to get a lock on the data transfer?" She asked, hoping that they had and atl east could go get it or keep it safe.

Aoba picked up his phone and replied via the intercom. "We are tracking the Xynar ship now," he told Yayoi and Sanda. "How ready is the team for a boarding action?" he asked.

Sanda got to her feet and retrieved her weapons from her damaged Mindy. She checked her blades and was very relieved that they didn't seem to have sustained any damage. "Give us five minuets to get re-suited up Captain."

"Maybe I can borrow Gabriela's Mindy?" Cassie pondered. "It's got to be the only other one with a tail." She sent a message asking about it to the ship's anthro navigator.

"Eh??? Mine has a tail!!!" Kokoro put her hands on her hips as her cat tail swished- a sigh coming from Chiheisen as the Nekovalkyrja's hand stopped assaulting her slightly burnt skin.

"Yours doesn't have a fat enough butt," Cassie shrugged.

"EHHHHH?!?!?? NANDAYOOO-" Kokoro fumed as she waved her hands around angrily. "MY ASS IS FAT ENOUGH!!!"

"No one has a fat enough butt for you to fit in girl." Sanda teased as she headed to the ships PA bay to get another suit.

There nothing from Hayden about the topic at hand, except a very telling silence.

"I'm switching to one of my prototype explorer uniforms," Pidole told Sanda. Euikoshi nodded, "Good idea, I'll do that too."

Yayoi followed Sanda, though inwardly she was sighing at the banter, but a part of her knew that camaraderie like this was important too for team morale.

Chiheisen furrowed her brow as she stared at her steaming suit. "...I do not have a suitable unit to use- I require wing sheathes..." She grumbled, before looking towards Sanda as the Nepleslian began to walk back "...Orders- ma'am..?"

Sanda paused and looked at Chichi, taking note of her burnt wings. "Are you up for another round? You can suit up in a Explorer uniform like Red and Green are." Refering to Pidole and Euikoshi.

Plum, Tomoko, and Azumi from engineering arrived and began hauling the damaged Mindy armors down to the armor bay for repair using grav gurneys. Meanwhile Julix began water cleanup and Wong Caihong started on making sure the teleporter system wasn't too hosed (pun intended).

Poppy Pink arrived in teleporter ops and amidst the chaos she began treating people's burns with burn cream and injections of hemosynth healing compound, and she also stopped to give everyone a hug and a kiss on the cheek if they wanted one. "Welcome home," she told everyone.

Yayoi waited patiently allowing Poppy to treat the others in the away team first before she get treated. But she blinked when she was given a hug, which reminded her of Yuri who was a hugger too. But she gasped dramatically as she was kissed "m..ma'am i don't think we are that close enough.." she said with a blush and a stutter

"Yes ma'am" Chiheisen bowed towards Sanda, nodding. She hadn't gotten to used her explorer uniform yet...

Sanda snorted. "Heisho. I'm not an officer. I work for a living." Smirking a little bit at Poppy. "Hey, only my husband gets to kiss me." She said in mock serious before hugging the doctor back. Sanda and Poppy had been served together for far too long for the Ranger to really care, especially knowing how much Poppy cared for her crewmates.

"Apologie-" Chiheisen tensed as she was kissed by Poppy. Her face flushed much redder than it already was. Kokoro burst out in laughter as the Elysian stiffly walked out of the Doctors hug to go get into her exploratory uniform, silently.

"As long as the boss says it's okay," Hayden demurred coyly, with a wink, as Poppy approached him.

Poppy seemed a little emotional. "I was really concerned you were all about to burn up," she told them. "It's horrifying to imagine." She was close to her crew and cared about them very much.

Yayoi nodded her head, admittedly Poppy was right, and as she saw how emotional she seemed to be, it surprised her how much Poppy cared.

TheYSS Resurgence drifted quietly in the shadow of a distant planet, its sensors locked onto the faint signal of a hidden Xynar ship. The heat of the station's destruction still clung to the armor of the away team as they regrouped in the teleporter ops, the smell of burnt metal and flesh thick in the air. Despite the near-fatal mission, the objective was still incomplete—the ancient Progenitor knowledge had been transmitted to the Xynar, and now they were making their escape with the data that could change the fate of the galaxy...but the Resurgence was in pursuit.

= = =
OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Cowboy, Yoshiro, AND YUUKI, Lizalopod ★☆★☆★

As the YSS Resurgence shadowed the Xynar vessel, the crew felt the urgency of the mission settle over them like a second skin. Deep within the teleporter bay, the away team was making final adjustments, suited up in borrowed or repaired armor or prototype explorer uniforms. The hum of the ship’s cloaked engines and the soft whir of the teleporters reminded everyone of the delicate balance between stealth and speed required to intercept the Xynar before they slipped away with the Progenitors' data. Captain Aoba's voice sounded over the intercom, “We’re closing in on the Xynar ship, team. Prepare for a rapid boarding action.”

The Progenitor knowledge at stake held secrets that could alter the power dynamics of the entire galaxy. “With luck, the Xynar don’t know we’re coming,” whispered Euikoshi, adjusting her scanner. “Let’s keep it that way.” A faint rumble confirmed the Resurgence’s shift in position.

Armor bay

Yoshiro was cleaning his armor as the Resurgence was going after the Xynar ship. "Bloody hell that last op did a number on my armor." Yoshiro said as he cleaned up the burn marks as best he could. " Now I know what karaage feels like. Nice and deep fried." He hummed a song as he worked.

Yayoi was silently observing as the armorer was making sure that her gauntlets had hidden weapons, which she wanted extra sharp and deadly.

"I dunno about this," Cassie said, "We know that Xynar ship is going to be crawling with hundreds of soldiers. We could be entering the hornet's nest. If we get detected, the whole ship is going to be after us in minutes."

"Then we fight. We weren't trained to just sit and do nothing. We move forward and we keep fighting. We are the Star Army of Yamatai and no enemy will cause us to back down!" Yoshiro responded with bravado.

Cassie stared at Yoshiro, looking like she was ready to punch him in the mouth. "I'm not saying we fucking sit around," she growled. "Don't ever put words in my mouth," she warned him.

"Not words, no," Hayden tried to defuse it, perhaps not entirely appropriately.

"We can fight, or act like the fabled Ninjas, preferably the latter in this situation." Yayoi commented verbally as she nodded to the armorer when she was satisfied with the weapon placement.

Sanda, suited up in a spare Mindy, had her plasma revolver out and was checking it over. With skilled hands she swapped out a questionable part and put it back together. She listened to the prebattle chatter of her team but remained silent for the moment. She had her own views of the Xynar that she was still processing.

"I understand that, Cassie. I apologize but I am a bit amped up. Very sorry for what I said. " Yoshiro said, calming down and loading up his weapons as he got ready for a fight. His bravado was going to write checks for him that his body wasn't going to be able to cash.

"The teleporter isn't working right," Caihong suddenly said. Pidole sent Bidole below the deck and in a moment, she said, "Yeah, there's firehose water in some of the electronics," she said, closing her Minkan eyes and viewing the situation from the telepathically bonded beetle's perspective.

"How long will it take to fix, Red?" Sanda asked, reloading her revolver before spinning it in her hand and hostering it again.

"It could be at least an hour. We are going to have to take it apart, dry everything, and possibly replace some parts," Pidole said. "There's huge energy going through this thing and when there's a short there's situations where arcs just weld everything together. It's not a worst-case scenario but I can't just turn it off and on again."

Chiheisen sighed as she finished setting up her Exploration suit, rolling her eyes as Kokoro screeched about the damage to the teleporter due to the water hose. The Elysian walked next to Sanda, her LATR clipped on her back.

Sanda kept the frustration she felt at this news hidden from her face. "Options then?"

"The Apollo teleporter is still online," Pidole said. "It's not stealthy, though. Other than that, we take a stealth shuttle and hope for the best or we dock the entire Resurgence and hope no one is looking out the window," she shrugged.

"hmm.." Yayoi said trying to keep her emotions straight. "whats the best option out of all of them?" she asked finally as she suited up in her Mindy.

"Shoot them at the enemy ship," Caihong shrugged, pulling out some of the Froggy's soaked guts from the floor.

Euikoshi tilted her head. "Modified stealth probes as boarding pods?"

Yoshiro was sitting silently listening to the others talking about possibilities to enter the Xynar ship or at least get near enough to board. He was just a soldier and didn't know any technical things to say about the mission, so he just sat.

"It's technically possible," Pidole said making a 'not bad' face. She stared at the teleporter pad and then joined Caihong in her work.

"What's are chances of sneaking onto the ship that way? A lot of unknown variables boarding that way." Sanda said. She was tying her hair back up in a ponytail for probably the 4th time. A sign that she was anxous.

Yayoi glanced at Sanda, taking note of her tying her hair back up in a ponytail, and recognizing the sign that the woman she called her sister was anxous.

Euikoshi ran the numbers in her head. "I think we should use the teleporter, but teleport just outside their ship so they don't see anything approaching them."

"They'd still read a huge energy sorce right outside their ship....Could we have the Resurgence fire at the ship at the moment we teleport to try and mask our approch? Then the ship could peel off and they'd think they got away scott free."

"That would make them put their shields up...so no teleporting," Euikoshi said. I think if we teleport near their engines our energy will just kind of blend in. Just don't get blown off into space by them."

"Just outside works, we know how to put the can opener on it. Basic training stuff." Hayden chimed in.

"But isn't teleporting by an engine risky though? I mean what about the wake that the engines are putting out?" Yoshiro asked

Sanda snorted and untied her hair again. "Our whole job is risky." She let her hair just hang for a moment. It was times like this she wished the team had an officer to just make the call. Finally, she tied her hair up again. "Time is not on our side. Let's teleport. Gear up."

Beryl and Plum arrived minutes later and put Zesuaium probe shells on the Apollo teleporter pad, each large enough to hold a Mindy or two soldiers in explorer suits. They looked a lot like coffins, but their armored hulls could take a brief bath in an aether engine's trail and survive. "Is this what you needed?" Beryl asked Euikoshi.

Yayoi watched as Beryl and Plum arriving and watched them work.

Yoshiro looked on in amazement as Beryl and Plum worked. "Wow, that's awesome!" he spoke.

"Yes," Euikoshi said. "These should work."

Pidole loaded one of the modified probes up with a cutting torch and an aether saber in case there was no easy way in the Xynar ship.

Chiheisen glanced at the shells with a bit of hesitation, before looking down at her explorer suit. She didnt have much trust in it yet... But nevertheless, a mission was a mission!t

Cassie stared at the coffins. "Ehhhhhh...." she grimaced. "These aren't much larger than my litterbox."

"I'm not sure I even will fit. This isn't a problem for y'all Nekovalkyrja. I'm a cornbread-fed Neppy boy, though," Hayden echoed Cassie's suspicion of the available volume of the probe.

"If we have to do it this way then let's do this. At least if I die, I won't have to worry about burial costs" Yoshiro said with a sardonic grin.

"So... how do we get back?" Cassie also asked.

"We'll take two teleporter pads with us. I'm sure Red will have the other teleporter working by the time we need to make an exit." Sanda said, looking at the Cheif Mechanic. "Otherwise, we'll just have to improvise."

"Oh man, we're totally stealing a Xynar shuttlecraft, I hope one of those has flying wings," Cassie said. "So, who are our unlucky volunteers for this gig? I assume I am going..."

"I'll go. I am not sure about fitting in there, but I can try." Yoshiro said

"i'll go, we have to complete the mission" Yayoi said out loud not at all thinking how she could die from the mission.She glanced to her mindy clad form, and then the size of the pods.

Pidole knew she might be useful as a combat engineer for opening doors and messing with the Xynar's ship systems, but she and Caihong were now waist deep in repairing the damaged teleporter. Plum, Azumi, and Tomoko were not really combat veterans, they were mostly just maintenance techs. She hoped they would be able to manage.

Sanda had the away team do a final check on their gear. "Let's get this show on the road."

The team of volunteers, consisting of Cassie, Sanda, Yoshiro, Hayden, Chiheisen, and Yayoi, were able to get in the pods. Poppy watched from the edge of the teleporter pad as she activated it for them, and the pods blinked out in a flash, reappearing in the exhaust of the Xynar cruiser's large engines. The pods' small engines flashed in a blast of aether and they approached the alien ship's hull, then grabbed on with robot arms that looked suspiciously like a kitchen robot's from Rossa and Julix's galley.

Once in position, the pods opened and the away team was able to gaze upon the metallic green hull of the Xynar ship, which appeared to be getting ready to jump to hyperspace.

"So this is a Xynar ship? Probably should be getting on board before the jump." Yoshiro said quickly

Sanda took point and moved quickly along the ship's hull, looking for away inside.

Yayoi blinked at the hull coloring, though she'd seen some used black, others use red and black, so she was certain that green might be considered normal somewhat. She didn't comment, as was her nature, instead she followed Sanda, making sure she had her back.

It wasn't long before Sanda spotted a hatch on the side of the ship that was expelling sewage into the atmosphere of the nearby planet to burn up. It looked large enough to get in.

"Ah," Cassie said. "And we'll be without a paddle," she joked.

"Smells like home," Hayden inhaled exaggeratedly over the comms.

Yoshiro followed Sanda and got into the ship. Yoshiro was in stealth mode and was scanning passively so as not to get detected.

Sanda managed to get inside and moved deeper to allow the rest of the team in. She was looking for a way into the main ship from there.

Sanda was able to crawl up a pipe into what was essentially a holding tank for wastewater. It was dark, wet, and gross, but it was also heated so the water didn't freeze. There were incoming connections from pipes on the ship and there was a person-sized access hatch on one wall.

Yayoi really fought hard not to comment about the smell and the grossness, having remembered another mission in which they had to go through something similar.

Moving over to the access hatch, Sanda examined it before motioning for the rest of the team to move up on her. Once she opened the hatch, she wanted everyone to move through as quickly as possible.

The hatch looked like it could be unscrewed with a series of bolts that held it on tight. Cassie approached and, without asking, created a sort of impact driver out of her Mindy 4B's photonics system and began undoing them with the volumetric power tool.

Sanda tapped Cassie on the shoulder, "No Leroy Jenkins this mission. Understand?"

"Okay," Cassie said with exaggerated disappointment. She finished on the hatch, and they were able to leave the poo pond for the twisty pipes of a maintenance level. There was an airlock that led into the parts of the ship's interior hull where there was air, and there were a few Xynar environmental suits inside that airlock, complete with helmets. They looked like they might be able to fit a human. It was still very quiet with no signs of anyone noticing them.

Hayden eyed everyone up and down, "Ok, so who here is closest to bug-dude sized?"

"Not me. Anyone else?" Yoshiro said.

"I don't think there are any insect sized individuals in the team, a shame, we could use MiniNekos on the team." Yayoi idly commented as she looked at the suits.

"By the way, I brought that hacker AI, the one that helped us on Acuna and the progenitor base," Cassie told Sanda. "Euikoshi downloaded it into my AIES before we left the ship.

"Good, it might be useful" Yayoi commented as she heard Cassie, though she was speaking to Sanda.

"But," Cassie added, "I don't really think leaving it and my Mindy to play dress up is the move," she shrugged. "Here's an idea, though, we could scan these suits and use their appearance to make volumetric decoys if we need a distraction."

Sanda nodded. "Good idea. Let's do it."

Just then the ship began to shimmer throughout it and the walls seemed to bend.

"Oh no, they're jumping!" Cassie squeaked.

"hurry" Yayoi said

As the Xynar ship jumped into hyperspace, the team lost all contact with the Resurgence. They were on their own for now...

- - -

OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Cowboy, Yoshiro, AND YUUKI, Lizalopod ★☆★☆★

The walls of the Xynar ship stretched and shimmered, rippling like liquid metal as it lurched into hyperspace, cutting off all communications with the Resurgence. The hum of the engines settled into a deep, rhythmic vibration that resonated through the walls, pulsing with an otherworldly energy. Sanda glanced at her team, their faces set and determined in the eerie green glow of the alien ship. The silence in the narrow maintenance corridor was oppressive, broken only by the occasional hiss and crackle of the ship's unfamiliar systems. They were now fully behind enemy lines, with no support, no exit, and only their wits and each other to rely on.

Cassie quietly scanned the environment suits, creating volumetric decoy profiles that might just buy them precious seconds in a pinch. "I wish we'd been able to bring Bidole to trace the network systems to their computer. If this is a whole civilization's data...what media are we going to use to copy it and carry it home? I should have thought of this earlier..."

Yoshiro was watching the area as the team continued the mission. He wasn't too sure about the technology but he was sure that Cassie could figure something out."I am sure you'll figure something out. I have to admit that you can get the Intel we need." Yoshiro compliments Cassie.

Yayoi worked her Mindy's volumetrics, to make her appear as if she was a member of the crew wearing the environmental suits

"Could we.. procure something from the Xynar?" Chiheisen sighed as she stood guard behind most of the team for the time being, her rifle at the ready. She seemed a bit uneasy in her explorer suit, the lack of a traditional helmet was.. weird.

"What about the whole ship?" Cassie replied to Chiheisen with a shrug. "If this thing is automated enough, maybe Ally the AI could take it over and just vent the crew into space or something. Look, I know it sounds bad but I got no hangups about just fading them all. It's for the Empire, right?"

"that might be an idea we could try, once we've neutralized the Xynar, or captured them." Yayoi said calmly after Cassie had spoken also thought about allying with the AI.

Yoshiro was watching over his scanners and observing the area around him so the enemy wouldn't catch them off guard. "We want to try and avoid fighting if we can but if we need help those AI are going to be helpful." Yoshiro said.

"Hey, you already know I'm cool with all those ancient robot brains. Y'all saw me. Let her at them." Hayden concurred with Cassie. "We don't have to take the ship if it already took."

"Whatever we are going to do, we need to make a decision ASAP." Yoshiro said. "I will help with whatever you guys think is best to do." Yoshiro scanned the area to keep aware of his surroundings so he wasn't going to get caught off guard.

Yayoi sagely nodded in agreement, she was a warrior thus violence was a part of her life but she knew to win a war, she didnt need to kill.

"On the other hand," Cassie pointed out, "The more automated the ship is, the more sensors it might have on the inside, so we should try to keep an eye out for security systems around doors and in the interior spaces, right?"

"All the more reason to have those sensors working for us, right?" Hayden asked, rhetorically, in response to Cassie.

Yoshiro kept watching out for the team as he listened to the plans they were forming, mapping out where he thought the security systems were and possibly important places for them to check out as well as much as he could.

"agreed, though for the sensors.. those of us in Mindy will have to be careful, not to cause the sensors to sense infiltration untill we can get them on our side." Yayoi said.

"Remember when we bordered the NMX ship and we needed to find a computer and I ended up finding one in their mess hall behind the bar? It's like that, we need to find a networked computer, I think," Cassie proposed. "So where do you find a computer on a ship that's not also filled with people?"

"They really didn't secure their shit, did they?" Yoshiro said with a laugh. He scanned the room, just in case there was something they could use for downloading the Intel they needed.

Yayoi nodded her head. "computer core, where theres a lot of high radiation or something?' she asked though she wasnt sure.

"Leeroooy...." Cassie said, looking over her shoulder. "No but seriously, I'm going for it, if that's okay," she said, getting ready to exit the maintenance area into the ship's corridors.

"if it keeps the data intact and we can take the ship easier and smarter then fine with me" Yayoi commented.

Yoshiro was able to mostly see pipes and electrical cabling, much of which were shielded with thick armored covers to help prevent battle damage. By now there was a large puddle of sewage on the floor that had fallen off the team.

"I got your back Cassie ." Yoshiro said to Cassie.and followed Cassie to where she was going

Cassie emerged into a corridor lit in reddish light with many hatches to the crew's rooms and other ship facilities. It was immediately clear the Xynar ship was less spacious than the Resurgence, with a maze-like layout of tiny crammed rooms and haphazard placement of crew areas shoved around the giant mechanisms and systems of a ship designed for combat first and crew comfort as an absolute last afterthought.

"Not very spacious is it?" Yoshiro said moving carefully as he could. He understood that they might not have cared too much about creature comforts. He was a soldier and understood that to an extent.

Yayoi followed Cassie and Yoshiro, her mind on the environment around her, and it was clear to her, this ship wasnt a explorer vessel, or a luxury yacht. This was a ship for warriors, or the Xynar had evolved not to care for comfort or space. Either way she made mental notes of everything.

Cassie stayed low, relying on her active photonic camouflage to stay hidden as best she could. There were squads of Xynar troops moving around in the immediate idea. The Xynar had some sort of battle buddy system where they always moved in groups of 2-5 and they marched everwhere. Despite being on their own ship, they were still wearing their green combat armors at all times at well. It was hard to tell Xynar apart because most of them wore helmets covering their faces, which gave them a vaguely robot drone like look. These were mass-produced hardcore soldiers, maybe even clones.

"Ugh? Do you smell that?" one of the Xynar asked another. It didn't take a translator to tell that!

Using his scanners he helped guide the team but stopped at hearing the Xynar. He signalled the team to be silent and still. Yoshiro pulled out his knife in case there was going to be a fight.

"Is that maintenance door open? Check it out," ordered a Xynar. Immediately a small squad of troops descended on the door before the away team was even all the way out and started tactically moving around it with rifles drawn. "Anyone in there?" one asked, shining a flashlight around to see if they could see anyone.

Cassie tried to move as quietly as she could to get away from the area of the door. Her Mindy was going to make too much noise if they were close and she was leaving doo doo footprints. Not good.

Using stealth of a Ranger, Yayoi made sure she was invisible as she made sure she was away from the door. She wanted to leave nothing behind.

Up and over, was Hayden's route, tracing the ceiling and the wall above the door, exiting his considerable bulk quite gracefully horizontally above their heads, invisible as his armor could make him.

Yoshiro moved as quietly as possible to help his team. This wasn't going to be easy but he tried.

After wandering around the crew area briefly, Yoshiro found a laundry room and a shower. They didn't have computers, but they had showers and towels.

"Yayoi, there is a laundry room. What's the plan?" Yoshiro asked.

"Maybe the laundry room will have a fire evacuation map on the wall too," Cassie speculated. "It could give us a way to get ourselves orientated."

Yayoi nodded her head in agreement "if they have one, might be good for intelligence gathering." she said "as for the plan, we might want to get cleaned up so we dont leave marks or stink. and take a look at their outfits to scan, so we can blend in." she added.

Cassie ducked into the showers and turned the showers on and started washing all the foulness off Gabriela's Mindy armor so she wouldn't alert the Xynar with stank anymore. "Don't mind me, just an invisible armor using your loofa," she jokingly said in a quiet voice on the team radio net.

Yoshiro washed himself off quickly still keeping his scanning going as he finished cleaning up and making sure that he was not smelling. "Looking like a shiny coin." He said as he smiled behind his Mindy helmet.

"Yeah, let me get in on that," Hayden said, quickly rinsing his invisible Mindy, the sludge that was on it becoming visible after it was outside the distortion field.

After stealing some towels, Cassie was drying her armor off while looking at an evacuation map on the wall. She recorded the deck plans to her AIES and shared them with the team. "Looks like there's a security center and brig nearby. That could have computer access," she told the team. "Plus, you know, cool alien guns..."

Yayoi quickly cleaned her Mindy, while also making sure that her hidden blades were cleaned too. She recalled Samurai did that to their katana because it was disrespectful to kill an opponent with a dirty blade.

Yoshiro smiled while twirling his knife in his hand. "Let's go and see what they got. I say we grab one of them and ask him to cooperate with our mission " he said with a sadistic grin on his face and a gleam in his eyes.

Sanda stepped into the shower and washed the grime of her Mindy. She also made sure to clean and check all of her weapons that they were in proper working order. As she was usually a walking arsenal of weapons it took a little longer than the others.

While she cleaned and checked her weapons the Ranger turned things over in her mind. "Number one thing we need right now is Intel. How many troops are on this ship would be a good starting point. Then a map of the ship." Sanda spun the cylinder of her plasma revolver and returned it to her holster before drawing her backup NSP. "Once we learn those two things we can make a plan for getting the data. Personally..." The tattooed nepleslian woman took apart her NSP, cleaned it, and put it back together like it was child's puzzle. "If the troop number isn't too great, I say we try to commender the whole ship. That would insure we have the data that was stolen. As a bonus, we would have working ship of our new enemy. The things we could learn by studying their tech and going over their data on this ship honestly makes me a little giddy. What a cou if we could pull it off."

Finally Sanda cleaned her blades, her sword 'Arc', her straight silver and her backup straight silver. She was ready to go.

The air within the Xynar ship was thick with tension as the away team finished preparing, the strange and hostile surroundings casting an eerie glow across their figures. Around them, faint footsteps and static echoes hinted at the patrols moving through the cramped hallways, a reminder of the ever-present threat around every corner.

Cassie consulted the recorded deck map, pointing toward the security center and brig just a few turns away. “The security center’s close,” she murmured, adjusting her camouflage to keep hidden in the dimly lit corridors. “If we can get in there, we might just find out exactly what we’re up against and locate the data core.” With each step, the team moved closer to the core of the ship, their breaths steady but their senses on high alert—just one false move from discovery.

The interior passageways of the Xynar ship were narrow and dimly lit, with walls of dark green, metallic plating that seemed almost alive, pulsing faintly with veins of blue energy coursing through conduits beneath the surface. The ceilings were low, forcing the team to stoop slightly as they moved, and pipes and thick cables snaked along the walls and floors, often obstructing their path. The air was dense with a slightly metallic scent, and every step echoed softly, as if the ship itself were listening. Occasional red lights pulsed overhead, casting ominous shadows in the cramped space, while small vents emitted hissing sounds, making the corridors feel alive and foreboding.

Although focused on the mission, Sanda couldn't help but take notice of the pulsing veins of blue energy on the surfaces. It reminded her of her own tattoos that ran down her body. She shook her head, forcing herself to stay focused. The low ceilings forced the tall woman to stoop, so instead she adopted a crouched walk, rifle raised and ready for any contacts.

Yoshiro was watching silently as the Xynar guards and moving forward slowly and carefully.

The Xynar patrols on the ship were relentless and highly organized, with soldiers moving in tight, disciplined groups of three to five, each member clad in dark green, angular armor that concealed their faces and identities. These squads followed strict routes with clockwork precision, ensuring no area went unchecked for long.

Patrols moved silently, rarely speaking except to relay mission-critical updates through curt hand signals or helmet comms, making them difficult to detect by sound alone. Their formation was tactical, with soldiers positioned to cover each other’s blind spots, and each patrol included one soldier equipped with a larger, heavy weapon for reinforcement in case of an encounter.

Between patrols, static guard posts were stationed at key points, such as intersections and doorways, with soldiers ready to raise the alarm at the slightest sign of intrusion. Their equipment hinted at detection capabilities, and their route patterns allowed them to respond quickly to disturbances from any part of the ship.

Chiheisen followed along the rest of the group, keeping an eye out for any potential threats. Hidden under the holographic disguises, her wings remained neatly folded, the Elysian making sure they wouldnt give her away if something were to happen.

Yayoi crept through the corridors, her breathing still and calm as she did so moving with precision as to not catch attention, or to alert the Xynar that their ship was infiltrated. Periodically, she'd disappear completely, hiding in shadows, or invisibility/ to watch and observed the patrols paying close attention. Especially to any weaknesses in the Xynar's patrols.

Clockwork precision made for predictable movements, no matter how little time was afforded. "Just like Solid Sprocket: Silicon. Follow behind the guards." Hayden whispered over the comms.

Cassie went to put her finger to her lips, but she was camouflaged so she couldn't see her own finger and quickly realized that was silly. She was worried that the team's radio chatter would be picked up somehow.

Yoshiro sent a text to Hayden "Maintain radio silence and use text to relay info." Yoshiro sent.

Sanda gritted her teeth. The Xynar seemed way more disciplined than she had seen in their other encounters. Formidable fire teams, static guards that seemed to have enhanced detection gear. This was not going to be as easy as she had originally thought. Still, if at all possible Sanda wanted to try and capture the whole ship.

The team was able to get close to the entrance to the security center, but the entrance was closed and guarded by 4 faceless Xynar security guards. Ducking around the corner in the doorway of a custodian closet, Cassie unstealthed her hand and made a gesture of "4" followed by the infantry hand sign for "power armor" and then pantomimed and whispered "distraction?"

"Sanda, what do you think" Yoshiro texted "We need to get in the security center. 4 guards there at the door."

Sanda didn't respond right away. She looked around the hall way and in the custodian closet for some inspiration.

"Wait for Sanda, Cassie. She'll know what to do." Yoshiro sent Cassie as text.

Yayoi observed the four guards, before she glanced around, looking for some means that they could distract the guards. She wasnt sure, just walking up and stabbing them would work since it will cause a mess.

"Let's cause a mess," Cassie suggested. "We could leave the sink on and throw some soap in and let the bubbles start coming out of the room," she proposed.

"Worked last time we did that, Heisho~" Hayden broke silence, to make the joke.

Chiheisen glanced around the surrounding area, specifically looking at some of the pipes littering the hallways, as they had seen previously. Perhaps one of them could contain something they could cause a fuckin issue with, while still remaining inconspicuous.

" These guys are elite soldiers and they would hear us if they have the equipment to do. Radio silence until we get into the room." Yoshiro texted Hayden.

It needs to look natural. Sanda sent as she step forward and looked at the sink. She carefully tested the handles for their strenght, the gave it a gental tug. The line popped off almost effortlessly, spraying water into the air. "Oops." She whispered innocently. To the team she sent. Move into the hallway and be ready to move into the brig once the guards move. Sanda then took a package of soap and dropped it into the sink. Bubbles quickly began filling the tub and overflowing.

Careful not to let the bubble touch her, Sanda backed out of the room and watched as the bubble began filling the room. As soon as they were about to reach the door she gently closed the door then began to flick her fingers against the door, making an audible rattling sound. She started gently then began to increase in tempo and volume.

Yayoi nodded her head as she heard Sanda's message through their comms. She prepared herself to move when she needed to.

The Xynar guards, initially rigid and focused, noticed the sound of the water spraying and the foamy suds beginning to seep into the hallway. One of the guards tilted his head slightly, their helmet reflecting a dim green light, and gestured to another with sharp, precise hand signals.

Yayoi observed the guards, and took note of the hand signals. She made sure that she memorized it, and what it meant that could be used later.

"What are they saying with the hand signals?" Yoshiro texted Yayoi. He wanted to know as well in case he to command a team in disguise as Xynar soldiers.

As the two investigating guards approached the bubbling mess, one knelt to inspect the flow while the other kept his weapon trained down the corridor, wary of a trap. They spoke to each other in curt, guttural exchanges, their tones conveying suspicion. With no immediate danger detected, the kneeling guard pulled out a compact device resembling a diagnostic scanner, seemingly to assess the pipe failure.

Their focus on the foamy distraction provided the team with a fleeting opportunity. However, the remaining guards at the door had visibly heightened their alertness, their stances more rigid and their weapons at the ready. Any further disturbance would need to be precise and timed to avoid drawing their full attention.

They needed to move fast. She sent a message to the team as she moved into place. Blade, me and you. Quick and quite. Poet, get them to turn their heads. Understood? Sanda drew her straight silver blade and held it at the ready. Gaging where the weak point in their armor would be.

Hayden pointed at his thighs, where someone might be keeping their Nodal Support Bits.

Yayoi received Sanda's message and accidentally replied with a emoticon of a knife with a thumbs up sign, a creation of Yuri's. inwardly she groaned before she replied "understood, Thunder" she replied in the text as she prepared herself to move in quick and quiet.

Yoshiro understood the assignment and drew his combat knife. He also prepared to move. He sent a thumbs up emoji to Sanda.

The two Xynar guards began looking around to find a janitor to help with the leaking sink.

Sanda took a breath. Even though the Xynar were in Power Armor, there should be a weak point around where their helmets attached to neck. Rangers were trained to hit that point. If anyone could make a clean kill against a PA it was Sanda and Yayoi. She sent a count down timer to the team. Go in three... two...one... Go!

Yoshiro tapped the wall getting the guards attention with tapping noises and static on their radios. He was watching the guards approach him and holding his combat knife in his hand in ice pick grip to defend himself in case.

Yayoi moved immediately with speed and grace, her hiddin blades ready to bethrust into her opponents neck, right at the seam hoping it neutralizes them with quickness and quietness.

Sanda moved in behind her target and quickly and stabbed her blade down into the seal between the helmet and the neck, just as she was trained to do. The extra force behind her own PA should help the chances of the blade piercing.

The Xynar guards didn’t even have time to react.

Yayoi’s blade struck true, slipping cleanly into the seam between helmet and neck. The target stiffened for a split second, a gurgled sound escaping as the body went limp, collapsing silently to the floor. Sanda's attack mirrored the precision, her straight silver blade sliding into the exact same vulnerable spot. The Xynar soldier twitched before crumpling soundlessly beside his comrade.

The two guards stationed at the security center door snapped to attention at the faint sound of movement, their weapons sweeping the corridor. They hadn’t yet raised the alarm, but their body language was tense, alert, and ready to act at the first sign of trouble.

In the brief moment after the takedowns, the team regrouped quickly, their presence still undetected. Hayden's faint tapping against the wall distracted the two remaining guards, making them glance in his direction. One of the guards gestured sharply with hand signals, commanding the other to check the area.

The second guard moved cautiously toward Hayden’s position, weapon raised. This left the door to the security center guarded by only one remaining Xynar soldier.

Cassie grabbed the guard and held her gun to his back. "You got two seconds to open the door or you're dead," she said. The guard unlocked the door, but immediately began calling for assistance. Rather than shoot the guard and draw more attention, Cassie snapped his neck using the Mindy's enhanced strength and reflexes.

As guards from the security center began to rush out to investigate, Cassie pushed passed them and headed inside the secure area. There was a Xynar commander in there at a desk and Cassie banged his head on the desk and knocked him out before he could sound the alarm. "Go," she encouraged her teammates. "maybe lock them out behind you," she suggested.

Yoshiro walked in to the guard room still holding his knife and ready to fight but he avoided the rushing guards so he didn't screw things up.

Get inside, now! Sanda sent as she slipped inside. Once inside she spoke outloud. "Secure the area."

Yayoi hurried inside the area, as soon as the way was clear for the team to do so. Yayoi actually felt pleased that thus far the mission was a success.

Hayden slipped inside as well, right behind them, keeping his eyes outward and walking through the door backwards. "Let's get our little friend uploaded. Gotta be a place around here somewhere. Hey, does this look like it locks down the ship to you?" He eyed a control panel. "We could probably mess them up good, just... oops!"

"Hayden what did you do? Because oops isn't something I wanted to right now!" Yoshiro said."

The Xynar security center was a dimly lit, cramped room filled with angular consoles and glowing green holographic displays. The walls were lined with racks of alien weapons and gear, while a large central table projected a tactical map of the ship’s interior. On one side of the room, a row of reinforced brig cells glimmered faintly with shimmering energy fields.

In one of the cells, a striking figure stood out: a chrome-gold robot woman with sleek, elegant features and glowing purple eyes on a sort of 'screen' for a face. Her design was unmistakably Kuvexian, exuding a mix of opulence and cutting-edge technology. Mitalar Sevinna’s expression was unreadable, her posture poised and statuesque even in captivity, as if waiting for the perfect moment to assert herself. The faint hum of the containment field was the only sound apart from the distant murmurs of the Xynar ship's systems.

"You know, the tee-hee oopsie daisy kind. The one where we," Hayden made air-quotes, "'accidentally' lock all the doors and open the airlocks or something. Oh hey, look. Shiny. Let's let them all out."

"Well, I don't disagree with that." Yoshiro said " I thought it was the oops that would get us in a fight. Get rid of them would you please, Hayden?"

"Oops." Hayden flipped some controls in the security terminal to other than what they were.

= = =
OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Cowboy, Yoshiro, AND YUUKI, Lizalopod ★☆★☆★

Now that the away team had secured the Brig, it would only be a matter of time before their presence was alerted to the rest of the ship. They would need to work fast. Sanda had been given acting command of the away team, a responsibility she took very seriously. She looked around the Brig, taking everything in then spoke. "Blade, take Nightingale and secure the door. Make sure there are no other ways into the Brig as well." Sanda had no doubt that Yayoi and Chiheisen would lock the place down. She trusted them completely.

"Poet." Sanda spoke to Yoshiro. "Check and see who they've got in the Brig. Don't release anyone, but lets just see who they've got locked up here."

"Cassie." Sanda moved over closer to her teammate. "I need you to get our AI into their system and fast. First located where the data is being stored. The data is our primary objective. Second, see if you can figure out how many troops this ship is carrying. That will give us an idea of the best way to proceed." Sanda closed her eyes a moment and took a breath, weighing her options. "If at all possible, I want to capture the whole ship intact. If our AI can hack the entire ship, do it. Shut off their long range communications and bring the ship out of hyperspace. There's every chance the Resurgence is following, or at least is on standby for some sort of signal from us. If we can signal them, we'd have reinforcements to completely capture this ship and escort it back to Yam Space. Get to it" Sanda looked over at Hayden for a moment then grunted. "Help Cassie, but don't touch anything unless she tell you to."

Sanda watched a moment as her team moved to complete their tasks. There was a lot of responsibility on her. Not just the mission, but her team's lives. But Sanda was confident in her teams abilities. She wondered for a moment if she was biting off more than she could chew in trying to capture the whole ship. The intel the Star Army could gain by studying this ship and its computer banks would be of supreme importance in the fight against the Xynar.

Sanda took one last look around then went over to the Brig commander Cassie had knocked out. She quickly patted him down and removed any weapon's and ID cards or data devices. She moved him over to a table and sat him down in front of it. Taking a pare of binders, Sanda placed them around his hands then shook him awake. The commander came too and tried to stand but Sanda firm hand kept him from moving. He stopped struggling and watched Sanda as she walked around the table and took a seat opposite him. The chair groaned under the weight of her suit but held. Carefully, Sanda removed her helmet and set it on the table. She was hoping that by seeing her face, the Xynar would be put more at ease.

Sanda ran a hand through her hair and smiled at the Xynar commander. "Hola. I am Itto Heisho Sanda Hoshi de Canterbury of the YSS Resurgence. Let's talk about your ship."

UNIDENTIFIED XYNAR SHIP

The hum of the Xynar ship’s systems droned faintly as the away team worked with practiced urgency. The security center had become a hive of activity, the green glow of alien displays illuminating their faces as they scrambled to exploit the opening they’d carved. It wouldn’t be long before reinforcements arrived, and the stakes had never felt higher. The air was charged with the tension of the moment—one wrong move could mean the difference between success and capture.

Meanwhile, in the brig, the chrome-gold figure of Mitalar Sevinna stood motionless, her elegant yet intimidating design reflecting the light of the energy field that held her captive. Her glowing purple eyes flickered slightly, taking in the scene unfolding before her. For the away team, she represented both an enigma and a potential wildcard. The Kuvexian robot might be a treasure trove of knowledge or a dangerous liability, depending on how this encounter played out.

Her gleaming surface reflected the eerie green light of the Xynar security consoles, and her luminous purple "eyes" shifted slowly, taking in every detail of her surroundings. Despite her captivity, she exuded an air of composed confidence, as though she were merely observing a game whose outcome she had already calculated. A faint, melodic voice escaped from her, smooth and measured, as she broke the silence. "You are not Xynar… and yet you are not what I expected. Fascinating. Tell me, interlopers, do you even realize the magnitude of the hornet’s nest you’ve kicked?"

Yayoi nodded her head as Sanda began issuing orders. "copy that, Lightning" she said simply as she led Chiheisen to secure the doors, so that no one they didn't want would be able to enter the brig.

Chiheisen gave a light nod as she followed Yayoi along to secure the area.

Yoshiro was checking the cells for prisoners when he recognized the voice of Mitalar. "Don't know, don't care. We have a job to do and we're going to be doing it. By the way are there any other prisoners here?" Yoshiro asked gruffly.

Cassie crouched beside a glowing green console, her Mindy's armored gauntlets tapping deftly at the controls. From a compartment on her suit, she retrieved a sleek, compact data drive encased in black and silver with faint pulsating lights—Ally, the hacker AI. "Alright, Ally," Cassie murmured, plugging the drive into a port she had pried open on the Xynar console. A moment later, the lights on the drive flared brightly, and the holographic displays of the Xynar system flickered and distorted as Ally began her work. Lines of alien code scrolled rapidly across the screen, interspersed with occasional flashes of the Star Army’s digital insignia, the AI's presence now embedded in the enemy’s network. Cassie monitored the progress as the interface adapted to Ally’s intrusion. "Welcome to the Xynar party. Find us their data core, troop movements, and… oh, I don’t know, find an escape route to the bridge while you’re at it," Cassie said, grinning as Ally's virtual tendrils began snaking deeper into the system.

Waiting for an answer from Mitalar, he contacted Sanda."Lightning, this is Poet. We have a special guest. One Mitalar Sevinna. How copy?"

"Stand by" Sanda sent back to Poet.

"There is only me in this security center," Mitalar answered. "Perhaps we can help each other, " she offered.

"What did you to get in here? You don't seem to be the type of robot... person who would be stuck in a place like this for long." Yoshiro said incredulously.

The Xynar commander was clearly dazed but alive, his dark green armor battered from Cassie’s earlier takedown. His helmet had been removed, revealing a chiseled, insectoid visage with multi-faceted eyes that gleamed faintly in the dim light of the brig. Thin mandibles twitched slightly as he regained his senses, and his breathing, though labored, steadied as he took in his surroundings. The containment chair held him securely, and his posture was tense but composed, a reflection of the disciplined nature of the Xynar forces.

He eyed Sanda with a mix of curiosity and defiance, his demeanor one of reluctant acknowledgment rather than immediate hostility. Though clearly aware of his precarious position, his pride as a Xynar officer was evident in the way he straightened himself despite his injuries. His deep, guttural voice, though slightly strained, was sharp and precise as he finally responded, "If you think I’ll give you anything of value, you underestimate the Dominion." He winced briefly, revealing he was in pain but far from broken.

Sanda was monitering what was happening around her but main focus was on the Xynar commnader. She was equilly courious about this race that she had fought several times now but had never actaully seen. This was a race of warriors, which Sanda could respect. "I'm hoping that we can resolve things without bloodshed." Sanda said.

"You invaded a Xynar ship; for that, now only death awaits you," the Xynar commander said. "I don't know what else you expected."

"If we invaded a Xynar ship this easily, I don't think we have anything to worry about, Sugar," Hayden laughed.

Sanda shot Hayden a "shut up before I shut you up' look. Then turned back the Xynar commander and sighed. "I was hoping to be able to arrange a meeting with your leaders and mine and find a way that we could co-exist. There are many dangers out in this galaxy and we don't need to fight each other."

"If you wanted a meeting you should have asked. Perhaps you still have a chance to surrender and beg for your lives," the Xynar commander suggested to Sanda.

Sanda had been kept her voice and tone pretty even so far in their conversation, trying to show respect the commander. But at the suggestion that she surrender and beg for her life Sanda's deminer grew very cold. The lightning bolt tattoo over her eye seemed to flash. She spoke very quitly. "I gave you a chance to play nice."

Sanda's hand suddenly shot forward and she grabbed the Xynar commander by the throat and slammed him back against the wall, hard. She then dragged him to an empty stall and tossed him inside it. After locking the door she picked back up her helmet and looked around.

As Yayoi heard the Xynar speak, she couldnt help but snort. Surrendering is not something she'd do. And as far as she knew, no Ranger surrendered either. Yayoi glanced to Sanda.

Ally began to report intelligence as she gathered it. The ship had some five thousand Xynar soldiers on it and was heavily armed for a planetary invasion craft. The security center was already being surrounded by at least a hundred of them in power armor. Ally pulled up a video feed of the passageway outside where they could see engineers with cutting torches gettting ready to start on the doors.

As the activity around her continued, Yayoi was by the doors, ready to fire her Aetheric pulse Cannon at anyone that tried to enter the Brig.

A shower of sparks started coming through the door, slowly moving downward as the Xynar engineers began to cut through it.

Hayden put the muzzle of his Aether weapon against the hole left by the cutter's path and opened fire through the gap on full auto, letting the Explorer forcefield around his head absorb the sparks. "Wait 'till it's big enough for a grenade, heh."

Ally clearly did something because suddenly the video feed of the hallway showed the Xynar struggling to float around in zero gravity. The cutting stopped for the moment. Then everyone outside fell as the gravity came back on. This continued to repeat every 10 seconds. "Creating a path to the bridge," Ally said on the team channel, as she began to close and open doorways to make a protected path for the team.

"You know, Ally can keep this up if the gravity stays within what our inertial units' abilities to counter, while we waltz right past them," Hayden mused as he let fire through the gap in the door again, spraying the corridor.

Meanwhile, Mitalar walked out of the brig as the forcefield deactivated. "I am a collector of valuables," she said, the screen on her face showing a pair of feminine eyes that blinked cutely. "And the ancient data is very valueable indeed. Imagine the price that the secrets of the Aetherian Progenitors could fetch. Well, they weren't very happy I hacked their communications array and intercepted the transmission from the station as it sunk into the sun. And voila, it was encrypted and only I have the key!"

"Let me translate that, you mean you stole the information for some third party?" Yoshiro said "Let's get going and stay behind me understand? SAINT is going to want to talk to you, Goldenrod."

"Did Goldilocks there just say she had the info we were looking for? We can just take her and leave?" Hayden called from over by the door, where he shot some more wide Aether into the hall. "Just blow this place up on the way out? Let's take big mouth bug with us too. "

"Oh, what is your exit strategy?" Mitalar asked Hayden and the others.

"Cassie, can Ally hack the rest of the ship? Or is it limited to just secondary system?" Sanda asked as she retied her hair back into a ponytail and secured her helmet back on.

"I mean, Ally could just hack the twenty four karat robot over there then we don't even have to take her, right?" Hayden cackled.

"I doubt that, she could try. It'd be fun, perhaps," Mitalar giggled.

"Ally's doing all she can," Cassie simply responded to Sanda's question. "I'm not a computer person, I don't know her capabilities, I'm just thankful she's on our side."

"Shut it, Goldenrod." Yoshiro said and sighed "you're lucky to be our target otherwise I would just leave you here to be melted down."

"If you're rude to me, my prices will go up," Mitalar warned.

"Where is the data currently located?" Sanda asked Mitalar, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

Mitalar looked at Sanda. "Gun, please?" she asked, holding out her hand.

"Where is the data currently located?" Sanda asked again, drawing her NSP but not handing it over just yet.

"She don't look like a shootin' robot." Hayden observed. "I've seen a few killer robots in my day."

Mitalar waited for the gun expectantly.

Sanda glanced at the door, extremely annoyed by this damn robot.

The cutting at the door resumed. By now the Xynar forces outside had gravity boots on and were not getting bothered by Ally's tricks.

Hayden used his Explorer Uniform's gravity system to invert himself above the doorway, standing on the bit of wall above it. He let his weapon hang and grabbed a pair of grenades from his belt. "Let it come open just a little bit. Make my day."

Yoshiro was getting agitated but he prepared to fight not letting Mitilar bait him.

The door had a glowing orange line down one side and a second one began to form on the opposite side.

"Hey, don't Aether weapons have a setting maybe you can use them like a torch? Just weld that biz back shut, heh." Hayden shrugged upside down, "I'd do it but I'm up here and my hands are full of grenades."

Yoshiro was ready for a fight but he had to protect Mitalar. "Stay behind me and I will do what I can to help you." He said and pulled out his plasma rifle.

Yayoi was silent as she lifted her Aetheric Pulse Cannon ready to fire it at the very second of confirmed breach.

Mitalar sent a map of the ship to everyone through the Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol's personal area network connection as she held it. The map showed her shuttle in one of the Xynar ship's shuttle bays. The shuttle had a huge data storage module in it that took up almost its entire cargo hold and was retrofitted with large antenna arrays.

"You want off this ship, right?" Mitalar asked. "Let's make a deal."

"I'm still weighing my chances of capturing the ship whole." Sanda replied snidely, then asked the inevitable question. "What kind of deal?"

"Your team helps me escape, and I give you a ride out of here and first bid on the data. I will throw in some generous samples for Euikoshi to prove its usefulness," Mitalar offered. "I am assuming your ship is nearby?" she asked.

"We're going to bargain?" Yoshiro said incredulously.

"Listen at her trying to make us make a deal in a hurry when we still gotta fight through a hallway of bug dudes before we get to that part," Hayden huffed, crouching from his spot above the door and ready to chuck them into the hallway.

Sanda snorted. "Even if we make it to your ship, we'd get blasted by this ships guns before we could escape."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the path to the bridge is open," Ally announced. A laser shot out of Cassie's Mindy to point at an air circulation duct that fed into the security center. "I suggest we move with haste!"

"Sounds like we get the data on our own, we just blow up the shuttle with the other copy, then we set her free so she owes us for it. That's how the blue squids make deals right?" Hayden snorted.

Sanda glanced up at where Cassie was pointing. "We move now! Blade, take point." She moved towards Mitalar. "Your deal is on hold for the moment. Any lip out of you and I'll let Poet do whatever he wants to you."

"copy that" Yayoi said firmly as she moved into position.

"I got rear guard, Heishō," Hayden announced. He was already committed to his grenade-based present, as it was.

"If there was another copy they wouldn't have kept me alive," Mitalar said. "I made sure I have the only one."

Cassie took point, heading through the air duct and crawling out of the security center. The gold robot followed, not waiting around for the Xynar to finish cutting the door open.

Yoshiro followed Mitarlar and covered her movement and followed the path she laid out.

Hayden shrugged, changed the fuzes on his grenades from timer to proximity-motion, and chucked his entire inventory around the room, including one into the Xynar Commander's cell, as he was the last through the duct. "Oof. Not meant for cornbread-fed Nep boys," he quipped as he struggled to get his massive, ID-SOL-descended shoulders through the space.

As the team made their escape, Ally continued to manipulate the ship's systems to try to keep the team from getting detected. They entered a mazelike system of air arteries and began to travel through the ship through the tight ducts, which gradually got larger until they were in a hallway-sized air shaft in zero-gravity.

"Join the Star Army they said. Meet exotic people and kill them they said."Yoshiro said " I really need a vacation from this vacation."

An augemented-reality hologram from Ally showed the correct air artery to take for access to the Xynar ship's bridge.

"Take the bridge as quick as possible." Sanda ordered as they reached the duck for the bridge. "We need to lock it down and then try to raise the Resurgence."

"We get to the bridge, wonder if Ally knows what temperature bugs cook at," mused Hayden.

"Finally something to do." Yoshiro said with a grin. "All work and no play makes a man dull. Let's get you behind cover Goldenrod. Let the dogs out."

As the team reached the end they could see their markers on the map outside of the heavily armored bridge/command center for the Xynar warship. This was their chance!

"I love how they don't realize we can fly right off the bat. Like a shooting gallery until they catch on. Stick to the ceiling and walls, right? At least at first." Hayden brought up one from the Yamataian playbook.

As Yayoi followed along, she couldnt help to think of Yuri as Hayden mentioned flying. She knew Yuri loved to use her Nekovalkyrja abilities to fly.

Sanda waited a moment to make sure everyone was in possion then gave a countdown timer. Three...Two... One...GO!

Yayoi immediately moved in to breach on Sanda's go, though making sure she was careful in her firing.

Yoshiro was moving from cover to cover firing his plasma rifle at anything Xynar after the breach. "Leet hax mother f*ckers!" He shouted as he fired. "Boom headshot! Boom headshot!"

Hayden strafed along the upper edges of the walls, firing down and into the center of the room as he circled its perimeter. His fire spiraled outward to the bottom edges, then methodically back to the center.

Sanda fired her plasma revolver from the air vent a couple of times before moving inside.

The Star Army team burst into the Xynar warship's bridge like a storm, the heavy hatch groaning open under their collective force. The Xynar command crew turned in surprise, their dark green armor gleaming under the pulsing, alien lights of the bridge's control consoles. A Xynar commander barked orders in their guttural language, and the bridge erupted into chaos.

Chiehisen's LATR was barking as it sent bolts of energy downrange. She strafed the right side of the bridge, pinning down a squad of Xynar engineers attempting to reach an alarm panel. One managed to break free, only to be cut down by Sanda, who dove into the fray with her straight silver blade gleaming. The Nepleslian Ranger carved through one Xynar soldier with a vicious slice, but her triumph was short-lived as a bolt of searing plasma struck her shoulder, sending her spiraling into a console. She gritted her teeth through the pain, her armor's damage alerts flashing red.

A heavy-armored Xynar soldier charged hayden, swinging an energy axe, but Hayden was able to deflect the blow with his weapon's reinforced stock, retaliating with a brutal close-range burst that dropped his opponent.

Cassie, still at the rear of the team, deployed Ally to hack into the Xynar bridge systems. "Ally, I need you to seal the doors and scramble their comms—now!" she shouted, tapping furiously at her console. Ally's holographic interface danced across the alien displays, locking down exits and silencing enemy reinforcements.

"360 no scope haxxors!" Yoshiro shouted

Yayoi was able to take down the Xynar captain even though the plentiful guards were trying to rush over and protect him.

Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the bridge as a Xynar grenadier fired a concussion charge. Hayden managed to shield Cassie from the blast with his own body, but the force threw him into a bulkhead, his armor systems sparking and alarms screaming. "I'm good! Just a scratch!" he coughed, dragging himself upright.

Amid the chaos, Mitalar Sevinna hovered near the entrance, her chrome-gold figure pristine in the crossfire. "If you all die, I won’t be able to sell this data. Do try harder," she quipped, stepping delicately over a fallen Xynar.

"You think," Hayden coughed again, and pounded his aching chest, "If they realized we had respawn turned on, they'd give up?"

Yoshiro helped Hayden up. "They make you guys tough out there don't they, Hayden?" He said with awe and respect.

Firing with a tight line on full-beam Hayden walked the fire across the room. "You should see my pap. Three-quarter ID-SOL. Can shake me like a doll. Got hit by a grav-bus once. Shoulda seen the bus."

The bridge was theirs—but the cost of victory was steep. Several team members nursed injuries, and the Xynar resistance was relentless. The battle for the ship had only just begun.

TO BE CONTINUED

Bridge

Yoshiro took Hayden to cover, checked him over for otherwise hidden injuries. He quickly bandages his wound from the grenade and checked him over one last time. "Three quarter Id-Sol? Wow...." Yoshiro said impressed. "I would hate to be the obstacle to even a one quarter Id-Sol. So here you go."

He returns fire as he tried to check on Sanda through comms after helping Hayden. "Lightning, what is your status? Do you need or want assistance?" He said over the communication channel. "What do you need me to do?" He reloads his plasma rifle and returns fire and tries to reach his teammates.

Bridge

Sanda steadied herself against a console, her left shoulder on fire. It was difficult to gage how much damage had been done to it. There were numerous warnings pinging on the state of her suit, all bad. For the moment, all she could do was grit her teeth and try to push the pain away. When Yoshiro asked her if she was alright, Sanda's pride wanted to respond with she was just fine. However the pain prevented her from doing anything more than a short gasp and grunt. She fought to get her breathing under control as she felt her body going into shock. Her helmet suddenly felt like it was smothering her and she yanked it off with her good hand. Her face was twisted in pain and turning pale.

"Che.... Check...." Gritting her teeth as tears began running down her face. Taking quick, short breaths she managed to say, "Check the Xynar bridge crew. See if any of them are still alive." Her Mindy suit had finally gotten around to shooting some drugs into her system and the pain wasn't as overwhelming. She managed to take stock of the situation. "Cass. We need to take control of this ship. Pull it out of hyperspace and disable their long range coms. Then get a message to the Res. We need backup." Sanda eyed the golden robot, looking like she was trying to decide if it was worth asking for help or just give in to her urge and blast the damn thing and be done with it. "Mitalar. Give Cassie a hand. Assist us and I'm sure my superiors will compensate you for your troubles."

Sanda had dropped her plasma revolver when she had been shot. She managed to find it and picked it up. Looking around at the bridge crew, Sanda spotted the Xynar Captain. Looked like he was still alive. She knelt down next to him and stuck the muzzle of her revolver under his chin. "I tried playing nice with the Brig commander. Now I'm just pissed off." The Nepleslian Ranger indeed looked pissed off. Even her tattoo, normally a bright blue seemed to have changed color and was pulsing almost red. Like a beating heart. "You have two choices. Surrender honorably to me and I grantee you and your men will be unharmed and returned to your people. Refuse, and I blow your ugly bug head off right here before I vent every soul on this ship into space." She cocked the revolver with her thumb to emphasize her point.